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THE COLORED REGULARS
IN THE UNITED STATES ARMY
With a Sketch of the History of the Colored American, and an Account of
His Services in the Wars of the Country, from the
Period of the Revolutionary War to 1899.
INTRODUCTORY LETTER FROM
Lieutenant-General Nelson A. Miles
Commanding the Army of the United States.
* * * * *
By CHAPLAIN T.G. STEWARD, D.D.,
Twenty-fifth U.S. Infantry.
Philadelphia
A.M.E. Book Concern,
631 Pine Street.
1904
[Illustration: Chaplain T.G. Steward, D.D.]
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTORY.
CHAPTER I.--SKETCH OF SOCIAL HISTORY.
The Importation of the Africans. Character of the Colored Population
in 1860. Colored Population in British West Indian Possessions. Free
Colored People of the South. Free Colored People of the North. Notes.
21
CHAPTER II.--THE AMERICAN NEGRO AND THE MILITARY SPIRIT.
Early Literature of Negro Soldiers. Negro Soldiers in the War of the
Revolution. The War of 1812. Negro Insurrections. Negro Troops in the
Civil War. Notes. 57
CHAPTER III.--THE BLACK REGULARS OF THE ARMY OF INVASION IN THE
SPANISH WAR.
Organization of Negro Regiments in the Regular Army. First Movement in
the War. Chickamauga and Tampa. Notes. 84
CHAPTER IV.--BRIEF SKETCH OF SPANISH HISTORY. 107
CHAPTER V.--PASSAGE, LANDING, AND FIRST BATTLE IN CUBA.
The Tenth Cavalry at Guasimas. The "Rescue of the Rough Riders." Was
there an Ambush? Notes. 116
CHAPTER VI.--THE BATTLE OF EL CANEY.
The Capture of the Stone Fort by the Twenty-fifth Infantry. 150
CHAPTER VII.--SAN JUAN.
Cavalry Division: The Ninth and Tenth Regiments. Kent's Division: The
Twenty-fourth Infantry. Forming under fire. A Gallant Charge. 191
CHAPTER VIII.--SAN JUAN (Continued).
Kent's Division. The Twenty-fourth Infantry. Forming Under Fire. A
Gallant Charge. 208
CHAPTER IX.--THE SURRENDER AND AFTERWARDS.
In the Trenches. The Twenty-fourth in the Fever Camp. Are Negro
Soldiers Immune? Camp Wikoff. 220
CHAPTER X.--REVIEW AND REFLECTIONS.
Gallantry of the Black Regulars. Diary of Sergeant Major E.L. Baker,
Tenth Cavalry. 236
CHAPTER XI.--THE COLORED VOLUNTEERS.
The Ninth Ohio Battalion. Eighth Illinois. Twenty-third Kansas. Third
North Carolina. Sixth Virginia. Third Alabama. The Immunes. 282
CHAPTER XII.--COLORED OFFICERS.
By Captain Frank R. Steward, A.B., LL.B., Harvard, 49th U. S.
Volunteer Infantry. 299
APPENDIX. 328
PREFACE.
The material out of which the story of the COLORED REGULARS has been
constructed has been collected with great pains, and upon it has been
expended a serious amount of labor and care. All the movements of the
Cuban campaign, and particularly of the battles, have been carefully
studied by the aid of official reports, and conversations and
correspondence with those who participated in them. The work has been
performed with an earnest desire to obtain and present the truth,
hoping that the reader will be inspired by it to a more profound
respect for the brave and skilled black men who passed through that
severe baptism of fire and suffering, contributing their full share to
their country's honor.
It is also becoming in this place to mention with gratitude the
encouragement given by the War Department both in granting me the time
in which to do the work, and also in supplying me with documents and
furnishing other facilities. By this enlightened course on the part of
the Department great aid has been given to historical science, and,
incidentally, very important service rendered to the cause of freedom
and humanity. A struggling people has been helped and further glory
reflected upon the Government. The President, himself, has manifested
a kindly interest in the work, and has wished that the story of the
black soldiers should be told to the world. The interest of the
Commanding General of the Army is shown in his letter.
Thus encouraged from official sources and receiving the most hearty
words of cheer from friends, of whom none has been more potent or more
earnest than Bishop B.W. Arnett, D.D., of the African M.E. Church, I
have, after five months of severe labor, about completed my task, so
far as I find it in my power to complete it; and trusting that the
majesty and interest of the story itself will atone for any defects in
the style of the narration, the volume is now offered to a sympathetic
public, affectionately dedicated to the men whose heroic services have
furnished the theme for my pen.
T.G. STEWARD.
Wilberforce, Ohio, September, 1899.
LETTER FROM GENERAL MILES.
Headquarters of the Army, Washington, August 5, 1899.
Rev. T.G. Steward, Chaplain 25th Infantry, Wilberforce, Ohio.
Dear Sir:--Your letter of the 20th ultimo was duly received, but my
time has been so much engrossed with official duties, requiring my
presence part of the time out of the city, that it has not been
practicable to comply with your request earlier; and even now I can
only reply very briefly.
You will remember that my acquaintance with negro character commenced
during the Civil War. The colored race then presented itself to me in
the character of numerous contrabands of war, and as a people who,
individually, yearned for the light and life of liberty. Ages of
slavery had reduced them to the lowest ebb of manhood. From that
degree of degradation I have been an interested spectator of the
marvelously rapid evolution of the down-trodden race. From the
commencement of this evolution to the present time I have been more or
less in a position to closely observe their progress. At the close of
the war I was in command of one of the very important military
districts of the South, and my concern for the welfare of all the
people of that district, not excluding the people of color, you will
find evidenced in the measures taken by me, more especially in regard
to educational matters, at that time. The first regiment which I
commanded on entering the Regular Army of the United States at the
close of the war was made up of colored troops. That regiment--the
40th Infantry--achieved a reputation for military conduct which forms
a record that may be favorably compared with the best regiments in the
service. Then, again, refer to my General Order No. 1, issued after
the fall of Santiago, and you will see that recognition is not
grudgingly given to the troops who heroically fought there, whether of
American, of African, or of Latin descent. If so early in the second
generation of the existence of the race in the glorious light of
liberty it produces such orators as Douglas, such educators as Booker
T. Washington, such divines as the Afro-American Bishops, what may we
not expect of the race when it shall have experienced as many
generations of growth and development as the Anglo-Saxons who now
dominate the thought, the inventive genius, the military prowess, and
the commercial enterprise of the world! Very truly yours,
NELSON A. MILES.
[Illustration: Lieutenant-General Nelson A. Miles.]
Headquarters of the Army,
Siboney, Cuba, July 16, 1898.
General Field Orders No. 1.
The gratifying success of the American arms at Santiago de Cuba and
some features of a professional character both important and
instructive, are hereby announced to the army.
The declaration of war found our country with a small army scattered
over a vast territory. The troops composing this army were speedily
mobilized at Tampa, Fla. Before it was possible to properly equip a
volunteer force, strong appeals for aid came from the navy, which had
inclosed in the harbor of Santiago de Cuba an important part of the
Spanish fleet. At that time the only efficient fighting force
available was the United States Army, and in order to organize a
command of sufficient strength, the cavalry had to be sent dismounted
to Santiago de Cuba with the infantry and artillery.
The expedition thus formed was placed under command of Major-General
Shafter. Notwithstanding the limited time to equip and organize an
expedition of this character, there was never displayed a nobler
spirit of patriotism and fortitude on the part of officers and men
going forth to mantain the honor of their country. After encountering
the vicissitudes of an ocean voyage, they were obliged to disembark on
a foreign shore and immediately engage in an aggressive campaign.
Under drenching storms, intense and prostrating heat, within a
fever-afflicted district, with little comfort or rest, either by day
or night, they pursued their purpose of finding and conquering the
enemy. Many of them, trained in the severe experience of the great
war, and in frequent campaigns on the Western plains, officers and men
alike exhibited a great skill, fortitude, and tenacity, with results
which have added a new chapter of glory to their country's history.
Even when their own generals in several cases were temporarily
disabled, the troops fought on with the same heroic spirit until
success was finally achieved. In many instances the officers placed
themselves in front of their commands, and under their direct and
skillful leadership the trained troops of a brave army were driven
from the thickets and jungles of an almost inaccessible country. In
the open field the troops stormed intrenched infantry, and carried and
captured fortified works with an unsurpassed daring and disregard of
death. By gaining commanding ground they made the harbor of Santiago
untenable for the Spanish fleet, and practically drove it out to a
speedy destruction by the American Navy.
While enduring the hardships and privations of such campaign, the
troops generously shared their scanty food with the 5,000 Cuban
patriots in arms, and the suffering people who had fled from the
besieged city. With the twenty-four regiments and four batteries, the
flower of the United States Army, were also three volunteer regiments.
These though unskilled in warfare, yet, inspired with the same spirit,
contributed to the victory, suffered hardships, and made sacrifices
with the rest. Where all did so well, it is impossible, by special
mention, to do justice to those who bore conspicuous part. But of
certain unusual features mention cannot be omitted, namely, the
cavalry dismounted, fighting and storming works as infantry, and a
regiment of colored troops, who, having shared equally in the heroism
as well as the sacrifices, is now voluntarily engaged in nursing
yellow-fever patients and burying the dead. The gallantry, patriotism
and sacrifices of the American Army, as illustrated in this brief
campaign, will be fully appreciated by a grateful country, and the
heroic deeds of those who have fought and fallen in the cause of
freedom will ever be cherished in sacred memory and be an inspiration
to the living.
By command of Major-General Miles:
J.C. GILMORE,
Brigadier-General, United States Volunteers.
INTRODUCTORY.
