A Social History of the American Negro Part 11

WHEREAS, Our ancestors (not of choice) were the first successful cultivators of the wilds of America, we their descendants feel ourselves ent.i.tled to partic.i.p.ate in the blessings of her luxuriant soil, which their blood and sweat manured; and that any measure or system of measures, having a tendency to banish us from her bosom, would not only be cruel, but in direct violation of those principles which have been the boast of this republic,

_Resolved_, That we view with deep abhorrence the unmerited stigma attempted to be cast upon the reputation of the free people of color, by the promoters of this measure, "that they are a dangerous and useless part of the community," when in the state of disfranchis.e.m.e.nt in which they live, in the hour of danger they ceased to remember their wrongs, and rallied around the standard of their country.

_Resolved_, That we never will separate ourselves voluntarily from the slave population of this country; they are our brethren by the ties of consanguinity, of suffering, and of wrong; and we feel that there is more virtue in suffering privations with them, than fancied advantages for a season.

_Resolved_, That without arts, without science, without a proper knowledge of government to cast upon the savage wilds of Africa the free people of color, seems to us the circuitous route through which they must return to perpetual bondage.

_Resolved_, That having the strongest confidence in the justice of G.o.d, and philanthropy of the free states, we cheerfully submit our destinies to the guidance of Him who suffers not a sparrow to fall without his special providence.

_Resolved_, That a committee of eleven persons be appointed to open a correspondence with the honorable Joseph Hopkinson, member of Congress from this city, and likewise to inform him of the sentiments of this meeting, and that the following named persons const.i.tute the committee, and that they have power to call a general meeting, when they, in their judgment, may deem it proper: Rev.

Absalom Jones, Rev. Richard Allen, James Forten, Robert Dougla.s.s, Francis Perkins, Rev. John Gloucester, Robert Gorden, James Johnson, Quamoney Clarkson, John Summersett, Randall Shepherd.

JAMES FORTEN, Chairman.

RUSSELL PARROTT, Secretary.

In 1827, in New York, was begun the publication of _Freedom's Journal_, the first Negro newspaper in the United States. The editors were John B. Russwurm and Samuel E. Cornish. Russwurm was a recent graduate of Bowdoin College and was later to become better known as the governor of Maryland in Africa. By 1830 feeling was acute throughout the country, especially in Ohio and Kentucky, and on the part of Negro men had developed the conviction that the time had come for national organization and protest.

In the spring of 1830 Hezekiah Grice of Baltimore, who had become personally acquainted with the work of Lundy and Garrison, sent a letter to prominent Negroes in the free states bringing in question the general policy of emigration.[1] received no immediate response, but in August he received from Richard Allen an urgent request to come at once to Philadelphia. Arriving there he found in session a meeting discussing the wisdom of emigration to Canada, and Allen "showed him a printed circular signed by Peter Williams, rector of St. Philip's Church, New York, Peter Vogelsang and Thomas L. Jennings of the same place, approving the plan of convention."[2] The Philadelphians now issued a call for a convention of the Negroes of the United States to be held in their city September 15, 1830.

[Footnote 1: John W. Cromwell: _The Early Negro Convention Movement_.]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid_., 5.]

This September meeting was held in Bethel A.M.E. Church. Bishop Richard Allen was chosen president, Dr. Belfast Burton of Philadelphia and Austin Steward of Rochester vice-presidents, Junius C. Morell of Pennsylvania secretary, and Robert Cowley of Maryland a.s.sistant secretary. There were accredited delegates from seven states. While this meeting might really be considered the first national convention of Negroes in the United States (aside of course from the gathering of denominational bodies), it seems to have been regarded merely as preliminary to a still more formal a.s.sembling, for the minutes of the next year were printed as the "Minutes and Proceedings of the First Annual Convention of the People of Color, held by adjournments in the city of Philadelphia, from the sixth to the eleventh of June, inclusive, 1831. Philadelphia, 1831." The meetings of this convention were held in the Wesleyan Church on Lombard Street. Richard Allen had died earlier in the year and Grice was not present; not long afterwards he emigrated to Hayti, where he became prominent as a contractor. Rev. James W.C.

Pennington of New York, however, now for the first time appeared on the larger horizon of race affairs; and John Bowers of Philadelphia served as president, Abraham D. Shadd of Delaware and William Duncan of Virginia as vice-presidents, William Whipper of Philadelphia as secretary, and Thomas L. Jennings of New York as a.s.sistant secretary.

