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Title: The Journal of Negro History, Volume 5, 1920

Author: Various

Release date: October 26, 2007 [eBook #23200]

Language: English

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JOURNAL OF NEGRO HISTORY, VOLUME 5, 1920 ***

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The Journal
of
Negro History

Volume V

1920

Contents
Vol V—January, 1920—No. 1

The Negro In Education Loretta Funke
Negro Migration to Canada Fred Landon
Richard Hill Frank Cundall
Negroes and Indians in Massachusetts C. G. Woodson
Documents
Book Reviews
Notes

Vol V—April, 1920—No. 2

Negro Public School System in Missouri Henry Sullivan Williams
Religious Education David Henry Sims
Aftermath of Nat Turner's Insurrection John W. Cromwell
Documents
Correspondence
Book Reviews
Notes

Vol V—July, 1920—No. 3

The Slave in Canada William Renwick Riddell
Book Reviews
Notes

Vol V—October, 1920—No. 4

The Return of Negro Slaves Arnett G. Lindsay
The Negro in Politics Norman P. Andrews
Henry Bibb, a Colonizer Fred Landon
Myrtilla Miner G. Smith Wormley
Communications

Documents
Some Undistinguished Negroes
Book Reviews
Notes

The Journal
of
Negro History

Vol. V., No. 1 January, 1920.

THE NEGRO IN EDUCATION[1]
In the early history of America there were three types of settlements
—the French, Spanish, and English. In the French Provinces the
teachings of the "Code Noir" made it incumbent upon the masters to
teach the slaves, at least to read, in order, of course, that they might
read the Bible; and in the Spanish districts the Latin custom of
miscegenation prevented the rise of objections to the teaching of
slaves, in case there should be any who cared to instruct the
Negroes. In the English Provinces, on the other hand, since teaching
the slaves would probably result in their becoming Christians, the
colonists naturally were strenuous in their efforts to prevent any
enlightenment of the blacks, due to the existence of an unwritten law
to the effect that no Christian might be held a slave. Many planters
forbade the teaching of their slaves, until finally the Bishop of London
settled the difficulty by issuing a formal declaration in which he
stated that conversion did not work manumission.[2]

The rudimentary education of Negroes was one of the first claims on
pioneer Christian teachers. Although the Negro Year Book for 1914-
15 makes note of a public school for Indians and Negroes
established in 1620, according to Brawley and Du Bois, the first
schools to be established were private institutions.[3] In New York
City in 1704 a school was opened for Negroes and Indians by Elias
Neau and in 1750 Anthony Benezet established an evening school
for the blacks in Philadelphia. The Society for the Propagation of the
Gospel established in Charleston in 1744 a mission school, in which
two Negroes were employed to instruct their fellowmen. The free
Negroes in Charleston established a school in 1774 and those in
Boston started a school in 1798. In 1764 the editor of a paper in
Williamsburg, Virginia, opened a school for Negroes and in 1800 a
schoolhouse and 350 acres of ground were left by the will of Robert
Pleasants to be used for the benefit of Negro children.[4] About this
same time in Newark, New Jersey, the Kosciusko School was

established by means of a sum amounting to $13,000 left by
Kosciusko for the education of the Negroes.[5] In the Middle West
private schools had been organized by manumitted Negroes.

St. Frances Academy, established in Baltimore in 1829, by The
Colored Woman's Society, was the first school for colored girls. An
institute for Negro children was established in 1837 in Cheyney,
Pennsylvania, with the $10,000 left by Richard Humphries. By 1838
there were thirteen private schools in Philadelphia for the education
of the Negro and in 1849 Avery College was established in
Allegheny. Many of the schools were organized by church societies.
The African Methodist Episcopal Church purchased in 1844 120
acres of land in Ohio upon which was opened the Union Seminary in
1847. This church later in co-operation with the Methodist Episcopal
Church, North, established Wilberforce University in Ohio in 1856.
Oberlin College in Ohio was opened in 1833 and Ashmun Institute,
which later became Lincoln University, was established in 1854 in
Pennsylvania. Nevertheless, there was in certain parts much
opposition on the part of the citizens, evidenced by the mobbing of a
young Quaker woman, Prudence Crandall, in Canterbury,
Connecticut, in 1832, for having opened a school for Negro children;
and in 1835 by the removal from the town of Noyes Academy in
Canaan, New Hampshire, a school which had opened its doors to
Negroes.

The efforts toward education for the Negro were disconnected and
unorganized, while the laws opposing such education were fast
increasing, so that the results seem very astonishing, despite the
fact that so little was really accomplished. As early as 1740 South
Carolina enacted a law forbidding the education of Negroes or the
employment of slaves as scribes. Ohio in 1848 forbade Negroes and
mulatoes to attend schools. Indiana enacted no law against Negro
education but in 1850 omitted the Negroes from the school tax,
which in turn resulted in their expulsion from education in that State.
In 1852 Delaware enacted a law declaring the schools free for all
white children over five years of age. In spite of all the regulations
and severe laws opposing the education of the Negro many

"clandestine schools" were held in Charleston, Savannah, and New
Orleans before 1860.[6] The private schools increased in number
rapidly during the early nineteenth century among the free Negroes
in the District of Columbia and the border States. They were less
numerous in the South except in certain particular districts. In
Washington, D.C., and New Orleans it is reported that at the opening
of the Civil War there were about twenty schools for Negroes
established.[7] It is also estimated that in the slave States in 1860
there were 4,000 free Negro children in school.[8] These figures,
however, are relatively small in comparison with the numbers and
economic standards of the free Negroes. In 1836 in New Orleans
alone the freedmen numbered 855, owned 620 slaves, and held
property whose assessed value equaled $2,462,470.[9] By 1860 the
total number of free Negroes was 487,970, or about one ninth of the
entire black population;[10] but the majority of these freedmen were in
the rural districts, whereas the educational opportunities were in the
cities, so that in 1863, with only 5 per cent of the Negro population
literate the problem was indeed difficult, as far as the education of
the black race was concerned.

The next period in the education of the Negro was a decade of the
establishment of schools by the carpet-bag governments, mission
societies, and the Freedmen's Bureau. Some of the schools
established by the Negro carpet-baggers became very efficient. For
example, in Florida, Jonathan C. Gibbs, a Negro graduate of
Dartmouth, succeeded in founding in that State a splendid system of
schools, which remained even after the fall of the carpet-bag
governments.[11] The American Missionary Association was the first
benevolent organization to take up the work of education. The plan
of this association was to establish one school of higher learning in
each of the larger States in the South; normal and graded schools in
the principal cities; and common and parochial schools in the smaller
country places. As a result of this program, the principal institutions
established were Hampton Institute, Atlanta University, Fisk
University, Straight University, Talladega College, Tougaloo
University, and Tillston College.[12] The American Baptist Home
Mission Society started work in 1862, which resulted in eight

schools: Atlanta Baptist College and Virginia Union University for
men; Spelman Seminary and Hartshorn Memorial College for
women; and the coeducational institutions, Bishop College, Benedict
College, Shaw University, and Jackson College.[13] In 1866, just
before the beginning of the work of the Freedmen's Bureau in
education, the schools so far established had in attendance nearly
100,000.[14] The Freedmen's Bureau had been established in 1865
by an act of Congress and by 1867 it reported 1,056 Negro teachers
and in 1870 the number was increased to 1,342. During the five
years of its work, this bureau established 4,239 schools in the South,
with a total number of teachers of 9,307 and of students, 247,333.[15]
Howard University, established in 1867, was one of these
institutions. The Freedman's Aid Society was organized by the
northern Methodists in 1866 and to-day this society supports fifty
institutions, ten of which are collegiate.[16]

At the end of this period many religious agencies were establishing
schools. The Episcopalians established the St. Paul Normal and
Industrial School at Lawrence, Virginia, and St. Augustine's in
Raleigh, North Carolina. The Roman Catholics opened St. Joseph's
Industrial School at Clayton, Delaware; St. Augustine's Academy and
St. Frances' Academy. Besides these they have in the United States
87 schools for Negro children cared for by 24 sisterhoods.[17] The
African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church has established twelve
institutions, four colleges, one theological school, and seven
secondary schools.[18] The Presbyterian Board of Missions has
established Biddle University in North Carolina, five seminaries for
girls, and 70 academies and parochial schools.[19] The work of this
period was not only constructive as far as Negro education was
concerned, but it also affected the life of the white population as well
by instituting public school systems in "regions where public schools
had been unknown,"[20] bringing about a new attitude in the South
toward public schools in general, since the whites up to this time
had, in the words of Colonel Richard P. Hallowell, "regarded the
public school system in the North with contempt."[20]

Toward the end of this period a new type of education was
introduced by the founding of Hampton Institute in 1875. This
marked the beginning of the period of industrialism, the purpose of
such education being to give the Negro children "combined mental,
moral and industrial training."[21] Following the founding of Hampton,
Tuskegee Institute was established; also being an industrial school.
With these two institutions as centers, the ideals of the industrial
propagandist radiated in all directions, finally permeating the whole
educational system, not only that of the Negro, but the educational
system of the schools for white children as well.

Although separation of the black and white children in the public
schools is forbidden in fourteen of the States, the law requires the
separation of the children in the following States: Alabama,
Arkansas, Delaware, South Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky,
Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma,
Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia. In Arizona, Indiana,
Kansas, and Wyoming, the boards of education are given the power
to decide the question. Eleven of the States of the Union make no
provision in their laws one way or the other[22] Separation is
demanded in the private schools in Kentucky, Florida, Tennessee,
and Oklahoma. The law in Kentucky was created at a time when it
affected only one institution—that of Berea College, which was
established in 1856 for the education of anti-slavery whites and was
opened to Negro students after the Civil War. In 1904, the date of the
passage of the law, this college had 927 students, 174 of whom were
Negroes.[23] All of the Northern States have compulsory education,
but only two of the Southern States, Kentucky and Missouri, have
enacted such laws. This does not mean, of course, that these laws
are enforced, nor is this a key to the amount of education obtained in
proportion to the population, but it does indicate the difference in
opportunities for education between the Northern and Southern
States.

In regard to the elementary education of the Negro children the
whole situation is rather discouraging, but great progress has been
made and one may hope for still greater progress in the future. The

increase in facilities for education between 1866 and 1870 was quite
marked, with a corresponding increase in the number of pupils, as
shown by the following table:

Increase in Education From 1866 To 1870[24]
Date Schools No. Teachers Pupils
1866 975 1,405 90,778
1867 1,839 2,087 111,442
1868 1,831 2,295 104,327
1869 2,118 2,455 114,522
1870 2,677 3,300 149,581

The total expenditure for education during this period was
$5,879,924. There was in 1870, however, only about one tenth of the
Negro children of school age in school. Later, from 1889 to 1909, the
number of children enrolled greatly increased:

Percentage of Persons 5 To 18 Years Enrolled[25]
Date White Colored
1889-1890 66.28 51.65
1899-1900 72.32 57.67
1908-1909 74.76 58.34

In the first year more than half the children were in school, a decade
later the increase was practically the same in the case of the Negro
children as it was in the case of the white children, but nine years
later the percentage had risen over 2 per cent in the case of the
white children and had decreased in the case of the blacks. The
census report of 1910 shows the percentage of Negro children
enrolled in school to be but 47.3 per cent, a decrease of 9 per cent.
The average attendance of the Negro children amounted to about
one-third of the number enrolled.[26] For these children there were
28,000 teachers, or in other words, one teacher to every group of 57
children; whereas the teachers for the white children averaged one
to 45. The report of the Commissioner of Education in 1909 gives a
total number of school children in the slave States of 3,054,888,
instructed by 9,000 school teachers—3,114 males and 5,886 female.
[27] According to this report, there would only be one teacher to every

group of 184.35 children. This seems an impossible number, so that
one feels that surely something must be wrong with the report. The
training of these school teachers is not of the highest, nor do they
have a great deal of training. The State School Commissioner of
Georgia gives the following report of conditions there:[28]
326 teachers with normal certificates,
129 teachers with first grade certificates,
476 teachers with second grade certificates,
2,037 teachers held third grade certificates.

The expenditures for all the children equaled $46,000,000, but the
Negro children who were one third of the total number received but
one seventh of this sum. For 231,801 Negro children South Carolina
spent $366,734.28, or $1.58 per capita, whereas Massachusetts
spends $27 per capita each year, and the District of Columbia
spends $35.21. The South Carolina school tax is heavier than the
tax in Massachusetts, but this State spends only $3.82 per capita for
white children.[29] Louisiana spends 93 per cent of the school funds
for the white children, and 7 per cent for the colored, making a per
capita expenditure of $16.60 for the white children and for the Negro
an expenditure of $1.59. The District of Columbia spends more for
the colored children than for the white, per capita expenditure: white,
$20.82; Negro, $21.87.[30]

The rural schools, as may be expected, are in a worse condition than
those of the city, in regard to equipment, teachers, and especially in
subject matter relating to the adjustments to a rural community.
Nevertheless, it seems that there is much more progress being
made in these schools than in those in the city. Baily in his Race
Orthodoxy in the South describes a visit to what he terms a typical
rural school.[31] "There were no desks and only a small fragment of a
blackboard in one corner. The teacher showed signs of having very
little education himself and used no methods whatsoever in teaching.
There was only one whole book for the entire reading class. The
pupils came at all hours of the day and left whenever convenient for
them. When the teacher was asked how many pupils were enrolled
in the school, he answered that there were sixty." Mr. Bailey remarks

that, after glancing over the room, he fancied there were sixty
"acomin' and agoin'."

The Negroes in the rural communities have practically no literature
with the possible exception of a few patent inside newspapers
carried on by the heads of one or the other Negro orders.[32] The
amount of elevating reading matter may be judged by the type of
advertisements which run along the line of "hair-dressing that makes
kinky hair soft, pliant and glossy," and also of experiments of
surgeons with the X-ray in making black skin white. Among the
books furnished in the schools, nothing contained in them relates in
any way to rural life.

In 1908 in North Carolina the average length of term for the rural
Negro school was 82.1 days,—the average length for all Negro
schools, including high schools, being 93 days. In this State there
are 195 log schoolhouses and 2,216 of the Negro schoolhouses are
furnished with home-made desks and benches. The rural Negro
teacher receives an average salary of $22.48 per month and the city
Negro teacher receives but $30.20.[33] The conditions in the
agricultural communities in the North seem to be better than those in
the South. 20,700,000 ruralites in the South average 7,000,000
children of school age, 4,400,000 of whom are enrolled in school
with an average attendance of 2,700,000. In the North, on the other
hand, 20,700,000 ruralites average 6,000,000 children, 4,500,000 of
whom are enrolled, with an average attendance of 3,200,000. For
the South there are 92,000 school teachers, whereas there are
158,000 in the North. School property in the South is valued at
$42,000,000 and in the North at $217,000,000. The school revenue
is $26,000,000 and $92,000,000 respectively. Per capita expenditure
in the South is under $10 and in the North it is almost $30. The
South spends only 16 cents on each $100 valuation, and the North
20 cents.[34]

Many signs of progress are visible in the South, due mainly to the
influence of industrial institute graduates who attempt to reorganize
the rural districts with more or less success. One graduate of

Tuskegee seems to have met with unusual success in Hinds County,
Mississippi.[35] The Negroes in this community outnumber the white
population seven to one, but out of 40,000 of the inhabitants 13,000
can neither read nor write. In five years this graduate has built up an
industrial school with a farm of 1,500 acres, three large and eleven
small buildings, one large plantation house and thirty farm houses.
The school property is valued at $75,000, and he has started an
endowment fund in order to make the work permanent. In Macon
County, Alabama, improvements have been rapid. In five years' time
through the influence of a changed school system the value of the
land has risen from $2 an acre to $15 and $20. It is reported that
crime has been reduced to a negligible quantity. At the last sitting of
the grand jury there were only 17 cases of all kinds.[36] The "Rising
Star" School in West Virginia through a change in teacher and
curriculum has affected the community in as equally astonishing
manner. Not only are the homes of the farmers improved, but the
number of land-owning citizens has also increased. Even the religion
preached has been greatly changed with the introduction of industrial
training.[37] There is one school fund which is for the purpose of
improving rural conditions, that is the Jeanes Fund amounting to
$1,000,000, the interest on which is to be used for the rural schools
in supplying competent teachers as supervisors to introduce
industrial training. The influence of this fund together with the
influence of Hampton and Tuskegee Institutes seems to be the hope
of the future for the rural districts.

In the matter of secondary education, high schools for the Negroes
are practically lacking. In Atlanta with a Negro population of 51,902
Negroes; in Savannah with 33,246; and in Augusta with 18,344,
there are no Negro high schools whatsoever.[38] The following table
shows the distribution of the 156 high schools for Negroes[39] (1913):
Alabama 6 Maryland 1
Arkansas 4 Mississippi 10
Delaware 1 Missouri 14
District of Columbia 2 North Carolina 3
Florida 6 Ohio 1
Georgia 14 Oklahoma 5
Illinois 5 Pennsylvania 1

Indiana 6 South Carolina 13
Kansas 1 Tennessee 9
Kentucky 8 Texas 37
Louisiana 1 Virginia 4
West Virginia 5

The increase in the number of high schools in the Southern States
from year to year is shown by the following:[40]
Year High Schools Year High Schools
1899-1900 92 1905-1906 129
1900-1901 100 1906-1907 121
1901-1902 99 1907-1908 106
1902-1903 123 1908-1909 112
1903-1904 131 1909-1910 141
1904-1905 146

Apparently there is no effort in the South to supply high schools for
the Negro. The General Assembly of Georgia passed a bill to
establish high schools in all of the congressional districts of the
State. Eleven were established and supported by a fertilizer tax,
most of which was paid by the Negroes who numbered 45.1 per cent
of the population of the State, and 80 per cent of whom lived in the
rural districts. None of these schools, however, were for members of
the Negro race.[41]

The founding of the two most important industrial schools has been
mentioned before. Hampton Institute which was founded by the
American Missionary Society in 1868 now consists of 113 buildings,
including the instructors' cottages.[42] 76 of these buildings were
erected by student labor. There are 120 acres to the Home Farm and
600 acres to Shellbanks, six miles from the Institute. The enrollment
in 1910 was 875, or 1,399 including the Normal Practice School.
Tuskegee Institute which began with one hoe and a blind mule now
possesses 2,000 acres of land, 800 of which are cultivated each
year by the young men of the school. During 1903, 33 trades were
taught to over 1,400 men and women. By means of this work, the
students pay more than one half of their expenses. Of the sixty
buildings, all but four were almost wholly erected by students, even

to the making of the bricks.[43] Although the average Negro was
greatly antagonistic regarding this training at the beginning of the
work at these institutes and many protests were heard from all sides,
Mr. Washington stated in The Negro Problem that it has been
several years since they have received a protest from parents
against teaching industrial training.[44] The graduates of Tuskegee
have established more than fifteen similar schools in the South.[45]
Among those established are Voorhees Industrial School, Robert
Hungerford School, Snow Hill Normal and Industrial Institute, Topeka
Normal and Industrial Institute, Port Royal Agricultural School, and
Mt. Meigs Institute.

