FREE COLORED PEOPLE AND COLONIZATION
The recognized leadership of Frederick Douglass among the colored people
of the country may be dated from the publication of the _North Star_.
Prior to that time he was regarded as an Abolition orator and a
conspicuous example of the possibilities of the Negro race. He had not
yet established his relationship with the free colored people of the
North.
Douglass came from the South. His hardest experiences and bitterest
memories were those of the Southern plantations. It was the toiling
black masses, whose fortunes he had shared, that claimed his first and
profoundest sympathy and interest. “Freedom first and rights afterward,”
was the precept that had thus far guided his efforts in behalf of his
race. His position as the publisher of a colored newspaper brought him
into closer touch with the interests and aspirations of the free colored
people of the North. They had obtained freedom, but they were thus far
in practice, to a large degree, without rights. Douglass seemed to feel
that the work he was doing and the position he occupied gave him some
special claim to the support and loyalty of these people. He sometimes
complained of and took deeply to heart the criticism and petty
fault-finding with which a few of his fellow freedmen followed his
movements. But, on the whole, they gave him generous support, and
accorded him grateful recognition for his services. The leading colored
men of the period who, in various ways, were helping the cause of
emancipation, rallied around him and lived and labored in intimate
association with him.
At this time the free Negroes formed a considerable portion of the
American population. In 1850 there were about 230,000 of them in the
slave-states and about 200,000 in the free-states. The liberation from
bondage of this nearly half-million of colored persons had been brought
about in various ways. The larger portion of them in the Northern states
became free through their emancipation by Northern slave-holders. Those
in the slave-states were either manumitted by their former masters or
had by personal enterprise bought their own freedom. Here and there were
a few West Indian colored people who had come to the United States to
find a home. An ever-increasing number in the North were runaway slaves
who had gained their freedom in some such way as Frederick Douglass had
gained his. These were for the most part a superior class of men and
women. The fact that they had the courage and enterprise to win their
own liberty is good evidence that they had personal initiative and
ambition. Among their number were many who, like Douglass, had secretly
learned to read and write while they were still slaves. Others were
first-rate mechanics who, in spite of opposition, found good employment.
The attitude of the white citizens of the North toward the free people
of color was, in almost every way, hostile. The slave-holders of the
South were angered by the loss of their property and the Northern people
were annoyed by the presence, in their midst, in ever-increasing
numbers, of this class. In fact, prejudice against the free blacks in
the Northern states came to be of the most uncompromising sort. In many
sections the status of the free Negro was often little better than that
of an outlaw. It was literally true that he had “no rights that a white
man was bound to respect.” Wherever the Negro turned his face for
encouragement or for opportunity, he met with opposition and
discouragement. His children were generally shut out of the public and
private schools. In many instances those which would admit colored
pupils, in defiance of public sentiment, were burned down or mobbed and
the teachers ostracized. The case of Miss Prudence Crandall, in
Canterbury, Conn., in 1833, is fairly illustrative of the public feeling
in regard to Negro education. Miss Crandall was a beautiful young
Quakeress of tender heart and great courage, who had opened a school for
young women in the village of Canterbury. A chance admission of a
colored girl raised such a storm of indignation among her neighbors that
she was assailed by a mob and an attempt was made to burn the building.
When she still persisted in having her way, she was arrested and sent to
jail.
Other instances of this kind might be cited. In nothing were the
Northern people more bitterly intolerant than in their opposition to the
education of the children of free colored families. The same spirit that
in the slave-holding states accounted it a crime to teach colored people
to read and write, made it very dangerous for any man or woman to do, or
attempt to do, the same thing in the free-states.
In some of the Northern commonwealths, as Illinois, for example, the
term “black laws” was given to a code of special regulations which were
applied to men and women of a dark complexion. In nearly all of the
states north of the Ohio, the Negro was disfranchised either by
constitution, statute, or public sentiment. In practice, he was not
regarded as a member of political society and was, consequently, almost
wholly without the guarantee of civil rights. The Christian people were
often as hostile as non-church people. Mr. Garrison mentions “a certain
Baptist church in Hartford, Conn., where the ‘Negro pews’ were boarded
up in front so that only peep-holes gave an outlook; truly a human
menagerie.” In a Massachusetts town, the floor was cut out from under a
colored member’s pew by the church authorities, so that he could not
occupy it. In all means of travel, either by rail or stage-coach, the
Negro passenger was rigidly quarantined. His presence was everywhere
frowned upon unless he appeared as a servant or a slave.
