the obscure condition into which they had been thrown by the reign
of Dessalines, and at the death of that ruler they determined to put
forward their claim. Their great chief, Rigaud, was still in prison in
France, where he had been placed by Napoleon. Christophe had succeeded
to power at the close of the empire, and was at St. Marks when he
heard that Alexandre Petion had been elected president of the Republic
of Hayti, through the instrumentality of the mulattoes. Christophe at
once began to prepare for war. Petion was a quadroon, the successor of
Rigaud and Clervaux to the confidence of the mulattoes. He was a man
of education and refined manners. He had been educated at the Military
School of Paris, and had ever been characterized for his mildness of
temper and the insinuating grace of his address. He was a skilful
engineer, and at the time of his elevation to power he passed for the
most scientific officer and the most erudite individual among the
people of Hayti. Attached to the fortunes of Rigaud, he had acted as
his lieutenant against Toussaint, and had accompanied him to France.
Here he remained until the departure of the expedition under Leclerc,
when he embarked in that disastrous enterprise, to employ his talents
in again restoring his country to the dominion of France. Petion joined
Dessalines, Christophe, and Clervaux, when they revolted and turned
against the French, and aided in gaining the final independence of the
island. Christophe, therefore, as soon as he heard that he had a rival
in Petion, rallied his forces, and started for Port au Prince, to meet
his enemy. The former was already in the field, and the two armies
met; a battle ensued, and Petion, being defeated, and hotly pursued in
his flight, found it necessary, in order to save his life, to exchange
his uniform with a laborer, and to bury himself up to his neck in a
marsh until his fierce pursuers had disappeared. Petion escaped, and
reached his capital before the arrival of the troops under Christophe.
The latter, after this signal success, pressed forward to Port au
Prince, and laid siege to the town, in hope of an easy triumph over
his rival. But Petion was in his appropriate sphere of action, and
Christophe soon discovered that, in contending with an experienced
engineer in a fortified town, success was of more difficult attainment
than while encountering the same enemy in the open field, where his
science could not be brought into action. Christophe could make no
impression on the town, and feeling ill assured of the steadfastness of
his own proper government at Cape François, he withdrew his forces from
the investment of Port au Prince, resolved to establish in the north
a separate government of his own, and to defer to some more favorable
opportunity the attempt to subdue his rival at Port au Prince. In
September, 1808, Petion commenced another campaign against Christophe,
by sending an army to besiege Port de Paix, which it did; but after a
while it was driven back to Port au Prince by the victorious legions
of the president of the north. Christophe in turn attempted to take
the Mole St. Nicholas from Lamarre, one of Petion's generals, but did
not succeed. The struggle between the two presidents of Hayti had now
continued three years, when a new competitor appeared in the field, by
the arrival of Rigaud from France. This was an unexpected event, which
awakened deep solicitude in the bosom of Petion, who could not avoid
regarding that distinguished general as a more formidable rival than
Christophe. He well knew the attachment of the people to the great
mulatto chief, and he feared his superior talents. The enthusiasm with
which Rigaud was received wherever he appeared, raised the jealousy of
Petion to such a pitch, that he for a time forgot his black rival.
Partisans flew to the standard of Rigaud, and a resort to arms seemed
imminent between him and Petion. A meeting, however, was held by the
two mulatto generals, at the bridge of Miragoane, where a treaty was
signed, by which the south was to be governed by the former, and the
west, and as much as could be wrested from Christophe, by the latter.
But peace between these two was not destined to be of long duration. A
war took place, and Rigaud's troops proved too much for Petion, and he
was defeated with great loss, and his entire army almost annihilated.
