THE
GIFT _of_ BLACK FOLK
_The Negroes in the
Making of America_
by
W. E. BURGHARDT DUBOIS
PH. D. (HARV.)
Author of “The Souls of Black Folk,” “Darkwater,” etc.
Editor of _The Crisis_
_Introduction by_
EDWARD F. McSWEENEY, LL. D.
[Illustration]
1924
THE STRATFORD CO., _Publishers_
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS
Copyright, 1924
By THE KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS
Printed in the United States of America
CONTENTS
Chapter Page
Foreword i
Prescript 33
I The Black Explorers 35
II Black Labor 52
III Black Soldiers 80
IV The Emancipation of Democracy 135
V The Reconstruction of Freedom 184
VI The Freedom of Womanhood 259
VII The American Folk Song 274
VIII Negro Art and Literature 287
IX The Gift of the Spirit 320
FOREWORD
It is not uncommon for casual thinkers to assume that the United States
of America is practically a continuation of English nationality.
Our speech is English and the English played so large a part in our
beginnings that it is easy to fall more or less consciously into the
thought that the history of this nation has been but a continuation and
development of these beginnings. A little reflection, however, quickly
convinces us that at least there was present French influence in the
Mississippi Valley and Spanish influence in the southeast and southwest.
Everything else however that has been added to the American nationality
is often looked upon as a sort of dilution of more or less doubtful
value: peoples that had to be assimilated as far as possible and made
over to the original and basic type. Thus we continually speak of Germans
and Scandinavians, of Irish and Jews, Poles, Austrians and Hungarians;
and, with few exceptions, we regard the coming of the Negroes as an
unmitigated error and a national liability.
It is high time that this course of our thinking should be changed.
America is conglomerate. This is at once her problem and her
glory—perhaps indeed her sole and greatest reason for being. Her physical
foundation is not English and while it is primarily it is not entirely
European. It represents peculiarly a coming together of the peoples of
the world. American institutions have been borrowed from England and
France in the main, but with contributions from many and widely scattered
groups. American history has no prototype and has been developed
from the various racial elements. Despite the fact that our mother
tongue is called English we have developed an American speech with its
idiosyncrasies and idioms, a speech whose purity is not to be measured
by its conformity to the speech of the British Isles. And finally the
American spirit is a new and interesting result of divers threads of
thought and feeling coming not only from America but from Europe and Asia
and indeed from Africa.
This essay is an attempt to set forth more clearly than has hitherto
been done the effect which the Negro has had upon American life. Its
thesis is that despite slavery, war and caste, and despite our present
Negro problem, the American Negro is and has been a distinct asset to
this country and has brought a contribution without which America could
not have been; and that perhaps the essence of our so-called Negro
problem is the failure to recognize this fact and to continue to act as
though the Negro was what we once imagined and wanted to imagine him—a
representative of a subhuman species fitted only for subordination.
A moment’s thought will easily convince open minded persons that the
contribution of the Negro to American nationality as slave, freedman
and citizen was far from negligible. No element in American life has
so subtly and yet clearly woven itself into the warp and woof of our
thinking and acting as the American Negro. He came with the first
explorers and helped in exploration. His labor was from the first the
foundation of the American prosperity and the cause of the rapid growth
of the new world in economic and social importance. Modern democracy
rests not simply on the striving white men in Europe and America but also
on the persistent struggle of the black men in America for two centuries.
The military defense of this land has depended upon Negro soldiers from
the time of the Colonial wars down to the struggle of the World War. Not
only does the Negro appear, reappear and persist in American literature
but a Negro American literature has arisen of deep significance, and
Negro folk lore and music are among the choicest heritages of this land.
Finally the Negro had played a peculiar spiritual rôle in America as a
sort of living, breathing test of our ideals and an example of the faith,
hope and tolerance of our religion.
THE RACIAL CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE UNITED STATES
By EDW. F. MCSWEENEY, LL. D.
In a general way, the Racial Contribution Series in the Knights of
Columbus historical program is intended as a much needed and important
contribution to national solidarity. The various studies are treated by
able writers, citizens of the United States, each being in full sympathy
with the achievements in this country of the racial group of whom he
treats. The standard of the writers is the only one that will justify
historical writing;—the truth. No censorship has been exercised.
No subject now actively before the people of the United States has been
more written on, and less understood, than alien immigration. Until
1819, there were no official statistics of immigration of any sort; the
so-called census of 1790 was simply a report of the several states of
their male white population under and over 16 years of age, all white
females, slaves, and others. Statements as to the country of origin of
the inhabitants of this country were, in the main, guesswork, with the
result that, while the great bulk of such estimates was honestly and
patriotically done, some of the most quoted during the present day were
inspired, obviously to prove a predetermined case, rather than to recite
the ascertained fact.
From the beginning the dominant groups in control in the United
States have regarded each group of newer arrivals as more or less
the “enemy” to be feared, and, if possible, controlled. A study of
various cross-sections of the country will show dominant alien groups
who formerly had to fight for their very existence. With increased
numerical strength and prosperity they frequently attempted to do to
the later aliens, frequently even of their own group, what had formerly
been done to them:—decry and stifle their achievements, and deny them
opportunity,—the one thing that may justly be demanded in a Democracy,—by
putting them in a position of inferiority.
To attempt, in this country, to set up a “caste” control, based on the
accident of birth, wealth, or privilege, is a travesty of Democracy. When
Washington and his compatriots, a group comprising the most efficiently
prepared men in the history of the world, who had set themselves
definitely to form a democratic civilization, dreamed of and even planned
by Plato, but held back by slavery and paganism, they found their sure
foundations in the precepts of Christianity, and gave them expression
in the Declaration of Independence. The liberty they sought, based on
obedience to the law of God as well as of man, was actually established,
but from the beginning it has met a constant effort to substitute
some form of absolutism tending to break down or replace democratic
institutions.
What may be called, for want of a better term, the colonial spirit, which
is the essence of hyphenism, has persisted in this country to hamper
national progress and national unity. Wherever this colonial spirit shows
itself it is a menace to be fought, whether the secret or acknowledged
attachment binds to England, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Greece or
any other nation.
Jefferson pointed out that we have on this soil evolved a new race of
men who may inexactly be called “Americans”. This term, as a monopoly of
the United States, is properly objected to by our neighbors, North and
South—yet it has a definite meaning for the world.
During the Great War one aspect of war duty was to direct the labor
activities growing out of the war, to divert labor from “non-essential”
to “essential” industry and to arbitrate and mediate on wage matters.
It was found necessary to study and to analyze the greatly feared, but
infrequently discovered “enemy alien”; and as a preparation for this
duty, with the assistance of several hundred local agents, the population
of Massachusetts was separated into naturally allied groups based on
birth, racial descent, religious, social and industrial affiliations.
The astonishing result was that, counting as “native Americans” only
the actual descendants of all those living in Massachusetts in 1840,
of whatever racial stock prior to that time, only two-sevenths, even
with the most liberal classification, came within the group of colonial
descent, while the remaining five-sevenths were found in the various
racial groups coming later than 1840. More than this: While the
“Colonial” group had increased in numbers for three decades after 1840,
in 1918 they were found actually to be fewer in number than in 1840, a
diminution due to excess of deaths over births, proceeding in increasing
ratio.
Membership in the Society of Mayflower descendants is eagerly sought as
the hallmark of American ancestry. In anticipation of the tercentenary
of the Mayflower-coming in 1620, about a dozen years ago a questionnaire
was sent to every known eligible for Mayflower ancestry, and the replies
were submitted to the experts in one of the national universities for
review and report. When this report was presented later, it contained the
statement that, considering the prevailing number of marriages in this
group, and children per family,—when the six-hundredth celebration of the
Pilgrims’ Landing is held in 2220, three hundred years hence, a ship the
size of the original Mayflower will be sufficient to carry back to Europe
all the then living Mayflower descendants.