This anti-Negro feeling in the North was not a passing whim or
sentiment; it was deeply rooted and constitutional. People, noble and
ignoble, were alike influenced by race prejudice. Abolitionists found
themselves swayed to such an extent by the sentiment about them that
they often did not have the courage to act consistently with their
principles. Mr. Douglass gives a very interesting incident in the early
part of his career, which aptly illustrates how at times race feeling
manifested itself in the most unexpected places. He had been invited to
speak at Concord, N. H., by a subscriber of _The Liberator_. Arriving in
the town, he went directly to the home of the Abolitionist, where it was
expected he would be entirely welcome. He was received with anything but
enthusiasm. When the good man got ready to go to the church, where the
meeting was to take place, he drove off alone and left the orator of the
occasion to walk and find the way—a distance of two miles—as best he
could. Upon reaching the church, Mr. Douglass was obliged to introduce
himself, as no one was willing to risk his reputation by standing
sponsor for a Negro. After the address, the Abolitionists went to their
several homes for lunch, but no one invited Mr. Douglass to eat, and the
hotel did not entertain Negroes. Hungry, chilly, and desolate, he found
his way to the graveyard, and while roaming among the graves and
contemplating the equality of men in death, he was approached by a
gentleman who proved to be a Democratic senator from New Hampshire. He
took Mr. Douglass to his home and treated him with the greatest
courtesy.
Another cause of racial antagonism was the dread, on the part of
slave-owners, that the presence of an increasing number of free colored
people in the free-states would be an incentive to the more enterprising
slaves to run away. This fear was certainly justified by the constantly
enlarging stream of fugitives. The Negro’s growing desire for freedom
was the fundamental weakness of the slave-system. When the veterans of
the War of 1812 returned to the Southern states and told of the land of
Canada which was consecrated to free men, the seed of discontent took
root in slavery’s soil. The good news was passed along, and, as a
result, thousands of slaves learned to associate the words Canada and
freedom. Many a one, ignorant of everything except his master and the
plantation, had received tidings of the Haytian struggle for liberty; of
the Nat Turner uprising in Virginia; and of the success of those who had
the courage and enterprise to flee to Massachusetts, New York, and
elsewhere north of the Ohio River. Negroes who had dared to emancipate
themselves in the way Frederick Douglass had done were a direct menace
to the security of slavery. Every man who succeeded in making his escape
began at once to plan and plot for the escape of those he had left
behind. On the border-land of freedom there was continuous skirmishing
for friends in chains.
In spite of the humble position they occupied, the free Negroes, in one
way or another, helped to make sentiment against the slave-power. Like
Douglass, they became “human arguments,” at once offering evidence as to
the capacity of the race and the limitations that slavery imposed upon
it. They were quickeners of the public conscience.
Since the Negroes were escaping from Southern plantations, in spite of
all precautions and every kind of threat and punishment, an organized
effort was made to send all free colored people out of the country and
deposit them on the west shore of Africa. This movement found expression
in the American Colonization Society, which was organized in 1817. Its
declared purposes were:
(1) “To colonize the blacks on the West Coast of Africa.”
(2) “To discourage manumission by slave-holders.”
(3) “To avoid insurrection.”
An attempt was put forth to make this colonization scheme a national
policy, and the general government, as well as the several states, was
appealed to for its support. In many of the slave-holding states there
were direct appropriations of money to forward this enterprise.
