_Eminent Colored Men and Women--Bishop Daniel E. Payne--Frederick
Douglass--His Life and Times--Mrs. Frances Ellen Harper--Miss Louise de
Mortie._
One of the hardest things in the world is to keep down a man who is
determined to rise. He comes up like a plant of spontaneous growth, and
the more we try to keep him down, the more he will persevere in his
determination to stand upon his own feet like other men. This was often
shown in the days before the war, when the bold, intrepid slave, who
clearly saw that the whole system was wrong, made up his mind at least
to be free, and the next thing we hear of him is a daring and successful
attempt to shake off the chains of slavery, through his successful
escape to the free States of the North, or to Canada, or even to Europe.
But this determined spirit to at least be free, did not confine itself
merely to such adventurous and successful escapes, but assumed the form
of acquiring an education also; and no better illustration of this can
be given than that of the late Bishop Daniel E. Payne, of the A. M. E.
Church, who was born in South Carolina, in the year 1811. The heinous
system of slavery in that rebellious State treated as a crime the
teaching of any slave or free colored person whatsoever. But Daniel E.
Payne had an unquenchable thirst for knowledge, and in order to flank
the evil system that then prevailed, and to gain that knowledge to which
he was as much entitled as the President of the United States himself,
he procured the assistance of a friendly white man, who taught him in a
cellar, where neither friend nor foe could see what they were doing.
Daniel was an apt and clever student, and above all things, as the Bible
says, "He had a mind to work," and an enthusiastic mind at that. It did
not take this young hero long to take in the entire situation regarding
slave lands and slavery when once his mind had begun to expand. Like
Moses and many other famous leaders, the Lord had work for him to do,
and he was preparing him for it at this time.
Young Payne saw that South Carolina was no place for him, and that the
first duty he owed to himself was to get away as best he could, to the
Northern States, where he could enjoy his own manly and manful rights.
As fortune favors the brave, he succeeded in making his escape, and his
freedom being now secure, he made all due haste to become that eminent
scholar, who was destined by the will of God, to become a leader and an
instructor of his people. He connected himself with the A. M. E. Church,
and through and by means of that powerful body he did mighty things for
the education of his own people, both before the war and after it. He
has justly been called "The Apostle of Education," and what the great
Fred. Douglass was in the political world, Daniel E. Payne was in the
educational and intellectual world. Such a man as Bishop Payne should be
revered as a philanthropist for all coming time. The colored race will
never be able to say that they are out of his debt. At last he was made
a bishop of his own church, and became the head of Wilberforce
University, in Ohio--a glorious institution that had made itself felt by
its influence over all this nation. Bishop Payne was sent to Europe for
a time in the interest of his church, and his high qualities were
everywhere honored by the Christian and scholars across the Atlantic.
Thus we see in Daniel Payne a diamond in the rough, in the slave State
of South Carolina, but by the predetermined will of God, brought to the
free North and polished, as it were, by the hand of the jeweler. We see
all the work that the great Creator had given him to do, and how well he
did it, too. And what we have said of Payne could as well be said of
thousands of others--men in whom the spirit of right and ambition
dwells; men who ever forge to the front: men whom God helps, because He
sees that they are also willing to help themselves.
[Illustration: _SOUTHERN CHIVALRY--ARGUMENT VERSUS CLUB'S._]
We next come to the far-famed and highly-celebrated Frederick Douglass,
renowned over all the earth wherever honest worth is appreciated and
valued by the civilized sons and daughters of Adam. The name of "Fred.
Douglass," as he is affectionately called, stands out in alto-relief
with that of John Bunyan, George Washington, and some few others who
carry fame and goodness with them at one and the same time. Nobody seems
to be jealous of them nor envy them, for their fame is far beyond the
reach of jealousy or envy. It would be a difficult thing to find a
village, valley or an isle of any ocean on the face of the globe where
the familiar endearing name of Fred. Douglass has not been heard. The
children growing up at their mothers' knees have learned to lisp it as a
name to be revered; and when they grow up to man's estate, nothing will
content them until they have read the life of the famous Fred. Douglass.
The opinion, or rather the belief, has prevailed in America that Fred.
