The Choctaw Freedmen Part 5

Revolutionary War, 1775-1781 3,000 War of 1812 2,500 Civil War, 1861-1865 178,975

In the war with Spain in Cuba in 1898 the first troops that were sent to the front were four regiments of colored soldiers, and the service they rendered was distinguished by bravery and courage.

THE FREEDMAN, HOMELESS AND ILLITERATE

In 1860 the number of Negroes that were in a state of slavery was 3,930,760. In 1910 their number in the southern states had increased to 9,000,000; and in the northern states to 1,078,000.

The Emanc.i.p.ation Proclamation of President Lincoln was issued January 1, 1863, but it was preceded by a preliminary one on September 22, 1862, that gave the public a notice of 100 days of the coming event.

The Act of Emanc.i.p.ation that severed the relation binding them to their masters, left them in a very forlorn and deplorable condition. They were homeless and penniless in a country, that had been rendered more or less desolate, by the ravages of war and bloodshed. No provision had ever been made for the spread of intelligence among them. It has been estimated that only about five per cent of them at that time could read and write. Their homeless and illiterate condition rendered them comparatively helpless and dependent.

In 1885 the number of voters enrolled among the Freedmen was 1,420,000 and of these as many as 1,065,000 were then unable to read and write.

These illiterate voters then represented the balance of power in eight southern states and one sixth of the national electoral vote. This was a matter of vital importance to the nation as well as the states.

In 1900 the percentage of the Freedmen that could read and write had been increased to 55.5 per cent and in 1910 to 69.3 per cent.

At this latter date however only 56.3 per cent of their children, of a school age, were enrolled as attending school, which left more than one million yet to be provided for.

FIRST PUBLIC SCHOOL

The first day school among the Freedmen was established at Fortress Monroe, Virginia, by the American Missionary a.s.sociation on September 17, 1861. This school became the foundation of Hampton Inst.i.tute, to which the ragged urchin wended his way on foot and slept the first night under a wooden pavement, that has since been known as Booker T.

Washington.

In 1862 similar schools were established at Portsmouth, Norfolk, and Newport News, Virginia; Newbern and Roanoke Island, North Carolina, and Port Royal, South Carolina. In December of that year Gen. Grant a.s.signed Col. John Eaton the supervision of the Freedmen in Arkansas, with instruction to establish schools where practical.

After the Emanc.i.p.ation Proclamation of January 1, 1863, schools for the Negroes began to be established in those parts of the south occupied by the Federal armies, General Banks establishing the first ones in Louisiana.

In 1865 the Freedman's Bureau was established, and it made the maintenance of schools one of its objects until 1870, when it was discontinued. The work has since been left to the supervision of the several states, aided by the generosity of the friends of Christian education through the missionary agencies of their respective churches.

It is estimated that since 1870 the Freedmen, who const.i.tute nearly one half the population of the southern states have received for the support of their schools, only one eighth of the public funds appropriated for the maintenance of common schools. In the rural districts teachers only are furnished, and these are supplied on the condition the Freedmen in the district build, furnish and maintain the school building, the same as they do their church buildings.

The number of free Negroes in the United States in 1860 was 487,970. The states having the greatest number of them were Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina.

A few of these had become graduates of colleges before the war and were thus fitted for intelligent leadership. The beginning and increase in number of these colored college graduates has been as follows; In 1829, 1; in 1849, 7; in 1859, 12; in 1869, 44; in 1879, 313; in 1899, 1,126; and in 1909, 1,613. About 700 of them have graduated from our northern colleges the largest number having attended Oberlin college at Oberlin, Ohio, and Lincoln University at Oxford, Pennsylvania. In 1910 the whole number that had graduated was 3,856.

50th ANNIVERSARY

The 50th anniversary of the Emanc.i.p.ation Proclamation was observed by a number of the states in September, 1913. In Pennsylvania it consisted of an exposition at the city of Philadelphia, that lasted one month. The exhibit, showing the progress of the negroes from their infantile condition of 50 years ago, was characterized as "wonderful", and the occasion, one for devout thanksgiving and encouragement on the part of those, who have labored patiently and faithfully for their civil, social, moral or religious development.

The Presbyterian was the only one of the white churches that attempted an exhibit of its work at this exposition. Its exhibit consisted of photographs of churches and schools, and accounts of the results of the work. It included specimens of industrial work done in the schools by the sewers, cabinet workers and other artisans. It was under the direction of Rev. John M. Gaston, field secretary of the Presbyterian Board of Missions for Freedmen.