Ministers, statesmen, educators, slave-holders, and many who were not
slave-holders, endorsed the plan of the Colonization Society as a most
happy solution of the difficult problem of dealing with the Negro
question. It met with popular favor throughout the country. The Southern
people saw in it the removal of a great menace to slavery; it appealed
to the humane sentiments of the North, for it seemed to say to the free
people, “Now we are going to give you an opportunity, and will
materially aid you to found a government of your own on the soil of
Africa.” To some of the Negroes this policy appeared fair and generous,
especially when they considered the extent to which, by popular
prejudice, they were shut out from the rights and benefits supposed to
be the natural heritage of all American citizens. Certain it is that
nothing concerning the Negro had, up to this time, been proposed in
which men of the North and South met so nearly on common ground. In
1834, such names as James Madison, Chief Justice Marshall, General
Lafayette, Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and Gerrit Smith were enrolled
among the officers of the society. But in spite of the distinguished
character of those who were associated with the movement, it was thought
by many that the propaganda carried on by the Colonization Society did
much to increase the prejudice against the colored people. The following
extracts from some of the speeches of its members and friends, and from
its documents and publications, show the pro-slavery spirit of the
society:
Henry Clay said: “The emancipated slave should be removed. This is a
condition indispensable. Expense of expatriation is to be defrayed by a
fund to be derived from the labor of each freedman.”
Judge Bullock of Kentucky said: “He [the colored man] is an exotic that
does not and cannot flourish on American soil. There is no place for him
in this country. It is not their land, and they cannot be made at home
here.”
_The Colonization Journal_ said: “You cannot abolish slavery, for God is
pledged to sustain it.”
“Policy, and even the voice of humanity, forbid the progress of
manumission. It would be as humane to throw them from the decks in the
Middle Passage as to set them free in this country. Free blacks are a
greater nuisance than slaves. This class of persons is a curse and a
contagion where they reside.”—_Colonization Report_, iv, 261.
“An anomalous race of beings, the most depraved on earth.”
“They constitute a class by themselves, out of which no individual can
be elevated and below which none can be depressed. Even necessity places
them in a class of degraded beings.”
“Christianity cannot do for them here what it will do for them in
Africa. This is no fault of the colored man, nor the white man, but an
ordinance of Providence, and no more to be changed than the laws of
motion.”
“If the free people of color were generally taught to read, it might be
an inducement for them to remain in this country. We should offer them
no such inducement.”
“It must appear evident to all ... that measures calculated to bind the
colored people to this country and seeking to raise them to a level with
the whites, whether by founding colleges or in any other way, tends
directly to counteract and thwart the whole plan of colonization.”
Such were the teachings and spirit of the American Colonization Society
at that time. The effect was naturally and necessarily brought home, in
some form or other, to every colored man, woman, and child in the
free-states. Justifying, as it did, an already existing prejudice, its
tendency was, everywhere and in every direction, to bring about a
narrowing of opportunities. Thus, there soon sprang up an active
opposition to the society and its purposes. The anti-slavery members
withdrew their support when they saw that the organization was almost
wholly pro-slavery in spirit and purpose.
Meanwhile, the colored people began to show themselves worthy of respect
in the efforts they were making to improve their own condition. It could
not be denied that, in those Northern states where he was given an
opportunity to work, the Negro was, on the whole, a peaceful, loyal,
law-abiding, and industrious citizen. In spite of the might of all the
forces against him, he doggedly persisted in his determination to be a
man, to win a right to remain in this country, and to deserve the
privileges of citizenship therein. No race under like conditions ever
exhibited greater patience and faith in the ultimate triumph of right
over wrong.
In times of war the Negro was instantly ready to sacrifice himself for
the good of his country. As sailor or soldier, no commander ever had
occasion to complain of his courage or lack of soldierly qualities. Just
before the battle of New Orleans, in the winter of 1814, General
Jackson, through his Adjutant General, made the following stirring
address to his black soldiers:
“To the Men of Color—Soldiers: From the shores of Mobile I called you
to arms, I invited you to share the perils, and to divide the glory
with your white countrymen. I expected much from you, for I was not
unmindful of those qualities which must render you so formidable to an
invading foe. I knew that you could endure hunger and thirst and all
the hardships of war. I knew that you loved the land of your nativity,
and that, like ourselves, you had to defend all that was most dear to
man, but you surpassed my hopes. I have found in you, united to these
qualities, that noble enthusiasm which impels to great deeds.