Delegates from five states were present. The gathering was not large, but it brought together some able men; moreover, the meeting had some distinguished visitors, among them Benjamin Lundy, William Lloyd Garrison, Rev. S.S. Jocelyn of New Haven, and Arthur Tappan of New York.

The very first motion of the convention resolved "That a committee be appointed to inst.i.tute an inquiry into the condition of the free people of color throughout the United States, and report their views upon the subject at a subsequent meeting." As a result of its work this committee recommended that the work of organizations interested in settlement in Canada be continued; that the free people of color be annually called to a.s.semble by delegation; and it submitted "the necessity of deliberate reflection on the dissolute, intemperate, and ignorant condition of a large portion of the colored population of the United States." "And, lastly, your Committee view with unfeigned regret, and respectfully submit to the wisdom of this Convention, the operations and misrepresentations of the American Colonization Society in these United States.... We feel sorrowful to see such an immense and wanton waste of lives and property, not doubting the benevolent feelings of some individuals engaged in that cause. But we can not for a moment doubt but that the cause of many of our unconst.i.tutional, unchristian, and unheard-of sufferings emanate from that unhallowed source; and we would call on Christians of every denomination firmly to resist it." The report was unanimously received and adopted.

Jocelyn, Tappan, and Garrison addressed the convention with reference to a proposed industrial college in New Haven, toward the $20,000 expense of which one individual (Tappan himself) had subscribed $1000 with the understanding that the remaining $19,000 be raised within a year; and the convention approved the project, _provided_ the Negroes had a majority of at least one on the board of trustees. An illuminating address to the public called attention to the progress of emanc.i.p.ation abroad, to the fact that it was American persecution that led to the calling of the convention, and that it was this also that first induced some members of the race to seek an asylum in Canada, where already there were two hundred log houses, and five hundred acres under cultivation.

In 1832 eight states were represented by a total of thirty delegates. By this time we learn that a total of eight hundred acres had been secured in Canada, that two thousand Negroes had gone thither, but that considerable hostility had been manifested on the part of the Canadians.

Hesitant, the convention appointed an agent to investigate the situation. It expressed itself as strongly opposed to any national aid to the American Colonization Society and urged the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia--all of which activity, it is well to remember, was a year before the American Anti-Slavery Society was organized.

In 1833 there were fifty-eight delegates, and Abraham Shadd, now of Washington, was chosen president. The convention again gave prominence to the questions of Canada and colonization, and expressed itself with reference to the new law in Connecticut prohibiting Negroes from other states from attending schools within the state. The 1834 meeting was held in New York. Prudence Crandall[1] was commended for her stand in behalf of the race, and July 4 was set apart as a day for prayer and addresses on the condition of the Negro throughout the country. By this time we hear much of societies for temperance and moral reform, especially of the so-called Phoenix Societies "for improvement in general culture--literature, mechanic arts, and morals." Of these organizations Rev. Christopher Rush, of the A.M.E. Zion Church, was general president, and among the directors were Rev. Peter Williams, Boston Crummell, the father of Alexander Crummell, and Rev. William Paul Quinn, afterwards a well-known bishop of the A.M.E. Church. The 1835 and 1836 meetings were held in Philadelphia, and especially were the students of Lane Seminary in Cincinnati commended for their zeal in the cause of abolition. A committee was appointed to look into the dissatisfaction of some emigrants to Liberia and generally to review the work of the Colonization Society.

[Footnote 1: See Chapter X, Section 3.]

In the decade 1837-1847 Frederick Dougla.s.s was outstanding as a leader, and other men who were now prominent were Dr. James McCune Smith, Rev.

James W.C. Pennington, Alexander Crummell, William C. Nell, and Martin R. Delany. These are important names in the history of the period. These were the men who bore the brunt of the contest in the furious days of Texas annexation and the Compromise of 1850. About 1853 and 1854 there was renewed interest in the idea of an industrial college; steps were taken for the registry of Negro mechanics and artisans who were in search of employment, and of the names of persons who were willing to give them work; and there was also a committee on historical records and statistics that was not only to compile studies in Negro biography but also to reply to any a.s.saults of note.[1]

[Footnote 1: We can not too much emphasize the fact that the leaders of this period were by no means impractical theorists but men who were scientifically approaching the social problem of their people. They not only antic.i.p.ated such ideas as those of industrial education and of the National Urban League of the present day, but they also endeavored to lay firmly the foundations of racial self-respect.]

