Produced by Suzanne Shell, Chuck Greif and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
[Illustration: Frederick Douglass]
MASTERPIECES OF NEGRO ELOQUENCE
THE BEST SPEECHES DELIVERED BY
THE NEGRO FROM THE DAYS OF
SLAVERY TO THE PRESENT TIME
EDITED BY
ALICE MOORE DUNBAR
Copyright, 1914, by ROBERT JOHN NELSON
Printed in the United States of America
_TO THE BOYS AND GIRLS OF THE NEGRO RACE, THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED, WITH
THE HOPE THAT IT MAY HELP INSPIRE THEM WITH A BELIEF IN THEIR OWN
POSSIBILITIES_
PREFACE
It seems eminently fitting and proper in this year, the fiftieth
anniversary of the Proclamation of Emancipation that the Negro should
give pause and look around him at the things which he has done, those
which he might have done, and those which he intends to do. We pause,
just at the beginning of another half century, taking stock of past
achievements, present conditions, future possibilities.
In considering the literary work of the Negro, his pre-eminence in the
field of oratory is striking. Since the early nineteenth century until
the present time, he is found giving eloquent voice to the story of his
wrongs and his proscriptions. Crude though the earlier efforts may be,
there is a certain grim eloquence in them that is touching, there must
be, because of the intensity of feeling behind the words.
Therefore, it seems appropriate in putting forth a volume commemorating
the birth of the Negro into manhood, to collect some few of the speeches
he made to help win his manhood, his place in the economy of the nation,
his right to stand with his face to the sun. The present volume does not
aim to be a complete collection of Negro Eloquence; it does not even aim
to present the best that the Negro has done on the platform, it merely
aims to present to the public some few of the best speeches made within
the past hundred years. Much of the best is lost; much of it is hidden
away in forgotten places. We have not always appreciated our own work
sufficiently to preserve it, and thus much valuable material is wasted.
Sometimes it has been difficult to obtain good speeches from those who
are living because of their innate modesty, either in not desiring to
appear in print, or in having thought so little of their efforts as to
have lost them.
The Editor is conscious that many names not in the table of contents
will suggest themselves to the most casual reader, but the omissions are
not intentional nor yet of ignorance always, but due to the difficulty
of procuring the matter in time for the publication of the volume before
the golden year shall have closed.
In collecting and arranging the matter, for the volume, I am deeply
indebted first to the living contributors who were so gracious and
generous in their responses to the request for their help, and to the
relatives of those who have passed into silence, for the loan of
valuable books and manuscripts. I cannot adequately express my gratitude
to Mr. John E. Bruce and Mr. Arthur A. Schomburg, President and
Secretary of the Negro Society for Historical Research, for advice,
suggestion, and best of all, for help in lending priceless books and
manuscripts and for aid in copying therefrom.
Again, we repeat, this volume is not a complete anthology; not the final
word in Negro eloquence of to-day, nor yet a collection of all the best;
it is merely a suggestion, a guide-post, pointing the way to a fuller
work, a slight memorial of the birth-year of the race.
THE EDITOR.
_October, 1913._
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
PRINCE SAUNDERS
The People of Hayti and a Plan of Emigration 13
JAMES MCCUNE SMITH
Toussaint L'Ouverture and the Haytian Revolution 19
HILARY TEAGUE
Liberia: Its Struggles and Its Promises 33
FREDERICK DOUGLASS
What to the Slave is the Fourth of July 41
On the Unveiling of the Lincoln Monument 133
CHARLES H. LANGSTON
Should Colored Men be Subject to the Pains and Penalties
of the Fugitive Slave Law? 49
RICHARD T. GREENER
Young Men to the Front 63
ROBERT BROWNE ELLIOT
The Civil Rights Bill 67
JOHN R. LYNCH
Civil Rights and Social Equality 89
ALEXANDER DUMAS, FILS
On the Occasion of Taking His Seat in the French
Academy 95
JOHN M. LANGSTON
Centennial Anniversary of the Pennsylvania Abolition
Society 97
FRANCES ELLEN WATKINS HARPER
Centennial Anniversary of the Pennsylvania Abolition
Society 101
HENRY HIGHLAND GARNET
A Memorial Discourse 107
GEORGE L. RUFFIN
Crispus Attucks 125
P. B. S. PINCHBACK
Address During Presidential Campaign of 1880 151
ALEXANDER CRUMMELL
The Black Woman of the South 159
JOSEPHINE ST. PIERRE RUFFIN
An Open Letter to the Educational League of Georgia 173
JAMES MADISON VANCE
In the Wake of the Coming Ages 177
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON
At the Opening of the Cotton States and International
Exposition, Atlanta 181
Robert Gould Shaw 205
CHRISTIAN A. FLEETWOOD
The Negro as a Soldier 187
CHARLES W. ANDERSON
The Limitless Possibilities of the Negro Race 211
WILLIAM SANDERS SCARBOROUGH
The Party of Freedom and the Freedmen 219
NATHAN F. MOSSELL
The Teaching of History 227
GEORGE H. WHITE
A Defense of the Negro Race 233
LEVI J. COPPIN
The Negro's Part in the Redemption of Africa 243
FANNY JACKSON COPPIN
A Plea for Industrial Opportunity 251
WILLIAM J. GAINES
An Appeal to Our Brother in White 257
EDWARD WILMOT BLYDEN
