The Union Aid Society Holds a Meeting.
The home of Mrs. West was one of the many snug little cottages owned by
the colored inhabitants of that section of Wilmington known as "Camp
Land." It also had the distinction of facing Campbell Street, the main
thoroughfare of that portion of the city. Although Mrs. West knew
something of slavery as it existed in North Carolina, she was free born;
her grandfather having purchased his freedom, and afterwards that of the
rest of the family before her birth. The rule that the free Negro was a
shiftless being more to be pitied than envied by slaves, was not without
many exceptions in North Carolina. There were many Negroes in old North
Carolina who by grasping every opportunity to earn an extra dollar by
working for neighboring planters when their own tasks were done, and
making such useful articles as their genius could contrive, often after
years of patient toiling and saving would often astonish their masters
by offering to purchase their freedom. There were others who paid to
their masters annually a specified sum of money for their time, that
they might enjoy the control of their own affairs as much as possible.
For many years before the war my father did public carting in the town
of Fayetteville as a free-man, his master receiving a certain amount of
his earnings. Of course there were free Negroes whose conception of
freedom was a release from manual toil, and who like poor whites, lived
a shiftless indolent life, following the sunshine in Winter and the
shade in Summer.
Free Negroes in North Carolina had the right to purchase property and
enjoy other limited privileges. The parents of Mrs. West, known as
Burchers, emigrated to the West in the forties, where their children
could be educated. After the war Mrs. West, with her husband whom she
had met and married in Ohio, returned to North Carolina, prepared to
enter upon the work of uplifting the newly emancipated of their
unfortunate race; and now well advanced in years, she could look over
many years of active useful service in the cause of her people. It was
the evening for the regular monthly meeting of the Union Aid Society of
which Mrs. West was President, and several members had already arrived;
but in such a season such business for which a society of this kind was
organized would doubtless be neglected, so pregnant was the air with the
all absorbing subject--politics.
But the Union Aid Society is composed exclusively of women. What of
that? Some of our most skilled politicians in the South are among the
women of both races. Although they do not take the stump and sit upon
platforms in public assemblages, they are superior house-to-house
canvassers, and in their homes noiselessly urge the men to do their
duty. For earnest persistence and true loyalty to the party of her
choice, the Negro woman of the South outdoes her sister in white. Give
the ballot to the women of the South, and give her dusky daughters an
equal show, and a Solid South would be a thing of the past; for the
Negro woman is the most loyal supporter of Republican principles in that
section. So radical is the Negro woman, that it is worth a husband's, or
brother's, or sweetheart's good standing in the home or society to assay
to vote a Democratic ticket. Such a step on the part of a Negro man has
in some instances broken up his home. The Spartan loyalty of the
Southern white woman to the Confederacy and the Lost Cause was not more
marked than is the fidelity of the Negro woman to that party which stood
for universal freedom and the brotherhood of man, and whose triumphant
legions so ignominiously crushed Freedom's sullen and vindictive foe.
Although the Government provides for the annual placing of a small flag
upon the grave of each of the thousands of heroes now sleeping in the
Southland, it is the dusky fingers of the Negro woman, perfumed by the
sweet incense of love and gratitude that places the lilac, the rose and
forget-me-not there.
The Northern white woman in the South, in order to maintain her social
caste, generally allows her patriotism to cool. But the Negro woman
sings patriotic airs on each 30th of May as she twines wreaths of pine
to lay upon the graves of those _who died for her_. Of course, these
women who had gathered in the parlor of Mrs. West's cottage were
intensely interested in the coming election in Wilmington, and were
ready to discuss the event with all the fervor of their patriotic souls.
"Ladies," said Mrs. West after the prayers had been said, and the
minutes of the previous meeting read, "I confess that for the first time
since my election to the presidency of this society, I feel an
inclination to waive the transaction of its regular business, so
depressed am I over events now crowding upon us." "I believe thats the
case with every one," answered Mrs. Cole. "I have received a letter from
the Chairman of the Executive Committee," continued Mrs. West, "stating
that so grave is the situation all over the State that he is advised by
the Governor himself to withdraw Republican candidates from the field--a
request without a precedent in North Carolina."
"It would never do to show such cowardice!" said Mrs. Cole. "If I were
chairman of that committee I'd put the ticket in the field and go to the
polls if the devils were around it as thick as shingles upon a
housetop." "I was of the same mind" answered Mrs. West, "but when the
Governor of the State--when brave Daniel Lane has become apprehensive, I
can appreciate the gravity of the situation. I have seen that man walk
undismayed through the streets of Wilmington during very turbulent
periods in her history. I see that in the upper section of the State the
Democrats have already organized Red Shirt Brigades who are riding
through the rural districts terrorizing Negroes, and we may look for the
same to take place in Wilmington. Silas writes that they are determined
to carry the election. He has received two threatening letters and is
afraid. You are aware that that monster has been, and is advising the
whites in our State to copy South Carolina's method of carrying
elections, and they are heeding his advice. I am compelled to
acknowledge despite my previous confidence in the integrity and honesty
of our North Carolina white people that my faith is getting shaky. The
buying of guns and other weapons by poor whites who are often unable to
buy food, means something. It means that the rich are going to use them
to perform the dirty work of intimidation and murder if necessary to
carry this election." "Colored men must show their manhood, and fight
for their rights," exclaimed Mrs. Wise the secretary who had laid down
her pen and was attentively listening to the president's talk. "But how
are they to do it?" asked Mrs. West; "My son tells me that there is not
a store in the city that will sell a Negro an ounce of powder. The best
thing to do--if such things should happen--is to stay in our homes, and
advise the men to be cool. Rashness on their part would be all the
excuse the unprincipalled whites would want to kill them. Editor Manly's
reply to Mrs. Fell's letter in August is now brought forward to be used
by their stump orators to fan the flames of race hatred." "I wish he
hadn't written it," interrupted Mrs. Cole. "It was a truth unwisely
said," answered Mrs. Wise, "and by a man who meant to defend his own; so
let us make the best of it. I would not have Editor Manly feel for a
moment that we are such ingrates as to say anything against him."