Douglass was the son of a white father and colored mother, and that
white father has been supposed to have been his owner. But in the
history of his own life and times, published a few years ago, Douglass
positively affirms that both his parents were colored, and for my own
part I believe that to be the truth. As men like Fred. Douglass are very
few and far between, the wish among many of the anti-slavery school, at
least, seems to have been father to the thought that so clever a man
could never have been the offspring of colored parents, but that his
father, at least, must have been white. Not so, by any means! Fred.
himself makes it quite plain that his father and mother were both
colored, and he tells us all about it in his usual modest way.
Fred. Douglass was born in the region called Tuckahoe Neck, in Talbot
county, on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, in the year 1817. There is
something unusually sad and plaintive about the way in which the poor
child was separated from his own father and mother, and how he came up
on the rough side of the mountain of slavery. The poor lad was subjected
not only to the purest barbarities, but had to undergo treatment that
may be called sheer cowardice on the part of his tormentors. Well might
the Prophet exclaim, "How long, O Lord, how long?" Whilst he was a boy,
growing up at Baltimore, his mistress kindly taught him his letters, and
went some way in giving him further instructions, till at last his
master advised her to stop teaching him, as such things and slavery did
not work well together. No, indeed! They did not work well together,
especially in the heart and soul of a boy like Fred., who already began
to look into the workings of the curse of slavery. To stop Fred. from
learning was now impossible. One might as well dam up a mountain rill
with one's hands--it would simply flow over the top of them, or round
about them. Nature will have her way, and the great Creator had
implanted the germ of liberty in the boy's heart, whose growth was not
to be kept down. After many ups and downs on the Eastern and Western
Shores of Maryland, when our hero had arrived at about the age of
twenty-one, in the year 1838, he resolved to make a bold stroke for
liberty; and accordingly, being dressed up like a sailor, he took the
train at Baltimore for Philadelphia, luckily escaping detection, and
having successfully run the gauntlet by the way, he landed upon the
platform of the Quaker City all right. But he did not consider himself
safe even here; so he left Philadelphia, still dressed in his sailor's
suit, and came on to the city of New York.
"Arise! Shine forth; for thy light has come, and the glory of the Lord
has risen upon thee!" Thus said the Prophet, and Fred. Douglass, in his
last book--the history of his life and times--almost sets up a perfect
yell of delight at having escaped from the horrors of slavery and being
a free man. The few days he spent in New York City among the friends of
the free must have been a perfect spring-time of life to him--free,
free, free, as the wild waves of the deep! Free to go where he pleased,
and to read and study what he liked. Our glorious youthful Fred.--this
splendid, well-built, stout-bodied young man of twenty-one, did a very
sensible thing whilst in New York. He had a lady-love at Baltimore, a
free young woman of color named Anna: but before he moved a step further
he sent for her to come on to New York City. So to New York she came,
and here the interesting young couple were married. This, indeed, was a
very lively stroke of business on the part of Frederick, but he was now
at the golden age of twenty-one; it was best for him to marry now,
because it would give him something to live and toil for, and also "give
ballast to his ship of life." The Great Creator and his daughter
"Nature" made no mistakes. My own marriage with my own beloved Tom has
been no failure. We have never repented of it, either of us. We could
have done no better. And so it was with Fred. Douglass and his beloved
Anna, from Baltimore. There never was a more manly bridegroom than he.
Above all things he was a Christian and a gentleman, in the very essence
of his nature; a man of lofty honor and principle, and with such a man
as that a young woman is forever in safety.
