differed. While there were exceptions on both sides, it may fairly be
said that the conservative and government element reprobated the
conduct of the blacks in the strongest terms, being as little fond of
mob law as of slavery, and that the radicals, including the followers
of Mackenzie, looked upon Holmes and Green as martyrs in the cause of
liberty. That Holmes and Green and their fellows violated the law
there is no doubt, but so did Oliver Cromwell, George Washington and
John Brown. Every one must decide for himself whether the occasion
justified in the courts of Heaven an act which must needs be condemned
in the courts of earth.[32]
In 1842 the well-known Ashburton Treaty was concluded[33] between
Britain and the United States. This by Article X provides that "the
United States and Her Britannic Majesty shall, upon mutual
requisitions ... deliver up to justice all persons ... charged with
murder or assault with intent to commit murder, or piracy or arson or
robbery or forgery or the utterance of forged paper.... Power was
given to judges and other magistrates to issue warrants of arrest, to
hear evidence and if "the evidence be deemed sufficient ... it shall
be the duty of the ... judge or magistrate to certify the same to the
proper executive authority that a warrant may issue for the surrender
of such fugitive."
It will be seen that this treaty made two important changes so far as
the United States was concerned: (1) It made it the duty of the
executive to order extradition in a proper case and took away the
discretion, (2) it gave the courts jurisdiction to determine whether a
case was made out for extradition.[34] These changes made it more
difficult in many instances for a refugee to escape: but as ever the
courts were astute in finding reasons against the return of slaves.
The case of John Anderson is well known. He was born a slave in
Missouri. As his master was Moses Burton, he was known as Jack Burton.
He married a slave woman in Howard County, the property of one Brown.
In 1853 Burton sold him to one McDonald living some thirty miles away
and his new master took him to his plantation. In September, 1853, he
was seen near the farm of Brown, when apparently he was visiting his
wife. A neighbor, Seneca T. P. Diggs, became suspicious of him and
questioned him. As his answers were not satisfactory he ordered his
four Negro slaves to seize him, according to the law in the State of
Missouri. The Negro fled, pursued by Diggs and his slaves. In his
attempt to escape the fugitive stabbed Diggs in the breast and Diggs
died in a few hours. Effecting his escape to this province, he was in
1860 apprehended in Brant County, where he had been living under the
name of John Anderson, and three local justices of the peace committed
him under the Ashburton Treaty. A writ of habeas corpus was granted by
the Court of Queen's Bench at Toronto, under which the prisoner was
brought before the Court of Michaelmas Term of 1860.
The motion was heard by the Full Court.[35] Much of the argument was
on the facts and on the law apart from the form of the papers, but
that was hopeless from the beginning. The law and the facts were too
clear, although Mr. Justice McLean thought the evidence defective. The
case turned on the form of the information and warrant, a somewhat
technical and refined point. The Chief Justice, Sir John Beverley
Robinson, and Mr. Justice Burns agreed that the warrant was not
strictly correct, but that it could be amended: Mr. Justice McLean
thought it could not and should not be amended.
The case attracted great attention throughout the province, especially
among the Negro population. On the day on which judgment was to be
delivered, a large number of people of color with some whites
assembled in front of Osgoode Hall.[36] While the adverse decision was
announced, there were some mutterings of violence but counsel for the
prisoner[37] addressed them seriously and impressively, reminding them
"It is the law and we must obey it." The melancholy gathering melted
away one by one in sadness and despair. Anderson was recommitted to
the Brantford jail.[38] The case came to the knowledge of many in
England. It was taken up by the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery
Society and many persons of more or less note. An application was made
to the Court of Queen's Bench of England for a writ of habeas corpus,
notwithstanding the Upper Canadian decision, and while Anderson was in
the jail at Toronto, the court after anxious deliberation granted the
writ,[39] but it became unnecessary, owing to further proceedings in
Upper Canada.
In those days the decision of any court or of any judge in habeas
corpus proceedings was not final. An applicant might go from judge to
judge, court to court[40] and the last applied to might grant the
relief refused by all those previously applied to. A writ of habeas
corpus was taken out from the other Common Law Court in Upper Canada,
the Court of Common Pleas. This was argued in Hilary Term, 1861, and
the court unanimously decided that the warrant of commitment was bad
and that the court could not remand the prisoner to have it
amended.[41] The prisoner was discharged. No other attempts were made
to extradite him or any other escaped slave and Lincoln's Emancipation
Proclamation put an end to any chance of such an attempt being ever
repeated.
W. R. RIDDELL.
FOOTNOTES:
[A] This paper has appeared in _Transactions of the Royal Society of
Canada_, May, 1919.
[1] Per Hargrave _arguendo_, Somerset _v._ Stewart (1772), Lofft 1, at
p. 4; the speech in the State Trials Report was never actually
delivered.
[2] (1772) Lofft 1; (1772) 20 St. Trials 1.
[3] These words are not in Lofft or in the State Trials but will be
found in Campbell's _Lives of the Chief Justices_, Vol. II, p. 419,
where the words are added: "Every man who comes into England is
entitled to the protection of the English law, whatever oppression he
may heretofore have suffered and whatever may be the colour of his
skin. 'Quamvis ille niger, quamvis tu candidus esses'" and certainly
Vergil's verse was never used on a nobler occasion or to nobler
purpose. Verg. E. 2, 19.
William Cowper in _The Task_, written 1783-1785, imitated this in his
well-known lines:
"Slaves cannot breathe in England; if their lungs
Receive our air, that moment they are free.
They touch our country and their shackles fall."
[4] I use the spelling in Lofft; the State Trials and Lord Campbell
have "Somersett" and "Steuart."
[5] See, _e. g._, Vinogradoff, _Villeinage in England_, passim;
Hallam's _Middle Ages_ (ed. 1827), Vol. 3, p. 256; Pollock & Maitland,
_History of English Law_, Vol. 1, pp. 395 sqq. Holdsworth's _History
of English Law_, Vol. 2, pp. 33, 63, 131; Vol. 3, pp. 167, 377-393.
[6] See Pollock & Maitland's _History Eng. Law_, Vol. 1, pp. 1-13,
395, 415; Holdworth's _Hist. Eng. Law_, Vol. 2, pp. 17, 27, 30-33,
131, 160, 216.
[7] "So spake the fiend and with necessity,
The tyrant's plea, excused his devilish deeds."
Paradise Lost, Bk. 4, ll. 393, 394.
Milton a true lover of freedom well knew the peril of an argument
based upon supposed necessity. Necessity is generally but another name
for greed or worse.
[8] _E. g._, the Statute of (1732) 5 Geo. II, C. 7, enacted, sec. 4,
"that from and after the said 29th. September, 1732, the Houses,
Lands, Negroes and other Hereditaments and real Estates situate or
being within any of the said (British) Plantations (in America) shall
be liable" to be sold under execution. Note that the Negroes are
"Hereditaments and Real Estate."
[9] The name _Pani_ or _Panis_, Anglicized into _Pawnee_, was used
generally in Canada as synonymous with "Indian Slave" because these
slaves were usually taken from the Pawnee tribe. Those who would
further pursue this matter will find material in the _Wisconsin
Historical Collections_, Vol. XVIII, p. 103 (note); Lafontaine,
_L'Esclavage in Canada_ cited in the above; _Michigan Pioneer and
Historical Collections_, Vol. XXVII, p. 613 (n); Vol. XXX, pp. 402,
596. Vol. XXXV, p. 548; Vol. XXXVII, p. 541. From Vol. XXX, p. 546, we
learn that Dr. Anthon, father of Prof. Anthon of Classical Text-book
fame, had a "Panie Wench" who when the family had the smallpox "had
them very severe" along with Dr. Anthon's little girl and his "aeltest
boy" "whoever they got all safe over it and are not disfigured."
Dr. Kingsford in his _History of Canada_, Vol. V, p. 30 (n), cites
from the _Documents of the Montreal Historical Society_, Vol. I, p. 5,
an "ordonnance au sujet des Nègres et des sauvages appelés panis, du
15 avril 1709" by "Jacques Raudot, Intendant." "Nous sous le bon
plaisir de Sa Majesté ordonnons, que tous les Panis et Nègres qui ont
été achetés et qui le seront dans la suite, appartiendront en pleine
proprieté a ceux qui les ont achetés comme étant leurs esclaves." "We
with the consent of His Majesty enact that all the Panis and Negroes
who heretofore have been or who hereafter shall be bought shall be the
absolute property as their slaves of those who bought them." This
ordinance is quoted (_Mich. Hist. Coll._, XII, p. 511), and its
language ascribed to a (nonexistent) "wise and humane statute of Upper
Canada of May 31, 1798"--a curious mistake, perhaps in copying or
printing.
There does not seem to have been any distinction in status or rights
or anything but race between the Panis and the other slaves. I do not
know of an account of the numbers of slaves in Canada at the time; in
Detroit, March 31, 1779, there were 60 male and 78 female slaves in a
population of about 2,550 (_Mich. Hist. Coll._, X, p. 326); Nov. 1,
1780, 79 male and 96 female slaves in a somewhat smaller population
(_Mich. Hist. Coll._, XIII, p. 53); in 1778, 127 in a population of
2,144 (_Mich. Hist. Coll._, IX, p. 469); 85 in 1773, 179 in 1782
(_Mich. Hist. Coll._, VII, p. 524); 78 male and 101 female (_Mich.
Hist. Coll._, XIII, p. 54). The Ordinance of Congress July 13, 1787,
forbidding slavery "northwest of the Ohio River" (passed with but one
dissenting voice, that of a Delegate from New York) was quite
disregarded in Detroit (_Mich. Hist. Coll._, I, 415); and indeed
Detroit and the neighboring country remained British (de facto) until
August, 1796, and part of Upper Canada from 1791 till that date.
[10] This Act (1790) 30 Geo. III, c. 27, was intended to encourage
"new settlers in His Majesty's Colonies and Plantations in America"
and applied to all "subjects of the United States." It allowed an
importation into any of the Bahama, Bermuda or Somers Islands, the
Province of Quebec (then including all Canada), Nova Scotia and every
other British territory in North America. It allowed the importation
by such American subjects of "negros, household furniture, utensils of
husbandry or cloathing free of duty," the "household furniture,
utensils of husbandry and cloathing" not to exceed in value £50 for
every white person in the family and £2 for each negro, any sale of
negro or goods within a year of the importation to be void.
[11] The Royal Proclamation is dated 7th October, 1763; it will be
found in Shortt & Doughty, _Documents relating to the Constitutional
History of Canada_ published by the _Archives of Canada_, Ottawa,
1907, pp. 119 sqq. The Proclamation fixes the western boundary of the
(Province or) Government at a line drawn from the south end of Lake
Nipissing to where the present international boundary crosses the
River St. Lawrence.
The Quebec Act is (1774) 14 Geo. III, C. 83. It extends Quebec south
to the Ohio and west to the Mississippi; Shortt & Doughty, pp. 401
sqq.
[12] The division of the Province of Quebec into two provinces, _i.
e._, Upper Canada and Lower Canada, was effected by the Royal
Prerogative, Sec. 31 George III, c. 31, the celebrated Canada of
Constitutional Act. The Message sent to Parliament expressing the
Royal intention is to be found copied in the Ont. Arch. Reports for
1906, p. 158. After the passing of the Canada Act, an Order in Council
was passed August 24, 1791 (Ont. Arch. Rep., 1906, pp. 158 et seq.),
dividing the Province of Quebec into two provinces and under the
provisions of sec. 48 of the act directing a royal warrant to
authorize the Governor or Lieutenant-Governor of the Province of
Quebec or the person administering the government there, to fix and
declare such day as he shall judge most advisable for the commencement
of the effect of the legislation in the new provinces not later than
December 31, 1791. Lord Dorchester (Sir Guy Carleton) was appointed,
September 12, 1791, Captain General and Governor-in-Chief of both
provinces and he received a Royal warrant empowering him to fix a day
for the legislation becoming effective in the new provinces (Ont.
Arch. Rep., 1906, p. 168). In the absence of Dorchester, General
Alured Clarke, Lieutenant Governor of the Province of Quebec, issued
November 18, 1791, a proclamation fixing Monday, December 26, 1791, as
the day for the commencement of the said legislation (Ont. Arch. Rep.,
1906, pp. 169-171). Accordingly technically and in law, the new
province was formed by Order in Council, August 24, 1791, but there
was no change in administration until December 26, 1791.
[13] The first session of the First Parliament of Upper Canada was
held at Newark (now Niagara-on-the-Lake) September 17 to October 15,
1792; the statute referred to is (1792) 32 Geo. III, c. 1 (U. C.).
[14] Everyone will remember the words of the Chief Justice of the
Supreme Court of the United States in the celebrated Dred Scott case.
