The Journal of Negro History
Chapter 84 : Slavery, thou worst and greatest of Evils! Sometimes thou appearest to my affrighted Im

Slavery, thou worst and greatest of Evils! Sometimes thou appearest to my affrighted Imagination, sweating in the Mines of Potosi, and wiping the hard-bound Tears from thy exhausted eyes; sometimes I view thy sable Liberty under the Torture of the Whip, inflicted by the Hands, the remorseless Hands of an American Planter: At other Times I view thee in the Semblance of a Wretch trod upon by ermin'd or turban'd Tyrants, and with poignant, heart-breaking Sighs, dragging after thee a toilsome Length of Chain, or bearing African Burdens. Anon I am somewhat comforted, to see thee attempt to smile under the Grand Monarque; but on the other Side of the Alpes, thou again resum'st thy Tears, and what, and how great are thy Iberian Miseries! In Britain, and Britain only, thy name is not heard; thou hast a.s.sum'd a new Form, and the heaviest Labours are lightsome under those mild Skies!

Oh Liberty, do thou inspire our b.r.e.a.s.t.s!

And make our lives in thy possession happy; Or our deaths glorious, in thy just defence.

Addison.

--Campbell, _Itinerant Observations in America_, 1745-1746, p. 37.

IMPRESSIONS OF PRISCILLA WAKEFIELD

After one of these handsome entertainments, where we had been attended by negro slaves, I observed a cloud upon the brow of my young friend, for which I could not account, till he confessed, that the sight of men who were the property of their fellow creatures, and subject to every indignity, excited such painful reflections, that he could not banish them from his mind. I endeavoured to soothe him, by representing that their treatment here is gentle, compared with that exercised in the southern states, and in the West Indies; though the efforts that have been made for the abolition of slavery, have improved their conditions every where.

It is indeed to be regretted, that men, so ardent in the love of liberty for themselves as the Americans are, should continue, in any degree, to tolerate the slave trade. Many amongst them, however, have used every endeavour to abolish it, particularly Anthony Benezet. He was born at St. Quintin, in Picardy, in 1712.

France, at this time, suffered from religious persecution; which drove the parents of Benezet to England, where he embraced the doctrines of the Quakers. He went to America in 1736, and settled at Philadelphia, in a commercial line of business; but that employment being unsuitable to his turn of mind, he quitted it for the instruction of youth, and undertook the management of a school, belonging to the society whose principles he had adopted.

From that period, he devoted the chief part of his life to public instruction, to the relief of the poor, and the defense of the unhappy negroes.

The amiable Benezet was warmed with universal philanthropy: he felt a brotherly affection for all men, of all countries, and of all colours. Not contented with persuasion, he composed many books, in which he collected authorities from Scripture and other writings, to discourage and condemn the slave-trade and slavery.

The first influence of his works was perceived amongst the Quakers. Many of them determined to emanc.i.p.ate their slaves; and the society since has been very active in promoting the abolition. Benezet knew that instruction was necessary for those blacks whose liberty he had procured; and finding few willing to undertake a task, that prejudice had rendered contemptible, he determined to devote his own time to the glorious occupation of enlightening the ignorant and neglected, and his little fortune to the establishment of a school for the negroes. The influence of a good example is powerful. Those who had not courage to begin, cheerfully a.s.sisted the work; and the school now enjoys a revenue of two hundred pounds per annum. This good man died in 1784; honoured by the tears of the blacks, and the regrets of every friend to humanity. John Woolman, also a member of the same society, remarkable for the simplicity of his manners, and his opposition to the slave-trade, united with Benezet and others, in application to the British government for the abolition. Their efforts were ineffectual. America after gaining her independence, has listened, more favourably, to the cause of humanity. Most of the northern and middle states have proscribed for ever, the importation of slaves; and in some others, the prohibition is limited to a certain time. Georgia is the only state that continues to receive transported slaves. Rhode Island had a great traffic in slaves, but has totally prohibited it. The abolition, and amendment in the condition of the negroes, certainly advance, though by slow degrees; and it is to be devoutly wished, that in time these improvements will extend to all parts of the world, where slavery prevails. It will be interesting to you, my dear brother, to know the steps that have procured these advantages.