Immediately after the last of the conventions just mentioned, those who were interested in emigration and had not been able to get a hearing in the regular convention issued a call for a National Emigration Convention of Colored Men to take place in Cleveland, Ohio, August 24-26, 1854. The preliminary announcement said: "No person will be admitted to a seat in the Convention who would introduce the subject of emigration to the Eastern Hemisphere--either to Asia, Africa, or Europe--as our object and determination are to consider our claims to the West Indies, Central and South America, and the Canadas. This restriction has no reference to personal preference, or individual enterprise, but to the great question of national claims to come before the Convention."[1] Dougla.s.s p.r.o.nounced the call "uncalled for, unwise, unfortunate and premature," and his position led him into a wordy discussion in the press with James M. Whitfield, of Buffalo, prominent at the time as a writer. Delany explained the call as follows: "It was a mere policy on the part of the authors of these doc.u.ments, to confine their scheme to America (including the West Indies), whilst they were the leading advocates of the regeneration of Africa, lest they compromised themselves and their people to the avowed enemies of their race."[2] At the secret sessions, he informs us, Africa was the topic of greatest interest. In order to account for this position it is important to take note of the changes that had taken place between 1817 and 1854.

When James Forten and others in Philadelphia in 1817 protested against the American Colonization Society as the plan of a "gang of slaveholders" to drive free people from their homes, they had abundant ground for the feeling. By 1839, however, not only had the personnel of the organization changed, but, largely through the influence of Garrison, the purpose and aim had also changed, and not Virginia and Maryland, but New York and Pennsylvania were now dominant in influence.

Colonization had at first been regarded as a possible solution of the race problem; money was now given, however, "rather as an aid to the establishment of a model Negro republic in Africa, whose effort would be to discourage the slave-trade, and encourage energy and thrift among those free Negroes from the United States who chose to emigrate, and to give native Africans a demonstration of the advantages of civilization."[3] In view of the changed conditions, Delany and others who disagreed with Dougla.s.s felt that for the good of the race in the United States the whole matter of emigration might receive further consideration; at the same time, remembering old discussions, they did not wish to be put in the light of betrayers of their people. The Pittsburgh _Daily Morning Post_ of October 18, 1854, sneered at the new plan as follows: "If Dr. Delany drafted this report it certainly does him much credit for learning and ability; and can not fail to establish for him a reputation for vigor and brilliancy of imagination never yet surpa.s.sed. It is a vast conception of impossible birth. The Committee seem to have entirely overlooked the strength of the 'powers on earth'

that would oppose the Africanization of more than half the Western Hemisphere. We have no motive in noticing this gorgeous dream of 'the Committee' except to show its fallacy--its impracticability, in fact, its absurdity. No sensible man, whatever his color, should be for a moment deceived by such impracticable theories." However, in spite of all opposition, the Emigration Convention met. Upon Delany fell the real brunt of the work of the organization. In 1855 Bishop James Theodore Holly was commissioned to Faustin Soulouque, Emperor of Hayti; and he received in his visit of a month much official attention with some inducement to emigrate. Delany himself planned to go to Africa as the head of a "Niger Valley Exploring Party." Of the misrepresentation and difficulties that he encountered he himself has best told. He did get to Africa, however, and he had some interesting and satisfactory interviews with representative chiefs. The Civil War put an end to his project, he himself accepting a major's commission from President Lincoln. Through the influence of Holly about two thousand persons went to Hayti, but not more than a third of these remained. A plan fostered by Whitfield for a colony in Central America came to naught when this leading spirit died in San Francisco on his way thither.[4]

[Footnote 1: Official Report of the Niger Valley Exploring Party, by M.R. Delany, Chief Commissioner to Africa, New York, 1861.]

[Footnote 2: Delany, 8.]

[Footnote 3: Fox: _The American Colonisation Society_, 177; also note pp. 12, 120-2.]

[Footnote 4: For the progress of all the plans offered to the convention note important letter written by Holly and given by Cromwell, 20-21.]

3. _Sojourner Truth and Woman Suffrage_

With its challenge to the moral consciousness it was but natural that anti-slavery should soon become allied with temperance, woman suffrage, and other reform movements that were beginning to appeal to the heart of America. Especially were representative women quick to see that the arguments used for their cause were very largely identical with those used for the Negro. When the woman suffrage movement was launched at Seneca Falls, N.Y., in 1848, Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and their co-workers issued a Declaration of Sentiments which like many similar doc.u.ments copied the phrasing of the Declaration of Independence. This said in part: "The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations on the part of man towards woman, having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over her.... He has never permitted her to exercise her inalienable right to the elective franchise.... He has made her, if married, in the eye of the law civilly dead.... He has denied her the facilities for obtaining a thorough education, all colleges being closed to her." It mattered not at the time that male suffrage was by no means universal, or that amelioration of the condition of woman had already begun; the movement stated its case clearly and strongly in order that it might fully be brought to the attention of the American people. In 1850 the first formal National Woman's Rights Convention a.s.sembled in Worcester, Ma.s.s.