To write the history of the Negro race within that part of the western
world known as the United States of America would be a task to which
one might devote a life time and still fail in its satisfactory
accomplishment. The difficulties lying in the way of collecting and
unifying the material are very great; and that of detecting the inner
life of the people much greater. Facts and dates are to history what
color and proportion are to the painting. Employed by genius, color
and form combine in a language that speaks to the soul, giving
pleasure and instruction to the beholder; so the facts and dates
occurring along the pathway of a people, when gathered and arranged by
labor and care, assume a voice and a power which they have not
otherwise. As these facts express the thoughts and feelings, and the
growth, of a people, they become the language in which that people
writes its history, and the work of the historian is to read and
interpret this history for the benefit of his fellow men.
Borrowing a second illustration from the work of the artist, it may be
said, that as nature reveals her secrets only to him whose soul is in
deepest sympathy with her moods and movements, so a people's history
can be discovered only by one whose heart throbs in unison with those
who have made the history. To write the history of any people
successfully one must read it by the heart; and the best part of
history, like the best part of the picture, must ever remain
unexpressed. The artist sees more, and feels more than he is able to
transfer to his canvas, however entrancing his presentation; and the
historian sees and feels more than his brightest pages convey to his
readers. Nothing less than a profound respect and love for humankind
and a special attraction toward a particular people and age, can fit
one to engage in so sublime a task as that of translating the history
of a people into the language of common men.
The history of the American Negro differs very widely from that of any
people whose life-story has been told; and when it shall come to be
known and studied will open an entirely new view of experience. In it
we shall be able to see what has never before been discovered in
history; to wit: the absolute beginning of a people. Brought to these
shores by the ship-load as freight, and sold as merchandise; entirely
broken away from the tribes, races, or nations of their native land;
recognized only, as African slaves, and forbidden all movement looking
toward organic life; deprived of even the right of family or of
marriage, and corrupted in the most shameless manner by their powerful
and licentious oppressors--it is from this heterogeneous protoplasm
that the American Negro has been developed. The foundation from which
he sprang had been laid by piecemeal as the slave ships made their
annual deposits of cargoes brought from different points on the West
Coast, and basely corrupted as is only too well known; yet out of it
has grown, within less than three hundred years, an organic people.
Grandfathers, and great-grandfathers are among them; and personal
acquaintance is exceedingly wide. In the face of slavery and against
its teaching and its power, overcoming the seduction of the master
class, and the coarse and brutal corruptions of the baser overseer
class, the African slave persistently strove to clothe himself with
the habiliments of civilization, and so prepared himself for social
organization that as soon as the hindrances were removed, this vast
people almost immediately set themselves in families; and for over
thirty years they have been busily engaged hunting up the lost roots
of their family trees. We know the pit whence the Afro-American race
was dug, the rock whence he was hewn; he was born here on this soil,
from a people who in the classic language of the Hebrew prophet, could
be described as, No People.
That there has been a majestic evolution quietly but rapidly going on
in this mass, growing as it was both by natural development and by
accretion, is plainly evident. Heterogeneous as were the fragments, by
the aid of a common language and a common lot, and cruel yet partially
civilizing control, the whole people were forced into a common outward
form, and to a remarkable extent, into the same ways of thinking. The
affinities within were really aided by the repulsions without, and
when finally freed from slavery, for an ignorant and inexperienced
people, they presented an astonishing spectacle of unity. Socially,
politically and religiously, their power to work together showed
itself little less than marvellous. The Afro-American, developing from
this slave base, now directs great organizations of a religious
character, and in comprehensive sweep invites to his co-operation the
inhabitants of the isles of the sea and of far-off Africa. He is
joining with the primitive, strong, hopeful and expanding races of
Southern Africa, and is evidently preparing for a day that has not yet
come.
The progress made thus far by the people is somewhat like that made by
the young, man who hires himself to a farmer and takes his pay in
farming stock and utensils. He is thus acquiring the means to stock a
farm, and the skill and experience necessary to its successful
management at the same time. His career will not appear important,
however, until the day shall arrive when he will set up for himself.
The time spent on the farm of another was passed in comparative
obscurity; but without it the more conspicuous period could never have
followed. So, now, the American colored people are making history, but
it is not of that kind that gains the attention of writers. Having no
political organizations, governments or armies they are not performing
those deeds of splendor in statesmanship and war over which the pen of
the historian usually delights to linger. The people, living, growing,
reading, thinking, working, suffering, advancing and dying--these are
all common-place occurrences, neither warming the heart of the
observer, nor capable of brightening the page of the chronicler. This,
however, is, with the insignificant exception of Liberia, all that is
yet to be found in the brief history of the Afro-American race.
The period for him to set up for himself has not yet come, and he is
still acquiring means and training within a realm controlled in all
respects by a people who maintain toward him an attitude of absolute
social exclusion. His is the history of a people marching from nowhere
to somewhere, but with no well-defined Canaan before them and no Moses
to lead. It is indeed, on their part, a walk by faith, for as yet the
wisest among the race cannot tell even the direction of the journey.
Before us lie surely three possible destinies, if not four; yet it is
not clear toward which one of these we are marching. Are we destined
to see the African element of America's population blend with the
Euro-American element and be lost in a common people? Will the colored
American leave this home in which as a race he has been born and
reared to manhood, and find his stage of action somewhere else on
God's earth? Will he remain here as a separate and subordinate people
perpetuating the conditions of to-day only that they may become more
humiliating and exasperating? Or is there to arise a war of races in
which the blacks are to be exterminated? Who knows? Fortunately the
historian is not called upon to perform the duties of prophet. His
work is to tell what has been; and if others, building upon his
presentation of facts can deduce what is to be, it is no small tribute
to the correctness of his interpretations; for all events are parts of
one vast system ever moving toward some great end. One remark only
need be made. It is reasonable to presume that this new Afro-American
will somehow and somewhere be given an opportunity to express that
particular modification of material life which his spiritual nature
will demand. Whether that expression will be made here or elsewhere;
whether it will be higher or lower than what now surrounds us, are
questions which we may well leave to the future.
No people can win and hold a place, either as a nation among other
nations, or as an elementary component of a nation, merely by its own
goodness or by the goodness of others. The struggle for national
existence is a familiar one, and is always initiated by a display of
physical force. Those who have the power seize territory and
government, and those who CAN, keep possession and control. It is in
some instances the backing up of right by might, and in others the
substituting of right by might. Too often the greatest of all national
crimes is to be weak. When the struggle is a quiet one, going on
within a nation, and is that of an element seeking a place in the
common social life of the country, much the same principles are
involved. It is still a question to be settled by force, no matter how
highly the claim of the weaker may be favored by reason and justice.
The powers by which a special people may emerge from an unhappy
condition and secure improved social relations, using the word social
in its broadest sense, are physical, intellectual and material. There
must be developed manly strength and courage and a power of intellect
which will manifest itself in organization and attractiveness, and in
the aptitude of employing appropriate methods for ends in view. To
these must be added the power that comes through wealth; and thus,
with the real advancement of condition and character will come,
tardily and grudgingly perhaps, but nevertheless surely, improved
social standing. Once filled with the common national spirit,
partaking of its thoughts, entering heartily into the common
movements, having the same dress, language and manners as others, and
being as able and as willing to help as to be helped, and withal being
in fact the most intensely American element on the continent because
constructed on this soil, we may hope that the Afro-American will
ultimately win and hold his proper place.
The history made by the American Negro has been so filled with
suffering that we have overlooked the active side. The world has heard
so much of the horrors of the "Middle Passage"; the awful sufferings
of the slave; the barbarous outrages that have been perpetrated upon
ex-slaves; the inhuman and senseless prejudices that meet colored
Americans almost everywhere on their native soil; that it has come to
look upon this recital as the whole of the story. It needs to be told
that these records constitute the dark side of the picture, dark and
horrible enough, to be sure, but this is by no means the whole
picture. If there are scenes whose representations would serve to
ornament the infernal regions, pictures over which fiends might gloat,
there are also others which angels might delight to gaze upon. There
has been much of worthy action among the colored people of this
country, wherever the bonds of oppression have been slackened enough
to allow of free movement. There have been resistance to wrong by way
of remonstrance and petition, sometimes even by force; laudable
efforts toward self-education; benevolent and philanthropic movements;
reform organizations, and commendable business enterprise both in
individuals and associations. These show a toughness of fibre and
steadiness of purpose sufficient to make the backbone of a real
history.
The present work deals with these elements of character as they are
exhibited in the garb of the soldier. When men are willing to fight
and die for what they hold dear, they have become a moving force,
capable of disturbing the currents of history and of making a channel
for the stream of their own actions. The American Negro has evolved an
active, aggressive element in the scientific fighting men he has
produced. Individual pugilists of that race have entered all classes,
from featherweight to heavyweight, and have remained there; receiving
blows and dealing blows; showing a sturdy, positive force; mastering
and employing all the methods of attack and defence allowed in such
encounters, and supporting themselves with that fortitude and courage
so necessary to the ring. Such combats are not to be commended, as
they are usually mere tests of skill and endurance, entered into on
the principles of the gambler, and they are introduced here for the
sole purpose of showing the colored man as a positive force, yielding
only to a superior degree of force of the same kind. The soldier
stands for something far higher than the pugilist represents, although
he has need of the same qualities of physical hardihood--contempt for
suffering and coolness in the presence of danger, united with skill in
the use of his weapons. The pugilist is his own general and never
learns the high lessons of obedience; the soldier learns to
subordinate himself to his commander, and to fight bravely and
effectively under the direction of another.
The evolution of the Afro-American soldier was the work of a short
period and suffered many interruptions. When the War of the Revolution
broke out the colored man was a slave, knowing nothing of the spirit
or the training of the soldier; before it closed several thousand
colored men had entered the army and some had won distinction for
gallantry. Less than forty years later, in the war of 1812, the black
man again appeared to take his stand under the flag of independence.
The War of Secession again witnessed the coming forth of the black
soldier, this time in important numbers and performing heroic services
on a grand scale, and under most discouraging circumstances, but with
such success that he won a place in arms for all time. When the Civil
War closed, the American black man had secured his standing as a
soldier--the evolution was complete. Henceforth he was to be found an
integral part of the Army of the United States.