In Dred Scott v. Sandford, 1856 (19 How. 354, pp. 404, 405), Chief
Justice Roger B. Taney, speaking of the view taken of the Negro when
the Constitution was framed, says: "They were at that time considered
as a subordinate and inferior class of beings who had been subjugated
by the dominant race and whether emancipated or not, yet remained
subject to their authority and had no rights or privileges but such as
those who held the power and the Government might choose to grant
them" (p. 407). "They had no more than a century before been regarded
as beings of an inferior order ... and so far inferior that they had
no rights which the white man was bound to respect, and that the negro
might justly and lawfully be reduced to slavery for his benefit. He
was bought and sold and treated as an ordinary article of merchandise
and traffic" (p. 411). "All of them had been brought here as articles
of merchandise."
This repulsive subject now chiefly of historical interest is treated
at large in such works as Cobb's _Law of Slavery_, Philadelphia, 1858;
Hurd's _Law of Freedom and Bondage_, Boston, 1858; Von Holst's _Const.
Hist. U. S._ (1750-1833), Chicago, 1877; the judgments of all the
Judges in the Dred Scott case are well worth reading, especially that
of Mr. Justice Curtis.
[15] This is copied from the _Canadian Archives Collection_, Q. 282,
pt. I, pp. 212 sqq.; taken from the official report sent to
Westminster by Simcoe. There is the usual amount of uncertainty in
spelling names Grisley or Crisly, Fromand, Frooman, Froomond or
Fromond (in reality Vrooman).
Osgoode was an Englishman, the first Chief Justice of Upper Canada.
Arriving in this Province in the summer of 1792, he left to become
Chief Justice of Lower Canada in the summer of 1794. Resigning in
1801, he returned to England on a pension which he enjoyed until his
death in 1824. He left no mark on our jurisprudence and never sat in
any but trial courts of criminal jurisdiction. Osgoode Hall, our
Ontario Palais de Justice, is called after him.
Russell came to Upper Canada also in 1792 as Receiver-General and
Legislative Councillor; he was an Executive Councillor and when Simcoe
left Canada in 1796, he acted as Administrator until the coming of the
new Lieutenant Governor Peter Hunter in 1799. Russell was not noted
for anything but his acquisitiveness but he was a faithful servant of
the Crown in his own way.
Col. John Butler, born in Connecticut in 1728, became a noted leader
of Indians. He took the Loyalist side, raising the celebrated Butler's
Rangers; he settled at Niagara after the Revolutionary war and proved
himself a useful citizen; he died in 1796. See Cruikshanks' _Butler's
Rangers_, Lundy's Lane Historical Society's publication; Robertson's
_Free Masonry in Canada_, Vol. I, p. 470; Riddell's edition of _La
Rochefoucauld's Travels in Canada_, 1795, published by the Ontario
Archives, 1917, p. 177.
Navy Hall was in the little town which Simcoe named "Newark," which
before this had been called Niagara, West Niagara, Nassau, Lenox and
Butlersburg, now called Niagara or Niagara-on-the-lake. Navy Hall was
the seat of government from 1792 to 1797. Queens Town is the present
Queenston; Mississagua Point is at the embouchure of the Niagara
River; it is still known by the same name, spelled generally however
with a final "a." Nothing seems to be known of the subsequent fate of
Chloe Cooley.
The Vroomans and Cryslers (or Chrystlers or Chryslers) the same family
as Chrystler of Chrystler's Farm, the scene of an American defeat,
November 11, 1813, were well-known residents. I am indebted to General
E.A. Cruikshank for the following note:
"The Vrooman Farm is situated on the west bank of the Niagara, in the
township of Niagara, about a mile below the village of Queenston, and
includes that feature of the river bank generally known as Vrooman's
Point; it was still in the possession of the Vrooman family when I
last visited the place about twelve years ago. The remains of a small
half-moon or redan battery on the point which had been constructed in
the War of 1812, and played a considerable part in the battle of
Queenston were then quite well marked. One of the Vrooraans of that
time was in the militia artillery, and assisted to serve the gun
mounted on the battery. The possessor of the farm was then, I think,
more than eighty years of age, but he was active and in possession of
his memory and other faculties. He stated to me the exact number of
shots which he had been informed by his father, or the Vrooman engaged
in the action, had been fired from this gun, which of course, may or
may not be correct. An Adam Chrysler, who was a lieutenant in the
Indian Department in the Revolutionary War, and before that, a
resident in the Scoharie district, of the Mohawk country, received
lands either in the township of Niagara or the township of Stamford,
near the village of Queenston. His grandson, John Chrysler, some
twenty years ago, then being quite an old man, who is now dead, loaned
me some very interesting documents which had been preserved in the
family, and belonged to this Adam Chrysler. One of them, I remember,
was the original instructions issued to him, and signed by
Lieut.-Colonel John Butler, the deputy superintendent general,
strictly enjoining him to restrain the Indians, with whom he was
acting, from all acts of cruelty upon prisoners and non-combatants.
Some members of his family, ladies, were residing at Niagara Falls,
Ontario, ten years ago, and I presume still are there. I have no doubt
that it was some member of Adam Crysler's family who took part in the
abduction of the Cooley girl. The original spelling of this name was
Kreisler, which is a fairly common German name in the Rhine
Palatinate, from which this family came."
In the report by Col. John Butler of the Survey of the Settlement at
Niagara, August 25, 1782 (_Can. Arch._, Series B, 169, p. 1), McGregor
Van-Every is named as the head of a family. He was married, without
children, hired men or slaves, had 3 horses, no cows, sheep or hogs, 8
acres of "clear land" and raised 4 bushels of Indian corn and 40 of
potatoes but no wheat or oats. His neighbor, Thomas McMicken, was
married, had two young sons, one hired man and one male slave. He had
two horses, 1 cow and 20 hogs, and raised ten bushels of Indian corn,
10 of oats and 10 of potatoes (no wheat) on his 8 acres of "clear
land."
[16] John White called to the Bar in 1785 at the Inner Temple
(probably); he practised for a time but unsuccessfully in Jamaica and
through the influence of his brother-in-law, Samuel Shepherd and of
Chief Justice Osgoode was appointed the first Attorney General of
Upper Canada. He arrived in the Province in the summer of 1792 and was
elected a member of the first House of Assembly for Leeds and
Frontenac. He was an active and useful member. It is probable, but the
existing records do not make it certain, that it was he who introduced
and had charge in the House of Assembly of the Bill for the abolition
of slavery passed in 1793, shortly to be mentioned. In January, 1800,
he was killed in a duel at York, later Toronto, by Major John Small,
Clerk of the Executive Council. His will, drawn by himself after his
fatal wound, is still extant in the Court of Probate records at
Toronto. One clause reads: "I desire to be rolled up in a sheet and
not buried fantastically, and that I may be buried at the back of my
own house." Buried in his garden at his direction, his bones were
accidentally uncovered in 1871 and reverently buried in Toronto. His
manuscript diary is still extant, a copy being in the possession of
the writer.
[17] The statute is (1793) 33 Geo. III, c. 7, (U. C.). The Parliament
of Upper Canada had two Houses, the Legislative Council, an Upper
House, appointed by the Crown and the Legislative Assembly, a Lower
House or House of Commons, as it was sometimes called, elected by the
people. The Lieutenant Governor gave the royal assent. The bill was
introduced in the Lower House, probably by Attorney General White, as
stated in last note, and read the first time, June 19. It went to the
committee of the whole June 25, and was the same day reported out. On
June 26 it was read the third time, passed and sent up for
concurrence. The Legislative Council read it the same day for the
first time, went into Committee over it the next day, June 28, and
July I, when it was reported out with amendments, passed and sent down
to the Commons July 2. That House promptly concurred and sent the bill
back the same day. See the official reports; _Ont. Arch. Reports_ for
1910 (Toronto, 1911), pp. 25, 26, 27, 28, 32, 33, _Ont. Arch. Rep._
for 1909 (Toronto, 1911), pp. 33, 35, 36, 38, 41, 42.
The first Fugitive Slave Law was passed by the United States in 1793.
Three years afterwards occurred an episode, little known and less
commented upon, showing very clearly the views of George Washington on
the subject of fugitive slaves, at least, of those slaves who were his
own.
A slave girl of his escaped and made her way to Portsmouth, N. H.
Washington, on discovering her place of refuge, wrote concerning her
to Joseph Whipple, the Collector at Portsmouth, November 28, 1796. The
letter is still extant. It is of three full pages and was sold in
London in 1877 for ten guineas (_Magazine of American History_, Vol.
1, December, 1877, p. 759). Charles Sumner had it in his hands when he
made the speech reported in Charles Summer's _Works_, Vol. III, p.
177. Washington in the letter described the fugitive and particularly
expressed the desire of "her mistress," Mrs. Washington, for her
return to Alexandria. He feared public opinion in New Hampshire, for
he added
"I do not mean however, by this request that such violent measures
should be used as would excite a mob or riot which might be the case
if she has adherents; or even uneasy sensations in the minds of
well-disposed citizens. Rather than either of these should happen, I
would forgo her services altogether and the example also which is of
infinite more importance."
In other words, "if the slave girl has no friends or 'adherents'" send
her back to slavery--if she has and they would actively oppose her
return, let her go--and even if it only be that "well-disposed
citizens" disapprove of her capture and return, let her remain free.
There may be some difficulty in justifying Washington's course by the
opinion of Thomas Aquinas (_Summa Theologics_, 1 ma., 2 dae., Quaest.
XCVI, Art. 4), who says that an unjust law is not binding in
conscience "_nisi forte propter vitandum scandalum vel turbationem_."
Aquinas is speaking of an unjust law which may be resisted unless
scandal or tumult would result from resistance. Washington is speaking
of a law which he considers right, but which he would not enforce if
it should occasion such evils. The analogy does not hold as the editor
of Charles Sumner's _Works_ seems to think (Vol. III, p. 178, note).
Whipple answered from Portsmouth, December 22, 1796:
"I will now, Sir, agreeably to your desire, send her to Alexandria if
it be practicable without the consequences which you except--that of
exciting a riot or a mob or creating uneasy sensations in the minds of
well disposed persons. The first cannot be calculated beforehand; it
will be governed by the popular opinion of the moment or the
circumstances that may arise in the transaction. The latter may be
sought into and judged of by conversing with such persons without
discovering the occasion. So far as I have had opportunity, I perceive
that different sentiments are entertained on the subject."
Whipple made enquiry. Public opinion in Portsmouth was adverse to the
return of the fugitive. She was unmolested and lived out a long life
in Portsmouth and Kittery.
Nothing more clearly and impressively shows the veneration felt by his
countrymen for George Washington than the praise the fearless,
outspoken, uncompromising hater of slavery, Charles Sumner, of the
conduct of the President in this transaction. Sumner considered the
poor slave girl "a monument of the just forbearance of him whom we
aptly call Father of his Country.... While a slaveholder and seeking
the return of a fugitive, he has left in permanent record a rule of
conduct which if adopted by his country will make slave hunting
impossible." With almost any other man, Sumner would have no praise or
reverence for a desire to force a fugitive back into slavery unless
prevented by fear of mob or riot or adverse public opinion.
In the same letter Washington gives what may be considered a reason or
excuse for his demand. "However well disposed I might be to a gradual
abolition, or even to an entire emancipation of that description of
people, if the latter was itself practicable at this moment, it would
neither be expedient nor just to reward unfaithfulness with a
premature preference and thereby discontent beforehand the minds of
all her fellow servants who by their steady attachment are far more
deserving than herself of favour."
This is the familiar pretext of the master, private or state. Those
who rebel against oppression and wrong are not to be given any
relief--that would be unjust to those who tamely submit. That very
argument was advanced by the ruler across the sea against the
proposition to come to terms with Washington and his party who had
ventured to oppose the would-be master.
And it is to be noted that Washington did not free those "who by their
steady attachment are far more deserving ... of favour" till he had
had all the advantage he could from their services--he did indeed free
them by his will, but only after the death of his wife.
Sumner cannot be said to minimize his merits when he says "He was at
the time a slaveholder--often expressing himself with various degrees
of force against slavery, and promising his suffrage for its
abolition, he did not see this wrong as he saw it at the close of
life." (Sumner's _Works_, Vol. III, pp. 759 sq.)
[18] Vermont excluded slavery by her Bill of Rights (1777),
Pennsylvania and Massachusetts passed legislation somewhat similar to
that of Upper Canada in 1780; Connecticut and Rhode Island in 1784,
New Hampshire by her Constitution in 1792, Vermont in the same way in
1793: New York began in 1799 and completed the work in 1827, New
Jersey 1829; Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and Iowa were
organized as a Territory in 1787 and slavery forbidden by the
Ordinance, July 13, 1787, but it was in fact known in part of the
Territory for a score of years. A few slaves were held in Michigan by
tolerance until far into the nineteenth century notwithstanding the
prohibition of the fundamental law (_Mich. Hist. Coll._, VII, p. 524).
Maine as such, never had slavery having separated from Massachusetts
in 1820 after the Act of 1780, although it would seem that as late as
1833 the Supreme Court of Massachusetts left it open when slavery was
abolished in that State (Commonwealth _v._ Aves, 18 Pick. 193, 209).