No one of the Negro institutions for higher learning has as yet
become a fully equipped university. No one of the institutions
maintains a graduate school. Howard University is the only one that
has even started graduate work.[46] The real influence of the college
has been to prepare men to be leaders in education, as may be
witnessed by the fact that out of the 5,000 Negro college graduates
in the United States 54 per cent are teaching, while 20 per cent are
preaching.[47] The following table shows the number of college
graduates by decades:[48]
Year No. of Grads. Year No. of Grads.
1820-29 3 1870-79 313
1830-39 — 1880-89 738
1840-49 7 1892-99 1,126
1850-59 12 1900-09 1,610
1860-69 44
Total 3,856

The distribution of the college Negro is indicated in the following:[49]
Districts No. of Graduates
New England States 16
So-Northern Atlantic States 42
No-Southern Atlantic States 92
So-Southern Atlantic States 276
E-Northern Central States 61
W-Northern Central States 47
E-Southern Central States 141

W-Southern Central States 99
Rocky Mountain States 2
Basin and Plateau States 3
Pacific States 3
Outside U. S. 2
Unknown 18
Total 802

103 of these graduates were born in the North, 65 or 63 per cent of
whom remained in the North and 35 or 34 per cent migrated to the
South; 682 of these were born in the South, 102 or 15 per cent of
whom went to the North, and 563 or 82.5 per cent remained in the
South. This shows that the tendency of the college graduate is to
remain in the South where he is most needed.

Of the graduates of 107 colleges which are not Negro institutions
79.2 per cent or 549 have been men, and 20.8 per cent or 144 have
been women. Of 2,964 graduates of 34 Negro colleges, 82.7 per
cent have been men and 17.3 have been women.[50] This difference
may be due to a greater economic standard of the Negro in the
North, since the colleges admitting Negroes which are not Negro
institutions would be in the North, and to the fact that more Negroes
would be located near educational institutions in the North than they
would be in the South.

From another report the average age for the women graduates was
21-1/3 years, and the average for the men was 22-3/16 years. There
seems to be a tendency of the age to increase, as shown by the
following:[51]
1880-1890 the average age was 21 years for men and women.
1890-1900 the average age was 22 years for men and women.
1900-1910 the average age was 22-4/10 years for men and women.

Of the 24 graduates reported 16 were under 35, and one was over
50.

Of 799 graduates 67.3 per cent of the males were married, and 31.1
per cent of the females were married. Among these graduates there
are only two cases of divorce, one man and one woman. The ages

at which they married were for the men between 25 and 34 and for
the women between 20 and 29. The families averaged four children.
The death rate among the children has not equalled one child per
family.[52]

Statistics taken in 1913 of 258 schools show the college students to
be only 4.1 per cent of the entire number of Negroes in schools. If
the college graduate were in proportion to the population their
number would be about five times as great as it is at present.[53]

The Negroes have contributed in all lines to a large extent toward
their own education. Since 1865 religious and philanthropic
associations have contributed $57,000,000 and the Negroes by
direct contributions have supplied $24,000,000.[54] In 1869 in one
year the Negroes raised $200,000 for the construction of school
houses. A report from a State Superintendent of Schools of Florida
stated that in the Black Belt Counties the Negro schools cost
$19,457 and the direct and indirect contributions on the part of the
Negroes amounted to $23,984. There were $4,527 remaining which
was used for the benefit of the white schools.[55] It is thought on the
part of some that the Negro, although he may not pay in direct taxes
a sum sufficient to provide for his schools, may in reality be paying
his full share indirectly. I believe, however, that it is quite safe to say
that he probably pays as much for his education as any other poor
class of the population, especially so in comparison with some of the
immigrant classes. There have also been quite a number of Negro
philanthropists, the most prominent of whom have been Bishop
Payne who gave several thousand dollars to Wilberforce, Wheeling
Grant who gave $5,000 to Wilberforce, Mary E. Shaw who left
$38,000 to Tuskegee, Nancy Addison who left $15,000 for education
in Baltimore, Louis Bode who left $30,000 and George Washington
of Jerseyville, Illinois, who left $15,000 for education. Thomy Lafon,
of New Orleans, left $413,000 to be used for educational purposes
with no distinction regarding race or color. Colonel John McKee, of
Philadelphia, left about $1,000,000 in real estate to be used for
education.[56] The Negro Baptist Churches alone raised in 1907
$149,332.75.[57] In nine years the Negro students paid in cash to 74

Negro institutions $3,358,667 and in work $1,828,602, making a total
of $5,187,269. This amounted to 44.6 per cent of the entire running
expenses of the institutions.[58]

The attitude of the Negro immediately after the war was that of
opposition to all kinds of labor. He had not as then learned the
distinction between working as a slave and working as a freedman.
What he wanted most was an education, a literary education, such
as the white man had. He did not want his education for any definite
purpose, except as an end in itself. The chief reason probably may
have been that of a desire to put himself on a par with the white
man, and to prove his intellectual equality. The attitude to-day is
radically different, being represented by men like Washington and
DuBois. Washington preached the gospel of industrial education,
believing strongly that that method would lead to an increase of the
economic wealth of the race, whereby they could acquire the so-
called higher education. DuBois, however, although he believed in
the efficiency of industrial training, also felt that the race should not
neglect to educate leaders even at the present time, so that his
attitude differs from that of Washington in a slight degree. Two short
quotations from Washington's writings may illustrate to a certain
extent the attitude of the leaders of Negro education: "What Negro
education needed most," said he, "was not so much more schools or
different kinds of schools, as an educational policy and a school
system,[59] and "I want to see education as common as grass, and
as free for all as sunshine and rain.[60]

Prejudice is an important factor in the attitude of the white race
toward Negro education. This prejudice seems to be in all sections of
the country, but it is the southerner who is heard from the most,
possibly because he is more in contact with the real problem and
then because it seems to be a policy of southern politicians to
attempt to outdo each other in their speeches along the line of race
prejudice. According to Weatherford prejudice has arisen out of the
fear that education will lead to the dominance of the Negro in politics
and to promiscuous mingling in social life. "The southern white man
will never be enthusiastic for Negro education, until he is convinced

that such education will not lead to either of these."[61] This feeling of
a group is expressed in the following statement in a report to the
Baltimore Council by a committee in 1913: "No fault is found with the
Negroes' ambitions," said the report, "but the Committee feels that
Baltimoreans will be criminally negligent as to their future happiness,
if they suffer the Negroes' ambitions to go unchecked."[62] Mr.
Thomas Dixon, Junior, deplores the fact that Washington was
training the Negroes to be "masters of men," stating that "if there is
one thing the southern white man cannot endure it is an educated
Negro."[63]

School officials and educators on the other hand show an entirely
different attitude. Mr. Glenn, recently Superintendent of Education of
Georgia, made the declaration that "The Negro is ... teachable and
susceptible to the same kind of mental improvement characteristic to
any other race."[64] Thomas Nelson Page states that "the Negro may
individually attain a fair and in uncommon instances a considerable
degree of mental development."[65] Another states that "We must
educate him because ignorant men are dangerous, especially to a
democracy pledged to educate all men."[66] Some believe that we
must also educate him for self-protection from vice and disease. The
Southern Educational Association in 1907 passed the following
resolution: "We endorse the accepted policy of the States of the
South in providing educational facilities for the youth of the Negro
race, believing that whatever the ultimate solution of this grievous
problem may be, education must be an important factor in that
solution."[67]

Illiteracy which in 1863 equaled about 95 per cent of the Negro
population has been decreasing rapidly since the Civil War. The
illiteracy of the Negro during the last three decades has been as
follows: in 1890, 57.1 per cent; in 1900, 44.5 per cent; and in 1910,
30.4 per cent. In the North in 1910 the illiteracy was 18.2 per cent in
the South 48.0 per cent, and in the West 13.1 per cent.[68] The urban
Negro in 1910 showed 17.6 per cent illiteracy and the rural 36.5 per
cent. Louisiana showed 48 per cent, whereas Minnesota and Oregon
showed only 3.4 per cent.[69] In 1900 when the Negro illiteracy was

44.5 per cent, the children between ten and twenty-five years of age
showed only 30 per cent and those between 10 and 14 years in
Mississippi showed only 22 per cent.[70] The illiteracy for all Negro
children was 25 per cent, whereas the illiteracy for all white children
was only 10.5 per cent.[71] The illiteracy of our Negroes does not
seem so great when a comparison is made with some foreign
countries:[72]
Race Illiteracy Race Illiteracy
Negroes 30.4 Spain 58.7
Bulgaria 65.5 Chile 49.9
Greece 57.2 Cuba 56.8
Hungary 40.9 Mexico 75.3
Italy 48.2 Porto Rico 79.6
Poland 59.3 India 92.5
Portugal 73.4 Philippines 55.5
Russia 70.0 Cape of Good Hope 65.8
Servia 78.9 Egypt 92.7

The percentage of Negro illiteracy in America is less than any one of
these foreign races.

The criminality of the Negro seemingly has decreased as the
illiteracy has decreased. Out of every 100 criminals only 39 could
read and 61 could not, whereas in the general population 43 could
read and 57 could not.[73] In the Mississippi penitentiary where they
had 450 convicts of Negro blood one half of them could neither read
nor write, and less than 10 per cent had anything like a fair
education.[74] Atlanta University has graduated 800 Negro men and
women, not one of whom has ever been convicted of crime. Fisk
University has only one graduate who has ever been convicted.
Greensboro Agricultural and Technical College has had 2,000
students since its establishment, and only five have ever been
convicted of crime. Two of these had been expelled students, and
none were among the three hundred graduates of the college. Negro
students who have gone to high school show a remarkably low
percentage of crime. Of the 200 graduates from the Winston-Salem
High School (North Carolina) only one has a criminal record. Waters
Normal Institute at Winton, North Carolina, has graduated more than

130 students and not one of these has ever been arrested or
convicted of any crime.[75] The records of the southern prisons show
that at least 90 per cent of those in prison are without trades of any
sort.[76] According to Booker T. Washington, "Manual training is as
good a prevention of criminality as vaccination is of smallpox."[77] In
1903, in Gloucester County, Virginia, twenty-five years after
education had been introduced, there were 30 arrests for
misdemeanors, 16 white and 14 black; and in the next year there
were 15 arrests for misdemeanors, 14 white and one black.[78] The
general opinion of the southerner may be judged by the answers to a
questionnaire sent out to prominent southern men in each of the
Southern States. To the question "Does crime grow less as
education increases?" there were 102, answered "yes" and 19
answered "no."[79]

One of the charges against the Negro has been his shiftlessness,
both as far as his personal industriousness is concerned, and as far
as the care of his home and things about him. Now, however,
education has increased his standards and his wants, so that since
he desires to have land, homes, churches, books, papers, and
education for his children, he will labor regularly and efficiently to
supply these. The graduates of Tuskegee Institute are kept in touch
with by one of the school officials, who reported that not 10 per cent
could be found in idleness and that only one was in a penitentiary.[80]

Loretta Funke

FOOTNOTES:
[1] In the preparation of this manuscript the following books have been
useful: Thomas P. Bailey, Race Orthodoxy in the South (New York: the
Neale Publishing Company, 1914); Benjamin Griffith Brawley, A Short
History of the American Negro (New York: The Macmillan Company,
1913); Daniel Wallace Culp, Twentieth Century Negro Literature
(Naperville, Illinois, J. L. Nichols and Company, 1902); Albert Bushnell
Hart, The Southern South (New York, D. Appleton and Company, 1912);
Mary White Ovington, Half a Man (New York and London: Longmans,
Green and Co., 1911); William Passmore Pickett, The Negro Problem
(New York and London: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1909); Charles Victor
Roman, American Civilization and the Negro (Philadelphia: F. A. Davis

Company, 1916); Gilbert Thomas Stephenson, Race Distinctions in
American Law (New York and London: D. Appleton and Company, 1910);
Booker T. Washington, My Larger Education (Garden City, New York:
Doubleday, Page and Company, 1911); Booker T. Washington, Working
with the Hands (New York: Doubleday, Page and Company, 1904);
Booker T. Washington and W. E. Burghardt Du Bois, The Negro in the
South (Philadelphia: G. W. Jacobs and Company, 1907); Booker T.
Washington and others, The Negro Problem (New York: J. Pott and
Company, 1903); Willis Duke Weatherford, Negro Life in the South (New
York: Young Men's Christian Association Press, 1910); Carter Godwin
Woodson, The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861 (New York and
London: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1915).

The following articles have also been used: Henry E. Baker, The Negro in
the Field of Invention (Journal of Negro History, January, 1917, p. 21); W.
H. Baldwin, Jr., The Present Problem of Negro Education (American
Journal of Social Science, 37, 1899, p. 52); W. E. Burghardt DuBois, The
College Bred Negro (Atlanta University Publications, No. 15, Atlanta,
1910); The Common School and the Negro American (Atlanta University
Publications, No. 16, 1911); The School (Atlanta University Publications,
No. 14, 1909); Education and Crime Among Negroes (Review of
Reviews, 55, 1917, p. 318); Hampton Negro Conference, Annual Report,
July, 1899 (Hampton Institute Press, 1889); Higher Education of the
Negro (The Nation, 100, 1915, p. 187); George Johnson, Education of
the Negro (The Nation, 100, 1915, p. 443); Jesse Lawson, How to Solve
the Race Problem (Report of the Washington Conference on the Race
Problem in the United States, Washington, D. C., 1904); William
Mathews, The Negro Intellect (North American Review, 149, 1889, p. 91);
More Testimony on Negro Migration (Survey, July 14, 1917, p. 340);
National League on Urban Conditions Among Negroes, Bulletin, Vol. V,
No. 1, November, 1915; Michael E. Sadler, Education of the Colored
Race (Great Britain Educational Department, Special Reports of, 1902,
Volume II); Charles Dudley Warner, The Education of the Negro
(American Journal of Social Science, 38, 1900, p. 1); Booker T.
Washington, Fifty Years of Progress (Forum 55, 1916, pp. 269-79);
Monroe N. Work, The Negro Year Book (Nashville, Sunday School Union
Print, 1915).

[2] Woodson, The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861, p. 24.

[3] Brawley, History of the Negro, p. 104; Du Bois, Atlanta U. Pub. No. 16,
p. 16.

[4] Brawley, History of the Negro, p. 104.

[5] Washington, My Larger Education, p. 241.

[6] Sadler, Gr. Britain Edu. Reports, p. 537.

[7] Du Bois, Atlanta U. Pub. No. 16, p. 16.

[8] Weatherford, Negro Life in the South, p. 94.

[9] Brawley, History of the Negro, p. 103.

[10] Ibid., p. 102.

[11] Du Bois, Atlanta U. Pub. No. 16, p. 21.

[12] Brawley, History of the Negro, p. 135.

[13] Ibid., 137.

[14] Weatherford, Negro Life in the South, p. 94.

[15] Work, Negro Yearbook, 1915, p. 201.

[16] Brawley, History of the Negro, p. 139.

[17] Ibid., p. 141.

[18] Ibid., p. 168.

[19] Ibid., p. 140.

[20] Du Bois, Atlanta U. Pub. No. 16, p. 22.

[21] Washington, The Negro Problem, p. 19.

[22] Stephenson, Race Distinction in American Law, p. 189.

[23] Ibid., p. 154.

[24] Du Bois, Atlanta U. Pub. No. 16, p. 20.

[25] Ibid., p. 27.

[26] Hart, The Southern South, p. 310.

[27] Weatherford, Negro Life in the South, p. 96.

[28] Weatherford, Negro Life in the South, p. 108.

[29] Ibid., p. 96.

[30] Work, Negro Yearbook, 1915, p. 223.

[31] Baily, Race Orthodoxy, pp. 273-280.

[32] Hart, Southern South, p. 324.

[33] Weatherford, Negro Life in the South, p. 98.

[34] Hart, Southern South, p. 294.

[35] Washington, My Larger Education, p. 191.

[36] Ibid., p. 152.

[37] Ibid., p. 146.

[38] Du Bois, Atlanta U. Pub. No. 16, p. 127.

[39] Work, The Negro Yearbook, 1915, p. 216.

[40] Du Bois, Atlanta U. Pub. No. 16, p. 129.

[41] DuBois, Atlanta U. Pub. No. 16, p. 128.

[42] Brawley, The Negro Yearbook, 1915, p. 147

[43] Washington, The Negro Problem, p. 20.

[44] Ibid., p. 22.

[45] Brawley, History of the Negro, p. 153.

[46] Ibid., p. 142.

[47] Brawley, History of the Negro, p. 145.

[48] Du Bois, Atlanta U. Pub. No. 15, p. 45.

[49] Ibid., p. 54.

[50] Du Bois, Atlanta U. Pub. No. 15, p. 46.

[51] Ibid., p. 28.

[52] Ibid., p. 57.

[53] Work, The Negro Yearbook, 1915, p. 229.

[54] Work, The Negro Yearbook, p. 235

[55] Washington, Working with the Hands, p. 72.

[56] Brawley, History of the Negro, p. 174.

[57] Ibid., p. 169.

[58] Du Bois, Atlanta U. Pub. No. 14, p. 18.

[59] Washington, My Larger Education, p. 310.

[60] Ibid., p. 139.

[61] Weatherford, Negro Life in the South, p. 87.

[62] Bailey, Race Orthodoxy in the South, p. 265.

[63] Hart, The Southern South, p. 319.

[64] Ibid., p. 326.

[65] Ibid., p. 327.

[66] Bailey, Race Orthodoxy in the South, p. 269.

[67] Hart, The Southern South, p. 327.

[68] Work, Negro Yearbook, 1915, p. 226.

[69] Ibid., p. 226.

[70] Hart, The Southern South, p. 294.

[71] Ibid., p. 292.

[72] Washington in the Forum, p. 270.

[73] Review of Reviews, p. 318.

[74] Review of Reviews, p. 319.

[75] Ibid., p. 319.

[76] Weatherford, Negro Life in the South, p. 110.

[77] Washington and Du Bois, The Negro in the South, p. 64.

[78] Ibid., p. 71.

[79] Washington, Working with the Hands, p. 239.

[80] Washington and Du Bois, The Negro in the South, p. 61.

THE NEGRO MIGRATION TO CANADA
AFTER THE PASSING OF THE FUGITIVE
SLAVE ACT
When President Fillmore signed the Fugitive Slave Bill[1] on
September 18, 1850, he started a Negro migration that continued up
to the opening of the Civil War, resulting in thousands of people of
color crossing over into Canada and causing many thousands more
to move from one State into another seeking safety from their
pursuers. While the free Negro population of the North increased by
nearly 30,000 in the decade after 1850, the gain was chiefly in three
States, Ohio, Michigan and Illinois. Connecticut had fewer free
people of color in 1860 than in 1850 and there were half a dozen
other States that barely held their own during the period. The three
States showing gains were those bordering on Canada where the
runaway slave or the free man of color in danger could flee when
threatened. It is estimated that from fifteen to twenty thousand
Negroes entered Canada between 1850 and 1860, increasing the
Negro population of the British provinces from about 40,000 to nearly
60,000. The greater part of the refugee population settled in the
southwestern part of the present province of Ontario, chiefly in what
now comprises the counties of Essex and Kent, bordering on the
Detroit River and Lake St. Clair. This large migration of an alien race
into a country more sparsely settled than any of the Northern States
might have been expected to cause trouble, but records show that
the Canadians received the refugees with kindness and gave them
what help they could.[2] At the close of the Civil War many of the
Negroes in exile returned, thus relieving the situation in Canada.