The black man passed through the trying baptism of fire in the Sixties
and came out of it a full-fledged soldier. His was worse than an
impartial trial; it was a trial before a jury strongly biased against
him; in the service of a government willing to allow him but half pay;
and in the face of a foe denying him the rights belonging to civilized
warfare. Yet against these odds, denied the dearest right of a
soldier--the hope of promotion--scorned by his companions in arms, the
Negro on more than two hundred and fifty battle-fields, demonstrated
his courage and skill, and wrung from the American nation the right to
bear arms. The barons were no more successful in their struggle with
King John when they obtained Magna Charta than were the American
Negroes with Prejudice, when they secured the national recognition of
their right and fitness to hold a place in the Standing Army of the
United States. The Afro-American soldier now takes his rank with
America's best, and in appearance, skill, physique, manners, conduct
and courage proves himself worthy of the position he holds. Combining
in his person the harvested influences of three great continents,
Europe, Africa and America, he stands up as the typical soldier of the
Western World, the latest comer in the field of arms, but yielding his
place in the line to none, and ever ready to defend his country and
his flag against any and all foes.
The mission of this book is to make clear this evolution, giving the
historical facts with as much detail as possible, and setting forth
finally the portrait of this new soldier. That this is a prodigious
task is too evident to need assertion--a task worthy the most lofty
talents; and in essaying it I humbly confess to a sense of unfitness;
yet the work lies before me and duty orders me to enter upon it. A
Major General writes: "I wish you every success in producing a work
important both historically and for the credit of a race far more
deserving than the world has acknowledged." A Brigadier General who
commanded a colored regiment in Cuba says to me most encouragingly:
"You must allow me--for our intimate associations justify it--to write
frankly. Your education, habits of thought, fairness of judgment and
comprehension of the work you are to undertake, better fit you for
writing such a history than any person within my acquaintance. Those
noble men made the history at El Caney and San Juan; I believe you are
the man to record it. May God help you to so set forth the deeds of
that memorable first of July in front of Santiago that the world may
see in its true light what those brave, intelligent colored men did."
Both these men fought through the Civil War and won distinction on
fields of blood. To the devout prayer offered by one of them I
heartily echo an Amen, and can only wish that in it all my friends
might join, and that God would answer it in granting me power to do
the work in such a way as to bring great good to the race and reflect
some glory to Himself, in whose name the work is undertaken.
CHAPTER I.
SKETCH OF SOCIAL HISTORY.
The Importation of the Africans--Character of the Colored
Population in 1860--Colored Population in British West
Indian Possessions--Free Colored People of the South--Free
Colored People of the North--Notes.
Professor DuBois, in his exhaustive work upon the "Suppression of the
African Slave-Trade," has brought within comparatively narrow limits
the great mass of facts bearing upon his subject, and in synopses and
indices has presented all of the more important literature it has
induced. In his Monograph, published as Volume II of the Harvard
Historical Series, he has traced the rise of this nefarious traffic,
especially with reference to the American colonies, exhibited the
proportions to which it expanded, and the tenacity with which it held
on to its purpose until it met its death in the fate of the
ill-starred Southern Confederacy. Every step in his narrative is
supported by references to unimpeachable authorities; and the
scholarly Monograph bears high testimony to the author's earnest
labor, painstaking research and unswerving fidelity. Should the
present work stimulate inquiry beyond the scope herein set before the
reader, he is most confidently referred to Professor Du Bois' book as
containing a complete exposition of the development and overthrow of
that awful crime.
It is from this work, however, that we shall obtain a nearer and
clearer view of the African planted upon our shores. Negro slavery
began at an early day in the North American Colonies; but up until the
Revolution of 1688 the demand for slaves was mainly supplied from
England, the slaves being white.[1] "It is probable," says Professor
DuBois, "that about 25,000 slaves were brought to America each year
between 1698 and 1707, and after 1713 it rose to perhaps 30,000
annually. "Before the Revolution the total exportation to America is
variously estimated as between 40,000 and 100,000 each year."
Something of the horrors of the "Middle Passage" may be shown by the
records that out of 60,783 slaves shipped from Africa during the years
1680-88, 14,387, or nearly one-fourth of the entire number, perished
at sea. In 1790 there were in the country nearly seven hundred
thousand Africans, these having been introduced by installments from
various heathen tribes. The importation of slaves continued with more
or less success up until 1858, when the "Wanderer" landed her cargo of
500 in Georgia.
During the period from 1790 to the breaking out of the Civil War,
shortly after the landing of the last cargo of slaves, the colored
population, both slave and free, had arisen to about four million, and
had undergone great modifications. The cargo of the "Wanderer" found
themselves among strangers, even when trying to associate with those
who in color and hair were like themselves. The slaves of 1860
differed greatly from the slaves of a hundred years earlier. They had
lost the relics of that stern warlike spirit which prompted the Stono
insurrection, the Denmark Vesey insurrection, and the Nat Turner
insurrection, and had accepted their lot as slaves, hoping that
through God, freedom would come to them some time in the happy future.
Large numbers of them had become Christians through the teaching of
godly white women, and at length through the evangelistic efforts of
men and women of their own race. Independent religious organizations
had been formed in the North, and large local churches with Negro
pastors were in existence in the South when the "Wanderer" landed her
cargo. There had been a steady increase in numbers, indicating that
the physical well-being of the slave was not overlooked, and the
slaves had greatly improved in character. Sales made in South Carolina
between 1850 and 1860 show "boys," from 16 to 25 years of age,
bringing from $900 to $1000; and "large sales" are reported showing an
"average of $620 each," "Negro men bringing from $800 to $1000," and a
"blacksmith" bringing $1425. The averages generally obtained were
above $600. A sale of 109 Negroes in families is reported in the
"Charleston Courier" in which the writer says: "Two or three families
averaged from $1000 to $1100 for each individual." The same item
states also that "C.G. Whitney sold two likely female house servants,
one for $1000, the other for $1190." These cases are presented to
illustrate the financial value of the American slave, and
inferentially the progress he had made in acquiring the arts of modern
civilization. Slaves had become blacksmiths, wheelwrights,
carriage-makers, carpenters, bricklayers, tailors, bootmakers,
founders and moulders, not to mention all the common labor performed
by them. Slave women had become dressmakers, hairdressers, nurses and
the best cooks to be found in the world. The slave-holders regarded
themselves as the favored of mankind because of the competence and
faithfulness of their slaves. The African spirit and character had
disappeared, and in their place were coming into being the elements of
a new character, existing in 1860 purely in a negative form. The slave
had become an American. He was now a civilized slave, and had received
his civilization from his masters. He had separated himself very far
from his brother slave in St. Domingo. The Haytian Negro fought and
won his freedom before he had been civilized in slavery, and hence has
never passed over the same ground that his American fellow-servant has
been compelled to traverse.
Beside the slaves in the South, there were also several thousand "free
persons of color," as they were called, dwelling in such cities as
Richmond, Va., Charleston, S.C., and New Orleans, La. Some of these
had become quite wealthy and well-educated, forming a distinct class
of the population. They were called Creoles in Louisiana, and were
accorded certain privileges, although laws were carefully enacted to
keep alive the distinction between them and the whites. In Charleston
the so-called colored people set themselves up as a class, prided
themselves much upon their color and hair and in their sympathies
joined almost wholly with the master class. Representatives of their
class became slave-holders and were in full accord with the social
policy of the country. Nevertheless their presence was an
encouragement to the slave, and consequently was objected to by the
slave-holder. The free colored man became more and more disliked in
the South as the slave became more civilized. He was supposed by his
example to contribute to the discontent of the slave, and laws were
passed restricting his priveleges so as to induce him to leave.
Between 1850 and 1860 this question reached a crisis and free colored
people from the South were to be seen taking up their homes in the
Northern States and in Canada. (Many of the people, especially from
Charleston, carried with them all their belittling prejudices, and
after years of sojourn under the sway of enlightened and liberal
ideas, proved themselves still incapable of learning the new way or
forgetting the old.)
There were, then, three very distinct classes of colored people in the
country, to wit: The slave in the South, the free colored people of
the South, and the free colored people of the North. These were also
sub-divided into several smaller classes. Slaves were divided into
field hands, house servants and city slaves. The free colored people
of the South had their classes based usually on color; the free
colored people of the North had their divisions caused by differences
in religion, differences as to place of birth, and numerous family
conceits. So that surveyed as a whole, it is extremely difficult to
get anything like a complete social map of these four millions as they
existed at the outbreak of the Civil War.
For a quarter of a century there had been a steady concentration of
the slave population within the cotton and cane-growing region, the
grain-growing States of Delaware, Maryland and Virginia having become
to a considerable extent breeding farms. Particularly was this the
case with the more intelligent and higher developed individual slaves
who appeared near the border line. The master felt that such persons
would soon make their escape by way of the "Underground Railroad" or
otherwise, and hence in order to prevent a total loss, would follow
the dictates of business prudence and sell his bright slave man to
Georgia. The Maryland or Virginia slave who showed suspicious
aspirations was usually checked by the threat, "I'll sell you to
Georgia;" and if the threat did not produce the desired reformation it
was not long before the ambitious slave found himself in the gang of
that most despised and most despicable of all creatures, the Georgia
slave-trader. Georgia and Canada were the two extremes of the slave's
anticipation during the last decade of his experience. These stood as
his earthly Heaven and Hell, the "Underground Railroad," with its
agents, conducting to one, and the odious slave-trader, driving men,
women and children, to the other. No Netherlander ever hated and
feared the devil more thoroughly than did the slaves of the border
States hate and fear these outrages on mankind, the kidnapping
slave-traders of the cotton and cane regions. I say kidnapping, for I
have myself seen persons in Georgia who had been kidnapped in
Maryland. If the devil was ever incarnate, I think it safe to look for
him among those who engaged in the slave-trade, whether in a foreign
or domestic form.
