Novemer ye 15, 1786
Recevd the contents of
the within bill by me
Joseph Barrey
29 Nover 1786.
Witness) Martin McEvoy
present)
John Carven
Gillchress
Bill of Morlato
Boy nd. Dick Gun
[26] I assume New York Currency, in which case the pound was 20 York
shillings or $2.50.
[27] 1787, January 10, George Brown and Sarah a Negress were married
by Cave--it was probably the same Sarah.
[28] While this was in fact and in law a sale, the transaction was far
more than a mere transfer of property: The Notary John Abraham Gray
has the Notarial Act No. 74 which shows that Manuel, the negro man
voluntarily engaged as servant, to Thomas Sullivan, under the usual
conditions of servitude, for five years, at the end of which term, the
said Manuel, if he should faithfully carry out his said engagement was
to be emancipated and set at liberty according to due form of law,
otherwise he was to remain the property of the said Sullivan.
A Notarial Act now in the possession of the Historical Society,
Chicago, dated at Montreal, August 15, 1731, passed before the Notary
Charles Benoit et St. Désiez, evidences the sale by Louis Chappeau
to Sieur Pierre Guy, merchant, both of Montreal, of an Indian lad of
the Patoka nation, aged about 10 or 12 years, for 200 livres paid in
beaver and other skins. See _Report of Canadian Archives_, 1905, vol.
1, lxix.
It may be of interest to note that on pp. 476, 477 of the same
report is copied a memorial (October 29, 1768) of the inhabitants
and merchants of Louisiana in which they complain, _inter alia_, of
D'Ulloa the Spanish Governor of Louisiana (1766-8) forbidding "the
importation of negroes to the colony under the pretext that this
competition would hurt an English merchant of Jamaica who had sent
a vessel to D'Ulloa to confirm the contract for the importation of
slaves. In creating this monopoly, he had robbed his new subjects of
the means of procuring slaves cheaply...."
DOCUMENTS
BANISHMENT OF THE PEOPLE OF COLOUR FROM CINCINNATI
Prof. T. G. Steward of Wilberforce University directs attention to
the following from _The Friend_ which carries an important document
bearing on the Free Negroes of Ohio:
In the course of the present year, a law of this state has been
brought into view, by the trustees of Cincinnati township,
requiring people of colour to give bond and security not to become
chargeable to the public, and for their good behaviour--also
imposing a fine on those who may employ them. This law was
passed upwards of twenty years ago, and I believe has remained
inoperative, or nearly so, to the present year. In order that the
effects and bearing of the law may be correctly understood, I
subjoin the proclamation or notice by the trustees.
_To the Public_
The undersigned, trustees and overseers of the poor, of the
township of Cincinnati hereby give notice, that the duties
required of them, by the act of the general assembly of Ohio,
entitled _An Act to Regulate Black and Mulatto Persons_, and
the act amendatory thereto, will be rigidly enforced, and all
black and mulatto persons, now residents of said Cincinnati
township, and who emigrated to, and settled within the township of
Cincinnati, without complying with the requisitions of the first
section of the amended act, aforesaid, are informed, that unless
they enter into bonds as the said act directs, within thirty days
from this date, they may expect at the expiration of that time,
the law to be rigidly enforced.
And the undersigned would further insert herein, for the
information of the citizens of Cincinnati township, the third
section of the amendatory act aforesaid, as follows: That if any
person being a resident of this state, shall employ, harbour, or
conceal any such negro or mulatto person aforesaid, contrary to
the provision of the first section of this act, any person so
offending, shall forfeit and pay for such an offence, any sum not
exceeding one hundred dollars, one half to the informer, and the
other half for the use of the poor of the township, in which such
person may reside, to be recovered by action of debt before any
court having competent jurisdiction, and moreover to be liable for
the maintenance and support of such negro or mulatto, provided
he, she, or they shall become unable to support themselves. The
co-operation of the public is expected in carrying these laws into
full effect.
WILLIAM MILLS,
BENJAMIN HOPKINS,
GEORGE LEE,
Trustees of Cincinnati Township.
COMMENT
When this proclamation was issued, there were upwards of 2,000
people of colour, residing in this city, and nearly all obnoxious
to the operations of the law; many of them had resided here for
a considerable time, and were comfortably situated--they became
unsettled and deprived of employment by this act of banishment and
proscription, and much suffering and distress ensued. They deputed
two of their number to select and provide a place for them to
remove to, who procured a tract of land in Canada. In the meantime
some of them commenced making preparations to leave the country,
and as the time was very short which the trustees allowed them,
they had to incur great losses in disposing of their property,
selling for twenty dollars, what cost one hundred dollars. When
the thirty days expired, and it was ascertained all did not, or
could not comply with the requisitions of the trustees, mobs
assailed them at different times, stoning their houses and
destroying their property; in the progress of these disgraceful
transactions one white man was killed and others wounded.
It is thought about five hundred have gone to Canada, many of
these with means exceedingly limited to provide necessaries in
a wilderness country, and encounter the rigours of a northern
winter; one of their agents, a coloured man, informed me of
an instance where twenty-eight persons had set out with a sum
not exceeding twenty-five dollars. I confess my mind has been
impressed with fearful apprehensions that they will greatly suffer
or perish with hunger and cold! Some of them view this act of
banishment with so much horror, they have told me the white people
had better take them out in the commons and shoot them down, than
send them to Canada to perish with hunger and cold!
_The Friend_, Nov. 28, 1829.
FIRST PROTEST AGAINST SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES
Prof. Steward invites attention also to the following extract from
_The Friend_ published in Philadelphia April 1831, said to be the
first document against slavery published in this country:
"At a General Court held at Warwick the 16th. of May 1657.
"Whereas there is a common course practiced among Englishmen, to
buy negroes to that end that they may have them for service or as
slaves forever; for the the preventing of such practices among
us, let it be ordered, that no black mankind or white being,
shall be forced by covenant, bond or otherwise, to serve any man
or his assigns longer than ten years, or until they come to be
twenty-four years of age, if they be taken in under fourteen, from
the time of their coming within the liberties of this Colony--at
the end or term of ten years to set them free as the manner is
with the English servants. And that man that will not let them go
free, or shall sell them away elsewhere, to that end they may be
enslaved to others for a longer time, he or they shall forfeit to
the Colony forty pounds."
The court that enacted this law was composed as follows:
John Smith, President; Thomas Olney, General Assistant, from
Providence; Samuel Gorton from Warwick; John Green, General
Recorder; Randal Holden, Treasurer; Hugh Bewett, General Sergeant.
_The Friend_, April, 1831.
A NEGRO PIONEER IN THE WEST
Mr. Monroe N. Work invites attention to the fact that in an issue of
December 23d, 1920, the _Advertiser Journal_ of Kent, Washington, ran
the following story:
"The best and largest yield of wheat ever exhibited," grown in
western Washington. It sounds like a real estate folder. And yet
at the World's Centennial Exposition held in Philadelphia in 1876,
W. O. Bush, son of George Bush, one of the first settlers on Puget
Sound, won the gold premium for wheat he grew on Bush Prairie,
just south of Olympia; to this day the wheat is preserved in the
Smithsonian Institute.
This record of great wheat yield is a part of the history of one
of the families that came to the Northwest and had that quality
that made them successful here. George Bush was the first colored
man to come to this part of the country, the forerunner of the
large number of useful citizens of his race who have followed with
the increasing population. He was born in Pennsylvania in 1814,
and with his wife from Tennessee started west in 1844.
Before coming west with his family, Bush had made a trip to this
country with a number of companions, coming north along the
coast from the Mexican border and suffering from the innumerable
hardships of the trail, hunger and Indians. He must have liked the
prospects, for it was only a short time later that we find him
again headed in this direction in company with a number of other
hardy pioneers.
The character that made him face the privations of immigration
ingratiated him with his companions. There was an unwritten law
in Oregon at that time that no colored people should be allowed
to settle in that territory. When the group of which Bush was a
member approached the Columbia river country and learned of the
rule it was decided that if any one attempted to molest Bush all
of the members of the company would fight to protect him.
The practice in Oregon was to whip the colored man and if he left
after the whipping it was all right and nothing further was done,
but if he did not take advantage of the opportunity to escape he
was whipped again and again until he either left or died.
There is not any record of an attempt being made to molest Bush,
who, with his companions, stayed at the Dalles for several months
and later at Washougal at the mouth of the Cowlitz. The following
year--1845--they came on to Puget Sound and settled at the head of
Budds Inlet at the falls of the DesChutes and founded the town of
New Market, now Tumwater.
Those who made up this party were Michael T. Simmons, James
McAllister, David Kindred, Gabriel Jones and Bush. The latter
decided not to settle right in Tumwater and went back onto the
prairie land about four miles and took up a donation claim of 640
acres. It was on that claim that the prize wheat was grown by his
oldest son thirty-two years later. There on that claim Bush died
in 1863, while the great war for the freedom of his race was being
waged. His widow followed him two years later.
Of their six sons, the state has heard a great deal. The eldest,
W. O. Bush, was born before the couple left Missouri on their
way west, and got the hard training of the pioneer. He took to
farming and that he worked the prairie land where his father
had settled for all it was worth is shown by the crop he took to
Philadelphia. The soil of that section is a black sandy loam on
a gravel base. The soil is not too thick in some parts and has a
tendency to drain, particularly during the hot, dry summer.
Shortly after the formation of the state Bush was elected a member
of the legislature and served two terms during 1890 and 1892. His
record in the law-making body was an honorable one and that he was
highly respected by the people of Thurston county was shown when
they sent him to the Chicago World's Fair in 1893 to look after
the county's agricultural exhibit.
CONCERNING THE ORIGIN OF WILBERFORCE
While at Tuskegee Institute in 1914 Mrs. Emma Castleman Bowles, who
has since died, related this account of the origin of Wilberforce.
This story does not agree with the account given in Bishop D. A.
Payne's _African Methodist Episcopal Church_ (423 ff.). The value
of the document lies mainly in the light which it throws upon the
relations between wealthy slaveholders and their children of slave
women. There must be much truth in the narrative, for Payne's sketch
says that in 1859-60 a majority of the 207 students enrolled "are the
natural children of Southern and Southwestern planters." The _Special
Report of the United States Commissioner of Education_, published in
1871 (372-373), supports this statement. Mrs. Bowles' story follows:
Mrs. Emma Castleman Bowles said her father was Stephen S.
Castleman, a slave holder who lived on the Yazoo River, about 150
miles from Vicksburg. He owned the Ashland plantation. She was
born June 3, 1845. Her mother was a half sister of her father's
wife. When Castleman married, her mother was sent to wait on her
mistress. Castleman lived with both women. Castleman had two
children by his wife and five by his concubine. He hired a white
woman to teach Emma. This woman was paid $500 a year. Mrs. Bowles
said she was not taught anything, not even to read. She spent her
time playing with her half-brother and riding a pony which her
father had bought for her.
In March 1858, Castleman sent his daughter Emma to Cincinnati by
his brother-in-law, her half uncle, O. Leroy Ross. Here, she was
emancipated and acknowledged as Castleman's daughter. Ross then
brought her to Wilberforce and placed her in school.
Tawawa Springs was a summer resort for Southern slave holders. The
Springs were medicinal. The Hotel Tawawa had 350 rooms, extensive
grounds, elaborate water works for fountains, etc. There were
several cottages on either side of the hotel. Slave holders would
bring their families and slaves and live either in the hotel or
in the cottages. A law was passed in Ohio forbidding the bringing
of slaves into the State. Then white help and free Negro servants
were used. The place declined financially and was finally sold for
debt. Several planters banded together bought the place and turned
it into a school for their illegitimate children by Negro women.