The Political Outlook for Africa 263
W. JUSTIN CARTER
The Duty and Responsibility of the Anglo-Saxon 265
THEOPHILUS G. STEWARD
The Army as a Trained Force 277
D. WEBSTER DAVIS
The Sunday-School and Church as a Solution of the Negro
Problem 291
REVERDY C. RANSOM
William Lloyd Garrison 305
JAMES L. CURTIS
Abraham Lincoln 321
ABRAHAM WALTERS
Abraham Lincoln and Fifty Years of Freedom 337
ARCHIBALD H. GRIMKE
On the Presentation of a Loving Cup to Senator Foraker 337
FRANCIS H. GRIMKE
Equality of Rights for All Citizens 347
JAMES E. SHAPARD
Is the Game Worth the Candle? 357
ROBERT RUSSA MOTON
Some Elements Necessary to Race Development 367
GEORGE WILLIAM COOK
The Two Seals 379
J. MILTON WALDRON
A Solution of the Race Problem 389
J. FRANCIS GREGORY
The Social Bearings of the Fifth Commandment 397
WILLIAM C. JASON
Life's Morn 403
WILLIAM H. LEWIS
Abraham Lincoln 409
ALICE M. DUNBAR
David Livingstone 425
KELLY MILLER
Education for Manhood 445
ROBERT T. JONES
On Making a Life 455
ERNEST LYON
Emancipation and Racial Advancement 461
JOHN C. DANCY
The Future of the Negro Church 475
W. ASHBIE HAWKINS
The Negro Lawyer 483
W. E. B. DUBOIS
The Training of Negroes for Social Reform 491
THE PEOPLE OF HAYTI AND A PLAN OF EMIGRATION[1]
BY PRINCE SAUNDERS
[Note 1: Extracts from an address delivered at the American
Convention for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery and Improving the
Condition of the African Race, Philadelphia, Pa., December 11, 1818.]
_Respected Gentlemen and Friends_:
At a period so momentous as the present, when the friends of abolition
and emancipation, as well as those whom observation and experience might
teach us to beware to whom we should apply the endearing appellations,
are professedly concerned for the establishment of an Asylum for those
Free Persons of Color, who may be disposed to remove to it, and for such
persons as shall hereafter be emancipated from slavery, a careful
examination of this subject is imposed upon us.
So large a number of abolitionists, convened from different sections of
the country, is at all times and under any circumstances, an interesting
spectacle to the eye of the philanthropist, how doubly delightful then
is it, to me, whose interests and feelings so largely partake in the
object you have in view, to behold this convention engaged in solemn
deliberation upon those subjects employed to promote the improvement of
the condition of the African race.
* * * * *
Assembled as this convention is, for the promotion and extension of its
beneficent and humane views and principles, I would respectfully beg
leave to lay before it a few remarks upon the character, condition, and
wants of the afflicted and divided people of Hayti, as they, and that
island, may be connected with plans for the emigration of the free
people of color of the United States.
God in the mysterious operation of his providence has seen fit to permit
the most astonishing changes to transpire upon that naturally beautiful
and (as to soil and productions) astonishingly luxuriant island.
The abominable principles, both of action and belief, which pervaded
France during the long series of vicissitudes which until recently she
has experienced, extended to Hayti, or Santo Domingo have undoubtedly
had an extensive influence upon the character, sentiments, and feelings
of all descriptions of its present inhabitants.
This magnificent and extensive island which has by travellers and
historians been often denominated the "paradise of the New World," seems
from its situation, extent, climate, and fertility peculiarly suited to
become an object of interest and attention to the many distinguished and
enlightened philanthropists whom God has been graciously pleased to
inspire with a zeal for the promotion of the best interests of the
descendants of Africa. The recent proceedings in several of the slave
States toward the free population of color in those States seem to
render it highly probable that that oppressed class of the community
will soon be obliged to flee to the free States for protection. If the
two rival Governments of Hayti were consolidated into one well-balanced
pacific power, there are many hundred of the free people in the New
England and Middle States who would be glad to repair there immediately
to settle, and believing that the period has arrived, when many zealous
friends to abolition and emancipation are of opinion that it is time for
them to act in relation to an asylum for such persons as shall be
emancipated from slavery, or for such portion of the free colored
population at present existing in the United States, as shall feel
disposed to emigrate, and being aware that the authorities of Hayti are
themselves desirous of receiving emigrants from this country, are among
the considerations which have induced me to lay this subject before the
convention.
The present spirit of rivalry which exists between the two chiefs in the
French part of the island, and the consequent belligerent aspect and
character of the country, may at first sight appear somewhat
discouraging to the beneficent views and labors of the friends of peace;
but these I am inclined to think are by no means to be considered as
insurmountable barriers against the benevolent exertions of those
Christian philanthropists whose sincere and hearty desire it is to
reunite and pacify them.