The Fugitive Slave Bill had been signed but a month when Garrison
pointed out in The Liberator that a northward trek of free people of
color was already under way. "Alarmed at the operation of the new
Fugitive Slave Law, the fugitives from slavery are pressing

northward. Many have been obliged to flee precipitately leaving
behind them all the little they have acquired since they escaped from
slavery."[3] The American Anti-Slavery Society's report also notes the
consternation into which the Negro population was thrown by the
new legislation[4] and from many other contemporary sources there
may be obtained information showing the distressing results that
followed immediately upon the signing of the bill. Reports of the large
number of new arrivals were soon coming from Canada. Hiram
Wilson, a missionary at St. Catharines, writing in The Liberator of
December 13, 1850, says: "Probably not less than 3,000 have taken
refuge in this country since the first of September. Only for the
attitude of the north there would have been thousands more." He
says that his church is thronged with fugitives and that what is true of
his own district is true also of other parts of southern Ontario. Henry
Bibb, in his paper The Voice of the Fugitive[5] published frequent
reports of the number of fugitives arriving at Sandwich on the Detroit
River. In the issue of December 3,1851, he reports 17 arrivals in a
week. On April 22, 1852, he records 15 arrivals within the last few
days and notes that "the Underground Railroad is doing good
business this spring." On May 20, 1852, he reports "quite an
accession of refugees to our numbers during the last two weeks"
and on June 17 notes the visit of agents from Chester, Pennsylvania,
preparatory to the movement of a large number of people of color
from that place to Canada. On the same date he says: "Numbers of
free persons of color are arriving in Canada from Pennsylvania and
the District of Columbia, Ohio and Indiana. Sixteen passed by
Windsor on the seventh and 20 on the eighth and the cry is 'Still they
come.'" The immigration was increasing week by week, for on July 1
it was reported in The Voice of the Fugitive that "in a single day last
week there were not less than 65 colored emigrants landed at this
place from the south.... As far as we can learn not less than 200
have arrived within our vicinity since last issue." Almost every
number of the paper during 1852 gives figures as to the arrivals of
the refugees. On September 23 Bibb reported the arrival of three of
his own brothers while on November 4, 1852, there is recorded the
arrival of 23 men, women and children in 48 hours. Writing to The
Liberator of November 12, 1852, Mary E. Bibb said that during the

last ten days they had sheltered 23 arrivals in their own home. The
American Missionary Association, which had workers among the
fugitives in Canada noted in its annual report for 1852 that there had
been a large increase of the Negro population during the year[6]
while further testimony to the great activity along the border is given
by the statement that the Vigilance Committee at Detroit assisted
1,200 refugees in one year and that the Cleveland Vigilance
Committee had a record of assisting more than a hundred a month
to freedom.[7]

The northern newspapers of the period supply abundant information
regarding the consternation into which the Negroes were thrown and
their movements to find places of safety. Two weeks after President
Fillmore had signed the Fugitive Slave Bill a Pittsburgh despatch to
The Liberator stated that "nearly all the waiters in the hotels have
fled to Canada. Sunday 30 fled; on Monday 40; on Tuesday 50; on
Wednesday 30 and up to this time the number that has left will not
fall short of 300. They went in large bodies, armed with pistols and
bowie knives, determined to die rather than be captured."[8] A
Hartford despatch of October 18, 1850, told of five Negroes leaving
that place for Canada;[9] Utica reported under date of October 2 that
16 fugitive slaves passed through on a boat the day before, bound
for Canada, all well armed and determined to fight to the last;[10] The
Eastport Sentinel of March 12 noted that a dozen fugitives had
touched there on the steamer Admiral, en route to St. John's; The
New Bedford Mercury said: "We are pleased to announce that a very
large number of fugitive slaves, aided by many of our most wealthy
and respected citizens have left for Canada and parts unknown and
that many more are on the point of departure."[11] The Concord, New
Hampshire, Statesman reported: "Last Tuesday seven fugitives from
slavery passed through this place ... and they probably reached
Canada in safety on Wednesday last. Scarcely a day passes but
more or less fugitives escape from the land of slavery to the freedom
of Canada ... via this place over the track of the Northern Railroad."
[12]

Many other examples of the effect of the Fugitive Slave Act might be
noted. The Negro population of Columbia, Pennsylvania, dropped
from 943 to 487 after the passing of the bill.[13] The members of the
Negro community near Sandy Lake in northwestern Pennsylvania,
many of whom had farms partly paid for, sold out or gave away their
property and went in a body to Canada.[14] In Boston a fugitive slave
congregation under Leonard A. Grimes had a church built when the
blow fell. More than forty members fled to Canada.[15] Out of one
Baptist church in Buffalo more than 130 members fled across the
border, a similar migration taking place among the Negro Methodists
of the same city though they were more disposed to make a stand.
At Rochester all but two of the 114 members of the Negro Baptist
church fled, headed by their pastor, while at Detroit the Negro Baptist
church lost 84 members, some of whom abandoned their property in
haste to get away.[16] A letter from William Still, agent of the
Philadelphia Vigilance Committee, to Henry Bibb at Sandwich says
there is much talk of emigration to Canada as the best course for the
fugitives.[17] The Corning Journal illustrates the aid that was given to
the fugitives by northern friends. Fifteen fugitives, men, women and
children, came in by train and stopped over night. In the morning a
number of Corning people assisted them to Dunkirk and sent a
committee to arrange for passage to Canada. The captain of the lake
steamer upon which they embarked, very obligingly stopped at Fort
Maiden, on the Canadian side, for wood and water and the runaways
walked ashore to freedom. "The underground railroad is in fine
working order," is the comment of The Journal. "Rarely does a
collision occur, and once on the track passengers are sent through
between sunrise and sunset." That time did not dull the terrors of the
Fugitive Slave Act is shown by the fact that every fresh arrest would
cause a panic in its neighborhood. At Chicago in 1861, almost on the
eve of the Civil War, more than 100 Negroes left on a single train
following the arrest of a fugitive, taking nothing with them but the
clothes on their backs and most of them leaving good situations
behind."[18]

The Underground Railroad system was never so successful in all its
history as after 1850. Despite the law, and the infamous activities of

many of the slave-catchers, at least 3,000 fugitives got through to
Canada within three months after the bill was signed. This was the
estimate of both Henry Bibb and Hiram Wilson and there were
probably no men in Canada who were better acquainted with the
situation than these two. In The Voice of the Fugitive of November 5,
1851, Bibb reported that "the road is doing better business this fall
than usual. The Fugitive Slave Law has given it more vitality, more
activity, more passengers and more opposition which invariably
accelerates business.... We can run a lot of slaves through from
almost any of the bordering slave states into Canada within 48 hours
and we defy the slaveholders and their abettors to beat that if they
can.... We have just received a fresh lot today and still there is
room." The Troy Argus learned from "official sources" in 1859 that
the Underground Railroad had been doing an unusually large
business that year.[19] Bibb's newspaper reports, December 2, 1852,
that the underground is working well. "Slaveholders are frequently
seen and heard, howling on their track up to the Detroit River's edge
but dare not venture over lest the British lion should lay his paw upon
their guilty heads." Bibb kept a watchful eye on slave-catchers
coming to the Canadian border and occasionally reported their
presence in his paper. Underground activity was also noted in The
Liberator. "The underground railroad and especially the express
train, is doing a good business just now. We have good and
competent conductors," was a statement in the issue of October 29,
1852.[20]

Not all those who fled to Canada left their property behind. The
Voice of the Fugitive makes frequent reference to Negroes arriving
with plenty of means to take care of themselves. "Men of capital with
good property, some of whom are worth thousands, are settling
among us from the northern states." says the issue of October 22,
1851, while in the issue of July 1, 1852, it is noted that "22 from
Indiana passed through to Amherstburg, with four fine covered
waggons and eight horses. A few weeks ago six or eight such teams
came from the same state into Canada. The Fugitive Slave Law is
driving out brains and money." In a later issue it was stated "we
know of several families of free people of color who have moved

here from the northern states this summer who have brought with
them property to the amount of £30,000."[21] Some of these people
with property joined the Elgin Association settlement at Buxton,
purchasing farms and taking advantage of the opportunities that
were provided there for education. A letter to The Voice of the
Fugitive from Ezekiel C. Cooper, recently arrived at Buxton, says:
"Canada is the place where we have our rights."[22] He speaks of
having purchased 50 acres of land and praises the school and its
teacher at Buxton. Cooper came from Northampton, Massachusetts,
driven out by the Fugitive Slave Law. A rather unusual case was that
of 12 manumitted slaves who were brought to Canada from the
South. They had been bequeathed $1,000 each by their former
owner. They all bought homes in the Niagara district.[23]

While fugitives and free Negroes were being harried in the Northern
States slaves continued to run away from their masters and seek
liberty. "Slaves are making this a great season for running off to
Pennsylvania," said the Cumberland, Virginia, Unionist in 1851.[24] "A
large number have gone in the last week, most of whom were not
recaptured." At the beginning of 1851 The Liberator had a Buffalo
despatch to the effect that 87 runaways from the South had passed
through to Canada since the passing of the bill the previous
September.[25] Bibb mentions two runaways from North Carolina who
were 101 days reaching Canada.[26] The Detroit Free Press reported
that 29 runaways crossed to Canada about the end of March, 1859,
"the first installment of northern emigration from North Carolina."[27]
About the same time The Detroit Advertiser announced that "seventy
fugitive slaves arrived in Canada by one train from the interior of
Tennessee. A week before a company of 12 arrived. At nearly the
same time a party of seven and another of five were safely landed
on the free soil of Canada, making 94 in all. The underground
railroad was never before doing so flourishing a business."[28] The
New Orleans Commercial Bulletin of December 19, 1860, asserted
that 1,500 slaves had escaped annually for the last fifty years, a loss
to the South of at least $40,000,000. The American Anti-Slavery
Society's twenty-seventh report said "Northward migration from slave

land during the last year has fully equalled the average of former
years."[29]

It is interesting to note that several of the most famous cases that
arose under the Fugitive Slave Act had their ending in Canada.
Shadrack, Anthony Burns, Jerry McHenry, the Parkers, the Lemmon
slaves and others found refuge across the border after experiencing
the terrors of the Fugitive Slave legislation. The Shadrack incident
was one of the earliest to arise under the new law. Shadrack, a
Negro employe in a Boston coffee house, was arrested on February
15, 1851, on the charge of having escaped from slavery in the
previous May. As the commissioner before whom he was brought
was not ready to proceed, the case was adjourned for three days. As
Massachusetts had forbidden the use of her jails in fugitive cases
Shadrack was detained in the United States court room at the court
house. A mob of people of color broke into the building, rescued the
prisoner and he escaped to Canada. The rescue caused great
excitement at Washington and five of the rescuers were indicted and
tried but the jury disagreed. The incident showed that the new law
would be enforced with difficulty in Massachusetts in view of the fact
that the mob had been supported by a Vigilance Committee of most
respectable citizens.[30]

A few months later, at Syracuse, a respectable man of color named
Jerry McHenry was arrested as a fugitive on the complaint of a
slaver from Missouri. He made an attempt to escape and failed. The
town, however, was crowded with people who had come to a
meeting of the County Agricultural Society and to attend the annual
convention of the Liberty Party. On the evening of October 1, 1851, a
descent was made upon the jail by a party led by Gerrit Smith and
Rev. Samuel J. May, both well-known abolitionists. The Negro was
rescued, concealed for a few days and then sent on to Canada
where he died, at Kingston, in 1853.[31]

A more tragic incident was that known as the Gorsuch case. A slaver
named Gorsuch, with his son and some others, all armed, came to
Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in search of two fugitives. In a house two

miles from Lancaster was a Negro family named Parker and they
were besieged by the Gorsuchs. The Negroes blew a horn and
brought others to their help. Two Quakers who were present were
called upon to render help in arresting the Negroes, as they were
required to do under the Act, but they refused to aid. In the fighting
that took place the elder Gorsuch was killed and his son wounded.
The Negroes escaped to Canada where they spent the winter in
Toronto and in the spring joined the Elgin Association settlement at
Buxton in Kent county.[32]

The Anthony Burns case attracted more attention than any other
arising in the execution of the Fugitive Slave Law. Burns, who was a
fugitive from Virginia living in Boston, betrayed his hiding place in a
letter which fell into the hands of a southern slaver and was
communicated to a slave hunter. The slaver tried to coax Burns to go
back to bondage peaceably but failing in this he had him arrested
and brought before a commissioner who, on June 2, 1854, decided
that Burns was a fugitive and must be sent back to slavery. Boston
showed its feelings on the day that the Negro was removed from jail
to be sent South. Stores were closed and draped in black, bells
tolled, and across State Street a coffin was suspended bearing the
legend The Death of Liberty. The streets were crowded and a large
military force, with a field piece in front, furnished escort for the lone
black. Hisses and cries of " shame" came from the crowd as the
procession passed. Burns was soon released from bondage, Boston
people and others subscribing to purchase his liberty. He was
brought North, educated and later entered the ministry. For several
years he was a missionary at St. Catharines, Canada, and died there
in the sixties.[33]

Along the international boundary there were exciting incidents at
times, fugitives being chased to the border and often having narrow
escapes from recapture. The Monroe family, mother and several
daughters, escaped from slavery in Kentucky in 1856 and were
carried by the Underground Railroad to Ann Arbor and on to Detroit,
the master in hot pursuit. So close was the chase that as the
runaways pulled out from the wharf on the ferry for Windsor,

Canada, the master came running down the street crying out "Stop
them! stop them!" He was jeered at by the crowd which sympathized
with the Negro woman.[34]

In June, 1852, three fugitives arrived in Detroit and in response to
frantic messages from Toledo were held for their pursuers. In
desperation the Negroes made a savage attack on their jailer, gained
their freedom and got across the border with the assistance of
friends in Detroit. Rewards that were offered for their recapture were
useless as the fugitives took care to remain on the Canadian side.[35]

Hiram Wilson tells of an incident that came under his notice at St.
Catharines. A beautiful young girl, 14 years of age and almost white,
was brought to Buffalo as maid for a slaveholder's daughter
travelling in the North. She was spirited off by some Buffalo
abolitionists, transferred to a steamer flying the British flag, and
landed in Canada. She was taken to St. Catharines and sheltered in
the home of Hiram Wilson. The master came over from Buffalo
bringing a couple of lawyers with him and tried to secure his property
but his demands were refused. The owner claimed that he valued
the girl at $1,000. It was later discovered that she had been sold no
less than four times before coming to Canada.[36]

The brutality of the Fugitive Slave Law was shown on more than one
occasion along the border. A case that attracted much attention at
the time was that of Daniel Davis. He was cook on the steamer
Buckeye. One day while the vessel was in port at Buffalo he was
called up from below. As his head appeared above the deck he was
struck a heavy blow by a slave catcher named Benjamin Rust who
had a warrant from a United States commissioner for his arrest. The
Negro fell back senseless into the hold and on top of a stove, being
badly burned. He was brought into court at once and the newspaper
accounts relate in detail how he sat during the proceedings "dozing,
with blood oozing out of his mouth and nostrils." After a trial that was
rushed in a most unseemly way the Negro was ordered delivered
over to Rust, who was really agent for one George H. Moore, of
Louisville. The brutality of the whole proceeding stirred up deep

interest in Buffalo and on a writ of habeas corpus the fugitive was
brought before Judge Conkling of the United States Court at Auburn
and released. Before there could be further steps taken to hold the
Negro he was hurried into Canada, where he remained. He was in
attendance at the large Negro Convention held in Toronto in
September, 1851, and with his head still in bandages afforded
striking evidence of the effects of the Slave Law. Rust, Davis's
assailant, was afterwards indicted at Buffalo but allowed to go after
paying a paltry $50 fine.[37]

Another memorable border incident occurred at Sandusky, Ohio, in
October, 1852. A party of fugitives, two men, two women and several
children had been brought from Kentucky and were aboard the
steamer Arrow about to sail for Detroit when they were all arrested
by the alleged owner and taken before the mayor of the town. Rush
R. Sloane, a local lawyer, offered to act in their defence. The
proceedings were so hurried that no warrant or writ was ready to be
produced in court and Sloane signified by a gesture that the Negroes
were free. There was an immediate rush for the door on the part of
the fugitives and their friends, but even as they fled from the court
room the claimant entered calling out: "Here are the papers. I own
the slaves. I'll hold you personally responsible for their escape." The
fugitives meanwhile had gone to the harbor, entered a sailboat
owned by friendly fishermen and were on their way to Canada. The
slaver, frantic at seeing his property vanishing, tried in vain to get
other fishermen to pursue them. He then hurried to a neighboring
town, trying to secure help, but with no more success. Within a few
hours the runaways were landed at Port Stanley, safe from all
pursuers. The slaver made good his threat to hold Sloane
responsible for the loss of his property, entering action and securing
a judgment for $3,000. It is related as one of the pathetic incidents of
this case that when the fugitives were first taken off the steamer
Arrow one of the women dropped her infant child on the ground and
disowned it, hoping that it at least would be free if she were
condemned to return to slavery.[38]

With so great an influx of refugees into a country that was sparsely
settled, some suffering was inevitable, but contemporary evidence
indicates that after all it was but slight. There was probably more
distress during the winter of 1850-1 than later on because of the
large number who came in during the few months immediately after
the passing of the Fugitive Slave Bill. In their haste to find safety
many left everything behind, entering Canada with little more than
the clothes on their backs. A. L. Power, of Farmington, who visited
Windsor at the beginning of 1851, found about a score of families
living in an old military barracks, most of them in need of both fuel
and clothing. At Sandwich, near by, he also found distress and
mentions seeing a family of eight children who were almost nude
and who were suffering from the cold.[39] Sickness was, in many
cases, a result of the exposure to which the Negroes had been
subjected in their effort to reach Canada. Later on, the situation
improved and by 1855 the workers of the American Missionary
Association reported that "in general, those who have gone there
from the United States, even the fugitives, may provide for the wants
of their families, after a short residence there; especially if they meet
a friendly hand and, more than all, good counsel on their arrival."[40]

Various agencies in both the United States and Canada were active
in the work of relieving the distress among the newcomers. The
American Anti-Slavery Society early addressed itself to this task.
"Several agents," said Bibb, "have during the past year proceeded to
Canada to exert the best influence in their power over the fugitives
that have flocked to the province in years past and especially those
who have gone the past year. They are supplied with the means of
instructing the colored population, clothing some of the most
destitute fugitives and aiding them in various ways to obtain
employment, procure and cultivate land and train up their children.
Our friends in Canada are exerting a good influence in the same
direction."[41]

The fugitives themselves were banded together to aid the
newcomers. The Windsor Anti-Slavery Society and the Fugitives'
Union were both organized to relieve distress and assist their fellows

in making a living.[42] Supplies were sent in from points at
considerable distances in some cases, clothing, food, money, and in
one case a donation of 2,000 fruit trees from Henry Willis, of Battle
Creek, for refugees who were going on the land.[43] Michigan people
were exceedingly generous in extending aid and there is record also
of supplies sent from Fall River, Whitestown, New Jersey, Boston
and other places in New England. There was plenty of work for the
Negroes, the fifties being a period of railroad building in western
Ontario, so that writing in 1861, William Troy maintained, that nine
tenths of the fugitives had got along without outside aid of any kind.
"The fugitives show a marked disposition to help each other and
relieve want," he says. "I could show hundreds of instances of
kindheartedness to all persons, irrespective of race."[44]

The organization of the Anti-Slavery Society of Canada came largely
as a result of the sudden influx of Negroes after 1850 which, perhaps
more than anything else, impressed upon Canadians the great issue
that was rapidly dividing the neighboring republic. Beginning at
Toronto the anti-slavery forces in Canada were organized in the
various cities and towns of the province and continued active until
the Civil War. There was developed in Canada a marked anti-slavery
sentiment which manifested itself in part in the very large number of
Canadians who enlisted in the northern armies.[45] The Anti-Slavery
Society was also active in extending the helping hand to the
fugitives, considerable sums being raised for relief purposes and
support being given to educational and other movements designed
to elevate the race.