Stephen S. Castleman was one of these men. Mrs. Bowles said this
was done about 1856 or 1857.[2]
There were about nine teachers, all Yankees. The first principal
was Rev. M. P. Gaddis. Richard Rust was the first President. The
students, with a few exceptions, were children of slave holders.
Money was deposited in Cincinnati banks for the use of the
children. President Rust was given power to draw on banks as the
children needed money.
The following were named as among the slave owners who brought
their children to the school. A planter named Mosley from Warren,
Miss., brought seven children by three different mothers and freed
them. Senator Hemphill of Virginia brought two daughters and
emancipated them. A planter by the name of Smith brought eight
children from Mississippi with their mother about 1859. He had a
slave man and woman to wait on them. He was arrested and made to
emancipate them. He bought a large tract of land for them. A brick
house he built was later owned by Colonel Charles Young. The woman
had lived with Smith under compulsion, and as soon as she was
emancipated would have nothing more to do with him. Mrs. Bowles
said that she went to school with these children and often visited
the family. She had seen the mother strip herself to the waist and
show how her back had been mutilated to make her submit to her
master's wishes. A man named Piper came and brought 10 children
and their mother. She was jet black. After the war he married her
and settled in Darke County, Ohio.
General T. C. McMackin, a hotel owner of Vicksburg, Mississippi,
was appointed by Castleman as his daughter's guardian. She said
that she got in a fight with another school girl and was put on
bread and water. She wrote her father. He had McMackin come to
Wilberforce and adjust the matter. Her father, and she said the
fathers generally, lavished money on their children. She had a
box that held fifty silver dollars. This her father kept full of
silver dollars for her to buy candy with.
Abolition was preached constantly in the school. She came to hate
slavery. She had seen great cruelties inflicted on her mother and
other slaves. Her mother took up with a slave man. Emma was a
child, sleeping in the room. Many a night her father would come
and curse the slave and compel him to leave the cabin. Then he
would whip him and her mother. Whipping was on bare back from 39
to 300 lashes. Slave stripped naked and hands and feet tied to
stakes driven into the ground. Stocks were also used. The lash and
the stocks were both used on her mother's slave husband. They were
put in the stocks at night and whipped night and morning.
Mrs. Bowles was courted in school by a class-mate, named George
W. Harding, whose father was a large slave holder in Tennessee.
President Rust tried to break it up. He wrote her father.
Castleman wrote his daughter that he did not send her North to
waste her time with a nigger. If she did not stop he would come
and get her, cow hide her and bring her home and put her in the
cotton field. She replied that "if her mother was good enough
for him to sleep with, that a nigger was good enough for her
to marry." She married Harding March 5, 1862. He had received
considerable wealth from his father. When they married he had
$55,000,[3] and later inherited $80,000 from his mother.
The war stopped communications with the South. As soon as the war
closed, Castleman wrote to find out about his daughter and learned
that she was married and the mother of two children. He wrote to
her to come home and leave her niggers. If she didn't she would
not get any of his property. She wrote him that he had beaten her
mother and made her bear five children out of wedlock and that she
would not forsake her husband and her lawfully born children.
FOOTNOTES:
[2] The school began in 1855.
[3] Harding squandered his property and died a pauper. Mrs. Harding
then married another student of Wilberforce, A. J. Bowles.
COMMUNICATIONS
Mr. John W. Cromwell has addressed the Editor the following letter
which may interest persons directing their attention to the record of
the Negro in West Virginia:
_Dear Sir_:
While reading your _Negro Education in West Virginia_ I was
reminded of my acquaintances in that State, and I thought of the
striking contrast between the West Virginia of 1877 and that of
1923.
On invitation of Prof. Brackett, President of Storer College, I
attended a Teachers' Institute and Educational Convention, held at
Harper's Ferry, in 1877. There I first saw a gathering of young
teachers, vigorous and alert, none more chivalric in bearing than
the central figure in the person of John R. Clifford, at that time
Principal of the Grammar School at Martinsburg. To me it was quite
a contrast from dealing with the civil service of the Treasury
Department at Washington on the one hand, and my experience with
the young men there a few years before as I had beheld them in
central Pennsylvania.
The bearing of the men was more than matched by the excellence of
the women. Outstanding at the time was a young woman whom I could
not at first determine whether I should rate her as a young pupil
in one of the classes or one of the faculty. I soon found that
she was a student teacher, also an elocutionist of grace, skill
and power. So impressed was I that Storer College thenceforth was
a regular place of visit during commencement season, and I soon
found myself on its trustee board.
During one of these commencements, Frederick Douglass was booked
to speak on John Brown; but Andrew Hunter, the prosecuting
attorney who convicted John Brown, came to Harper's Ferry, and
declared that Frederick Douglass should not speak in Jefferson
county, where Brown was convicted and hung. He also said: "If
Douglass dares to come here, I'll meet him, denounce him, and
crush him!" Douglass came; so did Hunter. At the proper time,
Douglass was escorted to the rostrum, and without invitation
Hunter followed and took a seat close to Douglass, the master of
American orators, who spoke as I never heard him before; and when
through started to his seat. Hunter interrupted him, arose, and
advanced toward Douglass with outstretched hand and exclaimed:
"Let us shake hands," and while so doing, said: "Were Robert E.
Lee here, he would shake the other," and pausing a few seconds,
with all the power of his nature he said: "Let us go on!" to which
Douglass replied: "IN UNION TOGETHER!" And everybody on the campus
shouted--making the occasion one of dramatic as well as historic
interest.
As editor of _The People's Advocate_, of Washington, D. C, the
incident was sketched in bold and striking outlines for the
country, and was read eagerly. It also forms an incident of one of
the chapters of _The "Life and Times" of Frederick Douglass_.
In 1882, the Knights of Wise Men, with headquarters at Nashville,
Tennessee, held their convention at Atlanta, Georgia. Thither
went such representatives of the day as William J. Simmons, of
Kentucky; Frances L. Cardozo, of Washington, D. C.; Bishop Henry
M. Turner, of Georgia; Richard Gleaves, of South Carolina; John
R. Lynch, of Mississippi; Robert Peel Brooks, of Virginia; Prof.
J. C. Corbin, of Arkansas, and many other distinguished men
interested in the order.
John R. Clifford, of Martinsburg, West Virginia, was one of the
party and a most distinguished orator was he, whose masterly
oration delivered in the State Capital of Georgia, with Governor
Colquitt, and other state officials, was a fitting setting for
the presentation of a beautiful gold-headed cane, with the
convention's and his initials carved on it. Robert Peel Brooks was
chosen by the delegates to present the gift.
The career of Mr. Clifford for twenty years' work as a teacher,
brought him to the forefront, and he was appointed by three
different W. Va. State Superintendents to hold and conduct
Teachers' Institutes. Mr. Clifford holds a life-time teacher's
certificate in honor of this distinguished service. He was the
first colored man in West Virginia to be admitted to the bar in
the early eighties. He became editor of the _Pioneer Press_ in
1882 at Martinsburg, and ran it regularly for thirty-six years,
being honored with the deanship of Negro journalism a short time
before the _Pioneer Press_ ceased to exist.
Mr. Clifford, single-handed and alone, filed charges against
Prof. N. C. Brackett, head of Storer College, killed and wiped
out Brackett's drawn color line, that barred colored people from
going there as had been their privilege. He was the only colored
editor in West Virginia who was a member of the State Editorial
Association for twenty years, and was chosen the last year as its
historian.
While defending a client sometime ago, a United States
Commissioner and Mr. Clifford got into a controversy over some
witnesses he wanted summoned, and it was kept up until the
Commissioner demanded that he stop and go on, or he would put
Clifford in jail. Undaunted he continued and gave the Commissioner
to understand that just as long as he refused to summon the
witnesses, he would contend for it; whereupon the Commissioner
had him put in jail, where he remained for an hour and twenty-two
minutes. Getting out he asked for his client, who had been tried
and jailed. He was brought back. Clifford went his bond, sent
him home, preferred charges against T. T. Lemen, United States
Commissioner, and W. D. Brown, United States Marshal. Clifford
went to the Department of Justice in Washington, D. C. proved his
charges and had both put out of office and his client was set free.
He was appointed, by Senator B. K. Bruce and Frederick Douglass,
Commissioner for the state of West Virginia to the New Orleans
Exposition. He was elected three times President of the National
Independent Political League, was chosen Principal of the Manassas
Industrial School, where he and Frederick Douglass spoke on
the occasion of his inauguration. He resigned because of his
contention for better water.
He was the first man to impanel a colored jury in the state of
West Virginia, and for so doing, was knocked down in the court
room three times with deadly weights, causing the blood to run
down into his shoes. When knocked down the third time, U. S. G.
Pitzer, a Republican (?) prosecuting attorney, sprang on him, but
with apparent superhuman skill and force, Clifford turned him at
a time when there was not a soul in the court room (everybody
having run out) but Pitzer & Clifford, with the latter on top, and
had not Stephen Elam rushed in and pulled Clifford off of Pitzer
and carried him out, death might have been the result,--Elam is
still living. Later Pitzer was nominated for the Legislature, and
Clifford canvassed Berkeley County on his bicycle exhibiting his
bloody shirt (which he still has) and the day before the election
Clifford spoke in the band-stand in the Public Square for an hour
and thirty minutes, waving his bloody shirt and the following day
Pitzer was defeated by 1336 votes.
He is a 33° Mason and a Past Grand Master of W. Va.; member of
the American Negro Academy, and helped to shoot off the shackles
from four million slaves and cement this Union on the bloody
battle fields during the war of the sixties and holds an honorable
discharge in proof of it.
He gives credit to the late Hon. John J. Healy of Chicago, Ill.,
for his early education thru the public schools of Chicago. He
attended and graduated from Storer College 1875, and holds an
honorary diploma from Shaw University.
JOHN W. CROMWELL.
* * * * *
Mr. Monroe N. Work, who has spent some time establishing the official
roster of Negroes who served in State conventions and legislatures,
has turned over for publication the following letters giving the
record of Peter G. Morgan, a prominent citizen of Virginia:
MR. MONROE N. WORK,
Editor _Negro Year Book_,
Tuskegee Institute, Ala.
_My dear Mr. Work_:
I am extremely sorry that many pressing duties have prevented me
from letting you have the information asked for in your letter
under date of September 1st, bearing upon the late Peter George
Morgan of Petersburg, Virginia.
I gathered from the information in possession of his sons, that
he, (Peter G. Morgan) was in his day one of the most prominent
colored men in the city of Petersburg. He was a carpenter by trade
and followed said trade for a number of years. Later he acquired
the knowledge of shoe making and became a first class shoemaker,
which trade he also followed for a number of years before the
Civil War. He was twice sold as a slave, and he purchased himself
at $1,500 and completed the payment on the fourth of July, 1854
at the White Sulphur Springs, his master being part owner of the
Springs at that time. Later on he purchased his wife, paying
$1,500 for her and two small children in 1858, thereby himself
becoming a slave holder. He removed to Petersburg in 1863 and
continued to work at his trade as shoemaker. Meanwhile he made use
of every possible opportunity to increase his knowledge of books,
although he had no opportunity to attend any school. In this way
he became a fairly well educated man, certainly ahead of many at
that time, and at the close of the Civil War was able to train his
own children and the children of his neighbors. He served in the
Constitutional Convention of the State of Virginia in 1867, this
latter date was given me this week by a gentleman in Richmond, who
served as page in the Legislature of Virginia fifty years ago. I
am enclosing a clipping which was passed into my hands a few weeks
ago, which contains some of the names of those who served in this
particular convention.[1]
It has occurred to me that the Rev. Dr. Bragg, of Baltimore,
Maryland also served as page some time, later and perhaps he would
be able to assist me in supplying correct data, provided errors
are made in the dates in this correspondence.
Mr. Morgan served in the Legislature of Virginia two terms,
1869-1871, and 1871-1872.
