On March 31, 1864, I landed at Leavenworth, Kansas, with my intended
wife, without a change of clothing and with only five dollars in cash,
two of which I gave Rev. John Turner, Pastor of the A. M. E. Church, who
united us in marriage in his parlor that day. I knew a friend in that
city, who came from Brunswick, Paul Jones, and upon inquiry soon found
and secured room and board with him. The next day I was out hunting for
work, which I obtained with a brick contractor, at two dollars and
seventy-five cents per day, to carry a mud-hod, which I had done before;
so that the work was not entirely new, nor the contractor a stranger to
me. His name was Amos Fenn; he had worked for a contractor named
Hawkins, who built a row of brick buildings at Brunswick, Mo., in the
Fall of 1854, where I worked a few weeks, and when we met I remembered
him and he gave me a job.
For the first few weeks I was well pleased with the pay I received, and
thought I would soon have plenty of money, but now I had a new problem
to solve, which was to support and clothe myself and a wife and pay
doctors’ bills, which was something new to me. I had never been trained
in the school of economy, where I could learn the art of self-support,
as my master had always attended to that little matter from my earliest
recollections. Now I had expenses to meet of every kind. The necessaries
of life were all very high, including house rent, and by the time I
paid up my bills on Saturday night, I found my week’s earnings well
nigh gone; this was the case right along. I also found that I had to
make my own bargains for whatever necessaries we needed, and to provide
for a rainy day, all of which experiences were new to me, yes, very new,
and were a source of annoyance for a long time, because it taxed my mind
each day to provide the necessaries for the next week and from week to
week. I had lived to be twenty-eight years old, and had never been
placed in a position where I had occasion to give this matter a single
thought, for the reason that my master had it to attend to, as before
stated.
I found myself almost as helpless as a child, so far as managing and
providing for personal welfare and the future was concerned, and
although I had been trained to work from a child and had acquired almost
a perfect knowledge of it, together with a will and ability to perform
hard manual labor, yet I had not learned the art of spending my earnings
to the best advantage. I had a very limited knowledge of the value of
any article, and often paid the price demanded without question, and
ofttimes bought articles which were useless to me. My wife and I had
good health and worked steadily every day, and by so doing managed to
save up money enough in a short time to rent and fit up a small two-room
house.
Continuing to enjoy good health and obtaining steady work, we had saved
enough money within two years to buy the house and lot, paying nearly
two-thirds cash therefor. I felt proud, being then for the first time in
my life a land-owner, but it was of short duration. I had relied upon
the word of a white man, and had paid him the amount agreed upon, and
had received what I had supposed to be a clear title to the land, but
it turned out soon afterwards, that the man owned only the house, and
the land upon which it stood was the property of another, who notified
me to pay rent for the land or move my house away.
I found the white men of Kansas quite different from those of Missouri,
in their dealings with Colored people or ex-slaves. They would talk and
act nicely and politely, and in such a way as to win my confidence;
always referring to my former condition and abusing pro-slavery men,
pretending great friendship for me, and by so doing they ingratiated
themselves into my confidence to such an extent, that I would follow
their advice in the purchase of what they had to sell. Of course I
believed what they told me and was often cheated out of my hard
earnings.
I had been reared where it was a crime for me to dispute a white man’s
word, and that idea was so well and thoroughly grounded in me that it
took time and great effort to eradicate it. It took me a long time to
learn that a white man would lie as quickly as a black one, and there
are thousands of illiterate ex-slaves now living who have not entirely
dismissed that idea, that a white man can not lie, drilled into them
from early childhood, for I have found this true in dealing with them.
Let any ex-slave, uneducated, wanting information come to an educated
colored man for it, and obtain it, he will not be really satisfied until
he lays the matter before some white man, and if approved, then it is
all right, but if condemned then the white man’s opinion is accepted and
the other rejected; this holds good to-day, and in my opinion is one of
the results of slavery, which I can only explain by stating that
slave-holders considered it very low to lie to a slave, and would not do
it under any circumstances, and had great contempt for another one who
would purposely do so. I have known them to refuse to answer questions
rather than tell a lie, when they could not afford to tell the truth.
