The Journal of Negro History, Volume 4, 1919 by Various

The Journal
of
Negro History
Volume IV
1919
Contents
Vol IV—January, 1919—No. 1
Primitive Law and the Negro Roland G. Usher

Lincoln's Plan for Colonizing Negroes Charles H. Wesley
Lemuel Haynes W. H. Morse
The Anti-Slavery Society of Canada Fred Landon
Documents
Benjamin Franklin and Freedom
Proceedings of a Mississippi Migration Convention in 1879
How the Negroes were Duped
Remarks on this Exodus by Federick Douglass
The Senate Report on the Exodus of 1879
Some Undistinguished Negroes
Book Reviews
Notes
Vol IV—April, 1919—No. 2
The Conflict and Fusion of Cultures Robert E. Park

The Company of Royal Adventurers George F. Zook
Book Reviews
Notes
Vol IV—July, 1919—No. 3
The Journal of Negro History 1

The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Journal of Negro History, Volume IV, 1919.
Negroes in the Confederate Army Charles H. Wesley

Legal Status of Negroes in Tennessee William Lloyd Imes
Negro Life and History in our Schools C. G. Woodson
Grégoire's Sketch of Angelo Solimann F. Harrison Hough
Documents
Letters of Negro Migrants of 1916-1918
Book Reviews
Notes
Vol IV—October, 1919—No. 4
Labor Conditions in Jamaica Prior to 1917 E. Ethelred Brown

The Life of Charles B. Ray M. N. Work
The Slave in Upper Canada W. R. Riddell
Documents
Notes on Slavery in Canada
Additional Letters of Negro Migrants of 1916-1918
Book Reviews
Notes
Biennial Meeting of Association
[Pg 1]
Contents 2
The Journal
of
Negro History
Vol. IV—January, 1919—No. 1
PRIMITIVE LAW AND THE NEGRO

The psychology of large bodies of men is a surprisingly difficult topic and it is often true that we are inclined
to seek the explanation of phenomena in too recent a period of human development. The truth seems to be that
ideas prevail longer than customs, habits of dress or the ordinary economic processes of the community, and
the ideas are the controlling factors. The attitude of the white man in this country toward the Negro is the fact
perhaps of most consequence in the Negro problem. Why is it that still there lingers a certain unwillingness,
one can hardly say more, in the minds of the best people to accept literally the platform of the Civil War?
Why were the East St. Louis riots possible? I am afraid that a good many of the Negro race feel that there is a
distinct personal prejudice or antipathy which can be reached or ought to be reached by logic, by reason, by an
appeal to the principles of Christianity and of democracy. For myself I have always felt that if the premises of
Christianity were valid at all, they placed the Negro upon precisely the same plane as the white man; that if
the premises of democracy were true for the white man, they were true for the black. There should be no
artificial distinction created by law, and what is much more to the purpose, by custom simply because the one
man has a skin different in hue than the other. Nor should the law,[Pg 2] once having been made equal, be
nullified by a lack of observance on the part of the whites nor be abrogated by tacit agreements or by further
legislation subtly worded so as to avoid constitutional requirements. Each man and woman should be tested
by his qualities and achievements and valued for what he is. I am sure no Negro asks for more, and yet I am
afraid it is true, as many have complained, that in considerable sections of this country he receives far less.
I have long believed that we are concerned in this case with no reasoned choice and with no explainable act,
but with an unconscious impulse, a subconscious impulse possibly, with an illogical, unreasonable but
powerful and in-explainable reaction of which the white man himself is scarcely conscious and yet which he
feels to be stronger than all the impulses created in him by reason and logic. What is its origin? Is there such a
force? I think most will agree there is such an instinctive aversion or dislike.
I am inclined to carry it back into the beginnings of the race, back to the period of pre-historic law and to that
psychological origin which antedates the records of history, in the strict sense, to that part of racial history
indeed where men commonly act rather than write. The idea of prehistoric law is that obligation exists only
between people of the same blood. Originally, charitable and decent conduct was expected only of people of
the same family. Even though the family was by fact or fiction extended to include some hundreds or even
thousands of people, the fact was still true. The law which bound a man limited his good conduct to a
relatively few people. Outside the blood kin he was not bound. He must not steal from his relatives, but if he
stole from another clan, his relatives deemed it virtue. If he committed murder, he should be punished within
his clan, but protected, if possible, by his clan, if he murdered someone outside it. The blood kin became the
definite limitation of the ideas of right and responsibility. This was true between whites. All whites were not
members of any one man's blood kin.[Pg 3]
Palpably more true was this distinction between the Negro and the white man. The Negro could not by any
fiction be represented as one of the blood kin. The Romans extended the legal citizenship to cover all white
men in their dominions. It was the fictitious tie of the blood kin, but its plausibility was due to the fact that
they were all white. I do not remember to have seen any proof that the Negro inhabitants of the Roman

African colonies were considered Roman citizens. This is one of the oldest psychological lines in human
history; the rights which a man must concede to another are limited by the relationship of blood. Prima facie
there could be no blood relationship between the Negro and the white man. There could therefore be no
obligation on the white man's part to the Negro in prehistoric law. This notion has, I think, endured in many
ways down to the present day as a subconscious, unconscious factor behind many very vital notions and ideas.
Is it not true that international law has been, more often than not, a law between white men?
The next point I hesitate somewhat to make because it is difficult to state without over-emphasis and without
saying more than one means. I think it probable that in one way or another the idea of Christianity became
connected with the notion of the blood kin and in that sense limited to the blood kin of those to whom Jesus
came. Everyone is familiar with the Jewish notion that Jesus was their own particular Messiah, and that the
Gentiles were foreclosed claims upon him. As Christianity grew, it grew still among the white nations, and the
notion of it was not, I think, extended for a good many centuries to any except white people. The premises of
Christianity unquestionably included the Negro, but the notion of the blood kin excluded him, and
Christianity, like other religious ideas, was limited to the people who first created it and to those who were
actually or by some plausible fiction their kin in blood. The idea of the expansion of the blood kin by adoption
either of an individual or of a community of individuals was very old and thoroughly well established, but I
think the idea[Pg 4] never was applied to Negroes, Indians, or Chinamen except in unfrequent cases of
individuals. A volume would be required to bring forward all the available evidence regarding this idea, and
another perhaps to examine and develop it, to consider and weigh the pros and meet the cons. But it will
perhaps suffice for present purposes to throw out the idea for consideration without an attempt at more
considerable defense.
Another fact which has been most difficult to explain has been the continued lynchings of Negroes not merely
for crimes against women, but for all sorts of other crimes, large and small. Here the traces of primitive law
are very much clearer. Lynching is after all nothing more nor less than the old self-help. The original notion
was that the individual should execute the law himself when he could, and that he was entitled in case of
crime to assistance from the community in the execution of the law upon the offender. Murder, arson, rape
and the theft of cattle were the particular crimes for which self-help by the individual and by the community
in his assistance were authorized by primitive law. The preliminaries and formularies were very definite, but
they do not look to us of the present day like procedure. It is true, however, that there are very few lynchings
in which these formulas have not been unconsciously followed. There must be a hue and cry and pursuit along
the trail. The murderer must be immediately pursued. The person against whom the crime is committed or his
next of kin must raise an immediate outcry, and they and the neighbors must proceed at once in pursuit. If
they caught the criminal within a reasonable distance or within a reasonable time, they then were endowed by
primitive law with the right to execute justice upon him themselves. Commonly the criminal was hanged
(even for theft) when caught in the act, but barbarous punishments were not uncommon. That was legal
procedure, provided the cry was raised, the pursuit undertaken, and the criminal caught within a reasonable
number of hours or days as the case might be. The mob had the right to execute the law, and[Pg 5] it is not
often that lynchings take place long periods after the commission of the crime. Such for many centuries was
the law in Europe for whites. Self-help applied in particular to men of different tribes or communities who
were not of the same blood kin.
If self-help applied under certain conditions within the blood kin as it unquestionably did, that is to say, within
the law, it applied with greater force to all classes and offenders who were outside the blood kin and were
outside the law. If a stranger or an alien came within the community bounds and did not sound his horn,
community law sanctioned his instant killing by anyone who met him. Men could not peaceably enter the
precincts of the German tribes as late as the year 500 or 600 A.D. without being liable to instant death unless
they complied with certain definite formularies. Until within five hundred years, the stranger was practically
without rights in any country but his own, and might be dealt with violently by individuals or bodies of
citizens. One has but to remember the tortures visited upon the Jews in all European countries with impunity
PRIMITIVE LAW AND THE NEGRO 4

to realize the truth of the doctrine of self-help when applied to strangers. There was literally no law to govern
the situation. The courts did not deal with it, no penalties were provided for the restraining of individuals or of
the community at large, dealing with strangers until a relatively recent time.
Is it not true that the difference in blood between the Negro and the white man has caused a survival of this
notion of self-help, today illogical, unreasonable, absurd, but powerful none the less despite its technical
infraction of the law of the land? Is not the lynching of a Negro or of a white man simply the old primitive
self-help with the hue and cry and the execution of the victim when caught by the mob or by the sheriff's
posse? There is perhaps no field of speculation so fascinating as this of the survival of bygone customs,
traditions, and notions, in present society. At the same time he will be a poor and uncritical student who will
not recognize the ease of erecting vast structures[Pg 6] upon slender foundations. My purpose in this article is
not to allege the necessary truth of this proposition, but, if possible, to stimulate along different lines than has
been common the researches of those who are interested in the psychological attitude of the white man toward
the Negro.
There will be no doubt those who will exclaim that if I am right in this analysis of the problem—indeed, if
there be any reasonable modicum of truth in what I say—then the solution of the problem will be difficult in
the extreme. The whole method of attack upon it will be altered. A long educational campaign will become
the main feature, intended to expose the true basis of the white man's denial of real equality to the Negro race.
It will look like a battle too long to be waged with courage because the victory will be far in the future. I do
not agree. The attack, if properly directed, and vigorously followed up, will, like the assault of the woman
suffragists upon equally ancient instinctive promptings, be unexpectedly successful. The walls of the fortress
are thin and the defenders the wraiths of a dim past.
Roland G. Usher.
[Pg 7]
LINCOLN'S PLAN FOR COLONIZING THE EMANCIPATED

NEGROES[1]
The colonization of the emancipated slaves had been one of the remedies for the difficulties created by the
presence of freedmen in the midst of slave conditions. The American Colonization Society was founded in
1816 with the object of promoting emancipation by sending the freedmen to Africa. Some of the slave States,
moreover, had laws compelling the freedmen to leave the State in which they had formerly resided as slaves.
With an increasingly large number securing legal manumission, the problem caused by their presence became
to the slaveholding group a most serious one. The Colonization Society, therefore, sought to colonize the
freedmen on the west coast of Africa, thus definitely removing the problem which was of such concern to the
planters in slaveholding States.
The colony of Liberia, on the west coast of Africa, was chosen as a favorable one to receive the group of freed
slaves. Branches of the Colonization Society were organized in many States and a large membership was
secured throughout the country. James Madison and Henry Clay were among its Presidents. Many States
made grants of money and the United States Government encouraged the plan by sending to the colony slaves
illegally imported. But to the year 1830 only 1,162 Negroes had been sent to Liberia. The full development of
the cotton gin, the expansion of the cotton plantation and the consequent rise in the price of slaves forced
many supporters of both emancipation and colonization to lose their former ardor.
As the antebellum period of the fifties came on these questions loomed larger in the public view. The
LINCOLN'S PLAN FOR COLONIZING THE EMANCIPATED NEGROES[1] 5

proposition for colonizing free Negroes grew in favor as the slavery question grew more acute between the
sections. Reformers[Pg 8] favored it, public men of note urged its adoption and finally, as the forensic strife
between the representatives of the two sections of the country developed in intensity, even distinguished
statesmen began to propose and consider the adoption of colonization schemes.[2]
Abraham Lincoln, as early as 1852, gave a clear demonstration of his interest in colonization by quoting
favorably in one of his public utterances an oft-repeated statement of Henry Clay,—"There is a moral fitness
in the idea of returning to Africa her children, whose ancestors have been torn from her by the ruthless hand
of fraud and violence."[3] In popular parlance, however, Lincoln is not a colonizationist. He has become not
only the Great Emancipator but the Great Lover of the Negro and promoter of his welfare. He is thought of,
popularly always, as the champion of the race's equality. A visit to some of our emancipation celebrations or
Lincoln's birthday observances is sufficient to convince one of the prevalence of this sentiment. Yet, although
Lincoln believed in the destruction of slavery, he desired the complete separation of the whites and blacks.
Throughout his political career Lincoln persisted in believing in the colonization of the Negro.[4] In the
Lincoln-Douglas[Pg 9] debates the beginning of this idea may be seen. Lincoln said: "If all earthly power
were given me, I should not know what to do as to the existing institution. My first impulse would be to free
all the slaves and send them to Liberia—to their own native land. But a moment's reflection would convince
me that, whatever of high hope (as I think there is) there may be in this, in the long run its sudden execution is
impossible. If they were all landed there in a day, they would all perish in the next ten days; and there are not
surplus shipping and surplus money enough in the world to carry them there in many times ten days. What
then? Free them all and keep them among us as underlings? Is it quite certain that this betters their condition?
I think that I would not hold one in slavery at any rate, yet the point is not clear enough for me to denounce
people upon. What next? Free them and make them politically and socially our equals? My own feelings will
not admit of this, and if mine would, we well know that those of the great mass of whites will not. Whether
this feeling accords with sound judgment is not the sole judgment, if indeed it is any part of it."[5]
A few years later in a speech in Springfield, Lincoln said:[6] "The enterprise is a difficult one, but where there
is a will there is a way, and what colonization needs most is a hearty will. Will springs from the two elements
of moral sense and self-interest. Let us be brought to believe it is morally right, and at the same time favorable
to, or at least not against our interests to transfer the African to his native clime, and we shall find a way to do
it, however great[Pg 10] the task may be."[7] It is apparent, therefore, that before coming to the presidency,
Lincoln had quite definite views on the matter of colonization. His interest arose not only with the good of the
freedmen in view, but with the welfare of the white race in mind, as he is frank enough to state.
After being made President, the question of colonization arose again. Large numbers of slaves in the
Confederate States not only became actually free by escape and capture but also legally free through the
operation of the confiscation acts. In this new condition, their protection and care was to a considerable extent
thrown upon the government. To solve this problem Lincoln decided upon a plan of compensated
emancipation which would affect the liberation of slaves in the border States, and he further considered the
future of the recently emancipated slaves and those to be freed.[8]
Taking up this question in his first annual message, he said: "It might be well to consider, too, whether the
free colored people already in the United States could not so far as individuals may desire be included in such
colonization," (meaning the colonization of certain persons who were held by legal claims to the labor and
service of certain other persons, and by the act of confiscating property used for insurrectory purposes had
become free, their claims being forfeited). "To carry out the plan of colonization may involve the acquiring of
territory, and also the appropriation of money beyond that to be expended in the territorial acquisition. Having
practiced the acquisition of territory for nearly sixty years, the question of constitutional power to do so is no
longer an open one to us.... On this whole proposition, including the appropriation of money with the
acquisition of territory, does not the expediency amount to absolute necessity—that without which the

government itself cannot be perpetuated?"[9][Pg 11]
Congress responded to this recommendation in separate acts, providing in an act, April 16, 1862, for the
release of certain persons held to service or labor in the District of Columbia, including those to be liberated
by this act, as may desire to emigrate to the Republic of Hayti or Liberia, or such other country beyond the
limits of the United States, as the President may determine, provided the expenditure does not exceed one
hundred dollars for each immigrant.[10] The act provided that the sum of $100,000 out of any money in the
Treasury should be expended under the direction of the President to aid the colonization and settlement of
such persons of African descent now residing in the District of Columbia.[11] It further provided that later, on
July 16, an additional appropriation of $500,000 should be used in securing the colonization of free
persons.[12] A resolution directly authorizing the President's participation provided "that the President is
hereby authorized to make provision for the transportation, colonization and settlement in some tropical
country beyond the limits of the United States, of such persons of the African race, made free by the
provisions of this act, as may be willing to emigrate, having first obtained the consent of the government of
said country to their protection and settlement within the same, with all the rights and privileges of
freemen."[13] The consent of Congress was given under protest and opposition from some individual
members. Charles Sumner in and out of Congress attacked the plan with vigor,[14] but in spite of this
opposition the recommendation was carried.[Pg 12]
On several occasions Lincoln seized the opportunity to present his views and plans to visiting groups and
committees. On July 16, 1862, when the President was desirous of securing the interest of the border State
representatives in favor of compensated emancipation the plan for colonization came to light. His appeal to
these representatives was: "I do not speak of emancipation at once but of a decision to emancipate gradually.
Room in South America for colonization can be obtained cheaply and in abundance, and when numbers shall
be large enough to be company and encouragement to one another the freed people will not be so reluctant to
go."[15]
Again on the afternoon of August 14, 1862, the President gave an audience to a committee of men of color at
the White House. They were introduced by Rev. J. Mitchell, Commissioner of Emigration. E. M. Thomas, the
chairman, remarked that they were there by invitation to hear what the executive had to say to them. Having
all been seated the President informed them that a sum of money had been appropriated by Congress and
placed at his disposal for the purpose of aiding colonization in some country, of the people, or a portion of
those of African descent, thereby making it his duty as it had been for a long time his inclination to favor that
cause. "And why," he asked, "should the people of your race be colonized and where? Why should they leave
this country? You and we are different races. We have between us a broader difference than exists between
almost any other two races. Whether[Pg 13] it is right or wrong I need not discuss, but this physical difference
is a great disadvantage to us both, as I think. Your race suffer very greatly, many of them, by living among us,
while ours suffer from your presence. In a word we suffer on each side. If this is admitted it affords a reason
why we should be separated. If we deal with those who are not free at the beginning and whose intellects are
clouded by slavery we have very poor material to start with. If intelligent colored men, such as are before me,
would move in this matter much might be accomplished. It is exceedingly important that we have men at the
beginning capable of thinking as white men and not those who have been systematically opposed."
The place the President proposed at this time was a colony in Central America, seven days' run from one of
the important Atlantic ports by steamer. He stated that there was great evidence of rich coal mines, excellent
harbors, and that the new colony was situated on the highways from the Atlantic or Caribbean to the Pacific
Oceans. He told this delegation of men to take their full time in making a reply to him. The delegation
withdrew, and we are unable to discover any information regarding the reply. Evidently the group of men
never returned to make reply to the appeal of the President.[16]

In the Second Annual Message December 1, 1862, more practical suggestions were made to Congress by the
President. Says he: "Applications have been made to me by many free Americans of African descent to favor
their emigration, with a view to such colonization as was contemplated in recent acts of Congress. Other
parties at home and abroad—some upon interested motives, others upon patriotic considerations, and still
others influenced by philanthropic sentiments have suggested similar measures; while on the other hand
several of the Spanish American Republics have protested against the sending of such colonies to their
respective territories. Under these circumstances[Pg 14] I have declined to move any such colony to any State
without first obtaining the consent of the government, with an agreement on its part to receive and protect
such emigrants in all the rights of freemen. I have at the same time offered to several States situated within the
tropics, or having colonies there to negotiate with them, subject to the advice and consent of the Senate, to
favor the voluntary emigration of persons of that class to their respective territories upon conditions which
shall be equal, just and humane. Liberia and Hayti are as yet the only countries to which colonies of African
descent from here could go with certainty of being received and adopted as citizens; and I regret to say such
persons contemplating colonization do not seem so willing to go to those countries as to some others, nor so
willing as I think their interest demands. I believe, however, opinion among them in this respect is improving;
and that ere long there will be an augmented and considerable migration to both countries from the United
States."
Later in the same message Congress is requested to appropriate money and prepare otherwise for colonizing
free colored persons with their own consent at some place without the United States. The President continues:
"I cannot make it better known than it already is, that I strongly favor colonization and yet I wish to say there
is an objection urged against free colored persons remaining in the country, which is largely imaginary, if not
sometimes malicious. It is insisted that their presence would injure and displace white labor and white
laborers. Is it true then that colored people can displace any more white labor by being free than by remaining
slaves? If they stay in their old places they jostle no white laborers; if they leave their old places they leave
them open to white laborers. Logically then there is neither more nor less of it. Emancipation even without
deportation would probably enhance the wages of white labor and very surely would not reduce them. Reduce
the supply of black labor by colonizing the black laborer out of the country and by precisely so much[Pg 15]
you increase the demand for and wages of white labor."[17]
Pursuant to the power given the President, negotiations were begun with the foreign powers having territory
or colonies within the tropics, through the Secretary of State, W. H. Seward, mainly to ascertain if there was
any desire on the part of these governments for entering into negotiation on the subject of colonization.
Negotiations were to be begun only with those powers which might desire the benefit of such emigration. It
was suggested that a ten years' treaty should be signed between the United States and the countries desiring
immigration. The latter were required to give specific guarantees for "the perpetual freedom, protection and
equal rights of the colonies and their descendants." Before and after the transmission of the proposals to
foreign countries, propositions came from the Danish Island of St. Croix in the West Indies, the Netherland
Colony of St. Swinam, the British Colony of Guiana, the British Colony of Honduras, the Republic of Hayti,
the Republic of Liberia, New Granada and Ecuador. The Republics of Central America, Guatemala, Salvador,
Costa Rica, and Nicaragua, objected to such emigration as undesirable.[20]
Great Britain rejected the proposal as a governmental[Pg 16] proposition on the ground that it might involve
the government in some difficulty with the United States government because of fugitives, and therefore
expressed her disagreement with such a convention. Seward had asserted that there was no objection to
voluntary emigration; the government of British Honduras and Guiana then appointed immigration agents
who were to promote the immigration of laborers by using Boston, New York and Philadelphia as emigration
ports.
The President came to be of the firm opinion that emigration must be voluntary and without expense to those
who went. This was repeatedly asserted according to reports of the Cabinet meeting by Gideon Wells.[21] The

Netherlands sought to secure a labor supply for the colony of Swinan for a term of years, using the freedmen
as hired laborers. Seward objected to the acceptance of such a proposal.
Of all the propositions offered President Lincoln seemed satisfied with two—one was for the establishment of
a colony in the harbor of Chiriqui in the northeastern section of the State of Panama,[22] near the republics of
New Granada and Costa Rica. The situation seemed favorable not only because of the ordinary advantages of
soil and climate but also because of its proximity to a proposed canal across the Isthmus of Darien and
because of its reputedly rich coal fields. There were two objections to this plan. One was the existence of a
dispute over territory between the republics of Costa Rica and Granada. The other grew out of a[Pg 17]
specific examination of the coal fields by Professor Henry of the Smithsonian Institute.[23] His report doubted
the value of the coal bed and advised a more thorough examination before closing the purchase. Before the
project could be examined a more acceptable proposition appeared. In addition it also developed that there
was opposition to Negro emigration from several of the States of Central America.[24]
An effort was then made to establish a colony on the island of A'Vache in the West Indies. This colony was
described in a letter to the President by Bernard Kock, represented to be a business man. This site was
described as the most beautiful, healthy and fertile of all the islands belonging to the Republic of Hayti, and in
size of about one hundred square miles. "As would be expected," writes Kock, "in a country like this, soil and
climate are adapted for all tropical production, particularly sugar, coffee, indigo, and more especially cotton
which is indigenous. Attracted by its beauty, the value of its timber, its extreme fertility and its adaptation for
cultivation, I prevailed on President Geffrard of Hayti to concede to me the island, the documentary evidence
of which has been lodged with the Secretary of the Interior."[25]
On December 31, 1862, there was signed a contract by which, for a compensation of $50 per head, Kock
agreed to colonize 5,000 Negroes, binding himself to furnish the colonies with comfortable homes, garden
lots, churches, schools and employ them four years at varying rates. He[Pg 18] further agreed to obtain from
the Haytian government a guarantee that all such emigrants and their posterity should forever remain free, and
in no case be reduced to bondage, slavery or involuntary servitude except for crimes; and they should
specially acquire, hold and transmit property and all other privileges of persons common to inhabitants of a
country in which they reside. It would be further stipulated that in case of indigence resulting from injury,
sickness or age, any such emigrants who should become pauperous should not thereupon be suffered to perish
or come to want, but should be supported and cared for as is customary with similar inhabitants of the country
in which they should be residents.[26]
Kock also proposed a scheme to certain capitalists in New York and Boston. This had nothing to do with the
contract with the President. He proposed to transport 500 of these emigrants at once, begin work on the
plantations, and by the end of the following September—a period of eight or nine months—he estimated that
this group could raise a crop of 1,000 bales of cotton. It was planned that the colonists should secure from the
island a profit of more than 600 per cent in nine months. Kock estimated his necessary expenses as $70,000,
and all expense incurred by freighting ships and collecting immigrants was to be borne by the government. It
soon became known to the government that Kock had sought the aid of capitalists and money makers.
Suspicion as to the honesty of his purposes was then aroused. It was finally discovered also that he was in
league with certain confederates to hand over slaves to him as captured runaways on the condition of
receiving a price for their return. Lincoln investigated the matter and discovered that Kock was a mere
adventurer and the agreement with him was cancelled.[27]
A certain group of capitalists, whose names are not mentioned, then secured the lease from Kock and entered
into contract with the government through the Secretary of the[Pg 19] Interior, April 6, 1863.[28] Under this
agreement a shipload of colonists from the contrabands at Fortress Monroe, said to number 411-435, were
embarked.[29] An infectious disease broke out through the presence on board of patients from the military
hospital on Craney Island and from twenty to thirty died. On the arrival in the colony no hospitals were ready,

no houses were provided, and the resulting conditions were appalling. Kock was sent along as Governor, and
he is said to have put on the air of a despot and by his neglect of the sick and needy to have made himself
obnoxious.
Rumors of the situation came to the President and he sent a special agent, D. C. Donnohue, who investigated
the matter and made a report. Donnohue elaborately described the deplorable situation of the inhabitants, the
wretched condition of the small houses and the prevalence of sickness. He further reported that the Haytian
government was unwilling that emigrants should remain upon the island and that the emigrants themselves
desired to return to the United States. Acting upon the report, the President ordered the Secretary of War to
dispatch a vessel to bring home the colonists desiring to return.[30] On the fourth of March the vessel set sail
and landed at the Potomac River opposite Alexandria on the twentieth of the same month. On the twelfth of
March, 1864, a report was submitted to the Senate showing what portion of the appropriation for colonization
had been expended and the several steps which had been taken for the execution of the acts of
Congress.[31][Pg 20] On July 2, 1864, Congress repealed its appropriation and no further effort was made at
colonization.[32]
The failure of this project did not dim the vision of the successful colonization of the freed slaves in the mind
of President Lincoln. As late as April, 1865, according to report, the following conversation is said to have
ensued between the President and General Benjamin F. Butler: "But what shall we do with the Negroes after
they are free?" inquired Lincoln. "I can hardly believe that the South and North can live in peace unless we
get rid of the Negroes. Certainly they cannot, if we don't get rid of the Negroes whom we have armed and
disciplined and who have fought with us, to the amount, I believe, of some 150,000 men. I believe that it
would be better to export them all to some fertile country with a good climate, which they could have to
themselves. You have been a staunch friend of the race from the time you first advised me to enlist them at
New Orleans. You have had a great deal of experience in moving bodies of men by water—your movement
up the James was a magnificent one. Now we shall have no use for our very large navy. What then are our
difficulties in sending the blacks away?... I wish you would examine the question and give me your views
upon it and go into the figures as you did before in some degree as to show whether the Negroes can be
exported." Butler replied: "I will go over this matter with all diligence and tell you my conclusions as soon as
I can." The second day after that Butler called early in the morning and said: "Mr. President, I have gone very
carefully over my calculations as to the power of the country to export the Negroes of the South and I assure
you that, using all your naval vessels and all the merchant marines fit to cross the seas with safety, it will be
impossible for you to transport to the nearest place that can be found fit for them—and that is the Island of
San Domingo, half as fast as Negro children will be born here."[33][Pg 21]
This completes all of the evidence obtainable concerning Lincoln's thought and plan for the colonization of
the slaves freed by his proclamation. From the earliest period of his public life it is easily discernable that
Abraham Lincoln was an ardent believer and supporter of the colonization idea. It was his plan not only to
emancipate the Negro, but to colonize him in some foreign land. His views were presented not only to
interested men of the white race, but to persons of color as well. As may have been expected, the plan for
colonization failed, both because in principle such a plan would have been a great injustice to the newly
emancipated race, and in practice it would have proved an impracticable and unsuccessful solution of the
so-called race problem.
Charles H. Wesley.
Footnotes:
[1] Cf. Chapter XVII, Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln, a History.
Footnotes: 10
[2] President Fillmore in his last message to Congress proposed a plan for Negro colonization and advocated
its adoption. This part of his message was suppressed on the advice of his cabinet; but even had this not been
done, there is no reason to suppose that the plan would have been adopted. President Buchanan made
arrangements with the American Colonization Society for the transportation of a number of slaves captured on
the slaver, Echo, in 1858.
[3] Eulogy on Henry Clay, delivered in the State House at Springfield, Illinois, July 16, 1852. The quotation
here noted is taken from a speech by Henry Clay before the American Colonization Society, 1827. Lincoln
continued: "If as friends of colonization hope, the present and coming generations of our countrymen shall by
any means succeed in freeing our land from the dangerous presence of slavery, and at the same time in
restoring a captive people to their long lost fatherland with bright prospects for the future, and this too so
gradually that neither races nor individuals shall have suffered by the change, it will be a glorious
consummation." The Works of Abraham Lincoln, Federal Edition, edited by A.B. Lapsley, VIII, pp. 173-174.
[4] "The political creed of Abraham Lincoln embraced among other tenets, a belief in the value and promise
of colonization as one means of solving the great race problem involved in the existence of slavery in the
United States.... Without being an enthusiast, Lincoln was a firm believer in Colonization." Nicolay and Hay,
Abraham Lincoln—A History, VI, p. 354.
[5] Speech at Peoria, Ill., in reply to Douglas. Life and Works of Abraham Lincoln, II, Early Speeches.
Centenary Edition, edited by M.M. Miller. The Lincoln-Douglas Debates, October 16, 1854; p. 74.
[6] In the same speech, Lincoln said: "I have said that the separation of the races is the only perfect preventive
of amalgamation.... Such separation, if ever effected at all, must be effected by Colonization." The Works of
Abraham Lincoln, Federal Edition, edited by A. B. Lapsley, II, p. 306.
[7] Nicolay and Hay, Speeches, Letters and State Papers, Abraham Lincoln, I, p. 235. Lincoln's Springfield
Speech, June 26, 1857.
[8] Ibid., VI, p. 356.
[9] Richardson, Messages and Papers of the Presidents, VI, p. 54. First Annual Message, December 3, 1861.
[10] Section XI of Act approved April 16, 1862.
[11] Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln, VI, p. 356. Act approved July 16, 1862.
[12] Raymond, Life, Public Services and State Papers, p. 504.
[13] Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln, VI, p. 357.
[14] Charles Sumner in a speech before a State Committee in Massachusetts, said: "A voice from the
west—God save the west—revives the exploded theory of colonization, perhaps to divert attention from the
great question of equal rights. To that voice, I reply, first, you ought not to do it, and secondly, you cannot do
it. You ought not to do it, because besides its intrinsic and fatal injustice, you will deprive the country of what
it most needs, which is labor. Those freedmen on the spot are better than mineral wealth. Each is a mine, out
of which riches can be drawn, provided you let him share the product, and through him that general industry
will be established which is better than anything but virtue, and is, indeed, a form of virtue. It is vain to say
that this is a white man's country. It is the country of man. Whoever disowns any member of the human
family as brother disowns God as father, and thus becomes impious as well as inhuman. It is the glory of
republican institutions that they give practical form to this irresistible principle. If anybody is to be sent away,
Footnotes: 11
let it be the guilty and not the innocent."—Charles Sumner's Complete Works, XII, Section 3, p. 334.
[15] Nicolay and Hay, Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, II, p. 205. Nicolay and Hay, A History of
Abraham Lincoln, VI, p. 356.
[16] Raymond, Life, Public Services and State Papers of Abraham Lincoln, p. 504. Nicolay and Hay,
Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, VIII, p. 1.
[17] Richardson, The Messages and Papers of the President, 1789-1897, p. 127. Complete Works of Abraham
Lincoln, VIII, p. 97.
[18] A section of the emancipation proclamation states that it is the President's purpose upon the next meeting
of Congress to recommend the adoption of a practical measure so that the effort to "colonize persons of
African decent with their consent, upon this continent or elsewhere with the previously obtained consent of
the governments existing there," will be continued. Nicolay and Hay, A History, VI, p. 168.
[19] It is interesting to note that the colored population seemed very little in favor of colonization. "It is
something singular that the colored race—those in reality most interested in the future destinies of
Africa—should be so lightly affected by the evidences continually being presented in favor of colonization."
The National Intelligencer, October 23, 1850. But an address issued by the National Emigration Convention
of Colored people held at Cleveland, Ohio, urged the colored inhabitants of the United States seriously to
consider the question of migrating to some foreign clime. See also Journal of Negro History, "Attitude of Free
Negro on African Colonization," I.
[20] Diplomatic Correspondence, Part I, p. 202. Nicolay and Hay. Complete Works, p. 357.
[21] "Mr. Bates was for compulsory deportation. The Negro would not," he said, "go voluntary." "He had
great local attachment but no enterprise or persistency. The President objected unequivocally to compulsion.
The emigration must be voluntary and without expense to themselves. Great Britain, Denmark and perhaps
other powers would take them. I remarked there was no necessity for a treaty which had been suggested. Any
person who desired to leave the country could do so now, whether white or black, and it was best to have it
so—a voluntary system; the emigrant who chose to leave our shores could and would go where there were the
best inducements." Diary of Gideon Wells, I, p. 152.
[22] Cf. Account by Charles K. Tuckerman, Magazine of American History, October, 1886.
[23] Joseph Henry said to Assistant Secretary of State, September 5, 1862: "I hope the government will not
make any contracts in regard to the purchase of the Chiriqui District until it has been thoroughly examined by
persons of known capacity and integrity. A critical examination of all that has been reported on the existence
of valuable beds of coal in that region has failed to convince me of the fact." Chiriqui is described in report
Number 148, House of Representatives, 37th Congress, Second Session, July 16, 1862, by John Evans,
geologist.
[24] "There was an indisposition to press the subject of Negro Emigration to Chiriqui at the meeting of the
Cabinet against the wishes and remonstrances of the states of Central America." Diary of Gideon Wells, I, p.
162.
[25] Manuscript Archives of the Department of the Interior.
[26] Nicolay and Hay, A History, VI, p. 361.
Footnotes: 12
[27] Richardson, Message and Papers of the President, I, p. 167.
[28] Nicolay and Hay, A History, VI, p. 362.
[29] Complete records to substantiate this statement have not been discovered.
[30] Lincoln addressed thus the Secretary of War, February 1, 1864: "Sir; You are directed to have a transport
... sent to the colored colony of San Domingo to bring back to this country such of the colonists there as desire
to return. You will have a transport furnished with suitable supplies for that purpose and detail an officer of
the quartermaster department, who under special instructions to be given shall have charge of the business.
The colonists will be brought to Washington unless otherwise hereafter directed to be employed and provided
for at the camps for colored persons around that city. Those only will be brought from the island who desire to
return and their effects will be brought with them."
[31] Nicolay and Hay, Complete Works, II, p. 477.
[32] Statutes at Large, XIII, p. 352.
[33] Butler's Reminiscences, pp. 903-904.
[Pg 22]
LEMUEL HAYNES
Lemuel Haynes was born July 18, 1753, at West Hartford, Conn. He was a man of color, his father being of
"unmingled African extraction, and his mother a white woman of respectable ancestry in New England." She
was then a hired girl in the employ of a farmer who had a neighbor to whom belonged the Negro to whom the
woman became attached. Haynes took neither the name of his father nor of his mother, but probably that of
the man in whose home he was born. It is said that his mother, in a fit of displeasure with her host for some
supposed neglect, called her child by the farmer's name. Mr. Haynes took the young mother to task, and while
yet the baby was but a few days old, she disappeared. As she was the daughter of a Tolland County farmer,
Mr. Haynes shielded the family from disgrace by having the child take his name with that of Lemuel which in
Hebrew signifies "consecrated to God." The mother never had anything to do with her child, and it is said she
married a white man, and lived a respectable life. Lemuel providentially met his mother once in an adjoining
town, at the house of a relative, fondly expecting that he would receive some kind attentions from her. He was
sadly disappointed, however, for she eluded the interview. Catching a glimpse of her at length when she was
attempting to escape from him he accosted her in the language of severe but merited rebuke.
Mr. Haynes kept Lemuel till he was five months old, and then had him "bound out" to Deacon David Rose, of
Granville, Massachusetts, a man of singular piety. There Lemuel grew up, and lived for thirty-two years. One
condition of his indenture was that, in common with other children, he should enjoy the usual advantage of a
district school education. Yet, as schools of that section were decidedly backward, his early opportunities for
instruction were very[Pg 23] limited. Like other farmer boys, however, he was instructed in the fundamentals
of education and the principles of religion. His duties often kept him from school, or caused him to arrive at a
late hour. Yet he said, "As I had the advantage of attending a common school equal with other children, I was
early taught to read, to which I was greatly attached and could vie with almost any of my age."[1] He soon
formed the habit of studying the Bible and early made a profession of faith in the Christian religion. While
young he was baptized by the Reverend Jonathan Huntington.
LEMUEL HAYNES 13
He quickly mastered the studies of the district school but he struggled forward, becoming his own teacher and
subjecting his mind to unremitting and severe discipline. The scarcity of books was one of the severest
difficulties which he had to encounter. There was no public library in the place. The Bible, Psalter,
spelling-book, and perhaps a volume or two of sermons, comprised the library of the intellectual people of
those towns. But says he: "I was constantly inquiring after books, especially in theology. I was greatly pleased
with the writings of Watts and Doddridge, and with Young's Night Thoughts. My good master encouraged me
in the matter."[2]
There came a turning point in Haynes's life when in 1775 the excellent and pious Mrs. Rose died. She had
been more to him than an employer. Adopting him as her own son in early infancy, she tenderly trained him
up to intellectual and Christian manhood. Speaking of this, Haynes said: "Soon after I came of age, God was
pleased to take my mistress away, to my inexpressible sorrow. It caused me bitter mourning and
lamentation."[3] Prostrated thus, he sought relief from his affliction in the service of the continental army.[Pg
24]
Lemuel Haynes was a patriot of the Revolution. He early imbibed those great principles respecting "the rights
of man," in defense of which the colonies fought Great Britain. In 1774 he enlisted as a minute man. Under
the regulations of this enlistment he was required to spend one day in the week in manual exercises, and to
hold himself in readiness for actual service, but soon after the battle at Lexington the following year he joined
the regular army at Roxbury. The next year he volunteered to join the expedition to Ticonderoga to expel the
enemy. Referring to this service in an address some years later Haynes said: "Perhaps it is not ostentatious in
the speaker to observe that in early life he devoted all for the sake of freedom and independence, and endured
frequent campaigns in their defense, and has never viewed the sacrifice too great. And should an attack be
made on this sacred ark, the poor remains of life would be devoted to its defense."
After the close of his northern campaign he returned to his former home to engage in agricultural pursuits. But
while thus engaged he little anticipated the designs of Providence concerning him. Improving his leisure
hours, he had made considerable progress in the study of theology. At length he selected his text, and
composed a sermon, without education or teacher. It happened thus: In the family of Deacon Rose, the
evening preceding the Sabbath was customarily devoted to family instruction and religious worship. Haynes
was occasionally asked to read from the sermons of Watts, Whitefield, Doddridge or Davies. Called upon to
read as usual one evening, he slipped into the book his own sermon which he had written, and read it to the
family. Greatly delighted and edified by this sermon read with unusual vivacity and feeling, Deacon Rose,
who was then blind, inquired: "Lemuel, whose work is that which you have been reading? Is it Davies's
sermon, or Watts's, or Whitefield's?" Haynes blushed and hesitated, but at last was obliged to confess the
truth—"It's Lemuel's sermon."[4][Pg 25]
It was then discovered that in this young man was the promise of usefulness. The community encouraged him
to look forward to the Christian ministry. Referring to this, he said: "I was solicited by some to obtain a
collegiate education, with a view to the gospel ministry. A door was opened for it at Dartmouth College, but I
shrunk at the thought. Reverend Mr. Smith encouraged me with many others. I was at last persuaded to attend
to studying the learned languages. I was invited (1779) by the Reverend Daniel Farrand, of Canaan,
Connecticut, to visit him. I accordingly did. With him I resided some time, studying the Latin language."[5]
How long he studied under Mr. Farrand is not known. He devoted a part of his time to belles lettres and the
writing of sermons. While with Mr. Farrand, Haynes composed a poem which was surreptitiously taken from
his desk and afterward delivered by a plagiarist at a certain college on the day of commencement. During
these years he labored in the field to defray the expense of board and tuition, but the mind of this student
underwent unusual development for which Mr. Haynes retained to the end of life a grateful remembrance of
his friend and patron.
LEMUEL HAYNES 14
After making an extensive study of the Latin language, he felt a desire to study Greek that he might read the
New Testament in the original, but he had no means to prosecute this study. While in doubt as to how he
could attain so desirable an end the Reverend William Bradford, of Wintonbury, a small parish composed, as
its name imports, of a part of three towns, Winsor, Farmington and Symsbury, offered to instruct him in the
Greek language. This benefactor promised also to secure there for Mr. Haynes a school paying him sufficient
money to defray his expenses. Mr. Haynes said: "I exerted myself to the utmost to instruct the children of my
school, and found I gave general satisfaction. The proficiency I made in studying the Greek language I found
greatly exceeded the expectations of my[Pg 26] preceptor."[6] He was thus serving as a "spiritual teacher in a
respectable and enlightened congregation in New England, where he had been known from infancy only as a
servant boy, and under all the disabilities of his humble extraction." "That reverence which it was the custom
of the age to accord to ministers of the gospel," says his biographer, "was cheerfully rendered to Mr.
Haynes."[7] All classes and ages were delighted with the sweet, animated eloquence of the man. In
consideration of his talents Middlebury College later conferred upon him the degree of master of arts.[8]
This led friends to advise that he should be licensed to preach, and on November 29, 1780, after "an
examination in the languages, sciences, doctrines and experimental religion," he was licensed and preached
intelligently from Psalm 96:1. He was ordained soon thereafter. Then came an early call to begin his ministry
at the Congregational meeting house at Middle Granville, where he labored five years, preaching eloquently
with zeal. The time was one of moral darkness with intemperance, profanity and infidelity rife. Strange
doctrines intruded. Vice came boldly forward, but, like a rock, the young minister stood by his Lord and faith.
Among the pious in the church was Bessie Babbitt. She was a woman of considerable education and was
engaged as a teacher in her town. Looking to Heaven for guidance, she was led, with consistent delicacy, to
offer her heart to her pastor. He commended the proposal to God in prayer, and consulted other ministers.
Knowing his birth and race, he sought their counsel. They advised in favor, and on September 22, 1773, they
were married. There began then their happy married life which was blessed with nine children.[9]
From his small retired parish, among the companions[Pg 27] of his childhood, he was called to Torrington,
Connecticut, where he continued preaching two years to large audiences.[10] It is said that at Torrington a
leading citizen was much displeased that the church should have "a nigger minister," and, to show his
disrespect, this man went to church and sat with his hat on his head. "He hadn't preached far," said he, "when I
thought I saw the whitest man I ever knew in that pulpit, and I tossed my hat under the pew."
The number of communicants increased during the term of his residence in Torrington. Some of the most
respectable families from adjoining towns, particularly from Goshen, became his warmest friends, who
constantly attended on his ministry. His biographer says: "The aged refer to his ministry with many delightful
recollections. He was held in high estimation, especially by the church, and was esteemed by all classes as "an
apt and very ready man in the pulpit." The mere mention of his name even now, after the lapse of half a
century, seems to renew in their minds interesting associations. The church and society were strengthened by
his labors, and many wished to retain him as their permanent pastor. The sensibility of a few individuals
prevented, it is said, the accomplishment of their desires.
His eloquence and Christian nobility won him much attention and led to his being called to the pastorate of
the Congregational Church in West Rutland, Vermont. The town was a country seat, and the church was one
of importance. Then in the meridian of life, rich with the spirit and devoted to his calling, he was singularly
successful; and while there were those who saw in him "that colored minister," all knew his pure white soul.
The first year of his pastorate he received forty-two members by profession. In 1803 there came a great
revival, and there were one hundred and three conversions, together with one hundred and fifty in the
adjoining town of Pittsfield. Five years later[Pg 28] there was another revival and Haynes received one
hundred and nine. Naturally he was in demand by other churches as a revival preacher.
LEMUEL HAYNES 15
At this time New England was in a very backward state. The genial influence of science and religion had not
been generally felt. There was no college in Vermont and its only academy was the one at Norwich, near
Dartmouth College. There were not more than four or five Congregational ministers on the west side of the
Green Mountains. A religious revival of considerable extent, under the preaching of Reverend Jacob Wood
and others, had resulted in the formation of small churches. Certain parts of Connecticut were not much more
advanced. In 1804 the Connecticut Missionary Society, therefore, appointed Mr. Haynes to labor in the
destitute sections of Vermont. In 1809 he was appointed to a similar service by the Vermont Missionary
Society. In this capacity Haynes became a great factor in the religious awakening throughout New England at
that time.
In 1814 he was fraternal delegate from the Vermont to the Connecticut Ministers' Association at Fairfield. On
his way thither he stopped on Sunday at New Haven, where, at the Blue Church (formerly Dr. Edwards'), he
preached a sermon to a crowded house, having in the audience President Dwight of Yale and many
distinguished people. At Fairfield the association insisted on his preaching the annual sermon.
Haynes soon exhibited evidences of being no ordinary man. He readily engaged in the heated theological
discussion of his time, taking first rank as a theologian.[11] His most interesting debate was that with the
famous Hosea Ballou, whom Haynes vanquished in his famous sermon based on the text, Ye shall not surely
die. Many strange doctrines were then abroad. A writer says: "The Stoddardian principle of admitting moral
persons, without credible evidence of grace, to the Lord's Supper, and the[Pg 29] half-way covenant by which
parents, though not admitted to the Lord's Supper, were encouraged to offer their children in baptism,
prevailed in many of the churches. Great apathy was prevalent among professing Christians, and the ruinous
vices of profaneness, Sabbath-breaking and intemperance were affectingly prevalent among all classes. The
spark of evangelical piety seemed to be nearly extinct in the churches. Revivals of religion were scarcely
known except in the recollections of a former age. Some of the essential doctrines of grace were not received
even by many in the churches.[12] Respecting the operations of the Holy Spirit, Mr. Haynes adopted the same
principles as Edwards and Whitefield. He became effective in dispelling some of these clouds of doubt,
bringing the people back to a more righteous conduct. Out of it he emerged a man of fame.
Happy as was this apostle in his work at Rutland the violent political controversy of his time was divided
between two militant parties with one of which every freeman felt that he should be allied. Imbued with the
spirit of the American Revolution, Haynes could not be neutral. "In principle," says his biographer, "he was a
disciple of Washington and, therefore, favored those measures conducive of national government."[13] As
party spirit rapidly developed into deeply rooted rancor, sharp differences of opinion led to controversy in his
parish. Invited to preach on political occasions and in some cases to the public through the press, he discussed
political affairs with such keenness and sarcasm that unprincipled parasites in his community were much
disturbed. In one of his discourses he used the following expression: "A dissembler is one proud of
applause—will advertise himself for office—dazzling the public man with high pretext, like aspiring
Absolom, 'Oh that I were made judge in the land, that every man might come unto me and I would do him
justice.'[Pg 30] Such subjects to applause and hypocrisy will, even when the destinies of their country are at
stake, be to a commonwealth what Arnold was to American freedom or Robespierre to a French
Republic."[14]
It was not long before political excitement disturbed the harmony between the pastor and the people in West
Rutland. On certain occasions Haynes was treated with unkindness and even with abuse by unprincipled men.
Scandalous reports concerning him were circulated and he was denounced with profane language. But he
gloried in tribulations, knowing that "tribulations worketh patience and patience experience and experience
hope and hope maketh not ashamed." Observing the signs of the times, therefore, and governed by prayerful
deliberation he felt that he should sever his connection with his church in Rutland. Accordingly, on the 27th
of April, 1818, at a council convened to consider the serious question the pastoral relation was by mutual
consent dissolved.
LEMUEL HAYNES 16
Haynes was then invited to preach in Manchester, Vermont, a desirable town west of the Green Mountains.
Because of his reputation as a preacher here Haynes had the helpful contact of the Honorable Richard Skinner,
who in early life was elected a member of Congress and afterwards served as a judge of the Supreme Court
and finally as Governor of Vermont. He associated also with Joseph Burr, the liberal benefactor of several
literary and religious institutions.
In 1822 Haynes removed from Manchester to Granville, New York. He had enjoyed the support of the best
people in that New England community and had usually found them a generous and enlightened people.
Under his ministration at Manchester the church was much enlarged, but he was now declining in intellectual
vivacity and realized that, although there was entire harmony between him and the people in Manchester, they
should have a younger man. His church accordingly yielded to the desire of the Congregational[Pg 31]
Church in Granville, New York, and he took leave of Vermont to preach in another State.
In going to Granville, Haynes connected with the renowned Deacon Elihu Atkins, of Granville, with whom he
had corresponded for more than thirty years. There had been a cherished intimacy between them from their
youth. Atkins had for years relied upon the convincing instruction which he endeavored to obtain through
correspondence with Haynes. These letters show the tenderness and the watchfulness of a pastor over a flock,
which reminds one of the relation existing between Paul and the aged Philemon. During the eleven years
which he spent at Granville, his congregation was decidedly edified. Thousands of persons giving evidence of
their piety, joined the church and lived above reproach. While laboring among these people he died in the year
1833.
Thus passed away the man who was regarded by those who knew him as a worker of unusual ability and a
preacher of power. Says his biographer: "Although the tincture of his skin, and all his features bore strong
indications of his paternal original, yet in his early life there was a peculiar expression which indicated the
finest qualities of mind. Many, on seeing him in the pulpit, have been reminded of the inspired expression, 'I
am black, but comely.' In his case the remarkable assemblage of grace which was thrown around his
semi-African complexion, especially his eye, could not fail to prepossess the stranger in his favor."[15]
He was a man of a feeling heart, always sensibly affected at the sight of human suffering. His sensibility knew
no bounds. He exhibited quickness of perception and had the advantage of a never-failing memory. The
confidence generally reposed in him by both ministers and the people credit him with having mature
judgment. Although lacking in what is commonly known as classical education, as he never penetrated very
far into the Greek and Latin classics, his mind was decidedly literary. He read the Latin language[Pg 32] fairly
well but had never read more than the Greek testament and Septuagint. He was well read, however, in the
English classics and his discourses show taste for the beauties of poetry and elegant composition.
Haynes was always industrious, his early habits having been formed in the rigid pursuits of business. At home
he was a man of the highest domestic virtue. His family government was strictly parental, based on reason and
principle, not on passion or blind indulgence. He was always strict, ever adhering to a standard of the most
Puritanic order. Having early formed the high ideals of uprightness, no man could ever bring against him the
charge of dishonesty. Above all he was a man of consistent piety and resignation to the will of God.
His dying testimony was: "I love my wife, I love my children, but I love my Saviour better than all." A plain
marble marks his grave. On it is this inscription, prepared by himself:
"Here lies the dust of a poor hell-deserving sinner, who ventured into eternity trusting wholly
on the merits of Christ for salvation. In the full belief of the great doctrines he preached while
on earth, he invites his children and all who read this, to trust their eternal interest on the same
foundation."
LEMUEL HAYNES 17
So lived and died one of the noblest of the New England Congregational ministers of a century ago. Of
illegitimate birth, and of no advantageous circumstances of family, rank or station, he became one of the
choicest instruments of Christ. His face betrayed his race and blood, and his life revealed his Lord.
W. H. Morse.
Hartford, Conn.
Footnotes:
[1] Cooley, Sketches of the Life and Character of the Rev. Lemuel Haynes, p. 36.
[2] Ibid., p. 38.
[3] The pious Deacon Rose lived some years thereafter and had the pleasure of seeing Lemuel a distinguished
man. See Cooley, Sketches of the Life and Character of the Rev. Lemuel Haynes, p. 40.
[7] Ibid., p. 66.
[8] Simmons, Men of Mark, p. 677.
[9] Ibid., p. 678.
[10] Special Report of the United States Commissioner of Education, 1871, p. 342.
[11] Woodson, The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861, p. 280.
[13] Ibid., p. 169; Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, XLIX, p. 234.
[15] Cooley, Sketches of the Life and Character of the Rev. Lemuel Haynes, pp. 372-373.
[Pg 33]
THE ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY OF CANADA

The Anti-Slavery Society of Canada was one of the forms in which the abolition sentiment of the province of
Upper Canada made its contribution to the final settlement of the great issue in the neighboring country.
Though founded comparatively late in the struggle, it was, after all, rather the union of forces long active than
the creation of some new weapon to aid the battle. The men and women who composed its membership were
abolitionists long before the society was founded. Its purpose was solely to bring united effort to bear upon
Footnotes: 18
the great task and the great responsibility that fell upon Canada when the passing of the Fugitive Slave Bill
drove the Negroes from the North into Canada by the hundreds, if not by the thousands. With newcomers
arriving every day, destitute, friendless and more or less dazed by the experiences through which they had
passed, it was no small task that these Canadian abolitionists had undertaken to care for the fugitives, give
them opportunities for education and social advancement and enable them to show by their own efforts that
they were capable of becoming useful citizens.
The society had its birth in Toronto in February, 1851. There had been attempts before this to found such an
organization but they had come to nothing. By 1851, however, the situation in the United States had changed
and the effect had at once shown itself in Canada, so that the time was ripe for the bringing into one body of
the various individuals who had been showing themselves the friends of the slave. The Society of Canada
continued active right through the fifties and early sixties, not resting until the aim for which it had been
founded had been accomplished. With the close of the Civil War there was a large emigration of Negroes
back to their own land where their freedom had been bought in blood, and the need of any large
organization[Pg 34] to look after their welfare as a race gradually ceased. During its period of active work,
however, the society spread out from Toronto to all the larger cities and towns where there was a Negro
population, and in both educational and relief work showed itself an energetic body. Included in its active
membership were some of the best-known men in the province and as its organ it had an outstanding
newspaper, The Globe, of Toronto.
The meeting held in Toronto was large and enthusiastic. The Globe of Toronto of March 1, gives almost five
columns to the report of the proceedings. The mayor of the city acted as chairman and the opening prayer was
made by Rev. Dr. Michael Willis, the principal of Knox Presbyterian Theological College. A series of four
resolutions were proposed and endorsed. The first of these declared as a platform of the society that "slavery
is an outrage on the laws of humanity" and that "its continued practice demands the best exertions for its
extinction." A second resolution, proposed by Dr. Willis, declared the United States slave laws "at open
variance with the best interests of man, as endowed by our great creator with the privilege of life, liberty and
the pursuit of happiness." A third resolution expressed sympathy with the abolitionists in the United States,
while the fourth and concluding resolution proposed the formation of the Anti-Slavery Society of Canada.
"The object," it declared, "shall be to aid in the extinction of slavery all over the world by means exclusively
lawful and peaceable, moral and religious, such as by the diffusing of useful information and argument, by
tracts, newspapers, lectures and correspondence, and by manifesting sympathy with the houseless and
homeless victims of slavery flying to our soil."
Rev. Dr. Willis was chosen as the first president, an office which he filled during the whole of the period of
the struggle. Rev. William McClure, a Methodist clergyman of the New Connection branch, was named as
secretary, with Andrew Hamilton as treasurer and Captain Charles Stuart, corresponding secretary. A large
committee was also[Pg 35] named including, among others, George Brown, editor of The Globe, and Oliver
Mowat, later a premier of the province of Ontario.
The aims of the society, as set forth in the resolution of organization, called for both educational and relief
work. No time was lost in beginning each of these. Within a month after the founding of the society it was
holding public meetings, both in Toronto and elsewhere throughout the province. The speakers included
George Thompson, the noted English abolitionist; Fred Douglass, the Negro orator, and Rev. S. J. May, of
Syracuse. Some hostility developed, The Patriot charging George Thompson with being an abolitionist for
sordid motives, while The Leader called him a "hireling." Thompson, defending himself, declared that if he
had sold his talents, as charged, he would not be found fighting the slaves' battle but would be sitting by the
side of bloated prostitution in Washington." There were even some clerical critics of the society and its work.
The Church, a denominational publication, took the ground that Canada was not bound in any way to
denounce "compulsory labor." It was quite sufficient to welcome the slave when he came to Canada. To this
The Globe replied that it was "truly melancholy to find men in the nineteenth century teaching doctrines
THE ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY OF CANADA 19

which are only fit for the darkest ages."[1]
All through these earlier years of the society's history the public meetings were continued, much use being
made of men like Rev. S. R. Ward and Rev. J. W. Loguen, who had known at first hand what slavery meant to
their race. Rev. S. R. Ward was appointed an agent of the society in 1851 and traveled the province over,
giving the facts with regard to slavery to awaken Canadian sentiment against it and asking aid and kindness
for the fugitives then coming to the country in large numbers. Mr. Ward was instrumental in forming branches
and auxiliaries of the society at a number of places and has left on record his own impressions[Pg 36] of the
efforts that were put forth on behalf of the refugees.[2]
The Globe, under Brown as editor, was a stout ally. Brown's personal interest in the fugitives was marked. His
private generosity to the needy has been recorded by one of his biographers but greater service was rendered
through the columns of his paper. He was outspoken in denunciation of anything that savored of an alliance
with slavery. Canada, he believed, should stand four square against the whole system of human bondage.
"We, too, are Americans," he declared on one occasion. "On us, as well as on them, lies the duty of preserving
the honor of the continent. On us, as on them, rests the noble trust of shielding free institutions."[3]
Relief work in Toronto was looked after by a Ladies' Auxiliary, this being the general practice wherever
branches were organized. The wives of the officers of the general or parent society figured largely in the work
at Toronto. During the first year of the work in that city more than $900 was raised by the Ladies' Auxiliary.
The report for 1853-5 says: "During the past inclement winter much suffering was alleviated and many cases
of extreme hardship prevented. Throughout the year the committee continued to observe the practice of
appointing weekly visitors to examine into the truth of every statement made by applicants for aid. In this way
between 200 and 300 cases have been attended to, each receiving more or less according to their
circumstances."[4] A night school opened in Toronto gave to the younger men and women an opportunity to
get a little education.
The Canadian Society, at an early date in its history, entered into working relations with the anti-slavery
societies of Great Britain and the United States. At the first anniversary meeting, held in March, 1852, a letter
was presented from Lewis Tappan, secretary of the American and Foreign[Pg 37] Anti-Slavery Society,
enclosing a resolution of the executive of the American society to the effect that the committee had heard of
the formation of the Anti-Slavery Society of Canada at Toronto with much satisfaction, and that they would
be pleased to maintain correspondence with this society and unite their efforts for the promotion of the great
cause of human freedom on this continent and throughout the world. At the same meeting there were read
messages of greeting from S. H. Gay, secretary of the American Anti-Slavery Society, and from John Scoble,
secretary of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society.[5] At this first anniversary meeting the society was
able to report a change in public sentiment toward its aims. At the start there had been coldness and some
prejudice but this had largely disappeared and some who had formerly been hostile were now supporters.
The colonization question was before the society in its early period. In August, 1851, Toronto was visited by
Rev. S. Oughten, a Jamaican, and later by William Wemyss Anderson, also of Jamaica. The question was also
brought to the attention of the government of the province and the Governor-General asked the executive of
the society to tender its opinion of the plan. Their decision was altogether unfavorable to colonization whether
in Trinidad or Jamaica. With regard to Trinidad their opinion was that slavery in a modified form still existed
there. Jamaica, they thought, had nothing to attract the refugee more than Canada, and the society was placed
on record as approving the findings of the Great North American convention of colored people, which had
met in Toronto the preceding September, to the effect that western Canada was the most desirable place of
resort for colored people on the American continent, and that colored people in the United States should
emigrate to Canada rather than to the West Indies or Africa, since in Canada they would be better able to
assist their brethren flying from slavery. With regard to the American Colonization Society the finding of the
Canadian[Pg 38] Anti-Slavery Society was that its professions of promoting the abolition of slavery were

"altogether delusive." It had originated with slaveholders and was protected by them to rid the country of free
Negroes. "A colonization and a bitter, pro-slavery man are almost convertible terms," it was stated.[6]
The attitude taken by the church bodies in Canada towards this new movement is of interest. In general there
was not much active support. George Brown brought forward a resolution at the 1852 meeting, deploring the
indifference of some church bodies. Dr. Willis had been instrumental in getting the Presbyterians in line, a
strong stand having been taken by the synod which declared by resolution that slavery was "inhuman, unjust
and dishonoring to the common creator as it is replete with wrong to the subjects of such oppression." A
second resolution called upon churches everywhere to testify against legislation which violated the commands
of God and declared that the synod must condemn any alliance between religion and oppression, no matter
how the latter might be bolstered up by the use of Scripture.
At the 1857 meeting the attitude of the churches was again to the front. Dr. Willis thought it was time that
every church synod and conference in Canada should give up one day of its sessions to prayer and humiliation
over the presence of human slavery so nearby. It was the duty of all the churches to remonstrate on this
question. Rev. Dr. Dick, who followed, declared that the church was "the bulwark of the system." There were
churches in Canada which fraternized with those in the United States that patronized slavery. He was equally
outspoken on the attitude of the Sons of Temperance in deciding, against his protest, to shut out Negroes from
its membership. There were several protests at this 1857 meeting against some slight evidences of race
prejudice. Rev. Mr. Barrass said that, as the Negroes in Toronto set an example to the whites in morality, there
was the less reason for any prejudice.[Pg 39] Thomas Henning, the secretary of the society, probably put the
matter right when he pointed out that talk of prejudice must not be understood as general. Negroes were not
excluded from the schools, and the laws were administered to white and black alike. He drew attention to the
dismissal of a magistrate who had been suspected of conniving at the return of a fugitive, as also to the case of
a member of Parliament who had sought to have Negro immigration stopped and had been simply laughed at.
Necessity for action along industrial lines to provide suitable employment for the fugitives was emphasized by
the Canadian Anti-Slavery Society and efforts were made to give the black man a fair chance in his new
home. The question of cheap land for the immigrants was also kept to the front with the idea of making the
refugees more self-dependent and preventing them from congregating in the cities and towns. Some idea of
the extent of the relief work being carried on at this time may be gained from the statement presented at the
1857 meeting which showed disbursements of more than $2,200, a total of over 400 having been relieved.
Reference has been made to the support given the society by The Globe, of Toronto. For this George Brown
was given the credit but it must be said in justice that no small share of the credit for The Globe's attitude
should go to the lesser known brother, Gordon Brown, who was regarded by many as really more zealous for
abolition than George Brown. This was tested during the Civil War period when the turn of sentiment against
the North in Canada brought much criticism upon The Globe. There was a disposition on the part of George
Brown to grow lukewarm in his support of the North, but Gordon Brown never wavered and is said to have
threatened on one occasion to leave the paper if there were any more signs of hauling down the colors. When
the war was over American citizens in Toronto presented Gordon Brown with a gold watch suitably inscribed,
an indication possibly of the opinion of that day with regard to his services.[Pg 40]
One duty of the American anti-slavery societies which fell but lightly on the Canadian society was the
watching of legislation and the courts to see that the Negro obtained his rights. It was rare indeed that
anything of this kind called for action in Canada, the only case of any importance that arose being that of the
Negro, Anderson, whose return to Missouri was sought on a charge of killing his master in 1853. A slave
catcher from Missouri recognized him in Canada in 1860 and had him arrested. The case was fought out in the
courts, twice going against the Negro and then being appealed to the English Court of Queen's Bench, which
granted a writ of habeas corpus. Anderson was defended by Gerrit Smith and the case attracted great attention
throughout Canada. The executive of the Canadian Anti-Slavery Society kept the case well under observation

and made its position quite clear by a resolution declaring that principles of right and humanity should prevail.
In the end Anderson was acquitted.
The sentiment that was created in Canada by the friends of the fugitive in the decade before the Civil War had
its effect when that struggle began. Sir John Macdonald, premier of Canada, made careful investigation to find
out how many Canadians were in the northern armies and placed the number at 40,000.[7] The spirit that
animated the youth of the North in this moral struggle was powerful in the minds of many of these young
Canadians. There was present in Canada not a little of the feeling of responsibility for the honor of the
continent that George Brown voiced and both by peaceful means and by the sword the people of the
British-American province to the North had their part in striking off the shackles from the slave in the South.
Fred Landon.
Public Librarian,
London, Canada
Footnotes:
[1] The Globe, April 1, 1851.
[2] Ward, Autobiography of a Fugitive Slave.
[3] Lewis, George Brown, p. 114.
[4] Drew, North Side View of Slavery, p. 328.
[5] Anti-Slavery Society of Canada, First Annual Report, p. 10.
[6] First Annual Report, pp. 12-13.
[7] Letters of Goldwin Smith, p. 377.
[Pg 41]
DOCUMENTS
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN AND FREEDOM

Of the fathers of the republic who first saw the evils of slavery, none made a more forceful argument against
the institution than Benjamin Franklin. A man of lowly estate himself, he could not sympathize with the man
who felt that his bread should be wrung from the sweat of another's brow. Desiring to see the institution
abolished, Franklin early connected himself with the anti-slavery forces of Pennsylvania and maintained this
attitude of antagonism toward it until his death. His printing press was placed at the disposal of the
pamphleteers who by their method endeavored to influence public opinion, and as a means of effecting the
liberation of the blacks he cooperated with others in educating them as a preparation for citizenship.
His first effort to promote the education of the Negroes was the assistance he gave the work established by Dr.
Thomas Bray, who passed a large part of his life in performing deeds of benevolence and charity. This
philanthropist became acquainted at the Hague with M. D'Allone, who approved and promoted his schemes.
Footnotes: 22
M. D'Allone, during his lifetime, gave to Dr. Bray a considerable sum of money, which was to be applied to
the conversion of Negroes in America. At his death he left an additional sum of nine hundred pounds for the
same object. Dr. Bray formed an association for the management and proper disposal of these funds. He died
in 1730, and the same trust continued to be executed by a company of gentlemen, called "Dr. Bray's
Associates." Franklin was for several years one of these workers.
Writing about this work, he said to a friend:
I have not yet seen Mr. Beatty, nor do I know where to write to him. He forwarded your letter
to me from Ireland. The paragraph[Pg 42] of your letter, inserted in the papers, related to the
negro school. I gave it to the gentlemen concerned, as it was a testimony in favor of their
pious design. But I did not expect they would print it with your name. They have since chosen
me one of the Society, and I am at present chairman for the current year. I enclose you an
account of their proceedings.[1]
Franklin's argument against slavery was economic as well as moral. He said:
It is an ill-grounded opinion that, by the labor of slaves, America may possibly vie in
cheapness of manufactures with Britain. The labor of slaves can never be so cheap here as the
labor of working men is in Britain. Any one may compute it. Interest of money is in the
colonies from six to ten per cent. Slaves, one with another, cost thirty pounds sterling per
head. Reckon then the interest of the first purchase of a slave, the insurance or risk on his life,
his clothing and diet, expenses in his sickness and loss of time, loss by his neglect of business
(neglect is natural to the man who is not to be benefited by his own care or diligence),
expense of a driver to keep him at work, and his pilfering from time to time, almost every
slave being by nature a thief, and compare the whole amount with the wages of a
manufacturer of iron or wool in England, you will see that labor is much cheaper there than it
ever can be by Negroes here. Why then will Americans purchase slaves? Because slaves may
be kept as long as a man pleases, or has occasion for their labor; while hired men are
continually leaving their masters (often in the midst of his business and setting up for
themselves).[2]
The Negroes brought into the English sugar islands have greatly diminished the whites there;
the poor are, by this means, deprived of employment, while a few families acquire vast
estates, which they spend on foreign luxuries, and educating their children in the habit of
those luxuries; the same income is needed for the support of one that might have maintained
one hundred. The whites who have slaves, not laboring, are enfeebled, and therefore not so
generally prolific; the slaves being worked too hard, and ill fed, their constitutions are broken
and the deaths among them are more than the births; so that a continual supply is needed from
Africa. The northern colonies, having few slaves, increase in whites. Slaves also[Pg 43]
pejorate the families that use them; the white children become proud, disgusted with labor,
and, being educated in idleness, are rendered unfit to get a living by industry.[3]
As the following letter indicates, Franklin was in close touch with one of the most ardent anti-slavery men of
his day, Anthony Benezet, whose pamphlets he often published:
London, 22 August, 1772.
Dear Friend,
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN AND FREEDOM 23

I made a little extract from yours of April 27th, of the number of slaves imported and
perishing, with some close remarks on the hypocrisy of this country, which encourages such a
detestable commerce by laws for promoting the Guinea trade; while it piqued itself on its
virtue, love of liberty, and the equity of its courts, in setting free a single Negro. This was
inserted in the London Chronicle, of the 20th of June last.
I thank you for the Virginia address, which I shall also publish with some remarks. I am glad
to hear that the disposition against keeping Negroes grows more general in North America.
Several pieces have been lately printed here against the practice, and I hope in time it will be
taken into consideration and suppressed by the legislature. Your labors have already been
attended with great effects. I hope, therefore, you and your friends will be encouraged to
proceed. My hearty wishes of success attend you, being ever, my dear friend, yours
affectionately,
B. Franklin.[4]
The same sentiments of Franklin are expressed in the following letter to Dean Woodward in 1773:
London, 10 April, 1773.
Reverend Sir,
Desirous of being revived in your memory, I take this opportunity, by my good friend Mrs.
Blacker, of sending you a printed piece, and a manuscript, both on a subject you and I
frequently conversed upon with concurring sentiments, when I had the pleasure of seeing you
in Dublin. I have since had the satisfaction to[Pg 44] learn, that a disposition to abolish
slavery prevails in North America, that many of the Pennsylvanians have set their slaves at
liberty, and that even the Virginia Assembly have petitioned the King for permission to make
a law for preventing the importation of more into that colony. This request, however, will
probably not be granted, as their former laws of that kind have always been repealed, and as
the interest of a few merchants here has more weight with government than that of thousands
at a distance.[5]
The following letter from Richard Price attests Franklin's interest and efforts in behalf of the slaves:
Hackney, 26 September, 1787.
My dear Friend,
I am very happy when I think of the encouragement which you have given me to address you
under this appellation. Your friendship I reckon indeed one of the distinctions of my life. I
frequently receive great pleasure from the accounts of you, which Dr. Rush and Mr. Vaughan
send me. But I receive much greater pleasure from seeing your own hand.
I have lately been favored with two letters, which have given me this pleasure, the last of
which acquaints me, that my name has been added to the number of the corresponding
members of the Pennsylvania Society for Abolishing Negro Slavery, of which you are
president, and also brought me a pamphlet containing the constitution and the laws of
Pennsylvania, which relate to the object of the Society. I hope that you and the Society will
accept my thanks, and believe that I am truly sensible of the honor done me. As for any
services I can do, they are indeed but small; for I find, that, far from possessing, in the decline

of life, your vigor of body and mind, every kind of business is becoming more and more an
incumbrance to me. At the same time, the calls of business increase upon me, as you will
learn in some measure from the Report at the end of the Discourse, which you will receive
with this letter.
A similar institution to yours, for abolishing Negro slavery, is just formed in London, and I
have been desired to make one of the acting committee, but I have begged to be excused. I
have sent you some of their papers. I need not say how earnestly I wish success to such
institutions. Something, perhaps, will be done with this view by the convention of delegates.
This convention, consisting[Pg 45] of many of the first men, in respect of wisdom and
influence, in the United States, must be a most august and venerable assembly. May God
guide their deliberations. The happiness of the world depends, in some degree, on the result. I
am waiting with patience for an account of it.[6]
At the instigation of Franklin, the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery and the Relief
of Free Negroes Unlawfully held in Bondage[7] published this address:
It is with peculiar satisfaction we assure the friends of humanity, that, in prosecuting the
design of our association, our endeavours have proved successful, far beyond our most
sanguine expectations.
Encouraged by this success, and by the daily progress of that luminous and benign spirit of
liberty, which is diffusing itself throughout the world, and humbly hoping for the continuance
of the divine blessing on our labors, we have ventured to make an important addition to our
original plan, and do therefore earnestly solicit the support and assistance of all who can feel
the tender emotions of sympathy and compassion or relish the exalted pleasure of
beneficence.
Slavery is such an atrocious debasement of human nature, that its very extirpation, if not
performed with solicitous care, may sometimes open a source of serious evils.
The unhappy man, who has long been treated as a brute animal, too frequently sinks beneath
the common standard of the human species. The galling chains, that bind his body, do also
fetter his intellectual faculties, and impair the social affections of his heart. Accustomed to
move like a mere machine, by the will of a master, reflection is suspended; he has not the
power of choice; and reason and conscience have but little influence over his conduct,
because he is chiefly governed by the passion of fear. He is poor and friendless; perhaps worn
out by extreme labor, age, and disease.
Under such circumstances, freedom may often prove a misfortune to himself, and prejudicial
to society.
Attention to emancipated black people, it is therefore to be hoped,[Pg 46] will become a

branch of our national policy; but, as far as we contribute to promote this emancipation, so far
that attention is evidently a serious duty incumbent on us, and which we mean to discharge to
the best of our judgment and abilities.
To instruct, to advise, to qualify those, who have been restored to freedom, for the exercise
and enjoyment of civil liberty, to promote in them habits of industry, to furnish them with
employments suited to their age, sex, talents, and other circumstances, and to procure their
children an education calculated for their future situation in life; these are the great outlines of

the annexed plan, which we have adopted, and which we conceive will essentially promote
the public good, and the happiness of these our hitherto too much neglected fellow-creatures.
A plan so extensive cannot be carried into execution without considerable pecuniary

resources, beyond the present ordinary funds of the Society. We hope much from the
generosity of enlightened and benevolent freemen, and will gratefully receive any donations
or subscriptions for this purpose, which may be made to our treasurer, James Starr, or to
James Pemberton, chairman of our committee of correspondence.
Signed, by order of the Society,
B. Franklin, President.
Philadelphia, 9th of November, 1789.
Writing to John Wright in London in 1789, Franklin showed that he never neglected the movement to abolish
the slave trade:
Philadelphia, 4 November, 1789.
I wish success to your endeavours for obtaining an abolition of the Slave Trade. The epistle
from your Yearly Meeting, for the year 1768, was not the first sowing of the good seed you
mention; for I find by an old pamphlet in my possession, that George Keith, near a hundred
years since, wrote a paper against the practice, said to be "given forth by the appointment of
the meeting held by him, at Phillip James's house, in the city of Philadelphia, about the year
1693"; wherein a strict charge was given to Friends, "that they should set their Negroes at
liberty, after some reasonable time of service, &c., &c." And about the year 1728, or 1729, I
myself printed a book for Ralph Sandyford, another of your Friends in this city, against
keeping Negroes in slavery, two editions[Pg 47] of which he distributed gratis. And about the
year 1736 I printed another book on the same subject for Benjamin Lay, who also professed
being one of your Friends, and he distributed the books chiefly among them. By these
instances it appears, that the seed was indeed sown in the good ground of your profession,
though much earlier than the time you mention, and its springing up to effect at last, though
so late, is some confirmation of Lord Bacon's observation, that a good motion never dies; and
it may encourage us in making such, though hopeless of their taking immediate effect.[8]
Footnotes:
[1] The Works of Benjamin Franklin, Correspondence, VII, pp. 201-202.
[2] Ibid., II, p. 314.
[3] The Works of Benjamin Franklin, II, p. 316.
[4] Ibid., VIII, pp. 16-17.
[5] Works of Benjamin Franklin, VIII, p. 42.
[6] Works of Benjamin Franklin, X, p. 320.
[7] Ibid., II, p. 515.
Footnotes: 26
[8] Works of Benjamin Franklin, X, p. 403.
ON THE SLAVE TRADE
"Dr. Franklin's name, as President of the Abolition Society, was signed to the memorial presented to the
House of Representatives of the United States, on the 12th of February, 1789, praying them to exert the full
extent of power vested in them by the Constitution, in discouraging the traffic of the human species. This was
his last public act. In the debates to which this memorial gave rise, several attempts were made to justify the
trade. In the Federal Gazette of March 25th, 1790, there appeared an essay, signed Historicus, written by Dr.
Franklin, in which he communicated a Speech, said to have been delivered in the Divan of Algiers, in 1687, in
opposition to the prayer of the petition of a sect called Erika, or Purists, for the abolition of piracy and slavery.
This pretended African speech was an excellent parody of one delivered by Mr. Jackson, of Georgia. All the
arguments urged in favor of Negro slavery are applied with equal force to justify the plundering and enslaving
of Europeans. It affords, at the same time, a demonstration of the futility of the arguments in defense of the
slave-trade, and of the strength of mind and ingenuity of the author, at his advanced period of life. It furnishes,
too, a no less convincing proof of his power of imitating the style of other times and nations, than his
celebrated Parable against Persecution. And as the latter led many persons to search the Scriptures with a
view to find it, so the former caused many persons to search the bookstores[Pg 48] and libraries for the work
from which it was said to be extracted."—Dr. Stuber.
To the Editor of the Federal Gazette.[1]
March 23d, 1790.
Sir,
Reading last night in your excellent paper the speech of Mr. Jackson in Congress against their
meddling with the affair of slavery, or attempting to mend the condition of the slaves, it put
me in mind of a similar one made about one hundred years since by Sidi Mehemet Ibrahim, a
member of the Divan of Algiers, which may be seen in Martin's Account of his Consulship,
anno 1687. It was against granting the petition of the sect called Erika, or Purists, who prayed
for the abolition of piracy and slavery as being unjust. Mr. Jackson does not quote it; perhaps
he has not seen it. If, therefore, some of its reasonings are to be found in his eloquent speech,
it may only show that men's interests and intellects operate and are operated on with
surprising similarity in all countries and climates, whenever they are under similar
circumstances. The African's speech, as translated, is as follows:
"Allah Bismillah, &c. God is great, and Mahomet is his Prophet.
"Have these Erika considered the consequences of granting their petition? If we cease our
cruises against the Christians, how shall we be furnished with the commodities their countries
produce, and which are so necessary for us? If we forbear to make slaves of their people, who
in this hot climate are to cultivate our lands? Who are to perform the common labors of our
city, and in our families? Must we not then be our own slaves? And is there not more
compassion and more favor due to us as Mussulmen, than to these Christian dogs? We have
now above fifty thousand slaves in and near Algiers. This number, if not kept up by fresh
supplies, will soon diminish, and be gradually annihilated. If we then cease taking and
plundering the infidel ships, and making slaves of the seamen and passengers, our lands will
ON THE SLAVE TRADE 27

become of no value for want of cultivation; the rents of houses in the city will sink one half;
and the revenue of government arising from its share of prizes be totally destroyed! And for
what? To gratify the whims of a whimsical sect, who would have us, not only forbear making
more slaves, but even manumit those we have.[2][Pg 49]
"But who is to indemnify their masters for the loss! Will the state do it? Is our treasury
sufficient? Will the Erika do it? Can they do it? Or would they, to do what they think justice
to the slaves, do a greater injustice to the owners? And if we set our slaves free, what is to be
done with them? Few of them will return to their countries; they know too well the greater
hardships they must there be subject to; they will not embrace our holy religion; they will not
adopt our manners; our people will not pollute themselves by intermarrying with them. Must
we maintain them as beggars in our streets, or suffer our properties to be the prey of their
pillage? For men accustomed to slavery will not work for a livelihood when not compelled.
And what is there so pitiable in their present condition? Were they not slaves in their own
countries?
"Are not Spain, Portugal, France, and the Italian states governed by despots, who hold all
their subjects in slavery, without exception? Even England treats its sailors as slaves; for they
are, whenever the government pleases, seized, and confined in ships of war, condemned not
only to work, but to fight, for small wages, or a mere subsistence, not better than our slaves
are allowed by us. Is their condition then made worse by their falling into our hands? No; they
have only exchanged one slavery for another and I may say a better; for here they are brought
into a land where the sun of Islamism gives forth its light, and shines in full splendor, and
they have an opportunity of making themselves acquainted with the true doctrine, and thereby
saving their immortal souls. Those who remain at home have not that happiness. Sending the
slaves home then would be sending them out of light into darkness.[3]
"I repeat the question, What is to be done with them? I have heard it suggested, that they may
be planted in the wilderness, where there is plenty of land for them to subsist on, and where
they may flourish as a free state; but they are, I doubt, too little disposed to labor without
compulsion, as well as too ignorant to establish a good government, and the wild Arabs
would soon molest and destroy or again enslave them. While serving us, we take care to
provide them with everything, and they are treated with humanity. The laborers in their own
country are, as I am well informed, worse fed, lodged, and clothed. The condition of most of
them is therefore already mended, and requires no further improvement. Here their lives are
in safety. They are not liable to be[Pg 50] impressed for soldiers, and forced to cut one
another's Christian throats, as in the wars of their own countries. If some of the religious mad
bigots, who now tease us with their silly petitions, have in a fit of blind zeal freed their slaves,
it was not generosity, it was not humanity, that moved them to the action; it was from the
conscious burthen of a load of sins, and a hope, from the supposed merits of so good a work,
to be excused from damnation.[4]
"How grossly are they mistaken to suppose slavery to be disallowed by the Alcoran! Are not
the two precepts, to quote no more, 'Masters, treat your slaves with kindness; Slaves, serve
your masters with cheerfulness and fidelity,' clear proofs to the contrary? Nor can the
plundering of infidels be in that sacred book forbidden, since it is well known from it, that
God has given the world, and all that it contains, to his faithful Mussulmen, who are to enjoy
it of right as fast as they conquer it. Let us then hear no more of this detestable proposition,
the manumission of Christian slaves, the adoption of which would, by depreciating our lands,
and houses, and thereby depriving so many good citizens of their properties, create universal
discontent, and provoke insurrections, to the endangering of government and producing
ON THE SLAVE TRADE 28

general confusion. I have therefore no doubt, but this wise council will prefer the comfort and
happiness of a whole nation of true believers to the whim of a few Erika, and dismiss their
petition."
The result was, as Martin tells us, that the Divan came to this resolution: "The doctrine, that
plundering and enslaving the Christians is unjust, is at best problematical; but that it is the
interest of this state to continue the practice, is clear; therefore let the petition be rejected."
And it was rejected accordingly.
And since like motives are apt to produce in the minds of men like opinions and resolutions,
may we not, Mr. Brown, venture to predict, from this account, that the petitions to the
Parliament of England for abolishing the slave-trade, to say nothing of other legislatures, and
the debates upon them, will have a similar conclusion? I am, Sir, your constant reader and
humble servant,
Historicus.[5]
Footnotes:
[1] The Works of Benjamin Franklin, II, p. 517.
[2] Ibid., II, pp. 518-519.
[3] The Works of Benjamin Franklin, II, pp. 519-520.
[4] The Works of Benjamin Franklin, II, pp. 520-521.
[5] Ibid., II, p. 521.[Pg 51]
THE PROCEEDINGS OF A MISSISSIPPI MIGRATION CONVENTION IN

1879[1]
The convention of the planters of the Mississippi Valley, which has attracted the attention of
the entire county, ever since the call for its assembly was published, met in this city, this
morning. Delegates from all sections of the country are present and more are expected. The
original intention was to hold the meeting of the convention in the Operahouse, but owing to
the large crowd present, and the warm weather, the place of meeting was changed to the
Concert Garden.
At half past twelve Judge Farrar called the meeting to order, and requested Gen. W. R. Miles
to act as temporary chairman. On taking the chair the General delivered a short address and
then announced that the convention would proceed to permanent organization.
A committee of twenty on permanent organization was appointed.
While the committee was out the convention was addressed by Judge H. Simrall, of
Mississippi, and Hon. Henry S. Foote, of Louisiana.
The following gentlemen were elected permanent officers of the convention:
Footnotes: 29
President—Gen. W. R. Miles, of Yazoo county.
Vice-presidents—T. F. Cassell, of Tennessee; James Hill, of Jackson, Mississippi; H.

B. Robinson, of Arkansas; David Young, of Louisiana.
Secretary—A. W. Crandall, Louisiana.
Assistant Secretaries—Jno. A. Galbreth, Jackson; J. D. Webster, Washington county.
Sergeant at Arms—J. B. Pegram, Vicksburg.
Assistant sergeant at Arms—J. W. Crichloy, Vicksburg; George Volker, Vicksburg; G.