Now, my dear Mr. Work if additional information is desired,
bearing upon the late Peter George Morgan, please do not hesitate
to command my services, and I shall be very glad to do my best to
assist you.
With kind regards and best wishes, believe me,
Very sincerely yours,
Signed: JAMES S. RUSSELL,
_Principal_.
ST. PAUL NORMAL AND INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL
LAWRENCEVILLE, VIRGINIA,
October 23, 1920.
MR. MONROE N. WORK,
Tuskegee Institute,
Alabama.
_My dear Mr. Work_:
Your very kind letter of the 18th instant has been received and
contents carefully noted. I have delayed replying to your letter
that I might secure definite information from the Register of
the General Assembly of Virginia. My letter to you contained
information from the memory of my brother-in-law and another aged
gentleman, with whom I conferred regarding the information you had
asked me to supply. I have just secured first hand information
which contains practically the same information as given in my
letter, still it comes with authority. You will note please the
slight correction to be made in reference to the years he served
in the Legislature of Virginia.
You have my full permission to use the matter in any way you see
fit, making the slight correction in the dates the Hon. Peter G.
Morgan served in the Legislature.
With kind regards and best wishes, believe me,
Sincerely yours,
Signed: JAMES S. RUSSELL,
_Principal_.
COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA
GOVERNOR'S OFFICE
RICHMOND
October 22, 1920.
DR. JAMES S. RUSSELL, Archdeacon,
St. Paul Normal and Industrial School,
Lawrenceville, Virginia.
_My dear Dr. Russell_:
The Register of the General Assembly of Virginia, on p. 409,
carries the information that Peter G. Morgan of Petersburg, was a
member of the Convention of 1867-1868; was a member of the House
of Delegates of Virginia at the session of 1869-70, and in 1870-71.
I hope that this is the information you desire.
Yours very truly,
Signed: LEROY HODGES,
_Aide to the Governor_.
THE EDUCATION OF THE NEGRO
Captain A. B. Spingarn has supplied the following valuable information
given in these extracts from the laws of the State of New York:
May 10th, 1923.
DR. CARTER G. WOODSON,
Journal of Negro History,
1216 You Street, N. W.,
Washington, D. C.
_My dear Dr. Woodson_:
The following extracts from the Session Laws of the State of New
York for 1826 and 1832 may be of interest. I did not see mention
of the latter one in your invaluable, _The Education of the Negro
Prior to 1861_.
"CHAP. 145 of Laws of 1826.
AN ACT _to provide for the colored Persons who are occupants of
Lots in New Stockbridge_. Passed April 11, 1826.
1. BE _it enacted by the People of the State of New York,
represented in Senate and Assembly_, That it shall and may be
lawful for the commissioners of the land-office to cause letters
patent to be issued to the persons respectively, who have been
reported by the appraisers of lands in New Stockbridge, as colored
persons, for the lots set to their names as occupants, in the same
manner as grants of land are authorized to be made to those who
have been so reported, as white persons persons settled on said
land: _Provided_ ..."
"CHAP. 136 of Laws of 1832.
AN ACT _to constitute the coloured children of Rochester a
separate school_. Passes April 14, 1832.
_The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and
Assembly, do enact as follows:_
1. The commissioners of common schools of the towns of Gates and
Brighton, in the county of Monroe, or a majority of them, may in
their discretion cause the children of colour of the village of
Rochester to be taught in one or more separate schools.
2. The commissioners of common schools of the towns of Gates and
Brighton, shall discharge the duties of trustees of such school,
and shall apportion thereto a distributive share of the moneys for
the support of common schools."
Very sincerely yours,
ARTHUR B. SPINGARN.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] COPY OF CLIPPING FROM UNDESIGNATED PAPER AS MENTIONED IN ABOVE
LETTER.
The Radical State Convention, which was in session in Richmond on
Thursday, elected the following State Executive Committee, with
Ex-Governor H. H. Wells as chairman: First district--Rufus S. Jones,
Isaac Morton and Robert Norton. Second district--R. S. Greene, Peter
G. Morgan and H. H. Bowden. Third district--Wm. C. Wickham, J. M.
Humphreys and Langdon Boyd. Fourth district--Geo. W. Finney, John
T. Hamletter and Ross Hamilton. Fifth district--Thos. J. Jackson,
Alexander Rives and I. F. Wilson. Sixth district--John F. Lewis, Thos.
H. Hargest and John R. Popham. Eighth district--W. B. Downey, John M.
Thatcher and J. B. Sener. Ninth district--R. W. Hughes, G. G. Goodell
and John W. Woest.
BOOK REVIEWS
_Piney Woods and Its Story._ By LAURENCE C. JONES, Principal of
the Piney Woods Country Life School, with an introduction by S.
S. McClure. (New York and Chicago: Fleming H. Revell Company. Pp.
154. Price $1.50 net.)
This is a story of a Negro brought up and educated in a more favorable
environment than most of the members of his race but, nevertheless,
imbued with the spirit of social uplift of those of his group
unfavorably circumstanced. With this vision he cast his lot in
Mississippi, where he toiled against odds in the establishment and
development of a school which is today an important factor in the
progress of the Negroes of Mississippi.
This volume had a forerunner in a shorter story _Up Through
Difficulties_. As the influence of the school extended, however, and a
larger number of friends became interested in his efforts, there arose
such a demand for a brief statement of the history of this institution
that it was necessary to meet this with a publication in this handy
form. Coming then from the heart of a man who has given his life as
a sacrifice for the advancement of his oppressed people, the story
has been well received by the friends of education in general, and
especially by those who appreciate the arduous labors of that class of
pioneers so nobly represented by the author.
And well might such a story be extensively read; for, as S. S. McClure
has said in the introduction, it is a story "of Negro education,
intelligence and sensitiveness, who turned his back upon everything
that usually makes life worth living for people of his kind and went,
without money or influence, or even an invitation, among the poorest
and most ignorant of his race, for the sole purpose of helping them in
every way within his power." As it has been said, it is persuasively
and sincerely told. It is therefore, to quote further from Mr.
McClure, "a valuable human document; a paragraph in a vital chapter of
American history."
Briefly told, the story describes in detail the beginnings of the
educator, his early school days, the development of his school in the
midst of "Pine Knots" under the "Blue Sky," its "Log Cabin" stage,
the more hopeful circumstances later attained, and its widening
influence. In the chapter entitled the "Message of Hope" there is
an unusually interesting account of how once during the World War
the author was misunderstood by certain white persons who, from the
outside, heard him at a revival urging the Negroes to battle against
sin, ignorance, superstition, and poverty. Understanding some but not
all of the words used by the speaker, the eavesdroppers reported him
as stirring up the Negroes in the South to fight the whites. A mob
was easily formed in keeping with the custom of the country, and the
author was speedily picked up and thrown upon a pile of wood, when
guns were cocked and primed to shoot him down before he was to be
offered up. Thereupon, however, one of the mob demanded that he make a
speech, by which he so convincingly disabused their minds of any such
sinister intention of stirring up an insurrection among the Negroes
that he was finally released and befriended rather than lynched.
* * * * *
_The Book of American Negro Poetry._ By JAMES WELDON JOHNSON. (New
York: Harcourt, Brace and Company. 1922. Pp. 217.)
A review of a book of poetry is out of place in an historical magazine
unless, like the volume before us, it has an historical significance.
It cannot be gainsaid that the poetry of a race passing through the
ordeal of slavery, and later struggling for social and political
recognition, must constitute a long chapter in its history. In fact,
one can easily study the development of the mind of a thinking class
from epoch to epoch by reading and appreciating its verse. It is
fortunate that Mr. James Weldon Johnson has thus given the public this
opportunity to study a representative number of the talented tenth of
the Negro race.
The poems themselves do not concern us here to the extent of showing
in detail their bearing on the history of the Negro. The student
of history, however, will find much valuable information in the
interesting preface of the author covering the first forty-seven pages
of the volume. The biographical index of authors in the appendix,
moreover, presents in a condensed form sketches of the lives of
thirty-one useful and all but famous members of the Negro race. Much
of this information about those who have not been in the public eye a
long time is entirely new, appearing here in print for the first time.
The aim of the author is to show the greatness of the Negro as
measured by his literature and art. He believes that the status of
the Negro in the United States is more a question of national mental
attitude toward the race than of actual conditions. "And nothing,"
says he, "will do more to change that mental attitude and raise his
status than a demonstration of intellectual parity by the Negro
through the production of literature and art."
In the effort to show "the emotional endowment, the originality and
artistic conception and power of creating" possessed by the Negro,
the author has begun with the Uncle Remus stories, the spirituals,
the dance, the folks songs and syncopated music. He then presents the
achievements of the Negro in pure literature, mentioning the works of
Jupiter Hammon, George M. Horton, Frances E. Harper, James M. Bell and
Albery A. Whitman. A large portion of this introduction given to the
early writers is devoted to a discussion of Dunbar. He then introduces
a number of poets of our own day, whose works constitute the verse
herein presented. Among these are William Stanley Braithwaite, Claude
McKay, Fenton Johnson, Jessie Fauset, Georgia Douglass Johnson, Annie
Spencer, John W. Holloway, James Edwin Campbell, Daniel Webster Davis,
R. C. Jamison, James S. Cotter, Jr., Alex Rogers, James D. Carrothers,
Leslie Pinckney Hill, and W. E. B. DuBois.
* * * * *
_The McKinley and Roosevelt Administrations, 1897-1909._ By JAMES
FORD RHODES, LL.D., D.Litt. (New York: The Macmillan Company,
1922. Pp. 418.)
Fortunately Mr. Rhodes does not make the mistake of designating this
as a volume continuing his history of the United States from 1850
to 1877. Like the volume recently written to treat the period from
Hayes to McKinley, this one does not show the serious treatment
characteristic of the earlier work of Mr. Rhodes. The author makes
no introduction but enters upon the discussion of the political
events which he considers as having constituted the most important
facts of history during this period. In this volume Mr. Rhodes is
largely concerned with the rise and fall of political chieftains,
who have attained high offices in the services of the nation or with
the record of those who have championed principles which have not
been acceptable to the American people. The most valuable facts of
the book are the bits of first-hand information which he obtained by
personal contact with the statesmen of the time. From this volume,
however, one gets very little more general information than he would
from an observer who has closely followed the various presidential
campaigns. Furthermore, there is not much discussion of the social and
economic questions which have engaged the attention of the American
people because of their bearing on shaping the destinies of the
nation. As a narrative for ready information of men and measures of
this period it is interesting, but judged from the point of view of
modern historiography, the book cannot be seriously considered as a
very valuable work on American history. When one has finished reading
the volume he will find his mind filled with what men have done and
what they have failed to accomplish, but he will not easily grasp the
meaning of the forces which during the last generation have given
trend to present-day developments in the United States.
Students of Negro history will wonder what mention the author has
made of the rôle which the race played during this period. In any
expectation of this sort they will find themselves disappointed.
With the exception of references to the Booker Washington dinner at
the White House, the Brownsville Affair, and the Roosevelt attitude
on Negro suffrage, the race does not figure in this history. It is
interesting to note Rhodes's statement to the effect (230) that
Roosevelt said to him that he made a mistake in inviting Booker T.
Washington to dine at the White House. With the usual bias of the
author, it is not surprising that he justifies the dismissal of the
Negro soldiers charged with participating in the riot at Brownsville
(340). After reading this volume, one who has not lived in this
country would be surprised to come here and learn that we have such
a large group of citizens about whom so much was said and to whom so
much was meted out during this stormy period.
* * * * *
_The Journal of John Woolman._ Edited from the Original
Manuscripts, with a Biographical Introduction, by AMELIA MOTT
GUMMERE. (New York: The Macmillan Company. 1922. Pp. 643.)