In 1780, the General a.s.sembly of Pennsylvania abolished slavery for ever; compelled the owners of slaves to have them registered; declared their children free at the age of twenty-eight; placed them, while under that age, on the footing of hired servants; and a.s.sured to them the privilege of trial by jury. But this was not sufficient to secure to them all the intended advantages: by a second act it was ordained, that no negro could be sent into a neighbouring state without his consent; that all vessels and cargoes employed in the slave trade should be confiscated; and that all stealers of the negroes should be condemned to the public works. The little state of Delaware followed this n.o.ble example. New York has sanctioned nearly the same regulations in their favour as Pennsylvania. A society, connected with one in London, and others in the American states, formed for the express purpose of promoting the abolition, has greatly ameliorated their condition, in all respects; especially by affording numbers of them a degree of instruction in religion, and the useful arts of reading and writing, which they acquire with as much facility as white men brought up in the same manner. From this information we may encourage the hope, that the time approaches when their shackles shall be removed, and they shall partic.i.p.ate with the other races of mankind, in the common benefits of liberty and independence: that instead of the treatment of beasts of burthen, they shall be considered as rational beings, and co-heirs with us of immortality: that a conscientious care of educating their children in the great duties of Christianity, will produce a happy change from the vices in which, from ignorance and a combination of unfavorable circ.u.mstances, they now live, to the practice of religion and morality, and ent.i.tle them to rank on an equality with their fellow-creatures. Besides these public acts in favour of the negroes, many individuals have generously given liberty to their slaves; amongst others that have fallen under my notice, I shall mention the instance of Messrs. David and John Barclay, respectable merchants in London, who received, as an equivalent for a debt, a plantation in Jamaica, stocked with thirty-two slaves. They immediately resolved to set these negroes free; and that they might effectually enable them afterwards to provide for themselves, the surviving brother, David, sent an agent from England to manage the business, and convey them to Philadelphia, having first supplied them with all necessaries; where, under the fostering hand of his friends in the city, with the a.s.sistance of the Abolition Society, they were apprenticed to mechanic trades, and the children sent to school to be properly instructed. This benevolent act was rewarded with extraordinary success. Except two, these liberated slaves prospered, and became useful members of the community.

Many of those who are free, gain a great deal of money; as I conclude, from a ball given among themselves, at which we were present, where, though all of a sooty black, the company was well dressed, came in coaches, and were regaled with a good supper and variety of refreshments.--Priscilla Wakefield, _Excursions in North America_, 1806, p. 16 et seq.

BOOK REVIEWS

_Andrew Johnson, Military Governor of Tennessee._ By CLIFTON R. HALL, Ph.D. Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1916. Pp. 234.

This book, according to the author, is an attempt to "trace the personality of Andrew Johnson through the years 1862-1865 when the burden of military government and reconstruction in Tennessee rested princ.i.p.ally upon his shoulders." The author has intentionally neglected to give detailed treatment of the military administration in West Tennessee by the generals of the regular army and also of the Federal trade regulations in the State. No effort is here made to trace the career of Johnson after the close of his services in Tennessee. The account is largely based on the papers of Johnson found in the _Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies_ and on the newspapers of that period, especially the _Nashville Union_. The author is conscious of his failure adequately to present the "Confederate side of many controverted points," because of "a most regrettable dearth of material for this purpose."

Dr. Hall aims to answer certain charges, among which are such as the a.s.sertion that Johnson purposely delayed the work of reconstruction and that he by rather harsh treatment excluded many unquestionably loyal men from the work of reconstruction. The purpose of the work is to show how the lesson learned by Johnson in reconstructing his own State const.i.tuted a training for the higher work to which he was so suddenly and unexpectedly called. With this end in view the writer considers first secession, and then gives a sketch of Andrew Johnson leading up to his inauguration as Military Governor. Then follow such topics as the defense of Nashville, repression under Rosecrans, military and political reverses, the progress of reorganization and the presidential campaign of 1864. Throughout the treatise an effort is made to show the arduousness of the task of the Governor-of-all-work had to do and how he summoned to his aid the constructive element and reestablished order. There is given also an account not only of the opposition of those who looked upon the Governor as a traitor but of that of the militant factions that divided on the question as to how the State should be reconstructed.

Lincoln's plan of reconstruction is presented as a factor which figured largely in the problems the Governor had to solve.