(See Cobb's _Slavery_, pp. clxxi, clxxii, 209; Sir Harry H. Johnston's
_The Negro in the New World_, an exceedingly valuable and interesting
work but not wholly reliable in minutiæ, pp. 355 et seq.)
[19] Simcoe was almost certainly the prime mover in the legislation of
1793. When giving the royal assent to the bill he said: "The Act for
the gradual abolition of Slavery in this Colony, which it has been
thought expedient to frame, in no respect meets from me a more
cheerful concurrence than in that provision which repeals the power
heretofore held by the Executive Branch of the Constitution and
precludes it from giving sanction to the importation of slaves, and I
cannot but anticipate with singular pleasure that such persons as may
be in that unhappy condition which sound policy and humanity unite to
condemn, added to their own protection from all undue severity by the
law of the land may henceforth look forward with certainty to the
emancipation of their offspring." (See _Ont. Arch. Rep._ for 1909, pp.
42-43.) I do not understand the allusion to "protection from undue
severity by the Law of the land." There had been no change in the law,
and undue severity to slaves was prevented only by public opinion. It
is practically certain that no such bill as that of 1798 would have
been promoted with Simcoe at the head of the government as his
sentiments were too well known.
[20] _Ont. Arch. Rep._ for 1909, pp. 64, 69, 70, 71, 74; _ibid._ for
1910, pp. 67, 68, 69, 70.
The bill was introduced in the Lower House by Christopher Robinson,
member for Addington and Ontario, Ontario being then comprised of the
St. Lawrence and Lake Ontario Islands, and having nothing in common
with the present County of Ontario. He was a Virginian loyalist, who
in 1784 emigrated to New Brunswick, and in 1788 to that part of Canada
later Lower Canada and in 1792 to Upper Canada. He lived in Kingston
till 1798 and then came to York, later Toronto, but died three weeks
afterwards. He was one of the lawyers who took part in the
inauguration of the Law Society of Upper Canada at Wilson's Tavern,
Newark, in July, 1797, and was an active and successful practitioner.
His ability was great, but his fame is swallowed up by that of his
more famous son, Sir John Beverley Robinson, the first Canadian Chief
Justice of Upper Canada, and of his grandson, the much loved and much
admired Christopher Robinson, Q.C., of our own time. Accustomed from
infancy to slavery, he saw no great harm in it--no doubt he saw it in
its best form.
The chief opponent of the bill was Robert Isaac Dey Gray, the young
solicitor general. John White was not in this the second house. The
son of Major James Gray, a half-pay British Officer, he studied law in
Canada. He was elected member of the House of Assembly for Stormont in
the election of 1796 and again in 1804. He was appointed the first
Solicitor General in 1797 and was drowned in 1804 in the _Speedy_
disaster. An Indian, Ogetonicut, accused of a murder in the Newcastle
District, was captured on the York Peninsula, now Toronto or Hiawatha
Island, in the Home District, and had to be sent to Newcastle, now
Presqu' Isle Point near Brighton, in the Newcastle District, for
trial. The Government Schooner _Speedy_ sailed for Newcastle with the
Assize Judge Gray; Macdonell, who was to defend the Indian; the Indian
prisoner, Indian interpreters, witnesses, the High Constable of York
and certain inhabitants of York. It was lost, captain, crew and
passengers--_spurlos versenkt_.
The motion for the three months' hoist in the Upper House was made by
the Honorable Richard Cartwright seconded by the Honorable Robert
Hamilton. These men, who had been partners, generally agreed on public
measures and both incurred the enmity of Simcoe. He called Hamilton a
Republican, then a term of reproach distinctly worse than Pro-German
would be now, and Cartwright was, if anything, worse. But both were
men of considerable public spirit and personal integrity. For
Cartwright see _The Life and Letters of Hon Richard Cartright_,
Toronto, 1876. For Hamilton see Riddell's edition of La
Rochefoucault's _Travels in Canada in 1795_, Toronto, 1817, in _Ont.
Arch. Rep._ for 1916; Miss Carnochan's _Queenstown in Early Years,
Niagara Hist. Soc. Pub._, No. 25; _Buffalo Hist. Soc. Pub._, Vol. 6,
pp. 73-95.
There was apparently no division in the Upper House although there
were five other Councillors in addition to Cartwright and Hamilton in
attendance that session viz.: McGill, Shaw, Duncan, Baby and Grant;
and the bill passed committee of the whole.
[21] Slaves were valuable even in those days. A sale is recorded in
Detroit of a "certain Negro man Pompey by name" for £45 New York
Currency ($112.50) in October, 1794; and the purchaser sold him again
January, 1795, for £50 New York Currency ($125.00). (_Mich. Hist.
Coll._, XIV, p. 417.) But it would seem that from 1770 to 1780 the
price ranged to $300 for a man and $250 for a woman (_Mich. Hist.
Coll._, XIV, p. 659). The number of slaves in Detroit is said to have
been 85 in 1773 and 179 in 1782 (_Mich. Hist. Coll._, VII, p. 524).
The best people in the province continued to hold slaves. On February
19, 1806, the Honourable Peter Russell, who had been administrator of
the government, and therefore head of the State for three years,
advertised for sale at York "A Black woman named Peggy, aged 40 years,
and a Black Boy, her son, named Jupiter, aged about 15 years," both
"his property," "each being servants for life"--the woman for $150 and
the boy for $200, 25 per cent off for cash. William Jarvis, the
secretary, two years later, March 1, 1811, had two of his slaves
brought into court for stealing gold and silver out of his desk. The
boy "Henry commonly called prince" was committed for trial and the
girl ordered back to her master. Other instances will be found in Dr.
Scadding's very interesting work, _Toronto of Old_, Toronto, 1873, at
pp. 292 sqq.
[22] A number of interesting wills are in the Court of Probate files
at Osgoode Hall, Toronto. One of them only I shall mention, viz.: that
of Robert I.D. Gray, the first solicitor general of the province,
whose tragic death is related above. In this will, dated August 27,
1803, a little more than a year before his death, he releases and
manumits "Dorinda my black woman servant ... and all her children from
the State of Slavery," in consequence of her long and faithful
services to his family. He directs a fund to be formed of £1,200 or
$4,800 the interest to be paid to "the said Dorinda her heirs and
Assigns for ever." To John Davis, Dorinda's son, he gave 200 acres of
land, Lot 17 in the Second Concession of the Township of Whitby and
also £50 or $200. John, after the death of his master whose body
servant and valet he was, entered the employ of Mr., afterwards Chief,
Justice Powell; but he had the evil habit of drinking too much and
when he was drunk he would enlist in the Army. Powell got tired of
begging him off and after a final warning left him with the regiment
in which he had once more enlisted. Davis is said to have been in the
battle of Waterloo. He certainly crossed the ocean and returned later
on to Canada. He survived till 1871, living at Cornwall, Ontario, a
well-known character. With him died the last of all those who had been
slaves in the old Province of Quebec or the Province of Upper Canada.
[23] _Mich. Hist. Coll._, XIV, p. 659.
[24] A fairly good account of the Underground Railroad will be found
in William Still's _Underground Railroad_, Philadelphia, 1872, in W.M.
Mitchell's _Underground Railway_, London, 1860; in W.H. Siebert's
_Underground Railway_, New York, 1899; and in a number of other works
on Slavery. Considerable space is given the subject in most works on
slavery.
One branch of it ran from a point on the Ohio River, through Ohio and
Michigan to Detroit; but there were many divagations, many termini,
many stations: Oberlin was one of these. See Dr. A. M. Ross' _Memoirs
of a Reformer_, Toronto, 1893, and _Mich. Hist. Coll._, XVII, p. 248.
[25] The Buxton Mission in the County of Kent is well known. The
Wilberforce Colony in the County of Middlesex was founded by free
Negroes; but they had in mind to furnish homes for future refugees.
See Mr. Fred Landon's account of this settlement in the recent (1918)
_Transactions of the London and Middlesex Hist. Soc._, pp. 30-44. For
an earlier account see A. Steward's _Twenty Years a Slave_, Rochester,
N. Y., 1857.
[26] Ross in his _Memoirs_ gives, on page 111, 40,000, but he may be
speaking for all Canada. The number is rather high for Upper Canada
alone.
[27] "The Kingdom of heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it
by force." There can be no doubt that the Southern Negro looked upon
Canada as a paradise. I have heard a colored clergyman of high
standing say that of his own personal knowledge, dying slaves in the
South not infrequently expressed a hope to meet their friends in
Canada.
[28] These being merely traditional and not supported by contemporary
documents are more or less mythical and I do not attempt to collect
the various and varying stories.
There are several stories more or less well authenticated of masters
bringing slaves into Canada with the intention of taking them back
again as Charles Stewart intended with his slave James Somerset and
the slaves successfully asserting their freedom, resisting removal
with the assistance of Canadians. Of one of the most shocking cases of
wrong, if not quite kidnapping, a citizen of Toronto was the subject.
John Mink, a respectable man with some Negro blood, had a livery
stable on King Street, Toronto. He was also the proprietor of
stage-coach lines and a man of considerable wealth. He had an only
daughter of great personal beauty, and showing little trace of Negro
origin. It was understood that she would marry no one but a white man,
and that the father was willing to give her a handsome dowry on such a
marriage. A person of pure Caucasian stock from the Southern States
came to Toronto, wooed and won her. They were married and the husband
took his bride to his home in the South. Not long afterwards the
father was horrified to learn that the plausible scoundrel had sold
his wife as a slave. He at once went South and after great exertion
and much expense, he succeeded in bringing back to his house the
unhappy woman, the victim of brutal treachery.
There have been told other stories of the same kind, equally
harrowing, and unfortunately not ending so well, but I have not been
able to verify them. The one mentioned here I owe to the late Sir
Charles Moss, Chief Justice of Ontario.
[29] The same rule obtained in Lower Canada; (1827) re Joseph Fisher,
1 Stuart's L. C. Rep. 245.
[30] This is the Act (1833), 3 Will IV, c. 7 (U. C.). This came
forward as cap. 96 in the Consolidated Statutes of Upper Canada 1859,
but was repealed by an Act of (United) Canada (1860), 23 Vic., c. 91
(Can.).
[31] To his people he seems to have been known as Hubbard Holmes; he
is always called a yellow man, whether mulatto, quadroon, octoroon or
other does not appear.
[32] The contemporary accounts of this transaction, _e. g._, in the
_Christian Guardian_ of Toronto, and the _Niagara Chronicle_, are not
wholly consistent. The main facts, however, are clear. Although there
was some doubt as to the time, the military guard were ordered to
fire. Miss Janet Carnochan has given a good account of this in _Slave
Rescue in Niagara, Sixty Years Ago, Niag. Hist. Soc._, Pub. No. 2. It
is said that "the Judge said he must go back," the fact being that the
direction was by the executive and not the courts. The _Reminiscences_
of Mrs. J. G. Currie, born at Niagara in 1829 and living there at the
time of the trouble, are printed in the _Niagara Hist. Soc._, Pub. No.
20. Mrs. Currie gives a brief account (p. 331) and says that one of
the party, one MacIntyre, had a bullet or bayonet wound in his cheek.
In Miss Carnochan's account, her informant, who was the daughter of a
slave who had escaped in 1802 and was herself born in Niagara in 1824,
says that "the sheriff went up and down slashing with his sword and
keeping the people back. Many of our people had sword cuts in their
necks. They were armed with all kinds of weapons, pitchforks, flails,
sticks, stones. One woman had a large stone in a stocking and many had
their aprons full of stones and threw them too." Mrs. Anna Jameson, in
her _Sketches in Canada_, ed. of 1852, London, on pp. 55-58, gives
another account. She rightly makes the extradition order the
governor's act, but errs in saying that "the law was too expressly and
distinctly laid down and his duty as Governor was clear and imperative
to give up the felon" as "by an international compact between the
United States and our province, all felons are mutually surrendered."
There was nothing in the common law, or in the statute of 1833 which
made it the duty of the governor to order extradition, and there was
no binding compact between the United States and Upper Canada such as
Mrs. Jameson speaks of. No doubt the reason given by her for the order
was that in vogue among the official set with whom she associated, her
husband being vice-chancellor and head (treasurer) of the Law Society.
The _Christian Guardian_, _Niagara Reporter_ and _Niagara Chronicle_
and _St. Catharines Journal_ of September, October and November, 1837,
contain accounts of and comments upon the occurrences, and sometimes
attacks upon each other.
Deputy Sheriff Alexander McLeod was a man of some note if not
notoriety. During the rebellion of 1837 and 1838 he was in the Militia
of Upper Canada. He took a creditable part in the defence of Toronto
against the followers of Mackenzie in December, 1837, and was
afterwards stationed on the Niagara frontier. There he claimed to have
taken part in the cutting out of the Steamer _Caroline_ in which
exploit a Buffalo citizen, Amos Durfee, was killed. McLeod, visiting
Lewiston in New York State, in November, 1840, was arrested on the
charge of murder and committed for trial. This arrest was the cause of
a great deal of communication and discussion between the governments
of the United States and of Great Britain, the latter claiming that
what had been done by the Canadian militia was a proper public act and
they demanded the surrender of McLeod. This was refused. McLeod was
tried for murder at Utica, October, 1841, and acquitted, it being
conclusively proved that he was not in the expedition at all.