From the time of the first publication of the _Journal_ of this
unusual man in 1774, he has been known to the world as one of its
greatest characters because of his wonderful spirituality and deep
interest in all members of the human family regardless of race or
condition. It is decidedly fitting then that this valuable record
should be reprinted and be made accessible to a larger number who will
find it an inspiration to those engaged in reform and valuable in
throwing light on heroism in the past.
The author, however, has another reason for the new edition of this
_Journal_, inasmuch as there are many editions of the _Journal_
proper, and a multitude of publications in which Woolman's _Essays_
and appreciations of him appear. The reason is that the descendants
of Woolman "have recently made accessible by presenting to learned
institutions, which are glad to guard them, the manuscripts of the
_Journal_ and of most of his _Essays_ as well as letters, marriage
certificates of the family and other documents."
The work is arranged in chapters presenting his immigrant ancestry,
his youth and education, his marriage, his participation in
the slavery discussion, his Indian journey, his experiences as
schoolmaster, his final tours, and his death. The book is well printed
and neatly bound. It contains thirty-three interesting illustrations
which decidedly enhance the value of the book. Among these should
be noted the portrait of John Woolman, his birthplace, his home,
important pages from his manuscripts, and his grave.
Chapter IV, which deals with the endeavors of John Woolman to
emancipate and elevate the Negro race, will be of unusual help to
students of Negro history. Around Woolman and his coworkers, beginning
in 1760, centered the effort toward the liberation of the race, which
engaged the attention of the Friends, especially during the struggle
for the rights of man. Carrying the doctrine of natural rights to its
logical conclusion, Woolman was among the first to insist that Negroes
had a natural right to be free both in body and mind. To this end,
therefore, he bore testimony against slavery wherever he traveled in
this country and abroad; and down to the close of his career he lived
up to the conviction that all men are born equal before God "Who hath
made of one blood all nations that dwell upon the face of the earth."
NOTES
Miss A. H. Smith, who during the last seven years has served
the Association as Office Manager and Assistant to the
Secretary-treasurer, has recently retired from the service. The
Association is immeasurably indebted to Miss Smith for the faithful
service which she has rendered the cause, and it will be difficult to
fill her position. Although offered opportunities for earning a larger
stipend elsewhere, she remained with the Association because of her
interest in the work which it has been prosecuting. The Association
wishes her well and earnestly hopes that she may be welcomed in some
other field of usefulness.
The American Catholic Historical Society has announced a prize of $100
offered by this society for the best historical essay on the subject
"Catholic Missionary Work Among the Colored People of the United
States (1776-1866)." The prize money has been donated by the Most Rev.
Sebastian Messmer, Archbishop of Milwaukee.
All persons who are interested in the welfare and progress of the
Negroes of the United States are eligible to compete for the prize
under the conditions specified by the Society. The conditions are:
The subject must be treated within the years specified (1776-1866).
Although the history of Catholic missionary activity among the colored
people of this country during the colonial period is not barred, the
essays shall be judged upon their value for the years 1776-1866.
The essays shall be typewritten on one side of the page only, and
shall not be less than 4,000 words and may not exceed 8,000 words.
All essays entered for the prize must be received by the Secretary
of the American Catholic Historical Society, 715 Spruce Street,
Philadelphia, not later than December 1, 1923.
Each essay shall be signed with a motto and accompanied with a sealed
envelope marked on the outside with the same motto and enclosing the
writer's name and address.
The committee appointed to act as judges for the competition is
composed of: the Rev. Peter Guilday of the Catholic University
of America, Washington, D. C, Chairman; Dr. Lawrence Flick, of
Philadelphia; Thomas F. Meehan, associate-editor of "America," New
York; Dr. T. W. Turner, of Howard University, Washington, D. C.; and
the Rev. Joseph Butsch, S. S. J., of St. Joseph's Seminary, Baltimore.
An arrangement has been made whereby contestants seeking guidance
in research work in the preparation of the essay can obtain aid by
writing to the chairman of the committee of judges.
* * * * *
The Oxford University Press has published a history of _The Partition
and Colonization of Africa_, by Sir Charles Lucas. This work includes
the territorial rearrangement resulting from the recent war.
Through _East and West_, London, S. B. de Burgh Edwardes has published
_The History of Mauritius, 1507-1914_. A Mauritian himself, he has had
every opportunity to write a readable and interesting volume.
_The History of the Conquest of Egypt, North Africa, and Spain_, by
Ibn Abd Al-Hakam, is now being published through the Yale University
Press in its Oriental Series. This work is the earliest account of
Mohammedan conquests extant. It is edited from manuscripts in London,
Paris and Leyden, by Professor Charles C. Torrey.
Herbert Jenkins, London, has brought out _The Mad Mullah of
Somaliland_, by Douglas J. Jardine, an officer of the British
administration in Somaliland from 1916 to 1921.
_The Royal Chronicle of Abyssinia_, an extract translated from the
Ethiopic Chronicle in the British Museum by H. Weld Blundell, has been
published by the Cambridge University Press.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE SPRING CONFERENCE OF THE ASSOCIATION FOR THE STUDY
OF NEGRO LIFE AND HISTORY HELD IN BALTIMORE, APRIL 5TH AND 6TH, 1923
The conference enjoyed the welcome and hospitality of Morgan College
where the morning and afternoon sessions were held on the 5th, and
of the Baltimore Public School System, the Druid Hill Avenue Branch
of the Young Men's Christian Association, and the Bethel A. M. E.
Church, which provided for the day sessions of the second day and for
both evening sessions. The success of the meeting was due in a large
measure to the cordial reception given the Association by Dr. J. O.
Spencer, the president of Morgan College, and by Dr. Pezavia O'Connell
and Dean L. M. McCoy. Mr. Mason A. Hawkins, Dr. Frederick Douglass,
Dr. A. L. Gaines, and Mr. S. S. Booker willingly cooperated in the
same way with respect to the meetings in the city.
The first session was held at Morgan College on Thursday at 11 A.M.
Dr. Pezavia O'Connell, who presided, delivered an able address
impressing upon the students of the institution the importance of
the work undertaken by the Association. He was then followed by the
officers of the Association, who outlined in detail the history, the
purposes, and the achievements of the organization. Other remarks
were later made by Miss Georgine Kelly Smith, who proved to be a very
effective speaker in directing attention to certain neglected aspects
of Negro life.
At 3 o'clock in the afternoon, the officers of the Association
assembled with the faculty of Morgan College in a joint meeting
to acquaint the instructors with the plans and procedure of the
Association and to secure their cooperation in the extension of this
work through some local organization which may direct its attention
to the collection of Negro folklore and to the preservation of the
records of the Negroes in Maryland. Much interest was aroused and
steps were taken to effect such an organization.
The first evening session was held at 8 o'clock on the same day at
Bethel A. M. E. Church in the city of Baltimore. On this occasion the
Spring Conference was welcomed to the city by Mr. Mason A. Hawkins,
the principal of the Colored High School, who briefly discussed the
importance of the work and the opportunity which it afforded Baltimore
for becoming better informed as to what is being done for the uplift
of the race through this scientific effort. The response to this
address was made by President G. A. Edwards of Kittrell College. He
made a favorable impression upon the audience by directing attention
to the importance of securing the cooperation of a large number of
persons with an intelligent interest in the race. He emphasized the
fact that such a significant task should not be neglected and left
to the sacrifices of the few persons of vision who, without adequate
support, may unduly toil in the prosecution of this task and thus fail
to succeed because of bearing a burden which should be shared by all.
The principal addresses of the evening were delivered by Dr. J.
O. Spencer, Dr. C. G. Woodson and Dean Kelly Miller. Dr. Spencer
discussed the subject "Thinking Straight on the Color Line." He
deprecated the lack of information on the Negro and showed how, in the
midst of ignorance as to the actual achievements of the race, persons
have learned to hate men of color because they are not acquainted
with them. To remedy the situation, then, there must be a universal
interest in the study of Negro life and history. Dr. Woodson sketched
in brief the record of the Negro from time immemorial, mentioning the
important contributions of the race to civilization and the necessity
for the study of this record to inspire the race with a hope of
greater achievement and to disabuse the mind of the white man of the
idea of racial superiority. Dean Kelly Miller spoke on the worthwhile
qualities of the Negro. His aim was to show that every race has in it
certain elements which are peculiar to that group, thus giving it in
this respect a chance to make a contribution which can come from no
other source. He, therefore, emphasized the importance of encouraging
the best in all races and giving to each every possible opportunity
for development. Among the exceptional qualities which he ascribed to
the Negro are patience, meekness, the gift of music, the sense of art,
response to religion, and brotherly love.
The first session of the second day was held at 1 o'clock P.M., at the
Douglass Theatre. This occasion was that of an assembly of the members
of the Association, together with the students and faculty of the
Baltimore Colored High School and other members of the local teaching
corps. The important address was delivered by Professor John R.
Hawkins, president of the organization. The purpose of this discourse
was to outline in the simplest and most effective way possible the
necessity for children knowing more about themselves and about their
ancestors. The speaker endeavored to show how the achievements of the
Negro have been omitted from the textbooks studied by the youth in
the public schools so as to impress the Negro with the superiority
of other races and the so-called inferiority of their own. These
students were urged, therefore, to avail themselves of the opportunity
to become acquainted with this neglected aspect of history through
supplementary reading in the home, in clubs, and in literary circles.
How this would stimulate the mind of the youth and inspire them to
greater achievement through knowledge of the distinguished service of
others of their race in the past, was eloquently emphasized by the
speaker. Some remarks were made by President G. A. Edwards of Kittrell
College and Dr. C. G. Woodson.
At 3 o'clock P. M. the Spring Conference assembled at the Druid Hill
Avenue Branch of the Y. M. C. A. The purpose of this meeting was to
discuss Negro history from the various points view of the teacher,
the minister, the editor, and the professional man. The discussion
was opened by Mr. L. S. James, principal of the Maryland Normal and
Industrial School, with a brief survey of the situation in Maryland
with respect to the development of the Negro schools and especially
in the matter of teaching Negro history. His very informing address
was well received. Then, appeared Mr. G. Smith Wormley of the Myrtilla
Miner Normal School, Washington, D. C. He presented Negro history from
the point of view of the teacher. He treated the matter pedagogically,
setting forth the purpose of the teaching of history and at the same
time urging upon his hearers the necessity for teaching the leading
facts of Negro history by correlating them with the topics of history
as it is now offered in the schools. His illuminating discourse made a
favorable impression and evoked discussions from various persons.
Among those prompted to speak were Mrs. N. F. Mossell of Philadelphia,
who spoke of history from the point of view of the child, showing how
necessary it is to supply the young people with elementary reading
matter, serving as a stepping stone to the teaching of the more
difficult phases of the record of the Negro. Dr. George F. Bragg
explained how the minister is concerned with the history of the Negro
and briefly summarized the important contributions of Negro ministers
not only to the history of the race, but to the preservation of its
records. Mrs. Ella Spencer Murray expressed her interest in the work
and outlined how each one might aid the movement by soliciting members
and subscribers throughout the country, especially among white persons
who may be neutral or indifferent as to what the Negro has achieved.
Mr. S. W. Rutherford, the Secretary-Treasurer of the Association,
delivered a short address to point out how by organized effort, with
courage and concentration, the movement may be further promoted and
the work expanded throughout the country by cooperating with the
Director who should and must have the support of all interested in
the Negro. Bishop John Hurst then mentioned briefly the necessity
for more publicity, and expressed his interest in securing a fund
adequate to the employment of a staff to popularize the work and
increase the income of the Association. Dr. Thomas E. Brown, of Morgan
College, delivered a short address emphasizing the necessity for a
more scientific study of the records and directing attention to the
undeveloped possibilities of the race which cry for the attention of
those scholars with the necessary training to treat the records of
this group scientifically.