W. Walton, Vicksburg; Wesley Crayton, Vicksburg.
After appointing a committee on credentials, the convention took a recess until three o'clock.
Second Day
The convention was called to order by the president at half past nine.[Pg 52]
Col. W. L. Nugent, chairman of the committee, presented the following preamble and
resolutions:
Mr. President. Your committee on resolutions beg leave respectfully to report that they have
inquired into the causes which have given rise to the recent exodus of our colored population,
as far as possible within the limited time allowed, and while these causes are difficult to
ascertain, owing to the exceptional cases of all kinds brought to their attention, they believe
the following to include those which may be considered prominent:
1st. The low price of cotton and the partial failure of the crop of the past year.
2d. The irrational system of planting adopted in some sections, whereby labor was deprived
of intelligence to direct it, and the presence of economy to make it profitable.
3d. The vicious system of credit fostered by laws permitting laborers and tenants to mortgage
crops before they were grown or even planted.
4th. The apprehension on the part of many colored people, produced by insidious reports
circulated among them, that their civil and political rights are endangered, or are likely to be.
5th. The hurtful and false rumors, diligently disseminated, that by emigrating to Kansas, the
colored people would obtain lands, mules and money from the government without cost to
themselves, and become independent forever.
It is a matter of astonishment to your committees that the colored people could be induced to
credit the idle stories circulated of a promised land, where their wants would be supplied, and
their independence secured, without exertion on their part. It was going to the extent of
ignorance and credulity to credit them; and yet evidences of an undoubted character was
furnished your committee as to this matter. It is one of the factors in a movement the end of
which we cannot now forecaste. There are in the State of Mississippi alone five million five
hundred thousand acres of land belonging to the United States now subject to homestead
THE PROCEEDINGS OF A MISSISSIPPI MIGRATION CONVENTION IN1879[1] 30

entries. Any thrifty colored man in the South can pre-empt one hundred and sixty acres of this
land at the moderate cost of about eighteen dollars. Lands in Kansas cannot be acquired for
less. In no part of the civilized world can unskilled labor secure a larger return, by honest toil,
than among us, but idleness accompanied by extravagance produces suffering and want here
as elsewhere.[Pg 53]
Your committee believes that the legislation of our States should be shaped so as to foster
habits of industry among the colored people, elevate the standard of social morals, and
improve and preserve our common school system.
Diverse views have been expressed by parties equally desirous of reaching the same
conclusion: To ascertain grievances and apply as far as it can be done by us, the proper
redress. If the single purpose of all was to accomplish this result, without the influences
which our past experiences have engendered to expect it, this might be done; but it can only
be done with full knowledge of all the facts. That errors have been committed by the whites
and blacks alike as each in turn have controlled the government of the States here represented,
may be safely admitted. Disregarding the past, burying its dead with it, standing upon the
living present, and looking hopefully to the future which is before us, your committee think
their duty accomplished when they have adopted and reported these resolutions:
Resolved, That the interests of planters and laborers, landlords and tenants are identical; and
that they must prosper or suffer together; and that it is the duty of the planters and landlords
of the States here represented to devise and adopt some contract system with laborers and
tenants by which both parties will receive the full benefit of labor governed by intelligence
and economy.
Resolved, That this convention does affirm that the colored race has been placed by the
constitution of the United States and the States here represented, of the laws thereof, on a
plane of absolute legal equality with the white race; and does declare that the colored race
shall be accorded the practical enjoyment of all rights, civil and political, guaranteed by the
said constitution and laws.
Resolved, That, to this end, the members of this convention pledge themselves to use
whatever of power and influence they possess, to protect the colored race against all dangers
in respect to the fair expression of their wills at the polls, which they may apprehend may
result from fraud, intimidation or "bull dozing," on the part of the whites. And as there can be
no liberty of action without freedom of thought, they demand that all elections shall be fair
and free and that no repressive measure shall be employed by the colored people to deprive
their own race of any part of the fullest freedom in the exercise of the highest right of
citizenship.
Resolved, That the unrestricted credit system pervading the States here represented, based
upon liens and mortgages on stock[Pg 54] and crops to be grown in the future, followed by a
failure of that crop, has provoked distrust, created unrest, and disturbed their entire laboring
population. All laws authorizing liens on crops for advances constituted on articles other than
those of prime necessity at moderate profits, where such advances are made by landlords,
planters or merchants, should be discontinued and repealed.
Resolved, That this convention call upon the colored people here represented to contradict the
false reports circulated among and impressed upon the more ignorant and credulous; to
instruct them that no lands nor mules nor money await them in Kansas or elsewhere without
THE PROCEEDINGS OF A MISSISSIPPI MIGRATION CONVENTION IN1879[1] 31

labor or price and to report to the civil authorities all persons engaging in disseminating any
such reports.
Resolved, That it is the constitutional right of the colored people to migrate where they
please, and to whatever State they may select for their residence; but this convention urges
them to proceed on their movement towards migration as reasonable human beings, providing
in advance, by economy and effective labor, the means for transportation and settlement, and
sustain their reputation for honesty and fair dealing, by preserving intact until completion the
contracts for labor and leasing, which they have made. If, when they have done this, they still
desire to leave, all obstacles to their departure be removed; all practicable assistance will be
afforded to them, and their places will be supplied with other and contented labor.
Your committee believe that if the views employed in the foregoing resolutions are
practically carried out by the people of both races, in good faith, the disquiet of our people
will subside. We appeal to the people of both races, in the States here represented, to aid us in
carrying these resolutions into effect, and to report to the authorities all violations of the laws
and all interference with private rights.
W. L. Nugent,
Chairman.
Gov. Foote moved to amend by substituting other resolutions, and addressed the convention
in support of his motion.
Speeches were made in favor of the original resolutions by Judge Simrall, Hon. James Hill,
Capt. W. B. Pittman, Mr. Robinson, of Arkansas, and Col. Nugent.
At the conclusion of Col. Nugent's address the resolutions were adopted unanimously and the
convention adjourned sine die.
Footnotes:
[1] These proceedings appeared in The Vicksburg Commercial Daily Advertiser, May 5, 1879.
[Pg 55]
HOW THE NEGROES WERE DUPED[1]

Washington Letter to New York Herald.
Gorgeously illuminated chromo-lithographs of Kansas scenes have been distributed among

the blacks. The gentleman who has seen some of these chromos writes that the most ravishing
presentment of rural life in Kansas is depicted. The Negroes look on the State as a second
paradise, compared with which old Canaan is a Florida swamp. One of these pictures, entitled
"A Freedman's Home," represents a fine landscape, with fields of ripening grain stretching
away to the setting sun.
In the foreground, illuminated by a marvelous sunset, stood the freedman's home. It was a
picturesque cottage with gables, dormer windows and wide verandas. French windows
Footnotes: 32
reached down to the floor, and through the open casements appeared a seductive scene in the
family sitting room. The colored father, who had just returned from his harvest fields, sat in
an easy chair reading a newspaper, while the children and babies rollicked on the floor of the
piazza. Through the open door of the kitchen the colored wife could be seen directing the
servants and cooks who were preparing the evening meal. In the parlor, however, was the
most enchanting feature, for at a grand piano was poised the belle of the household, and
beside the piano where she was playing stood her colored lover, devouring her with his eyes
while he abstractedly turned the leaves of her music. Just to one side of the dwelling appeared
a commodious barn and carriage house and workmen busily engaged in putting in order their
reapers and mowers for the following day.
In one of these pictures, "Old Auntie" sits on the veranda knitting stockings while she gazes
on herds of buffalo and antelope, which are feeding on the prairies beyond the wheat fields.
Approaching the gate a handsome colored man is seen coming in from the hunt, with a dead
buck and a string of wild turkeys slung over his shoulders. These agricultural cartoons, in
vivid coloring, the writer reports are doing much to influence the minds of the more ignorant
Negroes.
Footnotes:
[1] This appeared in The Vicksburg Commercial Daily Advertiser, May 6, 1879.
[Pg 56]
REMARKS ON THIS EXODUS BY FREDERICK DOUGLASS[1]

Washington, May 6.
Fred. Douglass, marshal of the District, is out in a very strong letter, published in the National
View, the new Greenback organ here, vigorously opposing the emigration of Negroes from
the South. He earnestly advises the colored men to remain at home.
The letter has caused a good deal of annoyance among the leading Republicans, who have
been vigorously working up this movement, believing that it was a godsend to them and
would be a strong issue in future campaigns.
Fred. Douglass winds up his letter as follows:
"I am opposed to this exodus, because it is an untimely concession to the idea that white
people and colored people cannot live together in peace and prosperity unless the whites are a
majority and control the legislation and hold the offices of the State. I am opposed to this
exodus, because it will pour upon the people of Kansas and other Northern States a multitude
of deluded, hungry, homeless people to be supported in a large measure by alms. I am
opposed to this exodus, because it will enable our political adversaries to make successful
appeals to popular prejudice (as in the case of the Chinese) on the ground that these people, so
ignorant and helpless, have been imported for the purpose of making the North solid by
outvoting intelligent white Northern citizens. I am opposed to this exodus, because 'rolling
stones gather no moss;' and I agree with Emerson that the men who made Rome or any other
locality worth going to see stayed there. There is, in my judgment, no part of the United
States where an industrious and intelligent man can serve his race more wisely and efficiently
HOW THE NEGROES WERE DUPED[1] 33

than upon the soil where he was born and reared and is known. I am opposed to this exodus
because I see in it a tendency to convert colored laboring men into traveling tramps, first
going North because they are persecuted, and then returning South because they have been
deceived in their expectations, which will excite against themselves and against our whole
race an increasing measure of popular contempt and scorn. I am opposed to this exodus
because I believe that the conditions of existence in the Southern States are[Pg 57] steadily
improving, and that the colored man there will ultimately realize the fullest measure of liberty
and equality accorded and secured in any section of our common country.
Footnotes:
[1] This appeared in The Vicksburg Commercial Daily Advertiser, May 7, 1879.
THE SENATE REPORT ON THE EXODUS OF 1879

Hearing of the commotion among the Negroes in Louisiana and Mississippi in 1879, Senator D. W. Voorhees,
of Indiana, offered the following resolution which was accepted:
Whereas, large numbers of Negroes from the Southern States, and especially from the State of
North Carolina, are migrating to the Northern States, and especially to the State of Indiana;
and,
Whereas, it is currently alleged that they are induced to do so by the unjust and cruel conduct
of their white fellow citizens toward them in the South; therefore,
Be it Resolved, That a committee of five members of this body be appointed by its presiding
officer, whose duty it shall be to investigate the causes which have led to the aforesaid
migration, and to report the same to the Senate; and said committee shall have power to send
for persons and papers, compelling the defense of witnesses, and to sit at any time.[1]
Thereupon Senator William Windom, of Minnesota, offered the following amendment which led to the
discussion of all sorts of phases of the race problem and finally to a majority and minority report on the
exodus:[2]
And Be it Therefore Resolved, That in case said committee shall find that said migration of
colored people from the South has been caused by cruel and unjust treatment or by the denial
or abridgement of personal or political rights, have so far inquired and reported to the Senate,
first; what, if any, action of Congress may be necessary to secure to every citizen of the
United States the full and free enjoyment of all rights guaranteed by the constitution; second;
where the peaceful adjustment of the colored race of all sectional issues may not be best
secured by the distribution of the colored race through their partial migration from those
States and congressional districts where, by reason of their numerical majority,[Pg 58] they
are not allowed to freely and peacefully exercise the rights of citizenship; and third; that said
committee shall inquire and report as to the expediency and practicability of providing such
territory or territories as may be necessary for the use and occupation of persons who may
desire to migrate from their present homes in order to secure the free, full, and peaceful
enjoyment of their constitutional rights and privileges.[2a]
Report
REMARKS ON THIS EXODUS BY FREDERICK DOUGLASS[1] 34

The Select Committee, appointed by the Senate to investigate the causes which have led to the
migration of the Negroes from the Southern States to the Northern States, having duly
considered the same, beg leave to submit the following report:[3]
On the 18th day of December, 1879, the Senate passed the following resolution:
Whereas, large numbers of Negroes from the Southern States are emigrating to the Northern
States; and,
Whereas, it is currently alleged that they are induced to do so by the unjust and cruel conduct
of their white fellow-citizens towards them in the South, and by the denial or abridgement of
their personal and political rights and privileges; therefore,
Be it Resolved, That a committee of five members of this body be appointed by its presiding
officer, whose duty it shall be to investigate the causes which have led to the aforesaid
emigration, and to report the same to the Senate; and said committee shall have power to send
for persons and papers, and to sit at any time.
In obedience to this resolution the committee proceeded to take testimony on the 19th day of
January, and continuing from time to time until 153 witnesses had been examined, embracing
persons from the States of North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas,
Missouri, Kansas, and Indiana. Much of this testimony is of such a character as would not be
received in a court of justice, being hearsay, the opinions of witnesses, &c., but we received it
with a view to ascertaining, if possible, the real state of facts in regard to the condition of the
Southern colored people, their opinions and feelings, and the feelings and opinions of their
white neighbors. We think it clearly established from the testimony that the following may be
said to be the causes which have[Pg 59] induced this migration of the colored people from
various portions of the South to Northern States, chiefly to Kansas, and Indiana: That from
North Carolina, the State to which we first directed our attention, was undoubtedly induced in
a great degree by Northern politicians, and by Negro leaders in their employ, and in the
employ of railroad lines.
Examining particularly into the condition of the colored men in that State, it was disclosed by
the testimony of whites and blacks, Republicans and Democrats, that the causes of discontent
among those people could not have arisen from any deprivation of their political rights or any
hardship in their condition. A minute examination into their situation shows that the average
rate of wages, according to the age and strength of the hand for field labor, was from eight to
fifteen dollars per month, including board and house to live in, garden and truck patches,
around the house, fire-wood, and certain other privileges, all rent free.
These, added to the extra labor which could be earned by hands during the season of
gathering turpentine and resin, or of picking cotton made the general average of compensation
for labor in that State quite equal to if not better than in any Northern State to which these
people were going, to say nothing of the climate of North Carolina, which was infinitely
better adapted to them.
The closest scrutiny could detect no outrage or violence inflicted upon their political rights in
North Carolina for many years past. They all testified that they voted freely; that their votes
were counted fairly; that no improper influence whatsoever was exerted over them; and many
were acquiring real estate, and were enjoying the same privileges of education for their
children, precisely, that the whites were enjoying.
THE SENATE REPORT ON THE EXODUS OF 1879 35

It was also disclosed by the testimony that there existed aid societies in the city of
Washington, in the city of Topeka, Kans., Indianapolis, and elsewhere throughout the West,
whose avowed object was to furnish aid to colored men migrating to the West and North; and
notwithstanding that the agents and members of these societies generally disclaimed that it
was their intention to induce any colored men to leave their homes, but only to aid in taking
care of them after they had arrived, yet it was established undeniably, not only that the effect
of these societies and of the aid extended by them operated to cause the exodus originally, but
that they stimulated it directly by publishing and distributing among the colored men circulars
artfully designed and calculated to stir[Pg 60] up discontent. Every single member, agent,
friend, or sympathizer with these societies and their purposes were ascertained to belong to
the Republican party, and generally to be active members thereof. Some of the circulars
contained the grossest misrepresentation of facts, and in almost all cases the immigrants
expected large aid from the government of clothes, or land, or money or free transportation,
or something of that kind. Hundreds of them, on given days at various points in the South,
crowded to the depots or to the steamboat landings upon a rumor that free transportation was
to be furnished to all who would go. It was also disclosed by the testimony on the part of
some very candid and intelligent witnesses that their object in promoting this exodus of the
colored people was purely political. They thought it would be well to remove a sufficient
number of blacks from the South, where their votes could not be made to tell, into close
States in the North, and thus turn the scale in favor of the Republican party.
Wages, rents, method of cropping on shares, &c., were inquired into in all of the Southern
States mentioned, and the fact ascertained that the aggregate was about the same as in North
Carolina. In most of the Southern States, where wages were higher than in North Carolina,
expenses were also higher, so that the aggregate, as before stated, was about the same.
One cause of complaint alleged as a reason for this exodus of the colored people from the
South was their mistreatment in the courts of justice. Directing our attention to this the
committee have ascertained that in many of the districts of the South the courts were under
entire Republican control—judges, prosecuting attorneys, sheriffs, &c., and that there
were generally as many complaints from districts thus controlled as there were from districts
which were under the control of the Democratic officials; and that the whole of the
complaints taken together might be said to be such as are generally made by the ignorant who
fail to receive in courts what they think is justice.
Your committee found no State or county in the South, into which this investigation extended,
where colored men were excluded from juries either in theory or in practice; they found no
county or district in the South where they were excluded, either in theory or practice, from
their share in the management of county affairs and of the control of county government. On
the contrary, whenever their votes were in a majority we found that the officers were most
generally divided among the black people, or among white[Pg 61] people of their choice.
Frequently we found the schools to be controlled by them, especially that portion of the
school fund which was allotted to their race, and the complaints which had been so often
made of excessive punishment of the blacks by the courts as compared with the whites upon
investigation in nearly all cases, proved to be either unfounded in fact or that if there was an
apparent excess of punishment of a black man the cause was ascertained to be in the nature of
the crime with which he was charged, or the attendant circumstances.
The educational advantages in the South, the committee regret to say, were found to be
insufficient, and far inferior to those of most of the States of the North, but such as they were
we found in every case that the blacks had precisely the same advantages that the whites

enjoyed; that the school fund was divided among them according to numbers; that their
teachers were quite as good, and chosen with as much care; that their schools existed as many
months in the year; in short, the same facilities were afforded to the blacks as were to the
whites in this respect; and that these schools were generally supported by the voluntary
taxation imposed by the legislatures composed of white men, levied upon their own property
for the common benefit.
With regard to political outrages which have formed the staple of complaint for many years
against the people of the South, your committee diligently inquired, and have to report that
they found nothing or almost nothing new. Many old stories were revived and dwelt upon by
zealous witnesses, but very few indeed ventured to say that any considerable violence or
outrage had been exhibited toward the colored people of the South within the last few years,
and still fewer of all those who testified upon this subject, and who were evidently anxious to
make the most of it, testified to anything as within their own knowledge. It was all hearsay,
and nothing but hearsay, with rare exceptions.
Many of the witnesses before us were colored politicians, men who make their living by
politics, and whose business it was to stir up feeling between the whites and blacks; keep
alive the embers of political hatred; and were men of considerable intelligence, so that what
they failed to set forth of outrages perpetrated against their race may be safely assumed not to
exist. Many, on the contrary, were intelligent, sober, industrious, and respectable men, who
testified to their own condition, the amount of property that they had accumulated since their
emancipation, the comfort in which they[Pg 62] lived, the respect with which they were
regarded by their white neighbors. These universally expressed the opinion that all colored
men who would practice equal industry and sobriety could have fared equally well; and in
fact their own condition was ample proof of the treatment of the colored people by the whites
of the South, and of their opportunities to thrive, if they were so determined. Some of these
men owned so much as a thousand acres of real estate in the best portions of the South; many
of them had tenants of their own, white men, occupying their premises and paying them rent;
and your committee naturally arrived at the conclusion that if one black man could attain to
this degree of prosperity and respectable citizenship, others could, having the same capacity
for business and practicing the same sobriety and industry.
Your committee also directed their attention to the complaints frequently made with regard to
the laws passed in various States of the South relating to landlord and tenant, and to the
system adopted by many planters for furnishing their tenants and laborers with supplies. We
found, upon investigation of these laws, and of the witnesses in relation to their operation,
that as a general rule they were urgently called for by the circumstances in which the South
found itself after the war. The universal adoption of homestead and personal property
exemption laws deprived poor men of credit, and the landlord class, for its own protection,
procured the passage of these laws giving them a lien upon the crop made by the tenant until
his rents and his supplies furnished for the subsistence of the tenant and his family had been
paid and discharged; and while upon the surface these laws appeared to be hard and in favor
of the landlord, they were, as was actually testified by many intelligent witnesses, quite as
much or more in favor of the tenant, as it enabled him to obtain credit, to subsist himself and
his family, and to make a crop without any means whatsoever but his own labor. It was
alleged also that in many instances landlords, or if not landlords then merchants, would
establish country stores for furnishing supplies to laborers and tenants, and the laborer, having
no money to go elsewhere or take the natural advantages of competition, was forced to buy at
these stores at exorbitant prices.

Your committee regret to say that they found it to be frequently the case that designing men,
or bad and dishonest men, would take advantage of the ignorance or necessity of the Negroes
to obtain these exorbitant prices; but at the same time your committee is not[Pg 63] aware of
a spot on earth where the cunning and unscrupulous do not take advantage of the ignorant;
and cannot regard it as a sufficient cause for these black people leaving their homes and going
into distant States and among strangers unless they had a proper assurance that the State to
which they were going contained no dishonest men, or men who would take such advantage
of them. Your committee feel bound to say, however, in justice to the planters of the South,
that this abuse is not at all general nor frequent; and that as a general rule while exorbitant
prices are exacted sometimes from men in the situation of the blacks, yet the excuse for it is
the risk which planter and merchant run. Should a bad crop year come, should the Army
worm devour the cotton, or any other calamity come upon the crop, the landlord is without his
rent, the storekeeper is without his pay, and worse than all the laborer is without a means of
subsistence for the next year. It is hoped and believed that when the heretofore disturbed
condition of the people of the South settles down into regularity and order, the natural laws of
trade and competition will assert themselves and this evil will be to a great extent remedied,
whilst the diffusion of education among the colored people will enable them to keep their
own accounts and hold a check upon those who would act dishonestly towards them.
On the whole, your committee express the positive opinion that the condition of the colored
people of the South is not only as good as could have been reasonably expected, but is better
than if large communities were transferred to a colder and more inhospitable climate, thrust
into competition with a different system of labor, among strangers who are not accustomed to
them, their ways, habits of thought and action, their idiosyncrasies, and their feelings. While a
gradual migration, such as circumstances dictate among the white races, might benefit the
individual black man and his family as it does those of the white race, we cannot but regard
this wholesale attempt to transfer a people without means and without intelligence, from the
homes of their nativity in this manner, as injurious to the people of the South, injurious to the
people and the labor system of the State where they go, and, more than all, injurious to the
last degree to the black people themselves. That there is much in their condition to be
deplored in the South no one will deny; that that condition is gradually and steadily
improving in every respect is equally true. That there have been clashings of the races in the
South, socially and politically, is never to be denied[Pg 64] nor to be wondered at; but when
we come to consider the method in which the people were freed, as the result of a bitter and
desolating civil war; and that for purposes of party politics these incompetent, ignorant,
landless, homeless people, without any qualifications of citizenship, without any of the ties of
property or the obligations of education, were suddenly thrown into political power, and the
effort was made not only to place them upon an equality with their late masters, but to
absolutely place them in front and hold them there by legislation, by military violence, and by
every other means that could possibly be resorted to; when we consider these things no
philosophical mind can behold their present condition, and the present comparative state of
peace and amity between the two races, without wonder that their condition is as good as it is.
No man can behold this extraordinary spectacle of two people attempting to reconcile
themselves in spite of the interference of outsiders, and to live in harmony, to promote each
other's prosperity in spite of the bitter animosities which the sudden elevation of the one has
engendered, without the liveliest hope that if left to themselves, the condition of the former
subject race will still more rapidly improve, and that the best results may be reasonably and
fairly expected.

Your committee is further of the opinion that all the attempts of legislation; that all the
inflammatory appeals of politicians upon the stump and through the newspapers; that the wild
and misdirected philanthropy of certain classes of our citizens; that these aid societies, and all
other of the influences which are so industriously brought to bear to disturb the equanimity of
the colored people of the South and to make them discontented with their position, are doing
them a positive and almost incalculable injury, to say nothing of pecuniary losses which have
thus been inflicted upon Southern communities.
Your committee is further of opinion that Congress having enacted all the legislation for the
benefit of the colored people of the South which under the Constitution it can enact, and
having seen that all the States of the South have done the same; that by the Constitution of the
United States and the constitutions of the various States these people are placed upon a
footing of perfect equality before the law, and given the chance to work out their own
civilization and improvements, any further attempts at legislation or agitation of the subject
will but excite in them hopes of exterior[Pg 65] aid that will be disappointing to them, and
will prevent them from working out diligently and with care their own salvation; that the
sooner they are taught to depend upon themselves, the sooner they will learn to take care of
themselves; the sooner they are taught to know that their true interest is promoted by
cultivating the friendship of their white neighbors instead of their enmity, the sooner they will
gain that friendship; and that friendship and harmony once fully attained, there is nothing to
bar the way to their speedy civilization and advancement in wealth and prosperity, except
such as hinder all people in that great work.
D. W. Voorhees.
Z. B. Vance.
Geo. II. Pendleton.
Report of the Minority
The undersigned, a minority of the committee appointed under resolution of the Senate of
December 15, 1879, to investigate the causes which have led to the emigration of Negroes
from the Southern to the Northern States, submit the following report:[4]
In the month of December last a few hundred colored men, women, and children,
discontented with their condition in North Carolina, and hoping to improve it, were
emigrating to Indiana.
This movement, though utterly insignificant in comparison with the vastly greater numbers
which were moving from other Southern States into Kansas, seemed to be considered of very
much more importance, in certain quarters, on account of its alleged political purposes and
bearing. The theory upon which the investigation was asked was that the emigration into the
State of Indiana was the result of a conspiracy on the part of Northern leaders of the
Republican party to colonize that State with Negroes for political purposes. The utter
absurdity of this theory should have been apparent to everybody, for if the Republican party,
or its leaders, proposed to import Negroes into Indiana for political purposes, why take them
from North Carolina? Why import them from a State where the Republicans hope and expect
to carry the election, when there were thousands upon thousands ready and anxious to come
from States certainly Democratic. Why transport them by[Pg 66] rail at heavy expense half
way across the continent when they could have taken them from Kentucky without any
expense, or brought them up the Mississippi River by steamers at merely nominal cost? Why
send twenty-five thousand to Kansas to swell her 40,000 Republican majority, and only seven

or eight hundred to Indiana? These considerations brand with falsehood and folly the charge
that the exodus was a political movement induced by Northern partisan leaders? And yet to
prove this absurd proposition the committee devoted six months of hard and fruitless labor,
during which they examined one hundred and fifty-nine witnesses, selected from all parts of
the country, mainly with reference to their supposed readiness to prove said theory, expended
over $30,000 and filled three large volumes of testimony.
The undersigned feel themselves authorized to say that there is no evidence whatever even
tending to sustain the charge that the Republican party, or any of its leaders, have been
instrumental, either directly or indirectly, in aiding or encouraging these people to come from
their homes in the South to any of the Northern States. A good deal of complaint was made
that certain "aid societies" in the North had encouraged and aided this migration, and a futile
attempt was made to prove that these societies were acting in the interest of the Republican
party. Upon inquiry, however, it was ascertained that their purposes were purely charitable
and had no connection whatever with any political motive or movement. They were
composed almost wholly of colored people, and were brought into existence solely to afford
temporary relief to the destitute and suffering emigrants who had already come into the
Northern and Western States.
In the spring of 1879 thousands of colored people, unable longer to endure the intolerable
hardships, injustice, and suffering inflicted upon them by a class of Democrats in the South,
had, in utter despair, fled panic-stricken from their homes and sought protection among
strangers in a strange land. Homeless, penniless, and in rags, these poor people were
thronging the wharves of Saint Louis, crowding the steamers on the Mississippi River, and in
pitiable destitution throwing themselves upon the charity of Kansas. Thousands more were
congregating along the banks of the Mississippi River, hailing the passing steamers, and
imploring them for a passage to the land of freedom, where their rights of citizens were
respected and honest toil rewarded by honest compensation. The newspapers were filled with
accounts of their destitution, and the[Pg 67] very air was burdened with the cry of distress
from a class of American citizens flying from persecutions which they could not longer
endure. Their piteous tales of outrage, suffering and wrong touched the hearts of the more
fortunate members of their race in the North and West, and aid societies, designed to afford
temporary relief, and composed largely, almost wholly, of colored people, were organized in
Washington, Saint Louis, Topeka, and in various other places. That they were organized to
induce migration for political purposes, or to aid or to encourage these people to leave their
homes for any purpose, or that they ever contributed one dollar to that end, is utterly untrue,
and there is absolutely nothing in the testimony to sustain such a charge. Their purposes and
objects were purely charitable. They found a race of wretched miserable people flying from
oppression and wrong, and they sought to relieve their distress. The refugees were hungry,
and they fed them: in rags, and they clothed them; homeless, and they sheltered them;
destitute, and they found employment for them—only this and nothing more.
The real origin of the exodus movement and the organizations at the South which have
promoted it are very clearly stated by the witnesses who have been most active in regard to it.
Henry Adams, of Shreveport, Louisiana, an uneducated colored laborer, but a man of very
unusual natural abilities, and, so far as the committee could learn, entirely reliable and
truthful, states that he entered the United States Army in 1866 and remained in it until 1869;
that when he left the Army he returned to his former home at Shreveport, and, finding the
condition of his race intolerable, he and a number of other men who had also been in the
Army set themselves to work to better the condition of their people.

In 1870—
He says—
a parcel of us got together and said we would organize ourselves into a committee and look
into affairs and see the true condition of our race, to see whether it was possible we could stay
under a people who held us in bondage or not.
That committee increased until it numbered about five hundred and Mr. Adams says:
Some of the members of the committee was ordered by the committee to go into every State
in the South where we had been slaves,[Pg 68] and post one another from time to time about
the true condition of our race, and nothing but the truth.
In answer to the question whether they traveled over various States he said:
"Yes, sir; and we worked, some of us, worked our way from place to place, and went from
State to State and worked—some of them did—amongst our people, in the
fields, everywhere, to see what sort of a living our people lived—whether we could
live in the South amongst the people that held us as slaves or not. We continued that on till
1874. Every one paid his own expenses, except the one we sent to Louisiana and Mississippi.
We took money out of our pockets and sent him, and said to him you must now go to work.
You can't find out anything till you get amongst them. You can talk as much as you please,
but you got to go right into the field and work with them and sleep with them to know all
about them."
I think about one hundred or one hundred and fifty went from one place or another.
Q. What was the character of the information that they gave you? A. Well, the character of
the information they brought to us was very bad, sir.
Q. Do you remember any of these reports that you got from members of your
committee?—A. Yes, sir; they said in several parts where they was that the land rent
was still higher there in that part of the country than it was where we first organized it, and
the people was still being whipped, some of them, by the old owners, the men that had owned
them as slaves, and some of them was being cheated out of their crops just the same as they
was there.
Q. Was anything said about their personal and political rights in these reports as to how they
were treated?—A. Yes; some of them stated that in some parts of the country where
they voted they would be shot. Some of them stated that if they voted the Democratic ticket
they would not be injured.
Q. Now let us understand more distinctly, before we go any further, the kind of people who
composed that association. The committee, as I understand you, was composed entirely of
laboring people?—A. Yes, sir.
Q Did it include any politicians of either color, white or black?—A. No politicianers

didn't belong to it, because we didn't allow[Pg 69] them to know nothing about it, because we
was afraid that if we allowed the colored politicianers to belong to it he would tell it to the
Republican politicianers, and from that the men that was doing all this to us would get hold of

it too, and then get after us.
Q. About what time did you lose all hope and confidence that your condition could be
tolerable in the Southern States?—A. Well we never lost all hopes in the world till
1877.
Q. Why did you lose all hope in that year?—A. Well, we found ourselves in such
condition that we looked around and we seed that there was no way on earth, it seemed, that
we could better our condition there, and we discussed that thoroughly in our organization in
May. We said that the whole South—every State in the South—had got into the
hands of the very men that held us slaves—from one thing to another—and we
thought that the men that held us slaves was holding the reins of government over our heads
in every respect almost, even the constable up to the governor. We felt we had almost as well
be slaves under these men. In regard to the whole matter that was discussed it came up in
every council. Then we said there was no hope for us and we had better go.
Q. You say, then, that in 1877 you lost all hope of being able to remain in the South, and you
began to think of moving somewhere else?—A. Yes; we said we was going if we had
to run away and go into the woods.
Q. About how many did this committee consist of before you organized your council? Give
us the number as near as you can tell.—A. As many as five hundred in all.
Q. The committee, do you mean? A. Yes; the committee has been that large.
Q. What was the largest number reached by your colonization council, in your best
judgment?—A. Well, it is not exactly five hundred men belonging to the council that
we have in our council, but they all agreed to go with us and enroll their names with us from
time to time, so that they have now got at this time ninety-eight thousand names enrolled.
Q. Then through that council, as sort of subscribers to its purpose and acts and for carrying
out its objects, there were ninety-eight thousand names?—A. Yes; ninety-eight
thousand names enrolled.
Q. In what parts of the country were these ninety-eight thousand[Pg 70] people
scattered?—A. Well some in Louisiana—the majority of them in
Louisiana—and some in Texas, and some in Arkansas. We joins Arkansas.
Q. Were there any in Mississippi?—A. Yes, sir; a few in Mississippi.
Q. And a few in Alabama?—A. Yes, sir; a few in Alabama, too.
Q. Did the organization extend at all into other States farther away?—A. O, yes, sir.
Q. Have you members in all the Southern States?—A. Not in every one, but in a great
many of the others.
Q. Are these members of that colonization council in communication as to the condition of

your race, and as to the best thing to be done to alleviate their troubles?—A. O, yes.

Q. What do you know about inducements being held out from politicians of the North, or
from politicians anywhere else, to induce these people to leave their section of country and go
into the Northern or Western States?—A. There is nobody has written letters of that
kind, individually—not no white persons, I know, not to me, to induce anybody to
come.
Q. Well, to any of the other members of your council?—A. No, I don't think to any of
the members. If they have, they haven't said nothing to me about it.
It appears also from the evidence of Samuel L. Perry, of North Carolina, a colored man, who
accompanied most of the emigrants from that State to Indiana, and who had more to do with
the exodus from that quarter than any other man, that the movement had its origin as far back
as 1872, as the following questions and answers will show:
Q. You have heard a good deal of this testimony with reference to this exodus from North
Carolina. Now begin at the beginning and tell us all you know about it.—A. Well, the
beginning, I suppose, was in this way: The first idea or the first thing was, we used to have
little meetings to talk over these matters. In 1872 we first received some circulars or
pamphlets from O. F. Davis, of Omaha, Nebraska.
Q. In 1872?—A. Yes, sir; in 1872—giving a description of government lands

and railroads that could be got cheap; and we held little meetings then; that is, we would meet
and talk about it Sunday evenings—that is, the laboring class of our people—the
only ones I knew anything about; I had not much to do with the big professional Negroes, the
rich men. I did not associate with them[Pg 71] much, but I got among the workingmen, and
they would take these pamphlets and read them over.
Mr. Perry says that the feeling in favor of migrating subsided somewhat, but sprung up again
in 1876. From that time down to 1879 there were frequent consultations upon the subject,
much dissatisfaction expressed respecting their condition, and a desire to emigrate to some
part of the West. He says about "that time I was a subscriber to the New York Herald, and
from an article in that paper the report was that the people were going to Kansas, and we
thought we could go to Kansas, too; that we could get a colony to go West. That was last
spring. We came back and formed ourselves into a colony of some hundred men." They did
not, however, begin their westward movements until the fall of 1879, when it being
ascertained by the railroad companies that a considerable number of people were proposing to
migrate from North Carolina to the West, several railroad companies, notably the Baltimore
and Ohio, offered to certain active and influential colored men $1 per head for all the
passengers they could procure for the respective competing lines.
By reference to this evidence, part 3, page 136, it will be seen that the emigration movement
in Alabama originated as far back as the year 1871, when an organization of colored people,
called the State Labor Union, delegated Hon. George F. Marlow to visit Kansas, and other
parts of the West, for the purpose of examining that country and reporting back to a future
convention his views as to the expediency of removing thereto. A convention of colored
people was held again in 1872, at which Mr. Marlow made the following glowing report of
the condition of things in Kansas and the inducements that State offered to the colored people.
He said:
In August, 1871, being delegated by your president for the purpose, I visited the State of
Kansas, and here give the results of my observations, briefly stated.

It is a new State, and as such possesses many advantages over the old.
It is much more productive than most other States.
What is raised yields more profit than elsewhere, as it is raised at less expense.
The weather and roads enable you to do more work here than elsewhere.
The climate is mild and pleasant.[Pg 72]
Winters short and require little food for stock.
Fine grazing country; stock can be grazed all winter.
The population is enterprising, towns and villages spring up rapidly and great profits arise
from all investments.
Climate dry, and land free from swamps.
The money paid to doctors in less healthy regions can here be used to build up a house.
People quiet and orderly, schools and churches to be found in every neighborhood, and ample
provision for free schools is made by the State.
Money, plenty, and what you raise commands a good price.
Fruits of all kinds easily grown and sold at large profits.
Railroads are being built in every direction.
The country is well watered.
Salt and coal are plentiful.
It is within the reach of every man, no matter how poor, to have a home in Kansas. The best
lands are to be had at from $2 to $10 an acre, on time. The different railroads own large tracts
of land, and offer liberal inducements to emigrants. You can get good land in some places for
$1.25 an acre. The country is mostly open prairie, and level, with deep, rich soil, producing
from forty to one hundred bushels of corn and wheat to the acre. The corn grows about eight
or nine feet high, and I never saw better fruit anywhere than there.
The report was adopted.
The feeling of the colored people in that State in 1872 was well expressed by Hon. Robert H.
Knox, of Montgomery, a prominent colored citizen, who, in addressing the convention, spoke
as follows:
I have listened with great attention to the report of the commissioner appointed by authority
of the State Labor Union to visit Kansas, and while I own the inducements held out to the
laboring man in that far-off State are much greater than those enjoyed by our State, I yet
would say let us rest here awhile longer; let us trust in God, the President, and Congress to

give us what is most needed here, personal security to the laboring masses, the suppression of
violence, disorder, and kukluxism, the protection which the Constitution and laws of the
United States guarantee, and to which as citizens and men we are entitled. Failing in these, it
is time then, I repeat, to desert the State and seek homes elsewhere where there may be the
fruition of hopes inaugurated when by the hand[Pg 73] of Providence the shackles were
stricken from the limbs of four million men, where there may be enjoyed in peace and
happiness by your own fireside the earnings of your daily toil.
Benjamin Singleton, an aged colored man, now residing in Kansas, swears that he began the
work inducing his race to migrate to that State as early as 1869, and that he has brought
mainly from Tennessee, and located in two colonies—one in Cherokee County, and
another in Lyons County, Kansas—a total of 7,432 colored people. The old man spoke
in the most touching manner of the sufferings and wrongs of his people in the South, and in
the most glowing terms of their condition in their new homes; and when asked as to who
originated the movement, he proudly asserted, "I am the father of the exodus." He said that
during these years since he began the movement he has paid from his own pocket over $600
for circulars, which he has caused to be printed and circulated all over the Southern States,
advising all who can pay their way to come to Kansas. In these circulars he advised the
colored people of the advantages of living in a free State, and told them how well the
emigrants whom he had taken there were getting on. He says that the emigrants whom he has
taken to Kansas are happy and doing well. The old man insists with great enthusiasm that he
is the "Whole cause of the Kansas immigration," and is very proud of his achievement.
Here, then, we have conclusive proof from the Negroes themselves that they have been
preparing for this movement for many years. Organizations to this end have existed in many
States, and the agents of such organizations have traveled throughout the South. One of these
organizations alone kept one hundred and fifty men in the field for years, traveling among
their brethren and secretly discussing this among other means of relief. As stated by Adams
and Perry, politicians were excluded, and the movement was confined wholly to the working
classes.
The movement has doubtless been somewhat stimulated by circulars from railroad companies
and State emigration societies which have found their way into the South, but these have had
comparatively little effect. The following specimen of these emigration documents, which
was gotten up and circulated by Indiana Democrats, printed at a Democratic printing office,
and written by a Democrat, in our judgment appeals more strongly to the imagination and
wants of the Negro than any we have been able to find:
In every county of the State there is an asylum where those who[Pg 74] are unable to work
and have no means of support are cared for at the public expense.
Laborers who work by the month or by the year make their own contract with the employer,
and all disputes subsequently arising are settled by legal processes in the proper courts,
everybody being equal before the law in Indiana. The price of farm labor has varied
considerably in the last twenty years. About $16 per month may be assumed as about the
average per month, and this is understood to include board and lodging at the farm-house.
This amount is paid in current money at the end of each month, unless otherwise stipulated in
the contract. Occasionally a tenement house is found on the larger farms, where a laborer
lives with his family, and either rents a portion of the farm or cultivates it on special contract
with the landlord. With us there is no class of laborers as such. The young man who today
may be hired as a laborer at monthly wages, may in five years from now be himself a

proprietor, owning the soil he cultivates and paying wages to laborers. The upward road is
open to all, and its highest elevation is attainable by industry, economy, and perseverance.
Sixteen dollars per month, with board! Everybody equal before the law! No class of laborers
as such! The hired man of today himself the owner of a farm in five years! No cheating of
tenants, but everything paid in current money. And if all this will not attract the Negro he is
told there is an "asylum in every county" to which he can go when unable to support himself.
The document also promises to everybody "free schools" in "brick or stone school-houses,"
and says they have "2,000,000 greater school fund than any State in the Union." These
Democratic documents have been circulated by the thousand, and doubtless many of them
have found their way into the Negro cabins of North Carolina. It is not surprising that the
Negro looks with longing eyes to that great and noble State.
Causes of the Exodus
There is surely some adequate cause for such a movement. The majority of the committee
have utterly failed to find it, or, if found, to recognize it. When it was found that any of their
own witnesses were ready to state causes which did not accord with their theory they were
dismissed without examination, as in the cases of Ruby and Stafford, and a half dozen others
who were brought from[Pg 75] Kansas, but who on their arrival here were found to entertain
views not agreeable to the majority.
We regret that a faithful and honest discussion of this subject compels a reference to the
darkest, bloodiest, and most shameful chapter of our political history. Gladly would we avoid
it, but candor compels us to say that the volume which shall faithfully record the crimes
which, in the name of Democracy, have been committed against the citizenship, the lives, and
the personal rights of these people, and which have finally driven them in utter despair from
their homes, will stand forever without a parallel in the annals of Christian civilization. In
discussing these sad and shameful events, we wish it distinctly understood that we do not
arraign the whole people nor even the entire Democratic party of the States in which they
have occurred. The colored and other witnesses all declare that the lawlessness from which
they have suffered does not meet the approval of the better class of Democrats at the South.
They are generally committed by the reckless, dissolute classes who unfortunately too often
control and dominate the Democratic party and dictate its policy. We have no doubt there are
many Democrats in the South who deeply regret this condition of things, and who would
gladly welcome a change, but they are in a helpless, and we fear a hopeless, minority in many
sections of that country.
The unfortunate and inexcusable feature of the case is that, however much they may deplore
such lawlessness, they have never, so far as we can learn, declined to accept its fruits. They
may regret the violence and crimes by which American citizens are prevented from voting,
but they rejoice in the Democratic victories which result therefrom. So long as they shall
continue thus to accept the fruits of crime, the criminals will have but little fear of punishment
or restraint, and the lawless conduct which is depopulating some sections of their laboring
classes will go on. There is another unfortunate feature of this matter. So long as crimes
against American citizenship shall continue to suppress Republican majorities, and to give a
"solid South" to the Democracy, there will be found enough Democrats at the North who will
shut their eyes to the means by which it is accomplished, and seek to cover up and excuse the
conduct of their political partisans at the South.

This is well illustrated by the report of the majority of the committee. In the presence of most
diabolic outrages clearly proven;[Pg 76] in the face of the declaration of thousands of
refugees that they had fled because of the insecurity of their lives and property at the South,
and because the Democratic party of that section had, by means too shocking and shameful to
relate, deprived them of their rights as American citizens; in the face of the fact that it has
been clearly shown by the evidence that organizations of colored laborers, one of which
numbered ninety-eight thousand, have existed for many years and extending into many States
of the South, designed to improve their condition by emigration—in the face of all
these facts the majority of the committee can see no cause for the exodus growing out of such
wrongs, but endeavor to charge it to the Republicans of the North.
In view of this fact, it is our painful duty to point out some of the real causes of this
movement. It is, however, quite impossible to enumerate all or any considerable part of the
causes of discontent and utter despair which have finally culminated in this movement. To do
so would be to repeat a history of violence and crime which for fifteen years have reddened
with the blood of innocent victims many of the fairest portions of our country; to do so would
be to read the numberless volumes of sworn testimony which have been carefully corded
away in the crypt and basement of this Capitol, reciting shocking instances of crime, crying
from the ground against the perpetrators of the deeds which they record. The most which we
can hope to do within the limits of this report is to present a very few facts which shall be
merely illustrative of the conditions which have driven from their homes, and the graves of
their fathers an industrious, patient, and law-abiding people, whom we are bound by every
obligation of honor and patriotism to protect in their personal and political rights and
privileges.
We begin with the State of North Carolina because the migration from that State has been
comparatively insignificant, and also because the conditions there are more favorable to the
colored race than in any of the other cotton States of the South. Owing to the lack of funds,
and to the time employed in the examination of witnesses called by the majority the
Republican members of the committee summoned no witnesses from the State of North
Carolina, and were obliged to content themselves with such facts as could be obtained from
one or two persons who happened to be in this city, and such other facts as were brought out
upon cross-examination of the witnesses called by the other side. By the careful selection of a
few well-to-do and more fortunate colored men from that[Pg 77] State, the majority of the
committee secured some evidence tending to show that a portion of the Negroes of North
Carolina are exceptionally well treated and contented, and yet upon cross-examination of
their own witnesses facts were disclosed which showed that, even there, conditions exist
which are ample to account for the migration of the entire colored population.
There are three things in that State which create great discontent among the colored people:
First, the abridgment of their rights of self-government; second, their disadvantages as to
common schools; third, discriminations against them in the courts; and, fourth, the memory of
Democratic outrages. Prior to Democratic rule the people of each county elected five
commissioners, who had supervision over the whole county, and who chose the judges of
elections. The Democrats changed the constitution so as to take this power from the people,
and gave to the general assembly authority to appoint these officers. This they regard not only
as practically depriving them of self-government, but, as stated by one of the witnesses, Hon.
R. C. Badger, as placing the elections, even in Republican townships, wholly under the
control of the Democrats, who thereby "have the power to count up the returns and throw out
the balance for any technicality, exactly as Garcelon & Co. did in Maine." This creates much
dissatisfaction, because they believe they are cheated out of their votes. The Negro values the

ballot more than anything else, because he knows that it is his only means of defense and
protection. A law which places all the returning boards in the hands of his political opponents
necessarily and justly produces discontent.
Next to the ballot the Negro values the privileges of common schools, for in them he sees the
future elevation of his race. The prejudice even in North Carolina against white teachers of
colored schools seems to have abated but little since the war. Mr. Badger, when
cross-examined on this point, said:
Q. Is there any prejudice still remaining there against white teachers of colored
schools?—A. I think there is.
Q. Will you explain it?—A. I cannot explain it, except by the prejudices between the
races.
Q. You mean, white persons teaching a colored school lose social status?—A. Yes, sir.
Q. Now, a white lady who comes from the North and teaches a colored school, to what extent
is she tabooed?—A. I don't think she would have any acquaintances in white
society.[Pg 78]
Q. Would she be any quicker invited into white society than a colored woman?—A.
Just about the same.
This fact contains within itself a volume of testimony. It shows that the Negro is still regarded
as a sort of social and political pariah, whom no white person may teach without incurring
social ostracism and being degraded to the level of the social outcast he or she would elevate
in the scale of being. Is it surprising that the Negro is dissatisfied with his condition and
desires to emigrate to some country where his children may hope for better things?
The most serious complaints, however, which are made against the treatment of colored
citizens of North Carolina is that justice is not fairly administered in the courts as between
themselves and the whites. On this point the evidence of Mr. R. C. Badger reveals a condition
of things to which no people can long submit. Here is his illustration of the manner in which
justice is usually meted out as between the Negroes and the whites:
Q. How about the discrimination in the courts as between the whites and blacks?—A.
That is principally in matters of larceny. In such cases the presumption is reversed as to the
Negro. A white man can't be convicted without the fullest proof, and with the Negroes, in
matters between themselves, such as assault and battery, they get as fair a trial as the whites.
At the January term of our court Judge Avery presided. A white man and a colored woman
were indicted for an affray. The woman was in her husband's barn getting out corn; they were
going to move, and the white man came down there and said, "You seem to have a good time
laughing here this morning," and she said, yes, she had a right to laugh. He said, "You are
getting that corn out, and you would have made more if you had stuck to your husband." She
seemed to be a sort of termagant, and she said nobody said that about her unless you told
them. He made some insulting remark, and she made something in return to him, and he took
a billet of wood and struck her on the shoulder, and he pulled a pistol and beat her with it, and
she went for him to kill him. They found the man not guilty and they found her guilty, but
Judge Avery set the verdict aside and ordered the case nolle prossed against her.

Q. Do you think that is a fair sample of the justice they get?—A. Yes, sir.
Q. Do you think they will convict a colored woman in order to get a chance to turn loose a
white man?—A. Yes, sir.
Mr. Badger was not our witness. He was called by the majority,[Pg 79] but he is a gentleman
of high character, the son of an ex-member of this body, and thoroughly acquainted with the
condition of things in his State. He puts the case just mentioned as a "fair sample" of North
Carolina justice toward the Negro. It is true the judge set aside the verdict, but this does not
change the fact that before a North Carolina jury the Negro has but little hope of justice.
Back of all these things lies the distrust of Democracy which was inspired during the days
when the "Kuklux," the "White Brotherhood," the Universal Empire, and the "Stonewall
Guard" spread terror and desolation over the State in order to wrest it from Republicanism to
Democracy. The memory of those dark days and bloody deeds, the prejudice which still
forbids white ladies to teach colored schools, and denies "even-handed" justice in the courts,
and the usurpations which place the returning boards all in the hands of Democrats, have
inspired a feeling of discontent which has found expression in the efforts of a few to leave the
State. These facts, taken in connection with the bonus of one dollar per head offered by the
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company (a Democratic corporation represented by a
Democratic agent) to leading colored men who would secure passengers for their road, has
led to the emigration of some seven or eight hundred colored people from that State, and the
only wonder is that thousands instead of hundreds have not gone.
Louisiana and Mississippi
The States of Louisiana and Mississippi have furnished the larger portion of the migration to
Kansas, and as the conditions which caused the exodus are the same in both of these States,
we may speak of them together. No single act of wrong has inspired this movement, but a
long series of oppression, injustice, and violence, extending over a period of fifteen years.
These people have been long-suffering and wonderfully patient, but the time came when they
could endure it no longer and they resolved to go. We can convey no adequate idea of what
they endured before adopting this desperate resolve, but will mention a few facts drawn from
well authenticated history, from sworn public documents, and from the evidence taken by the
Exodus Investigating Committee. Writing under date of January 10, 1875, General P. H.
Sheridan, then in command at New Orleans, says:[Pg 80]
Since the year 1866 nearly thirty-five hundred persons, a great majority of whom were
colored men, have been killed and wounded in this State. In 1868 the official records show
that eighteen hundred and eighty-five were killed and wounded. From 1868 to the present
time no official investigation has been made, and the civil authorities in all but a few cases
have been unable to arrest, convict or punish the perpetrators. Consequently there are no
correct records to be consulted for information. There is ample evidence, however, to show
that more than twelve hundred persons have been killed and wounded during this time on
account of their political sentiments. Frightful massacres have occurred in the parishes of
Bossier, Caddo, Catahoula, Saint Bernard, Saint Landry, Grant, and Orleans.
He then proceeds to enumerate the political murders of colored men in the various parishes,
and says:

"Human life in this State is held so cheaply that when men are killed on account of political
opinions, the murderers are regarded rather as heroes than criminals in the localities where
they reside."
This brief summary is not by a politician, but by a distinguished soldier, who recounts the
events which have occurred within his own military jurisdiction. Volumes of testimony have
since been taken confirming, in all respects, General Sheridan's statement, and giving in detail
the facts relating to such murders, and the times and circumstances of their occurrence. The
results of the elections which immediately followed them disclose the motives and purposes
of their perpetrators. These reports show that in the year 1868 a reign of terror prevailed over
almost the entire State. In the parish of Saint Landry there was a massacre from three to six
days, during which between two and three hundred colored men were killed. "Thirteen
captives were taken from the jail and shot, and a pile of twenty-five dead bodies were found
burned in the woods." The result of this Democratic campaign in the parish was that the
registered Republican majority of 1,071 was wholly obliterated, and at the election which
followed a few weeks later not a vote was cast for General Grant, while Seymour and Blair
received 4,787.
In the parish of Bossier a similar massacre occurred between the 20th and 30th of September,
1868, which lasted from three to four days, during which two hundred colored people were
killed. By the official registry of that year the Republican voters in Bossier[Pg 81] parish
numbered 1,938, but at the ensuing election only one Republican vote was cast.
In the parish of Caddo during the month of October, 1868, over forty colored people were
killed. The result of that massacre was that out of a Republican registered vote of 2,894 only
one was cast for General Grant. Similar scenes were enacted throughout the State, varying in
extent and atrocity according to the magnitude of the Republican majority to be overcome.
The total summing-up of murders, maimings, and whippings which took place for political
reasons in the months of September, October and November, 1868, as shown by official
sources, is over one thousand. The net political results achieved thereby may be succinctly
stated as follows: The official registration for that year in twenty-eight parishes contained
47,923 names of Republican voters, but at the Presidential election, held a few weeks after the
occurrence of these events but 5,360 Republican votes were cast, making the net Democratic
gain from said transactions 42,563.
In nine of these parishes where the reign of terror was most prevalent out of 11,604 registered
Republican votes only 19 were cast for General Grant. In seven of said parishes there were
7,253 registered Republican votes, but not one was cast at the ensuing election for the
Republican ticket.
In the years succeeding 1868, when some restraint was imposed upon political lawlessness
and a comparatively peaceful election was held, these same Republican parishes cast from
33,000 to 37,000 Republican votes, thus demonstrating the purpose and the effects of the
reign of murder in 1868. In 1876 the spirit of violence and persecution, which in parts of the
State had been partially restrained for a time, broke forth again with renewed fury. It was
deemed necessary to carry that State for Tilden and Hendricks, and the policy which had
proved so successful in 1868 was again invoked and with like results. On the day of general
election in 1876 there were in the State of Louisiana 92,996 registered white voters and
115,310 colored, making a Republican majority of the latter of 22,314. The number of white
Republicans was far in excess of the number of colored Democrats. It was, therefore, well

known that if a fair election should be made the State would go Republican by from
twenty-five to forty thousand majority. The policy adopted this time was to select a few of the
largest Republican parishes and by terrorism and violence not only obliterate their Republican
majorities, but also intimidate the Negroes in the[Pg 82] other parishes. The testimony found
in our public documents, and records shows that the same system of assassinations,
whippings, burnings, and other acts of political persecution of colored citizens which had
occurred in 1868 was again repeated in 1876 and with like results.
In fifteen parishes where 17,726 Republicans were registered in 1876 only 5,758 votes were
cast for Hayes and Wheeler, and in one of them (East Feliciana), where there were 2,127
Republicans registered, but one Republican vote was cast. By such methods the Republican
majority of the State was supposed to have been effectually suppressed and a Democratic
victory assured. And because the legally constituted authorities of Louisiana, acting in
conformity with law and justice, declined to count some of the parishes thus carried by
violence and blood, the Democratic party, both North and South, has ever since complained
that it was fraudulently deprived of the fruits of victory, and it now proposes to make this
grievance the principal plank in the party platform.
On the 6th of December, 1876, President Grant in a message to Congress transmitted the
evidence of these horrible crimes against the colored race, committed in the name and in the
interest of the Democracy. They are not mere estimates nor conjectures, but the names of the
persons murdered, maimed and whipped, and of the perpetrators of the crimes, the places
where they occurred, and the revolting circumstances under which they were committed, are
all set forth in detail. This shocking record embraces a period of eight years, from 1868 to
1876, inclusive, and covers ninety-eight pages of fine type, giving an average of about one
victim to each line. We have not counted the list, but it is safe to say that it numbers over four
thousand.
These crimes did not end in 1876 with the accession of the Democracy to control of the State
administration. The witnesses examined by your committee gave numerous instances of like
character which occurred in 1878. Madison Parish may serve as an illustration. This parish,
which furnished perhaps the largest number of refugees to Kansas, had been exceptionally
free from bull-dozing in former years. William Murrell, one of the witnesses called by the
committee, states the reasons for the exodus from that parish as follows:
You have not read of any exodus yet as there will be from that section this summer, and the
reason for it is that, for the first time since the war in Madison Parish last December, we had
bull-dozing[Pg 83] there. Armed bodies of men came into the parish—not people who
lived in the parish, but men from Ouachita Parish and Richland Parish; and I can name the
leader who commanded them. He was a gentleman by the name of Captain Tibbals, of
Ouachita Parish, who lives in Monroe, who was noted in the celebrated massacre there in
other times. His very name among the colored people is sufficient to intimidate them almost.
He came with a crowd of men on the 28th of December into Madison Parish, when all was
quiet and peaceable. There was no quarrel, no excitement. We had always elected our tickets
in the parish, and we had put Democrats on the ticket in many cases to satisfy them. There
were only 238 white voters and about 2,700 colored registered voters.
Mr. Murrell says that David Armstrong, who was president of third ward Republican club, a
man who stood high in the community, and against whom no charge was made except that of
being a Republican, made the remark:

"What right have these white men to come here from Morehouse Parish, and Richland Parish,
and Franklin Parish to interfere with our election?" And some white men heard of it and got a
squad by themselves and said, "We'll go down and give that nigger a whipping." So Sunday
night, about ten o'clock, they went to his house to take him out and whip him. They saw him
run out the back way and fired on him. One in the crowd cried out, "Don't kill him!" "It is too
late, now," they said, "he's dead." The Carroll Conservative, a Democratic newspaper,
published the whole thing; but the reason they did it was because we had one of their men on
our ticket as judge, and they got sore about it, and we beat him. They killed Armstrong and
took him three hundred yards to the river, in a sheet, threw him in the river, and left the sheet
in the bushes.
Proceeding with the account of that transaction, Mr. Murrell swears that the colored people
had heard that the bulldozers were coming from the surrounding parishes, and that he and
others called on some of the leading Democrats in order to prevent it, but all in vain. He says:
We waited on Mr. Holmes, the clerk of the court, and we said to him, "Mr. Holmes, it is not
necessary to do any bulldozing here; you have the counting machinery all in your hands, and
we would rather be counted out than bulldozed; can't we arrange this thing?[Pg 84] I made a
proposition to him and said, "You know I am renominated on the Republican ticket, but I will
get out of the way for any moderate Democrat you may name to save the State and district
ticket. We will not vote for your State ticket; you cannot make the colored people vote the
State ticket; but if you will let us have our State ticket we will give you the local offices." We
offered them the clerk of the court, not the sheriff, and the two representatives. We told him
we would not give them the senator, but the district judge and attorney. After this interview
Holmes sent us to Dr. Askew, ex-chairman of the Democratic committee, and he said to me,
"Now, Murrell, there is no use talking, I advise you to stand from under. When these men get
in here we can't control them. We like you well enough and would not like to see you hurt. I
will see you to-night at Mr. Holmes." We had an interview with Mr. Holmes and made this
proposition, and Holmes asked me this question: "Murrell, you know damned well the niggers
in this parish won't vote the Democratic ticket—there is no use to tell me you will give
us the clerk of the court, you know the niggers won't do it. You can't trust the niggers in
politics; all your eloquence and all the speeches you can make won't make these niggers vote
this ticket or what you suggest, even if we was to accept it. No, by God, we are going to carry
it. Why," said he, "there is more eloquence in double-barreled shot-guns to convince niggers
than there is in forty Ciceros." I said to him, "Well, do you suppose the merchants and
planters will back you up," and he said, "O, by God, they have got nothing to do with it. We
have charge of it. We three men, the Democratic committee, have full power to work."
The result of this "work" was, as stated by the witness, and not disputed by any one before the
committee, that in this parish, containing 2,700 registered Republican voters, and only 238
Democrats, the Democrats returned a majority of 2,300. The witness, who was a candidate on
the Republican ticket, swears that not more than 360 votes were cast. Democratic shot-gun
eloquence did its "work," as prophesied by Mr. Askew, ex-chairman of the Democratic
committee, but it also served as a wonderful stimulus to migration from Madison Parish.
We cite this case for two reasons: First, because it has been said that the Negroes have not
emigrated from bulldozed parishes; and, secondly, because it serves as an illustration of the
many similar cases which were given to the committee.[Pg 85]
We desire also to invite attention to the evidence of Henry Adams, a colored witness from
Shreveport, La. Adams is a man of very remarkable energy and native ability. Scores of

witnesses were summoned by the majority of the committee from Shreveport but none of
them ventured to question his integrity or truthfulness. Though a common laborer, he has
devoted much of his time in traveling through Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas, working his
way and taking notes of the crimes committed against his race. His notes, written in terse and
simple language, embraced the names of six hundred and eighty-three colored men who have
been whipped, maimed or murdered within the last eight years, and his statement of these
crimes covers thirty-five pages of closely printed matter in the report. We are sure no one can
read it without a conviction of its truthfulness, and a feeling of horror at the barbarous details
he relates. Adams is the man who has organized a colonization council, composed of laboring
colored people, and rigidly excluding politicians, which numbers ninety-eight thousand who
have enrolled themselves with a view to emigration from that country as early as possible. He
details the character and the purpose of the organization and the efforts it has made to obtain
relief and protection for its members. "First," he says, "we appealed to the President of the
United States to help us out of our distress, to protect us in our rights and privileges. Next, we
appealed to Congress for a territory to which we might go and live with our families. Failing
in that," says he, "our other object was to ask for help to ship us all to Liberia, Africa,
somewhere where we could live in peace and quiet. If that could not be done," he adds, "our
idea was to appeal to other governments outside of the United States to help us to get away
from the United States and go and live there under their flag." What a commentary upon our
own boasted equality and freedom! Finding no relief in any direction, they finally resolved to
emigrate to some of the Northern States. He says they had some hope of securing better
treatment at home until 1877, when "we lost all hopes and determined to go anywhere on
God's earth, we didn't care where; we said we was going if we had to run away and go into
the woods." Perhaps we can best summarize the condition of affairs in Louisiana and the
causes of the exodus from that State, as the Negroes themselves regarded them, by quoting a
brief extract from the report of the business committee to the colored State convention held in
New Orleans on the 21st of April, 1879:[Pg 86]
New Orleans, April 21, 1879.
Mr. President: Your committee on business have the honor to submit this their final report.
Discussing the general and widespread alarm among the colored people of Louisiana,
including so potent a fear that in many parishes, and in others perhaps largely to follow, there
is an exodus of agricultural labor which indicates the prostration and destruction of the
productive, and therefore essentially vital, interests of the State. The Committee find that the
primary cause of this lies in the absence of a republican form of government to the people of
Louisiana. Crime and lawlessness existing to an extent that laughs at all restraint, and the
misgovernment naturally induced from a State administration itself the product of violence,
have created an absorbing and constantly increasing distrust and alarm among our people
throughout the State. All rights of freemen denied and all claims to a just recompense for
labor rendered or honorable dealings between planter and laborer disallowed, justice a
mockery, and the laws a cheat, the very officers of the courts being themselves the mobocrats
and violators of the law, the only remedy left the colored citizens in many of parishes of our
State today is to emigrate. The fiat to go forth is irresistible. The constantly recurring, nay,
ever-present, fear which haunts the minds of these our people in the turbulent parishes of the
State is that slavery in the horrible form of peonage is approaching; that the avowed
disposition of men in power to reduce the laborer and his interest to the minimum of
advantages as freemen and to absolutely none as citizens has produced so absolute a feat that
in many cases it has become a panic. It is flight from present sufferings and from wrongs to
come.

Here are the reasons for the exodus as stated by the colored people themselves. In view of the
facts which we have stated, and of the terrible history which we cannot here repeat, does any
one believe their statement of grievances is overdrawn? Is there any other race of freemen on
the face of the earth who would have endured and patiently suffered as they have? Is there
any other government among civilized nations which would have permitted such acts to be
perpetrated against its citizens?
We will not dwell upon the conditions which have driven these people from Mississippi. It
would be but a repetition of the intolerance, persecutions, and violence which have prevailed
in Louisiana. The same Democratic "shot-gun eloquence" which was so[Pg 87] potent for the
conversion of colored Republicans in the one has proven equally powerful in the other. The
same "eloquence" which wrested Louisiana from Republicans also converted Mississippi.
And in both the same results are visible in the determination of the colored people to get
away.
Nearly all the witnesses who were asked as to the causes of the exodus answered that it was
because of a feeling of insecurity for life and property; a denial of their political rights as
citizens; long-continued persecutions for political reasons; a system of cheating by landlords
and storekeepers which rendered it impossible for them to make a living no matter how hard
they might work; the inadequacy of school advantages, and a fear that they would be
eventually reduced to a system of peonage even worse than slavery itself.
On the latter point they quoted the laws of Mississippi, which authorize the sheriff to hire the
convicts to planters and others for twenty-five cents a day to work out the fine and cost, and
which provide that for every day lost from sickness he shall work another to pay for his board
while sick. Under these laws they allege that a colored man may be fined $500 for some
trifling misdemeanor, and be compelled to work five or six years to pay the fine; and that it is
not uncommon for colored men thus hired out to be worked in a chain gang upon the
plantations under overseers, with whip in hand, precisely as in the days of slavery. And some
of the witnesses declared that if an attempt be made to escape they are pursued by
blood-hounds, as before the war.
Henry Ruby, a witness summoned by the majority of the committee, swore that in Texas,
under a law similar to that in Mississippi, a colored man had been arrested for carrying a
"six-shooter" and fined $65, including costs, and that he had been at work nearly three years
to pay it. The laws of that State do not fix the rate for hiring, but "county convicts" may be
hired at any price the county judge may determine. He mentioned the case of a colored
woman who was hired out for a quarter of a cent a day. Describing this process of hiring, he
says:
They call these people county convicts, and if you have got a farm you can hire them out of
the jail. They have got that system, and the colored men object to it. I know some of these
men who have State convicts that they hire and they work them under shotguns. A farmer
hires so many of the State, and they are under the supervision of a sergeant with a gun and
nigger-hounds[Pg 88] to run them with if they get away. They hire them and put them in the
same gang with the striped suit on, and, if they want, the guard can bring them down with his
shotgun! Then they have these nigger-hounds, and if one of them gets off and they can't find
him they take the hounds, and from a shoe or anything of the kind belonging to the convict
they trail him down.

Q. Are these the same sort of blood-hounds they used to have to run the Negroes
with?—A. Yes, sir.
These things need no comment. To the Negro they are painfully suggestive of slavery. Is it a
wonder that he has resolved to go where peonage and blood-hounds are unknown?
Several witnesses were called from Saint Louis and Kansas, who had conversed with
thousands of the refugees, and who swore that they all told the same story of injustice,
oppression and wrong. Upon the arrival of the first boat-loads at Saint Louis, in the early
spring of 1879, the people of that city were deeply moved by the evident destitution and
distress which they presented, and thousands of them were interviewed as to the causes which
impelled them to leave their homes at that inclement season of the year. In the presence of
these people, and with a full knowledge of their condition and of the flight, a memorial to
Congress was prepared, and signed by a large number of the most prominent and most
respectable citizens of Saint Louis, embracing such names as Mayor Overholtz (a Democrat),
Hon. John F. Dillon, judge of the United States circuit court, ex-United States Senator J.B.
Henderson and nearly a hundred other leading citizens, in which the condition and grievances
of the refugees are stated as follows:
The undersigned, your memorialists, respectfully represent that within the last two weeks
there have come by steamboats up the Mississippi River, from chiefly the States of Louisiana
and Mississippi, and landed at Saint Louis, Mo., a great number of colored citizens of the
United States, not less than twenty hundred and composed of men and women, old and
young, and with them many of their children.
This multitude is eager to proceed to Kansas, and without exception, so far as we have
learned, refuse all overtures or inducements to return South, even if their passage back is paid
for them.
The condition of the great majority is absolute poverty; they are clothed in thin and ragged
garments for the most part, and while here have been supported to some extent by public, but
mostly by private charity.[Pg 89]
The older ones are the former slaves of the South; all now entitled to life and liberty.
The weather from the first advent of these people in this Northern city has been unusually
cold, attended with ice and snow, so that their sufferings have been greatly increased, and if
there was in their hearts a single kind remembrance of their sunny Southern homes they
would naturally give it expression now.
We have taken occasion to examine into the causes they themselves assign for their
extraordinary and unexpected transit, and beg leave to submit herewith the written statements
of a number of individuals of the refugees, which were taken without any effort to have one
thing said more than another, and to express the sense of the witness in his own language as
nearly as possible.
The story is about the same in each instance: a great privation and want from excessive rent
exacted for land, connected with murder of colored neighbors and threats of personal violence
to themselves. The tone of each statement is that of suffering and terror. Election days and
Christmas, by the concurrent testimony, seem to have been appropriated to killing the smart
men, while robbery and personal violence in one form and another seem to have run the year

round.
We submit that the great migration of Negroes from the South is itself a fact that overbears all
contradiction and proves conclusively that great causes must exist at the South to account for
it.
Here they are in multitudes, not men alone, but women and children, old, middle-aged, and
young, with common consent leaving their old homes in a natural climate and facing storms
and unknown dangers to go to Northern Kansas. Why? Among them all there is little said of
hope in the future; it is all of fear in the past. They are not drawn by the attractions of Kansas;
they are driven by the terrors of Mississippi and Louisiana. Whatever becomes of them, they
are unanimous in their unalterable determination not to return.
There are others coming. Those who have come and gone on to Kansas must suffer even unto
death, we fear; at all events more than any body of people entitled to liberty and law, the
possession of property, the right to vote, and the pursuit of happiness, should be compelled to
suffer under a free government from terror inspired by robbery, threats, assaults, and
murders.[Pg 90]
We protest against the dire necessities that have impelled this exodus, and against the
violation of common right, natural and constitutional, proven to be of most frequent
occurrences in places named; and we ask such action at the hands of our representatives and
our government as shall investigate the full extent of the causes leading to this unnatural state
of affairs and protect the people from its continuance, and not only protect liberty and life, but
enforce law and order.
It is intolerable to believe that with the increased representation of the Southern States in
Congress those shall not be allowed freely to cast their ballots upon whose right to vote that
representation has been enlarged. We believe no government can prosper that will allow such
a state of injustice to the body of its people to exist, any more than society can endure where
robbery and murder go unchallenged.
The occasion is, we think, a fit one for us to protest against a state of affairs thus exhibited in
those parts of the Union from which these Negroes come, which is not only most barbarous
toward the Negro, but is destructive to the constitutional rights of all citizens of our common
country.
Accompanying this memorial are numerous affidavits of the refugees fully confirming all its
statements.
As to the future of the exodus we can only say that every witness, whose opinion was asked
upon this point, declared that it has only begun, and that what we have seen in the past is
nothing compared to what is to come, unless there shall be a radical change on the part of
Democrats in the South. They say that the Negro has no confidence in the Democratic party,
and that if a Democratic President shall be elected there will be a general stampede of the
colored race.
There is but one remedy for the exodus—fair treatment of the Negro. If the better class
of white men in the South would retain the colored labor, they must recognize his manhood
and his citizenship, and restrain the vicious and lawless elements in their midst. If Northern
Democrats would check the threatened inundation of black labor into their States, they must

recognize the facts which have produced the exodus and unite with us in removing its causes.
We present in conclusion the following brief summary of the results of the investigation:[Pg
91]
First: This movement was not instigated, aided or encouraged by Republican leaders at the
North. The only aid they have ever given was purely as a matter of charity, to relieve the
distress of the destitute and suffering emigrants who had already come to the North.
Second. Not one dollar has ever been contributed by anybody at the North to bring these
people from their homes. On the contrary, the only contributions shown to have been made
for such purpose were made by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, a Democratic
corporation which employed agents to work up the emigration from North Carolina, paying
$1 per head therefor.
Third. It is not proven that the emigrants are dissatisfied in their new homes and wish to
return to the South. On the contrary, a standing offer to pay their expenses back to the South
has not induced more than about three hundred out of thirty thousand to return.
Fourth. It is not proven that there is no demand for their labor at the North, for nearly all those
who have come have found employment, and even in Indiana hundreds of applications for
them were presented to the committee.
Fifth. It is not proven that there is any sufficient reason for the grave political apprehensions
entertained in some quarters, for it was shown by Mr. Dukehart, who sold all the tickets to
those who came from North Carolina, that not more than two hundred voters had gone to
Indiana.
Sixth. The exodus movement originated entirely with the colored people themselves, who for
many years have been organizing for the purpose of finding relief in that way, and the colored
agents of such organizations have traveled all over the South consulting with their race on this
subject.
Seventh. A long series of political persecutions, whippings, maimings and murders committed
by Democrats and in the interest of the Democratic party, extending over a period of fifteen
years, has finally driven the Negro to despair, and compelled him to seek peace and safety by
flight.
Eighth. In some States a system of convict hiring is authorized by law, which reinstates the
chain-gang, the overseer, and the bloodhound substantially as in the days of slavery.
Ninth. A system of labor and renting has been adopted in some parts of the South which
reduces a Negro to a condition but little better than that of peonage and which renders it
impossible for[Pg 92] him to make a comfortable living, no matter how hard he may work.
Tenth. The only remedy for the exodus is in the hands of Southern Democrats themselves,
and if they do not change their treatment of the Negro and recognize his rights as a man and a
citizen, the movement will go on, greatly to the injury of the labor interests of the South, if
not the whole country.

William Windom.
Henry W. Blair.
Footnotes:
[1] Congressional Record, 46th Congress, 2d Session, X, p. 155.
[2] Ibid., pp. 155-170.
[2a] Congressional Record, 46th Congress, 2d Session, X, p. 170.
[3] Reports of Committees of Senate of the United States for the First and Second Sessions of the Forty-Sixth
Congress, 1879-80, VII, pp. iii-xiii.
[4] Report of the Committee of the Senate of the United States for the First and Second Sessions of the
Forty-Sixth Congress, 1879-80, VII, pp. viii-xxv.
[Pg 93]
SOME UNDISTINGUISHED NEGROES

Mr. J. H. Latrobe, corresponding secretary of the Maryland Colonization Society and later President of the
American Colonization Society, has left the following story:
"It was while I was reading in the same room with General Harper that there entered one day a tall, gaunt,
square-shouldered, spare, light mulatto, who announced himself as Abel Hurd. He was a Bostonian by birth,
and a seaman by profession. In a voyage to the East his vessel had been captured by the Malays, and he alone,
if I recollect rightly, escaped death, owing to his complexion. He had a varied fortune; had at one time been in
Cochin-China, again in Tibet, and, after passing some twenty years in the East, had returned to America, and
was looking out for employment. Some one had heard how deeply interested General Harper was in Africa
and African colonization, and had sent Hurd to him. About this time there was a great doubt as to the mouth
of the Niger; whether it was to be found at the bottom of the Bight of Benin, and whether it was not identical
with the Congo, or Zaire, south of the line. This was a question in which General Harper was interested, and
he determined to fit out Hurd and send him northward from Liberia until he struck the river, which he was
then to follow to its mouth, and I was deputed to superintend the outfit.
"Hurd's idea was to take as little baggage with him as possible, and to rely upon the resources of his wit and
ingenuity in making his way among the interior tribes. He had had a vast experience, and he directed his own
equipment. I do not recollect all that he was furnished with, but I recollect having devised a hollow cane, in
the top of which was a compass and the tube of which contained papers and pencils. These were to be resorted
to when the compass and materials openly were lost. I think I wrote, at General Harper's dictation, a letter of
instructions. Had Hurd lived and succeeded, he would have anticipated the Landers, Richard and John, who
explored the Niger in 1832-34. He arrived safely in Liberia, and made several short excursions into the
interior, but he had a theory that it was necessary to train himself for the great journey. Abstinence was a part
of his training. It was a mistake. He took[Pg 94] the acclimating fever, and, although he recovered from the
first attack, he had a relapse brought on by some imprudence and died."[1]
Charles H. Webb.—During the years when the American Colonization Society was preparing to
establish a colony of freedmen in Africa, it early became evident that the mere transportation of the blacks to
their native home would mean little in establishing them in life. It was, therefore, necessary to organize
Footnotes: 58
schools in which Negroes desiring to be colonized could be trained in agriculture, mechanical arts and even in
the professions. Among the first to qualify in the field of medicine was Charles H. Webb. In his examinations
he exhibited evidences of ripe scholarship and much proficiency in his chosen field. He set sail for Liberia in
1834, after having completed his medical studies, which he had pursued under the direction of the American
Colonization Society for a number of years. In the following autumn, however, he fell a victim to the local
fever aggravated by some imprudence on his part and died before he could render his people much service.[2]
A Shrewd Negro.—A Kentucky slave, named Jim, with the humiliation of slavery rankling in his
breast, resolved to make an effort to gain freedom. At last the opportunity came and he started for the Ohio
River. There he told his story to a sympathetic member of his race, offering him a part of his money, if he
would row him across to the Indiana shore. He was directed to George De Baptist, a free man of color, who
was then living in Madison but removed soon afterwards to Detroit, Michigan. The master of the slave arrived
in town with a posse and diligently searched it for the Negro. His sympathizers contrived, however, to avoid
the slave hunters and the fugitive was conducted through the corn fields and byways to a depot of the
Underground Railroad. He rested a few days at the station kept by William Byrd, of Union County, Indiana.
From that point he was speedily forwarded northward until he reached Canada.
Appreciating as he had never done before the real value of freedom, he longed to do something to confer this
great boon upon his wife and children whom he left behind him in Kentucky. He soon found a way to solve
this problem. He said to himself, "I'll go to old Massa's plantation, and I'll make believe I am tired of
freedom.[Pg 95] I'll tell old Massa a story that will please him; then I will go to work hard and watch for a
chance to slip away my wife and children."
His master was greatly surprised one morning to see Jim return home. In answer to the many questions
propounded to him, he gave the explanation which he had planned. He told his master that he found that
Canada was no place for Negroes, and that it was too cold and that they could not earn any money there. He
spoke of how the Negroes were cheated by the whites and subjected to other humiliations, which made him
tired of his freedom. His master was very much pleased with the story, spoke pleasantly to him and permitted
him to work among his slaves and those of his neighbors as a missionary to convince the blacks of the folly of
escaping to Canada.
The slave resumed his usual labor, working during that fall and winter but planning at the same time a second
flight. In the spring he succeeded in bringing together his wife and children and a few of his slave friends on
the Indiana side of the Ohio River. He reached the first station of the Underground Railway with his party
numbering fourteen and hurried them from point to point until they reached the home of Levi Coffin in
Indiana. They were hotly pursued and had narrow escapes, but by wise management they made their way
through Spartansburg, Greenville and Mercer County, Ohio, to Sandusky, from which they crossed over to
Canada.[3]
B. F. Grant.[4]—I was born in the State of Pennsylvania, Little Britain Township, Lancaster County,
Sunday morning, August 12, 1838. I am the son of the late Henry and Charlotte Grant.
My father was born a slave in the State of Maryland in Cecil County. He was freed at the age of nineteen,
upon the death of his master. My mother was born of free parents in Harford County, Maryland. Both came in
their youth to Pennsylvania, where they were married. Of that union there were born twelve children, eight
boys and four girls. The subject of this sketch was the fifth son of the family.
In 1844 my father moved with his family from Lancaster to York County, across the Susquehanna River. I
was then between five and six years old.[Pg 96]
SOME UNDISTINGUISHED NEGROES 59

The first political event that I remember was the Presidential campaign of Henry Clay and James K. Polk in
1844. In the fall of that year each party had a pole raising at Peach Bottom, York County, Pennsylvania.
Mother took us to see the pole raising and then the people were all shouting for Henry Clay, but soon after
that I remember hearing them singing a song::
"Oh poor cooney Clay,

The white house was never made for you
And home you better stay."
Polk was elected, and soon after the inauguration of President Polk in 1845 the great controversy over the
Mexican War and Negro slavery arose. The Negro question was the topic of the day, both in and out of
Congress and among all classes. This continued until in 1846, when the war broke out between the United
States and Mexico, and lasted two years.
When it was over the United States had the victory. Then the slaveholders of the South, with the copperheads
of the North, tried to force their slaves or their slave influence into every State and territory of the United
States. So great became the agitation and excitement that the poor slaves became restless and uneasy over
their condition, and they commenced to run away by the thousands from the Southern States. They made for
the free States and Canada. This gave rise to what was known as the Underground Railroad.
This brings me to consider what I call my boyhood days. Having passed my childhood, I now began to think,
feel and consider that I was a human being as well as the white boys who surrounded me, living on farms just
as I lived. Therefore I began to believe that I had the same God-given rights that they had, and was not born to
be kicked around like a dog any more than they were.
About this time I began to attend the so-called public school. I well remember those school days, for they
made a lasting impression upon my mind. If God had not had mercy on the poor little Negro who attended the
public school of Pennsylvania in those days, I know not what would have become of me; for the poor white
trash from the teacher down had no mercy upon him. They were upon him like vultures upon their prey, ready
to devour him at any time for any cause.
I will mention only a few things which the little Negro had to endure, simply because he was a Negro. He was
not permitted to[Pg 97] drink from the same bucket or cup as the white children. He was compelled to sit back
in the corner from the fire no matter how cold the weather might be. There he must wait until the white
children had recited. If the cold became too intense to endure, he must ask permission of the teacher, stand by
the fire a few minutes to warm and then return to the same cold corner. I have sat in an old log school house
with no chinking between the logs until my heels were frost-bitten and cracked open. Sometimes we had a
poor white trashy skunk that would sit in the school room and call us "niggers" or "darkeys." If the little
Negro got his lesson at all, he got it; if not, it was all the same.
For seven long years, 1844 to 1851, my father lived about five miles from the Maryland line and about one
mile from the Susquehanna River. That is where I saw some of the evils of the institution called slavery.
Sometimes I wondered whether there was any God for the Negro.
My father was one of the members of the Underground Railroad. I well remember some of the members of
that club which used to meet at our house. They were Robert Fisher, Lige Sarkey, Isaac Waters, Henry W.
Grant, Isaac Fields, Thomas Clarke and others who used to meet and make their arrangements to convey the
fugitives across the Susquehanna River. The night was never too dark or the storm never too severe for those
brave, noble-hearted, courageous men to do their work. They did not fear death. Although they were
uneducated men ignorant of the letter, they were directed by a Higher Power. The hand of God led them, and
so they succeeded in carrying off hundreds, nay I might truthfully say thousands from the counties of Cecil,
Harford and Baltimore. All lived to be old men.

After the Mexican War the Southern slaveholders and copperheads of the North got it into their heads to
extend slavery throughout the borders of the United States. Robt. Toombs, one of the noted fire-eaters of the
South, said he would call the roll of his slaves at the foot of Bunker Hill Monument. In 1848 came the crisis
of the Presidential election. The Mexican War was over and the country had a vast amount of territory added
to her southern borders. The cotton gin had been invented, and cotton had come into great demand. It was as
good as gold. The Negro, therefore, was in great demand.
Presidential nominations were made. The Whigs nominated Gen. Taylor, and the Democrats nominated Lewis
Cass. The Whig[Pg 98] candidate was successful. While Gen. Taylor was a Southern man, he was somewhat
opposed to the extension of slavery, and, therefore, not a favorite of the nullifiers of the South. He did not live
long. Then they got their dupe, the Vice-President, Millard Fillmore, a northern man, but a red-hot copperhead
who stood in with the South. I can well remember those times when all the fire-eating leaders of the South and
the poor dirty trash of the North got their desire when that poor dupe of a President allowed the mischievous
fugitive slave act to become a law of the land. This law was a curse to the nation, an outrage upon the poor
Negro and suffering humanity. This bill gave the poor Negro no protection in the land of his birth, a country
boasting of being the land of the brave and the home of the free. These terms, however, were nothing but
bombast; they would just come and take a freeman and carry him into absolute slavery without judge or jury.
I can well remember the Christiana riot. I was not living far from there at that time. Those were the days that
tried the poor Negro's soul, and were a disgrace to the white man. I was then about fifteen years old and we
had to suffer everything but death, and sometimes that; for the slave hunters were like their bloodhounds,
always upon the Negro's track. There were daily riots between the slaves and Negro hunters.
While quite young, and claiming to be a Christian, too, I was almost ready to say with Job, "Cursed was the
night wherein I was born, and the night in which it was said, there is a man child conceived." My disgust at
the treatment given my people made me resolve to leave the country and to go to Liberia, Africa, because the
fugitive slave law was too obnoxious for me both in principle and practice. Because of the outbreak of the
Civil War, however, I failed to carry out this plan.
Now I recall my third Presidential election. The candidates were Gen. Winfield Scott and Franklin Pierce.
Pierce was the Democratic candidate and he overwhelmingly defeated Gen. Scott, which placed the
Democrats in absolute power. All the fire-eaters of the South with the copperheads of the North held full
sway, arrayed against the anti-slavery party of the North and East, and backed by the President, the Supreme
Court and Congress. The world knows the condition of the country at that time. The Negro's condition during
all of that administration recalls to my memory a picture too dark to attempt to describe.
During this administration there was a man by the name of[Pg 99] Dred Scott, owned by an army officer
named Emerson. He took Scott into a free territory; this slave, Scott, sued for his freedom; the case was
carried from court to court until it reached the Supreme Court, which handed down that opinion known
throughout the world as the Dred Scott decision. It meant that a Negro had no rights that a white man was
bound to respect; that he was of an inferior order, and altogether unfit to associate with the white race either in
social or political relation; and so far inferior that they need not be respected, but might be reduced to slavery
for the white man's benefit. This decision placed the damnation seal on the poor Negro in the United States. It
left him absolutely without help.
In 1856 opened the great political drama. The candidates were James Buchanan, the Democrat, John C.
Fremont, Republican, and ex-Vice-President Millard Fillmore, of the Know Nothing Party. James Buchanan,
the Democrat, was elected; the world knows the consequences of the next four years in and out of Congress.
Death and destruction were in the path. We had John Brown's insurrection, the Christiana riot, the tragic death
of Lovejoy, and hundreds of other events which I cannot mention at this time.

In 1860 the Presidential campaign came off. The candidates were Abraham Lincoln, Republican, John C.
Breckenridge, Southern Democrat, and S. A. Douglass, Northern Democrat, with John Bell, Union Democrat.
This was a hot contest. Lincoln was elected.
Then came the Great Rebellion. On April 12, 1862, in company with my brother, John H. Grant, we left our
home in York Co., Pa., for Washington, D. C., then the center of war activities. Both of us found employment
as teamsters in the Quartermaster's Department. On June 15 we were transferred into Gen. Pope's Army in
Virginia. We were relieved of our teams and put to herding horses and mules throughout Gen. Pope's
campaign. After Pope was defeated at the second battle of Bull Run, I returned to Washington and went back
to driving my team. In 1863 I was transferred to the woodcutter department as an outside clerk and put to
measuring wood which was cut every two weeks. I also looked after the commissary. I was there until the
Confederates ran us out in June.
I returned to Washington, D. C., and began my Christian and literary work. I was converted sixty-five years
ago, and joined the A. M. E. Z. Church, then called Wesley Church. Rev. Abner[Pg 100] Bishop was the
pastor. The church was in Peach Bottom Township, York County, Pennsylvania.
I have been always a lover of the Sunday School work. My interest continues to this day. There is one little
incident in my Sunday School work which I will relate. When I was a boy, with another young boy like
myself, we found that our Sunday School needed some literature. We succeeded in collecting some money,
and Moses Jones and I found that the nearest place to get the books was Lancaster City, about twenty-five
miles from the church. Undaunted, we took the money and walked to Lancaster, and back again with the
books. Some of those books remained a great many years in the library of that school.
I am the man who opened the first free school to colored boys in the District of Columbia. This was in the
basement of the old Mt. Zion Church in 1863 under the Friends' Association of Philadelphia, of which Mr. H.
M. Laing, of that city, was president. I also opened a school to freedmen in Fairfax County, Virginia, at Bull
Run. After being there about three months, one of the Freedmen's Bureau Officers came over from Manassas
and placed me and my school back under the direction of the Friends' Association and the same Mr. Laing
was still its president. I remained there two years.
When I opened the school it was a little log cabin built as a headquarters by the Confederates. They were
encamped there in the spring or rather the winter of 1861-62. While I was teaching at Bull Run, Prof. John M.
Langston was appointed to a position in the Freedmen's Bureau. I became acquainted with him, interested him
in my work and he secured me one hundred and fifty dollars to assist in building there a house for two
purposes, a church and a school. In this school I gave the founder of the Manasses Industrial School, Miss
Jennie Dean, her first lessons. Now after the lapse of fifty years, the Bull Run School is still standing as one of
the public schools of Fairfax County, Virginia.
While teaching in the Bull Run School I was elected a delegate to the first National Negro Convention after
the Civil War. This met in the Israel Church, Washington, D. C., in 1868. This church was then A. M. E.
Zion, but now C. M. E. There I met some of the leading Negroes of the world. Among them were Hon.
Frederick Douglass, Prof. John M. Langston, Rev. Henry H. Garnett, C. L. Remond, Robert Purvis, Geo. T.
Downing, Geo. B. Vashon, Rev. Wm. Howard Day, Prof. Bassett, Robt. W. Elliot, Bishop[Pg 101] Henry M.
Turner, Prof. Isaac C. Weaver, Richard Clarke, John Jones, Prof. O. M. Green, Geo. W. White, P. H. Martin,
John R. Lynch, and A. R. Green. These were some of the lights in that convention. Hon. Fred. Douglass was
elected president, with Rev. H. L. Garnett as vice-president.
After two years at Bull Run, I returned to the District of Columbia, where I became acquainted with a white
gentleman named Edmond Tewney, from the State of Maine, who came to the District as one of the founders
of Wayland Seminary. As there was some misunderstanding between him and some of the other members of

the faculty, he left the school, and organized another, known as the National Theological Institution for the
Instruction of Young Colored Men and Women for preachers and teachers.
I became associated with that school, and was an assistant teacher and a pupil at the same time. It was a
Baptist institution, and some of those who afterward became the most able Baptist preachers in the city
attended that school. Some of them were Rev. John D. Brooks, Rev. James Jefferson, Rev. Edward Willis,
Rev. M. J. Laws, Rev. J. M. Johnson, Rev. Henry Lee, and many others who did great good for God's church
and for suffering humanity.
I will return to my church and Sunday School work in the District of Columbia and its vicinity. I was the
Church Clerk for Union Wesley A. M. E. Z. Church for twenty-five years, and the superintendent of its
Sunday School for thirty years.
I have been acquainted with all the bishops of that Church and a great many of its leading elders since I joined
the church in 1853, sixty-five years ago. Some of the worthy prelates and leaders who have been my warm
personal friends are: Bishops J. J. Clinton, J. J. Moore, C. C. Petty, C. R. Harris, J. W. Hood, J. W. Smith, J.
Logan, J. W. Small, and Elders J. Harvey Anderson, Geo. W. Adams, Thos. Betters, R. J. Daniels, R. S. G.
Dyson, and many others who have gone from my mind at this writing. I have had much of joy and happiness
in my church life.
I am still in the Master's service. I am at present District Sunday School Superintendent of the Washington
District of the Philadelphia and Baltimore Conference of the A. M. E. Z. Church. On August 12, 1918, I was
eighty years old.
Mary L. Mason.
Footnotes:
[1] Semmes, John H. B. Latrobe, pp. 140-142.
[2] The African Repository, X, 104, and XII, 18.
[3] Coffin, Reminiscences, pp. 139-144.
[4] This personal narrative was secured from B.F. Grant, of Washington, D. C., by Miss Mary L. Mason.
[Pg 102]
BOOK REVIEWS
American Negro Slavery. By Ulrich Bonnell Phillips. A Survey of the Supply, Employment and Control of
Negro Labor as determined by the Plantation Regime. D. Appleton and Company, New York and London,
1918. Pp. 529.
This book is both more and less than a history of slavery in America. It transcends the limit of the average
treatise in this field in that it shows how the institution influenced the economic history of America in all its
ramifications. It falls far short of being a complete history of slavery for the reason of the neglect of many
aspects by the author. The book is successful as a compilation or digest of the sources of the history of slavery
cast in the mind of a man of southern birth and northern environment in manhood.
Footnotes: 63
The author furnishes adequate background for this work in tracing the slave trade, beginning with the
exploitation of Guinea and proceeding to a detailed consideration of the maritime traffic. Slavery as it existed
in the West Indies is portrayed in his account of the sugar industry. In the continental colonies it appears in his
treatment of the tobacco industry, rice culture and the interests of the northern colonies. He shows how the
struggle for the rights of man resulted in a sort of reaction against slavery in the North and the so-called
prohibition of the African slave trade.
In his discussion of the introduction of cotton and the domestic slave trade, there are few facts which cannot
be obtained from several standard works. His treatment of types of plantations, with reference to their
management, labor, social aspects and tendencies, is more informing. The contrast between town and country
slaves, the discussion of free Negroes, slave crime and the force of the law, do not give us very much that is
new. On the whole, however, the book is a valuable piece of research giving a more intensive treatment of
economic slavery than any other single volume hitherto published.
On the other hand, the book falls far short of giving a complete history of the institution of slavery. In the first
place, the book is too much of a commercial account. The slaves are mentioned as representing both persons
and property, but this treatise lacks proportion in that it deals primarily with the slaves as property[Pg 103] in
the cold-blooded fashion that the southerners usually bartered them away. Very little is said about the blacks
themselves, seemingly to give more space to the history of the whites, who profited by their labor, just as one
would in writing a history of the New England fisheries say very little about the species figuring in the
industry, but more about the life of the people participating in it. It is evident that although a southerner, Mr.
Phillips has lived so far from the Negroes that he knows less about them than those who have periodically
come into contact with them but on certain occasions have given the blacks serious study. This is evidenced
by Mr. Phillips' own statement when he says in his preface, that "a generation of freedom has wrought less
transformation in the bulk of the blacks than might casually be supposed." This failure to understand what the
Negroes have thought and felt and done, in other words, the failure to fathom the Negro mind, constitutes a
defect of the work.
Another neglected aspect of the book is the failure of the author to treat adequately the anti-slavery
movement. It was not necessary for him to give an extensive treatment of abolition but it is impossible to set
forth exactly what the institution was without giving sufficient space to this attitude of a militant minority
toward it. It was certainly proper for the author to say more about the northerners and southerners who arrayed
themselves in opposition to the institution. In his chapter on the economic views of slavery this aspect was
mentioned but not properly amplified. Some references to it elsewhere, of course, appear in parts of the book
but, considering the importance of this phase of the history of slavery in America, one can say it has been
decidedly neglected. The author, as he says in his preface, avoided "polemic writings, for their fuel went so
much to heat that their light upon the living conditions is faint." It was not necessary also to avoid the
controversy in which these writers participated. No one will gainsay the fact that persons who engage in
controversy cannot be depended upon to tell the truth, but if the slavery dispute largely influenced the history
of the country, it should have adequate treatment in a history of this kind.
John H. B. Latrobe and His Times. By John E. Semmes. The Norman, Remington Company, Baltimore,
Maryland. Pp. 595. Price $6.00.
This is an extensive biography of a man born in Philadelphia[Pg 104] and, after some adventures elsewhere,
transplanted to Baltimore, where he became one of the first citizens of the land. His career as a cadet at West
Point, his study and practice of law, his business interests, his travels and connections with learned and
humanitarian societies all bespeak the many-sidedness of a useful citizen. The work contains a Latrobe
genealogy and a topical index. It is well illustrated and exhibits evidences of much effort on the part of the
author.
BOOK REVIEWS 64
The part of the book most interesting to students of Negro history, however, is the chapter on African
colonization, a subject which engaged the attention of Latrobe for many years and for which he became an
influential promoter in serving as corresponding secretary of the Maryland Colonization Society and as
president of the American Colonization Society. Although only one chapter of the book is devoted to this
aspect of Mr. Latrobe's biography, it figured as largely in his life as any other public interest. He said: "I
cannot now recall in order all that I did for it. It was the one thing then, and has ever been the one thing
outside of my lawyer's calling, to which I have devoted myself." His biographer says that he spent about one
quarter of his working hours during ten years of his life in advocating colonization. Dr. Daniel C. Gilman,
President of Johns Hopkins University, said at a meeting of the Maryland Historical Society held in Latrobe's
memory that "probably his greatest distinction outside of his professional life was acquired in promoting the
cause of African colonization in ante-bellum days."
The author, however, instead of informing the reader as to what Latrobe did for colonization, laments the
failure of this enterprise and endeavors to show that colonization or segregation in some form must be the
solution of the Negro problem. In the chapter mentioned above he refers to this important work of Latrobe,
not to set forth what he actually accomplished in this field, but to give the author's views. He proceeds to
quote Thomas Jefferson, Henry Clay and Abraham Lincoln, and finally Horace Grady and Bishop H. M.
Turner on colonization, with a view to convincing the reader that although Mr. Latrobe's effort at colonizing
the Negroes in Africa failed, it must eventually be brought about since the two races will not happily live
together and then the great work of Latrobe will stand out as an achievement rather than as a failure. This
branching off into opinion rather than into a scientific treatment of facts renders the biography incomplete so
far as it concerns[Pg 105] one of the larger aspects of Latrobe's life. The reader must, therefore, go to the
papers of Latrobe to trace his connection with colonization with a view to determining exactly how largely
this interest figured in the life of a successful lawyer and business man and the extent to which he interested
the people throughout the country. The public will, therefore, welcome a more scholarly biography of J. H. B.
Latrobe.
The Mulatto in The United States. By Edward Byron Reuter. Richard G. Badger, The Gorham Press, Boston,
1918. Pp. 417. Price $2.50 net.
This is the first work to deal especially with the people of color and will, therefore, attract some attention. It is
chiefly valuable for the discussion which it will arouse rather than for the information given. It is an
unscientific compilation of facts collected from a few sources by a man who has devoted some time to the
study of the Negro but just about enough to misunderstand the race. His chief shortcoming consists in his
misinformation. For scientific purposes the book has no value.
In the beginning of the work there is a discussion of mixed blood races in the old world, concluding with a
treatment of the same in the West Indies and America. Considering the mulatto the key to the race problem in
America, Mr. Reuter undertakes to show the extent of race mixture, its nature and growth. He discusses the
intermarriage of the races, unlawful polygamy, intermarriage with Indians, intermixture during slavery and
concubinage of black women with white men. He seems to know nothing of the numerous facts easily
accessible in various works, which show that during slavery there was also a concubinage of white women
with black men. In the next place, the author treats the Negro of today, depending mainly on a few unreliable
sources of information such as the proceedings of certain Negro conventions, a Negro newspaper and the few
books specially devoted to Negro history. In this it appears that he does not know that the chief sources of
Negro history are not books bearing such titles, for the history of the race has not yet been written.
Mr. Reuter's conclusions are fundamentally wrong for the two reasons that he does not know who the
mulattoes are and, although taking cognizance of the fact that science has uprooted the idea of racial
inferiority, he is loath to abandon the contention that the[Pg 106] mulatto is superior to the Negro. For
example, in his chapter on leading men of the Negro race, in which he specifies whether they are blacks or
BOOK REVIEWS 65
mulattoes, he has classified as mulattoes a large number of Negroes who have practically no evidences of
white blood and are commonly referred to throughout the country as the blacks of the Negro race. The title of
the book, therefore, should not be The Mulatto but The Negro. It would then establish nothing as it does. Upon
the careers of these black persons he has supported his theories as to the superiority of the mulatto. This
encourages him, therefore, to intimate that because of their proximity to the racial characteristics of the white
race they are in some respects superior to the blacks. Here we have the return of the ante-bellum proslavery
philosopher disguised as a scientific investigator.
The Anti-Slavery Movement in Kentucky. By Asa Earl Martin, Assistant Professor of American History, The
Pennsylvania State College. The Standard Printing Company of Louisville, Kentucky, 1918. Pp. 165.
In this volume there is an effort to bring out something new in the history of slavery. The author is mindful of
the tendency of most writers of the history of slavery to direct their attention to the radical movements
associated with the names of the leading abolitionists. His effort is to treat that neglected aspect of slavery
having to do with the work of the gradual emancipationists. "These men, unlike the followers of Garrison,
who were restricted to the free States," said he, "were found in all parts of the Union. They embraced great
numbers of leaders in politics, business and education, and while far more numerous in the free than in the
slave States, they nevertheless included a large and respectable element in Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky,
Tennessee and Missouri." He has in mind here, of course, the conservative slaveholders of the border States
who had for a number of years felt that slavery was an economic evil of which the country should rid itself
gradually by systematic efforts. Feeling that they contributed in the end a great deal to the downfall of the
regime and in some respects exercised as much influence as the abolitionists, he has undertaken to set their
story before the world.
The author begins with the first attack upon slavery, the early anti-slavery movement in Kentucky, the
colonizationist idea, the work of the anti-slavery societies, and the efforts of the church to[Pg 107]
exterminate the evil. In the eighth and ninth chapters he treats more seriously the main question at issue,
namely, exactly how men of that slave-holding commonwealth persistently endeavored to find a more rational
means of escaping the baneful effects of the institution. His important contribution, therefore, is that abolition
found little favor in Kentucky while gradual emancipation moved the hearts of men of both parties and even
of slave-holders. How the struggle between these pro-slavery and anti-slavery parties culminated in 1849 in
the defeat of the latter, is the concluding portion of the book. He shows that Kentucky exceeded most of the
border slave States in permitting the freer and more extensive discussion of that question than any of the other
commonwealths similarly situated.
Professor Martin's work, therefore, is a complement of Dr. I. E. McDougle's Slavery in Kentucky. Whereas
Professor Martin deals primarily with the work of the gradual emancipationists, Dr. I. E. McDougle directs his
attention largely to some other aspects of the question. Both of these works may be read with profit. In them
the whole question has been adequately discussed and there will not soon be a need for further investigation in
this field.
[Pg 108]
NOTES
Within a few years from the time the United States army will be reduced to a peace status, the Association for
the Study of Negro Life and History will publish a scientific history of the Negro soldiers in the great war. As
this effort will require a large outlay, it is earnestly desired that persons interested in the propagation of the
truth will give this movement their support. A campaign for funds has begun and the encouragement hitherto
received indicates that the amount necessary to finance this enterprise will be secured.
NOTES 66
At present it is impossible to indicate exactly the extent of this work. It will be first necessary to make an
extensive research into all of the sources of information as to the Negroes' participation in the war and when
the data thus collected will have been properly digested, a more detailed description of the work may be
forecasted. It is safe to say, however, that the work will consist of several volumes written by the Director of
Research.
This same interest is set forth, as follows, in an item appearing in the December number of the Crisis:
"The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People has appropriated funds
and commissioned the Director of Publications and Research to collect the data and compile a
history of the Negro in the Great War.
"Dr. DuBois has invited a number of Negro scholars, soldiers and officials to form an
Editorial Board, which will be able to issue an authentic, scientific and definitive history of
our part in this war.
"The personnel of this board will be announced later. Meantime, we want the active
coöperation of every person who can and will help. We want facts, letters and documents,
narratives and clippings. Let us all unite to make the record complete. Correspondence may
be directed to this office."
[Pg 109]
The following important announcement appeared in the December number of the Crisis:
Tercentenary
The husband of Pocahontas wrote in 1619: "About the last of August came a Dutch man of warre that sold us
twenty Negars." From this beginning sprang the present twelve million Americans of Negro descent.
Next August will mark the Three Hundredth Anniversary of this vast transplantation of a race, which ranks
easily as one of the most significant movements of mankind. Such an event can hardly be "celebrated," for it
connoted too much of misery and human sorrow. On the other hand, it is too stern and meaningful a
happening to be forgotten. For this reason, a group of thirty-three colored men met in New York, October 19,
1918, at the invitation of a committee appointed by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored
People.
They determined to inaugurate "A Solemn Memorial of the Tercentenary of the Transplanting of the Negro
race to the United States." In order, however, to give all sections and interests of the Negro race adequate
voice and representation in these plans, this committee set about choosing a Committee of "Three Hundred
and More," in whose hands the Memorial will take final shape. This Committee is now being chosen and will
meet in New York early in January, 1919.
The Linchoten Vereeniging has published for Mr. E. C. Godee Mossbergen two volumes of Reizen in
Zuid-Afrika in de Hollandse Tijd.
From the press of Longsman two volumes bearing on Africa have been published. One is by Sir Hugh
Clifford, entitled the German Colonies, with special relation to the native population of Africa. The other, by
H. C. O'Neill, is the War in Africa and the Far East, dealing largely with the conquest of the German
colonies.
NOTES 67
Houghton, Mifflin and Company have published a study entitled Lincoln in Illinois by Miss Octavia Roberts.
This work is largely a compilation of the recollections of his contemporaries.[Pg 110]
To extend the work of the Association the Director of Research is now making an effort to secure the
cooperation of five persons who, like Mr. Julius Rosenwald, will contribute $400 annually to the support of
this cause. Mr. Moorfield Storey and Mr. Cleveland H. Dodge have each pledged themselves to give this
amount. It is earnestly hoped that other philanthropists will subscribe.
[Pg 111]
NOTES 68
The Journal
of
Negro History
Vol. IV—April, 1919—No. 2
THE CONFLICT AND FUSION OF CULTURES WITH SPECIAL

REFERENCE TO THE NEGRO[1]
Under ordinary circumstances the transmission of the social tradition is from the parents to the children.
Children are born into society and take over its customs, habits, and standards of life simply, naturally, and
without conflict. But it will at once occur to any one that the life of society is not always continued and
maintained in this natural way, by the succession of parents and children. New societies are formed by
conquest and by the imposition of one people upon another. In such cases there arises a conflict of cultures
and as a result the process of fusion takes place slowly and is frequently not complete. New societies are
frequently formed by colonization, in which case new cultures are grafted on to older ones. The work of
missionary societies is essentially one of colonization in this sense.
Finally we have societies growing up, as in the United States, by immigration. These immigrants, coming as
they do from all parts of the world, bring with them fragments of divergent cultures. Here again the process of
assimilation is slow, often painful, not always complete. In the case where societies are formed and
maintained by adoption, that is by immigration, the question arises: How far is it[Pg 112] possible for a
people of a different race and a different culture to take over the traditions and social inheritance of another
and an alien people? What are the conditions which facilitate this transmission and, in general, what happens
when people of different races and cultures are brought together in the intimate relations of community life?
These questions have already arisen in connection with the education of the Negro in America and with the
work of foreign missions. If the schools are to extend and rationalize the work they are already doing in the
Americanization of the immigrant peoples, questions of this sort may become actual in the field of pedagogy.
This paper is mainly concerned with the Negro, not because the case of the Negro is more urgent than or
essentially different from that of the immigrant, but because the materials for investigation are more
accessible.
Admitting, as the anthropologists now seem disposed to do, that the average native intelligence in the races is
about the same, we may still expect to find in different races certain special traits and tendencies which rest on
biological rather than cultural differences. For example, over and above all differences of language, custom or
historic tradition, it is to be presumed that Teuton and Latin, the Negro and the Jew—to compare the
most primitive with the most sophisticated of peoples—have certain racial aptitudes, certain innate and
characteristic differences of temperament which manifest themselves especially in the objects of attention, in
tastes and in talents. Is the Jewish intellectual, for example, a manifestation of an original and peculiar
endowment of the Jewish race or is he rather a product of traditional interest and emphasis characteristic of
Jewish people—a characteristic which may be explained as an accommodation to the long-continued
urban environment of the race?[2] Is the Negro's undoubted interest in music and taste[Pg 113] for bright
colors, commonly attributed to the race, to be regarded as an inherent and racial trait or is it merely the
characteristic of primitive people? Is Catholicism to be regarded as the natural manifestation of the Latin
temperament as it has been said that Protestantism is of the Teutonic?