But the victorious general did not follow up his successes; and
although he had gained a signal victory, he felt that much of his power
over his followers was passing away. The death of Rigaud once more
gave the field to Christophe and Petion, and they again commenced war
upon each other. The latter was superior to the former in education,
and in the refinement given him by a cultivated understanding and
an extensive intercourse with European society; but he was greatly
inferior to Christophe in boldness and decision of character. Petion
was subtle, cautious, and desponding. He aspired to be the Washington,
as Christophe was deemed the Bonaparte, of Hayti. By insinuating
the doctrines of equality and republicanism, Petion succeeded in
governing, with but ten thousand mulattoes, a population of more than
two hundred thousand blacks. Assuming no pretensions to personal
or official dignity, and totally rejecting all the ceremonial of a
court, it was Petion's ambition to maintain the exterior of a plain
republican magistrate. Clad in the white linen undress of the country,
and with a Madras handkerchief tied about his head, he mixed freely
and promiscuously with his fellow-citizens, or seated himself in the
piazza of the government house, accessible to all. He professed to hold
himself at the disposal of the people, and to be ready at any moment to
submit to their will, whether it was to guide the power of the state,
or yield his head to the executioner.
A republican officer one day called on Petion at the government house,
and while they were alone, the former drew out a pistol and fired at
the president, without injuring him, however; the latter immediately
seized his visitor, disarmed him, and when the guard rushed in, he
found the president and the officer walking the room locked in each
other's arms. This man was ever after the warm friend of Petion. At
the downfall of Napoleon, and the elevation of Louis XVIII., another
effort was made to regain possession of the island by France. But the
latter did not resort to arms. Having no confidence in the French, and
fearing a warlike demonstration, both Petion and Christophe prepared
for defence. Petion had long been despondent for the permanence of the
republic, and this feeling had by degrees grown into a settled despair;
and amidst these perplexities and embarrassments he fell sick, in the
month of March, 1818, and after an illness which continued only eight
days, he died, and was succeeded by General Boyer.
The administration of Petion was mild, and he did all that he could
for the elevation of the people whom he ruled. He was the patron
of education and the arts, and scientific men, for years after his
death, spoke his name with reverence. He was highly respected by the
representatives of foreign powers, and strangers visiting his republic
always mentioned his name in connection with the best cultivated and
most gentlemanly of the people of Hayti. Lightly lie the earth on the
bones of Petion, and let every cloud pass away from his memory.
MARTIN R. DELANY, M. D.
Dr. Delany has long been before the public. His first appearance, we
believe, was in connection with _The Mystery_, a weekly newspaper
published at Pittsburg, and of which he was editor. His journal was
faithful in its advocacy of the rights of man, and had the reputation
of being a well-conducted sheet. The doctor afterwards was associated
with Frederick Douglass in the editorial management of his paper at
Rochester, N. Y. From the latter place he removed to Canada, and has
since resided in Chatham, where he is looked upon as one of its leading
citizens.
Dr. M. R. Delany, though regarded as a man high in his profession,
is better and more widely known as a traveller, discoverer, and
lecturer. His association with Professor Campbell in the "Niger Valley
Exploring Expedition" has brought the doctor very prominently before
the world, and especially that portion of it which takes an interest
in the civilization of Africa. The official report of that expedition
shows that he did not visit that country with his eyes shut. His
observations and suggestions about the climate, soil, diseases, and
natural productions of Africa, are interesting, and give evidence that
the doctor was in earnest. The published report, of which he is the
author, will repay a perusal.
On his return home, Dr. Delany spent some time in England, and lectured
in the British metropolis and the provincial cities, with considerable
success, on Africa and its resources. As a member of the International
Statistical Congress, he acquitted himself with credit to his position
and honor to his race. The foolish manner in which the Hon. Mr. Dallas,
our minister to the court of St. James, acted on meeting Dr. Delany in
that august assembly, and the criticisms of the press of Europe and
America, will not soon be forgotten.
He is short, compactly built, has a quick, wiry walk, and is decided
and energetic in conversation, unadulterated in race, and proud of
his complexion. Though somewhat violent in his gestures, and paying
but little regard to the strict rules of oratory, Dr. Delany is,
nevertheless, an interesting, eloquent speaker. Devotedly attached
to his fatherland, he goes for a "Negro Nationality." Whatever he
undertakes, he executes it with all the powers that God has given him;
and what would appear as an obstacle in the way of other men, would be
brushed aside by Martin R. Delany.