The session closed with an address by Ex-Congressman Thomas E. Miller
of South Carolina. He proved to be an attractive figure at the
sessions of the Association, being a man well advanced in years, one
who served in local offices during the Reconstruction and finally
reached Congress. He restricted his remarks to the discussion of the
free Negro prior to the Civil War, the class to which he himself
belonged. He asserted that many free Negroes were never known. Because
of the fear of disclosing their status, many of them were recorded as
slaves. In the same way, some of their important achievements were
kept in secret for the reason that freedom of conduct in their case
was proscribed by public opinion. Furthermore, he stated that they
were often misunderstood because they are reported as having hated
the slaves. He then explained the relations of the free Negro to the
whites and to the slaves, bringing out how they were subjected to
punishment for associating with the bondmen, and, therefore, became
estranged from them by the processes of safeguarded instruction in the
caste system of the South.
At the second evening session at the Bethel A. M. E. Church, two
important addresses were delivered. The first one, "Hints on Race
History from an Old Book" by Prof. Leslie P. Hill, proved to be
unusually instructive. This discourse was based upon Abbé Grégoire's
_Litterature des Nègres_, intended to emphasize the unusual
achievements of the Negroes as a proof that because of their superior
intellect they were entitled to freedom. Mr. Hill directed very little
attention to the characters well known in this country, restricting
his remarks largely to those who rose to prominence in European
countries where their records have never been studied to the extent of
impressing the historians of this country.
Then appeared Dr. William Pickens, the Field Secretary for the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, who
delivered a very enthusiastic address on "Negro History in the Public
Schools." Dr. Pickens showed not only how uninformed the white people
are as to the record of the Negro, but that the race itself knows
very little of what it has achieved. He briefly mentioned a number
of instances connected with the local history of Maryland, of which
the people themselves living on the very soil on which these events
took place, knew nothing. He then adversely criticized the attitude
of the public school systems toward the teaching of Negro history and
urged his hearers to take seriously the question of memorializing and
influencing educational authorities to incorporate into their courses
of study textbooks on Negro history setting forth the truth as it is.
He urged, moreover, that in the meantime while such a battle is being
waged to reach this end, the Negroes themselves should through clubs
and literary circles make a systematic study of such works.
* * * * *
THE JOURNAL
OF
NEGRO HISTORY
VOL. VIII., NO. 4 OCTOBER, 1923
ABRAM HANNIBAL, THE FAVORITE OF PETER THE GREAT
Abram Hannibal, more commonly known as the "Negro of Peter the Great,"
or "Peter's Negro" was one of the quaintest figures in the Russian
history of eighteenth century. From slavery to mastership and riches
his peculiar fate led him. He began his life under yoke in Africa
but died a general and wealthy landlord of the frozen North, leaving
his children and grandchildren to be prominent in the politics and
literature of Russia.
The name of "Peter's Negro," no doubt, belongs to history; but
comparatively little is known of him, many important details of his
biography being still incomplete and unascertained. Outside of the
Russian sources there were Hannibal's own memoirs, written in French,
but not long before his death Abram burned them. About the beginning
of nineteenth century there appeared Hannibal's biography in German,
written by a certain Helbig (_Russische Gunstlinge_), but hardly
anything trustworthy could be learned from this work. As far as we
know, nothing was ever published of "Peter's Negro" in English. Even
the Russian sources are mainly official records and dry documents,
not of a great historical value, if of any. The best information
about Hannibal may be obtained from the unfinished novel _The Negro
of Peter the Great_ (1827) and other works by Pushkin, Hannibal's
great-grandson, the famous writer and founder of the modern school of
nineteenth century literature in Russia.
Some of later historians doubt many of the assertions of Pushkin,
holding that, great as the poet was, he nevertheless was subject to
the common human weakness of exaggerating one's forefathers' merits.
The important facts of his career, however, have been learned. In the
year 1705, as for many years before and after, thousands of Negroes
were made prisoners and brought from the interior to the coasts of
the dark continent to be shipped to the slave markets of America and
Asia. Among others there was a little boy, barely eight years of age,
whom Arabs, his masters, called Ibrahim. He was sold to the Turks and,
the same year, brought to Constantinople. His fate could be easily
guessed. He was wanted for a slave in a rich Turkish home, or perhaps
an overseer in a harem. He became the latter after being brutally
handled.
But at that time Savva Ragusinsky, a Russian nobleman, after a short
stay in Turkey was preparing to leave for his home country. He wanted
to bring a present of some kind to his Czar Peter, the stern reformer
of Russia, afterwards called "the Great." Ragusinsky knew the Czar's
love for curious objects and thought nothing better than two live
black boys could win him Peter's favor. The Czar had at his court many
servants of different races, brought to St. Petersburg from all over
the world, but only a few Negroes were among them.
Ragusinsky bought or, according to some documents, simply stole
several Negro boys, who only a few months before were brought to the
slave-shacks of Sultan Selim II. One of these, who started on a long
trip to their new Northern home, was the little Ibrahim. The Czar
liked the rare present and almost from the beginning distinguished
Ibrahim from other slaves. The boy was unusually bright for his age.
He quickly picked up the Russian language and alphabet, and before
long began to feel that the court of St. Petersburg was his home.
Peter kept Ibrahim in his apartments, and Ibrahim accompanied the Czar
in latter's journeys through Russia and foreign countries, not as a
servant but rather as one of the family. When because of the war of
Russia with Sweden, Peter had to be constantly with his army, Ibrahim
shared with his friend-master all the dangers and privations of
bivouac-life.
In 1707, while in Vilno, Ibrahim was christened in Orthodox faith.
His father-in-Christ was the Czar himself, who was assisted in this
task by the Polish queen, the wife of King Augustus. The little Negro
was given a new name of Peter, but he cried and refused to answer it,
preferring his old Arab name. The Russians, however, could not get
used to the strange Oriental sound and called him Abram instead of
Ibrahim. His surname--Hannibal--was given to him by the Czar in memory
of the famous Carthaginian.
In 1716 Peter went on his second tour of Western Europe with Hannibal
as usual accompanying him. Among other countries they visited France,
and here Hannibal was left to begin his studies more seriously.
Hannibal, then 19 years old, showed fair capacity for mathematics
and physics. Supplied by the Czar with money and other means of
assistance, he entered a military engineering academy in Paris, where
he remained for about 2 years. He joined the French army afterwards,
which was then engaged in the war against Spain, and participated in
many battles. He proved to be an able engineer and a good commander.
In one of the battles--"an underground combat," as it is related in an
eighteenth century document--Hannibal was wounded in the head, but not
dangerously, and was brought back to Paris.
Hannibal stayed in Paris till 1723, communicating with the Czar by
letters which are preserved in St. Petersburg state archives. Hannibal
complained in them that the Russian treasury and Peter himself almost
completely forgot about him, compelling him to live in great poverty
on the verge of starvation. If he could obtain no allowance, Hannibal
wrote, he would have to walk from Paris to Moscow, begging alms on the
way.
Pushkin, however, asserts that his great-grandfather while in Paris
was well provided for by Peter with money and had an unlimited
opportunity to mingle in the French society circles. His appearance
aroused curiosity; his wits, education and war record respect.
His black curls with a bandage over them--his wound did not heal
completely for a long time--could be frequently seen amid white wigs
of the French aristocrats. He was well received in the best salons
of Paris, being everywhere known as "le nègre du Czar." The Duke of
Orleans, who as a regent ruled over France at that time, favored
Hannibal with his attention and when in 1723 Peter asked Abram to come
back to Russia, the regent tried to persuade Hannibal to remain in
France, promising him a brilliant military and court career. Although
the Czar permitted Hannibal to take his own choice between France and
Russia, the young man decided to return to St. Petersburg.
Thus, contradicting Hannibal's complaining letters, Pushkin describes
his great-grandfather's sojourn in Paris. He evidently based his
testimony on the family accounts, which as almost any such narratives
contain perhaps more fiction than history. But, on the other hand,
the historians, who contradict Pushkin, have no other proof of their
infallibility than these Paris letters of Hannibal.
Reliable information concerning Hannibal after his return to Russia,
however, is not so scarce. Immediately upon his arrival in St.
Petersburg, Hannibal was appointed an officer in the Preobrajensky
Guard-regiment. He became an "engineer-lieutenant" in the
"Bombardir-company," of which the Czar himself was the captain. But
another crisis was reached when, according to Pushkin, it appeared
about that time that Hannibal was a son of a Negro king, and his elder
brother came from Africa to St. Petersburg with an offer of a rich
ransom for Hannibal. He met with no success, as Hannibal himself did
not want to return to the village on the banks of Niger.
The situation did not seem so favorable for Hannibal, moreover, when
in 1725 Peter the Great died. Menshikov, former pie-peddler and
life-long favorite of the late Czar, elevated himself to the position
of sole adviser to Peter's widow, Catherine I. He alone virtually
ruled Russia for several years. When Catherine I died and young Peter
II sat on the throne, Menshikov wanted the boy Emperor to marry his
younger daughter. He feared, however, his numerous enemies at the
court, among whom he counted Hannibal, the young Czar's instructor
in mathematics. Consequently Hannibal was exiled to Siberia in 1727.
Officially he was neither arrested nor deprived of his rank and
property. He was sent to the borders of China with orders to "transfer
from the town of Selenginsk into another location" and to "take an
exact measure of the Great Chinese Wall." Menshikov evidently thought
that the severe Siberian frosts would sooner or later kill the young
African. But Hannibal being strong and healthy and accustomed from
childhood to cold climate withstood the hardships of the Siberian
wilderness.
In 1729 he fled from Selenginsk but was arrested before he could reach
Europe. His papers and valuables taken from him, Hannibal was brought
to Tomsk, a city in Western Siberia. There for some time he was kept
as a prisoner, although his salary as an officer was still paid. In
January of 1730 he was freed but not permitted to leave Siberia. He
was appointed to serve in the Tomsk garrison as a major.
Soon afterwards St. Petersburg was the scene of a new coup-d'etat.
Anna, a niece of Peter the Great, was summoned to the Russian throne.
Counts Dolgorukov became the most powerful persons at the court. New
hopes were aroused in Hannibal, as the Dolgorukovs were his friends,
since the time he and they lived in France. Hannibal without asking
or waiting for permission left Tomsk, but when some time after he
arrived in St. Petersburg he learned that Dolgorukovs lost their
influence as suddenly as they won it, that they were arrested, and
after all their estates had been confiscated, were exiled to Siberia.
Great dangers threatened Hannibal as a Dolgorukovs' friend. Biron,
erstwhile a stable man but now adviser and lover of Anna, sought
Hannibal's life. Field-marshal Minich, commander-in-chief of the
Russian army, however, saved Hannibal by granting him a commission to
inspect fortifications in Lifland. In a little village near Reval,
then, Hannibal lived in obscurity for 10 years, fearing every day
the arrival of a messenger from St. Petersburg with an order for his
arrest.
Before his coming to Lifland, Hannibal married the beautiful daughter
of a Greek captain by the name of Dioper. Almost from the first day
of their marriage he began to suspect her infidelity. The birth of a
white baby-girl proved his suspicions and justified their divorce.
The Russian court sent Hannibal's wife to a convent, and Hannibal
married Christina-Regina Von-Sheberg, a Lifland German woman. She
gave birth to five sons, all of whom were mulattoes. His first wife's
white daughter he kept in his home, gave her a good education and a
considerable dowry, but never permitted her to come before his eyes.
In November of 1741 Elisabeth, a daughter of Peter the Great, was
proclaimed the Empress of Russia. She immediately returned from exile
all former favorites of her father. Among these was Hannibal, on whom
she showered various honours. He was given the post of commandant
of city of Reval. About ten villages with several thousands of
white slaves were presented to him as his personal property. He was
decorated with medals and ribbons and asked to come to St. Petersburg.
He preferred, however, to stay on his newly acquired estates.