Here are differences in the character of the cultural life which can scarcely be measured quantitatively in
terms of gross intellectual capacity. Historical causes do not, it seems, adequately account for them. So far as
this is true we are perhaps warranted in regarding them as modifications of transmitted tradition due to innate
traits of the people who have produced them. Granted that civilization, as we find it, is due to the development
of communication and the possibility of mutual exchange of cultural materials, still every special culture is the
result of a selection and every people borrows from the whole fund of cultural materials not merely that which
it can use but which, because of certain organic characteristics, it finds stimulating and interesting.
The question then resolves itself into this: How far do racial characteristics and innate biological interests
determine the extent to which one racial group can and will take over and assimilate the characteristic features
of an alien civilization? How far will it merely take over the cultural forms, giving them a different content or
a different inflection? This problem, so far as it is related to the lives of primitive peoples, has already been
studied by the ethnologists. Rivers, in his analysis of the cultures of Australian people, has found that what we
have hitherto regarded as primitive cultures are really fusions of other and earlier forms of culture.[3] The
evidence of this is the fact that the fusion has not been complete. In the process of interchange it frequently
happens that what Rivers calls the "fundamental structure" of a primitive society has remained unchanged
while the relatively formal and external elements[Pg 114] of alien culture only have been taken over and
incorporated with it.
There are indications also that, where cultural borrowings have taken place, the borrowed elements have for
the people who have taken them over a meaning different from what they had for the people from whom they
were borrowed. W.J. McGee, in an article entitled "Piratical Acculturation," has given an interesting
illustration of this fact.[4] McGee's observations of the Beri Indians go to show that they imitated the weapons
of their enemies, but that they regarded them as magical instruments and the common people did not even
know their names. There are numerous other illustrations of this so-called "piratical acculturation" among the
observations of ethnologists. It is said that the Negroes in Africa, when they first came into possession of the
white man's guns, regarded them as magical instruments for making a noise and used them, as the Germans
used the Zeppelins and the newspapers, merely to destroy the enemy's morale.
No doubt the disposition of primitive peoples is to conceive everything mystically, or animistically, to use the
language of ethnology, particularly where it concerns something strange. On the other hand, when the
primitive man has encountered among the cultural objects to which civilization has introduced him, something
which he has been able to make immediately intelligible to himself, he has at once formed a perfectly rational
conception of it. Some years ago at Lovedale, South Africa, the seat of one of the first successful industrial
mission schools, there was an important ceremony to which all the native African chiefs in the vicinity were
formally invited. It was the introduction and demonstration of the use of the plow, the first one that had ever
been seen in those parts. The proceedings were followed with great interest by a large gathering of natives.
When the demonstration was finished one old chief turned to his followers and said with great conviction:
"This is a great thing which the white man has brought us. One hoe[Pg 115] like that is worth as much as ten
wives." An African chief could hardly have expressed appreciation of this one fundamental device of our
civilization in more pragmatic or less mystical terms. The wise old chief grasped the meaning of the plow at
once, but this was because he had been pre-adapted by earlier experience to do so.
It is the subjective, historic and ultimately, perhaps, racial and temperamental factor in the lives of peoples
which makes it difficult, though not impossible, perhaps, to transmit political and religious institutions to
people of a different racial type and a different social tradition. William James' essay, "On a Certain Blindness
in Human Beings," in which he points out how completely we are likely to miss the point and mistake the
inner significance of the lives of those about us, unless we share their expedience, emphasizes this fact. If then
the transmission and fusion of cultures is slow, incomplete and sometimes impossible, it is because the
external forms, the formulas, technical devices of every social tradition can be more easily transmitted than
the aims, the attitudes, sentiments and ideals which attach to them are embodied in them. The former can be
THE CONFLICT AND FUSION OF CULTURES WITH SPECIALREFERENCE TO THE NEGRO[1] 70

copied and used; the latter must be appreciated and understood.
For a study of the acculturation process, there are probably no materials more complete and accessible than
those offered by the history of the American Negro. No other representatives of a primitive race have had so
prolonged and so intimate an association with European civilization, and still preserved their racial identity.
Among no other people is it possible to find so many stages of culture existing contemporaneously. It has
been generally taken for granted that the Negro brought a considerable fund of African tradition and African
superstition from Africa to America. One not infrequently finds in the current literature and even in standard
books upon the Negro, references to voodoo practices among the Negroes in the Southern States. As a
matter-of-fact the last authentic account[Pg 116] which we have of anything approaching a Negro nature
worship in the United States took place in Louisiana in 1884. It is described by George W. Cable in an article
on "Creole Slave Songs" which appeared in the Century Magazine in 1886. In this case it seems to have been
an importation from the West Indies. I have never found an account of a genuine instance of voodoo worship
elsewhere in the United States, although it seems to have been common enough in the West Indies at one
time.
My own impression is that the amount of African tradition which the Negro brought to the United States was
very small. In fact, there is every reason to believe, it seems to me, that the Negro, when he landed in the
United States, left behind him almost everything but his dark complexion and his tropical temperament. It is
very difficult to find in the South today anything that can be traced directly back to Africa. This does not
mean that there is not a great deal of superstition, conjuring, "root doctoring" and magic generally among the
Negroes of the United States. What it does mean is that the superstitions we do find are those which we might
expect to grow up anywhere among an imaginative people, living in an intellectual twilight such as exists on
the isolated plantations of the Southern States. Furthermore, this superstition is in no way associated, as it is in
some of the countries of Europe, southern Italy for example, with religious beliefs and practices. It is not part
of Negro Christianity. It is with him, as it is with us, folk-lore pure and simple. It is said that there are but two
African words that have been retained in the English language. One of these is the word Buckra, from which
comes Buckra Beach in Virginia. This seems remarkable when we consider that slaves were still brought into
the United States clandestinely up to 1862.[5][Pg 117]
The explanation is to be found in the manner in which the Negro slaves were collected in Africa and the
manner in which they were disposed of after they arrived in this country. The great markets for slaves in
Africa were on the West Coast, but the old slave trails ran back from the coast far into the interior of the
continent, and all the peoples of Central Africa contributed to the stream of enforced emigration to the New
World. In the West Indies a good deal was known among slave-traders and plantation owners about the
character and relative value of slaves from different parts of Africa, but in the United States there was less
knowledge and less discrimination. Coming from all parts of Africa and having no common language and
common tradition, the memories of Africa which they brought with them were soon lost.
There was less opportunity in the United States also than in the West Indies for a slave to meet one of his own
people, because the plantations were considerably smaller, more widely scattered and, especially, because as
soon as they were landed in this country, slaves were immediately divided and shipped in small numbers,
frequently no more than one or two at a time, to different plantations. This was the procedure with the very
first Negroes brought to this country. It was found easier to deal with the slaves, if they were separated from
their kinsmen.
On the plantation they were thrown together with slaves who had already forgotten or only dimly remembered
their life in Africa. English was the only language of the plantation. The attitude of the slave plantation to
each fresh arrival seems to have been much like that of the older immigrant towards the greenhorn.
Everything that marked him as an alien was regarded as ridiculous and barbaric.[6][Pg 118] Furthermore, the
slave had in fact very little desire to return to his native land. I once had an opportunity to talk with an old

man living just outside of Mobile, who was a member of what was known as the African colony. This African
colony represented the cargo of one of the last slave ships successful in landing in this country just at the
opening of the war. The old man remembered Africa and gave me a very interesting account of the way in
which he was captured and brought to America. I asked him if he had ever wished to return. He said that a
missionary who had been in their country and spoke their language had visited them at one time. This
missionary offered to send them back to Africa and even urged them to go. "I told him," said the old man, "I
crossed the ocean once, but I made up my mind then never to trust myself in a boat with a white man again."
The fact that the Negro brought with him from Africa so little tradition which he was able to transmit and
perpetuate on American soil, makes that race unique among all peoples of our cosmopolitan population. Other
peoples have lost, under the disintegrating influence of the American environment, much of their cultural
heritage. None have been so utterly cut off and estranged from their ancestral land, traditions and people. It is
just because of this that the history of the Negro offers exceptional materials for determining the relative
influence of temperamental and historical conditions upon the process by which cultural materials from one
racial group are transmitted to another; for, in spite of the fact that the Negro brought so little intellectual
baggage with him, he has exhibited a rather marked ethnical individuality in the use and interpretation of the
cultural materials to which he has had access.
The first, and perhaps the only distinctive institution which the Negro has developed in this country is the
Negro church, and it is in connection with his religion that we may expect to find, if anywhere, the indications
of a distinctive Afro-American culture. The actual conditions[Pg 119] under which the African slaves were
converted to Christianity have never been adequately investigated. We know, in a general way, that there was
at first considerable opposition to admitting the Negro into the church because it was feared that it would
impair the master's title to his slaves. History records too that the house servants were very early admitted to
churches and that in many cases masters went to considerable pains to instruct those servants who shared with
them the intimacy of the household.[7] It was not, however, until the coming of the new, free and evangelistic
types of Christianity, the Baptists and the Methodists, that the masses of the black people, that is, the
plantation Negroes, found a form of Christianity that they could make their own.
How eagerly and completely the Negro did take over the religion of these liberal denominations may be
gathered from some of the contemporary writings, which record the founding of the first Negro churches in
America. The first Negro church in Jamaica was founded by George Liele, shortly after the close of the
Revolutionary War. George Liele had been a slave in Savannah, but his master, who was a Tory, emigrated to
Jamaica upon the evacuation of that city. Andrew Bryan in Savannah was one of Liele's congregation. He was
converted, according to the contemporary record, by Liele's exposition of the text "You must be born again!"
About eight months after Liele's departure, Andrew began to preach to a Negro congregation, "with a few
white." The colored people had been permitted to erect a building at Yamacraw, but white people in the
vicinity objected to the meetings and Bryan and some of his associates were arrested and whipped. But he
"rejoiced in his whippings" and holding up his hand declared "he would freely suffer death for the cause of
Jesus Christ." Bryan's master interceded for him and "was most affected and grieved" at his punishment. He
gave Bryan and his[Pg 120] followers a barn to worship in, after Chief Justice Osbourne had given them their
liberty. This was the origin of what was probably the first Negro church in America.
George Liele and Andrew Bryan were probably not exceptional men even for their day. The Rev. James Cook
wrote of Bryan: "His gifts are small but he is clear in the grand doctrines of the Gospel. I believe him truly
pious and he has been the instrument of doing more good among the poor slaves than all the learned doctors in
America."[8] The significant thing is that, with the appearance of these men, the Negroes in America ceased
to be a mission people. At least, from this time on, the movement went on of its own momentum, more and
more largely under the direction of Negro leaders. Little Negro congregations, under the leadership of Negro
preachers, sprang up wherever they Were tolerated. Often they were suppressed, more often they were
privately encouraged. Not infrequently they met in secret.

In 1787 Richard Allen and Absolom Jones had formed in Philadelphia the Free African Society, out of which
four years later, in 1790, arose the first separate denominational organization of Negroes, the African
Methodist-Episcopal Church. George Liele, Andrew Bryan, Richard Allen, and the other founders of the
Negro church were men of some education, as their letters and other writings show. They had had the
advantage of life in a city environment and the churches which they founded were in all essentials faithful
copies of the denominational forms as they found them in the churches of that period.
The religion of the Negroes on the plantation was then, as it is today, of a much more primitive sort.
Furthermore, there were considerable differences in the cultural status of different regions of the South and
these differences were reflected in the Negro churches. There was at that time, as there is today, a marked
contrast between the Upland and the Sea Island Negroes. Back from the coast the plantations[Pg 121] were
smaller, the contact of the master and slave were more intimate. On the Sea Island, however, where the slaves
were and still are more completely isolated than elsewhere in the South, the Negro population approached
more closely to the cultural status of the native African. The Sea Islands were taken possession of in the first
years of the war by the Federal forces and it was here that people from the North first came in contact with the
plantation Negro of the lower South. They immediately became interested in the manners and customs of the
Island Negroes, and from them we have the first accurate accounts of their folk-lore and sayings.
The Sea Island Negroes speak a distinct dialect and retain certain customs which are supposed to be of
African origin. It is, however, in their religious practices that we have the nearest approach to anything
positively African. This has undoubtedly the characteristics of primitive ritual. But this does not mean that it
is African in origin. It seems to me more likely that it is to be interpreted as a very simple and natural
expression of group emotion, which is just beginning to crystallize and assume a formal character. The
general tone of these meetings is that of a religious revival in which we expect a free and uncontrolled
expression of religious emotion, the difference being that in this case the expression of the excitement is
beginning to assume a formal and ritualistic character.
In the voodoo practices, of which we have not any accurate records, the incantations that were pronounced by
the priests, contain strange, magic words, scraps of ancient ritual, the meanings of which are forgotten.
Lafcadio Hearne, who knew the Negro life of Louisiana and Martinique intimately and was keen on the
subject of Negro folk-lore, has preserved for us this scrap from an old Negro folk song in which some of these
magic words have been preserved. Writing to his friend Edward Krehbiel he says:
"Your friend is right, no doubt about the

'Tig, tig, malaborn[Pg 122]
La Chelerna che tango
Redjoum!'
"I asked my black nurse what it meant. She only laughed and shook her head. 'Mais c'est
voodoo, ca; je n'en sais rien!' 'Well,' said I, 'don't you know anything about Voodoo songs?'
'Yes,' she answered, 'I know Voodoo songs; but I can't tell you what they mean.' And she
broke out into the wildest, weirdest ditty I ever heard. I tried to write down the words; but as I
did not know what they meant I had to write by sound alone, spelling the words according to
the French pronunciation."[9]
So far as I know there are, among the plantation hymns, no such remains of ancient ritual, mystical words
whose meanings are unknown, no traces whatever of African tradition. If there is anything that is African
about the Negroes' Christianity, it is not African tradition but the African temperament which has contributed
it. I assume, therefore, that what we find in the most primitive form of Negro Christianity is not the revival of
an older and more barbaric religion but the inception of a new and original form of Christianity.

An interesting fact in regard to the religious practices of the Negroes of the Sea Islands, which has not, so far
as I know, been recorded in any of the descriptions of that people, is the existence among them of two distinct
religious institutions; namely, the church and the "praise house." The praise house is the earlier institution and
represents apparently a more primitive and more characteristically Negro or African type. In slavery days, the
church was the white man's place of worship. Negroes were permitted to attend the services and there was
usually a gallery reserved for their use. Churches, however, were relatively few and not all the slaves on the
plantation could attend at any one time. Those who did attend were usually the house servants. On every large
plantation, however, there was likely to be, and this was characteristic of the Sea Island[Pg 123] plantations, a
"praise house" where the slaves were permitted to worship in their own peculiar way. It was here that the
"shout" took place. After the Civil War, churches were erected and regular congregations of the Negro
denominations were formed. The Negro churches, however, never wholly displaced the praise houses on Port
Royal and some of the other islands. It is a singular fact that today, among the Negroes of Port Royal, at any
rate, no one is converted in church. It is only in the praise houses that Negroes get religion. It is only through
the praise house that one enters the church. The whole process involves, as I have been informed, not merely
an "experience," the precise nature of which is not clear, but also an examination by the elders to determine
whether the experience is genuine, before candidates are admitted in good standing as members of the
congregation.
On the whole the plantation Negro's religion was a faithful copy of the white man's. It was content rather than
the form which suffered sea change in the process of transmission from the white man to the black. What this
content was, what new inflection and color the Negro slave imparted to the religious forms which he
borrowed from his master we may, perhaps, gather from a study of the plantation hymns. These folksongs
represent, at any rate, the naive and spontaneous utterance of hopes and aspirations for which the Negro slave
had no other adequate means of expression. The first and most interesting account we have of these Negro
spirituals is that of Col. Thomas Wentworth Higginson, in his Army Life in a Black Regiment.[10] He
collected them from the lips of his own black soldiers as they sang them about the campfire at night. He was
almost the first to recognize that these rude plantation hymns represented a real literature, the only literature
the American Negro has produced, until very recent times.
Col. Higginson has compared the Negro spirituals to the[Pg 124] Scotch ballads and to the folk songs of other
races. It is, however, not so much their similarities as their differences which are interesting and significant.
Negro folk songs are ruder and more primitive. The verses, often but not always rhymed, are, as in the case of
the example given below, composed almost entirely of single phrases, followed by a refrain, which is repeated
again with slight modifications, ending, not infrequently, in an exclamation.
An' I couldn't hear nobody pray,

O Lord!
Couldn't hear nobody pray.
O—way down yonder
By myself,
I couldn't hear nobody pray.
In the valley,
Couldn't hear nobody pray,
On my knees,
With my burden,
An' my Saviour,
O Lord!
I couldn't hear nobody pray,

O Lord!
O—way down yonder
By myself,
I couldn't hear nobody pray.
Chilly waters,
In the Jordan,
Crossing over,
Into Canaan,
[Pg 125]
In Negro folk songs the music and expression are everything. The words, often striking and suggestive, to be
sure, represent broken fragments of ideas, thrown up from the depths of the Negroes' consciousness and swept
along upon a torrent of wild, weird and often beautiful melody. One reason the verses of the Negro folk songs
are so broken and fragmentary is that the Negroes were not yet in secure possession of the English language.
Another explanation is the conditions under which they were produced. The very structure of these verses
indicate their origin in the communal excitement of a religious assembly. A happy phrase, a striking bit of
imagery, flung out by some individual was taken up and repeated by the whole congregation. Naturally the
most expressive phrases, the lines that most adequately voiced the deep unconscious desires of the whole
people, were remembered longest and repeated most frequently. New lines and variations were introduced
from time to time. There was, therefore, a process of natural selection by which the best, the most
representative verses, those which most adequately expressed the profounder and more permanent moods and
sentiments of the Negro were preserved and became part of the permanent tradition of the race.
Negro melodies still spring up on the plantations of the South as they did in the days of slavery. The Negro is,
like the Italian, an improviser, but the songs he produces today have not, so far as my knowledge goes, the
quality of those he sang in slavery. The schools have introduced reading, and this, with the reflection which
writing enforces, is destroying the folk songs of the Negro, as it has those of other races.
Not only are the Negro folk songs more primitive—in the sense I have indicated—than the folk
songs of other peoples with which we are familiar but the themes are different. The themes of the Scotch
ballads are love and battles, the adventures and tragedies of a wild, free life. The Negro songs, those that he
has remembered best, are[Pg 126] religious and other worldly. "It is a singular fact," says Krehbiel, "that very
few secular songs—those which are referred to as 'reel tunes,' 'fiddle songs,' 'corn songs' and 'devil
songs,' for which slaves generally expressed a deep abhorrence, though many of them no doubt were used to
stimulate them while in the fields—have been preserved while 'shout songs' and other 'speritchils' have
been kept alive by the hundred."[11]
If it is the plantation melodies that, by a process of natural selection, have been preserved in the traditions of
the Negro people, it is probably because in these songs they found a free and natural expression of their
unfulfilled desires. In the imagery of these songs, in the visions which they conjure up, in the themes which
they again and again renew, we may discern the reflection of dawning racial consciousness, a common racial
ideal.
The content of the Negro folk songs has been made the subject of a careful investigation by Howard Odum in
his Study of the Social and Mental Traits of the Negro. He says: "The Negro's fancies of 'Heaven's bright

home' are scarcely exceeded by our fairy tales. There are silver and golden slippers, crowns of stars, jewels
and belts of gold. There are robes of spotless white and wings all bejeweled with heavenly gems. Beyond the
Jordan the Negro will outshine the sun, moon and stars. He will slip and slide the golden street and eat the
fruit of the trees of paradise.... With rest and ease, with a golden band about him and with palms of victory in
his hands and beautiful robes, the Negro will indeed be a happy being.... To find a happy home, to see all the
loved ones and especially the Biblical characters, to see Jesus and the angels, to walk and talk with them, to
wear robes and slippers as they do, and to rest forever, constitute the chief images of the Negro's heaven. He
is tired of the world which has been a hell to him. Now on his knees, now shouting, now sorrowful and glad,
the[Pg 127] Negro comes from 'hanging over hell' to die and sit by the Father's side."[12]
In the imagery which the Negro chooses to clothe his hopes and dreams, we have, as in the musical idiom in
which he expresses them, reflections of the imagination and the temperament of Africa and the African. On
the other hand, in the themes of this rude rhapsodical poetry—the House of Bondage, Moses, the
Promised Land, Heaven, the apocalyptic visions of Freedom—but freedom confined miraculously and
to another world—these are the reflections of the Negro's experience in slavery.
The Negro's songs of slavery have been referred to by Du Bois in his Soul of Black-Folk as sorrow songs, and
other writers have made the assertion that all the songs of the slaves were in a plaintive minor key. As a matter
of fact, investigation has shown that actually less than twelve per cent of Negro songs are in a minor.[13]
There are no other folk songs, with the exception of those of Finland, of which so large a percentage are in the
major mood. And this is interesting as indicating the racial temperament of the Negro. It tends to justify the
general impression that the Negro is temperamentally sunny, cheerful, optimistic. It is true that the slave songs
express longing, that they refer to "hard trials and great tribulations," but the dominant mood is one of
jubilation, "Going to sing, going to shout, going to play all over God's heaven."
Other worldliness is not peculiar to the religion of the slave. It is a trait which the slave encountered in the
religion of his master. But in the Negro's conception of religion it received a peculiar emphasis. In fact, these
ecstatic visions of the next world, which the Negro slave songs portrayed with a directness and simplicity that
is at once quaint and pathetic, are the most significant features of the Negro's songs of slavery.[Pg 128]
It is interesting to note in this connection that nowhere in these songs do we discover the slightest references
to Africa. They reflect no memories of a far off happier land. Before the Negro gained his emancipation
Africa had, so far as he was concerned, almost ceased to exist. Furthermore, the whole tone and emphasis of
these songs and of all other religious expressions of the American Negro are in marked contrast with the tone
and emphasis of African religious ideas. The African knew of the existence of another world, but he was not
interested in it. The world, as the African understood it, was full of malignant spirits, diseases and forces with
which he was in constant mortal struggle. His religious practices were intended to gain for him immunity in
this world, rather than assurance of the next. But the Negro in America was in a different situation. He was
not living in his own world. He was a slave and that, aside from the physical inconvenience, implied a vast
deal of inhibition. He was, moreover, a constant spectator of life in which he could not participate; excited to
actions and enterprises that were forbidden to him because he was a slave. The restlessness which this
situation provoked found expression, not in insurrection and rebellion—although, of course, there were
Negro insurrections—but in his religion and in his dreams of another and freer world. I assume,
therefore, that the reason the Negro so readily and eagerly took over from the white man his heaven and
apocalyptic visions was because these materials met the demands of his peculiar racial temperament and
furnished relief to the emotional strains that were provoked in him by the conditions of slavery.
So far as slavery was responsible for the peculiar individuality of the Negro's religion we should expect that
the racial ideals and racial religion would take on another and a different character under the influence of
freedom. This, indeed, is what seems to me is taking place. New ideals of life are expressed in recent Negro
literature and slowly and imperceptibly those ideas are becoming institutionalized[Pg 129] in the Negro

church and more particularly in the cultural ideals of the Negro school. But this makes another chapter in the
history of Negro culture in America.
I have sought in this brief sketch to indicate the modifications, changes and fortune which a distinctive racial
temperament has undergone as a result of encounters with an alien life and culture. This temperament, as I
conceive it, consists in a few elementary but distinctive characteristics, determined by physical organization
and transmitted biologically. These characteristics manifest themselves in a genial, sunny and social
disposition, in an interest and attachment to external, physical things rather than to subjective states and
objects of introspection; in a disposition for expression rather than enterprise and action. The changes which
have taken place in the manifestations of this temperament have been actuated by an inherent and natural
impulse, characteristic of all living things, to persist and maintain themselves in a changed environment. Such
changes have occurred as are likely to take place in any organism in its struggle to live and to use its
environment to further and complete its own existence.
The general principle which the Negro material illustrates is that the racial temperament selects out of the
masses of cultural materials, to which it had access, such technical, mechanical and intellectual devices as
meet its needs at a particular period of its existence. It clothes and enriches itself with such new customs,
habits, and cultural forms as it is able, or permitted to use. It puts into these relatively external things,
moreover, such concrete meanings as its changing experience and its unchanging racial individuality demand.
Everywhere and always the Negro has been interested rather in expression than in action; interested in life
itself rather than in its reconstruction or reformation. The Negro is, by natural disposition, neither an
intellectual nor an idealist like the Jew, nor a brooding introspective like the East Indian, nor a pioneer and
frontiersman like the[Pg 130] Anglo-Saxon. He is primarily an artist, loving life for its own sake. His metier is
expression rather than action. The Negro is, so to speak, the lady among the races.
In reviewing the fortunes of the Negro's temperament as it is manifested in the external events of the Negro's
life in America, our analysis suggests that this racial character of the Negro has exhibited itself everywhere in
something like the rôle of the wish in the Freudian analysis of dream life. The external cultural forms which
he found here, like the memories of the individual, have furnished the materials in which the racial wish, that
is, the Negro temperament, has clothed itself. The inner meaning, the sentiment, the emphasis, the emotional
color which these forms assumed as the result of their transference from the white man to the Negro, these
have been the Negro's own. They have represented his temperament—his temperament modified,
however, by his experience and the tradition which he has accumulated in this country. The temperament is
African, but the tradition is American.
I present this thesis merely as a hypothesis. As such its value consists in its suggestion of a point of view and
program for investigation. I may, however, suggest some of the obvious practical consequences. If racial
temperament—particularly when it gets itself embodied in institutions and in nationalities, that is,
social groups based upon race—is so real and obdurate a thing that education can only enrich and
develop it but not dispose of it, then we must be concerned to take account of it in all our schemes for
promoting naturalization, assimilation, Americanization, Christianization, and acculturation generally.
If it is true that the Jew, as has been suggested, just because of his intellectuality is a natural born idealist,
internationalist, doctrinaire, and revolutionist, while the Negro, because of his natural attachment to known,
familiar objects, places and persons, is preadapted to conservatism and to local and personal loyalties: if these
things are true, we shall eventually have to take account of them practically.[Pg 131] It is certain that the
Negro has uniformly shown a disposition to loyalty, during slavery to his master, and during freedom to the
South and the country as a whole. He has maintained this attitude of loyalty, too, under very discouraging
circumstances. I once heard Kelly Miller, the most philosophical of the leaders and teachers of his race, say in
a public speech that one of the greatest hardships the Negro suffered in this country was due to the fact that he

was not permitted to be patriotic.
Of course, all these alleged racial characteristics have a positive as well as a negative significance. Every race,
like every individual, has the vices of its virtues. The question remains still to what extent so-called racial
characteristics are actually racial, that is, biological, and to what extent they are the effect of environmental
conditions. The thesis of this paper, to state it again, is: (1) That fundamental temperamental qualities, which
are the basis of interest and attention, act as selective agencies and as such determine what elements in the
cultural environment each race will select, in what region it will seek and find its vocation, in the larger social
organization; (2) that, on the other hand, technique, science, machinery, tools, habits, discipline and all the
intellectual and mechanical devices with which the civilized man lives and works, remain relatively external
to the inner core of significant attitudes and values which constitute what many call the will of the group. This
racial will is, to be sure, largely social, that is modified by social experience, but it rests ultimately upon a
complex of inherited characteristics, which are racial.
It follows from what has been said that the individual man is the bearer of a double inheritance. As a member
of a race, he transmits by interbreeding a biological inheritance. As a member of society or a social group, on
the other hand, he transmits by communication a social inheritance. The particular complex of inheritable
characters, which characterizes the individuals of a racial group constitutes the racial temperament. The
particular group of[Pg 132] habits, accommodations, sentiments, attitudes and ideals transmitted by
communication and education constitute a social tradition. Between this temperament and this tradition there
is, as has been generally recognized, a very intimate relationship. My assumption is that temperament is the
basis of the interests; that as such it determines in the long run the general run of attention, and this,
eventually, determines the selection in the case of an individual of his vocation, in the case of the racial group
of its culture. That is to say, temperament determines what things the individual and the groups will be
interested in; what elements of the general culture, to which they have access, they will assimilate; what, to
state it in pedagogical terms, they will learn.
It will be evident at once that where individuals of the same race and hence the same temperament are
associated, the temperamental interests will tend to reinforce one another, and the attention of members of the
group will be more completely focused upon the specific objects and values that correspond to the racial
temperament. In this way racial qualities become the basis for nationalities, a nationalistic group being merely
a cultural and eventually a political society founded on the basis of racial inheritances. On the other hand,
when racial segregation is broken up and members of a racial group are dispersed and isolated, the opposite
effect will take place. This explains the phenomena which have frequently been the subject of comment and
observation, that the racial characteristics manifest themselves in an extraordinary way in large homogeneous
gatherings. The contrast between a mass meeting of one race and a similar meeting of another is particularly
striking. Under such circumstances characteristic racial and temperamental differences appear that would
otherwise pass entirely unnoticed.
When the physical unity of a group is perpetuated by the succession of parents and children, the racial
temperament, including fundamental attitudes and values which[Pg 133] rest on it, are preserved intact. When
however, society grows and is perpetuated by immigration and adaptation, there ensues, as a result of
miscegenation, a breaking up of the complex of the biologically inherited qualities which constitute the
temperament of the race. This again initiates changes in the mores, traditions and eventually in the institutions
of the community. The changes which proceed from modification in the racial temperament will, however,
modify but slightly the external forms of the social traditions but they will be likely to change profoundly
their content and meaning. Of course, other factors, individual competition, the formation of classes, and
especially the increase of communication, all coöperate to complicate the whole situation and to modify the
effects which would be produced by racial factors working in isolation. All these factors must be eventually
taken account of, however, in any satisfactory scheme of dealing with the problem of Americanization by
education. This is, however, a matter for more complete analysis and further investigation.

Robert E. Park
Footnotes:
[1] This address was delivered before the American Sociological Society convened in annual session at
Richmond in 1918.
[2] "The City: Suggestions for the Investigation of Human Behavior in the City Environment," American
Journal of Sociology, V, 44, March, 1915, p. 589.
[3] Rivers, "Ethnological Analysis of Cultures," Nature, Vol. I, 87, 1911.
[4] W. J. McGee, Piratical Acculturation.
[5] There is or was a few years ago near Mobile a colony of Africans who were brought to the United States
as late as 1860. It is true, also, that Major R. R. Moton, who has succeeded Booker T. Washington as head of
Tuskegee Institute, still preserves the story that was told him by his grandmother of the way in which his
great-grandfather was brought from Africa in a slave ship.
[6] Domestic Manners and Social Condition of the White, Coloured and Negro Population of the West Indies,
by Mrs. Carmichael, Vol. I. (London, Wittaker, Treacher and Co.), p. 251.
"Native Africans do not at all like it to be supposed that they retain the customs of their country and consider
themselves wonderfully civilized by being transplanted from Africa to the West Indies. Creole Negroes
invariably consider themselves superior people, and lord it over the native Africans."
[7] The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts was founded in 1701 and the efforts to
Christianize the Negro were carried on with a great deal of zeal and with some success.
[8] Journal of Negro History, Vol. I, 1916, p. 70.
[9] Afro-American Folksongs: A Study in Racial and National Music, by Henry Edward Krehbiel. (New York
and London, G. Schirmer), p. 37. From a letter of Lafcadio Hearne.
[10] Army Life in a Black Regiment, by Thomas Wentworth Higginson. Boston, Fields, Osgood and Co.,
1870.
[11] Krehbiel, Afro-American Folksongs, p. 16.
[12] Studies in History, Economics, and Public Law, edited by The Faculty of Political Science of Columbia
University, Vol. 37, New York, 1910, No. 3—Social and Mental Traits of the Negro, by Howard W.
Odum, Ph.D., p. 91.
[13] Krehbiel, Afro-American Folksongs.
[Pg 134]
Footnotes: 79
THE COMPANY OF ROYAL ADVENTURERS OF ENGLAND

TRADING INTO AFRICA, 1660-1672
INTRODUCTION
The English commercial companies trading to the west coast of Africa during the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries have practically escaped the attention of historical students. Doubtless this neglect is the result of the
little importance which has until recently been attached to African territory since the abolition of the slave
trade. Previous to that time the west coast of Africa vied with the East Indies for popular attention, and the
English African companies often appeared to be but little less important than the great East India Company.
The cause for the popular esteem of the African coast during the earlier centuries was the intimate connection
which the slave trade had with the development of the English plantations in the West Indies. About the
middle of the seventeenth century the growing of sugar cane and other products in the West Indies began to
open up enormous possibilities which, it was universally agreed, could be realized only by the extensive use
of Negro slaves. At the restoration of Charles II in 1660 the English commercial class directly supported and
assisted by the king's courtiers determined to secure as large a portion of the West African coast as possible.
To reach this end they organized that year The Company of the Royal Adventurers into Africa. This decision
at once brought the company into conflict with the Dutch West India Company, which, during the twenty
years of domestic trouble in England, had all but monopolized the desirable portion of the West African
coast.[Pg 135]
It happened therefore that the Company of Royal Adventurers played a very important part in the events
which led up to the Anglo-Dutch war of 1665-67. The war resulted in the financial ruin of the company which
was in existence only about eleven years, at the end of which time it was succeeded by the much larger and
better organized Royal African Company.
It has seemed to the author as if the English African companies were a very profitable field of historical
investigation. Therefore, the present dissertation on the Company of Royal Adventurers will be followed
shortly by a history of the Royal African Company, 1672-1752.
For assistance in writing the history of the Royal Adventurers Trading into Africa I wish to acknowledge my
indebtedness to the librarians, and officials of the British Record Office, the British Museum, the Bodleian
Library at Oxford, the Rijks Archief at The Hague, and the Cornell University Library. To Professor R. C. H.
Catterall, now deceased, I am greatly indebted for reading the manuscript of this book, and for many valuable
suggestions. Above all, I wish to express my deep appreciation to my wife, Susie Zook, for her unfailing
inspiration and her constant assistance in the writing of this book.
[Pg 136]
CHAPTER I
Early Dutch and English Trade to West Africa
In 1581 the seven United Provinces of the Netherlands declared their independence of Spain. As the intrepid
Dutch sailors ventured out from their homeland they met not only the ships of their old master, Philip II, but
those of the Portuguese as well. Since the government of Portugal had just fallen into the hands of Philip II the
Dutch ships could expect no more consideration from Portuguese than from Spanish vessels. Notwithstanding
THE COMPANY OF ROYAL ADVENTURERS OF ENGLAND TRADING INTO AFRICA, 1660-1672 80

the manifest dangers the prospects of obtaining the coveted products of the Portuguese colonies inspired the
Dutch to such a great extent that in 1595 Bernard Ereckson sailed to the west coast of Africa, at that time
usually called Guinea. There he and the Dutch who followed him discovered that the Portuguese had long
occupied the trading points along the coast, and had erected forts and factories wherever it seemed advisable
for the purpose of defense and trade. The Dutch merchants and sailors turned their dangerous situation into an
opportunity to despoil the weakened Portuguese of their forts and settlements in Africa.
On August 25, 1611, the Dutch made a treaty with a native prince by which a place called Maurée was ceded
to them. In the following year they erected a fort at that place which they named Fort Nassau.[1] Shortly after
this, in 1617, they bought the island of Goree at Cape Verde from the natives in that region. Four years later
the West India Company was formed, its charter including not only the West Indies and New Amsterdam but
also the west coast of Africa. This new organization found much in the new world to occupy its attention but
it did not neglect the[Pg 137] Guinea coast. The Dutch realized that the African trade was indispensable to
their West India colonies as a means of supplying slave labor. Hostilities, therefore, were continued against
the Portuguese who still had possession of the principal part of the African trade. In 1625 the Dutch made a
vigorous attempt to capture the main Portuguese stronghold at St. George d'Elmina which had been founded
on the Gold Coast in 1481.[2] They were unsuccessful at that time but in 1637 Prince Maurice of Nassau with
1,200 men succeeded in capturing this base of the Portuguese trade.[3] In 1641 a ten years' truce was signed
between Portugal and the United Provinces, but before the news of the truce had reached the coast of Guinea
the Dutch had taken another of the Portuguese strongholds at Axim which, according to the terms of the
treaty, they were permitted to retain. From these various places factories were settled along the coast, and
treaties made with the native rulers. Furthermore, in the treaty of peace, August 6, 1661, the Dutch retained
the forts and factories which they had conquered from the Portuguese on the African coast.[4] After the truce
of 1641 and the peace of 1661, therefore, the Dutch regarded themselves as having succeeded to the exclusive
claims of the Portuguese to a large portion of the west coast of Africa including a monopoly of the trade to the
Gold Coast.[5]
Although it was the Dutch who succeeded in depriving the Portuguese of the most important part of the West
African coast, the interest shown by the English in this region can be traced back to a much earlier date. In
1481, when two Englishmen were preparing an expedition to the Guinea coast, John II, king of Portugal,
despatched an ambassador to the English king, to announce the overlordship of Guinea which he had recently
assumed, and to request that the two Englishmen should refrain from visiting the[Pg 138] Guinea coast.
Edward IV complied with this request.[6] Thereafter no English expedition to Guinea was attempted until
1536 when William Hawkins, father of the famous John Hawkins, made the first of three voyages to Africa
during which he also traded to Brazil. Again in 1553 Hawkins sent an expedition to the Gold Coast. Near
Elmina the adventurers sold some of their goods for gold, and then proceeded to Benin where they obtained
pepper, or "Guinea graines," and elephants' teeth. After losing two-thirds of the crew from sickness the
expedition returned to England.[7] In the following year another expedition under Hawkins' direction secured
several slaves in addition to a large amount of gold and other products.[8] Also, in the years 1555, 1556, 1557,
William Towrson made three voyages to the Guinea coast in which his ships were harassed by the Portuguese,
who attempted to prevent them from trading. English cloth and iron wares were in such demand, however,
that notwithstanding this opposition a lucrative trade was obtained.[9]
Beginning with 1561 Queen Elizabeth lent her influence and assistance to a series of voyages to the African
coast. Not only did she permit the use of four royal vessels for the first expedition but she spent five hundred
pounds in provisioning them for the voyage. The value of the goods sent to Africa in these vessels was five
thousand pounds. According to the arrangement Queen Elizabeth received one-third of the profits, which
amounted to one thousand pounds.[10] In the year 1563 similar arrangements were made with the queen for
another voyage to the Gold Coast, during which[Pg 139] there was considerable trouble with the Portuguese.
Notwithstanding this opposition the ships succeeded in returning to England with a quantity of elephants' teeth
and Guinea grains.[11] In 1564, an expedition composed of three ships, one of which belonged to Queen
Early Dutch and English Trade to West Africa 81

Elizabeth, was particularly unfortunate. One of these ships was blown up, while the other two were attacked
by the Portuguese and probably had to return without obtaining any African products.[12]
In these voyages to Guinea the English trade had been in exchange for gold, elephants' teeth and pepper.
Trading for slaves had scarcely occurred to these early adventurers. Nevertheless, as early as 1562, John
Hawkins sailed for Sierra Leone with three vessels, and there captured three hundred Negroes whom he sold
to the Spaniards in Hispaniola.[13] The success of this voyage was so great that in 1564 there was fitted out a
second slave raiding expedition in which one of the queen's ships, the Jesus, was employed. As before,
Hawkins sold his slaves in the West Indies, this time with some difficulty, because the Spanish officials, who
were forbidden to have any trade with foreigners, regarded the Englishmen as pirates.[14]
Again, in 1567, Hawkins was on his way to Guinea. By playing off one set of natives against another he
procured about 450 slaves and once more set out for the Spanish Indies. Although at first the voyage promised
to be successful, he was later set upon by a number of Spanish ships and barely escaped with his life and one
badly wrecked vessel.[15]
Hawkins' voyages to Africa are worthy of note because he was the first Englishman to engage in the slave
trade. To be sure, his piratical seizure of free Negroes broke all the rules of honorable dealing long recognized
on the African coast. As a result of his actions the natives held all[Pg 140] Englishmen in great distrust for a
number of years.[16] The unregulated method of carrying on the African trade, pursued up to this time, ceased
to a certain extent when Queen Elizabeth granted the first patent of monopoly to the west coast of Africa, May
3, 1588.
The charter of 1588 gave to certain merchants of Exeter, London and other places in England for ten years an
exclusive trade to that portion of West Africa lying between the Senegal and Gambia rivers. The great slave
and gold producing country of the Gold Coast remained open to all traders. It was therefore evident that,
instead of continuing the slave raiding projects of Hawkins, the company intended to resume the exchange of
English manufactures for African products. According to its charter the company was not required to pay
duties in England either on imports or exports.[17] Although nothing is known of the success of this company,
the patent was regarded as of sufficient importance for the earl of Nottingham and others to obtain a
continuation of the monopoly.[18]
Since the charter of these Senegal adventurers did not prevent anyone from resorting to the Gold Coast and
the regions to the east thereof, two voyages were made to Benin, one in 1588 and another in 1590.[19] In
1592 certain English merchants received a patent from the queen authorizing them to trade to certain specified
portions of Africa.[20] The trade to Africa continued in this desultory fashion until 1618. At that time a patent
comprising the whole explored western coast of Africa south of the territory of the Barbary Company was
granted to some thirty persons, among whom the most important was Sir William[Pg 141] St. John, who was
said to have built the first English fort in Africa.[21] The early years of their trade, which consisted in the
exchange of English for African products, was especially unfortunate. Vessels were either lost or brought
back small returns. After 1621 it was difficult to procure fresh additions of capital. To add to this trying
situation, the House of Commons attacked the company's monopoly and, later, voted it to be a grievance.
Thereafter, although the company sometimes issued licenses for the African trade, the interlopers who
resorted to Africa quite freely, usually did not deem it necessary to obtain them.[22]
The moving spirit of the next company, which received a patent in 1631, was Sir Nicholas Crispe, who had
been a successful interloper during the life of the previous company. In 1624 he had built the first permanent
English settlement at Kormentine. Although not incorporated, this company enjoyed for thirty-one years a
monopoly of trade to all the region lying between Cape Blanco and the Cape of Good Hope. Just previous to
the Civil War Charles I confirmed the charter for twenty years. The company's monopoly was looked on with
disfavor by the leaders of the Puritan party, however, and in 1649 the company was summoned before the
Early Dutch and English Trade to West Africa 82

Council of State, where it was accused of having procured its charter by undue influences. Later, the
company's case was considered by the committee of trade, and finally, on April 9, 1651, the Council of State
recommended that the company's monopoly to that part of West Africa extending from a point twenty miles
north of Kormentine to within twenty miles of the Sierra Leone River be continued for fourteen years.[23]
This company also suffered numerous misfortunes on the African coast. A factory which the English had set
up at Cape Corse in April, 1650, was seized the following year by some Swedes who for several years
thereafter made it[Pg 142] the seat of their trade in Guinea.[24] Notwithstanding this fact the Swedes
permitted the English to retain a lodge at Cape Corse with which the agents at Kormentine sometimes
traded.[25] Even after the place was seized by Hendrik Carloff, a Danish adventurer, in 1658, the English
seem to have been allowed to remain at Cape Corse. By this time, however, the English African Company had
become unable to support its factories on the coast of Guinea. Therefore they were turned over to the English
East India Company, and became occasional stopping places for its vessels on their way to and from the East
Indies.
Footnotes:
[1] Jonge, Johan Karel Jakob de, De Oorsprong van Neerland's Bezittingen op de Kust van Guinea, p. 16.
[2] Gramberg, J. S. G., Schetsen van Afrika's Westcust, p. 12.
[3] Jonge, Oorsprong van Neerland's Bezittingen, pp. 18, 19, 20.
[4] In return for this concession the Dutch evacuated Brazil. Dumont, J., Corps Universel Diplomatique du
Droit des Gens, VI, part 2, p. 367.
[5] De Gids, "Derde Serie," Zesde Jaargang, IV, 385.
[6] Hakluyt, Richard, The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, & Discourses of the English Nation,
VI, 123, 124.
[7] Ibid., VI, 145-162.
[8] Ibid., VI, 154-177.
[9] Ibid., VI, 177-252.
[10] Queen Elizabeth's profit may have been only five hundred pounds, as it seems likely that the five hundred
pounds which she spent in provisioning the ships should be subtracted from the one thousand pounds which
she received. Scott, W.R., The Constitution and Finance of English, Scottish and Irish Joint Stock Companies
to 1720, II, 6.
[11] Hayluyt, Principal Navigations, VI, 258-261.
[12] Ibid., VI, 262.
[13] Ibid., X, 7, 8.
[14] Ibid., X, 9-63.
[15] Ibid., X, 64-74.
Footnotes: 83
[16] For example, the expedition of George Fenner to Africa in 1566. He had a great deal of trouble with the
natives. Hakluyt, Principal Navigations, VI, 266-284.
[17] Hakluyt, Principal Navigations, VI, 443-450, patent of Queen Elizabeth, May 3, 1588.
[18] Scott, Joint Stock Companies, II, 10.
[19] Hakluyt, Principal Navigations, VI, 450-458, 461-467.
[20] Ibid., VII, 102.
[21] Scott, Joint Stock Companies, II, 11.
[22] Ibid., II, 12, 13.
[23] Ibid., II, 14-16.
[24] S. P. (State Papers), Holland, 178, f. 123, undated paper concerning the title of the English to Cape
Corse; A. C. R. (Records of the African Companies), 169: 69, deposition of Thomas Crispe, February 5,
1685/6; Dammaert, Journal (Journal gehouden bij Louijs Dammaert ungewaren met 't schip Prins Willem),
September 19, 1652 (N. S.).
[25] Remonstrantie, aen de Ho. Mo. Heeren de Staten Generael der Vereenighde Nederlanden, p. 18;
Dammaert, Journal, September 19, 1652, May 18, 1653, December 7, 19, 1655, April 22 1656 (N. S.).
[Pg 143]
CHAPTER II
The Royal Adventurers in England
On account of the collapse of the king's cause at the death of Charles I, Prince Rupert, with his small fleet of
royal vessels, was driven about from one part of the world to another. In 1562 he sought refuge in the Gambia
River,[1] where he listened to stories told by natives of rich gold mines in that region. For a number of years
the Negroes had brought gold from the inland of Africa to the Dutch on the Gold Coast. There seemed every
reason to believe that the source of this gold supply was none other than that described by the natives of the
Gambia River, and that it might be discovered somewhere in that region. Prince Rupert was so much
impressed with the possibility of finding these mines that his voyage to Guinea was still vivid in his memory
when Charles II assumed the throne in 1660. In the duke of York and other royal courtiers he found a group of
willing listeners who determined to form a company for the purpose of sending an expedition to the Gambia
to dig for gold. As early as October 3, 1660, the plans were formulated. Each member was required to invest
at least £250 in the undertaking[2]. On December 18, 1660, the king, who was pleased with the adventurers
for having "undertaken so hopeful an enterprise," granted them a charter[3] under the name of "The Company
of the Royal Adventurers into Africa."[4][Pg 144]
By this charter the Royal Adventurers received the land and the adjacent islands on the west coast of Africa
from Cape Blanco to the Cape of Good Hope, for a period of one thousand years beginning with "the making
of these our Letters Patents if the ... grant (made to Crispe's company in 1631) be void and determined." If,
however, the former charter was still regarded as in force, the grant to the Royal Adventurers was to be
effective upon the surrender or the expiration of the former company's privileges.[5] A committee of six men,
CHAPTER II 84
the earl of Pembroke, Lord Craven, Sir George Carteret, William Coventry, Sir Ellis Leighton and Cornelius
Vermuyden, was named to have charge of the company's affairs. No mention was made of the office of
governor or of any court of directors. Apparently it was thought that the committee of six could direct all of
the company's affairs. In Africa, this committee was empowered to appoint the necessary agents and officials
and to raise and maintain whatever soldiers were necessary to execute martial law. The company had the right
to admit new members if it desired. The king himself reserved the privilege of becoming an adventurer at any
time and to invest an amount of money not exceeding one-sixteenth of the company's stock.
Furthermore, it was provided that the king "shall have, take and receive two third parts of all the gold mines
which shall be seized possesed and wrought in the parts and places aforesaid, we ... paying and bearing two
third parts of all the charges incident to the working and transporting of the said gold." The company was to
have the other third and bear the remainder of the expense. That this provision was not a matter of mere form,
as in so many of the royal[Pg 145] charters, is evident from the stimulus which had led to the formation of the
company. Indeed in one part of the charter the purpose of the company is presented as "the setting forward
and furthering of the trade intended (redwood, hides, elephants' teeth) in the parts aforesaid and the
encouragement of the undertakers in discovering the golden mines and setting of plantations there." The trade
in slaves was not mentioned in the charter.
Even before they had obtained this charter the organizers of the new company induced the king to lend them
five of his Majesty's ships. These vessels, the "Henrietta," "Sophia," "Amity," "Griffin" and "Kingsale," were
loaded with goods, tools and chemicals necessary for the working of the projected gold mines. Captain Robert
Holmes, who had been with Prince Rupert in 1652, was given charge of the expedition; but the goods and
necessities were consigned to William Usticke and two other factors of the company.[6] In December, 1660,
the five vessels set out on their voyage to the Gambia River, where they arrived in the following March. There
Holmes seized the island of St. André, then occupied by a feeble number of the subjects of the duke of
Courland. Since the latter place was protected by a small fort the English began preparations to make it the
seat of their operations in that region. Not long after they arrived, however, a fire destroyed the fortification
and a large part of the goods which had been brought from England. Under these circumstances they chose to
abandon that island, and to settle on two others which were better situated for defense and trade. These they
named Charles Island and James Island in honor of[Pg 146] their royal patrons. The latter was by far the most
advantageously situated, and became the main stronghold of the English in the northern part of Africa during
all the history of the African companies. Holmes probably remained on the Gambia until about the first of
May when he departed with one or two of the ships for England. In July as much of a cargo as possible was
loaded on the "Amity" which finally arrived in England, after its crew had been depleted by disease.[7]
Information regarding the success of the mining project of this expedition is almost totally lacking, but it
seems certain that nothing was done to discover the hoped-for gold mines. The climate affected the men so
adversely, that it is altogether unlikely that they even attempted to look for the mines. The small cargo carried
back by the various ships, most of which seems to have been on the "Amity," probably represents the only
tangible results of the expedition. These goods, consisting of elephants' teeth, wax and hides sold for
£1,567.8s.,[8] whereas the outlay for the expedition was probably between £4,000 and £4,500.[9]
This sum does not include £2,640.8s.8d. expense which was incurred to send another of the king's ships, the
"Blackamoor," to the Gold Coast, in June, 1661.[10] The "Blackamoor" was followed in April, 1662, by the
"Swallow" which, together with its cargo, cost the Royal Adventurers £1,l01.2s.ld.[11] Later in the year the
three ships, "Charles," "James" and "Mary," were sent to the Gold Coast at an expense of about £5,000.[12]
By September, 1662,[Pg 147] £17,400 had been subscribed by various persons to obtain the cargoes for the
ships which had been dispatched to the coast of Guinea. Of this amount £800 had been promised by the king;
£3,600 by the duke of York; £400 by the queen Mother; £400 by the duchess of Orleans; £800 by Prince
Rupert; and £800 by the duke of Buckingham. Of the £17,400 subscribed all but about £1,000 had been paid
by October 20, 1662. From this investment the company had received no returns except the £1,567.8s. from
The Royal Adventurers in England 85

the first expedition, while the three last vessels, the "Charles," "James" and "Mary" had not yet arrived at the
Gold Coast on their ill-fated voyage.[13]
Up to this time there had been no uniformity about the amounts invested, and no definite times at which the
several amounts subscribed, were due. It was assumed that money would be forthcoming from the members
whenever it was needed to dispatch ships to the coast. About the middle of September, 1662, it was decided to
pursue a more businesslike policy. A list of subscribers for shares at four hundred pounds each was opened,
and by the 15th of January, 1663, the amount of this second subscription was £17,000.[14] The stimulus for
obtaining this added subscription was the fact that, at the same time, the company was agitating for a new
charter, which was granted by the king, January 10, 1663.[15]
Experience had shown that the previous charter was inadequate, not only respecting the means of raising
funds to[Pg 148] carry on the company's business, but also on account of the lack of any other officers to
direct its affairs than the committee of six. By general consent of the patentees, and those who had later
subscribed to the stock, it had been decided to surrender the charter of 1660 for one conferring more extensive
privileges on the corporation. The charter obtained January 10, 1663, answered these requirements. The name
was changed to "The Company of Royal Adventurers of England Trading into Africa." The territory included
in the charter reached to the Cape of Good Hope as in the previous patent, but the northern limit was extended
from Cape Blanco to Cape Sallee on the coast of Morocco.
The new charter contained the same provisions in regard to the discovery of gold mines as the charter of 1660.
By this time, however, the adventurers had discovered that the Negro trade could be made very lucrative. In
this charter, therefore, they obtained "the whole, entire and only trade for the buying and selling bartering and
exchanging of for or with any Negroes, slaves, goods, wares and merchandises whatsoever to be vented or
found at or within any of the Cities" on the west coast of Africa. The charter provided that there should be no
trading on the African coast except by the company in its corporate capacity, and that any one guilty of
transgressing these rules should be liable to forfeiture of his ship and goods.[16]
The charter also required the shareholders to elect a governor, subgovernor, deputy governor and a court of
assistants; but that the routine business of the company should be conducted by a smaller committee
corresponding to the committee of six of the previous company. The duke of York was elected governor, in
which capacity he continued to serve during the company's entire existence. Thirty-six men were chosen
annually to compose the court[Pg 149] of assistants. There was also an executive committee of seven which
was responsible to the court of assistants.[17]
While the company was endeavoring to obtain this new charter an unsuspected difficulty arose. It will be
remembered that in 1631 Sir Nicholas Crispe and others had received a patent to a portion of the west coast of
Africa for thirty-one years. The first charter of Charles II to the Royal Adventurers in December, 1660, had
been granted a year and a half previous to the expiration of Crispe's patent. In recognition of this fact the
charter of the Royal Adventurers provided that if the former patent was not void, the new charter was not to
be effective until its surrender or expiration. At first Crispe made no complaint about the transgression of his
rights, probably because the first expedition under Captain Holmes had gone to the Gambia region in which
place Crispe had no interests. When it became apparent that the company intended to carry its activities
further south, however, he appeared before the Privy Council on November 22, 1661, and asked to have his
interest confirmed in the trade and settlements at Kormentine and in the region of the Sierra Leone and
Sherbro rivers.[18] On December 20, 1661, his case was heard before the Privy Council, at which time the
case was referred to the Lord High Treasurer.[19] The matter was neglected and finally dropped.
Crispe found it impossible to prevent the ships of the Royal Company from transgressing the regions
mentioned in his charter. About the time at which his charter expired (June 25, 1662), he agreed to transfer all
his interests in the fortifications at Kormentine and elsewhere to the Royal Adventurers. Although this

agreement has not been found, there was apparently nothing in it which bound the company to remunerate
Crispe and his associates, because[Pg 150] later, August, 1662, he petitioned the king for compensation for
the forts and lodges which had been transferred to the Royal Adventurers. At first the king was favorable to
Crispe's request in view of the service which he had rendered in building up the Guinea trade.[20] Later,
neither the king nor the Royal Adventurers seem to have paid any attention to Crispe's plea for
compensation.[21]
In later years the report was persistently spread that at the time when the agreement was made with Crispe the
Privy Council had ordered the Royal Adventurers to pay him £20,000 in lieu of all his interests on the coast,
and that the company had "seemed to acquiesce" in the order.[22] It does not seem possible that this assertion
can be true in view of the foregoing facts, and of the absolute lack of mention of any such thing in the books
of the company. Over a year later, August 15, 1664, Crispe presented a paper of an unknown character to
which the court of assistants refused to give any notice.[23] It seems likely that this paper had nothing to do
with the African forts, but that it was submitted in connection with a controversy over some African[Pg 151]
goods, which were said to belong to the members of Crispe's company[24]. The entire lack of any other
evidence of trouble between Crispe and the company leads one to think that no contract for such
compensation was ever made[25]. Moreover, that he was not averse to the success of the Royal Adventurers is
shown by the fact that he himself subscribed £2,000 in 1663 to the stock of the company[26].
It is unnecessary to follow in detail the number of ships which were fitted out for the company's trade after it
received its second charter in January, 1663. Suffice it to say that very active measures were undertaken,
especially by the duke of York, who faithfully attended the weekly meetings of the court of assistants which
were held in his apartments at Whitehall. The earl of Clarendon voiced the sentiments of these enthusiastic
courtier-merchants when he said that, providing all went well, the Company of Royal Adventurers would "be
found a Model equally to advance the Trade of England with that of any other company, even that of the
East-Indies[27]."
If this prediction was to be realized it was necessary to have a greater stock than the first and second
subscriptions had provided. Therefore a public declaration was issued inviting any of the king's subjects in
England to subscribe for shares of not less than four hundred pounds each, one-half of each share to be paid
by December 1, 1663, and the[Pg 152] other one-half by March 1, following. The conditions of subscription
provided that seven years after the first date, a committee from the adventurers should be chosen to make a
fair valuation of the stock of the company. Each shareholder was then to be allowed to receive the value of his
stock in money if he so desired. Thereafter this action was to be repeated every three years with the same
privileges of withdrawal from the company.[28] Later, as a means of inducing those with smaller means to
subscribe for stock, the company permitted subscriptions as small as fifty pounds, providing they were paid
within eight days. Whenever any person subscribed more than four hundred pounds, he was allowed to pay
the excess in eight quarterly payments beginning with the 24th of June, 1663.[29] By offering these
inducements the third subscription amounted to £34,000 divided among about forty-five shareholders.[30]
On the 25th of August of the same year, however, it was necessary to seek for a fourth subscription which
amounted to £29,000,[31] payment of which could be made in eight quarterly sums if desired. For all those
who would pay the third and fourth subscriptions promptly, a discount of ten per cent, was offered. By these
four subscriptions the stock of the company appeared on September 4, 1663, to be £102,000.[32] Of this
amount it is probable that about £57,425 had been paid, which left unpaid subscriptions amounting to
£44,775.[33] In addition to the money obtained by the sale of[Pg 153] shares the company had borrowed
about £21,000. With the money obtained from these two sources approximately twenty-five ships were sent to
the coast of Africa from December, 1662, to September, 1663.[34] From these voyages there were very
unsatisfactory returns, and the company again found itself in a critical financial condition.

This unfortunate situation was largely the result of opposition, which its ships and factors had encountered
from the Dutch West India Company on the coast of Guinea. For a long time this opposition bade fair to
prevent the company from obtaining a share in the African trade. In view of this situation the king dispatched
Sir Robert Holmes upon a second expedition to Africa in 1663 with orders to protect the company's rights. As
a further means of encouragement Charles II ordered all gold imported from Africa by the Royal Company to
be coined with an elephant on one side, as a mark of distinction from the coins then prevalent in England.[35]
These coins were called "Guineas"; they served to increase the reputation and prestige of the company.
Moreover, the king with many of his courtiers made important additions to their stock in the third and fourth
subscriptions.[36]
From September 4, 1663, to the following March there[Pg 154] are no records of the company, but a petition
of the adventurers to the king in March, 1664,[37] shows that notwithstanding its financial difficulties the
company had during the previous year sent to Africa forty ships and goods to the value of £160,000.[38] To
follow the company's financial history from this time on is a difficult task in view of inadequate sources. In
the balance sheet of September 4, 1663, the company's stock was entered as £102,000 and its debts as about
£21,000. When the news of Holmes' great success on the Gold Coast began to arrive in England, the company
increased its preparations to open an extensive African trade. Therefore on May 10, 1664, an attempt was
made to collect the unpaid stock subscriptions, and an invitation was extended to all members to lend one
hundred pounds to the company for each share of four hundred pounds which they held. Notwithstanding the
bright prospects which the company had at this time, its strenuous attempt to raise the loan produced only
£15,650.[39]
In September, 1664, an attempt was made to increase the stock of the company by £30,000. Although the
duke of York and many others added to their shares on this occasion,[40] only £18,200 was subscribed.[41]
By this addition the stock of the Royal Adventurers amounted to £120,200 at about which sum it remained
during the remainder of the company's history.[42][Pg 155]
Although the company had not obtained as much money as had been hoped for in the last subscription, it
anticipated great success in its trade, until vague rumors began to circulate that Admiral DeRuyter had been
sent to Africa to undo the conquest made by Captain Holmes. In the last part of December, 1664, these rumors
were confirmed. In a petition to the king of January 2, 1665[43], the company declared that its trade had
already increased to such an extent that over one hundred ships were employed, and that a yearly return of
from two to three hundred thousand pounds might reasonably be expected[44].
On account of the injuries inflicted by DeRuyter on the African coast much of the anticipated loss of goods
and vessels was realized. In all, the company lost the cargoes of eight ships; of the forts only Cape Corse
remained. Under these ruinous circumstances it was not thought advisable to dispatch at once the goods which
had been accumulated at Portsmouth[45]. Accordingly the company's vessels were[Pg 156] unloaded and
several of them were taken into the King's service.[46] The duke of York used what little money was on hand
to apply on the company's debt in order that the company's expenses from interest might be reduced.[47]
Because of the Anglo-Dutch war and the fact that the company had no money, it could do nothing but send an
occasional ship to Africa loaded with some of the goods left at Portsmouth. From this time on the company's
trading activity was confined to such scattered voyages.[48]
On January 11, 1666,[49] the court of assistants discussed the proposition of granting trading licenses to
private individuals. While no action seems to have been taken at that time, it ultimately became the practise of
the company to grant such a freedom of trade. On April 9, 1667, a resolution was adopted empowering the
committee of seven to issue trading licenses in return for a payment of three pounds per ton.[50] These
licenses were obtained by those who desired to carry on trade in their own ships, and also by officers of the
company's ships who wished to engage in private adventures. During the course of the war one hears of many
such grants to various individuals, among whom was Prince Rupert.[51]

The practise of issuing licenses was interrupted for a short time at the conclusion of the Anglo-Dutch war by a
feeble attempt to revive the company's activities. An effort was made to collect arrears on the
subscriptions,[52] and on[Pg 157] August 21, 1667, the general court ordered that an additional subscription
should be opened, and that no more trading licenses should be granted.[53] The only result of this effort was
that the duke of York and several others accepted stock of the company in lieu of the bonds which they
held.[54] In view of this fact it was decided, January 20, 1668, to resume the policy of granting licenses.[55]
In comparison with the trade conducted by the private adventurers that of the company became quite
insignificant. Since the company had much difficulty in supporting its agents on the African coast it ordered,
August 28, 1668, that in the future those who received licenses should agree to carry one-tenth of their cargo
for the company's account.[56] It was difficult for the company to raise the small sum of money necessary to
buy this quota of goods. No one was willing to invest money in the stock of a bankrupt company, and
certainly few were desirous of making loans to it when there seemed practically no chance of repayment. In
the latter part of 1668 and in the year 1669, several attempts were made to collect the early subscriptions
which remained unpaid.[57] This effort was attended with very little success, because the company had
ceased to be of importance.[58]
One of the reasons why the company's business was practically neglected during these last years was because
many of its members began to trade to Africa as private individuals. A number of men even went so far as to
project an organization entirely separate from the company. Finally, in 1667, several members offered to raise
a stock of £15,000 to carry on trade to the region of the Gambia[Pg 158] River.[59] This proposal was debated
by the general court and finally referred to a committee with the stipulation that if adopted the company
should be concerned in the stock of the new organization to the extent of £3,000.[60] This arrangement could
not be consummated in 1667,[61] but on November 27, 1668, a similar proposition was adopted.[62]
An organization to be known as the Gambia Adventurers was to have the sole trade to northern Africa for a
period of seven years, beginning with January 1, 1669. For this privilege they were to pay the Company of
Royal Adventurers £1,000 annually, and to be responsible for the expense of the forts and settlements in that
region. These places were to be kept in good repair by the Gambia Adventurers, who were to receive
compensation from the Royal Company for any settlements.[63] A suggestion for carrying on the trade to the
Gold Coast in a similar way received no attention from the general court. The Gambia Adventurers occupied
the same house in London with the company, and there seems little doubt but that its members consisted
largely of those stockholders of the Royal Adventurers who belonged primarily to the merchant class.[64] It is
extremely difficult to estimate the success of the Gambia Adventurers, since their records, if any were kept,
have not been preserved. In all probability their trade was largely confined to the important products of the
Gambia region, namely elephants' teeth, hides and wax, although several of their ships are known to have
gone to the West Indies with slaves.
Since many of the company's stockholders were interested in the Gambia venture the company's business on
the Gold Coast was greatly neglected. During the year 1669[Pg 159] the company's trade became so
insignificant that, at the suggestion of the king, Secretary Arlington asked the company if it intended to
continue the African trade.[65] In answer the company recounted the losses incurred in the Anglo-Dutch war
which, it declared, had made it necessary to grant licenses to private traders in order to maintain the forts and
factories in Africa. It asked the king to assist the company by paying his subscription, by helping to recover its
debts in Barbados, and by granting royal vessels for the protection of the African coast. With such
encouragement the company declared that it would endeavor to raise a new stock to carry on the African
trade.[66] Receiving no answer to their appeal the members of the company considered various expedients,
one of which was to lease the right of trade on the Gold Coast;[67] another was to endeavor to obtain new
subscriptions to the company's stock, which seemed impossible because of the fear that the money would be
used toward paying the company's debts, and not for the purpose of trade.[68] In fact, it had been only too
evident for several years that no additions could be made to the present worthless stock of the company. If the

company desired to continue its activities, it would be necessary to have an entirely new stock unencumbered
with the claims of old creditors. The main problem confronting the company therefor e was to make an
agreement with its clamorous creditors.
On May 18, 1671, a general court of the adventurers approved of a proposition to form a new joint stock
under the old charter.[69] The stock of the shareholders, which at this[Pg 160] time amounted to £120,200,
was to be valued at ten per cent and so reduced to £12,020; this was to form the first item in the new stock. In
regard to the company's debts, which amounted to about £57,000, rather severe measures were attempted.
Two-thirds of the debts, or £38,000, was, as in the case of the stock, reduced to one-tenth, or £3,800, which
was to form the second item in the new stock. The other one-third of the debts, or £19,000, was to be paid to
the creditors in full out of the money subscribed by the new shareholders.[70] Adding the cash payment of
£19,000 and estimating at par the £3,800 which they were to have in the new stock, the creditors were to
receive a little less than thirty-five per cent, of their debts. If they did not accept this arrangement it was
proposed to turn over the company's effects to them, and to secure an entirely new charter from the king. As
anticipated the plan was unsatisfactory to many of the creditors, because the company proposed to pay the
£19,000 in six monthly installments after the subscription for the new joint stock was begun.[71] On October
28, 1671, the preamble and articles under which the new subscription was to be made were approved by the
general court, and notice was given to the refractory creditors that they must accept the arrangement within
ten days or the king would revoke the company's patent.[72] Although the trouble with the creditors had not
been adjusted, subscriptions on the new stock began November 10, 1671. A few weeks later there was held a
general court of the new subscribers, at which Sir Richard Ford, one of the most important members of the
company and also of the new subscribers, declared that "they should not differ for small matters."[73]
Thereupon it was resolved to grant the creditors forty per cent on their debts and the shareholders, as[Pg 161]
in the previous plan, ten per cent, on their stock.[74] This made a total payment of £34,000 divided as follows:
£22,800, forty per cent of the company's debts, which amounted to £57,000; and £11,200, ten per cent of the
paid subscriptions, which amounted to about £112,000.[75] In lieu of this payment the stockholders were to
cede to the new subscribers the forts and other property in Africa and all the payments due from the Gambia
Adventurers during the four remaining years of their contract.
As has been said the articles of subscription were adopted October 28, 1671. They provided for a stock of
£100,000 under the old charter, which should be paid to the treasurer of the company in ten monthly payments
ending September 25, 1672. As a matter of fact the subscription reached the sum of £110,100. It was also
provided that every new subscriber should have one vote in the general court for each one hundred pound
share, but that no one should be an officer of the company, unless he had subscribed for four hundred pounds
in shares. The subgovernor and the deputy governor were to be aided by a court of assistants, reduced to
twenty-four in number, and by a select committee of five instead of the committee of seven as formerly. On
January 10, 1672, there was held a general court of the new subscribers, at which the duke of York was
elected governor; Lord Ashley, subgovernor; and John Buckworth, deputy governor.[76] The duke of York
and Lord Ashley were well known for their interest in colonial affairs. According to the terms of the
subscription the deputy governor was to be a merchant and a member of the committee of five, which
provision indicated plainly that the company expected Buckworth to manage its business affairs.
Although the new subscription had been made to replace the stock of the old adventurers, there is little
evidence that[Pg 162] it was regarded as necessary to obtain a new charter. Since the creditors still refused to
be satisfied with the concession of forty per cent on their debts, however, the new subscribers hesitated to pay
their money which might be used to pay off the old debts.[77] It therefore became necessary to carry out the
previous threat against the creditors to induce the king to grant a new charter to the present subscribers, which
was done September 27, 1672.[78] This action finally convinced the creditors that they could obtain no better
terms than had been offered, and therefore they agreed to accept them and also to surrender all their rights to
the patentees of the new charter which was being issued. That the attitude of the creditors was not the only
moving force toward a new charter is probable, because the old charter was not adequate to meet the needs of

the Royal African Company which was to follow.
Footnotes:
[1] At one time Prince Rupert had been governor of the African company founded in 1631. Jenkinson, Hilary,
"The Records of the English African Companies." Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, Third Series,
VI, 195.
[2] Pepys, Diary (The Diary of Samuel Pepys, edited by Henry B. Wheatley), I, 253.
[3] That some expense attached to the procuring of such charters appears from an item of £133.10s.3d. which
the company incurred for this charter. A. C. R., 1221, April 12, 1661. Wherever possible the volume and page
of the company's books will be given, but since they have not all been paged the only other method of
reference is by dates.
[4] Carr, Cecil T., "Select Charters of Trading Companies, 1530-1707," Publications of the Selden Society,
XXVIII, 172-177.
[5] According to the charter of 1660 the former patent had been granted June 25, 1631. It would therefore
expire June 25, 1662, if it was not surrendered before that time.
[6] A. C. R., 309, 1221. The records of the first few ventures are to be found in these two volumes of the
company's books. Number 309 is the original book, the other being practically a copy of it. In some cases,
however, the latter is more complete. These two books have been practically overlooked in the cataloging of
the company's records, one of them being labelled, "Ship's Journal." They contain the only information we
have of the financial condition of the first company as kept by Thomas Holder, treasurer of the company. The
greater part of the two books is taken up with lists and costs of various goods which were sent to Africa.
[7] Admiralty Papers, Navy Board, In-Letters, 6, loose leaf order of the factors of the Royal Adventurers on
the Gambia River, July 19, 1661. With this order there is a certificate dated January 3, 1661/2, to the effect
that thirty-eight of the crew of the "Amity" had died on the way to Guinea and during the time they were on
the Gambia River.
[8] A. C. R., 1221, October 20, 1662.
[9] It is impossible to determine the exact amount which was invested in goods, etc.
[10] A. C. R., 1221, June 20, 1661.
[11] Ibid., April 30, 1662.
[12] Ibid., 309, September 26, 1662
[13] A. C. R., 309, September 26, October 20, 1662. Only £560 of the king's subscription of £800 was paid,
according to the list found under the first of the above dates. This may be a slight error, as warrants were
issued for the payment of £580 at various times in 1661 and 1662. C.S.P., Treas. Bks. (Calendar of State
Papers, Treasury Books), 1660-1667, pp. 312, 314, 383. This does not include a warrant for £300, which was
probably used in the first expedition under Captain Holmes, but which for some reason is omitted in the
company's books. C. S. P., Treas. Bks., 1660-1667, p. 107.
Footnotes: 91
[14] A. C. R., 309, October 20, 1662, January 15, 1663. Afterward £3,200 was added to this, making £20,800
in all in the second subscription. A. C. R., 309, August 25, 1663.
[15] Carr, Select Charters of Trading Companies, pp. 178-181.
[16] There were also provisions similar to those contained in the first charter for the government of the
company's "plantations" (factories) in Africa. The clause allowing the king to subscribe one-sixteenth of the
stock was omitted, but he could become a shareholder at any time.
[17] The charter had provided that the executive committee should be composed of seven men if twenty-four
assistants were elected and thirteen if thirty-six were chosen. A.C.R., 75: 29, 31, 41, 44, 49, 51, 68, 72, 93.
[18] P.C.R. (Register of the Privy Council), Charles II, 2: 451.
[19] Ibid., 2: 502.
[20] Egerton MSS., 2538, f. 109, C. C. to Secretary Nicholas, August 11, 1662. Folio 110 contains a note
without date or signature saying that the matter was referred to the Lord High Treasurer and others.
[21] The earl of Clarendon declares in his History of Charles II that, upon the return of the ships from the first
expedition, the company "compounded" with Sir Nicholas Crispe for his "propriety" in the fort at Kormentine.
This is untrue, since it has just been shown that it was not until the middle of 1662 that he agreed to transfer
his property to the Royal Adventurers and that it was afterward that Crispe endeavored to get the king's
approval to grant him compensation. Clarendon may have remembered that the king was favorable to the
proposition and therefore assumed that such a contract had been made. Hyde, Edward, First Earl of
Clarendon. The History of the Reign of King Charles the Second, from the Restoration to the end of the year
1667 (edited by J. Shebbeare), p. 197.
[22] This charge was put forward in a pamphlet, probably published in 1709, called Sir John Crispe's Case in
Relation to the Forts in Africa. In this pamphlet the assertion is made that the Privy Council had a full hearing
of the matter on July 29, 1662, and ordered the Royal Adventurers to pay Crispe £20,000 by an export duty of
2½ per cent on goods sent to Africa. An examination of the Privy Council Register shows no order of that
kind on that date or at any subsequent time.
[23] A.C.R., 75, August, 15, 1664.
[24] In January, 1663, the Royal Adventurers made an agreement with several members of Crispe's company
providing for the transfer to England of their merchandise and personal effects which were still on the coast of
Africa. Whether this second contract contained anything about compensation for the forts it is impossible to
say, since this agreement also has not been preserved. Admiralty High Court, Examinations 134. Answers of
Edward M. Mitchell and Ellis Leighton, May 10, 20, 1664.
[25] That Sir Nicholas Crispe felt the losses he had incurred in Guinea appears from his will of 1666, in which
he directed the following inscription to be erected to his memory: "first discovered and settled the Trade of
Gold in Africa and built there the Castle of Cormentine," and thus "lost out of purse" more than £100,000.
Crisp, Frederick A., Family of Crispe, I, 32.
[26] A. C. R., 309, June 25, September 4, 1663. Upon the latter date it appears that only £1300 of his
subscription was paid.
[27] Clarendon, History of the Reign of Charles II, p. 198.
Footnotes: 92
[28] The Several Declarations of the Company of Royal Adventurers of England trading into Africa, January
12, 1662 (O. S.).
[29] Ibid.
[30] A. C. R., 309, June 25, August 25, 1663.
[31] Ibid., 309, August 25, 1663.
[32] Ibid., 309, the balance of the company's books on September 4, 1663.
[33] These figures are arrived at by a careful examination of the various sums paid to Thomas Holder, the
treasurer. As it is not always possible to be sure that the payments were made for stock, too much dependence
cannot be put in the figures, especially when the sum arrived at by adding the items which appear to be owing
the company for stock in the balance of September 4, 1663, amount to £52,000. This is of course several
thousand pounds more than the sum arrived at by the former computation, but here again it is not possible to
estimate exactly the money owing the company for stock and for other things.
[34] This number is arrived at by a careful perusal of the first book kept by the company, number 309.
Sometime in 1664 the company submitted a petition to the king in which it speaks of having sent over forty
ships to the coast during the previous year and of supplying them with cargoes amounting to more than
£160,000. C.O. (Colonial Office) 1: 17, f. 255, petition of the Royal Adventurers to (the king, 1664).
[35] C. S. P., Col. (Calendar of State Papers, Colonial, America and West Indies), 1661-1668, p. 175, warrant
to officers of the king's mint, December 24, 1663. Another evidence of special favor was a grant made by the
king in 1664 giving the Royal Company the sole privilege of holding lotteries in the king's dominions for
three years. The company does not seem to have used it. C. S. P., Dom. (Calendar of State Papers, Domestic),
1666-1667, pp. 531, 532, Blanquefort and Hamilton to the king, February 25, 1667.
[36] In the third subscription the king's share was £5,200; in the fourth, £2,000. A. C. R., 309, June 25, August
25, 1663. The king's subscription with that of the queen for £400 seem never to have been paid, although a
warrant was issued to the Lord High Treasurer, June 27, 1663, to pay the amount from the customs receipts.
[37] Upon this date, book number 309 was balanced and the items carried to another volume, which has been
lost. In March, 1664, the resolutions of the general court and the court of assistants begin in number 75 of the
company's books. While it is fortunate that these resolutions for the remaining history of this company have
been preserved, they do not furnish adequate information regarding the company's financial condition at
various times.
[38] C. O. 1: 17, f. 255, petition of the Royal Adventurers to (the king, March, 1664).
[39] A. C. R., 75: 7, 8, orders of the general court, May 10, 20, 1664.
[40] C. S. P., Dom., 1664-1665, p. 7, Robert Lye to Williamson, September 13, 1664.
[41] A. C. R., 75: 21, 22.
[42] The total of the stock is shown by adding the five subscriptions:
October, 1660, to September, 1662, first subscription £17,400
Footnotes: 93
October, 1662, to January, 1663, second subscription 20,800

June, 1663, to August, 1663, third subscription 34,600
August, 1663, fourth subscription 29,200
September, 1664, fifth subscription 18,200
Total £120,200
[43] S. P., Dom. (State Papers, Domestic), Charles II, 110, f. 18; C. O. 1: 19, ff. 7, 8.
[44] The financial status of the company at this time was as follows:
Assets:
£ sd
Ships and factories in Africa 125,962.6.2
Debts owing to the company in the colonies 49,895.0.0
Goods, ammunition, etc., at Portsmouth 48,000.0.0
Total 223,857.6.2
Stock of the company:
Amount subscribed 120,200.0.0
Amount paid (about) 103,000.0.0
Amount unpaid (about) 17,200.0.0
Debts, owing on bonds, etc. (about) 100,000.0.0
Losses:
From DeRuyter at Cape Verde 50,000.0.0
Anticipated from DeRuyter at other places 125,912.6.2
Total 175,912.6.2
[45] A. C. R., 75: 37, John Berkley and others to ——, November 4, 1665.
[46] S. P., Dom., Charles II, 186: 1.
[47] A. C. R., 75: 37, Berkley and others to ——, November 4, 1665.
[48] On April 6, 1666, the king, in response to a petition from the Royal Adventurers, granted to the company
a ship called the "Golden Lyon" which had been captured from the Dutch by Sir Robert Holmes in 1664. C. S.
P., Col., 1661-1668, p. 370, the king to duke of York, March 28, 1666.
[49] A. C. R., 75: 40.
[50] Ibid., 75: 52.
[51] Ibid., 75: 57. A part of the debts had been incurred on the common seal of the company and part on the
personal security of the committee of seven.
[52] A. C. R., 75: 56, 58. An attempt was made to induce the king to pay his subscription. On the other hand,
the company owed the king a considerable sum for the ships which it had used from time to time. S. P., Dom.,
Charles II, 199: 14.
Footnotes: 94
[53] A. C. R., 75: 58.
[54] Ibid., 75: 59.
[55] Ibid., 75: 70.
[56] Ibid., 75: 77.
[57] Ibid., 75: 85, 88.
[58] The duke of Buckingham, however, paid his arrears, which led the duke of York to remark, "I will give
the Devil his due, as they say the Duke of Buckingham hath paid in his money to the Company." Pepys,
Diary, VIII, 142.
[59] A. C. R., 75: 61.
[60] Ibid., 75: 62, 63.
[61] It seems certain, however, that these men who were interested in the Gambia trade made some other
arrangements at that time by means of which a certain amount of goods was sent to that place. A. C. R., 75:
82, 83.
[62] A. C. R., 75: 83.
[63] Ibid., 75: 82.
[64] As opposed to those who were from the king's court.
[65] A. C. R., 75:90, 91.
[66] O. S. P., Dom., 1668-1669, p. 459, August 25, 1669.
[67] A. C. R., 75: 94.
[68] C. O. 268: I, charter of the Royal African Company, September 27, 1672.
[69] In the previous April a bill had been introduced into the House of Lords to incorporate the company by
act of Parliament. On account of the various plans under consideration there was no procedure with the bill. L.
J. (Journal of the House of Lords), XII: 480; H. M. C. (Historical Manuscripts Commission), report 9, pt. 2, p.
9b; H. L. MSS. (House of Lords, Manuscripts), draft act to incorporate the Company of Royal Adventurers of
England Trading into Africa, April 6, 1671.
[70] A. C. R., 75: 101, 102. See also the proposals for a resettlement of the company's affairs in S.P., Dom.,
Charles II, 67, ff. 341, 342.
[71] A. C. R., 75: 106, 107.
[72] Ibid., 75: 108.
[73] British Husbandry and Trade, II, 14.
Footnotes: 95
[74] A. C. R., 76: 52, the preamble under which the subscriptions were made as amended December 19, 1671,
article 4; ibid., 75: 111.
[75] Ibid., 76, October 22, 1674. A report of a committee says that there was about £22,000 of the old
subscriptions which had not been paid.
[76] Ibid., 100: 50.
[77] C. O. 268: 1, charter of the Royal African Company, September 27, 1672.
[78] Ibid.
[Pg 163]
CHAPTER III
On the West Coast of Africa
In 1660 all the colonial powers of Europe held the west coast of Africa in great esteem, not only because it
produced gold, but also because it was regarded as a necessary adjunct to the colonies in the West Indies for
the supply of Negro slaves. During their long war with Spain and Portugal the Dutch acquired a large portion
of the West African coast, including the main fortress of St. George d'Elmina. This fact led them to regard
themselves as having succeeded to the exclusive claims of the Portuguese on the Guinea coast[1]. With this
end in view the Dutch agreed in the treaty of August 6, 1661, to return Brazil to the Portuguese as
compensation for the forts and settlements which they had seized on the coast of Guinea[2]. Although the
Dutch played the most prominent part in depriving the Portuguese of the trade to Guinea, the English, French,
Swedes, Danes, and Courlanders, all obtained a minor commerce to Africa which they very jealously guarded.
In a country so remote from the laws and civilization of Europe personal quarrels often arose among the
subjects of these different nations, who were inclined to obtain what they could by fair means or foul. They
magnified these petty quarrels[3] to[Pg 164] such an extent that they continually led to international
complication.
The European trade in Africa was confined mainly to the regions of the Gold Coast and the Gambia Iver. Near
the mouth of the Gambia River the subjects of the duke of Courland had bought an island from the natives in
1651. On this island they built a small fort, called St. André, from which they traded to several factories up the
river[4]. Besides the Courlanders, the French and the Dutch carried on a very precarious trade on the river. In
the early part of 1659, as a result of the war in the northern part of Europe, the duke of Courland became a
prisoner of the king of Sweden. Under these circumstances the Amsterdam chamber of the Dutch West India
Company[5] induced the Duke's commissioner, Henry Momber, to enter into a contract turning over to it all
the duke's possessions in the Gambia River. The Dutch were to maintain the factories and to enjoy the trade
until the duke was able to resume possession. The contract was of very doubtful value, since Momber himself
admitted that he had no power to make it, but notwithstanding this fact he undertook to carry out its terms[6].
Shortly after the Dutch took possession of the island belonging to the duke of Courland it was surprised and
plundered by a French pirate who, in return for a consideration, handed it over to a Gröningen merchant of the
Dutch West India Company. The Gröningen chamber of this company was not anxious to retain the island and
therefore signified to Momber its willingness to return it to Courland. Momber, who feared to have caused the
displeasure[Pg 165] of the duke by his contract, was glad to regain the island in June, 1660. Notwithstanding
this fact, several ships belonging to the Amsterdam chamber of the West India Company entered the Gambia
River and took possession of the island, keeping the Courlanders prisoners for a month. The natives, however,
interfered in behalf of the Courlanders and the Dutch were finally compelled to retire to Cape Verde, leaving
CHAPTER III 96
Otto Steele, the duke's commander, in possession[7].
It was during this state of affairs on the African coast that the Company of Royal Adventurers was organized
in England. It received its charter December 18, 1660. In the same month, Captain Robert Holmes sailed from
England in command of the five royal ships which composed the first expedition. In March, 1661, he arrived
at Cape Verde where he at once informed the Dutch commander that he had orders from Charles II to warn all
persons of whatsoever nation that the right of trade and navigation from Cape Verde to the Cape of Good
Hope belonged exclusively to the king of England. Holmes ordered the Dutch to vacate their forts and to
abandon the coast within six or seven months[8]. Thereupon he seized the island of Boa Vista, one of the
Cape Verde group claimed by the Dutch since 1621. Later he sent a frigate into the mouth of the Gambia. Otto
Steele, the Courland commander of Fort St. André, unable to discern whether friend or foe was approaching,
fired upon the frigate. Holmes considered this an insult[9], and two days later sent a note to Steele requiring
him to surrender the island to the English within ten days. At first Steele refused to obey, maintaining that the
fort was the rightful possession of the duke of Courland. Thereupon Holmes threatened to level[Pg 166] the
fort to the ground. Steele realized that with so few men and supplies resistance was useless, and therefore he
complied with Holmes' demands.[10] The English assumed possession of the island, but after a fire had
destroyed nearly all the fort and its magazine,[11] they chose to abandon it, and to settle on two other islands
which they named Charles Island and James Island respectively in honor of their royal patrons. In this way the
English gained their first possessions in the Gambia River.
When Captain Holmes left England the Dutch ambassadors in London informed the States General that he had
gone to the "reviere Guijana" where he would build a fort, establish a trade and search for gold mines. This
announcement was immediately sent to the West India Company which had received the more authentic
advice that the English ships were on the way to the Gambia River. The West India Company urged that the
Dutch ambassadors in London be instructed to inquire more fully as to the purposes of the expedition, and to
prevent if possible anything being done to the prejudice of the company.[12] The ambassadors learned that the
English maintained that all nations had a right to trade on the Gambia River, and that other nations than the
Dutch had forts there.[13] On the other hand, the West India Company maintained that it had traded on the
Gambia River ever since its formation and that, since the contract with the duke of Courland, it had been in
complete possession of the river.[14] After receiving this statement the States General requested their
ambassadors in London to see that the company's forts and lodges in the Gambia[Pg 167] River were not
disturbed.[15] When the news of Holmes' exploit and his reported warning to the Dutch commander to
evacuate the entire African coast reached the United Netherlands, the West India Company at once lodged a
complaint with the States General.[16] At their suggestion the Dutch ambassadors obtained an audience with
Charles II, who assured them that neither he nor his officers had given any order for the injury which had been
done to the subjects of the United Netherlands, much less to possess any of their forts. The king also assured
them that, if Holmes had committed any unjust action, he and his officers should be exemplarily
punished.[17] Sir George Downing, the English envoy extraordinary at The Hague, further declared that
Holmes had very strict instructions not to disturb the subjects of the United Netherlands or those of any other
nation, and that, if anything to the contrary had been done, it was without the least authority.[18] Finally on
August 14, 1661, Charles II declared to the States General that their friendship was very dear to him and that
he would under no circumstances violate the "Droit de Gens."[19] With all this extravagant profession of
good will no definite assurance was given the Dutch that the islands of St. André and Boa Vista would be
restored to them. On August 16, Downing wrote to the earl of Clarendon that the island of St. André did not
belong to the Dutch at all, but to the duke of Courland, and that an answer to this effect could be returned to
the Dutch ambassadors if they objected to Holmes' actions. Furthermore, Downing intimated that the duke
could probably be induced to resign his claims to the English.[20][Pg 168]
Meanwhile, Captain Holmes, who was responsible for this unpleasant international complication, had returned
from Guinea. Since he suffered no punishment for his violent actions on the African coast except the loss of
his salary,[21] the Dutch ambassadors in London reminded the king that on August 14, 1661, he had
On the West Coast of Africa 97

absolutely disclaimed the proceedings of Holmes.[22] They requested, therefore, that Holmes be called to
account for his actions, that Fort St. André be restored, that reparation for damages be made, and that in the
future the king's subjects observe the laws of nations more regularly.[23] Holmes was ordered before the
Privy Council to answer to the charges of the ambassadors,[24] but no effort was made to force him to
respond. The duke of York kept him busy with the fleet where he incurred some official displeasure, by
failing to require a Swedish ship to strike colors to his Majesty's ships in English seas, and was therefore
required to be detained until further order.[25] Having extricated himself from this trouble Holmes finally
appeared before the Privy Council in January, 1662,[26] where he offered "many reasons" in justification of
his actions in Guinea.[27] He easily satisfied the king and the members of the Privy Council, which is not
surprising since many of these men had helped to organize and finance the expedition.[Pg 169]
By this time it had become apparent that Charles II did not intend to make immediate restitution of St. André
to the Dutch. This was in accordance with Downing's advice "to be 6 or 8 months in examining the matter"
before making a decision.[28] The longer the English retained possession of the island the less likely the
Dutch were to regain it. Finally, the duke of Courland sent a representative, Adolph Wolfratt, to London to
insist upon the restitution of his possessions. Originally the English had apparently supported the claims of the
duke of Courland, but it developed that they were no more inclined to return St. André to the duke of
Courland than to the Dutch. The matter dragged on until November 17, 1664, when a contract was made
between Charles II and the duke whereby the latter surrendered all his rights on the Gambia River. In return
he received certain trading privileges there and the island of Tobago in the West Indies.[29]
When one proceeds from the Cape Verde region to the Gold Coast one finds that Dutch influence was
especially strong. From Elmina and other forts the Dutch commanded the largest portion of the trade along
this coast. However, the Danes, Swedes and English had long maintained a commerce on the Gold Coast
where they also had established a number of factories. In 1658, Hendrik Carloff, an adventurer carrying a
Danish commission, attacked and made himself master of Cape Corse which had been in the possession of the
Swedes since 1651. After entering into friendly relations with the Dutch at Elmina,[30] Carloff returned to
Europe, leaving his lieutenant, Samuel Smits, in charge of the fort. Fearing that the Swedes and the English,
who had entered into an alliance, might endeavor to regain Cape Corse, Carloff advised Smits to surrender the
fort to Jasper van Heusden, director general of the West India Company on the Gold Coast. The instructions
were[Pg 170] unnecessary, as Smits had surrendered Cape Corse to the Dutch on April 15, 1659. In return for
this fort Smits and one of his compatriots received 5,000 and 4,000 gulden respectively.[31]
At the time when Hendrik Carloff seized Cape Corse the English had there[32] a factory to which they traded
from their main fort at Kormentine.[33] On May 1, 1659, very soon after the Dutch obtained possession of the
place, the English factory with all its goods was burned by the natives, perhaps at the instigation of the Dutch.
The Hollanders, however, were not without misfortunes of their own, for after disavowing Smits' contract, the
Danes sent a new expedition to Guinea which seized a hill commanding Cape Corse, on which they built the
fort of Fredericksburg. Furthermore, the Swedes who had been dispossessed of Cape Corse by the Danes with
the assistance of natives, toward the end of 1660, drove the Dutch out of Cape Corse. Since the Swedes were
insignificant in number the fort very shortly fell into the control of the vacillating Negro inhabitants.
As soon as the natives obtained possession of Cape Corse they permitted the English to rebuild their factory at
that place. An agreement was also made by which, upon the payment of a certain sum of money, the fort was
to be surrendered to the English.[34] Since the Dutch maintained that Cape Corse belonged exclusively to
them by reason of their contract with the Danes, they determined to prevent the English from obtaining
possession of it. Furthermore, in order to exclude other Europeans from trading to any part of the Gold Coast,
the Dutch declared a blockade on the whole coast, in which Komenda and other villages as well[Pg 171] as
Cape Corse were situated. To carry out this policy they kept several ships plying up and down the coast.

