upon whom they are inflicted is proved by illustrations taken both from
the field of economics and the field of intellectual and moral
consciousness. In all those parts of the world where all the people
approach most nearly a common standard of economic, intellectual and
moral excellence there we find the greatest advance in that which we
call civilization, for the want of a better term to describe human
progress and advance. Wherever we find any considerable group of people
residing in the same or contiguous territory who do not enjoy equality
of right and opportunity in those things which governments are
instituted to conserve, we find that the greater group which denies them
these inalienable rights paralyzed in its economic, intellectual and
moral growth. On no other ground can we account for the emphatic
differences in achievement, in literature, art, science, invention, and
economic progress between the white people of the North and the white
people of the South. Reasoning from analogy and from the examples which
history gives of the achievement of the white race in the world it would
be the most reasonable thing to expect that due to variety of soil,
favorableness of climate, and the general beneficence of nature, that
the white people living in the zone comprising what is commonly
designated as the Southern States would excel their Northern brethren in
all the arts and achievements of civilization. We should naturally
expect to find there the poets, the painters, the sculptors, the
inventors and the great organizers of enterprise. Elsewhere in the world
in the midst of similar conditions of soil and climate, we find the
white race excelling and leading the world in these particulars. The
white people inhabiting the South are of the same ethnic type, and have
in general the same group consciousness and aspiration. How else can we
account for the fact that they have contributed less than their kinsmen
in proportion to numbers to the sum of human knowledge, happiness and
liberty, if not by the fact that they have suffered the inevitable
handicap incident to an environment in which large numbers of human
beings suffer inequality and subordination?
But for the difference which has been historically accentuated in North
America between white and black which difference has inflicted much of
suffering upon both races, it would not be necessary to consider such a
subject as the citizenship status of the free Negro prior to 1860.
Before the Constitution of the United States was amended by the addition
thereto of the Fourteenth Amendment the statement that "The citizens of
each State shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of
citizens in the several States" was the only definite deliverance to be
found in that instrument in relation to the subject of citizenship. In
other words there was no national definition of citizenship, and up to
the time of the deliverance of the Dred Scott Decision in 1857, there
had been no comprehensive treatment of the subject in adjudications by
the Supreme Court of the United States. The mention of the term
"citizens" in the Constitution in the quotation just given indicates
that it had a meaning of such generally accepted significance that
definition was not necessary. Presumably citizenship conveyed then, as
it conveys now, an idea exactly the opposite of that conveyed by the
term slavery. A slave everywhere in the world was understood to be a
person who was absolved from allegiance, and was not due protection as
that term is ordinarily understood, and who could not invoke ordinary
legal process nor own property; a citizen was a person who owed
allegiance, was entitled to protection, had the right to invoke all the
processes of the law, could become the owner of property, and possibly,
if not a woman or a child, exercise the right of the elective franchise.
Such was the common understanding of the term citizen at the adoption of
the Constitution, and such is substantially the understanding of that
term at the present date. However, due to the presence of the Negro in
the body politic, the exigencies of the situation suggested an
interpretation of the term citizen which might not otherwise have
existed, but for the presence of the Negro. The exigency grew out of the
fact that toward the end of the eighteenth century and the beginning of
the nineteenth there
grew into the minds of men the conception that slavery was a condition
appertaining to black men alone, that color was an unmistakable proof of
the condition of a slave, and that the fact that one was of African
descent carried with it this inevitable social degradation. In the
decisions of the courts of a number of the States we find this principle
enunciated. In North Carolina the Supreme Court of that State, in 1828,
decided that "The presumption of slavery arises from a black African
complexion." In 1839, the Supreme Court of Indiana, in passing upon the
constitutionality of the law entitled: "An act concerning free Negroes
and Mulattoes and slaves," held that where a Negro laid claim to freedom
the burden of proof was on him to show it inasmuch as persons of the
African race were presumed to be slaves. In 1842, the Supreme Court of
Ohio decided that under the law of that State "Color alone is sufficient
to indicate a Negro's inability to testify against a white man. It has
always been admitted that our political institutions embrace the white
population only. Persons of color were not recognized as having any
political existence; they had no agency in our political organizations,
and possessed no political rights under it. Two or three of the States
form exceptions. The constitutions of fourteen expressly exclude persons
of color; and in the balance of the States they are excluded on the
grounds that they were never recognized as part of the body politic."
