_A History of the United States_, Vol. IV. By EDWARD CHANNING,
Professor in Harvard University. New York, MacMillan Company, 1917.
Pp. 575. Price $2.75.
This is the fourth volume of what promises to be the most interesting
and possibly the most valuable single work hitherto produced in this
field. It begins with the discovery of the New World and when
completed will come down to 1910. The volume herein referred to covers
the period of "Federalists and Republicans from 1789 to 1815." The
work, therefore, goes over ground which has been extensively treated
by such writers as Richard Hildreth, James Schouler, Herman von Holst,
and James B. McMaster. Professor Channing, however, has given this
period an original treatment and incorporated into his narrative so
much material of human interest that his history makes a more readable
and at the same time a more informing work than any of the general
histories of the United States.
Professor Channing does not fall a victim to the mistakes of his
predecessors. Hildreth is prejudiced, Schouler is dry and ex parte,
von Holst is lost in the debates over slavery, and McMaster, at times,
sinks beneath the load of his undigested material. Realizing that the
problems of peace are greater than those of war and that the mere
proceedings of legislative bodies cannot altogether be depended upon
to reflect the political development of a country, Professor Channing
is making his history economic as well as political. It is just as
important to him to know the prices of commodities in 1800 as to know
the terms of Jay's treaty. In other words, Professor Channing has a
new point of view. He aims not to set forth an interesting narrative
but to marshall his facts so as to make interesting his well-balanced
account of the various forces which have operated to make this country
what it is to-day. The smooth style, common sense, and thoroughness
with which he is now doing this task will doubtless make this the
standard history of the United States.
In reading this valuable work, however, one cannot but express regret
that Professor Channing did not see fit to spell the word "Negro"
with a capital letter and to say more about the people of color. In
the volumes to follow the treatment of this element of our population
will probably be more extensive in keeping with the increasing
importance of the Negro as a factor in history of the later period.
Professor Channing will hardly be so unfortunate as most writers of
American history, who in their voluminous works give space for
honorable mention of every race but the black, considering it
sufficient to mention it, merely as the cause of the great agitation
which finally rent the nation and the present cause of the race
problem in the United States. The bearing of worthy achievements of
the Negroes on the development of this country should be mentioned
along with the deeds of others who have helped to make the nation.
* * * * *
_The Early History of Cuba, 1492 to 1586_. By I. A. WRIGHT. The
MacMillan Company, New York, 1916. Pp. 390.
This book begins with the discovery of Cuba by Columbus and ends with
the raid of Sir Francis Drake in the West Indies in 1586, by which it
was demonstrated that Great Britain ruled the sea and that the
retention of the Spanish possessions in the New World required that
they be provided with means of local defence rather than be left in
the position of dependence on protection from Spain. With this change
is connected the subsequent economic development of Cuba and the
success of the Spanish colonial policy.
In writing this book the author had an advantage over most historians
in this field. It was compiled from documents now available at
Seville, Spain. Miss Wright, however, did not use the documents found
in other archives. What documents she had access to, however, are
considered sufficient as they contain "letters and reports of the
island's governors, of royal officials and lesser clergy, of municipal
and ecclesiastical councils, of distinguished and humble citizens."
This large collection, too, contains some of the documents copied by
Munoz in his collection preserved at Madrid and some printed in the
unsatisfactory series of _Documentos Ineditos_. The author, therefore,
gives this book to the public as the only exhaustive treatment of
Cuban history of this period, which has hitherto been published,
despite the estimate we have placed on such works as those of De las
Casas, Oviedo, Gomara, Solis, Bernal Diaz del Costillo, and Herrera.
The introduction of slavery and the treatment of the bondmen, although
not objective points in this treatise, are given considerable space.
The slave trade was authorized in Cuba in 1513 and we hear of Bishop
Ubite in the possession of as many as 200 slaves in 1523 and later of
Bishop Maestro Miguel Ramirez with a license from the crown to take
half a dozen slaves and two white slave women. The writer shows how
the failure of the native captives to meet the demand for labor
eventually led to declaration making them the free vassals of the
crown and authorizing the enslavement of Negroes in sufficiently large
numbers to make up the deficiency. It was necessary to issue another
order rescinding the license of the slave-traders because of the fear
of servile insurrection, should the slave population too far exceed
that of the whites. This restricted importation of Negroes, however,
did not prevent their uprising in 1533, which, however, was easily
quelled, the four Negroes defending themselves to death.
The author explains too how slavery in Cuba or in the Spanish
possession differed from that of other nations in that although the
Spaniard regarded the black as socially and politically inferior, he
did not look down upon him as a "soul-less son of Cain condemned to
servitude by divine wrath" but recognized the black's equality with
him before the altar of the church. When he became free and even
before he became free the slave had rights before the law. "This
attitude of mind of the Spaniard--so very different indeed from that
of the slave-holding North American,--partly explains the facility
with which he mingled his 'pure, clean' white blood with black, so
begetting a mulatto population to be reckoned with later." Free
blacks, therefore, soon appeared. By 1568 forty in Havana had bought
their freedom. Others, though still slaves, lived independently, the
men doing such as working at trades and the women running eating
houses, but all reporting their earnings to their masters at
intervals.