All this time, 1838, the Abolitionists were under full swing, led on by
William Lloyd Garrison, of Massachusetts, and backed up by all those who
beheld the dawn of freedom on the Eastern horizon. Garrison's paper,
"The Liberator," sent forth its blasts all over the Northern States; but
the North at that time abode in thick darkness as to the rights of
colored men to freedom on the self-same footing with themselves. And not
only did thick darkness cover the land, but entire legions and hosts of
the people were almost as much prejudiced upon the slave question as the
slave-holders of the South. They had no more idea of the grand,
self-elevating capabilities of the colored race than the child that was
unborn; and the ignorant masses of white people were certainly unwilling
to give them a chance. And our poor, dear Fred., now a married man, had
just to stand his chances, and run his risks with the rest, while the
untutored North was in such a crude and chaotic state. Therefore, on
account of the presence of so much ignorance and prejudice against men
of color in New York City, the friends of freedom considered it unsafe
for Frederick Douglass to remain there any longer, and advised him to
move on to New Bedford, in Massachusetts, where he would at least be out
of danger. We can never forget the honored name of Mr. David Ruggles, a
colored gentleman of New York City, in connection with these events. It
was he who mainly took charge of our hero and his wife in New York City,
and sent them on to New Bedford. And when they arrived in New Bedford,
they were met by one Mr. Nathan Johnson, a very intelligent and
industrious colored man, a warm friend of theirs, who advanced them a
sum of money to redeem their baggage, which was held for fare. He
advised Fred. to drop the name of Fred. Lloyd, and to call himself
"Fred. Douglass," as he (Nathan Johnson) had lately been reading of
Douglass, in Sir Walter Scott's novels, relating to Scotland and the
Scotch.
Being now in possession of his freedom, having a sweet young wife and a
home of his own, he had something to live for! Douglass had learned the
trade of the ship-builder, at Baltimore, but was unable to work at that
trade at New Bedford, on account of the prejudices of the white workmen
there against color, for had he taken his tools in among them and gone
to work, they would all at once have stopped work and left the yard.
Such was the character of even Northern men in the year 1838, but
Douglass was not the man to flinch. He was strong, hardy and handy at
almost everything. If he could not do one thing he could do another; and
therefore he picked up a living at anything that presented itself to
him.
The whole colored race are preeminently inquiring, and possess a thirst
and love for knowledge in the very highest degree. Fred. Douglass was a
splendid specimen of this noble trait of character. Being now his own
master, he literally devoured knowledge, and his splendid intellect
expanded, flourished and grew on apace like the growth of vegetation in
the tropics. He was no longer watched, or almost murdered, if he was
found with a book in his hand! He was no longer the so-called "property"
of a fellow calling himself his "owner," who robbed him of his week's
wages, and then pretended to make him a present of a quarter of his own
money to treat himself with! Oh, dear me, no! No more of that for him!
When this brave young man, this hero of twenty-one had done his day's
work, he came home to his beloved Anna at his cosy home in New Bedford,
and after he had his supper, the way was clear for a grand time reading
"The Liberator," which William Lloyd Garrison sent out every week, and
that fired the warm, receptive mind and heart of young Fred., so that
his fame as a brilliant conversationalist and a well-read man, spread
rapidly throughout the town. He had been often listened to as an
exhorter and unusually fervid speaker at the colored Methodist Church in
the town, and all men with sharp eyes perceived that another star had
risen in the intellectual heavens, and that some circumstance or other
would bring him to the front some day. And it came to pass as they had
prophesied!
In New Bedford Mr. Douglass had attended several meetings in defence of
the poor, oppressed slave; and there he had heard the most unmitigated
denunciation of the whole infamous system of slavery. The eloquent,
burning language of the speakers went home to his heart. In the summer
of 1841, when Douglass was twenty-four years old, an anti-slavery
convention was to be held at Nantucket, Massachusetts, a place not far
from New Bedford, and the convention would be under the management of
the famous William Lloyd Garrison, whose weekly paper, "The Liberator,"
Douglass had been devouring week by week with such unwonted avidity. He
determined to take a little respite from his hard work in the brass
foundry, and attend this gathering of anti-slavery people. There was a
great assemblage of people at Nantucket. The fires of enthusiasm on
behalf of the oppressed slave burned hot and high. In the midst of the
vast audience here assembled, there was one Mr. Wm. C. Coffin, who had
heard the eloquent and burning words of Frederick Douglass as he
harangued the little audiences of the colored Methodist Church in New
Bedford. Mr. Coffin sought out our unknown hero, and gave him such a
vigorous invitation to speak that his hesitancy, and bashfulness, and
backwardness were all entirely overcome, and Fred. Douglass, nothing
daunted, now mounted the platform, and made such an oration as filled
every thinking man and woman with astonishment. His simple, burning tale
of his own wrongs and experiences completely swept his audience away,
and like the Queen of Sheba, there seemed to be no more spirit left in
them. Fred. Douglass had come to stay!