In Canada the refugees were absolutely safe from the operations of
the Fugitive Slave Law. No loophole could be found in the Canadian
law that would permit the rendition of a slave. A famous case arose
in the Canadian courts on the eve of the Civil War when a Negro,
John Anderson, was arrested charged with the murder of a slaver
named Diggs some years before, the crime having been committed
while Anderson was trying to make his escape from slavery.
Canadian opinion was much aroused and though the first decision of
the courts was that the Negro must be extradited this finding was

overruled from England and in the end the prisoner was released on
a technicality. It was made quite clear that the British Government
would view with marked disapproval any decision in Canada that
would return a refugee to slavery.

There were doubtless numerous attempts to kidnap Negroes who
had escaped to Canada, especially in the border towns, but such
attempts must have been rarely successful. An open attempt to
induce a Canadian official to act as slave catcher was exposed in the
Montreal Gazette of January 13, 1855, when there was published a
letter written by one, John H. Pape, of Frederick, Maryland, to Sheriff
Hays, of Montreal, proposing that the latter should use his power to
arrest Negroes who would then be turned over to Pape. The
proceeds from the sale of the captured chattels would be divided
evenly, according to the plan suggested.

Canadians took a measure of pride in the sense of security with
which their Negro immigrants could look back at their pursuers. That
the slavery issue in the United States was rapidly coming to a head
was also recognized in Canada during the fifties and this, too, may
have been an influence with the Canadians in doing what they could
to assist the great number of more or less helpless people who came
among them. Viewed in the light of more than half a century it can be
seen that the influence of Canada in determining the course of the
slavery issue was by no means slight.

Fred Landon

FOOTNOTES:
[1] "One of the most assailable laws ever passed by the Congress of the
United States ... Under this act ... the Negro had no chance; the meshes
of the law were artfully contrived to aid the master and entrap the slave."
Rhodes, History of the United States, I, 185.

[2] "A large proportion of the colored persons who have fled from the free
states have sought refuge in Canada where they have been received
with remarkable kindness and have testified the grateful sense of their
reception by their exemplary conduct." American Anti-slavery Society,
annual report for 1851, p. 31.

[3] Liberator, October 18, 1850.

[4] Annual report for 1851, p. 30.

[5] A file of this paper for 1851 and 1852 is in the library of the University
of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

[6] American Missionary Association, Sixth Annual Report, 1852, p. 34.

[7] Mitchell, Underground Railroad, p. 113.

[8] Liberator, October 4, 1850.

[9] Ibid., October 18, 1850.

[10] Ibid., October 4, 1850.

[11] Ibid., April 25, 1851.

[12] Ibid., May 2, 1851.

[13] Siebert, Underground Railroad, p. 249.

[14] Ibid., p. 249.

[15] Stevens, Anthony Burns, a History, p. 208.

[16] American Anti-slavery Society, Eleventh Annual Report, 1851, p. 31.

[17] The Voice of the Fugitive, April 9, 1851.

[18] Cong. Herald, May 13, 1861, quoted in American Missionary
Association, 15th annual report, 1861, p. 28. There is evidence that the
Fugitive Slave Law was used in some cases to strike fear into the hearts
of Negroes in order to cause them to abandon their property. The
Liberator of October 25, 1850, quotes the Detroit Free Press to the effect
that land speculators have been scaring the Negroes in some places in
the north in order to get possession of their properties.

[19] American Anti-slavery Society, Twenty-seventh Annual Report, 1861,
p. 49.

[20] In The Liberator of July 30, 1852, a letter from Hiram Wilson, at St.
Catharines, says: "Arrivals from slavery are frequent."

[21] The Voice of the Fugitive, July 29, 1852.

[22] Ibid., July 1, 1852.

[23] St. Catharine's Journal, quoted in The Voice of the Fugitive,
September 23, 1852.

[24] Quoted in The Liberator, September 12, 1851.

[25] Liberator, February 14, 1851.

[26] The Voice of the Fugitive, August 27, 1851.

[27] Quoted in American Anti-slavery Society, Twenty-seventh Report,
1861.

[28] American Anti-slavery Society, Twenty-seventh Annual Report, 1861,
pp. 48-49.

[29] P. 157.

[30] Rhodes, History of the United States, I, 210.

[31] Ibid., I, 224-25. See also Ward, Autobiography of a Fugitive Negro, p.
127.

[32] Ibid., I, 222-23. See also The Voice of the Fugitive, June 3 and July
1, 1852.

[33] Schauler, History of the United States, V, 290-291.

[34] Troy, Hairbreadth Escapes, pp. 39-43.

[35] Liberator, June 11, 1852. See also The Voice of the Fugitive, June
17, 1852.

[36] Ibid., July 30, 1852.

[37] Liberator, Sept. 12, 1851; The Voice of the Fugitive, Sept. 24, 1851;
Anti-slavery Tracts, New Series, No. 15, p. 19.

[38] Sandusky Commercial Register, Oct. 21, 1852; Liberator, Oct. 29,
1852; Anti-slavery Tracts, New Series, No. 15, p. 24.

[39] The Voice of the Fugitive, February 12, 1851.

[40] Ninth Annual Report, N. Y., 1855, p. 47

[41] American Anti-slavery Society, Eleventh Annual Report, 1851, p. 100.

[42] The Voice of the Fugitive of January 15, 1851, and November 18,
1852.

[43] Ibid., January 1 and May 20, 1852.

[44] Troy, Hair-breadth Escapes, pp. 108 and 122.

[45] "The Canadian government reckoned that there had been not less
than 40,000 Canadian enlistments in the American Army during the Civil
War."—Goldwin Smith's Correspondence (letter to Moberly Bell), p. 377.

RICHARD HILL[1]
Richard Hill, one of Jamaica's most famous sons, was born at
Montego Bay on the first of May, 1795. In 1779 his father, also
named Richard, came to Jamaica from Lincolnshire, where the
family had lived for several centuries, and along with a brother
settled at Montego Bay. There he became a substantial merchant,
and on his death in 1818 left his property in Jamaica to his son and
two daughters, Ann and Jane. Hill's mother, who had East Indian as
well as Negro blood in her veins, survived her husband many years,
her son being constant in his attention to her up to the last.

At the early age of five Hill was sent to England to reside with his
father's relations then living at Cheshunt, there to remain till his
fourteenth year when he was sent to the Elizabethan Grammar
School at Horncastle to finish his education. Upon the death of his
father in 1818 Hill returned to Jamaica. Although his property came
into the possession of his son and two daughters the father's death
in some way involved Richard Hill in irksome money obligations
which harassed him for many years, and even after he had
discharged them left a gloom over his life.

His father was a man in advance of his times, hating and deploring
the intolerance and the tyranny that grew out of slavery as it then
existed in Jamaica. On his death-bed he made his son solemnly
pledge himself to devote his energies to the cause of freedom, and
never to rest until those civil disabilities, under which the Negroes
were laboring, had been entirely removed; and, further, until slavery
itself had received its death-blow.

The time and opportunity for fulfilling this pledge soon came, for in
the year 1823 the Negroes in Jamaica commenced their agitation for
obtaining equal privileges with their white brethren. It does not
appear that Hill attached himself openly to any of the societies that
were formed for the purpose of carrying on this agitation. But he

freely gave them the benefit of his abilities, helping the whole
movement with his advice and with his pen.[2]

In the year 1826 Hill visited Cuba, the United States and Canada,
and then went on to England, landing there in September. In 1827 he
was deputed by the organization in Jamaica to use his efforts in
England to secure the assistance of the leading members of the Anti-
Slavery party. During his stay there he was on terms of close
intimacy with Wilberforce, Buxton, Clarkson, Babington, Lushington
and Zachary Macaulay,[3] all members of the Anti-Slavery Society, as
well as Pringle and other men eminent for their philanthropy and
talents and noted for the deep interest they took in all that related to
the elevation and welfare of the Negroes of the British West Indian
colonies. The petition from the people of color of this island to the
House of Commons for the removal of their civil disabilities, was
entrusted to Hill, who upon the occasion of presenting it was
permitted "within the bar" of the House. On that occasion Canning
delivered his last speech a splendid effort in favor of the petitioners.
Hill remained several years in England and contributed largely by his
pen and his speeches to enlighten the public mind of England as to
the real character of West Indian slavery. But the remittances from
the "people of color" in Jamaica, never very large, soon became few
and far between. So Hill, always independent in every way, even in
his friendships and political alliances, maintained himself and his
sister, Jane, almost entirely by his contributions, literary and
scientific, to several popular newspapers and periodicals.[4]

After a residence of several years in England, Hill was sent by the
Anti-Slavery Society on a visit to San Domingo, chiefly for the
purpose of ascertaining by personal observation and inquiry what
was the actual social and political condition of the people of that
island.[5] But his commission had a more extensive object than that
attached to it, which, however, directed him to obtain besides all the
information he possibly could concerning the natural resources of
every part of the country through which he was to travel. San
Domingo was then under the wise and able rule of President Boyer,
the whole island forming one undivided republic, enjoying internal

tranquillity, and being in a comparatively flourishing condition. On his
way from England to Port-au-Prince, where he arrived on the
sixteenth of June, 1830, Hill visited France staying there a few
months. He spent nearly two years in San Domingo travelling
incessantly and making notes about everything. He has left more
than one sketch-book full of sketches showing a knowledge of
perspective, a keen eye for the picturesque and a true artist's
feeling. He sailed from San Domingo for England on the third of May,
1832, and then for Jamaica a few months after, never again to quit
his native country. In that year he was made justice of the peace for
Trelawny.

He was never greedy for money and seems to have been ill-paid for
his labors in San Domingo. Upon his return to Jamaica either on that
account or from motives of policy he ceased all communication with
the Anti-Slavery Society, and only now and then did he write to one
or two of its members, and even then more as personal friends than
as old political allies.

On the third of February, 1834, Hill was appointed one of a number
of forty stipendiary magistrates whose duty it was to adjudicate
between the former slaveholders and their "apprentices."[6] This
appointment he held until the first of January, 1872. In this
connection it may be interesting to quote the opinion of Hill
expressed by the Rev. James Thome and J. H. Kimball, who in 1838
published for the American Anti-Slavery Society an account of
Emancipation in the West Indies: a six months' tour in Antigua,
Barbadoes and Jamaica in the year 1837. They say: "We spent
nearly a day with Richard Hill, Esq., the secretary of the special
magistrates' departments, of whom we have already spoken. He is a
colored gentleman, and in every respect the noblest man, white or
black, whom we met in the West Indies. He is highly intelligent and
of fine moral feelings. His manners are free and unassuming, and his
language in conversation fluent and well chosen.... He is at the head
of the special magistrates (of whom there are sixty (sic) in this
island) and all the correspondence between them and the governor
is carried on through him. The station he holds is a very important

one, and the business connected with it is of a character and extent
that, were he not a man of superior abilities, he could not sustain. He
is highly respected by the government in the island and at home, and
possesses the esteem of his fellow citizens of all colors. He
associates with persons of the highest rank, dining and attending
parties at the government house with all the aristocracy of Jamaica.
We had the pleasure of spending an evening with him at the solicitor
general's. Though an African sun has burnt a deep tinge on him he is
truly one of nature's nobleman. His demeanor is such, so dignified,
yet so bland and amiable, that no one can help respecting him."[7]

Hill represented St. James and afterwards Trelawny in the House of
Assembly which sat from October 24, 1837, to November 3, 1838,
and during that time he served on several important committees,
notably one appointed to inquire into the state of the several courts
of justice in the island. But the fact that he unsuccessfully contested
the representation of Port Royal in November, 1838, may have had
something to do with his withdrawal from political strife. About 1840
he was offered the governorship of St. Lucia, but his love for his
native island caused him to decline the offer. He was in 1855
nominated a member of the Privy Council which post he held only
about ten years.

His political career was ended early in life, and the remainder of his
days were passed in retirement at Spanish-Town where he had
taken up his abode upon being appointed stipendiary magistrate. He
occupied his time with his daily official duties and literary work and
seldom left home except for change of air at the sea side, to visit
some intimate friend in Kingston, or perhaps to take the chair at
some missionary gathering, or to join in the deliberations of a
committee meeting. In 1847 Hill acted as Agent General of
Immigration, and in December of that year he submitted an
interesting report to the Assembly.

When the cholera swept over the island in 1851 Hill turned his
botanical studies to good account. The saline treatment was then in
high esteem; but by means of the bitter-bush, Eupatorium nervosum,

a shrub not unlike the wild sage in appearance, which grows freely
on waste lands, he is said to have alleviated much suffering and
saved many lives.

He was Vice-President from 1844 to 1849 of the Jamaica Society for
the encouragement of Agriculture and other Arts and Sciences,
instituted in 1825. In 1849 this Society ceased to exist and in its
stead sprang up the Colonial Literary and Heading Society, of which
Hill was one of the managing committee. He was one of the
nominated members of the then Board of Education. He was a
member of the original council of the Royal Agricultural Society of
Jamaica, founded in 1843, Vice-President as late as 1857 of the
Royal Society of Arts of Jamaica, established in 1854 as the Jamaica
Society of Arts, and Vice-President of the Royal Society of Arts and
Agriculture, which was the result of the amalgamation of these two
societies in 1864. In 1861 he had undertaken to edit jointly with the
Rev. James Watson, the Secretary, the Transactions of the Royal
Society of Arts, to which he contributed various notes. But in the first
number of the Transactions of the Incorporated Royal Society of Arts
and Agriculture (1867) is the record of a vote of sympathy and regret
at his inability to attend through ill-health; and although he
contributed articles to the journal he was not able to be present at
the meetings. His leisure was devoted to scientific study, especially
the ornithology, ichthyology, and anthropology of the West Indies. He
never let a single opportunity pass by, if he could possibly help it,
without trying to benefit his country with his ready pen, and he
always gave all the encouragement he could to those who seemed
at all anxious to study any subject with which he was in the least
acquainted. He read some twenty-five lectures in all at various times
on various subjects.

On the title page of his Naturalist's Sojourn in Jamaica, as well as in
his preface, Gosse bears testimony to the assistance which Hill
rendered to him. The appearance of Hill's name on the title page
("Assisted by Richard Hill, Esq., Cor. M. Z. S. Lond., Mem. Counc.
Boy. Soc. Agriculture of Jamaica") was, Mr. Edmund Gosse tells us
in his memoir of his father, greatly against that modest gentleman's

wish. He tells us also that the friendship for Hill was one of the
warmest and most intimate friendships of his father's life. The
publication of this book was delayed by the fact that every sheet was
sent to Spanish Town to be read by Hill.

Hill contributed to several scientific publications both in England and
America and by this means became connected with some of the
leading learned societies of the world. He was corresponding
member of the Zoological Society of London, of the Leeds Institute
and of the Smithsonian Institution, and he numbered amongst his
correspondents Darwin and Poey. Darwin had written in September,
1856, to Gosse for further information with respect to the habits of
pigeons and rabbits referred to in his Sojourn, and it was at Gosse's
suggestion that Darwin wrote to Hill. In a later letter, of April, 1857,
he says: "I owe to using your name a most kind and valuable
correspondent in Mr. Hill, of Spanish Town."

The cony of Jamaica, Capromys brachyurus, found commonly in his
day, but now becoming extinct, was named by Hill in Gosse's
Naturalist's Sojourn; as well as four birds—three in the Birds of
Jamaica and one in the Annals and Magazine of Natural History, and
two fishes. One bird (Mimus hillii), two fishes and four mollusca,
three being Jamaican, were named after Hill.

In addition to his collaboration with Gosse of the Birds of Jamaica
and the Naturalist's Sojourn in Jamaica, Hill's best-known literary
productions are A Week at Port Royal, published at Montego Bay in
1858; Lights and Shadows of Jamaica History, published in Kingston
in 1859; Eight Chapters in the History of Jamaica, 1508-1680,
illustrating the settlement of the Jews in the island which appeared in
1868; and The Picaroons of One Hundred and Fifty Years Ago,
which was published in Dublin in 1869.

He contributed, moreover, a large number of articles on natural
history subjects to various Jamaica publications too numerous to
mention. Some of these were: The Jamaica Almanacs; Transactions
of the Jamaica Society of Arts; Transactions of the Royal Society of
Arts of Jamaica; The Jamaica Physical Journal; Jamaica Monthly

Magazine; Jamaica Quarterly Magazine. In England he contributed
to the Proceedings of the Zoological Society; and in America to the
Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Science, Philadelphia, and
the Annals of the Lyceum of Natural History, New York.

In stature he was tall and commanding, though perhaps the
comparison of him to Antinous made by the writer of an obituary
notice was a little exaggerated. All who knew bore testimony to his
generosity, philanthropy, modesty, even temper, and unfailing self-
forgetfulness, his kindness of heart, his piety, and his catholicism in
matters of religion. A portrait of him executed in oils, it is said, by
James Wyeth, an American artist who spent a short season in the
island, is in the Jamaica History Gallery at the Institute of Jamaica,
which also possesses a pencil sketch of him done by himself.

For two or three years before his death Hill suffered from failing
eyesight. He died, unmarried, at Spanish Town, on September 28,
1872, at the advanced age of seventy-eight. His remains were
followed to the grave by an immense concourse of all classes.

Frank Cundall,
Secretary, The Institute of Jamaica

FOOTNOTES:
[1] Taken in great measure from the biographical notice by the writer in
the Journal of the Institute of Jamaica, July, 1896.

[2] For a general sketch of this period see W. J. Gardner's a History of
Jamaica, pp. 211-317.

[3] This movement had for years been promoted by the heroic few. It was
then getting a hearing in Parliament. They first advocated the abolition of
the slave trade and then directed attention to slavery.

[4] These contributions closely connected Hill with the men whose new
thought revolutionized science a few decades later.

[5] San Domingo was then independent and the success of the free
Negroes there would have a direct bearing on the anti-slavery movement,
as indifferent white men sometimes contended that the free Negro was a
failure.

[6] Slavery in the British West Indies was not actually abolished instantly.
Gradual emancipation was the method tried in most parts and even in
cases of immediate emancipation the system of apprenticeship which
followed was not much better than slavery.

[7] The office of Secretary to the Stipendiary Magistrates was established
in order to assist Governor Sligo to get through the enormous amount of
correspondence entailed by the complaints sent to him in connection with
the administration of the laws with regard to the apprenticeship system.