Other important tasks awaited him. In 1752 he was commissioned to fix
the Russo-Swedish boundary line. In 1756 he was one of the members
of the Ladoga Canal Commission and also of the Commission for the
Inspection of the Russian Forts. In 1762, with a rank of general
in chief, he retired from public service, being then an old man.
His services were remembered at the court for a long time after,
however, for once Catherine II asked him to compose a plan of St.
Petersburg-Moscow Canal.
During his last years he was frequented by spells of sudden fear, the
consequence of his old sufferings. He was especially afraid of the
sound of a bell, imagining that his persecutors were coming again.
Under one of these spells, as we mentioned above, he destroyed his
memoirs not long before he died in 1782 in his eighty-fifth year.
He did not want his sons to join the army or be at the court, fearing
they might be involved there in dangerous intrigue. Ivan, his elder
son, joined the army against his will, and only after he won fame as
a brilliant victor over the Turks could he on his knees receive his
aged father's forgiveness. Ivan Hannibal distinguished himself not
only as a strategist but as a man of a great personal valor as well.
He participated in the Russian naval expedition to Greece and captured
Navarin, a Turkish fort, in 1770. He was the hero of the Chesma
battle. Returning to Russia in 1779 he founded the city of Kherson in
the Ukraine, of which he was appointed a governor. Later Ivan Hannibal
quarreled with Count Potemkin, lover of Catherine the Great and ruler
of Southern Russia. The Empress defended Hannibal and decorated him,
but he left the service and went to live in one of his numerous
estates. There in 1801 he died.
His brother Ossip (Joseph) was a naval officer in the Black Sea Fleet
and for several years navigated the Mediterranean. Of other sons of
Abram Hannibal very little is known. Ossip's daughter Nadejda, a
Creole of striking beauty, married Pushkin, of an ancient Russian
noble family. In 1799 a son was born to them and named Alexander, who
later won fame as the greatest poet of Russia. He was killed in 1837,
while duelling with a diplomat over the honor of Pushkin's wife, who
was not worth her great husband's noble love.
While all the works of Pushkin could be bound together in one volume,
thousands of books have been written on him and on what he created.
Numerous monuments are erected in his honor all over Russia; special
magazines entirely dedicated to him are published; and in famous
paintings by distinguished Russian artists are pictured different
periods of Pushkin's short life. When you look at these paintings,
black curls, olive skin and thick lips speak to you of Pushkin's race.
He himself was proud of it, all but worshipping his great-grandfather
in many of his verses.
ALBERT PARRY
THE MOVEMENT OF NEGROES FROM THE EAST TO THE GULF STATES FROM 1830 TO
1850
The migration of Negroes to the Gulf States, during the years 1830
to 1850, was from the point of view of the Negroes themselves wholly
involuntary. The blacks, being at that time preponderately slave,
accompanied their masters to new homes in the South and Southwest or
constituted the traffic of the domestic slave trade. Explanation of
their migration must be sought, therefore, not in any unrest that may
have been manifested by the Negroes, but rather in the causes that
underlay the movement of the masters to new homes, and that enabled
the domestic slave trade to become a profitable enterprise.
This migration, which in some ways assumed a peculiar aspect, bears a
definite relation to three general circumstances. In the first place,
there was a comparative decline in the productiveness of the seaboard
border slave States. In the second, the accessibility to the new lands
and practically virgin soils of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana
invited the migration of innumerable planters from the border States
to this new region. Finally, the rapidly increasing demand of the
planters of the Gulf region for slave labor with which to cultivate
cotton and other native products tremendously stimulated the domestic
slave trade.
Although the seaboard border States, led by Virginia, sent south
the bulk of the slaves, it must not be thought that the migration
was alone from these States. In fact, as early as 1840,[1] not only
Virginia, Maryland, the District of Columbia, and Delaware, but also
North Carolina became slave-exporting areas. Later, too, when the
impoverishment of her lands made impossible the further extension
of cotton culture, South Carolina joined with these other States and
Georgia in exporting slaves to Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and,
after 1845, to Texas.
The decline in the productiveness of some of the seaboard border slave
States has been ascribed to various causes. The failure to rotate
crops and the lack of proper and sufficient fertilizer necessary to
prevent an impoverishment of the soil some hold to be primary causes.
The almost complete dependence upon unskilled, unintelligent slave
labor, the conviction prevalent everywhere in slave territory that
such labor made that of white men dishonorable, together with the
failure to develop fully the manufacturing facilities at hand, have
been also generally advanced to explain the decline, particularly, of
Maryland and Virginia.
The chief agricultural staple of these States was tobacco. The
characteristic soil of the region--a sandy loam--while warm and
stimulating was easily exhausted,[2] especially when the planters had
improper and inefficient fertilizer, traceable in some measure to
a numerical deficiency of live stock, and the incessant culture of
tobacco, without crop rotation. The price of tobacco, moreover, was
throughout the years from 1818 to 1840 exceedingly low and, at the
same time, the newer States of Kentucky, Tennessee, and Missouri, as
well as the Carolinas and Georgia, were producing large quantities
of tobacco. The net result in Virginia and Maryland, therefore, was
to make the culture of the plant exceedingly unprofitable.[3] It is
held that the soil-exhausting character of tobacco culture, together
with the falling prices of the plant, constituted the dominant factors
in the decrease in value of agricultural lands of Virginia from
$206,000,000 in 1816 to $80,000,000 in 1829.[4]
If the impoverishment of the land through tobacco culture was one
factor in the declining productivity of Virginia and Maryland, the
almost complete use of unskilled Negro slave labor, particularly in
the former State, was decidedly another. Not only was slave labor
costly, in that the non-producers, as well as the constant workers,
had to be provided for, but also because of the overwhelming ignorance
and inertia of such labor. "The grand secret of the difference between
free labor and slave labor," wrote a former Virginia resident to the
_New York Times_, "is that the latter is without intelligence and
without motive."[5] A large tobacco planter of Virginia adds to this
his testimony that the slave's incapacity to perform duties complex in
nature, or requiring the least intelligence, precluded the cultivation
there of the finer grades of tobacco.[6] While, therefore, the Negro
slave was tractable and capable of hard work, he was, without strict
supervision, a most unproductive worker. The universal employment of
the slave despite his ignorance and inertia doubtless furnishes one
clue to the failure of Virginia to exploit, in a reasonable degree,
her manufacturing resources.[7]
This costly failure has been ascribed also to the reluctance of white
labor to perform any duties to which slaves might be assigned. Slave
owners and white laborers held in mutual repugnance the employment of
white men at such tasks. According to Olmsted,[8] slave owners have
held that the poor whites would refuse to do such work if possible,
and, if compelled to submit, would do only so much as they found
absolutely necessary. Under all circumstances they do such work
reluctantly and "will not bear driving." "They cannot be worked to
advantage with the slaves, and it is inconvenient to look after them,
if you work them separately."
The natural consequence of the policy thus pursued by Virginia was,
despite the fact of her early command over greater wealth and a
larger population than the other States, to force her to descend, in
part, from her former high estate.[9] A comparison of values of the
agricultural lands of Virginia and Pennsylvania, in 1850, shows those
of the latter, although of smaller acreage, to have a larger sale
value an acre and a larger total value. A similar comparison between
Virginia and New Jersey gives the same result.
That the conditions stated as obtaining in 1850 had long existed
there seems to be no lack of evidence. Thomas Marshall made, in the
Virginia legislature of 1831-'32, searching and detailed statements
of the declining wealth and productivity of the State.[10] Such
conditions as he pictured made plain that the planters of Virginia
must either improve their lands by rehabilitating the soil, acquiring
better farming implements, and improving their plow animals,[11] or
migrate to the more promising lands elsewhere, or sell their slaves.
The records show that by some planters one or another of these methods
was adopted. Moreover, Maryland, a sister State of Virginia, because
of the exhaustion of her soil by tobacco culture, found essential to
her relief the same procedure.[12] With reference to Maryland, the
census of 1840 shows an actual decrease over that of 1830 in the slave
population[13] of the commonwealth.
To what parts, then, did these slaves go? The theatre of the largest
expansion of slavery[14] was the "Western Cotton Belt," the section
which shall be herein considered, comprehending parts of Alabama,
Mississippi, Louisiana, and Eastern Texas. The chief distinction
between the soils of these States constituting the Atlantic Coastal
Plain from Virginia to South Carolina and those of the "Western
Cotton Belt" is the occurrence of extensive limestone belts in the
latter. "The soils in these limestone belts are largely residual,
calcareous and usually have a humus content, which gives the soil
its black color"[15]--hence the name "Black Belt." The soils of
these belts contain much clay and require careful preparation, but
they are durable and extremely fertile. Moreover, an excellent
water navigation[16] extending well into the region constituted an
additional factor in the extension of the cotton culture and of Negro
slavery into this territory.
According to Phillips,[17] the lands of the "Western Cotton Belt,"
most preferred in the early period, lay in two main areas, the
soils of both of which were more lasting and fertile than those in
the interior of the Atlantic States. "One of these areas formed a
crescent across south-central Alabama, with its western horn reaching
up the Tombigbee River into northeastern Mississippi." The soil of
this area was of black loose loam. Everywhere it was thickly matted
with grass and weeds, except where there was visible "limestone on
the hill crests and prodigious cane brakes in the valleys." This
tract known locally as the prairies or "Black Belt" was smaller than
the other which extended along the Mississippi, on both sides, from
northern Tennessee and Arkansas to the mouth of the Red River. This
tract contained broad alluvial bottoms, as well as occasional hill
districts of rich loam, the latter being especially noticeable around
Natchez and Vicksburg. The broadest expanse of these bottoms, the
Yazoo-Mississippi Delta, received but few migrants prior to the middle
"thirties." The planters seem to have settled first in the bottoms,
while the other choice lands were competed for by the large and
smaller planters, as well as the poor farmers.
These lands were not only, by soil and climate, ideally suited to the
production of cotton, but they were reasonably cheap in price. As late
as 1849 there was much uncultivated, though fertile agricultural land
in each of the cotton-growing States. At that time the total acreage
and the area in use in several of the Gulf States were listed as
follows:[18]
State Total No. of Acres Acres Owned
Alabama 32,462,080 15,911,520
Louisiana 29,715,840 6,263,822
Mississippi 30,174,080 15,811,650
There was under these circumstances small wonder that there migrated
planters from the worn-out lands of the seaboard slave States,
including the less fertile districts of Georgia,[19] and parts of
Kentucky and Tennessee. In the absence of statistics giving the exact
number of slaves migrating thus with their owners, the estimates of
contemporaries and of later writers may be serviceable. _The Virginia
(Wheeling) Times_ said[20] that intelligent men of that day estimated
the number of slaves exported from Virginia, during the year 1836,
to be 120,000, of whom two-thirds (80,000) were carried south by
their masters. The _Quarterly Anti-Slavery Magazine_ (vol. ii, 411,
July, 1837) gives the _Natchez Courier_ as the authority for the
estimate that during 1836 as many as 250,000 slaves, some of whom were
accompanied by their masters, were transported from the older slave
States to Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas.[21] P. A.
Morse, of Louisiana, writing in 1857, says that "the augmentation of
slaves within the cotton States was caused mostly by the migration
of slave owners." On the basis of sources accessible to him, Morse
estimated that three-fifths of the slaves removed from the border
States to the farther South, from 1820 to 1850, migrated with their
masters.[22] Accepting the "three-fifths estimate" of Morse, Collins
has made deductions which indicate that approximately 15,900 slaves
went south annually with their masters during the decade from 1830
to 1840; while during the next decade the annual migration was about
9,000.[23]
One of these migrant planters,[24] who, in 1835, left his tidewater
estate in Gloucester County, Virginia, was Colonel Thomas S. Dabney.
