The Journal of Negro History Volume I Part 34

WILLIAM WALLACE.

March 25, 1793.

_The Maryland Journal and Baltimore Advertiser_, March 29, 1793.

Westmoreland County, Virginia, Aug. 17, 1749.

RUN away from subscriber on Monday last, a Convict Servant named Thomas Winey; he professes farming, was imported lately from Maidstone gaol in the County of Kent, Great Britain--* * *

THE ABOVE MENTIONED SERVANT TOOK WITH HIM A MOLATTOE SLAVE named James, a well set fellow, 23 years old ************ I have been informed by their confederates since they went off, that they intend to go to Pennsylvania and from thence to New England, unless they can on their way get pa.s.sage in some vessel to Great Britain where the Molattoe slave pretends to have an UNCLE WHO ESCAPED FROM HIS MASTER IN THIS COLONY NEAR 23 YEARS AGO, AND IS SAID TO KEEP A COFFEE HOUSE IN LONDON.

_The Pennsylvania Gazette_, Sept. 14, 1749.

REVIEWS OF BOOKS

_The Negro._ By W. E. B. DuBois. New York: Henry Holt and Co. 1915. Pp.

254. 50 cents.

In this small volume Dr. DuBois presents facts to show that, contrary to general belief, the Negro has developed and contributed to civilization the same as all other groups of the human race. The usual arguments that the backward state of Negro culture is due to the biological inferiority of the race he shows to be without foundation, since these arguments have been largely abandoned by creditable scholars. Much of the material in the book has been known for several years to readers of works of scholars on race questions. As is commonly the case, truths which tend to destroy deep-rooted prejudices reach general readers with considerable slowness.

While it is not possible to treat but briefly a large subject in such small compa.s.s, the facts set forth by the author will put many persons on their guard against individuals who continue to spread misinformation about the Negro race.

The book is divided into twelve chapters, contains a helpful index, has a topically arranged list of books suggested for further reading, and an index. All of the chapters make interesting reading; but those treating of the achievements in state building and general culture of the ancient African Negro are especially stimulating. The author points out that in Egypt, both as mixed Semitic-Negroids and pure blacks from Ethiopia, Negro blood shared in producing the civilization of Egypt. Another center of Negro civilization was the Soudan. There strong Negro empires like Songhay and Melle developed under Mohammedan influence and existed for many centuries. In West Africa there was a flourishing group of Negro city states, the most famous of these being the Yoruban group. Recent discoveries of Frobenius in these parts of the continent show that the people reached a high stage of development in the terra cotta, bronze, gla.s.s, weaving, and iron industry. In the regions about the Great Lakes, inhabited largely by the Bantu, are found many worked over gold and silver mines, old irrigation systems, remains of hundreds of groups of stone buildings and fortifications. The author explains that the decline of this ancient culture was due to internal wars, Mohammedan conquest, and especially the ravages of the slave trade. The fact of the existence of such culture in the past stands as evidence of the capacity of the race to achieve.

It is worth noting what the author thinks about "the future relation of the Negro race to the rest of the world." He states that the "clear modern philosophy ... a.s.signs to the white race alone the hegemony of the world and a.s.sumes that other races, and particularly the Negro race, will either be content to serve the interests of the whites or die out before their all-conquering march." Of the several plans of solutions of the Negro problems since the emanc.i.p.ation from chattel slavery he tells us that practically all have been directed by the motive of economic exploitation for the benefit of white Europe. Because all dark races, and the white workmen too, are included in this capitalistic program of economic exploitation, he believes there is coming "a unity of the working cla.s.ses everywhere," which will apparently know no race line. But the colored peoples are more largely the victims of this economic exploitation. In answer to it the author concludes: "There is slowly arising not only a strong brotherhood of Negro blood throughout the world, but the common cause of the darker races against the intolerable a.s.sumptions and insults of Europeans has already found expression." He expresses the hope that "this colored world may come into its heritage, ... the earth," may not "again be drenched in the blood of fighting, snarling human beasts," but that "Reason and Good will prevail."

J. A. BIGHAM.

_The American Civilization and the Negro._ By C. V. Roman, A.M., M.D. F. A.

Davis Company, Philadelphia, 1916. 434 pages.