THE RELATIONS OF NEGROES AND
INDIANS IN MASSACHUSETTS
One of the longest unwritten chapters of the history of the United
States is that treating of the relations of the Negroes and Indians.
The Indians were already here when the white men came and the
Negroes brought in soon after to serve as a subject race found
among the Indians one of their means of escape. That a larger
number of the Negroes did not take refuge among the Indians was
due to the ignorance of the blacks as to the geographic situation. Not
knowing anything about the country and unacquainted with the
language of the white man or that of the Indians, most Negroes
dared not venture very far from the plantations on which they lived.
Statistics show, however, that in spite of this impediment to the
escape of Negroes to Indian communities, a considerable number of
blacks availed themselves of this opportunity. From the most
northern colonies as far south as Florida there was much contact
resulting in the interbreeding of Indians and Negroes.

In no case was this better exemplified than in Massachusetts.
Because of the cosmopolitan influences in that State where the fur
trade, fisheries, and commerce brought the people into contact with
a large number of foreigners, the Indian settlements by an infusion of
blood from without served as a sort of melting pot in which the
Negroes became an important factor. There was extensive
miscegenation of the two races after the middle of the seventeenth
century. In the course of ten or twelve generations there was an
opportunity for "foreign blood early introduced to permeate the whole
mass and when it is considered that the intermixture was constantly
kept up from the outside, it is a wonder that Indians of pure native
race remained."[1]

According to the first authentic census of Massachusetts, published
in 1765, all of the counties of the State except Hampshire, Hampden,

and Franklin had both a Negro and Indian population. Barnstable
had 231 Negroes and 515 Indians; Berkshire had 88 Negroes and
221 Indians; Bristol, 287 Negroes and 106 Indians; Dukes, 46
Negroes and 313 Indians; Essex, 1070 Negroes and 8 Indians;
Middlesex, 860 Negroes and 45 Indians; Nantucket, 44 Negroes and
227 Indians; Suffolk, 844 Negroes and 37 Indians; Worcester, 267
Negroes and 34 Indians, making a total of 4900 Negroes and 1697
Indians.[2] After a careful survey of the Indian situation in 1861,
however, it was discovered that only a part of these Indians had
retained their peculiar characteristics and these had been finally
reduced to a few reservations known as the following:
Chappequiddick, Christiantown, Gay Head, Marshpee, Herring
Pond, Natick, Punkapog, Fall River, Hassanamisco, and Dudley.
There were other Indians at Yarmouth, Dartmouth, Tumpum, Deep
Bottom, Middleborough, and a few scattered.[3]

The Indians were generally neglected for the reason that they were
considered beyond the pale of Christianity, despite professions to the
contrary. As a matter of fact, being wards of the State they were
scantily provided for and their fundamental needs were generally
neglected. They were offered few opportunities for mental, moral, or
religious improvement for the reason that the missionary spirit which
characterized Cotton Mather and John Eliot no longer existed. Only
a small sum was raised or appropriated for their rudimentary
education and with the exception of what could be done with the
"Williams Fund" of Harvard College there was little effort made for
their evangelization. Left thus to themselves, the Indians developed
into a state within a state.

When, therefore, the Negroes became conscious of the wrongs they
suffered in slavery, a few early learned to take refuge among the
Indians and even after they were freed in Massachusetts their social
proscription was such among the whites that some free people of
color preferred the hard life among the Indians to the whiffs and
scorns of race prejudice in the seats of Christian civilization. Coming
into contact there with foreigners, who found it convenient to move
among these morally weak people, the Negroes served as important

factors in the melting pot in which the Indians were remade and
introduced to American life as whites and blacks. Referring to the
moral condition of the Fall River Indians, as a case in evidence, an
investigator reported in 1861 that in two families there were twelve
cases of bastardy and in one of them it was said that, of eight
children, the paternity was apparently about equally divided among
the Indian, Negro, and white races.[4]

The reports on the state of the Indians always disclosed the
presence and the influence of Negroes among them. "Of the
publishments of colored persons interested and the early records of
Dartmouth," said J. M. Earle in 1861, "by far the larger proportion of
those of them were Negro men to Indian women. In Yarmouth a
large portion of those of Indian descent have intermarried with whites
until their progeny has become white, their social relations are with
those of that color and they are mingled with the general community
having lost their identity as a distinct portion of the Hassanamiscoes
and it would have been a fortunate thing for all if it had been so with
them all. But the mixture in most of the tribes has been more with the
Negro race than with the white until that blood probably
predominates though there are still a considerable number who have
the prominent characteristics of the Indians—the lank, glossy, black
hair, the high cheek bones—the bright dark eye and other features
peculiar to the race."[5]

Investigating the Indians of Gay Head in 1861, John M. Earle
observed that the people of Gay Head, like those of other
plantations, were a mixture of the red, white and black races. They
had also "an infusion of the blood of the chivalry of the South as well
as of the Portuguese and Dutch, as might be inferred from the
names of Randolph, Madison, Corsa, Sylvia and Vanderhoop being
found among them."[6] The admixture was much like that on the
other plantations with perhaps a less infusion of the African than in
some of them. A few were so strongly marked with Indian
characteristics as to lead one to conclude that they are very nearly of
pure blood, but there were none so nearly white as in some of the
other tribes.

It appeared that these people had lived without the law, so to speak,
in Massachusetts because of their refusal to accept certain
regulations which the State desired to impose upon them. By the act
of June 25, 1811, the governor was authorized to appoint three
persons to be guardians of the Indian, Mulatto and Negro proprietors
of Gay Head, which guardians, in addition to the usual powers given
to functionaries in such cases, were empowered to take into their
possession the lands of Indians, and allot to the several Indians such
part of the lands as should be sufficient for their improvement from
time to time. The act further provided for the discontinuance or
removal of the guardians at the discretion of the governor and
council.[7] Under this act three guardians were appointed and in 1814
the Indians became dissatisfied with their guardians, who resigned,
and the guardianship disappeared.

In 1828 there was enacted another measure providing that whenever
the Indians and people of color at Gay Head should by a vote in
town meeting accept that act and should transmit to the governor an
attested copy of the vote, the governor might then authorize the
guardian to take up his duties at Gay Head, and might upon their
request, appoint suitable persons to divide their lands. As the Indians
had unpleasant recollections of the guardian-system, they never
accepted that proposal. For about thirty years they were without any
guardians, and their affairs, except that of the public schools, were
left to themselves.

It appears, however, that the mere provision for the appointment of a
guardian was not the only objectionable feature of the Act of 1828.
The guardian was given power to "punish, by fine not exceeding
twenty dollars, or by solitary imprisonment not exceeding twenty
days, any trespasses, batteries, larcenies under five dollars, gross
lewdness and lascivious behavior, disorderly and riotous conduct,
and for the sale of spirituous liquors within the territory, or on the
lands of these Indians and people of color.[8] The guardian or other
justice of the peace might issue his warrant directed to the constable
of the Indians and people of color, or other proper officer, to arrest
and bring before him, any offender against the provisions of this act;

and after judgment, he might order execution to be done by said
constable or other proper officer; and if the guardian or other justice
of the peace should adjudge any offender to solitary imprisonment,
such offender should not, during the term of said imprisonment be
visited by, or allowed to speak with any person other than the jailer,
or the guardian or justice of the peace or such other person as the
guardian or justice of the peace should specially authorize thereto;
nor should such offender be allowed any food or drink other than
coarse bread and water, unless sickness should, in the opinion of a
physician, render other sustenance necessary,"[9] "With such a
provision in the Act," said J. M. Earle, "making a discrimination so
odious and unjust, between themselves and other prisoners, the
Indians would have been greatly wanting in self-respect had they
accepted it. It is a provision disgraceful to the statute book of the
State, and discreditable to the civilization of the age. Yet two tribes,
the Chappequiddick and the Christiantown, were made subject to the
provisions of this law, without the power to accept or reject it, and are
governed by it to this day"[10] (1861).

The Marshpee tribe doubtless had a larger infusion of Negro blood
than any. When the population of this tribe was 327 in 1771, 14 of
them were Negroes, married to Indians. In 1832 there were 315
inhabitants, of whom 16 were Negroes. According to the report of the
Indian commissioner in 1849 the population was 305 in 1848, of
whom 26 were foreigners, all Negroes or mulattoes. The tribe
numbered 403 in 1859, "including 32 foreigners, married to natives
of the tribe, all Negroes or mulattoes, or various mixtures of Negro,
Indian, or white blood—none of them being pure whites."[11]

The Punkapog Tribe of Indians formerly dwelt on a tract of land in
Canton, Norfolk County, containing five thousand acres, granted
them by the General Court of Massachusetts. Before 1861, however,
they had lost all of this property, the last of it being sold by the
guardian, about 1841, in pursuance of a resolve of the legislature.
"The full-blood Indians of the tribe," says the report of 1861, "are all
extinct. Their descendants, who, like those of all the other tribes in
the States, are of various grades of mixtures, of Indian, white, and

Negro blood, number, so far as is ascertained one hundred and
seventeen persons."[12]

According to the survey made in 1861 the moral condition of the
Indians was rather low and it was a regret that the people of color
exhibiting generally more moral stamina should be degraded by
living among them. Accounting for this condition of Affairs a
contemporary said of the low moral condition of the Fall River
Indians in 1861: "The prejudice of color and caste, and the social
proscription to which the colored people are subjected, has a twofold
unfavorable effect upon them; first to detract from their self-respect
and so to weaken the moral instincts, and then to throw them into the
association of the more dissolute and degraded of other races,
where they fall an easy prey to immoral habits. There are, however,
in this tribe as well as the others, instances of those who rise above
all the evil influences with which they are encompassed and maintain
a good standing, as worthy and respectable members of the
community. It would be a cause for gratification, if it could be said
truly that these are increasing, or that there was any decided
progress in the general character of the tribe. But, from all the
evidence that can be gathered, it does not appear that, for the last
twelve or fourteen years, there has been much, if any improvement
in their moral and social condition,"[13]

The situation in the Hassanamisco Tribe shows how the Indians in
some of these reservations became extinct. Interbreeding with both
races they passed either to the blacks or to the whites. "But little
trace of Indian descent is apparent in the members of this tribe," said
J. M. Earle in 1861. "It is most marked in the few who have mixed
chiefly with the whites, yet some of these have no perceptible
indications of it, and have become identified with the white race. The
remainder of the tribe have the distinguishing marks of African
descent and mixed African and white, of various grades, from the
light quadroon and mulatto, to the apparently nearly pure negro, and,
in every successive generation the slight remaining characteristics of
the race become less apparent."[14]

Referring to the Yarmouth Indians the investigator informs us that
these had tended to go almost altogether over to the white race.
"With this exception," said he, "nearly all of his descendants have
intermarried with whites, down to the present day, so that they are
substantially merged in the general community, having their social
relations with white people, with the exception of one or two
families."[15] It was observed that in all the families, in which both
heads are living, there were only two in which one of them was not
pure white, and those having the Indian blood were usually so little
colored, that it would hardly be noticed by one not acquainted with
the fact. Some of them had but one sixteenth part of Indian blood. Of
the two widows found there in 1861 one was the wife of a white man.
The other was a Marshpee Indian whose husband belonged to the
Yarmouth tribe and she associated with the people of color.

Discussing the Middleborough Indians, the same report said: "They
have been, for some time, commingled with them in the same
community, generally under as favorable circumstances, in most
respects, as the other colored population of the State, to which they
assimilate and have not been subjected to the peculiar present
disadvantages under which those labor who are residents of the
plantations,"[16]

Because of numerous complaints to the effect that the unnecessary
restrictions placed on Indians no longer dependents worked a
hardship, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts enacted in 1861 a
measure providing that all Indians and descendants of Indians in that
State should be placed on the same legal footing as other
inhabitants of that Commonwealth, excepting those who were
supported or had been, in whole or in part, by the State and
excepting also those residing on the Indian plantations of
Chappequiddick, Christiantown, Gay Head, Marshpee, Herring
Pond, Fall River and Dudley tribes or those whose homes were
thereon and were only temporarily absent. It further provided that
any Indian or person of color, thus denied the right of citizenship but
desirous of exercising that privilege might certify the same in writing
to the clerk of his town or city, who should make a record of the

same and upon the payment of a poll tax should become to all
intents and purposes a citizen of the State, but such persons should
not return to the legal condition of an Indian. Indians unable to avail
themselves of this opportunity remained under a guardian in their
former state but by complying with this provision they finally emerged
from their tribal state into the large body of citizens.

Giving further consideration to the situation among the Indians, the
legislature of Massachusetts passed in 1869 what is known as An
Act to Enfranchise the Indians of the Commonwealth. By this
measure practically all Indians in that State were made citizens
entitled to all the rights, privileges, and immunities and subject to all
the duties and liabilities to which other citizens were entitled or
subject. The same provision was made in the acts of 1884, 1890,
1892 and 1893.[17] With a proviso exempting from attachment or
seizure on execution for a debt or liability existing before the
passage of the law this measure further declared all Indian lands
"rightfully held by any Indian in severalty and all such lands which
had been or may be set off to any Indian should be and become the
property of such person and his heirs in fee simple."[18]

The Indians thereby became vested not only with the rights of any
other citizen to sell or control his interest in property whether legal or
equitable but were given similar rights in the common lands which
were transferable. Prior to this legislation the common lands had
been exploited by the State for the benefit of those Indians having
the status of wards. Recognizing only equitable rights of ownership
in the Indians, the commonwealth kept their property under public
guardianship to protect them from the consequences of their own
improvidence. Indians had the right immediately to have their share
of the common lands of the tribe transferred to them or sold for their
special benefit. They were granted also the right to have their share
in any funds or other property held in trust for the tribe turned over to
them.

The Indians of the Marshpee and Gay Head settlements, however,
were made exceptions in this case for the reason that the

improvement in their condition was not adequate to justify the
extension to them of the same treatment given others; but they were
given these same rights in 1870.[19] By the Act of 1870 the district of
Marshpee was abolished as such and incorporated as a town by that
name. To establish the claim to the rights and privileges guaranteed
other Indians in the Act of 1869, the Superior Court of the State was
given jurisdiction and a board of Selectmen was constituted as the
authority for making such applications instead of any member of a
tribe.

It would seem that this legislation of 1869 and 1870 solved the
problem of the wardship of Indians and free persons of color on the
reservations. It developed thereafter, however, that all members of
these communities were not in a position to maintain themselves. In
1902, therefore, it was enacted that the State Board of Charity upon
the application of the overseers of the poor of any town should make
provision in the State hospital or elsewhere for the support of Indians
who may be unable to support themselves and have not acquired a
settlement in any town. Upon the application of an Indian who
received aid from the commonwealth prior to the twenty-third day of
July in the year 1869, the State Board was obligated to furnish him in
the State hospital or elsewhere such aid as it might consider
expedient.

The provisions in the law of 1870 for the sale of certain lands in the
proceeds of which these persons would share led to further action. In
1870 the probate court appointed commissioners to make partition of
the common lands of the Marshpee Indians referred to in the Act of
1869. These commissioners did not make their report until 1878. In
1870 there was presented to the Superior Court by the Selectmen of
Marshpee a petition for the division of common lands among the
persons entitled thereto. In spite of argument to the contrary the
Supreme Court of Massachusetts held that the members of the
Indian tribes mentioned in the Act of 1869 acquired both legal and
equitable rights in tenants in common of the undivided lands of the
tribe which were transferable. It was provided in 1878 that the

proceeds from the sale of such lands should be divided among the
persons entitled to the land in proportion to their interests.

In 1870 the Gay Head district also was abolished and incorporated
as a town. The Indians were guaranteed the same rights to lands in
severalty and the division of common lands as in the case of other
Indian communities thus disestablished. The partition of these lands
was to be made in the Probate Court on application of the Selectmen
or ten resident owners of such land. An Indian feeling aggrieved
because of an invasion of his rights could appeal his case, according
to the provision set forth in chapter 117 of the General Statutes of
Massachusetts.[20]

Some of these Negroes from the very beginning of their association
with the Indians took high rank.[21] The most prominent Negro of all,
however, to come out of the Indian plantations was the celebrated
Paul Cuffé, well known in this country and Europe by his efforts in
behalf of African colonization. He was a native of the tribe of
Dartmouth Indians, of mixed African and white descent. His
important achievement was that of exploring the western coast of
Africa with ships which he owned and fitted out and commanded and
which he used in the transportation of Negroes to Africa where he
was the first to undertake the deportation of freedmen from the
United States, preparing the way for the organization of the
American Colonization Society. On one of his voyages he visited
England where he was received with marked attention by the nobility
and the royalty itself. Men who knew Cuffé considered him a man of
great character and respected him because of his being able by dint
of energy to accumulate sufficient property to place himself in
circumstances of pecuniary independence. Some of his descendants
remained in the vicinity of the original Dartmouth Indians but others
moved to California.[22]

Several families of Negroes in Massachusetts trace their ancestry
back to these Indians. According to the Attorney General of
Massachusetts, there are no special records kept at present of
Negroes or persons of color who had interbreeded with Indians as

regards the receipts by them of pensions from the commonwealth
given as the result of having been dispossessed of their lands. Some
persons of color assert, however, that they are the direct
descendants of King Philip and Massasoit. Because of this close
connection with the Indians it was necessary for the Commonwealth
of Massachusetts on dispossessing the Indians of their lands to give
these persons of color the benefits of the acts securing remuneration
to the Indians. As these lands were disposed of regardless of the
rights of the Indians, the State has assumed the obligation of
satisfying these claims by pensioning the complainants.

Mr. William George Butler, of West Medford, Massachusetts, a man
now sixty years of age, receives such a pension. Mr. Butler's father
came to Boston from Baltimore about 1815 and married a woman of
color with an infusion of Indian blood. In looking up her estate this
connection was discovered and a petition was sent to the
Massachusetts Legislature in her favor. Upon the investigation of her
claim, which proved to be just, she was granted a pension of $250 a
year, which Butler inherited.[23] In the following list of persons and
tribes from which are descended all Indians who are at present
receiving pensions from the Commonwealth, of Massachusetts,
however, appear several Negroes or persons of color.[24] These are:
Lemuel D. and Anna Burr Ponkapoag
Fannie S. Butler Wampanoag
William G. Butler Wampanoag
James L. Cisco Hassanamisco
Delia L. Daley Oneida
Alice Gigger Hassanamisco
Elbridge G. Gigger Hassanamisco
Angela M. Leach Pegon and Dudley
Rebecca C. Hammond Algonquin
Teeweleema Mitchell
Wontonekamuske Mitchell
Wampanoag
Wampanoag { Descendants of King
Phillip and Massasoit
Sarah B. Pocknett Algonquin
Zeriah Robinson Wampanoag
Samantha Talbot Oneida

C. G. Woodson

FOOTNOTES:
[1] Documents printed by order of the Senate of the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts during the Session of the Grand Court, 1861, No. 96, p.
10.

[2] The figures given by The Centinel differed a little from these.
According to its census in 1765, Barnstable had 516 Indians instead of
515; Bristol had 401 Negroes and 167 Indians; Essex 977 Negroes
instead of 1,070; Middlesex 871 Negroes and 37 Indians; Nantucket 93
Indians instead of 149; Norfolk 420 Negroes instead of 414; Plymouth
223 Indians instead of 227; Suffolk 891 Negroes instead of 844;
Worcester 304 Negroes instead of 267. See J. H. Benton's Early Census
making in Massachusetts.

[3] Documents printed by order of the Senate, 1861, No. 96, passim.

[4] Documents printed by order of the Senate of Massachusetts, 1861,
No. 96, p. 84.

[5] Documents printed by order of the Senate, 1861, No. 96, p. 10.

[6] Ibid., p. 34.