[33] Concluded at Washington, August 9, 1842, ratification exchanged
at London, October 13, 1842, proclaimed November 10, 1842; this treaty
put an end to many troublesome questions, amongst them the Maine
boundary which it was found impracticable to settle by Joint
Commissions or by reference to a European crowned head, William, King
of the Netherlands. It will be found in all the collections of
treaties of Great Britain or the United States, and in most of the
treaties on extradition, amongst them the useful work by John G.
Hawley, Chicago, 1893 (see pp. 119 sqq.).
[34] It was held in this province that the Act of 1883 was superseded
by the Ashburton Treaty in respect to the United States, but that it
remained in force with respect to other countries (Reg. _v._ Tubber,
1854, 1, P. R., 98). Since the treaty, our government has refused to
extradite where the offense charged is not included in the treaty. In
re Laverne Beebe (1863), 3, P. R., 273--a case of burglary.
The provisions of the treaty were brought into full effect in Canada
(Upper and Lower) by the Canadian Statute of 1849, 12, Vic., c. 19, C.
S. C. (1859), c. 89.
[35] Chief Justice Sir John Beverley Robinson, Mr. Justice McLean
(afterwards Chief Justice of Upper Canada) and Mr. Justice Burns.
[36] The seat of the Superior Courts in Toronto, the Palais de Justice
of the Province.
[37] Mr. Samuel B. Freeman, Q.C., of Hamilton, a man of much natural
eloquence, considerable knowledge of law and more of human nature; he
was always ready and willing to take up the cause of one unjustly
accused and was singularly successful in his defences.
I have heard it said that it was Mr. M. C. Cameron, Q.C., who so
addressed the gathering, but he does not seem to have been concerned
in the case in the Queen's Bench.
[38] The case is reported in (1860), 20 Up. Can., Q. B., pp. 124-193.
The warrant is given at pp. 192, 193.
[39] The case is reported in (1861), 3, Ellis & Ellis Reports, Queen's
Bench, p. 487; 30, _Law Jour._, Q. B., p. 129; 7, _Jurist_, N. S., p.
122; 3, _Law Times_, N. S., p. 622; 9, _Weekly Rep._, p. 255.
It was owing to this decision that the statute was passed at
Westminster (1862) 25, 26, Vic., c. 20, which by sec. 1 forbids the
courts in England to issue a writ of habeas corpus into any British
possession which has a court with the power to issue such writ. The
court was Lord Chief Justice Cockburn, and Justices Crompton, Hill and
Blackburn, a very strong court. The Counsel for Anderson was the
celebrated but ill-fated Edwin James. The writ was specially directed
to the sheriff at Toronto, the sheriff at Brantford and the
jail-keeper at Brantford. Judgment was given January 15, 1861.
[40] Common law, of course, not chancery.
[41] The court was composed of Chief Justice William Henry Draper,
C.B., Mr. Justice Richards, afterwards Chief Justice successively of
the Court of Common Pleas, of the Court of Queen's Bench, and, as Sir
William Buell Richards, of the Supreme Court of Canada, and Mr.
Justice Hagarty, afterwards Chief Justice successively of the Court of
Common Pleas, of the Court of King's Bench, and, as Sir John Hawkins
Hagarty, of Ontario.
Mr. Freeman was assisted in this argument by Mr. M. C. Cameron, a
lawyer of the highest standing professionally and otherwise,
afterwards Justice of the Court of Queen's Bench, and afterwards, as
Sir Matthew Cameron, Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas.
Counsel for the crown on both arguments were Mr. Eccles, Q.C., a man
of deservedly high reputation, and Robert Alexander Harrison,
afterwards Chief Justice of the Court of Queen's Bench, an exceedingly
learned and accurate lawyer.
The case in the Court of Common Pleas is reported in Vol. 11, Upper
Can., C. P., pp. 1 sqq.
DOCUMENTS
NOTES ON SLAVERY IN CANADA[1]
The following Notes received from the Canadian Archives Department,
Ottawa, have more or less bearing upon the question of slavery in
Upper Canada:
1. General James Murray, the first Governor of the new Government of
Quebec, writing to John Watts, of New York, from Quebec, November 2,
1763, and speaking of the promoting of the improvement of agriculture,
says:
"I must most earnestly entreat your assistance, without servants
nothing can be done, had I the inclination to employ soldiers
which is not the case, they would disappoint me, and Canadians
will work for nobody but themselves. Black Slaves are certainly
the only people to be depended upon, but it is necessary, I
imagine they should be born in one or other of our Northern
Colonies, the Winters here will not agree with a Native of the
torrid zone, pray therefore if possible procure for me two Stout
Young fellows, who have been accustomed to Country Business, and
as I shall wish to see them happy, I am of opinion there is
little felicity without a Communication with the Ladys, you may
buy for each a clean young wife, who can wash and do the female
offices about a farm, I shall begrudge no price, so hope we may,
by your goodness succeed," (_Can. Arch._, Murray Papers, Vol. II,
p. 15.)
2. D. M. Erskine, writing from New York, May 26, 1807, to Francis
Gore, Lt. Governor of Upper Canada, says:
"I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of
the 24th ult enclosing a Memorial presented to you by the
Proprietors of Slaves in the Western District of the Province of
Upper Canada.
"I regret equally with yourself the Inconvenience which His
Majesty's subjects in Upper Canada experience from the Desertions
of their slaves into the Territory of the United States, and of
Persons bound to them for a term of years, as also of His
Majesty's soldiers and sailors; but I fear no Representation to
the Government of the United States will at the present avail in
checking the evils complained of, as I have frequently of late
had occasion to apply to them for the Surrender of various
Deserters under different circumstances, and always without
success--
"The answer that has been usually given, has been. 'That the
Treaty between Great Britain & the United States which _alone_
gave them the Power to surrender Deserters having expired, it was
impossible for them to exercise such an authority without the
Sanction of the Laws--'
"I will however forward to His Majesty's Minister for Foreign
Affairs, the Memorial above mentioned in the Hope that some
arrangements may be entered into to obviate in future the great
Losses which are therein described." (_Can. Arch._, Sundries,
Upper Canada, 1807.)
3. John Beverley Robinson, Attorney General, Upper Canada, giving an
opinion to the Lt. Governor, York, July 8, 1819, says the following:
"May it please Your Excellency
"In obedience to Your Excellency's commands I have perused the
accompanying letter from C. C. Antrobus Esquire, His Majesty's
Chargé d'affaires at the Court of Washington and have attentively
considered the question referred to me by Your Excellency
therein--namely--'Whether the owners of several Negro slaves from
the United States of America and are now resident in this
Province' and I beg to express most respectfully my opinion to
Your Excellency that the Legislature of this Province having
adopted the Law of England as the rule of decision in all
questions relative to property and civil rights, and freedom of
the person being the most important civil right protected by
those laws, it follows that whatever may have been the condition
of these Negroes in the Country to which they formerly belonged,
here they are free--For the enjoyment of all civil rights
consequent to a mere residence in the country and among them the
right to personal freedom as acknowledged and protected by the
Laws of England in Cases similar to that under consideration,
must notwithstanding any legislative enactment that may be
thought to affect it, with which I am acquainted, be extended to
these Negroes as well as to all others under His Majesty's
Government in this Province--
"The consequence is that should any attempt be made by any person
to infringe upon this right in the persons of these Negroes, they
would most probably call for, and could compel the interference
of those to whom the administration of our Laws is committed and
I submit with the greatest deference to Your Excellency that it
would not be in the power of the Executive Government in any
manner to restrain or direct the Courts or Judges in the exercise
of their duty upon such an application." (_Can. Arch._, Sundries,
Upper Canada, 1819.)
4. At a meeting of the Executive Council of the Province of Lower
Canada held at the Council Chamber in the Castle of St. Lewis, on
Thursday, June 18, 1829, under Sir James Kempt, the Administrator of
the Government, the following proceedings were had:
"Report of a Committee of the whole Council Present The Honble.
the Chief Justice in the Chair, Mr. Smith, Mr. DeLery, Mr.
Stewart, and Mr. Cochran on Your Excellency's Reference of a
Letter from the American Secretary of State requesting that Paul
Vallard accused of having stolen a Mulatto Slave from the State
of Illinois may be delivered up to the Government of the United
States of America together with the Slave.
"May it please Your Excellency
"The Committee have proceeded to the consideration of the subject
matter of this reference with every wish and disposition to aid
the Officers of the Government of the United States of America in
the execution of the Laws of that Dominion and they regret
therefore the more that the present application cannot in their
opinion be acceded to.
"In the former Cases the Committee have acted upon the Principle
which now seems to be generally understood that whenever a Crime
has been committed and the Perpetrator is punishable according to
the Lex Loci of the Country in which it is committed, the country
in which he is found may rightfully aid the Police of the Country
against which the Crime was committed in bringing the Criminal
to Justice--and upon this ground have recommended that Fugitives
from the United States should be delivered up.
"But the Committee conceive that the _Crimes_ for which they are
authorized to recommend the arrest of Individuals who have fled
from other Countries must be such as are _mala in se_, and are
universally admitted to be _Crimes_ in every Nation, and that the
offence of the _Individual_ whose person is demanded must be such
as to render him liable to arrest by the Law of Canada as well as
by the Law of the United States.
"The state of slavery is not recognized by the Law of Canada nor
does the Law admit that any Man can be the proprietor of another.
"Every Slave therefore who comes into the Province is immediately
free whether he has been brought in by violence or has entered it
of his own accord; and his liberty cannot from thenceforth be
lawfully infringed without some Cause for which the Law of Canada
has directed an arrest.
"On the other hand, the Individual from whom he has been taken
cannot pretend that the Slave has been stolen from him in as much
as the Law of Canada does not admit a Slave to be a subject of
property.
"All of which is respectfully submitted to Your Excellency's,
Wisdom." (_Can. Arch._, State K, p. 406.)
5. At a meeting of the Executive Council for Upper Canada, held at
York, on Thursday, September 12, 1833, under Sir John Colborne,
Lieutenant Governor, the following proceedings were had:
"Received a Letter from the Governor of the State of Michigan
dated Detroit August 12th 1833 with a new requisition for the
delivery up of Thornton Blackburn and other fugitives from
Justice which was read in Council on 27th August 1833 with the
following opinion of the Attorney General, as referred to him
13th July 1833.
"'ATTORNEY GENERAL'S OFFICE
"'12th July 1833
"'_Sir_
"'I have the Honour to return the various papers relating to the
subject of the requisition from the acting Governor of Michigan
demanding that Thornton Blackburn and others who are stated to
have fled from the justice of that country and taken refuge
within this Province and now in custody at Sandwich should be
given up, upon which His Excellency required my opinion whether
the Law of this Province authorized him in complying with such
demand or not. Had His Excellency been confined to the official
requisition and the deposition that accompanied it he might I
think have been warranted in delivering up those persons inasmuch
as there is thereupon evidence on which according to the terms of
our act (3 Wm 4th, C. 8) a magistrate would have been "warranted
in apprehending and committing for trial" persons so charged who
is convicted of the offence alleged viz: riot and forcible rescue
and assault and battery would, if convicted, have been subject
according to the Laws of this Province to one of the several
punishments enumerated in the act as applicable to felonies and
misdemeanors.
"'That the Governor and Council are not confined to such evidence
is clear since though limited in their authority to enforce the
provisions of the act against fugitives from foreign States by
the condition above mentioned viz: being satisfied that the
evidence would warrant commitment for trial etc. yet in coming to
that conclusion they are I think bound to hear no ex parte
evidence alone but matter explanatory to guide their judgment;
for even tho' satisfied with their authority so to do, they are
not required "to deliver up any person so charged if for any
reason they shall deem it inexpedient so to do.'
"In the present case I think the evidence on oath as to facts not
alluded to in the official Communication and as to the law of the
United States upon the subject becomes extremely important; I
mean that of Mr Cleland and Mr Alexander Fraser the Attorney for
the City of Detroit. The case appears to be this--Two coloured
persons named Thornton a man and his wife were claimed as slaves
on behalf of some person in the State of Kentucky; that they were
arrested and examined before a magistrate in Detroit and he in
accordance with the law of the United States made his certificate
and directed them to be delivered over as the personal property
of the claimant in Kentucky; that the Sheriff took them into
custody in consequence and that when one of them, (the man) was
on the point of being removed from prison in order to be restored
to his owner he was with circumstances of considerable violence
rescued and escaped to this Province. There appears to be an
error in the deposition accompanying the requisition, the wife
of Thornton is there charged with being one of the persons
assisting in the riot and rescue, whereas it appears that
previous to the day of her husband's rescue she had eluded the
Gaoler in disguise and she was then within this Province; she
therefore does not appear to come within the class of offenders
which the Act contemplates--viz: 'Malefactors who having
committed crimes in foreign Countries have sought an asylum in
this Province.'