The future of America is in the keeping of the 80 per cent. of the
population, separate in blood and race from the colonial descent group.
Love of native land is one of the strongest and noblest passions of which
a man is capable. Family life, religion, the soil which holds the dust
of our fathers, sentiment for ancestral property, and many other bonds,
make the ties of home so strong and enduring, and unite a man’s life so
closely with its native environment, that grave and powerful reasons must
exist before a change of residence is contemplated. Escape from religious
persecution and political tyranny were unquestionably the chief reasons
which induced the early comers to America to brave the dangers of an
unknown world. Yet that very intolerance against which this was a protest
soon began to be exercised against all those unwilling to accept in their
new homes the religious leadership of those in control.
It is not necessary to go into the persecutions due to religious bigotry
of the colonial period. While the spirit of liberty was in the free air
of the colonies and would finally have secured national independence, it
is not possible to underestimate the support brought to the revolting
colonials because of the attitude of Great Britain in allowing religious
freedom to Canada after it had been taken from the French. After the
victory of New Orleans, a spirit of national consciousness on a
democratic basis was built up and the narrow spirit of colonialism and
of religious intolerance was to a great degree repudiated by the people,
when they had become inspired with the American spirit,—only to be
revived later on.
The continued manifestation of intolerance has been the most persistent
effort in our national life. It has done incalculable harm. It is
apparently deep-rooted, an active force in almost every generation.
Present in the 30’s, 40’s and 50’s, stopped temporarily for two decades
by the Civil War, it has recurred subsequently again and again; revived
since the Armistice, it is unfortunately shown today in as great a
virulence and power of destructiveness as at any time during the last
hundred years.
After the 70’s, as the aliens became numerically powerful and began to
demand political representation, movements based on religious prejudice
were started from time to time, some of which came to temporary
prominence, later to die an inglorious death; but all these movements
which attempted to deprive aliens of their right of freedom to worship
were calculated to bring economic discontent and to add to the measure of
national disunion and unhappiness.
Sixty years ago[1] the bigoted slogan was “_No Irish need apply_.” During
the World War, the principal attack was on the German-American citizens
of this country, whose fathers had come here seeking a new land as a
protest against tyranny. Today the current attempt is to deprive the
Jews[2] of the right to educational equality. In short, while there have
been spasmodic manifestations of movements based on intolerance in many
countries, the United States has the unenviable record for continuous
effort to keep alive a bogey based on an increasing fear of something
which never existed, and cannot ever exist in this country.
For a hundred years the potent cause which has poured millions of human
beings into the United States has been its marvellous opportunities,
and unprecedented economic urge. Ever since 1830 a graphic chart of the
variations in immigration from year to year will reflect the industrial
situation in the United States for the same period. In 1837, the total
immigration was 79,430.[3] After the panic of that year it decreased in
1838 to 38,914.[4] In 1842, it increased to 104,565,[5] but a business
depression in 1844 caused it to shrink to 78,615.[6] Thus the influx of
aliens increased or decreased according to the industrial conditions
prevalent here. The business prosperity of the United States was not only
the urge to entice immigrants hither, but it made their coming possible
as they were helped by the savings of relatives and friends already here.
The English were not immigrants, but colonists, merely going from one
part of national territory to another. With few exceptions, the majority
of the early colonists came from England. The first English settlement
was made in Virginia under the London Company in 1607. It took twelve
years of hard struggling to establish this colony on a permanent basis.
The New England region was settled by a different class of colonists.
Plymouth was the first settlement, in 1620, followed in 1630 by the
Massachusetts Bay Colony, which later absorbed the Plymouth settlement.
Population, after the first ten years, increased rapidly by natural
growth, and soon colonies in Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Connecticut
resulted from the overflow in the original settlements.
While this English settlement was going on North and South, the Dutch,
under the Dutch West India Company, took possession of the region
between, and founded New Netherlands and New Amsterdam, later New York
City. Intervening, as it did, between their Northern and Southern
colonies, New Netherlands, which the English considered a menace, was
seized by the English during a war with Holland, and became New York and
New Jersey.
Early in the seventeenth century there was a substantial French
immigration to the Dutch colonies. There was a constant stream of French
immigration to the English colonies in New England and in Virginia by
many of the Huguenots who had originally emigrated to the West Indies.
In 1681, Penn settled Pennsylvania under a royal charter and thus the
whole Atlantic coast from Canada to Florida became subject to England.
During the colonial period, England contributed to the population of the
colonies. But, by the middle of the seventeenth century, the coming of
the English to New England was practically over. From 1628 to 1641 about
20,000 came from England to New England, but for the next century and a
half more persons went back to Old England than came from there to New
England.[7] Due to the relaxing of religious persecution of dissenting
Protestants in England, the great formerly impelling force to seek a new
home across the ocean in America had ceased.
In 1653 an Irish immigration to New England, much larger in numbers
than the original Plymouth Colony, was proposed. Bristol merchants,
who realized the necessity of populating the colonies to make them
prosperous, treated with the government for men, women and girls to be
sent to the West Indies and to New England.[8] At the very fountain head
of American life we find, therefore, men and women of pure Celtic blood
from the South of Ireland, infused into the primal stock of America.
But these apparently were only a drop in this early tide of Irish
immigration.[9]
No complete memorial has been transmitted of the emigrations that took
place from Europe to America, but (from the few illustrative facts
actually preserved) they seem to have been amazingly copious. In the
years 1771-72, the number of emigrants to America from the North of
Ireland alone amounted to 17,350. Almost all of these emigrated at their
own charge; a great majority of them were persons employed in the linen
manufacture, or farmers possessed of some property which they converted
into money and carried with them. Within the first fortnight of August,
1773, there arrived at Philadelphia 3,500 emigrants from Ireland, and
from the same document which has recorded this circumstance it appears
that vessels were arriving every month freighted with emigrants from
Holland, Germany, and especially from Ireland and the Highlands of
Scotland.[10]
That many Irish settled in Maryland is shown by the fact that in 1699 and
again a few years later an act was passed to prevent too great a number
of Irish Papists being imported into the province.[11] Shipmasters were
required to pay two shillings per poll for such. “Shipping records of
the colonial period show that boatload after boatload left the southern
and eastern shores of Ireland for the New World. Undoubtedly thousands
of their passengers were Irish of the native stock.”[12] So besides the
so-called Scotch-Irish from the North of Ireland, the distinction always
being Protestantism, not race, it is indisputable that thousands, Celtic
in race and Catholic in religion, came to the colonies. These newcomers
made their homes principally in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland,
the Carolinas and the frontiers of the New England colonies. Later
they pushed on westward and founded Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee. An
interesting essay by the well-known writer, Irvin S. Cobb, on _The Lost
Irish Tribes in the South_ is an important contribution to this subject.
The Germans were the next most important element of the early population
of America. A number of the artisans and carpenters in the first
Jamestown colony were of German descent. In 1710, a body of 3,000 Germans
came to New York—the largest number of immigrants supposed to have
arrived at one time during the colonial period.[13] Most of the early
German immigrants settled in New Jersey, the Carolinas, and Pennsylvania.
It has been estimated that at the end of the colonial period the number
of Germans was fully two hundred thousand.
Though the Irish and the Germans contributed most largely to colonial
immigration, as distinguished from the English, who are classed as the
Colonials, there were other races who came even thus early to our shores.