The Dutch then proceeded to capture the following English ships for endeavoring to trade on the Gold Coast:
the "Blackboy," April, 1661; the "Daniel," May, 1661; the "Merchant's Delight,"[35] August, 1661; the
"Charles," August, 1661; the "Paragon," October, 1661; the "Ethiopian," January, 1662. In addition to these
injuries the Dutch forbade the English at Kormentine to trade with the factory at Cape Corse, which warning
was no sooner given than the factory was mysteriously destroyed by fire a second time, May 22, 1661. The
English bitterly complained that this misfortune was due to the instigation of the Dutch.[36]
In like manner the Dutch captured a Swedish ship and interfered with the trade of the Danes to their fort of
Fredericksburg,[37] which action greatly incensed the Danish African Company. Since voluntary satisfaction
for these injuries could not be expected, Simon de Petkum, the Danish resident in London, caused the arrest of
a Dutch West India ship, the "Graf Enno," which was one of the main offenders in seizing Danish as well as
English ships on the Guinea coast.[38] The case was brought before the Admiralty Court, and judgment of
condemnation was rendered in favor of the Danes.[39][Pg 172]
At The Hague, Sir George Downing now had a great opportunity to vent his remarkable store of epithets on
the Dutch for their violent actions against English vessels in Guinea. He complained to the States General
"that the people of this contry doe everywhere as oppertunity offers sett upon, rob and spoyle" the English
subjects; and that these things were being done not only by the West India Company but even by ships of war
belonging to the Dutch government. Downing threatened that the king would "give order for the seizing of a
proportionable number and value of ships and merchandises belonginge to this contrey and distribute them
amongst them accordinge ... to their respective losses, and will take care that noe ships bee seized but such as
belong to those provinces, and to such townes in those provinces, to which the ships belonged that did commit
these violences and robberies."[40] In this way Downing hoped to set the non-maritime towns and provinces
of the Netherlands against those which were interested in commerce, and thus to secure a cessation of the
seizures. Upon one occasion in the time of Cromwell he had used this method successfully. Downing declared
too that, to obtain justice in the United Provinces, it was necessary for the Dutch to realize that his Majesty
would have satisfaction for injuries done "if not by faire means, by force."[41]
The Dutch ignored Downing's demands, even though on June 6, 1662, he reminded them of their unjust
actions on the Gold Coast.[42] In all probability they were trusting to obviate all difficulties in the commercial
treaty then being negotiated at London. In August, a new complaint was made to the States General[43]
concerning the seizure of the English ship, "Content," off the Cape Verde Islands.[44] Shortly thereafter, the
States General declared with respect[Pg 173] to the English ship, "Daniel," seized in 1661, that it was a gross
misrepresentation for the owner to maintain that the master and crew of the ship were English. Furthermore,
the Dutch advanced proof that the ship had been fitted out with a cargo in Amsterdam, and had afterwards
attempted to pass as an English ship, in order to escape being seized as an interloper by the West India
Company.[45]
Further consideration regarding these seizures was postponed indefinitely by the 15th article of the
commercial treaty entered into between the United Provinces and England in September, 1662.[46] In
accordance with its provisions the ships which the Dutch had seized on the African coast were included in the
lists of damages which the English submitted against the United Provinces. Thereafter the ships formed no
important part in the negotiations between the two nations.
Thus far the Company of Royal Adventurers which had sent out the expedition under Captain Robert Holmes
had not been more active on the Gold Coast than numerous private traders of England. The seizure of ships by
the Dutch had been a matter of much apprehension to all the traders on the coast, but from now on it mainly
concerned the Royal Adventurers. The company was anxious to establish new forts and factories in Africa in
order to build up a lucrative trade. Its agents therefore began to erect a lodge at Tacorary, a village not far
from Cape Corse. The Dutch, although they had not succeeded in recovering Cape Corse from the natives,
considered that the fort and the surrounding territory belonged to them. On May 24, 1662, they bade the

English to desist from further invasion of their rights at Tacorary or any other place under Dutch
obedience.[47] The English, however, disregarded the Dutch protest and notwithstanding their opposition the
factory was completed.[48] In less than a month from this time the[Pg 174] natives drove the Dutch out of
their factory in Comany.[49] Thereupon the Dutch determined to continue even more vigorously their policy
of blockading the whole coast and, by cutting off the trade of the natives with the English, to force the
Negroes into subjection and to recover Comany and the fort at Cape Corse.
In October, 1662, two ships of the Royal Adventurers, the "Charles" and the "James," were prevented from
trading to Komenda by the "Golden Lyon" and two other Dutch men-of-war.[50] When asked as to the reason
for this interruption of trade the Dutch general, Dirck Wilree, replied that he had caused the ports of Comany
and Cape Corse to be blockaded until the natives rendered satisfaction for the injuries which they had
committed against the Dutch.[51] When the two English ships continued their effort to trade at Cape Corse
and other villages, the "Golden Lyon" followed them from place to place, and on one occasion seized a small
skiff which was attempting to land some goods. Discouraged at the treatment accorded to them the English
officers finally gave up the attempt to trade on the Gold Coast, and returned home with their ships, after
delivering to the Dutch a solemn protest against the injuries which they had suffered.[52]
When Secretary Williamson informed Sir George Downing of the misfortunes of the two ships, "Charles" and
"James," and asked him to interfere in behalf of the Royal Company at The Hague, Downing promised to do
what he could, but since he was so well acquainted with the Dutch method of treating such complaints he did
not anticipate favorable results. "God help them," he declared, "if they (the Royal Company) depend upon
paper relief." With the duke of York at the head of the Company and the king[Pg 175] as well as many of his
courtiers greatly concerned in its welfare, he considered that it would be well cared for. "Whatever injuries the
Dutch do them," he exclaimed, "let them be sure to do the Dutch greater, & then let me alone to mediate
between them, but without this all other wayes will signify not a rush."[53]
Downing demanded of the States General whether Dirck Wilree had been given any authority to blockade the
entire coasts of Comany and to forbid all English trade with the natives.[54] In this way he hoped either to
have the States General disavow Wilree's action or to raise the question whether the West India Company had
a right to institute such a blockade. In letters to Clarendon and Bennet, Downing maintained that the Dutch
were accustomed both in West Africa and in the East Indies, to declare war on the natives and to cut them off
from all trade with foreigners until they agreed to sell their goods only to the Dutch. Downing declared that
the English had already lost a great deal of trade on account of such impositions, and that if they were
continued the East India and African companies would be ruined. "Pay them in their own kind & sett their
subjects a crying as well as his Majties, & you will have a very faire correspondence, & they will take heed
what they doe, and his Majtie shall be as much honored & loved here as he hath been dispised, for they love
nor honor none but them that they thinck both can & dare bite them."[54a] After urging the king to take
immediate action concerning their ships the members of the Royal Company requested Downing "to drive the
States to the most positive reply." They declared that any answer would, at least, expedite matters, and "if
those states will owne that Wilrey had their orders to warrant his action, wee will hope, it may begett some
parelel resolution of state here. If they disclaim it, and[Pg 176] leave their West India Company to be
responcible, they will send us to a towne where there is noe house, unlesse wee pay ourselves, per legem
talionis."[55]
In answer to Downing's memorial concerning the "Charles" and the "James" the West India Company
confined itself to a justification of Wilree's actions, and omitted to say anything about the authority by which
they had been committed.[56] Although Downing insisted that a definite answer be given him on this point,
the States General also evaded the issue by maintaining that nothing had been done by the company but what
justice and necessity required. They supported the company in its contention that Cape Corse and Comany
were effectually blockaded, and therefore the ships "Charles" and "James" had no right to trade there.[57]

Such a justification of the West India Company's actions could scarcely be satisfactory to Downing or to those
in charge of foreign affairs in England. The Royal Company was very much concerned also lest the Dutch
would continue to interrupt the ships which it sent to the Gold Coast. To add to this adverse condition news
arrived that, about the first of June, 1663,[58] the Dutch had at last succeeded in regaining possession of Cape
Corse. At this there was much satisfaction in Holland. Downing wrote that since the Dutch now had the two
important castles of Elmina and Cape Corse, commanding the most important trade in all Guinea, they
intended to prohibit all other nations from trading to that region.[59] Over this turn of events there was great
disappointment among the members of the Royal Company, who had confidently expected to obtain Cape
Corse from the natives. In fact, they had intended to[Pg 177] make Cape Corse their main stronghold and at
that place establish their principal trade.[60]
Charles II decided that it was time to come to the assistance of the Royal Company, and on September 5,
1663, he lent three of his ships to it for a voyage to Africa.[61] Later, he also ordered several additional royal
vessels commanded by Sir Robert Holmes to accompany these ships. The preparation and departure of the
fleet was short and remained a close secret with the officials immediately concerned.
The king instructed Holmes to protect the company's agents, ships, goods, and factories from all injury; and to
secure a free trade with the natives. Also, he declared, "If (upon consultacon with such commandrs as are
there present) you judge yourself strong enough to maintaine the right of his Matie's subjects by force, you are
to do it, and to kill, sink, take, or destroy such as oppose you, & to send home such ships as you shall so take."
If the two ships "Golden Lyon" and "Christiana," the first of which was the chief assailant of the company's
ships "Charles" and "James" in November, 1662, were encountered. Holmes was instructed to seize them. All
other ships which had committed such injuries on the vessels of the Royal Company[62] were likewise to be
seized and taken to England. On his arrival at the mouth of the Gambia River in January, 1664, Holmes
discovered that since his visit in 1661 the relations of the Dutch and English had been anything but friendly.
The English commander on Charles Island had given Petro Justobaque and other Dutch factors from Cape
Verde permission to trade up and down the river. Holmes heard that they had endeavored to stir up the native
king of Barra against the English in December, 1661.[63] On the 21st of[Pg 178] June, 1662, Justobaque with
a ship again appeared on the Gambia. In order to compel him to recognize the English rights on the river, the
English commander at James Island fired at the ship. The Dutch ship paid no heed to the demand of the
English and returned the fire until it was a safe distance away. A few days later when returning to Cape Verde
the English shot away the main mast of the Dutch ship, but Justobaque managed to escape.[64]
Although these incidents had happened more than a year and a half before Holmes' arrival at James Island, he
was incensed at the actions of the Dutch. When it was reported to him that a large Dutch vessel had arrived at
Cape Verde, he assumed that it was the "Golden Lyon" which had sailed from Holland about the same time as
he had departed from England. Several English ships were expected on the Gambia and for fear of their
capture by the "Golden Lyon," Holmes sailed at once for Cape Verde where, according to his statement,
without any provocation he was fired upon by the Dutch. Holmes returned the fire, and after suffering some
damage withdrew from the attack. On the following morning he was surprised, he declared, to see that the
Dutch had hung out a white flag and were sending a boat to him offering to surrender the fort. He called a
council which, after considering the former hazards of the English trade on the Gambia, decided "that the
better to protect our trade for a tyme and sooner to bring in Hollander's West India Compa to adjust our
nation's damages sustained by them, and to that end we accepted the surrender of that place."[65]
Holmes' explanation of the taking of Cape Verde, although simple and direct, is probably incomplete. His
whole career shows him to have been a man who was likely[Pg 179] to take the initiative, so that it is not
surprising to learn from the depositions of various Dutchmen that, previous to the battle of Cape Verde,
Holmes had seized two Dutch vessels, and that after receiving an unfavorable reply to his demand to
surrender, Holmes attacked the fort at Cape Verde, which capitulated together with several Dutch vessels.[66]

From the conflicting statements made by the Dutch and the English it is difficult to ascertain the truth
regarding the events immediately preceding the attack on Cape Verde, but the fact remains that Holmes had
obtained a number of Dutch vessels and was master of one of their most important forts on the west coast of
Africa. Since he had discovered the ease with which the Dutch possessions could be seized, Holmes next set
out down the coast toward Elmina. On the way he despoiled the Dutch factory at Sestos, on the pretext that at
that place the Dutch had stirred up the natives against the English.[67] Shortly afterwards, he encountered and
captured the "Golden Lyon" which had added to its notorious career by preventing the "Mary," a ship
belonging to the Royal Adventurers, from trading on the Gold Coast in March, 1663.[68] Finally he seized the
Dutch factory at Anta, on the ground that it was commanded by the former captain of the "Christiana," one of
the Dutch ships designated for seizure in the king's instructions.[69]
Before leaving the Gambia, Holmes had been apprised of what had taken place on the Gold Coast since the
Dutch had captured Cape Corse in June, 1663. After the Dutch had taken possession of this fortress General
Valckenburg despatched a very strong protest to the chief English factory at Kormentine, in which he
maintained that the Dutch[Pg 180] had a right to the exclusive possession of the whole Gold Coast by reason
of their conquest of the Portuguese. He required the English to leave the lodge which they had recently built at
Tacorary and demanded that they refrain from all trade on the Gold Coast. He even had the temerity to claim
that the English had injured the Dutch trade at Cape Corse and Tacorary to the extent of sixty marks of gold
per month, and that the Dutch had lost one thousand marks on account of the interference of English ships
such as the "Charles" and the "James."[70]
In answer to Valckenburg's sweeping assertions Francis Selwin, the English chief at Kormentine, and John
Stoakes, commander of one of the English ships, replied that the English had more right to Cape Corse and
other places on the Gold Coast than the Dutch, because they had first settled and fortified Cape Corse with the
consent of the natives in 1649.[71] As a further indication that they were not intimidated by the hostile
attitude of Valckenburg the English commenced to build another factory at Anashan in the Fantin region. In
September, 1663, this brought forth another vigorous protest from Valckenburg, who declared that he would
not tolerate the continuance of this factory.[72] By way of enforcing these threats the Dutch prevented the
"Sampson," another ship belonging to the Royal Adventurers, from engaging in any trade at the factory of
Komenda.[73] Thereupon Stoakes declared that, although the English greatly desired to live in peace with the
Dutch, they would not under any circumstances abandon their factory at Anashan.[74][Pg 181]
At this time the English had factories and settlements at Kormentine, Komenda, Tacorary, Anto, Anashan,
Ardra, and Wiamba. The forts and lodges of the two companies were all located within a few miles of one
another and for either company to increase the number of its settlements only made the instances of friction
between them more numerous.[75] It seemed that whichever company was able to overcome the other would
be sure to do so. It was under these circumstances that Sir Robert Holmes made his appearance on the Gold
Coast. The fact that the Dutch had laid claim to the whole Gold Coast was sufficient excuse for his
interference, although, if we may believe the Dutch version, Holmes exceeded their claims by reasserting the
English right to the whole of the west coast of Africa, as he had done at Cape Verde in 1661.[76]
Be this as it may, according to Holmes' account, Captain Cubitt of the Royal Company endeavored to induce
Valckenburg to come to an amicable adjustment of the troubles on the Gold Coast. Holmes expected that his
previous seizures would induce such a settlement, but Valckenburg obstinately refused Holmes' demand to
evacuate Cape Corse.[77] Since he had failed to intimidate the Dutch, Holmes sailed to Cape Corse where he
visited the Danish fort of Fredericksburg. The Dutch fired at him from Cape Corse, an act which Holmes
regarded as the beginning of war.[78] He called a council of officers and factors of the[Pg 182] Royal
Company on May 7, 1664, where, after considering "theire (the Dutch) unjust possessing of that very castle of
Cape Coast indubitably ours, ... wee then resolved att that councell ... for the better securitye of that trade, our
interest in that countrye, and to regaine our nacion's rights, to reduce that castle of Cape Coast wch
accordingly succeeded."[79] On pretexts of much the same character Holmes seized the Dutch factories of

Agga and Anamabo, together with several ships. By this time the Dutch were stripped of all their settlements
on the African coast except the main fortress of Elmina. In finishing his account of the expedition Holmes
blandly remarked, "I hope I have nott exceeded my instructions, they being to concerve our comerce."
Since it is not essential to follow Holmes across the Atlantic to New Amsterdam one may return to the
negotiations which were proceeding in Europe subsequent to his departure from England. So closely had the
secret of Holmes' expedition to Africa been guarded that it is even doubtful if Sir George Downing at The
Hague was aware of it.[80] As far as the purpose of the voyage was concerned nothing could have been nearer
the advice which he had been urging for months. Moreover, Downing was not alone in his opinion that
negotiation regarding affairs in Africa would be fruitless. The Danish resident at The Hague, Carisius, who
was pressing the Danish claims for the possession of Cape Corse, confessed to Downing that nothing could be
obtained from the Dutch unless it was "attended with some thing that was reall & did bite."[81] Since this was
the case Downing pointed out that the Danish fort at Fredericksburg would probably fall into the hands of the
Dutch. To avoid this misfortune he advised the Royal Company[Pg 183] to induce the Danes to transfer
Fredericksburg to it, granting them in return a free commerce at that place. As the Royal Company did not see
fit to follow this suggestion[82] Downing began to form other plans. In order that Carisius might continue to
worry the Dutch with his claims Downing submitted a memorial to the States General protesting against the
Dutch treatment of the Danes in Guinea.[83] Indeed he was so friendly toward the Danish pretensions that the
king of Denmark sent him a special letter thanking him for his services.[84]
In the main, however, Downing was persistently urging the Dutch to make a settlement of the cases of the
Royal Company's two ships, the "Charles" and the "James," and of the right of the Dutch to blockade the Gold
Coast on the pretext of war with the natives. In December, 1663, at the instigation of the West India
Company, the States General maintained that only a few ships were necessary to blockade the small native
states on the Gold Coast, since in each case there were but one or two outlets to the sea.[85] On February 1,
1664, Downing obtained a conference with DeWitt and the representatives of the States General and the West
India Company. The company's representatives boldly admitted that they had hindered the English ships from
trading at Komenda and Cape Corse, because the natives had burned their factory at the former place and had
seized their fortress at Cape Corse. This irritating assumption of their ownership of Cape Corse aroused
Downing. So far, he had contented himself in supporting the Danish and even the Swedish claims to Cape
Corse. Now, notwithstanding the inconsistency of his position, he remarked that, if it was a question of the
ownership of Cape Corse, the English could show more rights to the place than any[Pg 184] one, since they
had been the first to settle it and to trade there; and that even if the Dutch were in possession of it, the English
still had a right to trade to the Danish fort of Fredericksburg which was located in the same harbor.[86]
When the discussion turned on the requirements of an effective blockade the Dutch advocate stoutly
maintained that "it is nott for any other to prescribe how and in what manner the company shall proceed to
retake their places, that if they think that the riding with a few shipps before a place and that att certaine times
onely whereby to hinder other nations from trading with it, be a sufficient meanes for the retaking thereof,
they have no reason to be att further charge or trouble." He further declared that a certain sickness in that
region, known as "Serenes," caused by the falling dew, made it impossible for Europeans to engage in a
blockade by land, and therefore "in this case itt was to be counted sufficient and to be called a besieging,
though the place were onely blocked up by sea."[87] Downing scoffed at this as an unheard of theory and
asked what would happen if the Royal Company instituted blockades of this character and pretended
"Serenes" whenever it seemed convenient. With such a display of feeling it is no wonder little could be done
toward adjusting the difficulties. DeWitt suggested a new treaty for the regulation of such affairs both in
Europe and abroad. Downing flatly refused to consider such a proposition if it was meant thereby to dispose
of the cases of the "Charles" and the "James." He remained firm in his demand for reparation for these two
ships.[88] A few days after this conference Downing learned of the misfortunes which had befallen the Royal
Company's ship, the "Mary," during the previous year. On February 16, he apprised the States General of this
additional cause for complaint and demanded[Pg 185] satisfaction as in the case of the other two vessels[89].

If Downing was becoming exasperated, the people in England were scarcely less so when they heard of the
troubles of the "Mary" and other similar occurrences. Secretary Cunaeus declared that the animosity in
England towards Holland was growing exceedingly among the common people. Led by the duke of York,
governor of the Royal Company, the courtiers had also become exceedingly indignant at the treatment
accorded the company's ships and factories in Africa[90]. One of Valckenburg's statements regarding the
Dutch ownership of the Gold Coast had been circulated on the Royal Exchange, where it became the chief
topic of conversation. Indeed so great was the sensation it stirred up that Samuel Pepys declared on April 7,
1664, that everybody was expecting a war[91]. On the 21st of April the members of the House of Commons
resolved that the damages inflicted by the Dutch in India, Africa, and elsewhere constituted a very great
obstruction to English trade. They, therefore, petitioned the king for redress for these various injuries, and
promised to support any action he took with their lives and fortunes.
At last the Dutch realized that the African situation was becoming serious, and Downing therefore found it
somewhat easier to bring them to a discussion of the subject. DeWitt proposed that the case of the three Royal
Company's ships as well as that of two East India ships, the "Bona Esperanza" and the "Henry Bonaventure,"
should be included in the list of damages provided for by the treaty of September, 1662. Downing absolutely
refused to consider such a makeshift on the ground that the ships of the Royal Company had been injured after
the treaty had been signed, and therefore in accordance with its provisions[Pg 186] these losses should be
submitted to the Netherlands for compensation.[92]
Since he had failed to induce Downing to permit the three ships to be included in the list of damages, DeWitt
had exhausted the last means of delay. On May 6, 1664, Downing announced in letters to Bennet and
Clarendon that DeWitt had at last consented to accommodate the matter of the three ships. He was willing,
moreover, to enter into an agreement, for the prevention of all such future troubles, along the lines which
Downing had laid down. Regarding the two East India ships, however, whose case was quite different from
those of the Royal Company, DeWitt would not alter his stubborn refusal of compensation. Downing was
intent on gaining a complete victory and at once rejoined that no new commercial regulations could be
considered until entire satisfaction had been rendered for the damages which the Dutch had committed.[93]
Although an attempt was made to suppress the first tidings of Holmes' actions on the Gambia, the rumor of
them soon spread. It was not long until it was well known in London and Amsterdam that he had taken Cape
Verde and captured several Dutch vessels.[94] The West India Company bitterly accused the English of
having covered their designs in Africa with a cloak of complaints regarding the Royal Company's ships. The
company reminded the States General that this was the same Holmes who, in 1661, had set up a claim to the
whole coast and who was to have been exemplarily punished on his return by the king of England. Since it
was evident that all the Dutch factories and forts in Guinea were in danger of capture from Holmes, the
company asked the States General for some[Pg 187] vessels of war which should be sent to the African coast
for the protection of its property[95].
It was now the turn of the Dutch to seek compensation and restitution of their property. Since Downing was a
very exasperating man with whom to deal they were undoubtedly pleased when toward the end of May, 1664,
he suddenly returned to England[96]. The Dutch, therefore, decided to send VanGogh to London, with the
hope that he could obtain more satisfactory results there than had ever been possible with Downing at The
Hague. VanGogh was instructed to seek for the restitution of the West India Company's property; to remind
the king of the unfulfilled promises which he had made regarding Holmes and the voyage of 1661;[97] and to
seek for new commercial regulations which would prevent future trouble on the African coast[98].
Very soon after his arrival in England VanGogh gained an audience with the king who, in reply to his
demands, answered that as yet his knowledge of the Holmes' affair was very imperfect; that he had not given
Holmes orders to seize Cape Verde; and that in case he had exceeded his instructions he would be punished
upon his return, according to the exigency of the case[99]. Such a reply sounded too much like the king's

former promise of August 14, 1661, to satisfy DeWitt. He instructed VanGogh to insist that his Majesty make
these promises in writing[100]. VanGogh answered DeWitt that it was hopeless to think of inducing the
English to return Cape Verde, in view of the preparations then in progress for carrying on trade to the west
coast of Africa. He declared that already they were boasting[Pg 188] in London that a contract was to be made
with the Spanish for the delivery of 4,000 slaves per annum[101]. As early as the middle of June the Royal
Company had eight ships loading in London with goods worth 50,000 pounds destined for the Guinea
coast[102].
In midsummer, 1664, Andries C. Vertholen and other Dutchmen, whom Holmes had carried from Cape Verde
to the Gold Coast, returned to Holland, where they reported at length Holmes' actions at Cape Verde and on
the way to the Gold Coast[103]. These details did not tend to DeWitt's peace of mind. Hence it is no wonder,
upon Downing's return to Holland, that the two men "fell very hard upon the busines of Cabo Verde" in their
very first conversation. As he had instructed VanGogh to do, so DeWitt demanded of Downing that the
English king make a written promise that no more hostilities would be committed on the Guinea Coast, or the
Dutch would be in duty bound to assist their company. Downing, who now felt the advantage which the
success of Holmes' expedition gave him, replied to DeWitt as follows: "I must say," that the West India
Company has "ever since his Majtye's return played the devills & pirats, worse thn Argiers, taken 20 English
ships, hindered others, putt out a declaration whereby they claymed al the coast to thmselves; & was it lawfull
for thm so to demean thmselves & only lawfull for the English to suffer, tht yet his Majty did not intermeddle,
but only the one company against the other, & no wonder if at last the English did stirr a little; & tht Holms
was the companye's servt & tht should his Majty have given or lent thm an old ship or two, yet he had nothing
to doe in the ordering their designe." Furthermore, he declared that if[Pg 189] the Dutch took it upon
themselves to assist the West India Company "his Majty would find himself equally obliged to assist his
company."[104]
To every one it now seemed as if an open conflict must come. Toward the last of July, Pepys declared that all
the talk was of a Dutch war,[105] although even Coventry, a director of the Royal Company, admitted that
there was little real cause for it and that the damage done to the company, which had brought on Holmes'
expedition, did not exceed the paltry sum of two or three hundred pounds.[106] In Holland, also, the
disposition toward war was increased by the realization that the next report from Holmes might bring news of
the total loss of the Gold Coast, including the main fortress of Elmina. Under these circumstances the king's
promise to punish Holmes according to the exigency of the case meant little or nothing. The maritime
provinces, especially Holland, were determined to assist the West India Company against English aggression
in Africa.
When Downing discussed the situation with DeWitt, however, he was surprised to hear him still express the
possibility of giving satisfaction for the seizure of the Royal Company's ships, and not "so hott" for sending a
fleet immediately to Guinea as he had been at first.[107] Even Downing was for the time being deceived. His
spy, who was well within DeWitt's immediate circle, for once was not on duty to give his usual faithful report
to his benefactor. DeWitt was accustomed to resort to the same trickery and deceitful diplomacy that was so
characteristic of Downing. Indeed it would be difficult to decide which of these two men was the greater
master of this questionable art. The English had sent Holmes to Africa totally unknown to the Dutch and had
taken half the coast[Pg 190] from them before they were even aware of the expedition. It is little wonder then
that the idea occurred to DeWitt to retaliate in kind on the English and to keep his plans a profound secret.
In 1661 the Dutch had sent a fleet under Admiral DeRuyter to the Mediterranean Sea in conjunction with an
English squadron commanded by Sir John Lawson, for the purpose of punishing the Algerian and other
pirates who had been infesting Dutch and English commerce. DeRuyter and Lawson had succeeded in making
a number of favorable treaties with the pirates, though the task of quelling them was by no means complete.
DeWitt realized that a fleet could scarcely be dispatched to Guinea from Holland without being discovered.
Therefore, he together with six of his councillors decided to send secret orders to DeRuyter to sail at once for

the coast of Guinea. On account of a peculiarity of the Dutch government, however, it was impossible to
dispatch these orders without first securing a resolution of the States General. DeWitt was well aware that
somehow these resolutions of the States General usually became known to Downing and the English. He
therefore determined that, while the States General should pass the order, he would arrange the matter so that
no one would know of it, except those who were already in the plan. On August 11, 1664, the secretary of the
States General read the resolution very quickly, during which time DeWitt and his six cohorts raised so much
disturbance by loud conversation that no one in the room heard what was being read.[108] The trick
succeeded admirably. DeWitt was now in possession of the necessary authority, and orders were dispatched at
once to DeRuyter to leave his post in the Mediterranean and to sail for the west coast of Africa without
revealing his destination to Lawson, the English commander. He was instructed to recover for the West India
Company those places which Holmes had seized and to deliver to Valckenburg, the Dutch general on the
Gold[Pg 191] Coast, all the effects of the English which were not necessary for the different factories of the
company.[109]
In order not to arouse Downing's suspicions by apparent apathy, the Dutch began to prepare several ships
ostensibly for Africa. For the purpose of misleading Downing still further the Dutch agreed to accept an offer
made by the French for mediation of the difficulties. DeWitt still insisted, however, that a written promise be
given him that the forts and factories which Holmes had seized on the African coast would be restored to the
West India Company.[110] Later, in the same month of August, 1664, Downing submitted to the States
General the draft of a proposed agreement for the settling of future disputes in the East Indies and in
Africa.[111] Downing was of the opinion that, although the Dutch could never be depended on to keep such
an agreement, it would be a good thing in the East Indies because "ye (the English) are the weaker ther." In
Africa the situation appeared different to Downing, for there the English had the advantage. "I hope in the
meantime," he declared, "while we are (negotiating) Holmes will doe the work ther," because there "never
will be such a opportunity as this to make clear work in Affrica."[112] A few days later he advised that
everything on the African coast should be done "so as (the) king of England may not appeare in it, but only
(the) Rll Company, & they takeing occasion from our affront."[113] Still later he asserted that even in Holland
everyone believed that since the king and the Royal Company had gone so far, they would seize the entire
African coast so that the whole affair might be worth while.[114][Pg 192]
Although DeWitt had been successful in sending the secret orders to DeRuyter concerning his voyage to
Guinea, he could not long hope to deceive the ever-watchful Downing. Indeed with all due respect to his
crafty rival one is almost surprised that Downing's suspicions were not aroused for more than a month after
the commands were despatched. When the possibility of DeRuyter's having been ordered to Africa dawned on
Downing, he at once demanded of DeWitt where DeRuyter was going when he left Cadiz. Without hesitation
DeWitt replied that he had returned to Algiers and Tunis to ransom some Dutch people.[115] The bald
falsehood disarmed Downing's suspicions and, although he advised that Sir John Lawson keep a watchful eye
on DeRuyter, he assured Bennet that the report that the latter had gone to Guinea was without
foundation.[116] The report continued to be whispered about,[117] however, and although two weeks later
DeWitt repeated his falsehood, Downing began to fear that he was being deceived. He declared that although
he was certain that the States General had given no orders in the usual way for DeRuyter's departure to
Guinea, he was very well aware that the Dutch could find means to do those things which they deemed
necessary. The more he considered the matter, the likelihood of secret orders having been given to DeRuyter
seemed to him more and more probable. "I am sure if I were in their case, I would do it," he finally declared,
and therefore he again advised Bennet to have Sir John Lawson watch DeRuyter closely.[118]
The news of Holmes' success at Cape Verde had stirred up extraordinary activity in the Royal Company. In
September, 1664, the company was busily enlisting factors and[Pg 193] soldiers for the Guinea coast. A
number of ships, several of which belonged to the king, and some of which the company hired, were being
prepared for the voyage to Guinea.[119] To add to the company's bright prospects, a vessel from the Gold
Coast arrived in England at the end of September,[120] bringing the account of Holmes' capture of Cape

Corse and other factories on the African coast. The Royal Company now saw itself master of West Africa.
Pepys declared that the news from Holmes would certainly make the Dutch quite "mad."[121] It did indeed
create a very great impression in Holland, where many had believed that Cape Corse was impregnable.
Downing, of course, rejoiced exceedingly. Oftentimes in the past he had supported the Danish and Swedish
claims to Cape Corse, but now he found no difficulty in showing Carisius and Appleborne, the Danish and
Swedish representatives at The Hague, that their claims were as before, against the Dutch. Omitting to say
anything of the English claim to Cape Corse, Downing explained to them that since the Dutch had been in
possession of Cape Corse, Holmes had seized it together with other places on account of the numerous
injuries done to the Royal Company. "They both replied that they took it so."[122]
In London, VanGogh lost no time in obtaining an interview with Charles II concerning Holmes' latest
activities. Again the king asserted that Holmes' violent actions on the African coast were without his
knowledge, especially the affair at Cape Verde, which place he declared was of no importance and not worth
one hundred pounds.[123] Regarding[Pg 194] his responsibility for the capture of Cape Corse he refrained
from committing himself so definitely, but he assured the Dutch ambassador that Cape Corse belonged to the
English; that their claim to it would be satisfactorily established; and that he intended to preserve these new
acquisitions by sending Prince Rupert with a fleet to the coast of Africa.[124] On the 28th of October, after
learning of Holmes' capture of New Amsterdam, Charles II boldly threw aside his reserve and declared that
the taking of Cape Corse, as well as of New Amsterdam, "was done with his knowledge & by his order as
being a business wch properly belonged to the English, that the ground was theirs & that they had also built
upon the same, that the same was afterwards taken from the English by the Netherlands West India Compa, &
... that the English will justify & demonstrate their right to all this."[125] If Holmes' actions in Guinea have so
far seemed very extraordinary, they can hardly be so regarded any longer in view of the light which the king
himself threw over the whole situation in this remarkable statement. To be sure he had not as yet assumed
responsibility for the capture of Cape Verde. However, his direct responsibility for the other actions of
Holmes, which were much more important, makes it a matter of little consequence whether the capture of
Cape Verde is to be attributed to him or not.
It may have seemed to Downing that there was less excuse for the seizure of Cape Verde than for the other
places. At any rate he held out some hope to DeWitt that it would be restored to the Dutch. This must have
been a bitter sop to DeWitt, who was well aware that as for Cape[Pg 195] Corse he need entertain no such
hope.[126] There was one feature of the situation, however, which somewhat pleased DeWitt,[127] Downing
could no longer maintain that the troubles in Guinea were merely quarrels between two commercial
companies in which the king had no direct interest or connection. DeWitt would not therefore be at a loss to
find numerous reasons why DeRuyter had been sent to Africa when the time came for defending that action.
By this time every one in London and Amsterdam was in a state of extreme suspense as to whether or not
DeRuyter was on the Guinea coast. On the 14th of October, 1664, news was received both in Holland and in
England from Cadiz to the effect that DeRuyter intended to sail to Guinea upon his departure from that
port.[128] In Amsterdam, encouraged by this vigorous rumor, the stocks of the West India Company began to
rise from the low point where they had been for some time.[129] When Downing chided DeWitt about
DeRuyter, the latter replied in a bantering fashion that if he believed the report, notwithstanding what had
been said to the contrary, to continue in the belief; it could do no harm.[130] In London, the apprehension of
DeRuyter's expedition greatly checked the enthusiasm of the Royal Company, and caused the king to
postpone Prince Rupert's departure to the African coast. VanGogh reported the cry that was heard everywhere
in London, "Guinea is lost. What now is it possible to do with the Dutch."[131] The Dutch ambassador, who
did not[Pg 196] cease to haunt the king's chambers over Holmes' seizures, found Charles II irritable and
greatly displeased with affairs. When questioned as to whether he would punish Holmes, the king declared
that Holmes did not need to fear punishment at home since the Dutch had evidently sent forces to do it
themselves.[132]

The news concerning DeRuyter's successful expedition to the African coast, which arrived in England just
before Christmas, 1664, showed, as Pepys expressed it, that the English had been "beaten to dirt at
Guinea."[133] Indeed DeRuyter's conquest of the coast in the end was as complete as that of Holmes.[134]
With one exception DeRuyter captured all the English factories and forts, including Kormentine, which he
delivered with their goods to the agents of the West India Company. The English retained only Cape Corse,
which, because of its strong position and the loyalty of the natives, DeRuyter decided would offer a successful
resistance.[135]
Up to the time that DeRuyter departed for the African coast it is conceivable that by mutual concessions the
troublesome questions existing between England and the United Provinces might have been amicably settled.
The Dutch, however, had decided that this could not be done with honor and advantage to themselves, and
therefore they chose to answer the warlike actions of Holmes in kind. When the English learned of DeRuyter's
activities on the African coast the growing animosity between the two countries was so greatly intensified that
war was inevitable. The members of the Royal Company who realized the gravity[Pg 197] of the situation
begged the king to come to the company's assistance.[136] The king, who considered the company to be of
great importance to the colonial trade, and who realized his own intimate connection with its formation,
declared on January 2, 1665, that he was resolved "to assist, protect & preserve the said company in the
prosecution of their said trade,"[137] a declaration which was tantamount to war.
The Anglo-Dutch war of 1665-7 was, therefore, as has long been known, a war over trade privileges.
Furthermore, in the popular mind, it was the dispute over trading privileges on the West African coast which
"became the Occasion, at least the Popular Pretence of the war with Holland."[138] In international disputes
some facts, although of minor importance, are often seized upon with great vigor by the contending parties. It
is very probable that both England and the United Provinces greatly overestimated the value of the African
forts and factories, but, at that time, the possession of them seemed very important. To many of these places
plausible claims were advanced by both the English and the Dutch. There was plenty of opportunity therefore
for disputes, and the representatives of the two great commercial companies did not fail to utilize it.
If the factors of the two companies in Guinea found it impossible to reconcile their differences, the same
observation may be made concerning Downing and DeWitt at The Hague. One is not inclined to excuse the
deceit of the latter nor to sympathize with the apathetic neglect with which he met all English claims. On the
other hand, Downing was perhaps the match for DeWitt in cunning and his master in argument. His contempt
for the Dutch made it impossible for him to deal with them without gaining a complete victory. Compromise
is the basis of most diplomacy, but[Pg 198] such a word was scarcely in Downing's vocabulary. There were
men in England who realized that Downing was slowly but surely leading the two countries into war.
Clarendon reproved him for overzealousness; and Lord Hollis, the English ambassador in France, informed
him that he saw no "causam belli, onely litigandi," and asked him if he could not temper his speech "by
pouring in oyle & not vinegar," and thus prevent a war if possible.[139] In Downing's behalf it may be said,
however, that his attitude was the same as that of the mercantile interests in England which he so well
represented. The increasing importance of the mercantile element, both in England and Holland, and their
desire to encroach on the trade of one another in all parts of the world, especially in Guinea, was responsible
for the war.[140] When the war was inevitable, representatives of the English commercial interests assured
the government of their loyal support and assistance.[141] As for the Dutch they, too, entered the conflict with
high hopes for they did not fear Charles II as they had feared Cromwell.
Sir Robert Holmes who had been so largely responsible for the difficulties which resulted in the Anglo-Dutch
war arrived in England early in January, 1665. He was ordered to surrender the ships which he had taken from
the Dutch in Guinea to the Royal Company.[142] On the 9th of January, by way of appeasing VanGogh, he
was thrown into the Tower of London,[143] where he was to remain, the king declared, until he gave a
satisfactory account of his actions at Cape Verde. Once more it appeared as if proceedings were to be taken
against him "according to the[Pg 199] exigency of the case."[144] It is interesting to note that his

imprisonment resulted from the capture of the one place, mention of which was omitted in his instructions.
However, Holmes was not long detained in confinement. Probably on account of the influence of the duke of
York and of Prince Rupert he was again set at liberty toward the last of January,[145] and VanGogh reported
that he was even enjoying royal favor.[146] Apparently Holmes was unable to render a satisfactory account of
his prizes to the Royal Company, however, and he was therefore reconfined in the Tower about the 24th of
February.[147] On the third of March he was examined before the Privy Council in regard to his expedition.
His explanation of the various events was found satisfactory and he was forthwith ordered to be discharged
from the Tower.[148] This order was not executed at once because he had not even yet rendered a satisfactory
account to the Company.[149] Royal clemency was invoked and a warrant was issued March 23, 1665,
releasing him from all criminal and pecuniary charges which might be brought against him.[150] The king's
intervention in his behalf brought to an end the connection of Sir Robert Holmes with the company's affairs
on the African coast.
By concluding the account of the diplomatic relations of England and the United Provinces with the early part
of 1665, it is not intended to convey the idea that all diplomatic intercourse between the two countries ceased
at that time. Downing remained in The Hague until August of that year, but neither side thought seriously of
attempting to prevent the struggle in which they were already engaged on the[Pg 200] African coast.
DeRuyter arrived at Cape Verde on October 11, 1664, where he found nine English vessels most of which
were in the service of the Royal Company and had only recently arrived on the Guinea coast. In response to
an inquiry made by the English as to his intentions DeRuyter replied that he had come to punish the Royal
Company for Holmes' hostile actions. He demanded the surrender of the company's factors and goods on
shore and on the several ships. Since the English were unable to resist they surrendered the goods of the Royal
Company after which the vessels were permitted to depart. In this way DeRuyter attempted to show plainly
that he was not carrying on hostilities against the English nation, but was only aiding the West India Company
to recover its property and goods, and to punish the Royal Company for the actions of Sir Robert Holmes.
DeRuyter left a Dutch garrison at Cape Verde and started with his plunder for Elmina. On the way he
despoiled the English factory on the Sierra Leone River. On December 25 he arrived on the Gold Coast and
made an attack on Tacorary where he was temporarily repulsed, but later he succeeded in blowing up this
English factory. He then proceeded to unload at Elmina the effects which he had taken from the English.
While doing so he received orders from the States General, dated October 21, 1664, commanding him to seize
all English goods and vessels, whether they belonged to the Royal Company or not. In accordance with these
instructions DeRuyter captured several English vessels, but he considered his chief duty to be the taking of the
English fort at Kormentine. An agreement was made with the natives of the neighboring region of Fetu, who
acted in conjunction with the Dutch ships and with the forces which DeRuyter landed. Although many of the
natives remained loyal to the English, Kormentine fell an easy prey to the attacking party about the first of
February, 1665. The other English factories, with the exception of Cape Corse, were also occupied without
much[Pg 201] difficulty. Although DeRuyter had received special orders to reduce Cape Corse, he considered
this impossible, on account of the ease with which it could be defended and the loyalty of the Negroes to the
English cause in that territory. DeRuyter was therefore compelled to depart from the Gold Coast on his
voyage to Barbadoes without having taken possession of Cape Corse[151].
On April 18, 1667, Lord Hollis and Sir William Coventry, who were selected as the English envoys to treat
for peace between England and the United Provinces, were instructed to propose that each country retain
whatever places were in its possession on the 25th of the previous December. On the other hand, the English
were also directed to induce the Dutch to give back Kormentine if possible[152]. How vigorously the envoys
urged the return of Kormentine cannot be ascertained, but at any rate they were unsuccessful in obtaining it.
When the treaty was concluded at Breda, July 21, 1667, it provided that each country should retain the
territories which it held on the tenth of the previous May[153]. Thus ended the war which had in so large a[Pg
202] measure been caused by the troubles between the Royal Adventurers and the West India Company.

At the conclusion of peace between the two countries, the English cannot be said to have been in a better
position on the Guinea coast than they were before the war. On the other hand, it would not be difficult to
rebuild new factories at the places which they had lost during the war. Indeed at the time peace was made
factories had already been settled in several places occupied before DeRuyter's expedition. Nicolas Villaut, a
Frenchman who made a voyage down the coast of Guinea in the years 1666 and 1667 mentioned an English
factory on one of the islands in the Sierra Leone River, another at Madra Bomba just north of Cape Mount,
and still another just below Cape Miserado[154]. He also mentioned the strength of the English fortress at
Cape Corse, and declared that, although there was war in Europe between England and Denmark, the English
factors at Cape Corse and those of the Danes at the neighboring fort of Fredericksburg made an amicable
agreement to commit no acts of hostility against one another; and that this agreement was so punctually
observed that the soldiers of the two nations mingled freely at all times[155]. Villaut failed to describe the
condition of the company's fort in the Gambia River, but on October 30, 1667, an attack on it by the natives
was reported to the general court of the company[156]. The Negroes succeeded in obtaining possession of the
island but were presently dislodged by the company's factors after the loss of a number of white men[157].
Inasmuch as there remain very scanty records of the company's trading activities and the manner of
government instituted at its forts and factories on the African coast, it[Pg 203] is impossible to describe fully
these aspects of the company's history. When the company first sent agents to the head factory at Kormentine
seven men each served a month's turn as chief factor. As might have been expected trouble resulted
concerning the succession.[158] The company therefore withdrew this order and directed that one of the
factors be given charge of affairs with the title of chief agent and with a salary of one hundred pounds per
year.[159] After the Dutch captured Kormentine in 1665, Cape Corse became the chief English factory, under
the direction of Gilbert Beavis, who was replaced by Thomas Pearson in 1667. At the end of the Anglo-Dutch
war the company's affairs on the African coast were at a low ebb, and the uncertainties of the Guinea trade
were at once demonstrated when the former agent, Beavis, in conjunction with the natives, assaulted Cape
Corse, carrying off Pearson and much of the company's goods. With the assistance of one of the Royal
Company's ships the factors recovered the fort and replaced Pearson in charge of affairs, where he remained
to the year 1671.[160]
In addition to these difficulties there was also a repetition of the petty quarrels between the agents of the
Royal Company and those of the West India Company, which had so characterized the years previous to the
war. When the English began to build lodges at Komenda and Agga, the Dutch general, Dirck Wilree, at once
objected, claiming that the possession of the adjacent fort of Kormentine gave them exclusive rights to those
places.[161] The English denied this claim[162] and sent home for more supplies to fortify Komenda. At the
same time they advised the company that the licensed private traders who had appeared on the coast had very
greatly injured the trade of the company's[Pg 204] factories, because they sold their goods very much cheaper
than the company's agents could afford to.[163] The renewal of the trouble between the two companies moved
the general court on June 30, 1668, to ask for the king's assistance.[164] The information lately received from
the company's agents was read in the Privy Council and referred to the committee for trade.[165] This
committee recommended the appointment of some persons to treat with the Dutch regarding the possession of
the disputed places, and Secretary Morice was therefore instructed to sound the Dutch ambassadors in London
about the matter. Instructions of a similar nature were to be given to Sir William Temple, who was about to
depart for the United Netherlands as the English ambassador.[166]At this point the matter seems to have been
dropped without further discussion, and Komenda remained a subject of possible contention between the
English and the Dutch for many years to come.
During the latter years of the history of the Company of Royal Adventurers the factories including Cape Corse
fell into great decay, on account of the failure of the company to send out ships and supplies. Nearly all the
English trade was carried on in the vessels of private traders, who in return for their licenses, agreed to take
one-tenth of their cargoes free of all freight charges, which goods were to be used for the maintenance of the
company's factories, especially Cape Corse.[167] Even this provision was not sufficient, and in the latter part

of November, 1670, it was found necessary to send some additional supplies for the immediate relief of Cape
Corse.[168] The king, who was[Pg 205] still indebted to the company for his subscription to the stock, was
induced to pay a part of it, with which money two ships were despatched for the relief of Cape Corse[169]
which had been in great distress.[170]
Footnotes:
[1] John II of Portugal had assumed the title of Lord of Guinea in 1485.
[2] Dumont, Corps Universel Diplomatique, VI, part 2, p. 367.
[3] As for instance, in 1659, the seizure of a Dutch ship called the Vrede by a French captain under the
pretense of a Swedish commission. Lias, West Indien, 1658 tot 1665, Zeeland chamber to the Amsterdam
chamber of W. I. C. (West India Company), March 1, 1660 (N. S.). Also, in the same year, the Dutch
confiscated a Courland ship called the Pietas for trespassing on Dutch territory. Ibid., Amsterdam chamber of
W. I. C. to S. G. (States General), June 23, 1661 (N. S.). Louis XIV also complained about the disturbance of
French commerce on the Gambia by the Dutch. Lettres, Mémoires et Négociations de Monsieur le Compte
d'Estrades, I, 185, Louis XIV to d'Estrades, August 13, 1661 (N. S.).
[4] Diederichs, pp. 20, 21. (Diederichs, H., Herzog Jacobs von Kurland Kolonien an der Westkuste von
Afrika.)
[5] The West India Company was subdivided into the chambers of Amsterdam, Gröningen, Zeeland, North
Holland and Friesland, and the Maas. The Amsterdam chamber was much the most important; it was known
therefore as the "presidiale" chamber.
[6] C. O. 1: 16, f. 191, February 4, 1659 (N. S.). At the same time Momber advised Steele, the Courland
commander at Fort St. André, to pay no attention to the contract if he was in a position to defend himself, but
Steele was unable to resist. Diederichs, pp. 45, 46.
[7] Diederichs, pp. 46-8; C. O. 1: 16, ff. 193, 195-7.
[8] Resolution of S. G., July 28, 1661 (N. S.); Aitzema, X, 76. (Aitzema, Lieuwe van, Historie of Verhael van
Saken van Staet en Oorlogh.)
[9] See the oath taken by Holmes' men dated March 7, 1660/1, enclosed in the letter of Nassau and others to
the estates of H. and W. F. (Holland and West Friesland), January 17/27, 1662.
[10] C. O. 1: 16, f. 193, relation of Otto Steele; Diederichs, p. 49. Holmes afterward admitted that there were
but two men and a boy in the fort when it was taken. C. O. 1: 30, f. 74, Holmes to Sir Edward Walker, May
20, 1673.
[11] VanGogh and others to S. G., September 6/16, 1661.
[12] Lias, West Indien, 1658 tot 1665, Amsterdam chamber of W. I. C. to S. G., January 10, 1661 (N. S.).
[13] Resolution of S. G., January 13, 1661 (N. S.).
[14] Lias, West Indien, 1658 tot 1665, Amsterdam chamber of W. I. C. to S. G., January 31, 1661 (N. S.).
[15] Resolution of S. G., February 5, 1661 (N. S.).
Footnotes: 111
[16] Ibid., July 28, 1661 (N. S.).
[17] Clar. St. Paps. (Clarendon State Papers), 104, f. 211, the Dutch ambassadors to Ruysch, August 5, 1661
(N. S.).
[18] Ibid., 104, f. 217, Downing to S. G., August 8, 1661.
[19] Aitzema, X, 78, Charles II to S. G., August 14, 1661.
[20] Clar. St. Paps., 104: 237, Downing to Clarendon, August 19, 1661 (N. S.). In another letter Downing
declared, "it would be very well to accept of the Duke his transferring his interest to his Matie, and for the
Dutch ambrs you will do well to be 6 or 8 moneths in examining the matter and then let them know his Maties
mind." Egerton MSS., 2538, f. 12, Downing to Nicholas, January 27, 1661/2.
[21] He suffered this punishment only because he had taken to Guinea a number of extra men whose wages
the king felt obliged to pay. Admiralty Papers, Navy Board, In-Letters, 5, James to the Navy Board,
September 10, 1661.
[22] This seems to be a little too much to say of the king's letter.
[23] C. O. 1: 15, f. 168, VanGogh and others to S. G., October 19/29, 1661.
[24] P. C. R., Charles II, 2: 417, October 25, 1661.
[25] Ibid., p. 459, November 27, 1661.
[26] Ibid., pp. 510, 514, January 8, 10, 1662. He may also have been before the Council in December, as an
order was made on December 21, 1661, rescinding the former order to stop his pay. Admiralty Papers, Navy
Board, In-Letters, 6, James to the Navy Board, December 21, 1661.
[27] Nassau and Hoorn to the estates of H. and W. F., January 17/27, 1662.
[28] Egerton MSS., 2538, f. 12, Downing to Nicholas, January 27, 1661/2.
[29] C. O. 1: 18, ff. 310, 311.
[30] Papieren van Johan de Witt betreffende de Oost en West Indische compagnie, Carloff to Valckenburg,
February 15, 16, 1658 (N. S.).
[31] Loketkas, Staten Generaal, Sweden, no. 38.
[32] Remonstrantie, aen de Ho. Mo. Heeren de Staten Generael der Veereenighde Nederlanden, p. 18.
[33] Dammaert, Journal, September 19, 1652, May 18, 1653, December 7, 19, 1655, April 22, 1656 (N. S.).
[34] S. P., Holland, 178, f. 123, undated paper dealing with the English title to Cape Corse.
[35] Afterwards retaken by the English in the West Indies, toward the last of 1663. Brieven van de
Ambassadors in Engeland aan de Staten Generaal, Downing to S. G., February 3, 1663/4. O. S.
[36] Admiralty High Court, Libels, 114, no. 231.
Footnotes: 112
[37] Aitzema, X, 277.
[38] Admiralty High Court, Libels, 115, no. 124; ibid., Examinations, 74, deposition of Edward Paulstagge,
March 7, 1662/3.
[39] Nassau and Hoorn to the estates of H. and W. F., January 24/February 3, 1662. In March, 1663, Bernard
Sparke, owner of the Paragon which the Dutch had seized on the Gold Coast, arrested a West India Company
ship at Ilfracombe. Sparke asked for the condemnation of the ship, but on account of a treaty entered into
between the English and the Dutch in September, 1662, the Privy Council refused to detain the Dutch ship.
Cunaeus to the estates of H. and W. F., March 27/April 6, 1663; P. C. R., Charles II, 3: 357, 380.
[40] Egerton MSS., 2538, ff. 68, 69, Downing to S. G., May 3/13, 1662.
[41] Clar. St. Paps., 76, ff. 217, 218, Downing to Clarendon, May 9, 1662. O. S.
[42] Egerton MSS., 2538, f. 73, Downing to S. G., June 6/16, 1662.
[43] Ibid., f. 106, Downing to S. G., August 6/16, 1662.
[44] Add. MSS. (Additional Manuscripts), 22,919, f. 270.
[45] Resolution of S. G., August 28, 1662 (N. S.).
[46] Dumont, Corps Universel Diplomatique, VI, part 2, pp. 424, 425.
[47] Index op het Register en Accorden met de Naturellen, Wilree to Edmund Young, May 24, 1662 (N. S.).
[48] S. P., Holland, 176, f. 119.
[49] Add. MSS., 22,919, f. 262.
[50] Ibid., 22,920, f. 24, affidavit of William Crawford and others, before the Admiralty High Court, February
13, 1663/4.
[51] Ibid., 22,919, f. 262, Wilree to the officers of the ship James, November 9, 1662 (N. S.).
[52] Ibid., 22,920, f. 24, affidavit of Crawford and others, February 13, 1663/4.
[53] S. P., Holland, 167, f. 251, Downing to Williamson, September 11, 1663. O.S.
[54] Add. MSS., 22,920, ff. 13, 14, Downing to S. G., September 17/27, 1663.
[54a] Clar. St. Paps., 106, f. 192, Downing to Clarendon, September 18, 1663. O. S.; S. P., Holland, 167, ff.
271, 272, Downing to Bennet.
[55] Add. MSS., 22,920, f. 22, Royal Company to Downing, September 25, 1663.
[56] Clar. St. Paps., 106, f. 223, Downing to Clarendon, October 2, 1663 O. S.
[57] S. P., Holland, 168, ff. 41, 42.
Footnotes: 113
[58] Ibid., 176, f. 121.
[59] Ibid., 167, f. 284, Downing to Bennet, September 25, 1664 (O. S.).
[60] Brieven van de Ambassadors in Engeland aan den Raadpensionaris, Cunaeus to DeWitt, November 2,
1663 (N. S.).
[61] C. S. P., Col., 1661-1668, p. 159, warrant to duke of York, Sept. 5, 1663.
[62] S. P., Dom., Charles II, 114, f. 53. These instructions are not preserved in their complete form.
[63] C. O. 1: 16, f. 157, oath of William Quick and others at Charles Island, June 1, 1662.
[64] C. O. 1: 18, f. 154, deposition of Stephen Ustick, June 7, 1664; S. P., Dom., Charles II, 114, ff. 147, 148.
[65] S. P., Dom., Charles II, 114, f. 148, Holmes' narrative. After taking the island Holmes sent for as many
men as could be spared by the Royal Company's factors on the Gambia. Accordingly they took possession of
it in the name of the company. C. O. 1: 18, f. 24.
[66] Aitzema, XI, 294, deposition of Andries C. Vertholen, June 9, 1664 (N. S.); Lias, West Indien, 1658 tot
1665, depositions, June 19 and July 19, 1664 (N. S.).
[67] C. O. 1: 18, f. 90, resolution of the council of war on board the Jersey, April 9, 1664.
[68] Loketkas, Staten Generaal, Engeland, deposition of John Denn, commander of the ship Mary, December
3, 1663 (O. S.).
[69] S. P., Dom., Charles II, 114, f. 149, Holmes' narrative.
[70] S. P., Holland, 176, ff. 118-123, June 7, 1663 (N. S.). A mark of gold was supposed to be worth about
£28. 16s.
[71] Index op het Register der Contracten, letters dated June 13, 14, 1663. 1663.
[72] S. P., Holland, 167, ff. 258-260, September 12, 1663. This protest with that of Valckenburg of June 7,
1663, was sent to England, where both were regarded as very important.
[73] C. O. 1: 17, ff. 153, 154, Mr. Brett to the Royal Company, August 31, 1663; Brieven van de
Ambassadors in Engeland aan de Staten Generaal, Downing to S. G., September 15, 1664 (O. S.).
[74] Index op het Register der Contracten, September 17, 1663.
[75] C. O. 1: 17, ff. 153, 154, contains a number of extracts of letters from factors of the Royal Company to
the company dated from June to September, 1663. They mention many other conflicts with the Dutch,
including the charge that the Dutch had hired the natives to attack the fort at Kormentine.
[76] Aitzema, XI, 295, deposition of Andries C. Vertholen, June 9, 1664 (N. S.).
[77] C. O. 1: 18, f. 39, order of the council of war held on board the Jersey, May 7, 1664.
Footnotes: 114
[78] S. P., Dom., Charles II, 114, ff. 51, 52, Holmes' examination. In his examination before the Privy Council
Holmes asserted that in one of the ships captured from the Dutch, orders had been found from the States
General commanding the Dutch factors to seize the English fort at Kormentine. There is no evidence to
support this assertion and the States General afterwards characterized the statement as "an errand invention &
a fowle lye." S. P., Holland, 181, f. 10.
[79] S. P., Dom., Charles II, 114, ff. 150, 151, Holmes' account; C. O. 1: 18, f. 39, order of the council of war
held on board the Jersey, May 7, 1664.
[80] S. P., Holland, 174, f. 32, Downing to Bennet, January 10, 1664/5 (O. S.). This letter, written over a year
later, shows that Downing was not acquainted with Holmes' instructions.
[81] Lister, Thomas Henry, Life and Administration of Edward, first Earl of Clarendon, III, 259, Downing to
Clarendon, November 6, 1663 (O. S.).
[82] S. P., Holland, 168, f. 230, Downing to Bennet, December 18, 1663.
[83] Clar. St. Paps., 107, f. 101, Downing to S. G., February 8, 1663/4 (O. S.).
[84] Add. MSS., 22,920, f. 26, Schested to Downing, February 10, 1664; S. P., Denmark, 17, f. 150, Frederick
III to Schested, December 15, 1663.
[85] Loketkas, Staten Generaal, Engeland, W. I. C. to S. G., read December 1, 1663 (N. S.); ibid., S. G. to
Downing, December, 1663.
[86] S. P., Holland, 169, ff. 120, 121, Downing to (Bennet), February 12, 1663/4 (O. S.).
[87] Ibid., f. 121.
[88] Ibid., ff. 122, 124.
[89] S. P. Holland, 169, f. 132, Downing to S. G., February 16, 1663/4 (O. S.).
[90] Brieven van de Ambassadors in Engeland aan de Staten van H. en W. F., Cunaeus to DeWitt, March
11/21, 1664.
[91] Pepys, Diary, IV, 103; Brieven van de Ambassadors in Engeland aan de Staten van H. en W. F., Cunaeus
to DeWitt, (April 8/18, 1664, N. S.).
[92] Clar. St. Paps., 107, f. 147, Downing to Clarendon, April 1, 1664 (O. S.); Dumont, Corps Universel
Diplomatique, VI, part 2, p. 424, article XIV.
[93] S. P., Holland, 170, ff. 16-18, Downing to Bennet, May 6, 1664 (O. S.); Clar. St. Paps., 107, ff. 195, 196,
Downing to Clarendon, May 6, 1664 (O. S.).
[94] Brieven van de Ambassadors in Engeland aan de Staten van H. en W. F., Cunaeus to DeWitt, May 6/16,
1664; Secretekas, Engeland, no. 123, Cunaeus to the directors of W.I.C., May 6/16, 1664.
[95] Secretekas, Engeland, no. 123, W. I. C. to S. G., May 23, 1664 (N. S.).
[96] S. P., Holland, 173, f. 129, Downing to Bennet, December 30, 1664 (O. S.).
Footnotes: 115
[97] Resolution of S. G., June 13, 1664 (N. S.).
[98] Ibid., June 5, 1664 (N. S.).
[99] S. P., Holland, 171, f. 174, VanGogh to S. G., June 24/July 4, 1664.
[100] DeWitt, Brieven (DeWitt, Johan, Brieven, geschreven ende gewisselt tusschen den Heer Johan de Witt),
IV, 311, DeWitt to VanGogh, July 11, 1664 (N. S.).
[101] Brieven van de Ambassadors in Engeland aan de Staten van H. en W. F., VanGogh to DeWitt, July
15/25, 1664.
[102] P. C. R., Charles II, 4: 122; S.P., Dom., Charles II, 99, f. 170, petition of the Royal Company for a
convoy for its ships. It was also reported that the duke of York was fitting out a frigate at his own expense to
send to Guinea. C. S. P., Dom., 1663-1664, p. 264, newsletter, September 2, 1663.
[103] S. P., Holland, 171, f. 238, W. I. C. to S. G., July 21, 1664 (N. S.).
[104] Clar. St. Paps., 108, ff. 39-41, Downing to Clarendon, July 22, 1664 (O. S.).
[105] Pepys, Diary, IV, 202.
[106] Ibid., 42, 143.
[107] Clar. St. Paps., 108, ff. 48, 49, Downing to Clarendon, July 29, 1664 (O. S.).
[108] Brandt, Gerard, La Vie de Michel de Ruiter, pp. 212-213.
[109] Brandt, Vie de Ruiter, pp. 213, 214, 217.
[110] S. P., Holland, 171, ff. 23, 24, Downing to Bennet, August 4, 1664 (O. S.); ibid., ff. 124, 125, Downing
to Bennet, August 26, 1664 (O. S.).
[111] S. P., Holland, 171, ff. 119, 120, Downing to S. G., August 25, 1664 (O. S.).
[112] Ibid., f. 25, Downing to Bennet, August 4, 1664 (O. S.).
[113] Ibid., f. 56, Downing to Bennet, August 12, 1664 (O. S.).
[114] Clar. St. Paps., 108, ff. 75, 76, Downing to Clarendon, August 26, 1664 (O. S.).
[115] Lister, Life of Clarendon, III, 344, Downing to Clarendon, September 9, 1664 (O. S.).
[116] S. P., Holland, 172, f. 171, Downing to Bennet, September 9, 1664 (O. S.).
[117] Clar. St. Paps., 108, f. 82, Downing to Clarendon, September 16, 1664 (O. S.).
[118] S. P., Holland, 172, f. 241, Downing to Bennet, September 23, 1664 (O. S.).
[119] Brieven van de Ambassadors in Engeland aan de Staten Generaal, VanGogh to S. G., September
23/October 3, 1664.
Footnotes: 116
[120] Pepys, Diary, IV, 254; Brieven van de Ambassadors in Engeland aan de Staten Generaal, VanGogh to
S. G., September 30/October 10, 1664.
[122] S. P., Holland, 172, f. 35, Downing to Bennet, October 7, 1664 (O. S.).
[123] Brieven van de Ambassadors in Engeland aan de Staten van H. en W. F., VanGogh to DeWitt, October
3/13, 1664. A few days after this VanGogh very much annoyed the king by bringing up the Cape Verde
incident again. The king burst out, "And pray, what is Cape Verde? A stinking place (using these very words):
Is this of such importance to make so much adoe about! As much as I could ever yet learne of it, it is of noe
use at all." S. P., Holland, 172, f. 158, VanGogh to Ruysch, October 24, 1664 (N. S.).
[124] Brieven van de Ambassadors in Engeland aan de Staten van H. en W. F., VanGogh to DeWitt, October
3/13, 1664.
[125] S. P., Holland, 173, f. 178, VanGogh to Ruysch, November 7, 1664 (N. S.); DeWitt, Brieven, IV, 387,
390, VanGogh to DeWitt, October 28/November 7, October 31/November 10, 1664.
[126] DeWitt, Brieven, IV, 390, DeWitt to VanGogh, November 14, 1664 (N. S.).
[127] Clar. St. Paps., 108, f. 126, Downing to Clarendon, November 11, 1664 (O. S.).
[128] Ibid., f. 100, Downing to Clarendon, October 14, 1664 (O. S.); Brieven van de Ambassadors in
Engeland aan de Staten Generaal, October 14/24, 1664.
[129] Clar. St. Paps., 108, f. 108, Downing to Clarendon, October 28, 1664 (O. S.); ibid., f. 120, Downing to
Clarendon, November 4, 1664 (O. S.).
[130] Ibid., f. 117, Downing to Clarendon, November 4, 1664 (O. S.).
[131] Brieven van de Ambassadors in Engeland aan der Raadpensionaris, VanGogh to DeWitt, October
17/27, 1664.
[132] S. P., Holland, 173, f. 19, VanGogh to Ruysch, December 5, 1654 (N. S.). The duke of York was known
to be very favorable to Holmes at the same time. S. P., Dom., Charles II, 105, f. 176, Coventry to Bennet,
November 27, 1664.
[134] He arrived at Cape Verde October 22, 1664, and left the Gold Coast February 27, 1665.
[135] In this account it seems unnecessary to give the details of the capture of these places. They may be
found at length in Brandt, Vie de Ruiter, pp. 223 to 265.
[136] S. P., Dom., Charles II, 110, f. 19; Condition of Co., Jan. 2 (1664/5).
[137] P. C. R., Charles II, 5: 4.
[138] The Case of the Royal African Company of England and their Creditors, p. 6.
Footnotes: 117
[139] Add. MSS., 22,920, f. 46, Lord Hollis to (Downing), September 2/12, 1664.
[140] On October 30, 1664 (N. S.), d'Estrades declared to the king of France that the real cause of the war
then about to begin was the desire of the king of England to become master of Guinea. Mémoires d'Estrades,
II, 517.
[141] See the paper of Sir Richard Ford, one of the prominent members of the Royal Company. Clar. St.
Paps., 83, f. 374.
[142] C. S. P., Dom., 1664-5, p. 154, warrant to Holmes, January 7, 1654.
[143] S. P., Holland, 174, f. 138, VanGogh to Ruysch, January 9/19, 1665.
[144] S. P., Holland, 174, f. 138, VanGogh to Ruysch, January 13/23, 1665.
[145] Brieven van de Ambassadors in Engeland aan den Raadpensionaris, VanGogh to Ruysch, January
27/February 6, 1665.
[146] Ibid., VanGogh to Ruysch, January 30/February 9, 1665.
[147] Ibid., Cunaeus to ——, February 24/March 6, 1665.
[148] P. C. R., Charles II, 5:69.
[149] Brieven van de Ambassadors in Engeland aan den Raadpensionaris, (VanGogh) to Ruysch, February
27/March 9, 1665.
[150] C. S. P., Dom., 1664-5, p. 268, order to release Holmes, March 23, 1664/5.
[151] The account of DeRuyter's voyage given here is a digest of what appears at much greater length in
Brandt, Vie de Ruiter, pp. 223-265. A short contemporary English account may be found in C.O. 1: 19, ff. 88,
89.
[152] S. P., Holland, 182, ff. 246, 247. The Dutch had entertained some hopes of inducing the English to
surrender Cape Corse, as is evident from negotiations which they carried on with the Swedes and the Danes.
In March, 1665, a treaty was drawn up between Sweden and the United Provinces in which the former country
agreed to renounce her claims of damage against the West India Company and all her rights to any places on
the African coast, for which renunciation the States General was to pay 140,000 rix dollars. The treaty failed
of approbation on account of the reluctance of the king of Sweden to withdraw his interests from the coast of
Africa. Aitzema, XI, 1102, 1103; S. P., Holland, 174, f. 148, Downing to Bennet, February 17, 1664/5 (O.S.);
S. P., Holland, 179, f. 86, Downing to Bennet, March 10, 1665 (March 10, 1664/5. O. S.).
With the Danes the Dutch had more success. On February 11, 1667, a treaty was entered into between
Frederick III, of Denmark and the United Provinces, in which it was agreed that the Danes should surrender
all their claims to Cape Corse, retaining, however, the adjacent fort of Fredericksburg. Dumont, Corps
Universel Diplomatique, VI, part 3, p. 74.
[153] Dumont, Corps Universel Diplomatique, VI, part I, pp. 44, 45, article 3.
[154] Villaut, A Relation of the Coasts of Africa called Guinee, pp. 49, 56, 75.
Footnotes: 118
[155] Ibid., pp. 126, 131, 135. Villaut also speaks of an English fort at Eniacham (Anashan).
[156] A. C. R., 75: 60.
[157] S. P., Dom., Charles II, 217, f. 76, John Lysle to Williamson, September 16, 1667.
[158] C. O. 1: 17, f. 243, John Allen to (the Royal Adventurers), December 18, 1663.
[159] A. C. R., 75: 3.
[160] S. P., Dom., Charles II, 380, f. 57; ibid., 381, ff. 138, 139.
[161] C. O. 1: 23, ff. 3, 4, 6, 7, Wilree to Pearson, January 23/February 2, and February 14/24, 1668.
[162] Ibid., 23, f. 5, Pearson to Wilree, n. d.
[163] C. O. 1: 23, f. 2, Pearson and others to the Royal Adventurers, February 18, 1667/8.
[164] A. C. R., 75: 75.
[165] C. O. 1: 23, f. 1, petition of the Royal Adventurers (July 3), 1668; P. C. R., Charles II, 7: 374, July 3,
1668.
[166] P. C. R., 7: 378, July 8, 1668. The minutes of the general court for November 14, 1668, mention a letter
intended to be dispatched to Sir William Temple. A. C. R., 75: 81.
[167] A. C. R., 100: 47, 48.
[168] ibid., 75: 96.
[169] C. O. 1: 25, f. 227, estimate of charges for supplies at Cape Corse, December 19, 1670; A. C. R., 75:
106, 107.
[170] Foreign Entry Book, 176, minutes of the foreign committee, January 22, 1671/2.
[Pg 206]
CHAPTER IV
The Royal Adventurers and the Plantations
The early trade of the English to the coast of Africa was very largely in exchange for products which could be
sold in England. Among these may be mentioned elephants' teeth, wax, malaguetta and gold. As has been
shown, the hope of discovering gold mines was the principal cause of the first expedition sent to Africa by the
Royal Adventurers in December, 1660. When this scheme to mine gold was abandoned the company's agents
traded for gold which was brought down from the interior or washed out by the slow and laborious toil of the
natives. The other African products, especially elephants' teeth, were brought to London where they sold quite
readily for very good prices.
CHAPTER IV 119
Although this direct trade between England and Africa was never neglected, the slave trade with the English
colonies in the West Indies was destined to absorb the company's attention because the supply of indentured
servants[1] was never great enough to meet the needs of the rapidly growing sugar and indigo plantations.
From the planters point of view, moreover, slaves had numerous advantages over white servants as plantation
laborers. Slaves and their children after them were chattel property for life. The danger of rebellion was very
small because often the slaves could not even converse with one another, since they were likely to be from
different parts of Africa and therefore to speak a different dialect. Finally, neither the original outlay for slaves
nor the cost of feeding and clothing them was great, and therefore slaves were regarded as more economical
than indentured servants. Moreover, there was much to be said against encouraging the lower classes of
England to come to the plantations, where they often engaged[Pg 207] engaged in disturbances of one kind
and another. Also, after a service of a few years, it was necessary to allow them to go where they pleased.
Nevertheless, with all their disadvantages, it may be truly said that the planters preferred the white servants to
any others. It was, however, impossible to obtain the needed supply of labor from this source and therefore it
was always necessary to import slaves from Africa.
Previous to the accession of Charles II not many slaves were imported into the English possessions in the
West Indies. Of this small number all but a few had been brought by the ships of the Dutch West India
Company. The Dutch centered their West India trade at the island of Curaçao, whence they could supply not
only their own colonies with slaves but those of the French, English and even the Spanish when opportunity
offered. So great was the demand for slaves and other necessities procured from the Dutch that the English
planters in the West Indies regarded this trade as highly desirable. For instance, when the island of Barbadoes
surrendered to the Parliamentary forces, January 11, 1652, it stipulated that it should retain its freedom of
trade and that no company should be formed which would monopolize its commodities.[2] Nevertheless, by
the Navigation Act of 1660 colonial exports, part of which had to be carried only to England, were confined to
English ships. This was a sufficient limitation of their former freedom of trade to incense the planters in the
West Indies but, as a matter of greater importance to them, the king granted to the Company of Royal
Adventurers the exclusive trade to the western coast of Africa, thus limiting their supply of Negro slaves to
this organization. The company therefore undertook this task, realizing that in the Negro trade it would find
by far its most lucrative returns. Not only did the company supply the planters with slaves, their greatest
necessity, but in exchange for these it took sugar and other[Pg 208] plantation products which it carried to
England. It was natural that the company should endeavor to make a success of its business, but, on the other
hand, it was to be expected that the planters would regard the company as a monopoly and a nuisance to be
outwitted if possible.
In 1660 Barbadoes was in much the same condition as is true of every rapidly expanding new country. The
settlers occupied as much land as they could obtain and directed every effort toward its cultivation and
improvement. The growing of sugar had proved to be very profitable and every planter saw his gains limited
only by the lack of labor to cultivate his lands. Every possible effort was therefore made to obtain laborers and
machinery. Although the planters had little ready capital, they made purchases with a free hand, depending
upon the returns from their next year's crop to pay off their debts. As a result, the planters were continually in
debt to the merchants. The merchants greatly desired that Barbadoes should be made as dependent on England
as possible in order that the constantly increasing amount of money which the planters owed them might be
better secured. Moreover, they wished to prevent the planters from manipulating the laws of the island in such
a way as to hinder the effective collection of debts.[3] The planters, on the other hand, appreciated very
keenly the ill effects upon themselves of the laws which were passed in England for the regulation of
commerce. They bitterly complained of the enumerated article clause of the Navigation Act of 1660, which
provided that all sugars, indigo and cotton-wool should be carried only to England. Already the planters were
very greatly in debt to the merchants and they saw in this new law the beginning of the restrictions by which
the merchants intended to throttle their trade. Indeed it seemed to the planters as if they were completely at the
mercy of the merchants, who paid what they pleased for sugar, and charged excessive[Pg 209] prices for
Negroes, cattle and supplies.[4] Among those who were regarded as oppressors were the factors of the Royal
The Royal Adventurers and the Plantations 120

Company, which controlled the Negro supply upon which the prosperity of the plantations depended.
Sir Thomas Modyford, speaker of the assembly, also became the agent for the Royal Adventurers in
Barbadoes. Modyford was very enthusiastic about the company's prospects for a profitable trade in Negroes
with the Spanish colonies. The people of Barbadoes neither shared Modyford's enthusiasm for this trade nor
for the company's monopoly because they believed that thereby the price of slaves was considerably
increased. On December 18, 1662, the council and assembly of Barbadoes resolved to ask the king for a free
trade to Africa or to be assured that the factors of the Royal Company would sell their slaves for the same
price as other merchants.[5] Very shortly, the duke of York, the company's governor, informed Governor
Willoughby that the company had made arrangements to provide Barbadoes and the Caribbee Islands with
3,000 slaves per annum and that the needs of the islands would be attended to as conditions changed.
Moreover, the company pledged itself to see that all Negroes imported into the island should be sold by lots,
as had been the custom, at the average rate of seventeen pounds per head or for commodities of the island
rated at that price.[6] The duke of York also requested Governor Willoughby to ascertain if possible how
many Negroes were desired by the planters at that rate, and to see that any planters who wished to become
members of the company should be given an opportunity to do so.[7][Pg 210]
When the company's factors, Sir Thomas Modyford and Sir Peter Colleton, began to sell Negroes to the
planters they encountered endless trouble and litigation in the collection of debts. In a vivid description of
their difficulties to the company they declared that Governor Willoughby did nothing to assist them until he
received several admonitions from the king. To be sure the governor's power in judicial matters was limited
by the council, which in large part was made up of landholders who naturally attempted to shield the planters
from their creditors. In case an execution on a debt was obtained from a local court the property remained in
the hands of the debtor for eighty days. During this time the debtor often made away with the property, if it
was in the form of chattel goods. If the judgment was against real estate the land also remained in the hands of
the debtor for eighty days, during which time a committee, usually neighbors of the debtor, appraised the land,
often above its real value. If this sum exceeded the debt, the creditor was compelled to pay the difference. As
the factors declared, therefore, it was a miracle if the creditors got their money.[8]
In 1664, Sir Thomas Modyford was called from Barbadoes to become governor of Jamaica.[9] In his place the
Royal Adventurers selected John Reid, who had resided for several years in Spain and was therefore
conversant with the needs of the Spanish colonies concerning slaves. Reid also obtained the office of
sub-commissioner of prizes in Barbadoes.[10]
After Modyford's departure from Barbadoes the factors still experienced great difficulty in collecting the
company's debts. Since Willoughby had not exerted himself in its behalf the company informed the king that
it had supplied the planters liberally with slaves, but that the planters[Pg 211] owed the company £40,000,[11]
and that by reason of the intolerable delays in the courts it was impossible to collect this sum. Thereupon the
earl of Clarendon wrote to Governor Willoughby admonishing him to take such measures as would make a
renewal of the company's complaints unnecessary. In this letter Clarendon also declared that while the king
had shown great care for the planters by restraining the company from charging excessive prices for slaves, he
should also protect the interests of the merchants. Willoughby, therefore, was recommended to see speedy
justice given to the company, and to use his influence in obtaining a better law for the collection of debts.[12]
To add to the company's difficulties private traders began to infringe upon the territory included in the
company's charter. As an instance of this Captain Pepperell, in charge of one of the company's ships, seized an
interloper called the "William" and "Jane" off the coast of New Callabar in Guinea. When Pepperell appeared
at Barbadoes with his prize, one of the owners of the captured ship brought suit in a common law court
against the company's commander for damages to the extent of 500,000 pounds of sugar. The company's
factors at once went bail for Pepperell. Ordinarily the case would have been tried by a jury of planters from
whom the company's agents could expect no consideration. The factors, therefore, petitioned to have the case

removed from the common law courts to the admiralty court where the governor was the presiding officer. A
jury of sympathetic islanders would thus be dispensed with and, if necessary, the case could be appealed to a
higher court in England with greater ease. When Willoughby called the admiralty court on June 17, 1665, the
factors cited the company's royal charter which justified the seizure of interlopers. Notwithstanding the clear
case which the company's agents seemed to have the case[Pg 212] was adjourned for a week. Fearing that the
governor might take action adverse to the company's interests the factors succeeded in sending the ship in
question to Jamaica where it was not under the jurisdiction of Lord Willoughby.[13] The bail bonds against
Pepperell were not withdrawn, and therefore he stood in as great danger of prosecution as ever. When the
company learned of this situation it immediately petitioned Secretary Arlington that Willoughby be
commanded not to permit any further procedures against Pepperell and to transmit the whole case to the Privy
Council. It also requested that those who had transgressed the company's charter should be punished.[14] The
Privy Council issued an order in accordance with the company's desires.[15] Willoughby accused the factors
of having reported the case falsely and of having affronted him grossly by taking the vessel in question away
from the island by stealth. Moreover, he declared that he would have made them understand his point of view
"if they had not been employed by soe Royall a Compagnie."[16]
Since Willoughby persistently neglected to send Pepperell's bail bonds to England, the Royal Company finally
reported the matter again to the king.[17] Once more the case was heard in the Privy Council where it was
referred to the committee on trade and plantations.[18] On January 31, 1668, the Privy Council issued an
order to Governor Willoughby, brother of the former incumbent, commanding him to stop all proceedings
against the Royal Company and commanding him to send everything in regard to the case to England without
delay.[19] Lord Willoughby[Pg 213] replied that so far as he could ascertain all the records had been sent to
England and that if any others were found he would also despatch them.[20] Thus ended this contest in regard
to the maintenance of the company's privileges. The king had not allowed his royal prerogative to be
interfered with and the company's charter was regarded as intact. Theoretically the victory was all in favor of
the company, but on account of the losses which it was incurring in the Anglo-Dutch war, it was impossible
for the company to furnish a sufficient supply of Negroes to Barbadoes, that is, if Lord Willoughby's heated
protests can be trusted.
Speaking of the general prohibitions on their trade, the governor exclaimed, May 12, 1666, that he had "come
to where itt pinches, and if yor Maty gives not an ample & speedy redress, you have not onely lost St.
Christophers but you will lose the rest, I (aye) & famous Barbadoes, too, I feare." In bitter terms he spoke of
the poverty of the island, protesting that anyone who had recommended the various restraints on the colony's
trade was "more a merchant than a good subject." The restriction on the trade to Guinea, he declared, was one
of the things that had brought Barbadoes to its present condition; and the favoritism displayed toward the
Royal Company in carrying on the Negro trade with the Spaniards had entirely deprived the colonial
government of an export duty on slaves.[21]
The decision of the company to issue licenses to private traders did not allay the storm of criticism that
continued to descend on the company from Barbadoes. The new governor, as his brother had done, urged a
free trade to Guinea for Negroes, maintaining that slaves had become so scarce and expensive that the poor
planters would be forced to go to foreign plantations for a livelihood.[22] He complained that the Colletons,
father and son, the latter of whom was one of the company's factors, had helped to bring about[Pg 214] this
critical condition.[23] On September 5, 1667, representatives of the whole colony petitioned the king to throw
open the Guinea trade or to force the company to supply them with slaves at the prices promised in the early
declaration, although even those prices seemed like a canker of usury to the much abused planters.[24]
Following these complaints Sir Paul Painter and others submitted a petition to the House of Commons in
which they asserted that an open trade to Africa was much better than one carried on by a company. They
maintained that previous to the establishment of the Royal Adventurers Negroes had been sold for twelve,
fourteen and sixteen pounds per head, or 1,600 to 1,800 pounds of sugar, whereas now the company was

selling the best slaves to the Spaniards at eighteen pounds per head, while the planters paid as high as thirty
pounds for those of inferior grade. This, they declared, had so exasperated the planters that they often refused
to ship their sugar and other products to England in the company's ships no matter what freight rates the
factors offered.
In reply to the petition of Sir Paul Painter, Ellis Leighton, the company's secretary, admitted that as a natural
result of the Anglo-Dutch war the price of slaves like all other products in Barbadoes, had increased
considerably. He denied that this increase could be attributed to the sale of Negroes to the Spaniards since the
company had not disposed of more than 1,200 slaves to them. He contended that the company had been
thrown into a critical financial condition, partly as the result of the losses incurred from DeRuyter in Africa,
but mostly by the constantly increasing debts which the planters owed to the company. Notwithstanding these
difficulties Secretary Leighton maintained that since the formation of the company Barbadoes[Pg 215] had
been supplied more adequately with slaves than at any previous time. As for the planters' having refused to
ship their goods on the company's ships, he declared that this was nothing more than they had consistently
done since the formation of the company.[25]
In answer to the planters' representation of September 5, 1667, Sir Ellis Leighton admitted that if Barbadoes
alone was being considered, a free trade to Guinea was preferable to any other, but since the trade of the
whole nation had to be given first consideration the idea was pernicious. He asserted that the company was
willing to furnish the planters with all the Negroes they desired at the rates already published, seventeen
pounds per head, provided security was given for payment in money or sugar; that instead of a lack of
Negroes in Barbadoes there had been so large a number left on the hands of the factors that many had died;
and that if the planters were sincere in their complaints they would be willing to agree with the company on a
definite number of slaves which they would take annually.[26]
Since the importance of the Royal Company was by this time definitely on the wane Sir Paul Painter
succeeded in presenting his petition regarding affairs in Barbadoes to the House of Commons, in September,
1667. Although the Royal Company was ordered to produce its charter no further action was taken. The
planters were by no means discouraged and again requested the Privy Council to consider[Pg 216] the matter
of granting a free trade to Guinea.[27] Later the people of Barbadoes once more represented to the king the
inconceivable poverty caused by the lack of free trade to Guinea and other places.[28] Some of the Barbadoes
assemblymen even suggested that all the merchants be excluded from the island, and that an act be passed
forbidding any one to sue for a debt within four years.[29]
Finally, on May 12, 1669, in answer to the numerous complaints of Barbadoes, the Privy Council informed
the islanders that the king would not infringe upon the charter granted to the African Company; and that
sufficient Negroes would be furnished to the planters at reasonable prices providing the company was assured
of payment.[30] The company was pleased at the king's favorable decision and at once represented to him its
critical financial condition because the planters refused to pay their just debts.[31] The complaint of the
company was considered in the Council September 28, 1669, at which time an order was issued requiring that
henceforth land as well as chattel property in Barbadoes might be sold at public auction for the satisfaction of
debts. The governor was directed to see that this order not only became a law in Barbadoes, but that after it
had been passed it was to be executed.[32]
Thus it became clear that the planters of Barbadoes could hope for no relief from the king and, therefore,
during the few remaining years in which the company was in existence they made no other consistent effort to
convince the king of their point of view. On the other hand, if the company expected the king's instructions to
be of great assistance it was sorely disappointed. On August 2, 1671,[Pg 217] John Reid reported that they
had been unable to recover the company's debts,[33] and further appeals to the king for relief were of no
avail.[34]

It is difficult to ascertain whether Barbadoes was in as great need of slaves as the planters often asserted. The
records kept by the factors in the island have nearly all disappeared. From an early ledger kept by the
Barbadoes factors it appears that from August 11, 1663, to March 17, 1664, the usual time for the chief
importation of the year, 3,075 Negroes were received by the company's factors. These slaves, 1,051 men,
1,018 women, 136 boys and 56 girls, were sold in return partly for sugar and partly for money. Estimating
2,400 pounds of sugar as equal to seventeen pounds it appears that the average price for these Negroes was a
little over sixteen pounds per head.[35] This comparatively low price is to be accounted for by the fact that the
women and children are averaged with the men, who sold for a higher price. These figures show therefore that
the company's factors were selling adult slaves at about seventeen pounds each, as the company had publicly
declared that it would do.
In 1667 the company asserted that it had furnished the plantations with about 6,000 slaves each year. This
statement is to be doubted since the Anglo-Dutch war had practically disrupted the company's entire trade on
the African coast. On the other hand, there is reason to think that the need for slaves in Barbadoes was not so
pressing as might be inferred from the statements of the planters.[36] They naturally insisted on a large supply
of slaves in order to keep the prices as low as possible. There seems no doubt, however, that the islanders
were able to obtain more Negroes than they could pay for and were therefore hopelessly[Pg 218] in debt to the
company. On July 9, 1668, Governor Willoughby estimated the total population of Barbadoes at 60,000, of
which 40,000 were slaves.[37] Indeed some merchants declared that the slaves outnumbered the white men
twenty to one.[38]
As compared to its trade with Barbadoes and Jamaica the company's trade in slaves to the Leeward Islands
was insignificant. The company located at Nevis a factor who reported to the agents in Barbadoes[39] and
also at Antigua and Surinam where Governor Byam acted as agent.[40] In Surinam, the lack of slaves was
attributed to the prominent men of Barbadoes who were supposed to be influential with the Royal
Company.[41] Later, during the Anglo-Dutch war, one of the company's ships in attempting to go to Surinam
with Negroes, was captured by the Dutch.[42]
After the war the company seems to have neglected the islands altogether. Upon one occasion the planters of
Antigua pleaded unsuccessfully to have Negroes furnished to them on credit.[43] At another time they
asserted that the company treated them much worse than it did the planters of Barbadoes because the latter
were able to use their influence with the company to divert the supply of slaves to Barbadoes. Their condition,
they declared, seemed all the more bitter when they considered the thriving trade in Negroes which the Dutch
carried on from the island of Curaçao.[44]
The history of the slave trade to Jamaica from 1660 to[Pg 219] 1672 does not present the varied number of
problems which arose during the same time in Barbadoes. Jamaica was as yet more sparsely settled than
Barbadoes and therefore unable to take as large a number of Negroes. Nevertheless, even before 1660, there
was a need for servants in Jamaica,[45] and there, as in Barbadoes, the Dutch had furnished the planters with
Negroes. When a Dutch ship laden with 180 slaves appeared at the island in June, 1661, Colonel d'Oyley, the
governor, who was desirous of making a personal profit out of the sales, was strongly in favor of permitting
the vessel to land its Negroes. The Jamaica council, however, realized that the Navigation Act made the Negro
trade with the Dutch illegal, and therefore it refused to accede to the governor's desire. This action so enraged
the governor that on his own responsibility he purchased the whole cargo of slaves, some of which he sold to
a Quaker in the island, while the others he disposed of at considerable profit to a Spaniard.[46] Again, in
February, 1662, d'Oyley bought a number of Negroes from another Dutchman. When one of the king's ships
attempted to seize the Dutch vessel for infringing the Navigation Act, the governor even contrived to get it
safely away from the island.[47]
When Colonel Modyford became governor of Jamaica in 1664, he was instructed to do all that he possibly
could to encourage the trade which the Royal Company was endeavoring to set on foot in the West Indies.[48]

In the instructions mention was also made of Modyford's previous interest in managing the affairs of the
Royal Company in Barbadoes for which company, it was said, he undoubtedly retained great affection.
Shortly thereafter he issued a[Pg 220] proclamation promising extensive freedom of commerce except in the
Negro trade which was in the hands of the Royal Company.[49]
Although Modyford's proclamation indicated a continued interest in the company's trade, he gave his first
consideration to the welfare of the colony. This appears from a list of the island's needs which he submitted to
the king, May 10, 1664, in which he asked among other things that the Royal Company be obliged to furnish
annually whatever Negroes were necessary, and that the poorer planters be accorded easy terms in paying for
them. Furthermore he requested that indentured servants be sent from England and that the island might have
freedom of trade except in Negroes.[50] His desires for a free trade were denied, but the Privy Council agreed
to consult with the Royal Company and to recommend that it be obliged to furnish Jamaica with a sufficient
supply of Negroes.[51]
There is no evidence that the Privy Council called the company's attention to Modyford's request, nor is there
any indication that it endeavored to send very many Negroes to Jamaica. Modyford attended to a plantation
which the company had bought in Jamaica[52] and he sold a few slaves to the Spaniards,[53] but all the
company's affairs in the aggregate really amounted to little in that island. There was a continual call for a
greater supply of Negroes than the company sent.[54] Two ledgers used by the factors show that 690 Negroes
were sold in 1666 and in the following year,[55] 170. Although this number was inadequate to meet the
colony's needs, it is doubtful whether the company sent any slaves to Jamaica after 1667.[Pg 221]
Under these circumstances Modyford lost interest in the company's affairs and therefore it resolved, April 6,
1669, to dispense with his services. Modyford had received a pension of three hundred pounds per year up to
Michaelmas, 1666, but after that time the company's financial condition no longer warranted this expense.
The company does not seem to have been displeased with Modyford because it requested that he use his good
offices as governor to assist it in every possible way. At the same time the services of the other factor, Mr.
Molesworth, were discontinued and he was requested to send an inventory of the company's affairs.[56]
Modyford thus free from his connection with the company probably represented the desires of the Jamaica
people in a more unbiased manner. On September 20, 1670, he enumerated a number of needs of the island
and asked Secretary Arlington that licenses to trade to Africa for Negroes be granted free of charge or at least
at more moderate rates. For this privilege he declared that security could be given that the slaves would be
carried only to Jamaica. The Royal Company itself could not complain when it realized how much this
freedom of trade would mean toward the prosperity of Jamaica, and thus ultimately to the entire kingdom.[57]
Modyford admitted that the Anglo-Dutch war had been a great hindrance to Jamaica's prosperity but that the
lack of Negroes since 1665 had been a much greater obstruction.[58]
The more insistent demands which Governor Modyford made in 1670 for freedom of trade to Africa show
that the company's failure to send Negroes to Jamaica after 1667 was beginning to be resented. Although there
had been a constant demand for Negroes in Jamaica there was up to 1670 less need for slaves there than in
Barbadoes. At least[Pg 222] the demands made by the planters of Jamaica were not so frequent and so
insistent as they were in Barbadoes. To a certain extent the planters of Jamaica may have been deterred from
representing the lack of labor supply while Governor Modyford was one of the company's factors. Modyford
had been very much interested in the company's trade, especially with the Spanish colonies. As soon as it
became clear, however, that the losses incurred in the Anglo-Dutch war, would make it impossible for the
company to continue the slave trade to the West Indies, Modyford undoubtedly voiced a genuine demand on
the part of the planters for more slaves. By the year 1670 the island was better developed than it had been ten
years before and the need for slaves was beginning to be acute.[59]

About the first of March, 1662, two Spaniards made their appearance at Barbadoes to make overtures for a
supply of slaves, which they intended to transport to Peru. If they received encouragement, the Spaniards
asserted that they would come every fortnight with large supplies of bullion to pay for the slaves which they
exported. Sir Thomas Modyford, the company's factor and the speaker of the Barbadoes assembly, was
enthusiastic about this proposition and pointed out that the trade with the Spanish colonies would increase the
king's revenue and at the same time would deprive the Dutch of a lucrative trade.[60] Since they were well
treated on their first visit to Barbadoes the Spaniards returned in April, 1662, at which time they bought four
hundred Negroes for which they paid from 125 to 140 pieces of eight.[61] When the Spaniards came to export
their Negroes, however, they found that Governor Willoughby had levied a duty of eleven pieces of eight on
each Negro. The assembly under Modyford's leadership at once declared the imposition of such a tax illegal.
This resolution was carried to the council where, against the opposition of the governor, it was also passed.
Governor[Pg 223] Willoughby, nevertheless, had the temerity to collect the tax on some of the Negroes then
in port, and a little later when one of the ships of the Royal Adventurers sold its Negroes to the Spaniards, he
again enforced the payment of the export tax.[62] Notwithstanding the governor's actions, Modyford
despatched one of his own ships with slaves to Cartagena where it arrived safely and was well treated by the
Spaniards.[63] Modyford was now more than ever convinced of the possibilities of the trade with the Spanish
colonies, but believing that it could not be conducted successfully by private individuals, he recommended
that it be settled on the Royal Company.[64]
When the Royal Company learned that the trade in Negroes to the Spanish colonies offered many possibilities
it was very much interested. A petition was immediately submitted to the king requesting that, if the Spaniards
were allowed to come to Barbadoes for slaves, the whole trade be conferred on the Royal Company. The
company declared that the planters in the colonies had no reason to object to this arrangement because they
had not engaged in this trade, and moreover an opportunity was being offered to them to become members of
the company.[65]
The Privy Council was favorable to the company's proposition, and on March 13, 1663, the king instructed
Lord Willoughby to permit the Spaniards to trade at Barbadoes for slaves notwithstanding any letters of
marque that had been issued against them, or any provisions of the Navigation Act. He declared that the
Spaniards were to be allowed to import into Barbadoes only the products of their own colonies, and were not
to be permitted to carry away the produce of the English colonies. The effect of this provision was that in
addition to slaves the Spaniards[Pg 224] might obtain any products imported into Barbadoes from
England.[66] The king settled the question of duties on slaves by ordering that ten pieces of eight on each
Negro should be paid by all persons who exported slaves from Barbadoes or Jamaica to the Spanish colonies,
except the agents of the Royal Company. The company was to pay no export duties on Negroes especially
when the Spaniards had made previous contracts for them in England.[67]
Probably on account of the export duty on slaves which Willoughby had levied in 1662, the Spaniards were
not anxious to return to Barbadoes. The company's factors therefore sent one of their ships with slaves to
Terra Firma in order to convince the Spaniards that their desire for a Negro trade was genuine. On this
occasion Lord Willoughby and the council of the island exacted £320 in customs from the factors. When the
company heard of this procedure it immediately asked the king to enforce the order allowing it to export
Negroes free of duty.[68] Thereupon the king ordered Willoughby to make immediate restitution of the £320
and to give the company's factors as much encouragement as possible.[69] Willoughby finally obeyed in a
sullen manner. On May 20, 1665 he declared that the company had finally monopolized the Spanish trade for
Negroes and that, because the king refused to permit an export duty to be levied on them, there was no
revenue from that source.[70] The king's concessions to the Royal Company were of little avail, however,
because the Anglo-Dutch war[Pg 225] effectually stopped most of the company's trade in Negroes including
that from Barbadoes to the Spanish colonies.