There seems to be no probability of their ever being reconciled to each
other without the philanthropic interposition and mediation of those who
have the welfare of the African race at heart. And where, in the whole
circle of practical Christian philanthropy and active beneficence, is
there so ample a field for the exertion of those heaven-born virtues as
in that hitherto distracted region? In those unhappy divisions which
exist in Hayti is strikingly exemplified the saying which is written in
the sacred oracles, "that when men forsake the true worship and service
of the only true God, and bow down to images of silver, and gold, and
four-footed beasts and creeping things, and become contentious with each
other," says the inspired writer, "in such a state of things trust ye
not a friend, put ye not confidence in a guide; keep the doors of thy
mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom; for there the son dishonoreth
the father, and the daughter riseth up against her mother, the
daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and a man's enemies shall be
those of his own house."
Had the venerable prophet in the foregoing predictions alluded expressly
and entirely to the actual moral, political, and above all, to the
religious character and condition of the Haytians, he could scarcely
have given a more correct description of it.
For there is scarcely a family whose members are not separated from each
other, and arrayed under the banners of the rival chiefs, in virtual
hostility against each other. In many instances the husband is with
Henry, and the wife and children with Boyer, and there are other
instances in which the heads of the family are with Boyer, and the other
members with Henry.
Let it be distinctly remembered, that these divided and distressed
individuals are not permitted to hold any intercourse with each other;
so that it is only when some very extraordinary occurrence transpires,
that persons in the different sections of the country receive any kind
of information from their nearest relatives and friends.
"Blessed are the peacemakers," is the language of that celestial
law-giver, who taught as never man taught; and his religion uniformly
assures the obedient recipients of his spirit, that they shall be
rewarded according to the extent, fidelity, and sincerity of their works
of piety and beneficence.
And if, according to the magnitude of the object in all its political,
benevolent, humane, and Christian relations, the quantum of recompense
is to be awarded and apprised to the just, to how large a share of the
benediction of our blessed Savior to the promoters of peace shall those
be authorized to expect who may be made the instruments of the
pacification and reunion of the Haytian people? Surely the blessings of
thousands who are, as it were, ready to perish, must inevitably come
upon them.
When I reflect that it was in this city that the first abolition society
that was formed in the world was established, I am strongly encouraged
to hope, that here also there may originate a plan, which shall be the
means of restoring many of our fellow beings to the embraces of their
families and friends, and place that whole country upon the basis of
unanimity and perpetual peace.
If the American Convention should in their wisdom think it expedient to
adopt measures for attempting to affect a pacification of the Haytians,
it is most heartily believed, that their benevolent views would be
hailed and concurred in with alacrity and delight by the English
philanthropists.
It is moreover believed that a concern so stupendous in its relations,
and bearing upon the cause of universal abolition and emancipation, and
to the consequent improvement and elevation of the African race, would
tend to awaken an active and a universally deep and active interest in
the minds of that numerous host of abolitionists in Great Britain, whom
we trust have the best interests of the descendants of Africa deeply at
heart.
TOUSSAINT L'OUVERTURE AND THE HAYTIAN REVOLUTIONS[2]
BY JAMES MCCUNE SMITH, M. A., M. D.
[Note 2: Extracts from a lecture delivered at the Stuyvesant
Institute, New York, for the benefit of the Colored Orphan Asylum,
February 26, 1841.]
_Ladies and Gentlemen:_
Whilst the orgies of the French revolution thrust forward a being whose
path was by rivers of blood, the horrors of Santo Domingo produced one
who was pre-eminently a peacemaker--TOUSSAINT L'OUVERTURE.
In estimating the character of Toussaint L'Ouverture, regard must be
paid, not to the enlightened age in which he lived, but to the rank in
society from which he sprang--a rank which must be classed with a remote
and elementary age of mankind.
Born forty-seven years before the commencement of the revolt, he had
reached the prime of manhood, a slave, with a soul uncontaminated by the
degradation which surrounded him. Living in a state of society where
worse than polygamy was actually urged, we find him at this period
faithful to one wife--the wife of his youth--and the father of an
interesting family. Linked with such tender ties, and enlightened with
some degree of education, which his indulgent master, M. Bayou, had
given him, he fulfilled, up to the moment of the revolt, the duties of
a Christian man in slavery.
At the time of the insurrection--in which he took no part--he continued
in the peaceable discharge of his duties as coachman; and when the
insurgents approached the estate whereon he lived, he accomplished the
flight of M. Bayou, whose kind treatment (part of this kindness was
teaching this slave to read and write) he repaid by forwarding to him
produce for his maintenance while in exile in these United States.
Having thus faithfully acquitted himself as a slave, he turned towards
the higher destinies which awaited him as a freeman. With a mind stored
with patient reflection upon the biographies of men, the most eminent in
civil and military affairs; and deeply versed in the history of the most
remarkable revolutions that had yet occurred amongst mankind, he entered
the army of the insurgents under Jean Francois. This chief rapidly
promoted him to the offices of physician to the forces, aid-de-camp, and
colonel. Jean Francois, in alliance with the Spaniards, maintained war
at this time for the cause of royalty.