ROBERT SMALL.
At the breaking out of the rebellion, Robert Small was a slave in
Charleston, S. C. He stood amid a group of his fellow-slaves, as the
soldiers were getting ready to make the assault upon Fort Sumter,
and he said to his associates, "This, boys, is the dawn of freedom
for our race." Robert, at this time, was employed as pilot on board
the steamboat "Planter," owned at Charleston, and then lying at her
dock. The following day, the steamer commenced undergoing alterations
necessary to fit her for a gunboat. Robert, when within hearing of
the whites, was loud in his talk of what "we'll do with the Yankees,
when this boat is ready for sea." The Planter was soon transmogrified
into a rebel man-of-war, to be used in and about the rivers and bays
near Charleston, and Robert Small was her acknowledged pilot. One of
Robert's brothers was second engineer, and a cousin to him was the
second mate; the remainder of the crew were all slaves, except the
white officers. It was the custom of the captain, chief mate, and chief
engineer to spend the night with their families in the city, when the
steamer was in port, the vessel being left in charge of Robert. The
following is the account of the capture of the boat by her black crew,
as given by the Port Royal correspondent of the _New York Commercial
Advertiser_:--
"The steamer Planter, which was run away from the rebels by her pilot,
Robert Small, is a new tug boat employed about Charleston harbor, which
was seized by the Confederate government and converted into a gunboat,
mounting a rifled gun forward and a siege gun aft. She has been in the
habit of running out to sea to reconnoitre, and was, therefore, no
unusual appearance near the forts guarding the entrance. Small, the
helmsman and pilot, conceived the idea of running away, and plotted
with several friends, slaves like him, to take them off.
"On the evening of May 11, her officers left the ship, then at the
wharf in Charleston, and went to their homes. Small then took the
firemen and assistant engineers, all of whom were slaves, in his
confidence, had the fires banked up, and every thing made ready to
start by daylight.
"At quarter to four on Saturday morning, the lines which fastened the
vessel to the dock were cast off, and the ship quietly glided into the
stream. Here the harbor guard hailed the vessel, but Small promptly
gave the countersign, and was allowed to pass.
"The vessel now called at a dock a distance below, where the families
of the crew came on board.
"When off Fort Sumter, the sentry on the ramparts hailed the boat, and
Small sounded the countersign with the whistle--three shrill sounds and
one hissing sound. The vessel being known to the officers of the day,
no objection was raised, the sentry only singing out, 'Blow the d----d
Yankees to hell, or bring one of them in.' 'Ay, ay,' was the answer,
and every possible effort was made to get below.
"Hardly was the vessel out of range, when Small ran up a white flag,
and went to the United States fleet, where he surrendered the vessel.
She had on board seven heavy guns for Fort Ripley, a fort now building
in Charleston harbor, which were to be taken thither the next morning.
"Small, with the crew and their families,--sixteen persons,--were sent
to the flagship at Port Royal, and an officer placed on board the
Planter, who took her also to Commodore Dupont's vessel. Small is a
middle-aged negro, and his features betray nothing of the firmness of
character he displayed. He is said to be one of the most skilful pilots
of Charleston, and to have a thorough knowledge of all the ports and
inlets on the coast of South Carolina."
We give below the official account of the taking and surrender of the
boat to the naval authorities.
U. S. STEAMSHIP AUGUSTA, }
OFF CHARLESTON, May 13, 1862. }
SIR: I have the honor to inform you that the rebel armed steamer
Planter was brought out to us this morning from Charleston by
eight contrabands, and delivered up to the squadron. Five colored
women and three children are also on board. She carried one
32-pounder and one 24-pounder howitzer, and has also on board four
large guns, which she was engaged in transporting. I send her to
Port Royal at once, in order to take advantage of the present
good weather. I send Charleston papers of the 12th, and the
very intelligent contraband who was in charge will give you the
information which he has brought off. I have the honor to request
that you will send back, as soon as convenient, the officer and
crew sent on board.