To this meeting came a young Quaker woman who was already listed in the cause of temperance. In fact, wherever she went Susan B. Anthony entered into "causes." She possessed great virtues and abilities, and at the same time was capable of very great devotion. "She not only sympathized with the Negro; when an opportunity offered she drank tea with him, to her own 'unspeakable satisfaction.'"[1] Lucy Stone, an Oberlin graduate, was representative of those who came into the agitation by the anti-slavery path. Beginning in 1848 to speak as an agent of the Anti-Slavery Society, almost from the first she began to introduce the matter of woman's rights in her speeches.

[Footnote 1: Ida M. Tarbell: "The American Woman: Her First Declaration of Independence," _American Magazine_, February, 1910.]

To the second National Woman's Suffrage Convention, held in Akron, Ohio, in 1852, and presided over by Mrs. Frances D. Gage, came Sojourner Truth.

The "Libyan Sibyl" was then in the fullness of her powers. She had been born of slave parents about 1798 in Ulster County, New York. In her later years she remembered vividly the cold, damp cellar-room in which slept the slaves of the family to which she belonged, and where she was taught by her mother to repeat the Lord's Prayer and to trust in G.o.d.

When in the course of gradual emanc.i.p.ation she became legally free in 1827, her master refused to comply with the law and kept her in bondage.

She left, but was pursued and found. Rather than have her go back, a friend paid for her services for the rest of the year. Then came an evening when, searching for one of her children who had been stolen and sold, she found herself a homeless wanderer. A Quaker family gave her lodging for the night. Subsequently she went to New York City, joined a Methodist church, and worked hard to improve her condition. Later, having decided to leave New York for a lecture tour through the East, she made a small bundle of her belongings and informed a friend that her name was no longer _Isabella_ but _Sojourner_. She went on her way, speaking to people wherever she found them a.s.sembled and being entertained in many aristocratic homes. She was entirely untaught in the schools, but was witty, original, and always suggestive. By her tact and her gift of song she kept down ridicule, and by her fervor and faith she won many friends for the anti-slavery cause. As to her name she said: "And the Lord gave me _Sojourner_ because I was to travel up an' down the land showin' the people their sins an' bein' a sign unto them.

Afterwards I told the Lord I wanted another name, 'cause everybody else had two names, an' the Lord gave me _Truth_, because I was to declare the truth to the people."

On the second day of the convention in Akron, in a corner, crouched against the wall, sat this woman of care, her elbows resting on her knees, and her chin resting upon her broad, hard palms.[1] In the intermission she was employed in selling "The Life of Sojourner Truth."

From time to time came to the presiding officer the request, "Don't let her speak; it will ruin us. Every newspaper in the land will have our cause mixed with abolition and n.i.g.g.e.rs, and we shall be utterly denounced." Gradually, however, the meeting waxed warm. Baptist, Methodist, Episcopalian, Presbyterian, and Universalist preachers had come to hear and discuss the resolutions presented. One argued the superiority of the male intellect, another the sin of Eve, and the women, most of whom did not "speak in meeting," were becoming filled with dismay. Then slowly from her seat in the corner rose Sojourner Truth, who till now had scarcely lifted her head. Slowly and solemnly to the front she moved, laid her old bonnet at her feet, and turned her great, speaking eyes upon the chair. Mrs. Gage, quite equal to the occasion, stepped forward and announced "Sojourner Truth," and begged the audience to be silent a few minutes. "The tumult subsided at once, and every eye was fixed on this almost Amazon form, which stood nearly six feet high, head erect, and eye piercing the upper air, like one in a dream." At her first word there was a profound hush. She spoke in deep tones, which, though not loud, reached every ear in the house, and even the throng at the doors and windows. To one man who had ridiculed the general helplessness of woman, her needing to be a.s.sisted into carriages and to be given the best place everywhere, she said, "n.o.body eber helped me into carriages, or ober mud puddles, or gibs me any best place"; and raising herself to her full height, with a voice pitched like rolling thunder, she asked, "And a'n't I a woman? Look at me. Look at my arm."