The Huguenots came from France to escape religious persecution. The
Jews, then as ever, engaged in their age-old struggle for religious and
economic toleration, came from England, France, Spain and Portugal. The
Dutch Government of New Amsterdam, fearing their commercial competition,
ordered a group of Portuguese Jews to leave the colony, but this decision
was appealed to the home Government at Holland and reversed, so that
they were allowed to remain. On the whole, their freedom to live and to
trade in the colonies was so much greater than in their former homes that
there were soon flourishing colonies of Jewish merchants in Newport,
Philadelphia and Charleston.
In 1626 a company of Swedish merchants organized, under the patronage of
the Great King Gustavus Adolphus, to promote immigration to America. The
King contributed four hundred thousand dollars to the capital raised, but
did not live to see the fruition of his plans. In 1637, the first company
of Swedes and Finns left Stockholm for America. They reached Delaware
Bay and called the country New Sweden. The Dutch claimed, by right of
priority, this same territory and in 1655 the flag of Holland replaced
that of Sweden. The small Swedish colony in Delaware came under Penn’s
rule and became, like Pennsylvania, cosmopolitan in character.
The Dutch in New York preserved their racial characteristics for more
than a hundred years after the English conquest of 1664. At the end of
the colonial period, over one-half of the 170,000 inhabitants of New York
were descendants of the original Dutch.
Many of the immigrants who came here in the early days paid their
own passage. However, the actual number of such is only a matter of
conjecture. From the shipping records of the period we do know positively
that thousands came who were unable to pay. Shipowners and others who
had the means furnished the passage money to those too poor to pay for
themselves, and in return received from these persons a promise or bond.
This bond provided that the person named in it should work for a certain
number of years to repay the money advanced. Such persons were called
“indentured servants” and they were found throughout the colonies,
working in the fields, the shops and the homes of the colonists. The
term of service was from five to seven years. Many found it impossible
to meet their obligations and their servitude dragged on for years.
Others, on the contrary, became free and prosperous. In Pennsylvania
often there were as many as fifty bond servants on estates. The condition
of indentured servants in Virginia “was little better than that of
slaves. Loose indentures and harsh laws put them at the mercy of their
masters.”[14] This seems to have been their fate in all the colonies, as
their treatment depended upon the character of their masters.
Besides these indentured servants who came here voluntarily, a large
number of early settlers were forced to come here. The Irish before
mentioned are one example. In order to secure settlers, men, women and
children were kidnapped from the cities and towns and “spirited away” to
America by the companies and proprietors who had colonies here. In 1680
it was officially computed that 10,000 were sent thus to American shores.
In 1627, about 1,500 children were shipped to Virginia, probably orphans
and dependents whom their relatives were unwilling to support.[15]
Another class sent here were convicts, the scourings of English centers
like Bristol and Liverpool. The colonists protested vehemently against
this practise, but it was continued up to the very end of the colonial
period, when this convict tide was diverted to “Botany Bay.”
In 1619, another race was brought here against their will and sold into
slavery. This was the Negro, forced to leave his home near the African
equator that he might contribute to the material wealth of shipmasters
and planters. Slowly but surely chattel slavery took firm root in the
South and at last became the leading source of the labor supply. The
slave traders found it very easy to seize Negroes in Africa and make
great profits by selling them in Southern ports. The English Royal
African Company sent to America annually between 1713 and 1743 from
5,000 to 10,000 slaves.[16] After a time, when the Negroes were so
numerous that whole sections were overrun, the Southern colonies tried
ineffectually to curb the trade. Virginia in 1710 placed a duty of five
pounds on each slave but the Royal Governor vetoed the bill. Bills of
like import were passed in other colonies from time to time, but the
English crown disapproved in every instance and the trade, so lucrative
to British shipowners, went on. At the time of the Revolution, there were
almost half a million slaves in the colonies.[17] The exact proportions
of the slave trade to America can be but approximately determined. From
1680 to 1688 the African Company sent 249 ships to Africa, shipped there
60,783 Negro slaves, and after losing 14,387 on the middle passage,
delivered 46,396 in America. The trade increased early in the eighteenth
century, 104 ships clearing for Africa in 1701; it then dwindled until
the signing of the Assiento, standing at 74 clearances in 1724. The
final dissolution of the monopoly in 1750 led—excepting in the years
1754-57, when the closing of Spanish marts sensibly affected the trade—to
an extraordinary development, 192 clearances being made in 1771. The
Revolutionary War nearly stopped the traffic, but by 1786 the clearances
had risen again to 146.
To these figures must be added the unregistered trade of Americans and
foreigners. It is probable that about 25,000 slaves were brought to
America each year between 1698 and 1707. The importation then dwindled
but after the Assiento rose to perhaps 30,000. The proportion of these
slaves carried to the continent now began to increase. Of about 20,000
whom the English annually imported from 1733 to 1766, South Carolina
alone received some 3,000. Before the Revolution the total exportation to
America is variously estimated as between 40,000 and 100,000 each year.
Bancroft places the total slave population of the continental colonies
at 59,000 in 1714; 78,000 in 1727; and 293,000 in 1754. The census of
1790 showed 697,897 slaves in the United States. Not all the Negroes who
came to America were slaves and not all remained slaves. There were the
following free Negroes in the decades between 1790 and 1860:
1790 59,557
1800 108,435
1810 186,446
1820 233,634
1830 319,599
1840 386,293
1850 434,495
1860 488,070
Immigration of Negroes is still taking place, especially from the West
Indies. It has been estimated that there are the following foreign-born
Negroes in the United States:
1890 19,979
1900 20,336
1910 40,339
1920 75,000
In 1790, Negroes were one-fifth of the total population; in 1860 they
were one-seventh; in 1900 one-ninth;[18] today they are approximately
one-tenth.
With the beginning of the national era—1783—all peoples subsequently
coming to the United States must be classed as immigrants. During the
first years of our national life, no accurate statistics of immigration
were kept. The Federal Government took no control of the matter and the
State records are incomplete and unreliable. A pamphlet published by the
Bureau of Statistics in 1903, _Immigration into the United States_, says,
“The best estimates of the total immigration into the United States prior
to the official count puts the total number of arrivals at not to exceed
250,000 in the entire period between 1776 and 1820.”
From 1806 to 1816, the unfriendly relations which existed between the
United States and England and France precluded any extensive immigration
to this country. England maintained and for a time successfully enforced
the doctrine that “a man once a subject was always a subject.” The
American Merchant Service, because of the pay and good treatment given,
was very attractive to English sailors and a very great enticement to
them to come to America and enter the American service. However, the
fear of impressment deterred many from so doing. The Blockade Decrees
of England against France in 1806 and the retaliation decrees of France
against England in that same year were other influences which retarded
immigration. These decrees were succeeded by the British Orders in
Council, the Milan Decree of Napoleon, and the United States law of 1809
prohibiting intercourse with both Great Britain and France.
In 1810, the French decrees were annulled and American commerce began
again with France, only to have the vessels fall into the hands of the
British. Then came the War of 1812. The German immigration suffered
greatly from this condition of affairs, as the Germans sailed principally
from the ports of Liverpool and Havre. At these points ships were more
numerous and expenses less heavy. In December, 1814, a few days before
the Battle of New Orleans, a treaty of peace was concluded between the
United States and England and after a few months immigration was resumed
once more.
In 1817, about 22,240 persons arrived at ports of the United States from
foreign countries. This number included American citizens returning from
abroad. In no previous year had so many immigrants come to our shores.
In 1819 a law was passed by Congress and approved by the President
“regulating passenger ships and vessels.” In 1820, the official history
of immigration began. The Port Collectors then began to keep records
which included numbers, sexes, ages, and occupations of all incoming
persons. However, up to 1856, no distinction was made between travellers
and immigrants.