The name and fame of Fred. Douglass arose like a brilliant and new star
in the heavens. He began to travel and lecture in different parts of the
New England States, and paid visits to other sections of the North. His
noble presence and splendid eloquence drew the eyes and ears of the
whole country. His great name crossed the Atlantic, and spread
throughout the British Isles. His powerful pen, in the columns of "The
Liberator," and elsewhere, added still further to his fame. Everybody
who hated and detested slavery desired to see him and to hear him speak.
He was a power in the anti-slavery party, and he himself laid the axe
most willingly with all his might and main. The question arose, "If one
colored man can do so much, what can the whole race do, if they were set
at liberty?" On account of the rising excitement all over the land on
the slavery question, in the year 1845, the friends of Mr. Douglass sent
him to England. In crossing the North Atlantic the passengers called
upon him to make a speech on the question of slavery, and he complied.
There were several gentlemen on board who most violently objected to any
such attacks on their holy (!) institution of slavery; but the captain
was master of his own vessel, and put down that Southern mutiny with a
strong hand. These pro-slavery gentlemen tried to justify their conduct
afterwards in the London papers; but John Bull would not hear them, and
it was simply a splendid advertisement for the fair name and fame of Mr.
Douglass.
For two years he travelled the British Isles, speaking upon the subject
of American slavery. He was received well everywhere, and the fine
spreading plains of Old England, the beautiful valleys of Wales, the
green fields of Ireland, and the bold mountains of Scotland, all rang
with the illustrious name of Fred. Douglass.
Such a man as he was did not belong to the colored race alone, and to
the United States; he belonged to the whole world, and to all races.
Such men can never be appropriated by one people, but they are, indeed,
the common property of all. Douglass returned home, and founded a paper
called "The North Star." He moved to Rochester, N. Y., and there he and
his family took up their abode. The glorious work for the destruction of
slavery went on, grew and increased, and at last brought on the war of
secession, and freedom likewise for the entire enslaved race. Mr.
Douglass then removed to Washington, and was honored with high offices
in the services of his native country. He had the misfortune of losing
his darling Anna, though after five years he married again, and went on
a wedding tour to Europe and the East, this being his third voyage
across the ocean. He died at Washington in February, 1895, at the age of
seventy-eight--no very great age, but then he had done the work of ten
men, and that wears human life rapidly away.
Thousands of eminent men have arisen from the ranks of the colored race
since 1865, and thousands are now upon their feet also. Their names have
reached the ends of the earth. But Fred. Douglass was early in the
field, and he was a very, very bright particular star. Like John Bunyan,
George Washington, and some few others, he shines for all time, and for
the entire human race. He did a mighty work for God and humanity. Of all
those illustrious men who have been born of women, there has never
arisen a greater man, in all the annals of time, than our congenial
friend and brother, Fred. Douglass.
My dear reader, I have given but short sketches of two eminent colored
men who elevated themselves head and shoulder above their fellows, for
the purpose of showing what the race can do. And I could go on to any
length in the same strain, and pick out and describe other eminent men
whose fame has reached the ends of the earth, though not in the same
degree, as Fred. Douglass. But I need not dwell further here in showing
what we can do, especially now that we are set free. Though the whole
world freely admits that we have done well, and very well, still, we are
only now at the threshold of our advancement, for it is only thirty odd
years since the close of the war. But in that short time we have beaten
every other race in the way of progress, and the sun is only yet one
hour above the horizon. By and by we shall have the full noon-day.
I have mentioned Fred. Douglass and Daniel E. Payne, and it is only just
that a couple of other representative women should be singled out, to
show what our women can do. We have had no bright, particular star among
the gentler sex, like Fred. Douglass among men; but still the colored
race, like other peoples, can certainly boast of a splendid galaxy of
eminent and clever women, who only lacked better education and wider and
greater opportunities to shine more than they did. The women have so far
not had the same chances as the men, but they are getting them now, and
they are coming to the front one by one--coming out, one here and
another there, like the bright stars of the night. High-schools and
colleges of all kinds are now thrown open for our daughters, and
wherever there are genius and ability they will forge to the front, and
make themselves known.