“Soldiers! The President of the United States shall be informed of
your conduct on the present occasion and the voice of the
representatives of the American nation shall applaud your valor, as
your general now praises your valor.”
The black heroes of New Orleans nobly won a place on the roll of honor,
among those who strove for the protection and preservation of the
American republic.
In the arts of peace and in the every-day struggles to live and survive
the forces that made for his degradation, the Negro showed a courage and
a disposition altogether creditable. While many were thinking that the
black people were hopelessly incapable of absorbing American
civilization, the latter were building churches of their own and
organizing the great African Methodist Episcopal Zion, and the Colored
Methodist Episcopal Church. These have steadily grown in membership
until they have come to be numbered among the great religious bodies of
the Christian world. They also founded and developed a Baptist
organization which, with its schools, colleges, and missions, is
regarded as one of the important civilizing agencies of the country.
What the colored people accomplished for themselves, in their great
religious associations and under so many hindering influences, is of far
greater importance than is generally understood, or recognized by the
American people. To the restraining and humanizing forces of these
religious bodies, is largely due the peaceful and law-abiding character
of the Negro population. In those critical periods of our history a race
with passions less in restraint might have caused no end of trouble and
bloodshed. These efforts of the free colored people of the North to
improve their condition by means of religious training, were accompanied
by endeavors to provide themselves with the facilities for secular
education. There was never a time in the history of the American Negro
when he did not show an eagerness to learn. Whether on the plantation in
the far South, where ignorance in the slave was slavery’s only security,
or in the northern states, where schools were closed against him by
popular prejudice, he was always struggling, by night and by day, to
obtain an education. The most important and creditable thing in his
career as slave or freeman, and the most striking thing in his
achievements, is his passion and struggle to lift from himself and his
race the dark mantle of ignorance. This persistent determination to be
educated has won for him more consideration and more friends among the
white race, than any other one trait.
When practically every school, public and private, closed its doors
against the admission of a Negro child, these courageous people tried to
establish schools of their own. In every Northern community where there
were colored persons some way was provided for their education.
Sometimes classes would meet in a private house, like that of Primus
Hall in Boston; at other times in a Negro church, and often in a barn.
In these early efforts to furnish means of education, in spite of the
protest of white neighbors, there was exhibited fine courage, impressive
sacrifice, and rare consecration. Here the Negro was always at his best.
Such men as Primus Hall and the Ruffins in Massachusetts; Nelson Wells
in Maryland; John F. Ganes and Peter H. Clark in Ohio; John F. Cook in
Washington; John Peterson in New York; Thomas and Fannie Jackson Coppin
in Pennsylvania, all noble types of men and women, saw to it that ways
and means for the education of the children of their day and generation
should be provided. Hundreds of the best types of white men and women
became interested in the education of the Negro as a result of his own
persistent efforts in this direction. Some of these friends gave
themselves as teachers, while others gave money for the founding and
sustaining of schools and colleges. A few of those started at this early
period, still live, many colored men and women, who have since become
prominent in public affairs, having received their education in these
establishments.
One of the most interesting of these schools that have survived the
revolution of conditions is the “Institute for Colored Youth,” founded
in Philadelphia in 1837, from funds bequeathed for that purpose by
Richard Humphrey. The trustees were instructed to establish an
institution “for the education of the descendants of the African race in
school learning, in the various branches of the mechanical arts and
trades and agriculture.”
In the preamble of the constitution, the following language is used:
“We believe that the most successful method of elevating the moral and
intellectual character of the descendants of Africa, as well as
improving their social condition, is to extend to them the benefits of a
good education, and instruct them in the knowledge of some useful trade
or business whereby they may be enabled to obtain a comfortable
livelihood by their own industry; and through these means to prepare
themselves for fulfilling the various duties of domestic and social life
with reputation and fidelity, as good citizens and pious men.”
This school has recently been reorganized and considerably enlarged, and
removed to Cheyney, Pa., near Philadelphia, the work being entrusted to
Hugh M. Browne, an educator of proved worth and responsibility. It
starts out upon a career of increased usefulness, with the express
purpose of fitting teachers for their appointed work.