Whilst serving under this chief, Toussaint beheld another civil war
agitating the French colony. On one side, the French Commissioners, who
had acknowledged the emancipation of the slaves, maintained war for the
Republic; on the other side, the old noblesse, or planters, fought under
the royal banner, having called in the aid of the British forces in
order to re-establish slavery and the ancient regime.
In this conflict, unmindful of their solemn oaths against the decree of
the 15th of May, 1791, the whites of both parties, including the
planters, hesitated not to fight in the same ranks, shoulder to
shoulder, with the blacks. Caste was forgotten in the struggle for
principles!
At this juncture Jean Francois, accompanied by his principal officers,
and possessed of all the honors and emoluments of a captain-general in
the service of his Catholic Majesty, retired to Spain, leaving Toussaint
at liberty to choose his party. Almost immediately joining that standard
which acknowledged and battled for equal rights to all men, he soon
rendered signal service to the Commissioners, by driving the Spaniards
from the northern, and by holding the British at bay in the eastern part
of the island. For these services he was raised to the rank of general
by the French commander at Porte-aux-Paix, General Laveaux, a promotion
which he soon repaid by saving that veteran's life under the following
circumstances: Villate, a mulatto general, envious of the honors
bestowed on Toussaint, treacherously imprisoned General Laveaux in Cape
Francois. Immediately upon hearing this fact, Toussaint hastened to the
Cape at the head of 10,000 men and liberated his benefactor. And, at the
very moment of his liberation, a commission arrived from France
appointing General Laveaux Governor of the Colony; his first official
act was to proclaim Toussaint his lieutenant. "This is the black," said
Laveaux, "predicted by Raynal, and who is destined to avenge the
outrages committed against his whole race." A remark soon verified, for
on his attainment of the supreme power, Toussaint avenged those
injuries--by forgiveness!
As an acknowledgment for his eminent services against the British, and
against the mulattoes, who, inflamed with all the bitterness of _caste_,
had maintained a sanguinary war under their great leader Rigaud, in the
southern part of the colony, the Commissioners invested Toussaint with
the office and dignity of general-in-chief of Santo Domingo.
From that moment began the full development of the vast and versatile
genius of this extraordinary man. Standing amid the terrible, because
hostile, fragments of two revolutions, harassed by the rapacious greed
of commissioners upon commissioners, who, successively dispatched from
France, hid beneath a republican exterior a longing after the spoils;
with an army in the field accustomed by five years' experience to all
the license of civil war, Toussaint, with a giant hand, seized the reins
of government, reduced these conflicting elements to harmony and order,
and raised the colony to nearly its former prosperity, his lofty
intellect always delighting to effect its object rather by the tangled
mazes of diplomacy than by the strong arm of physical force, yet
maintaining a steadfast and unimpeached adherence to truth, his word,
and his honor.
General Maitland, commander of the British forces, finding the reduction
of the island to be utterly hopeless, signed a treaty with Toussaint for
the evacuation of all the posts which he held. "Toussaint then paid him
a visit, and was received with military honors. After partaking of a
grand entertainment, he was presented by General Maitland, in the name
of His Majesty, with a splendid service of plate, and put in possession
of the government-house which had been built and furnished by the
English."
* * * * *
Buonaparte, on becoming First Consul, sent out the confirmation of
Toussaint as commander-in-chief, who, with views infinitely beyond the
short-sighted and selfish vision of the Commissioners, proclaimed a
general amnesty to the planters who had fled during the revolutions,
earnestly invited their return to the possession of their estates, and,
with a delicate regard to their feelings, decreed that the epithet
"emigrant" should not be applied to them. Many of the planters accepted
the invitation, and returned to the peaceful possession of their
estates.
In regard to the army of Toussaint, General Lacroix, one of the planters
who returned, affirms "that never was a European army subjected to a
more rigid discipline than that which was observed by the troops of
Toussaint." Yet this army was converted by the commander-in-chief into
industrious laborers, by the simple expedient of _paying them for their
labor_. "When he restored many of the planters to their estates, there
was no restoration of their former property in human beings. No human
being was to be bought or sold. Severe tasks, flagellations, and scanty
food were no longer to be endured. The planters were obliged to employ
their laborers on the footing of hired servants." "And under this
system," says Lacroix, "the colony advanced, as if by enchantment
towards its ancient splendor; cultivation was extended with such
rapidity that every day made its progress more perceptible. All
appeared to be happy, and regarded Toussaint as their guardian angel. In
making a tour of the island, he was hailed by the blacks with universal
joy, nor was he less a favorite of the whites."
Toussaint, having effected a bloodless conquest of the Spanish
territory, had now become commander of the entire island. Performing all
the executive duties, he made laws to suit the exigency of the times.
His Egeria was temperance accompanied with a constant activity of body
and mind.
The best proof of the entire success of his government is contained in
the comparative views of the exports of the island, before the
revolutions, and during the administration of Toussaint. Bear in mind
that, "before the revolution there were 450,000 slave laborers working
with a capital in the shape of buildings, mills, fixtures, and
implements, which had been accumulating during a century. Under
Toussaint there were 290,000 free laborers, many of them just from the
army or the mountains, working on plantations that had undergone the
devastation of insurrection and a seven years' war."