Contemporaneous with Bishop Daniel E. Payne and Fred. Douglass we
mention the name of Mrs. Frances Ellen Harper, who was born in
Baltimore, Md., in the year 1825. Her home for many years has been the
Queen City of Philadelphia. Mrs. Harper is a noble woman among women,
and impresses all comers with her unusual natural sweetness, and
graceful, lady-like ways. There is a deal of magnetism about her that
attracts all those who hear her sweet, well-trained voice, and that
draws us towards her by the comeliness of her graceful presence. We have
all heard of "a bundle of love," but Mrs. Frances Harper is a bundle of
natural and cultivated intellect, and of refined and polished manners.
Her sweetness draws us to her, like the charming and fragrant rose in
the flower garden. Born during the reign of slavery, when days were dark
and friends were few, she did not have a right and proper opportunity of
getting an early education, as the young ladies are getting to-day. But
all the same, the great Creator gave her talents, and she has had a
thirst for knowledge and a mind to work. This, indeed, is half the
battle, and sometimes much more than half. Mrs. Harper applied herself
most vigorously to study as she was growing up in her teens, and by the
time she had come to woman's estate she was well educated. (Thus we see
that nobody need despair of becoming well educated, for we can all learn
if we only have pluck and ambition, and patience and perseverance with
them to forge to the front, like the lady in question). This eminent
woman soon became widely known for her brilliant talents, and all her
sweet, lady-like graces, and admonished all Abolitionists and
anti-slavery people what our race could do if they were once freed from
their shackles!
Mrs. Harper possessed a great natural fondness for poetry, which she
proceeded early to cultivate, so that she had become well-known for her
sweet effusions in that line, and they have been published far and wide
throughout the world, and prove that we have "birds of song" among us as
well as others. She has written some pieces possessing much merit. She
has a great natural facility for writing, and reminds me of a clause in
Deborah's song of triumph in the fifth chapter of the Book of Judges,
"Out of Zabulun came down those who handle the pen of the writer." For a
facile, easy pen, Mrs. Frances Ellen Harper is a perfect Zabulunite, for
she has shown that she also can handle the pen of the writer.
This gifted lady has also been a bright and shining light on the lecture
platform, and, indeed, has appeared on many of the leading platforms of
the nation, and crowned herself with honor and glory. She has proved to
the whole world that a woman can do mighty deeds as well as man. There
was a dark and doleful time in this world's history when a woman was
regarded as little more than a mere serf, for man's will and pleasure
everywhere. But those dark ages have passed away, and women have
advanced to the front line, and taken their rightful places in the
world. Mrs. Harper is a living proof of this nobility among women, and
she has done yeoman service in trying to elevate her sisters of the
colored race. Her splendid services will never be forgotten by either
this generation or the generations to come. "Well done, good and
faithful servant; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord!"
Louise de Mortie, of Norfolk, Va., was born of free parents in that
place in the year 1833. As she was not allowed to receive an education
at the home of her youth, she decided to go to Boston, where she could
get one. It was in the year 1853 that she took up her residence in that
city, when she was twenty years of age, with life and all its
opportunities before her in a free State. At once she took a vigorous
hold, and availed herself of all favoring opportunities that presented
themselves. She was a young maiden of great personal beauty, and
possessed a sweet disposition and a most remarkably good memory. She
took very high standing as a pupil in the schools and seminaries of
Boston, and made a whole host of friends, won over by her graces and
accomplishments.
In 1862 she came out as a public reader, and shone like a very brilliant
star. She showed that she was a perfect elocutionist by birth, and had
been polished like a rich jewel. Her natural beauty and personal graces,
engaging manners and richly-toned voice, drew the eyes of the whole
country. Just as she had come to be well-known, she heard of the great
destitution among the colored orphans at New Orleans at the close of the
war. Hither she hastened, and in 1867 raised funds to build an asylum
for the colored people of that city. This she did in her spirit of
Christian love, and she won the hearts of all those who beheld her, like
another angel of mercy, at her good works. But the yellow fever struck
her down on the 10th of October of the above year, 1867, when she said
so touchingly, "I belong to God, our Father," and then expired. Thus was
this brave young woman cut off in her thirty-fourth year. But she lived
long enough to show to others a brilliant example that will never be
forgotten.