Commander Dupont, in forwarding the despatch, says, in relation to the
steamer Planter,--
She was the armed despatch and transportation steamer attached to
the engineer department at Charleston, under Brigadier General
Ripley, whose bark, a short time since, was brought to the
blockading fleet by several contrabands. The bringing out of this
steamer, under all the circumstances, would have done credit to
any one. At four in the morning, in the absence of the captain,
who was on shore, she left her wharf close to the government
office and headquarters, with the Palmetto and "Confederate" flags
flying, and passed the successive forts, saluting, as usual,
by blowing the steam whistle. After getting beyond the range
of the last gun, they hauled down the rebel flags, and hoisted
a white one. The Onward was the inside ship of the blockading
squadron in the main channel, and was preparing to fire when her
commander made out the white flag. The armament of the steamer
is a 32-pounder, or pivot, and a fine 24-pound howitzer. She has
besides, on her deck, four other guns, one seven inch rifled,
which were to be taken, on the morning of the escape, to the
new fort on the middle ground. One of the four belonged to Fort
Sumter, and had been struck, in the rebel attack, on the muzzle.
Robert Small, the intelligent slave, and pilot of the boat, who
performed this bold feat so skilfully, informed me of this
fact, presuming it would be a matter of interest to us to have
possession of this gun. This man, Robert Small, is superior to any
who have come into our lines, intelligent as many of them have
been. His information has been most interesting, and portions
of it of the utmost importance. The steamer is quite a valuable
acquisition to the squadron by her good machinery and very light
draught. The officer in charge brought her through St. Helena
Sound, and by the inland passage down Beaufort River, arriving
here at ten last night. On board the steamer, when she left
Charleston, were eight men, five women, and three children. I
shall continue to employ Small as pilot on board the Planter, for
inland waters, with which he appears to be very familiar.
I do not know whether, in the view of the government, the vessel
will be considered a prize; but if so, I respectfully submit to
the Department the claims of the man Small and his associates.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
S. F. DUPONT,
_Flag Officer, Commanding, &c._
A bill was at once introduced in Congress to consider the Planter a
prize, and to award the prize-money to her crew. The _New York Tribune_
had the following editorial on the subject:--
"The House of Representatives at Washington, it is to be hoped,
will be more just to their own sense of right, and to their more
generous impulses, than to put aside again the Senate bill giving the
prize-money they have so well earned to the pilot and crew of the
steamer Planter. Neither House would have done an act unworthy of their
dignity had they promptly passed a vote of thanks to Robert Small and
his fellows for the cool courage with which they planned and executed
their escape from rebel bondage, and the unswerving loyalty which
prompted them, at the same time, to bring away such spoils from the
enemy as would make a welcome addition to the blockading squadron.
"If we must still remember with humiliation that the Confederate flag
yet waves where our national colors were first struck, we should be all
the more prompt to recognize the merit that has put into our possession
the first trophy from Fort Sumter. And the country should feel doubly
humbled if there is not magnanimity enough to acknowledge a gallant
action, because it was the head of a black man that conceived, and
the hand of a black man that executed it. It would better, indeed,
become us to remember that no small share of the naval glory of the war
belongs to the race which we have forbidden to fight for us; that one
negro has recaptured a vessel from a southern privateer, and another
has brought away from under the very guns of the enemy, where no fleet
of ours has yet dared to venture, a prize whose possession a commodore
thinks worthy to be announced in a special despatch."
The bill was taken up and passed, and the brave Small and his
companions received justice at the hands of the government.
FREDERICK DOUGLASS.