[7] The Laws of Massachusetts, 1811.

[8] Documents printed by order of the Senate, 1861, No. 96, pp. 38-39.

[9] Laws of Massachusetts, 1828.

[10] "Sixty-six out of the whole number of the tribe, at the time of the
enumeration, were not residents of the District; but 52 of them were
considered as retaining their rights in the tribe, and more than half of the
66 were understood to be only temporary residents abroad, expecting, at
some time, to return to Marshpee, and make it their permanent place of
residence. A few others, as a matter of personal convenience, are now
residing just over the line, and are so returned, but they consider
themselves as identified with the tribe in all respects, and are so
considered by the tribe. Fourteen individuals, included in the above 66,
whose names are in the 'Supplementary List,' own no land in the District,
but have been gone so long from it, that they are not now recognized by
residents as members of the tribe." Documents printed by order of the
Senate, 1861, No. 96, p. 40.

[11] Documents printed by order of the Senate, 1861, No. 96, p. 47.

[12] Ibid., pp. 73-74.

[13] Documents printed by order of the Senate, 1861, No. 96, p. 84.

[14] Documents printed by order of the Senate, 1861, No. 96, p. 101.

[15] Ibid., p. 109.

[16] Ibid., pp. 131-132.

[17] Massachusetts Acts of 1884, 1890, 1892, and 1893.

[18] Massachusetts Acts of 1869, Chapter 463.

[19] "A method was also provided through which his title might be
established. This was through Commissioners which were to be
appointed by the Probate Court who were to act under the direction of the
Court and determine all necessary questions and make their report from
which the Court could make its order or decrees. Any person who
deemed himself aggrieved had the right to appeal to the Supreme
Judicial Court. The right of the Indians became vested and forcible the
moment the statute took effect." See a statement from the present
Attorney General of Massachusetts, dated December 1, 1919.

[20] "Section 5, chapter 463 of the Acts of 1869 provided that the general
agent of the board of state charities shall take charge of the house, and
all property connected therewith, in the town of Webster, belonging to the
Commonwealth and permission was given him to lease the same to
persona heretofore known as members of the Dudley tribe of Indians,
upon terms substantially like those upon which they have heretofore
occupied it; or to sell the same at public auction under the direction of the
state board of charities and pay the proceeds of such lease or sale into
the Treasury of the Commonwealth." Statement of present Attorney
General of Massachusetts, submitted December 1, 1919.

[21] Samuel A. Drake, History of Middlesex County. Massachusetts, pp.
194, 280.

[22] John W. Cromwell, The Negro in American History, 98-103.

[23] These facts were obtained from Mr. Butler himself.

[24] This list was obtained from the office of the Attorney General of
Massachusetts.

DOCUMENTS
To meet the demand for an enlargement of the liberty granted the
Indians and the mixed breeds living on the reservations, the
Massachusetts Legislature enacted in 1861 the following measure
intended to offer every ambitious one of these groups a way of
escape from the wardship of the State and at the same time
safeguarding the interests of those who objected to having turned
loose upon society a large number of dependents who could not
function as persons having a permanent attachment to the
community and primarily concerned with the welfare of the body
politic.
Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

In the Year One Thousand Eight Hundred and Sixty-One.

AN ACT

Concerning the Indians of the Commonwealth

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives, in General Court
assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—

Sect. 1. All Indians and descendants of Indians in this State are hereby placed on the
same legal footing as the other inhabitants of the Commonwealth, excepting those who
are supported, or have been, in whole or in part, by the State, and excepting also,
those residing on the Indian plantations of the Chappequiddick, Christiantown, Gay
Head, Marshpee, Herring Pond, Fall River, and Dudley tribes, or those whose homes
are thereon and are only temporarily absent.

Sect. 2. Any Indian or person of color, belonging to either of the tribes before
mentioned, and residing within the limits of any town or city of this Commonwealth, to
whom the right of citizenship is not extended by the first section of this act but who
wishes to exercise that privilege, may certify the same in writing to the clerk of the town
or city where he resides, who shall make record of the same: and upon paying a poll
tax, he shall become, to all intents and purposes, a citizen of the State, and shall not,
thenceforward, return to the legal condition of an Indian. And settlement shall be
required, by those who become citizens, under the provisions of this act, in the same
manner they are acquired by other persons, under the General Statutes of the
Commonwealth.

Sect. 3. It shall be the duty of the governor, by and with the advice and consent of the
council, to appoint an able, discreet, and suitable person, to be Indian commissioner,
who shall hold his office for the term of three years, unless sooner removed by the
governor and council. And the governor and council shall fill all vacancies which shall
happen in said office, by death, resignation, expiration of said term, or otherwise. It
shall be the duty of said commissioner to exercise a careful supervision over the affairs
of all the Indians of the Commonwealth, not endowed by the provisions of this act, with
the rights of citizenship, and to aid them, by advice, counsel, and whatever other
suitable means may be within his control, to promote their welfare, to improve their
general condition, and to qualify themselves, judiciously, and with safety to themselves
and others, to be placed, at as early a time as may be, on the same legal footing as the
other inhabitants of the Commonwealth. He shall exercise all the powers, perform all
the duties, and be subject to all the restrictions, responsibilities and liabilities, which
now by law appertain to the treasurer of Marshpee, and to the guardians of other tribes
except so far as they may be charged or varied by the provisions of this act; and he
shall give bonds, to the satisfaction of the governor and council, for the faithful
performance of such trust.

Sect. 4. The said commissioner shall, as soon as is convenient, after his appointment,
cause a registration to be made, on the basis of the general registration of the State, of
all the members of the several tribes, specifying the parentage and date of the birth of
each, as near as can be ascertained, and the date of all marriages of parties now living,
with all the particulars, that are now required of town clerks, by the laws of the State,
and having completed the same, up to the time required by law for the last preceding
return to be made, he shall, thenceforward make and keep a true registration of all the
births, marriages, and deaths, in each of the said tribes, and shall annually make due
return thereof, the whole to be done in the same manner as is required of town clerks,
and under the same liabilities and conditions that are, by law, imposed upon them.

Sect. 5. The said commissioner shall, in concurrence with the proper officers of the Gay
Head tribe, cause a survey of all the land held in severalty, by the members of said
tribe, setting out the same to each, by betes and bounds, and, when the survey is
complete, shall cause a record of the portion of each proprietor to be made in the
registry of deeds, of the county of Dukes County, and thereupon, the legal title shall
vest in the several proprietors thereof, their heirs, and assigns, forever: provided,
however, that no land on the plantation shall ever be alienated from the tribe or be held
or possessed by any person who is not a member thereof; and when ever the family of
any proprietor becomes extinct, the real estate of said proprietor shall revert to said
tribe and become the property thereof, in common. And whenever, hereafter, any
common land shall be taken up to be occupied and possessed in severalty, by any
member of the tribe, having the concurrence of the tribe therein, the same shall be
surveyed, set forth, and recorded, under the supervision of said commissioner, as is
above provided; and no title to any common land, to be held in severalty, on said
plantation shall be acquired in any other manner.

Sect. 6. The said commission shall cause a survey to be made of the Indian plantation
at Fall River and the bounds thereof to be renewed, agreeably to the surveys made by
order of the State in one thousand seven hundred and sixty-three. He shall ascertain to
whom the several lots belong by hereditary descent from the proprietors to whom they
belonged in one thousand seven hundred and sixty-four, so far as descendants of said
proprietors still remain, and shall designate the same by the numbers of the lots

respectively; and in the same manner, he shall designate the several lots, if such there
be, of which the families of the former proprietors have become extinct, and shall make
return of the same to the governor and council, for the use of the legislature, and shall
report such other facts connected therewith as may be useful to them, and shall
recommend such disposition of the land remaining in common, as in his judgment, shall
be most conducive to the welfare of the Indians, and of the State.

Sect. 7. The said commissioner shall, as soon as the performance of the duties of his
office shall have made him sufficiently acquainted with the necessities and wants of the
Indians, and with the other facts necessary to qualify him for the service, prepare a bill
embodying a system for governing, managing, and regulating the affairs of the several
tribes, as nearly uniform in its provision respecting them severally, as the
circumstances of the different tribes will permit, as a substitute for the present laws on
that subject, and report the same to the governor and council for the consideration of
the legislature, accompanied by the reasons on which the several provisions therein
recommended are sustained.

Sect. 8. The Indians and people of color on Gay Head, and the officers by them
appointed for the purpose, shall have the same powers in the management of their
municipal affairs, and in relation to the employment of teachers, and the making and
enforcing of all rules for the regulation and government of their schools, that by law are
exercised by the inhabitants and corresponding officers of the several towns of the
Commonwealth: provided, however, that this shall not be construed to authorize the
alienation of any of the territory of the plantation: and provided, further, that no person
shall be authorized to vote in municipal affairs, except natives of the Gay Head tribe,
natives of other Indian tribes of this State married or having been married to a Gay
Head woman and resident on the plantation, or such other person resident on the
plantation and married or having been married to a Gay Head woman, as shall have
the right conferred on him by a vote of two-thirds of the voters of the plantation.

Sect. 9. All acts and parts of acts heretofore passed, so far as they conflict with the
provisions of this act, are hereby repealed.

Sect. 10. This act shall take effect from and after its passage.

If the legislature should decide not to authorize the appointment of a single
commissioner for the State, I would propose the passage of the same Bill with the
following amendments:—

Strike out the whole of section 3.

Strike out in section 4 the words "said commissioner shall, as soon as is convenient
after his appointment," and insert the words—clerks of Marshpee, the guardians of the
several plantation tribes, and the clerk of Gay Head shall.

In section 5, strike out the words "said commissioner," and insert the words—guardians
of the Chappequiddick and Christiantown tribes. Also, in the latter portion of the same
section, strike out the word "commissioner" and insert the word—guardian.

In section 6, strike out the words "said commissioner," and insert the words—guardian
of the Troy or Fall River tribe.

Strike out section 7, entire.

Alter the numbering of the sections after 2, to correspond to the changes.

Insert the following section after section 8:—

Sect. —. No person shall be entitled to support by any tribe in the State, of whose
parents, one only was an Indian, and whose residence was not on the plantation of the
tribe at the time of his birth, unless the rights of himself or parents as members of the
tribe, shall have been subsequently recognized by the tribe.

SOME NEGRO MEMBERS OF
RECONSTRUCTION CONVENTIONS AND
LEGISLATURES AND OF CONGRESS [1]
No systematic effort has hitherto been made to save the records of
the Negro during the Reconstruction period. American public opinion
has been so prejudiced against the Negroes because of their
elevation to prominence in southern politics that it has been
considered sufficient to destroy their régime and forget it. As future
historians will seek for facts beyond those compiled by biased
investigators now writing monographs in this field, a few persons
realizing the importance of preserving the records in which the actual
facts are set forth, are now directing the attention of the country to
this neglected aspect of our history. These lists of suggestive names
of the men who figured conspicuously in this recent drama will be
decidedly useful in the collection of facts adequate to the
presentation of both sides of the question. These lists are far from
being complete. This is but a step in the right direction and persons
in possession of such facts are earnestly urged to coöperate in
collecting them.

It has been extremely difficult to determine the race of the members
of the various Reconstruction bodies. The lists of members as
published in the Journals of the legislatures do not indicate the race.
This has to be determined by contemporary information. The
methods used by other persons and agencies in identifying the race
have been various. The Negro members of the North Carolina
General Assembly, for example, were indicated by the figure 37 in
the State Manual listing all persons who had been in the Assembly.
Where no such information could be obtained from printed matter, it
has been necessary to rely upon information obtained from
individuals who participated in the Reconstruction.

Negro Members of the Alabama Constitutional Convention, 1867[2]

District Name County
1st John Carraway Mobile
Ovide Gregory Mobile
6th Thomas Diggs Barbour
7th B. F. Royal Bullock
13th Washington Johnson Russell
15th Peyton Finley Montgomery
16th H. Stokes Dallas
J. Hatcher Dallas
17th J. Wright McLeod Marengo
18th Benjamin Inge Sumter
19th Samuel Blanden Lee
21st Thomas Lee Perry
22nd J. K. Greene Hale
B. F. Alexander Greene
42nd Lafayette Robinson Madison
C. Jones Madison
43rd J. T. Rapier Lauderdale

Negro Members of the Alabama Constitutional Convention, 1875[2]
District Name County
H. A. Carson Lowndes
25th A. H. Curtis Perry
21st G. S. W. Lewis Perry

Senate[3]

Session 1872-1874
Name County
Jeremiah Haralson Dallas
J. W. Jones Lowndes
Lloyd Leftwich Greene
B F. Royal Bullock

Session 1874-1875 and 1875-1876
Name County
A. A. Curtis Perry
J. K. Greene Hale
Jeremiah Haralson[4] Dallas
J. W. Jones Lowndes
Lloyd Leftwich Greene

B. F. Royal Bullock

House

Session 1868 and 1869-1870
Name County
Benjamin Alexander Greene
J. H. Alston Macon
Matt Avery Perry
Samuel Blandon Lee
N. A. Brewington Lowndes
John Carraway (Speaker of House) Mobile
George Cox Montgomery
Thomas Diggs Barbour
Joseph Draun Dallas
J. K. Greene Hale
Ovide Gregory Mobile
George Houston Sumter
Benjamin Inge Sumter
C. Jones Madison
G. S. W. Lewis Perry
David Law Barbour
Jeff McCally Madison
H. W. W. Rice Talladega
James Shaw Mobile
Lawrence S. Speed Bullock
Holland Thompson Montgomery
William V. Turner Elmore
Latty J. Williams Montgomery
Henry Young Lowndes

Session 1870-1871 and 1871-1872
Name County
H. Craig Montgomery
A. H. Curtis Perry
Thomas Diggs Barbour
John Dozier Perry
William D. Gaskins Lowndes
Ned Gee Dallas
J. K. Greene Hale
Jeremiah Haralson Dallas
R. L. Johnson Dallas
Lawrence S. Speed Bullock

Henry St. Clair Macon
Holland Thompson Montgomery
Mansfield Tyler Lowndes
Latty J. Williams Montgomery

House

Session 1872-1873 and 1873-1874
Name County
W. E. Carson Lowndes
T. J. Clark Barbour
Mentor Dotson Sumter
John Dozier Perry
Hale Ellsworth Montgomery
Samuel Fantroy Barbour
J. H. Goldsby Dallas
J. K. Green Hale
R. L. Johnson Dallas
Reuben Jones Madison
G. S. W. Lewis Perry
Perry Matthews Bullock
January Maul Lowndes
G. R. Miller Russell
Willis Merriweather Wilcox
S. J. Patterson Autauga
George Patterson Macon
Robert Reid Sumter
Bristo W. Reese Hale
Lawrence S. Speed Bullock
Henry St. Clair Macon
Lawson Stelle Montgomery
F. H. Threat Marengo
J. R. Treadwell Russell
Thomas Walker Dallas
E. A. Williams Barbour
Latty J. Williams Montgomery
William V. Turner, Assistant Clerk Elmore
Phillip Joseph, Engrossing Clerk Mobile
W. H. Council, Assistant Engrossing Clerk Madison
C. O. Harris, Assistant Enrolling Clerk Montgomery
Stephen Russell, Page Montgomery

House

Session 1874-1875 and 1875-1876
Name County
Elijah Baldwin Wilcox
W. H. Blevins Dallas
Matt Boyd Perry
H. V. Cashin Montgomery
Elijah Cook Montgomery
Charles Fagan Montgomery
W. D. Gaskin[5] Lowndes
Captain Gilmer Montgomery
C. E. Harris Dallas
A. W. Johnson Macon
Samuel Lee Lowndes
G. S. W. Lewis Perry
Jacob Martin Dallas
P. Matthews Bullock
G. W. Allen Bullock
Willis Merriweather Wilcox
George Patterson Macon
Bristo W. Reese Hale
Robert Reid Sumter
C. S. Smith Bullock
Manly Wynne Hale
H. A. Carson[6] Lowndes
E. W. Locke[6] Wilcox

Negro Members of Congress From Alabama
Year Name County Congress
1871-1873 Benjamin F. Turner Dallas 43rd
1873-1875 James T. Rapier Lauderdale 43rd
1875-1877 Jeremiah Haralson Dallas 44th

James H. Alston was a member of the Alabama Legislature for
Macon County, 1868 and 1869-79. He was a shoemaker by trade
and had formerly been a slave. It was reported that before the war
there was a Military Company in the town of Tuskegee. The
members of this company desired to have a drummer, and for this
purpose they sent to South Carolina and bought James H. Alston. It
was thought that he came from Charleston.

Henry Young was a member of the Alabama Legislature about 1868
and 1869-70. He was a slave who could read and write, having been
taught by his master's children. He would, somewhat like Frederick
Douglass, spell out the words on letters that he was called upon to
deliver or to get from the post office, and in this way he also
increased his ability to read.

Conway, Ark.,—October 14, 1916.

NEGROES IN POLITICS IN ARKANSAS DURING RECONSTRUCTION

In the constitutional convention of 1868, there were 8 Negro delegates, that is, J. W.
Mason, Richard Samuels, William Murphy, Monroe Hawkins, William Grey, James T.
White, Henry Rector and Thomas P. Johnson. (Proceedings of the Constitutional
Convention of 1868, pages 2 to 5.)

Negroes in the Arkansas Legislature: Session April 2 to July 23, 1869, and session
November 17, 1868, to April 10, 1869, were seven Negro members of whom J. W.
Mason, the leading Negro in the Senate; W. H. Grey, leading Negro in the House.
(Daily Republican, Oct. 1, 1868).

In the Legislature of January 2 to March 25, 1871, there were eleven Negro members:
J. W. Mason and J. T. White in the Senate: J. M. Alexander, Austin Barrow, Conway
Barbour, John Webb, Adam Johnson, Jeff Haskins, A. Mays, William Young, Carl Pope,
A. J. Robinson, E. A. Fulton in the House. (Daily Republican, March 25, 1871.)

In the 19th session, January 6 to April 25, 1873, the last session before Baxter called
his special session, something less than one fifth of all the members were Negroes. I
have been unable to ascertain the exact number in this session, but from the
standpoint of numbers, I would judge that there is no great difference between this
session and the previous one. The Arkansas Gazette of January 12, 1873, says of the
Negro members: "There are a few men among these colored members who are bright
and intelligent, and much superior to some white members, but as a rule, this is not the
case."