Nothing is more striking in connection with the history of American
Slavery than the conduct of Great Britain on the same subject. So
inconsistent has this conduct been that it can be explained only by
regarding England as a conglomerate of two elements nearly equal in
strength, of directly opposite character, ruling alternately the
affairs of the nation. As a slave-trader and slave-holder England was
perhaps even worse than the United States. Under her rule the slave
decreased in numbers, and remained a savage. In Jamaica, in St.
Vincent, in British Guiana, in Barbadoes, in Trinidad and in Grenada,
British slavery was far worse than American slavery. In these colonies
"the slave was generally a barbarian, speaking an unknown tongue, and
working with men like himself, in gangs with scarcely a chance for
improvement." An economist says, had the slaves of the British
colonies been as well fed, clothed, lodged, and otherwise cared for as
were those of the United States, their number at emancipation would
have reached from seventeen to twenty millions, whereas the actual
number emancipated was only 660,000. Had the blacks of the United
States experienced the same treatment as did those of the British
colonies, 1860 would have found among us less than 150,000 colored
persons. In the United States were found ten colored persons for every
slave imported, while in the British colonies only one was found for
every three imported. Hence the claim that the American Negro is a new
race, built up on this soil, rests upon an ample supply of facts. The
American slave was born in our civilization, fed upon good American
food, housed and clothed on a civilized plan, taught the arts and
language of civilization, acquired necessarily ideas of law and
liberty, and by 1860 was well on the road toward fitness for freedom.
No lessons therefore drawn from the emancipation of British slaves in
the West Indies are of any direct value to us, inasmuch as British
slavery was not like American slavery, the British freedman was in no
sense the equal of the American freedman, and the circumstances
surrounding the emancipation of the British slave had nothing of the
inspiring and ennobling character with those connected with the
breaking of the American Negro's chains. Yet, superior as the American
Negro was as a slave, he was very far below the standard of American
citizenship as subsequent events conclusively proved. The best form of
slavery, even though it may lead toward fitness for freedom, can never
be regarded as a fit school in which to graduate citizens of so
magnificent an empire as the United States.
The slave of 1860 was perhaps, all things considered, the best slave
the world had ever seen, if we except those who served the Hebrews
under the Mosaic statutes. While there was no such thing among them as
legal marriage or legitimate childhood, yet slave "families" were
recognized even on the auction block, and after emancipation legal
family life was erected generally upon relationships which had been
formed in slavery. Bishop Gaines, himself born a slave of slave
parents, says: "The Negro had no civil rights under the codes of the
Southern States. It was often the case, it is true, that the marriage
ceremony was performed, and thousands of couples regarded it, and
observed it as of binding force, and were as true to each other as if
they had been lawfully married." * * * "The colored people
generally," he says, "held their marriage (if such unauthorized union
may be called marriage) sacred, even while they were slaves. Many
instances will be recalled by the older people of the life-long
fidelity which existed between the slave and his concubine" (Wife,
T.G.S.)" ... the mother of his children. My own father and mother
lived together over sixty years. I am the fourteenth child of that
union, and I can truthfully affirm that no marriage, however made
sacred by the sanction of law, was ever more congenial and beautiful.
Thousands of like instances might be cited to the same effect. It will
always be to the credit of the colored people that almost without
exception, they adhered to their relations, illegal though they had
been, and accepted gladly the new law which put the stamp of
legitimacy upon their union and removed the brand of bastardy from the
brows of their children."
Let us now sum up the qualifications that these people possessed in
large degree, in order to determine their fitness for freedom, then so
near at hand. They had acquired the English language, and the
Christian religion, including the Christian idea of marriage, so
entirely different in spirit and form from the African marriage. They
had acquired the civilized methods of cooking their food, making and
wearing clothes, sleeping in beds, and observing Sunday. They had
acquired many of the useful arts and trades of civilization and had
imbibed the tastes and feelings, to some extent, at least, of the
country in which they lived. Becoming keen observers, shut out from
books and newspapers, they listened attentively, learned more of law
and politics than was generally supposed. They knew what the election
of 1860 meant and were on tiptoe with expectation. Although the days
of insurrection had passed and the slave of '59 was not ready to rise
with the immortal John Brown, he had not lost his desire for freedom.
The steady march of escaping slaves guided by the North star, with the
refrain:
"I'm on my way to Canada,
That cold but happy land;
The dire effects of slavery
I can no longer stand,"
proved that the desire to be free was becoming more extensive and
absorbing as the slave advanced in intelligence.
It is necessary again to emphasize the fact that the American slaves
were well formed and well developed physically, capable of enduring
hard labor and of subsisting upon the plainest food. Their diet for
years had been of the simplest sort, and they had been subjected to a
system of regulations very much like those which are employed in the
management of armies. They had an hour to go to bed and an hour to
rise; left their homes only upon written "passes," and when abroad at
night were often halted by the wandering patrol. "Run, nigger, run,
the patrol get you," was a song of the slave children of South
Carolina.
Strangers who saw for the first time these people as they came out of
slavery in 1865 were usually impressed with their robust appearance,
and a conference of ex-slaves, assembled soon after the war,
introduced a resolution with the following declaration: "Whereas,
Slavery has left us in possession of strong and healthy bodies." It is
probable that at least a half-million of men of proper age could then
have been found among the newly liberated capable of bearing arms.
They were inured to the plain ration, to labor and fatigue, and to
subordination, and had long been accustomed to working together under
the immediate direction of foremen.
Two questions of importance naturally arose at this period: First, did
the American slave understand the issue that had been before the
country for more than a half-century and that was now dividing the
nation in twain and marshalling for deadly strife these two opposing
armies? Second, had he the courage necessary to take part in the
struggle and help save the Union? It would be a strange thing to say,
but nevertheless a thing entirely true, that many of the Negro slaves
had a clearer perception of the real question at issue than did some
of our most far-seeing statesmen, and a clearer vision of what would
be the outcome of the war. While the great men of the North were
striving to establish the doctrine that the coming war was merely to
settle the question of Secession, the slave knew better. God had hid
certain things from the wise and prudent and had revealed them unto
babes. Lincoln, the wisest of all, was slow to see that the issue he
himself had predicted was really at hand. As President, he declared
for the preservation of the Union, with or without slavery, or even
upon the terms which he had previously declared irreconcilable, "half
slave and half free." The Negro slave saw in the outbreak of the war
the death struggle of slavery. He knew that the real issue was
slavery.
The masters were careful to keep from the knowledge of the slave the
events as well as the causes of the war, but in spite of these efforts
the slave's keen perception enabled him to read defeat in the dejected
mien of his master, and victory in his exultation. To prevent the
master's knowing what was going on in their thoughts, the slaves
constructed curious codes among themselves. In one neighborhood
freedom was always spoken of as "New Rice"; and many a poor slave
woman sighed for the coming of New Rice in the hearing of those who
imagined they knew the inmost thoughts of their bondwomen. Gleefully
at times they would talk of the jollification they would make when the
New Rice came. It was this clear vision, this strong hope, that
sustained them during the trying days of the war and kept them back
from insurrection. Bishop Gaines says: "Their prayers ascended for
their deliverance, and their hearts yearned for the success of their
friends. They fondly hoped for the hour of victory, when the night of
slavery would end and the dawn of freedom appear. They often talked to
each other of the progress of the war and conferred in secret as to
what they might do to aid in the struggle. Worn out with long bondage,
yearning for the boon of freedom, longing for the sun of liberty to
rise, they kept their peace and left the result to God." Mr. Douglass,
whom this same Bishop Gaines speaks of very inappropriately as a
"half-breed," seemed able to grasp the feelings both of the slave and
the freeman and said: "From the first, I for one, saw in this war the
end of slavery, and truth requires me to say that my interest in the
success of the North was largely due to this belief." Mr. Seward, the
wise Secretary of State, had thought that the war would come and go
without producing any change in the relation of master and slave; but
the humble slave on the Georgia cotton plantation, or in the Carolina
rice fields, knew that the booming of the guns of rebellion in
Charleston was the opening note of the death knell of slavery. The
slave undoubtedly understood the issue, and knew on which side liberty
dwelt. Although thoroughly bred to slavery, and as contented and happy
as he could be in his lot, he acted according to the injunction of the
Apostle: "Art thou called being a servant, care not for it; but if
thou mayest be made free, use it rather." The slaves tried to be
contented, but they preferred freedom and knew which side to take when
the time came for them to act.
Enough has been said to show that out of the African slave had been
developed a thoroughly American slave, so well imbued with modern
civilization and so well versed in American politics, as to be
partially ready for citizenship. He had become law-abiding and
order-loving, and possessed of an intelligent desire to be free.
Whether he had within him the necessary moral elements to become a
soldier the pages following will attempt to make known. He had the
numbers, the physical strength and the intelligence. He could enter
the strife with a sufficient comprehension of the issues involved to
enable him to give to his own heart a reason for his action. Fitness
for the soldier does not necessarily involve fitness for citizenship,
but the actual discharge of the duties of the soldier in defence of
the nation, entitles one to all common rights, to the nation's
gratitude, and to the highest honors for which he is qualified.
In concluding this chapter I shall briefly return to the free colored
people of the South that the reader may be able to properly estimate
their importance as a separate element. Their influence upon the slave
population was very slight, inasmuch as law and custom forbade the
intercourse of these two classes.
According to the Census of 1860 there were in the slave-holding States
altogether 261,918 free colored persons, 106,770 being mulattoes. In
Charleston there were 887 free blacks and 2,554 mulattoes; in Mobile,
98 free blacks and 617 mulattoes; in New Orleans, 1,727 blacks and
7,357 mulattoes. As will be seen, nearly one-half of the entire number
of free colored persons were mulattoes, while in the leading Southern
cities seventy-five per cent. of the free colored people were put in
this class. The percentage of mulatto slaves to the total slave
population at that time was 10.41, and in the same cities which showed
seventy-five per cent, of all the free colored persons mulattoes, the
percentage of mulatto slaves was but 16.84. Mulatto in this
classification includes all colored persons who are not put down as
black.