In considering the trade in slaves from Jamaica to the Spanish colonies it is well to keep in mind that this
island lay far to the west of all other English possessions in the West Indies. It was located in the very midst
of the Spanish possessions from which it had been wrested in 1655 by the expedition of Sir William Penn and
Admiral Venables. The people of the island realized their isolation and occasionally attempted to break down
the decrees of the Spanish government, which forbade its colonies to have any intercourse with foreigners.
Although the English government began a somewhat similar policy with respect to its colonies in the
Navigation Act of 1660, it was generally agreed that some exception should be made for the island of Jamaica
in connection with the Spanish trade.
When Lord Windsor became governor of Jamaica in 1662 he was instructed to endeavor to secure a free
commerce with the Spanish colonies. If the governors of the Spanish colonies refused to grant this trade
voluntarily, Lord Windsor and the council of the island were given permission to compel the Spanish
authorities to acquiesce by the use of force or any other means at their disposal.[71] Accordingly a letter
embodying this request was written to the governors of Porto Rico and Santo Domingo, but unfavorable
replies were received. In accordance with the king's instructions the Jamaica council determined to obtain a
trade by force.[72] This was done by issuing letters of marque to privateers for the purpose of preying upon
Spanish ships.[73]
In the following year, 1663, as has already been mentioned, Charles II commanded the governors of
Barbadoes[Pg 226] and Jamaica to permit the Spaniards to buy goods and Negroes in their respective islands,
and to refrain from charging duties on these Negroes in case they were reexported by the agents of the Royal
Adventurers.[74] This was followed by a royal order of April 29, 1663, commanding the governor to stop all
hostile measures against the Spaniards. Sir Charles Lyttleton, the deputy governor, replied that he hoped the
attempt to begin a trade with the Spaniards would be successful, especially in Negroes, which the Spaniards
could not obtain more easily than in Jamaica.[75]
When Sir Charles Modyford became governor of Jamaica in 1664, the king repeated his desire to promote
trade and correspondence with the Spanish plantations. Indeed Modyford's previous success in selling
Negroes to the Spaniards probably influenced his appointment to this office. As soon as Modyford reached
Jamaica he wrote a letter to the governor of Santo Domingo informing him that the king had ordered a
cessation of hostilities and desired a peaceful commerce with the Spanish colonies.[76] Modyford instructed
the two commissioners by whom the letter was sent to emphasize the trade in Negroes and to induce the
Spaniards, if possible, to negotiate with him in regard to this matter.[77] Again the answer of the governor of
Santo Domingo was unfavorable. He pointed out that it was not within his power to order a commerce with
Jamaica, but that this was the province of the government in Spain. The governor, moreover, complained that
the people of Jamaica had acted in the same hostile manner toward the Spaniards since the Restoration as they
had in Cromwell's time, and therefore his people were little inclined to begin a trade with Jamaica.[Pg 227]
The refusal of the Spanish governor to consider Modyford's proposition seemed all the more bitter since it was
well known at that time that the Spaniards were obtaining many Negroes from the Dutch West India
Company. The Genoese also had a contract with the Spaniards to deliver 24,500 Negroes in seven years
nearly all of whom they expected to obtain from the Dutch at that "cursed little barren island" of Curaçao, as
Sir Thomas Lynch called it. Lynch also observed that if the Royal Company desired to participate in the
Spanish trade it would either have to sell to the Genoese or drive the Dutch out of Africa, because he did not
believe it was possible to call in the privateers without the assistance of several men-of-war.[78] Just how
much weight should be attached to this opinion is doubtful since Lynch was probably so much interested in
continuing privateering against the Spaniards, that he cared little how much this would interfere with the
company's attempt to develop the Negro trade.
Lynch's opinion was not shared by the king, who had heard that the privateers were continuing their hostilities
against the Spaniards. He therefore informed Modyford that he could not adequately express his

dissatisfaction at the daily complaints made by the Spaniards about the violence of ships said to belong to
Jamaica. Modyford was strictly commanded to secure and punish any such offenders.[79] The governor
issued a proclamation in accordance with the king's instructions,[80] and also notified the governor of Havana
that offenders against Spanish commerce would hereafter be punished as pirates.[81]
After the Anglo-Dutch war began the company imported very few Negroes to Jamaica for the Spanish trade or
for any other purpose. The king's stringent orders regarding[Pg 228] privateers were gradually allowed to go
unnoticed. Modyford again began to issue letters of marque, a procedure which naturally destroyed all
possibility of commerce between the Spanish colonies and the Royal Company.
At the time the desultory trade in Negroes was being started with the Spaniards at Barbadoes, Richard White,
of Spain, came to England as an agent for two Spaniards, Domingo Grillo and Ambrosio Lomoline.[82] These
two men had been granted the assiento in Spain, that is, the privilege of furnishing the Spanish colonies with
Negro slaves. In order to wrest some of this trade from the Dutch West India Company the Royal Company
entered into a contract with White, in the year 1663, to furnish the Spanish assientists with 3,500 Negroes per
year for a definite number of years. According to this contract the slaves were to be delivered to the vessels of
the assientists in Barbadoes and Jamaica; one of the company's factors was to be placed on board such ships;
and the necessary safe conducts were to be procured for their voyage to and from the port of Cadiz.[83] Sir
Ellis Leighton, secretary of the Royal Adventurers, obtained permission for Grillo's agents to reside in
Jamaica and Barbadoes.[84] Sir Martin Noell, one of the most important West Indian merchants, as well as a
prominent member of the African Company, seems to have been intrusted with the collection of the money
due on this contract.[85]
Not long after this agreement was made the possibility[Pg 229] of a war with the Dutch began to appear. The
company considered ways by which Grillo might be induced to mitigate the contract.[86] Complications
concerning the security to be given arose, and Grillo complained that the required number of Negroes was not
being furnished to him. Under the circumstances this was almost impossible because the outbreak of the
Anglo-Dutch war made it very difficult to obtain slaves. Nevertheless, on May 26, 1665, the company
resolved to procure as many Negroes as possible to fill the contract, providing Grillo made prompt
payments.[87]
As may be surmised no great number of slaves was exported from Barbadoes or Jamaica on this contract.
Only one ship arrived at Barbadoes from Cadiz desiring to secure one thousand slaves, but the company's
factors could obtain only eight hundred. Lord Willoughby carefully reported that he had complied with his
Majesty's command not to exact any export duty for these slaves.[88] In Jamaica fewer Negroes are known to
have been sold on this contract to Spanish ships which came from Cartagena.[89] There may have been other
instances of sales not recorded, but it is certain that the war interfered to such an extent that the number of
Negroes sold to Grillo fell far short of what the contract called for. In order to keep the agreement intact the
company resolved, March 23, 1666, to lay the situation before the king, and to ask him to permit Grillo's
agents to buy sufficient Negroes in the plantations to make up the required number, and that no export duties
be charged on them.[90] The king complied with the company's request, and the desired orders were sent to
the governors of Jamaica and Barbadoes.[91] Some trouble had arisen in Jamaica, however, between Grillo's
agents and Governor Modyford. Since the company believed that Grillo's[Pg 230] agents were primarily to
blame for this, it resolved in the future to deliver Negroes only at Barbadoes in return for ready money.[92]
This was virtually the end of the contract. In 1667 the company spoke of the agreement as having been broken
by the Grillos, and that it was under no further obligation to carry out its terms. Altogether, it declared, that no
more than 1,200 Negroes had been delivered to Grillo's agents.[93] Thus this project which the company at
first asserted would bring into the English kingdom 86,000 pounds of Spanish silver per year[94] ended in this
insignificant fashion.

Although the Grillo contract and the other attempts to begin a slave trade with the Spanish colonies had
proved much less successful than the Company of Royal Adventurers had hoped, a great deal had been
accomplished toward bringing to light the fundamental difficulties of this trade. In the first place not much
could be accomplished in the way of developing this trade so long as the Spanish government maintained its
attitude of uncompromising hostility toward all foreigners notwithstanding the fact that the Spanish colonists
would gladly have welcomed the slave traders. Furthermore, although the English government had signified
its willingness to disregard the restrictions of the Navigation Acts in this instance, the hostile attitude assumed
by the planters toward the trade in slaves to the Spanish colonies also had to be taken into consideration.
Whenever the planters were able to do so they endeavored to prevent the exportation to the Spanish colonies
of slaves which they maintained were very much needed on their own plantations.
This opposition to the trade in Negroes to the Spanish colonies was only one of the several ways in which the
colonists[Pg 231] manifested their hostility toward the mercantile element in general and the Company of
Royal Adventurers in particular. Freedom of trade with all the world seemed very desirable to the planters
who regarded the restrictions of the Navigation Acts as gross favoritism and partiality to the rising mercantile
class. The monopoly of supplying the colonies with slaves, conferred upon the Company of Royal
Adventurers, was most cordially hated on account of the great degree of dependence placed upon slave labor
in the plantations. As a result of this conflict of interests the planters early resorted to numerous devices such
as the laws for the protection of debtors, to embarrass the company in the exercise of its monopoly. Since the
company had received its exclusive privileges by a charter from the crown the English planters in the West
Indies soon found that their trouble with the Company of Royal Adventurers brought them also into direct
conflict with the king. In this way the planters enjoyed the distinction of being among the first to begin the
opposition which later, in the Great Revolution, resulted in the overthrow of James II and the royal
prerogative.
George F. Zook.
Footnotes:
[1] These were people of the rougher and even criminal classes of the parent country who, in return for their
ocean passage, agreed to work for some planter during a specified number of years, usually seven.
[2] C. S. P., Col., 1674-1675, Addenda, p. 86, articles agreed on by Lord Willoughby and Sir George Ayscue
and others, January 11, 1652.
[3] C. S. P., Col., 1661-1668, p. 14, petitions of merchants and planters, March 1, 1661.
[4] C. S. P., Col., 1661-1668, pp. 29, 30, 45, 46, 47, petitions from Barbadoes, May 11, July 10, 12, 1661.
[5] Ibid., p. 117, minutes of the council and assembly of Barbadoes, December 18, 1662.
[6] The pieces of eight were to be accepted at four shillings each, and 2,400 pounds of muscovado sugar were
to be accepted in exchange for a slave.
[7] Answer of the Company of Royal Adventurers of England ... to the Petition ... exhibited ... by Sir Paul
Painter, His Royal Highness (the duke of York) and others to Lord Willoughby, January 10, 1662/3.
[8] C. O. 1: 18, ff. 85, 86, Modyford and Colleton to the Royal Adventurers, March 20, 1664.
[9] A. C. R., 75: 13, 14, J5.
Footnotes: 129
[10] Ibid., 75: 20.
[11] On January 2, 1665, the company estimated the entire debt which was owing to it in all the plantations at
£49,895. S. P., Dom., Charles II, 110, f. 18, petition of the Royal Adventurers to the king.
[12] P. C. R., Charles II, 4: 177, 190-192, August 3, 24, 1664.
[13] C. O. 1: 19, ff. 234-238, proceedings of the court of admiralty in Barbadoes, June 17, 24, 1665.
[14] Ibid., f. 232, petition of the Royal Adventurers to Arlington, September 14, 1665.
[15] P. C. R., Charles II, 5: 402, Privy Council to Willoughby, April 6, 1666.
[16] C. O. 1: 20, f. 209, Willoughby to Privy Council, July 16, 1666.
[17] Ibid., f. 335, petition of the Royal Adventurers to the king, December 7, 1666.
[18] P. C. R., Charles II, 6: 231, December 7, 1666.
[19] Ibid., 7: 162, 163, Privy Council to Willoughby, January 31, 1668.
[20] C. O. 1: 22, f. 191, Willoughby to Privy Council, May 30, 1668.
[21] Ibid., 20, f. 149, Willoughby to the king, May 32, 1666.
[22] Ibid., 21, f. 170, Willoughby to the king, July, 1667.
[23] C. O. 1: 21, f. 222, Willoughby to Williamson, September 17, 1667.
[24] Ibid., f. 209, petition of the representatives of Barbadoes to the king, September 5, 1667. This document
and Willoughby's letter of September 17, 1667, also urge very strongly that the bars of the Navigation Acts be
let down in order to permit servants to be imported from Scotland.
[25] The petition and these answers are printed in a pamphlet entitled, "Answer of the Company of Royal
Adventurers of England trading into Africa, to the Petition and Paper of certain Heads and Particulars
thereunto relating exhibited to the Honourable House of Commons by Sir Paul Painter." As to the assertion
that the planters refused to ship their products in the company's ships there seems to be no very good evidence
on either side. Sometimes the company's vessels were sent home from Barbadoes empty. Upon such occasions
the agents always said that there were no goods with which to load them.
[26] C. O. 1: 22, f. 42, answer of Sir Ellis Leighton, secretary of the Royal Adventurers, to the petition from
Barbadoes of September 5, 1667; C. O. 1: 22, f. 43, proposal of the Royal Adventurers concerning the sale of
Negroes in Barbadoes, January, 1668
[27] C. O. 1: 22, f. 204, address of the merchants and planters of Barbadoes now in London, read at the
committee of trade, June 16, 1668.
[28] Ibid., 23, f. 69, address of the representative of Barbadoes to the king, August 3, 1668.
[29] Ibid., f. 42, account of affairs in Barbadoes by Lord Willoughby, July 22, 1668.
Footnotes: 130
[30] P. C. R., Charles II, 8: 294, May 12, 1669.
[31] Ibid., 8: 402, August 27, 1669.
[32] Ibid., 8: 424, September 28, 1669.
[33] C. O. 1: 27, f. 24, John Reid to Arlington, August 2, 1671.
[34] A. C. R., 75: 106, 108, 109, September 11, November 10, 1671.
[35] These numbers and prices are gleaned from page three of the Barbadoes ledger. A. C. R., 646.
[36] Answer of the Company of Royal Adventurers ... to the Petition ... exhibited ... by Sir Paul Painter.
[37] C. O. 29: 1, f. 116, Willoughby to the Lords of the Council, July 9, 1668.
[38] Ibid., 1: 25, f. 62, memorial of some principal merchants trading to the plantations, 1670.
[39] Ibid., 18, f. 86, Modyford and Colleton to (the Royal Adventurers); C. O. 1: 20, f. 168, Michael Smith to
Richard Chaundler, June 11, 1666.
[40] Ibid., 22, f. 89, Willoughby to Arlington, March 2, 1668.
[41] Ibid., 17, f. 219, Renatus Enys to Bennet, November 1, 1663.
[42] Ibid., 29: 1, f. 116, Willoughby to the Lords of the Council, July 9, 1668.
[43] Ibid., 1: 22, f. 53, proposals of the inhabitants of Antigua to Governor Willoughby, January 31, 1668.
[44] C. S. P., Col. 1669-1674, p, 204, William Byam to Willoughby, 1670?; C. O. 1: 25, f. 138, Byam to
Willoughby, n. d.
[45] C. S. P., Col., 1675-1676, Addenda, p. 125, Cornelius Burough to the Admiralty Commissioners,
November 28, 1658.
[46] Ibid., 1661-1668, p. 36, narrative of the buying of a shipload of Negroes, June 14, 1661.
[47] C. O. 1: 16, f. 77, Captain Richard Whiting to the officers of his Majesty's navy, March 10, 1662; C. O.
1: 17, f. 236, petition of Colonel Godfrey Ashbey and others to the king, 1663.
[48] Ibid., 18, f. 58, instructions to Colonel Modyford, governor of Jamaica, February 18, 1664.
[49] C. O. 1: 18, f. 81, declaration of Sir Thomas Modyford, March 2, 1664.
[50] Ibid., f. 135, Modyford to Bennet, May 10, 1664.
[51] Ibid., f. 208, report of the Privy Council on Jamaica affairs, August 10, 1664.
[52] A. C. R., 75: 89.
[53] Add. MSS., 12,430, f. 31, Beeston, Journal, February 1, 1664/5.
Footnotes: 131
[54] C. O. 1: 19, f. 31, Lynch to Bennet, February 12, 1665; ibid., f. 189, John Style to (Bennet), July 24,
1665.
[55] A. C. R., 869, entries from January 1, 1665/6 to December 31, 1666; ibid., 870: 62.
[56] A. C. R., 75: 14, 89.
[57] C. O. 1: 25, f. 127, Modyford to Arlington, (September 20, 1670).
[58] C. S. P., Col., 1669-1674, p. 107, additional propositions made to the Privy Council about Jamaica by
Charles Modyford by order of Sir Thomas Modyford, (September 28, 1670).
[59] C. O. 1: 14, f. 56, proposal by Lord Marlborough, 1663.
[60] Ibid., 17, f. 28, Thomas Modyford? to his brother, March 30, 1662.
[61] Ibid., f. 29, Thomas Modyford? to his brother, April 30, 1662.
[62] C. O. 1: 17, ff. 29, 30, Thomas Modyford to his brother, May 26, 1662.
[63] Ibid., f. 32, Thomas Modyford to his brother, September 3, 13, 1662.
[64] Ibid., f 32, Thomas Modyford to his brother, September 13, 1662.
[65] Ibid., f. 20, petition of the Royal Adventurers to the king, January, 1663.
[66] C. O. 1: 17, f. 136, instructions to Lord Willoughby, June 16, 1663.
[67] Ibid., f. 227 (the king to the governors of Barbadoes and Jamaica). March 30, 1663. That there was some
trouble in deciding just what provisions to make regarding the Spanish trade appears from several unsigned
and undated letters to Willoughby with conflicting provisions, but they nearly all mention the exception made
in favor of the Royal Company in the letter of March 13, 1663. C. O. 1: 17, f. 22; C. O. 1: 17, ff. 24, 25; C. O.
1: 17, ff. 26, 27; P. C. R., Charles II, 3: 336-338.
[68] C. O. 1: 17, ff. 225, 226, petition of the Royal Adventurers to the king, November, 1663.
[69] Willoughby made a restitution of the £320 in March, 1664. C. O. 1: 18, f. 86, Modyford and Colleton to
(the Royal Adventurers), March 31, 1664.
[70] C. O. 1: 19, f. 124, Willoughby to the king, May 20, 1665.
[71] C. O. 1: 16, f. 112, additional instructions to Lord Windsor, governor of Jamaica, April 8, 1662.
[72] C. S. P., Col., 1661-1668, p. 106, minutes of the council of Jamaica, August 20, 1662.
[73] A full description of privateering by the English against the Spaniards from the year 1660 to 1670 may be
found in an article by Miss Violet Barbour in the American Historical Review, XVI: 529-566.
[74] C. S. P., Col., 1661-1668, p. 125 (the king to the governors of Barbadoes and Jamaica), March 13, 1663.
[75] C. O. 1: 17, f. 199, Sir Charles Lyttleton, deputy governor, to Bennet, October 15, 1663.
Footnotes: 132
[76] Ibid., 18, f. 137, Modyford to the governor of Santo Domingo, April 30, 1664.
[77] Ibid., f. 139, Modyford's instructions to Colonel Cary and Captain Perrott, May 2, 1664.
[78] C. O. 1: 18, ff. 152, 153, Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Lynch to Bennet. May 25, 1664.
[79] C. S. P., Col., 1661-1668, p. 215, the king to Modyford, June 15, 1664.
[80] Ibid., p. 220, proclamation by Sir Thomas Modyford, governor of Jamaica, June 15, 1664.
[81] Ibid., p. 228, minutes of the council of Jamaica, August 19-22, 1664.
[82] C. S. P., Dom., 1663-1664, p. 168, Richard White to Captain Weld, June 11, 1663.
[83] As this contract cannot be discovered it is difficult to say just when it was made or what were its
conditions. Georges Scelle in his book, La Traité Nègriere aux Indes de Castille, 1: 524, gives the date of this
contract as February 28, 1663, and says it was for 35,000 Negroes which were to be delivered at the rate of
5,000 per year. This may be true, but on the other hand the company distinctly declares in one place that the
contract was for the annual delivery of 3,500 Negroes per year. C. O. 1: 19, ff. 7, 8, brief narrative of the trade
and present condition of the Royal Adventurers, 1664/5.
[84] C. O. 1: 17, f. 189, memorial of Sir Ellis Leighton to the duke of York, 1663.
[85] Ibid., ff. 244, 247; A. C. R., 75: 48.
[86] A. C. R., 75: 15, August 5, 1664.
[87] Ibid., 75: 34, May 26, 1665.
[88] C. O. 1: 18, f. 165, Willoughby to the king, June 17, 1664.
[89] Add. MSS., 12,430, f. 31, Beeston, Journal, April 8, 1665.
[90] A. C. R., 75: 43, March 23, 1665/6.
[91] P. C. R., Charles II, 5: 396, March 30, 1666.
[92] A. C. R., 75: 46; Add. MSS., 12,430, f. 31, Beeston, Journal, February 7, 1664/5.
[93] Answer of the Company of Royal Adventurers ... to the Petition ... exhibited ... by Sir Paul Painter.
[94] C. O. 1: 19, ff. 7, 8, brief narrative of the trade and present condition of the Royal Adventurers, 1664/5.
[Pg 232]
BOOK REVIEWS
Below the James. A Plantation Sketch. By William Cabell Bruce. The Neale Publishing Company, New York,
1918. Pp. 157.
BOOK REVIEWS 133

This book is, as its title imports, a plantation sketch dealing with that sort of life in Virginia just after the Civil
War. While it is a mere story and hardly a dramatic one, it throws light on the Negro as a constituent part of
the southern society of that day. As a student at Harvard before the War a southerner comes into contact with
a fellow student from Massachusetts, to whom he becomes bound by such strong ties that the four years of
bloody conflict between the sections are not sufficient to sever this connection. Some years after this upheaval
friend thinks of friend and soon the northerner finds himself on his way to visit the southern friend.
Coming to the South at the time when the Negroes as a new class in their different situation were endeavoring
to readjust themselves under difficult circumstances, the observations of the traveler are of much value to the
historian. He not only saw much to admire in the colonial seats of prominent southerners like Patrick Henry
and John Randolph, but showed an appreciation of the simple life of the Negroes. Their new position as
freemen taking a part in the government, the rôle of the carpetbagger, and the undesirable conditions of that
régime play some part in the story.
As to the Negroes themselves, however, the most interesting revelations are those dealing with the inner life
of the blacks. In the language used to impersonate the blacks the reader sees a philosophy of life; in their
mode of living appears the virtue of a noble peasantry; and in their worship of divinity there is the striving of
a righteous people willing to labor and to wait. In this respect the book is valuable. We have known too little
of the plantation, too little of the life of the Negro before the Civil War, too little of how he during the
Reconstruction developed into something above and beyond the hewer of wood and drawer of water. While
not primarily historical then and falling far short of being an historical novel, this book is unconsciously
informing and therefore interesting and valuable to the student of Negro life and history.
[Pg 233]
The Emancipated and Freed in American Sculpture. A Study in Interpretation. By Freeman Henry Morris
Murray. Murray Brothers, incorporated, Washington, D. C., 1916. Pp. 228.
This work is to some extent a compilation of matter which on former occasions have been used by the author
in lectures and addresses bearing on the Negroes in art. There is in it, however, much that is new, for even in
this formerly used material the author has incorporated additional facts and more extensive comment. This
work is not given out as the last word. It is one of a series to appear under the caption of the "Black Folk in
Art" or an effort to set forth the contributions of the blacks to art in ancient and modern times. This work itself
is, as the author calls it, "A Study in Interpretation." His purpose, he says, is to indicate as well as he can, what
he thinks are the criteria for the formation of judgment in these matters. Yet his interpretation is to be different
from technical criticism, as his effort is primarily directed toward intention, meaning and effect. This thought
is the keynote to the comments on the various sculptures illustrated in the work. While one may not agree
with the author in his arrangement and may differ from his interpretation, it must be admitted that the book
contains interesting information and is a bold step in the right direction. It is a portraiture of freedom as a
motive for artistic expression and an effort to symbolize this desire for liberation to animate the citizenry in
making. It brings to light numerous facts as to how the thought of the Negro has been dominant in the minds
of certain artists and how in the course of time race prejudice has caused the pendulum to swing the other way
in the interest of those who would forget what the blacks have thought and felt and done.
The many illustrations constitute the chief value of the work. There appears The Greek Slave by Hiram
Powers, Freedom on the dome of the Capitol, The Libyan Sibyl by W. W. Story, The Freedman by J. I. A.
Ward, The Freedwoman by Edmonia Lewis, Emancipation in Washington by Thomas Ball, Emancipation in
Edinburgh, Scotland, by George E. Bissell, Emancipation panel on the Military Monument in Cleveland by
Levi T. Scofield, Emancipation by Meta Warrick Fuller, The Beecher Monument in Brooklyn by J. I. A.
Ward, Africa by Randolph Rogers, Africa by Daniel C. French, The Harriet Tubman Tablet, The Frederick
Douglass Monument in Rochester, The Attucks Monument in Boston by Robert Kraus, The Faithful Slaves
BOOK REVIEWS 134

Monument in Fort Mill, South[Pg 234] Carolina, l'Africane by E. Caroni, l'Abolizione by R. Vincenzo,
Ethiopia and Toussaint L'Ouverture by Anne Whitney, The Slave Auction, The Fugitive's Story, Taking the
Oath and Drawing Rations, The Wounded Scout, and Uncle Ned's School by John Rogers, The Slave
Memorial by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, and The Death of Major Montgomery.
The Question Before Congress. A consideration of the Debates and final action by Congress upon various
Phases of the Race Question in the United States. By George W. Mitchell. The A. M. E. Book Concern,
Philadelphia, 1918. Pp. 237.
This book contains little which has not been extensively treated in various other works of standard authors. It
goes over the ground covered in books easily accessible in most local libraries. Yet there is in it something
which the historian does not find in these other works. It is this same drama of history as it appears to an
intelligent man of color well read in the history of this country although lacking the attitude of a scientific
investigator. Whether he has written an accurate book is of little value here. These facts are already known.
He has enabled the public to know the Negro's reaction on these things and that in itself is a contribution to
history.
As to exactly what the author has treated little needs to be said. He begins with the slavery question in the
Federal Convention of 1787 which framed the Constitution of the United States. Then comes the treatment of
the slave trade, the debate on the Missouri Compromise, the exclusion of abolition literature from the mails,
the attack on the right of petition, the exodus of antislavery men from the South, the murder of Lovejoy, the
coming of Giddings to Congress, the Wilmot Proviso, the formation of the Free Soil party, antislavery men in
Congress, the effort to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, the slavery question in California, the
Fugitive Slave Act, the Kansas Nebraska trouble, the organization of the Republican Party, the Dred Scott
Decision, John Brown's Raid and the election of Abraham Lincoln.
Then follows a discussion of facts still more familiar. The author takes up the upheaval of the Civil War and
the difficulty with which the Negroes effected a readjustment because of the large number of refugees. He
next discusses the rôle of the Negro in politics during the Reconstruction period, the outrages which followed
and the failure of the carpetbagger régime. The remaining[Pg 235] portion of the book is devoted to the
treatment of the Negroes in freedom and the problem of social justice. In fact, almost every phase of Negro
political history from the formation of the Union to the present time has been treated by the author.
Negro Population: 1790-1915. By John Cummings, Ph.D., Expert Special Agent, Bureau of Census.
Washington, Government Printing Office, 1918. Pp. 844.
This volume is unique in that never before in the history of the Bureau of the Census has it devoted a whole
volume to statistics bearing on the Negro. This work, moreover, is more important than the average census
report in that it covers a period of 125 years. The compiler has used not only previously published documents
but various unpublished schedules, tables and manuscripts which give this work a decidedly historical value.
Never before has the public been given so many new figures concerning the development and progress of the
Negroes in this country. It is a cause of much satisfaction then that these facts are available so that many
questions which have hitherto been puzzling because of the lack of such statistics may now be easily cleared
up.
What the work comprehends is interesting. It is a statistical account of the "growth of the Negro population
from decade to decade; its geographical distribution at each decennial enumeration; its migratory drift
westward in the early decades of the last century, when Negroes and whites were moving forward into the
East and West South Central States as cultivators of virgin soil; its drift northward and cityward, and in more
recent decades southward out of the "black belt," in response to the universal gravity pull of complex
BOOK REVIEWS 135

economic and social forces; its widespread dispersion on the one hand, and on the other its segregation with
reference to the white population; its sex and age composition and marital condition; its fertility, as indicated
by the proportion of children to women of child-bearing age in different periods—again, under social
conditions varying from the irresponsible relations of slavery to the more exacting institutions of freedom; its
intermixture with other races, as shown by the increase in the proportion mulatto; its annual mortality in the
registration area; its educational progress since emancipation, in so far as it can be measured by elementary
schooling and by increasing literacy; its criminality, dependency, and physical and mental
defectiveness—those[Pg 236] characteristics of individual degeneracy which Negroes manifest in
common with other racial classes in all civilized communities; finally, its economic progress, as indicated by
increasing ownership of homes, by entrance into skilled trades and professions, and primarily and
fundamentally by the rapid development of Negro agriculture."
Although this report goes as far back as 1790 most of the facts herein assembled bear on the life of the Negro
since emancipation. This is not due, however, to the tendency to neglect the early period, but to the fact that
earlier in our history statistics concerning Negroes were not considered valuable. It is only recently that public
officials have directed attention to the importance of keeping these records and in many parts of the South
certain statistics regarding Negroes are not yet considered worth while. The United States Government,
however, as this volume indicates, has taken this matter seriously and from such volumes as this the public
will expect more valuable information.
[Pg 237]
NOTES
To increase our circulation and the membership of the Association the management has employed as Field
Agent Mr. J. E. Ormes, formerly connected with the business department of Wilberforce University. Mr.
Ormes will appoint agents to sell books and solicit subscriptions to the Journal of Negro History. He will also
organize clubs for the study of Negro life and history.
Any five persons desiring to prosecute studies in this field intensively may organize a club and upon the
payment of two dollars each will be entitled not only to receive free of further charge the Journal of Negro
History, but may call on the Director for such instruction as can be given by mail. Members will be supplied
with a quarterly outline study of the current numbers of the Journal of Negro History and with a topical
outline of the contents of the back numbers.
Clubs will be left free to work out their own organization and plans. The management, however, follows the
plan of a group working under the simplest restrictions. There should be elected a president, a secretary, a
treasurer, and an instructor. The last named official should be the most intelligent and the best informed
member of the group.
E. Payen's Belgique et Congo and P. Daye's Les Conquetes Africaniques des Belge have been published by
Berger-Levrault in Paris.
The Cornhill Publishing Company has brought out Twenty-five Years in the Black Belt by W. J. Edwards.
P. A. Means has published through Marshall Jones Racial Factors in a Democracy.
The following significant articles have appeared in recent numbers of periodicals: The Worth of an African, by
R. Keable in the July number of the International Review of Missions; How Germany treats the Natives by
Evans Lewis and M. Montgomery-Campbell; Germany and Africa by Ethel Jollie in the June number[Pg 238]
NOTES 136
of the United Empire; International Interference in African Affairs by Sir. H. H. Johnson in the April number
of the Journal of Comparative Legislation and International Law; The Native Question in British East Africa
in the April number of the Contemporary Review; and The Christian Occupation of Africa in the Proceedings
of the African Conference.
[Pg 239]
NOTES 137
The Journal
of
Negro History
Vol. IV—July, 1919—No. 3
THE EMPLOYMENT OF NEGROES AS SOLDIERS IN THE

CONFEDERATE ARMY
The problem of arming the slaves was of far greater concern to the South, than to the North. It was fraught
with momentous consequences to both sections, but pregnant with an influence, subtle yet powerful, which
would affect directly the ultimate future of the Confederate Government. The very existence of the
Confederacy depended upon the ability of the South to control the slave population. At the outbreak of the
Civil War great fear as to servile insurrection was aroused in the South and more restrictive measures were
enacted.[1]
Most of the Negro population was living in the area under rebellion, and in many cases the slaves
outnumbered the whites. To arm these slaves would mean the lighting of a torch which, in the burning, might
spread a flame throughout the slave kingdom. If the Negro in the midst of oppression had been in possession
of the facts regarding the war, whether the slaves would have remained consciously faithful would have been
a perplexing question.[2][Pg 240]
The South had been aware of its imminent danger and with its traditional methods strove to prevent the
arming of the Negroes. With the memories of Negro insurrections ever fresh in the public mind, quite a
change of front would be required to bring the South to view with favor such a radical measure. The South,
however, was not alone in its unwillingness to employ Negroes as soldiers. For the first two years of the war,
the North represented by President Lincoln and Congress refused to consider the same proposal. In the face of
stubborn opposition loyal Negroes had been admitted into the Engineer and Quartermaster Departments of the
Union armies, but their employment as soldiers under arms was discountenanced during the first years of the
war.
In the North this discrimination caused much discontent among the Negroes but those living in the States in
rebellion did not understand the issues in the war, and of necessity could not understand until the Union forces
had invaded the hostile sections and spread the information which had gradually developed the point of view
that the war was for the extermination of the institution of slavery. It may be recalled that during the opening
days of the war, slaves captured by the Union forces were returned to their disloyal masters. Here there is
sufficient evidence in the concrete that slavery was not the avowed cause of the conflict.[3] If there was this
uncertain notion of the cause of[Pg 241] the war among northern sympathizers, how much more befogged
must have been the minds of the southern slaves in the hands of men who imagined that they were fighting for
the same principles involved in our earlier struggle with Great Britain! To the majority of the Negroes, as to
all the South, the invading armies of the Union seemed to be ruthlessly attacking independent States, invading
the beloved homeland and trampling upon all that these men held dear[4].
The loyalty of the slave while the master was away with the fighting forces of the Confederacy has been the
making of many orators of an earlier day, echoes of which we often hear in the present[5]. The Negroes were
not only loyal in remaining at home and doing their duty but also in offering themselves for actual service in
the Confederate army. Believing their land invaded by hostile foes, they were more than willing under the

guidance of misguided southerners to offer themselves for the service of actual warfare. So that during the
early days of the war, Negroes who volunteered were received into the fighting forces by the rebelling States,
and particularly during those years in which the[Pg 242] North was academically debating the advisability of
arming the Negro.[6]
In the first year of the war large numbers were received into the service of the Confederate laboring units. In
January, a dispatch from Mr. Riordan at Charleston to Hon. Percy Walker at Mobile stated that large numbers
of Negroes from the plantations of Alabama were at work on the redoubts. These were described as very
substantially made, strengthened by sand-bags and sheet-iron.[7] Negroes were employed in building
fortifications, as teamsters and helpers in army service throughout the South.[8] In 1862, the Florida
Legislature conferred authority upon the Governor to impress slaves for military purposes, if so authorized by
the Confederate Government. The owners of the slaves were to be compensated for this labor, and in turn they
were to furnish one good suit of clothes for each of the slaves impressed. The wages were not to exceed
twenty-five dollars a month.[9] The Confederate Congress provided by law in February, 1864, for the
impressment of 20,000 slaves for menial service in the Confederate army.[10] President Davis was so
satisfied with their labor that he suggested, in his annual message, November, 1864, that this[Pg 243] number
should be increased to 40,000[11] with the promise of emancipation at the end of their service.
Before the outbreak of the war and the beginning of actual hostilities, the local authorities throughout the
South had permitted the enrollment for military service of organizations formed of free Negroes, although no
action had been taken or suggested by the Confederate Government. It is said that some of these troops
remained in the service of the Confederacy during the period of the war, but that they did not take part in any
important engagements.[12] There may be noted typical instances of the presence of Negroes in the State
Militia. In Louisiana, the Adjutant-General's Office of the Louisiana Militia issued an order stating that "the
Governor and the Commander-in-Chief relying implicitly upon the loyalty of the free colored population of
the city and State, for the protection of their homes, their property and for southern rights, from the pollution
of a ruthless invader, and believing that the military organization which existed prior to February 15, 1862,
and elicited praise and respect for the patriotic motives which prompted it, should exist for and during the war,
calls upon them to maintain their organization and hold themselves prepared for such orders as may be
transmitted to them."[13]
These "Native Guards" joined the Confederate forces but they did not leave the city with these troops, when
they retreated before General Butler, commanding the invading Union army. When General Butler learned of
this organization after his arrival in New Orleans, he sent for several of the most prominent colored men of the
city and asked why they had accepted service "under the Confederate Government which was set up for the
purpose of holding their brethren and kindred in eternal slavery." The reply was that they dared not to refuse;
that they had[Pg 244] hoped, by serving the Confederates, to advance nearer to equality with the whites; and
concluded by stating that they had longed to throw the weight of their class with the Union forces and with the
cause in which their own dearest hopes were identified[14].
An observer in Charleston at the outbreak of the war noted the preparation for war, and called particular
attention to "the thousand Negroes who, so far from inclining to insurrections, were grinning from ear to ear at
the prospect of shooting the Yankees[15]." In the same city, one of the daily papers stated that on January 2,
150 free colored men had gratuitously offered their services to hasten the work of throwing up redoubts along
the coast[16]. At Nashville, Tennessee, April, 1861, a company of free Negroes offered their services to the
Confederate Government and at Memphis a recruiting office was opened[17]. The Legislature of Tennessee
authorized Governor Harris, on June 28, 1861, to receive into the State military service all male persons of
color between the ages of fifteen and fifty. These soldiers would receive eight dollars a month with clothing
and rations. The sheriff of each county was required to report the names of these persons and in case the
number of persons tendering their services was not sufficient to meet the needs of the county, the sheriff was
empowered to impress as many persons as were needed[18]. In the same State, a procession of several
THE EMPLOYMENT OF NEGROES AS SOLDIERS IN THECONFEDERATE ARMY 139

hundred colored men marching through the streets attracted attention. They marched[Pg 245] under the
command of Confederate officers and carried shovels, axes, and blankets. The observer adds, "they were
brimful of patriotism, shouting for Jeff Davis and singing war songs."[19] A paper in Lynchburg, Virginia,
commenting on the enlistment of 70 free Negroes to fight for the defense of the State, concluded with "three
cheers for the patriotic Negroes of Lynchburg."[20]
Two weeks after the firing on Fort Sumter, several companies of volunteers of color passed through Augusta
on their way to Virginia to engage in actual war. Sixteen well-drilled companies of volunteers and one Negro
company from Nashville composed this group.[21] In November of the same year, a military review was held
in New Orleans. Twenty-eight thousand troops passed before Governor Moore, General Lowell and General
Ruggles. The line of march covered over seven miles in length. It is said that one regiment comprised 1,400
free colored men.[22] The Baltimore Traveler commenting on arming Negroes at Richmond, said:
"Contrabands who have recently come within the Federal lines at Williamsport, report that all the able-bodied
men in that vicinity are being taken to Richmond, formed into regiments, and armed for the defense of that
city."[23]
During February, 1862, the Confederate Legislature of Virginia was considering a bill to enroll all free
Negroes in the State for service with the Confederate forces.[24] The Legislatures of other States seriously
considered the measure. Military and civil leaders, the Confederate Congress and its perplexed War
Department debated among themselves the relative value of employing the Negroes as soldiers. Slowly the
ranks of those at home were made to grow thin by the calls to the front. In April,[Pg 246] 1862, President
Davis was authorized to call out and place in service all white men between the ages of eighteen and
thirty-five; in September the ages were raised to include the years of thirty-five and forty-five; and finally in
February, 1864, all male whites between the years of seventeen and fifty were made liable to military service.
The Negroes were liable for impressment in the work of building fortifications, producing war materials, and
the like.[25]
The demand became so urgent for men that quite a controversy arose over the advisability of employing the
Negroes as soldiers. Some said that the Negro belonged to an inferior race and, therefore, could not be a good
soldier; that the Negro could do menial work in the army, but that fighting was the white man's task. Those
who supported the idea in its incipiency always urged the necessity of employing Negroes in the army. A
native Georgian supported the employment of these troops in a letter to the Secretary of War, recommending
freedom after the war was over to those who fought, compensation to the owners and the retention of the
institution of slavery by continuing as slaves "boys and women, and exempted or detailed men." The
statement concludes with "our country requires a quick and stringent remedy. Don't stop for reforms."[26]
In November, 1864, Jefferson Davis in his message to the Confederate Congress recognized that the time
might come when slaves would be needed in the Confederate army: "The subject," said he, "is to be viewed
by us, therefore, solely in the light of policy and our social economy. When so regarded, I must dissent from
those who advise a general levy and arming of slaves for the duty of soldiers. Until our white population shall
prove insufficient[Pg 247] for the armies we require and can afford to keep the field, to employ as a soldier
the Negro, who has merely been trained to labor, and as a laborer under the white man, accustomed from his
youth to the use of firearms, would scarcely be deemed wise or advantageous by any; and this is the question
before us. But should the alternative ever be presented of subjugation or of the employment of the slave as a
soldier, there seems no reason to doubt what should be our decision."[27] In the same month, J. A. Seddon,
Secretary of War, refused permission to Major E. B. Briggs of Columbus, Georgia, to raise a regiment of
Negro troops, stating that it was not probable that any such policy would be adopted by Congress.[28]
In response to an inquiry from Seddon, the Secretary of War, as to the advisability of arming slaves, General
Howell Cobb presented the point of view of one group of the Confederates, when he opposed the measure to
arm the Negroes. "I think," said he "that the proposition to make soldiers of our slaves is the most pernicious

idea that has been suggested since the war began ... you cannot make soldiers of slaves or slaves of soldiers.
The moment you resort to Negro soldiers, your white soldiers will be lost to you, and one secret of the favor
with which the proposition is received in portions of the army is the hope when Negroes go into the army,
they (the whites) will be permitted to retire. It is simply a proposition to fight the balance of the war with
Negro troops. You can't keep white and black troops together and you can't trust Negroes by themselves....
Use all the Negroes you can get for all purposes for which you need them but don't arm them. The day you
make soldiers of them is the beginning of the end of the revolution. If slaves make good soldiers, our whole
theory of slavery is wrong."[29] General Beauregard, Commander of the Department of Georgia, South
Carolina and[Pg 248] Florida, wrote to a friend in July, 1863, that the arming of the slaves would lead to the
atrocious consequences which have ever resulted from the employment of "a merciless servile race as
soldiers."[30] General Patton Anderson declared that the idea of arming the slaves was a "monstrous
proposition revolting to southern sentiment, southern pride and southern honor."[31]
The opposite point of view was expressed by the group of southerners led by General Pat Cleburne who in a
petition presented to General Joseph E. Johnson by several Confederate Officers wrote: "Will the slaves
fight?—the experience of this war has been so far, that half-trained Negroes have fought as bravely as
many half-trained Yankees."[32] J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State, urged that the slave would be certainly
made to fight against them, if southerners failed to arm them for southern defense. He advocated also the
emancipation of those who would fight; if they should fight for southern freedom. According to Benjamin,
they were entitled to their own. In keeping with the necessity of increasing the army, the editor of a popular
newspaper in Charleston, South Carolina, was besought to commence a discussion on this point in his paper
so that "the people might learn the lesson which experience was sternly teaching."[33]
In a letter to President Davis, another argued that since the Negro had been used from the outset of the war to
defend the South by raising provisions for the army, that the sword and musket be put in his hands, and
concluding the correspondent added: "I would not make a soldier of the Negro if it could be helped, but we
are reduced to this last resort."[34] Sam Clayton of Georgia wrote: "The recruits should come from our
Negroes, nowhere else. We should away with pride of opinion, away with false pride, and[Pg 249] promptly
take hold of all the means God has placed within our reach to help us through this struggle—a war for
the right of self-government. Some people say that Negroes will not fight. I say they will fight. They fought at
Ocean Pond (Olustee, Fla.), Honey Hill and other places. The enemy fights us with Negroes, and they will do
very well to fight the Yankees."[35]
The pressure to fill the depleted ranks of the Confederate forces became greater as the war continued. It was
noted above that Congress and the State legislatures had called into service all able-bodied whites between the
ages of seventeen and fifty years; later the ages were extended both ways to sixteen and sixty years. Grant
remarked that the Confederates had robbed "the cradle and the grave" in order to fill the armies[36]. Jefferson
Davis began to see the futility of a hypothetical discussion as to the advisability or values in the use of
Negroes as soldiers and in a letter to John Forsythe, February, 1865, stated "that all arguments as to the
positive advantage or disadvantage of employing them are beside the question, which is simply one of relative
advantage between having their fighting element in our ranks or in those of the enemy."[37]
A strong recommendation for the use of Negroes as soldiers was sent to Senator Andrew Hunter at Richmond
by General Robert E. Lee, in January, 1865. "I think, therefore," said he, "we must decide whether slavery
shall be extinguished by our enemies and the slaves be used against us, or use them ourselves at the risk of the
effects which may be produced upon our social institutions. My own opinion is that we should employ them
without delay. I believe that with proper regulations they may be made efficient soldiers. They possess the
physical qualifications in a marked degree. Long habits of obedience and subordination[Pg 250] coupled with
the moral influence which in our country the white man possesses over the black, furnish an excellent
foundation for that discipline which is the best guaranty of military efficiency. Our chief aim should be to
secure their fidelity. There have been formidable armies composed of men having no interest in the cause for

which they fought beyond their pay or the hope of plunder. But it is certain that the surest foundation upon
which the fidelity of an army can rest, especially in a service which imposes hardships and privations, is the
personal interest of the soldier in the issue of the contest. Such an interest we can give our Negroes by giving
immediate freedom to all who enlist, and freedom at the end of the war to the families of those who discharge
their duties faithfully (whether they survive or not), together with the privilege of residing at the South. To
this might be added a bounty for faithful service."[38] This was an influential word, coming as it did from the
Commander-in-Chief of the Confederate forces. The Confederate Congress did not act immediately upon this
suggestion, but even if this had been done, the measure would have been enacted too late to be of any
avail.[39][Pg 251]
The Confederate Senate refused on February 7, 1865, to pass a resolution calling on the committee on military
affairs to report a bill to enroll Negro soldiers. Later in the same month the Senate indefinitely postponed the
measure.[40] As the House and Senate met in secret session much of the debate can not be found. General Lee
wrote Representative Barksdale of Mississippi another letter in which the employment of Negro soldiers was
declared not only expedient but necessary. He reiterated his opinion that they would make good soldiers as
had been shown in their employment in the Union armies.[41] With recommendations from General Lee and
Governor Smith of Virginia, and with the approval of President Davis an act was passed by the Congress,
March 13, 1865, enrolling slaves in the Confederate army.[42] Each State was to furnish a quota of the total
300,000.[43] The Preamble of the act reads as follows:
"An Act to increase the Military Force of the Confederate States: The Congress of the Confederate States of
America so enact, that, in order to provide additional forces to repel invasion, maintain the rightful possession
of the Confederate States, secure their independence and preserve their institution, the President be, and he is
hereby authorized to ask for and accept from the owners of slaves, the services of such number of able-bodied
Negro men as he may deem expedient, for and during the war, to perform military service in whatever
capacity he may direct...."[Pg 252] The language used in other sections of the act seems to imply also that
volunteering made one a freedman.[44]
After the passage of the measure by the Confederate Congress, General Lee coöperated in every way with the
War Department in facilitating the recruiting of Negro troops.[45] Recruiting officers were appointed in each
State. Lieutenant John L. Cowardin, Adjutant, 19th Batallion, Virginia Artillery was ordered to proceed on
April 1, 1865, to recruiting Negro troops according to the act. On March 30, 1865, Captain Edward Bostick
was ordered to raise four companies in South Carolina. Others were ordered to raise companies in Alabama,
Florida, and Virginia.[46] Lee and Johnson, however, surrendered before this plan could be carried out. If the
Confederate Congress could have accepted the recommendation in the fall of 1864, the war might have been
prolonged a few months, to say the least, by the use of the Negro troops. It was the opinion of President
Davis, on learning of the passage of the act, that not so much was accomplished as would have been, if the act
had been passed earlier so that during the winter the slaves could have been drilled and made ready for the
spring campaign of 1865.
Under the guidance of the local authorities, thousands of Negroes were enlisted in the State Militias and in the
Confederate Army. They served with satisfaction, but there is no evidence that they took part in any important
battles. The Confederate Government at first could not bring itself to acknowledge the right or the ability of
the man who had been a slave to serve with the white man as a soldier. Necessity forced the acceptance of the
Negro as a soldier. In spite of the long years of controversy with its arguments of racial inferiority,[47] out of
the muddle of[Pg 253] fact and fancy came the deliberate decision to employ Negro troops. This act, in itself,
as a historical fact, refuted the former theories of southern statesmen. The Negro was thus a factor in both the
Union and Confederate armies in the War of the Rebellion. These facts lead to the conclusion that the Negro
is an American not only because he lives in America, but because his life is closely connected with every
important movement in American history.

Charles H. Wesley.
Footnotes:
[1] Davis, The Civil War and Reconstruction in Florida, p. 220.
[2] For summary of such, legislation to prevent this, see J.C. Kurd, The Law of Freedom and Bondage in the
United States, Vol. II. In Florida, 1827, a law was enacted to prevent trading with Negroes. In 1828, death was
declared the penalty for inciting insurrection among the slaves and in 1840 there was passed an act prohibiting
the use of firearms by Negroes. In Virginia as early as 1748 there was enacted a measure declaring that even
the free Negroes and Indians enlisted in the militia should appear without arms; but in 1806 the law was
modified to provide that free Negroes should not carry arms without first obtaining a license from the county
or corporation court. One who was caught with firearms in spite of this act was to forfeit the weapon to the
informer and receive thirty-nine lashes at the whipping-post. Hening, Statutes-at-Large, Vol. V, p. 17; Vol.
XVI, p. 274.
[3] General W. S. Harney, commanding in Missouri, responded to the claims of slaveholders for the return of
runaway slaves with the words: "Already, since the commencement of these unhappy disturbances, slaves
have escaped from their owners and have sought refuge in the camps of the United States troops from the
Northern States, and commanded by a Northern General. They were carefully sent back to their owners."
General D. C. Buell, commanding in Tennessee, in reply to the same demands stated: "Several applications
have been made to me by persons whose servants have been found in our camps; and in every instance that I
know of, the master has removed his servant and taken him away." William Wells Brown, The Negro in the
Rebellion, pp. 57-58.
[4] Secretary Seddon, War Department, wrote: "They [the Negroes] have, besides, the homes they value, the
families they love, and the masters they respect and depend on to defend and protect against the savagery and
devastation of the enemy."—Official Rebellion Records, Series IV, Vol. Ill, pp. 761-762.
[5] Governor Walker of Florida, himself a former slaveholder, said before the State legislature in 1865 that
"the world had never seen such a body of slaves, for not only in peace but in war they had been faithful to us.
During much of the time of the late unhappy difficulties, Florida had a greater number of men in her army
than constituted her entire voting population. This, of course, stripped many districts of their arms-bearing
inhabitants and left our females and infant children almost exclusively to the protection of our slaves. They
proved true to their trust. Not one instance of insult, outrage, or indignity has ever come to my knowledge.
They remained at home and made provisions for the army." John Wallace, Carpet-Bag Rule in Florida, p. 23.
[6] "For more than two years, Negroes had been extensively employed in belligerent operations by the
Confederacy. They had been embodied and drilled as rebel soldiers and had paraded with white troops at a
time when this would not have been tolerated in the armies of the Union."—Greely, The American
Conflict, Vol. II, p. 524.
"It was a notorious fact that the enemy were using Negroes to build fortifications, drive teams and raise food
for the army. Black hands piled up the sand-bags and raised the batteries which drove Anderson out of
Sumter. At Montgomery, the Capital of the Confederacy, Negroes were being drilled and armed for military
duty."—W. W. Brown, The Negro in the Rebellion, p. 59.
[7] Ibid., Vol. II, p. 521.
[8] Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary, Vol. I, p. 237; Schwab, The Confederate States of America, p. 194.
Footnotes: 143
[9] Laws of Florida, 12th Session, 1862, Chap. 1378.
[10] Confederate War Department, Bureau of Conscription, Circular No. 36, December 12, 1864. Off. Reds.
Reb., Series IV, Vol. III, p. 933.
[11] Off. Reds. Reb., Series IV, Vol. Ill, p. 780. Journals of Congress, IV, 260.
[12] Washington, The Story of the Negro, Vol. II, p. 321.
[13] Order No. 426. Adjutant-General's Office, Headquarters Louisiana Militia, March 24, 1862. Cf. Brown,
The Negro in the Rebellion, pp. 84-85.
[14] Parton, History of the Administration of the Gulf, 1862-1864; General Butler in New Orleans, p. 517.
[15] Greely, The American Conflict, p. 521.
[16] The Charleston Mercury, January 3, 1861.
[17] The announcement of the recruiting read: "Attention, volunteers: Resolved by the Committee of Safety
that C. Deloach, D. R. Cook and William B. Greenlaw be authorized to organize a volunteer company
composed of our patriotic free men of color, of the city of Memphis, for the service of our common defense.
All who have not enrolled their names will call at the office of W. B. Greenlaw & Co."
F. W. Forsythe, Secretary. F. Titus, President.
Williams, History of the Negro, Vol. II, p. 277.
[18] Greely, The American Conflict, Vol. II, p. 521.
[19] Memphis Avalanche, September 3, 1861.
[21] Ibid., p. 277.
[22] Ibid., Vol. II, p. 522.
[23] The Baltimore Traveler, February 4, 1862.
[25] Schwab, The Confederate States of America, p. 193. Moore, Rebellion Records, Vol. VII, p. 210. Jones,
Diary, Vol. I, p. 381.
[26] An indorsement from the Secretary of War reads: "If all white men capable of bearing arms are put in the
field, it would be as large a draft as a community could continuously sustain, and whites are better soldiers
than Negroes. For war, when existence is staked, the best material should be used."—Off. Reds. Rebell.,
Series IV, Vol. III, pp. 693-694.
[27] Off. Reds. Rebell., Series IV, Vol. III, p. 799.
Footnotes: 144
[28] Ibid., Series IV, Vol. III, p. 846. J. A. Seddon to Maj. E. B. Briggs, Nov. 24, 1864.
[29] Ibid., Series IV, Vol. III, p. 1009.
[30] Off. Reds. Rebell., Series I, Vol. XXVIII, Pt. 2, p. 13.
[31] Ibid., Series I, Vol. LII, Pt. 2, p. 598.
[32] Davis, Civil War and Reconstruction in Florida, p. 226.
[33] Off. Reds. Rebell., Series IV, Vol. III, pp. 959-960.
[34] Ibid., p. 227.
[35] Off. Reds. Rebell., Series IV, Vol. III, pp. 1010-1011.
[36] Rhodes, History of the United States since the Compromise of 1850, Vol. IV, p. 525.
[37] Off. Reds. Rebell., Series IV, Vol. VIII, p. 1110.
[38] Off. Reds. Rebell., Series IV, Vol. VIII, p. 1013.
[39] Williams, Negro Troops in the War of the Rebellion, Journals of Congress, Vol. IV, pp. 572-573.
In the American Historical Review, January, 1913, N.W. Stephenson has an article upon "The Question of
Arming the Slaves." The article is concerned particularly with the debate in the Confederate Congress upon
this perplexing question and with the psychology of the statements made by President Davis, Secretary
Benjamin, General Lee and by various Congressmen. The author has searched the Journals of the Confederate
Congress, newspaper files and personal recollections and gives conclusions which show that "the subject was
discussed during the last winter of the Confederate regime," and by inference the dissertation shows that the
fear of the consequences of arming the slaves was alike in the minds of all southern people. The treatise is a
study in historical psychology; and, as in similar works by men of the type of the author, the point of view of
the South and of the Confederacy is presented and the Negro and his actual employment as a soldier is
neglected. The author contends that a few southern leaders attempted to force the arming of the blacks upon
an unwilling southern public. He neglects the evidence contained in the action of local authorities in arming
the Negroes who were free and their attitude concerning those who were slaves. He neglects also the
sentiment of southern leaders who favored the measure. The Journals of the Confederate Congress, therefore,
will be more valuable to those desiring information concerning the debates on this question.
[40] Journal of Congress of Confederate States, Vol. IV, p. 528 and Vol. VII, p. 595; Jones, Diary, Vol. II, p.
431.
[41] Richmond Dispatch, February 24, 1865; Jones Diary, Vol. II, p. 432.
[42] Journal of Congress of Confederate States, Vol. VII, p. 748.
[43] Richmond Examiner, December 9, 1864—Gov. Smith's Message. Jones, Diary, Vol. II, p. 43; pp.
432-433. Schwab, The Confederate States of America, p. 194.
[44] Off. Reds. Rebell., Series IV, Vol. III, p. 1161.
Footnotes: 145
Ibid., Series III, Vol. V, pp. 711-712; Davis, Confederate Government, Vol. II, p. 660.
[45] Rhodes, History of U. S., Vol. V, 1864-1865, p. 81.
[46] Off. Reds. Rebell., Series IV, Vol. III, pp. 1193-1194 and Appendix.
[47] Cf. Southern Correspondence throughout the Rebellion Records.
[Pg 254]
THE LEGAL STATUS OF FREE NEGROES AND SLAVES IN

TENNESSEE
In 1790, the free colored population of Tennessee was 361, while the slave numbered 3,417.[1] In 1787, three
years previous, Davidson County, which then, as now, comprised the most important and thickly settled part
of the Cumberland Valley, had a population of 105 Negroes between the ages of 1 and 60.[2] Nashville was
just a rough community in the wilderness with a few settlers from the older districts of the East, living in
several hewed and framed log-houses and twenty or more rough cabins. The census of 1790 gives Davidson
County 677 Negroes, a figure which compared with the 3,778 Negroes in the entire State at that enumeration,
means that this frontier region had already grown important enough to draw to it nearly one-fifth of the Negro
population of the commonwealth. In 1800, there were in the State 13,893 Negroes, of whom 3,104, or nearly
one fourth, were in Davidson County. Thereafter, although the ratio between the county and State did not
increase in favor of the county, still it kept up so that by 1850 Davidson had the largest Negro population of
any county in the State. During the decade 1850-60 Shelby County, containing the important center,
Memphis, gained the ascendency in number of Negro inhabitants, which it has since that time maintained. The
likely cause of this shifting was the steady growth of cotton-raising districts and their rapid expansion toward
the West and South. A general intimidation of the Negroes of Nashville and vicinity occurred in 1856,
probably having some influence on the decline of population for that period in question. This cause, however,
is not sufficient to explain the constant[Pg 255] superiority of numbers in the Southwestern Tennessee region
thereafter.
As slavery expanded from this small territory into all parts of the State, the attitude of the people of the
Commonwealth with respect to the nation and slavery at various times may be shown. After Tennessee had
been ceded to the United States in 1790 by North Carolina, she had a most unusual method of throwing off
her territorial government for nearly three months in 1796, and existed in absolute independence for that
period before being admitted into statehood by the Federal Government.[3] Nevertheless in the period of the
Civil War this State was the last to secede and the first to comply with the terms of readmission. With respect
to slavery the early attitude of Tennessee toward the national government was peculiar. The cession act of
North Carolina provided: "That no regulation made or to be made by Congress shall tend to emancipate
slaves."[4] Probably because of this fact Lincoln did not mention Tennessee in the Emancipation
Proclamation.
Yet Tennessee did have a strong anti-slavery sentiment, beginning with the outspoken protest of some of the
King's Mountain heroes, also expressing itself in the work of many petitioners to the State legislature in the
period 1800-1820. Then in 1834, in the State constitutional convention of that year, the anti-slavery feeling
developed to proportions little appreciable at the present day, since we know the general opposition to such
feeling and sentiment. Any antagonism to a so strongly fixed social convention then meant unusual courage in
the midst of a majority of persons of adverse opinion.
THE LEGAL STATUS OF FREE NEGROES AND SLAVES IN TENNESSEE 146

The burning question of human rights for the black inhabitants of the State still became more ardent as the
years passed, and the signs of its greater intensity were clearly seen in the Anti-Slavery Convention which met
in London in 1843. The chronicle of proceedings contains a speech[Pg 256] of Joshua Leavitt of Boston, who
made the interesting statement that "The people of East Tennessee, a race of hardy mountaineers, find their
interests so little regarded by the dominant slave-holders of other parts of the state that they are taking
measures to become a separate state. They are holding anti-slavery meetings, and meetings of political
associations with great freedom, discussing their questions, rousing up the people and showing how slavery
curses them, in order to bring them to the point of action."[5] At this time it was well known that both
Tennessee and Kentucky were "exporting slaves largely."[6]
In 1820, Elihu Embree,[7] at Jonesboro, Tennessee, the county seat of Washington County, in the far eastern
section, began to publish The Emancipator, an abolition journal. Later, there came from this same county a
man who easily became the leader of anti-slavery sentiment in the Constitutional Convention of 1834 at
Nashville, Matthew Stephenson. It may have been that as a young man Stephenson was fired with the zeal of
Embree. The period of Embree's activity was also one of large interest in the North and South in behalf of
emancipation. In this same year the Missouri Compromise was passed in the national legislature. The
concessions made both by pro-slavery and anti-slavery adherents at this time show the relative strength of the
two forces and the remarkable fact is that there could be such near-equality of fighting strength on both
sides.[8] Tennessee seems to have had an epitome of this national situation within her borders. Not only the
zealous work of Embree indicates this, but the general feeling of the people of eastern Tennessee toward
slavery. It is interesting here to point out that The Emancipator was the first abolition journal in the United
States.[9]
The outcome of this anti-slavery feeling in Tennessee[Pg 257] was that when the State Constitutional
Convention met at Nashville in 1834 to consider important changes in the Constitution of 1796, there was
such an outburst of sentiment against slavery that it was only with considerable resistance of the pro-slavery
convention delegates that the State did not abolish it by providing for the gradual emancipation of slaves over
a period of twenty years, when all should have been emancipated.[10] So significant is the public opinion of
that time in Tennessee history, and so well calculated to give large insight into the Negro's condition then in
the State, that it will hardly be amiss in this paper to enter into a somewhat detailed discussion of the work of
the convention, and the sentiments there displayed.
The legal enactments of the slave code of Tennessee prior to 1834 will give us the right perspective here. One
of the earliest enactments of the commonwealth was the absolute denial to slaves of the right to own property.
Property held by them, such as horses, cattle, or anything of personal value was to be sold and one half of the
proceeds given to the informer, the other half to the county.[11] Another law forbade the slave to go about
armed unless he was the huntsman of the plantation. Small penalties were provided.[12] Still another made it
unlawful for slaves to sell "any article whatever without permission from owner or overseer." The penalty for
breaking this law was a maximum of "39 lashes on his, her, or their bare backs."[13] Many other matters were
rigidly prescribed in the early statutes, chiefly concerning the slave's right to go or not to go from place to
place, and to conduct himself under certain circumstances. Among slaves perjury was punished by mutilation
and whipping. The brutality of the former was all the more disgusting because defended by law.[14] The
slaying of a black or mulatto slave, however, was actually[Pg 258] deemed murder and made punishable with
death. It has not yet been ascertained, as far as the writer knows, whether any white citizen of Tennessee was
ever indicted under the provision of this law. We do have a case of a famous old slave-holder in a community
not far from Nashville being tied to his gate post and severely whipped by his neighbors, because of his brutal
murder of one of his slaves.[15]
In the early laws the "hiring of one's own time," for a slave, was expressly forbidden. This practice was that of
the master's allowing a slave to purchase his time for a certain amount of money, usually paid per annum. The
law forbidding it was later rather generally evaded, although we cannot be sure of the evasion during the years

1796-1834. But during the later decades of the period under discussion, especially from 1840-60, there is
absolute agreement among the testimonies of ex-slaves that evasion was the rule and not the exception.
Various forms of this law were later enacted, but the penalties were usually light, and it may have been this
fact together with the case of evasion that caused the disregard of it to become general. An ex-slave of Wilson
County explains that the usual method of evasion was the declaration of the employer of the slave that he had
hired the slave from the slave's master. Sometimes the owner would pretend to keep the wages of the slave,
but really was holding them at the slave's disposal. In this way numbers of slaves bought themselves.
There were other laws affecting masters in regard to their treatment of their slaves and privileges of the latter.
One provided that if the slave should steal food or clothing because ill-fed or destitute of apparel, the master
should pay for the stolen property.[16] By the provisions of another, slaves were allowed to give testimony in
trials of[Pg 259] other slaves; the jurors, however, had to be "housekeepers" and "owners of slaves."[17] The
beating or abuse of a slave without sufficient cause (no indication given as to what were the limits of
"sufficient cause") was an indictable offence, and the person committing a crime of this sort was liable to the
same penalties as for the commission of a similar offense on the body of a white person.[18]
Various laws of the early codes, 1813, 1819, 1829, restricting the slave from selling or vending articles under
conditions apart from desire or knowledge of his owner are all evidence of his complete subjection by law to
the will of his master, even in the smallest things and affairs of personal life, and disposal of belongings. Great
care was taken to state specifically in these early laws that there should be no sale of liquor or any intoxicant
to slaves.[19]
The provisions concerning larger questions of a slave's activity and privilege are all interesting, and it will be
of value to regard, first of all, that for bringing slaves into the State. Slaves were not to be brought into
Tennessee unless for use, or procured by descent, devise, or marriage.[20] This enactment was made in 1826,
and prepared the way for far more severe measures later. The idea of all legislation of this nature argues
clearly the discouragement of slavery as a prevailing institution, by means of preventing fresh importations for
sale. Tennessee was not to be, if it could be prevented, a slave market, like Mississippi.
A citizen holding slaves might petition the county court and emancipate a slave. Bond and security were
required of the owner, and the slave thus set at liberty became free to go where he chose provided that, if he
became a pauper, he should be brought to the county in which he had been set free, and there taken care of at
public expense.[21] But occasionally there would arise a situation which required[Pg 260] special enactment
of the legislature as in the instance of one, Pompey Daniels, a slave, who died before the emancipation of his
two children, Jeremiah and Julius, whom he had purchased. This required a special act of the legislature, as
there seems to have been no law covering such a case.[22] Years before, in 1801, there was enacted a law,
giving power of emancipation to the owner, as we have just seen before, but not to any slave who might essay
to deliver another from bondage.[23]
Once free, the Negro's status was rather precarious in some respects. He was required to have papers filled out
by the clerk of the county in which he lived, specifying personal details and information intended to identify
the person thoroughly. He must without fail have these emancipation records with him at any time and place
in order to prove his freedom. In 1831 a law was passed which made it obligatory for the slave to leave upon
his emancipation, and persons intending to emancipate their slaves were then compelled to give bond for their
speedy removal.[24] Another clause of the same law stipulates that free Negroes should not be allowed to
enter the State.[25] Fine and imprisonment were specified as penalties for remaining in the State as long as
twenty days. This was a reaction from the provisions of State laws of 1825 when free colored persons
immigrating into the State might have papers of freedom registered there, when proof of their absolute
freedom had been made. Before the enactment of 1831, the increase of free Negroes was not so actively
discouraged by the State, and many having their residence there, the laws concerning this class were quite as
important and nearly as well detailed as the provisions of the slave code.

Among the early laws is one exacting a penalty of $500[Pg 261] fine for selling a "free person of color."[26]
A free person imported and sold as a slave under the law might recover double the price of his sale from the
seller, who might be held until he should give bond.[27] This marks a high degree of feeling of justice toward
the freeman, and yet it is worthy of notice that this was not always adequate to obtaining actual justice.
Record is given of three young colored men, seamen and free, "carried to Mobile and New Orleans in the
steamer New Castle and taken ashore by the captain to the city prison on pretext of getting hemp for the
vessel, but really taken by the captain to the city prison as his slaves and sold by the jailor to three persons
who carried them into Tennessee."[28] It is further stated that these unfortunates remained in slavery. One,
however, was freed by the diligent work of the Friends, who had agents in the South busy gathering
information concerning slavery, and planning means of combating it.
The free person of color was exempted from military duty and from the payment of a poll-tax. In accordance
with an amendment to the Public Works act of 1804, he was expected to give service on public roads and
highways just as other citizens.[29] It is doubtful whether any freeman of color voted under the constitution of
1796, but it seems to have been possible. The new constitution of 1834 restricted the right of voting to "free
men who should be competent witnesses against a white man in a court of justice." In the courts free Negroes
were legal witnesses in certain cases among their own people, but might themselves be testified against by
slaves, even, if the defendants were only freedmen.[30] Otherwise slaves were not allowed to be witnesses
against free men of color. Writs of error were granted to both freemen and slaves.
There were numerous small observances regarding the[Pg 262] personal conduct of freemen. Life was at best
for them a strange and circumscribed affair. They were "neither bond nor free," and probably suffered more
from the provisions of the law and their ambiguous position than did their slave brothers. The freeman was
not to entertain any slave over night in his home, or on the Sabbath. A small fine was the penalty.[31]
Intermarriage of free persons and slaves without consent of the master of the slave was strictly forbidden.
Breach of this law, also, was punishable by fine. There were penalties for whites and free Negroes alike for
being in "unlawful assembly" with slaves. The word "unlawful" here seems to have had a special judicial
meaning, signifying primarily for the purpose of instigating rebellion or insurrection. A law providing for
voluntary enslavement of a free person of color, to any person whom he might choose, introduces a most
interesting situation which probably indicates that there were more than a few free Negroes who preferred
slavery to the condition of a creature living in a sort of limbo between freedom and bondage.
By an act of the legislature in 1819, encouragement was given to European immigrants to come into the State,
with the idea that they would become home builders and land-tillers, and make good citizens. The colored
population already had a general reputation for thrift, but the sentiment of racial sympathy in the white
population just then favored more the immigrant. For a period the tide of public opinion was on this side, and
it was considered best for the Negro to be taken in charge by the Tennessee Colonization Society. The State
appropriated $10 for every black man removed from the State, an expense finally sanctioned by a law of
1833.[32]
Two years prior to the year of the Tennessee Constitutional Convention of 1834, Virginia in her State
Legislature, had witnessed an exciting scene of debate on the question[Pg 263] of slavery. In the District of
Columbia, also, there was sent to Congress in the session of 1827-28 a petition requesting the "prospective
abolition" of slavery in that district, and the repeal of certain laws authorizing the sale of runaways. Similarly
in Tennessee the outbreak of antislavery sentiment, long fostered in the eastern part of the State, came into the
Convention of 1834. The few details presented here concerning the convention show conclusively that there
was a strong, even violent opposition to human slavery in the State. Certain representatives of counties from
East Tennessee were conspicuous for their protest against the system, and maintained their convictions despite
the failure to win their point at that time.

Many memorialists in the State had addressed the legislature on the question of emancipation both pro and
con prior to the convention, and finally, in the convention, on June 18, Wm. Blount of Montgomery County,
Northern Tennessee, offered a memorial that on the subject of slavery the General Assembly should have no
power or authority to pass laws for the emancipation of slaves without the consent of their owners or without
paying their owners.[33] The memorial further prayed that, the legislature should not discourage the foreign
immigration into the State and that certain laws providing for the owners of slaves to emancipate them should
be made with the restriction that beforehand such manumitted persons should be assuredly prevented from
becoming a charge to any county.
There were presented other memorials respecting the slave population at this time. Hess, of Gibson and Dyer
counties, wanted no emancipation of slaves except by individual disposition of their masters as the latter saw
fit, or at least never unless the price of the slave was paid, provided the master did not freely give
manumission, and the good of the State seemed to demand the liberation of the slave. But memorials of a
different sentiment also were coming in. On May 26, McNeal presented a memorial of[Pg 264] sundry
citizens of McMinn County, asking for the emancipation of slaves in Tennessee, and on the same date, Senter
of Rhea County also brought a petition from "sundry citizens" of his district asking for emancipation.[34] On
the 28th, a memorial was given by Stephenson of Washington County from citizens unhesitatingly favoring
emancipation. It was read and tabled.
On May 30, Stephenson introduced a resolution to have a committee of thirteen, one from each congressional
district "appointed to take in consideration the propriety of designating some period from which slavery shall
not be tolerated in this state, and that all memorials on that subject that have or may be presented to the
convention be referred to said committee to consider and report thereon."[35] This resolution passed without
trouble.
Stephenson was conspicuous for adherence to emancipation principles. It will be observed that he came from
Washington County, in the far eastern portion of the State, the region already famous for its declaration of
enmity toward slavery within Tennessee borders especially. An article in the Knoxville Register of the year
1831, just a few years prior to this Nashville Convention, denounces slavery in no uncertain terms, but also
grows bitter at the thought of free men of color even remaining in the State. "Shall Tennessee" it asks, "be
made the receptacle of the vicious and desperate slave as well as the depraved and corrupting free man of
color?"[36]
But while a great number of those of East Tennessee probably wanted the abolition of slavery in order to rid
the State of all people of color, there were those who through their delegates expressed their opinions
otherwise in this convention, as has been intimated in the three memorials from "sundry citizens" of
Washington and McMinn and Rhea Counties. Finally, the report of the Committee of Thirteen was given by
John A. McKinney, of Hawkins[Pg 265] County. It will be noted as an exception to the rule that this
representative of an eastern county did not vigorously stand for the emancipation of the slave, but in his report
spoke at length to attempt the justification of the system prevailing at that time in the State. Some of the most
interesting points of his argument are: that slavery is an evil, but hard to remove, that the physiognomy of the
slave is the great barrier to successful adjustment socially as far as white citizens think and feel, that the
condition of the free man of color is tragic, that beset with temptations, and denied his oath in a court of
justice, he is unable to have wrongs of whites against him redressed, that any interference with slavery at this
time would cause a speedy removal of Tennessee population since slave-owners would seek other States with
their slaves, and that if Tennessee should free all her slaves, there would be a greater concentration of all the
slaves of the United States, giving slaves more advantage in case of uprising.
Since the slave population in 1830 was 142,530, a fair estimate for 1834 would be 150,000, and this host of
newly-made freedmen, thought he, would jeopardize the social safety of the white population of Tennessee,
and incite the slave inhabitants of adjoining States to sedition. Slavery would not always exist, he believed,

but Tennessee could abolish it then without dire results. Colonization was difficult, but possible and
practicable.
This report was given on June 19. A few days later a motion was made by a Bedford County delegate to strike
out that part of the report referring to the condition of the free man of color as "tragic." This did not prevail.
Still later Stephenson in a set speech protested vigorously against the acceptance of the report of the
Committee of Thirteen. He declared that the report was "an apology for slavery," and did not show the
convention willing to discharge its duty to the memorialists, and to the people whose protests could not there
be heard. His principal argument was that the principles guiding this committee[Pg 266] in its decision were
subversive of the principles of true republicanism; that they were also against the principles of the Bible.
Since the committee had admitted the evil of slavery, he contended, the failure to find a remedy is unworthy
of the representatives of the people of the State. He maintained that there is no soundness in the argument that
because of the physical differences, the black man should be deprived of the "common rights of man," and
that it is not better to have slavery distributed over a large area of country than to concentrate it, if slavery is
an evil, since the spread of any evil cannot be better than its limitation.[37]
As an indirect blow at any possible suffrage right of any persons of color under the new constitution, Marr,
delegate from Weakley and Obion, introduced a resolution at this time intended to restrict suffrage
permanently and definitely to white males, specifically prohibiting all "mulattoes, negroes, and Indians." This
was referred to the committee of the whole, but, oddly enough, failed of adoption.[38] The intermittent debate
on the subject of emancipation, led on the one side by Stephenson, and on the other by McKinney, was
resumed a few days later when the latter gave an additional report. He stated that the memorials with their
signatures had been examined and the names attached to them had numbered 1804 in all. 105 purported to be
slave-holders, said he, but by inquiry the committee had ascertained that the aggregate number of slaves in
their possession was not greater than 500. He admitted that there were several counties from which memorials
had come, but charged that there had been a signing of more than one memorial in some counties by the same
persons, so that there was a doubling of names without a proportional increase of individual signers. He
depreciated Stephenson's statement that these memorials had come from almost every part of the State as
ill-founded; for the sixteen counties of Tennessee which had sent representatives[Pg 267] with memorials
favorable to the idea of emancipation were not from widely scattered portions of the State. Only five extended
westward beyond the longitude of Chattanooga, and there were none of the more western counties
represented. The two sections of the State seemed to bear no hostility toward each other, but decidedly
disagreed on the slavery question. The question was largely an economic one with the Tennesseans of the
Mississippi Valley. Cotton was coming into greater and greater importance every year. It could, they thought,
be most profitably raised by large groups of workmen whose labor was cheap. The slave was the logical
person, and they fastened on him the burden.
Lest the impression has been made that the only portion of the State from which the sentiment of an
anti-slavery nature came was East Tennessee, it will be well to refer to the vigorous speech of Kincaid, a
delegate from Bedford County, who flung a parting reply to the friends and sympathizers of the Committee of
Thirteen which had succeeded in thwarting any official action upon the matter proposed by the
memorialists.[39] Bedford County, in the central portion of the State, represented both economically and
socially a type of citizen different from that of the mountaineer stock. Yet Kincaid fearlessly defended the
plain human rights of the colored population in his speech as much as Stephenson had done, and scathingly
denounced the Committee of Thirteen for its attitude toward slavery.
The pro-slavery faction, however, successfully contended that the emancipation party had no definite plan for
emancipation, as those in Washington County and other districts were divided in their ideas on this subject.
There were about thirty memorials besides the one from this county, one half of them asking that all children
born in the State after 1835 should be free and that all slaves should be freed in 1855 and sent out of the State.
The other half of the memorials favored making the slaves free in 1866 and having them[Pg 268] colonized.

As a matter of fact, Tennessee did emancipate its slaves three years earlier than this date. By the Committee of
Thirteen these statements were given to show that there could be no virtue in acting in accord with the wishes
of the memorialists, as they were hopelessly divided in their recommendations. The report of the committee
was tabled, but the debate was by no means ended. Further detail is not of use to us here save to point out that
there was no vote in the matter and that Stephenson bitterly upbraided the convention as a whole, stating that
it had not made an effort to answer the prayer of the memorialists. The survey of this prolonged and
unprofitable struggle shows how divided were the people of Tennessee on the question of abolishing
slavery.[40]
Later in the convention there occurred some incidents which throw light on the situation of the Negro. The
Bill of Rights in the amended constitution, sec. 26, provided: "That free white men of this state have a right to
keep and bear arms in their own defence."[41] A delegate from Sevier County objected to the word "white"
and moved that it be stricken from the record. Another member from Green County moved that the word
"citizens" be inserted instead of "free white men," but this was rejected by a vote of 19 to 30, Stephenson and
and others from East Tennessee voting with the ayes, and the Committee of Thirteen with others defeating the
motion. A resolution was then brought forward by a delegate from Dyer County intended to prohibit the
general assembly from having power to pass laws for the emancipation of slaves without consent of
owners.[42] Immediately a memorialist sympathizer moved to lay this on the table until January, 1835. His
effort was lost, and the resolution passed. Thus was the day completely won for the anti-emancipation faction.
There had been considerable discussion as to the status of free men of color, and although one provision of the
constitution[Pg 269] seemed to give the right of suffrage to all free men, yet there was a restriction limiting
the privilege of voting to those who were "competent witnesses in a court of justice against a white
person."[43] One commentator upon his unusual provision observes that one cannot tell how many Negroes
were entitled to vote under this provision.[44] But whatever present-day students may make of this, it was
recognized by the members of this convention that the free Negro had no suffrage right, for near the close of
the convention there was submitted a resolution providing that since "free men of color were denied suffrage
by the constitution," the apportionment of senators and representatives from their respective districts should
be based on the white population alone.[45] The revised constitution contains this provision, but with different
wording.
The general tendency of the whole body of legal enactments in the period 1834-65 was toward restricting the
slave more and more, and at the same time, eliminating the element known as free Negroes. Probably this had
an effect upon the percentage of free Negroes in the total population as seen in the years 1820 and 1850. The
national percentage for these years in question was in each case six tenths of one per cent.[46] But as the total
Negro population increased despite the migration southward from Tennessee, the ratio for Tennessee in 1820
was 3 per cent, and for 1850, 2.4 per cent, a period of greater repression, showing decrease, although very
slight.
A general law of 1839 forbade the slave to act as a free person, that is, to hire his own time from his master, or
to have merchandisable property and trade therewith.[47] Runaways were to be punished by being made to
labor on the streets or alleys of towns, as well as by imprisonment.[Pg 270] Several laws show the tendency to
class free Negroes with slaves by stating that all capital offences for slaves were also capital offences for free
Negroes.[48] Another plainly provides that all offences made capital in the code of that time for slaves, should
also be capital for "free persons of color."[49] Further, "no free person of color might keep a grocery or
tippling house" under pain of a heavy fine. It will be seen that the attitude thus was plainly more and more
adverse to the free Negro. An act of 1842 had made it possible to amend all laws relating to "free persons of
color," and this was freely done.[50]
Free Negroes of "good character," either resident in the State prior to 1836 or having removed to the State
before that year, and preferring, in their respective county courts, petitions to remain in the same, might do so,

but otherwise must leave the State under severe penalties of imprisonment and hard labor, as provided under
the law of 1831, prior to the new constitution. The subjects of this legal provision were to renew this court
proceeding every three years, under the same penalty for failing to perform the renewal.[51] The laws of
registry of free Negroes were kept in force and made, if anything, more rigid. One provision of these
enactments was that there should be in the registration papers specification of any "peculiar physical marks on
the person" so registered.[52] This practice, defended by law, is exceedingly interesting to the student who
compares it with what has long been common knowledge regarding the practices of slave-buyers in the
markets. And here we have a measure of the complete humiliation of the "free person of color," for every free
Negro or mulatto residing in any county of the State was compelled to undergo this examination before
officers of the county court and be duly registered thereafter as a free person.[53][Pg 271]
As might be expected, the law of 1831 was followed up by enactments strictly requiring the emancipation of
slaves, when allowed by the State, to be followed closely by the removal of the freedmen from the State. Also
instructions for the transportation of certain Negroes to Africa were given in the same code. Those who had
acquired freedom after 1836, or who should do so, together with slaves successfully suing for freedom, also
free Negroes unable to give bond for good behavior although having right to reside in the State, were all to be
transported to Africa, unless they went elsewhere out of the State, according to provision by law.[54]
The word "mulatto" is found often in the laws of this period, showing that this type was becoming an
important factor in the race relations of white and black. As far as is known, there is no way of obtaining even
the approximate proportion of white mothers to white fathers, but because of the overwhelming evidence by
personal testimony of ex-slaves as to the relations of the masters and overseers of plantations to the slave
women, and the corresponding power of the dominant race to prevent, at least in large degree, similar physical
marriages between Negroes and the women of their race, we may be said rightly to infer that the proportion of
white mothers of colored offspring to white fathers was then, as it has always been, very small. In Maryland,
according to Brackett, the child of a white father and a mulatto slave could not give testimony in court against
a white person, whereas the child of a white mother and a black man would be disqualified in this regard only
during his term of service.[55] "A free mulatto was good evidence," says he, "against a white person."[56]
The mulatto of Tennessee had no such social or legal position as either of these cases indicate, although here
again personal testimony brings to light notable exceptions of the[Pg 272] social behavior of individuals in
certain localities, where this type, that is, the colored offspring of white motherhood, was regarded as a
separate class, above the ordinary person of color.[57]
It is likely that in East Tennessee there was considerable prevalence of such amalgamation of African and
Scotch-Irish race stocks, with white motherhood.[58] The reasons were largely economic. Many of the whites
who came to live in the lower farm lands down from their first holdings on the rocky slopes and unfertile soil,
were driven from these more productive lowlands by the rich white land owners who preferred to have large
plantations with great numbers of blacks to raise the crops, rather than to rent or sell to small farmers. For
these poorer white neighbors there was no recourse but to take to the mountains and to cultivate there the less
desirable lands. The life they had to live was necessarily very rough and hard; their principal diet was corn,
and often the rocky soil only yielded them that grudgingly and scantily. They frequently came in contact with
the slaves, and the latter were known to steal provisions from their masters' storehouses and bring to these
hill-country people appetizing additions to their meager provisions. And the slaves were also known to mingle
with them in the quilting, husking, barn-raisings, and other rural festivities, being undoubtedly made
welcome. It requires no immoderate imagination to state here the likelihood of much racial intermixure, as we
know, from testimony, of more than a few specific cases, and we have, in this rather strange way, the account
of social intermingling and the secret gifts of the black men who visited these mountain homes.
William Lloyd Imes.
Philadelphia, Pa.