This volume is a controversial treatise supported here and there by facts of Negro life and history. The purpose of the work is to increase racial self respect and to diminish racial antagonism. The author has endeavored to combine argument and evidence to refute the a.s.sertions of such writers as Schufeldt and agitators like Tillman and Vardaman. But although on the controversial order the author has tried to write "without bitterness and bias." The effort here is directed toward showing that humanity is one in vices and virtues as well as in blood; that the laws of evolution and progress apply equally to all; that there are no diseases peculiar to the American Negro nor any debasing vices peculiar to the African; that there are no cardinal virtues peculiar to the European; and that all races having numerous failings, one should not give snap judgment of the other, especially when that judgment involves the welfare of a people.

The work contains an extensive zoological examination of man as an inhabitant of the world, the differences in the separate individuals composing races, the forces with which they must contend, the morals of mankind, and the general principles of human development. The question of Negro slavery in America is discussed as a preliminary in coming to the crucial point of the study, the presence of the colored man in the South.

The author frankly states what the colored man is struggling for. Making a review of the history of the Negroes of the United States, he justifies their claim to political rights on the ground that they are reacting successfully to their environment.

The book abounds with ill.u.s.trations of prominent colored Americans, successful Negroes, individual types, typical family groups, arts and crafts among the Africans, public schools and colleges.

J. O. BURKE.

_The Police Control of the Slave in South Carolina._ By H. M. Henry, M.A., Professor of History and Economics, Emory and Henry College, Emory, Virginia, 1914. 216 pages.

This work is a doctoral dissertation of Vanderbilt University. The author entered upon this study to show to what extent the southern people "sought to perpetuate, not slavery, but the same method of controlling the emanc.i.p.ated Negro which was in force under the slavery regime, the difficulties which were met with from without and the measure of success attained." He was not long in discovering that the laws on the statute books did not adequately answer the question. It was necessary, therefore, to determine to what extent these laws were in force and what extra-legal method may have been resorted to in a system so flexible as slavery.

One of the first influences discovered was the Barbadian slave code and then the evolution of slave control from that of the white indentured servant. Soon then the status of the slave as interpreted by the court was that of no legal standing in these tribunals. The overseer is then presented as a Negro driver, referred to in contemporary sources. The author devotes much s.p.a.ce to the patrol system, the various kinds of punishment, the court for the trial of slaves, the relations between the Negroes and the whites, the question of trading with slaves, slaves hiring their time, the slave trade, the stealing, harboring and kidnapping of free Negroes, the runaway slaves, the Seamen Acts, the gatherings of Negroes, slave insurrections, the abolition of incendiary literature, the prohibition of the education of the blacks, manumission, and the legal status of the free Negro.

The author shows by his researches that although amended somewhat, the slave code agreed upon in 1740 continued as a part of the organic law. At times some effort was made to ameliorate the condition of the blacks. The kidnapping of free Negroes, at first permitted, was later declared a crime, the murder of a Negro by a white man, which until 1821 was punishable only by a fine, was then made a capital offence, the court for the trial of Negroes became more inclined to be just, the privileges of trading and hiring their time, although prohibited by law, became common, and some efforts were made to give the blacks religious instruction. At the same time the Negro suffered from reactionary measures restricting their emanc.i.p.ation, prohibiting free Negroes from entering the State, and proscribing their education. The author can see why the rich planters for financial reasons supported this system, but wonders why non-slaveholders who formed the majority of the white population, "should have a.s.sisted in upholding and maintaining the slavery status of the Negro with its attendant inconveniences, such a patrol service, when they must have been aware in some measure, at least, that as an economic regime it was a hindrance to their progress."

In this study the author found nothing "to indicate that there was any movement or any serious discussion of the advisability of abolishing slavery or devising any plan that would eventually lead to it." In that State there never were many anti-slavery inhabitants. The Quakers who came into the State soon left and the Germans, who at first abstained from slavery, finally yielded. There probably was an academic deprecation of the evils of the inst.i.tution but hardly any tendency toward agitation; and if there had been such, the promoters would not have secured support among the leading people. A few men like Judge O'Neall favored the emanc.i.p.ation of worthy slaves, but the agitation from without gave this sentiment no chance to grow. Yet the author is anxious not to leave the impression that, had it not been for outside interference, slavery in South Carolina would have been modified. This would not have happened, he contended, because unlike the States of North Carolina and Virginia, South Carolina did not find slaves less valuable. The condition of the slave in the upper country was better than that in the low lands, but no section of the State showed signs of abolition.