Immigration increased from 8,358 in 1820—of which 6,024 came from Great
Britain and Ireland—to 22,633 in 1831.[19] The decade of the twenties
was a time of great industrial activity in the United States. The Erie
Canal was built, other canals were projected, the railroads were started,
business increased by leaps and bounds. As a consequence, the demand
for labor was imperative and Europe responded. During the entire period
of our early national life, the United States encouraged the coming of
foreign artisans and laborers as the necessity for strength, skill and
courage in the upbuilding of our country began to be realized.
From 1831 the number of immigrants steadily increased until from
September 30, 1849, to September 30, 1850, they totaled 315,334[20] The
largest increases during those years were from 1845 to 1848, when the
famine in Ireland and the revolution in Germany drove thousands to the
shores of free America. These causes continued to increase the number of
arrivals until in 1854 the crest was attained with 460,474[21]—a figure
not again reached for nearly twenty years.
From September 30, 1819, when the official count of immigrants began to
be taken, to December 31, 1855, a total of 4,212,624 persons of foreign
birth arrived in the United States.[22] Of these Bromwell, who wrote
in 1856 a work compiled entirely from official data, estimates that
1,747,930 were Irish.[23] Next comes Germany,[24] with 1,206,087; England
third with 207,492; France fourth with 188,725.
The exodus of the Irish during those famine years furnishes one of the
many examples recorded in history of a subject race driven from its home
by the economic injustice of a dominant race. Later, we see the same
thing true in Austria-Hungary where the Slavs were tyrannized by the
Magyars; again we find it in Russia where the Jew sought freedom from the
Slav; and once again in Armenia and Syria where the native people fled
from the Turk.
After 1855, the tide of immigration began to decrease steadily. During
the first two years of the Civil War, it was less than 100,000.[25] In
1863, an increase was noticeable again and 395,922[26] immigrants are
recorded in 1869.
During all these years up to 1870, the great part of the immigration was
from Northern Europe. The largest racial groups were composed of Irish,
Germans, Scandinavians and French. About the middle of the nineteenth
century French-speaking Canadians were attracted by the opportunities for
employment in the mills and factories of New England.
The number of Irish coming here steadily decreased after 1880 until
it has fallen far below that of other European peoples. Altogether,
the total Irish immigration from 1820 to 1906 is placed at something
over 4,000,000, thus giving the Irish second place as contributors to
the foreign-born population of the United States. The Revolution of
1848 was the contributing cause of a large influx of Germans, many of
whom were professional men and artisans. From 1873 to 1879 there was
great industrial depression in Germany and consequently another large
immigration to America took place. Since 1882, there has also been a
noticeable decline in German immigrants. From 1820 to 1903, a total of
over 5,000,000 Germans was recorded as coming to the United States.[27]
In the period from 1880 to 1910 immigration from Italy totaled 4,018,404.
It will be remembered that the law requiring the registration of outgoing
aliens was not passed until 1908, and it may, therefore, be estimated
that 3,000,000 represents the total number of arrivals from Italy, who
remained here permanently.
After 1903, up to the outbreak of the Great War, the number of alien
arrivals steadily increased. In 1905, it was more than 1,000,000; in
1906, it passed the 1,100,000 mark and in 1907 the 1,200,000 mark; in
1913 and 1914, the total number for each year exceeded 1,400,000.[28]
During the ten years from 1905 to 1915, nearly 12,000,000 aliens landed
in the United States, a yearly average of 1,200,000 arrivals. These
alone form more than 37 per cent. of all recorded immigration since 1820
and make up about 88 out of every 100 of our present total foreign-born
population.[29] Until interrupted by the European War, the immigration
to the United States was the greatest movement of the largest number
of peoples that the world has ever known. Of course, there have been
economic upheavals from time to time which have noticeably affected
this movement. The Civil War, as before noted, and financial panics and
industrial depressions in our country interrupted the incoming tide
repeatedly. The Great War with its social and economic upheaval had a
tremendous effect on our immigration. The twelve months following the
declaration of war shows the smallest number of alien arrivals since
1899. The number was slightly over 325,000. The statistics compiled by
the Federal Bureau of Immigration show that by far the greater part of
the immigrants who come to the United States are from Europe. Of the
1,403,000 alien immigrants who came here in 1914, about 1,114,000 were
from Europe; about 35,000 came from Asia; the remainder, about 254,000,
came from all other countries combined, principally Canada, the West
Indies, and Mexico. Eighty out of every 100, therefore, came from Europe.
As many as sixty of that eighty came from the three countries of Italy,
Austria-Hungary and Russia. Italy sent 294,689; Austria-Hungary was
second with 286,059; Russia contributed 262,409. From all of England,
Ireland, Scotland and Wales came only 88,000 or about 6 out of every 100;
and from Norway, Sweden and Denmark came about 31,000 or 2 out of every
100.
Greece, France, Portugal, Bulgaria, Montenegro, Spain, Turkey, the
Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, and Roumania contributed virtually all
the remainder of our 1914 immigrants from Europe, given in the order of
importance.
However, we should bear in mind always that the country of origin or
nationality or jurisdiction (as determined by political boundaries) is
not always identical with race. Immigration statistics have followed
national or political boundaries. Take the immigrants from Russia. The
statistics say that 262,000 arrived from that country in 1914. But of
this number, less than 5 out of every 100 are Russians; the rest or 95
out of every 100, are Hebrews, Poles, Lithuanians, Finns and Germans.
Austria-Hungary was another country made of a medley of races. The
Germanic Austrians who ruled Austria and the Hungarian Magyars who ruled
Hungary were less than one-half of the total population of the one time
Austria-Hungary.
The record of alien arrivals from Poland is not accurate because it is
divided into three national statistical divisions—Russia, Germany and
Austria-Hungary. The best estimate is that the total Polish arrivals to
the United States since 1820 approximates 2,500,000.
The Slav, the Magyar, the German, the Latin, and the Jew were all in
Austria-Hungary and moreover, these were all numerously subdivided. The
most numerous of the Slavs are the Czechs and Slovaks. These gave the
United States in 1914 a combined immigration of 37,000. Poles, Ruthenians
and Roumanians also came here from northern Austria, and from the
vicinity of the Black Sea came Roumanians more Latin than Slavic. Besides
these, the one time dual kingdom sent Jews, Greeks and Turks.
Although the most important Slavic country of Europe is Russia, yet it
was from Austria-Hungary that we received most of our Slavic immigrants.
In 1914, as many as 23 out of every 100 of our total immigration were
Slavic, and the larger part of this racial group which reached 319,000
that year, came from Austria-Hungary.
That mere recording of country or origin does not give accurate racial
information is illustrated in the case of the many Greeks under Turkish
rule, and the large number of Armenians found in almost all large Turkish
towns. The Armenians are probably the most numerous of the immigrants
from Asia. In 1914, the total immigration from Turkey was about 20,000,
but the actual Turkish immigration was only 3,000. The remaining 27,000
were Greeks, Bulgarians, Serbians, Montenegrins, Syrians, Armenians and
Hebrews.[30]
The “country of origin” tells us almost nothing about the large Hebrew
immigration which comes to the United States. The Jew comes from many
countries. The greater part of all our recent Jewish immigration comes
from Russia, from what is called the “Jewish Pale of Settlement” in the
western part of that country. Other Jews come from Austria, Roumania,
Germany and Turkey. In 1914, the Jews were the fourth largest in numbers
among our immigrants, nearly 143,000.[31]
We must also bear in mind that all of these millions who came to America
do not remain with us. There is a constant emigration going on, a
departure of aliens back to their native land either for a time, or for
all time. Up to 1908, the Bureau of Immigration kept no record of the
“ebb of the tide” but since that time vessels taking aliens out of the
United States, are obliged by law to make a list containing name, age,
sex, nationality, residence in the United States, occupation, and time
of last arrival of each alien passenger, which must be filed with the
Federal Collector of Customs.