Footnotes:
[1] Compendium, U. S. Census (1870), pp. 13-15.
[2] The Nashville American, "City of Nashville" booklet, p. 20.
[3] Garrett and Goodpasture, History of Tennessee, pp. 249 sqq.
[4] Ibid., pp. 245-246.
[5] Proceedings of the Anti-Slavery Convention, London, 1843.
[6] Ibid., p. 300.
[7] See paper of E. E. Hoss, Tenn. Hist. Soc., Nashville.
[8] Greely, Horace, The American Conflict, p. 79, New York, 1864.
[9] Journal of The Constitutional Convention, State of Tennessee, 1834.
[10] Journal of Constitutional Convention, 1834.
[11] Haywood and Cobb, Statute Laws of Tenn., 1779, Ch. 5.
[12] Ibid., 1741, Ch. 21.
[13] Ibid., 1788, Ch. 7.
[14] Ibid., 1799, Ch. 9.
[15] R. T. Q., Jr., State Archives, Capitol Library, Tennessee.
[16] This is most natural, of course, but is inserted to emphasize the absolute quality of ownership, for the
master was held responsible for the deed just as if he himself had committed it, and the slaves were morally
irresponsible. But for other breaches of social good conduct the slave was the direct victim of the penalty, thus
at once being slave and man, property and human being.
[17] Statute Laws of Tenn., 1819, Chap. 35.
[18] Acts, 2d Session Gen. Assembly (Knoxville), 1809.
[19] Statute Laws, 1813, Chap. 135.
[20] Ibid., 1826, Ch. 22, Sec. 1.
[21] Ibid., 1801, Ch. 27, Sec. 1.
[22] Acts of Gen. Assembly (Tenn.), 1822, Ch. 102.
[23] Cf. 1 and 2.
Footnotes: 154
[24] Statute Laws, 1831, Ch. 102, Sec. 2.
[25] Ibid., Sec. 2.
[26] Statute Laws, 1826, Ch. 22, Sec. 6.
[27] Ibid., 1741, Ch. 24, Sec. 23.
[28] Proceedings of the Anti-Slavery Convention, London, 1843.
[29] Acts of the Gen. Assembly, Tennessee, 1821, Chap. 26.
[30] Statute Laws, Tenn., Chap. 6, Sec. 2. Laws of 1787.
[31] Statute Laws, Tenn., Chap. 6, Sec. 2, Laws of 1787.
[32] Ibid., 1833, Chap. 4, Sec. 1.
[33] Tenn. Constitutional Convention Journal, 1834.
[34] Tenn. Constitutional Convention Journal, pp. 31-40.
[35] Ibid., p. 53.
[36] Southern Statesman (clipping from Knoxville Register, Oct., 1831).
[37] Tenn. Constitutional Convention Journal, 1834, pp. 102-104.
[38] Ibid., pp. 125-126.
[39] Journal Const. Conv., op. cit., pp. 214 et seq.
[40] Tennessee Constitutional Journal, 1834, pp. 126 et seq.
[41] Ibid., pp. 184 et seq.
[42] Ibid., p. 200, p. 209.
[43] Constitution of Tenn., 1834, Art. 3, Sec. 1.
[44] Code of Tenn. '57, '58, Sec. 3809.
[45] Stephenson, Race Distinctions in American Law, p. 284. Tenn. Const. Conv. Journal, 1834, op. cit., p.
209.
[46] Bureau of the Census, "A Century of Pop. Growth," p. 82. Washington, 1909.
[47] Acts of Tenn., 1846, Chap. 47 (Nicholson).
[48] Code of 1858, Tenn., Art. IV, See. 2725.
Footnotes: 155
[49] Ibid., Sec. 2725.
[50] Ibid., Sec. 2728.
[51] Nicholson, Acts of Tenn., 1846, Chap. 191, Sec. 1.
[52] Code of Tenn., op. cit., Sec. 2714.
[53] Ibid., Sec. 2793-2794. Cf. Statute Laws here.
[54] Statute Laws, Tenn., 1846, Ch. 191.
[55] Brackett, "The Negro in Maryland," Johns Hopkins Studies, Ch. V, p. 191.
[56] Ibid., pp. 191-192.
[57] Personal Testimony, B. S.; J. P. Q. E.; E. S. M. Nashville, 1912.
[58]{Transcriber's Note: Missing footnote text in original.}
[Pg 273]
NEGRO LIFE AND HISTORY IN OUR SCHOOLS

The study of the ethnology and the history of the Negro has not yet extended far beyond the limit of
cold-blooded investigation. Prior to the Civil War few Americans thought seriously of studying the Negro in
the sense of directing their efforts toward an acquisition of knowledge of the race as one of the human family;
and this field was not more inviting to Europeans, for the reduction of the Negro to the status of a tool for
exploitation began in Europe. The race did receive attention from pseudo-scientists, a few historians pointed
out the possibilities of research in this field, and others brought forward certain interesting sketches of
distinguished Negroes exhibiting evidences of the desirable qualities manifested by other races.
There was a new day for the Negro in history after the Civil War. This rending of the nation was such an
upheaval that American historians eagerly applied themselves to the study of the ante-bellum period to
account for the economic, social, and political causes leading up to this struggle. In their treatment of slavery
and abolition, they had to give the Negro some attention. In some cases, therefore, the historians of that day
occasionally departed from the scientific standard to give personal sketches of Negroes indicating to some
extent the feeling, thought and the aspiration of the whole race. Writers deeply interested in the Negroes at
that time wrote eulogistic biographies of distinguished Negroes and of white persons who had devoted their
lives to the uplift of the despised race. The attitude in most cases was that the Negroes had been a very much
oppressed people and that their enslavement was a disgrace of which the whole country should be made to
feel ashamed. As it was the people of the South who[Pg 274] had to bear the onus of this criticism and they
were not at that time sufficiently enlightened to produce historians like Hildreth, Bancroft, Prescott, Redpath
and Parkman, the world largely accepted the opinions of those historians who sympathized with the formerly
persecuted Negroes.
During the last quarter of the nineteenth century, however, there came about a change in the attitude of
American scholarship effected largely by political movements. Because of the unpopularity and the blunders
of the southern States reconstructed on the basis of universal suffrage and mainly under the dictation of white
adventurers from the North, the majority of the influential men of the country reached the conclusion that the
NEGRO LIFE AND HISTORY IN OUR SCHOOLS 156

southern white man, in spite of his faults as a slaveholder, had not been properly treated. This unsatisfactory
régime, therefore, was speedily overthrown and the freedman was gradually reduced to the status of the free
Negro prior to the Civil War on the grounds that it had been proved that he was not a white man with a black
skin.
Following immediately thereupon came a new day for education in the South. Many of its ambitious young
men went North to study in the leading universities then devoting much attention to the preparation of
scholars for scientific investigation. The investigators from the South directed their attention primarily toward
the vindication of the slavery régime and the overthrow of the Reconstruction governments. As a result there
have appeared a number of studies on slavery and the Reconstruction. All of this task was not done by
southerners and was not altogether confined to the universities, but resulted no doubt largely from the impetus
given it in these centers, especially at Johns Hopkins and Columbia. It was influenced to a great extent by the
attitude of southern scholars. Ingle, Weeks, Bassett, Cooley, Steiner, Munford, Trexler, Bracket, Ballagh,
Tremain, McCrady, Henry, and Russell directed their attention to the study of slavery. With the works of
Deane, Moore, Needles, Harris, Washburn, Dunn, Bettle,[Pg 275] Davidson, Hickok, Pelzer, Morgan,
Northrop, Smith, Wright, and Turner dealing with slavery in the North, the study of the institution by States
has been considered all but complete. In a general way the subject of slavery has been treated by A. B. Hart,
H. E. von Holst, John W. Burgess, James Ford Rhodes, and U. B. Phillips.
The study of the Reconstruction has proceeded with renewed impetus and has finally been seemingly
exhausted in a way peculiar to the recent investigators. Among these studies are those of Matthews, Garner,
Ficklen, Eckenrode, Hollis, Flack, Woolley, Ramsdell, Davis, Hamilton, Thompson, Reynolds, Burgess,
Pearson, and Hall, most of whom received their inspiration at Johns Hopkins University or Columbia. The
same period has been treated in a general way by W. A. Dunning, John W. Burgess, James Schouler, J. B.
MacMaster, James Ford Rhodes and W. L. Fleming. Most of these studies deal with social and economic
causes as well as with the political and some of them are in their own way well done. Because of the bias in
several of them, however, John R. Lynch and W.E.B. DuBois have endeavored to answer certain adverse
criticisms on the record of the Negroes during the Reconstruction period.
Speaking generally, however, one does not find in most of these works anything more than the records of
scientific investigators as to facts which in themselves do not give the general reader much insight as to what
the Negro was, how the Negro developed from period to period, and the reaction of the race on what was
going on around it. There is little effort to set forth what the race has thought and felt and done as a
contribution to the world's accumulation of knowledge and the welfare of mankind. While what most of these
writers say may, in many respects, be true, they are interested in emphasizing primarily the effect of this
movement on the white man, whose attitude toward the Negro was that of a merchant or manufacturer toward
the materials he handled and unfortunately whose attitude is[Pg 276] that of many of these gentlemen writing
the history in which the Negroes played a part as men rather than as coal and iron.
The multiplication of these works adversely critical of the Negro race soon had the desired result. Since one
white man easily influences another to change his attitude toward the Negro, northern teachers of history and
correlated subjects have during the last generation accepted the southern white man's opinion of the Negro
and endeavor to instill the same into the minds of their students. Their position seems to be that because the
American Negro has not in fifty years accomplished what the master class achieved in fifty centuries the race
cannot be expected to perform satisfactorily the functions of citizenship and must, therefore, be treated
exceptionally in some such manner as devised by the commonwealths of the South. This change of sentiment
has been accelerated too by southern teachers, who have established themselves in northern schools and who
have gained partial control of the northern press. Coming at the time when many Negroes have been rushing
to the North, this heresy has had the general effect of promoting the increase of race prejudice to the extent
that the North has become about as lawless as the South in its treatment of the Negro.

Following the multiplication of Reconstruction studies, there appeared a number of others of a controversial
nature. Among these may be mentioned the works of A. H. Stone and Thomas Pierce Bailey adversely
criticizing the Negro and those of a milder form produced by Edgar Gardner Murphy, and Walter Hines Page.
Then there are the writings of William Pickens, and W. E. B. DuBois. These works are generally included
among those for reference in classes studying Negro life, but they throw very little light on the Negro in the
United States or abroad. In fact, instead of clearing up the situation they deeply muddle it. The chief value of
such literature is to furnish facts as to sentiment of the people, which in years to come will be of[Pg 277] use
to an investigator when the country will have sufficiently removed itself from race prejudice to seek after the
truth as to all phases of the situation.
The Negro, therefore, has unfortunately been for some time a negligible factor in the thought of most
historians, except to be mentioned only to be condemned. So far as the history of the Negro is concerned,
moreover, the field has been for some time left largely to those sympathetically inclined and lacking scientific
training. Not only have historians of our day failed to write books on the Negro, but this history has not been
generally dignified with certain brief sketches as constitute the articles appearing in the historical magazines.
For example, the American Historical Review, the leading magazine of its kind in the United States, published
quarterly since 1895, has had very little material in this field. Running over the files one finds Jernagan's
Slavery and Conversion in the American Colonies, Siebert's Underground Railway, Stevenson's The Question
of Arming the Slaves, DuBois's Reconstruction and its Benefits, and several economic studies of the plantation
and the black belt by A. H. Stone and U.B. Phillips. It has been announced, however, that the Carnegie
Institution for Historical Research will in the future direct attention to this neglected field.
In schools of today the same condition unfortunately obtains. The higher institutions of the Southern States,
proceeding doubtless on the basis that they know too much about the Negro already, have not heretofore done
much to convert the whites to the belief that the one race should know more about the other. Their curricula,
therefore, as a general thing carry no courses bearing on Negro life and history.
In the North, however, the situation is not so discouraging. Some years ago classes in history in northern
colleges and universities made a detailed study of slavery and abolition in connection with the regular courses
in American history. There has been much neglect in this field[Pg 278] during the last generation, since many
teachers of history in the North have been converted to the belief in the justice of the oppression of the Negro,
but there are still some sporadic efforts to arrive at a better understanding of the Negro's contribution to
history in the United States. This is evidenced by the fact that Ohio State University offers in its history
department a course on the Slavery Struggles in the United States, and the University of Nebraska one on the
Negro Problem under Slavery and Freedom.
This study in the northern universities receives some attention in the department of sociology. Leland
Stanford University offers a course on Immigration and the Race Problems, the University of Oklahoma
another known as Modern Race Problems. The University of Missouri and the University of Chicago offer
The Negro in America; the University of Minnesota, The American Negro; and Harvard University, American
Population Problems: Immigration and the Negro. This study of the race problem, however, has in many
cases been unproductive of desirable results for the reason that instead of trying to arrive at some
understanding as to how the Negro may be improved, the work has often degenerated into a discussion of the
race as a menace and the justification of preventative measures inaugurated by the whites.
A few Negro schools sufficiently advanced to prosecute seriously the study of social sciences have had
courses in sociology and history bearing on the Negro. Tuskegee, Atlanta, Fiske, Wilberforce and Howard
have undertaken serious work in this field. They have been handicapped, however, by the lack of teachers
trained to do advanced work and by the dearth of unbiased literature adequate to the desired illumination. The
work under these circumstances, therefore, has been in danger of becoming such a discussion of the race
problem as would be expected of laymen expressing opinions without data to support them. In the

reconstruction which these schools are now undergoing, history and sociology are given a conspicuous place
and[Pg 279] the tendency is to assign this work to well-informed and scientifically trained instructors. These
schools, moreover, are now not only studying what has been written but have undertaken the preparation of
scholars to carry on research in this neglected field.
The need for this work is likewise a concern to the enlightened class of southern whites. Seeing that a better
understanding of the races is now necessary to maintain that conservatism to prevent this country from being
torn asunder by Socialism and Bolshevism, they are now making an effort to effect a closer relation between
the blacks and whites by making an intensive study of the Negro. Fortunately too this is earnestly urged by the
group of rising scholars of the new South. To carry out this work a number of professors from various
southern universities have organized what is called the University Commission on Southern Race Questions.
They are calling the attention of the South to the world-wide reconstruction following in the wake of the
World War, which will necessarily affect the country in a peculiar way. They point to the fact that almost
400,000 Negroes were called into the military service and thousands of others to industrial centers of the
North. Knowing too that the demobilization of the Negroes and whites in the army will bring home a large
number of remade men who must be adapted anew to life, they are asking for a general coöperation of the
whites throughout the South in the interest of the Negro and the welfare of the land.
These gentlemen are directing this study toward the need of making the South realize the value of the Negro
to the community, to inculcate a sympathy for the Negro and to enable the whites to understand that the race
cannot be judged by the shortcomings of a few of the group. They are appealing to the country and especially
to the scholarly men of the South for more justice and fair play for the Negroes in view of the fact that, in
spite of the radical aliens who set to work among the Negroes to undermine[Pg 280] their loyalty, the Negroes
maintained their morale and supported the war. Men of thought then are boldly urged to engage in this
movement for a large measure of thoughtfulness and consideration, for the control of "careless habits of
speech which give needless offense and for the practice of just relations. To seek by all practicable means to
cultivate a more tolerant spirit, a more generous sympathy, and a wider degree of coöperation between the
best elements of both races, to emphasize the best rather than the worst features of interracial relations, to
secure greater publicity for those whose views are based on reason rather than prejudice—these, they
believe are essential parts of the Reconstruction program by which it is hoped to bring into the world a new
era of peace and democracy. Because college men are rightly expected to be molders of opinion, the
Commission earnestly appeals to them to contribute of their talents and energy in bringing this program to its
consummation."
Among these are James J. Doster, Professor of Education, University of Alabama; David Y. Thomas,
Professor of Political Science and History, University of Arkansas; James M. Farr, Professor of English,
University of Florida; R. P. Brooks, Professor of History, University of Georgia; William O. Scroggs,
Professor of Economics and Sociology, Louisiana State University; William L. Kennon, Professor of Physics,
University of Mississippi; E. C. Branson, Professor of Rural Economics, University of North Carolina; Josiah
Morse, Professor of Philosophy, University of South Carolina; James D. Hoskins, Dean of the University of
Tennessee; William S. Sutton, Professor of Education, University of Texas; and William M. Hunley,
Professor of Economics and Political Science, Virginia Military Institute.
C. G. Woodson.
[Pg 281]

GRÉGOIRE'S SKETCH OF ANGELO SOLIMANN

The historical setting of this sketch is the life of the author himself. Abbé Grégoire was born in 1750 and died
in 1831. He was educated at the Jesuit College at Nancy. He then became Curé and teacher at the Jesuit school
at Pont-a-Mousson. In this position he had the opportunity to apply himself to study and soon attained some
distinction as a scholar. In 1783 he was crowned by the Academy of Nancy for his Éloge de La poésie and in
1788 by that of Metz for an Essai sur la Régénération physique et morale des Juifs. Throughout his career he
exhibited evidences of a breadth of mind and interest in the man far down. When the French Revolution broke
out, therefore, he easily became a factor in the upheaval, but endeavored always to restrain the people from
fury and vandalism. In 1789, he was elected by the clergy of the bailliage of Nancy to the States-General,
where he coöperated with the group of deputies of Jansenist or Gallican sympathies.
He was among the first of the clergy to join the third estate and contributed largely to the union of the three
orders. He took an active part in the abolition of the privileges of the nobles of the church and under the new
constitution he was one of the first to take oath. In taking this stand, however, he lost the support of most of
his fellow churchmen, who, unlike Abbé Grégoire, did not think that the Catholic religion is reconcilable with
modern conceptions of political liberty. Because of the changing fortunes of the revolutionists, therefore,
Abbé Grégoire finally found himself often deserted and sometimes almost reduced to poverty.
To the end of his career, however, he maintained his attitude of benevolence toward the oppressed. Differing
widely from most white men, who although willing to take[Pg 282] radical measures to make democracy safe
for themselves, are reluctant to extend its benefits to those of color, Abbé Grégoire earnestly labored in the
Constituent Assembly to bring about the emancipation of the Negroes in the French colonies. His interest in
persons of African blood, moreover, was not restricted to the mere abolition of slavery because it was a stain
on the character of the whites but he endeavored also to elevate the slaves to the full status of citizenship. It
was largely through his efforts that men of color in the French colonies were soon after their emancipation
admitted to the same civil and political rights as the whites in those dependencies.
He made an effort, moreover, to influence public opinion in behalf of the Negroes in other lands. Having read
in Jefferson's Notes on Virginia his references to the so-called inferiority of the Negroes, Grégoire sent him a
copy of his De la Litterature des Nègres. Replying to the communication transmitting this publication
Jefferson expressed himself in diplomatic and flattering terms, apparently indicating that he had expressed the
opinion of inferiority with much hesitation and that the argument to establish the doctrine was after all rather
weak. Writing a few days later to Joel Barlow, Jefferson no doubt expressed his real opinion as to what he
thought of the inferiority of the Negro and Grégoire's evidences to the contrary. The pamphlet no doubt had
some effect for, "As to Bishop Grégoire," says he, "I wrote him a very soft answer. It was impossible for
doubt to have been more tenderly or hesitatingly expressed than there was in the Notes on Virginia and
nothing was or is further from my intentions than to enlist myself as the champion of a fixed opinion where I
have only expressed a doubt."
In later years, however, Abbé Grégoire's De la Litterature des Nègres fell into the hands of a more
sympathetic man. This was D. B. Walden of Brooklyn, New York, then secretary to the legation at Paris.
Interested in the abolition of the slave trade and the welfare of the blacks, Walden[Pg 283] translated
Grégoire's De la Litterature des Nègres, that friends of the race unacquainted with the French language might
have additional information as to what the Negro had done to demonstrate that the race is not intellectually
inferior to others. This translation, however, is unfortunate because of the numerous faults throughout the
work and largely on account of its omissions. Exactly why the translator did not desire to bring before the
American public all of the facts set forth in this book has never been exactly cleared up. It has been said,
however, that the facts omitted were too favorable to the Negro race to be received by the American public at
that time. The whole work should be translated as soon as some scholar can direct his attention to it, but, in
GRÉGOIRE'S SKETCH OF ANGELO SOLIMANN 160

the absence of such an effort, I am submitting herewith a translation of the most striking omission, chapter
five, which gives an interesting sketch of the career of Angelo Solimann.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE NEGRO ANGELO SOLIMANN
Although Angelo Solimann has published nothing[1] he deserves, because of his extensive
learning and still more by the morality and excellence of his character, one of the first places
among the Negroes who have distinguished themselves by a high degree of culture.
He was the son of an African prince. The country subject to the latter's domination was called
Gangusilang; the family, Magni-Famori. Besides the little Mmadi-Make (this was Angelo's
name[Pg 284] in his native country) his parents had another younger child, a daughter. He
remembered with what respect his father, surrounded by a large number of servants, was
treated; he had, like every prince's child of that country, certain marks imprinted on his two
legs, and for a long time he hoped that he would be sought for, and recognized by these
marks.
Even in his old age, the memories of his childhood, of his first practice in shooting arrows, in
which he surpassed his comrades, the memory of the simple customs and the beautiful blue
sky of his native country, often recurred to his mind with a pleasure not unmixed with sorrow.
He could not sing, without being profoundly affected, those songs of his native land which his
good memory had very well conserved.
It appears, from Angelo's reminiscences, that his tribe already had some civilization. His
father possessed many elephants, and even some horses which were rare in those countries;
money was unknown, but trade by barter was carried on regularly and by auction. Stars were
worshipped; circumcision was usual. Two white families lived in the country.
Some writers who have published accounts of their voyages, speak of the perpetual wars
between some tribes of Africa, of which the purpose was sometimes vengeance or robbery,
sometimes the most ignominious kind of avarice, because the victor took the prisoners to the
nearest slave market in order to sell them to the whites. One day as the boy, then seven years
old, was standing at the side of his mother who was nursing his sister, a war of this kind of a
danger that his father did not suspect broke out against the tribe of Mmadi-Makeé. Suddenly
there were heard the frightful clashing of arms and howlings of the wounded. Mmadi-Maké's
grandfather, struck by fear, ran into the cabin crying: "There is the enemy." Fatuma,
frightened, arose. The father hastily sought his weapon; and the little boy, terrified, ran away
as quickly as an arrow. His mother called loudly: "Where are you going Mmadi-Maké?" The
child answered: "Wherever God wishes me to go." In his old age he often reflected upon the
great significance of these words. When he was out of the cabin, he looked back and saw his
mother and many of his father's men fall under the blows of the enemy. He cowered down
with another boy under a tree. Struck with fear, he covered his eyes with his hands. The fight
continued. The enemy, believing themselves[Pg 285] already victorious, seized him, and held
him aloft as a sign of joy. At this sight, the fellow-countrymen of Mmadi-Maké cheered their
forces and rallied to save the son of their king. The fighting began again, and while it lasted
the boy was still raised aloft. Finally the enemies were conquerors and he was positively their
prize. His master exchanged him for a fine black horse, which another Negro gave him, and
the child was taken to the place of embarkation. There he found many of his
fellow-countrymen, all like himself, prisoners, all condemned to slavery. With sorrow they
recognized him, but they could do nothing for him. They were even forbidden to speak to
him.

When the prisoners, being taken on small boats, reached the seashore, Mmadi-Maké saw with
surprise several large vessels, on one of which he was received with his third master. He
supposed that it was a Spanish vessel. After suffering a storm, they landed on a coast, and the
master promised the child that he would take him to his mother. The latter, delighted, quickly
saw his hope disappear, finding instead of his mother, his master's wife, who, moreover,
received him very well, kissed him and treated him with much kindness. Her husband named
him Andrew, and directed him to take the camels to the pasture, and watch them.
It is impossible to say of what nationality this man was, or how long Angelo, who has now
been dead twelve years, lived at his home. This short memoir has been written down recently
from the story of his friends. But it is known that after a reasonably long stay, his master
announced to him his intention of transporting him to a country where he would be better off.
Mmadi-Maké was greatly pleased with this. His mistress parted from him with regret. They
embarked and arrived at Messina, where he was conducted to the home of a wealthy lady,
who, it appeared, was expecting to receive him. She treated him kindly, gave him an
instructor to teach him the language of the country, which he learned with ease. His good
nature won for him the friendship of the numerous servants, among whom he singled out a
Negress, named Angelina, because of her gentleness, and her kindly attitude towards him. He
became dangerously ill; the Marchioness, his mistress, gave him all the care of a mother, even
to the point of sitting up with him part of the night. The most skillful physicians were called
in and his bed was surrounded by a crowd of persons who awaited his orders. The
Marchioness had long wished that he[Pg 286] would be baptized. After repeated refusals, one
day, during his convalescence, he himself asked for baptism. His mistress, very much
delighted, ordered the most elaborate preparations. In a parlor there was erected over a stately
bed a canopy richly embroidered. The entire family and all the friends of the house were
present. Mmadi-Maké, lying on this bed, was asked concerning the name he desired to have.
Because of gratitude and his friendship for the Negress Angelina, he wished to be named
Angelo. His desire was granted, and as a family name he was given that of Solimann. He was
accustomed to celebrate piously the day of his entrance into Christianity, the eleventh of
September, as though it were his birthday.
His goodness, his kindness, and his sense of justice made him dear to every one. The Prince
Lobkowitz, then in Sicily in the capacity of imperial general, frequented the house where this
child lived. He experienced for him such an affection that he made the most earnest entreaties
that he be given to him. Because of her affection for Angelo, the Marchioness could not easily
grant his request. She finally yielded to the considerations of advantage and prudence which
impelled her to make this gift to the general. How she wept when she parted with the little
Negro who entered with repugnance the service of a new master.
The duties of the prince did not permit a long stay in this country. He loved Angelo, but his
manner of life and perhaps the spirit of the time caused him to give very little attention to his
education. Angelo became wild and ill-tempered. He passed his days in idleness, and
children's sports. An old steward of the prince, realizing his good heart and excellent
qualities, in spite of his thoughtlessness, procured for him a teacher, under whom Angelo
learned in seventeen days to write German. The tender affection of the child, and his rapid
progress in all the branches of instruction, repaid the good old man for his trouble.
Thus Angelo grew up in the house of the prince. He accompanied him on all his tours, and
shared with him the perils of war. He fought side by side with his master, whom one day he
carried wounded, on his shoulders, from the field of battle. Angelo distinguished himself on
these occasions, not only as a servant and faithful friend, but also as an intrepid warrior, as an

experienced officer, especially in tactics, although he never had military rank. The field
marshall Lascy, who esteemed him highly, gave, before a group of officers, a most creditable
eulogy upon his bravery, presented[Pg 287] him with a splendid Turkish sabre, and offered
him the command of a company, which he refused.
His master died. By his will he left Angelo to the Prince Wenceslas de Lichtenstein, who for a
long time, had desired to have him. This man asked Angelo if he were satisfied with this
arrangement and if he were willing to come to his home. To this Angelo agreed, and made the
preparations for the change necessary in his manner of living. In the meanwhile, Emperor
Francis I called him to him, and made the same offer, with very flattering terms. But the word
of Angelo was sacred. He remained at the home of Prince Lichtenstein. Here, as at the home
of General Lobkowitz, the tutelar genius of unhappy persons, he was accustomed to convey to
the prince the requests of those who wished to obtain some favor. His pockets were always
filled with notes and petitions. Never being able or willing to ask favors for himself, he
fulfilled with equal zeal and success this duty in favor of others.
Angelo followed his master on his journeys, and to Frankfort, at the time of the coronation of
Emperor Joseph, as king of the Romans. One day, at the instigation of his prince, he tried his
luck at chance and won twenty thousand florins. He played another game with his opponents,
who again lost twenty-four thousand florins; in playing the second game, Angelo knew how
to arrange the play so finely that the loser regained the last amount. This fine trait of Angelo
won for him admiration, and gained for him numerous congratulations. The transient favor of
chance did not dazzle him; on the contrary, apprehending his fickleness, he never again
ventured any big sum. He amused himself with chess and had the reputation of being one of
the best players of this game of his time.
At the age of —— he married a widow, Madame de Christiani, née Kellerman,

of Belgium origin. The prince did not know of this marriage. Perhaps Angelo had reasons for
concealing it. A later event has justified his silence. The Emperor Joseph II, who had a lively
interest in everything concerning Angelo and who, as a mark of distinction, even walked arm
in arm with him, made known to Prince Lichtenstein one day, without foreseeing the
consequences, Angelo's secret. The latter called Angelo, and questioned him. Angelo
admitted his marriage. The prince announced that he would banish him from his house, and
erase his name from his will. He had intended to give him some diamonds[Pg 288] of
considerable value, with which Angelo was accustomed to being decked when he followed
his master on festive days.
Angelo, who had asked favors so often for others, did not say one word for himself. He left
the palace to live in a distant suburb, in a small house bought a long time before, and
transferred to his wife. He lived with her in this retreat, enjoying domestic happiness. The
most careful education of his only daughter, Madame the Baroness of Hoüchters-leöen, who
is no longer living, the cultivation of his garden, the social intercourse of several learned and
estimable men, were his occupations and his pleasures.
About two years after the death of Prince Wenceslas of Lichtenstein, his nephew and heir, the
Prince Francis, saw Angelo in the street. He ordered his carriage to be stopped, had him enter
it, and told him that, being convinced of his innocence, he was resolved to make amends for
the injustice of his uncle. Consequently he assigned to Angelo an income revertible after his
death to Madam Solimann. The only thing which the prince asked of Angelo was to supervise
the education of his son, Louis of Lichtenstein.

Angelo fulfilled punctiliously the duties of his new vocation, and he went daily to the prince's
home, in order to watch over the pupil recommended to his care. The Prince, seeing that the
long walk might be difficult for Angelo, especially in inclement weather, offered him a
residence. There again was Angelo settled, for the second time, in the Lichtenstein palace; but
he took with him his family. He lived there in retreat as before in the company of some
friends, in that of scholars, and devoted to "belles lettres" which he constantly cultivated with
zeal. His favorite study was history. His excellent memory aided him greatly. He could cite
the names, dates, year of birth of all illustrious persons, and noteworthy events.
His wife, who for a long time had been declining, was kept alive several years longer, through
the tender care of a husband who lavished upon her all the aid of science; but finally she died.
From that time on Angelo made several changes in his household. He no longer invited
friends to dine with him. He never drank anything except water as an example for his
daughter, whose education, then finished, was entirely his work. Perhaps, also, he wished, by
a strict economy to make sure the fortune of this only daughter.
Angelo, esteemed and loved everywhere, still did much traveling at an advanced age,
sometimes in the interests of others, sometimes[Pg 289] to attend to his own affairs. People
have recalled his acts of kindness, and the favors that he had shown. Circumstances having
taken him to Milan, the late Archduke Ferdinand, who was governor there, overwhelmed him
with demonstrations of friendship.
He enjoyed, to the end of his career, a robust constitution; his appearance showed hardly any
signs of old age, which caused several mistakes and friendly disputes; for often people who
had not seen him for twenty or thirty years, mistook him for his son, and treated him
according to this error.
Suffering a stroke of apoplexy in the street, at the age of seventy-five, people hastened to give
him succor which was useless. He died, November 21, 1796, mourned by all his friends, who
cannot think of him without emotion, and without tears. The esteem of all men of
consequence has followed him to the tomb.
Angelo was of medium stature, slender and well proportioned. The regularity of his features
and the nobleness of his carriage, form, by their beauty, a contrast with the unfavorable
opinion generally held concerning the Negro physiognomy. An unusual suppleness in all
bodily exercises gave to his carriage and to his movements grace and ease. Combining with
all the fineness of virtue a good judgment, ennobled by extensive and thorough knowledge, he
knew six languages, Italian, French, German, Latin, Bohemian, and English, and besides
spoke especially the first three fluently.
Like all his fellow countrymen, he was born with an impetuous temper. His unchangeable
calmness and good nature were consequently so much the more admirable, as they were the
result of hard fighting and many victories won over himself. He never allowed, even when
someone had irritated him, an improper expression to escape his lips. Angelo was pious
without being superstitious. He carefully observed all religious rites, not believing that it was
beneath him to give in this way an example to his family. His word and decisions, to which he
had come after careful consideration, were unchangeable, and nothing could swerve him from
his intention. He always wore the costume of his country. This was a kind of very simple
garment in Turkish fashion almost always of dazzling whiteness, which accentuated to
advantage the black and shining color of his skin. His picture, engraved at Augsburg, is found
in the art gallery of Lichtenstein.

F. Harrison Hough.
Footnotes:
[1] I discharge a duty in disclosing to the public the names of the persons to whom I am indebted for the
biography of this estimable African, concerning whom Dr. Gall was the first to speak to me. Upon the request
of my fellow-citizens, D'Hautefort, attaché to the embassy, and Dudon, First Secretary to the French legation
in Austria, they hastened to satisfy my curiosity. Two estimable ladies of Vienna, Mme. Stief and Mme.
Picler, worked at it with great zeal. All the details furnished by the defunct Angelo's friends were carefully
collected. From this material has been written the interesting account which follows. In the French translation
it loses in delicacy of style, for Mme. Picler, who wrote it down in German, possesses the rare talent of
writing equally well in prose and in poetry. I take great pleasure in expressing to these kind persons my just
gratitude.
[Pg 290]
DOCUMENTS
LETTERS OF NEGRO MIGRANTS OF 1916-1918[1]

The exodus of the Negroes during the World War, the most significant event in our recent internal history,
may be profitably studied by reading the letters of the various migrants. The investigator has been fortunate in
finding letters from Negroes of all conditions in almost all parts of the South and these letters are based on
almost every topic of concern to humanity. These documents will serve as a guide in getting at the motive
dominant in the minds of these refugees and at the real situation during the upheaval. As a whole, these letters
throw much light on all phases of Negro life and, in setting forth the causes of unrest in the South, portray the
character of the whites with whom the blacks have had to do.
These letters are of further value for information concerning the Negroes in the North. From these reliable
sources the student can learn where the Negroes settled, what they engaged in, and how they have readjusted
themselves in a new situation. Here may be seen the effects of the loss resulting from the absence of
immigrants from Europe, the conflict of the laboring elements, the evidences of racial troubles and the menace
of mob rule.
Letters Asking for Information about the North
Galveston, Texas,
this 24th day of May, 1917.
Sir: Please inform me of a situation, please ans. if fill out or not so I will no. answer at once.
[Pg 291]
Dallas, Tex.,
April 23, 1917.
Footnotes: 165
Dear Sir: Having been informed through the Chicago Defender paper that I can secure
information from you. I am a constant reader of the Defender and am contemplating on
leaving here for some point north. Having your city in view I thought to inquire of you about
conditions for work, housing, wages and everything necessary. I am now employed as a
laborer in a structural shop, have worked for the firm five years.
I stored cars for Armour packing co. 3 years, I also claims to know something about candy
making, am handy at most anything for an honest living. I am 31 yrs. old have a very
industrious wife, no children. If chances are available for work of any kind let me know. Any
information you can give me will be highly appreciated.
Savannah, Ga., April 24, 1917.
Sir: I saw an advertisement in the Chicago Ledger where you would send tickets to any one
desireing to come up there. I am a married man with a wife only, and I am 38 years of age,
and both of us have so far splendid health, and would like very much to come out there
provided we could get good employment regarding the advertisement.
Winston-Salem, N. N., April 23, 1917.
Dear Sir: Colored people of this place who know you by note of your great paper the Age and
otherwise desire to get information from you of jobs of better opportunities for them and
better advantages.
You will do us a great favor to answer us in advance.
Mobile, Ala., June 11, 1917.
Dear Sir: Will you please send me the name of the society in Chicago that cares for colored
emigrants who come north seeking-employment sometime ago I saw the name of this society
in the defender but of late it does not appear in the paper so I kindly as you please try and get
the name of this society and send the same to me at this city.
Mobile, Ala., April 27, 1917.
Sir: Your advertisement appearing in the Chicago Defender have influenced me to write to
you with no delay. For seven previous years I bore the reputation of a first class laundress
in[Pg 292] Selma. I have much experience with all of the machines in this laundry. This
laundry is noted for its skillful work of neatness and ect. We do sample work for different
laundries of neighboring cities, viz. Montgomery, Birmingham and Mobile once or twice a
year. At preseant I do house work but would like to get in touch with the Chicago
——. I have an eager desire of a clear information how to get a good position. I
have a written recommendation from the foreman of which I largely depend upon as a relief.
You will do me a noble favor with an answer in the earliest possible moment with a
description all about the work.
Jacksonville, Fla., 4-25-17.
Dear Sir: in reading a copy of the Chicago defender note that if i get in touch with you you
would assist me in getting imployment. i am now imployed in Florida East coast R R service
road way department any thing in working line myself and friends would be very glad to get
LETTERS OF NEGRO MIGRANTS OF 1916-1918[1] 166

in touch with as labors. We would be more than glad to do so and would highly appreciate it
the very best we can advise where we can get work to do, fairly good wages also is it possible
that we could get transportation to the destination. We are working men with familys. Please
answer at once, i am your of esteem. We are not particular about the electric lights and all i
want is fairly good wages and steady work.
Pensacola, Fla., April 28, 1917.
Dear Sir: I seen in the Chicago Defender where men was wanted in small towns near Chicago
at fair wages. As i want to lokate in the north i thought it very nessary to consult you in the
direction of this work, hoping to receive from you full pertikulars i a wate a reply.
Atlanta, Ga., April 30, 1917.
Sir: I would thank you kindly to explain to me how you get work and what term I am
comeing to Chicago this spring and would like to know jest what to do would thank and
appreciate a letter from you soon telling me the thing that I wont to know.
Vicksburg, Miss., May the 5th, 1917.
Sir: Just wants you to give me a few words of enfermation of labor situations in your city or
south Dakota grain farms what is their offers and their adress. Will thank you for any
enfermation given of same.[Pg 293]
Fullerton, La., April 28, 1917.
Dear sir: I was reading about you was neading labor ninety miles of Chicago what is the
name of the place and what R R extends ther i wants to come north and i wants a stedy
employment ther what doe you pay per day i dont no anything about molding works but have
been working around machinery for 10 years. Let me no what doe you pay for such work and
can you give me a job of that kind or a job at common labor and let me no your prices and
how many hours for a day.
Marcel, Miss., 10/4/17.
Dear Sir: Although I am a stranger to you but I am a man of the so called colored race and
can give you the very best or reference as to my character and ability by prominent citizens of
my community by both white and colored people that knows me although am native of Ohio
whiles I am a northern desent were reared in this state of Mississippi. Now I am a reader of
your paper the Chicago Defender. After reading your writing ever wek I am compell &
persuade to say that I know you are a real man of my color you have I know heard of the
south land & I need not tell you any thing about it. I am going to ask you a favor and at the
same time beg you for your kind and best advice. I wants to come to Chicago to live. I am a
man of a family wife and 1 child I can do just any kind of work in the line of common labor
& I have for the present sufficient means to support us till I can obtain a position. Now should
I come to your town, would you please to assist me in getting a position I am willing to pay
whatever you charge I dont want you to loan me not 1 cent but help me to find an occupation
there in your town now I has a present position that will keep me employed till the first of
Dec. 1917. now please give me your best advice on this subject. I enclose stamp for reply.
Beaumont, Tex., May 14, 1917.

My dear Sir: Please write me particulars concerning emigration to the north. I am a skilled
machinist and longshoreman.
St. Petersburg, Fla., May 31, 1917.
Dear Sir: pleas inform me of the best place in the north for the colored people of the South, I
am coming north and I want to know of a good town to stop in. I enclose stamp for reply.
[Pg 294]
Sanford, Fla., April 27, 1917.
Dear Sir: I have seen through the Chicago Defender that you and the people of Chicago are
helping newcomers. I am asking you for some information about conditions in some small
town near Chicago.
There are some families here thinking of moving up, and are desirous of knowing what to
expect before leaving. Please state about treatment, work, rent and schools. Please answer at
some spare time.
New Orleans, La., April 30, 1917.
Dear Sir: Seeing you ad in the defender I am writing you to please give me some information
concerning positions—unskilled labor or hotel work, waiter, porter, bell boy, clothes
cleaning and pressing. I am experienced in those things, especially in the hotel line. am 27
years of age, good health—have a wife—wish you could give me information as
I am not ready to come up at present. would be thankful if you could arrange with some one
who would forward transportation for me and wife. would be very glad to hear from you as
soon as convenient. Thanking you in advance for interest shown me.
Dear Sir: Reading a article in the 21st issue of the Chicago Defender about the trouble you
had to obtain men for work out of Chicago and also seeing a advertisement for men in Detroit
saying to apply to you I beg to state to you that if your could secure me a position in or
around Chicago or any northern section with fairly good wages & good living conditions for
myself and family I will gladly take same and if ther could be any ways of sending me
transportation I will gladly let you or the firm you get me position with deduct transportation
fee out of my salary. as I said before I will gladly take position in northern city or county
where a mans a man here are a few positions which I am capable of holding down. Laborer,
expirance porter, butler or driver of Ford car. Thaking you in advance for your kindness, beg
to remain.
Cedar Grove, La., April 23, 1917.
Dear Sir: to day I was advise by the defendent offices in your city to communicate with you
in regards to the labor for the colored of the south as I was lead to beleave that you was in
position of firms of your city & your near by surrounding towns of Chicago. Please state me
how is the times in & around Chicago[Pg 295] for the colored laboring man of the south &
the average salary of the labor man & the rates of room & ordanary board. Kindly state to me
just in every prticly that you no of that I have asked. I will be in your city on or before six

weeks from date above and desire to becom a citizen of same. Please reply me at wonce. i
enclos stamp for quick action. When i arive you city i will be more than glad to apply at your
place as i wish to thank you in advance for any asistance that you will do for me or tell me.
New Orleans, La., 5-5-17.
Dear Sir: Am applying for a position in your city if there be any work of my trade. I am a
water pipe corker and has worked foreman on subservice drainage and sewer in this city for
ten (10) years. I am now out of work and want to leave this city. I am a man of family
therefore I am very anxious for an immediate reply. Please find enclosed self addressed
envelop for return answer.
Dear Sirs: I was advised by the Chicago Defender to get in touch with you if I desired to
locate in or around Chicago. I write this to find out what kind of work that you have on slate.
I expect to locate in or around Chicago by the first of June.
Anniston, Ala., April 29, 1918.
Dear sir: I read a peas in the defender about the member com north I shall be vary glad to
com in touch with you, as am planing on coming north and I riting you that you mite no of
som good town in that secson I am a carpenter by traid and I would like for you to locate in
me as I should not like to com in that secson with out no enfremation.
Charleston, S. C., Feb. 10, 1917.
Gentlemen: Upon reading the N. Y. age, have seen where there are need of employees in
some sugar concern in New York. Kindly answer this letter, and tell me the nature of the
work.
As I am from the south and it is an average difficulty for a southerner to endure the cold
without being climatize. If it is possiable for you to get any other job for me regardless to its
nature just since the work is indoor I'll appreciate the same.
As it is understood the times in the south is very hard and one can scarcely live. Kindly take
the matters into consideration, and reply to my request at your earliest convenience.
[Pg 296]
Charleston, S. C., May 25, 1917.
Sir: Having been informed that you can secure jobs for people who desire to leave the south, I
would like to get information about the conditions and wages either in Niagra or Detroit. I
would prefer work in a factory in either town. Also advise as to climate.
Dear Sirs: Having heard of you through a friend of mine, I thought that I would write asking
you to please send me full information as to conditions and chances for the advancement of
the negro in the north.

I am seeking for the opportunity and chance of advancement as far as my ability is capable as
I am a negro my self.
I would like very much to get in touch with you if think that you can give me some assistance
along the line which I have spoken.
Miami, Fla., May 4, 1917.
Dear Sir: Some time ago down this side it was a rumour about the great work going on in the
north. But at the present time every thing is quite there, people saying that all we have been
hearing was false until I caught hold of the Chicago Defender I see where its more positions
are still open. Now I am very anxious to get up there. I follows up cooking. I also was a
stevedor. I used to have from 150 to 200 men under my charge. They thought I was capable in
doing the work and at the meantime I am willing to do anything. I have a wife and she is a
very good cook. She has lots of references from the north and south. Now dear sir if you can
send me a ticket so I can come up there and after I get straightened out I will send for my
wife. You will oblige me by doing so at as early date as possible.
Dear Sirs: I am now looking for a location and am a man hunting work and there is so many
has left the South for the north and Seemes as they are all gone to one place now please send
the names of some firms that wants labor i am a Man who Beleave in right and Beleave in
work and has worked all of my days and mean to work till i die and Never been No kind of
trouble and never has to be made work.
Now i will Cloes, hoping to here from you Soon Yours Very Truly,
New Orleans, La., 4/24/17
Dear Sirs: Being desirous of leaving the South for the beterment of my condition generaly
and seeking a Home Somewhere in Ill' Chicago or some other prosperious Town I am at sea
about the best[Pg 297] place to locate having a family dependent on me for support. I am
informed by the Chicago Defender a very valuable paper which has for its purpose the
Uplifting of my race, and of which I am a constant reader and real lover, that you were in
position to show some light to one in my condition.
Seeking a Northern Home. If this is true Kindly inform me by next mail the next best thing to
do Being a poor man with a family to care for, I am not coming to live on flowry Beds of ease
for I am a man who works and wish to make the best I can out of life I do not wish to come
there hoodwinked not knowing where to go or what to do so I Solicite your help in this matter
and thanking you in advance for what advice you may be pleased to Give I am yours for
success.
P.S. I am presently imployed in the I C RR. Mail Department at Union Station this city.
Palestine, Tex., Mar. 11th, 1917.
Sirs: this is somewhat a letter of information I am a colored Boy aged 15 years old and I am
talented for an artist and I am in search of some one will Cultivate my talent I have studied
Cartooning therefore I am a Cartoonist and I intend to visit Chicago this summer and I want
to keep in touch with your association and too from you knowledge can a Colored boy be an
artist and make a white man's salary up there I will tell you more and also send a fiew

samples of my work when I rec an answer from you.
Topeka, Kansas, May 1st, 1917.
The Editor of The Chicago Defender.
My Dear Sir: Being a regular reader of your most valuable paper (The Defender) I am
impressed with the seeming unlimited interest that paper is taking in the welfare of the army
of emigrants comeing from the south.
This alone without the knowledge of its incomparable service as a link in the chain that
should bind our people together more closely through out the country, should demand its
presence in every negro home of this country. In keeping in touch with the doings of our
people in the east and northern states through the Defender. To the Majority of the Middle
western race people it seem quite improbable that opportunities for good wage earning
positions such as factory work and too a chance for advancement would be given to the
workers of our race.[Pg 298]
Such conditions in this part of the country to my knowledge is rare. Noteing in the issue of
last weeks paper through the investigation into certain matter concerning our people some
appearantly well organized league found openings for negro workmen in some parts of Wis.
and Ill. that could not be filled.
As I for one that am not satisfied to content myself with little and to remain in the same old
rut for the sake of lengthy assiation and fair treatment I am making My appeal to you in your
wide aquaintence with conditions to help me to take advangage of an oppertunity that I might
other wise miss.
I am mechanically inclined also with the advantage of a course with the International
Correspondance School in Automobile work and with several years experience. I am not
afraid of any kind of work that pays.
Will kindly ask you to help me all you can at my expense and I will be very grateful to you.
Gonzales, Texas, May 28, 1917.
New York Age, New York, N. Y.
Gentlemen: I wish to know if a man from the south come north, such as common laborer,
stationery engineer, gasoline engineer, fireman or janitor able to care for heating plants ets.
and able to pay his own way there, is there a likelihood of finding lucrative employment?
I would be plased to have you advise me on the same as myself and several other men of
good morals and sober habits and who are able to bear our own expenses would like to better
our conditions by coming North.
If you can advise us or Know of any one or place that we can get the desired information
please give us the benefit of the same.
Find stamp enclosed for answer.

Houston, Texas, April 20, 1917.
Dear Sir: wanted to leave the South and Go and Place where a man will Be any thing Except
A Ker I thought would write you for Advise As where would be a Good Place for a
Comporedly young man That want to Better his Standing who has a very Promising young
Family.
I am 30 years old and have Good Experence in Freight Handler and Can fill Position from
Truck to Agt.
would like Chicago or Philadelphia But I dont Care where so long as I Go where a man is a
man[Pg 299] Hopeing hear of you soon as I want to leave on or about 15 day of May I am
yours as Ever.
Temple, Texas, April 29, 1917.
Mr. T. Arnold Hill, 3719 State St., Chicago, Ill.
Dear Sir: Being a reader of the Defender and young man seeking to better my conditions in
the business world, I have decided to leave this State for North or West. I would like to get in
touch with a person or firm that I might know where I can secure steady work. I would
certainly appericate any information you might be able to give. I finished the course in
Blacksmithing and horseshoeing at Prairie View College this State and took special wood
working in Hampton Institute Hampton Va. Have been in practical business for several years
also I am specializing auto work. I am a married man a member of the church. Thanking you
in advance for any favors Am very truly
Rome, Ga., 5/16/17
Dear Sir: "Ive" just read your ad in the Chicago Definder on getting employment. So I will
now ask you to do the best you can for me. Now, Mr. ——, I am not a tramp by
any means, I am a high class churchman and business man.
I am the Daddy of the Transfer Business in this city. And carried it on for teen years. Seven
years ago I sold out to a white Concern.
I prefer a job in a Retail furniture store if I can be placed "Ill' now name a few things that I do.
Viz I can repair and Finish furniture, I am an Exspert packer & Crater of furniture, I pack
China, Cut Glass & Silver ware.
I can Enamel, Grain & paint furniture. I can repair Violins, Guitars, & Mandolins, I am a
first-class Umbrella Man, I can do any thing that can be do to Umbrella & parasol, I can
manage a Transfer Business, I understand all about Shipping H. H. Goods & gurniture, I can
make out Bills of Lading & write tags for the same.
Now if you can place me on any of these Trades it will be all O.K.
Houston Tex April., 30, 1917.
Sir: I read in the Chicago Defender April the 28 inst that you wonted men to labor in mills sir
Eff you Cand Get me a joB to doo it will be Hiley orpresheAted I am A masster firman I cand

handle oil or I cand Burn Cole Keep up my pumps in Good order[Pg 300] and i is A no. 1
masheane helper I cand doo moste eny thange around the mill and if you cand Get me a joB I
Will hiley orpresheate it
And I Will Ask you to send me a pass for self and wife and when I Come take out my fare out
off my work so pleas let me here from You at once I wonter com at once Cand Come
recker-mended pleaS oBlige
Atlanta, Ga., May 1/1917.
Mr. Arnold Hill.
Dear Sire: I am a glazer and want information on My line of work. I am a cutter and can do
anything in a glazing room.
I reads the Defender and like it so much, hoping to hear from you soon
Brook Haven, Miss., 4/24/1917.
Chicago Urban League.
Sirs: I was reading in the defender that theare was good openings for Men in Smalle towns
near Chicago would like to know if they are seeking loborers or mechanics I am going to
come north in a few days and would rather try to have me a position in view would you
kindly advise me along this line as I am not particular about locateing in the city all I desire is
a good position where I can earn a good liveing I am experienced in plumbing and all kinds of
metal roofing and compositeon roofing an ans from you on this subject would certainly be
appreciated find enclosed addressed envelop for reply I wait your early reply as I want to
leave here not later than May 8th I remain respectfully yours,
P. S. will say that I am a Man of family dont think that I am picking my Job as any position in
any kind of shop would be appreciated have had 12 years experience in pipe fitting.
Pine Bluff, Ark., 4/23-17.
Mr. R. S. Abbott
Kine frind: I am riting you asting you to see if you can get me a job with some of the ship
bilders I am a carpenter & can Do most iny thing so if you can get me a job pleas rite me at
once.
Pensacola, Fla., 4-29/17.
Dear Sir: I was looking over The Chicago Defender & I saw where you wanting mins to work
& the meantime was advanceing transportation if it is so i would thank you kindly if you will
aid[Pg 301] me with a Transportation that i may come and get some of thoes jobs thae i am a
painter by traid but i will & can do eny kind of worke i am a sober and hard working Man my
weight is 179 Lbs heigth 6 ft 2 in i see where you can use sum moulders i am not a Moulder
but I am a moulder son I can do that worke till the Moulder Come very skilful at eny kind of
work Hoping to here from you Soon for more rezult.

Patterson, La., May 1, 1917.
Kind Sir: I saw your ad in the Defender for Laborers I am anxious to get north to do
something I am a Cleaner and Presser by Trade exprence Hoffman Pressing mashine
oppreator of this Trade is Not in your line. I would be very glad if you could get me a
Transportation Advanced from Chicago to woek with the Molders I am anxious to lean That
Trade I hope you with them and I would like to learn the Trade.
I hope you will attend to the above matter as I am in Eanest about this matter.
Atlanta, Ga.
To the Urban Committy—
Dear Sir: I am comming north and have read advice in the Chicago Defender and I would be
very much obliged to you if you would direct me to some firm that is in need of brick layers
for that is my Professical trade and can do any class of work and if I can't get Brick Work
now I will consider any other good Job as I want to come right away I have 3 in fambly and I
have no objection to work in other small towns I will be very glad to hear from you right
away as I have never been north and advice will be excepted yours truly and friend of the
race.
Hattiesburg, Miss., 12/4/16.
Hon. John T. Clark, Sec. National League on Urban Conditions,

New York City, N.Y.
Sir: I am writing you on matters pertaining to work and desirable locations for industrous and
trust worthy laborers. Me for myself and a good number of Friends especially thousand of our
people are moving out from this section of whom all can be largely depended upon for good
service, for the past 15 years I have been engaged in insurance work of which I am at the head
of one now, And have a large host of people at my command. I have[Pg 302] had a deal of
experience in the lumbering business, Hotel, Agency of most any kind. Any information as to
employment and desirable locations especially for good School Conditions Church Etc., will
be appreciated.
Fayette, Ga., January 17, 1917.
Dear Sir: I have learned of the splendid work which you are doing in placing colored men in
touch with industrial opportunities. I therefore write you to ask if you have an opening
anywhere for me. I am a college graduate and understand Bookkeeping. But I am not above
doing hard labor in a foundry or other industrial establishment. Please let me know if you can
place me.
Natchez, Miss., Sept. 22-17.
Mr. R. S. Abbott, Editor.
Dear Sir: I thought that you might help me in Some way either personally or through your
influence, is why I am worrying you for which I beg pardon.

I am a married man having wife and mother to support, (I mention this in order to properly
convey my plight) conditions here are not altogether good and living expenses growing while
wages are small. My greatest desire is to leave for a better place but am unable to raise the
money.
I can write short stories all of which potray negro characters but no burlesque can also write
poems, have a gift for cartooning but have never learned the technicalities of comic drawing,
these things will never profit me anything here in Natchez. Would like to know if you could
use one or two of my short stories in serial form in your great paper they are very interesting
and would furnish good reading matter. By this means I could probably leave here in short
and thus come in possession of better employment enabling me to take up my drawing which
I like best.
Kindly let me hear from you and if you cannot favor me could you refer me to any Negro
publication buying fiction from their race.
Baton Rouge, La., 4/26/17.
Dear Sir: I saw your advertisement in the Chicago Defender. I am planning to move North
this summer. I am one of the R. F. D. Mail Carriers of Baton Rouge. As you are in the
business of securing Jobs for the newcomers, I thought possibly you could give some
information concerning a transfer or a vacancy, in the government[Pg 303] service, such, as
city carrier, Janitor, or something similar that requires an ordinary common school education.
Possibly you could give me information about some good firm, that pays from, $3.50
upwards. If I could get a Job with a good reliable firm I would not mind quitting the
government service, I have been a Mail carrier for 11 years.
I want to buy property and locate in Chicago permently with my family.
Please let me know what are your charges for securing positions.
Decatur, Ala., 4/25/17.
The Chicago Urban League
Gentlemen: Gentlemens desious of Settling in some Small Northern Town With a modrate
Population & also Where a Colored man may open a business Also where one may receive
fairly good wedges for a While ontill well enough, azainted with Place to do a buiseness in
other words Wonts to locate in Some Coming town Were agoodly no, of colard People is.
Wonts to Work At Some occupation ontill I can arrange for other buiseness Just Give Me
information As to the best placers for a young buiseness Negro to locate & make good. in.
Any Northern State
Thanking you inavance any information you may give in regards to Laber & buiseness
Location Also when good Schools or in opration Please adress
P. S. answer this at once as I plain to leave the South by May the 3rd. I can furnish best
reffreces.
Dyersburg, Tennessee, 5/20, 1917.

The Defender, Negro News Journal,
My dear Sir: Please hand this letter to the Agency of the negro Employment
Bureau—connected with your department—that I may receive a reply from the
same—I am a practical fireman—, or stoker as the yankee people call
it—have a good knowledge of operating machinery—have been engaged in such
work for some 20 yrs—will be ready to call—or come on demand—I am
a married man—just one child, a boy about 15 yrs—of—age—a
member of the Methodist Episcopal Church—and aspire to better my condition in
life—Do me the kindness to hand this to the agent.
[Pg 304]
Jacksonville, Fla.
I seen your advertisement in the Chicago defender where you would direct men with families
where to go in order to find good work. I am a Southern cook, butler or Janitor I have two
boys age 15 yrs & 13 yrs, and wife that does maid work now I would like for you to help me
locate myself & family some where up there for work I can furnish reference to thirteen years
of service at one place I am anxious to come right away.
Lexington, Miss., May 12-17.
My dear Mr. H——:—I am writing to you for some information and

assistance if you can give it.
I am a young man and am disable, in a very great degree, to do hard manual labor. I was
educated at Alcorn College and have been teaching a few years: but ah: me the
Superintendent under whom we poor colored teachers have to teach cares less for a colored
man than he does for the vilest beast. I am compelled to teach 150 children without any
assistance and receives only $27.00 a month, the white with 30 get $100.
I am so sick I am so tired of such conditions that I sometime think that life for me is not worth
while and most eminently believe with Patrick Henry "Give me liberty or give me death." If I
was a strong able bodied man I would have gone from here long ago, but this handicaps me
and, I must make inquiries before I leap.
Mr. H——, do you think you can assist me to a position I am good at

stenography typewriting and bookkeeping or any kind of work not to rough or heavy. I am 4
feet 6 in high and weigh 105 pounds.
I will gladly give any other information you may desire and will greatly appreciate any
assistance you may render me.
Pasca Goula, Miss., May the 8, 1917.
Dear Sir & frend: as understand that you ar the man for me to con for to & i want to Com to
you & my frend & i has not got the money to Com Will you pleas Sir send me & my frend a
ticket to Com an if you will I will glad La Com at onC & will worK et out will Be glad to do
so I will not ask you to send the redey Casch for you dont nae me & if you Will Send me 2
tickets i will gladly take the, & i will Com Jest now hoping to hear from you by re torn male

Yors Evor.
[Pg 305]
Memphis, Tenn., May 5, 1917.
Dear Sir: I saw your add in the Chicago Defender papa and me being a firman and a all
around man I thought I would write you. prehaps You might could do me lots of good, and if
you can use me any way write me and let me No. in my trade or in foundry work. all so I got
a boy 19 years old he is pretty apt in Learning I would Like to get him up there and Learn him
a trade and I have several others would come previding if there be an opening for them. So
this is all ans. soon
Algiers, La., May 16-17.
Sir: I saw sometime ago in the Chicago Defender, that you needed me for different work,
would like to state that I can bring you all the men that you need, to do anything of work. or
send them, would like to Come my self Con recomend all the men I bring to do any kind of
work, and will give satisfaction; I have bin foreman for 20 yrs over some of these men in
different work from R. R. work to Boiler Shop machine shop Blacksmith shop Concreet
finishing or puting down pipe or any work to be did. they are all hard working men and will
work at any kind of work also plastering anything in the labor line, from Clerical work down,
I will not bring a man that is looking for a easy time only hard working men, that want good
wages for there work, let me here from you at once,
Ellisville, Miss., 5/1/17.
Kind Sir: I have been takeing the Defender 4 months I injoy reading it very much I dont think
that there could be a grander paper printed for the race, then the defender. Dear Editor I am
thinking of leaving for Some good place in the North or West one I dont Know just which I
learn that Nebraska was a very good climate for the people of the South. I wont you to give
me some ideas on it, Or Some good farming country. I have been public working for 10 year.
I am tired of that, And want to get out on a good farm. I have a wife and 5 children and we all
wont to get our from town a place an try to buy a good home near good Schools good
Churchs. I am going to leave here as soon as I get able to work. Some are talking of a free
train May 15 But I dont no anything of that. So I will go to work an then I will be sure, of my
leaving Of course if it run I will go but I am not depending on it Wages here are so low can
scarcely live We can buy enough to eat we only buy enough to Keep up alive I mean the
greater part of[Pg 306] the Race. Women wages are from $1.25 Some time as high as $2.50.
just some time for a whole week.
Hoping Dear Editor that I will get a hearing from you through return mail, giving me Some
ideas and Some Sketches on the different Climate suitable for our health.
P. S. You can place my letter in Some of the Defender Colums but done use my name in
print, for it might get back down here.
Talladega, Ala., Apri 29, 1917.
Dear Sir: I am a subscriber for the Chicago Defender and have been reading in your paper of
occupations waiting to be filled. And as I understand you want the person writting to state just

what kind of work they can do. I can car petter work and have been off and own for some
years. I am not a finished up carpenter, I can do ware-house work, I can work in a wholesale,
I have not sufficient money to come on will you be obliging to send me my transportation. I
am near thirty eight (38) years old and weighs about one hundred and ninety five (195)
pounds. If you will send a transportation please write me at once at Talladega.
Mobile, Ala., April 21. 17.
Dear Sirs: I am a man that would like to get work in some place where I can elevate my self
& family & I think some where in the north is the place for me & I would like to get you
gentlemen to advise me in getting a location my trade is cook rail Road camp cars pre fered
but will do enything els that I can do. so if you all can help me out in eny way I will Sure take
it as a favor.
Palestine, Tex., Mar. 24, 17.
Mr. Editor—
My dear Sir: I have been reading your paper for some time my farther is a subscriber for the
New York age I have read a few letters in your paper asking for help of securing a position in
the North I am trying to make a man of myself I can get any work down here in the South and
owing to prejudice I cant get a start I am 18 yrs. of age weighs 152 lbs. and any position that
you can get me will work at any job—untill I can get better I am asking how can I get
transportation from here it can be deducted from salary and I will certainly appreciate any
thing you do for me toward helping me leave the south a gol any where in the
north—please help me if you possible can[Pg 307]
I am hoping to hear from you some time soon Your agent of Palestine Mr. ——
is a cousin to me my farther is principle of D—— School but refuses to help me
any I havent any special trade a little expierence in stage work and drawing.
Bessemer, Ala., 5/14/17.
Sirs: Noticing an ad in Chicago Defender of your assitance to those desiring employment

there I thought mayhaps you could help me secure work in your Windy City I'm a married
man have one child. I have common school education this is my hand write. I am presently
employed as a miner has been for 14 years but would like a Change I'm apt to learn would
like to get where I could go on up and support myself and family. You know more about it
than I but in your opinion could I make anything as pullman porter being inexsperienced? I'd
be so grateful to U. to place me in something Ive worked myself too hard for nothing. I'm
sober and can adjust my life with any kind and am a quiet Christian man.
New Orleans, 4/25/17.
Kind Sir: I noticed in last weeks Defender an issieu relating to ocupations in your territory I
am a Laborer of N.O. and desire to get information concerning Best ways and means of
securing a Position I am absolutely willing to do manual Labor any-where will
you—Kindly inform me as to what step can be taken for further reference if necessary
apply to —— Hoping this will meet with your generous approval I remain

under the head lines in the Chicage Defender of Saturday April 22-17 I red how some of us
that goes up north are being treated. there is a few that have gone from this city north, and
came back a few weeks. some say they came back on account of being to cold "The others
Say they ware to pay so much to get work etc" I would like to go north. and would rather be
in some place. other then Chicago. or near Chicago. I am a union man" but dont exspect to
work at union only" there is a few of us union men that are planing to go north and Kindly
please write me" all so I mail you one of my union cards hoping to heare from you soon I am
respectfully, Yours.
[Pg 308]
Memphis, Tenn., May 12 8 17.
Dear Sir: I am a constant reader of your paper which can be purchased here at the Panama
Cafe news stand. Mr. —— at present I am employed as agent for the Interstate
Life and acc'd ins. Co. but on account of the race people leaving here so very fast my present
job is no longer a profitable one. I have a number of young friends in your city who are
advising me to come to Chicago and I have just about made up my mind to come. but before
leaving here I wanted to ask Some advice from you along certain lines. I am buying property
here and taking up notes each month on Same these notes now are aroun $14 per month. and
with my present Salary and the unusual high price on everything I can't possibly protect
myself very long against a foreclosure on above mentioned property on account of my Salary
being less than $50.00 per month. Mr. —— do you think I could come to your
city with myself and wife rent this place out here and better my condition financially? I am
strong and able to do anything kind of work so long as the Salary is O. K. I have a fair
experience as a meat cutter and can furnish the best of reference from business houses one of
them is Swift & Co of this city. I hope you can understand me clearly, it is my aim to make an
honest living and would not dream of any other method. I am prepared to leave here at any
time and must go Some place but Chicago is the place that impress me most. and having the
confidence in you as a great race man I am writing you for your honest opinion concerning
the facts in the matter. Many thanks for the information in today's paper under the Caption
("Know thyself") hoping this will meet with your hearty Cooperation.
P. S. What is about the average salaries paid there for unskilled laborers and what is board
and room rent? if I come would it be advisable to come alone and Secure location and
everything and then have my wife come later?
Jackson, Miss., May 10-17.
Kind Sir: I saw your ad., in the Chicago Defender. Where you wonted 15 or 20 good men. So
I am Writing you asking you do you still wont them. Also you said that you would send
transportation for them. If you still wont them I can get good steady working men that wount
to work and not gambling no rounders but working men. I am working man can work at
anything[Pg 309] not a left hand man but work both right and left. So please let me hear from
you at once. For I wont to work and wont to work now. So if you Can not send transportation
for all send me one. Please Oblige me.
P.S. Please let me hear from you at once.
Memphis, Tenn., May 22nd, 1917.

Sir: As you will see from the above that I am working in an office somewhat similar to the
one I am addressing, but that is not the purpose with which I sat out to write.
What I would like best to know is can you secure me a position there? I will not say that I am
capable of doing any kind of labor as I am not. Have had an accidental injury to my right foot;
hence I am incapable of running up and down stairs, but can go up and down by taking my
time. I can perform janitors duties, tend bar, or grocery store, as clerk. I am also a graduate of
the Law Department, Howard University, Washington, D. C. Class of '85 but this fact has not
swelled my head. I am willing to do almost any thing that I can do that there is a dollar to it. I
am a man of 63 years of age. Lived here all of my life, barring 5 or 6 years spent in
Washington and the East. Am a christian, Bapitst by affiliation.
Have been a teacher, clerk in the government department, Law and Pension offices, for 5
years, also a watchman in the War Dept. also collector and rental agent for the late R. R.
Church, Esq. Member of Canaan Baptist Church, Covington, Tenn. Now this is the
indictment I plead to.
Sir, If you can place me I will be willing to pay anything in reason for the service. I have
selected a place to stop with a friend of earlier days at ——, whenever I can get
placed there. An early reply will be appreciated by yours respectfully.
Pascoqoula, Miss., April 8 17,
Dear Sir: As you have charge of the Urban League, I want to know if the League can locate
work for about 8 or 10 men. We are all middle-aged men and would like to have our faires
paid and deducted from our wages.
We will work in any small town in Illinois. All of these men are property owners and have
large families. We'll leave families 'till later on.
Any good you can do for us Will be highly appreciated.[Pg 310]
P.S. Some of these men have trades and are capable of working in railroad shops.
Hamlet, N. C., May 29, 1917.
Gentlemen: I am very desirous of changing my location and am writing to know whether or

not you can find a lucrative opening for me somewhere in the North.
I am 42 years old, married, wife and four children and a public school teacher and printer by
profession and trade. Will accept any kind of work with living wages, on tobacco farm or
factory. I am a sober, steady worker and shall endeavor to render satisfaction in any position
in which I am placed.
Beaumont, Texas, July 16, 1917.
Dear Sir: I am a colored, am desiring work in New York or some of the adjoining states. I am
not a skilled workman but I can do most any kind of common labor. I have spent several
years in the plaining mills of the south. I know all about feeding planers and I can also keep
them up very well. I have checked lumber and in fact, I can do a number of different things.

Will you be kind enough to put me in correspondence with some one who would like to
employ a good conscientious steady laborer.
I have a family and I would be glad to come north to live. So please be so kind as to do me
the favor above asked. I have a little education too if it could be used to any advantage.
Hoping an early reply.
Collins, Miss., May 1st, 1917.
Dear Sir: By being a Subscriber and reader of the Chicago Defender, I read an advertisement
where they are wanting and needing help. Needing Moulders and Machinist of course I do not
know anything about the trade. But they Said they would pay men $2.25 begin with and
Learn the trade And transportation forworded and they would deduct it Out of their wages.
I am Very Anxious to Come Up North. And I would put all of my energy and mind on my
work. And try in every way to please the One for whom I am working for. They could get
about five men from here. One that is a Pretty good Machinist I am Writting you as they Gave
two branches for Colored and that you is the head of the —— So Any favors
extended towards Me will be highly Appreciated hoping to hear from you at an early Date I
remain yours truly.
[Pg 311]
McDonoghvill, La., May 1—1917.
dear Mr. ——: it afford me With pleasur to right to you on Some infermashian
how to get me a transportation to Some town in the North as i Would like to Come out there
to Live and better my condition as i am A young Man and desire to get With the good Clase
of Laboring people i have not got a trade but i have Work all My time around oil Mill and
Coopper Shop for the Last 8 years and i cand work at Moust enj thing if i get A Little
experence.
My age is—24—years good healt good behaver goof record in the south this is
all to tell now but if you would Like to no My record i caNd give it to you from my
Lodge—are from my church—good by
Hattiesburg, Miss., May 27th, 1917.
Gentlemen: by reading in the defender of the position you are in for securing jobs. I thought I
would write, and see if you could place me. Now my job pay me well, but as my wife and
Children are anxious to come north I would try and get a job now I am a yellow Pine Lumber
inspector and checker can furnish recomdation from some reliable Saw Mill Firms as there is
in South Miss. As Gradeing Triming & Checking yellow pine lumber.
P. S. I know I can make good in any Lumber Yard such as checking & stowing Lumber if you
Will place me write on what terms to—
Winona, Miss., 4/13/17.

In reading the defender I saw your advertising for more men I would like very much to come
up their I wants to leave the South and go whear I can make a support for myself and Family.
I have a wife and six children to take cair of and I would like to bee whair I could cair for
Them my occupation is Carpenter but I can do most any kind of work will you furnish me a
Transportation to com up thair on
Greenwood, Miss., Apr. 22nd, 17.
Sir: I noticed in the Defender about receiving some information from you about positions up
there or rather work and I am very anxious to know what the chances are for business men. I
am very anxious to leave the South on account of my children but mu husband[Pg 312]
doesn't seem to think that he can succeed there in business, he is a merchant and also knows
the barber trade what are the chances for either? Some of our folks down here have the idea
that this Northern movement means nothing to any body but those who go out and labor by
the day. I am willing to work myself to get a start. Tell me what we could really do. I will do
most anything to get our family out of Bam. Please let this be confidential.
Winina, Miss., Mar the 19 1917.
My dear driend: it is With murch pleaser that i rite to You to let You no i reed Your letter &
Was glad to hear from you all so i excepts all you Said that you wood do for me so i am a
Painter and Carter to So i am willing to learn in neything in works kind So mr.
—— i thank You for Your kindes for all of Your aid so i am a Barber to so i am
a good farmer to al all kind So i am not Set do Wn at all so if You Can healp pleas do So So i
hay niCe famely so i will tell you i am a Curch member for 38 years i and all of my famely
but 3 children so i am not a de Sever So mr. —— i wood ask you for if the
monney So i Was so glad to get your letter dear Sit When I com up thire look for me at your
offes Pleas so mr —— i all waYs hold gob When i get wone So in god name
pleas healp me up there and i will pay you When i com up thire mr —— i Cant
raise my famely hear i wanter to So this all Your friend
Knoxville, Tenn., Apr. 30, '17.
Dear Sir: I am anxious to come to Chicago. I have thirteen years experiance as janitor in large
residence apartment house, am also handy with tools.
I have a wife and four children. If you can place me where I can earn a decent living for my
family will appreciate it.
Montgomery, Ala., Dec. 3rd, 1916.
Dear Sir: in Reading The Defender I See Where you are Disirious of Communicating With a
better class of working men To supply the different trades. Please advise Some place by
which I could better my condition North or East.
I would be glad To come in to a better Knowing by writting you before Starting
[Pg 313]
Jazoo City, Miss., 4/3/17.

dear sir: I owe in Con sist to write you a few lines as in the regards of my ability as I am
anxus to get some work to do I have a famely to work for and I habe bin workin as helper and
bon do most any Kind of work. Has been in the Bixness as MoChinest helper for 7 years and
Have fally good ExpernCe in it and would like for you to Help me out if possibl to do so I
Would like to work in some Shop or Millplant and I Would lik for you to send me a
transpotation and I will pay out of my salry so answer soon and let me no what yo Can do for
me I Will Close.
Mobile, Ala., May the 4, 1917.
Dear Sir: I write you a few line to find out about the Work and if I could get you to Send me
and Wife and Son a transportation I am not a loafer and can send references that I will work.
P. S. Please rite me at once I am anxious to here from you.
Pensacola, Fla., 30th, 1917.
Dear Sir: in answer to your advertisment for labors I am a man want to work am noes a
opertunity Please notiefie me at ane as I Want to get Job with you I Will Ask a Transportation
an will leve when its reaches me Please take my letter in canceration ans me at once as I very
anxious to from I am stiedy drink no whiskey or eny thing that is intosicating an can give fot
the infomation Right soon
Macon, Ga., 4/30/17.
Mr. ——: i War took and Read the Chicago Defender and i read for the Wanted
laborers and i am rinten to you to let you here from we all that Wold liKe to taKe a laborers
part with this Manufacturing and We or Willing to do ennery kind of Work and We or men
Will Work and or Glad that me seet With this canne and We will gladly come if you will
Send us transportation fore 9 Mens and We Will Come at once and these Mens is Men With
Famly and We all or hard work men and i Will Say A Gin that Me Will do enny Kind of
Work dut Me thave a tirde Some us
Pensacola, Fla., April 29-1917.
Sir: While sitting reading the Chicago defender I found that you are in need labering mens
that will work sir I am a labering[Pg 314] man and I womts to came but are able to pay my
way so I ask you to send me a transportation and I will come Just as soon as I get it I am a
married man have a wife and six childrens and I wonte to take car of them but con not here in
the south so let me here from you in return mail.
Pensacola, Fla., 4-25-17.
Dear Sir: Having read in the "Chicago Defender" are helping the negroes of the South to
secure employment I am writing you this note asking you to please put me & my friend in
touch with some firm that are employing men.
Please do what you can for us.
Jacksonville, Fla., June 12, 1917.

dear sir: I am writing to you for information concerning a Job I have a wife and 2 children
and who so ever my employer may Be I would ask that they may send trancipertation for me
and my family and I will pay as i work I am a come laber man my wife is a good launders all
So my daughter and My Son is a laber all so I am a railroad mon By trade please aBlige mr
——
Port Arthur, Texas.
Kind sir: inclose you will find Just a word to you in reading the News I found your address
and was very glad to see it Kind sir I write you with my hole heart and I do not mean Just to
pass off time my brothers and I are now writing you to please send 2 tickets one for
—— and one for ——
we are Very Well Experence long many lines so long as publice work I am now employed in
the largest Company in the south it is the Gulf Refining Co. I have ben Working for them for
a number of years Write soon I remain yours very truly.
Beaumont, Texas, May 7, 1917.
Dear Sir: I see in one of your recent issue of collored men woanted in the North I wish you
would help me to get a position in the North I have no trade I have been working for one
company eight years and there is no advancement here for me and I would[Pg 315] like to
come where I can better my condition I woant work and not affraid to work all I wish is a
chance to make good. I believe I would like machinist helper or Molder helper. If you can
help me in any way it will be highly appreciate hoping to hear from you soon
Beaumont, Texas, May 8th, 1917.
Dear Sir: I wrote you some time ago, and never received any answer. I learn you can assist
me in bettering my condition. I would like very much to come North. I have no trade but Im a
willing worker, and the Job I have now I have had it for eight years and there is no
advancement here for me. I can give eight year refference I would like mechinist helper or
some thing where I could learn a trade I have a fair education and I wish is a chance I need no
transportation Im very well fix financial Im single and 29 years old if you can help me in any
way it will be highly appreciate. hoping to hear from you soon.
Houston, Texas, April 21, 17.
Dear Sir: As I was looking over your great news paper I would like very mutch to get Some
information from you about Comeing to your great City, I have a famile and Can give you
good Referns about my Self. I am a Working man and will Prove up to what I say and would
be very glad to Know from you, about a Job Allthough I am at work But, If I Could get
Something to do I would be very glad to leave the South, as I Read in the Chicago Defender
about Some of my Race going north and makeing good.—well I would like to be on
the List not with Standing my reputation is all O.K.
I thank you.
Jacksonville, Fla., May 22, 1917.

Chicago Defender: I wish to go North haven got money enuff to come I can do any kind of
housework laundress nurse good cook has cook for northen people I am 27 years of age just
my self would you kindly inderseed for me a job with some rich white people who would
send me a ticket and I pay them back please help me. I am brown skin just meaden size.
[Pg 316]
New Orleans, La., August 27, 1917.
Dear Sir: i am wrighting you for help i haird of you by telling my troble i was told to right
you. I wont to come there and work i have ben looking for work here for three month and
cand find any i once found a place $1 a week for a 15 year old girl and i did not take that, now
you may say how can that be but New Orleans is so haird tell some have to work for food and
the only help i have is my mother and she have work 2 week now and she have four children
young then me and i am 15teen and she have such a hard time tell she is willing for me to go
and if you will sin me a pass you will not be sorry i am not no lazy girl i am smart i have got
very much learning but i can do any work that come to my hand to do i am set here to day
worry i could explane it to you i have ben out three time to day and it only 12 oclock. and if
you please sire sine me a pass, it more thin i am able to tell you how i will thank you i have
clothes to bring wenter dress to ware, my grand mama dress me but now she is dead and all i
have is my mother now please sire sin me a pass and you wont be sorry of it and if you right
and speake mean please ancer i will be glad of that but if you would sin a pass i would be so
much glader i will work and pay for my pass if you sin it i am so sorry tell i cant talk like i
wont to and if you and your famely dont wont to be worry with me I will stay where i work
and will come and see you all and do any think i can for you all from little
A—— V—— excuse bad righting.
Jacksonville, Fla., April 29, 1917.
My dear Sir: I take grate pleazer in writing you. as I found in your Chicago Defender this
morning where you are secur job for men as I realey diden no if you can get a good job for
me as am a woman and a widowe with two girls and would like to no if you can get one for
me and the girls. We will do any kind of work and I would like to hear from you at once not
any of us has any husbands.
Moss Point, Miss., May 5, 1917.
Dear Sirs: Will you please send me in formation towards a first class cookeing job or
washing job I want a job as soom as you can find one for me also I want a job for three young
girls ages 13 to 16 years. Pease oblidge.
[Pg 317]
New Orleans, La., May 7, 1917.
Gentlemen: I read Defender every week and see so much good youre doing for the southern
people & would like to know if you do the same for me as I am thinking of coming to
Chicago about the first of June, and wants a position. I have very fine references if needed. I
am a widow of 28. No children, not a relative living and I can do first class work as house
maid and dining room or care for invalid ladies. I am honest and neat and refined with a fairly
good education. I would like a position where I could live on places because its very trying

for a good girl to be out in a large city by self among strangers is why I would like a good
home with good people. Trusting to hear from you.
Selma, Ala., May 19, 1917.
Dear Sir: I am a reader of the Chicago Defender I think it is one of the Most Wonderful
Papers of our race printed. Sirs I am writeing to see if You all will please get me a job. And
Sir I can wash dishes, wash iron nursing work in groceries and dry good stores. Just any of
these I can do. Sir, who so ever you get the job from please tell them to send me a ticket and I
will pay them. When I get their as I have not got enough money to pay my way. I am a girl of
17 years old and in the 8 grade at Knox Academy School. But on account of not having
money enough I had to stop school. Sir I will thank you all with all my heart. May God Bless
you all. Please answer in return mail.
Natchez, Miss., Oct. 5, 1917.
Dear Sir: Now I am writing you to oblige me to put my application in the papers for me
please. I am a body servant or nice house maid. My hair is black and my eyes are black and
smooth skin and clear and brown, good teeth and strong and good health and my weight is
136 lb.
Corinth, Miss., April 30, 1917.
Dear Sir: I am a good cook age 35 years. I can bring my recermendation with me my name is
—— ——. I am in good health so I would like for you to send me
a transportation I have got a daughter and baby six months old so she can nurse so I would
like to come up there and get a job of some kind I can wait table[Pg 318] cook housegirl
nurse or do any work I am ready to come just as soon as you send the passes to us I want to
bring a box of quilts and a trunk of clothes so you please send us the passes for me and
daughter. Write me at once I am a negro woman. We will leave her Sat. if you send the passes
if you are not the man please give me some infamation to whom to write to a negro friend.
Biloxi, Miss., April 27, 1917.
Dear Sir: I would like to get in touch with you a pece of advise I am unable to under go hard
work as I have a fracture ancle but in the mene time I am able to help my selft a great dele. I
am a good cook and can give good recmendation can serve in small famly that has light work,
if I could get something in that line I could work my daughters a long with me. She is 21
years and I have a husban all so and he is a fireman and want a positions and too small boy
need to be in school now if you all see where there is some open for me that I may be able too
better my condission anser at once and we will com as we are in a land of starvaten.
From a willen workin woman. I hope that you will healp me as I want to get out of this land
of sufring I no there is som thing that I can do here there is nothing for me to do I may be able
to get in some furm where I dont have to stand on my feet all day I dont no just whah but I
hope the Lord will find a place now let me here from you all at once.
Kind sir: I seen your name in the Chicago Defender I am real anxious to go north I and my
family I am a married womon with family my husbon and 3 children my olders boy 15

younger 13 baby 4 my sister 20. I can wash chamber mad dish washer nurse or wash and my
boy can work my sister can cook or wash or nurse my husband is a good work and swift to
lern we are collored pepel a good family wonts a job with good pepel pleas anser soon
Kind Sir: We have several times read your noted paper and we are delighted with the same
because it is a thorough Negro paper. There is a storm of our people toward the North and
especially to your city. We have watched your want ad regularly and we are anxious for
location with good families (white) where we can be cared for and do domestic work. We
want to engage as cook, nurse[Pg 319] and maid. We have had some educational advantages,
as we have taught in rural schools for few years but our pay so poor we could not continue.
We can furnish testimonial of our honesty and integrity and moral standing. Will you please
assist us in securing places as we are anxious to come but want jobs before we leave. We
want to do any kind of honest labor. Our chance here is so poor.
Dear Sir: I after seeing your jobs advertised in the Defender was moved to write to you for
clear information of the —— ——. I am a laundress wanting a
position in some place where I can get pay for what I do, work here are too scarce to support
me necessarily so I humbly wish you to favor me with an early answer stateing the entire
nature of the great colored society. Your answer are daily and impatiently expected by your
humble servant.
Vicksburg, Miss., May 7, 1917.
Dear Sir: This comes to say to you will you please inform us of some place of employment.
We are working here at starvation wages and some of us are virtually without employment
willing to accept any kind of work such as cooking, laundering or as domestics no objection
to living in a small town, suburb or country. There are fifteen wants work. You can just write
me and I will notify them please let me hear from you at your earliest convenience.
Letters About Clubs and Groups for the North
Sauk, Ga., May 1, 1917.
Dear Sir: There are about 15 or 20 of us hard working mans seeking employment an we
would be more than glad if you assis us in finding work i see here in the Chicago Defender
laborers wanted i am a skill labor at most anything except molder but i am willing to learn the
trade we are hard working mans no lofers neather crap shooters work is what we want and
can not get it without you assistant, if you will assis us with transportation please rite and let
us no what way to came to you these white folks here having meeting trying to stop us from
going off to seek work an noing they haven got work nor wagers for us here.
We have had jobs but loose it and have not the money to get away if you except my letter
please give us some assistant to leave because is send you a letter Monday but i see afterward
that it was[Pg 320] send rong so i send you this one. have you got employment up there for
female if so let us no please if you send me a speciel please dont put 15 or 20 men and i will
under stand if you say 15 or 20 mans they will put me in jail. please answer just as soon can
as i want to get away as soon as i can there nothing here to do. some industrious female want

employment answer at once please.
Dear Sirs: We have a club of 108 good men wants work we are willing to go north or west
but we are not abel to pay rail road fare now if you can help us get work and get to it please
answer at once. Hope to hear from you.
Mobile, Ala., May 11, 1917.
Dear sir and brother: on last Sunday I addressed you a letter asking you for information and I
have received no answer, but we would like to know could 300 or 500 men and women get
employment? and will the company or thoes that needs help send them a ticket or a pass and
let them pay it back in weekly payments? We have men and women here in all lines of work
we have organized a association to help them through you.
We are anxiously awaiting your reply.
Dear Sir: I was reading you advertisement in the Chicago Defender and it come intresting to
me and I thought I would rite you to get information about it. There are 5 or six families of us
wants to know would you send us a ticket if you would we would like to heare from you at
once and we will explain our statement in my next letter. I am looking for reply soon.
Jackson, Miss., May the first, 1917.
sir: I was looking over the Chicago Defender and seen ad for labers both woman an men it is
a great lots of us woud come at once if we was only abel but we is not abel to come but if you
will send me a pas for 25 women and men I will send them north at once men an women
Dear Sir: In reading the defender I seen where you are acting as agent for some big concerns
and that you are in need of men. I[Pg 321] am a married man and would like to get up there to
work but it seems a hard proposition to get enough money to pay my fare and there are a lots
more men around here that follow the very work that you want men for but cant get away
upon that reason. but if you could plan to get us up there and let us pay after we got there we
will be very thankful. At present I am employed as a boiler makers helper and all the men I
speak of are boiler makers and machinists helpers and all are hard working men and have
families but we want to come north. Let me hear from you please and I can get (12) twelve
men at least that have reputation. Looking for an early reply, I am, Your friend for betterment.
Charleston, S. C., April 2, 1917.
Dear Sir: I saw your want in the paper and I thought i would right you and find out about it
and if you have work for me and my wife I will be glad to come and if you have no work for
her you can send for me and I will be glad to come and bring along manny more if you want
them. You can let me know at once and i will be glad to do so. so you can write me at once
and I will know just what to do.

Dear Sirs: You will find my full name and address from which please give infermation about
jobs and also tell me will you pay my fare up there and take it out of my work after geting to
work and i can get a great many men and family if you want them. they wants to come but
they cant get no work to do so they can get the money to come on. I can get men women and
families so please answer and let me me no what you will do if you need them.
Pascagoula, Miss., May 3, 1917.
Dear Sirs: Whilse reading over the want adv. of the Defender I find where you wants bench
molders 20 not saying I am one but I am a labering man and verry apt to lern anything in a
short while and desires to come and give it a trile or something else I can do eny thing in
common labor hoping you will send me a transportation and give me a trile and I can all so
bring you as meny men as you want if you dont want me to bring eny men send me a
transportation for my self. hopeing to hear from you by return mail.
[Pg 322]
Hattiesburg, Miss., April 13, 1917.
Sir: Please oblige me in getting me a pass to Chicago to some firm that are in need of labors I
have three in family besides myself I have four or five other men with me now want to know
if you can secure that pass we will come at once this would be about eight passes, my self and
two in family and five men which will be eight passes. these are able and good work man if
you can arrange this & let the list of passes bear each name so as to form a club. let hear from
you soon.
De Ridder, La., April 29, 1917.
Dear Sir: there is lots of us southern mens wants transportation and we want to leave ratway
as soon as you let us here from you some of us is married mens who need work we would like
to bring our wife with us there is 20 head of good mens want transportation and if you need
us let us no by return mail we all are redy only wants here from you there may be more all of
our peoples wont to leave here and I want you to send as much as 20 tickets any way I will
get you up plenty hands to do most any kind of work all you have to do is to send for them.
looking to here from you. This is among us collerd.
Plaquemine, La., April 288, 1917.
Der sir: only a few lines in regards you advertismen this week Chicago Defender and it verry
intresting to me and other that why Im wrighten you because it my benifit me in the futur I
know about twenty five young men would like to go north but accorden to present conditions
in the south wont allow them to save enough to go if their a possible chance of you doing
enything we all good worker and think if you will give us a chance will proof to you that we
can work and if you give us transportation we will work and pay it back from the start. I will
close hope you will kindly except our offer and give it your persinel intrest.

Dear Sirs: I have been engaged in the hotel business for eighteen years. And I am personally
acquainted with at least fifty of our leading citizens of your city. And in my home I would
refer you to Mr. ——, asst. Depot Ticket agent of the —— R. R.
He told me that any corporation that was in need of Labor and placed passes with them for the
same, that they would haul the people. I could[Pg 323] furnish you at least one thousand in
the next sixty days. And you will not have sixty dead beats. I will furnish the names, and each
pass should have the name of the user on it before leaving Chicago. The greater number that I
know have families and do not wish to leave without them. Let me hear from you at once. I
can give you the business and my people will go any where sent and do any kind of work, if
the wages are right.
Patterson, La., May 1, 1917.
Dear Sir: I was reading one of the Chicago Defender papers and I seen a splendid opportunity
to grasp a good job. Now if you could fowerd me a pass from New Orleans I would be very
glad because I am a willing worker, write me a letter as soon as possible and let me know just
what job you will put me to, of cours I dont know any trade but will be willing to learn a good
trade. this aid I seen reads like this:
Laborers wanted for foundry, warehouse and yard work. Excellent opportunity for learning
trades, paying good money start $2.50-$2.75 so I would like to learn a trade. I might can get
you some more from here. I will close hope I will hear from you at once. Before sending the
transportation write me a letter.
Chattanooga, Tenn., May 1, 1917.
Dear Sur: will you send me a transportation i am a foundry man i want to come where i can
get same pay for my work and you plese send me a transportation for 4 good hard labore man
please send and i can get you some good mens here i am down here working hard and gett
nothing for it so i hop you will ancer soon and let me here from you i have had 7 years
exprense in foundry works i noes my jobe well i will expet to here from you rat way so good
by.
Dear Sir: In answer to your Ad. which apeared in the Chicago Defender for laborer wanted to
work in Foundry warehouse and yard work I can recruit 15 good honest men whom I believe
would make good and can leave as soon as transportation for same is provided. Hopeing to
hear from you soon I remain Yours truly.
New Orleans, La., 4/30/17.
Kind sir: only a few lines wanting to get some information concerning of work i want to find
out when could you send transportations[Pg 324] for fifteen men eight of them is molders and
the balance of them is experienced warehouse men and experienced firemen if required i saw
your ad in the CHicago Defender.
This is all at present hopeing to get an early reply.
Chattanogga, Tenn., 5-2-17.

