I was born in Newbern, Croven St., Craven County, N. C., November the
first, 1837. I was born under the regime of slavery, a free child, my
mother being a free woman. My childhood was the ordinary child life,
of the colored children of the South. As a mere child, I looked out
upon the world as beautiful and felt that all men and women were good
and kind. I did not know of the distinctions, classes, conditions
and grades of mankind. But as I grew older these distinctions were
forced upon my tender heart and burned into my mind. I gradually came
to realize my said condition, although free, and the sad condition
of my race. My father was a slave, so that in my family, I learned
what slavery was, I felt its curse in my bones and I longed for an
opportunity and the power to play the part of a Moses in behalf of
my people. I suppose that this was the wild dream of every child
born during slavery. The awful condition of my people, the steel
shackles of slavery, the slave block of the market place where
husbands and wives, parents and children, were ruthlessly torn apart
and scattered asunder, the whipping post, the slave quarters, the
inhuman restrictions, such as denial of our own religious privileges,
no ministers or churches of our race, no educational advantages to
speak of, no social freedom among ourselves, these were some of the
unspeakable conditions of my childhood life. But there was the bright
and happy side of my life when a boy. With the thoughtlessness, the
happy-go-lucky spirit of the boy, I entered into those plays and
pleasures which make up the pastime of youth. I recall the many boys
and girls, both white and colored, who were my mates in games and
pranks. Like all boys, I had my little adventures, which were not
always on the side of the right. One of the first practical lessons, I
believe the first, that I ever had regarding the sterling worth of my
mother I most vividly recall. Together with some other boys, we were
guilty of stealing some peaches. It was not the proverbial watermelon
this time. Fortunately we were caught by the proprietor of the orchard.
It would be fortunate if all thieves were caught. I was taken in
charge. I began to cry vigorously. I was asked what I wanted done with
me. I begged to be taken home to my mother. This request was granted.
Soon I was facing my mother. The gentleman told her of my offense. I
expected, of course, that my mother would in some way intercede and
waited with breathless expectation for some defense or some excuse or
some release from my awful predicament. But my heart sank within me
when she said to the man, “I have no thieves in my family.” So I was
led away to face some fearful ordeal, I knew not what. When a boy’s
mother turns against him for his evil-doings, there is no hope for him.
But my tears, cries and youth touched the man’s heart and after leading
me away from home towards the jail for a distance, he released me with
some good advice. I learned in that wrong-doing that I need never
expect my mother to uphold me in the slightest departure from the right
path. It was a wonderful lesson and I doubt not, had a fine effect on
my entire life.
I recall another experience which was much more severe in a physical
way. I was bound out to a white man, Jacob G. Gooding, and placed
under his foreman, Henry E. Bryan. I was ordered to carry a bench some
distance. Then the devil said to me, “You are not a horse, why should
you be doing the work of a horse?” I said to myself, this is true. So
I decided that I would not do the work of a horse. Well, he soon came
to see what the trouble was and found me and the bench together. He
wanted to know why I had not obeyed his orders, I told him that I was
no horse, that he could get a horse and cart and have that bench taken
where he wanted it. We were soon in each other’s embrace engaged in a
street fight. We were arrested and tried and sentenced to a whipping.
Well, I was in for punishment, and being a free boy, the slave overseer
nor his master could punish me. I was reported to my employer. The
punishment decided on was forty lashes save one. So I was stripped and
my employer plied the lash thirty-nine times. My back was lacerated and
very painful and for three weeks I was unable to do any work. I suppose
that I could have gone to work sooner, but I was determined that my
punishment should cost my employer something as well as myself. It cost
me thirty-nine lashes and the suffering and it cost him the loss of
three weeks of my labor. This is but an illustration of the manner in
which the colored people, even the free-born, were generally treated
for their offenses. They were treated frequently worse than the brutes.
For they knew that the Negro had enough intelligence to understand what
his punishment meant and that the purpose of it was to reduce and keep
him in perpetual servitude. This, of course, had to be done by mere
brute force. But as the result of slavery there were many young men of
the race who learned well some trade. They were apprenticed, as in my
case, to some good workman, for at least four years or more. At the
end of that time they were efficient, practical workmen who, if free,
could command good wages. So that hundreds of fine artisans came of
slavery who were able to begin at once the laying of the foundation
of the history of a free people. They took up their several trades,
and for both races, turned their hands to every advantage. It should
always be remembered that the magnificent civilization of the South
as to its material wealth and prosperity, was built up by the slaves
of the South. The cities, the country homes, the plantations and all
their improvements, the planting, cultivating, and harvesting of the
crops, all was done by Negro labor. So that there should be set over to
the account of the Negro race, not only their own progress since the
Civil War, but also the progress of the south for at least a century
before the war. There is another incident in my life at this time
which may be interesting and also illustrate something of the workings
of that noted system of bringing slaves to the North. That system of
exporting slaves is known in history as “The Underground Railroad.”