And she bared her right arm to the shoulder, showing her tremendous muscular power. "I have plowed, and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me--and a'n't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man, when I could get it, and bear de lash as well--and a'n't I a woman? I have borne five chilern and seen 'em mos' all sold off into slavery, and when I cried out with a mother's grief, none but Jesus heard--and a'n't I a woman?... Dey talks 'bout dis ting in de head--what dis dey call it?" "Intellect," said some one near. "Dat's it, honey. What's dat got to do with women's rights or n.i.g.g.e.rs' rights? If my cup won't hold but a pint and yourn holds a quart, wouldn't ye be mean not to let me have my little half-measure full?" And she pointed her significant finger and sent a keen glance at the minister who had made the argument. The cheering was long and loud. "Den dat little man in black dar, he say women can't have as much rights as man, 'cause Christ wa'n't a woman. But whar did Christ come from?" Rolling thunder could not have stilled that crowd as did those deep, wonderful tones as the woman stood there with her outstretched arms and her eyes of fire.

Raising her voice she repeated, "Whar did Christ come from? From G.o.d and a woman. Man had nothing to do with Him." Turning to another objector, she took up the defense of Eve. She was pointed and witty, solemn and serious at will, and at almost every sentence awoke deafening applause; and she ended by a.s.serting, "If de fust woman G.o.d made was strong enough to turn the world upside down, all alone, dese togedder,"--and she glanced over the audience--"ought to be able to turn it back and get it right side up again, and now dey is askin' to do it, de men better let 'em."

[Footnote 1: Reminiscences of the president, Mrs. Frances D. Gage, cited by Tarbell.]

"Amid roars of applause," wrote Mrs. Gage, "she returned to her corner, leaving more than one of us with streaming eyes and hearts beating with grat.i.tude." Thus, as so frequently happened, Sojourner Truth turned a difficult situation into splendid victory. She not only made an eloquent plea for the slave, but placing herself upon the broadest principles of humanity, she saved the day for woman suffrage as well.

CHAPTER IX

LIBERIA

In a former chapter we have traced the early development of the American Colonization Society, whose efforts culminated in the founding of the colony of Liberia. The recent world war, with Africa as its prize, fixed attention anew upon the little republic. This comparatively small tract of land, just slightly more than one-three hundredth part of the surface of Africa, is now of interest and strategic importance not only because (if we except Abyssinia, which claims slightly different race origin, and Hayti, which is now really under the government of the United States) it represents the one distinctively Negro government in the world, but also because it is the only tract of land on the great West Coast of the continent that has survived, even through the war, the aggression of great European powers. It is just at the bend of the shoulder of Africa, and its history is as romantic as its situation is unique.

Liberia has frequently been referred to as an outstanding example of the incapacity of the Negro for self-government. Such a judgment is not necessarily correct. It is indeed an open question if, in view of the nature of its beginning, the history of the country proves anything one way or the other with reference to the capacity of the race. The early settlers were frequently only recently out of bondage, but upon them were thrust all the problems of maintenance and government, and they brought with them, moreover, the false ideas of life and work that obtained in the Old South. Sometimes they suffered from neglect, sometimes from excessive solicitude; never were they really left alone.

In spite of all, however, more than a score of native tribes have been subdued by only a few thousand civilized men, the republic has preserved its integrity, and there has been handed down through the years a tradition of const.i.tutional government.

1. _The Place and the People_

The resources of Liberia are as yet imperfectly known. There is no question, however, about the fertility of the interior, or of its capacity when properly developed. There are no rivers of the first rank, but the longest streams are about three hundred miles in length, and at convenient distances apart flow down to a coastline somewhat more than three hundred miles long. Here in a tract of land only slightly larger than our own state of Ohio are a civilized population between 30,000 and 100,000 in number, and a native population estimated at 2,000,000. Of the civilized population the smaller figure, 30,000, is the more nearly correct if we consider only those persons who are fully civilized, and this number would be about evenly divided between Americo-Liberians and natives. Especially in the towns along the coast, however, there are many people who have received only some degree of civilization, and most of the households in the larger towns have several native children living in them. If all such elements are considered, the total might approach 100,000. The natives in their different tribes fall into three or four large divisions. In general they follow their native customs, and the foremost tribes exhibit remarkable intelligence and skill in industry. Outstanding are the dignified Mandingo, with a Mohammedan tradition, and the Vai, distinguished for skill in the arts and with a culture similar to that of the Mandingo. Also easily recognized are the Kpwessi, skillful in weaving and ironwork; the Kru, intelligent, sea-faring, and eager for learning; the Grebo, ambitious and aggressive, and in language connection close to the Kru; the Ba.s.sa, with characteristics somewhat similar to those of the Kru, but in general not quite so ambitious; the Buzi, wild and highly tattooed; and the cannibalistic Mano. By reason of numbers if nothing else, Liberia's chief a.s.set for the future consists in her native population.