* * * * *
In consequence of the almost entire cessation of official communication
with France, and for other reasons equally good, Toussaint thought it
necessary for the public welfare to frame a new constitution for the
government of the island. With the aid of M. Pascal, Abbe Moliere, and
Marinit, he drew up a constitution, and submitted the same to a General
Assembly convened from every district, and by that assembly the
constitution was adopted. It was subsequently promulgated in the name
of the people. And, on the 1st of July, 1801, the island was declared to
be an independent State, in which _all men_, without regard to
complexion or creed, possessed _equal rights_.
This proceeding was subsequently sanctioned by Napoleon Buonaparte,
whilst First Consul. In a letter to Toussaint, he says, "We have
conceived for you esteem, and we wish to recognize and proclaim the
great services you have rendered the French people. If their colors fly
on Santo Domingo, it is to you and your brave blacks that we owe it.
Called by your talents and the force of circumstances to the chief
command, you have terminated the civil war, put a stop to the
persecutions of some ferocious men, and restored to honor the religion
and the worship of God, from whom all things come. The situation in
which you were placed, surrounded on all sides by enemies, and without
the mother country being able to succor or sustain you, has rendered
legitimate the articles of that constitution."
Although Toussaint enforced the duties of religion, he entirely severed
the connection between Church and State. He rigidly enforced all the
duties of morality, and would not suffer in his presence even the
approach to indecency of dress or manner. "Modesty," said he, "is the
defense of woman."
The chief, nay the idol of an army of 100,000 well-trained and
acclimated troops ready to march or sail where he wist, Toussaint
refrained from raising the standard of liberty in any one of the
neighboring island, at a time when, had he been fired with what men
term ambition, he could easily have revolutionized the entire
archipelago of the west. But his thoughts were bent on conquest of
another kind; he was determined to overthrow an _error_ which designing
and interested men had craftily instilled into the civilized world,--a
belief in the natural inferiority of the Negro race. It was the glory
and the warrantable boast of Toussaint that he had been the instrument
of demonstrating that, even with the worst odds against them, this race
is entirely capable of achieving liberty and of self-government. He did
more: by abolishing caste he proved the artificial nature of such
distinctions, and further demonstrated that even slavery cannot unfit
men for the full exercise of all the functions which belong to free
citizens.
"Some situations of trust were filled by free Negroes and mulattoes, who
had been in respectable circumstances under the old Government; but
others were occupied by Negroes, and even by Africans, who had recently
emerged from the lowest condition of slavery."
But the bright and happy state of things which the genius of Toussaint
had almost created out of elements the most discordant was doomed to be
of short duration. For the dark spirit of Napoleon, glutted, but not
satiated with the glory banquet afforded at the expense of Europe and
Africa, seized upon this, the most beautiful and happy of the
Hesperides, as the next victim of its remorseless rapacity.
With the double intention of getting rid of the republican army, and
reducing back to slavery the island of Hayti, he sent out his
brother-in-law, General Leclerc, with 26 ships of war and 25,000 men.
Like Leonidas at Thermopylae, or the Bruce at Bannockburn, Toussaint
determined to defend from thraldom his sea-girt isle, made sacred to
liberty by the baptism of blood.
On the 28th of January, 1802, Leclerc arrived off the bay of Samana,
from the promontory of which Toussaint, in anxious alarm, beheld for the
first time in his life so large an armament. "We must all perish," said
he, "all France has come to Santo Domingo!" But this despondency passed
away in a moment, and then this man, who had been a kindly-treated
slave, prepared to oppose to the last that system which he now
considered worse than death.
It is impossible, after so long a tax on your patience, to enter on a
detailed narration of the conflict which ensued. The hour of trial
served only to develop and ennoble the character of Toussaint, who rose,
with misfortune, above the allurements of rank and wealth which were
offered as the price of his submission; and the very ties of parental
love he yielded to the loftier sentiment of patriotism.
On the 2d of February, a division of Leclerc's army, commanded by
General Rochambeau, an old planter, landed at Fort Dauphin, and
ruthlessly murdered many of the inhabitants (freedmen) who, unarmed, had
been led by curiosity to the beach, in order to witness the
disembarkation of the troops.
Christophe, one of the generals of Toussaint, commanding at Cape
Francois, having resisted the menaces and the flattery of Leclerc,
reduced that ill-fated town to ashes, and retired with his troops into
the mountains, carrying with him 2,000 of the white inhabitants of the
Cape, who were protected from injury during the fierce war which ensued.
Having full possession of the plain of the Cape, Leclerc, with a
proclamation of liberty in his hand, in March following re-established
slavery with all its former cruelties.
This treacherous movement thickened the ranks of Toussaint, who
thenceforward so vigorously pressed his opponent, that as a last resort,
Leclerc broke the shackles of the slave, and proclaimed "Liberty and
equality to all the inhabitants of Santo Domingo."
This proclamation terminated the conflict for the time. Christophe and
Dessalines, general officers, and at length Toussaint himself,
capitulated, and, giving up the command of the island to Leclerc, he
retired, at the suggestion of that officer, to enjoy rest and the sweet
endearments of his family circle, on one of his estates near Gonaives.