V

THE PROBLEM OF THE FREEDMAN

DIFFERENT STANDPOINTS.--REPRESENTATION IN CONGRESS.--13th, 14th AND 15th AMENDMENTS.--NEGRO SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVES.-- DISFRANCHIs.e.m.e.nTS.--RESULTS CONTRARY TO EXPECTATION.--PROVIDENTIAL LEADING OF JOSEPH, ISRAEL, NEHEMIAH AND DANIEL SUGGESTIVE.--A DIVINE MISSION.--THE FREEDMAN'S FRIENDS.--FRIENDLY COUNSELS.--THE GOLDEN RULE.

"Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne; mercy and truth shall go before thy face."

"Righteousness exalteth a nation but sin is a reproach to any people."

The "Problem of the Negro" is an old and familiar phrase. It relates to the fact, that, however many and great have been the benefits derived from his labor and loyalty, the best management of him has been a troublesome problem to the statesmen of this country, ever since the declaration of independence, and especially the Freedman, since his emanc.i.p.ation.

Like a prism or cube, this problem has several sides, but unlike these symbols, its various sides are unlike each other. The solution of it has always appeared to be different when viewed from different angles of vision. Observers in one part of our country unite in saying, "this is the best way to solve this problem," while others in another section insist, they know a better way. The statesman views it from one point of view, the labor leader from another and the Christian philanthropist from still another standpoint.

The first part of this problem, the one relating to the fact of his freedom, has already been solved. The solution of this introductory part of the problem caused preliminary struggles in Kansas and other places, including the Civil War. It served to bring out that which was n.o.blest and best in Harriet Beecher Stowe, William Lloyd Garrison, Frederic Dougla.s.s, Henry Ward Beecher, Horace Greeley, Charles Summer, Abraham Lincoln and others.

The parts that remain to be solved relate to his uplift from ignorance, poverty and degradation, to the attainment of the ability to support himself, by a fair chance in the labor market, and the enjoyment of approved educational, religious and political privileges.

He has been accorded the right to own property, and is enjoying that right to the full extent of his ability to acquire and hold it.

He has been accorded limited educational and religious privileges, and has made a very commendable progress along both of these lines.

It is at this point we reach the difficult and unsolved part of the problem.

The intelligent and prosperous portion of them in the South, though native and loyal Americans, are discriminated against, and denied rights and recognitions, that are accorded other nationalities, though illiterate. The popular reason a.s.signed, for locally withholding from all of them certain privileges of citizenship, is the fact that a great number of them continue to be illiterate.

In several of the states the Freedman is denied the privilege of enjoying the instruction of competent white teachers in their state and public schools, and in all of them he is prohibited from attending white schools, as in Pennsylvania and other northern states. The discriminations against them are so general, that it is almost impossible for any of them to acquire skill as workmen, or become fitted to serve their own people in the professions, except from those of their own number, or inst.i.tutions of learning provided specially for them.

REPRESENTATION IN CONGRESS

During the last forty years, the Freedmen have been counted as a part of the population, in apportioning the districts for the election of Representatives in the Congress of the United States. This inclusion of their number, in the arrangement of the districts, has enabled the states to which they belong, to have a considerable number of additional congressmen, that they would not have had, if the districts had been arranged according to the white population, which alone has been permitted to vote.

Since 1910 the additional number of Congressmen representing the suppressed vote of the Freedmen, has been 32 in a total of 82 members.

These additional representatives, based on the population representing the suppressed vote of the Freedmen, have come from the different states as follows: Alabama, 5; Arkansas, 2; Florida, 1; Georgia, 6; Louisiana, 4; Mississippi, 5; North Carolina, 4; South Carolina, 4; Texas, 1.

Total, 32.

This is an unexpected and a rather anomalous condition. It places the Freedmen in this country on a plane somewhat similar to that accorded the Philippines and Porto Ricans, as regards the matter of government and partic.i.p.ation therein.

It also, however, suggests the goal towards which education, religion and consequent material prosperity are gradually uplifting the race.

This goal is clearly expressed in the following amendments to the Const.i.tution of the United States.

AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSt.i.tUTION

Article XIII. Section I. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.--(Ratified Dec. 18, 1865.)

Article XIV. Section I. All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States, and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law, which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty or property, without due process of law, nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Section 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several states according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each state, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for president and vice-president of the United States, representatives in congress, the executive and judicial officers of a state, or the members of the legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such state, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for partic.i.p.ation in rebellion or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion, which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such state.--(Ratified July 28, 1868.)