"With regard to Thornton himself, the Attorney of Detroit who has
favoured His Excellency with a certified Copy of the Law of the
United States upon the subject, declares,--that the commitment to
the custody of the Sheriff was illegal--and this is urged
strongly as an equitable consideration against His Excellency's
interference that the Sheriff detained Thornton in custody not as
Sheriff but as agent for the Slave owner and that the law does
not authorize _commitments_ under such circumstances to the
Sheriff, but merely that 'the owner, agent, or attorney may seize
and arrest the fugitive (slave) and take him before the Judge
etc: who upon proof that the person seized owes service to the
claimant &c shall give a certificate thereof to such claimant,
his agent or Attorney which shall be sufficient Warrant for
removing the said fugitive from labour &c.'
"To this argument as to the illegality of the custody I do not
attach much weight, for admitting that Thornton was not committed
to the custody of Mr. Wilson as Sheriff of Wayne County, still as
we may presume that the Judge's Certificate was properly given,
he might not be the less legally in the custody of Mr Wilson _as
agent to the claimant_ in Kentucky; for the next section of the
act of congress enacts that anyone who '_shall rescue such
fugitive from such claimant or his agent &c shall forfeit and pay
the sum of five hundred dollars &c._' That the custody was legal
according to the law of the United States I have little doubt;
the legality there is officially recognized by the requisition
and it is not a subject for His Excellency's enquiry. Upon this
view of the case and considering that His Excellency in Council
can only restore fugitives charged upon evidence of crimes which
if proved to have been committed in this Province would subject
the offender to 'Death, Corporal punishment by Pillory or
whipping or by confinement at hard labour' and considering this
as a Penal Act which must not be strained beyond the literal
import towards those against whom it is intended to operate; the
result is that our law recognizes no such custody as that of an
agent acting under a warrant for removing a fugitive slave to the
Territory from which he fled, this is an offence which could not
be committed within this Province in any case and therefore that
His Excellency in Council is not by the Act of this Province
either required or authorized to deliver up the persons demanded.
"I have the Honor to be, Sir, &c.,
"(Signed) ROBERT S. JAMESON, _Attorney General_."
"The Council having again had before them the requisition of the
Governor of the State of Michigan relative to the escape of
certain offenders into this Province deem it mainly important to
their full consideration of the question that besides his opinion
upon the propriety of giving up the persons alluded to the
Attorney General should be requested explicitly to state whether
if a similar outrage had been committed in this Province the
offender or offenders would be liable to undergo any of the
punishments in the act passed last Session.
"(Signed) JOHN STRACHAN, P.C."
(_Can. Arch._, State J, p. 137.)
6. At an Executive Council for Upper Canada held at York, Tuesday,
September 17, 1833, under the presidency of the Rev. Dr. Strachan, the
following proceedings were had:
"The Council assembled agreeably to the desire of His Excellency
the Lieutenant Governor to take into consideration the
requisition of his Excellency the Governor of Michigan.
"Read the following letter.
"'ATTORNEY GENERAL'S OFFICE
"'14th September, 1833
"_'Sir_
"'To the question which the Executive Council have done me the
honor to submit to me in relation to the requisition from the
Governor of Michigan dated 12th August, 1833, whether if a
similar outrage had been committed in this Province the offender
would be liable to undergo any of the punishments stated in the
Act (3 Wm 4, Cap 7) passed at the last Session I have the honor
to answer that a forcible rescue from the custody of the Sheriff
of this Province attended with the aggravated circumstances
detailed in the affidavit of John M. Wilson and Alexander
McArthur accompanying the requisition would undoubtedly subject
the offender and those actively aiding and abetting him to the
gravest punishment in the act, death alone excepted.
"'I have the honor to be, Sir, &c.,
"'(Signed) ROBERT S JAMESON,
"'_Attorney General_.
"'To John Beikie, Esquire,
"'Clerk, Executive Council,'"
"'The Council took the same into consideration and were pleased
to make the following minute thereon.
"'The Council having had under consideration the requisition of
His Excellency the Governor of Michigan together with the various
papers relative thereto beg leave respectfully to state that as
the question involves matters of great importance in our
relations with a neighbouring state it would be satisfactory to
them if the opinion of the Judges were obtained for their
information,'" (_Can. Arch._, State J. p. 148.)
7. At an Executive Council for Upper Canada held at York, September
27, 1833, under the presidency of Peter Robinson, the following
proceedings were had:
"Resumed the consideration of His Excellency G.B. Porter,
Esquire, Governor of Michigan's Letter of the 12th Ultimo which
was read in Council on the 27th and again on the 12th and 17th
Instant.
"Read also the Attorney General's opinion of the 20th Instant and
the Judges' Report of this date as follows:
"'ATTORNEY GENERAL'S OFFICE
"'20th September, 1833
"'_Sir_
"'To the question which the Executive Council have done me the
Honor to submit to me in relation to the requisition from the
Governor of Michigan dated 12th August, 1833, whether if a
similar outrage had been committed in this Province, the offender
or offenders would be liable to undergo any of the punishments
stated in the Act (3 Wm. 4 c. 7) passed last Session: my opinion
is that a forcible rescue from the custody of the sheriff in this
Province attended with the aggravated circumstances detailed in
the Affidavits of John M. Wilson and Alexander MacArthur though
by the law of England it would subject the offender and those
actively aiding and abetting him to severe corporal punishment,
by the law of the Province as it now stands could not be visited
by a graver punishment than fine and imprisonment which is not
one of those enumerated in the act.
"'I have the Honor to be, Sir, &c.,
"'(Signed) ROBERT S. JAMESON,
"'_Attorney General._
"'To
"'John Beikie, Esq.,
"'Clerk, Executive Council.'
"'JUDGES' REPORT.
"'York, 27th September, 1833.
"'May it please Your Excellency
"'We have the Honor to report to Your Excellency that we have
deliberated upon the reference made to us by Your Excellency's
Command on the 17th September Instant in respect to an
application addressed to Your Excellency by the Government of the
Territory of Michigan requesting that certain persons now
inhabiting this Province may be apprehended and sent to that
country to answer to a charge preferred against them for
assaulting and beating the Sheriff of the County of Wayne and
rescuing a prisoner from his custody. We observe that the recent
act of the Legislature of this Province intituled "An Act to
provide for the apprehending of fugitive offenders from foreign
countries and delivering them up to Justice" (a copy of which we
annex to this report) gives a discretion to the Governor and
Council in carrying into effect its provisions declaring in
express terms that it shall not be incumbent upon them to deliver
up any person charged if for any reason they shall deem is
inexpedient so to do." We take it for granted however
notwithstanding the general terms in which the reference is made
to us, that we are not expected to express our opinion upon what
would or would not be a proper exercise of this discretion. It
does not, indeed, occur to us than any question of political
expediency is presented by the case and if any were, we should
abstain from offering an opinion upon it.
"'It is to the legal considerations connected with the case that
we have confined ourselves; and in this view of it we beg
respectfully to state that these prisoners having been once
already apprehended and in custody in this Province upon this
same charge and liberated by the decision of the Governor and
Council after a consideration of the case upon an application
made by the Government of Michigan, we should not think fit that
the Governor and Council should authorize a second apprehension
of the parties and exercise a second time the power and
discretion given by the Act--This course we think could not be
approved of unless, in the case of some atrocious offender, new
and strong evidence should be discovered which it was not in the
power of the foreign Government to produce upon a previous
application and for the want of which the prisoners were upon
such first application discharged, or perhaps in a case where
some official or legal formality had by mere accident been
overlooked on the first occasion.
"'Independently of the consideration that this case has been
already acted upon by the Government, the documents before us
place it in this light: the prisoners with the exception of
Blackburn and his wife are charged with assaulting and beating
the sheriff of Wayne and rescuing a prisoner from his custody,
Blackburn being the prisoner alluded to is charged with joining
in the riot and battery of the Sheriff and with unlawfully
rescuing himself--The wife of Blackburn we cannot find to be
sufficiently charged with any offence known to our laws which do
not acknowledge a state of slavery; for the imputation of
conspiring with the rioters and contriving the rescue is
supported by no evidence and seems to rest on conjecture--The
prisoner Blackburn it appears from the Documents before us was
not committed for felony nor for any crime nor imprisoned for any
cause which by our laws could be recognized as a justification of
imprisonment. We mention this not from any doubt that the
prisoner was in legal custody according to the laws of Michigan
but because the rescue of a prisoner constitutes by our law a
greater or less offence according to the degree of the crime for
which he was committed and this prisoner being committed for no
crime and certainly not for any felony his rescue would according
to our law be a misdemeanor only and a misdemeanor of that kind
that the persons convicted of it would be punished by fine and
imprisonment or either of them and not by any other description
of punishment--The Statute referred to provides in explicit
terms that the persons subject to be delivered up under it to the
justice of a foreign country are those only who shall be charged
"with murder, forgery, larceny or other crime committed without
the jurisdiction of this Province which crimes if committed
within this Province would _by the laws thereof_ be punishable by
_death corporal punishment_ by _pillory_ or _whipping_ or by
confinement at _hard labour_." We are not aware whether the laws
of the Territory of Michigan do or do not authorize the giving up
of offenders charged with crimes not embraced in the above very
comprehensive description; but however that may be, it is evident
that the conduct of this and of other Governments in respect to
the delivery up of offenders can be no further reciprocal towards
each other than the laws of each will allow. We express no
opinion except in reference to the statute recently passed here
for regulating this particular matter--We consider the
Legislature to have declared in that Statute their will in what
cases fugitives from foreign countries should be surrendered; and
we have therefore considered whether the persons in question as
they are not charged with murder forgery or larceny could upon
the facts before us be convicted of any other offence punishable
at hard labour--We apprehend they could not be but that the
offence of which they might be convicted would be punishable by
fine and imprisonment merely without adding "hard labour" to the
sentence. Riot, a Battery of the Sheriff in the execution of his
duty, and the rescue of a person legally in his custody but not
charged with felony or other crime are the offences with which
upon the statements before us they are liable to be charged:--and
all these are offences which in the known and ordinary
administration of the law in this Province would be punished in
no other manner than by fine and mere imprisonment. Instances we
doubt not may be brought from distant times, in which one or
other of the above offences has been punished in England by
Pillory or whipping or by other unusual or disgraceful
punishments and we do not say that these cases altho' they may be
old are so decidedly void of all authority that a judgment which
should now be passed in conformity to them would certainly be
held to be erroneous and bad. But we conceive that in England
such punishments have long ceased to be assigned to the offences
in question; that in this Province they have never been assigned
to them and that recent Statutes which have been passed in
England tend strongly to show that Parliament did not regard them
as punishments which in later times could be properly attached
to such offences without express Legislative sanction. We observe
that there is evidence of one of the persons charged having
pointed a loaded pistol at the Sheriff. If it had been further
stated that he had pulled the trigger or otherwise attempted to
discharge the pistol the act would have been one which in England
is felony, having been first made so by Lord Ellenborough's Act
passed in 1803; but that Act does not extend to this Province and
was never adopted or in force here and if it were otherwise,
still this case upon the facts stated is not within it. Looking
upon the act of pointing or presenting the pistol as one for
which all the rioters were equally responsible it forms an
aggravation of their riot and assault but it does not change the
legal character of their crime it would probably lead to a higher
fine or a longer imprisonment but not to a punishment of another
kind. The riot as it is described was an outrageous one and the
battery of the sheriff appears to have been violent and
cruel--the direct object and intent however seems to have been
the rescue of the Prisoner rather than to take the life of the
sheriff; and even supposing the facts would well support a
conviction for an assault on the Sheriff with an intent _to
murder him_ still by our law such intent would be merely an
aggravation of the riot and assault; it would not alter the
technical character of the crime or the description of punishment
however much it might enhance the fine or lead to increasing the
term of Imprisonment.