At this place he had remained about one month, when, without any
adequate cause, Leclerc caused him to be seized, and to be placed on
board of a ship of war, in which he was conveyed to France, where,
without trial or condemnation, he was imprisoned in a loathsome and
unhealthy dungeon. Unaccustomed to the chill and damp of this
prison-house, the aged frame of Toussaint gave way, and he died.
In this meagre outline of his life I have presented simply facts,
gleaned, for the most part, from the unwilling testimony of his foes,
and therefore resting on good authority. The highest encomium on his
character is contained in the fact that Napoleon believed that by
capturing him he would be able to re-enslave Hayti; and even this
encomium is, if possible, rendered higher by the circumstances which
afterward transpired, which showed that his principles were so
thoroughly disseminated among his brethren, that, without the presence
of Toussaint, they achieved that liberty which he had taught them so
rightly to estimate.
The capture of Toussaint spread like wild-fire through the island, and
his principal officers again took the field. A fierce and sanguinary war
ensued, in which the French gratuitously inflicted the most awful
cruelties on their prisoners, many of whom having been hunted with
bloodhounds, were carried in ships to some distance from the shore,
murdered in cold blood, and cast into the sea; their corpses were thrown
by the waves back upon the beach, and filled the air with pestilence, by
which the French troops perished in large numbers. Leclerc having
perished by pestilence, his successor, Rochambeau, when the conquest of
the island was beyond possibility, became the cruel perpetrator of these
bloody deeds.
Thus it will be perceived that treachery and massacre were begun on the
side of the French. I place emphasis on these facts in order to endeavor
to disabuse the public mind of an attempt to attribute to emancipation
the acts of retaliation resorted to by the Haytians in _imitation_ of
what the enlightened French had taught them. In two daily papers of this
city there were published, a year since, a series of articles entitled
the "Massacres of Santo Domingo."
The "massacres" are not attributable to emancipation, for we have proved
otherwise in regard to the first of them. The other occurred in 1804,
twelve years after the slaves had disenthralled themselves. Fearful as
the latter may have been, it did not equal the atrocities previously
committed on the Haytians by the French. And the massacre was restricted
to the white French inhabitants, whom Dessalines, the Robespierre of the
island, suspected of an attempt to bring back slavery, with the aid of a
French force yet hovering in the neighborhood.
And if we search for the cause of this massacre, we may trace it to the
following source: Nations which are pleased to term themselves civilized
have one sort of faith which they hold to one another, and another sort
which they entertain towards people less advanced in refinement. The
faith which they entertain towards the latter is, very often, treachery,
in the vocabulary of the civilized. It was treachery towards Toussaint
that caused the massacre of Santo Domingo; it was treachery towards
Osceola that brought bloodhounds into Florida!
General Rochambeau, with the remnant of the French army, having been
reduced to the dread necessity of striving "to appease the calls of
hunger by feeding on horses, mules, and the very dogs that had been
employed in hunting down and devouring the Negroes," evacuated the
island in the autumn of 1803, and Hayti thenceforward became an
independent State.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I have now laid before you a concise view of the
revolutions of Hayti in the relation of cause and effect; and I trust
you will now think, that, so far from being scenes of indiscriminate
massacre from which we should turn our eyes in horror, these revolutions
constitute an epoch worthy of the anxious study of every American
citizen.
Among the many lessons that may be drawn from this portion of history is
one not unconnected with the present occasion. From causes to which I
need not give a name, there is gradually creeping into our otherwise
prosperous state the incongruous and undermining influence of _caste_.
One of the local manifestations of this unrepublican sentiment is, that
while 800 children, chiefly of foreign parents, are educated and taught
trades at the expense of all the citizens, colored children are excluded
from these privileges.
With the view to obviate the evils of such an unreasonable proscription,
a few ladies of this city, by their untiring exertions, have organized
an "Asylum for Colored Orphans." Their zeal in this cause is infinitely
beyond all praise of mine, for their deeds of mercy are smiled on by Him
who has declared, that "Whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these
little ones a cup of cold water, shall in no wise lose her reward." Were
any further argument needed to urge them on in their blessed work, I
would point out to them the revolutions of Hayti, where, in the midst of
the orgies and incantations of civil war, there appeared, as a spirit of
peace, the patriot, the father, the benefactor of mankind--Toussaint
L'Ouverture, a freedman, who had been taught to read while in slavery!
LIBERIA: ITS STRUGGLES AND ITS PROMISES[3]
BY HON. HILARY TEAGUE
_Senator at Monrovia, Liberia_
[Note 3: A speech delivered in 1846, on the anniversary of the
founding of the Republic of Liberia.]
As far back towards the infancy of our race as history and tradition are
able to conduct us, we have found the custom everywhere prevailing among
mankind, to mark by some striking exhibition, those events which were
important and interesting, either in their immediate bearing or in their
remote consequences upon the destiny of those among whom they occurred.