Dear sir: i only had the chance to see your ad to day at noon. i was to glad to see it and hop
that i am not to lat to full it i am fuly sattisfied i can get as many as 10 or 15 reddy by the 7 or
8 and we will be reddy by that time if you will tret us rite we will stand by you to the las
Chattanooga, Tenn., May 2, 1917.
Dear Sir: I beg to call you tension of some employment in your country. I has been inform
that you will give instruction an get work any wher in the northern stats. I have some of the
best labor that is in south an some of the best molders if we can get employment in north we
wil go.
a waiting your reply.
Savannah, Ga., March 16, 1917.
Gentlemen: Having learned that you ar short of laborers, I respectfully offer myself as an
applicant for a situation, and would be glad to get a hearing from you as soon as it would be
convenient for you to reply. There are also many of my friends that would be glad to get a
situation. I am willing to do most eny kind of earnest work. I am 36 years of age and can read
and wright the english language. and have good experance in busness. Any communication
whitch you may be pleased to make addressed as above will receive prompt attention.
St. Petersburg, Fla., May 1, 1917.
Dear sir: I am in receipt of your letter of the 16th of April in reply to a letter I written to you.
I will say at this junction that there are more than 250 men desire to come north but is not able
to come if your manufacture men would like to have 75 men labores from the south why he
can get them for the fair from here to New York is only 19.00 nineteen dollars and I do not
think that is a high transportation cost to get good labor. Now there are men here that will
work that can and have 10.00 ten dollars on there fair and for a little assistance they will come
at once for the condishion there is terrible the low wage and high cost of living and bad
treatment[Pg 325] is causing all to want to come north. Now I have a family of 8 only, one
boy that can work in the north for he is 18 years the others is school children and I would like
to get them up there with me for I was raise in the eastern state Massachusett Cambridge and
pass as a master workman in Denver Colorader making brick. Now if there is any way to
assist why do so now if you can only assist me why just do it as a brother & friend I have 5 to
pay for but I have a little moeny but not enough to pay all way 3 full and 2 half fair so you
can readily see just where Im at but I got my fare but rather bring my family with me.
Ashford, Ala., Dec. 8, 1916.
Dear sir: I take great pleasure in writing you and replying to your advertiser that you all
wanted colored laborers and I want to come up north and could get you 75 more responsible
hands if you want them so if you please send me 3 passes are as manny as you like and I
garontee you that I will fill them out with responsible hands and good ones so please let me
here from you at once.
Orangeburg, S. C., June 14, 1917.
Dear Sir: your addess was gave to me this after noon by a young man by the name of Mr.
—— who is now in Conn. and I write him to see if he could get me a good job

so he said to me on his card that he was listening for a vacan place to apply for but hesen
found any thing not as yet but he said he wood do his very best for me. This time of the year
most people are now goeing north so much I thought I wood come two so he told me to write
you and see if I could get you to get me a good job and have the people to write me and
advance me a transportation from Orangeburg to New York. He said you are the best man in
New York to assist good fellow in to good paying jobs. I will look two here from you very
soon.
Graham, La., May 18, 1917.
Dear sir: a word of infermation and a ancer from you please there are about 12 or 15 of us
with our famlys leaving the south and we can hear of collored peples leaving the south but we
are not luckey enough to leave hear. Dr. —— clame to be an agent to sind
peples off and we has bin to him so minnie times and has fail to get off untill we dont no what
to do so if you will place us about 15 tickets or get some one else to do so we are honest
enough to come[Pg 326] at once and labor for you or the one that sind them untill we pay you
if so requir. If we war able we wood sur leave this torminting place but the job we as got and
what we get it we do well to feed our family so please let me here from you at once giveing
full detale of my requess.
Savannah, Ga., May 3, 1917.
Dare sier: I understand that you wont some mens and if you wood sen me transportation for
ten mens wood bee turly glad and please write to me at wonce and lete me hir form you.
Memphis, Tenn., May 3, 1917.
Dear Sir: Seeing you add in the Chicago definder that you are in need of labor I write you for
full information at once hope you will please give me. I am willing to come & if you kneed
any more labor I am sufficient to bring them.
Now my dear sir if you can give me a steady job please send me a pass hope you will write
me at once.
Savannah, Ga., 4-30-17.
Dear sir: in reply to the labor wanted I write you let you know I am a poor afflicted man can
not do anything come to hand but am willing to work and do need something to make a
support now will you please look up a job for me I could sweep or do any thing light like that
could watch act as janitor if you will send me a transportation when I get there you see my
willingness you would make me a job now if you will except I will get you some men and
bring with me because I know numbers of men want to come and can get as many as you
want. Just give me a trial.
Deer sir: i reed in the Chicago Defender that you wanted some molder in your city i dont no
wheather you mene lumber are iron moulder but i am 4 years experence in lumber but if you
mene iron molder i dont think i will be many days learning the trade if it is any chance that i
can get a good job eith you i would like to hear from you at once i am maried and would like
to get 2 transportation if i can and if you want some hard working mens let me no and i will

do all that i can for you and bring them on with me if you will make same range ment to get
them there i mean that i will get you some good men hard working mens like myself so let me
here from you at once Please
[Pg 327]
Jacksonville, Fla., 5/21/17.
Dear sir: i am today righting you a few lines asking you to please give me some information
and that is this if you know of any one that wants help of any kind men or women and one
that would send a few tickets would you please give me they address i was told to right to you
for information please lead me in the light as i could get five familys and 8 or 9 good men for
any firm that wanted help, so I am awaiting your promp reply.
Port Arthur, Texas, 5/5th/17.
Dear Sir: Permitt me to inform you that I have had the pleasure of reading the Defender for
the first time in my life as I never dreamed that there was such a race paper published and I
must say that its some paper.
However I can unhesitatingly say that it is extraordinarily interesting and had I know that
there was such a paper in my town or such being handled in my vicinity I would have been a
subscriber years ago.
Nevertheless I read every space of the paper dated April 28th which is my first and only paper
at present. Although I am greatfully anticipating the pleasure of receiving my next Defender
as I now consider myself a full fledged defender fan and I have also requested the
representative of said paper to deliver my Defender weekly.
In reading the Defenders want ad I notice that there is lots of work to be had and if I havent
miscomprehended I think I also understand that the transportation is advanced to able bodied
working men who is out of work and desire work. Am I not right? with the understanding that
those who have been advanced transportation same will be deducted from their salary after
they have begun work. Now then if this is they proposition I have about 10 or 15 good
working men who is out of work and are dying to leave the south and I assure you that they
are working men and will be too glad to come north east or west, any where but the south.
Now then if this is the proposition kindly let me know by return mail. However I assure you
that it shall be my pleasure to furnish you with further or all information that you may
undertake to ask or all information necessary concerning this communication.
Thanking you in advance for the courtesy of a prompt reply with much interest, I am
[Pg 328]
Columbus, Ga., April 29, 1917.
Dear sir: I seen your adds in the paper & after reading I saw where I could do some business
for you & if you will write & let me know promply what you will allow me for heads & let
me know right away I can get you as many as thirty at once & I know that you do not want
nothing but able bodied men if you will as soon as you get this mail let me know by wireing

me & I can get the men ready by Thursday wire me as soon as your early convenence. will
also send you my recamendation that I am a true and reliable negro if you take the notion to
send the ticket send me money emough to feed them until we get there you can estamate
about how much it will take to feed thirty all of them is anxious to go & will go at the word
from you please return the recamendation back.
Gentlemen: Please have the kindness to let me know if you can handle any labor as I wish to
come north but would like to know just who I am going to work for before starting so as to
not be there on expences and in the main time I have other friends that would like to have a
steady imployment while they are unable to raise the money for transportation. Let me know
what disposition you could make in regards to the same.
Dear Sir and Brother: I am in the information of your labores league and while in this city I
have been asked about the conditions of work in the north and at the same time we have about
300 men here in this city of different trades. Some are farmers, mail men iron and stell
workers, mechanics and of all classes of work. They ask me in their union to find out just the
conditions of the afair. They wants to know if they can go to work in one or two days after
they get there? if so some of them can pay all of their fair some half and some wants to come
on conditions. will the company send them a pass and let them pay them back weekly? if so I
can send 500 more or less in order that you may know who I am I will send you some of my
papers that you may know what I stand for and what I have been taking along, please let me
hear from you at once and what you think about it.
[Pg 329]
Letters about Labor Agents
Mobile, Ala., 4-26-17.
Dear Sir Bro.: I take great pane in droping you a few lines hopeing that this will find you
enjoying the best of health as it leave me at this time present. Dear sir I seen in the Defender
where you was helping us a long in securing a posission as brickmason plaster cementers
stone mason. I am writing to you for advice about comeing north. I am a brickmason an I can
do cement work an stone work. I written to a firm in Birmingham an they sent me a blank
stateing $2.00 would get me a ticket an pay 10 per ct of my salary for the 1st month and
$24.92c would be paid after I reach Detorit and went to work where they sent me to work. I
had to stay there until I pay them the sum of $24.92c so I want to leave Mobile for there, if
there nothing there for me to make a support for my self and family. My wife is seamstress.
We want to get away the 15 or 20 of May so please give this matter your earnest
consideration an let me hear from you by return mail as my bro. in law want to get away to.
He is a carpenter by trade. so please help us as we are in need of your help as we wanted to go
to Detroit but if you says no we go where ever you sends us until we can get to Detroit. We
expect to do whatever you says. There is nothing here for the colored man but a hard time
wich these southern crackers gives us. We has not had any work to do in 4 wks. and every
thing is high to the colored man so please let me hear from you by return mail. Please do this

for your brother.
Anninston, Ala., April 26, 1917.
Dear sir: Seeing in the Chicago Defender that you wanted men to work and that you are not
to rob them of their half loaf; interested me very much. So much that I am inquiring for a job;
one for my wife, auntie and myself. My wife is a seamster, my auntie a cook I do janitor work
or comon labor. We all will do the work you give us. Please reply early.
Shreveport, La., May 22, 1917.
Dear Sir: I want to get some infirmation about getting out up there I did learn that they had a
man here agent for to send people up there I have never seen him yet and I want you to tell
me how to get up there. they are passing people out up there that are unable to come I would
like to hear from you at once from your unknown friend.
[Pg 330]
Deridder, La., April 18, 1917.
Dear Sir: in regards of helth and all so in need that I am riting you these fue lines to day to
you. this few lines leves famly and I well at the present an doe trus by the help of God these
will find you the same. Now what I want you to doe for me is this will you please give this
letter to the Chicago Defender printers and I will bee oblige to you. I wood of back this letter
to the Chicago defenders but they never wood of receve it from here.
I am to day riting you jus a fue lines for infermasion I wil state my complant is this. now her
is 18 hundred of the colored race have paid to a man $2.00 to be transfered to Chicago to
work, he tel us that thire is great demand in the north for labor and wee no it is true bee cors
ther is thousands of them going from Alabama and fla. and Gergia and all so other states and
this white man was to send us to Chicago on the 15 of march and eavery time we ask him
about it he tell us that the companys is not redy for us and we all wants to get out of the south,
wee herd that this man have fould wee people out of this money, wee has a duplicate shorn
that wee have paid him this money and if ther is iny compnys that wants these men and will
furnis transpertashion for us wil you please notifie me at once bee cors I am tired of bene dog
as I was a beast and wee will come at wonce. So I will bee oblige to you if you will help us
out of the south.
Live Oak, Fla., 4-25-17.
Dear sir: I wish to become in touch with you. I have been thinking of leaving the south and
have had several ofers presented to me if only would say I would go and pay down so mutch
money until a certain date but dont aprove of sutch. Know would be glad to have you relate to
me weather I can get a job in or near the city.
I am now working at a commission house. Listen there have been several crooks out saying
they are getting men for difrent works in the north, all you had to do pay them $2 or $3
dollars and meet him on a certain day and that would be the last. Will you relate to me some
of the difrent kinds of works & prices.
Nothing more, I remain.

Dear sir: with the greatest of pleasure for me to address you a few lines, concerning of labor
as I was reading and advertisement of yours in the Chicago Defender stateing that those who
wish to[Pg 331] locate in smaller towns with fairly good wages and to bring their children up
with the best of education will kindly get in touch with you. However if you are in a business
of that kind it just fitted me. While I am a man with a very large family most all are boys and
it is my desires to get in touch with some good firms to works. Kind sir if you are in that kind
of position please let me hear from you at once I've get no confidence in some of these so
called agents. Ill be to glad to hear from you at once.
Mobile, Ala., 12-4-16.
Dear Sir: While reading Sunday's Defender I read where you was coming south looking for
labor I see you want intelligent industrious men to work in factories so I thought I would
write and get a little information about it. there are a lot of idle men here that are very anxious
to come north. every day they are fooled about go and see the man. pleanty of men have quit
thier jobs with the expectation of going but when they go the man that is to take them cant be
found. last week there was a preacher giving lecturers on going. took up collection and when
the men got to the depot he could not be found, so if you will allow me the privaledge I can
get you as many men as you need that are hard working honest men that will be glad to come.
I will send you these names and address if you will send for them to come. there is not work
here every thing is so high what little money you make we have to eat it up. so if what I say to
you is agreeable please answer.
Letters about the Great Northern Drive of 1917
Sir: You will please give us the names of firms where we can secure employment. Also
please explain the Great Northern Drive for May 15th. We will come by the thousands. Some
of us like farm work. The colored people will leave if you will assist them.
Dear Sir: Would you kindely advise me of a good place where I can get a good job out in
some of the small places from Chicago about 50 or 60 miles. I am expecting to leave the
south about the 15th of May and will bring my family later on. Answer soon.
[Pg 332]
Pass Christian, Miss., April 30, 1917.
Sir: I want to come north on 15th of May, & I would like to get a job at once. & if you will
please locate one for me & let me know in return mail & oblige. Will except a job on farm or
in town. I have a little education & I am aquainted with work all right. Hope to here from you
soon.

Sir: I was reading in theat paper atoout the Colored race and while reading it I seen in it
where cars would be here for the 15 of May which is one month from to day. Will you be so
kind as to let me know where they are coming to and I will be glad to know because I am a
poor woman and have a husband and five children living and three dead one single and two
twin girls six months old today and my husband can hardly make bread for them in Mobile.
This is my native home but it is not fit to live in just as the Chicago Defender say it says the
truth and my husband only get $1.50 a day and pays $7.50 a month for house rent and can
hardly feed me and his self and children. I am the mother of 8 children 25 years old and I
want to get out of this dog hold because I dont know what I am raising them up for in this
place and I want to get to Chicago where I know they will be raised and my husband crazy to
get there because he know he can get more to raise his children and will you please let me
know where the cars is going to stop to so that he can come where he can take care of me and
my children. He get there a while and then he can send for me. I heard they wasnt coming
here so I sent to find out and he can go and meet them at the place they are going and go from
there to Chicago. No more at present. hoping to hear from you soon from your needed and
worried friend.
Montgomery, Ala., May 7, 1917.
My dear Sir: I am writing to solicit your aid and advice as to how I may best obtain
employment at my trade in your city. I shall be coming that way on the 15th of May and I
wish to find immediate employment if possible.
I have varied experience as a compositor and printer. Job composition is my hobby. I have not
experience as linotype operator, but can fill any other place in a printing office. Please
communicate with me at the above address at once. Thanking you in advance for any
assistance and information in the matter.
[Pg 333]
Rome, Ga., May 13, 1917.
Dear Sir: I am writing you in regards to present conditions in Chicago in getting employment.
I am an experienced hotel man—in all departments, such as bellman, waiter, buss boy,
or any other work pertaining to hotel and would like to know in return could you furnish me
transportation to Chicago as you advertise in the Chicago Defender. Am good honest and
sober worker, can furnish recermendations if necessary. Have worked at the Palmer House
during year 1911 as bus boy in Cafe. But returned South for awhile and since the Northern
Drive has begun I have decided to return to Chicago as I am well acquainted with the city.
Hope to hear from you soon on this matter as it is of great importance to me.
Dear Editor: I am a reader of the Defender and I am askeso much about the great Northern
drive on the 15th of May. We want more understanding about it for there is a great many
wants to get ready for that day & the depot agents never gives us any satisfaction when we
ask for they dont want us to leave here, I want to ask you to please publish in your next
Saturdays paper just what the fair will be on that day so we all will know & can be ready. So
many women here are wanting to go that day. They are all working women and we cant get
work here so much now, the white women tell us we just want to make money to go North
and we do so please kindly ans. this in your next paper if you do I will read it every word in

the Defender, had rather read it then to eat when Saturday comes, it is my hearts delight &
hope your paper will continue on in the south until every one reads it for it is a God sent
blessing to the Race. Will close with best wishes.
Dear Sir: Please Sir will you kindly tell me what is meant by the great Northern Drive to take
place May the 15th on tuesday. It is a rumor all over town to be ready for the 15th of May to
go in the drive. the Defender first spoke of the drive the 10th of February. My husband is in
the north already preparing for our family but hearing that the excursion will be $6.00 from
here north on the 15 and having a large family, I could profit by it if it is really true. Do
please write me at once and say is there an excursion to leave the south. Nearly the whole of
the south is getting[Pg 334] ready for the drive or excursion as it is termed. Please write at
once. We are sick to get out of the solid south.
Letters Concerning which Secrecy was Enjoined
Orange City, Fla., May 4, 1917.
Dear Sir: Being a reader of the Chicago Defender, I finds a add, stateing laborers wanted. I
would like to ask if the add is refering to persons of that state only. Could a person secure a
position until he could reach said state?
Now if you would answer this letter of information I would highly appreciate it. During your
letter please give information about advanced transportation, etc. This is not as a
testimony—don't publish.
Memphis, Tenn., June 1, 1917.
Sir: as I being one of the readers of your great News paper and if I am not to imposeing I
want to ask you this information as to what steps I should take to secure a good position as a
first class automobeal blacksmith or any kind pretaining to such and to say that I have been
opporating a first class white shop here for quite a number of years one of the largest in the
south and if I must say the only colored man in the city that does.
now I never knew any other way to find out as I want to leave the south and I feel very much
confidential that you would give information if in your power. So if you know of such why
please inform me at your leasure time. Any charges why notify me in return but do not
publish.
Vicksburg, Miss., May 2, 1917.
Sir: I am a reader of the Chicago Defender I am asking you a little information. So many
people are leaving south for north and it is too big families and we want to come north or
middle west for better wages. We all have trade and if you think we all can get position just as
we get north if not the middle west. Better please dont publish this is no paper. here is a stamp
envelop for reply.
Laurel, Miss., 4-30-17.

Dear Sir: In reading your defender paper every week find every thing so true makes me want
to come more every day. so i[Pg 335] am thinking of coming in a few days decided to write
you in regards to getting a job that will suit my age. I am 48 years old am in very good helth
and likes to work just like the days come. Have farm the biggest position of my life untill
seven years ago. i follow publick work untill now would not like for my name to be publish in
the paper.
Fullerton, La., May 7, 1917.
Dear sir: This comes to inform you that I would like very much to come up and locate in your
town, but would like to have a little advise before I leave the sunny south. I am a railroad man
by trade. Of course I am a Colored man but I have been Conductor for the G. & S. R. Ry. of
the past eight years. I have acted as yard master, and manager of the switch engine and had
charge of the local freight department. Please advise if you think I can secure a fairly good
paying position up there and I am ready to come up and take hold. I can furnish good
reference, and have my own typewriter and equipment.
I am not particular about working for the rail-road, but I would like to get something
respectable if possible.
I think my reference will satisfy the most interogator. Kindly advise privately and do not
publish.
Greenville, Miss., May 12, 1917.
Dear sir: Please inform me as to wether there is imployment for col. insurance agents by
Company as industrial writers sick and acc. and deth if thair is such co. handling coolored
agents in Chicago or suburban towns, please see suptender as to wether he could youse a
good relible live agent. I am contemplating moving to Ill. This is confidential.
My experience as ins. agent 15 year industrial and ord. life and prefered.
Letters Emphasizing Race Welfare
August, Ga., May 12, 1917.
Dear Sir: Just for a little infermation from you i would like to know wheather or not i could
get in tuch with some good people to work for with a firm because things is afful hear in the
south let me here from you soon as poseble what ever you do dont publish my name in your
paper but i think peple as a race oguht to look[Pg 336] out for one another as Christians
friends i am a schuffur and i cant make a living for my family with small pay and the people
is getting so bad with us black peple down south hear. now if you ever help your race now is
the time to help me to get my family away. food stuf is so high. i will look for answer by
return mail, dont publish my name if your paper but let me hear from you at once.
Deland, Fla., 5/1. 17.
Dear sir: I being onknon to you in personnal but by reading the Chicago Defender I notice in
its ad that there is chance for all kind of imployment that a men that will work can get and as I

am one of the negro race that dont mind working study so it is understand that you will please
let me no as to wheather you can place me in some of those positions for I sopose to be in this
town about 5 more weeks. after leving her stopping in Savannah my home city to see my too
bro. and mother I will then leve for the northern states I will thank you for some information.
Dear sir: i am a reader of the Chicago defender and i seen in the defender that you are
interrested in the well fair of the colored people those of the classe that is interested in
themselves and coming to the north for a better chance so i take pleashure in riting to you that
i may get some under standing about conditions of getting work as i see that you are in turch
with the foundrys warehouses and the manufacturing concerns that is in need of laborers and i
thought it was best to rite you and get some understanding as it is 4 of us expecting to leave
here in a few days to come north but we are not coming for pleasure we are looking for wirk
and better treatment and more money and i ask your aid in helping us to secure a good
position of work as we are men of familys and we canot aford to loaf and i will be very glad
to hear from you and an my arival i will call at your place to see you.
Columbia, S. C., May 7, 1917.
Dir sur: i saw in one of our colord papers your ad i now seat my selft to seak work thru your
ade of which i beleve is ernest devotion to our betterment i am a brick layer and plastrer i rite
to no if i can get or you can get work for me please let me know detales plese.
[Pg 337]
Memphis, Tenn., 4-23-17.
Gentlemen: I want to get in tuch with you in regard of a good location & a job I am for race
elevation every way. I want a job in a small town some where in the north where I can receive
verry good wages and where I can educate my 3 little girls and demand respect of
intelegence. I prefer a job as cabinet maker or any kind of furniture mfg. if possible.
Let me hear from you all at once please. State minimum wages and kind of work.
Dear sir: I am writing you a few lines seacking information about some work as i was read a
Chicago Defender i saw where labarers wanted very much I am a labarer now have not no
work here to do i am married man have one child and would like for yo to give me work to do
anything I am well expereinced in ware house and foundry and if there any way for you to
fearnish me a transportation to come at once do i can go so i can make my family a desen
living you will please let me know and if you would help a poor need man i am willing to
come any time if I had the money i would pay my own way but i realy ain got it so i am
asking you to please do this for me i am realy in need if you can do a poor negro any good
please do this for me.
My dear Sir: I noticed an anticle in the Chicago Defender that officers and members of your
organization officer to assist any member of the race to secure steady employment in small

cities near Chicago. I am verry anxious to secure a job the year round at any kind of honest
work, trusting that I may hear from you at an early date, I beg to remain.
Dear Sir: I am a reader of you paper and we are all crazy about it and take it every Saturday
and we raise a great howl when we dont get it. Now since I see and feel that you are for the
race and are willing to assist any one so I will ask you to please assist me in getting
imployment and some place to stop with some good quiet people or with a family that would
take some one to live with them. I will do any kind of work. I am a hair dresser but I will do
any kind of work I can get to do I am a widow and have[Pg 338] one child a little girl 6 years
years old I dont know any body there so if you can assist me in any way will be greatly
appreciated now this letter is personal please dont print it in your paper. I hope to hear from
you soon.
Rome, Ga., April 28, 1917.
My dear Northern friend: I saw in the Chicago Defender where llabors are wanted I am sure a
man that wants to get out of the south and would do most any kind of work I has a wife she
works all the time We has a boy age 13 years he has been working with me 5 years I has been
working at the pipe shop 11 year but I can do other work you said you will sind a
transportation after labores please send after me I can get 10 more mens if you want them.
ans. soon so that I will no what to do but I hope you will say yes. hope you will say get the
mens and let us sind for you all I am a man woks all the time I has a wife and 4 childrens.
Houston, Tex., April 27, 1917.
Dear Sirs: I am a reader of the Chicago Defender and I seen where you are in need of men
and are also in the position for firms to seek you. I see where you are in the lines of work for
the betterment of the race.
Dear sir: in reading the defender I seen where this was an oportunity for work, for the
betterment of the race. Just out of the city and i thought to get in touch with you to see if their
would be a chance for me an my brother, i dident no if you meant any one this far from
Chicago or not but i rite to find out. but i hope you will except me please and let me no your
wages, i hope to hear from you and if you will except me i can pick you up some responseful
families mens but if you dont want them take me because i wants work, so good by.
Sherman, Ga., Nov. 28, 1916.
Dear sir: This letter comes to ask for all infirmations concern emplyoment in your conection
in the warmest climate. Now I am in a family of (11) eleven more or less boys and girls (men
and women) mixed sizes who want to go north as soon as arrangements can be made and
employment given places for shelter an so en (etc) now this are farming people they were
raised on the farm[Pg 339] and are good farm hands I of course have some experence and
qualefication as a coman school teacher and hotel waiter and along few other lines.
I wish you would write me at your first chance and tell me if you can give us employment at
what time and about what wages will you pay and what kind of arrangement can be made for

our shelter. Tell me when can you best use us now or later.
Will you send us tickets if so on what terms and at what price what is the cost per head and by
what route should we come. We are Negroes and try to show ourselves worthy of all we may
get from any friendly source we endeavor to be true to all good causes, if you can we thank
you to help up to come north as soon as you can.
Savannah, Ga., 4/21/17/
Dear Sir: I was very much impressed when I read the Defender where you are taking so much
interest securing jobs for the race from the south. Please secure a job for man & wife in some
small town and write me all information at once.
Kissimmee, Fla., May 1, 1917.
Dear Sir: I am a subscriber for the Chicago Defender have read of the good work you are
doing in employing help for your large factories and how you are striving to help get the
better class of people to the north. I am a teacher and have been teaching five years
successful, and as our school here has closed my cousin and I have decided to go north for the
summer who is also a teacher of this county. I am writing you to secure for us a position that
we could fit and one that would fit us, if there be any that is vacant.
We can furnish you with the best of reference. We would not like to advertise through a
paper. Hoping to hear from you at an early date, I am
Sanford, Fla., 4-29-17.
Dear sir: as a member of the Race who desire to join in and with and be among the better side
of our Race I ask that you surcue me a job and have me a ticket sent or please send
transportation fees at once. Write soon as I will watch for answer from you.
Jacksonville, Fla., 4/29/17.
Dear sir: i was reading the Chicago Defender to day and i find that you is mutch enterrested
in our negro race i have sevrul years[Pg 340] in laundry business as a wash man and
stationery boilers fireing at this time i have charge of wash room, i am a fire man and all so a
laundry wash man too. hopeing that you will do all you can for me in getting a plase of theas
persisons please giv this your attenson estateing salery per week pleas let me heare from you
soon i remain yours truly
Pensacola, Fla., May 1, 1917.
dear sirs: I sene in Defender wher more positions open then men for them I am colord an do
woork hard for my living an dont mind it is not no bad habits I work but dont get but small
wedges I am up bilder of my colord race an love to help one when he dezirs to better his
condishon I want to ast you for a favor of helping me to get to you an your office to get me a
woork to do I want to learn a trade and I will pay you to look out for me an get me a job if
you kindly will. Please an send me 3 tickets as we three good woorking mens make the time
you can corleck ever weeak pay for yo at once be cause we meanse buisness now.
Montgomery, Ala., May 19, 1917.

Dear sir: I notice in the Chicago defender that you are working to better the condiction of the
colored people of the south. I am a member of the race & want too come north for to better
the condiction of my famely I have five children my self and a wife & I want you to seek for
me a job please. I will send you the trade I follows while here in the south. I works in the
packing houses & also wholesale grocers houses. Either one I can do but I rather the packing
the best. you can get a half of dozen womens from here that want work & wants information
about jobs such as cooking, nurseing & cleaning up or anything else they can do.
Dear sur: I ritting to you in order to get in touch with you about the work for the betterment
of the race I shure want to better my condeshon in the Chicago Defender I seen whear that
you say those wishing to locate in smaller towns with fairly good wages that what I want to
suner the better for me. Answer at wonce.
Footnotes:
[1] Collected under the direction of Emmett J. Scott.
[Pg 341]
BOOK REVIEWS
A Century of Negro Migration. By Carter G. Woodson. The Association for the Study of Negro Life and
History, Washington, D. C. Pp. 221.
The increasingly numerous articles, inquiries and investigations into the nature, extent, causes and results of
the recent migratory movement among the Negroes in America demonstrate the great interest which has been
manifested in this subject. At a period when so much personal opinion, ill-digested information and
controversial literature, on racial problems are being flung at the public, it is a real pleasure for the sincere
student of human affairs to welcome such an instructive work as this both because of its point of view and its
valuable research. This volume is an unusual contribution in this field. It is an historical treatise, a study in
economic progress and a survey of contemporary movements. As suggested by its title, the book examines
with scholarly comprehension the continued migrations of the nineteenth century. The point of view which the
volume presents is that of the new historical school, which holds that movements of the present have their
roots in the past; and the present may not be properly understood without comprehending the foundations of
the past. The book is replete with facts organized and interpreted with a scientific spirit, and the discussions
are modern and scholarly.
After reading the book one ceases to speak of "a" migration, or of "the" migration, for Negro migration ceases
to be a new development. It becomes an old movement, begun a century ago, but now heightened and
intensified by the factors growing out of the World War. The author in his preface especially disclaims any
distinctly new contribution of fact. The specific value of the volume rests then in its collection of isolated
historical data culled from many known sources, and its presentation of a new vantage ground from which the
whole subject may be regarded. An introductory section on the migrations at the close of the eighteenth
century and in the opening years of the nineteenth century leads to the main chapters which follow under the
headings: A Transplantation to the North; Fighting it out on Free Soil; Colonization[Pg 342] as a Remedy for
Migration; The Successful Migrant; Confusing Movements; The Exodus to the West; The Migration of the
Talented Tenth, and The Exodus during the World War.
Footnotes: 203
In the discussion of the Successful Migrant much information is given us of individuals who succeeded by
sheer grit in making their way to freedom, and in some cases in building neat fortunes for themselves and their
families. The charge that the Negro appears to be naturally migratory, an assertion which comes to light in
recent studies in economic progress, is declared untrue. Dr. Woodson asserts that "this impression is often
received by persons who hear of the thousands of Negroes who move from one place to another from year to
year because of the desire to improve their unhappy condition. In this there is no tendency to migrate but an
urgent need to escape undesirable conditions. In fact, one of the American Negroes' greatest shortcomings is
that they are not sufficiently pioneering." To the reviewer, this statement, typical of others, seems to be the
more reasonable conclusion from the facts, which others regard as only facts and by inference as racial
tendencies. In the majority of instances the author finds, as other investigators have found, that the migrants
belonged to the intelligent laboring class.
The best discussion is given in the closing chapter on The Exodus during the World War. This is made to
differ from other migrations on the ground that the Negro has opportunity awaiting him, whereas formerly he
had "to make a place for himself upon arriving among enemies." The effects upon the whites and the Negroes,
North and South, are noted with unbiased attitude. The perspective of the trained historian appears to have its
influence in this section. The earlier chapters are concerned primarily with the Negro in the Northwest, and so
completely does the information center in this section of the country that it appears easily possible to expand
this part into a larger work treating this phase in particular. The author's comment and criticism are suggestive
to both races and particularly to the Negroes who furnish the subject-matter of the book. The book will have
not only historical interest, but it will serve to point out the paramount unsettled condition of the race problem
during the past century and the disturbing future which must face America. The volume is heartily
commended to all readers and students, and it cannot fail to be informing upon this unsettled aspect of Negro
life and history. No serious student should be without it.
Charles H. Wesley.
[Pg 343]
Negro Migration in 1916-17. By R. H. Leavell, T.R. Snavely, T. J. Woofter, Jr., W. T. B. Williams, and
Francis D. Tyson, with an introduction by J. H. Dillard. Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C.,
1919. Pp. 158.
This is a report of the Department of Labor issued from the office of the Secretary through the Division of
Negro Economics, under the direction of Dr. George E. Haynes. The task was divided among a number of
investigators. Mr. Leavell directed his attention to the migration from Mississippi, Mr. Snavely to that from
Alabama and North Carolina, and Mr. Woofter to that from Georgia. Mr. Williams sketches in general the
Exodus from the South and Mr. Tyson gives a survey of the Negro Migrant in the North. Submitted in this
condition the report is much less valuable than it would have been, had the investigation been directed by a
single man to work out of these individual reports a scientific presentation of the whole movement. As this
was not the case, there is found throughout the report numerous duplications of discussions of causes and
effects which might have given place to more valuable information.
The conclusion of Mr. Leavell, himself a Mississippian, as to measures for the rehabilitation of Mississippi
labor conditions, are very interesting. He believes that a permanent surplus of Negro laborers outside of the
upper delta can be created by reorganizing agriculture with emphasis on live stock and forage, that this surplus
could then be directed to the delta and to Arkansas so far as needed for producing cotton and food stuffs, that
the balance of this surplus labor should be drawn permanently to northern industries, and that the older
communities along the Mississippi could attract the necessary additional labor from the surplus created in the
hills. He believes also that there should be schools emphasizing education toward the farm, fair dealing in all
business transactions, equal treatment in the distribution of public utilities, equal treatment in the courts and
BOOK REVIEWS 204

the encouragement of Negro farm ownership, the abolition of the fee system in courts of justice, the insistence
of white public opinion on full settlement with Negroes on plantations, and, above all else, that the
fundamental need is for frequent and confidential conferences upon community problems and for active
cooperation between the local leaders of the two races.
Mr. Snavely counts among the causes of the migration from[Pg 344] Alabama and North Carolina, the
changed conditions incident to the transition from the old system of cotton planting to stock raising and the
diversification of crops. Mr. Williams undertakes to estimate the size of the exodus, some of its effects and the
initial remedies for keeping the Negroes in the South. Some of these are better pay, greater care for the
employees, better educational facilities, the opportunity to rent and purchase sanitary homes, justice in the
courts, the abolition of "jim crowism" and segregation.
One of the most interesting parts of the report is that which deals with the Negro migrant in the North. It is
doubtful, however, that the author has done his task so well as Mr. Epstein did in treating intensively the same
situation in Pittsburgh. This part of the report is too brief to cover the field adequately. There are few statistics
taken from the censuses of 1900 and 1910 to show the increase of Negro population in the North during this
period. Then comes a rapid survey of the districts receiving large numbers of Negroes during the migration.
Attention is directed also to the adjustment of the Negroes to northern industry, race friction and the bearing
of the Negro migration on the labor movement culminating in the riot of East St. Louis. Delinquency in the
migrant population and the reports on the crime, health and housing conditions of the Negroes in the North are
also discussed. That part of the report on constructive efforts toward adjustment of the migrant population in
the North gives much information as to how the leading citizens of both races have coöperated in trying to
solve the problems resulting from this sudden shifting of large groups of people.
Twenty-Five Years in the Black Belt. By William J. Edwards. The Cornhill Company, Boston, 1918. Pp. 143.
This is a valuable biographical work in that the reader gets a view of conditions in the South as experienced
and viewed by a Negro educated at Tuskegee and inspired thereby to spend his life in another part of the State
of Alabama, doing what he learned at this institution. The author mentions his growth, the founding of the
Snow Hill School, the assistance of the Jeannes Fund, and the ultimate solutions of his more difficult
problems. The book becomes more interesting when he discusses the Negro problem, the exodus of the blacks
and the World War.[Pg 345]
The aim of the author, however, is to acquaint the public with the problems and difficulties confronting those
who labor for the future of the Negro race. He complains of the land tenure, the credit system by which the
Negroes become indebted to their landlords, the lack of educational facilities, and the consequent ignorance of
the masses of the race. To enlist support to remedy these evils wherever this condition obtains, the life of the
author who for twenty-five years has had to struggle against hardships is hereby presented as typical of the
thousands of teachers white and black now suffering all but martyrdom in the South that the Negroes may
after all have a chance to toil upward.
The book is not highly literary. The style is generally rough. Interesting facts appear here and there, but they
did not reach the stage of organization in passing through the author's mind. The value of the book, however,
is not materially diminished by its style. It certainly reflects the feelings and chronicles the deeds of a large
group of the American people during one of the most critical periods of our history and must therefore be read
with profit by those interested in the strivings of the people of low estate. Persons primarily concerned with
industrial education will find this sketch unusually valuable. To throw further light on this systematic effort to
elevate the Negroes of Alabama the author has given numerous illustrations. Among these are Uncle Charles
Lee and His Home in the Black Belt, Partial View of the Snow Hill Institute, A New Type of Home in the Black
Belt, Typical Log Cabin in the Black Belt, the Home of a Snow Hill Graduate, Graduates of Snow Hill
Institute and Teachers of Snow Hill Institute.
BOOK REVIEWS 205

Women of Achievement. By Benjamin Brawley. Woman's American Baptist Home Mission Society, Chicago,
1919. Pp. 92.
Glancing at the title of this volume one would expect to find therein the sketches of a number of women of
color known to be useful in the uplift of the Negro race. Instead of this, however, there is the disappointment
in tho restriction of these sketches to Harriet Tubman, Nora Gordon, Meta Warrick Fuller, Mary McLeod
Bethune, and Mary Church Terrell. No one will question the claims of some of these women to honorable
mention, but when Nora Gordon, an unknown but successful missionary to Africa, is[Pg 346] given
precedence to the hundreds of women of color who have influenced thought and contributed to the common
good of the race and country the historian must call for an explanation.
It is equally clear that in choosing the other four of these women as representative of the achievements of their
race the biographer has done other distinguished women of the Negro race considerable injustice, if his book
is to be taken seriously. Harriet Tubman was truly a great character and her life is an interesting chapter in the
history of this country. Whether Meta Warrick Fuller, Mary McLeod Bethune and Mary Church Terrell
deserve special consideration to the exclusion of others, however, is debatable. Meta Warrick Fuller has
distinguished herself in art and so have several other women of color. Mary McLeod Bethune is generally
considered an enterprising educator and public spirited woman, but one can here raise the question as to
whether she leads her companions. Mary Church Terrell has very well established herself as an acceptable
speaker on the race problem and so have many others.
In giving the facts which entitle these characters to honorable mention the author did not do his task well. He
mentioned too few incidents in the lives of these persons to make them interesting. In other words, instead of
presenting facts to speak for themselves the author too easily yielded to the temptation to indulge in mere
eulogy. These mistakes cannot be excused, even if the book is intended for children. On the whole, however,
the work indicates effort in the right direction and it is hoped that more extensive and numerous sketches of
women of achievement of the Negro race may be found in the literature of our day.
[Pg 347]
NOTES
At the close of this the fourth year of its existence the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History
convened in biennial session in Washington, D. C., on the 17th and 18th of June at the 12th Street Branch Y.
M. C. A. The reports for the year were heard, new officers were elected, and the plans for the coming year
were formulated. The proceedings in full will appear in the October number.
The chief interest of the meeting centered around the informing addresses on the Negro in the World War.
Every phase of the war history which the Negro helped to make was treated.
The Association worked out also the plans by which it will collect data to write a scientific History of the
Negro in the World War just as soon as the treaty of peace is signed and documents now inaccessible because
of the proximity to the conflict become available. The coöperation of all seekers after the truth is earnestly
solicited.
During the past two years the Association has been able to move steadily forward in spite of the difficulties
incident to the war. The subscriptions to the Journal of Negro History have gradually increased and a number
of philanthropists have liberally contributed to the fund now being used to extend the work into all parts of the
country. This work is being done by a Field Agent who organizes clubs for the study of Negro life and history
NOTES 206
and, through local agents, sells the publications of the Association and solicits subscriptions to the Journal of
Negro History.
In addition to publishing for four years the Journal of Negro History, a repository of truth now available in
bound form, the association has brought out also Slavery in Kentucky, an interesting portraiture of the
institution in that State; The Royal Adventurers Trading into Africa, one of the best studies of the early slave
trade; and A Century of Negro Migration, the only scientific treatment of this movement hitherto published.
The circulation of these publications has been extensive. They are read in North America, South America,
Europe, Asia, and Africa; they reach more than three hundred college and public[Pg 348] libraries; they are
found in all Negro homes where learning is an objective; they are used by most social workers to get light on
the solution of the problems of humanity; they are referred to by students and professors conducting classes
carrying on research; and they reach members of the cabinet and the President of the United States.
Carter G. Woodson is not a contributor to the Official History of the Negro in the World War by Mr. Emmett
J. Scott as has been reported throughout the country. He has given the author several suggestions, however,
and such editorial assistance as the many tasks and obligations of the Director permitted.
[Pg 349]
NOTES 207
The Journal
of
Negro History
Vol. IV—October, 1919—No. 4
LABOR CONDITIONS IN JAMAICA PRIOR TO 1917

To show the lack of progress in Jamaica since the abolition of slavery by the gradual process inaugurated in
1833 and its final extermination in 1838, nothing will better serve the purpose than the review of the system
of apprenticeship established as a substitute for that institution. According to the portraiture given by Sturge
and Harvey in their work entitled The West Indies in 1837 and the conditions now obtaining in the island, very
little progress in the condition of the laboring man has been made since that time.
For scarcely any remuneration the Negroes were required by a compulsory arrangement between their
overseers and the Special Magistrates to give during the crop the time granted them under the law for their
own use and they were on many estates obliged to work a greater number of hours than was required by law.
The apprentices were compelled to work by spells of eight hours in the field on one day, and for sixteen hours
in and about the boiling house on the next day, giving up their half Friday, for which amount of extra labor
they received two shillings and one penny or 50 cents a week. On one estate the wages paid for extra labor
during crop was two pence or 4 cents an hour. The working hours were generally from four to eleven and
from one to five, and it is interesting to note that[Pg 350] while it was expected that on each half Friday given
to the apprentices, sufficient food should be provided by them to last for the succeeding week, yet when that
half day was taken from them five or six herrings were the only compensation.
The following case is taken from an agreement made in 1836 by certain cane hole diggers. Every laborer
agreed to dig 405 cane holes in four and one half days due his master, and to receive ten pounds of salt fish
and a daily allowance of sugar and rum, the salt fish to be diminished in the ratio of one pound for every forty
holes short of 405. In the one day and a half of his own time he was paid three shillings and four pence or 80
cents for every ninety cane holes. Under this agreement the maximum work performed was that of an
apprentice who in three weeks of thirteen and one half days dug in his own time 1,017 holes, for which he
received 28 pounds of fish, and in cash one pound and fifteen shillings or $8.40. By this means it was possible
for the master to have 58 acres of land worked at a total cost of £147 10s 0d or $708. The cost to him, if the
work had been given out to jobbers, would have been £8 an acre or £464, $2,227.20. His apprentices were
therefore the means of saving for him the sum of £316 l0d or $1,519.20.
The following was the scale of wages for transient labor:
Prime headman 3 pence or 6 cents.

Inferior headman 2 pence or 4 cents.
First gang—able-bodied 1½ pence or 3 cents.
First gang—weakly 1¼ pence or 2½ cents.
Second gang—able-bodied 1¼ pence or 2½ cents.
Second gang—weakly 1 penny or 2 cents.
Third gang—active ¾ penny or 1½ cents.

Third gang—lazy ½ penny or 1 cent.
The apprentices were permitted under the law to make application to be valued, and on the basis of the
valuation were entitled to purchase their freedom. Here again was the system grossly abused. The slaves or
apprentices, as they were at that time called, became at the hour of valuation very desirable assets; and, in
many instances, so valuable[Pg 351] did they suddenly become that it was quite out of their power to carry out
their intention. The system became for this reason a premium on all the bad qualities of the Negroes and a tax
upon all the good. In spite of this, however, so great was the desire for freedom that within a period of
twenty-eight months, from 1st August, 1834, to 30th November, 1836, 1,580 apprentices purchased their
freedom by valuation at a cost of £52,215 or $250,632, an average of £33 or $158.40 a head.
Although seventy-eight years have passed since the total abolition of slavery, however, the condition of the
laborers of Jamaica remains practically the same as it was then. There has been beyond doubt much
improvement in the island, but the unfortunate fact is this, that the laborer living in a country much improved
in many respects, is himself no better or very little better off than his forefathers in slavery. In truth, he is still
an economic slave. The conditions under which he lives and works are such as destroy whatever ambition he
may possess, and reduce his life to a mere drudgery, to a mere animal existence.
Some progress has been made and there are signs of improvement, but the majority of laborers, the men and
women and children who till the banana fields and work on the sugar plantations, are no better off than
previously. These are still beasts of burden, still the victims of an economic system under which they labor
not as human beings with bodies to be fed or clothed, with minds to be cultivated and aspiring souls to be
ministered unto, but as living machines designed only to plant so many banana suckers in an hour, or to carry
so many loads of canes in a day. After seventy-eight years in this fair island, side by side, with the progress
and improvements above referred to, there are still hundreds and hundreds of men and women who live like
savages in unfloored huts, huddled together like beasts of the field, without regard to health or comfort. And
they live thus, not because they are worthless or because they are wholly without ambition or desire to live
otherwise, but[Pg 352] because they must thus continue as economic slaves receiving still the miserable
pittance of a wage of eighteen pence or 36 cents a day that was paid to their forefathers at the dawn of
emancipation. The system is now so well established that the employers apparently regard it as their sacred
right and privilege to exploit the laborers, and the laborers themselves have been led by long submission and
faulty teaching to believe that the system is a part of the natural order, a result of divine ordainment.
This attitude of the poor down-trodden laborers is one of the most effective blocks in the way of his
improvement. But the despair of every one who dares to tackle this problem of improving the economic and
therefore the social and moral condition of the laborers of this island is based on the inertness which almost
amounts to callous indifference of the local Government.
The following letters addressed to me by the Colonial Secretary of Jamaica deserves to be put on record as
evidence of the mind of the government, in 1913,—of its inability or unwillingness to take the first
step. Letter A was written at the direction of Sir Sydney Olivier, K.C.M.G., then Governor of Jamaica, who
recently expressed the opinion that the laborers in this island should receive one dollar a day. That letter is
valuable in that it is an official statement of the maximum wages paid by the government of Jamaica to its
own laborers. Letter B was written at the direction of the then Colonial Secretary, Mr. P. Cork, and is even
more valuable as an official pronouncement on the important question of a living wage.
Letter A.
"17th January, 1913.
LABOR CONDITIONS IN JAMAICA PRIOR TO 1917 209

No. 787/15568
With reference to the letter from this office No. 13099/15568 dated the 6th November last and
to previous correspondence in connection with your suggestion that the Government should
raise the wages of their laborers, I am directed by the Governor to inform you that it appears
from enquiries made by His Excellency's direction[Pg 353] that the average wage now earned
by laborers under the Public Works Department is approximately one shilling and eight pence
half penny (41 cents) for an average day of ten hours, so that in an average day of ten hours
the laborers would at the same rate of pay earn two shillings and one penny half penny" (51
cents).
Letter B.
"8th March, 1913.
No. 2926/3268
The Acting Governor directs me to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 26th ultimo
on the subject of the amount of wages paid to native laborers in the employment of the
Government, and in reply to say that no acknowledgement of the correctness of your
contention that one shilling and sixpence per diem is not a fair living wage for any laborer to
receive, and that the minimum he ought reasonably to expect to enable him to meet the
ordinary demands of existence is two shillings per diem (48 cents), is to be inferred from the
letter from this office, No. 737/15568 dated the 17th of January, 1913.
"2. I am to add that His Excellency is not in a position to comply with your request that steps
should be taken to ensure to all laborers working under the Public Works Department a
minimum wage of two shillings per diem (48 cents) as from 1st April next."
The problem becomes real and serious when the ruling authorities are unwilling to admit what is absolutely
clear to every one who is not hopelessly prejudiced, namely, that eighteen pence or thirty-six cents a day, the
amount which was paid to the emancipated slaves in 1838, is not a living wage for his descendants in the year
1913, and when they are either unable or unwilling to set the pace for other employers of labor by paying their
own laborers a minimum wage of two shillings or forty-eight cents a day.
With the labor problem of Jamaica the question of East Indian Immigration is intimately connected. While, on
the one hand, we have the able-bodied native laborers miserably and cruelly underpaid, and having in
consequence to emigrate in large numbers to other countries, on the other[Pg 354] hand, we have the
importation into the island of indentured immigrants under the conditions which make the economic
improvement of the native laborers an impossibility. On the one side, the available records inform us that
from April 1, 1905, to March 31, 1908, laborers numbering 39,060 emigrated from this island and deposited
with the local Government the sum of £22,217 or $106,641.60 as required by law. The exodus to Cuba is at
present a very serious comment upon the existing labor conditions. During the month of December, 1916, 761
persons emigrated from the island, 580 to Cuba and 181 to other places.
The figures, on the other side, reveal the fact that since the introduction of East Indian Immigration in 1845 to
the present time 35,933 East Indians have been brought into the island; and it is estimated that there are to-day
resident in the island over 20,000 East Indians, 3,000 of whom are indentured and 17,000 have completed
their term of indenture. These immigrants are distributed to the several estates by the government at a cost of

£20.10.0, or $90.42, paid in installments: £2 or $9.60, paid on allottment, £2.2.0 or $10.08 at the end of the
first year, and £4.2.0 or $19.68 at the end of each of the succeeding four years.
For the years 1891-1908 the cost of this system to the colony is officially reported as follows:
Cost of importation £129,692.2.2 $622,522.12

Administrative expenses £ 37,377.0.2 179,409.64
Return passages 1901-8 £ 27,254.5.11 130,820.62
Gross cost £194,323.83 £932,752.38
Receipts in hand £143,171.1.1 $687,221.06
Net cost to colony £ 51,152.7.2 $245,531.32
or an average of over £3,000 or $14,400 per annum.
The immigrants are indentured for five years, and are entitled after a continuous residence of ten years in the
colony to one half of the value of their passage money in the case of men and of one third in the case of
women. For a working day of nine hours the men are paid one shilling or 24 cents and the women nine pence
or 18 cents. A deduction[Pg 355] of two shillings and sixpence or 60 cents a week is made for rations
supplied. They receive free hospital treatment which cost the Government on the average of two pounds or
$9.60 each per annum.
The system of immigration is a factor contributing to the present unsatisfactory condition of the labor market
in this island. The immigrants are unfair competitors of the natives. They accept lower wages, and they lower
the standard of life. They are practically modern slaves. It is not then reasonable with such competitors for the
native laborer to expect a favorable response to his appeal for fairer treatment. It is asserted that the
importation of East Indians is necessary because the native laborers will not give that reliable and continuous
service which is necessary for the profitable working of the estates. The answer to this is that these same
laborers emigrate and give their foreign employers the reliable and continuous service which they consistently
withhold from the employer at home because they are paid more and treated better abroad.
The solution of the problem in so far as the first steps are concerned is then two fold. First, the government
must at once determine that this systematic immigration of cheap labor must cease, and must set about
without delay to make the necessary arrangements and adjustments which will be preparatory to an early
discontinuance of the system. Next, the employers of labor must either by persuasion or legal coercion be led
to induce the native laborers by the offer of better wages to remain at home.
With reference to the first it has been discovered that the government supports the fiction that the importation
of East Indians is necessary. In a report dated October 1, 1908, the Acting Protector of Immigrants, with the
apparent approval of the Governor, wrote: "As a result of having a nucleus of reliable labor in the shape of
indentured coolies owners of estates have felt themselves justified in spending large sums of money in
extending their cultivations, and in installing expensive machinery. This has had[Pg 356] the effect of
providing employment for a much larger number of creole laborers than formerly, and of putting a great deal
more money in circulation. I think that instead of the coolie being cursed by the native laborer for taking away
his work he should be blessed for having been the means of providing employment for him."
The substance of the statement given above is incorporated by Sir Sydney Olivier, K.C.M.G., in a chapter of
his book entitled White Capital and Colored Labor, in which there occurs this remarkable assertion: "In
Jamaica wages are higher in those districts where indentured coolies are employed on banana plantations."
Coolies who receive a maximum wage of one shilling or 24 cents a day are introduced to the world as the
wage-raising factor in Jamaica!

Just prior to the World War the labor question was a very live one in Jamaica. The weekly exodus of hundreds
of laborers to the neighboring island of Cuba, the murmuring of dissatisfaction among the immigrants, friction
in the working of the Immigration Department,—all have served to bring this labor problem
prominently to public notice. At a meeting held in the interest of the sugar industry in January, 1917, there
was adopted a suggestive resolution moved by Mr. A. W. Farquharson, a prominent and successful legal
practitioner, and a man who, though the descendant of an old family of planters, is deeply interested in the
improvement of the laborers. The resolution was: "That this committee is convinced that the continuous and
increasing exodus of laborers from the colony to seek work in foreign countries is impeding the development
of the resources of the island, and that it is of urgent importance that early measures should be adopted to
arrest such exodus, by the creation of conditions which will induce an improvement in the status of the
laboring population."
The Daily Chronicle of that date comments thus on the question:[Pg 357]
"The Sugar Committee has pointed out clearly the precise measures that are certain to
produce better remuneration for the laborer, and this, as we have been insisting from the start,
is the very essence of the scheme. According to the recommendations forwarded to the
Government and turned down by the Privy Council—some of whose members have
evidently made up their minds that something akin to the feudal system must, in the interest
of a few, be forever maintained in Jamaica—the Government would go into the
business for the protection of the community against the avidity of the private capitalist; in
other words, to insure a fair distribution in this island, of the profits derived from the
rehabilitated industry. Under this arrangement the Government factories would be in a
position to set the pace in the matter of payment of wages to the laborer. Think of what this
would mean! A higher standard of living, better health, more happiness—the very
things which the peasant is being forced to go abroad to obtain. But the mandamus will have
none of this socialism; it is too broad, too comprehensive, too human for minds unaccustomed
to look beyond self. So they have rejected the Sugar Committee's proposals, compelling Mr.
Farquharson and his friends to appeal to the Secretary of State for the Colonies. His
Excellency the Governor and his advisors have thus shown their utter inability to understand
the economic needs of the island. Deliberately—we do not say with malice
aforethought—have they decided to perpetuate conditions which in the past have
served to disintegrate the population of this colony, and will in the future continue to do this
with even more harmful effects than hitherto unless some well-considered attempt is made to
produce more wealth from our soil for the benefit, not of a few capitalists, but of the nine
hundred thousand inhabitants of Jamaica."
One might not wholly endorse this criticism, but it should be represented that the inaction of the government,
whether due to inability or indifference or to whatever cause, has been the prime preventing cause of an
earlier solution of a long standing problem. It seemed, however, as if an attempt was at last to be made to do
something. A news article in The Daily Gleaner, February, 1917, announced that the Government had at last
realized the urgent need of improved barrack accommodation on the estates, and of[Pg 358] proper medical
supervision of the laborers. It desired to stem the exodus of laborers, but from its own statement given out to
the press in the article referred to, not so much for the benefit of the ill-paid laborers, but in consideration for
the employers who would soon have to face a labor market relieved of imported coolies. And so, for the sake
of the employers, it was proposed to ask the native laborer to agree to be indentured for twelve months at the
same miserable wages of eighteen pence or 36 cents a day, with the addition of a tempting (?) bonus of two
pounds or $9.60 at the end of the term. And this paternal suggestion was made in order "to improve the local
sources of labor supply that were available" at a time when Cuba was offering from one dollar to one dollar
and a half a day!

The Labor Problem of Jamaica may then be briefly stated thus: After seventy-eight years of freedom the
laboring population was economically no better off in 1916 than their forefathers who lived in the early days
of emancipation. The laborers received a daily wage which was but a small pittance, and they worked under
conditions that were appalling, and that were a disgrace to any community pretending to be civilized. The
government instead of taking steps to improve these conditions and thus to induce the laborer to give in
Jamaica that reliable and continuous service which hundreds so willingly and efficiently gave abroad,
promoted the perpetuation of those conditions by spending each year over £3,000 or $14,400 of the taxpayers'
money in establishing and maintaining a system of immigration which demoralized the best labor market by
providing the employers with an undesirable class of laborers whose standard of life is abnormally low, and to
whom twenty-four cents a day is a considerable sum, and thereby compelled the native laborer either to accept
the unsatisfactory conditions or to emigrate.
The following extract from an article entitled, "What Feeding Him Means," which appeared in The Daily
Gleaner of February 7, 1917, throws more light on the problem:[Pg 359]
"Captain Fist tells us that what the peasant needs to make him a better worker is better
feeding. He also suggests that decent dwelling places should be put up on the estates and
plantations for the people, and that a small lot of land should be allowed each family for the
cultivation of ground provisions. All this and more is being done for the Jamaican in Panama.
But when we hear of living places here, it is always 'barracks' that are spoken of,—a
long range of wretched structures where comfort and privacy are out of the question, and
where, as a rule, only single men can live. But men are not going to work and live as
bachelors to oblige other people. We do not want laborers merely, we want decent families of
men and women and children, and if the economic situation in this country cannot provide us
with these, so much the worse for the situation and for the whole country. The fact is that the
Jamaica peasant, if he has been decently fed and is free from disease, is a good worker. Our
Government, therefore, if it is to justify any claim to being intelligent, progressive and far
seeing must take up the question of disease with a degree of thoroughness never shown
before; while the employer of labor must provide decent living places for his workers and pay
a sufficient wage to enable them to eat enough nutritious food and become better workers and
improved human beings. Unless something of the sort is done, Jamaica will continue to lose
her best able bodied population. There can be no restriction of emigration here unless the
Government fixes that minimum at an amount not less than two shillings a day (48 cents) and
then the Government would have to see that the worker got his money, and also obtained
sufficient work to do. Nothing is to be expected from any scheme of local indenture: the
laborer who indentured himself to work for a year at one shilling and sixpence a day, (36
cents) even with a bonus of less than a shilling a week thrown in at the end of a year would be
an exceptional person, a man with no intention of keeping the contract and what would you
do if he did not keep the contract? No; these schemes are merely moonshine: we might as
well dismiss them from our minds at once. The only way in which the Government can
directly help the laborer is for the Government to start industries and pay a decent daily or
weekly wage. But the intelligent employer can do a great deal to help himself where labor is
concerned, if he will but understand that better pay and better conditions are[Pg 360] what his
workers want and must have; and he will find that so long as his undertakings pay him
well—that so long as sugar, coconuts and other things bring him a large profit (as they
are doing today) it will be profitable to him to make the lot of the worker a better one than it
is. Now is the time for employers to set to work on these necessary reforms. They can afford
to do so, and they decidedly ought to do so.
E. Ethelred Brown.

[Pg 361]
THE LIFE OF CHARLES B. RAY

Charles Bennett Ray was born in Falmouth, Massachusetts, December 25, 1807, and died August 15, 1886.
He first attended the school and academy of his native town and then studied theology at the Wesleyan
Academy of Wilbraham, Massachusetts, and later at Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut. He
became a Congregational minister. His chief work, however, was in connection with the anti-slavery
movement, the Underground Railroad and as editor of The Colored American from 1839 to 1842. As a
national character he did not measure up to the stature of Ward, Remond and Douglass, and for that reason he
is too often neglected in the study of the history of the Negro prior to the Civil War. But he was one of the
useful workers in behalf of the Negroes and accomplished much worthy of mention.[1]
Ray became connected with the anti-slavery movement in 1833, in the early winter of which the American
Anti-Slavery Society was formed. He proved his fidelity to the sacred cause of liberty by lending practical aid
which men in high places often had neither the time nor the patience to give and contributed much to the final
overthrow of slavery. "Many a midnight hour," said he, "have I with others walked the streets, their leader and
guide and my home was an almost daily receptacle for numbers of them at a time."[2] In those days when so
many matters of importance touching the subject of slavery had to be adjusted, the advocates of freedom often
met for an interchange of views; and Mr. Ray's home became, on several occasions, the scene of such
gatherings where Lewis Tappan, Simeon S. Jocelyn, Joseph Sturge, the celebrated English philanthropist,[Pg
362] and others discussed with great earnestness the inner workings of that grand moral conflict.
In coöperation with wealthy abolitionists whose purse strings were wont to be loosed at the call of humanity,
he assisted in enabling many a slave to see the light of freedom. Several were taken by him to the Plymouth
Church in Brooklyn, which under the inspiration of Henry Ward Beecher, the fearless champion of the cause,
contributed liberally toward the succor of the oppressed. In 1850, fifteen years after the formation of the
Vigilance Committee of the city of New York, of which Theodore S. Wright was president, the New York
State Committee was formed with a plan and object similar to those of the more local organizations. Of this
new association Gerrit Smith was president and Ray, a member of the executive board as well as
corresponding secretary, an office he held also in the older society. While Ray was not every time the moving
spirit of these organizations, he figured largely in carrying out the plans agreed upon by these bodies. In the
discharge of the trust committed to his hands he usually acquitted himself with an honorable record.[3]
In advancing the anti-slavery cause, Ray was among the first to work with the circle of radical free Negroes
who, through the conventions of the free people of color meeting in Philadelphia and in other cities of the
North from 1830 until the Civil War,[4] did much to make the freedman stand out as worthy objects of the
philanthropy of the anti-slavery societies. During this period the American Colonization Society was doing its
best to convince free Negroes of their lack of opportunity in this country to induce them to try their fortunes in
Africa and because of the rapidity with which some free Negroes yielded to this heresy, there was a strong
probability that the anti-slavery movement might be weakened by such adherence to faith in colonization to
the extent that the ardor of the militant abolitionists would[Pg 363] be considerably dampened. While not
among the first to start the convention movement among Negroes, Ray in the course of time became one of its
most ardent supporters and no convention of the free people of color was considered complete without him.
His career as a journalist in connection with The Colored American was highly creditable. This paper was
established in 1837 as the Weekly Advocate with Samuel E. Cornish as editor and Phillip A. Bell as proprietor.
After two months it was decided to change the name of the publication to The Colored American, under the
caption of which it appeared March 4, 1837. Bell then called to his assistance Charles B. Ray who served him
as general agent. Traveling as such he went through all parts of the North, East, and West writing letters to
THE LIFE OF CHARLES B. RAY 214

present to the public his observations and experiences and lecturing while speaking of the claims of his paper
as the champion of the slave and the organ of thought for the free Negro.[5]
Ray rose to the position of one of the proprietors of The Colored American in 1838 and upon the withdrawal
of Bell from the enterprise the following year, he became the sole editor and continued in that capacity until
1842 when he suspended publication. He was regarded by his contemporary, William Wells Brown, as a terse
and vigorous writer and an able and eloquent speaker well informed upon all subjects of the day. "Blameless
in his family relations, guided by the highest moral rectitude, a true friend to everything that tends to better the
moral, social, religious and political condition of man. Dr. Ray," says Brown, "may be looked upon as one of
the foremost of the leading men of his race."[6]
That the paper ceased to be was no reflection on Ray's ability to conduct the journal, for he manifested
evidences of unusual editorial ability and his writings were always strong in the advocacy of liberty and
justice. The failure[Pg 364] of the enterprise was due to the fact that there were not quite 400,000 free
Negroes in the United States at that time and the small number of readers among them were so unhappily
dispersed throughout the country that it was difficult to secure enough support for such an enterprise. At this
time The Colored American was the only paper in the United States devoted to the interest of the Negro
published by a man of color. Its objects were the "more directly moral, social, and political elevation and
improvement of the free colored people; and the peaceful emancipation of the enslaved." It, therefore,
advocated "all lawful as well as moral measures to accomplish those objects."[7] Feeling that this journal
should not be narrow in restricting its efforts to better the condition of the people of color in this country, the
editor proclaimed his interest in behalf of such people of all countries of the universe and his concern in the
reforms of the age and whatever related to common humanity.
Concerning this paper the Herald of Freedom said the following:
"The Colored American, we are glad to see, has reappeared in the field, under the conduct of
our enterprising and talented Brother Ray. It will maintain a very handsome rank among the
antislavery periodicals, and we hope will be well sustained and kept up by both, colored and
uncolored patronage.
"It must be a matter of pride to our colored friends, as it is to us, that they are already able to
vindicate the claims our enterprise has always made in their behalf,—to an equal
intellectual rank in this heterogeneous (but 'homogeneous') community.
"It is no longer necessary for abolitionists to contend against the blunder of

pro-slavery,—that the colored people are inferior to the whites; for these people are
practically demonstrating its falseness. They have men enough in action now, to maintain the
anti-slavery enterprise, and to win their liberty, and that of their enslaved brethren,—if
every white abolitionist were drawn from the field: McCune Smith, and Cornish, and Wright
and Ray and a host of others,—not to mention our eloquent brother, Remond, of[Pg
365] Maine, and Brother Lewis who is the stay and staff of field antislavery in New
Hampshire.
"The people of such men as these cannot be held in slavery. They have got their pens drawn
and tried their voices, and they are seen to be the pens and voices of human genius; and they
will neither lay down the one, nor will they hush the other, till their brethren are free.
"The Calhouns and Clays may display their vain oratory and metaphysics, but they tremble
when they behold the colored man is in the intellectual field. The time is at hand, when this
terrible denunciation shall thunder in their own race."[8]

The Christian Witness said the following:
"The Colored American. Returning from the country, we are glad to find upon our table
several copies of this excellent paper, which has waked up with renewed strength and beauty.
It is now under the exclusive control of Charles B. Ray, a gentleman in every manner
competent to the duties devolving upon him in the station he occupies. Our colored friends
generally, and all those who can do so, would bestow their patronage worthily by giving it to
The Colored American."[9]
As to the sort of editor Charles B. Ray was, we can best observe by reading two of his striking editorials on
Prejudice and This Country, our only Home.
Prejudice
"'Prejudice,' said a noble man, 'is an aristocratic hatred of humble life.'
"Prejudice, of every character, and existing against whom it may, is hatred. It is a fruit of our
corrupt nature, and has its being in the depravity of the human heart. It is sin.
"To hate a man, for any consideration whatever, is murderous; and to hate him, in any degree,
is, in the same degree murderous; and to hate a man for no cause whatever, magnifies the evil.
'Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer,' says Holy Writ.
"There is a kind of aristocracy in our country, as in nearly all others, a looking down with
disdain upon humble life and a disregard[Pg 366] of it. Still, we hear little about prejudice
against any class among us, excepting against color, or against the colored population of this
Union, which so monopolizes this state of feeling in our country that we hear less of it in its
operations upon others, than in other countries. It is the only sense in which there is equality;
here, the democratic principle is adopted and all come together as equals, and unite the rich
and the poor, the high and the low, in an equal right to hate the colored man; and its
operations upon the mind and character are cruel and disastrous, as it is murderous and
wicked in itself. One needs to feel it, and to wither under its effects, to know it: and the
colored men of the United States, wherever found, and in whatever circumstances, are living
epistles, which may be read by all men in proof of all that is paralyzing to enterprise,
destructive to ambition, ruinous to character, crushing to mind, and painful to the soul, in the
monster, Prejudice. For it is found equally malignant, active, and strong—associated
with the mechanical arts, in the work-shop, in the mercantile houses, in the commercial
affairs of the country, in the halls of learning, in the temple of God; and in the highways and
hedges. It almost possesses ubiquity; it is every where, doing its deleterious work wherever
one of the proscribed class lives and moves.
"Yet prejudice against color, prevalent as it is in the minds of one class of our community
against another, is unnatural, though habitual. If it were natural, children would manifest it
with the first signs of consciousness; but with them, all are alike affectionate and beloved.
They have not the feeling, because it is a creature of education and habit.
"While we write, there are now playing at our right, a few steps away, a colored and white
child, with all the affection and harmony of feeling, as though prejudice had always been
unknown.

"Prejudice overlooks all that is noble and grand in man's being. It forgets that, housed in a
dark complexion is, equally alike with the whites, all that is lofty in mind and noble in soul,
that there lies an equal immortality. It reaches to grade mind and soul, either by the texture of
the hair, or the form of the features, or the color of the skin. This is an education fostered by
prejudice; consequently, an education almost universally prevalent in our country; an
education, too, subverting the principles of our humanity, and turning away the dictates of our
noble being from what is important, to meaner things.[10][Pg 367]
"This Country, our only Home.
"When we say, 'our home,' we refer to the colored community. When we say, 'our only home,'
we speak in a general sense, and do not suppose but in individual cases some may, and will
take up a residence under another government, and perhaps in some other quarter of the
globe. We are disposed to say something upon this subject now, in refutation of certain
positions that have been assumed by a class of men, as the American people are too well
aware, and to the reproach of the Christian church and the Christian religion, too, viz.: that we
never can rise here, and that no power whatsoever is sufficient to correct the American spirit,
and equalize the laws in reference to our people, so as to give them power and influence in
this country.
"If we cannot be an elevated people here, in a country the resort of almost all nations to
improve their condition; a country of which we are native, constituent members; our native
home, (as we shall attempt to show) and where there are more means available to bring the
people into power and influence, and more territory to extend to them than in any other
country; also the spirit and genius of whose institution we so well understand, being
completely Americanized, as it will be found most of our people are,—we say, if we
can not be raised up in this country, we are at great loss to know where, all things considered,
we can be.
"If the Colored Americans are citizens of this country, it follows, of course, that, in the
broadest sense, this country is our home. If we are not citizens of this country, then we cannot
see of what country we are, or can be, citizens; for Blackstone who is quoted, we believe, as
the standard of civil law, tells us that the strongest claim to citizenship is birthplace. We
understand him to say, that in whatever country or place you may be born of that country or
place you are, in the highest sense, a citizen; in fine, this appears to us to be too self-evident
to require argument to prove it.
"Now, probably three-fourths of the present colored people are American born, and therefore
American citizens. Suppose we should remove to some other country, and claim a foothold
there, could we not be rejected on the ground that we were not of them, because not born
among them? Even in Africa, identity of complexion would be nothing, neither would it
weigh anything because our ancestry was of that country; the fact of our not having been[Pg
368] born there would be sufficient ground for any civil power to refuse us citizenship. If this
principle were carried out, it would be seen that we could not be even a cosmopolite, but must
be of nowhere, and of no section of the globe. This is so absurd that it is as clear as day that
we must revert to the country which gave us birth, as being, in the highest sense, citizens of it.
"These points, it appears to us, are true, indisputably true. We are satisfied as to our claims as
citizens here, and as to this being the virtual and destined home of colored Americans.

"We reflect upon this subject now, on account of the frequent agitations, introduced among
us, in reference to our emigrating to some other country, each of which, embodies more or
less of the colonizing principle, and all of which are of bad tendency, throwing our people
into an unsettled state; and turning away our attention in this country, to uncertain things
under another government, and evidently putting us back. All such agitations introduced
among us, with a view to our emigrating, ought to be frowned upon by us, and we ought to
teach the people that they may as well come here and agitate the emigration of the Jays, the
Rings, the Adamses, the Otises, the Hancocks, et al., as to agitate our removal. We are all
alike constituents of the same government, and members of the same rising family. Although
we come up much more slowly, our rise is to be none the less sure. This subject is pressed
upon us, because we not infrequently meet some of our brethren in this unsettled state of
mind, who, though by no means colonizationists yet adopt the colonization motto, and say
they can not see how or when we are going to rise here. Perhaps, if we looked only to the
selfishness of man, and to him as absolute, we should think so, too. But while we know that
God lives and governs, and always will; that He is just, and has declared that righteousness
shall prevail; and that one day with Him is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one
day; we believe that, despite all corruption and caste, we shall yet be elevated with the
American people here.
"It appears to us most conclusive, that our destinies in this country are for the better, not for
the worse, in view of the many schemes introduced to our notice for emigrating to other
countries having failed; thus teaching us that our rights, hopes, and prospects, are in this
country; and it is a waste of time and of power to look for them under another government;
and also, that God, in His providence, is instructing us to remain at home, where are all
our[Pg 369] interests and claims and to adopt proper measures and pursue them, and we yet
shall participate in all the immunities and privileges the American nation holds out to her
citizens, and be happy. We are also strongly American in our character and disposition.
"We believe, therefore, in view of all the facts, that it is our duty and privilege to claim an
equal place among the American people; to identify ourselves with American interests, and to
exert all the power and influence we have, to break down all the disabilities under which we
labor, and thus look to become a happy people in this extensive country."[11]
Ray rendered equally as valuable services to the Negroes as a promoter of the Underground Railroad. In fact
he was approaching the climax of his career when the Underground Railroad became an efficient agency in
offering relief to the large number of Negro slaves who found themselves reduced to the plane of beasts in the
rapidly growing cotton kingdom. One of the striking cases in which he figured was that of the escape of the
Weims family, so well known for the almost unparalleled deliverance from bondage of the entire family with
one exception.
Exactly how the freedom of these slaves was obtained appears to better effect in the language of Ray himself.
"But I must say a word about the younger girl, the price of whom they held as high as we gave for Catherine.
We proposed another method for her freedom and carried it out, in which the mother acted a good part, as she
could; we proposed to run her off. I was written to, to know whether a draft for three hundred dollars would
be forwarded, conditioned upon the appearance of Ann Maria in my house or hands—the sum being
appropriated to compensate the one who should deliver her safely in the North. I answered, of course, in the
affirmative."[12]
The escape of Ann Maria, as proposed by this new plan, can best be explained by the correspondence between
Mr. Ray and Mr. Bigelow in Washington, who, writing according to a method often adopted in those days in
order the[Pg 370] more effectually to secure concealment, designates Ann Maria as the parcel sent.[13] The

letter reads thus:
"Washington, D. C., Nov. 17, 1855.
"Rev. Chas. B. Ray,
"Dear Sir: I have a friend passing through the city on his way to New York, and I mean to
avail myself of his kindness to send to your lady the little parcel she has been so long
expecting. You can name it to her, and I now suggest that as soon as you find it convenient,
you send me by express the wrapper and covering in which the valuables are packed, for I
have another similar parcel to send and shall find these things exactly convenient for that
purpose. My friend intends to leave here on Monday morning, with his own conveyance,
taking it leisurely, and may not reach New York before about Thursday, but of this I speak
more exactly before I close. I need not suggest to you how anxious I shall be to get the
earliest news of the arrival of the package without breakage or injury."
Also he adds as follows:
"Washington, D. C., November 22, 1855.
"Rev. Chas. B. Ray,
"Dear Sir:
"My last letter will lead you to expect to see the boy Joe to-day but it was afterwards
calculated that he will not arrive till sometime to-morrow. I am requested for the gratification
of Joe's mother that you will be pleased on his arrival and before he changes his sex, to have
his daguerrotype taken for her use. It will make up a part of the Record."
Mr. Ray's narration continues thus:
"Accordingly, one afternoon upon arriving home I found, sitting on the sofa at my home, a
little boy about ten years old in appearance and looking rather feminine. I knew at once who it
was, that it was Ann Maria. Upon her arrival I was to take her to Mr. Tappan, in whose hands
the balance of the money was placed. This I did, and the little boy Joe was taken to her uncle
or to where he could obtain her and finally reached Canada."
[Pg 371]
The following incident has often been told in Mr. Ray's family. "One summer morning, a loud rap with the
knocker at the front door arrested the attention and the door being opened, a man entered, who after asking,
'Does the Rev. Mr. Ray live here?' and receiving an affirmative answer, whistled as a signal to attract the
notice of his comrades, then cried out, 'Come on, boys!' and forthwith fourteen men in all entered, quite
alarming the inmates of the house on seeing such a train of fugitives."
In the midst of these busy days Mr. Ray also served as a minister. For twenty years he was the pastor of the
Bethesda Congregational Church in New York City where many learned to wait upon his ministry. He lived
until 1886, long enough to enjoy some of that liberty for which he so patiently toiled. His more valuable
services to his race, however, were rendered during the period prior to the Civil War. Although in the midst of
this struggle of the subsequent period there came forward men who towered higher in the public opinion than
he did, the valuable work which he did as an abolitionist, and an editor, should not be neglected.

M. N. Work
Footnotes:
[1] A very good account of C. B. Ray's literary efforts is given in I. Garland Penn's The Afro-American Press,
pp. 32-47.
[2] Papers in the possession of Ray's family.
[3] For further information see manuscripts in the possession of Ray's family.
[4] This convention movement is well treated in J. W. Cromwell's The Negro in American History, pp. 27-46.
[5] Penn, The Afro-American Press, p. 35.
[6] Brown, The Rising Son, p. 473.
[7] Penn, The Afro-American Press, p. 38.
[8] Penn, The Afro-American Press, pp. 39-40.
[9] Ibid., p. 41.
[12] From papers in the possession of Ray's family.
[13] These letters are in the possession of the author.
[Pg 372]
THE SLAVE IN UPPER CANADA[A]

The dictum of Lord Chief Justice Holt: "As soon as a slave enters England he becomes free"[1] was
succeeded by the decision of the Court of King's Bench to the same effect in the celebrated case of Somerset
v. Stewart[2] where Lord Mansfield is reported to have said: "The air of England has long been too pure for a
slave and every man is free who breathes it."[3]
James Somerest,[4] a Negro slave of Charles Stewart in Jamaica, had been brought by his master to England
"to attend and abide with him and to carry him back as soon as his business should be transacted." The Negro
refused to go back, whereupon he was put in irons and taken on board the ship Ann and Mary lying in the
Thames and bound for Jamaica. Lord Mansfield granted a writ of habeas corpus requiring Captain Knowles to
produce Somerset before him with the cause of the detainer. On the motion, the cause being stated as above
indicated, Lord Mansfield referred[Pg 373] the matter to the Full Court of King's Bench; whereupon, on June
22, 1772, judgment was given for the Negro. The basis of the decision, the theme of the argument, was that
the only kind of slavery known to English law was villeinage, that the Statute of Tenures (1660) (12 Car. 11,
c. 24) expressly abolished villeins regardant to a manor and by implication villeins in gross. The reasons for
the decision would hardly stand fire at the present day. The investigation of Paul Vinogradoff and others have
Footnotes: 220
conclusively established that there was not a real difference in status between the so-called villein regardant
and villein in gross, and that in any case the villein was not properly a slave but rather a serf.[5] Moreover, the
Statute of Tenures deals solely with tenure and not with status.
But what seems to have been taken for granted, namely that slavery, personal slavery, had never existed in
England and that the only unfree person was the villein, who, by the way was real property, is certainly not
correct. Slaves were known in England as mere personal goods and chattels, bought and sold, at least as late
as the middle of the twelfth century.[6] However weak the reasons given for the decision, its authority has
never been questioned and it is good law. But it is good law for England, for even in the Somerset case it was
admitted that a concurrence of unhappy circumstances had rendered slavery necessary[7] in the American
colonies: and Parliament had recognized the right of property in slaves there.[8][Pg 374]
When Canada was conquered in 1760, slavery existed in that country. There were not only Panis[9] or Indian
Slaves, but also Negro slaves. These were not enfranchised by the conqueror, but retained their servile status.
When the united empire loyalists came to this northern land after the[Pg 375] acknowledgment by Britain of
the independence of the revolted colonies, some of them brought their slaves with them: and the Parliament of
Great Britain in 1790 passed an Act authorizing any "subject of ... the United States of America" to bring into
Canada "any negroes" free of duty having first obtained a license from the Lieutenant Governor.[10]
An immense territory formerly Canada was erected into a Government or Province of Quebec by Royal
Proclamation in 1763 and the limits of the province were extended by the Quebec Act in 1774.[11] This
province was divided into two provinces, Upper Canada and Lower Canada in 1791.[12] At this time the
whole country was under[Pg 376] the French Canadian law in civil matters. The law of England had been
introduced into the old Government of the Province of Quebec by the Royal Proclamation of 1763; but the
former French Canadian law had been reintroduced in 1774 by the Quebec Act in matters of property and civil
rights, leaving the English criminal law in full force. The law, civil and criminal, had been modified in certain
details (not of importance here) by Ordinances of the Governor and Council of Quebec.
The very first act of the first Parliament of Upper Canada reintroduced the English civil law.[13] This did not
destroy slavery, nor did it ameliorate the condition of the slave. Rather the reverse, for as the English law did
not, like the civil law of Rome and the systems founded on it, recognize the status of the slave at all, when it
was forced by grim fact to acknowledge slavery it had no room for the slave except as a mere piece of
property. Instead of giving him rights like those of the "servus," he was deprived of all rights, marital,
parental, proprietary, even the right to live. In the English law and systems founded on it, the slave had no
rights which the master was bound to respect.[14][Pg 377]
The first Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada was Col. John Graves Simcoe. He hated slavery and had
spoken against it in the House of Commons in England. Arriving in Upper Canada in the summer of 1792, he
was soon made fully aware that the horrors of slavery were not unknown in his new Province. The following
is a report of a meeting of his Executive Council:
"At the Council Chamber, Navy Hall, in the County of Lincoln, Wednesday, March 21st,
1793.
"Present
"His Excellency, J. G. Simcoe, Esq., Lieut.-Governor, &c., &c.,

The Honble Wm. Osgoode, Chief Justice
The Honble Peter Russell.
THE SLAVE IN UPPER CANADA[A] 221

"Peter Martin (a negro in the service of Col. Butler) attended the Board for the purpose of
informing them of a violent outrage committed by one —— Fromand, an
Inhabitant of this Province, residing near Queens Town, or the West Landing, on the person
of Chloe Cooley a Negro girl in his service, by binding her, and violently and forcibly
transporting her across the River, and delivering her against her will to certain persons
unknown; to prove the truth of his Allegation he produced Wm. Grisley (or Crisley).
"William Grisley an Inhabitant near Mississague Point in this Province says: that on
Wednesday evening last he was at work at Mr. Froomans near Queens Town, who in
conversation told him, he was going to sell his Negro Wench to some persons in the States,
that in the Evening he saw the said Negro girl, tied with a rope, that afterwards a Boat was
brought, and the said Frooman with his Brother and one Vanevery, forced the said Negro Girl
into it, that he was desired to come into the boat, which he did, but did not assist or was
otherwise concerned in carrying off the said Negro[Pg 378] Girl, but that all the others were,
and carried the Boat across the River; that the said Negro Girl was then taken and delivered to
a man upon the Bank of the River by —— Froomand, that she screamed
violently and made resistance, but was tied in the same manner as when the said William
Grisley first saw her, and in that situation delivered to the man.... Wm. Grisley farther says
that he saw a negro at a distance, he believes to be tied in the same manner, and has heard that
many other People mean to do the same by their Negroes
"Resolved.—That it is necessary to take immediate steps to prevent the continuance of

such violent breaches of the Public Peace, and for that purpose, that His Majesty's
Attorney-General, be forthwith directed to prosecute the said Fromond.
"Adjourned."[15]
[Pg 379]
The Attorney-General was John White[16] an accomplished English lawyer. He knew that the brutal master
was well within his rights in acting as he did. He had the[Pg 380] same right to bind, export, and sell his slave
as to bind, export, and sell his cow. Chloe Cooley had no rights which Vrooman was bound to respect: and it
was no more a breach of the peace than if he had been dealing with his heifer. Nothing came of the direction
to prosecute and nothing could be done.
It is probable that it was this circumstance which brought about legislation. At the Second Session of the First
Parliament which met at Newark, May 31, 1793, a bill was introduced and unanimously passed the House of
Assembly. The trifling amendments introduced by the Legislative Council were speedily concurred in, the
royal assent was given July 9, 1793, and the bill became law.[17][Pg 381] It recited that it was unjust that a
people who enjoy freedom by law should encourage the introduction of slaves, and that it was highly
expedient to abolish slavery in the[Pg 382] Province so far as it could be done gradually without violating
private property; and proceeded to repeal the Imperial Statute of 1790 so far as it related to Upper Canada, and
to enact that from and after the passing of the Act, "No Negro or other person who shall come or be brought
into this Province ... shall be subject to the condition of a slave or to" bounden involuntary service for life.
With that regard for property characteristic of the English-speaking peoples, the act contained an important
proviso which continued the slavery of every "negroe or other person subjected to such service" who has been
lawfully brought into the Province. It then enacted that every child born after the passing of the act, of a Negro
mother or other woman subjected to such service should become absolutely free on attaining the age of
twenty-five, the master in the meantime to provide "proper nourishment and[Pg 383] cloathing" for the child,
but to be entitled to put him to work, all issue of such children to be free whenever born. It further declared
any voluntary contract of service or indenture should not be binding longer than nine years. Upper Canada

was the first British possession to provide for the abolition of slavery.[18]
It will be seen that the Statute did not put an end to slavery at once. Those who were lawfully slaves remained
slaves for life unless manumitted and the statute rather discouraged manumission, as it provided that the
master on liberating a slave must give good and sufficient security that the freed man would not become a
public charge. But, defective as it was, it was not long without attack. In 1798, Simcoe had left the province
never to return,[19] and while[Pg 384] the government was being administered by the time-serving Peter
Russell, a bill was introduced into the Lower House to enable persons "migrating into the province to bring
their negro slaves with them." The bill was contested at every stage but finally passed on a vote of eight to
four. In the Legislative Council it received the three months' hoist and was never heard of again.[20] The
argument in favor of[Pg 385] the bill was based on the scarcity of labor which all contemporary writers speak
of, the inducement to intending settlers to come to Upper Canada where they would have the same privileges
in respect of slavery as in New York and elsewhere; in other words the inevitable appeals to greed.
After this bill became law, slavery gradually disappeared. Public opinion favored manumission and while
there were not many manumissions inter vivos,[21] in some measure owing to the provisions of the act
requiring security to be given in such case against the freed man becoming a public charge, there were not a
few liberations by will.[22][Pg 386]
The number of slaves in Upper Canada was also diminished by what seems at first sight paradoxical, that is,
their flight across the Detroit River into American territory. So long as Detroit and its vicinity were British in
fact and even for some years later, Section 6 of the Ordinance of 1787 "that there shall be neither slavery not
involuntary servitude in the said territory otherwise than as the punishment of crime" was in great measure a
dead letter: but when Michigan was incorporated as a territory in 1805, the ordinance became effective. Many
slaves made their way from Canada to Detroit, a real land of the free; so many, indeed, that we find that a
company of Negro militia was formed in Detroit in 1806 to assist in the general defence of the territory,
composed entirely of escaped slaves from Canada.[23]
Almost from the passing of the Canada Act, however, runaway Negroes began to come to Upper Canada,
fleeing from slavery; this influx increased and never ceased until the American Civil War gave its death blow
to slavery in the United States. Hundreds of blacks thus obtained their freedom, some having been brought by
their masters near to the international boundary and then clandestinely or by force effecting a passage; some
coming from far to the South, guided by the North Star; many assisted by friends[Pg 387] more or less
secretly. The Underground Railroad was kept constantly running.[24] These refugees joined settlements with
other people of color freeborn or freed in the western part of the Peninsula, in the counties of Essex and Kent
and elsewhere.[25] Some of them settled in other parts of the province, either together or more usually
sporadically.
At the time of the outbreak of the Civil War there were many thousands of black refugees in the province.[26]
More than half of these were manumitted slaves who in consequence of unjust laws had been forced to leave
their State. While some of such freedmen went to the Northern States, most came to Canada, some returning
to the Northern States. The Negro refugees were superior to most of their race, for none but those with more
than ordinary qualities could reach Canada.[27]
The masters of runaway slaves did not always remain quiet when their slave reached this province. Sometimes
they followed him in an attempt to take him back. There are said to have been a few instances of actual
kidnapping,[Pg 388] a few of attempted kidnapping.[28] There have been cases in which criminal charges
have been laid against escaped slaves, and their extradition sought, ostensibly to answer the criminal charges.
It has always been the theory in this province that the governor has the power independently of statute or
treaty to deliver up alien refugees charged with crime.[29] To make it clear, the Parliament of Upper Canada
in 1833 passed an Act for the apprehension of fugitive offenders from foreign countries, and delivering them

up to justice.[30] This provides that on the requisition of the executive of any foreign country the governor of
the province on the advice of his executive council may deliver up any person in the province charged with
"Murder, Forgery, Larceny or other crime which if committed within the Province would have been
punishable with death, corporal[Pg 389] punishment, the Pillory, whipping or confinement at hard labour."
The person charged might be arrested and detained for inquiry. The Act was permissive only and the delivery
up was at the discretion of the governor.
When this act was in force Solomon Mosely or Moseby, a Negro slave, came to the Province across the
Niagara River from Buffalo which he had reached after many days' travel from Louisville, Kentucky. His
master followed him and charged him with the larceny of a horse which the slave took to assist him in his
flight. That he had taken the horse there was no doubt, and as little that after days of hard riding he had sold it.
The Negro was arrested and placed in Niagara jail; a prima facie case was made out and an order sent for his
extradition.
The people of color of the Niagara region made Mosely's case their own and determined to prevent his
delivery up to the American authorities to be taken to the land of the free and the home of the brave, knowing
that there for him to be brave meant torture and death, and that death alone could set him free. Under the
leadership of Herbert Holmes, a yellow man,[31] a teacher and preacher, they lay around the jail night and
day to the number of from two to four hundred to prevent the prisoner's delivery up. At length the deputy
sheriff with a military guard brought out the unfortunate man shackled in a wagon from the jail yard, to go to
the ferry across the Niagara River. Holmes and a man of color named Green grabbed the lines. Deputy Sheriff
McLeod from his horse gave the order to fire and charge. One soldier shot Holmes dead and another
bayoneted Green, so that he died almost at once. Mosely, who was very athletic, leaped from the wagon and
made his escape. He went to Montreal and afterwards to England, finally returning to Niagara, where he was
joined by his wife, who also escaped from slavery.
An inquest was held on the bodies of Holmes and Green.[Pg 390] The jury found "justifiable homicide" in the
case of Holmes; "whether justifiable or unjustifiable there was not sufficient evidence before the jury to
decide" in the case of Green. The verdict in the case of Holmes was the only possible verdict on the admitted
facts. Holmes was forcibly resisting an officer of the law in executing a legal order of the proper authority. In
the case of Green the doubt arose from the uncertainty whether he was bayoneted while resisting the officers
or after Mosely had made his escape. The evidence was conflicting and the fact has never been made quite
clear. No proceedings were taken against the deputy sheriff; but a score or more of the people of color were
arrested and placed in prison for a time. The troublous times of the Mackenzie Rebellion came on, the men of
color were released, many of them joining a Negro militia company which took part in protecting the border.
The affair attracted much attention in the province and opinions 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][Pg 391]
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[Pg 392] 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[Pg 393] 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[Pg 394] 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.[Pg 395] 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."
Footnotes: 226
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
Footnotes: 227
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.
Footnotes: 228
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
Footnotes: 229
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.
Footnotes: 230
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
Footnotes: 231
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
Footnotes: 232
$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.
Footnotes: 233
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
Footnotes: 234
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.
Footnotes: 235
[Pg 396]
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[Pg 397] 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.)
DOCUMENTS 236
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[Pg 398] 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[Pg 399] Criminal to Justice—and upon this ground have
recommended that Fugitives from the United States should be delivered up.
NOTES ON SLAVERY IN CANADA[1] 237

"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[Pg 400] 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[Pg 401]
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[Pg 402]
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.

"'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[Pg 403] 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:

"'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[Pg 404] 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.[Pg 405]
"'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[Pg 406] 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[Pg 407] 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[Pg 408] 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[Pg 409] 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[Pg 410]
"'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[Pg 411] 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.[Pg 412]
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.
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[Pg 413] 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
Footnotes: 246
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.
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[Pg 414] 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.
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.
ADDITIONAL LETTERS OF NEGRO MIGRANTS OF 1916-1918[1] 247

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.
[Pg 415]
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.
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[Pg 416] 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.
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.
[Pg 417]
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.
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.
[Pg 418]
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.
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.
[Pg 419]
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.
[Pg 420]
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.
[Pg 421]
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.
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.
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.
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.[Pg 422]
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[Pg 423] 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.
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.
[Pg 424]
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[Pg 425] 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.

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.
[Pg 426]
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.
[Pg 427]
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.)
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.
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
[Pg 428]
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
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[Pg 429]
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
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.
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 ——
[Pg 430]
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.
Dear Sir: In reading the Chicago Defender I find that there are many jobs open for workmen,
I wish that you would or can secure me a position in some of the northern cities; as a
workman and not as a loafer. One who is willing to do any kind of hard in side or public
work, have had broad experience in machinery and other work of the kind. A some what
alround man can also cook, well trained devuloped man; have travel extensively through the
western and southern states; A good strong morial religious man no habits. I will accept
transportation on advance and deducted from my wages later. It does not matter where, that
is; as to city, country, town or state since you secure the positions. I am quite sure you will be
delighted in securing a position for a man of this description. I'll assure you will not regret of
so doing. Hoping to hear from you soon.
Shreveport, La., April 26-17.
Dear Sirs: I am writing you as to how and where I can go to obtain better freedom and better
pay for the balence of my life as being a contance reader of the Chicago defender the add in
front cover first colum refered me to you. If you can put me in touch of some one that I ma
communicate with as to the position I will be verry grateful to you. I am a cook & barber also
thorughly[Pg 431] acquainted with steam works hoping to hear from you will full particular
I am yours for better success.
P S I has a fair education.

Dear Sir: I am earnestly in need of work and would be very glad if you could recomend me to
some of the firms that you are securing labor for. I saw your add in the Defender.
Crichton, Mobile, Ala., April 30, 1917.
Sirs and Gentelmen: I am poor man and honest working man and I am here in the south this
hard country seeking for labor that I can make an onest living I can do most any kind of
commond work and I will do so please put me next. Give me an early reply years to please
Pensacola, Fla., May 7, 1917.
Gentelmen: I wants to ask you to look out for a job for me in that section as I am a good
tailors helper good sewer and as cleaning presing and dyeing I have had nine years experance
in that line but I will do other work if I can get it as factory work in or out of the city will do I
am man of a family and have no time to piack work. Thanks
My dear Sir: In looking over the Chicago Defender why I come across your name in
connections with —— —— of Chicago and thinking that you
could do me a lots of good why I thought that I would write you asking of you to locate me
with transportation with some one who are looking for a hard working honest and sober
colored man.
Will do any kind of work. Am a farmer, saw mill man, a good cook. Also I have worked for
quite awhile for express company here.
I am unable to pay my way to your city at present and any help extended me along that line
will be more than appreciated by me. Am married, and my wife is a first class cook and house
woman.
Now if I am not taking too much of your time why please let me hear from you at once as I
would like very much to get out of the south as quick as possible for there is nothing here for
a colored man, any more.[Pg 432]
Please give my name to some one that needs a good man, who is willing to send
transportation for me and wife, or my self. I probably can make some arrangements to get
there in a few days.
Hoping to hear from you in a few days and thanking you for same before hand.
Letters about Better Educational Facilities
Anniston, Ala., April 23, 1917.
Dear sir: Please gave me some infamation about coming north i can do any kind of work
from a truck gardin to farming i would like to leave here and i cant make no money to leave I
ust make enought to live one please let me here from you at once i want to get where i can put
my children in schol.