(Signed) Thomas S. Staples,
Hendrix College
Conway, Arkansas

Negro Members of the Florida Legislature during Reconstruction
Period and After

Senate

Year Name County
1880-1888 H. W. Chandler Marion
1881 T. V. Gibbs Duval
80's Joseph E. Lee Duval
.... Thomas W. Long Marion
1881 Robert Meacham Jefferson
1881-1865 Daniel C. Martin Alachua
.... G. W. Proctor Jefferson
1863 John E. Proctor Leon
80's Egbert C. Sammis Duval
.... John Wallace Leon

Representatives
Year Name County
1885 Edward I. Alexander[7] Madison
.... Josiah Armstrong Columbia
.... Henry Black Jefferson
1879 Kellis B. Bonner Marion
.... James Dean Bryant Monroe
.... William Bradwell Duval
1881-83 Joseph N. Clinton Alachua
1881 Wallace B. Carr Leon
.... Lucian Fisher Leon
.... John Ford Leon
.... Samuel Frazier Leon
.... Robert Gabriel Monroe
.... Alfred Grant Duval
1881 David E. Jacobs Marion
Before 1881 Isaac Jenkins Leon
.... A. J. Junius Jefferson
.... Thorns W. Long Marion
1889-91 George A. Lewis[8]
80's Joseph E. Lee Duval
.... Samuel Petty Nassau
1881-83 (about) A. B. Osgood
.... Charles H. Pierce Leon
80's Riley E. Robinson Nassau
.... Henry St. Clair Hernando
.... John R. Scott, Sr. Duval
.... I. E. Purcell Putnam

Representatives

Year Name County
1889-91 John R. Scott, Jr. Duval
.... Charles Shavers Monroe
.... Rev. Catherine B. Simmons Duval
80's Peter Okes Jefferson
.... W. G. Stewart Leon
Before 1881 John N. Stokes Leon
.... N. Trenton Alachua
.... Josiah T. Walls Alachua
Probably before 1881 R. W. Washington Jefferson
80's George W. Wetmore Duval
1881-83 W. A. Wilkinson Marion
.... George W. Witherspoon Escambia

Joseph N. Clinton was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, November
4, 1854, and was reared in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He attended
the Institute For Colored Youth and then entered Lincoln University,
where he was graduated in 1873. He then taught school in South
Carolina, Maryland and Florida. In addition to being a member of the
Florida Legislature, 1881-83, he was clerk in the United States Land
Office of Florida. He was Inspector of Customs at Pensacola, and for
fourteen years held the position of Internal Revenue Collector at
Tampa.

H. W. Chandler was Senator, Marion County, 1880-1888. For sketch
of early life, see Simmons' Men of Mark. He was delegate to the
National Republican Convention 1884-1908. He was Inspector of
Customs at Tampa from May 1908 to December 1913.

George H. Mays was marshal of Jacksonville. This was an elective
office. The position made him head of police force with appointive
powers.

James Dean was County Judge, Monroe County in 1889, but served
less than one year. He was impeached for issuing license to a
colored Cuban man to marry a white Cuban woman. This a custom
in Cuba. Dean was impeached on ground that he had issued license
to Negro to marry a white woman. He was summarily removed
without a hearing. This was said to have been a put-up job, as the
man was secured to get a license. Dean did not have a trial. The

only way to get case reviewed was to institute quo warranto
proceedings. To do this, it was necessary to get the permission of
the State's Attorney General to use the State's name. He was not
able to do this.

Mitchell Chappelle was Negro Mayor of LaVilla. Formerly these were
two adjoining towns, Jacksonville and LaVilla. The two are now
Jacksonville.

Charles Dupont was reported as being sheriff of Monroe County
about 27 years ago.

In 1887 Republicans went out of power in Florida. The Constitutional
Convention put Negroes and Republicans out.

Negro Members of the Georgia Legislature, 1868-69

Senate
Year District Name
1868-68 ...... A. Alpeoria Bradley (expelled).
1868-69 2nd Tunis G. Campbell (unseated, 1868-69)[10]
reseated in 1870.
1868-69 20th George Wallace (unseated, 1868-69)[10]
reseated in 1870.

House
Year Name County
1868-69 T .M. Allen Jasper Unseated 1862-69, Reseated in 1870[10]]
E. Barnes Hancock " "
T. G. Campbell McIntosh " "
G. H. Clower Monroe " "
A. Colby Greene " "
J. T. Costin Talbot " "
Monday Floyd Warren " "
S. Gardner Warren " "
W. A. Golden Liberty " "
W. H. Harrison Hancock " "
U. L. Houston Bryan " "
Philip Joiner Dougherty " "
George Linder Laurens " "

R. Lumpkin Macon Unseated 1862-69, Reseated in 1870[10]
Romulus Moore Columbia " "
Peter O 'Neal Baldwin " "
James Porter Chatham " "
A. Richardson Clarke " "
J. M. Sims Chatham " "
Abram Smith Muscogee " "
Alexander Stone Jefferson " "
H. M. Turner Bibb " "
J. Warren Glynn " "
Samuel Williams Burke " "
M. Claiborne Harris " "
R. B. Hall Burke " "
—— Beard[11] Richmond
—— Belcher[11] Wilkins
Madison Davis[11] Clarke
—— Fyall[11] Macon

House
Year Name County
1871 James Blue[12] Glynn
1872 " "
1873 " "
1874 " "
1874 " "
1875 " "
1876 " "
1877 " "
1878 Thomas M. Butler[12] Camden
1879 " "
1884 A. Wilson[12] Camden
1885 " "
1886 Lectured Crawford[12] McIntosh
1887 " "
1890 " "
John M. Holzendorf Camden
1891 Lectured Crawford McIntosh
John M. Holzendorf Camden
1900 Lectured Crawford McIntosh
H. A. McKay[12] Liberty
1901 Lectured Crawford McIntosh
H. A. McKay Liberty

1902 W. H. Rogers[12] McIntosh
1903 " "
1904 " "
1905 " "
1906 " "
1907 " "
1908 " "

List of Negro Members in Mississippi Legislature—1870

Senate
Name County
Rev. H. R. Revels Adams
Rev. William Gray Washington
Rev. T. W. Stringer Warren
Charles Caldwell Hinds
Rubert Gleed Lowndes

House
Name County
Charles P. Head Warren
Peter Barrow Warren
Albert Johnson Warren
Henry Mayson Hinds
C. F. Norris Hinds
J. F. Bolden Lowndes
John R. Lynch Adams
H. P. Jacobs Adams
Edmund Scarborough Holmes
Cicero Mitchell Holmes
Dr. J. J. Spellman Madison
William Holmes Monroe
Isham Stewart Noxubee
Nathan McNeese Noxubee
A. R. Davis Noxubee
John Morgan Washington
Dr. Stiles Washington
W. H. Fonte Yazoo
Ambrose Henderson Chickasaw
M. T. Newsom Claiborne
Emanuel Handy Copiah
Merrimon Howard Jefferson

J. Aaron Moore Lauderdale
David Higgins Oktibbeha
C. A. Yancy Panola
J. H. Piles Panola
H. M. Faley Wilkinson
George W. White Wilkinson
C. M. Bowles Bolivar
Richard Griggs Issaquena
George Charles Lawrence

John R. Lynch elected speaker of the House.
H. R. Revels elected to United State Senate for the unexpired term.
—From J. M. Garner, Reconstruction in Mississippi, New York, 1901.

Negroes Elected in 1871[13]
Name County
Henry P. Jacobs Adams
Reuben Kendrick Amite
Joseph Smothers Claiborne
Thomas McCain DeSota
Monroe Bell Hinds
William Johnson Hinds
F. Stewart Holmes
Richard Griggs Issaquena
William Landers Jefferson
Alfred Handy Madison
Arthur Brooks Monroe
A. K. Davis Noxubee
Randle Nettles Oktibbeha
John Cocke Panola
H. C. Carter Warren
F. D. Shadd Warren
J. H. Morgan Washington
H. M. Foley Wilkinson
James M. Dixon Yazoo
R. W. Houston Issaquena
John R. Lynch Adams
G. W. Gayles Bolivar
Emanuel Handy Copiah
J. H. Johnson DeSota
Charles Reese Hinds
H. H. Truehart Holmes
Perry Howard Holmes
James D. Cessar Jefferson

James J. Spelman Madison
James Hill Marshall
William Holmes Monroe
Isham Stewart Noxubee
James H. Piles Panola
Gilbert Smith Tunica
W. H. Mallory Warren
Charles W. Bush Warren
John D. Webster Washington
George W. White Wilkinson
F. D. Wade Yazoo

Additions and Corrections for Mississippi

Josiah T. Settle was a member of the House from Panola in 1883-84.

G. W. Gayles was a member of the House 1873-77 and a member of
the Senate 1877 to some time after 1886. He was the last Negro to
be a member of the Mississippi Senate. For sketch of his career see
Simmons' Men of Mark, 379-381.

Garner, Reconstruction in Mississippi, page 294, gives Negro
members of the Mississippi Legislature for 1873 as Senate, 9;
House, 55. On page 402, for 1876, Senate, 5; House, 16. Total
membership, Senate, 37. Total membership, House, 116.

Negro Members of the North Carolina Reconstruction Constitutional
Conventions, 1868 and 1875

Dates of the Conventions January 14-March 17, 1868, and
September 6-October 11, 1875. Total members of each Convention
120. Negro members, 13 in Convention of 1868, and 5 in Convention
of 1875.

County Year Name
Bertie 1868 P. D. Robbins
Bryant Lee
Caswell 1868 Wilson Cary
Caswell 1875 Wilson Cary
Craven 1868 C. D. Pierson
Duplin 1868 J. W. Petterson

Samuel Highsmith
Edgcombe 1868 Henry C. Cherry
Edgcombe 1875 W. P. Mabson
Franklin 1868 John H. Williamson
Halifax 1868 Henry Epps
W. J. T. Hayes
Halifax 1875 J E. O'Hara
New Hanover 1868 A. H. Galloway
New Hanover 1875 J. H. Smythe
Wake 1868 James H. Harris
Warren 1868 John Hyman
Warren 1875 J. O. Crosby

Negro Members of General Assembly of North Carolina During
Reconstruction Period and After[15]
County Year Senatorial District Senators Representatives
Bertie 1868 ........ .......... Parker D. Robbins
Bertie 1870 .......... Parker D. Robbins
Bertie 1876 3rd George A. Mebane ..........
Bertie 1881 .......... Augustus Robbins
Bertie 1883 3rd George A. Mebane ..........
Bladen 1874 .......... John Newell
Bladen 1879 .......... John Newell
Bladen 1881 .......... John Newell
Bladen 1883 .......... John Newell
Caswell 1868 .......... Wilson Cary
Caswell 1870 24th Wilson Cary ..........
Caswell 1874 .......... Wilson Cary
Caswell 1876 .......... Wilson Cary
Caswell 1879 .......... Wilson Cary
Caswell 1883 .......... James W. Poe
Caswell 1889 .......... Wilson Cary
Chowan 1870 .......... John R. Page
Chowan 1874 .......... Richard Elliott
Craven 1868 .......... A. W. Stevens
B. W. Morris
Craven 1870 .......... R. Tucker
E. R. Dudley
G. B. Willis
Craven 1872 .......... I. B. Abbott
E. R. Dudley
Craven 1874 8th Richard Tucker John R. Good
Edward H. Hill
Craven 1879 .......... Willis D. Pettipher

Craven 1881 .......... J. (Geo.) H. White
Craven 1885 8th George H. White John E. Hussey
Craven 1887 8th Charles C. Clark John E. Hussey
Craven 1889 .......... John E. Hussey
Craven 1899 .......... Isaac H. Smith
Cumberland 1868 .......... John S. Leary
Isham Sweat
Edgecombe 1868 .......... Henry C. Cherry
Edgecombe 1870 .......... Willis Bunn
R. M. Johnson
Edgecombe 1872 7th Henry Eppes Willis Bunn
Edgecombe 1874 5th W. P. Mabson Willis Bunn
Edgecombe 1876 5th W. P. Mabson Willis Bunn
Edgecombe 1883 5th Robert R. Gray A. R. Bridgers
Edgecombe 1885 5th R. S. Taylor B. W. Thorpe
Edgecombe 1887 5th R. S. Taylor ..........
Franklin 1868 .......... John H. Williamson
Franklin 1870 .......... John H. Williamson
Franklin 1872 .......... John H. Williamson
Franklin 1876 .......... John H. Williamson
Franklin 1887 .......... John H. Williamson
Granville 1868 .......... Cuffie Mayo
A. A. Crawford
Granville 1870 .......... W. H. Reavis
Granville 1872 .......... H. T. Hughes
Granville 1874 .......... W. H. Crews
H. T. Hughes
Granville 1876 21st Hanson T. Hughes W. H. Crews
Granville 1893 .......... W. H. Crews
Halifax 1868 6th Henry Epps H. T. J. Hayes
Ivey Hutchings
Halifax 1870 6th Henry Epps John R. Bryant
Halifax 1872 4th Henry Epps John R. Bryant
Halifax 1874 4th John R. Bryant J. A. Jones
John A. White
Halifax 1876 4th John R. Bryant John A. White
Halifax 1879 4th Henry Eppes John A. White
Halifax 1887 4th Henry Eppes John A. White
Hertford 1870 .......... W. D. Newsom
New Hanover 1868 13th A. H. Galloway George W. Price
John S. W. Eagle
New Hanover 1870 13th G. W. Price, Jr. G. L. Mabson
New Hanover 1872 12th George L. Mabson Wm. H. McLaurin
Alfred Lloyd
New Hanover 1874 .......... H. Brewington

W. H. Moore
Alfred Lloyd
New Hanover 1876 12th W. H. Moore J. C. Hill
New Hanover 1879 .......... H. E. Scott
New Hanover 1881 12th H. E. Scott ..........
New Hanover 1883 12th H. E. Scott ..........
Northampton 1883 .......... Wiley Baker
Wake 1868 .......... James H. Harris
Wake 1870 .......... Willis Morgan
Stewart Ellison
Wake 1872 18th James H. Harris Stewart Ellison
Wake 1879 .......... Stewart Ellison
Wake 1883 .......... James H. Harris
Wake 1895 .......... James H. Young
Wake 1897 .......... James H. Young
Warren 1868 20th John A. Hyman William Cawthorn
Richard Falkner
Warren 1870 20th John A. Hyman William Cawthorn
Richard Falkner
Warren 1872 19th John A. Hyman J. W.H. Paschall
Warren 1874 19th John M. Paschall ..........
Warren 1879 19th Isaac Alston ..........
Warren 1891 19th Isaac Alston ..........
Washington 1881 .......... Alexander Hicks

Number White and Negro Members Each Session of the Assembly in
which there were Negro Members

(Number Senators in Assembly, 50; Representatives, 120)
Year White Negro
1868 Senators 47 3
Representatives 102 18
1870 Senators 46 4
Representatives 101 19
1872 Senators 45 5
Representatives 108 12
1874 Senators 45 4
Representatives 107 13
1876 Senators 45 5
Representatives 113 7
1879 Senators 48 2
Representatives 114 6
1881 Senators 49 1

Representatives 116 4
1883 Senators 47 3
Representatives 115 5
1885 Senators 48 2
Representatives 118 2
1887 Senators 47 3
Representatives 117 3
1889 Senators 50 -
Representatives 118 2
1891 Senators 49 1
Representatives 120 -
1893 Senators 50 -
Representatives 119 1
1895 Senators 50 -
Representatives 119 1
1897 Senators 50 -
Representatives 119 1
1899 Senators 49 1
Representatives 119 1

Delegates to the South Carolina Constitutional Convention[16] Held
at Charleston, January 14 to March 18, 1868[17]

Abbeville—John A. Hunter, B. Milford, white; H. J. Lomax, W. N. Joiner, Thomas
Williamson, colored.

Anderson—William Perry, N. J. Newall, white; Samuel Johnson, colored.

Berkeley—M. F. Becker, D. H. Chamberlain, Timothy Hurley, Joseph H. Jenks, A. C.
Richmond, white; William Jervey, Benjamin Byas, W. H. W. Gray, George Lee, colored.

Beaufort—J. D. Bell, R. G. Holmes, white; F. E. Wilder, L. S. Langley, W. J. Whipper,
Robert Smalls, J. J. Wright, colored.

Barnwell—C. P. Leslie, Niles G. Parker, white; James N. Hayne, A. Middleton, C. D.
Hayne, Julius Mayer, colored.

Charleston—A. G. Mackey, C. C. Bowen, Gilbert Pillsbury, white; F. L. Cardozo, William
McKinlay, R. H. Cain, R. C. DeLarge, A. J. Ransier, colored.

Chester—Purvis Alexander, Barney Burton, Sancho Sanders, colored.

Chesterfield—R. J. Donaldson, white; H. L. Shrewsbury, colored.

Clarendon—Elias E. Dickson, white; William Nelson, colored.

Colleton—J. S. Craig, white; William M. Thomas, William Driffle, W. M. Vinery, colored.

Darlington—B. F. Whittemore, white; Isaac Brockenton, Jordan Lang, Richard Humbird,
colored.

Edgefield—Frank Arnim, white; R. B. Elliott, Prince R. Rivers, John Bonum, David
Harris, John Wooley, colored.

Fairfield—James M. Rutland, white; H. D. Edwards, Henry Jacob, colored.

Georgetown—Henry W. Webb, white; F. F. Miller, Joseph H. Rainey, colored.

Greenville—James M. Allen, J. M. Runion, white; Wilson Cook, W. B. Johnson, colored.

Horry—Henry Jones, A. R. Thompson, colored.

Kershaw—J. K. Jillson, S. G. W. Dill, white; John A. Chestnut, colored.

Lancaster—Albert Clinton, Charles Jones, colored.

Lexington—Lemanuel Boozer, Simeon Corley, white.

Laurens—Joseph Crews, Y. J. P. Owens, white; Harry McDaniels, Nelson Davis,
colored.

Marion—W. S. Collins, white; J. W. Johnson, H. E. Hayne, B. A. Thompson, colored.

Marlboro—Calvin Stubbs, George Jackson, colored.

Newberry—B. O. Duncan, white; James Henderson, Lee Nance, colored.

Orangeburg—E. W. M. Mackey, white; E. J. Cain, W. J. McKinlay, T. K. Sasportas, B. F.
Randolph, colored.

Pickens—M. Mauldin, Alexander Bryce, L. B. Johnson, white.

Richland—Thomas J. Robertson, white; W. B. Nash, S. B. Thompson, C. M. Wilder,
colored.

Spartanburg—J. P. F. Camp, J. S. Gentry, white; Rice Foster, Coy Wingo, colored.

Sumter—T. J. Coghlan, F. J. Moses, Jr., white; W. E. Johnson, Samuel Lee, colored.

Union—J. H. Goss, white; Abram Dogan, Samuel Nuckles, colored.

Williamsburg—William Darrington, white; C. M. Olsen, S. A. Swails, colored.

York—J. L. Neagle, William E. Rose, white; J. W. Mead, J. H. White, colored.

Three of the delegates elected failed to attend,—F. A. Sawyer, white,
Charleston; John K. Terry, white, Colleton; George D. Medis, colored,
Edgefield.

Of the 124 delegates elected, forty-eight were white and seventy-six
colored. The white men classed as Republicans were about equally
divided as natives or newcomers—in the vernacular of the times,
"scalawags" or "carpetbaggers."

The following table gives the previous residence of the delegates:
Whites Negroes
South Carolina 23 South Carolina 59
North Carolina 3 Pennsylvania 2
Georgia 1 Michigan 1
Massachusetts 7 Georgia 1
Connecticut 1 Tennessee 1
Rhode Island 1 Ohio 1
New York 1 North Carolina 1
Other Northern States 5 Virginia 1
England 2 Massachusetts 2
Ireland 1 Dutch Guiana 1
Prussia 1 Unknown 6
Denmark 1 ——
Unknown 1 76
——
48

Senators of South Carolina—Reconstruction Period[18]
*[19]—— Barber Fairfield Co.
—— Bird Fairfield Co.
R. H. Cain Charleston Co.
*Lawrence Cain Edgefield Co.
*Rev. H. Cardozo Kershaw Co.
F. A. Clinton Lancaster Co.
*S. E. Gaillard Charleston Co.
Samuel Green Beaufort Co. formerly of H. of Rep.
*C. D. Hayne Aiken Co.
H. E. Hayne Marion Co.
*W. R. Jervey Charleston Co.
*Rev. W. E. Johnson Sumter Co.
*W. H. Jones Georgetown Co.
*—— Jamison Orangeburg Co.
*John Lee Chester Co.
H. J. Maxwell Marlboro Co.
*W. F. Myers Colleton Co.
W. Beverley Nash Richland Co.