These events are epochs in the history of man; they mark the rise and
fall of kingdoms and of dynasties; they record the movements of the
human mind, and the influence of those movements upon the destinies of
the race; and whilst they frequently disclose to us the sad and
sickening spectacle of innocence bending under the yoke of injustice,
and of weakness robbed and despoiled by the hand of an unscrupulous
oppression, they occasionally display, as a theme for admiring
contemplation, the sublime spectacle of the human mind, roused by a
concurrence of circumstances, to vigorous advances in the career of
improvement.
The utility of thus marking the progress of time--of recording the
occurrence of events, and of holding up remarkable personages to the
contemplation of mankind--is too obvious to need remark. It arises from
the instincts of mankind, the irrepressible spirit of emulation, and the
ardent longings after immortality; and this restless passion to
perpetuate their existence which they find it impossible to suppress,
impels them to secure the admiration of succeeding generations in the
performance of deeds, by which, although dead, they may yet speak. In
commemorating events thus powerful in forming the manners and sentiments
of mankind, and in rousing them to strenuous exertion and to high and
sustained emulation, it is obvious that such, and such only, should be
selected as virtue and humanity would approve; and that, if any of an
opposite character be held up, they should be displayed only as beacons,
or as towering Pharos throwing a strong but lurid light to mark the
melancholy grave of mad ambition, and to warn the inexperienced voyager
of the existing danger.
Thanks to the improved and humanized spirit--or should I not rather say,
the chastened and pacific civilization of the age in which we
live?--that laurels gathered upon the field of mortal strife, and
bedewed with the tears of the widow and the orphan, are regarded now,
not with admiration, but with horror; that the armed warrior, reeking in
the gore of murdered thousands, who, in the age that is just passing
away, would have been hailed with noisy acclamation by the senseless
crowd, is now regarded only as the savage commissioner of an unsparing
oppression, or at best, as the ghostly executioner of an unpitying
justice. He who would embalm his name in the grateful remembrance of
coming generations; he who would secure for himself a niche in the
temple of undying fame; he who would hew out for himself a monument of
which his country may boast; he who would entail upon heirs a name which
they may be proud to wear, must seek some other field than that of
battle as the theatre of his exploits.
We have not yet numbered twenty-six years since he who is the oldest
colonist amongst us was the inhabitant--not the citizen--of a country,
and that, too, the country of his birth, where the prevailing sentiment
is, that he and his race are incapacitated by an inherent defect in
their mental constitution, to enjoy that greatest of all blessings, and
to exercise that greatest of all rights, bestowed by a beneficent God
upon his rational creatures, namely, the government of themselves by
themselves. Acting upon this opinion, an opinion as false as it is
foul--acting upon this opinion, as upon a self-evident proposition,
those who held it proceeded with a fiendish consistency to deny the
rights of citizens to those whom they had declared incapable of
performing the duties of citizens. It is not necessary, and therefore I
will not disgust you with the hideous picture of that state of things
which followed upon the prevalence of this blasphemous theory. The bare
mention that such an opinion prevailed would be sufficient to call up in
the mind, even of those who had never witnessed its operation, images of
the most sickening and revolting character. Under the iron reign of this
crushing sentiment, most of us who are assembled here to-day drew our
first breath, and sighed away the years of our youth. No hope cheered
us; no noble object looming in the dim and distant future kindled our
ambition. Oppression--cold, cheerless oppression, like the dreary region
of eternal winter,--chilled every noble passion and fettered and
paralyzed every arm. And if among the oppressed millions there were
found here and there one in whose bosom the last glimmer of a generous
passion was not yet extinguished--one, who, from the midst of inglorious
slumberers in the deep degradation around him, would lift up his voice
and demand those rights which the God of nature hath bestowed in equal
gift upon all His rational creatures, he was met at once, by those who
had at first denied and then enforced, with the stern reply that for him
and for all his race, liberty and expatriation are inseparable.
Dreadful as the alternative was, fearful as was the experiment now
proposed to be tried, there were hearts equal to the task; hearts which
quailed not at the dangers which loomed and frowned in the distance, but
calm, cool, and fixed in their purpose, prepared to meet them with the
watchword, "Give me liberty or give me death."
Passing by intermediate events, which, did the time allow, it would be
interesting to notice, we hasten to the grand event--the era of our
separate existence, when the American flag first flung out its graceful
folds to the breeze on the heights of Mesurado, and the pilgrims,
relying upon the protection of Heaven and the moral grandeur of their
cause, took solemn possession of the land in the name of Virtue,
Humanity, and Religion.
It would discover an unpardonable apathy were we to pass on without
pausing a moment to reflect upon the emotions which heaved the bosoms of
the pilgrims, when they stood for the first time where we now stand.