Many times the slave has wished that his master would lie, when he has
told him that at a certain hour or upon a certain day he would punish
him; for he knew he would get the promised flogging almost as surely as
the day came. Sometimes he would be told, “I am doing this only to keep
my word.” My own personal experience is, that in dealing with slaves the
master was perfectly honorable and truthful, and would not cheat or
practice deception in any way with them, and the slave knew that the
master would not lie and therefore believed what he said.
I found by sad experience that the white men in a free state, especially
in business transactions, were not as truthful as the slave-holders of
Missouri, in dealing with colored people, a fact to which many colored
men in Leavenworth and Atchison, Kansas, can testify, men like myself
who have been deceived into buying a lot, and who, in installments had
paid the entire price agreed upon. After having built a house thereon,
in a few years they found that the land was owned by someone else.
I could give the names of several colored men in the cities named above,
who lost their property in that way, and who were forced to vacate or
pay a higher price for the land than at first. Men from the South tell
me that that class of white men in that section, who were almost the
soul of honor, in dealing with the colored people, is fast dying out,
and the young men taking their places will lie to and cheat the ex-slave
of his earnings right along, and do not display the honor of their
fathers in such dealings.
I am unable to vouch for the truthfulness of this statement, not having
lived in the South and therefore having no personal knowledge on that
point. If it be true that the young men of the South, who have taken
their fathers’ places, are less honorable, less reliable in dealings
with their fathers’ ex-slaves, cheating and by deception, defrauding
them of their earnings, then I assert that it is a sad reflection upon
the once boasted chivalry and honor of the southern gentlemen, the men
of the old school. But I am of the opinion that the class of men in the
South, who are cheating and lying to colored people, are the newcomers
and oldtime slave drivers or their offspring, who were always the
enemies of the slave, and to-day are jealous of him as a free man, and
will take the lead in any matter that will militate against the colored
man.
In thus describing my own experience upon being emancipated from
slavery, I only show that of over four million others. History does not
record where four millions of people had been held in slavery so long,
that they had lost all knowledge of the way to provide for their own
support, to expend their earnings to advantage, to use economy in
purchasing necessaries of life and to lay up for another day.
This was the condition of the Colored people at the close of the war.
They were set free without a dollar, without a foot of land, and without
the wherewithal to get the next meal even, and this too by a great
Christian Nation, whose domain is dotted over with religious
institutions and whose missionaries in heathen lands, are seeking to
convert the heathen to belief in their Christian religion and their
Christian morality.
These slaves had been trained to do hard manual labor from the time that
they were large enough to perform it, to the end of their lives, right
along, and received no education or instruction in the way of economy.
They had no care as to the way they were to get the next meal, the next
pair of shoes or suit of clothes. This being the duty of the master,
they looked to him for these necessaries, just as a child looks to its
mother or the horse to its master for its daily sustenance.
The history of this country, especially that portion of it south of
Mason and Dixon’s line, shows that the labor of these people had for two
hundred years made the country tenable for the white man, had cleared
away the dense forests and produced crops that brought millions of money
annually to that section, which not only benefited the South, but the
North as well. It does seem to me, that a Christian Nation, which had
received such wealth from the labor of a subjugated people, upon setting
them free would, at least, have given them a square meal. Justice seems
to demand one year’s support, forty acres of land and a mule each.
Did they get that or any portion of it? Not a cent. Four million people
turned loose without a dollar and told to “Root hog or die!” Now, whose
duty was it to feed them? Was it the former masters’ or that of the
general government; which had conquered the masters, and in order to
make that victory complete freed their slaves? My opinion is that the
government should have done it.
The master had been conquered, after four years’ hard fighting, and
largely by the aid of the two hundred thousand Colored volunteers,
mustered in the United States Army, and told to fight for the freedom of
their race. The history of that conflict says they did it loyally and
bravely.
General Lee had surrendered. The South had staked its all upon that
contest and had been conquered and laid waste, as it were; its business
gone, its crops confiscated by both armies, and its slaves set free, but
it had to feed these homeless and penniless people or see them starve.
No one will say the masters did not feed the freedmen until a crop was
made, and, too, at a time when they had no money in cash and no credit
at the North.