(Thatcher vs. Hawk, 4th Ohio, Rep., 351.) While this opinion expressed a
widely prevalent sentiment at that time I have been unable to find a
decision of any court in any of the original thirteen States north of
Maryland, except Connecticut, which expresses this view. In their moral
and intellectual nature the inhabitants of Connecticut exhibit many wide
differences from the inhabitants of the rest of New England. These
citations show how thoroughly the conception of the difference arising
from the difference of color was imbedded in the mind at that time. Such
instances of judicial interpretation were to be found in all of the
slave States, and in those States which were carved out of the northwest
territory, which Virginia ceded to the general government in 1787. In
this connection it is pertinent to observe that it is the most natural
thing in the world that the States carved out of this northwest
territory should have followed not only the legal system of the parent
State, but should have adopted many of its practices and modes of
thought, and passed them on to succeeding generations.
From the quotations already made it can be seen that to be a colored
person was to suffer from the presumption of being a slave, and that to
be a free colored person was to be in a condition not of freedom, but of
lessened servitude. To be a free colored person was not to possess the
citizenship of the world any more than to be a Christian today is
evidence that one is an imitator of Christ. In actual practice the term
"free colored person" embraced the idea of freedom from personal service
to a specified owner and little else, particularly in the slave-holding
States. The attitude of these States is well expressed in the following
quotation from John C. Calhoun: "I hold that in the present state of
civilization, where two races of different origin, and distinguished by
color, and other physical differences, as well as intellectual, are
brought together the relation now existing in the slave-holding States
between the two, is, instead of an evil, a good--a positive good. I
fearlessly assert that the existing relations between the two races in
the South forms the most solid and durable foundation on which to rear
free and stable political institutions (Works of Calhoun, Vol. 2, p.
630)." Thus by legal enactment, judicial interpretation and orderly
expressed public opinion, race if it be African was the badge of
inferiority and slavery. This was generally true throughout the country
and yet a careful and somewhat thorough examination of the statutes,
legal decisions, and systematic treatises relating to the law of slavery
will convince any fair-minded person that the term free colored person
carried with it less of negation of right in the Northern States where
slavery had ceased to exist than in the Southern States where it still
flourished.
At the close of the revolution, slavery existed in most of the colonies,
if not all, and their statute books contained laws relating to that
condition, and to the condition of "free persons of color." However, as
time passed and the institution of slavery disappeared, we find these
laws disappearing or becoming greatly modified or mitigated in their
provisions. For instance, March 26, 1783, Massachusetts passed a law
forbidding an African or Negro to tarry within the commonwealth for a
longer time than two months unless such person could produce a
certificate from the secretary of State of which such person claimed to
be a citizen, showing that he was such, and that where such persons did
not have the required certificate they should be ordered to depart from
the State, and upon failure to do so be committed to any house of
correction, and that such punishment should be repeated whenever and as
often as the order to depart was disobeyed. This law was repealed,
however, in 1786. It seems that slavery was abolished in Massachusetts
by operation of the constitution of 1780, which declares that "All men
are born free and equal." Harry St. George Tucker, president of the
Virginia Court of Appeals, said in 1833, speaking of this constitutional
utterance, that "We should be disposed to take this declaration less as
an abstraction than we regard that which is contained in our own bill of
rights" (5th Leigh Rep., 622). By 1786, it appears that Massachusetts
had abolished all distinctions in law based on race except that in
relation to marriage, which appears to have been repealed in 1843. In
1833, Connecticut enacted a law forbidding the setting up or
establishment of any school, academy or literary institution for the
instruction or education of colored persons who were not inhabitants of
the State. This law was repealed in 1838. The constitution of Rhode
Island of 1843, conferred the elective franchise on persons of the male
sex qualified by residence and property without distinction of color. In
New Hampshire the constitution of 1783 contains the principle that all
men are born equally free, and no distinction on account of color is
found in any of her statutes except in a law of 1792, which specified
that enlistment in the militia should be confined to white people. In
the law of 1857, relating to the subject of militia, color is not
mentioned. Neither in the constitution nor laws of Vermont does one find
for this period any distinction based on color, so that in Vermont the
term "free colored person" had no existence and consequently no meaning.