West Palm Beach, Fla., April 25, 1917.
My dear Sir: While reading the Chicago Defender of april 21st I saw that you was the man to
write to four a job as say the paper I have some children I lost my wife just a year ago and I
would like to get a place where I could proply educate them I am a bober by trade I been in
the work for 20 years study, I dont drink al all any thing like whiskey I am a church man and
all the children belong to the church too your trully
Pittsburg, Pa., April 26, 1917.
dear sir: your letter was all write this one leaves me all write i means what is write this is a
matter of buisness and no folishness and joaking in this Please dont think i set down and write
something just because i seen it in your paper for i am a working man i work for my living
dont i am saying just to get a jobe i no i am south rais man i want some places to send my
children to school my means is that i am to old to old.
Dear Sir: I saw your add in the Chicago Defender for laborers. I am a young man and want to
finish school. I want you to look out for me a job on the place working morning and evening.
I would like to get a job in some private family so I could continue taking my piano lesson I
can do anything around the house but[Pg 433] drive and can even learn that. Send me the
name of the best High school in Chicago. How is the Wendell Phillips College. I have finish
the grammer school. I cannot come before the middle of June.
New Orleans, La., 5/5x17
My dear sir: I have you reply stating all the information to me. I thank you very much for
same I must say I think you are a real friend. now the best classes of colored men in the south
are still here but are making preparation to come north and are not particular about coming to
Chicago. All we want is to know just what youve told me here in this letter. I have been living
here in New Orleans only seven years. I formerly live in the country but owing to bad
conditions of schools for my children I sold my property and moved here. I didnt think there
was any justice in my paying school taxes and had no fit school to send by children to. I have
been employed here as night eatchman for the last four years and are still working at it but my
wajes are so small the high cost of living leaves very little for traveling expenses but never
the less I have a boy sixteen years old as soon as school closes I will take him north with me
hoping to find work for him and I during vacation. You will see me soon. Thanking you
kindly.
Grabow, Louisiana, 5/9/17
My dear Sir: your letter to me togeather with information was recieved and noted carefully
from the same I find that work in and about Chicago is not plentiful as agents are makeing out
as I know for myself that I have been talked to hard to leave at once for Chicago. I am a
carpenter by trade tho I have 10 years experience in the shop. I were under the empression
that one would have to join the carpenter's union or machinist union on order to obtain work.
Tho I know joining a union would put a stress om me as my straight life policy exemps me
from such. Your letter being wrote in paragraphs I Parag 5) you are advising men who knows
the molders trade or wanting to learn the machinist trade which are those 4 or 5 cities? Should
chances in the same better I would not get as far as Chicago. I am a man of family and
contemplated that with my Hudson could drive to Chicago by land in 8 days, but as you
advise leaving my family I consider you knows best, tho at present I dont see any

enducements at all. $3.00 per day is carpenter wedge in this part of Louisiana for[Pg 434] 10
hours and $4.00 machinest. But our chances are so slim. Causes me to be disgusted at the
south. Our poll tax paid, state and parish taxes yet with donations we cannot get schools.
What do you think of conditions here? Thanking you for your past and in advance for your
future information I am verry truly yours.
Dear Sir: I received your letter and was indeed glad to hear from you I am expecting to arrive
in Chicago abou the 14th of June as I want to get my wife and children place until I can send
for them. I am going to place them with my father over in Pass Christian Miss and my
expense will be very cheap. Of course I am very anxious to get work because I have been
working and supporting my family for the last 15 years and my wife never had to work out
yet and I keep my children in school all the time. I will wire you just before I arrive so you
will expect me in the office. I will be very glad for any service are information that you will
be able to give me as I am coming. I think I would like to work in Detroit Mich. I am not so
much on Chicago on account of my children. I am glad you can help me and place me in a job
right away.
Alexandria, La., 4/23/11.
Gentlemens: Just a word of information I am planning to leave this place on about May 11th
for Chicago and wants ask you assistence in getting a job. My job for the past 8 years has
been in the Armour Packing Co. of this place and I cand do anything to be done in a branch
house and are now doing the smoking here I am 36 years old have a wife and 2 children. I has
been here all my life but would be glad to go wher I can educate my children where they can
be of service to themselves, and this will never be here.
Now if you can get a job with eny of the packers I will just as soon as I arrive in your city
come to your pace and pay you for your troubel. And if I cant get on with packers I will try
enything that you have to effer.
Crescent, Okla., April 30, 1917.
Sir: I am looking for a place to locate this fall as a farmer. Do you think you could place me
on a farm to work on shares. I am a poor farmer and have not the money to buy but would
be[Pg 435] glad to work a mans farm for him. I am desirous of leaving here because of the
school accommodations for children as I have five and want to educate them the best I can.
Prehaps you can find me a position of some kind if so kindly let me know I will be ready to
leave here this fall after the harvest is layed by. I am planting cotton.
Granville, Miss., May 16, 1917.
Dear Sir: This letter is a letter of information of which you will find stamp envelop for reply.
I want to come north some time soon but I do not want to leve here looking for a job wher I
would be in dorse all winter. Now the work I am doing here is running a gauge edger in a saw
mill. I know all about the grading of lumber. I have abeen working in lumber about 25 or 27
years My wedges here is $3.00 a day 11 hours a day. I want to come north where I can
educate my 3 little children also my wife. Now if you cannot fit me up at what I am doing
down here I can learn anything any one els can. also there is a great deal of good women
cooks here would leave any time all they want is to know where to go and some way to go.

please write me at once just how I can get my people where they can get something for their
work. there are women here cookeing for $1.50 and $2.00 a week. I would like to live in
Chicago or Ohio or Philadelphia. Tell Mr Abbott that our pepel are tole that they can not get
anything to do up there and they are being snatched off the trains here in Greenville and a
rested but in spite of all this, they are leaving every day and every night 100 or more is
expecting to leave this week. Let me here from you at once.
Pelahatchee, Miss., April 27, 1917.
Dear Sirs: I see through the Chicago Defender that you have a reputation of furnishing
employment to men. Kindly give me the particulars. What class of work do you get men? I
am writing you to know that I may obtain an; employment through you. I want a good paying
job that I may be able to educate my children. Kindly let me hear from you.
Deo Volente, Miss., April 30, 1917.
Dear Sirs: I am expecting to come with my family to your town, or some smaller town near
you, in the near future. Would like to farm near Chicago or some small town near Chicago
where[Pg 436] my children can have good educational advantages. Seeing the Chicago
Defender that your organization was in position to give me the proper infermation therefore I
write asking you to please give me the above infermation. By so doing you will greatly oblige
me.
——————————
(colored)
Starkville, Miss., May 28, 1917.
Sir: Your name have bin given me as a Relibal furm putting people in toutch with good
locations for education there children Now I am a man of 40 years old by traid I am a barber
of 20 years experence I am now in the business for white but I can barber for either white or
colord I have a wife and seven children 5 girls and 2 boys allso I am a preacher I dont care for
the large city life I rather live in a town of 15 or 20 thousand I want to raise by family nice
and I would like for my children to have the advantage of good schools and churches Now if
you are in a persison to help me a long this line I would be glad to here from you.
Greenville, S. C., 5/2/1917.
Sir: I have been impressed to the extent of writing you by having noted an article in the
Chicago Defender regarding the good work your organization is accomplishing.
I am a Negro mechanic, having served the paint trade since 1896, 30 years years of age,
married, no booster, a graduate of N. Y. trade school, first honor, class of 1906, wish to
change location for better educational advantages for my children consequently will be glad
to have you endeavor to place me. Hoping to hear from you at earliest convenience. Willing
to accept position in any good north western city, with white or colored firm.
Dear Sir: I now rite to inquier of the works in the north as I saw your ad in the Chicago
Defender I wants to come north if thair is any work up their I wants to get in a good place

whear I can educate my children I am a natif of Charleston West Va but come off down here
in this hard luck countary and married & raised a fanily and wants to get in a good location to
raise them sence you are in the busness I wants some information I would like to hear from
you pearsonaly if I can I am not pertickley[Pg 437] about Chicago just since I get a good
place in the north whear I can educate my children how is groceries in the countary let me
hear from you at & early date.
Augusta, Ga., April 27, 1917.
Sir: Being a constant reader of your paper, I thought of no one better than you to write for
information.
I'm desirous of leaving the south but before so doing I want to be sure of a job before pulling
out. I'm a member of the race, a normal and colloege school graduate, a man of a family and
can give reference. Confidentially this communication between you and me is to be kept a
secret.
My children I wished to be educated in a different community than here. Where the school
facilities are better and less prejudice shown and in fact where advantages are better for our
people in all respect. At present I have a good position but I desire to leave the south. A good
position even tho' its a laborer's job paying $4.50 or $5.00 a day will suit me till I can do
better. Let it be a job there or any where else in the country, just is it is east or west. I'm quite
sure you can put me in touch with some one. I'm a letter carrier now and am also a druggist
by profession. Perhaps I may through your influence get a transfer to some eastern or western
city.
Nevada or California as western states, I prefer, and I must say that I have nothing against
Detroit, Mich.
I shall expect an early reply. Remember keep this a secret please until I can perfect some
arrangements.
Glebdon, Ala., April 22, 1917.
Gentlemen: I seen it in the Chicago Defender that if any one dezire to locate in a small town
where they can get fairly good wages and educate there children address you who neads men
and stop paying men 50 cts & $1.00 for Job well i wont to come there where i can get work &
fairly good wages & educate my children & i am not able to bear my expences i have a wife
& 7 chrildren & if you can make any preparation for me to come & bring them let me here
from you i have too boys big enough to work one 12 years old the other 10 and i have been
trying to get away from here for some time & i cant get ot without your aid i seen it on a
small paper a littler strip where Mr. —— —— at the state of Neb
at omaha he advise any one that wont to go north or west rite[Pg 438] him & send a too sent
stamp withen your letter that i may not be slighte and then when her and your he send a blank
with the letter to be fill an send him $1.50 one dollar an half which he say it is all is required
no more money i will hafter pay i wrote hem for a pass & that what he told me to do & when i
arrive i would have a job all ready now when i seem what the Chicago defender says about
men get money that way it cause me to stop & study would it a safe plan of me to go out on
such terms an so i ask you Gentlemen for all infermation that you can give me in the regards
of leaving the south let me here from you at once we colored people havin a hard time down
here now i have paper here but I aint sind it yet

Letters about the Treatment of Negroes in the South
Macon, Ga., April 1, 1917.
Dear Sir: I am writing you for information I want to come north east but I have not sufficient
funds and I am writing you to see if there is any way that you can help me by giving me the
names of some of the firms that will send me a transportation as we are down here where we
have to be shot down here like rabbits for every little orfence as I seen an orcurince hapen
down here this after noon when three depties from the shrief office an one Negro spotter
come out and found some of our raice mens in a crap game and it makes me want to leave the
south worse than I ever did when such things hapen right at my door, hopeing to have a reply
soon and will in close a stamp from the same.
Dear sir: I rite you these few lines seeking information how could I get up north and if you
could do me any good I an five more men would like to come but we have no money we
would come to any reasonable terms that you makes, and if you cannot do the five no good
please sir try and do some thing for me. I rite you this mostly for my self I am in a bad shape.
I am willing to do most any kind of work labaring excuiseing hotel. You was recomended to
me by Bro — — —— of Savannah Tribune, now in plain words
plese send for me or get some of the contractors to send and I will willingly come to terms. I
am willing await you ans. In short.
[Pg 439]
Sparta, Ga., Jan. 29, 1917.
Dear Sir: Information reaches me that you can give information as to places that colored men
can get employment in the north and east as quite a number of we colored men in this vicinity
contemplates leaving the south providing we can get employment at reasonable wages. I
would like to know where to locate, what kind of work and what wages paid skilled and
unskilled laborer, & whether transportation can be furnished. Hoing to hear from you by
return mail.
Charleston, S.C., 4/4/17.
Dear Sir: I have heard about you as being an employment beura so I would like very mutch
for you to get me a job, and if you will please send ticket by rail because we are not allowed
to leave by boat any mour. so I will take a job as porter—butler—hosler bellman
can furnish reference an 27 years old married. Please notify right away.
Sanford, Fla., 5/12/17.
Dear Sir: The winter is about over and I still have a desire to seek for myself a section of this
country where I can poserably better my condishion in as much as beaing asshured some
protection as a good citizen under the Stars and Stripes so kind sir I am here asking you agin
if you know directly or indirectly of any opening that you could direct me to where I can
make a reasonable livelyhood kindly inform me. Why I write you agin is because it appears to

me from your headings that your concern ar making some opening for the (col) from the
south and agin I do not cear to live here in a simple way if poserable I would like to be shure
of an imployment before I leave Kindley do what ever good you can for me.
Gentlemen: I perchanced to run across your address. The which I am proud of. I like my
fellow southerner am looking northward. But before leaving the South Id like to know just
wher I am goin and what Im to do if posible. I see from your card that you can help me and I
believe you will. I want to say that I dont hope to travil north to loaf. I will be seeking better
employment and better wa es mainly. I might state just here what Im best fitted for. 1st Im a
christain man a man of sober habits. Ive had several years experience in business for 20 years
Ive been a salesman & collector or business mgr thirteen years of said time I were[Pg 440]
engaged in the industrial insurance work. worked from a green agent to dist mgr ship at
present am engaged as a salesman and collector. But would accept position as jarnitor of
general utility man ordainary cook the which I ve served in a short order house for whites
only. And also in a house run for both races. In fact will serve in any honest capacity That I'm
capeble of that pays well. Please excuse these persional reference but Im striveing to make the
acquaintance, can furnish reference as to integrity and ability any information given me in my
efort will be gratefully received. Thanking you in advance.
Troy, Ala., Oct. 17, 1916.
Dear Sirs I am enclosing a clipping of a lynching again which speaks for itself. I do wish
there could be sufficient presure brought about to have federal investigation of such work. I
wrote you a few days ago if you could furnish me with the addresses of some firms or
co-opporations that needed common labor. So many of our people here are almost starving.
The government is feeding quite a number here would go any where to better their conditions.
If you can do any thing for us write me as early as posible.
Bham, Ala., May 13, 1917.
Sir: the edeater of the paper i am in the darkness of the south and i am trying my best to get
out do you no where about i can get a job in new york. i wood be so glad if cood get a good
job hear in this beautifull city o please help me to get out of this low down county i am
counted no more thin a dog help me please help me o how glad i wood be if some company
wood send me a ticket to come and work for them no joking i mean business i work if i can
get a good job.
Anne Mantl, Ala., April 24, 1917.
Gentlemen: I read in the Chicago Defender of last week that you were in the employment
buisness now sire we want to leave the south and settle in some small town in Illinoise or any
other good northern state where we can get fairely good wagges and be protected we are
disgusted with the south since we hear that we can do better we want to get up a club to get
north. Please tell us how to go about it all of us dont have a lot of money but we are able and
willing to work and just want a chance. Thanking you in advance for any thing you may do
for us we are
[Pg 441]

Bryan, Tex., Sept. 13, 1917.
Dear Sir: I am writing you as I would like to no if you no of any R. R. Co and Mfg. that are
in need for colored labors. I want to bring a bunch of race men out of the south we want work
some whear north will come if we can git passe any whear across the Mason & Dickson.
please let me hear from you at once if you can git passes for 10 or 12 men. send at once. I beg
to remain.
Oakdale, La., April 21, 1917.
Dear Sir: I saw in the Defender something concerning the employment up there. I would like
mighty well to come if I could get a job I would be ready to come about the 15th of May. I
will take a job in town or out of town either one. There are 3 or 4 more business men that are
interested and would come, write me at once and let me know about the situation. Some
hasn't the fund to come with and if the employer would furnish them transportation they
would readily come at once.
So far as me I couldn't come until I could arrange to sell out as I am in business for God
knows I want to leave the South land. Let me hear from you at once.
Savannah, Ga., 4/21/17.
Dear Sir: Through the Chicago Definder I am writing your company to get in touch with you.
as I am seeking employment in the north part of the country for the betterment of my
condition. & friends wishes to follow after me. if there is any advice or assistant you can give
to us please let me know at once, we are not choice about locating in the city as we will be
satisfied with a small town as well as any part of the north.
Gentlemen: I am a race man and aire inquireing Dear Sir from some one that I know is in
position to give me the proper information truthfully enclosed please find stamps for return
mail. Dear sir I have a wife & a son also that has a wofe and one child we desire to come
north to live if we could only get a pass to that end. The passes that are being issued in New
Orleans to members of the race are verry limited and it is a little dificult for me to get a pass
out I am no railroad man but I can work also my son if my son and I could get a pass to
Illinois we would come at once and leave[Pg 442] our wives at home untill we could work
and send for them ourselves. Dear sirs if you know of any firm that desires any one of the
race that wants to come north with their families please inform them and me as I would like
verry much to come north but have not the money to pay my fare with please answer by
return mail. Please help me as I wants to get from the south so bad. Thanking you in advance
I am yours in the Lord. I am 40 years old. Please help me to get away from the south. Please
keep this letter and not put it in public print. Dear sir I further ask that the firm or firms in
which I am offered employment desire a recommendation as a work or laborer I can furnish
them with same for honesty and etc. Please answer. Please answer as there are others of the
race that wants to come north in great numbers and would like to be informed how to come
north.

Dear Sirs: My silfe and a friend is after hearing from you contemplating the idea of coming
north we have been told that yours is the business of informing those who are coming there of
what is the very best way and about work, etc. Wish to say we need your information and are
very anxious of being advised by you. We will want work as soon as were there and we are
not perticular about Chiago. Anywhere north will do us and I suppose the worst place there is
better than the best place here. Please inform us by return mail where we can get work and
how in doing so you will be helping us wonderfully and we will more than appreciate your
efforts, wishing you much success and hoping to hear from you this week, I am, Yours with
best wishes.
Palestine, Tex., ½/17.
Dear Sir: I hereby enclose you a few lines to find out some few things if you will be so kind
to word them to me. I am a southerner lad and has never ben in the north no further than
Texas and I has heard so much talk about the north and how much better the colard people are
treated up there than they are down here and I has ben striveing so hard in my coming up and
now I see that I cannot get up there without the ade of some one and I wants to ask you Dear
Sir to please direct me in your best manner the stept that I shall take to get there and if there
are any way that you can help me to get there I am kindly asking you for your ade. And if you
will[Pg 443] ade me please notify me by return mail because I am sure ancious to make it in
the north because these southern white people are so mean and they seems to be getting worse
and I wants to get away and they wont pay enough for work for a man to save up enough to
get away and live to. If you will not ade me in getting up there please give me some
information how I can get there I would like to get there in the early spring, if I can get there
if posible. Our southern white people are so cruel we collord people are almost afraid to
walke the streets after night. So please let me hear from you by return mail. I will not say very
much in this letter I will tell you more about it when I hear from you please ans. soon to
Yours truly.
Dear Sir: I written you a special letter on last week containing stamped envelope for early
reply asking a favor of you, as I am in the south and are trying all that I can to get away as I
told you in my letter that I have been here all my life, which is about 40 years and trying with
all of my might all of that time to make an honest living and all of it seems to be a failure and
now as I heard of better wages and better treatment you can receive acording to character and
behavior. I am seeking to get there by the help of the good Lord and if it is any possible way
of you securing work I and 2 daughters I will gladly try all I can to repay you for your
trouble. I wont say any thing of my children as they are very honorable to me they have never
slept one night from under my roof. Now dear friend I write you this as I have heard that you
all are a friend to the needy and if there is any hope for me please let me know by return mail.
Kind friend: While reading the Chicago Definder i saw and advertisement for laborers wanted
i am down in the south with my familey and wishes to become a northern citysin i have onley
worked for two firms in my life and i am 35 years old. Worked in Augusta Ga for more than
20 years and only made 10 dolars a week fore years ago i moved to Atlanta went to weark for
the —— Cleaning Co of Atlanta, only making 10 a weak the wages is so small i
cant harly feed by familey and i cant save enough money to get away i would like to get to
Cleavland ohio i have some friends thear saying that the wages is good if it is eney way you

can help me get up thear i will assure you i will be a wearthy citysin wishing[Pg 444] to hear
from you soon. i am a man that wants to weark and by gods help i beleive i will concur some
old day.
Gentlemen: I am an experienced packer having been regularly employed for quite a number
of years for such work and I am now employed by one of Atlanta's largest firms as a packer. I
desire to leave the south and would like for you to secure me a position or put me in touch
with some firm that needs a colored packer, kindly advise me what your terms are for such
work. I am not particular about living in Chicago. Thanking you in advance.
Mobile, Ala., Jan. 8, 1917.
Dear Sir: I am writing you to see if you can furnish me with any information in regards to
colored men securing employment. I would like to know if you could put me in touch with
some manufacturing company either some corporation that is employing or in of colored men.
My reason is there are a number of young men in this city of good moral and can furnish
good reference—that is anxious to leave this section of the country and go where
conditions are better. I taken this matter up with Mr. —— of Boston and he
referred me to you. I myself is anxious to leave this part of the country and be where a negro
man can appreshate beaing a man at the present time I am working as office man for a large
corporation which position I have had for the past 11 years, having a very smart boy in his
studies I wish to locate where he could recive a good education. I could at a few days notice
place 200 good able bodied young men that is anxious to leave this city, these men I refer to
is men of good morals and would prove a credit to the community. If you can furnish me with
the desired information it will be gladly received, it makes little or no difference as to what
state they can go to just so they cross the Mason and Dixie line, trusting you will furnish me
with any information you have at hand at an early date, I await your reply.
Dear Sir: I have read the Defender and I have put my mine on it and I wood lik to know mor
abot it and if yo pleas send me a letter abot the noth I will thenk uo becaus we have so miney
members of the race wont to come and live up thear and all they is[Pg 445] waitin on is a
chanch and that is all and they will say fair wel to this old world and thay all will come, some
is rail road some is shop and anny thang thay can gets to do. With hold the name.
Houston, Tex., May 16, 1917.
Sir: I sincerely ask of you this very important favor I and my family consists of
4—husband, wife boy 14 years boy of 4 months also three others male of healthy and
ambitious character also dependable to our race asking at any time, are you able to
communicate with any firm or person needing such as are stated thereon. I sincerely ask you
to refer such to said adress as we are only here asking the Lord to aid us out of this terrible
state we are now in. We do any kind of work for an honest liveing.
Jacksonville, Fla., July 1, 1917.
Kind Sir: in reading your paper I see where you could get me and my family a job so if can I
would be verry glad as it is my wish to leave the south, any kind of a job all rite with me. I

will remane, Yours truly.
Dear Editor: Would you please let me no what is the price of boarding and rooming of
Chicago and where is the best place to get a job before the draft will work. I would rather join
the army 1000 times up there than to join it once down here.
Warrington, Fla., 4-24-17.
Sir: i red the Chgo Deffedeer and i seen where yo was in the need of good men that wanted
worke Sir I would like very much to leave the South and come north if I could get a
imployment my trade is carpenter or seament finisher and I am willan to do any kind of
worke that come before me I can do which I am not working at my trade now I am working in
a store now and I can bring yo some good men all so bring my recommendashon with me
Hopin yo will rite me at wonce and let me here from yo. My addres.
Dear Sir: given me. Although i am badly disapointed because i realy want to be among the
northern folk and i have got the means to leave here with and by the way you have explain
matter to me it would pay me best to have a transportation so I can be sure of having a job
when I gets there.
[Pg 446]
Dear Sir: Just a few lines to ask your ade en getting a job as waiter. I am a waiter of 10 or 12
years exsperience in the city of New Orleans, 4 years here in this city also. I can cook and
serve as butler, I am verry anxious to get up there becaus I have a family and I desire a study
job en a more better city than this. If you know of any one will send a transportation for a
good man please send for me. I am willing to pay my transportation back in monthly
payments. I will appreciate any favor you can do for me along these lines as I am in need of a
good job just now. Can furnish best of refrience.
Dear Sir: Alowe me to congralate you on your wonderful paper it is a help to a lot of the
people of our race it shows us the difference between north and south. We are doing fine in
our way but would like to do better a lots of us would like to come up there but are not able
and dare not ask some one to help us to go for the law will have us. I like your paper and
would like to see more of Mobile news in it. Who is your agent in Mobile. There is lots of
idle men in Mobile lots have trades but they are not supplied with work and can't get anything
to go off with. Several men were arrested on being labor agents. Would like to correspond
with you if you could help our pepel eny. You may let me no threw your paper.
New Bern, N.C., May 5, 1917.
Dear sire: I seen you ade in the Chicago Defender for different occpatisions and I in close
you for and transportation for ten men as I has them menny reddy now and wood be glad to

leave at the earliest date and I can get as menny as you wont and all so I wont a job for my
self because we ar in a bad condition in this country and wish to in press a pon your mind the
condition of we poor colored people how we are geting a long in the south and I want to show
you how we ar treated by the white of the south by sending you this strip to read for you self
so I will close I wish to here from you in the return mail at wonce. Please
Alexandria, La., May 5, 1917.
Dear Sir: I read your ad in the Chicago Defender paper where are in need of 20 bench molder
witch mean machinery men who under stand the manufacture work and I am one who will be
willing[Pg 447] to learn the trade at small wage about $2.25 a day and I also have five more
here who will come with me if you only send me six of your transportation soon as can and I
also wish that you will not turn me down. I am looking for your letter promptly and will be
deeply glad to get it as I trust in the Lord that you will send me six of your transportation as I
am willing to come in work. we will come at once when you send them to me send me a
special delivery letters with them in it and I will pay you when we are there.
Atlanta, Ga., May 2, 1917.
Dear Sir: I am a reader of the Chicago Defender and is verry proud of it and by reading the
Chicago Defender I saw your adv. and I want to consult with about a position in a Chicago
firm. I would like verry much to get a position there or eny where above the Mason Dixon
line. I am a competet chauffer or butler. I am married no children. My wife is a cook nearse or
maid, and if you cannot supply me with some position within about 10 days will you please
put me in tutch with some other employment and if you can supply me with eather of those
posetins please write me. I am also a first class laundry man. I hold reference as good shirt
ironer, coller ironer or extractor man in the wash room. Please let me here from you. the
peoples is leaving here by the thousands.
Sur: in reding the defender i saw they advurtise that you sen transportation at advanced from
Chicago now dear sur please let me know i am a maride man an hav a famly off 5 now if you
cant sen for all send 2 one for me and my brother he live with me he is 18 yers old then i can
arang for the rest after i get out there now pleas tri and do sumthing for me i am working her
for nothing i will bee to glad to get a way from here so pleas sen me a pas for me an my
brother and we will sen for the res of the famly after i get there ancer this letter soon as you
get it try to get us work in the ware house or yard work i am a cook an utly man have to cook
serv drink and short ordes an work al nite.
Memphis, Tenn., April 29, 1917.
Sir: Seeing the wonderful opportunity that is being offered the colored man of the south by
the northern industries and the aid in which your organization is giveing them it aroused
within me[Pg 448] the ambition that prompts every man to long for liberty. What I want to
say is I am coming north and seeing your call for me thought I would write you and list a few
things I can do and see if you can find a place for me any where north of the Mason and
Dixon line and I will present myself in person at your office as soon as I hear from you. I am
now employed in the R. R. shop in Memphis. I am a engine watchman, hostler, red cup man,
pipe fitter, oil house man, shipping clerk, telephone lineman, freight caller, an expert soaking
vat man that is one who make dope for packing hot boxes on engines. I am a capable of

giving satisfaction in either of the above name positions. I bought a Chicago Defender and
after reading it and seeing the golden opportunity I have decided to leave this place at once.
Dear Sir: I am writeing you the third time because i am anxious to leave the south and come
north but up to this writeing i have fail to hear from you i notice in the defender that you are
still calling for men i am engineer and all round machine man i am and would be very glad if
you could locate me a position in the Molders Manufacturing or any thing pertaining to
machine work. I am not in a position to pay my way out there and would like to get
transportation for my self wife and nephew he all so can do machine work. So please let me
hear from you.
Monroe, La., April 30, 1918.
Dear Sirs: I was reading in the Defender one of your recent advertising about laborers wanted
for foundry warehouse and yard work. I would like to respond to the advertising but I aint
fiancel able also my brother we are both very poor boys and would like to get where we
would be able to have a chanse in the world and get out from among all of the prejudice of the
southern white man. please send me and my brother transportation tickets so we can come
right away. I belong to church but my brother does not but you would not tell the difference
by his actions. Please send tickets by the 15th of May. I am now working at public work I
owe a few debts I want to act honest I want to pay all of my responsible debts so I can face
my debtors anywhere in the world.
[Pg 449]
Little Rock, Ark., May 7, 1917.
Sir: I am a reader of the Defender and i found in it on last Saturday April 28th why that you
could place mens in iny job or trade they follows. I am riten you this letter an in it i am leting
you know my condition so that if you ever did help a man in this way pleas help me the help
is this. help me to get a job in yor city as blacksmith helper bareler maker helper or molder
helper. i kin furnish references for those jobs. i has a wife and a 11 yr old girl who are now in
the 7 grade and i wants to bringe them with me when I come i am now employed as black
smith helper my pay is 26½ per hour but the white comes so hard onus in these departments
so that we are frade to speak what is right becase they dont want us in those departments they
has been trying to put us out for 4 years. before they begen to work a ginst ys we had all
colord help but now they has 75 per cent white help and it is hard for this 25 per sent colord
to stay hear and i found in the Defender just what i has ben looking for is a little help and if
you will only do as i has said God will bless you. now remember i dont ask you to send me a
transportation to come on if you will just get me a job for me i will be please at that and i will
pay you charges when i come i will be ther in 4 or 5 days from the date i reseave yor ancer so
pleas ancer as soon as you kin.
Dear Sir: As a constant reader of your most valuable paper the Defender and after viewing
from time to time the services that you are rendering not only to the race of which you are one
of its honored leaders but one who are doing services to the sacred cause of humanity, and
your admireable editorials has impressed me so much until I feal that I know you personaly.

now sire I note with pleasure that you are manifesting a very great interest in our people from
the south and as I am a man of family and are always willing and ready to grasp any
opertunity that will tent to better my condition I raise my head and I am now looking to the
North of this benighted land for hope there I feal that if once there that I may be granted the
opertunities of peacefully working out my mission on earth. without fear of molestation. Now
sir I am a painter by trade. I am also a first class creol cook and as I above said that you seams
very much interested in your newcomers well fare to the extent of trying to place them in
some lucrative position. I ask you[Pg 450] one favor and that is this will you please advise me
as to if I come up there will you try and get me work.
Dear Sir: As it is my desire to leave the south for some portion of the north to make my
future home I desided to write to you as one who is able to furnish proper information for
such a move. I am a cook of plain meals and I have knowledge of industrial training. I
recieved such training at Tuskegee Inst. some years ago and I have a letter from Mrs. Booker
T. Washington bearing out such statement and letters from other responsible corporations and
individuals and since I know that I can come up to such recommendations, I want to come
north where it is said such individuals are wanted. Therefore will you please furnish me with
names and addresses of railroad officials to whom I might write for such employment as it is
my desire to work only for railroads, if possible. I have reference to officials who are over
extra gangs, bridge gangs, paint gangs and pile drivers over any boarding department which
takes in plain meals. I have 25 years experience in this line of work and understand the
method of saving the company money.
You will please dig into this in every way that is necessary and whatever charges you want
for your trouble make your bill to me, and I will mail same to you.
Wishing you much success in your papers throughout the country, especially in the south as it
is the greatest help to the southern negro that has ever been read.
Dear Sir: I am sure your time is precious, for being as you an editor of a newspaper such as
the race has never owned and for which it must proudly bost of as being the peer in the
pereoidical world. am confident that yours is a force of busy men. I also feel sure that you
will spare a small amount of your time to give some needed information to one who wishes to
relieve himselfe of the burden of the south. I indeed wish very much to come north anywhere
in Ill. will do since I am away from the Lynchman's noose and torchman's fire. Myself and a
friend wish to come but not without information regarding work and general suroundings.
Now hon sir if for any reason you are not in position to furnish us with the information
desired. please do the act of kindness of[Pg 451] placing us in tuch with the organization
who's business it is I am told to furnish said information, we are firemen machinist helpers
practical painters and general laborers. And most of all, ministers of the gospel who are not
afraid of labor for it put us where we are. Please let me hear from you.
Dear Sir: I am a reader of the Chicago Defender and while reading I seen where you are
aiding those in search of work and I thought that I would drop you a few lines though I am far
away but if there is any way that you could get a pass please try and do that much for us as we

are a party of four good working men the southern white are trying very hard to keep us from
the north but still they wont give us no work to do they dont pay us any thing and still dont
want us to go. now please answer at your very earliest I am
Dapne, Ala., 4/20/17.
Sir: I am writing you to let you know that there is 15 or 20 familys wants to come up there at
once but cant come on account of money to come with and we cant phone you here we will
be killed they dont want us to leave here & say if we dont go to war and fight for our country
they are going to kill us and wants to get away if we can if you send 20 passes there is no
doubt that every one of us will com at once, we are not doing any thing here we cant get a
living out of what we do now some of these people are farmers and som are cooks barbers
and black smiths but the greater part are farmers & good worker & honest people & up to date
the trash pile dont want to go no where. These are nice people and respectable find a place
like that & send passes & we all will come at once we all wants to leave here out of this hard
luck place if you cant use us find some place that does need this kind of people we are called
Negroes here. I am a reader of the Defender and am delighted to know how times are there &
was to glad to, know if we could get some one to pass us away from here to a better land. We
work but cant get scarcely any thing for it & they dont want us to go away & there is not
much of anything here to do & nothing for it. Please find some one that need this kind of a
people & send at once for us. We dont want anything but our wareing and bed clothes & have
not got no money to get away from here with & beging to get away before we are killed
and[Pg 452] hope to here from you at once. We cant talk to you over the phone here we are
afraid to they dont want to hear one say that he or she wants to leave here if we do we are apt
to be killed. They say if we dont go to war they are not going to let us stay here with their
folks and it is not any thing that we have done to them. We are law abiding people want to
treat every bordy right, these people wants to leave here but we cant we are here and have
nothing to go with if you will send us some way to get away from here we will work till we
pay it all if it takes that for us to go or get away. Now get busy for the south race. The
conditions are horrible here with us. they wont give us anyhing to do & say that we wont need
anything but something to eat & wont give us anything for what we do & wants us to stay
here. Write me at once that you will do for us we want & opertunity that all we wants is to
show you what we can do and will do if we can find some place, we wants to leave here for a
north drive somewhere. We see starvation ahead of us here. We want to imigrate to the
farmers who need our labor. We have not had no chance to have anything here thats why we
plead to you for help to leave here to the North. We are humane but we are not treated such
we are treated like brute by our whites here we dont have no privilige no where in the south.
We must take anything they put on us. Its hard if its fair. We have not got no cotegous
diseases here. We are looking to here from you soon.
Greenville, Miss., May 29, 1917.
Dear Sir: this letter is from one of the defenders greatest frends. You will find stamp
envelope for reply. Will you put me in tuch with some good firm so I can get a good job in
your city or in Cleveland, Ohio or in Philadelphia, Pa. or in Detroyet, Michian in any of the
above name states I would be glad to live in. I want to get my famely out of this cursed south
land down here a negro man is not good as a white man's dog. I can learn anything any other
man can. Not only I want to get out of the south but there are numbers of good hard working
men here and do not know where they are going and what they are going to. Also I could get
a good deal of men from here if I could get in tuch with some firms that would furnish me the
money as passes. Now in conlution, I want to know what is the trouble? I cannot get anything

more through the Defender. I have written to the Defender[Pg 453] some 3 or 4 times and
eather articel was never published. I recieves a free copy of the Defender every week and the
people here are all ways after me to write some doings to the Defender and if I write anything
it is never published.
Greenville, Miss., 5-20-17.
Dear Sir: I write you asking you some information as I am a reader of your paper I have been
buying a paper every Sunday for 5 months I want to come to your city to live and every thing
is so hard down here everything is so high and wages is low until we just can live I want to
know what will it cost from St. Louis to Chicago. I can get from Greenville to St. Louis cheap
by boat. I want to come up there the last of June. I ask you to assist me in getting a job I can
do most any kind of hard work and have a common education. If you will look me up a good
job it will be highly appreciated and your kindness will never be forgotten.
Selma, Ala., 4-15-17.
Dear Sir: If you no of any firm or corporation who need a good reliable man please notify me
I want get out of the south. I cant live on the salary I am getting I am not so bent on coming to
Chicago. But anywhere up that way where there is an opening for labor please attend to this
matter at once. I can do any kind of common labor please let me hear from you at your
earliest convenience. I take the Defender every week I see where southern people are being
put on jobs when they reach the North please look for me a job or hand this to some one that
will be inturested in it.
Moss Point, Miss., April 29, 1917.
Dear Sir: I read your advt in the Chicago Defender wanting laborers for foundry, ware house,
and yard work with transportation paid. I'll come at once and lots of others here would also
come if you will transport us there for we are anxs to get of southen soil.
Laurel, Miss., May 10, 1917.
Dear sir: i rite you i seen in Chicago paper that you aftiese for laborer ninety miles from
Chicago and i am a experienced molder and i do truly hope you will give me a job for i am
sick of the south and please send me a transportation i have a family and wife and three
children my oldes child is 8 years old and i wont to bring[Pg 454] my famiely with me so
please send me a transportation at once for i am redy to come at once me and my family i will
pay you for your trubel with all pleasure if i can get up there please send after us at once for i
am redy to come at once and i have not got money to pay our train fair and if you will send
after us i will sure pay you your money back so i will close from your truly ansure soon
Letters from South to Friends North and from North to Friends South
Macon, Ga., May 27, 1917.
Dear Mary:—I just got in from B. Y. P. U. eat a little bite and got my writing together.
Now May dear you mus pardon me for not answering promp I no you will when I tell you the
cause We had a souls stiring revival this year I mis you so much We baptised 14 and after the

Revival had closed up come George B—— confesing Christ so we baptized the
first sunday in May and the third Sunday in May George were baptise May I cant tell you
how I feel I wrote Ella J—— A—— Ella said she cried as far as
she is from here so she no I cut up but I diden I am just as quite as I can be Sam
H—— joined to. B os Jones Hattie J—— boy Geo
L—— Mr. B—— two boys Walice P—— I dont
know the others. Dear May I got a card from Mrs. Addie S—— yesterday she is
well and say Washington D.C. is a pretty place but wages is not good say it better forther on
Cliford B—— an his wife is back an give the North a bad name Old lady
C—— is in Cleavon an wonte to come home mighty bad so Cliford say. I got a
hering from Vick C—— tell me to come on she living better than she ever did in
her life Charlie J—— is in Detroit he got there last weak Hattie
J—— lef Friday Oh I can call all has left here Leala J—— is
speaking of leaving soon There were more people left last week then ever 2 hundred left at
once the whites an colored people had a meeting Thursday an Friday telling the people if they
stay here they will treat them better an pay better. Huney they are hurted but the haven stop
yet. The colored people say they are too late now George B—— is on his head
to go to Detroit Mrs. Anna W—— is just like you left her she is urgin
everybody to go on an she not getting ready May you dont no how I mis you I hate to pass
your house Everybody is well as far as I no Will J—— is on the gang for that
same thing hapen[Pg 455] about the eggs on Houston road. His wife tried to get him to leave
here but he woulden Isiah j—— is going to send for Hattie. In short Charles
S—— wife quit him last week he aint doin no better May it is lonesome her it
fills my heart with sadiness to write to my friends that gone we dont no weather we will ever
see one or nother any more or not May if I dont come to Chgo I will go to Detroit I dont think
we will be so far apart an we will get chance to see each other agin I got a heap to tell you but
I feal so sad in hart my definder diden come yesterday I dont no why it company to me to
read it May I received the paper you sent me an I see there or pleanty of work I can do I will
let you no in my next lettr what I am going to do but I cant get my mind settle to save my life.
Love to Mr. A——. May now is the time to leave here. The weather is getting
better I wont to live out from town I would not like to live rite in town My health woulden be
good 75 blocks burned in Atlanta. they had fire department from Macon, Augusta, in
Savanah—well all of the largest cities in Georgia to help put out that fire the whites
believe the Gurmons drop that fire down Now may I hope we will meet again so we can talk
face to face just lik I once have. I will write to Mrs. V—— soon we hurd Mr.
L—— is there I didn't tell the nabors, I was writing to you M.
W—— will write next weak to you
Now we no that we or to pray for each other by by.
From
Mary B——————
P. S. I will tell you this Ida gone out to about a farm and wants me to take one but I feal like I
make more up there than I will fooling with a farm May if I stay here I will go crazy I am told
there is no meeting up there like we have here now May tell me about the houses you can
write me on a pos card of some of the building. May tell me about the place. Lilian
D—— come here last night an tore my mind al to peaces I got your paper an
note so I will keep up corespond with you.

Nashville, Tenn., Aug. 14, 1917.
Dear Mrs. T——.: I received your card and was glad to hear from you pleas
excsue me for not writing before now I have been sick and have got a tubl headacke write
back to me and let me know how times is—I know you are getting fat of good
boes—I wish it was here—T—— sent love to you and said to get
her a[Pg 456] boe. You ought to send me a apron or waist one—J——
said hody and write to him and tell him about the browns up there and tell
R—— I said hody. I see T—— down to Mrs. S——
G—— and to tell Mrs. N—— I said hody—how is the
weigh up there—we can get all the beerret we want—You think of me in your
prays and I will think of you in my prays
By By
From your
Friend.
Atlanta, Ga., July 4, '17.
Hello Mr. M——: How are you at this time—I arrived here safe and all
O. K. and I am well and hope you are the same. Mrs. M—— told me that she
reecived the money you sent to her and everybody sends love to you. I found my baby very
sick when I come home but he is better now and I am going to try to come back up there in
short time. How are times there now since my leaving there. I stopped in Cincinnati Ohio for
4 days then I left for G. but I will be with you some days I hope. Ask J——
W—— did he get my letter I wrote to him. Plenty work here but no money to it
$1.50 to $2.00 a day that all I am telling you truly. Have you seen anything of
W—— W—— he is there in Chicago If you do tell him to send me
his address. I want to here from him I learn he is making $23.00 a week he lives on Federal
St., in the 40 block some where. If I were there I would locate him.
Tell all the boys Hello. Tell them to write to me and tell me all the news.
Good Bye
Your Friend.
Nashville, Tenn., Oct. 25th, 1917.
Mrs. L—— t——: my dear friend I receuve your card and was
truly glad to hear from you—it found me not so well at this time present and when
these few lines come to you I hope they will find you all well and doing well—I want
you to write to me and tell me what ar you doing and what ar you making and where is your
son w—— and how do you think it would soot me up there. All of your friends
said howdy and they would be glad to see you—I would love to see you and Mrs.
B—— I miss you so much.
Say T—— do you think that I could get a job up there if I[Pg 457] would come
up there where you are—if so write me word and let me no are you keeping house now
to your self—if so write to me and let me no—write soon tu me
Yours truley.

Chicago, Illinois.
My dear Sister: I was agreeably surprised to hear from you and to hear from home. I am well
and thankful to say I am doing well. The weather and everything else was a surprise to me
when I came. I got here in time to attend one of the greatest revivals in the history of my
life—over 500 people joined the church. We had a Holy Ghost shower. You know I
like to have run wild. It was snowing some nights and if you didn't hurry you could not get
standing room. Please remember me kindly to any who ask of me. The people are rushing
here by the thousands and I know if you come and rent a big house you can get all the
roomers you want. You write me exactly when you are coming. I am not keeping house yet I
am living with my brother and his wife. My sone is in California but will be home soon. He
spends his winter in California. I can get a nice place for you to stop until you can look
around and see what you want. I am quite busy. I work in Swifts packing Co. in the sausage
department. My daughter and I work for the same company—We get $1.50 a day and
we pack so many sausages we dont have much time to play but it is a matter of a dollar with
me and I feel that God made the path and I am walking therein.
Tell your husband work is plentiful here and he wont have to loaf if he want to work. I know
unless old man A—— changed it was awful with his sould and
G—— also.
Well I am always glad to hear from my friends and if I can do anything to assist any of them
to better their condition, please remember me to Mr. C—— and his family I will
write them all as soon as I can. Well I guess I have said about enough. I will be delighted to
look into your face once more in life. Pray for me for I am heaven bound. I have made too
many rounds to slip now. I know you will pray for prayer is the life of any sensible man or
woman. Well goodbye from your sister in Christ
P. S. My brother moved the week after I came. When you fully decide to come write me and
let me know what day you expect to leave and over what road and if I dont meet you I will
have some[Pg 458] one ther to meet you and look after you. I will send you a paper as soon as
one come along they send out extras two and three times a day.
Chicago, Ill.
Dear Partner: You received a few days ago and I was indeed glad to hear from you and know
that you was well. How is the old burg and all of the boys. Say partner is it true that
T—— M—— was shot by a Negro Mon. It is all over the city
among the people of H'burg if so let know at once so I tell the boys it true. Well so much for
that. I wish you could have been here to have been here to those games. I saw them and
beleve me they was worth the money I pay to see them. T. S. and I went out to see Sunday
game witch was 7 to 2 White Sox and I saw Satday game 2 to 1 White Sox. Please tell
J—— write that he will never see nothing as long as he stay down there behind
the sun there some thing to see up here all the time, (tell old E——
B—— to go to (H——) Tell B—— he dont hafter
answer my cards. How is friend Wilson Wrote him a letter in August. Tell him that all right I
will see him in the funny paper. Well Partner I guess you hear a meny funey thing about
Chicago. Half you hear is not true. I know B—— C—— hav tole a
meny lie Whenever you here see them Pardie tell them to write to this a dress Say Pardie old
H—— is moping up in his Barber shop. Guess I will come to you Boy Xmas. I
must go to bed. Just in from a hard days work.

Your life long friend.
Dixon, Ill., Sept.-25-17.
Dear Sir: Time affords of writting you people now as we have raised to wages to three dollars
a day for ten hours—eleven hrs. a day $3.19 We work two wks day and two wks
night—for night work $3.90 This is steady work a year round We have been running
ten years without stopping only for ten days repair. I wish you would write me at once.
Chicago, Illinois, 11/13/17.
Mr. H——
Hattiesburg, Miss.
Dear M——: Yours received sometime ago and found all well and doing well,
hope you and family are well.
I got my things alright the other day and they were in good[Pg 459] condition. I am all fixed
now and living well. I certainly appreciate what you done for us and I will remember you in
the near future.
M——, old boy, I was promoted on the first of the month I was made first
assistant to the head carpenter when he is out of the place I take everything in charge and was
raised to $95. a month. You know I know my stuff.
Whats the news generally around H'burg? I should have been here 20 years ago. I just begin
to feel like a man. It's a great deal of pleasure in knowing that you have got some privilege
My children are going to the same school with the whites and I dont have to umble to no one.
I have registered—Will vote the next election and there isnt any 'yes sir' and 'no
sir'—its all yes and no and Sam and Bill.
Florine says hello and would like very much to see you.
All joins me in sending love to you and family. How is times there now? Answer soon, from
your friend and bro.
Pittsburg, Pa., May 11, 1917.
My dear Pastor and wife: It affords me great pleasure to write you this leave me well & O. K.
I hope you & sis Hayes are well & no you think I have forgotten you all but I never will how
is ever body & how is the church getting along well I am in this great city & you no it cool
here right now the trees are just peeping out. fruit trees are now in full bloom but its cool yet
we set by big fire over night. I like the money O. K. but I like the South betterm for my
Pleasure this city is too fast for me they give you big money for what you do but they charge
you big things for what you get and the people are coming by cal Loads every day its just
pack out the people are Begging for some whears to sta If you have a family of children &
come here you can buy a house easier than you cant rent one if you rent one you have to sign
up for 6 months or 12 month so you see if you dont like it you have to stay you no they pass
that law becaus the People move about so much I am at a real nice place and stay right in the
house of a Rve.—— and family his wife is a state worker I mean a missionary
she is some class own a plenty rel estate & personal Property they has a 4 story home on the

mountain, Piano in the parlor, organ in the sewing room, 1 daughter and 2 sons but you no I
have to pay $2.00 per week just to sleep and pay it in advance & get meals[Pg 460] whear I
work so I think I shall get me a place whear I work next week the lady said she would rather
we stay in the house with them & give me a room up stairs than to pay so much for sleeping
so she pays me eight Dols per week to feed now she says she will room me so if I dont take
that offer I cant save very much I go to church some time plenty churches in this plase all
kinds they have some real colored churches I have been on the Allegany Mts twice seem like
I was on Baal Tower. Lisen Hayes I am here & I am going to stay ontell fall if I dont get sick
its largest city I ever saw 45 miles long & equal in breath & a smoky city so many mines of
all kind some places look like torment or how they say it look & some places look like
Paradise in this great city my sister in law goes too far I stop here I will visit her this summer
if I get a pass I cant spend no more money going further from Home I am 26 miles from my
son Be sweet Excuse me for writeing on both sides I have so much to say I want to save ever
line with a word and that aint the half but I have told you real facts what I have said I keps
well so far & I am praying to contenure & I hope you & your dear sweet wife will pray for
me & all of my sisters & Bros & give Mrs. C. my love & sis Jennie & all the rest & except a
barrel ful for you and Hayes Pleas send me a letter of recommendation tell Dr., to sign & Mr.
Oliver. I remain your friend.
Cleveland, Ohio, Aug. 28, 1917.
hollow Dr. my old friend how are you to day i am well and is doing fine plenty to eat and
drink and is making good money in fact i am not in the best of health i have not had good
health sence i ben here, i thought once i would hefter be operrated on But i dont no. i were
indeed glad to recieve that paper from Union Springs, i saw in this a peas swhare I wrote to
ellesfore a 2 horse farm, i have seval nochants of coming back, yet i am doing well no trouble
what ever except i can not raise my children here like they should be this is one of the worst
places in principle you ever look on in your life but it is a fine place to make money all
nattions is here, and let me tell you this place is crowded with the lowest negroes you ever
meet, when i first come here i cold hardly ever see a Negro but no this is as meny here is they
is thir all kinds of loffers. gamblers pockit pickers you are not safe here to walk on the streets
at night you are libble to get kill at eny time thir have ben men kill her jest because he want
allow stragglers in his[Pg 461] family, yet i have not had no trouble no way. and we are
making good money here, i have made as hight at 7.50 per day and my wife $4 Sundays my
sun 7.50 and my 2 oldes girls 1.25 but my regler wegers is 3.60 fore 8 hours work. me and my
family makes one hundred three darlers and 60 cents every ten days. it don cost no more to
live here than it do thir, except house rent i pay 12 a month fore rent sence i have rote you
everything look closely and tell me what you think is best. i am able to farm without asking
any man fore enything on a credit i can not in joy this place let me tell you this is a large place
Say Jef thornton, and William Penn taken dinner with us last Sunday and we taken a car ride
over the city in the evening we taken the town in and all so the great Jake era. they left
Sunday night for Akron. Allso Juf griear spent the day with me few days ago give my love to
all the Surounding friends
By By
Philadelphia, Pa., Oct. 7, 1917.
Dear Sir: I take this method of thanking you for yours early responding and the glorious
effect of the treatment. Oh. I do feel so fine. Dr. the treatment reach me almost ready to move
I am now housekeeping again I like it so much better than rooming. Well Dr. with the aid of

God I am making very good I make $75 per month. I am carrying enough insurance to pay
me $20 per week if I am not able to be on duty. I don't have to work hard, dont have to mister
every little white boy comes along I havent heard a white man call a colored a nigger you no
now—since I been in the state of Pa. I can ride in the electric street and steam cars any
where I get a seat. I dont care to mix with white what I mean I am not crazy about being with
white folks, but if I have to pay the same fare I have learn to want the same acomidation. and
if you are first in a place here shoping you dont have to wait until the white folks get thro
tradeing yet amid all this I shall ever love the good old South and I am praying that God may
give every well wisher a chance to be a man regardless of his color, and if my going to the
front would bring about such conditions I am ready any day—well Dr. I dont want to
worry you but read between lines; and maybe you can see a little sense in my weak statement
the kids are in school every day I have only two and I guess that all. Dr. when you find time I
would be delighted to have a word from[Pg 462] the good old home state. Wife join me in
sending love you and yours.
I am your friend and patient.
Dayton, Ohio, 7/22/17.
My dear pastor and wife: I reed your letter was Glad to hear from you I am do find hope the
same for you I am send you some money for my back salary I will send you some more the 5
of Sept next month Give love to all of the member of church I will be home on a visit in Oct
are early so pray for me write to me I would have wrote to you but I didnot no just what to
say all of the people leaves Go to place up East that I did not no weather are not you care to
hear from me are not so I am glad you think of me. Mr. O—— write me was
going to take out life insurance with him but he would not send me the paper so I just let it Go
as I guess he did not class me with himself I am mak $70 month at this hotel and then not
work hard.
Paris, Ill., 11/7/17.
Rev. ——,
Union Springs, Ala.
My dear old friend: Yours of a few days ago has been received and in reply I can only say
that I was only too glad to hear from you and to know that you are having such great success
in your farming as well as church work since I dont farm I know that my Kmza joys will be
made from a box fresh from your farm.
We are still well and happy glad to say and doing about as well as can be expected. We have
had some heavy snows this fall, but the last four days have been like summer.
How is the conscription, high cost of living and now high cost of postage serving you? It is
giving me more trouble than I want. One hundred of my men are gone to Texas and we feel
that if Uncle Sam doesn't come down they will have to go to France and from the battle fields
to the grave yards as the Germans are still on the job and playing havoc.
I am to preach the Thanksgiving Sermon for the Union Services this year. At this service all
of the churches of the city come together, both white and colored. I also recd. a notice of
being elected to preach the Annual Sermon for the Dist. Grand Lodge K of P. in May of next
year. Son pray for me for these are no small[Pg 463] gatherings, no little honors. How would

you like for me to play off and get you to fill my place? speak out, son.
The madam joins me in asking to be remembered to dear sister Hayes and extending you all
an invitation to come to see you soon.
Holden, W. Va.
Dr. ——,
Union Springs, Ala.
How are you Dr. I am OK and family I make $80 to $90 per mo. with ease and wish you all
much success Hello to all the people of my old home Town. I am saving my money and
spending some of it. Have Joined the K. P. Lodge up here in the mountain. Sen me 5 galls of
country syrup will pay you your price.
Yours in F. C. & B.
Chicago, Ind., July 15, 1917.
Dr. ——,
Union Springs, Ala.
My dear Pastor: I find it my Duty to write you my whereabouts also family, I am glad to say
Family and myself are enjoying fine health, wish the same of you and your dear wife. Well I
can say the people in my section are very much torn up about East St. Louis. Representive col
men of Chicago was in conference with Governor he promise them that he would begin
investigation at once tell Sister Hayes my wife Says She will write her in a few days. Dear
Pastor I shall send my church some money in a few days. I am trying to influence our
members here to do the same. I recd. notice printed in a R.R. car (Get straight with God) O I
had nothing so striking to me as the above mottoe. Let me know how is our church I am to
anxious to no. My wife always talking about her seat in the church want to know who
accupying it.
Yours in Christ.
Dayton, Ohio, Oct. 17, 1917.
Dear Pastor: I have join the church up here and I authorize the church to write for my letter
of dismission but they say they have not heard enything from the church at all. Sister
—— —— wrote to you she ask for my letter so I can join here in
full and if the church hold me for enything on why say to them I will know what to do. I have
never herd eny thing from my credental from[Pg 464] old man Bonnett. I sent him a letter and
also credencil for him to sign and sent stamps for him send them and he fail to let me here
fum him at all, so I thought you would here fum him befour know & got him to tend to it for
me so dear pastor let me here from you and be shure to send me my letter of dismission By
Return mail my famil send they regaurd to you and wife they planning to send some on they
salary love to who may ask about me.
East Chicago, Ind., June 10, 1917.

Dr. ——,
Union Springs, Ala.
Dear Old Friend: These moments I thought I would write you a few true facts of the present
condition of the north. Certainly I am trying to take a close observation—now it is tru
the (col) men are making good. Never pay less than $3.00 per day or (10) hours—this
is not promise. I do not see how they pay such wages the way they work labors. they do not
hurry or drive you. Remember this is the very lowest wages. Piece work men can make from
$6 to $8 per day. They receive their pay every two weeks. this city I am living in, the
population 30,000 (20) miles from Big Chicago, Ill. Doctor I am some what impress. My
family also. They are doing nicely. I have no right to complain what ever. I rec. the papers
you mail me some few days ago and you no I enjoyed them reading about the news down in
Dixie. I often think of so much of the conversation we engage in concerning this part of the
worl. I wish many time that you could see our People up hese as they are entirely in a
different light. I witness Decoration Day on May 30th, the line of march was 4 miles. (8)
brass band. All business houses was close. I tell you the people here are patriotic. I enclose
you the cut of the white press. the chief of police drop dead Friday. Burried him today. The
procession about (3) miles long. Over (400) auto in the parade—five
dpt—police Force, Mayor and alderman and secret societies; we are having some cold
weather—we are still wearing over coats—Let me know what is my little city
doing. People are coming here every day and are finding employment. Nothing here but
money and it is not hard to get. Remember me to your dear Family. Oh, I have children in
school every day with the white children. I will write you more next time. how is the lodge.
Yours friend,[Pg 465]
Akron, Ohio, May 21, 1917.
Dear Friend: I am well and hop you are well. I am getting along fine I have not been sick
since I left home I have not lost but 2½ day I work like a man. I am making good. I never
liked a place like I do here except home. Their is no place like home How is the church
getting along. You cant hardly get a house to live in I am wide awake on my financial plans. I
have rent me a place for boarders I have 15 sleprs I began one week ago and be shure to send
me my letter of dismission By Return mail. I am going into some kind of business here by the
first of Sept. Are you farming. Rasion is mighty high up here. the people are coming from the
south every week the colored people are making good they are the best workers. I have made
a great many white friends. The Baptist Church is over crowded with Baptist from Ala & Ga.
10 and 12 join every Sunday. He is planning to build a fine brick church. He takes up 50 and
60 dollars each Sunday he is a wel to do preacher. I am going to send you a check for my
salary in a few weeks. It cose me $100 to buy furniture. Write me.
Footnotes:
[1] These letters were collected under the direction of Mr. Emmett J. Scott.
[Pg 466]
Footnotes: 283
BOOK REVIEWS
The American Negro in the World War. By Emmett J. Scott, Special Assistant to the Secretary of War. The
Negro Historical Publishing Company, Washington, D.C., 1919.
Mr. Scott's account of the Negro in the World War is one of a number of works presenting the achievements
of the Negroes during the great upheaval. Kelly Miller, W. Allison Sweeney and others have preceded him in
publishing volumes in this same field. The account written by Kelly Miller is apparently of dubious
authorship. It is but a common-place popular sketch of the war supplemented by one or two essays bearing the
stamp of controversial writing peculiar to Kelly Miller. W. Allison Sweeney's work undertakes to make a
more continuous historical sketch of the achievements from year to year while at the same time guided by the
topical plan. At times the author is lofty in his treatment and equally as often trivial. To say that Miller's and
Sweeney's works are not scientific does not exactly cover the ground. They do not well measure up to the
standard of the average popular history.
Mr. Scott's history is far from being a definitive one, as the purpose of the author was rather to popularize the
achievements of the Negro soldiers. In addition to giving the current historical comment accessible in
newspapers and magazines, Mr. Scott has incorporated into his work a large number of official documents
accessible only to some one, who like himself, was connected with the War Department during the conflict. It
has another value, moreover, in that it well sets forth the reaction of an intelligent federal official of color on
the thousands of events daily transpiring around him.
The author undertakes to connect the Negro with the fundamental cause of the war in that race prejudice was
its source. He shows how fortunate it was to have Negro troops as the first of the national guard to be
adequately equipped for immediate service and to occupy the post of honor in guarding the White House and
the national capital, by order of the President of the United States. His own appointment and his work as the
Special Assistant to the Secretary of War as an official recognition of the Negroes' interest in the war are
made the nucleus around which the facts of the work[Pg 467] are organized. How the Negroes figured in the
national army, how Negro soldiers and officers were trained, and how they were treated in the camps all bring
to light information for which the public has long been waiting. After giving passing mention to the black
soldiers in the armies of the European nations the author directs his attention to the Negro regiments overseas.
Special chapters are devoted to the achievements of the 367th, 368th, 370th, 371st and 372d regiments. The
behavior of the Negroes in battle is sketched in the chapter entitled the Negro as a Fighter.
While dealing primarily with actual war, the author has been careful to give adequate space to agencies which
helped to make the war possible. The valuable service rendered by the Negroes in the Service of Supply
constitutes one of the most interesting chapters of the book. Whereas these Negroes were actually conscripted
to labor in spite of the declaration of the War Department to the contrary, they accepted their lot with the spirit
of loyalty and performed one of the great tasks of the war in getting supplies to Europe and furnishing the
army with them in France. Negro labor in war times, Negro women in war work, the loyalty of the Negro
civilians, and the social welfare agencies are also treated. Finally the author takes up an important question:
Did the Negro get a square deal? In a position to know the many problems confronting the Negroes drawn
into the army, Mr. Scott has brought forward in this final chapter adequate evidence to prove that the Negro
did not get a square deal.
The Heart of a Woman. By Georgia Douglas Johnson, with an introduction by William Stanley Braithwaite.
The Cornhill Co., Boston, 1918. Pp. 62.
In these days of vers libre and the deliberate straining for poetic effect these lyrics of Mrs. Johnson bring with
them a certain sense of relief and freshness. Also the utter absence of the material theme makes an appeal. We
BOOK REVIEWS 284

are all weary of the war note and are glad to return to the softer pipings of old time themes—love,
friendship, longing, despair—all of which are set forth in The Heart of a Woman.
The book has artistry, but it is its sincerity which gives it its value. Here are the little sharp experiences of life
mirrored poignantly, sometimes feverishly, always truly. Each lyric is an instantaneous photograph of one of
the many moments in existence which[Pg 468] affect one briefly perhaps, but indelibly. Mr. Braithwaite says
in his introduction that this author engages "life at its most reserved sources whether the form or substance
through which it articulates be nature, or the seasons, touch of hands or lips, love, desire or any of the
emotional abstractions which sweep like fire or wind or cooling water through the blood." The ability to give
a faithful and recognizable portrayal of these sources, is Mrs. Johnson's distinction.
In this work, Mrs. Johnson, although a woman of color, is dealing with life as it is regardless of the part that
she may play in the great drama. Here she is a woman of that imagination that characterizes any literary
person choosing this field as a means of directing the thought of the world. Several of her poems bearing on
the Negro race have appeared in the Crisis. In these efforts she manifests the radical tendencies characteristic
of every thinking Negro of a developed mind and sings beautifully not in the tone of the lamentations of the
prophets of old but, while portraying the trials and tribulations besetting a despised and rejected people, she
sings the song of hope. In reading her works the inevitable impression is that it does not yet appear what she
will be. Adhering to her task with the devotion hitherto manifested, there is no reason why she should not in
the near future take rank among the best writers of the world.
J. R. Fauset
A History of Suffrage in the United States. By Kirk and Porter, Ph.D. The University of Chicago Press,
Chicago, Ill. Pp. 265. Price $1.25.
Knowing that few citizens realize the restrictions on suffrage during the early years of the republic and the
difficulty with which the right of franchise has been extended during the last half century, the author has
undertaken a scientific study in this field. How the franchise was at first limited to persons owning
considerable property, and how some of the most popular statesmen of that day endeavored to keep it thus
restricted, and how this aristocratic test gradually ceased, constitute the interesting portion of the book. The
author's aim, however, is to "present a panoramic picture of the whole United States and to carry the reader
rapidly on from decade to decade without getting lost in the detailed history."
The author himself raises the question as to whether he has placed undue stress on the Civil War and the
Reconstruction periods;[Pg 469] "but the intention," says he, "was to pick out of Civil War history the events
and circumstances that had to do directly with suffrage and to lay them before the reader who is not
necessarily familiar with that history. This decision to emphasize these two periods was determined to some
extent by the fact that the study of suffrage during the colonial period has been covered by C. F. Bishop's
History of Elections in the American Colonies and A. V. McKinley's Suffrage Franchise in the Colonies. One
of the aims of the book is to clear up the problems of suffrage so far as the Negro is concerned.
Taking up the question of the extension of suffrage to Negroes upon the passing of the property qualifications,
the author gives some valuable information, showing the restriction of Negro suffrage culminating with their
disfranchisement in Pennsylvania but falls into the attitude of a biased writer in making such remarks as "New
York was not a State that suffered greatly from the presence of the Negro" to account for its action on the
question. Again on page 87 he says: "Up to about this time the Negroes had not been a serious problem." No
large group of Negroes have ever made a State suffer, but communities living up to the expensive
requirements of race prejudice have paid high costs for which the Negroes have not been responsible. Because
of this bias the writer betrays throughout his treatment his feeling that Negro suffrage was justly restricted,
when white persons not better qualified were permitted to vote.
BOOK REVIEWS 285

After briefly discussing the extension of the franchise to aliens and the beginnings of woman suffrage the
author directs his attention to the question as it developed during the Civil War and the Reconstruction. Into
this he brings so many impertinent matters concerning reconstruction that he almost wanders afield. In the
discussion, however, he makes clear his position that Congress in its plan for reconstruction had no right to
require the seceded States to make provision for Negro suffrage. As these States, moreover, were not qualified
for representation in Congress they could not be for ratification of an amendment. It is not surprising then that
the author blamed the Negro for his own recent disfranchisement. He says: "The Negro must have failed to
make himself an intelligent dominant political factor in the South or such constitutions as have been renewed
here would be utterly impossible." The author has evidently ignored the forces making history.[Pg 470]
A Social History of the American Family. By Arthur W. Calhoun, Ph.D. Volumes II and III. The Arthur A.
Clark Company, Cleveland, Ohio.
This work, the first volume of which with these two completes the treatise, appeared in 1917 when it was
reviewed in this publication. The second volume covers the period from our independence through the Civil
War. Carrying forward this treatment the author considers marriage and fecundity in the new nation, the
unsettling of foundations, the emancipation of childhood, the social subordination of woman, the emergence
of woman, the family and the home, sex morals in the opening continent, the struggle for the west, the new
industrial order, the reign of self indulgence, Negro sex and family relations in the ante-bellum South, racial
associations in the old South, the white family in the old South, and the effects of the Civil War.
Discussing Negro sex the author says (II, 243): "If the blacks were gross and bestial, so would our race be
under a like bondage; so it is now when driven by capitalism to the lower levels of misery. The allegedly
superior morality of the master race or class is not an inherent trait but merely a function of economic ease
and ethical tradition." He then discusses slave breeding, which was so degrading as to force sexual relations
between healthy Negroes and even that of orphan white girls with Negroes to produce desirable looking
offspring for purposes of concubinage. Such a case happened in Virginia near the end of the eighteenth
century. After long litigation she and her children were declared free. Under these conditions sexual relations
among Negroes became loose. The attachment of husband to wife was not strong and ties of blood were often
ignored in sexual relations. There appears, on the other hand, much evidence that a high sense of morality
obtained among the Negroes. Women of color would not yield to the lust of their masters, and the forced
separation by sale of the wife from the husband caused heartaches and sometimes suicide.
Racial associations of the slaves with their masters' children, the author contends, was generally harmful in
that white children learned from the most degraded class of the population. Yet the fact that the whites often
admitted the blacks to great intimacy indicates that there must have been many whites who did not believe it.
Slaves thus associated soon learned the ways of their master's family, but white children remaining and even
sleeping promiscuously[Pg 471] among slaves early formed the habit of fornication. The extent to which this
custom prevailed is well established by numerous instances of the concubinage of white men with women of
color, the offspring of which served for the same purpose as an article of commerce for similar use throughout
the South. In this respect the author has not brought out anything new.
Continuing the discussion further he says (II, 305): "Southerners maintained heatedly that at all events the
virtue of the southern woman was unspotted." "Doubtless," says he, "their contention was largely warranted
but it could not be maintained absolutely." To prove the assertion he quotes Neilson, who during the six years
he spent in the United States prior to 1830 found in Virginia a case of a Negro with whom a planter's daughter
had not only fallen in love but had actually seduced him. In North Carolina a white woman drank some of her
Negro's blood that she might swear that she had Negro blood in her and marry him. They reared a family. The
author quotes also from Reverend Mr. Rankin, who "could refer you to several instances of slaves actually
seducing the daughters of their masters! Such seductions sometimes happened even in the most respectable
slaveholding families." The author agrees with Pickett, however, that most white women in the South were
BOOK REVIEWS 286

pure, and questions Bennett's remark that perhaps ladies are not immaculate, as may be inferred from the
occasional quadroon aspect of their progeny. He gives some weight, however, to this remark of a southerner
(II, 305-306): "It is impossible that we should not always have a class of free colored people, because of the
fundamental law partris sequitur ventrum. There must always be women among the lower class of whites, so
poor that their favors can be purchased by slaves. "The Richmond Enquirer of 1855," says the author,
"contains the news of a woman's winning freedom for herself and five children by proving that her mother
was a white woman." While Lyell found scarcely any instances of mulattoes born of a black father and a
white mother, Olmsted, another traveler who observed that white men sometimes married rich colored girls,
heard of a case of a colored man who married a white girl.
In the third and last volume, covering the period since 1865, the author treats the white family in the new
South, miscegenation, the Negro family since emancipation, the new basis of American life, the revolution in
the woman's world, the woman in the modern[Pg 472] American family, the career of the child, the passing of
patriarchism and familiarism, the precarious hour, the trend as to marriage, race sterility and race suicide,
divorce, the attitude of the church, the family, and the social revolution. The author finds that during the past
half century the American family possesses unity, due to the fact that the period itself is marked by intrinsic
oneness as the expression of an economic epoch, the transition to urban industrialism. If any exception to this
statement be made it would insist on a subdivision with the line falling within the decade of the eighties when
the country was passing beyond the direct influences of the war and modern industrialism was well under
way.
Taking up the Negro family since the Civil War, the author shows how difficult it was to uproot the
immorality implanted by slavery but notes the steady progress of the mores of the freedmen despite their
poverty. Colored women continued the prey of white men and it was difficult to raise a higher standard. There
appeared few cases of the miscegenation of the white women with black men but here and there it would
recur. "Stephen Powers, who passed through the South shortly after the War, tells of applying for lodging at a
lordly mansion in South Carolina and being repelled by the mistress. At the next house he learned the cause of
her irritation—her only daughter had just given birth to a Negro babe. After making diligent inquiry he
failed to find another such instance in high life, but in South Carolina districts where the black population was
densest and the poor whites most degraded 'these unnatural unions were more frequent than anywhere else'
(III, 29). In every case, however, he says it was a woman of the lowest class, generally a sand-hiller, who,
deprived of her support by the war, took up with a likely 'nigger' in order to save her children from famine."
"He found six such marriages in South Carolina," says Calhoun, "but never more than one in any other State."
The author has not exhausted this phase of the family, for the reviewer might add that he knew of four cases
of concubinage of white women and black men in Buckingham County, Virginia, during the eighties.
On the whole progress toward the elimination of miscegenation by interracial respect and good will to furnish
a barrier is seen as in the cases of Oberlin and Berea, where coeducation of the races did not lead to
intermarriage. The author refers to the efforts of[Pg 473] some States outside of the South attempting to check
miscegenation by statute, but shows the folly of such legislation in proving that in general where
intermarriage of the races is still permitted very little occurs. Referring to the statutes of the States prohibiting
marriage between the whites and the blacks (III, 38), he says: "The necessity for such legislation calls in
question the supposed antipathy between the races, unless the intention is merely to guard against the
aberrancy of atypical individuals." "The laws," says he, "are of dubious justice and clearly work hardships in
certain cases."
The work on the whole is interesting and valuable although the author sometimes goes astray in paying too
much attention to biased writers like W. H. Thomas and H. W. Odum who have taken it upon themselves to
vilify and slander the Negro race.
[Pg 474]
BOOK REVIEWS 287

NOTES
To facilitate the study of Negro history in clubs and schools, Dr. C. G. Woodson has prepared an illustrated
text-book entitled The Negro in our History. It has been sent to the publishers and is expected from the press
the first of the year. The book has a topical arrangement but the matter is so organized as to show the
evolution of the Negro in America from the introduction of slavery in 1619 to the present day. The topics are:
The Negro in Africa, The Enslavement of the Negro, Slavery in its Mild Form, The Negro and the Rights of
Man, The Reaction, Economic Slavery, The Free Negro, Abolition, Colonization, Slavery and the
Constitution, The Negro in the Civil War, The Reconstruction, Finding a way of Escape, Achievements in
Freedom, The Negro in the World War, and The Negro and Social Justice.
The aim of the author is to meet the long felt need of a book of fundamental facts with references and
suggestions for more intensive study. While it is adapted for use in the senior high school and freshman
college classes, it will serve as a guide for persons prosecuting the study more seriously.
Just as soon as this book has come from the press the Association will send to all Negro schools of secondary
and college grade a field agent to interest them in the effort to inculcate in the mind of the youth of African
blood an appreciation of what their race has thought and felt and done. The cooperation of all persons taking
seriously the effort to publish the records of the Negro that the race may not become a negligible factor in the
thought of the world, is earnestly solicited. Any suggestions as to how this work may be more successfully
prosecuted and as to extending it into inviting fields, will be appreciated.
Dr. W. E. B. DuBois and his coworkers are preparing a History of the Negro in the World War to be
published about October.
[Pg 475]
PROCEEDINGS OF THE SECOND BIENNIAL MEETING OF THE

ASSOCIATION FOR THE STUDY OF NEGRO LIFE AND HISTORY
The Association for the Study of Negro Life and History held its second biennial meeting in Washington, D.
C., on the 17th and 18th of June. An effort was made to bring together for a conference all persons interested
in the study of Negro life and history and especially to reach those who are giving instruction in these fields.
Accordingly there were present persons from all walks of life, some coming even from distant points. The
Association was honored by the presence of Dr. J. Stanley Durkee and Dr. H. B. Learned.
In the absence of Dr. Robert E. Park, President of the Association, Dr. J. E. Moorland, Secretary-Treasurer,
presided. The first session was an interesting one. Mr. C. H. Tobias delivered an instructive address on "Negro
Welfare Work during the World War." The address covered in outline the efforts and achievements of all such
agencies as the Knights of Columbus, Red Cross, Young Women's Christian Association, Young Men's
Christian Association, and the Salvation Army, with reference to their special bearing on the comfort of the
Negroes during the war. The speaker undertook to give the merits and demerits in each case to enlighten the
public as to what was done for and what against the Negro soldiers by these social welfare agencies.
Mr. Monroe N. Work then read an interesting and valuable paper on the "Negro and Public Opinion in the
South since the Civil War." The purpose of the paper was to set forth the varying attitude of the whites toward
the Negro as evidenced by the thought of the community expressed in the records from decade to decade.
Exactly why these changes in public opinion were brought about constituted the most interesting part of this
address, for it treated not necessarily of present day conditions but undertook to account for them in the past.
NOTES 288
Dr. H. B. Learned, a member of the Board of Education of the District of Columbia, was then introduced to
the Association. He confined his remarks to a discussion of the thoughts of the preceding speakers impressing
him most and especially to that of illiteracy.[Pg 476] He gave some valuable information as to the intellectual
development of soldiers drafted during the recent war and said much to throw light on the conditions of those
sections from which they came. He made an appeal for an increasing interest in the illiterates of both races
and emphasized how difficult it is for men to live for the greatest good of themselves and their fellows
without adequate enlightenment in things fundamental. His address was scholarly and timely and deeply
impressed his hearers.
The meeting of the Executive Council of the Association was held at two o'clock of the same day. Matters of
much importance were considered. Among these may be mentioned the decision to employ a field agent for
the extension of the work, the change of the meeting from biennial to annual, and the plans for increasing the
income of the Association. It was decided to recommend Mr. William G. Willcox and Mr. Emmett J. Scott for
membership in the Executive Council.
The evening session of the first day was held at the Fifteenth Street Presbyterian Church. A large and
respectable audience was present. The speakers of the occasion were Mr. Archibald H. Grimke and Emmett J.
Scott. Mr. Grimke delivered an address on "The Negro and Social Justice," Beginning with the Declaration of
Independence, Mr. Grimke founded the rights of the Negro in the doctrines advanced by the statesmen and
philosophers of that time and then supported these claims by the liberal provisions in the Constitution and its
amendments. How the United States Government has failed to live up to the standard of the real democracy,
although professing to promote the cause of the same, was the main feature of this address. It was on the
whole an interesting discourse and it was well received.
Mr. Emmett J. Scott, the second speaker of the evening, undertook to answer the question: "Did the Negro get
a Square Deal?" In this discussion he briefly reviewed the working of the War Department and other branches
of the government having to do with the war, bringing out in each case exactly what the attitude of the
respective branch of the government was toward the Negro as evidenced by the disposition of complaints of
discrimination set before the heads of those departments. The address brought out the two important points:
that Mr. Scott, as Special Assistant to the Secretary of War, had been untiring in his efforts to secure for the
Negro the proper recognition of his rights, but because of rampant[Pg 477] race prejudice these rights were
generally disregarded by the public functionaries with exception of the War Department, where the Secretary
did do so much to eliminate such discrimination that they were decidedly reduced in that department. It
showed also that after all and in spite of the various explanations made for delay and grievances which were
not redressed that the Negro soldiers did not get a square deal.
Dr. C. V. Roman, Field Secretary attached to the surgeon general's office to lecture in the cantonments on
social hygiene, discussed full American citizenship as an ultimate goal of the Negro. To explain his attitude he
made his remarks strictly historical, contrasting the discouraging aspect of things in 1857 with the much more
encouraging situation eight years later in 1865 when the Negro emerged as a free man. He too brought forth
facts to show that while the attitude of the majority of the people of this country toward the Negro has been
unfavorable, it has on the whole been hopeful in that the condition of the Negro has grown better rather than
worse.
The morning session of Wednesday, the second day of the meeting, was to be opened by an address by Mr.
Charles H. Wesley, but owing to the unavoidable absence of Dr. Thomas Jesse Jones, it was decided to have
Mr. Wesley address the evening session at the Fifteenth Street Presbyterian Church. Dr. J. E. Moorland then
spoke of "What the Negro Got out of the War." He did not take the attitude of those desiring to criticize the
government because of its shortcomings nor did he express disappointment over the fact that the Negro's
participation in the war was not considered sufficient to remove all discrimination on their return home. He
referred rather to the lessons of thrift, economy, coöperation, and social uplift, which given renewed impetus
PROCEEDINGS OF THE SECOND BIENNIAL MEETING OF THEASSOCIATION FOR THE STUDY289

OF NEGRO
by our experiences during this war, will set to work among the Negro people forces which augur for success.
The Association was then addressed by Mr. Ezra Roberts, head of the academic department of Tuskegee
Institute, Dr. James H. Dillard and Dr. J. Stanley Durkee. Mr. Roberts spoke briefly of his systematic effort to
teach Negro history at Tuskegee, discussing the plans, purposes and means to the end. He referred to the
dearth of text-book material adequately to cover the field and gave the books which he used for source
material. His address was very[Pg 478] illuminating and tended to open to the seeker of truth a neglected
field. He was followed by Mr. James H. Dillard, who discussed the same subject, emphasizing the necessity to
study Africa also as a background. Mr. Dillard spoke of his interest in the work of the Association and
pledged his support of the effort to extend the work. Dr. J. Stanley Durkee, President of Harvard University,
mentioned also the need for a study of the Negro in antiquity to bring to light the beautiful romances of
African history which does so much credit to the Negro race. He believed also that more attention should be
given to the study of social problems and an equipment of the youth for social service and spoke briefly of his
plans to take up such work in the reconstruction of Howard University.
At the close of the morning session the business meeting set for two o'clock was immediately held to avoid
the intensive heat which the members would have to endure to return at that hour of the day. The new
business coming before the Association was presented. After hearing the reports the following new officers
were reëlected:
Dr. R. E. Park, President,

Dr. J. E. Moorland, Secretary-Treasurer,
Dr. C. G. Woodson, Director.
The following were chosen members of the Executive Council:
Robert E. Park, William G. Willcox,

Jesse E. Moorland, L. Hollingsworth Wood,
Carter G. Woodson, Irving Metcalf,
Julius Rosenwald, Thomas J. Jones,
George Foster Peabody, A. L. Jackson,
James H. Dillard, Moorfield Storey,
John R. Hawkins, R. E. Jones.
Emmett J. Scott,
Dr. R. E. Park, Dr. J. E. Moorland and Dr. C. G. Woodson were chosen as trustees of the Association. Dr.
John R. Hawkins, Dr. J. E. Moorland and Mr. L. Hollingsworth Wood were appointed members of the
Business Committee.
The reports of the Director and Secretary-Treasurer follow.[Pg 479]
The Report of the Director
The period covered by the last two years has been the most successful in the history of the
Association. It has not yet solved all of its difficult problems and is far from being above
want, but the progress it has made during the last two years indicates that the ultimate
accomplishment of its purposes is assured. The edition of the Journal of Negro History has
reached 4,000. The current circulation, however, is a little less, but the numbers remaining on
hand are gradually absorbed by the book trade. Our subscription list shows 1648 subscribers.

OF NEGRO
About 600 copies are sold at news stands and 500 are brought out at the end of the year in
bound form. Because of the value of the Journal Of Negro History in this form as a source
book, the demand has recently been so great that it is necessary to reprint all numbers hitherto
published.
The achievements of the Association have been various. There has been among the people an
increasing interest in the study of Negro life and history as a result of the extension of the
circulation of the Journal of Negro History and the Negro reading public has been
considerably enlarged. This publication is now read by serious thinkers throughout the world
and research students find it a valuable aid. The people as a whole are now ready to hear the
facts in the case of the Negro. They desire to know exactly what the race has done to be
entitled to the consideration given other elements of our population.
To supply this need the Director has supplemented the work of the Journal Of Negro History
by reprinting and circulating a number of valuable dissertations and by publishing several
books among which are Slavery in Kentucky, The Royal Adventurers into Africa, and A
Century of Negro Migration. In the near future the Association will publish for Mr. Justice
Riddell, of the Ontario Supreme Court, a monograph on The Slave in Upper Canada. The
Director has written an illustrated text-book on Negro History which will be published within
a few months. These efforts indicate that the Association will soon develop into a nucleus of
workers known throughout the world as publishers of authoritative and scientific books
bearing on Negro life and history.
It is highly gratifying that it is becoming less difficult to find funds to support the work of the
Association. A number of persons who made contributions from the very beginning have
recently increased their donations. Among these are Mr. Moorfield Storey and the Phelps
Stokes Fund. From other sources there have been obtained several substantial contributions
such as $100 from Mr. Frank Trumbull, $100 from Mr. William G. Willcox, $200 from Mr.
Morton D. Hull, $250 from Mr. Jams J. Storrow, and $400 from Mr. Cleveland H. Dodge, the
amount which Mr. Julius Rosenwald has from the beginning annually contributed.
The Director has endeavored so to increase these contributions as to secure an endowment

making the Association a foundation for a serious scientific study of Negro life and history.
Unfortunately, however, philanthropists have not seemed disposed to invest large sums in
such an enterprise. The reply to such an appeal is, that while this work is of great value, they
have no assurance that should the present promoters find it necessary to retire therefrom, that
the work would go on in the way it has been established and maintained.[Pg 480] These
philanthropists have in mind the dearth of scholarship in this field. When our colleges and
universities, therefore, will have developed a serious student body primarily interested in
applying science to the solution of the race problem, these gentlemen will consider this appeal
more sympathetically.
Financial Statement of the Secretary-treasurer
Washington, D. C., June 16, 1919.
The Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, Incorporated.

OF NEGRO
Gentlemen: I hereby submit to you a report of the amount of money received and expended
by the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, Incorporated, from June 30,
1917, to June 16, 1919, inclusive:
Receipts Expenditures
Subscriptions $1,532.14 Printing and stationery $5,283.65
Memberships 483.17 Petty cash expenses 955.18
Contributions 4,989.29 Rent and light 314.03
News agents 357.94 Stenographic services 844.49
Advertisement 202.66 Refunds 12.20
Books 22.40 Advertising 128.00
------------ Bond 10.00
Total receipts June, 1917, to ------------
June, 1919 $7,587.60 Total expenditures $7,547.55
Balance, June 30, 1917 58.40 Balance, June 16, 1919 98.45
------------ ------------
$7,646.00 $7,646.00
Respectfully submitted,
(Signed) J. E. Moorland,
Secretary-Treasurer.
Washington, D. C., June 16, 1919.
Dr. C. G. Woodson, Director, Association for the study of Negro Life and History, 1216 You
Street, N.W., City.
Dear Sir:
In accordance with your request, I have audited the books of the Secretary-Treasurer of the
Association for the Study of Negro Life and History and find them correct for the period from
July 6, 1917, to June 16, 1919.
Respectfully,
(Signed) C. E. Lucas,
Auditor.
The constitution as amended at the business session follows.
Constitution of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History
I. The name of this body shall be the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History.

OF NEGRO
II. Its object shall be the collection of sociological and historical documents and the
promotion of studies bearing on the Negro.[Pg 481]
III. Any person approved by the Executive Council may become a member by paying $1.00
and after the first year may continue a member by paying an annual fee of one dollar. Persons
paying $2.00 annually become both members of the Association and subscribers to the
Journal of Negro History. On the payment of $30.00 any person may become a life member,
exempt from assessments. Persons not resident in the United States may be elected honorary
members and shall be exempt from any payment of assessments. Members organized as clubs
for the study of the Negro shall gratuitously receive from the Director such instruction in this
field as may be given by mail.
IV. The Officers of this Association shall be a President, a Secretary-Treasurer, a Director of

Research and Editor, and an Executive Council, consisting of the free foregoing officers and
twelve other members elected by the Association. The Association shall elect three members
of the Executive Council as trustees. It shall also appoint a business committee to certify bills
and to advise the Director in matters of administrative nature. These officers shall be elected
by ballot through the mail or at each annual meeting of the Association.
V. The President and Secretary-Treasurer shall perform the duties usually devolving on such
officers. The Director of Research and Editor shall devise plans for the collection of
documents, direct the studies of members and determine what matter shall be published in the
Journal of Negro History. The Executive Council shall have charge of the general interests of
the Association; including the election of members, the calling of meetings, the collection,
and disposition of funds.
VI. This Constitution may be amended at any biennial meeting, notice of such amendment
having been given at the previous biennial meeting or the proposed amendment having
received the approval of the Executive Council.
The last session of the Association was held Wednesday evening at the Fifteenth Street Presbyterian Church.
In the absence of Dr. J. E. Moorland, Professor John R. Hawkins presided. The first address was delivered by
Mr. Charles H. Wesley on "The Negro Soldier in the Confederate Army." Mr. Wesley's address was scholarly
and illuminating. He showed that he had made extensive research in this field in that he was well acquainted
with his subject and he had it well outlined. It was presented in topical form and made so clear that it was
almost impossible not to understand the extent to which the Negro figured as a soldier in the Confederate
Army. He took occasion to show the difference between the Negro's loyalty to his country and that to the
master class and explained how an attachment to the soil on which one lives is inevitable. The whole address
tended to bring forth the thought that the Negro is so closely connected with all the great movements of this
country that it is impossible to treat him as an alien.[Pg 482]
Dr. George E. Haynes, the next speaker, discussed "Some Economic Problems of the Negro." As the Director
of the Bureau of Negro Economics in the Department of Labor, Dr. Haynes has done considerable
investigation which enables him to speak with authority in this field. His discussion was largely statistical,
treating the Negro laborer as compared with the white laborer with respect to absenteeism, turn-over and
general efficiency. On some points his investigation had not gone sufficiently far to reach definite
conclusions. In most cases, however, he had facts to warrant conclusions as to the main deficiency from which
the Negro laborer suffers and the respects in which he excels the white laborer.
Mr. John W. Davis, Executive Secretary of the local Young Men's Christian Association, undertook to explain
"How to Promote the Study of Negro Life and History." In the first place, he answered the questions whether

OF NEGRO
or not the Negro had any history, whether this history is worth saving, and how the movement should be
promoted. Basing his remarks on the achievements of Africa to show that the Negro has a history worth while,
Mr. Davis supported the contention that the race has a tradition which should be passed on to generations
unborn. He then endeavored to show briefly exactly how there can be constructed the machinery adequate to
interesting every individual having pride in the achievements of this large fraction of the population of the
country.
Transcriber's Notes:
Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully as possible, including obsolete and variant
spellings and other inconsistencies. The transcriber made the following changes to the text to correct obvious
errors:
1. p. 15, No footnote marker for footnote #18 in original text.

2. p. 15, No footnote marker for footnote #19 in original text.
3. p. 15, Footnote #19, "Attiude" --> "Attitude"
4. p. 18, "thereupon he suffered" --> "thereupon be suffered"
5. p. 30, Footnote #12, "skteches" --> "sketches"
6. p. 61, "intellignce" --> "intelligence"
7. p. 69, "about what time" --> "About what time"
8. p. 103, "depneded" --> "depended"
9. p. 109, "Ilinois" --> "Illinois"
10. p. 115, "expeience" --> "experience"
11. p. 273, No footnote text for footnote #58.
12. p. 288, "daugther" --> "daughter"
13. p. 291, "Apirl" --> "April"
14. p. 306, "Apri" --> "April"
15. p. 380, Footnote #16, "salvery" --> "slavery"
16. p. 410, "uusal" --> "usual"
17. p. 421, "supoprt" --> "support"
18. p. 429, "Apirl" --> "April"
Also, many occurrences of mismatched single and double quotes remain as published.
End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Journal of Negro History, Volume
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OF NEGRO
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The Journal of Negro History, Volume 4, 1919 by Various

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The Journal of Negro History, Volume 4, 1919 by Various

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What topics does the journal cover?

What topics does the journal cover?

What is the author's view on the attitude of white people towards black people?

What is the author's view on the attitude of white people towards black people?

The Journal

Primitive Law and the Negro Roland G. Usher

The Conflict and Fusion of Cultures Robert E. Park

The Journal of Negro History 1

Negroes in the Confederate Army Charles H. Wesley

Labor Conditions in Jamaica Prior to 1917 E. Ethelred Brown

Vol. IV—January, 1919—No. 1

PRIMITIVE LAW AND THE NEGRO

The Journal of Negro History 3

PRIMITIVE LAW AND THE NEGRO 4

LINCOLN'S PLAN FOR COLONIZING THE EMANCIPATED

LINCOLN'S PLAN FOR COLONIZING THE EMANCIPATED NEGROES[1] 5

LINCOLN'S PLAN FOR COLONIZING THE EMANCIPATED NEGROES[1] 6

LINCOLN'S PLAN FOR COLONIZING THE EMANCIPATED NEGROES[1] 7

LINCOLN'S PLAN FOR COLONIZING THE EMANCIPATED NEGROES[1] 8

LINCOLN'S PLAN FOR COLONIZING THE EMANCIPATED NEGROES[1] 9

[8] Ibid., VI, p. 356.

[10] Section XI of Act approved April 16, 1862.

[12] Raymond, Life, Public Services and State Papers, p. 504.

[13] Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln, VI, p. 357.

[25] Manuscript Archives of the Department of the Interior.

[26] Nicolay and Hay, A History, VI, p. 361.

[27] Richardson, Message and Papers of the President, I, p. 167.

[28] Nicolay and Hay, A History, VI, p. 362.

[31] Nicolay and Hay, Complete Works, II, p. 477.

[32] Statutes at Large, XIII, p. 352.

[33] Butler's Reminiscences, pp. 903-904.

[2] Ibid., p. 38.

[7] Ibid., p. 66.

[8] Simmons, Men of Mark, p. 677.

[9] Ibid., p. 678.

[11] Woodson, The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861, p. 280.

THE ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY OF CANADA

THE ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY OF CANADA 19

THE ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY OF CANADA 20

THE ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY OF CANADA 21

[2] Ward, Autobiography of a Fugitive Slave.

[3] Lewis, George Brown, p. 114.

[4] Drew, North Side View of Slavery, p. 328.

[5] Anti-Slavery Society of Canada, First Annual Report, p. 10.

[6] First Annual Report, pp. 12-13.

[7] Letters of Goldwin Smith, p. 377.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN AND FREEDOM

Writing about this work, he said to a friend:

Franklin's argument against slavery was economic as well as moral. He said:

London, 22 August, 1772.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN AND FREEDOM 23

London, 10 April, 1773.

Hackney, 26 September, 1787.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN AND FREEDOM 24

Attention to emancipated black people, it is therefore to be hoped,[Pg 46] will become a

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN AND FREEDOM 25

A plan so extensive cannot be carried into execution without considerable pecuniary

Signed, by order of the Society,

Philadelphia, 9th of November, 1789.

Philadelphia, 4 November, 1789.

President—Gen. W. R. Miles, of Yazoo county.

Vice-presidents—T. F. Cassell, of Tennessee; James Hill, of Jackson, Mississippi; H.

Secretary—A. W. Crandall, Louisiana.

Assistant Secretaries—Jno. A. Galbreth, Jackson; J. D. Webster, Washington county.

Sergeant at Arms—J. B. Pegram, Vicksburg.

Assistant sergeant at Arms—J. W. Crichloy, Vicksburg; George Volker, Vicksburg; G.

Q Did it include any politicians of either color, white or black?—A. No politicianers

Q. Were there any in Mississippi?—A. Yes, sir; a few in Mississippi.

Q. And a few in Alabama?—A. Yes, sir; a few in Alabama, too.

Q. In 1872?—A. Yes, sir; in 1872—giving a description of government lands