I was, of course, deeply interested in this means of travel in those
days and tried to get all the passengers for this railroad that I could
find. My boss-foreman, H. E. Bryan, had disobeyed his master and was
threatened to be whipped. I assisted him to a place of safety. In all
the slaveholders’ dwellings, slaves were employed in the house. They
practically had full charge of affairs, and especially in the dining
room, kitchen, etc. This part of the house was very seldom inspected,
excepting to see that things were kept clean and orderly. Well, I
dressed this slave up in a woman’s garb and conducted him through the
streets to the house of one, Mr. Primrose, a man who stood high in the
community, and held the confidence of all slaveholders as one of them
and one of their defenders and supporters, a matter of course. I was
successful in getting my charge safely into the kitchen. Then with the
assistance of the slaves in charge of the kitchen, we placed him in
the attic at the rear of the house, above the kitchen. Here we safely
secreted him and here he was fed on the best of the land for a long
while. There was a most diligent search made for the slave in the town
and throughout the country. A reward was offered and he was advertised,
but all to no avail. He could not be found high or low. At last things
quieted down and we found opportunity to put him on this mystic train
and send him to a clime where he enjoyed his freedom. This was indeed a
daring attempt of mine, but it was in me to do it with a great deal of
delight. And from that day to this, I have been proud of this one feat
of my boyhood life which was on the side of right and humanity.
In 1858 I was bound out to Mr. Jacob Gooding to learn the trade of
bricklaying and plastering, in Newbern, N. C. I worked for him four
years having thoroughly learned the trade. Having finished the course
satisfactorily to Mr. Gooding, he gave me $6, a suit of clothes, set
of tools, and a Bible, and the advice to be a good boy. Afterwards I
worked for Mr. Eusten. Then I decided that I would quit work and seek
new fields. The occasion of my coming to this decision was as follows:
Mr. Eusten gave orders that I should work on the fourth of July. I
made up my mind that I would not work on that day. Of course, this
was disobedience and would have called for punishment. So I had to do
something. I cleaned up my tools, packed them away, and on the fourth
of July, 1857 left for Beaufort, N. C. There I went on board a schooner
and became cook, receiving $7.00 for my services. This schooner was
en route for New York City. When I landed at pier 28 East River I had
only my wages. I met a friend from the South, Mr. Alexander Hicks,
and we arranged a plan by which I should escape from the schooner. He
helped me with my trunk and we carried it to a horse car and landed
at 100 Sands st., Brooklyn. I soon found my mother who had preceded
me to the North. She was engaged in collecting money for buying my
father’s freedom. She was aided in this work by the Abolitionists,
among whom were Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, Rev. Henry Highland Garnett,
Rev. Mr. Bennington, Mr. Arthur Tapin, Mr. Theodore Tilton and others.
Mr. Timins, Kinsley, Thomas, and Robert Hamilton, Moses Coss, Ebenezer
Chambers and others, assisted me in getting work. I was able to attend
school some. While at school I made the acquaintance of Mr. William F.
Powell, who has made his mark in the world and was honored by President
McKinley with the position of minister to Hayti. Some of the other boys
were Ben Myrs and Wash Parker, working against great odds and prejudice
but aiming to make themselves an honor and credit to the Negro race.
Many of these boys are now filling good positions and have made
themselves honorable and law-abiding citizens.
In New York I worked some at my trade. But I did other work as I could
find it. On the corner of Pack Slip and Water streets, I loaded trucks,
chopped tea, weighed cotton, and I also did white-washing of houses
(but thank God I have never white-washed evil doers), cleaned carpets
and houses.
In 1859 I heard for the first time a minister of the A. M. E. Church,
the Rev. James Morris Williams and the Rev. Geo. A. Rue, having also
met Bishops Daniel A. Payne and William Paul Quinn. I was deeply
impressed with the importance of making my life a means of serving God
in the uplifting of my people. I was convinced even then that it does
not follow that because our skins are dark and that we are identified
with the Negro race that there is no chance for us to become potent
factors in the uplifting of humanity and especially my own people; that
a man should decide to do right and go ahead and God would certainly
care for him all his days and give him the reward of all his labors.
It is a great thing for a man to realize the responsibility of true
manhood and let others learn this from his example. If these were my
convictions in those dark days, what should be the feelings of young
men of the race today, when the darkness of slavery has been changed
into the light of liberty?
Sometime in 1860 Mr. Albert Storm requested me to aid him in getting
his mother from the South. She was a slave. Millie, Sally, Ann and John
Caraway were brought from the South, by the permission of the owner,
by one Dolly Babb, to Brooklyn. Dolly said to my mother, “Now I am
delivered from the devil out of hell. I am bound to serve my Heavenly
Master and I shall serve Him well.” J. R. V. Thomas, William Isaacs,
Rev. William Dixon, Paul Drayton, James Anderson, Dr. Peter W. Ray,
Joe Bowen, Chas. H. Lansing, William Still, Rev. George W. Leveer and
others, were a few of the men who were engaged in bringing slaves from
the South and giving them their freedom. Men of grander qualities,
morally, socially and religiously, I have never met.
In 1859 I was married, on June 16th, to Miss Olivia A. Hamilton, a
daughter of Mr. Robert Hamilton, editor of an Anglo-African paper. Ada
A. William Alexander and Mary Hamilton were born to us.
[Illustration: ALEXANDER H. NEWTON In Military Uniform Commissary
Sergeant 29th Regiment Connecticut Volunteers]