How the question of slavery was then treated by the men solving the problem of maintaining the Union is not neglected. Andrew Johnson is referred to as product of the poor white stock that hoped to see the evil of slavery exterminated because it was at variance with the principles of democracy, but on the other hand believed that it was so deeply rooted in the life of the nation that it should not be molested so long as it "remained in strict subordination to and in harmony with the government." The writer shows also how Johnson felt that in case of secession the Federal Government could not coerce a State, yet believing that this government, the best and freest on earth, should be preserved, he undermined his own anti-coercion doctrine by denouncing the right of secession and urging that although the Federal Government could not coerce a State, it had a right to guarantee the loyal citizens representing it a const.i.tutional form of government.

Some s.p.a.ce is given to the discussion of the exception of Tennessee from the Emanc.i.p.ation Proclamation, the growing tendency of Johnson to ignore slavery to preserve the Union, how the opponents sought to weaken him by saying that he was opposed to the inst.i.tution and finally how he suffered it to be sacrificed to save the Union. Pa.s.sing mention is given the working out of the problem of abolition and the proposition as to what relief and what privileges should be given the emanc.i.p.ated Negroes.

J. O. BURKE

_The New Negro._ By WILLIAM PICKENS, Dean of Morgan College, Baltimore. Neale Publis.h.i.+ng Company, New York, 1916. Pp. 239.

"The New Negro" is a collection of speeches and essays through which this well known orator has endeavored to present his views on the race problem in the United States. Primarily polemic and ex-parte, this work will hardly attract the attention of the investigator. But when an author like this one, a man of reputation and influence among his people, writes on such subjects as the "renaissance" of the Negro, his const.i.tutional status, and discusses Alexander Hamilton, Frederick Dougla.s.s, and Abraham Lincoln, the serious reader might well pause to give this work more than ordinary consideration.

The book does not bear the stamp of research; the aim of the work is to defend the Negro and laud those who have championed his cause. The bold claims which Negroes have been making from time immemorial are set forth in brilliant and forceful style. In this respect the book is a success. It goes over old ground, but it does its work well.

Although not historical, some valuable facts of Negro history are given from page to page. It contains, however, a few statements which are not essential to the establishment of the Negro's claim to great achievement. It is very difficult to demonstrate to a thinking man the advantage to the Negro of such a contention as the much mooted connection of Alexander Hamilton and Robert Browning with the black race when those men spent their lives and pa.s.sed into history as white men. Such argument has just about as much bearing on the present as the efforts now being made by certain enthusiastic race leaders to prove that Christ was a black man rather than a Jew. Fraught then with opinions rather than with organized facts adequate to the development of the subject const.i.tuting its t.i.tle, the book must be cla.s.sed as controversial literature.

It may be well to note here, however, exactly what the author means by the "new Negro." The "new Negro," says he, "is not really new; he is the same Negro under new conditions. Those who regret the pa.s.sing of the 'old Negro' and picture the new as something very different must remember that there is no sharp line of demarcation between the old and the new in any growing organism like a germ, a plant or a race."

The "new Negro" then is simply the Negro differently circ.u.mstanced. He is ignored by the white man and, therefore, misunderstood. The "new Negro" is living under the handicap of isolation by white men who differ from their former masters who lived in close contact with them.

The result is that the white man of today, choosing not to become acquainted with the Negro, has constructed within his mind a person entirely different from what the Negro actually is. The "new Negro" is not treacherous, indolent and criminal as suspected. He "is a sober, sensible creature, conscious of his environment, knowing that not all is right, but trying hard to become adjusted to this civilization in which he finds himself by no will or choice of his own. He is not the shallow, vain, showy creature which he is sometimes advertised to be.

He still hopes that the unreasonable opposition to his forward and upward progress will relent. But, at any rate, he is resolved to fight, and live or die, on the side of G.o.d and the Eternal Verities."

_Cotton as a World Power._ By JAMES A. B. SCHERER, LL.D. Frederick A.

Stokes Company, New York, 1916. Pp. 452.

Here we see cotton again not as king but as a world power. It is the new Golden Fleece. The Civil War brought home to the public mind that this vegetable fleece is really golden "and that its golden values are so interwoven with the solidarity of mankind as to depend to a peculiar degree for their stability on the maintenance of an unbroken network of international trade. Cotton is here considered peculiar in that it is the only crop of importance, all of which is sold by those who produce it. It, therefore, gives rise to an enormous commerce and provides a medium of exchange that almost entirely takes the place of gold in the settlement of interstate and international balances." By it countries are bound together "in its globe engirdling web; so that when a modern economist concerns himself with the interdependence of nations he naturally looks to cotton for his most effective ill.u.s.tration."