The career of the distinguished individual whose name heads this
page is more widely known than that of any other living colored man,
except, perhaps, Alexandre Dumas. The narrative of his life, published
in 1845, gave a new impetus to the black man's literature. All other
stories of fugitive slaves faded away before the beautifully written,
highly descriptive, and thrilling memoir of Frederick Douglass. Other
narratives had only brought before the public a few heart-rending
scenes connected with the person described. But Mr. Douglass, in his
book, brought not only his old master's farm and its occupants before
the reader, but the entire country around him, including Baltimore
and its ship yard. The manner in which he obtained his education,
and especially his learning to write, has been read and re-read by
thousands in both hemispheres. His escape from slavery is too well
understood to need a recapitulation here. He took up his residence in
New Bedford, where he still continued the assiduous student--mastering
the different branches of education which the accursed institution had
deprived him of in early life.
His advent as a lecturer was a remarkable one. White men and black men
had talked against slavery, but none had ever spoken like Frederick
Douglass. Throughout the north the newspapers were filled with the
sayings of the "eloquent fugitive." He often travelled with others,
but they were all lost sight of in the eagerness to hear Douglass. His
travelling companions would sometimes get angry, and would speak first
at the meetings; then they would take the last turn; but it was all
the same--the fugitive's impression was the one left upon the mind. He
made more persons angry, and pleased more, than any other man. He was
praised, and he was censured. He made them laugh, he made them weep,
and he made them swear. His "Slaveholder's Sermon" was always a trump
card. He awakened an interest in the hearts of thousands who before
were dead to the slave and his condition. Many kept away from his
lectures, fearing lest they should be converted against their will.
Young men and women, in those days of pro-slavery hatred, would return
to their fathers' roofs filled with admiration for the "runaway slave,"
and would be rebuked by hearing the old ones grumble out, "You'd better
stay at home and study your lessons, and not be running after the
nigger meetings."
In 1841, he was induced to accept an agency as a lecturer for the
Anti-slavery Society, and at once became one of the most valuable
of its advocates. He visited England in 1845. There he was kindly
received, and heartily welcomed; and after going through the length
and breadth of the land, and addressing public meetings out of number
on behalf of his countrymen in chains, with a power of eloquence which
captivated his auditors, and brought the cause which he pleaded home
to their hearts, he returned home and commenced the publication of the
_North Star_, a weekly newspaper devoted to the advocacy of the cause
of freedom.
Mr. Douglass is tall and well made. His vast and fully-developed
forehead shows at once that he is a superior man intellectually. He is
polished in his language, and gentlemanly in his manners. His voice is
full and sonorous. His attitude is dignified, and his gesticulation is
full of noble simplicity. He is a man of lofty reason; natural, and
without pretension; always master of himself; brilliant in the art of
exposing and abstracting. Few persons can handle a subject, with which
they are familiar, better than he. There is a kind of eloquence issuing
from the depth of the soul as from a spring, rolling along its copious
floods, sweeping all before it, overwhelming by its very force,
carrying, upsetting, ingulfing its adversaries, and more dazzling and
more thundering than the bolt which leaps from crag to crag. This is
the eloquence of Frederick Douglass. One of the best mimics of the age,
and possessing great dramatic powers, had he taken up the sock and
buskin, instead of becoming a lecturer, he would have made as fine a
Coriolanus as ever trod the stage.
In his splendidly conceived comparison of Mr. Douglass to S. R. Ward,
written for the "Autographs for Freedom," Professor William J. Wilson
says of the former, "In his very look, his gesture, his whole manner,
there is so much of genuine, earnest eloquence, that they leave no
time for reflection. Now you are reminded of one rushing down some
fearful steep, bidding you follow; now on some delightful stream,
still beckoning you onward. In either case, no matter what your
prepossessions or oppositions, you, for the moment at least, forget the
justness or unjustness of his cause, and obey the summons, and loath,
if at all, you return to your former post. Not always, however, is he
successful in retaining you. Giddy as you may be with the descent you
have made, delighted as you are with the pleasure afforded, with the
Elysium to which he has wafted you, you return too often dissatisfied
with his and your own impetuosity and want of firmness. You feel that
you had only a dream, a pastime,--not a reality.
