The Journal of Negro History
Chapter 86 : To the Honorable General Court of the Ma.s.sachusetts Bay.JONAS RICHARDSON _Capt._ ELIP

To the Honorable General Court of the Ma.s.sachusetts Bay.

JONAS RICHARDSON _Capt._ ELIPHELET BODWELL _Segt_ JOSIAH FOSTER _Leutn._ EBENR VARNUM _2d Lut._ WM HUDSON BALLARD _Cpt_ WILLIAM SMITH _Capn_ JOHN MARTEN _Surgt: of a Brec_: LIEUT. RICHARD WELSH In Council Decr. 21st. 1775 Read & Sent down PEREZ MORTON _Dpy Secry_

This paper is indorsed

Recommendation of Salem Poor a free Negro for his Bravery at ye Battle of Charlestown leave to withdraw it

Although histories have been written of the members and actions of Col. Frye's regiment and Capt. Ames's company, of which Salem Poor was a member, the account given of him shows that the story of his life was not known. It is, however, noted in Miss Bailey's "History of Andover" that he was a slave, owned by John Poor. At the Battle of Bunker Hill, when Lieut. Col. Abercrombie, of the British forces, sprang upon the redoubt, while the Americans were running in retreat, and exclaimed, "The day is ours," Salem Poor turned, aimed his gun and felled with a bullet the English leader. The deed was considered by the officers of the regiment to be one of great bravery, as their pet.i.tion to the General Court of Ma.s.sachusetts shows.

Other colored men serving at the Battle of Bunker Hill were t.i.tus Coburn, Alexander Ames, Barzillai Lew, all of Andover; Cato Howe of Plymouth, and Peter Salem.

Among those who gave valued services in the Continental Army was Deborah Gannett. She a.s.sumed the dress of a man, and under the name of Robert Shurtliff, enlisted in the fourth Ma.s.sachusetts Regiment, Captain Webb, serving in the ranks without once revealing her s.e.x from May 20, 1782, to October 23, 1783, a period of seventeen months. By an act of the legislature, Jan. 20, 1792, she was paid 34 by the State for her services.

The extract below is from a discussion of the questions of pension and bounty for Negro soldiers by James Croggon. It appeared in the _Was.h.i.+ngton Star_.

"January 21 Gen. Jackson read an address to each of the commands which had taken part in the battles, reviewing the campaign, and saying of the engagement of January 8 that the loss of the enemy was more than 3,000 while the American loss was but thirteen--"a wonderful interposition of heaven! An unexampled event in the history of war!" Gen. Jackson characterizes the event.

"In his general orders of January 21, prior to breaking camp, Gen. Jackson complimented the various regiments and commands, saying of the two bodies of colored volunteers: 'They have not disappointed the hopes that were formed of their courage and perseverence in the performance of their duty. Majs. Lacoste and Daquin, who commanded them, have deserved well of their country.'

"REWARDS HELD UP

"Yet, although these colored troops were commended for their coolness and bravery under fire, especially in the memorable engagement of December 23 when they were attached to Coffee's brigade, which opened the series of battles, recognition for their services, by way of pension and bounty, was withheld for several years after their discharge from the service and then was granted only after an opinion had been given by William Wirt, Attorney General of the United States at that time, that they might legally be so recompensed.

"When the colored troops enlisted the act of Congress of December 24, 1811, provided a bounty of $16, with three months' pay, and a grant of 160 acres of land to those who had served five years, the same amount of land to the heirs of those killed in battle, and the same amount of land to the heirs of those who had died in the service after having served five years. The act of January 11, 1812, carried like provisions, and the act of December 10, 1814, again carried the provisions, except that the amount of land granted was doubled.

"After the colored troops were mustered out, application was made in their behalf for recognition under these acts, especially for the bounty of 320 acres of land, but it was not until 1823 that their claims were recognized.

"JACKSON PRAISED TROOPS

"This apathy and long delay ensued notwithstanding the fact that under date of December 27, 1814, Gen. Jackson had reviewed the first engagement in a report in which he spoke highly of the men of color attached to Coffee's brigade. He said in this engagement a number of prisoners were taken, and the British loss was about 100. On the night of the 23d of December, in the engagement below New Orleans, the British left 100 killed, and 230 wounded, their loss in prisoners taken making their total loss that night about 400.

"Again, reporting on the battle of January 8, Gen. Jackson said that the enemy advanced in two strong columns, and that 'they were received with a firmness which defeated all their hopes.

For upward of an hour the firing was incessant, but the enemy at length fled in confusion from the field, their losses including Gen. Sir Edward Pakenham.' Under date of January 19 Gen. Jackson informed the War Department that the enemy had decamped, leaving eighty of their wounded and fourteen pieces of heavy artillery, and that he believed Louisiana was then 'clear.'

"ATTORNEY GENERAL'S OPINION

"It was to J. C. Calhoun, then Secretary of War, that William Wirt, then Attorney General, wrote, under date of March 27, 1823, declaring that it was not, in his opinion, in the power of the government to deny the colored troops and their heirs the emoluments of their service in the army. Mr. Wirt's letter is as follows:

"'Sir: Had I been called on a priori to give a construction to the several acts of Congress, which are the subject of Mr.

Cutting's letters of the 21st of May, 1821, and 30th of January, 1823, of Maj. Charles J. Nourse's of the 20th of January, 1823, and Mr. J. W. Murray's of the 22d of December, 1822, I should have had no hesitation in expressing the opinion that it was not the intention of Congress to incorporate negroes and people of color with the army, any more than with the militia of the United States. But the acts of Congress, under which this body of people of color are understood to have been raised during the late war, uses no other terms of description as to the recruits than that they shall be 'effective, able-bodied men' (act 24th December, 1811), 'for completing the existing military establishment,' and act 11th January, 1812, 'to raise an additional military force,'

of 'free, effective, able-bodied men' (act December 10, 1814), 'making further provision for filling the ranks of the army of the United States.'

