DR. CARTER G. WOODSON,
1216 You Street, N. W.,
Washington, D. C.
_My dear Dr. Woodson:_
Your studies in the history of the Negro people have greatly
impressed me with their value and I trust that they will be
continued in the many fields which call for new and careful
investigation. I think there is especial need for exact and
detailed information about the period of "reconstruction" in the
South. Reviewing in my memory the whole period since the civil
war I find a great change in prevalent opinion in the North
concerning the events of the reconstruction. It seems to me that
the champions of secession, of slavery and the southern
oligarchy, have been heard in justification of everything they
did and in arraignment of everything that defeated their designs
with an unsuspicious confidence that has enabled them to mislead
sentiment in the North, especially among the younger people. For
example: a Yale professor of history had an article in the New
York Times, a while ago, declaring that the constitutional
amendments conferring citizenship on the Negroes were wrong and
that the reaction against them in depriving the Negroes of the
vote was justifiable; to which I wrote a reply, mostly in the
language of Mr. Flemming, a native Southerner who had represented
Georgia in Congress, arguing that the amendments were not only
justifiable but indispensable, and the Times would not publish
it, so that I had to give it to the Post. There is a prevalent
opinion that the "carpet baggers" were a sort of monsters. I have
known some of them as estimable men and practical public spirited
citizens of a very high type: Judge Henderson of Wilcox County,
Ala. for example.
Now if you can go to the roots of history in this period and
investigate the facts, with biographical sketches of leading men
as they actually were and authentic records of things that were
actually done, it might help to clarify history.
The incessant whining and propaganda of Southern bigots devoted
to the old regime naturally have an undue influence on
sympathetic listeners. I am afraid that this influence will not
be counteracted as it ought to be till Negro investigators,
historians and journalists learn to tell their side of the story
with greater thoroughness.
Very truly yours,
G. S. DICKERMAN.
NEW BEDFORD, MASS., MAY 15TH, 1916
Room 6, Robeson Bldg.
DR. CARTER G. WOODSON,
Washington, D. C.
_My Dear Sir:_
In reply to yours of the 8th, please find herewith a contribution
in the line of my suggestion to Mr. Baker. I did not mean to
imply I had much material of that nature, and what is sent is
that I could readily find, and would need to take time to go
through my papers to really know what I have. If you can use it
all right; if not, consign it to the waste basket, and no
complaint will be coming.
What I had more in mind was this: In many communities can be
found some one person who has contributed services of value to
race, none the less appreciable from the fact that their
interest and value seem circumscribed locally. That they are so
limited I do not believe, but think of each as the centre of an
ever widening, circling influence for good. To illustrate:
Paul Cuffee was born at Cuttyhunk, Mass., in 1758; was an early
defender of the rights of colored men; when the selectmen of the
Town of Dartmouth, refused to admit colored children to the
public schools, and to make separate provision for their
education, he refused to pay his school taxes, was imprisoned,
and when liberated, built a school house at his own expense, on
his own land, employed a teacher at his own expense, and then
opened his school _without_ race discrimination, a privilege
which his white neighbors availed themselves of as his school was
more convenient and equally as good as those of the town. The
result was colored children ceased to be proscribed along
educational lines. He was a ship owner, builder and export
trader. His story has been published at length, in one of our
dailies, with all the documents in the case. It seemed to me that
such stories would be of general as well as local interest. If
you agree with me in this, Mr. Jourdain would without doubt
forward the clipping to you.
The first colored school-teacher in Boston, was Prince Sanders,
Secretary African Lodge F. & A. M., the first Lodge of colored
Masons in America. He taught a colored school in the basement of
the old Joy Street Church from 1809 to 1812. The first colored
school, private, was opened in 1798, at the residence of Primus
Hall, corner of West Cedar and Revere Streets, Boston, and was
taught by a white man, by name, Sylvester. Its curriculum was
limited to the three "R's."
I am sending you in mail with this a pamphlet copy of
"Proceedings" etc., on pp. 12, 16, 17, you will find statements
of services given by Prince Hall, of general as well as of local
interest and value.
Yours sincerely,
FREDERIC S. MONROE.