The first year of this record, 1908, followed the financial panic of
October, 1907, and due to the economic conditions prevalent in the United
States a very large emigration to Europe was disclosed.
The records show also that the volume of emigration, like that of
immigration, varies from year to year. Just as prosperity here increases
immigration, “bad” times increase emigration from our shores.
There was a time when emigration was so slight that it was of little
importance, but since the early nineties it has assumed large
proportions. After the panic of 1907, for months a larger number left the
country than came into it, and thousands and thousands swarmed the ports
of departure awaiting a chance to return home. In the earlier years,
the immigrant sometimes spent months making the journey here. Besides
the difficulty of the trip, ocean transportation was more expensive.
Therefore, the earlier immigrants came to remain, to make homes here
for themselves and their children. The Irish, the Germans, the early
Bohemians, the Scandinavians, and in fact all the early comers brought
their families and their “household goods”, ready to settle down for all
time and to become citizens of their adopted country.
A large number of the alien arrivals of recent years come here initially
with only a vague intention of remaining permanently, and these make up
the large emigration streaming constantly from our ports. However, it
is only fair to say that eventually many of these people come back to
America and become permanent residents. Anyone who has had experience at
our ports of entry can substantiate the statement that during a period of
years the same faces are seen incoming again and again.
Although immigrants have come by millions into the United States,
and have been the main contributing cause of its wonderful national
expansion, yet opposition to their coming has manifested itself strongly
at different times.
In the colonial period the people objected, and rightly, to the maternal
solicitude which England evidenced by making the colonies the dumping
ground for criminals and undesirables. However, these objections were
disregarded and convicts and criminals continued to come while the
colonies remained under British rule.
After the national era, immigration was practically unrestricted down
to 1875. At different periods there were manifestations of a strong
desire to restrict immigration, but Congress never responded with
exclusion laws. The alien and sedition laws of 1798 had for their
object the removal of foreigners already residents in the United
States. The naturalization laws passed that same year, lengthening the
time of residence necessary for citizenship to fourteen years, were
another severe measure against resident aliens. The native American
and the Know-nothing uprisings were still other indications of that
same spirit of antagonism to the alien based on religious grounds. This
religious antagonism in many of the States took the form of opposition
to immigration itself and a demand for restrictions. But this all
proved futile, for the National Government recognized the necessity of
settling the limitless West. Then, too, another subject loomed large and
threatening at this time, and engrossed the attention of the people away
from the dire evils which the Irish and the Catholics would precipitate
upon “our free and happy people”. This was the State Rights and Slavery
question; and soon the country forgot immigration in the throes of the
Civil War.
By an act of March 3, 1875, the National Government made its first
attempt to restrict immigration; this act prohibited the bringing in
of alien convicts and of women for immoral purposes. On May 6, 1882,
Congress passed and the President approved another act “to regulate
immigration”, by which the coming of Chinese laborers was forbidden
for ten years. The story which led up to this Act of Congress is a
long one, and the details cannot be given here. Briefly, conditions in
California following the Burlingame treaty of 1868, owing to the influx
of Chinese labor, resulted in the organization of a workingman’s party
headed by Dennis Kearney, and forced the Chinese question as one of the
dominant issues of State politics. Resolutions embodying the feelings of
the people on Chinese immigration were presented to the Constitutional
Convention of 1879. The State Legislature enacted laws against this
immigration. Subsequently pressure was brought to bear on the National
Government, a new treaty with China was negotiated, and finally the law
of 1882 was passed by Congress, restricting for ten years the admission
of Chinese laborers, both skilled and unskilled, and of mine workers also.
Ever since the passage of this law, the Federal Government has pursued
a more restrictive and exclusive immigration policy. The next law was
passed in August, 1882, prohibiting the immigration of “any convict,
lunatic, idiot, or any person unable to take care of himself or herself
without becoming a public charge.” Then, in 1885, came another act
known as the “Alien Contract Labor Law”, forbidding the importation
and immigration of foreigners and aliens under contract or agreement
to perform labor in the United States. In 1891 came the law called the
“Geary Act” which amended “the various acts relative to immigration and
the importation of aliens under contract or agreement to perform labor”.
This act extended Chinese exclusion for another ten years, and required
the Chinese in the country to register and submit to the Bertillon test
as a means of identification. In 1893 two acts were passed; one which
gave the quarantine service greater powers and placed additional duties
upon the Public Health Service, and another which properly enforced
the existing immigration and contract labor laws. In 1902 the law
of exclusion was made permanent against Chinese laborers. So, since
1875, the United States has passed laws excluding Chinese entirely and
virtually excluding the Japanese, and both these races are ineligible to
citizenship. In 1907, an act was passed “to regulate the immigration of
Aliens into the United States”, which excluded imbeciles, epileptics,
those so defective either physically or mentally that they might become
public charges; children under sixteen not with a parent, etc.
A far more restrictive measure known as the “literacy” or “educational”
test has been before Congress at different times and has, on three
different occasions, failed to become a law. President Cleveland vetoed
it in 1897, Taft in 1913, and Wilson in 1915. All three Presidents
objected to this bill principally on the ground that it was such “a
radical departure” from all previous national policy in regard to
immigration. President Wilson’s veto of 1917 was overcome and the bill
became a law by a two-thirds majority vote of both houses. This law
requires that entering aliens must be able to read the English language
or some other language or dialect. The one thing which the literacy test
was designed to accomplish—to decrease the volume of immigration—was
brought about suddenly and unexpectedly by the European War. From the
opening of the war, the number of immigrants steadily decreased until,
for the year ending June 30, 1916, it was only 298,826[32] and for the
year ending June 30, 1917, only 110,618.[33] Then it began again to
increase steadily until for the year ending June 30, 1920, it reached a
total of 430,001.[34]
On June 3, 1921, an emergency measure known as the three per cent.
law was passed. This act provided that the number of aliens of any
nationality who could be admitted to the United States in any one year
should be limited to three per cent. of the number of foreign-born
persons of such nationality resident in the United States as determined
by the census of 1910. Certain ones were not counted, such as foreign
government officials and their families and employees, aliens in
transit through the United States, tourists, aliens from countries
having immigration treaties with the United States, aliens who have
lived for one year previous to their admission in Canada, Newfoundland,
Mexico, Central America, or South America, and aliens under eighteen
who have parents who are American citizens. More than twenty per cent.
of a country’s full quota could not be admitted in one month except in
the case of actors, artists, lecturers, singers, nurses, clergymen,
professors, members of the learned professions or domestic servants who
could always come in even though the month’s or the year’s quota had been
used.
A well organized effort is under way in the Congress which began its
session in December 1923, to reduce the quota to two per cent. of the
immigrants recorded as coming to the United States in 1890. This bill,
which will probably be passed, is being opposed vigorously, by the
Jews and Italians who are immediately the particular racial groups
to be affected, but since neither the Jews nor Italians, separately
or collectively, have political strength to be a voting factor to be
considered, except in a half dozen of the industrial states, the passage
of the bill seems to be inevitable.
The recent immigration restriction laws make a decided break with past
national history and tradition. There is little doubt that these laws
are in part the fruit of an organized movement which, especially since
the war, is attempting to classify all aliens, except those of one
special group, as “hyphenates” and “mongrels”. These laws are haphazard,
unscientific, based on unworthy prejudice and likely, ultimately, to be
disastrous in their economic consequences. The present three per cent.
immigration law is not based on any fundamental standard of fitness. Once
the percentage of maximum admissions is reached, in any given month, the
next alien applying for entrance may be a potential Washington, Lincoln
or Edison to whom the unyielding process of the law must deny admission.