In New Orleans the free mulattoes were generally French, having come
into the Union with the Louisiana purchase, and among them were to be
found wealthy slave-holders. They much resembled the class of
mulattoes which obtained in St. Domingo at the beginning of the
century, and had but little sympathy with the blacks, although they
were the first to acquiesce in emancipation, some of them actually
leading their own slaves into the army of liberation. It is possible,
however, that they had not fully realized the trend of the war,
inasmuch as New Orleans was excepted from the effects of the
Proclamation. It is certain that the free colored people of that city
made a tender of support to the Confederacy, although they were among
the first to welcome the conquering "Yankees," and afterward fought
with marked gallantry in the Union cause. The free mulattoes, or
_browns_, as they called themselves, of Charleston, followed much the
same course as their fellow classmen of New Orleans. Here, too, they
had been exclusive and to some extent slave-holders, had tendered
their services to the Confederacy, and had hastily come forward to
welcome the conquerors. They were foremost among the colored people in
wealth and intelligence, but their field of social operations had been
so circumscribed that they had exerted but little influence in the
work of Americanizing the slave. Separated from the slave by law and
custom they did all in their power to separate themselves from him in
thought and feeling. They drew the line against all blacks as
mercilessly and senselessly as the most prejudiced of the whites and
were duplicates of the whites placed on an intermediate plane. It was
not unusual to find a Charleston brown filled with more prejudice
toward the blacks than were the whites.
[Transcriber's Note: This footnote appeared in the text
without a footnote anchor: "Census of 1860."]
The colored people of the North in 1860 numbered 237,283,
Pennsylvania having the largest number, 56,849; then came New York
with 49,005; Ohio, 36,673; New Jersey, 25,318; Indiana, 11,428;
Massachusetts, 9,602; Connecticut, 8,627; Illinois, 7,628; Michigan,
6,799; Rhode Island, 3,952; Maine, 1,327; Wisconsin, 1,171; Iowa,
1,069; Vermont, 709; Kansas, 625; New Hampshire, 494; Minnesota, 259;
Oregon, 128.
Considerably more than one-half of this population was located within
the States along the Atlantic Coast, viz.; Maine, New Hampshire,
Massachusetts, Vermont, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York,
Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Here were to be found 154,883 free
colored people. Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey took the lead in
this population, with Massachusetts and Connecticut coming next, while
Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont had but few. The cities, Boston, New
York and Philadelphia, were the largest cities of free colored people
then in the North. In Boston there were 2,261; New York City, 12,574,
while in Philadelphia there were 22,185
As early as 1787 the free colored people of Philadelphia, through two
distinguished representatives, Absalom Jones and Richard Allen, "two
men of the African race," as the chroniclers say, "saw the irreligious
and uncivilized state" of the "people of their complexion," and
finally concluded "that a society should be formed without regard to
religious tenets, provided the persons lived an orderly and sober
life," the purpose of the society being "to support one another in
sickness and for the benefit of their widows and fatherless children."
Accordingly a society was established, known as the Free African
Society of Philadelphia, and on the 17th, 5th-mo., 1787, articles were
published, including the following, which is inserted to show the
breadth of the society's purpose:
"And we apprehend it to be necessary that the children of our
deceased members be under the care of the Society, so far as to pay
for the education of their children, if they cannot attend free
school; also to put them out apprentices to suitable trades or places,
if required."[2]
Shortly after this we read of "the African School for the free
instruction of the black people," and in 1796, "The Evening Free
School, held at the African Methodist Meeting House in Philadelphia"
was reported as being "kept very orderly, the scholars behaving in a
becoming manner, and their improvement beyond the teachers'
expectations, their intellects appearing in every branch of learning
to be equal to those of the fairest complexion." The name African, as
the reader will notice, is used with reference to school, church, and
individuals; although not to the complete exclusion of "colored
people" and "people of color." These phrases seem to have been coined
in the West Indies, and were there applied only to persons of mixed
European and African descent. In the United States they never obtained
such restricted use except in a very few localities. The practice of
using African as a descriptive title of the free colored people of the
North became very extensive and so continued up to the middle of the
century. There were African societies, churches and schools in all the
prominent centres of this population.
In 1843 one, Mr. P. Loveridge, Agent for Colored Schools of New York,
wrote the editor of the African Methodist Magazine as follows:[3] "As
to the name of your periodical, act as we did with the name of our
schools--away with Africa. There are no Africans in your connection.
Substitute colored for African and it will be, in my opinion, as it
should be." The earnestness of the writer shows that the matter of
parting with African was then a live question. The cool reply of the
editor indicates how strong was the conservative element among the
African people of '43. He says: "We are unable to see the
reasonableness of the remarks. It is true we are not Africans, or
natives born upon the soil of Africa, yet, as the descendants of that
race, how can we better manifest that respect due to our fathers who
begat us, than by the adoption of the term in our institutions, and
inscribing it upon our public places of resort?" To this Mr. Loveridge
rejoins in the following explanatory paragraph: "We who are engaged in
the Public Schools in this city found upon examination of about 1500
children who attend our schools from year to year, not one African
child among them. A suggestion was made that we petition the Public
School Society to change the name African to Colored Schools. The
gentlemen of that honorable body, perceiving our petition to be a
logical one, acquiesced with us. Hence the adjective African (which
does not apply to us) was blotted out and Colored substituted in its
place. It is 'Public Schools for Colored Children.' We are Americans
and expect American sympathies."
In 1816 the colored Methodists conceived the idea of organizing and
evangelizing their race, and to this end a convention was called and
assembled in Philadelphia of that year, composed of sixteen delegates,
coming from Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and New Jersey. The
convention adopted a resolution that the people of Philadelphia,
Baltimore and all other places who should unite with them, should
become one body under the name and style of the African Methodist
Episcopal Church. Similar action was taken by two other bodies of
colored Methodists, one in New York, the other in Wilmington,
Delaware, about the same time. The people were coming together and
beginning to understand the value of organization. This was manifested
in their religious, beneficial and educational associations that were
springing up among them. In 1841 the African Methodist Magazine
appeared, the first organ of religious communication and thought
issued by the American colored people. It was published in Brooklyn,
N.Y., Rev. George Hogarth being its editor.
There were papers published by the colored people prior to the
appearance of the African Methodist Magazine, but these were
individual enterprises. They were, however, indices of the thought of
the race, and looking back upon them now, we may regard them as
mile-stones set up along the line of march over which the people have
come. New York, city and State, appears to have been the home of these
early harbingers, and it was there that the earliest literary centre
was established, corresponding to that centre of religious life and
thought which had been earlier founded in Philadelphia. In 1827 the
first newspaper published on this continent by colored men issued from
its office in New York. It was called "Freedom's Journal," and had for
its motto "Righteousness exalteth a nation." Its editors and
proprietors were Messrs. Cornish & Russwurm. Its name was subsequently
changed to the "Rights of All," Mr. Cornish probably retiring, and in
1830 it suspended, Mr. Russwurm going to Africa. Then followed "The
Weekly Advocate," "The American," "The Colored American," "The
Elevator," "The National Watchman," "The Clarion," "The Ram's Horn,"
"The North Star," "Frederick Douglass' Paper," and finally that
crowning literary work of the race, "The Anglo-African."
"The Anglo-African" appeared in 1859, under the management of the
strongest and most brilliant purely literary families the American
Negro up to that time had produced. It was edited and published by
Thomas Hamilton, and like all the important literary ventures of the
race in those days, had its birth in New York. It came out in 1859 and
continued through the war, and in 1865 went out of existence
honorably, having its work well done. Its first volume, that of 1859,
contains the ablest papers ever given to the public by the American
Negro; and taken as a whole this volume is the proudest literary
monument the race has as yet erected.
Reviewing the progress of the race in the North, we may say, the
period of organized benevolence and united religious effort began
before the close of the past century, Philadelphia being its place of
origin; that the religious movement reached much broader and clearer
standing about 1816, and in consequence there sprang up organizations
comprehending the people of the whole country; that the religious
movement advanced to a more intellectual stage when in 1841 the
African Methodist Magazine appeared, since which time the organized
religion of the American Negro has never been for any considerable
time without its organs of communication. The journalistic period
began in 1827, its centre being New York and the work of the journals
almost wholly directed to two ends: the abolition of slavery, and the
enfranchisement and political elevation of the free blacks. This work
had reached its highest form in the Anglo-African, as that epoch of
our national history came to its close in the slave-holders' war.
The titles of the newspapers indicate the opening and continuance of a
period of anti-slavery agitation. Their columns were filled with
arguments and appeals furnished by men who gave their whole souls to
the work. It was a period of great mental activity on the part of the
free colored people. They were discussing all probable methods of
bettering their condition. It was the period that produced both
writers and orators. In 1830 the first convention called by colored
men to consider the general condition of the race and devise means to
improve that condition, met in the city of Philadelphia. The history
of this convention is so important that I append a full account of it
as published in the Anglo-African nearly thirty years after the
convention met. It was called through the efforts of Hezekiah Grice,
of Baltimore, who afterwards emigrated to Hayti, and for many years
followed there the occupation of carver and gilder and finally became
Director of Public Works of the city of Port-au-Prince. While visiting
that city years ago, I met a descendant of Mr. Grice, a lady of great
personal beauty, charming manners, accomplished in the French
language, but incapable of conversing at all in English.
The conventions, begun in 1830, continued to be held annually for a
brief period, and then dropped into occasional and special gatherings.
They did much good in the way of giving prominence to the colored
orators and in stemming the tide of hostile sentiment by appealing to
the country at large in language that reached many hearts.