What a prospect spread out before them! They stood in the midst of an
ancient wilderness, rank and compacted with the growth of a thousand
years, unthinned and unreclaimed by a single stroke of the woodman's
axe. Few and far between might be found inconsiderable openings, where
the ignorant native erected his rude habitation, or savage as his
patrimonial wilderness, celebrated his bloody rites, and presented his
votive gifts to demons. The rainy season--that terrible ordeal of
foreign constitutions--was about setting in; the lurid lightning shot
its fiery bolts into the forest around them, the thunder muttered its
angry tones over their head, and the frail tenements, the best which
their circumstances could afford, to shield them from a scorching sun by
day and drenching rains at night, had not yet been completed. To suppose
that at this time, when all things above and around them seemed to
combine their influence against them; to suppose they did not perceive
the full danger and magnitude of the enterprise they had embarked in,
would be to suppose, not that they were heroes, but that they had lost
the sensibility of men. True courage is equally remote from blind
recklessness and unmanning timidity; and true heroism does not consist
in insensibility to danger. He is a hero who calmly meets, and
fearlessly grapples with the dangers which duty and honor forbid him to
decline. The pilgrims rose to a full perception of all the circumstances
of their condition. But when they looked back to that country from
which they had come, and remembered the degradations in that house of
bondage out of which they had been so fortunate as to escape, they
bethought themselves; and, recollecting the high satisfaction with which
they knew success would gladden their hearts, the rich inheritance they
would entail upon their children, and the powerful aid it would lend to
the cause of universal humanity, they yielded to the noble inspiration
and girded them to the battle either for doing or for suffering.
Let it not be supposed, because I have laid universal humanity under a
tribute of gratitude to the founders of Liberia, that I have attached to
their humble achievements too important an influence in that grand
system of agencies which is now at work, renovating human society, and
purifying and enlarging the sources of its enjoyment. In the system of
that Almighty Being, without whose notice not a sparrow falls to the
ground,
"Who sees, with equal eye as God of all,
A hero perish, or a sparrow fall,
Atoms or systems into ruin hurled,
And now a bubble-burst, and now a world."
"Righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people."
All attempts to correct the depravity of man, to stay the headlong
propensity to vice, to abate the madness of ambition, will be found
deplorably inefficient, unless we apply the restrictions and the
tremendous sanctions of religion. A profound regard and deference for
religion, a constant recognition of our dependence upon God, and of our
obligation and accountability to Him; an ever-present, ever-pressing
sense of His universal and all-controlling providence, this, and only
this, can give energy to the arm of law, cool the raging fever of the
passions, and abate the lofty pretensions of mad ambition. In
prosperity, let us bring out our thank-offering, and present it with
cheerful hearts in orderly, virtuous, and religious conduct. In
adversity, let us consider, confess our sins, and abase ourselves before
the throne of God. In danger, let us go to Him, whose prerogative it is
to deliver; let us go to Him, with the humility and confidence which a
deep conviction that the battle is not to the strong nor the race to the
swift, is calculated to inspire.
Fellow citizens! we stand now on ground never occupied by a people
before. However insignificant we may regard ourselves, the eyes of
Europe and America are upon us, as a germ, destined to burst from its
enclosure in the earth, unfold its petals to the genial air, rise to the
height and swell to the dimensions of the full-grown tree, or
(inglorious fate) to shrivel, to die, and to be buried in oblivion.
Rise, fellow citizens, rise to a clear and full perception of your
tremendous responsibilities! Upon you, rely upon it, depends in a
measure you can hardly conceive the future destiny of your race.
You--you are to give the answer, whether the African race is doomed to
unterminable degradation, a hideous blot on the fair face of Creation, a
libel upon the dignity of human nature, or whether it is capable to take
an honorable rank amongst the great family of nations! The friends of
the colony are trembling: The enemies of the colored man are hoping.
Say, fellow citizens, will you palsy the hands of your friends and
sicken their hearts, and gladden the souls of your enemies, by a base
refusal to enter upon a career of glory which is now opening so
propitiously before you? The genius of universal emancipation, bending
from her lofty seat, invites you to accept the wreath of national
independence. The voice of your friends, swelling upon the breeze, cries
to you from afar--Raise your standard! Assert your independence! throw
out your banners to the wind! And will the descendants of the mighty
Pharaohs, that awed the world; will the sons of him who drove back the
serried legions of Rome and laid siege to the "eternal city"--will they,
the achievements of whose fathers are yet the wonder and admiration of
the world--will they refuse the proffered boon? Never! never!! never!!!
Shades of the mighty dead! spirits of departed great ones! inspire us,
animate us to the task; nerve us for the battle! Pour into our bosom a
portion of that ardor and patriotism which bore you on to battle, to
victory, and to conquest. Shall Liberia live? Yes; in the generous
emotions now swelling in your bosom; in the high and noble purpose--now
fixing itself in your mind, and referring into the unyieldingness of
indomitable principle, we hear the inspiring response--Liberia shall
live before God and before the nations of the earth!
The night is passing away; the dusky shades are fleeing and even now
"Jocund day stands tiptoe
On the misty mountain top."
WHAT TO THE SLAVE IS THE FOURTH OF JULY?[4]
BY FREDERICK DOUGLASS
[Note 4: Extract from an oration delivered by Frederick Douglass at
Rochester, N. Y., July 5, 1852.]
FREDERICK DOUGLASS, _the greatest of Negro orators, though born and
reared a slave, attained great eminence in the world. After a successful
career as lecturer and editor and author, he held successively the
positions of Secretary to the Santo Domingo Commission, 1871;
Presidential Elector for the State of New York, 1872; United States
Marshal for the District of Columbia, 1876-81; Recorder of Deeds for the
District, 1881-86; Minister to Hayti, 1889-91._
_Fellow Citizens:_