In Maine no distinctions based on color are to be found for the period
under consideration either in the constitution or the statutes. In
Pennsylvania colored people exercised the elective franchise and enjoyed
full citizenship with the whites up to 1838, when the elective
franchise, by the constitution of that year, was confined to whites.
Presumably free colored people exercised the suffrage in New Jersey up
to 1844, as there appears no limitation of suffrage on account of color
prior to its mention in the constitution of that year. New York, in an
act of the legislature of 1799, provided for gradual emancipation of the
slaves, and by an act of 1811 it required "free colored people" to carry
certificates of their freedom as proofs of their claim thereto. In 1814
the legislature of the State authorized the raising of two regiments of
colored soldiers to be officered by white men. In 1823, Negroes who
resided in the State three years and possessed a free-hold estate of the
assessed value of two hundred and fifty dollars were entitled to
exercise the elective franchise, a requirement not imposed upon white
people.
It is interesting to note that up to 1723, free colored people appear to
have exercised the elective franchise equally with the whites in
Virginia. The colonial constitution of that year limited its exercise to
white people, and the free colored people never voted again until the
adoption of the Underwood or reconstruction constitution. Besides this,
contrary to conditions above described in the Northern States the laws
in relation to free colored people grew harsher and harsher until 1831,
when we find a statute prohibiting meetings for teaching free Negroes or
mulattoes reading or writing. In 1832, free Negroes were forbidden to
preach the gospel. In 1834 free Negroes were forbidden to immigrate into
the State. In 1838 free Negroes leaving the State to be educated were
forbidden to return. In 1851, the constitution of Virginia of that year,
in Sec. 5, Art. 19, provided: That slaves hereafter emancipated shall
forfeit their freedom by remaining in the commonwealth more than twelve
months, and in 1856, the legislature of Virginia passed an act providing
that free Negroes might voluntarily make agreements to become slaves and
that such agreement should be binding.
In North Carolina free colored people seem to have exercised most of the
rights of white people including that of voting, until 1835, when the
right to vote was confined to persons of the white race. In all of the
slave States the free colored man was hampered by legislative provisions
exactly like or very similar to those just cited as existing in
Virginia. In none of these States could free colored people hold the
legal title to real property, in none of them did they have the right of
public assembly, the right to bear arms or the right to carry on
collectively the work of education. In few of them did they even have
the right to preach the gospel, and where they did preach it was by
favor and permission, and not by right. Of all these Southern
slave-holding States Maryland ruled its free colored people with
something suggestive of humanity.
It will be seen from this hasty and unsatisfactory review of a great
mass of statutes, decisions, and treatises that the condition of the
free colored man north of Mason and Dixon's line improved in the main
from the close of the revolution to 1860, and that south of Mason and
Dixon's line his condition grew worse from the close of the revolution
down to 1860.
In the West, where new States were forming, there was, of course, the
distinction of race. The settlers who went into these new communities
went there to establish white communities and they passed laws
forbidding the immigration of free colored people into them. We find
statutes in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Kansas, and Oregon,
forbidding the immigration of free Negroes. It seems, however, that
there was never a very strong public sentiment insisting upon the
enforcement of these laws. As a matter of fact there was a small active
and effective sentiment which practically nullified the existence of
them, for in all of these States we find, especially after the enactment
of the fugitive slave law of 1850, a most friendly sentiment toward the
unfortunate colored man whether slave or free.