The physical condition, so far as the health and strength of the free
colored people were concerned, was good. Their mean age was the
greatest of any element of our population, and their increase was
about normal, or 1.50 per cent. annually. In the twenty years from
1840 to 1860 it had kept up this rate with hardly the slightest
variation, while the increase of the free colored people of the South
during the same period had been 1 per cent, annually.[4] The increase
of persons of mixed blood in the North did not necessarily imply
laxity of morals, as the census compilers always delighted to say, but
could be easily accounted for by the marriages occurring between
persons of this class. I have seen more than fifty persons, all of
mixed blood, descend from one couple, and these with the persons
joined to them by marriages as they have come to marriageable age,
amounted to over seventy souls--all in about a half century. That the
slaves had, despite their fearful death rate, the manumissions and the
escapes, increased twice as fast as the free colored people of the
North, three times as fast as the free colored people of the South,
and faster than the white people with all the immigration of that
period, can be accounted for only by the enormous birth rate of that
people consequent upon their sad condition. Their increase was
abnormal, and when properly viewed, proves too much.
There is no way of determining the general wealth of the colored
people of the North at the period we are describing; but some light
may be thrown upon their material condition from the consideration
that they were supporting a few publications and building and
supporting churches, and were holders of considerable real estate. In
New York city, the thirteen thousand colored people paid taxes on
nearly a million and a half in real estate, and had over a quarter
million of dollars in the savings banks. It is probable that the
twenty-five thousand in Philadelphia owned more in proportion than
their brethren in New York, for they were then well represented in
business in that city. There were the Fortens, Bowers, Casseys,
Gordons, and later Stephen Smith, William Whipper and Videl, all of
whom were men of wealth and business. There were nineteen churches
owned and supported by colored people of Philadelphia, with a seating
capacity of about 10,000 and valued at about $250,000.
[5]The schools set apart for colored children were very inferior and
were often kept alive by great sacrifices on the part of the colored
people themselves. Prior to the war and in many cases for some time
afterward, the colored public schools were a disgrace to the country.
A correspondent writing from Hollidaysburg, Pa., says, speaking of the
school there: "The result of my inquiries here is that here, as in the
majority of other places, the interest manifested for the colored man
is more for political effect, and that those who prate the loudest
about the moral elevation and political advancement of the colored man
are the first to turn against him when he wants a friend." The
correspondent then goes on to say that the school directors persist in
employing teachers "totally incompetent." What the schools were in New
York the report made by the New York Society for the promotion of
Education among Colored Children to the Honorable Commissioners for
examining into the condition of Common Schools in the City and County
of New York, will show. Reverend Charles B. Ray, who was President of
this Society, and Philip A. White, its Secretary, both continued to
labor in the interest of education unto the close of their lives, Mr.
White dying as a member of the School Board of the city of Brooklyn,
and Mr. Ray bequeathing his library to Wilberforce University at his
death.
In summing up the conditions which they have detailed in their report
they say: "From a comparison of the school houses occupied by the
colored children with the splendid, almost palatial edifices, with
manifold comforts, conveniences and elegancies which make up the
school houses for white children in the city of New York, it is
clearly evident that the colored children are painfully neglected and
positively degraded. Pent up in filthy neighborhoods, in old
dilapidated buildings, they are held down to low associations and
gloomy surroundings. * * * The undersigned enter their solemn protest
against this unjust treatment of colored children. They believe with
the experience of Massachusetts, and especially the recent experience
of Boston before them, there is no sound reason why colored children
shall be excluded from any of the common schools supported by taxes
levied alike on whites and blacks, and governed by officers elected by
the vote of colored as well as white voters."
This petition and remonstrance had its effect, for mainly through its
influence within two years very great improvements were made in the
condition of the New York colored schools.
For the especial benefit of those who erroneously think that the
purpose of giving industrial education is a new thing in our land, as
well as for general historical purposes, I call attention to the
establishment of the Institute for Colored Youth in Philadelphia in
1842. This Institute was founded by the Society of Friends, and was
supported in its early days and presumably still "by bequests and
donations made by members of that Society." The objects of the
Institute as set forth by its founders, fifty-seven years ago, are:
"The education and improvement of colored youth of both sexes, to
qualify them to act as teachers and instructors to their own people,
either in the various branches of school learning or the mechanic
arts and agriculture." Two years later the African Methodists
purchased one hundred and eighty acres of land in eastern Ohio and
established what was called the Union Seminary, on the manual labor
plan. It did not succeed, but it lingered along, keeping alive the
idea, until it was eclipsed by Wilberforce University, into which it
was finally merged.
The anti-slavery fight carried on in the North, into which the colored
men entered and became powerful leaders, aroused the race to a deep
study of the whole subject of liberty and brought them in sympathy
with all people who had either gained or were struggling for their
liberties, and prompted them to investigate all countries offering to
them freedom. No country was so well studied by them as Hayti, and
from 1824 to 1860 there had been considerable emigration thither.
Liberia, Central and South America and Canada were all considered
under the thought of emigration. Thousands went to Hayti and to
Canada, but the bulk preferred to remain here. They liked America, and
had become so thoroughly in love with the doctrines of the Republic,
so imbued with the pride of the nation's history, so inspired with
hope in the nation's future, that they resolved to live and die on her
soil. When the troublous times of 1860 came and white men were fleeing
to Canada, colored men remained at their posts. They were ready to
stand by the old flag and to take up arms for the Union, trusting that
before the close of the strife the flag might have to them a new
meaning. An impassioned colored orator had said of the flag: "Its
stars were for the white man, and its stripes for the Negro, and it
was very appropriate that the stripes should be red." The free Negro
of the North was prepared in 1861 to support Abraham Lincoln with
40,000 as good American-born champions for universal liberty as the
country could present.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Slave Trade--Carey.
[2] Outlines--Tanner.
[3] A.M.E. Magazine, 1843.
[4] It is to be noted that in Maryland and Virginia an important
number of white serving women married Negro slave men in the early
days of these colonies.
[5] In 1835 there were six high schools, or schools for higher
education, in the United States that admitted colored students on
equal footing with others. These were: Oneida Institute, New York;
Mount Pleasant, Amherst, Mass.; Canaan, N.H.; Western Reserve, Ohio;
Gettysburg, Pa.; and "one in the city of Philadelphia of which Miss
Buffam" was "principal." There was also one manual labor school in
Madison County, N.Y., capable of accommodating eighteen students. It
was founded by Gerrit Smith.
NOTES.
A.
THE FIRST COLORED CONVENTION.
On the fifteenth day of September, 1830, there was held at Bethel
Church, in the city of Philadelphia, the first convention of the
colored people of these United States. It was an event of historical
importance; and, whether we regard the times or the men of whom this
assemblage was composed, we find matter for interesting and profitable
consideration.
Emancipation had just taken place in New York, and had just been
arrested in Virginia by the Nat Turner rebellion and Walker's
pamphlet. Secret sessions of the legislatures of the several Southern
States had been held to deliberate upon the production of a colored
man who had coolly recommended to his fellow blacks the only solution
to the slave question, which, after twenty-five years of arduous labor
of the most hopeful and noble-hearted of the abolitionists, seems the
forlorn hope of freedom to-day--insurrection and bloodshed. Great
Britain was in the midst of that bloodless revolution which, two years
afterwards, culminated in the passage of the Reform Bill, and thus
prepared the joyous and generous state of the British heart which
dictated the West India Emancipation Act. France was rejoicing in the
not bloodless _trois jours de Juliet_. Indeed, the whole world seemed
stirred up with a universal excitement, which, when contrasted with
the universal panics of 1837 and 1857, leads one to regard as more
than a philosophical speculation the doctrine of those who hold the
life of mankind from the creation as but one life, beating with one
heart, animated with one soul, tending to one destiny, although made
up of millions upon millions of molecular lives, gifted with their
infinite variety of attractions and repulsions, which regulate or
crystallize them into evanescent substructures or organizations, which
we call nationalities and empires and peoples and tribes, whose minute
actions and reactions on each other are the histories which absorb our
attention, whilst the grand universal life moves on beyond our ken,
or only guessed at, as the astronomers shadow out movements of our
solar system around or towards some distant unknown centre of
attraction.
If the times of 1830 were eventful, there were among our people, as
well as among other peoples, men equal to the occasion. We had giants
in those days! There were Bishop Allen, the founder of the great
Bethel connection of Methodists, combining in his person the fiery
zeal of St. Francis Xavier with the skill and power of organizing of a
Richelieu; the meek but equally efficient Rush (who yet remains with
us in fulfilment of the Scripture), the father of the Zion Methodists;
Paul, whose splendid presence and stately eloquence in the pulpit, and
whose grand baptisms in the waters of Boston harbor are a living
tradition in all New England; the saintly and sainted Peter Williams,
whose views of the best means of our elevation are in triumphant
activity to-day; William Hamilton, the thinker and actor, whose sparse
specimens of eloquence we will one day place in gilded frames as rare
and beautiful specimens of Etruscan art--William Hamilton, who, four
years afterwards, during the New York riots, when met in the street,
loaded down with iron missiles, and asked where he was going, replied,
"To die on my threshold"; Watkins, of Baltimore; Frederick Hinton,
with his polished eloquence; James Forten, the merchant prince;
William Whipper, just essaying his youthful powers; Lewis Woodson and
John Peck, of Pittsburg; Austin Steward, then of Rochester; Samuel E.
Cornish, who had the distinguished honor of reasoning Gerrit Smith out
of colonization, and of telling Henry Clay that he would never be
president of anything higher than the American Colonization Society;
Philip A. Bell, the born sabreur, who never feared the face of clay,
and a hundred others, were the worthily leading spirits among the
colored people.
And yet the idea of the first colored convention did not originate
with any of these distinguished men; it came from a young man of
Baltimore; then, and still, unknown to fame. Born in that city in
1801, he was in 1817 apprenticed to a man some two hundred miles off
in the Southeast. Arriving at his field of labor, he worked hard
nearly a week and received poor fare in return. One day, while at work
near the house, the mistress came out and gave him a furious scolding,
so furious, indeed, that her husband mildly interfered; she drove the
latter away, and threatened to take the Baltimore out of the lad with
cowhide, etc., etc. At this moment, to use his own expression, the
lad became converted, that is, he determined to be his own master as
long as he lived. Early nightfall found him on his way to Baltimore
which he reached after a severe journey which tested his energy and
ingenuity to the utmost. At the age of twenty-three he was engaged in
the summer time in supplying Baltimore with ice from his cart, and in
winter in cutting up pork for Ellicotts' establishment. He must have
been strong and swift with knife and cleaver, for in one day he cut up
and dressed some four hundred and fifteen porkers.