Such laws, worked out under the hysteria of “after war psychology”, seem
to be one of the instances, so frequent in history, where Democracy must
take time to work out its own mistakes.
Under the circumstances, there is all the more reason that the priceless
heritage of racial achievement by the descendants of various racial
groups in the United States be told.
The United States has departed a long way from the policy which was
recorded in 1795 by the series of coins known as the “Liberty and
Security” coins, on which appeared the words “A Refuge for the Oppressed
of all Nations”.
ARRIVALS OF ALIEN PASSENGERS AND IMMIGRANTS IN THE UNITED
STATES FROM 1820 TO 1892
Prepared by the Bureau of Statistics and published in 1893 by
the Government Printing Office.
=====================================================================
1821 to 1831 to 1841 to
Countries Whence Arrived 1830 1840 1850
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Austria-Hungary
Belgium 27 22 5,074
Denmark 169 1,063 539
France 3,497 45,575 77,262
Germany 6,761 152,454 434,626
Italy 408 2,253 1,870
Netherlands 1,078 1,412 8,251
Norway and Sweden 91 1,201 13,903
Russia and Poland 91 646 656
Spain and Portugal 2,622 2,954 2,759
Switzerland 3,226 4,821 4,644
========= ========= =========
United Kingdom
England(a) 22,167 73,143 263,332
Scotland 2,912 2,667 3,712
Ireland 50,724 207,381 780,719
Total United Kingdom 75,803 283,191 1,047,763
========= ========= =========
All other countries of Europe 43 96 165
--------- --------- ---------
Total Europe 98,816 495,688 1,597,502
========= ========= =========
British North American Possessions 2,277 13,624 41,723
Mexico 4,817 6,599 3,271
Central America 105 44 368
South America 531 856 3,579
West Indies 3,834 12,301 13,528
--------- --------- ---------
Total America 11,564 33,424 62,469
=====================================================================
=====================================================================
1851 Jan. 1 Fiscal
to 1861 Years
Dec. 31, to June 1871 to
Countries Whence Arrived 1860 30, 1870 1880
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Austria-Hungary 7,800 72,969
Belgium 4,738 6,734 7,221
Denmark 3,749 17,094 31,771
France 76,358 35,984 72,206
Germany 951,667 787,468 718,182
Italy 9,231 11,728 55,759
Netherlands 10,789 9,102 16,541
Norway and Sweden 20,931 109,298 211,245
Russia and Poland 1,621 4,536 52,254
Spain and Portugal 10,353 8,493 9,893
Switzerland 25,011 23,286 28,293
========= ========= =========
United Kingdom
England(a) 385,643 568,128 460,479
Scotland 38,331 38,768 87,564
Ireland 914,119 435,778 436,871
Total United Kingdom 1,338,093 1,042,674 984,914
========= ========= =========
All other countries of Europe 116 210 656
--------- --------- ---------
Total Europe 2,452,657 2,064,407 2,261,904
========= ========= =========
British North American Possessions 59,309 153,871 383,269
Mexico 3,078 2,191 5,362
Central America 449 96 210
South America 1,224 1,396 928
West Indies 10,660 9,043 13,957
--------- --------- ---------
Total America 74,720 166,597 403,726
=====================================================================
=====================================================================
Fiscal Fiscal
Years Years
1881 to 1891 and
Countries Whence Arrived 1890 1892 Total
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Austria-Hungary 353,719 151,178 585,666
Belgium 20,177 7,340 51,333
Denmark 88,132 21,252 163,769
France 50,464 13,291 379,637
Germany 1,452,970 244,312 4,748,440
Italy 307,309 138,191 526,749
Netherlands 53,701 12,466 113,340
Norway and Sweden 568,362 107,157 1,032,188
Russia and Poland 265,088 192,615 517,507
Spain and Portugal 6,535 5,657 49,266
Switzerland 81,988 14,219 185,488
========= ========= =========
United Kingdom
England(a) 657,488 104,575 2,534,955
Scotland 149,869 24,077 347,900
Ireland 655,482 111,173 3,592,247
Total United Kingdom 1,462,839 239,825 6,475,102
========= ========= =========
All other countries of Europe 10,318 4,954 16,548
--------- --------- ---------
Total Europe 4,721,602 (b)1,152,457 14,845,038
========= ========= =========
British North American Possessions 392,802 (c) 1,046,875
Mexico 1,913 (c) 27,231
Central America 462 576 2,310
South America 2,304 1,344 12,162
West Indies 29,042 5,673 98,038
--------- --------- ---------
Total America 426,523 7,593 1,186,616
=====================================================================
Alien Passengers from October 1, 1820, to December 31, 1867, and
Immigrants from January 1, 1868, to June 30, 1892.
(a) Includes Wales and Great Britain not specified. According to William
J. Bromwell’s _History of Emigration to the United States_, published in
1856 by Redfield of New York, 1,000,000 of this number were from Ireland,
which is probably accurate. During and after the Irish famine large
numbers of Irish who could not find money for the passage to the United
States did find it possible to go to England to work in coal mines,
factories, and in seasonal agricultural employment; the money secured
from which enabled them to embark for the United States from various
English ports, which explains Bromwell’s estimate.
(b) Includes 777 from Azores and 5 from Greenland.
(c) Immigrants from British North American Possessions and Mexico are not
included since July 1, 1885.
Author’s Note: Official statistics of immigration to the United States
began in 1819, so that statements as to the number of aliens arriving
prior to that time are largely guesswork.
The “panic” of 1893 had the effect to turn the alien tide the other
way—back to Europe. Official statistics as to aliens returning from the
United States were not required by law until 1908.
The quarter of a century which has passed since the character of alien
arrivals to the United States beginning in the forties, changed so
markedly in the decade of 1880 to 1890, is not long enough for accurate
analysis of the economic, political and social influence on the United
States of the coming of these newer races, so that the statistical
records here given do not extend beyond 1892.
THE GIFT OF BLACK FOLK
PRESCRIPT
Who made America? Who made this land that swings its empire from the
Atlantic to the Sea of Peace and from Snow to Fire—this realm of New
Freedom, with Opportunity and Ideal unlimited?
Now that its foundations are laid, deep but bare, there are those as
always who would forget the humble builders, toiling wan mornings and
blazing noons, and picture America as the last reasoned blossom of mighty
ancestors; of those great and glorious world builders and rulers who know
and see and do all things forever and ever, amen! How singular and blind!
For the glory of the world is the possibilities of the commonplace and
America is America even because it shows, as never before, the power of
the common, ordinary, unlovely man. This is real democracy and not that
vain and eternal striving to regard the world as the abiding place of
exceptional genius with great black wastes of hereditary idiots.
We who know may not forget but must forever spread the splendid sordid
truth that out of the most lowly and persecuted of men, Man made America.
And that what Man has here begun with all its want and imperfection, with
all its magnificent promise and grotesque failure will some day blossom
in the souls of the Lowly.
CHAPTER I
THE BLACK EXPLORERS
How the Negro helped in the discovery of America and gave his
ancient customs to the land.
Garcia de Montalvo published in 1510 a Spanish romance which said:
“Know ye that on the right hand of the Indies there is an island called
California very near the Terrestrial Paradise which is peopled with black
women without any men among them, because they were accustomed to live
after the fashion of the Amazons. They were of strong and hardy bodies,
of ardent courage and of great force.”[35]
The legend that the Negro race had touched America even before the
day of Columbus rests upon a certain basis of fact: First, the Negro
countenance, clear and unmistakable, occurs repeatedly in Indian
carvings, among the relics of the Mound Builders and in Mexican
temples.[36] Secondly, there are evidences of Negro customs among the
Indians in their religious worship; in their methods of building defenses
such as the mounds probably were; and particularly in customs of trade.