Prompted by the necessities of his family to seek more favorable
soil, he sought land in Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi, finally
settling in the one last mentioned. Colonel Dabney carried with him
more than two hundred slaves, established himself on a plantation of
four thousand acres, and each year contrived, by clearances, to put
under cultivation an additional hundred acres. Planters of this type,
with large numbers of slaves and sufficient funds to extend their
holdings, tended to concentrate both slaves and lands in a few hands.
If the demand for new lands brought great numbers of slaves southward
during the years from 1830 to 1850, there were also at work forces
which caused many other slaves to be exported in the domestic slave
traffic. The extension of the cotton culture in the more southern
States, the increased exportation of cotton, the advancing profits
therefrom, the development of large sugar plantations in Louisiana,
and the decreased average working life of the slave created among the
planters of this region an extraordinary demand for slave labor. At
the same time such seaboard States as raised tobacco were suffering
from a depression in the tobacco markets. The African slave trade,
moreover, had been legally suppressed, thus rendering the seaboard
and other border slave States the sole legal source of supply for the
slave labor required by the lower South.
The income of some of the plantations on these fresh lands was
immense.[25] It was considered not uncommon for a planter in
Mississippi or Louisiana to receive an income of thirty thousand
dollars annually. Extremely prosperous planters, it is said, took
in from $80,000 to $120,000 in a single year. The enormous profits
arising from such investments in the face of the unusual demand for
slaves enabled prices of bondmen to rise inordinately high. Thus
it was that a prime field hand, a Negro between the ages of twenty
and thirty years, could command a price varying from five hundred
to twelve hundred dollars,[26] and, in some cases, fourteen hundred
dollars or more. In fact, slave traders rapidly grew rich from the
traffic. One is reported as having earned thirty thousand dollars
in a few months, while Franklin and Armfield, members of a firm
with headquarters in Alexandria, are said to have earned more than
thirty-three thousand dollars in a single year.[27]
The effect of the growing demand for labor, reflected in the high
prices being offered for slaves, tended to concentrate the interest
of the Virginia planter on his slaves, as it had been hitherto
concentrated on tobacco.[28] Prompt and efficient methods were devised
whereby Negroes were made ready for the market.[29] Olmsted was
informed by a slave-holder that in the States of Maryland, Virginia,
North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Missouri, as much attention
was paid to the breeding and growth of Negroes as had been hitherto
given to the breeding of horses and mules.[30]
As to the precise number of slaves exported in response to the high
prices paid for them, there seems to be no conclusive evidence. Resort
must be had, therefore, to estimates of contemporaries and later
writers. _The New Orleans Advertiser_ of January 21, 1830, says:
"Arrivals by sea and river within a few days have added fearfully to
the number of slaves brought to the market for sale. New Orleans is
the complete mart for the trade--and the Mississippi is becoming a
common highway for the traffic."[31] In the summer of 1831, moreover,
New Orleans reported, in one week, the arrival of 381 slaves, nearly
all of whom were from Virginia.[32]
Not all of the exportations of slaves were by sea as is attested by
records of Sir Charles Lyell, Basil Hall, and Josiah Henson.[32a] At
a later period, Featherstonhaugh tells of an overland expedition of
slaves to the South. Of this coffle of slaves he says:[33] "Just as
we reached New River, in the early grey of the morning, we came up
with a singular spectacle, the most striking one of the kind I have
ever witnessed. It was a camp of Negro slave-drivers, just packing
up to start; they had about three hundred slaves with them, who had
bivouacked the preceding night in chains in the woods; these they were
conducting to Natchez, upon the Mississippi River, to work upon the
sugar plantations in Louisiana. It resembled one of those coffles of
slaves spoken of by Mungo Park, except that they had a caravan of nine
waggons and single-horse carriages, for the purpose of conducting the
white people, and any of the blacks that should fall lame, to which
they were now putting their horses to pursue their march. The female
slaves were, some of them, sitting on logs of wood, whilst others
were standing, and a great many little black children were warming
themselves at the fires of the bivouac. In front of them all and
prepared for the march stood, in double file, about two hundred male
slaves, manacled and chained to one another."
In the year 1831 there set in a reaction[34] against the importation
of slaves into the Gulf States as a result of fear from troubles
like Nat Turner's insurrection. Louisiana in 1831, and Alabama and
Mississippi in 1832, passed laws prohibiting the importation of
slaves into those States. The Alabama law was repealed in December,
1832, that of Louisiana in 1834, and that of Mississippi in 1846.
Moreover, there is no evidence to show that these laws really checked
importations. The fright engendered by the slave insurrection in
Virginia was not sufficient to triumph over the practical demands
for such labor. Collins holds that during the years from 1832 to
1836 the largest migration of Negroes to the South and the Southwest
occurred.[35]
Since cotton was the prime factor in effecting the prosperity of
the Southwest, and its extension of culture and advance in price
dictated largely the demand for slaves, the number of slaves yearly
exported may bear some relation to the price of cotton. After 1835,
the price of cotton declined.[36] This, together with the panic of
1837, caused a falling-off in the domestic slave trade, except in
1843, and the low price of cotton which continued until 1846 and
hindered the revival[37] of the traffic in men. In 1843, however,
five thousand slaves were sold in Washington as compared with two
thousand in the previous year. These increased sales were doubtless
in some measure due to the decline in the price of tobacco,[38] and
the renewed activity of the sugar industry, incident to a new duty on
that product.[39] For the whole decade from 1840 to 1850, however, a
decrease in the slave traffic is shown by the fact that the per cent
of increase in the slave population in the cotton States was barely
half as great as during the previous decade.[40]
Some time after 1845, however, the demand for slaves seems to have
exceeded the supply. A writer in the _Richmond Examiner_ of 1849 is
quoted as having said: "It being a well accustomed fact that Virginia
and Maryland will not be able to supply the great demand for Negroes
which will be wanted in the South this Fall and Spring, we would
advise all who are compelled to dispose of them in this market to
defer selling until the sales of the present crop of cotton can
be realized, as the price then must be very high for two reasons:
first, the ravages of the cholera; and secondly, the high price of
cotton."[41]
Three important events seem to have stimulated the slave trade during
this period. First, there came the admission of Texas as a State in
December, 1845; second, the increase in the price of cotton from 1845;
and, third, the discovery of gold in California. The first of these
opened to development a vast cotton country, which could be legally
supplied with slave labor only through the domestic trade. The second
event, the rise in the price of cotton, gave a new impetus to the
production of cotton, and the California gold rush infused new life
into all avenues of trade.[42] During this period and the decade
following, Collins says that because of the great demand for slaves
the price of them increased one hundred per cent; yet no evidence of a
large increase in the traffic is shown.[43]
TABLE NO. 1 TOTAL COTTON CROP IN BALES:[44]
1833 1,070,000
1837 1,081,000
1840 2,178,000
1843 2,379,000
1849 2,727,000
PRODUCTION OF COTTON BY STATES--(POUNDS):[45]
=====================================================
TABLE NO. 2 | | |
| 1826 | 1833 | 1834
---------------+------------+------------+-----------
Virginia | 25,000,000 | 13,000,000 | 10,000,000
North Carolina | 18,000,000 | 10,000,000 | 9,000,000
Louisiana | 38,000,000 | 55,000,000 | 62,000,000
Alabama | 45,000,000 | 65,000,000 | 85,000,000
Mississippi | 30,000,000 | 70,000,000 | 85,000,000
-----------------------------------------------------
COTTON PRODUCTION IN POUNDS:[46]
TABLE NO. 3
1839 790,479,275
1849 987,637,200
The statistics of cotton production and prices further elucidate this
question. Table No. 1 shows a continuous increase in the production
of cotton during the successive periods considered. Table No. 2
depicts the declining significance of Virginia and North Carolina
as cotton-producing States and the shift of the lead of cotton
production to the Gulf States. Table No. 3 shows the total production
of cotton in the years considered and is significant, in that it
emphasizes the important cotton-producing areas. During these years
Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Georgia, together, produced
more than two-thirds of the total cotton crop.[47] Table No. 4 is
self-explanatory, while Table No. 5 shows the yearly fluctuations of
the average price of cotton after 1840.
AVERAGE PRICE A POUND OF COTTON IN FIVE-YEAR PERIODS:[48]
TABLE NO. 4
1830-1835 10.9 cents
1835-1840 14.4 cents
1840-1845 8.1 cents
1845-1850 7.3 cents
AVERAGE PRICE A POUND OF COTTON:[49]
TABLE NO. 5
1835 16.8 cents
1836 16.8 cents
1840 8.6 cents
1841 10.2 cents
1842 8.1 cents
1843 6.1 cents
1844 8.1 cents
1845 6.0 cents
1846 7.9 cents
1847 10.1 cents
1848 7.6 cents
1849 6.5 cents
In the years 1835 and 1836, the price is high relative to the later
years in the two decades, and, assuming the continued demand for
cotton, should have stimulated the domestic slave traffic by effecting
a large demand for slaves at high prices. The lowest price is reached
in 1845, followed by a rise till 1847, and then a decline in 1848 and
1849. That the demand for slaves was not at this time abated must
be traceable to the fact that not more than three-fifths[50] of the
slaves in the Cotton States were engaged in the production of cotton,
while other occupations, notably sugar-production in Louisiana,
demanded an increased quota.
The statistics of slave population are designed to show the
increases of that type both in the States of Alabama, Louisiana, and
Mississippi, and in selected areas within these States. In 1850, the
civil subdivisions, as counties or parishes, which possessed the
greatest density of slave population in Texas, as well as in the other
States named, were located in those areas of the most fertile soil for
producing cotton or cane. This concentration is but an evidence of the
influence of these factors in calling forth the slave migration to the
Southwest.
SLAVE POPULATION IN THE GULF STATES:[51]
=========================================
TABLE NO. 6 | | |
| 1830 | 1840 | 1850
------------+---------+---------+--------
Alabama | 117,549 | 253,532 | 342,844
Louisiana | 109,588 | 168,452 | 244,809
Mississippi | 65,659 | 195,211 | 309,878
Texas | ....... | ....... | 58,161
-----------------------------------------
PER CENT. SLAVE INCREASE BY DECADES:[52]
TABLE NO. 7
1830-1840 1840-1850
Alabama 115.68 35.22
Louisiana 53.70 45.32
Mississippi 197.31 58.74
Texas ...... .....