When we take into consideration the penniless condition of these four
million people at the close of the war, and the fact that they were
destitute of education and turned loose in the midst of a people
educated in science, art, literature and economy, a people owning the
land and chattels of every kind, with money to do the business of the
country and with the experience and training of a thousand years, the
fact that the freedmen did succeed under these adverse conditions in
obtaining a living, and in many cases in getting little homes for
themselves and families, instead of becoming a public charge, is greatly
to their credit.
Many white people who were friendly to them had great mis-givings and
doubts as to whether these freedmen could succeed in making themselves
self-supporting in the race of life, with so many obstacles to meet and
overcome. They were illiterate, without money and confronted with a
prejudice due in part to their former condition and in part to the fact
of their being candidates for the labor work, which, up to that period,
had been performed by the poor whites, especially foreigners, in the
North, East and West.
The freeing of the American slaves and their partial migration to these
states, seeking employment, excited the enmity of the white laborers,
particularly the Irish, because at that time they constituted fully
seventy-five per cent. of the laboring class, and who imagined that the
influx of Negro laborers from the South, would divide the labor monopoly
which they held, and of course they became opposed to the Colored people
and so much so, that they would have done almost anything calculated to
extirpate them. They were always ready to incite a riot and take the
lead in it, and had not the business men, capitalists and ministers
frowned upon their course, would have succeeded in doing serious harm.
I remember the bitter feeling existing between the Irish and the Colored
laborers in Leavenworth, Kansas, which had its beginning about the close
of the war. They had several little conflicts, and on one occasion the
civil authorities interfered to prevent bloodshed.
I recall an instance when the Colored people had been informed that the
Irish were intent on surrounding the Baptist Church, corner Third and
Kiowa streets, to “clane the nagurs out,” on Sunday night. The Colored
people prepared to meet them, by selecting Fenton Burrell as captain,
and secreting nearly fifty armed men in a vacant lot in the rear of the
church, to await the appearance of the Irish. Soon a squad of them came
up Third street to within a hundred yards of the church, but after
halting a few minutes marched back and dispersed. I learned afterwards
that Col. D. R. Anthony, a recognized friend of both races, went in
person to the leaders and informed them of the reception they would
receive if they proceeded further, and advised them to disperse and go
home, which they did.
The Negro has committed no offense against the Irish; the two races had
never lived together at any time to engender hatred, and as I understand
it, there is no valid reason why the Irish should have been so bitter
against the Negro, except the fact that they were both seekers after the
unskilled labor of this country. I have stated that it was the labor
question that excited the enmity of the Irish against the Colored
people, and the reason why I say this is, that the past history of the
two races since the conquest of Ireland, by England is much alike; both
had been in bondage a long time. While the Irish had not been in
slavery, pure and simple, they had been held in a state of subjugation
and servitude, nearly approaching to it, and enjoyed but few more
liberties than the American slave. They had a country only in name and
no voice in the government thereof or ownership in the land on which
they lived, any more than the slaves in the United States. They were not
free men until they reached the United States. With such a similarity in
past history and present condition, it would seem that these two races
should have been friends instead of foes, and in my opinion they would
have been, had they not been seekers for the same kind of employment,
and thus becoming competitors. So that the scramble for that employment
has caused the Irish to resort to means which have aided largely in
kindling the feeling of prejudice against the Colored people. They were
aided in thus accomplishing this object by the native poor white, and
the further fact that they were white men, because whenever that
question or issue is raised, it will catch the illiterate whites en
masse, and in many cases the thoughtless aristocratic class, who will
join a mob to lynch a Colored man without giving the matter a second
thought, as to whether he is guilty or not. In many cases the charge is
cooked up for a sinister purpose, to get rid of him, or in order to
obtain a lucrative position held by him.
I have stated before that it is the labor question, more than any other,
which causes the Colored people to suffer greater indignities than any
other class of Americans in this country, and I believe it is not on
account of their color, so much as it is the desire of white laborers to
do the work and to receive pay which might go to him. It is an admitted
fact that these same laborers or mechanics in search of a job, will go
South, where the Colored men have charge of such work, or nearly so, and
will not only work with them, but hire to them and be bossed by them.