Columbus said that he had been told of a land southwest of the Cape Verde
Islands where the black folk had been trading and had used in their trade
the well known African alloy of gold called guanin.[37]
“There can be no question whatever as to the reality of the statement in
regard to the presence in America of the African pombeiros[38] previous
to Columbus because the guani is a Mandingo word and the very alloy is
of African origin. In 1501 a law was passed forbidding persons to sell
guanin to the Indians of Hispaniola.”[39]
Wiener thinks “The presence of Negroes with their trading masters in
America before Columbus is proved by the representation of Negroes in
American sculpture and design, by the occurrence of a black nation at
Darien early in the 16th century, but more specifically by Columbus’
emphatic reference to Negro traders from Guinea, who trafficked in a gold
alloy, guanin, of precisely the same composition and bearing the same
name, as frequently referred to by early writers in Africa.”[40]
And thirdly, many of the productions of America which have hitherto been
considered as indigenous and brought into use especially by the Indians,
may easily have been African in origin, as for instance, tobacco, cotton,
sweet potatoes and peanuts. It is quite possible that many if not all
of these came through the African Negro, being in some cases indigenous
to Negro Africa and in other cases transmitted from the Arabs by the
Negroes. Tobacco particularly was known in Africa and is mentioned in
early America continually in connection with the Negroes. All of these
things were spread in America along the same routes starting with the
mingling of Negroes and Indians in the West Indies and coming up through
Florida and on to Canada. The Arawak Indians, who especially show the
effects of contact with Negroes, and fugitive Negroes, together with
Negroid Caribs, migrated northward and it was they who led Ponce de Leon
to search for the Fountain Bimini where old men became young.[41]
Oviedo says that the sweet potato “came with that evil lot of Negroes and
it has taken very well and it is profitable and good sustenance for the
Negroes of whom there is a greater number than is necessary on account of
their rebellions.”[42] In the same way maize and sugar cane may have been
imported from Africa.
Further than this the raising of bread roots, manioc, yam and sweet
potatoes may have come to America from Guinea by way of Brazil. From
Brazil the culture of these crops spread and many of the words referring
to them are of undoubted African origin.
Negroes probably reached the eastern part of South America from the West
Indies while others from the same source went north along the roads
marked by the Mound Builders as far as Canada.
“The chief cultural influence of the Negro in America was exerted by a
Negro colony in Mexico, most likely from Teotihuacan and Tuxtla, who may
have been instrumental in establishing the city of Mexico. From here
their influence pervaded the neighboring tribes and ultimately, directly
or indirectly, reached Peru.”[43]
The mounds of the “Mound Builders” were probably replicas of Negro forts
in Africa. “That this tendency to build forts and stockades proceeded
from the Antilles, whence the Arawaks had come in the beginning of the
sixteenth century, is proved by the presence of similar works in Cuba.
These are found in the most abandoned and least-explored part of the
island and there can be little doubt that they were locations of fugitive
Negro and Indian stockades, precisely such as were in use in Africa.
It is not possible to prove the direct participation of the Negroes in
the fortifications of the North American Indians, but as the civilizing
influence on the Indians to a great extent proceeded from Cuba over
Florida towards the Huron Country in the north, the solution of the
question of the Mound Builders is to be looked for in the perpetuation of
Arawak or Carib methods, acquired from the Negroes, as well attested by
Ovando’s complaint in 1503 that the Negroes spoiled the manners of the
Indians; and transferred to the white traders, who not only adopted the
methods of the Indians, but frequently lived among the Indians as part of
them, especially in Brazil where we have ample documentary evidence of
the fact.”[44]
All this is prehistoric and in part conjectural and yet it seems
reasonable to suppose that much in custom, trade and religion which has
been regarded as characteristic of the American Indian arose from strong
Negro influences of the pre-Columbian period.
After the discovery of America by Columbus many Negroes came with the
early explorers. Many of these early black men were civilized Christians
and sprung from the large numbers of Negroes imported into Spain and
Portugal during the fifteenth century, where they replaced as laborers
the expelled Moors. Afterward came the mass of slaves brought by the
direct African slave trade.
From the beginning of the fifteenth century mention of the Negro in
America becomes frequent. In 1501 they were permitted to enter the
colonies; in 1503 the Governor of Hispaniola sought to prohibit their
transportation to America because they fled to the Indians and taught
them bad manners. By 1506 they were coming again because the work of one
Negro was worth more than that of four Indians. In 1518 the new sugar
culture in Spain and the Canary Islands began to be transferred to the
West Indies and Negroes were required as laborers. In 1521 Negroes were
not to be used on errands because they incited Indians to rebellion and
the following year they rose in rebellion on Diego Columbus’ mill. In
1540, in Quivera, Mexico, there was a Negro priest and in 1542 there were
at Guamango, Mexico, three Brotherhoods of the True Cross of Spaniards,
one of which was of Negroes and one of Indians.
Thus the Negro is seen not only entering as a laborer but becoming a
part of the civilization of the New World. Helps says: “Very early in
the history of the American Continent there are circumstances to show
that Negroes were gradually entering into that part of the New World.
They constantly appear at remarkable points in the narrative. When the
Marquis Pizarro had been slain by the conspirators, his body was dragged
to the Cathedral by two Negroes. The murdered Factor, Illan Suarez, was
buried by Negroes and Indians. After the battle of Anaquito, the head of
the unfortunate Viceroy, Blasco Nunez Vela, was cut off by a Negro. On
the outbreak of the great earthquake at Guatemala, the most remarkable
figure in that night’s terrors was a gigantic Negro, who was seen in
many parts of the city, and who assisted no one, however much he was
implored. In the narrative of the return of Las Casas to his diocese, it
has been seen that he was attended by a Negro. And many other instances
might be adduced, showing that, in the decade from 1535 to 1545, Negroes
had come to form part of the household of the wealthier colonists. At the
same time, in the West Indian Islands which had borne the first shock
of the conquest, and where the Indians had been more swiftly destroyed,
the Negroes were beginning to form the bulk of the population; and the
licenses for importation were steadily increasing in number.”[45]
Continually they appear with the explorers. Nuflo de Olana, a Negro,
was with Balboa when he discovered the Pacific Ocean,[46] and afterward
thirty Negroes helped Balboa direct the work of over 500 Indians in
transporting the material for his ships across the mountains to the South
Sea.[47]
Cortes carried Negroes and Indians with him from Cuba to Mexico and one
of these Negroes was the first to sow and reap grain in Mexico. There
were two Negroes with Velas in 1520 and 200 black slaves with Alvarado
on his desperate expedition to Quito. Almagro and Valdivia in 1525 were
saved from death by Negroes.[48]
As early as 1528 there were about 10,000 Negroes in the New World. We
hear of one sent as an agent of the Spanish to burn a native village in
Honduras. In 1539 they accompanied De Soto and one of them stayed among
the Indians in Alabama and became the first settler from the old world.
In 1555 in Santiago de Chile a free Negro owns land in the town. Menendez
had a company of trained Negro artisans and agriculturalists when he
founded St. Augustine in 1565 and in 1570 Negroes founded the town of
Santiago del Principe.