CONCENTRATION OF MIGRATION UPON SELECTED AREAS:
ALABAMA:[53]
======================================
TABLE NO. 8| | |
Counties | 1830 | 1840 | 1850
-----------+--------+--------+-------
Barbour | ..... | 5,548 | 10,780
Chambers | ..... | 7,141 | 11,158
Dallas | 7,160 | 17,208 | 22,258
Greene | 7,420 | 16,431 | 22,127
Loundes | ..... | 12,569 | 14,649
Macon | ..... | 5,580 | 15,596
Madison | 14,091 | 13,265 | 14,326
Marengo | 2,987 | 11,902 | 20,693
Montgomery | 6,450 | 15,486 | 19,427
Perry | 4,331 | 10,343 | 13,917
Pickens | 1,630 | 7,764 | 10,534
Russell | ..... | 7,266 | 11,111
Sumter | ..... | 15,920 | 14,831
Wilcox | 4,070 | 8,292 | 11,835
-------------------------------------
CONCENTRATION OF MIGRATION UPON SELECTED AREAS (continued):
MISSISSIPPI:[54]
=====================================
TABLE NO. 9| | |
Counties | 1830 | 1840 | 1850
-----------+--------+--------+-------
Adams | 9,649 | 8,740 | 14,395
Claiborne | 6,174 | 7,743 | 11,450
Hinds | 3,197 | 13,375 | 16,625
Jefferson | 6,702 | 9,176 | 10,493
Lowndes | 1,066 | 8,771 | 12,993
Madison | 2,167 | 11,533 | 13,843
Marshall | ..... | 8,250 | 15,417
Monroe | 940 | 6,460 | 11,717
Noxubee | ..... | 7,157 | 11,323
Warren | 4,183 | 10,493 | 12,096
Wilkinson | 7,877 | 10,894 | 13,260
Yazoo | 2,470 | 7,237 | 10,349
-------------------------------------
CONCENTRATION OF MIGRATION UPON SELECTED AREAS (concluded):
LOUISIANA[56] (concluded):
======================================
TABLE NO. 10| | |
Parishes | 1830 | 1840 | 1850
------------+--------+--------+-------
Ascension | 2,813 | 4,553 | 7,266
Feliciana, E| 3,652 | 7,571 | 9,514
Feliciana, W| 6,345 | 8,755 | 10,666
Iberville | 4,509 | 5,887 | 8,606
Madison | ..... | 3,923 | 7,353
Natchitoches| 3,570 | 6,651 | 7,881
Orleans | 16,603 | 23,448 | 18,068
Point Coupee| 4,210 | 5,430 | 7,811
Rapides | 5,321 | 10,511 | 11,340
St. James | 5,027 | 5,711 | 7,751
St. Landry | 5,057 | 7,129 | 10,871
St. Mary's | 4,304 | 6,286 | 9,850
Tensas | ..... | ..... | 8,138
--------------------------------------
TEXAS:[57]
TABLE NO. 11
Counties 1850
Austin 1,549
Bowie 1,641
Brazoria 3,507
Cass 1,902
Cherokee 1,283
Fayette 1,016
Fort Bend 1,554
Grimes 1,680
Harrison 6,213
Lamar 1,085
Matagorda 1,208
Nacogdochea 1,404
Nueces 1,193
Red River 1,406
Rusk 2,136
San Augustine 1,561
Walker 1,301
Washington 2,817
Wharton 1,242
The average increase of slave population in the States considered was
103.30 per cent for the decade from 1830 to 1840, while that of the
next decade was less than half so great, being 51.41 per cent.[55]
These percentages, though both significant, cannot be explained wholly
in terms of Negro migration. If the estimate of the increase in slave
population by births over deaths be for each decade twenty-eight
per cent,[58] and if from 1830 to 1840 forty thousand and from
1840 to 1850 fifty thousand foreign Negroes were imported[59] into
the country as slaves, the number migrating from the more Northern
States was materially smaller than at first appears to be the case.
Phillips says that from 1815-1860, the volume of the slave trade by
sea alone averaged from two thousand to five thousand[60] annually;
but Dew, in 1832, estimated that six thousand slaves were annually
exported from Virginia.[61] Collins, moreover, has made most elaborate
calculations in this matter.[62] Accepting the estimate of Morse that
three-fifths of the slaves who went south during the period from 1820
to 1850 migrated with their masters, Collins has deduced that the
average annual export of Negroes for sale, during the decade from
1830 to 1840, was 10,600; and of the next decade, 6,000. On the basis
of the principle underlying this calculation, it would follow that
approximately 15,900 slaves migrated south with their masters during
the earlier decade; while 9,000 went annually in this way during the
decade from 1840 to 1850. Finally, if this principle of calculation
be accepted, and the facts upon which it is based be well founded,
approximately 26,500 Negroes found their way annually to the cotton
and contiguous territory during the period from 1830 to 1840; while
from 1840 to 1850 the annual number was 15,000.
What were some effects of this vast migration of Negro slaves to the
Gulf States? The mere concentration of a large slave population in
this region gains significance when it is considered in its numerical
relation to the whites. Throughout the two decades from 1830 to 1850,
there was a progressive increase in the white population here, and
yet, in 1850, the whites in Alabama exceeded the slaves by less than
one hundred thousand. In Louisiana the excess was 11,000; while in
Mississippi the slaves were in the majority by some 14,000.[63] This
situation was fraught with great possibilities. Would the slaves
undertake a servile insurrection? To this dangerous aspect much
thought was given, and thorough precautions were taken to protect the
whites against such an upheaval. The immediate effect of this movement
of the slaves to the Gulf Regions, however, was the final commitment
of that section to a regime of slavery and the unification of a solid
South based on interests peculiar to that section.
Although the emancipation of the blacks as a result of the Civil War
has made possible the movement of not a few Negroes away from the Gulf
Region, they still form a substantial portion of the population. They
supply as in former days the bulk of the cotton hands. Many live in
ignorance and in poverty, disfranchised and subjected to the economic
exploitation of the ruling classes. They have therefore been a potent
force in the creation of a social problem, the solution of which seems
not yet to be found, except it appears in the present migration of
these Negroes to industrial centers in the North.
A. A. TAYLOR
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Hammond, _The Cotton Industry_, I, 53 (cited from _Slavery and the
Internal Slave Trade_, 12).
[2] Emerson, _Geographical Influences in American Slavery_, 18
(Bulletin, Amer. Geographical Society, xliii).
[3] Collins, _The Domestic Slave Trade_, 23 (cited from Hunt's
_Merchants' Magazine_, vi, 473).
[4] _Ibid._, 26.
[5] Olmsted, _Cotton Kingdom_, II; App. C, 382.
[6] _Ibid._, 89.
[7] _Ibid._, 365 (cited from the _Lynchburg Virginian_, date not
given).
[8] _Ibid._
[9] _Ibid._, II, 364-5, 367, 369, 303-4; I, 11, 35. See also App. A2,
_Census of 1850_.
[10] Ambler, _Sectionalism in Virginia_, 193.
[11] Phillips, _American Negro Slavery_, 185.
[12] De Bow's _Review_, x, 654.
[13] _Compendium, Seventh Census_, 1850, 84.
[14] Emerson, _op. cit._, 118.
[15] _Ibid._, 171.
[16] _Ibid._, 118.
[17] Phillips, _op. cit._, 173.
[18] De Bow, _op. cit._, vii, 166.
[19] Hammond, _op. cit._, I, 53.
[20] Collins, _op. cit._, 52.
[21] _Ibid._, 52.
[22] _Ibid._, 62.
[23] _Ibid._, 64, 65.
[24] Phillips, _op. cit._, 179, 180.
[25] Collins, _op. cit._, 27.
[26] Collins, _op. cit._, 28.
[27] _Ibid._ (cited from Mary Tremain, _Slavery in District of
Columbia_, 50).
[28] Olmsted, _Seaboard Slave States_, I, 278-279.
[29] _Ibid._, I, 280-281.
[30] Olmsted, _Cotton Kingdom_, II, note, 58.
[31] Collins, _op. cit._, 46, 47 (from the _African Repository_, V,
381).
[32] _Ibid._, 47 (from _Niles Register_, Nov. 26, 1831).
[32a] Basil Hall, _Travels in North America_, III, 128, 129; Sir
Charles Lyell, _A Second Visit to the United States_, II, 35; Henson,
_Uncle Tom's Story of his Life_, 53.
[33] Featherstonhaugh (G. W.), _Travels in America_, 36.
[34] Collins, _op. cit._, 128, 130, 132-3.
[35] Collins, _op. cit._, 54, 55 (cited from Hammond, _The Cotton
Industry_, App. I).
[36] De Bow's _Review_, xxiii, 475.
[37] Hammond, _op. cit._, App. I.
[38] Collins, _op. cit._, 54 (from De Bow, _Ind. Resources_, iii, 349).
[39] _Ibid._, 54 (De Bow, _Ind. Resources_, iii, 275).
[40] De Bow's _Review_, xxiii, 477.
[41] _Richmond Examiner_, 1849.
[42] Collins, _op. cit._, 54, 55 (from Hammond, _Cotton Industry_,
App. I).
[43] _Ibid._, 56. (_Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin_, 149; De Bow's _Review_,
xxvi, 649).
[44] _Compendium, Seventh Census_, 1850, 191.
[45] De Bow's _Review_, xxiii, 477.
[46] Collins, _op. cit._, 32 (_Statistics of Agr., 42, Census of
1890_).
[47] _Compendium, Seventh Census_, 1850, 191.
[48] _Ibid._, 191.
[49] Collins, _op. cit._, 32.
[50] De Bow's _Review_, xxiii, 477.
[51] _Compendium, Seventh Census_, 1850, 191, 84.
[52] De Bow's _Review_, xxiii, 477.
[53] _Census of 1830_, 98-101; _Census of 1840, Compendium_, 54;
_Census of 1850_, 421.
[54] _Census of 1830_, 102-3; _Census of 1840, Compendium_; _Census of
1850_, 497.
[55] De Bow's _Review_, xxiii, 476.
[56] _Census of 1830_, 104-107; _Census of 1840, Compendium_; _Census
of 1850_, 473.
[57] _Census of 1850_, 503-4.
[58] _Ibid._, 476.
[59] Collins, _op. cit._, 64, 65.
[60] Phillips, _op. cit._, 195.
[61] Hammond, _op. cit._, I, 53 (from Dew in the _Pro-Slavery
Argument_, 399).
[62] Collins, _op. cit._, 64, 65.
[63] _Compendium, Seventh Census_, 1850, 63.
NEGROES IN DOMESTIC SERVICE IN THE UNITED STATES[A]
INTRODUCTION
The term _Domestic Service_ as used in this study will include those
persons performing household duties for pay. In early colonial
history indentured servants performed household duties without pay.
They were usually imported convicts, assigned to labor for a term
on some estate, receiving only their living and stipulated benefits
at the termination of their service.[1] In modern use the word
"servant" denotes a domestic or menial helper and implies little or
no discretionary power and responsibility in the mode of performing
duty.[2]
In this discussion of Negroes in domestic service in the United States
the facts presented disclose the part Negroes have had in the changes
and developments of domestic service in the United States during the
past thirty years.[3] They also show to some extent the relation of
Negro domestic workers to white workers and to some of the larger
problems in this field of employment.
The primary data used here were gathered in three ways. First, the
writer was a dollar-a-year worker of the Woman in Industry Service,
United States Department of Labor, in 1919; and while visiting cities
in this work obtained from employment agencies some data on domestic
service. Secondly, as domestic service Employment Secretary, United
States Employment Service, Washington, District of Columbia, from
January 1920 to May 1922, the writer kept careful record of pertinent
facts with a view to further study and analysis of this information at
a later time.
Three different record cards were used at this office. One was for the
employer with name, address, telephone number, kind of help desired,
work to be done, whether to "sleep in" or "sleep out," afternoons off,
breakfast and dinner hour, size of family, wages, etc. Another card
was kept for the employee with name, address, birthplace, age, marital
condition, number of dependents, grade at leaving school, kind of work
desired, minimum wages applicant would accept, names of three recent
former employers and their addresses. On the back of this card were
written the name of the employer engaging the worker, the date, and
kind of work. There was also a card of introduction for the applicant
which the employer mailed back to the office.
A personal canvass of eleven employment agencies in New York City
and one in Brooklyn was also made in 1923. The records of only two
of these agencies were used, because more time could not be given to
securing material in this way.
In the third place, in 1923 a general schedule asking questions
relating to number, sex, age, marital condition, turnover, efficiency,
wages, hours, specific occupations, living conditions and health
was sent by mail to employment secretaries in twelve cities North,
South, East, and West, with whom contacts had been established through
acquaintances and friends. Responses were received from ten of these
cities with data for 1,771 domestic and personal service workers.
I. NUMBER AND SEX OF NEGROES IN DOMESTIC AND PERSONAL SERVICE
Because of the difficulties inherent in the classification of
occupations the United States Census Bureau has classified all
domestic and personal service occupations in one group. It has not
been possible, therefore, to ascertain the exact number of workers
engaged exclusively in domestic service. For example, the domestic and
personal service classification includes indiscriminately barbers,
hairdressers, manicurists, midwives, hotel keepers, policemen, cooks,
servants, waiters, bootblacks, and the like.