In 1824 our young friend fell in with Benjamin Lundy, and in 1828-9,
with William Lloyd Garrison, editors and publishers of the "Genius of
Universal Emancipation," a radical anti-slavery paper, whose boldness
would put the "National Era" to shame, printed and published in the
slave State of Maryland. In 1829-30 the colored people of the free
States were much excited on the subject of emigration; there had been
an emigration to Hayti, and also to Canada, and some had been driven
to Liberia by the severe laws and brutal conduct of the fermenters of
colonization in Virginia and Maryland. In some districts of these
States the disguised whites would enter the houses of free colored men
at night, and take them out and give them from thirty to fifty lashes,
to get them to consent to go to Liberia.
It was in the spring of 1830 that the young man we have sketched,
Hezekiah Grice, conceived the plan of calling together a meeting or
convention of colored men in some place north of the Potomac, for the
purpose of comparing views and of adopting a harmonious movement
either of emigration or of determination to remain in the United
States; convinced of the hopelessness of contending against the
oppressions in the United States, living in the very depth of that
oppression and wrong, his own views looked to Canada; but he held them
subject to the decision of the majority of the convention which might
assemble.
On the 2d of April, 1830, he addressed a written circular to prominent
colored men in the free States, requesting their opinions on the
necessity and propriety of holding such convention, and stated that if
the opinions of a sufficient number warranted it, he would give time
and place at which duly elected delegates might assemble. Four months
passed away, and his spirit almost died within him, for he had not
received a line from any one in reply. When he visited Mr. Garrison
in his office, and stated his project, Mr. Garrison took up a copy of
Walker's Appeal, and said, although it might be right, yet it was too
early to have published such a book.
On the 11th of August, however, he received a sudden and peremptory
order from Bishop Allen to come instantly to Philadelphia, about the
emigration matter. He went, and found a meeting assembled to consider
the conflicting reports on Canada of Messrs. Lewis and Dutton; at a
subsequent meeting, held the next night, and near the adjournment, the
Bishop called Mr. Grice aside and gave to him to read a printed
circular, issued from New York City, strongly approving of Mr. Grice's
plan of a convention, and signed by Peter Williams, Peter Vogelsang
and Thomas L. Jinnings. The Bishop added, "My dear child, we must take
some action immediately, or else these New Yorkers will get ahead of
us." The Bishop left the meeting to attend a lecture on chemistry by
Dr. Wells, of Baltimore. Mr. Grice introduced the subject of the
convention; and a committee consisting of Bishop Allen, Benjamin
Pascal, Cyrus Black, James Cornish and Junius C. Morel, were appointed
to lay the matter before the colored people of Philadelphia. This
committee, led, doubtless, by Bishop Allen, at once issued a call for
a convention of the colored men of the United States, to be held in
the city of Philadelphia on the 15th of September, 1830.
Mr. Grice returned to Baltimore rejoicing at the success of his
project; but, in the same boat which bore him down the Chesapeake, he
was accosted by Mr. Zollickoffer, a member of the Society of Friends,
a Philadelphian, and a warm and tried friend of the blacks. Mr.
Zollickoffer used arguments, and even entreaties, to dissuade Mr.
Grice from holding the convention, pointing out the dangers and
difficulties of the same should it succeed, and the deep injury it
would do the cause in case of failure. Of course, it was reason and
entreaty thrown away.
On the fifteenth of September, Mr. Grice again landed in Philadelphia,
and in the fulness of his expectation asked every colored man he met
about the convention; no one knew anything about it; the first man did
not know the meaning of the word, and another man said, "Who ever
heard of colored people holding a convention--convention, indeed!"
Finally, reaching the place of meeting, he found, in solemn conclave,
the five gentlemen who had constituted themselves delegates: with a
warm welcome from Bishop Allen, Mr. Grice, who came with credentials
from the people of Baltimore, was admitted as delegate. A little while
after, Dr. Burton, of Philadelphia, dropped in, and demanded by what
right the six gentlemen held their seats as members of the convention.
On a hint from Bishop Allen, Mr. Pascal moved that Dr. Burton be
elected an honorary member of the convention, which softened the
Doctor. In half an hour, five or six grave, stern-looking men, members
of the Zion Methodist body in Philadelphia, entered, and demanded to
know by what right the members present held their seats and undertook
to represent the colored people. Another hint from the Bishop, and it
was moved that these gentlemen be elected honorary members. But the
gentlemen would submit to no such thing, and would accept nothing
short of full membership, which was granted them.
Among the delegates were Abraham Shadd, of Delaware; J.W.C.
Pennington, of Brooklyn; Austin Steward, of Rochester; Horace Easton,
of Boston, and ---- Adams, of Utica.
The main subject of discussion was emigration to Canada; Junius C.
Morel, chairman of a committee on that subject presented a report, on
which there was a two days' discussion; the point discussed was that
the report stated that "the lands in Canada were synonymous with those
of the Northern States." The word synonymous was objected to, and the
word similar proposed in its stead. Mr. Morel, with great vigor and
ingenuity, defended the report, but was finally voted down, and the
word similar adopted. The convention recommended emigration to Canada,
passed strong resolutions against the American Colonization Society,
and at its adjournment appointed the next annual convention of the
people of color to be held in Philadelphia, on the first Monday in
June, 1831.
At the present day, when colored conventions are almost as frequent as
church meetings, it is difficult to estimate the bold and daring
spirit which inaugurated the Colored Convention of 1830. It was the
right move, originating in the right quarter and at the right time.
Glorious old Maryland, or, as one speaking in the view that climate
grows the men, would say,--Maryland-Virginia region,--which has
produced Benjamin Banneker, Nat. Turner, Frederick Douglass, the
parents of Ira Aldridge, Henry Highland Garnett and Sam. Ringold Ward,
also produced the founder of colored conventions, Hezekiah Grice! At
that time, in the prime of his young manhood, he must have presented
the front of one equal to any fortune, able to achieve any
undertaking. Standing six feet high, well-proportioned, of a dark
bronze complexion, broad brow, and that stamp of features out of which
the Greek sculptor would have delighted to mould the face of
Vulcan--he was, to the fullest extent, a working man of such sort and
magnetism as would lead his fellows where he listed.
In looking to the important results that grew out of this convention,
the independence of thought and self-assertion of the black man are
the most remarkable. Then, the union of purpose and union of strength
which grew out of the acquaintanceship and mutual pledges of colored
men from different States. Then, the subsequent conventions, where the
great men we have already named, and others, appeared and took part in
the discussions with manifestations of zeal, talent and ability, which
attracted Garrison, the Tappans, Jocelyn and others of that noble
host, who, drawing no small portion of their inspiration from their
black brethren in bonds, did manfully fight in the days of
anti-slavery which tried men's souls, and when, to be an abolitionist,
was, to a large extent, to be a martyr.
We cannot help adding the thought that had these conventions of the
colored people of the United States continued their annual sittings
from 1830 until the present time, the result would doubtless have been
greater general progress among our people themselves, a more united
front to meet past and coming exigencies, and a profounder hold upon
the public attention, and a deeper respect on the part of our enemies,
than we now can boast of. Looking at public opinion as it is, the
living law of the land, and yet a malleable, ductile entity, which can
be moulded, or at least affected, by the thoughts of any masses
vigorously expressed, we should have become a power on earth, of
greater strength and influence than in our present scattered and
dwindled state we dare even dream of. The very announcement,
"Thirtieth Annual Convention of the Colored People of the United
States," would bear a majestic front. Our great gathering at Rochester
in 1853, commanded not only public attention, but respect and
admiration. Should we have such a gathering even now, once a year, not
encumbered with elaborate plans of action, with too many wheels within
wheels, we can yet regain much of the ground lost. The partial
gathering at Boston, the other day, has already assumed its place in
the public mind, and won its way into the calculations of the
politicians.
Our readers will doubtless be glad to learn the subsequent history of
Mr. Grice. He did not attend the second convention, but in the
interval between the second and third he formed, in the city of
Baltimore, a "Legal Rights Association," for the purpose of
ascertaining the legal status of the colored man in the United States.
It was entirely composed of colored men, among whom were Mr. Watkins
(the colored Baltimorean), Mr. Deaver, and others. Mr. Grice called on
William Wirt, and asked him "what he charged for his opinion on a
given subject." "Fifty dollars." "Then, sir, I will give you fifty
dollars if you will give me your opinion on the legal condition of a
free colored man in these United States."
Mr. Wirt required the questions to be written out in proper form
before he could answer them. Mr. Grice employed Tyson, who drew up a
series of questions, based upon the Constitution of the United States,
and relating to the rights and citizenship of the free black. He
carried the questions to Mr. Wirt, who, glancing over them, said,
"Really, sir, my position as an officer under the government renders
it a delicate matter for me to answer these questions as they should
be answered, but I'll tell you what to do: they should be answered,
and by the best legal talent in the land; do you go to Philadelphia,
and present my name to Horace Binney, and he will give you an answer
satisfactory to you, and which will command the greatest respect
throughout the land." Mr. Grice went to Philadelphia, and presented
the questions and request to Horace Binney. This gentleman pleaded age
and poor eyesight, but told Mr. Grice that if he would call on John
Sargent he would get answers of requisite character and weight. He
called on John Sargent, who promptly agreed to answer the questions if
Mr. Binney would allow his name to be associated as an authority in
the replies. Mr. Binney again declined, and so the matter fell
through. This is what Mr. Grice terms his "Dred Scott case" and so it
was.