This work is a well-doc.u.mented dissertation. It has an appendix containing valuable doc.u.ments, and a critical bibliography of the works consulted. It could have been improved by digesting doc.u.ments which appear almost in full throughout the work. Another defect is that it has no index.

C. B. WALTER.

_Gouldtown_. By William Steward, A.M., and REV. Theophilus G. Steward, D.D.

J. B. Lippincott Co., Philadelphia, 1913. 237 pages. $2.50.

There are hundreds of thousands of mulattoes in the United States. Anyone interested in this group of the American people will find many illuminating and suggestive facts in Gouldtown. It is the history of the descendants of Lord Fenwick, who was a major in Oliver Cromwell's army, and of Gould a Negro man. Fenwick's will of 1683 contains the following: "I do except against Elizabeth Adams of having any ye leaste part of my estate, unless the Lord open her eyes to see her abdominable transgression against him, me and her good father, by giving her true repentance, and forsaking yt _Black_ yt hath been ye ruin of her, and becoming penitent for her sins; upon yt condition only I do will and require my executors to settle five hundred acres of land upon her." Elizabeth did not forsake this Negro by the name of Gould and the remarkable mulatto group of Gouldtown is the result of this marriage. Gouldtown is a small settlement in southwest New Jersey.

In 1910 there were 225 living descendants from this union scattered throughout the United States from the Atlantic to the Pacific; many in Canada, others in London, Liverpool, Paris, Berlin and Antwerp. For over 200 years these descendants have married and inter-married with Indian, Negro and White with no serious detriment except the introduction of tuberculosis into one branch of the family by an infusion of white blood.

It is interesting to note that crime, drunkenness, pauperism or sterility has not resulted from these two hundred years of miscegenation. Thrift and intelligence, longevity and fertility have been evident. In every war except the Mexican, the community has been represented; one member of the group became a bishop in the A.M.E. Church; one, chaplain in the United States army, and many, now white, are prominent in other walks of life.

Several golden weddings have been celebrated. Several have reached the age of a hundred years while many seem not to have begun to grow old until three score years have been reached.

If one enters into the spirit of Gouldtown, and reads hastily the dry, Isaac-begat-Jacob pa.s.sages, the study moves like the story of a river that loses itself in the sands. "Samuel 3rd. when a young man went to Pittsburgh then counted to be in the far west and all trace of him was lost." "Daniel Gould ... in early manhood went to Ma.s.sachusetts, losing his ident.i.ty as colored." Such expressions are typical of the whole study. A constant fading away, a losing ident.i.ty occurs. The book is clearly the story of the mulatto in the United States.

Aside from an occasional lapse in diction, it is a careful study with 35 ill.u.s.trations and many doc.u.ments such as copies of deeds, wills, family-bible and death records.

WALTER DYSON.

NOTES

"_The Creed of the Old South_," by Basil Gildersleeve, has come from the Johns Hopkins Press. This is a presentation of the Lost Cause to enlarge the general appreciation of southern ideals.

From the same press comes also "_The Const.i.tutional Doctrines of Justice Harlan_," by Floyd B. Clark. The author gives an interesting survey of the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States, tracing the const.i.tutional doctrine of the distinguished jurist.

The Neale Publishing Company has brought out "_The Aftermath of the Civil War in Arkansas_," by Powell Clayton. The author was governor of the State from 1868 to 1871. Not desiring to take radical ground, he endeavors to be moderate in sketching the work of different factions.

From the press of Funk Wagnalls we have "_Samuel Coleridge-Taylor; Musician, His Life and Letters_," by W. C. Berwick Sayres.

Dean B. G. Brawley, of Morehouse College, contributed to the January number of "_The South Atlantic Quarterly_" an article ent.i.tled "_Pre-Raphaelitism and Its Literary Relations_."

C. F. Heartman, New York, has published the poems of Jupiter Hammon, a slave born in Long Island, New York, about 1720. Nothing is known of Hammon's early life. It is probable that he was a preacher. His first poem was published December 25, 1760. They do not show any striking literary merit but give evidence of the mental development of the slave of the eighteenth century.

Dr. B. F. Riley, the noted Birmingham preacher and social worker, is planning to bring out a biography of Booker T. Washington. Dr. Riley is a white man and is the author of "_The White Man's Burden_," an historical and sociological work written in behalf of the rights of all humanity irrespective of cla.s.s or condition.