Showing its startling growth in the Orient and the Occident even from the time of Alexander the Great, cotton is traced as a factor in the development of ancient nations and in the rise of the modern. It strikes one as being a little strange to read in this economic treatise such captions as "The Vegetable Lamb" and "Cotton Mythology."

The author then gives in more detail the earliest history of the industry, referring to Hindu skill, Alexander's trade routes, Egyptian mummies, the microscope, the transit from Rome to Spain, cotton and the Renaissance, Edward III as the weaver king, the entrance of cotton into England and the transformation of the country.

Taking up the industrial revolution the author develops the subject more scientifically. The work contains less of mere history and gives a more economic view of the forces set to work by the culture of cotton throughout the civilized world. The numerous inventions which figured so conspicuously in the rise of the industry are discussed. In this portion of the work, however, the author has hardly said anything new. He has merely restated well-known facts so as to give them a somewhat enlarged and original treatment. Here we read more about Kay, Hargraves, Arkwright, Compton, Cartwright, Watt, Davy and Brindley, whose inventive genius supplied the mechanical appliance upon which this industrial progress was based. Mention is also made of the captains of industry who set this machinery going and directed the world-wide movement which resulted in multiplying the wealth of some and bringing comfort and prosperity to many. The references to the influence of cotton on such writers as Malthus and Darwin and upon such explorers as Columbus and Cortes show the breadth with which the author treats the subject.

A large part of this work, of course, is devoted to tracing the connection of cotton with the early manufacturing in the United States, its impetus to slavery, its influences upon States' rights, its effects on manufacturing in New England and on protection, free trade, secession, the reconstruction of the South and the social problem. On the whole this is an excellent work and will be received by students of economic history as a valuable contribution in its field.

C. B. WALTER

_Centennial Encyclopedia of the African Methodist Episcopal Church._ By RICHARD R. WRIGHT, JR., Ph.D., Editor-in-chief, a.s.sisted by JOHN R.

HAWKINS, LL.B. Book Concern of the A. M. E. Church, Philadelphia, Pa., 1916. Pp. 392.

This is a neatly printed and handsomely bound volume of valuable facts meeting a long-felt need. It contains an introduction by Bishop L. J.

Coppin, a foreword ent.i.tled "One Hundred Years of African Methodism,"

a sketch of "What African Methodism Has to Say for Itself," by Dr. J.

T. Fenifer, the historian of the church, and the Chronology of African Methodism by Dr. R. R. Wright. In these pages one finds in epitome the leading facts of the history of this church from the time of its establishment by Richard Allen to the present time.

Then follows the Centennial Encyclopedia of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. "The purpose of this work," according to the editors, "is to present in some literary form the work of the men and women, both ministers and laymen, who have helped to make the Church what it is and especially those now living who receive the inheritance of the fathers and upon whose shoulders rest the responsibility of pa.s.sing the work down to a new century." The editors disclaim pretension to scientific historical treatment. The work is rather biographical and autobiographical and was prepared under such a handicap that some of the matter presented could not be verified. Yet when we consider the fact that the editors had access to the files of newspapers, church histories, and other church encyclopedias, we must conclude that they have here compiled information of incalculable value. The reader must be impressed too by the scientific disposition of the editors in that they show no inclination to criticize or eulogize, but endeavor to present facts.

The second part of the book, differing somewhat from the first, is equally as valuable. It contains an account of the Church in general, its location, laws, doctrines, statistics and almost every sort of information bearing on the life of those connected with this Church.

Among these facts, too, the reader finds not only a religious history but an excellent account of the development of education among these people. In this respect, therefore, the editors have rendered the cause of education a service hardly less valuable than that to the Church.

The volume as a whole shows much progress. It is the best Negro Church encyclopedia hitherto produced. One may obtain here in succinct form an excellent ready reference work. The book is modestly given to the public as a beginning, but it has accomplished much for the race not only in the information which it contains but in demonstrating what a store of knowledge may be obtained through an effective organization.

Just as the African Methodist Episcopal Church has gone to the expense of bringing out this valuable volume to publish to posterity the deeds of its fathers, so should every Negro organization address itself to the task of preserving a record of all of their connection, who have done something for the development of the country and the progress of their people.

NOTES

FATHER UNCLES OF BALTIMORE