"'The conclusion therefore which we have come to is that these
parties are not charged with any of the offences enumerated in
the statute annexed and consequently that the Lieutenant Governor
and council are not authorized by its provisions to send them out
of the Province. It has not escaped our attention as a peculiar
feature in this case that two of the persons whom the Government
of this Province is requested to deliver up are persons
recognized by the Government of Michigan as slaves and that it
appears upon these documents that if they should be delivered up
they would by the laws of the United States be exposed to be
forced into a state of Slavery from which they had escaped two
years ago when they fled from Kentucky to Detroit; that if they
should be sent to Michigan and upon trial be convicted of the
Riot and punished they would after undergoing their punishment be
subject to be taken by their masters and continued in a state of
Slavery for life, and that on the other hand if they should never
be prosecuted or if they should be tried and acquitted this
consequence would equally follow. Among the Documents before us
we perceive there are papers which have been delivered to the
Government in behalf of the alleged rioters in which this
inevitable consequence is urged as a reason against their being
sent back to Michigan and in which it is intimated that to place
the slaves again within the power of their masters is the
principal object and that the Government of Michigan in making
application for them is rather influenced by the interest and
wishes of the slave owners than by any desire to bring the
parties to trial for the alleged riot. No consideration of this
kind has had any weight with us, for in the first place as
regards the insinuation against the motives of the Government of
Michigan if we had any thing to do with them we should consider
(as no doubt this Government would consider in any similar case)
that courtesy towards the Government of a foreign country
requires always to assume that it has no motive or design on
these occasions which is not just and fair and in short none but
such as is openly avowed. And in the next place as to the
consequence spoken of--If it would follow in course from the laws
of the United States it is not probable that the Executive
Government there would prevent the slave masters from asserting
their rights under those laws and it is therefore reasonable to
suppose that the consequence may really follow which the parties
concerned have represented. Still if in this case the black
people whose arrest is applied for had been shown to have fled
from a charge for any such offence as would clearly come within
our Statute, we do not conceive that we could on that account
have advised a course to be pursued in regard to them different
from that which should be pursued with respect to free white
persons under the same circumstances. When we say this we should
desire it to be understood that we are so clearly of opinion on
the other hand, that the withdrawing from a state of Slavery in a
foreign Country could not here be treated as an offence with
reference to our statute already alluded to so that any person
could be surrendered up under that statute upon such a ground
merely. We beg leave to express to Your Excellency our regret for
the delay that has occurred in answering the reference which Your
Excellency and the Honorable the Executive Council have thought
fit to make to us. Among other causes which have led to it was a
doubt at first entertained among us whether we could properly
give an opinion upon a matter which under possible circumstances
might give rise to a judicial proceeding in which the same
question would come before us or some one of us for decision. An
examination of this subject has removed this doubt and we now
submit our opinion to Your Excellency with such explanations as
seemed to us to be material.
"'We have the Honor to be
"'Your Excellency's Most obedient
"and humble Servants
"'(Signed) "'JOHN B. ROBINSON, C. J.
"'L. P. SHERWOOD--J.
"'J. B. MACAULEY--J.'"
"Upon which the council were pleased to make the following
Report.
"'_To His Excellency_, Sir John Colborne, K.C.B., Lieutenant
Governor of the Province of Upper Canada and Major General
Commanding His Majesty's Forces therein--&c----&c &c
"'May it please Your Excellency
"'The Council have had under consideration the papers relating to
the requisition of the acting Governor of Michigan, together with
evidence furnished by His Excellency the Governor of that
Territory accompanied by a further requisition for the delivery
of the fugitives--they have also had before them the opinions of
the three Judges and of the Attorney General with which they
concur and have been led to the conclusion that the fugitive
Slaves named in the requisitions are not charged with an offence
which would have rendered them liable to any of the punishments
enumerated in the Provincial Statute and consequently that the
Lieutenant Governor and Council are not authorized by its
provisions to send them out of the Province.'" (_Can. Arch._,
State J, p. 155.)
8. At an Executive Council for Upper Canada held at Toronto, Saturday,
September 9, 1837, under the presidency of the Honourable William
Allen, the following proceedings were had:
"Read the Attorney General's Report of the 8th instant on
Documents for the surrender of Jesse Happy, a fugitive from
Justice in the United States charged with horse stealing--upon
which the Council made the following Report
"'The Council have taken into serious consideration the Documents
with the Reports of the Attorney General
"'A similar application referred for the Report of the Council on
the 7th Instant--In that case as in the present it was suggested
that the fugitive was a slave, and that the real object of the
application was not so much to bring him to trial for the alleged
Felony as to reduce him again to a state of Slavery--In that case
however it appeared that the Offence had been recently committed
viz: in May last--That an early occasion, probably the first, was
taken to have him indicted--that process for his apprehension
immediately issued and that shortly after the return of the
Sheriff to that process the requisition from His Excellency the
Governor of the State of Kentucky was obtained and promptly
brought to this Province. Under these circumstances the Council
were of opinion that in the exercise of a sound discretion they
were called upon to recommend to Your Excellency to comply with
the requisition--The facts appearing upon the Official Documents
in this case are widely different--The Alleged Offence purports
to have been committed more than four years ago. When the
Indictment was preferred is not shown (as it was in the former
case) but the earliest date which shows its existence is 1st June
1835 when the certificate of the Clerk of the Court is given. No
process seems to have been issued in the State of Kentucky nor is
any other step shown to have been taken until the middle of last
month. There also it is suggested that the fugitive is a slave
that the real object of his apprehension is to give him up to his
former owners and so to deprive him of that personal liberty
which the laws of this country secure him. If this be conceded in
the present instance after a lapse of four years, no argument
could be consistently urged against the delivery up (on the usual
application) of persons who have been still longer resident in
this Province.
"'The delivery of a Slave under these circumstances to the
authorities claiming him would it is clear subject him to a
double penalty, the one of punishment for a crime, the other of a
return to a state of Slavery, even if he should be acquitted. The
former in strict accordance with our Statute, the other in direct
opposition to the genius of our institutions and the spirit of
our Laws. For this cause the Council feel great difficulty in the
course which they would advise Your Excellency to adopt, were
there any law by which, after taking his trial and if convicted
undergoing his sentence he would be restored to a state of
freedom, the Council would not hesitate to advise his being given
up but there is no such provision in the Statute.
"'On the other hand the Council feel that it cannot be permitted
that because a man may happen to be a fugitive slave he should
escape those consequences of crime committed in a foreign country
to which a free man would be amenable. This would be equally
contrary to the Law and to the spirit of mutual justice which
gave origin to it, in this Province as well as in the United
States. Considering however the circumstances of this case and
also the difficulty that might arise from it as a precedent the
Council respectfully recommend that time should be given to the
accused to furnish affidavits of the facts set forth in the
Petition presented on his behalf in order to a full understanding
of the whole matter.
"'The Council would further respectfully submit to Your
Excellency the propriety of drawing the attention of Her
Majesty's Government to this question with a view of ascertaining
their views upon it as a matter of general policy.'" (_Can.
Arch._, State J, p. 597.)
FOOTNOTES:
[1] For these documents Mr. Justice Riddell is indebted to Mr. William
Smith of the Department of Archives, Ottawa, Canada.
ADDITIONAL LETTERS OF NEGRO MIGRANTS OF 1916-1918[1]
LETTERS STATING THAT WAGES RECEIVED ARE NOT SATISFACTORY
BROOKHAVEN, MISS., April 24, 1917.
_Gents:_ The cane growers of Louisiana have stopped the exodus
from New Orleans, claiming shortage of labor which will result in
a sugar famine.
Now these laborers thus employed receive only 85 cents a day and
the high cost of living makes it a serious question to live.
There is a great many race people around here who desires to come
north but have waited rather late to avoid car fare, which they
have not got. isnt there some way to get the concerns who wants
labor, to send passes here or elsewhere so they can come even if
they have to pay out of the first months wages? Please dont
publish this letter but do what you can towards helping them to
get away. If the R. R. Co. would run a low rate excursion they
could leave that way. Please ans.
JACKSONVILLE, FLA., April 4, 1917.
_Dear Sir:_ I have been taking defender for sevel months and I
have seen that there is lots good work in that section and I want
to say as you are the editor of that paper I wish that you would
let me know if there is any wheare up there that I can get in
with an intucion that I may get my wife and my silf from down
hear and can bring just as miney more as he want we are suffing
hear all the work is giveing to poor white peples and we can not
get anything to doe at all I will go to pennsylvania or n y state
or N J or Ill. or any wheare that I can surport my wife I am past
master of son of light in Mass. large Royal arch and is in good
standing all so the good Sancer large no. 18. I need helpe my
wife cant get any thing to due eather can I so please if you can
see any body up there that want hands let me no at once I can get
all they need and it will alow me to get my wife away from down
hear so please remember and ans. I will apreshate it.
Looking for ans at once. Please let me no some thing thease
crackers is birds in south
NASHVILLE, TENN., April 22, 1917.
_Sir:_ I am in Nashville and I have a job but is not satisfied
with the money that I am getting for my work and I ask of you to
please give me a good job working any place I am a expirence fire
man and all so some expirence in engineer and please answer soon
and let me know what you can find for me to do.
ALEXANDRIA, LA., June 6, 1917.
_Dear Sirs:_ I am writeing to you all asking a favor of you all.
I am a girl of seventeen. School has just closed I have been
going to school for nine months and I now feel like I aught to go
to work. And I would like very very well for you all to please
forward me to a good job. but there isnt a thing here for me to
do, the wages here is from a dollar and a half a week. What could
I earn Nothing. I have a mother and father my father do all he
can for me but it is so hard. A child with any respect about her
self or his self wouldnt like to see there mother and father work
so hard and earn nothing I feel it my duty to help. I would like
for you all to get me a good job and as I havent any money to
come on please send me a pass and I would work and pay every cent
of it back and get me a good quite place to stay. My father have
been getting the defender for three or four months but for the
last two weeks we have failed to get it. I dont know why. I am
tired of down hear in this ---- / I am afraid to say. Father seem
to care and then again dont seem to but Mother and I am tired
tired of all of this I wrote to you all because I believe you
will help I need your help hopeing to here from you all very
soon.
ATLANTA, GA., April 29, 1917.
SIR: I am a young man 25 years of age. I desire to get in some
place where I can earn more for my labor than I do now, which is
$1.25 per day. I do not master no trade but I have finished a
correspondence course with the practical auto school of New York
City and with a little experience I would make a competent
automobile man, but I do not ask for your assistance on this
line of business only. I am willing to do anything for better
wages.
P.S. I would like if you knows if there is an auto school any
where where colored men can go to and learn the automobile
industry to give me their address.
JACKSONVILLE, FLA., April 30, 1917.
_Kind sir:_ In reading the Chicago Defender I saw where laborers
are wanted and of course not knowing whether you would send
transportation this far or not I would like a good job in the
north where I can earn more for my labor and would like for you
to help me out if you would. I am now working at the Clyde Line
and they are cutting off help every day of course I dont know
about this moulding work but am very quick to learn any thing
most any kind of work for a laboring man, dont play on the job.
all I ask of you is a trial, willing and ready to go to work any
time I hear from you. Please ans soon. willing to Detroit
Michigan or any part of the north.
_Sirs:_ I am writing to find out if there is any way that you
could find me a job. I would be very glad for you to do so and I
will see that you wont loose nothing if I can get the job. work
no good here for a black man. And I want to leave this place. But
I cannot make the money to leave on and I hope you will do all
you can in the way of helping me to secure a job and I hope you
will let me here from you in short.
WILMINGTON, N. C., May 4, 1917.
_Dear Sir:_ Wright a fiew words for work i ask to hand this
editor to read we are work mens wont to work but wages is so
little we cant get out we wont to leave the south and work. Pleas
wright let me know 10 mens able body men will stick to work we
well come.
DALLAS, TEX., April 30, 1917.
_Dear Sir:_ I read your advertisement in the Chicago Defender and
having been unable to find work here I want a chance of this kind
also a friend of mine, we are both willing to work. Tell me how
soon you can send and how many you are willing to send for.
AUGUSTA, GA., 5-28-17.
_Gentlemens:_ In reading the defender the paper of our race the
numerous wanted of labor in your state I would like make some of
the good pay for God knows we need it in Augusta. Gentlemens I
made very effort to come out in Illinois or some other place
where I can live deason. I have payed as much as too dollars &
that I cant get away from here, we can scarcely live in Augusta
not say anything about debt. I wish you gentlemens would asist me
in getting away from here not only my self but some friends or
send an agent threw here I mean agent not some so call agent--or
if you gentlemens see I get a transportation I am real in what I
am saying any kind that a living in. I am twenty years
exspierince in yellow pine lumber willing to do any thing else
that pays gentlemens answer at once. I like to come now to get
settled by winter.
PENSACOLA, FLA., April 23, 1917.
_Dear Sir:_ I saw your advice in the Chicago Defender I thought
to wright for farther in fennashion I would be glad to now how I
can get ther I am a laborn man want to get where work is
plentiful & good wedges i want to get in a Christian nise place i
have a good family and car for them I want to come up there to
see the place & then latter on send for family can u send for me
or describe me to some one who will send for me.
ST. LOUIS, April 28, 1917.
_Dear Gentlemens:_ I have been advise through the columns of the
Chicago Defender to get in connection with you as they claim that
you are in position to look after colored labor and help I am
anxious to get a study position in some small villiage or town
near Chicago. I am from Alabama and dont believe in loafing I am
now employed at a firm as porter, packer, asst. shipping clerk
but I cant live on the pay. I am to go to Detroit next Saturday
but if I can hear from you I would rother take your advise.
Please let me hear from you. I was intending to go by Chicago and
call on you but I thought it wise to write because here in St.
Louis they dont like to see a man idle.