He attended the convention of 1832, but by some informality, or a want
of credentials, was not permitted to sit as full member!--Saul ejected
from among the prophets!--Yet he was heard on the subject of rights,
and the doctrine of "our rights," as well as the first colored
convention, are due to the same man.
In 1832, chagrined at the colored people of the United States, he
migrated to Hayti, where, until 1843, he pursued the business of
carver and gilder. In the latter year he was appointed Director of
Public Works in Port-au-Prince, which office he held until two years
ago. He is also engaged in, and has wide knowledge of machinery and
engineering. Every two or three years he visits New York, and is
welcomed to the arcana of such men as James J. Mapes, the Bensons,
Dunhams, and at the various works where steam and iron obey human
ingenuity in our city. He is at present in this city, lodging at the
house of the widow of his old friend and coadjutor, Thomas L.
Jinnings, 133 Reade street. We have availed ourselves of his presence
among us to glean from him the statements which we have imperfectly
put together in this article.
We cannot dismiss this subject without the remark, of peculiar
pertinence at this moment, that it would have been better for our
people had Mr. Grice never left these United States. The twenty-seven
years he has passed in Hayti, although not without their mark on the
fortunes of that island, are yet with out such mark as he would have
made in the land and upon the institutions among which he was born. So
early as his thirty-second year, before he had reached his
intellectual prime, he had inaugurated two of the leading ideas on
which our people have since acted, conventions to consider and
alleviate their grievances, and the struggle for legal rights. If he
did such things in early youth, what might he not have done with the
full force and bent of his matured intellect? And where, in the wide
world, in what region, or under what sun, could he so effectually have
labored to elevate the black man as on this soil and under American
institutions?
So profoundly are we opposed to the favorite doctrine of the Puritans
and their co-workers, the colonizationists--Ubi Libertas, ibi
Patria--that we could almost beseech Divine Providence to reverse some
past events and to fling back into the heart of Virginia and Maryland
their Sam Wards, Highland Garnets, J.W. Penningtons, Frederick
Douglasses, and the twenty thousand who now shout hosannas in
Canada--and we would soon see some stirring in the direction of Ubi
Patria, ibi Libertas.--Anglo-African Magazine, October, 1859.
B.
COMMUNICATION FROM THE NEW YORK SOCIETY FOR THE PROMOTION OF EDUCATION
AMONG COLORED CHILDREN.
To the Honorable the Commissioners for examining into the condition of
Common Schools in the City and County of New York.
The following statement in relation to the colored schools in said
city and county is respectfully presented by the New York Society for
the Promotion of Education among Colored Children:
1. The number of colored children in the city and county of
New York (estimated in 1855, from the census of 1850), between
the ages of 4 and 17 years 3,000
a. Average attendance of colored children at public
schools in 1855 913
Average attendance of colored children in
corporate schools supported by school funds
(Colored Orphan Asylum) 240
---- 1,153
b. Proportion of average attendance in public
schools of colored children to whole number
of same is as 1 to 2.60.
2. The number of white children in the city of New
York in 1855 (estimated as above), between the ages of
4 and 17 years 159,000
a. Average attendance of white children in public
schools in 1855 43,858
Average attendance of white children in
corporate schools supported by public
funds 2,826
------ 46,684
b. Proportion of average attendance of white children
in public schools to whole number of same
is as 1 to 3.40.
3. From these facts it appears that colored children attend
the public schools (and schools supported by public funds in
the city of New York) in the proportion of 1 to 2.60, and that
the white children attend similar schools in said city in the
proportion of 1 to 3.40; that is to say, nearly 25 per cent. more of
colored children than of white children attend the public schools,
and schools supported by public funds in the city of New York.
4. The number of colored children attending private schools
in the city of New York, 125.
a. The number of white children attending private
schools in 1850, census gave 10,560, which number has since
been increased by the establishment of Catholic parochial
schools, estimated in 1856, 17,560.
b. The proportion of colored children attending private
schools to white children attending same, is as 1 to 140.
c. But the average attendance of colored children in all
schools is about the same as that of the white in proportion,
that is to say, as many colored children attend the
public schools as do whites attend both public and private
schools, in proportion to the whole number of each class
of children.
Locality, capability, etc., of colored schools.
1. The Board of Education, since its organization, has
expended in sites and buildings for white schools $1,600,000.
b. The Board of Education has expended for sites and
buildings for colored schools (addition to building leased
19 Thomas), $1,000.
c. The two schoolhouses in possession of the Board
now used for colored children were assigned to same by
the Old Public School Society.
2. The proportion of colored children to white children
attending public schools is as 1 to 40.
a. The sum expended on school buildings and sites of
colored and white schools by the Board of Education is as
1 to 1,600.
3. a. Schoolhouse No. 1, for colored children, is an old
building, erected in 1820 by the New York Manumission Society
as a school for colored children, in Mulberry street, in a poor
but decent locality. It has two departments, one male and one
female; it consists of two stories only, and has two small
recitation rooms on each floor, but as primary as well as grammar
children attend each department, much difficulty and confusion
arises from the want of class room for the respective studies.
The building covers only part of the lot, and as it is, the best
attended and among the best taught of the colored schools, a
new and ample school building, erected in this place, would
prove a great attraction, and could be amply filled by children.
b. Schoolhouse No. 2, erected in Laurens street more
than twenty years ago for colored children by the Public
School Society, is in one of the lowest and filthiest
neighborhoods, and hence, although it has competent teachers
in the male and female departments, and a separate primary
department, the attendance has always been slender,
and will be until the school is removed to a neighborhood
where children may be sent without danger to their morals.
c. School No. 3, for colored children, in Yorkville, is
an old building, is well attended, and deserves, in connection
with Schoolhouse No. 4, in Harlem, a new building midway
between the present localities.
d. Schoolhouse No. 5, for colored children, is an old
building, leased at No. 19 Thomas street, a most degraded
neighborhood, full of filth and vice; yet the attendance on
this school, and the excellence of its teachers, earn for it the
need of a new site and new building.
e. Schoolhouse No. 6, for colored children, is in Broadway,
near 37th street, in a dwelling house leased and fitted
up for a school, in which there is always four feet of water
in the cellar. The attendance good. Some of the school
officers have repeatedly promised a new building.
f. Primary school for colored children, No. 1, is in the
basement of a church on 15th street, near 7th avenue,
in a good location, but premises too small for the attendance;
no recitation rooms, and is perforce both primary
and grammar school, to the injury of the progress of all.
g. Primary schools for colored children, No. 2 and 3,
are in the rear of church, in 2d street, near 6th avenue; the
rooms are dark and cheerless, and without the needful
facilities of sufficient recitation rooms, etc.
From a comparison of the schoolhouses with the splendid, almost
palatial edifices, with manifold comforts, conveniences and elegancies
which make up the schoolhouses for white children in the city of New
York, it is evident that the colored children are painfully neglected
and positively degraded. Pent up in filthy neighborhoods, in old and
dilapidated buildings, they are held down to low associations and
gloomy surroundings.
Yet Mr. Superintendent Kiddle, at a general examination of colored
schools held in July last (for silver medals awarded by the society
now addressing your honorable body) declared the reading and spelling
equal to that of any schools in the city.
The undersigned enter their solemn protest against this unjust
treatment of colored children. They believe with the experience of
Massachusetts, and especially the recent experience of Boston before
them, there is no sound reason why colored children shall be excluded
from any of the common schools supported by taxes levied alike on
whites and blacks, and governed by officers elected by the vote of
colored as well as white voters.
But if in the judgment of your honorable body common schools are not
thus common to all, then we earnestly pray you to recommend to the
Legislature such action as shall cause the Board of Education of this
city to erect at least two well-appointed modern grammar schools for
colored children on suitable sites, in respectable localities, so that
the attendance of colored children may be increased and their minds be
elevated in like manner as the happy experience of the honorable Board
of Education has been in the matter of white children.
In addition to the excellent impulse to colored youth which these new
grammar schools would give, they will have the additional argument of
actual economy; the children will be taught with far less expense in
two such schoolhouses than in the half dozen hovels into which they
are now driven. It is a costly piece of injustice which educates the
white scholar in a palace at $10 per year and the colored pupil in a
hovel at $17 or $18 per annum.
Taxes, etc., of colored population of the city.
No proposition can be more reasonable than that they who pay taxes for
schools and schoolhouses should be provided with schools and
schoolhouses. The colored population of this city, in proportion to
their numbers, pay their full share of the general and therefore of
the school taxes. There are about nine thousand adults of both sexes;
of these over three thousand are householders, rent-payers, and
therefore tax-payers, in that sense of the word in which owners make
tax-payers of their poor tenants. The colored laboring man, with an
income of $200 a year, who pays $72 per year for a room and bedroom,
is really in proportion to his means a larger tax-payer than the
millionaire whose tax rate is thousands of dollars. But directly,
also, do the colored people pay taxes. From examinations carefully
made, the undersigned affirm that there are in the city at least
1,000 colored persons who own and pay taxes on real estate.
Taxed real estate in the city of New York owned
by colored persons $1,400,000
Untaxed by colored persons (churches) 250,000
Personal estate 710,000
Money in savings banks 1,121,000
-----------
$3,481,000
These figures indicate that in proportion to their numbers, the
colored population of this city pay a fair share of the school taxes,
and that they have been most unjustly dealt with. Their money has been
used to purchase sites and erect and fit up schoolhouses for white
children, whilst their own children are driven into miserable edifices
in disgraceful localities. Surely, the white population of the city
are too able, too generous, too just, any longer to suffer this
miserable robbing of their colored fellow-citizens for the benefit of
white children.
Praying that your honorable commission will take due notice of these
facts, and recommend such remedy as shall seem to you best,
We have the honor to be, in behalf of the New York Society for the
Promotion of Education among Colored Citizens,
Most respectfully yours,
CHARLES B. RAY, President.
PHILIP A. WHITE, Secretary.
New York City, December 28, 1857.