"This great power of momentary captivation consists in his eloquence
of manners, his just appreciation of words. In listening to him, your
whole soul is fired, every nerve strung, every passion inflated, and
every faculty you possess ready to perform at a moment's bidding.
You stop not to ask why or wherefore. 'Tis a unison of mighty yet
harmonious sounds that play upon your imagination; and you give
yourself up, for a time, to their irresistible charm. At last, the
_cataract_ which roared around you is hushed, the _tornado_ is passed,
and you find yourself sitting upon a bank, (at whose base roll but
tranquil waters,) quietly asking yourself why, amid such a display of
power, no greater effect had really been produced. After all, it must
be admitted there is a power in Mr. Douglass rarely to be found in any
other man."
As a speaker, Frederick Douglass has had more imitators than almost
any other American, save, perhaps, Wendell Phillips. Unlike most
great speakers, he is a superior writer also. Some of his articles,
in point of ability, will rank with any thing ever written for the
American press. He has taken lessons from the best of teachers, amid
the homeliest realities of life; hence the perpetual freshness of his
delineations, which are never over-colored, never strained, never
aiming at difficult or impossible effects, but which always read like
living transcripts of experience. The following from his pen, on "What
shall be done with the slaves, if emancipated?" is characteristic of
his style.
"What shall be done with the four million slaves, if they are
emancipated? This question has been answered, and can be answered in
many ways. Primarily, it is a question less for man than for God--less
for human intellect than for the laws of nature to solve. It assumes
that nature has erred; that the law of liberty is a mistake; that
freedom, though a natural want of the human soul, can only be enjoyed
at the expense of human welfare, and that men are better off in slavery
than they would or could be in freedom; that slavery is the natural
order of human relations, and that liberty is an experiment. What shall
be done with them?
"Our answer is, Do nothing with them; mind your business, and let them
mind theirs. Your _doing_ with them is their greatest misfortune. They
have been undone by your doings, and all they now ask, and really
have need of at your hands, is just to let them alone. They suffer by
every interference, and succeed best by being let alone. The negro
should have been let alone in Africa--let alone when the pirates and
robbers offered him for sale in our Christian slave markets (more
cruel and inhuman than the Mohammedan slave markets)--let alone by
courts, judges, politicians, legislators, and slave-drivers--let alone
altogether, and assured that they were thus to be let alone forever,
and that they must now make their own way in the world, just the same
as any and every other variety of the human family. As colored men,
we only ask to be allowed to _do_ with ourselves, subject only to the
same great laws for the welfare of human society which apply to other
men--Jews, Gentiles, Barbarian, Scythian. Let us stand upon our own
legs, work with our own hands, and eat bread in the sweat of our own
brows. When you, our white fellow-countrymen, have attempted to do any
thing for us, it has generally been to deprive us of some right, power,
or privilege, which you yourselves would die before you would submit
to have taken from you. When the planters of the West Indies used to
attempt to puzzle the pure-minded Wilberforce with the question, 'How
shall we get rid of slavery?' his simple answer was, 'Quit stealing.'
In like manner we answer those who are perpetually puzzling their
brains with questions as to what shall be done with the negro, 'Let him
alone, and mind your own business.' If you see him ploughing in the
open field, levelling the forest, at work with a spade, a rake, a hoe,
a pickaxe, or a bill--let him alone; he has a right to work. If you see
him on his way to school, with spelling-book, geography, and arithmetic
in his hands--let him alone. Don't shut the door in his face, nor bolt
your gates against him; he has a right to learn--let him alone. Don't
pass laws to degrade him. If he has a ballot in his hand, and is on his
way to the ballot-box to deposit his vote for the man who, he thinks,
will most justly and wisely administer the government which has the
power of life and death over him, as well as others--let him ALONE; his
right of choice as much deserves respect and protection as your own.
If you see him on his way to church, exercising religious liberty in
accordance with this or that religious persuasion--let him alone. Don't
meddle with him, nor trouble yourselves with any questions as to what
shall be done with him.