CASTE AND PROGRESS.
Caste is usually found to exist in communities or countries among
majorities, and against minorities. The basis of it is owing to some
supposed inferiority or degradation attached to the hated ones.
However, nothing is more foolish than this prejudice. But the silliest
of all caste is that which is founded on color; for those who entertain
it have not a single logical reason to offer in its defence.
The fact is, slavery has been the cause of all the prejudice against
the negro. Wherever the blacks are ill-treated on account of their
color, it is because of their identity with a race that has long worn
the chain of slavery. Is there anything in black that should be hated?
If so, why do we see so much black in common use as clothing among all
classes? Indeed, black is preferred to either white or colors. How
often the young man speaks in ecstasies of the black eyes and black
hair of his lady-love! Look at the hundreds of advertised hair-dyes,
used for the purpose of changing Nature! See men with their gray
beards dyed black; women with those beautiful black locks, which but
yesterday were as white as the driven snow! Not only this, but even
those with light or red whiskers run to the dye-kettle, steal a color
which Nature has refused them, and an hour after curse the negro for
a complexion that is not stolen. If black is so hateful, why do not
gentlemen have their boots whitewashed? If the slaves of the South had
been white, the same prejudice would have existed against them. Look at
the “poor white trash,” as the lower class of whites in the Southern
States are termed.
The general good conduct of the blacks during the Rebellion, and
especially the aid rendered to our Northern men escaping from Southern
prisons, has done much to dispel the prejudice so rampant in the
free states. The following, from the pen of Junius Henri Browne, the
accomplished war correspondent of “The Tribune,” is but a fair sample
of what was said for the negro during the great conflict. In his very
interesting work, “Four Years in Secessia,” he says:--
“The negro who had guided us to the railway had told us of another of
his color to whom we could apply for shelter and food at the terminus
of our second stage. We could not find him until nearly dawn; and when
we did, he directed us to a large barn filled with corn-husks. Into
that we crept with our dripping garments, and lay there for fifteen
hours, until we could again venture forth. Floundering about in the
husks, we lost our haversacks, pipes, and a hat.
“About nine o’clock we procured a hearty supper from the generous
negro, who even gave me his hat,--an appropriate presentation, as one
of my companions remarked, by an ‘intelligent contraband’ to the
reliable gentleman of ‘The New York Tribune.’ The negro did picket-duty
while we hastily ate our meal, and stood by his blazing fire. The old
African and voice and moistened eyes, as we parted from them with
grateful hearts. ‘God bless negroes!’ say I, with earnest lips. During
our entire captivity, and after our escape, they were ever our firm,
brave, unflinching friends. We never made an appeal to them they did
not answer. They never hesitated to do us a service at the risk even of
life; and under the most trying circumstances, revealed a devotion and
a spirit of self-sacrifice that were heroic.
“The magic word ‘Yankee’ opened all their hearts, and elicited the
loftiest virtues. They were ignorant, oppressed, enslaved; but they
always cherished a simple and beautiful faith in the cause of the
Union, and its ultimate triumph, and never abandoned or turned aside
from a man who sought food or shelter on his way to freedom.”
The month of May, 1864, saw great progress in the treatment of
the colored troops by the government of the United States. The
circumstances were more favorable for this change than they had
hitherto been. Slavery had been abolished in the District of Columbia,
Maryland, and Missouri. The heroic assault on Fort Wagner, the
unsurpassed bravery exhibited at Port Hudson, the splendid fighting at
Olustee and Honey Hill, had raised the colored men in the estimation of
the nation. President Lincoln and his advisers had seen their error,
and begun to repair the wrong. The year opened with the appointment
of Dr. A. T. Augusta, a colored gentleman, as surgeon of colored
volunteers, and he was at once assigned to duty, with the rank of
major. Following this, was the appointment, by Governor Andrew,
of Massachusetts, of Sergeant Stephen A. Swailes, of Company F.,
Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Regiment, as second lieutenant.
M. R. Delany, M. D., was soon after appointed a major of negro
volunteers, and assigned to duty at Charleston, South Carolina. W. P.
Powell, Jr., received an appointment as surgeon, about the same time.
The steamer Planter, since being brought out of Charleston by Robert
Small, was under the command of a Yankee, who, being ordered to do
service where the vessel would be liable to come under the fire of
rebel guns, refused to obey; whereupon Lieutenant-Colonel Elwell,
without consultation with any higher authority, issued an order,
placing Robert Small in command of the “Planter.”
The acknowledgment of the civil rights of the negro had already been
granted, in the admission of John S. Rock, a colored man, to practice
law in all the counties within the jurisdiction of the United States.
John F. Shorter, who was promoted to a lieutenancy in Company D,
Fifty-fifth Massachusetts Regiment, was by trade a carpenter, and was
residing in Delaware County, Ohio, when the call was made for colored
troops. Severely wounded at the battle of Honey Hill, South Carolina,
on the 30th of November, 1864, he still remained with his regiment,
hoping to be of service.
At the conclusion of the war, he returned home, but never recovered
from his wound, and died a few days after his arrival. James Monroe
Trotter, promoted for gallantry, was wounded at the battle of Honey
Hill. He is a native of Grand Gulf, Mississippi; removed to Cincinnati,
Ohio; was educated at the Albany (Ohio) Manual Labor University, where
he distinguished himself for his scholarly attainments. He afterwards
became a school-teacher, which position he filled with satisfaction
to the people of Muskingum and Pike Counties, Ohio, and with honor
to himself. Enlisting as a private in the Fifty-fifth Massachusetts
Regiment, on its organization, he returned with it to Boston as a
lieutenant, an office honorably earned.
William H. Dupree, a native of Petersburg, Virginia, was brought up
and educated at Chillicothe, Ohio. He enlisted in the Fifty-fifth
Massachusetts Regiment, on its formation, as a private, was soon made
orderly-sergeant, and afterwards promoted to a lieutenancy for bravery
on the field of battle.
Charles L. Mitchel, promoted to a lieutenancy in the Fifty-fifth
Massachusetts Regiment for gallantry at the battle of Honey Hill, where
he was severely wounded (losing a limb), is a native of Hartford,
Connecticut, and son of William A. Mitchel of that city. Lieutenant
Mitchel served an apprenticeship to William H. Burleigh, in the office
of the old “Charter Oak,” in Hartford, where he became an excellent
printer. For five or six years previous to entering the army, he was
employed in different printing-offices in Boston, the last of which was
“The Liberator,” edited by William Lloyd Garrison, who never speaks of
Lieutenant Mitchel but in words of the highest commendation. General
A. S. Hartwell, late colonel of the Fifty-fifth Massachusetts Regiment,
makes honorable mention of Lieutenant Mitchel.
In the year 1867, Mr. Mitchel was elected to the Massachusetts
Legislature, from Ward Six, in Boston. The appointment of John M.
Langston to a position in the Freedman Bureau, showed progress.
However, the selection of E. D. Bassett, as Minister and Consul-General
to Hayti, astonished even those who had the most favorable opinion of
President Grant, and satisfied the people generally, both colored and
white. Since the close of the war, colored men have been appointed to
honorable situations in the Custom Houses in the various States, also
in the Post Office and Revenue Department.