"The most important thing that I intended to mention, and which makes me
feel that our situation is a critical one," continued Mrs. West, "was a
letter that came this morning from Molly Pierrepont." "Molly
Pierrepont!" echo every one almost in one breath. "Poor erring girl!"
said Mrs. Wise slowly. "What has happened her?" "Molly has written me a
long and even affectionate letter. She writes, '_Ben Hartright confided
to me the other night the ghastly plans of the Rough Riders, a band made
up from the most respectable of the whites. They are to be reinforced
from all over the State, and even from other States for the purpose of
killing and driving from Wilmington objectionable blacks and whites,
John Holloway, Nicholas McDuffy, Editor Manly, John Brown, Lawyers
Scott, Moore and Henderson, George Z. French, Thomas Miller, Ariah
Bryant, McLane Lofton, Pickens and Bell and others of prominence and
independenence are to be special marks of vengeance. I beg you my dear
Aunt Betty, warn these people. I shall take it upon myself to give the
alarm, for these are my people._'
"There is some good in this wayward child after all," said Mrs. West,
pushing her spectacles back, and looking up. "But who of these people
would believe that such was in store for them? These men would not leave
their homes without a severe struggle." "The Government should protect
its citizens in their rights," said Mrs. Wise. "Government? Bah!"
answered Mrs. West. "Here's the highest official of the State afraid for
his own life." "Well if the Governor is incapable of coping with the
situation, the President has the power to send in the troops," said Mrs.
Cole. "Yes, but will he use that power? I don't believe McKinley is
going to do anything to offend the Southern whites if they kill every
Negro in the South. The interests of an alien race are too trivial to
risk the sundering of the ties that are supposed by the North to bind
the two sections. Each State according to the Southern view, is a
sovereignty itself, and can kill and murder its inhabitants with
impunity. There is no John Brown, Beecher, nor Sumner, nor Douglass,
Garrison, Phillips and others of that undaunted host who were willing
and did risk persecution and death for us; this generation has not
produced such precious characters. God is our only helper and we must
look to Him for deliverance. We are living too well for the broken down
aristocrats and poor whites who are disappointed because we are not all
domestics.
"Molly expresses her intention to call, and I was hoping she would come
before you all left. Perhaps you know Molly Pierrepont, for a woman of
her reputation cannot help being known to a small community; but you are
not all aware of the fact that I raised her, and took special pains to
give her a good education, and I thought she'd requite me by trying to
lead a useful life." "But you know Mrs. West, that Negro girls of
attractiveness in the South have a great battle to fight, if they wish
to be pure," said Mrs. Wise. "That's very true" answered Mrs. West; "I
have often pondered over the thought since she left me five years ago,
that the conditions under which she was born may have had something to
do with shaping her course in life. We, innocent as we may be, must
suffer for the iniquities of our parents. Before the war, there lived in
Brunswick a large slave owner by name of Philpot. He was the father of
Molly's mother, one of his slaves. After the surrender, this woman did
not leave the plantation of her master but remained there until her
death. The child, Molly's mother, whose name was Eliza, at the time of
her mother's death was a pretty lass of fourteen; so attractive that the
father then an old man could not curb his brutal passion. It is needless
for me to speak plainer ladies. There is a passage of Scripture which
reads as follows: 'The dog has returned to his vomit, and the sow that
was washed is wallowing in the mire.' The young mother brought the child
to Wilmington, gave her to me, and disappeared. Molly was then about
four years old. Those who knew of me and my affairs know how carefully I
raised the girl. She graduated from Hampton with honors, has a fair
musical education, and a voice that might have made her a fortune.
Imagine how proud her foster mother was when she returned home from
school, so full of promise. If she would only leave this place and seek
to live a better life in some strange community I would be more content.
It would be hard for her to do so here. This Ben Hartright and another
white gentleman had a free fight over her about a month ago. Ben was
prevented from using his pistol by the girl's timely interference. That
fiend of Georgia who is urging the men of her race to revel in the blood
of their fellows, would do them more good by urging upon them the
necessity of good morals. Doubtless this Ben Hartright is one of the
leaders of this proposed raid in Wilmington to drive out undesirable
citizens, yet he is so low morally, that he leaves a richly furnished
home, a refined wife and pretty child to fight over a Negro woman, for
such he has I hear." "But this letter proves that there are redeemable
qualities in Molly despite her birth and bad life." "Magdalene made a
devoted follower of Christ, you know," said Mrs. Wise; "with God's help,
she can if she wills, pull away from her present surroundings and be a
good woman." "Yes, she says in her letter that '_never did the full
realization of what I am, come so plainly before me, as when this
villian so cooly told me of his plans. I drove him from my presence as I
would a dog._' This shows that Molly's race pride is not entirely
blunted by dissipation and unholy living. I counsel you all ere you
depart, to remember that we are at the mercy of the whites, and each one
of us should do all in our power to show our men the wisdom of
coolness. By this, with God's help, we may be able to avert the evil
threatened. I declare the Union Aid Society adjourned, subject to the
call of the president."