The men and women who have graduated from the Institute have more than
justified the generosity of its founder, and they have likewise
reflected the unexampled excellence as a teacher of Mrs. Fannie Jackson
Coppin, an early graduate of Oberlin, and one of the first principals of
this famous school in Philadelphia. Her influence on the lives and
careers of many prominent men and women of the Negro race is quite
beyond comparison with that of any other of our early Negro educators.
Charlotte L. Fortin, now Mrs. Frank J. Grimké, Frances Ellen Watkins
Harper, and Mary Ann Shadd Carey must always be mentioned among the men
and women whose devotion to the education of the members of their race
has made the American people recognize the justice and the usefulness of
giving the Negro the teaching he so earnestly desires.
The lack of economic and industrial opportunities of the free colored
people, prior to the Civil War, can be easily inferred from what has
already been said concerning the general sentiment of proscription that
prevailed. As a general rule, they were not allowed to work at any of
the trades and their children were not accepted as apprentices. It has
already been noticed how impossible it was for Mr. Douglass, even in
Massachusetts, to follow his occupation as a ship-calker, although, as
we have seen, he had no trouble in obtaining good employment in
Baltimore.
But the Negro, in this as in matters of education, persisted in his
effort to learn trades and to work at them. There were in the
free-states a considerable number of colored mechanics. Many of them had
fitted themselves for their work while in slavery, and either by
self-purchase or as runaways, had obtained their freedom. From these
mechanics the trades were passed along to others by apprenticeships. In
this way colored men entered and maintained themselves in many
employments. There were always some people who were willing to hire
skilled Negro mechanics. In cities like Philadelphia, they were, for a
time, important factors in the industrial life. Indeed, long before
slavery was abolished, every large northern city had a certain number of
enterprising individuals who had succeeded in establishing themselves in
some of the trades. In many communities they were making commendable
headway as contractors, caterers, shopkeepers, tailors, shoemakers, and
barbers. Not a few of them accumulated small fortunes. A number too had
built up enviable reputations in the professions, especially in
medicine, the ministry, and journalism. Some obtained their education in
England, but most of them managed to get their training in this country.
In all this activity and enterprise they were not without leaders of
force and intelligence. In the period covered by the anti-slavery
movement, there was a remarkable group of aggressive and influential
colored agitators. Without attempting to name all the prominent men who
coöperated with Mr. Douglass in the anti-slavery warfare, we should
mention a few, in order to make complete any account of the struggle in
which their leader was so heroically engaged. Henry Highland Garnet of
New York, was a gifted and thoroughly educated man. He was a
Presbyterian minister and as such held an influential position, being
elected at one time as a delegate to a Peace Conference at Frankfort,
Germany. Charles Lennox Remond, Dr. James McCune Smith, Samuel R. Ward,
H. Ford Douglass, Martin R. Delaney, John M. Langston, J. Howard Day,
and Mifflin W. Gibbs, were men of rare oratorical gifts and were heard
and admired on every great anti-slavery occasion. Robert Purvis, of
Philadelphia, would have held a high place in any age, and the cause of
freedom would have suffered without his aid. He was a man of patrician
manners and had all the instincts of an aristocrat. He was for many
years, vice-president of the National Anti-Slavery Society, and he
enjoyed the intimate acquaintance and association of some of the most
eminent men of his time.
It would scarcely be possible to write a history of the anti-slavery
movement without mentioning the work of William Still. He had the rare
powers of heart and mind that gave him an interest in and a large grasp
of affairs. He was one of the original stockholders of _The Nation_, and
a close friend of John Brown’s. It was at his house that the latter’s
family were concealed after the Harper’s Ferry tragedy. Mr. Still’s
contribution to the literature of the anti-slavery cause has a special
value and is nowhere duplicated.
These colored men, who were associated with Mr. Douglass, got their
training in the school of adversity. They were permitted to share few of
the joys of life. Men of strong faith, they spent themselves in the
service of their people. When the history of the Negro in America comes
finally to be written and scholars seek to tell the story of the curious
problem in civilization which his presence here creates, these
dark-skinned heroes of an unpopular race may find their place in the
ranks of those who helped to benefit the world.