The study of the statutes and conditions of more than a half century ago
is not only a matter of curiosity, but a matter of very practical
concern, since in these latter days another body of laws, and legal
decisions based upon distinction of race have come into existence, and
yet others are threatened.
Arthur A. Schomburg. The Economic Contribution by the Negro to America
The services rendered by Negroes in America from the discovery of the
islands beyond the Pillars of Hercules by Christopher Columbus to the
end of the eighteenth century, make a chapter of history transcending in
importance anything which has taken place in the old world. The quaint
times and scarcity of willing men among the aboriginal Indians to help
the Spaniards to despoil their lands in the rapacious quest of gold
brought about the early ruin of flourishing communities of aboriginal
tribes in the several islands. So alarming was this state of affairs
that Father Las Casas, known as the Apostle of the Indians, interceded
in their behalf at the Spanish court in order to ameliorate their
unfortunate condition. He pleaded for Negroes to take their places as
the blacks were a very hardy and robust race; to this plea the great and
humanitarian Cardinal Ximenes was opposed; for he could not justify the
substitution of one race for another in what was in itself a wrong. The
Cardinal having been overruled, the Slave Trade was instituted and the
first Negroes were brought to Santo Domingo. They were not the untutored
savages we are expected to believe from modern histories. There existed
in Sevilla, Spain, as early as 1475, a large number of Negro slaves, who
had been brought from the coasts of North Africa and Guinea, and their
one-fifth tribute to the coffers of the state formed a very nice sum of
money. This practice of importing Negroes, which had been in vogue
during the Arab dominion of Spain, continued to increase to such an
extent that when in the year of 1474 a royal decree still extant
chronicles the appointment of a Negro known as Juan de Valladolid as
mayor of the Negro colony situated in the outskirts of the said city.
From this colony of Negroes who could speak the Spanish language, and
were familiar with their customs, came the first batch of slaves shipped
to Santo Domingo. It must also be borne in mind that 45 years before, in
1370, King Henry of Portugal had commenced his explorations, the
Catalans and Normans had frequented the coasts of Africa as far as the
Tropic of Cancer, and according to Diego Ortiz de Zuniga, it is known
that from the times of Archbishop Gonzalo de Mena (1400) there existed
Negro slaves in Sevilla. There is no reason to doubt that a large number
of their descendants had already been born in Europe prior to 1500,
because the royal dispensations in that year state that the immigration
of Negro slaves to Santo Domingo was prohibited except in case of those
who were born while in possession of Christians. These historical facts
induce us to believe that during that period there was in Europe a
larger number of Negroes than we generally suppose or care to believe.
At the time that the slave trade had commenced to occupy the mind of the
Hawkins malefactors and the British nation under Queen Elizabeth,
Barbarossa had already subjected the mulatto King of Morocco to the
payment of a tribute of $1,000,000 in gold dust--and 40 Negro merchants
without any hesitation helped the king out of the dangers that
confronted his people. When the Moor Zegri was humiliated by the Spanish
Commander Cisneros in 1499 and the Arab books destroyed in Granada,
Marmol states that less than 1,025,000 tomes on religion, politics,
jurisprudence, manuscripts illuminated and worked in silver and gold
were consigned to the fires. There remained 3,000 Moorish soldiers under
command of a Negro captain whose intrepid heroism and valor was shown by
the charges and counter charges he was able to repel. When unable to
prevent the utter annihilation of his band by superior forces under
Cifuentes, the Negro captain refused to surrender and jumped headlong
from a fort. (Alcatara's History, Granada, pp. 165-6.) And this happened
seven years after the discovery of America by Columbus.
