STUDYING NORTH.
In directing his footsteps to Pittsburg, Fortune favored the student
in a degree wonderful for that time, while she chilled the energies of
the man in later years. There he was compelled to labor faithfully, at
whatever work his hands found to do, in order to continue his studies.
Fortunately for him, a way was opened from sources least expected
at that time. Great efforts were being made by the colored people
themselves, at Pittsburg, to advance their educational interests,
together with other measures for the recognition of their political
rights. A church was purchased from the white Methodists for a
school-house,--an educational society having been previously
organized,--and Rev. Louis Woodson, a colored gentleman, of fine
talents, was placed at the head of it. Under the supervision of this
gentleman, during the winter of 1831, his progress in the common
branches were such as to warrant his promotion to the more advanced
studies. It was commonly said by his friends at school, that his
retentiveness of history--his favorite study--was so remarkable that he
seemed to have recited from the palm of his hand.
A young student of Jefferson, seventeen miles distant, who frequently
spent his vacation at Pittsburg, assisted him in his difficult studies,
as they occupied the same room. While studying together, they conceived
the plan for benefiting other young men of like tastes by forming an
association for their intellectual and moral improvement. It soon
became popular, and the Theban Literary Society was afterwards formed.
Judging from the names adopted by their officers, pedantic as they are,
they evince an acquaintance with the rudiments of a polite education
not expected from that class under their disadvantages, the names,
relative to their offices, being taken from the Greek. This was but the
small beginning for wider labors. Since then they have associated with
other bodies, more important in their character, yet bearing a like
relation to humanity. But it was, perhaps, to the literary society of
Pittsburg, resembling that formed by Franklin and his young associates,
that the germ of their usefulness first came forth.
It was also about the winter of 1831-2 that the little ripple, destined
to be the great anti-slavery wave, against which the ship of state
would madly contend, was noticed; for, almost simultaneously with
the outbreak for freedom at Southampton, Va., known as Nat Turner’s
Insurrection, appeared “Garrison’s Thoughts on American Colonization.”
Then, to the casual observer, the action of the one was a ridiculous
folly; that of the other, the wild fancies of a fanatic’s brain. Now,
there is a dark significance in that solitary figure, looming up in the
dark background of slavery as an offering on the altar of freedom, in
the home of Washington, preceded by that attempted at Charleston with
Denmark Vesey at its head, followed by the closing scene at Harper’s
Ferry. In each of these there was a warning and a lesson as direct as
those which the Hebrew lawgiver received amidst the thunders of Sinai,
but by which a slavery-blinded nation failed to profit, until the last
great martyr of Ossowatomie was offered up.
“When that great heart broke, ’twas a world that shook;
From their slavish sleep a million awoke;”
when Virginia, the cradle of slavery, became its burial-place,
the Smithfield of freedom’s martyrs, and the battle-ground of a
slave-founded Confederacy; while on the other side the “fanatic” stands
a witness of the workings of the stupendous powers invoked.
The writings of Mr. Garrison, and the Southampton insurrection,
awakened much interest in many minds, which before that time were
either absorbed in selfish speculations, and indifferent to the
interest of the nation, or despondent of ameliorating the condition of
the black race in this country.
The young Delany, not forgetting his mother’s persecutions, his
father’s humiliations in Virginia, and the wrongs of his race
generally, caught the spirit of truth, and was fired with a high and
holy purpose. With the scene of Nat Turner’s defeat and execution
before him, he consecrated himself to freedom; and, like another
Hannibal, registered his vow against the enemies of his race. To
prepare for everything that promised success, to undergo every
privation and suffering, if necessary to accomplish this object,
was now the resolve of the young neophyte. He began, in the right
direction, to prepare himself for whatever position he should be called
upon to fill, by a renewed earnestness in his studies.
To ethics and metaphysics he devoted his attention; and, while a
student, so proficient was he in the essential principles of natural
philosophy, as to compete successfully with a teacher in a college
of respectability. His progress and attainments, under circumstances
to which no people save his own race have ever been subjected, are
evidences of the ambition and workings of a mind untamed by impediments
which opposed it.
Then, no college or academy of note in the United States received
within its walls a black student, no matter how deserving, save under
obligations hereafter to be mentioned, not excepting Dartmouth,
ostensibly established for Indians, nor the great, independent Harvard,
of ancient pride. “At this time,” said Martin Delany, “or shortly
after, the _now_ learned J. W. C. Pennington, D. D., who received the
degree of Doctor of Divinity at the University of Heidelberg, under
Prince Leopold, president, was standing either behind the door of
Yale College, or perhaps on its threshold, listening to instructions
given in the various branches by the professors, and considering it a
privilege, as it was the closest proximity allowed him towards entering
its _sacred_ precincts as a student.”
Such was the limited opportunity for a thorough education among the
colored people, and so great was the prejudice against them while
Martin Delany was endeavoring to acquire his, that it is safe to
infer that no colored person, _recognized as colored_, previous to
the establishment of institutions of learning under the anti-slavery
agitation, ever completed a collegiate course. True it is, that a few
were educated under the auspices of colonization societies, with no
design of benefiting the colored people in this country, but on the
condition of their leaving it for Africa.
While pursuing his studies at Pittsburg, his name was solicited and
obtained by the zealous Mr. Dawes, agent of the Oberlin Collegiate
Institute, at the beginning of that now famous institute. He afterwards
declined going, it being then but a preparatory school, and his studies
being fully equal to those prosecuted there. He, like Byron, could not
understand that knowledge was less valuable, or less true as knowledge,
without having the _parchment_ to confirm it; while the opportunity
of the great poet and that of the get-by-chance student differs; one
having no formidable barriers to overcome, the other having first to
struggle against oppositions, in order to create a healthy public
sentiment, that others after him might gain it without the giant’s
task.