_Dear sir:_ I am a reader of the Chicago Defender and enjoy it
very much. I saw in todays defender where labor was wanter
transportation advanced from Chicago. Now I have a good steady
position where I have been working for three years with the
American Sugar refinery but I would like to make a change I know
that I can better my condition where I work it 12 hours.
Therefore I would welcome the 8 hours with pleasure. Please send
me full information. I would like to get a transportation for my
self and son 16 years of age. I will enclose self address
envelope for a reply at once.
NEW ORLEANS, LA., 4/30/17.
_Sir:_ In reading the Chicago paper we find advertisement asking
for labor men. I am a man of family and would like very much to
come to this kind of job but having a wife and five children to
support couldnt very well leave on a railroad pass as I hate to
leave my family behind without support for at one dollar and
seventy five cents per day I couldnt do very much in a short
while. Now will you please inform me of this transportation that
is advertised. I am a colored man weighs about 160 pounds and
forty nine years old. Please write me full particulars at this
address.
COLLINS, MISS., April 7, 1917.
_Dear Sir:_ I saw where you needed labor and I am a hard working
man but I cant make above a living here and hardly that and so if
you can assist me your kindness will never be forgotten. I shall
look to hear from you by return mail.
GREENVILLE, S. C., April 29, 1917.
_Dear Sir:_ I would like for you to write me and tell me how is
time up there and jobs is to get. I would like for you to get me
a job and my wife. She is a no. 1 good cook, maid, nurse job I am
a fireing boiler, steame fitter and experiences mechencs helpe
and will do laboring work if you can not get me one off those
jobs above that i can do. I have work in a foundry as a molder
helper and has lots of experense at that. I am 27 yrs of age. If
you can get me job I would like for you to do so please and let
me no and will pay for trouble. looking to hear from you wright
away please if you new off any firm that needs a man give them my
address please I wont to get out of the south where I can demand
something for my work. I will close.
LUTCHER, LA., May 13, 1917.
_Dear Sir:_ I have been reading the Chicago defender and seeing
so many advertisements about the work in the north I thought to
write you concerning my condition. I am working hard in the south
and can hardly earn a living. I have a wife and one child and can
hardly feed them. I thought to write and ask you for some
information concerning how to get a pass for myself and family. I
dont want to leave my family behind as I cant hardly make a
living for them right here with them and I know they would fare
hard if I would leave them. If there are any agents in the south
there havent been any of them to Lutcher if they would come here
they would get at least fifty men. Please sir let me hear from
you as quick as possible. Now this is all. Please dont publish my
letter, I was out in town today talking to some of the men and
they say if they could get passes that 30 or 40 of them would
come. But they havent got the money and they dont know how to
come. But they are good strong and able working men. If you will
instruct me I will instruct the other men how to come as they all
want to work. Please dont publish this because we have to whisper
this around among our selves because the white folks are angry
now because the negroes are going north.
WINSTON, N. C., May 17, 1917.
_Dear Friend:_ a little information i am asking concerning work i
am a stranger to you and you is one to me but i saw your optunity
to the colorred people of the south as i am a reader of the
Defender and all so the new York age to i seen Sunday that you is
wanting labers i wants to come up there i am working eavery day
but wedges is cheap don her i am a firman and cannot make a
living hardly and am married man too. if you can secure me a job
and send me past for me and a nother friend he is married no
children i would like to lern how to do molding as the colorred
man is bared of from that kind of work in the south.
JACKSONVILLE, FLA., May 18, 1917.
_Sir:_ this is John ----. will you please get me a job as I have
had bad luck an it left me in pour shape I am a molder and
machinists but I will work as helpe a while jest I an wife sen
transpertation for two I an wife.
JACKSONVILLE, FLA., May 5, 1917.
_Dear Sir:_ Kindly inform me by return mail are there any
factories or concerns employing colored laborers, skilled or
unskilled, the south is ringing with news from Chicago telling of
the wonderful openings for colored people, and I am asking you to
find the correct information whether I could get employment there
or not. Please find postage enclosed for immediate reply.
CHARLESTON, S. C., April 29, 1917.
_Dear Sir:_ I saw your add in the Chicago Defender where you
wanted laborers and I taught that this would be a grand
oppotunity for me to better my present conditions so I taught I
would write you and ask you would you be kind enough as to give
me a job dear sir. I am a single man and would be willing to do
any kind of work, dear sir would you be kind enough as to forward
me a transportation and I would come write away so please do the
best you can for me. There is but little down here to be gotten
dear sir will you kindly grant me that favor. Hopeing to receive
a favorable answer.
GREENWOOD, S. C., May 8, 1917.
_Dear Friend:_ I saw in the Chicago Defender where you waned
labor. pleas send pass for as many men as you can are let me know
what I must do to get one by return mail because I wont to leave
the south and go north where you get a better chance. So please
answer at once.
SUMTER, S. C., May 12, 1917.
_Dear Sir:_ Could you get me a job in the ---- Tin Plate Factory
at ----, Pa. a job for (3) three also a pass from here for (3) I
am a comon laborer and the other are the same. If you could we
will be ever so much ablige and will comply with your
advertisement. If you cant get a job just where we wish to go we
will thank you for a good job any where in the state of Pa. or
Ohio. I am in my 50 the others are my sons just in the bloom of
life and I would wish that you could find a place where we can
make a living and I also wish that you could find a place where
we all three can be together. If you will send us a pass we will
come just as soon as I receive it. If you find a place that you
can send us please let us hear what the job will pay. Nothing
more. I am yours respectfully.
CARRIER, MISS., May, 1917.
Please sir will you please send me transportation for me and my
wife I am willing to work anywhere you put me at the rate I am
going it would take me from now until Cristmas to feed myself and
get money enough to come with. Wages is so low and grocery is so
high untill all I can do is to live. Please answer soon to.
NEWBERN, ALA., 5-21-1917.
_My dear Sir:_ Your letter of the 11th inst. to hand and contents
noted. In reply I wish to thank you for the kind offer relative
to the laides. We shall leave for New York on or before June
20th; I desire to know if it be possible to secure our
transportation fare from the parties to whom they shall work?
Owing to conditions (here) in the south one is hardly able to eke
out an existence on the paltry salaries allowed by our white
friends; therefore we need help. If you can comply with our
request, we shall be very grateful to you; & I wish to say in
advance that you will not have cause to regret for whatever the
charges may be we shall pay them willingly. I shall furnish the
best references as to character.
Now, if it be possible for us to secure our transportation, we
could leave here on or before the 5th of June. We prefer coming
by water as it is cheaper. I trust that I have made myself plain
and that you will see your way clear to serve us.
NEWBERN, ALA., 4/7/1917.
_Dear Sir:_ I am in receipt of a letter from ---- of ----, ----,
in regards to placing two young women of our community in
positions in the North or West, as he was unable to give the
above assistance he enclosed your address. We desire to know if
you are in a position to put us in touch with any reliable firm
or private family that desire to employ two young women; one is a
teacher in the public school of this county, and has been for the
past six years having duties of a mother and sister to care for
she is forced to seek employment else where as labor is very
cheap here. The other is a high school pupil, is capable of
during the work of a private family with much credit.
Doubtless you have learned of the great exodus of our people to
the north and west from this and other southern states. I wish to
say that we are forced to go when one things of a grown man wages
is only fifty to seventy five cents per day for all grades of
work. He is compelled to go where there is better wages and
sociable conditions, believe me. When I say that many places here
in this state the only thing that the black man gets is a peck of
meal and from three to four lbs. of bacon per week, and he is
treated as a slave. As leaders we are powerless for we dare not
resent such or to show even the slightest disapproval. Only a few
days ago more than 1000 people left here for the north and west.
They cannot stay here. The white man is saying that you must not
go but they are not doing anything by way of assisting the black
man to stay. As a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church
(north) I am on the verge of starvation simply because of the
above conditions. I shall be glad to know if there is any
possible way by which I could be of real service to you as
director of your society. Thanking you in advance for an early
reply, and for any suggestions that you may be able to offer.
With best wishes for your success, I remain,
very sincerely yours.
BREWSTER, ALA., Jan. 6, 1917.
_Dear Sir:_ I am writing you enregards if work in the north I
would like to came in turch with some of the leading men that
wants colerd laborer and what about transportation there is a
good deal of peple here wanting jobs.
TROY, ALA., 3-24-17.
_Dear Sir:_ I received you of Feb. 17 and was very delighted to
hear from you in regards of the matter in which I writen you
about. I am very anxious to get to Chicago and realy believe that
if I was there I would very soom be working on the position in
which I writen you about. Now you can just imagine how it is with
the colored man in the south. I am more than anxious to go to
Chicago but have not got the necessary fund in which to pay my
way and these southern white peoples are not paying a man enough
for his work down here to save up enough money to leave here
with. Now I am asking you for a helping hand in which to assist
me in getting to Chicago. I know you can do so if you only will.
Hoping to hear from you at an early date and looking for a
helping hand and also any information you choose to inform me of,
I remain as ever yours truly.
COLUMBIA, S. C., Dec. 1, 1917.
_Dear Ser:_ I am out of work and was inform to write you all
about work in the north I am a labor and is willing to work any
where. I am in need of work very bad let me here from you at
once.
CHARLESTON, S. C., April 27, 1917.
_Dear Sir:_ i was told by Mr. ---- ---- to rite you for one of
cards as he say you got a lot of work to do in a brick yard and i
am a hard working man i want to work and will work at any thing
that pays so i rite to you for one of your blank so i can fill it
out i dont care how soon i can get there and go to work there is
no work here that pays a man to stay here so please send blank as
soon as you can. Hoping to here from you soon.
SAVANNAH, GA., April 29, 1917.
_Dear sir:_ I receive your letter and glad to hear from you, the
reason why i wanted to come up there is for more wages, i am a
man with family and works hard, but dont get sufficient wages to
support my family. i does any kind of ordinary hard work such as
farming or teamster or most anything, i would like to no what
kind of work you got up there to do as i fell satisfied that i
could please you, and also state your price that you pay, and if
this application is satisfactory why ans and i am willing to come
right way.
_Dear Sir:_ After reading a very interesting letter of Miss--, it
affords me great interest to ask you for some information in
regards to employment in Connecticut and to eliminate some
writing and get the right understanding. I will ask you to please
furnish me with an application form and in the mean time I may
receive all information that you may give. Also please if you
cannot get me employment in Connecticut, write me if there are
any openings in New Jersey or New York. I am very anxious to
leave the south as there are no chances of jobs here worth while.
I have a recommendation as machine helper which I can send if
required.
Hoping to have an interview as early as possible.
SAVANNAH, GA., May 1, 1917.
_Dear Sir:_ In seeing your advertisement in reference to securing
a position for those desiring, I decided to take advantage of
this opportunity as I desire better wages to meet the present
high cost of living.
Hoping to hear from you at once in reference to the above
request.
FORT GAINES, GA., Oct. 9, 1916.
_Dear Sir:_ Replying to your letter dates Oct. 6th the situation
here is this: Heavy rains and Boll weavel has caused a loss of
about 9,000 bales of cotton which together with seed at the
prevailing high prices would have brought $900,000.00 the average
crop here being 11,000 bales, but this years' crop was
exceptionally fine and abundant and promised good yeald until the
two calamities hit us.
Now the farmer is going to see that his personal losses are
minimised as far as possible and this has left the average farm
laborer with nothing to start out with to make a crop for next
year, nobody wants to carry him till next fall, he might make
peanuts and might not, so taking it alround, he wants to migrate
to where he can see a chance to get work.
I have carpenters, one brick mason, blacksmith, etc., wanting to
leave here, can send you their names if definate proposition is
held out.
HOUSTON, TEX., 2-25-17.
_Dear Sir:_ Would you please to be so kind to advise us on what
condition to get in tuch with some club on micration movement we
have 1000 of idle people here and good working people would be
trully glad to except of that good oppertunity of coming north
and work. Now please give us the full detales of the movingment
so we can get to gether now please advise right away of the main
headquarters of the club for we are ready for business just as
soon as we can get a understanding from the main club for we have
lots of people in Tex. want to no direct about it and want to go.
We take your paper in this citey and your paper was all we had to
go by so we are depending on you for farther advise. Dear editor
you muss excuse our bad letter for we rote it in a hurry.
KEATCHIE, LA., 12/8/16.
_Dear Sir:_ I have been reading in the Union-Review and other
papers about the work of your department and I am writing to you
for some information. I would like to know about general
conditions, as to wages, cost of living, living conditions etc.
Also as to persons of color adopting themselves to the northern
climate, having been reared in the south. This information would
be much appreciated and would be also of much interest to not
only the writer of this letter but to many more. Many books would
be written dealing with conditions here in regard to the Negro.
Compared with other things to which we have almost become
resigned, the high cost of living coupled with unreasonably low
wages is of greatest concern. We have learned to combat with more
or less success other conditions, but thousands of us can bearly
keep body and soul together with wages 60, 75 and $1.00 and meat
at 19, flour $10 and $12 per bbl and everything else according.