Foreigners, seeking employment, have gone to the South in large numbers
during the last five years, and finding there the typical poor whites,
who are the ancient enemies of the Colored people and ever ready to do
them harm, have united with them on the color line and raised that old
familiar cry that “this is a white man’s country, that white men must
and shall rule it; no Negro domination over white men.” When that
feeling has grown sufficiently strong to cover the real designs of the
vicious elements, and to deceive the better class, then it is that the
charges against some harmless, helpless Colored man are trumped up, and
they lynch him. So rapid is the mob in forming and blood-thirsty in its
murderous howls, that the better class is powerless to assist the
helpless victim while alive, and when dead the charges which were
preferred by a poor white man or a foreigner, for a mere trifle or
sinister purpose, are magnified until it would appear that the victim
was a savage brute and deserved the punishment inflicted. So brutal are
these charges made to appear after the death of the victim, that the
better class of southern white people, allow these lynchers to escape
punishment, upon the ground, I suppose, that they had rid the community
of a bad character.
The lynching of the Colored people is always the work of the poor white
laboring class, and as a striking incident tending to show the facts, I
call attention to the list of the killed and wounded at Roanoke, Va., in
September, 1893, when the State militia, in upholding the dignity of the
law of the State, fired into a mob, killing and wounding thirty men,
twenty-four of whom were laborers, track-walkers, section hands, and
employes in the machine shops of that city. I take these figures from
the published report made at the time of the occurrence; and to my mind
one thing is made plain by this incident, which is this, that it was not
the aristocracy that was doing the lynching at the South, or any other
part of the country, though they are held morally responsible in the
eyes of the nation.
But the aristocracy of the South is getting its eyes open to this
growing evil, and I am of the opinion, that its eyes will not have been
opened any too soon, for this is only another form of anarchy, which is
feeding itself upon the Colored people, and will ere long turn upon the
aristocrat and the capitalist, and serve them even worse than the
Colored people have been.
The better class at the South will soon see the error of their past
conduct, if they have not already done so, in taking the poor whites
into their confidence and social circle, which, I suppose, was for
political purposes, for they now feel themselves the equals of their
former lords, and will not down at their bidding. They drove out the
Republican government at the South by brutal force, and they had the
acquiescence of their former lords, who enjoyed a benefit for a time,
but this element of roughs, augmented by the influx of foreigners, is
beginning to show its disloyalty to the old aristocratic element by
leaving them at home, and when possible, sending one of its ilk as a
representative to the legislative halls, State and National.
But as to lynching, I think I see among the better class evidence of a
change of public sentiment taking place at the South, a return to law
and order, as indicated by a few extracts from leading newspapers in
that section. The first is from the _Indianapolis World_ (Colored),
issue of September 19, 1893, as follows: “It looks as if light were
breaking into the hitherto darkened condition of the South. The carnival
of crime in which the depraved and merciless element of that section has
reveled unchecked for many months, is at last arousing the dormant
spirit of justice and fair play, inherent in the American bosom, and the
fabric upon which our Constitution rests. Just as the insolent and
exorbitant ambition of the slave power laid the train, which resulted in
the downfall of the unfavorite institution, the repeated cruelties,
tortures, and human outrages of southern brutes has awakened the
conscience of the better classes, whose love for the fair name of their
country outweighs all fear of Negro domination. The ‘vaulting ambition’
of the stake-burners and lynchers has overstept itself, and we verily
believe the reign of misrule is reaching the beginning of the end.”
A few months ago, scarcely a southern newspaper dared to lift up a voice
against the inhuman practices of the mobs. They either gave open
encouragement to their so-called “best citizens,” or silently
acquiesced. To-day, however, the leading journals of Virginia, South
Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee and Louisiana, perceiving the change of the
tide, and that the southern craft is dashing dangerously near the
breakers of anarchy, are pleading for a cessation of horrors, and the
re-establishment of law and order. The _Memphis Commercial_ has been at
all times one of the most arrogant and ungenerous enemies of the Negro
throughout the South, but it is a revelation of a highly creditable
character to hear it give birth to such sentiments as these: “Even when
outraged virtue and all the ties of nature and humanity call for the
death of criminals, the demoralization of violence and the contagion of
cruelty accompany these things. There is no passion which so thrives
from gratification as the lust of cruelty. The English Parliament
declared that public executions were debauching the whole British
people. Mercy was drowned in blood during the reign of terror, and the
whole future of French civilization is stained and poisoned by the
memory of the guillotine. So it is with lynching in the South. The
horror has spread, and a people, originally the gentlest, bravest,
noblest in the world, are actually threatened with a generation of cruel
and violent men. Every boy, who witnesses a lynching, loses something of
his humanity. Every groan of the dying wretch kills part of his native
tenderness, and every drop of blood congeals the mercy and gentleness of
his heart. It were better that a young man should cut off his right hand
than to see the torture of one man. It is better that he should be
struck with deafness than to hear the death shriek of one dying
ravisher.