"ALL REQUIREMENTS FULFILLED

"As either of these descriptions was satisfied by the persons of color in question; as the recruiting officers, who were quoad hoc the agents of the United States, recruited these persons on a contract for the pay and bounty stipulated by law, as the officers of government recognize them as a part of the army, by their regular returns of this corps, who received, till the close of the war, the same pay and rations with other troops, were subject to the same military law and performed the same military services, it seems to me that a practical construction has been given to the law in this particular, from which it is not in the power of the government justly to depart.

"I think, therefore, that they ought to receive the promised land bounty. But, without some further and more explicit declaration of the purpose of Congress, I would not recommend a repet.i.tion of such contracts on any future occasion on laws worded like those under consideration; by which I mean, not merely the three laws which I have cited, but the whole military system of the United States, militia included."

Mrs. R. L. Pendleton has published the new edition of the _Life and Works of Phillis Wheatley_ by G. Herbert Renfro. This volume contains a sketch of G. Herbert Renfro and a much more detailed sketch of the life of Phillis Wheatley by this writer. It contains the correspondence of the poetess and a larger number of her poems than we find in some of the other editions of her works. The book is well printed and nicely bound and may be purchased for the small sum of $1.50 from R. L. Pendleton, 1216 You St., Was.h.i.+ngton, D. C.

Longmans and Company have published A. J. McDonald's _Trade, Politics and Christianity in Africa and the East_. It is a valuable contribution to the British colonial policy.

H. O. Newland's _Sierra Leone; its People, Products and Secret Societies_ has come from the press of Bale, Sons and Donnelson. The author is a student of sociology and knows much about West Africa. To this is appended 44 pages of information on Sierra Leone by H. Hamel Smith.

_In the Hands of Senoussi_ has been published by Mrs. Gwatkin Williams. This book is a collection of facts compiled from the diary of Captain R. Gwatkin Williams, giving an account of nineteen weeks of captivity of the survivors of H. M. S. _Tara_ in the Libyan Desert.

The tales of General Botha's desert march in Southwest Africa have been published as _Sun, Sand and Sin_ by Hodder and Stoughton.

Articles of interest on Africa recently published are _Islam on the Congo_ by W. J. W. Roome in the Moslem World, _L'Islam en Mauritanie et au Senegale_ in the Revue du Monde Musulman and _Observations on the Northern Section of the Tanganyika-Nile Rift Valley_ by Captain C.

H. Stigand in the Geographical Journal.

_The Early History of Cuba_, 1492-1586, by I. A. Wright, has been published by MacMillan Company. The book shows evidence of extensive research and scholarly treatment.

The a.s.sociation for the Study of Negro Life and History is making extensive preparation to bring together during the last week in August all persons who are now seriously interested in the study of Negro history. It is hoped that a large number of members may be able to attend and that interest in the work may extend throughout the country. Some of the leading historians of the United States will be invited to address this body.

THE JOURNAL

OF

NEGRO HISTORY

VOL. II--JULY, 1917--NO. 3

THE FORMATION OF THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY

What to do with the Negro population has almost always been a question before the American people. Since the early date of 1714 its removal to some territory beyond the limits of the United States or to an unsettled area of our public lands has been advocated. During the century which followed the earliest mention of deportation, its advocates published their plans as individual propaganda, sought the approbation of religious and humanitarian organizations, and in one or two instances tried to secure favorable State or national action on them. But throughout this long period of one hundred years no concerted action was taken: the period is characterized by sporadic origins and isolated efforts; and these early projectors of plans to remove the Negro were the trailmakers in a pioneering movement which culminated in a national organization.[234]

Obviously private enterprise alone could make little headway in the actual colonization of the Negroes in a territory sufficiently distant to be beyond the pale of the white population. The one item of expense was too serious a handicap for individual initiative to overcome.

Besides the case of Captain Izard Bacon of Virginia, who temporarily removed his fifty-two freedmen to Pennsylvania to await a favorable time for sending them over sea,[235] and of Mary Matthews of King George's County, Virginia, who by will emanc.i.p.ated her slaves and provided for their removal to a place where they could enjoy their liberty,[236] there is but one significant example of actual colonization under individual auspices. This occurred in 1815 when Paul Cuffe took thirty-eight Negroes to the western coast of Africa.[237] This dramatic event in Negro deportation, owing to the wide publicity given to it, stimulated activity anew in colonization ventures.

We shall now review these new schemes and show how representatives of the transportation movement a.s.sembled in Was.h.i.+ngton city, and having enlisted in their cause men most distinguished in the councils of the nation, formed the American Society for Colonizing the Free People of Color of the United States, an organization still in existence but now known as the American Colonization Society and having as a monument to its checkered career, the free Negro republic, Liberia, on the western coast of Africa.

To begin with, it is well to point out that Thomas Jefferson, whose advocacy of Negro colonization dates from 1773, replied in 1811, to a request for his opinion on Ann Mifflin's proposition to make a settlement of colored people on the west coast of Africa under the auspices of the different States, that he considered it "the most desirable measure which could be adopted for gradually drawing off"

the black population; and he added: "nothing is more to be wished than that the United States should themselves undertake to make such an establishment on the coast of Africa."[238] It requires little effort to appreciate the weight of this Ex-President's opinion, and colonizationists later gave wide publicity to it in order to strengthen their cause.[239]