LIVE OAK, FLA., Feb. 12, 1917.
_Dare Sire:_ Replying to youse some times ago were reseav an was
glad to here from you so please let me no how is bisness up
nourth and cod I get a job as I wont to go nourth as we dont get
half pay for our wourk down here so please let me here from you
an can I get a persistion in youre city.
SAVANNAH, GA., May 1, 1917.
_Dear Sir:_ I write you to let you know that I am out of
employment as jobs are very hard to find down here and I would
like to have a job in your firm in N.Y. as I have relatives there
I can pack tobacco and I would like very much to work in your
firm in N.Y. or Conn. and I would like for you to send me a
ticket as soon as possible.
LITTLE ROCK, ARK., 5/2/17.
_Der Sir:_ It affordes me much pleasure to write to you a few
lines in regardes of a posision sir i were reared in the state of
ill. your home state, but have been here for eight years working
as a helper in a blacksmith shop and have been taking the
Defender regular for a long time so i have decided to come back
to my home state once more where i can get better pay so o will
ask you to please help me in getting a good job. i wont to learn
the molders trade or some good trade that i can make more than i
am making here. i am a Christian and have been for 20 years. am a
member of the first Baptist Church here an a member of the United
Brethren of Odd Fellows and is in good standing. now please
assist me just as soon as possible i am ready to come up just as
soon as i get a hearing from you. Please look after it for me at
once if you can not get me a job in your town, I will go anny
place you send me.
JACKSON, MISS., April 20, 1917.
_Sir:_ i wants to know do yo want somme famlis to move up their
if you do rite and let me no at once and i will get yo some at
once to come up their to work for you if you do rite an let me no
at once and i will get them. now write an let me no at once send
me work an i will try to bill your wont if you will aide me to
get them up their i can get all that yo wont here to come up
their and will come if they had any way to comt i wont to come
but the times is so harde that i cant make the money to come on i
want to move up their at once if i hade some way to come i wod
come at once.
CHARLESTON, S.C., April 29, 1917.
_dear sir:_ I found your address by Mr. ---- ---- kindness. I
wrote him a letter concerning of a just a half of chance and any
kind of a job will do just so I am out of this part of the
country. Now here is my lines of work. I am a first class clothes
cleaner and presser, can operate any kind of clothes pressing
machine. I have got reference to show that I am good in that line
from Mr. ----, a member of our city. I am a waiter european or
american, alicout or short order, and I am bell hop and knows the
rules of a hotel. I am lawfully married and has no children. My
wife and myself are both from Augusta, Ga. but I am working down
here but I dont like it, I am just barely making a living and
thats all. Now my wife can work too. She can cook, nurse and do
house work, I simply make a distintion about my home being in
Augusta Ga for this reason, some Charlestonians speaks such bad
language. Now please do the best you can for me and let me hear
from you as soon, as possible and let me know your terms. I am
ready. Good-by.
HAWKINSVILLE, GA., Apr. 16, 1917.
_My dear friends:_ I writen you some time ago and never received
any answer at all. I just was thinking why that I have not. I
writen you for employ on a farm or any kind of work that you can
give me to do I am willing to do most any thing that you want me
to so dear friends if you just pleas send ticket for me I will
come up thear just as soon as I receives it I want to come to the
north so bad tell I really dont no what to do. I am a good worker
a young boy age of 23. The reason why I want to come north is why
that the people dont pay enough for the labor that a man can do
down here so please let me no what can you do for me just as
soon as you can I will pay you for the ticket and all so enything
on your money that you put in the ticket for me, and send any
kind of contrak that you send me.
HOUSTON, TEX., 4-29-17.
_Dear Sir:_ I am a constant reader of the "Chicago Defender" and
in your last issue I saw a want ad that appealed to me. I am a
Negro, age 37, and am an all round foundry man. I am a cone maker
by trade having had about 10 years experience at the buisness,
and hold good references from several shops, in which I have been
employed. I have worked at various shops and I have always been
able to make good. It is hard for a black man to hold a job here,
as prejudice is very strong. I have never been discharged on
account of dissatisfaction with my work, but I have been "let
out" on account of my color. I am a good brassmelter but i prefer
core making as it is my trade. I have a family and am anxious to
leave here, but have not the means, and as wages are not much
here, it is very hard to save enough to get away with. If you
know of any firms that are in need of a core maker and whom you
think would send me transportation, I would be pleased to be put
in touch with them and I assure you that effort would be
appreciated. I am a core maker but I am willing to do any honest
work. All I want is to get away from here. I am writing you and I
believe you can and will help me. If any one will send
transportation, I will arrange or agree to have it taken out of
my salary untill full amount of fare is paid. I also know of
several good fdry. men here who would leave in a minute, if there
only was a way arranged for them to leave, and they are men whom
I know personally to be experienced men. I hope that you will
give this your immediate attention as I am anxious to get busy
and be on my way. I am ready to start at any time, and would be
pleased to hear something favorable.
CHARLESTON, S. C., April 29, 1917.
_Kind Sir:_ Read your adv. in the Chicago Defender. I would like
very much to have you take me in consideration. I am strong and
ambitious. Would work under any conditions to get away from this
place for I am working and throwing away my valuable time for
nothing. Kindly let me hear from you at your earliest.
NEW ORLEANS, LA., June 10, 1917.
_Kind Sir:_ I read and hear daly of the great chance that a
colored parson has in Chicago of making a living with all the
priveleg that the whites have and it mak me the most ankious to
want to go where I may be able to make a liveing for my self.
When you read this you will think it bery strange that being only
my self to support that it is so hard, but it is so. everything
is gone up but the poor colerd peple wages. I have made sevle
afford to leave and come to Chicago where I hear that times is
good for us but owing to femail wekness has made it a perfect
failure. I am a widow for 9 years. I have very pore learning
altho it would not make much diffrent if I would be throughly
edacated for I could not get any better work to do, such as house
work, washing and ironing and all such work that are injering to
a woman with femail wekness and they pay so little for so hard
work that it is just enough to pay room rent and a little some
thing to eat. I have found a very good remady that I really
feeling to belive would cure me if I only could make enough money
to keep up my madison and I dont think that I will ever be able
to do that down hear for the time is getting worse evry day. I am
going to ask if you peple hear could aid me in geting over her in
Chicago and seeking out a position of some kind. I can also do
plain sewing. Please good peple dont refuse to help me out in my
trouble for I am in gret need of help God will bless you. I am
going to do my very best after I get over here if God spair me to
get work I will pay the expance back. Do try to do the best you
can for me, with many thanks for so doing I will remain as ever,
Yours truly.
MCCOY, LA., April 16, 1917.
_Dear Editor:_ I have been takeing your wonderful paper and I
have saved from the first I have received and my heart is upset
night and day. I am praying every day to see some one that I may
get a pass for me, my child and husband I have a daughter 17 who
can work well and myself. please sir direct me to the place where
I may be able to see the parties that I and my family whom have
read the defender so much until they are anxious to come dear
editor we are working people but we cant hardly live here I would
say more but we are back in the jungles and we have to lie low
but please sir answer and I pray you give me a homeward
consilation as we havent money enough to pay our fairs.
HERNANDO, MISS., April 30, 1917.
_Dear Sir:_ I have heard so much about the demand for negro labor
and the high price paid for it in the northern part of this
country (the U. S.). I've decided to investigate the rumor from
the most reliable source. And as it generally known that
newspaper men are the best informed, therefore have thought to
request of you for the particulars of the matter. Will you
furnish me the desired information or point out such party, or
parties that can and will do so. (Personal.)
PENSACOLA, FLA., April 30, 1917.
_Dear Sir:_ Please send me at once a transportation at once I
will sure come if I live send it as soon as possible because
these white people are getting so they put every one in prison
who are not working I can not get any I can do any kind of common
labor. I am a brick layer also a painter I want to go to
Cleveland and I have good health and will do my best to improve.
They are two family my mother want to come she is a good cook
house clean, so all she want is information. I am not going to
bring my family when I come I am gong to send back for it. Dont
fail to send my Fla. transportation by return mail if you want I
can get them as many as you want.
JACKSONVILLE, FLA., April 29, 1917.
_Dear sir:_ reading the Chicago Defender seeing thair are still
plenty work in the north I am an automobile repaire and wishes
position at once as I am out of employmen and are a man of family
and a working man indeed. Hoping to receive ticket by Return Mail
or anser
FULLERTON, LA., April 30, 1917.
_Dear Sir:_ I was looking over a news paper and seen your address
and has been wanting to go some where in you country where i can
get better wedges and i would like to come up there of corse i
dont know anything about that work but i can learn it in a short
while. and if you can give me a job i would like to know and i
want to know weather you will send me a pass or not i has a wife
an i would like to know will you send me a pass for i and my wife
if you will i want you to write me and let me know as soon as you
can and tell we what you can do about the matter so this all
HOUSTON, TEX., April 29, 1917.
_Dear Sir:_ I thought I would write you a few lines of importance
I ask you to help me that much the lord will help you I am a
christians I try to make a honest living a man ought to help
another when he try to help his self. this is only one I will do
any kind of work if any company pass in up their I can pay half
of my fare. I am motherless and fatherless I dont care when I go
I am gone trust in the lord if you yill help me the Lord will pay
you I am with donfident I am not a loafer If my fare is advance
up their it a written contract that I will work it out.
May God bless you. Answer soon
NEW ORLEANS, LA., April 30, 1917.
_Dear Sir_: I write you a few lines asking you if there is a
chance please let me know I can do most any kind of work labor or
helper packer willing to learn a trade I see where they sends
transportation well I would be willing if one of the firms would
send me a pass then when I start to work for them they could take
it out of my wages every week untill it was paid for. All I ask
is give me a chance and I will make good. Hopeing that my letter
will meet with your Apporval and if there is a firm that is
willing to send me a pass to come to work up there Please show
them my letter and they can deduck out of my wages for the pass.
Hopeing that you will hear of one of the firms that wants
laborers and Helpers and that they will let me know when writing
adress is to
G---- A----, ---- ---- Ave. New Orleans, La.
Please write and let me know if theres a chance. I remain yours
PENSACOLA, FLA., 4/29/17.
_Dear Sir:_ in reading the Chicago Defender I saw yore wants add
for foundry ware house and yard men I do truly ask you to pleas
give me some instruction How I can get there I am a working man I
am not sport or a gamble or class with them if I kno it But I am
study evry day working man of family wife and one child 9 years
old but this is hard time in the south now and I have not the
means to come. But if you can get me up there I will give you
good service in yore ware house and yard work. My daily work has
been in a ware house for the past 6 years and i kno one more good
man that want to come too with family and would be glad to get
up there as soon as I can. I will garntee you good and reglar
service from Both of us.
Hopeing to here from you soon
PENSACOLA, FLA., April 30, 1917.
_Dear Sir_: Im a reader of the Defender, and I saw in this weeks
issue where you stated that three cities were in need of moulders
and helpers. And as I have once worked in a foundry, as a helper
I have some experience of the work and would like very much to
know under what conditions could you put me in touch with a firm
in a small size town, where it would send me a transportation.
I would leave tomorrow, if I had such opportunity. I am married,
have a wife and two small children, and cant support them in this
place properly.
Hoping to receive some kind of reply.
SAVANNAH, GA., April 29, 1918.
_Dear Sir_: I were reading your advertisement in the Chicago
Defender where you were in need for men at the ---- ----. I am a
hard working man in the south and get nothing for it I would like
to recive a hearing from you in return mail in rgard of seeking a
transportation for me and my nephew if you will send for me and
my nephew I will come at once and I garantee you that you wont
regret it. We are hard workers of the south please oblige.
Answer at once return mail I will be at your call.
MOBILE, ALA., April 30, 1917
_Dear Sir_: I was reading in the Chicago defender where They
wanted so many men to work. I am very anxious to work. I can do
most any kind of work I have been out of a job ever since
January. will you please try and get me in Chicago, so that I can
be able to get one of those jobs. please get me a job. I have a
wife and we can hardly live in this place. I am a machinist by
trade. I am a Schauffer also. I can repair an auto to. please
send for me at once, as I am in need of work.
My age is 25 years and my wife is 21 years. My name is ----
SAVANNAH, GA., April 24, 1917.
_Gentlemen:_ As I my self intend to go north or some place where
I can get good wages so as to better my condition and aim to go
in a few days if I can get off right. I would have been gone
before now but I could not save enough money out of small wages
and high cost of living to get away, since I saw a piece in the
Chicago Defender about you I am eager to get in touch with you at
once as I understand you are in the employment business if so
please let me hear from you by return mail as I must leave in a
few days if can get away the right way. So if you have some good
jobs open in some small towns or cities that will pay good wages
please let me hear from you this week if can do so. Write me the
kind of work and wages paid and where at so I can choose the kind
I like, also let me know if I can get a ticket sent me to come on
with a garntee to pay for it out of my first wages a part each
pay day until paid. Please let me hear from you at once.
ATLANTA, GA., April 30, 1917.