“Such scenes have made the Murats and Robespierres of history. Such
things done in America will curse the future of civilization and darken
the glory of coming years. Hence, we deem that swift and summary justice
should be meted by law to all who practice these horrors, unless the
flagrancy of the offence justify lawlessness by the higher law of
necessary punishment. In Louisiana, a few day ago, a mob of brutal
whites most cruelly lynched three innocent Negroes, and have sent word
to the agents of the State’s laws that they intend to burn another one
in broad daylight. This constitutes treason, and we hold that the
Governor of Louisiana should stamp it out at once, if it must be done
with the bayonet of armed authority. It is the glory of the South, up to
this time, in spite of all that may be said to the contrary, that she
has been considerate, generous and kind in the face of the most
difficult class of conditions that ever confronted a people. Let us not
lose so fair a fame by any delays of laws or fears of prejudice.”
These sentiments are their own comment, and indicate that if the appeals
of the Negro for justice for justice’s sake are ignored, the southern
leaders are learning that they cannot escape the consequences of natural
laws and are moved to action through the law of self-protection. The
strong stand taken against mob violence by Governor Brown of Maryland,
Governor McKinney of Virginia, and the ringing words of brave Mayor
Trout of Roanoke, are all encouraging cases in point, which evidence the
change of front by the intelligent, thrifty and liberty-loving people
below the Mason and Dixon line.
We must not lose our head, or fly into an impotent rage when
contemplating our wrongs. Let us recognize fully the seriousness of our
condition, study the temper of the southern mind, analyze the cause of
every action against us, and set about applying a sensible remedy, based
upon the state of the case as shown by the symptoms. A condition which
is the natural outgrowth of slavery will improve as the evils of that
period diminish. Therefore let us grow in education, in wealth, in
respectability, in morals, and in political generosity, and we will rise
to our rightful place in the esteem and confidence of the nation. This
will take time, and time is an essential element in the solution of all
chronic complaints and in all great problems.
Before closing this chapter, I feel that an explanation should be made
as to what I really mean in using the term “poor white” people, for I do
not want to be understood as meaning that all poor white people are
alike, and therefore are opposed to the Colored people’s enjoying the
rights and immunities conferred upon others by the law of the country,
for such is far from my intention or desire. There are thousands of
aristocratic white people who are poor, financially speaking, due to
accident or misfortune, but they still retain in their veins the blood
of aristocracy, that will not and cannot be concealed by the change of
position. This class, as a result of the war, is more largely found in
the South, but wherever found, as a rule, they always are the friends of
the oppressed, and the Colored people regard them as their friends.
Blood and education will tell; even the children of that class of men
are infinitely superior to those of the typical poor whites, whose
offspring seldom rise above the positions held by their fathers’ in
life, and when we find one who has, we regard him as the exception, and
not the rule. He may acquire wealth, and, on account of it, command
respect, but will have all the failings and prejudices of his kind or
line of consanguinity.
Now as to the Irish, I do not want it understood from what I have said
concerning the position they have occupied toward the Colored people,
that they are all enemies to the ex-slave, for such is not the case,
because there are thousands of them in this country as friendly to the
Colored people as any other class of American citizens, and just as
ready to give them a fair show as any other.
But I will state, that my experience has been that this class of Irish
Americans are the refined, educated class always, and not the common
laborer, or the illiterate class. But I think I see a great change for
the better taking place.
The Irish who have been in this country long enough, and are educated,
and have accumulated money, are giving up the labor work, and engaging
in the various kinds of business, leaving the labor work to be performed
by others, and in such cases they cease to be prejudiced. The Germans
have never sought the labor work of the country, and therefore have
always been friendly with the Colored people, and retain their
friendship and confidence in return.