The conditions of the new world were such that the Spaniards who had
spent most of their wealth in the unprofitable civil and Arab wars, lost
no time after hearing wonderful stories of untold wealth to requisition
not only the Negroes of Seville, but to embark in the lucrative
enterprise of human Negroes from the West Coast of Africa, and ships
which were engaged in man-hunting poured their human freight into
Hispaniola. It was not long after that the Spanish Negroes belonging to
Diego Columbus, revolted, and the first insurrection, taking place among
the very property of the discoverer's offspring, was suppressed by the
military after killing the leaders. The prosperity of the colonies soon
became apparent in the enormous number of Spanish ships with their
precious cargoes arriving in the Spanish ports. The Spanish people were
wild and in an ecstasy of joy to engage in the colonial enterprise, and
as ships entered upon the perilous voyages of discovery the Africans
were gathered to do the work for which no historian or economist has
given them the credit which is their due for blazing the path of wealth
into which the nations of Europe have ridden upon the lucrative backs of
the Africans. The clearing of the forests from dangerous animals and
poisonous insects, making with the awakening of each succeeding spring
the virgin earth a paradise that has supported millions of European
parasites; the working of the mines for precious metals that fed the
envy of other powerful nations which questioned the right of the
Spaniards to conquest under the banner of the Christian Church, and
induced them to scramble and fight for their colonial honors.
No sooner than Santo Domingo was found to be a paradise of wealth than
the other islands were made ready for the unwilling African. He was
carried to the mainland of Panama, where Balboa was surprised to find a
colony of Negroes whose origin has baffled the mind of the most learned
men of that age. To this day no solution has been found for the problem
of the coming of these Negroes of Quareca. Gomora says, "That
Conquistador entered the Province of Quareca; he found no gold, but some
blacks who were slaves of the lord of the place. He asked this lord
whence he had received them, who replied that men of that color lived
near the place, with whom they were constantly at war. "These Negroes,"
adds Gomora, "exactly resemble those of the Guinea; and no others have
since been seen in America. It may be stated here that every hypothesis
has been advanced to show that these men must have been people other
than Negroes, but since the natives of the kingdoms of Congo and Guinea
were known to have enjoyed friendly relations with each other and sailed
the rivers in large oared boats, it is very probable that some of them
crossed the Atlantic in like manner as the Caribs in their piraguas
traveled from the islands to the mainland and vice versa. The nearest
distance from Brazil to Africa is along the Tropic of Cancer, and any
number of large boats may have lost their bearing in a storm and got
ship-wrecked on the American mainland. This hypothesis is well within
the range of probability in view of the fact that the trade winds blow
from east to west and the Gulf Stream flows rapidly, and is noted for
periodical variation in its course.
The Negroes that were originally carried into Santo Domingo from Spain
became devoted to the early priests, for it must be conceded that the
Jesuits were the friends who maintained a benevolent attitude toward
these outcast sons of men. One of these Negroes, known as Estevanico,
was the discoverer of the Seven Cities of Cibola, and what is known as
Arizona and New Mexico. Negroes were in Mexico with the vanguard of the
Spaniards, and to that country must be credited one of the earliest
Negro poets. He lived in Mexico City, and was, by trade, a carpenter and
maker of artificial flowers, and was always sought by the elite, because
of his ready wit and quickness to rhyme on any theme given him.
Wherever the English ruled we have had to combat a very prejudiced and
arrogant system of oppression. In the Spanish and French colonies the
rule was milder, in consequence of a system of judicial laws which
predicated a better understanding as a solution of the complex relations
between master and slave. The English have shown by their rule in the
Island of Trinidad how much regard they have had for the rights of
others guaranteed by treaty. For a case in point we may refer to the
treaty of capitulation between the Spaniards and the English that took
place February 18th, 1797. Article 12 of this treaty reads: "The colored
people, who have been acknowledged as such by the laws of Spain, shall
be protected in their liberty, persons and property, like other
inhabitants; they taking the oath of allegiance, meaning themselves as
becomes good and peaceable subjects of His Britanic Majesty" (16). The
way the British respected this "Scrap of Paper" is shown in a book
written by a free mulatto, a graduate of the Edinburgh University, and
printed in London in 1824. Says this anonymous author: "And even the
Spanish governor saw his country about to be divested of a possession
she had held ever since the third voyage of Columbus, he did not forget
the faith she had plighted to the colored population, but exacted from
the invaders security for the continuance of the equality of rights and
privileges with the whites by the 12th article of the capitulation" (p.
16).