In most of these cases probably leadership and initiative on the part
of the early Negro pioneers in America was only spasmodic or a matter
of accident. But this was not always true and there is one well-known
case which, despite the propaganda of 400 years, survives as a clear
and important instance of Negro leadership in exploration. This is
the romantic story of Stephen Dorantes or as he is usually called,
Estevanico, who sailed from Spain in 1527 with the expedition of
Panfilo de Narvaez.[49] This fleet of five vessels and 600 colonists
and soldiers started from Cuba and landed in Tampa Bay in 1582. But
disaster followed disaster until at last there were but four survivors
of whom one was Estevanico “an Arab Negro from Azamor on the Atlantic
coast of Morocco”; he is elsewhere described as “black” and a “person of
intelligence.” Besides him there was his master Dorantes and two other
Spaniards, de Vaca and Maldonado.[50] For six years these men maintained
themselves by practicing medicine among the Indians, and were the first
to reach Mexico from Florida by the overland route.
Estevanico and de Vaca went forward to meet the outposts of the Spaniards
established in Mexico. Estevanico returned with an escort and brought on
the other two men. The four then went west to the present Mexican cities,
Chihuahua and Sonora and reached Culiacan, the capital of the state of
Sinaloa, in April, 1536.
Coronado was governor of Sinaloa and on hearing the story of the
wanderers, he immediately hastened with them to the viceroy, Mendoza,
in the city of Mexico. They told the viceroy not only of their own
adventures but what they had heard of the rich lands toward the North and
of the cities with houses four and five stories high which were really
the Pueblos of New Mexican Indians. Mendoza was eager to explore these
lands. He had already heard something about them and he and Cortes had
planned to make the exploration together but could not agree upon terms.
Cortes therefore hurried to fit out a small fleet in 1537. He took 400
Spaniards and 300 Negroes, sailed up the Gulf of California and called
the country “California”. He then returned to Spain for the last time.
Meantime, de Vaca and Maldonado after several unsuccessful attempts
also went to Spain leaving Dorantes and Estevanico. Dorantes refused to
take part in the proposed expedition to the North but sold his slave
Estevanico to Mendoza. Certain Franciscan Monks joined the expedition and
Fray Marcos de Niza became the leader, having already had some experience
in exploration in Peru. Estevanico, because of his knowledge of the
Indian language and especially of the sign language, was the guide, and
the party started North for what the viceroy dreamed were the Seven
Cities of Cibola. They left March 7th, 1539, and arrived at Vacapa in
central Sinaloa on the 21st. Fray Marcos, probably from timidity, sent
Estevanico on ahead with an escort of Indians whom he could send back
as messengers.[51] The Negro marked his journey by large wooden crosses
and in this way with Estevanico far ahead they traveled for two weeks
until suddenly Fray Marcos was met by a fleeing band of badly frightened
Indians who told him that Estevanico had reached Cibola and had been
killed. Fray Marcos named the country “El Nuevo Reyno de San Francisco”
but being himself scared, distributed among the Indians everything which
his party had in their packs, except the vestments for saying Mass, and
traveling by double marches, returned to Mexico.
Meantime let us follow the adventure of Estevanico: Knowing how much
depended upon appearance in that unknown and savage land, Estevanico
traveled in magnificence, decorated with bells and feathers and carrying
a symbolic gourd which was recognized among the Indian tribes thereabouts
as a symbol of authority. When he reached the Pueblos, the Indian chiefs
were in a quandary. First of all they recognized in Estevanico’s retinue,
numbers of their ancient Indian enemies. Secondly, they were frightened
because Estevanico informed them “that two white men were coming behind
him who had been sent by a great Lord and knew about the things in the
sky and that they were coming to instruct them in divine matters.” They
had good reason to fear that this meant the onslaught of some powerful
enemy. And, moreover, they were puzzled because this black man came
as a representative of white men: “The Lord of Cibola, inquiring of
him whether he had other brethren, he answered that he had an infinite
number and that they had a great store of weapons with them and that they
were not very far thence. When they heard this, many of the chief men
consulted together and resolved to kill him that he might not give news
unto these brethren where they dwelt[52] and that for this cause they
slew him and cut him into many pieces, which were divided among all the
chief Lords that they might know assuredly that he was dead....”
This climax is still told in a legend current among the Zuni Indians
today: “It is to be believed that a long time ago, when roofs lay over
the walls of Kya-ki-me, when smoke hung over the housetops, and the
ladder rounds were still unbroken in Kya-ki-me, then the black Mexicans
came from their abodes in Everlasting Summer-land. One day, unexpectedly,
out of Hemlock Canon they came, and descended to Kya-ki-me. But when
they said they would enter the covered way, it seems that our ancients
looked not gently at them; for with these black Mexicans came many
Indians of So-no-li, as they call it now, ... who were enemies of our
ancients. Therefore, these our ancients, being always bad-tempered, and
quick to anger, made fools of themselves after their fashion, rushing
into their town and out of their town, shouting, skipping and shooting
with their sling-stones and arrows and tossing their war-clubs. Then the
Indians of So-no-li set up a great howl, and thus they and our ancients
did much ill to one another. Then and thus was killed by our ancients,
right where the stone stands down by the arroyo of Kya-ki-me, one of the
black Mexicans, a large man with chilli lips [i. e., lips swollen from
eating chilli peppers] and some of the Indians they killed, catching
others. Then the rest ran away, chased by our grandfathers, and went back
toward their country in the Land of Everlasting Summer....”[53]
The village reached by Estevanico was Hawi-kih as it was called by the
Indians and Grenada as the Spaniards named it. It is fifteen miles
southwest of the present village of Zuni and is thus within New Mexico
and east of the boundary between New Mexico and Arizona. Thus Estevanico
was the first European to discover Arizona and New Mexico. Fray Marcos
returned with Coronado and came as far as the village in 1540 while
Mendoza sent others to pursue explorations that same year within the
present confines of Arizona and they brought back various stories of the
death of Estevanico.
After that for 40 years explorations rested until 1582 when again the
Spaniards entered the territory. With all the Spanish explorers in
Florida, Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and Kansas, there were Negro slaves
and helpers but none with the initiative, perseverance and success of
Estevanico.
In the after pioneering that took place in later days in the great
western wilderness, the Negro was often present. There was a black man
with Lewis and Clark in 1804; Jacob Dodson, a free Negro of Washington,
volunteered to accompany Fremont in his California expedition of 1843.
He was among the 25 persons selected by Fremont to accompany him in
the discovery of Clamath Lake and also in his ride from Los Angeles to
Monterey. Among the early settlers of California coming up from Mexico
were many Negroes and mulattoes.[54]
William Alexander Leidsdroff was the most distinguished Negro pioneer of
California and at one time lived in the largest house in San Francisco.
He owned the first steamship sailing in San Francisco Bay, and was a
prominent business man, a member of the City Council and treasurer
and member of the school committee. H. H. Bancroft says: “William
Alexander Leidsdroff, a native of Danish West Indies, son of a Dane by a
mulattress, who came to the United States as a boy and became a master of
vessels sailing between New York and New Orleans, came to California as
manager of the ‘Julia Ann,’ on which he made later trips to the Islands,
down to 1845.” His correspondence from 1845, when he became United States
Vice-Consul is a valuable source of historical information. Many Negroes
came in the rush of the “forty-niners” as pioneers and miners as well as
slaves.
The Negro’s work as a pioneer extends down until our day. The late
Commodore Peary who discovered the North Pole said: “Matthew A. Henson,
my Negro assistant, has been with me in one capacity or another since my
second trip to Nicaragua in 1887. I have taken him on each and all of my
expeditions, except the first, and also without exception on each of my
farthest sledge trips. This position I have given him primarily because
of his adaptability and fitness for the work, and secondly on account of
his loyalty. He is a better dog driver and can handle a sledge better
than any man living, except some of the best Esquimo hunters themselves.”
This leaves Henson today as the only living human being who has stood at
the North Pole.