J. H. Rainey Georgetown Co.
Rev. B. F. Randolph Orangeburg Co.
*Robert Smalls Beaufort Co.
S. A. Swails Williamsburg Co.
*J. H. White York Co.
Rev. B. H. Williams Georgetown Co.
Lucius Wimbush Chester Co.
*Thomas E. Miller Beaufort Co.
R. E. Wall Kershaw Co.

Member of the House of Representatives of South Carolina During
Reconstruction Period[20]
*—— Bascomb Beaufort Co.
S. J. Bampfield Beaufort Co.
B. A. Bosemon Charleston Co.
Joseph D. Boston Newberry Co.
*J. A. Bowley Georgetown Co.
Benjamin Byas Berkley Co.
E. J. Cain Berkley Co.
*J. E. Clyde Charleston Co.
Wilson Cook Greenville Co.
*—— Davis Charleston Co.
*James Davis Richland Co.
R. C. DeLarge Charleston Co.
W. A. Driffle Colleton Co.
*Major M. R. Delaney Charleston Co.
*William Elliott Charleston Co.
R. B. Elliott Edgefield Co.
*—— Ellison Abbeville Co.
*—— Fraser Colleton Co.
*John Freeman Charleston Co.
*F. H. Frost Williamsburg Co.
*John Gilmore Richland Co.
*W. A. Grant Charleston Co.
*Adam Green Aiken Co.
Charles Green Georgetown Co.
*Samuel Green Beaufort Co.
Thomas Hamilton Beaufort Co.
David Harris Edgefield Co.
*H. E. Hayne Marion Co.
*Zachariah Hines Darlington Co.
*—— Howard Marion Co.
Richard Humbert Darlington Co.
Rev. H. H. Hunter Charleston Co.

*S. J. Keith Darlington Co.
S. J. Lee Edgefield Co.
Harry McDaniels Laurens Co.
*Thomas McDowell Georgetown Co.
John W. Mead York Co.
Thos. E. Miller Beaufort Co.
*A. Middleton Barnwell Co.
Chas. S. Minort Richland Co.
June Mobley Union Co.
*Wm. Moultrie Georgetown Co.
Nathaniel B. Myers Beaufort Co.
*—— Nehemiah Beaufort Co.
*Fred Nix, Jr. Barnwell Co.
Saml. Nuckles Union Co.
*Lee Nance Newberry Co.
R. J. Palmer Richland Co.
M. H. Priolean Charleston Co.
*J. H. Rainey Georgetown Co.
G. A. Reed Beaufort Co.
Prince Rivers Edgefield Co.
*John Rue Beaufort Co.
Sancho Saunders Chester Co.
H. L. Shrewsbury Chesterfield Co.
*—— Singleton Darlington Co.
*Paris Simpkins Edgefield Co.
Wm, Simmons Richland Co.
J. A. Smith Darlington Co.
*Butler Spears Sumter Co.
*Jas. A. Spencer Abbeville Co.
*Nath. T. Spencer Charleston Co.
D. A. Straker Orangeburg
W. H. Thomas Newberry Co.
Rev. W. M. Thomas Colleton Co.
S. B. Thompson Richland Co.
*Robert Turner Charleston Co.
James Wells Richland Co.
*Ellison Weston Richland Co.
W. J. Whipper Richland Co.
B. A. Thompson Marion Co.
*Isaac Brockenboro Darlington Co.
*T. Andrews Sumter Co.

Additional names by Bishop George W. Clinton.
Aaron Logan

Nelson Davis, York
Allen Hudson, Lancaster
Alfred M. Moore, Fairfield
Samuel P. Coker.

See Reynold's Reconstruction, p. 505.

Members of South Carolina General Assembly, 1868[22]

Senators
*Anderson—John H. Reid, white.
Barnwell—C. P. Leslie, white.
Beaufort—J. J. Wright, colored.
Charleston—D. T. Corbin, white; R. H. Cain, colored.
Chester—Lewis Wimbush, colored.
Chesterfield—R. J. Donaldson, white.
Clarendon—E. E. Dickson, white.
Colleton—William R. Hoyt, colored.
Darlington—B. F. Whittemore, white.
Edgefield—Frank Arnim, white.
Fairfield—James M. Rutland, white.
Georgetown—Joseph H. Rainey, colored.
Greenville—James M. Allen, white.
*Horry—H. Buck, white.
Kershaw—J. K. Jillson, white.
*Lancaster—R. M. Sims, white.
Laurens—Y. J. P. Owens, white.
Lexington—E. S. J. Hayes, white.
Marlboro—H. J. Maxwell, colored.
Marion—Henry E. Hayne, colored.
Newberry—C. W. Montgomery, white.
*Oconee—D. Biemann, white.
Orangeburg—B. F. Randolph, colored, succeeded by Joseph A. Greene, colored.
*Pickens—T. A. Rodgers, white.
Richland—W. B. Nash, colored.
*Spartanburg—Joel Foster, white.
Sumter—T. J. Coghlan, white.
Union—H. W. Duncan, colored.
Williamsburg—S. A. Swails, colored.
York—William E. Rose, white.

The number of white senators elected was twenty-one, and of
colored, ten.

Representatives
Abbeville—George Dusenberry, T. B. Milford, James Martin, white; R. M. Valentine, W.
J. Lomax, colored.

*Anderson—John B. Moore, B. Frank Sloan, John Wilson, all white.

Barnwell—B. F. Berry, W. J. Mixson, white; C. D. Hayne, James N. Hayne, Julius
Mayer, R. B. Elliott, colored.

Beaufort—C. J. Stolbrand, Charles S. Kuh, white; W. J. Whipper, P. E. Ezekiel, Robert
Smalls, G. A. Bennett, W. C. Morrison, colored.

Charleston—Reuben Tomlinson, Joseph H. Jenks, John B. Dennis, F. J. Moses, Jr., B.
F. Jackson, white; R. C. DeLarge, A. J. Ransier, colored.

W. H. W. Gray, B. A. Bosemon, George Lee, William McKinlay, W. J. Brodie, John B.
Wright, William R. Jervay, Abraham Smith, Samuel Johnson, Stephen Brown, Edward
Mickey, colored.

The counties marked * were Democratic.

Chester—Barney Humphries, Sancho Sanders, Barney Burton, colored.

Chesterfield—H. L. Shrewsberry, D. I. J. Johnson, colored.

Clarendon—William Nelson, Powell Smyth, colored.

Colleton—George F. McIlntyre, white; W. B. Hoyt, W. M. Thomas, Wm. Driffle, colored.

Darlington—G. Holliman, white; Jordan Lang, John Boston, Alfred Rush, colored.

Edgefield—T. Root, white; David Harris, Samuel J. Lee, John Wooley, Prince R. Rivers,
John Gardner, Lawrence Cain, colored.

Fairfield—L. W. Duvall, white; Henry Jacob, Henry Johnson, colored.

Georgetown—Henry W. Webb, white; F. F. Miller, W. H. Jones, colored.

Greenville—Samuel Tinsley, John B. Hyde, white; Wilson Cook, W. A. Bishop, colored.

*Horry—Zadock Bullock, W. W. Waller, white.

Kershaw, S. G. W. Dill, white; John A. Chestnut, J. W. Nash, colored.

*Lancaster—T. Frank Clyburn, W. G. Stewart, white.

Laurens—Joseph Crews, white; Griffin Johnson, Wade Perrin, Harry McDaniels,
colored.

Lexington—G. A. Lewie, white; H. W. Purvis, colored.

Marlboro—T. B. Stubbs, white; John G. Grant, colored.

Marion—W. S. Collins, white; Evan Hayes, B. A. Thompson, colored.

Newberry—Joseph Boston, James Hutson, James Henderson, colored.

*Oconee—O. M. Doyle, W. C. Keith, white.

Orangeburg—W. J. McKinlay, T. K. Sasportas, F. DeMars, E. J. Cain, James P. Mays,
colored.

*Pickens—W. T. Field, white.

Richland—S. B. Thompson, William Simmons, C. M. Wilder, Aesop Goodson, colored.

*Spartansburg—Samuel Littlejohn, Robert M. Smith, Javan Bryant, C. C. Turner, white.

Sumter—John H. Ferriter, white; W. E. Johnson, James Smiley, Burrell James, colored.

Union—Samuel Nuckles, Junius Mobley, Simon Farr, colored.

Williamsburg—C. H. Pettingill, white; R. F. Scott, Jefferson Pendergrass, colored.

York—P. J. O'Connell, John L. Neagle, white; J. H. White, John W. Mead, colored.

The number of white representatives was forty-six, and of colored seventy-eight. On
joint ballot there were sixty-seven whites and eighty-eight colored—135 Republicans
and twenty Democrats.

The counties marked * were Democratic.

Senators and Representatives Elected to South Carolina General
Assembly in 1876[23]
*Aiken—Senator, A. P. Butler; Representatives, C. E. Sawyer, J. Woodward, L. M.
Asbill, J. G. Guignard, all white.

*Abbeville—Senator, J. C. Maxwell; Representatives, W. K. Bradley, R. R. Hemphill, F.
A. Connor, Wm. Hood, J. L. Moore, all white.

*Anderson—Representatives, H. R. Vandiver, R. W. Simpson, W. C. Brown, James L.
Orr, all white.

*Barnwell—Senator, J. M. Williams; Representatives, I. S. Bamberg, John W. Holmes,
L. W. Youmans, W. A. Rountree, Robert Aldrich, all white.

Beaufort—Senator, Samuel Green; Representatives, Thomas Hamilton, Hastings
Gantt, Joseph Robinson, George Reed, N. B. Myers, Thomas E. Miller, all colored.

Charleston—Senator—W. M. Taft (white); Representatives, E. W. M. Mackey (white), J.
J. Lesesne, B. F. Smalls, Robert Simmons, W. C. Glover, F. S. Edwards, Isaac
Prioleau, John Vanderpool, William J. Brodie, J. S. Lazarus, S. C. Brown, Benjamin F.
Capers, A. P. Ford, Richard Bryan, Julius C. Tingman, Abram Smith, W. G. Pinckney,
colored.

Chester—Representatives, John Lee, Samuel Coleman, Purvis Alexander, all colored.

*Chesterfield—Representatives, J. C. Coit, D. T. Redfearn, all white.

Clarendon—Representatives, S. Melton, H. Boston, all colored.

*Colleton—Representatives, H. E. Bissell, J. M. Cummins, S. E. Parler, white; William
Maree (colored), R. Jones (white).

Darlington—Representatives, R. H. Humbert, S. J. Keith, Z. Wines, J. A. Smith, all
colored.

*Edgefield—Senator, M. W. Gary; Representatives, W. S. Allen, J. C. Sheppard, James
Callison, T. E. Jennings, H. A. Shaw, all white.

Fairfield—Senator, Israel Byrd, Representatives, John Gibson, Daniel Bird, Prince
Martin, all colored.

Georgetown—Senator, B. H. Williams; Representatives, C. S. Green, P. R. Kinloch, all
colored.

*Greenville—Senator, S. S. Crittenden; Representatives, J. W. Gray, J. F. Donald, J. T.
Austin, J. S. Westmoreland, all white.

*Horry—Senator, William L. Buck; Representatives, L. D. Bryan, J. K. Cooper, all white.

Kershaw—Representatives, R. D. Gaither, A. W. Kough, E. H. Dibble, all colored.

*Laurens—Senator, R. P. Todd; Representatives, J. B. Humbert, J. W. Watts, W. D.
Anderson, all white.

*Lancaster—Representatives, J. B. Erwin, J. C. Blakeney, all white.

*Lexington—Senator, H. A. Meetze; Representatives, G. Leaphart, G. Muller, all white.

*Marion—Senator, R. G. Howard; Representatives, J. G. Blue, J. McRae, R. H. Rogers,
J. P. Davis, all white.

Newberry—Senator, H. C. Corwin (white); Representatives, William Keitt, J. S. Bridges,
W. H. Thomas (colored).

*Oconee—Senator, J. W. Livingston; Representatives, B. F. Sloan, J. S. Verner, all
white.

The counties marked * were Democratic.

Orangeburg—Senator, J. L. Duncan; Representatives, D. A. Straker, S. Morgans, W. H.
Reedish, C. M. Caldwell, E. Forrest, all colored.

*Pickens—Representatives, D. F. Bradley, E. S. Bates, all white.

Richland—Representatives, A. W. Curtis, Charles Minort, R. J. Palmer, J. W. Lowman,
James Wells, all colored.

*Spartanburg—Senator, Gabriel Cannon; Representatives, W. P. Compton, J. W.
Wofford, E. S. Allen, Charles Petty, all white.

Sumter—Representatives, J. Westberry (colored), Thomas B. Johnston (white), J. H.
Ferriter (white), T. Andrews, colored.

*Union—Representatives, W. H. Wallace, G. D. Peake, William Jefferies, all white.

Williamsburg—Representatives, W. Scott, J. F. Peterson, John Evans, all colored.

*York — Senator, I. D. Witherspoon; Representatives, A. E. Hutchinson, J. A. Deal, W.
E. Byers, B. H. Massey, all white.

The counties marked * were Democratic.

State Officers in South Carolina during the Reconstruction
Period[24]
Alonzo J. Ransier Lieut. Governor 1870-1872
Richard H. Gleaves Lieut. Governor 1872-1876
Francis L. Cardozo Secretary of State 1868-1872
Francis L. Cardozo State Treasurer 1872-1876
Henry E. Hayne Secretary of State 1872-1876
Henry W. Purvis Adjutant General 1872-1876
J. J. Wright Associate Justice Supreme Court 1870-1877
R. C. DeLarge State Land Commissioner 1870
R. C. DeLarge State Commissioner Sinking Fund.

Federal Office Holders in South Carolina during Reconstruction
Period[25]

Dr. B. A. Bosemon Postmaster—Charleston, S.C.
Charles M. Wilder Postmaster—Columbia, S.C.
John Lee Postmaster—Chester, S.C.
Rev. J. E. Wilson Postmaster—Florence, S.C.
S. J. Bampfield Postmaster—Beaufort, S.C.
Fred. Nix, Jr. Postmaster—Barnwell, S.C.

There were many others but I cannot recall their names.

Names of Congressmen who represented South Carolina during the
Reconstruction Period[26]
Joseph H. Rainey 41st, 42d, 44th, 45th, 46th, 47th, 48th Congress.
Robert Brown Elliott 42d Congress.
Alonzo J. Ransier 42d Congress.
Robert C. DeLarge 42d Congress.
Rev. R. H. Cain 43d, 45th Congress
Robert Smalls 44th, 45th, 48th 49th Congress.

Names of Congressmen who represented South Carolina after the
Reconstruction Period
Robert Smalls Part before and part after Reconstruction.
Thomas E. Miller 51st Congress.
George W. Murray 53d Congress.

103 West 131st Street,
New York City,
October, 1917.

Mr. Monroe N. Work,
Editor—The Negro Year Book,
Tuskegee Institute, Ala.

Dear Sir:

In reply to your letter requesting my assistance in getting data relative to the
Reconstruction Period in South Carolina, I have the honor to submit the following:

It will be utterly impossible to give dates after a lapse of nearly fifty years, especially
with reference to the terms the legislators served, unless I had access to the records. I
was a boy when our family returned to South Carolina in 1870, two years after the
adjournment of the Constitutional Convention. At that period I was not especially
interested in the trend of affairs. I was thinking more of the splendid opportunities I had
left behind in Canada.

I think it very important that all of the data possible should be collected pertaining to the
Constitutional Convening as I regard it the most important Convention ever held in
which colored men participated. I was very fortunate in finding a copy of the
Proceedings of the Convention in the Public Library in this city. I have given only such
names as I could positively identify as colored. No doubt some names have been
omitted but not of any who took an active or important part in political affairs.

F. B. Perry, of Greenville, S.C., was appointed Provisional Governor of South Carolina
by President Johnson in 1865.

Pursuant to a call for a convention of the people issued by Governor Perry in
obedience to the proclamation of President Johnson for the purpose of organizing a
State Government, the Convention assembled at Columbia, S.C., September 13, 1865.

To show the intense bitter feeling of Governor Perry the following is from his
proclamation:

"It is a source of congratulation to know that the colored troops, whose atrocious
conduct has disgraced the service and filled the public mind with the most horrible
apprehensions, have been withdrawn from the interior of the State, and are to be
placed in garrisons on the coast where they can do no further mischief. In all of my
personal interviews with the President and in all of my dispatches to him I urged this
course most earnestly."

A Constitution was adopted by the Convention without being submitted to the people
for ratification.

The Constitution provided that only free white men were eligible for membership in the
Senate and House of Representatives; only free white men were entitled to vote and
that the appointment of members of the House of Representatives among the several
election districts of the State should be in accordance with the number of white
inhabitants in each.

The Convention adjourned September 27, 1865.

Congress decided that it was no part of the prerogative of the Executive to call
conventions or to direct the adoption of Constitutions.

J. L. Orr, of Anderson, S. C., was elected Provisional Governor, October, 1865, to
succeed Governor Perry.

Persuant to an Act of Congress of the United States entitled "An Act to provide for the
More Efficient Government of the Rebel States" an election was held in South Carolina
on November 19th and 20th, 1867, and the electors of that State voted in favor of a
Constitutional Convention, and at the same time voted for delegates thereto.

Brevet Major-General E. R. S. Canby, Commanding 2d Military District of South
Carolina issued orders for the delegates to assemble in convention at Charleston, S.C.,
January 14, 1868.

The Convention composed of 124 delegates, a large majority being colored, met at
Charleston, on the date named.

T. J. Robertson, white, was elected temporary President and Dr. A. G. Mackey, white,
was elected permanent President.

W. J. McKinlay and H. E. Hayne were elected temporary Secretary and Assistant
Secretary, respectively.

General Carlos J. Stalbrand, white, was elected permanent Secretary. Josephus
Woodruff, white, compiled the proceedings.

John R. Pinckney and Peter Miller were elected Sergeants-at-Arms.

F. L. Cardozo was Chairman of the Committee on Education.

S. A. Swails, Chairman of the Committee on Rules and Regulations.

Robert C. DeLarge, Chairman of the Committee on Franchise and Elections.

Colored members were on all of the Committees, in most cases being in the majority.

In looking over the proceedings I find that the following named delegates took a very
active part in all of the deliberations:

R. B. Elliott, R. C. DeLarge, F. L. Cardozo, J. J. Wright, W. J. Whipper, W. J. McKinlay,
S. A. Swails, A. J. Ransier, R. H. Cain, B. F. Randolph, and W. B. Nash.

The Constitution provided for the election of Senators and Representatives on April 14,
15 and 16, 1868, to assemble at Columbia, May 12, 1868.

The Convention adjourned sine die March 14, 1868.

The Constitution adopted in 1868 stood unchanged until 1895 when a Convention was
called to meet at Columbia, on September 10, 1895, to revise it.

The fact that the old Constitution stood for nineteen years after the Democratic party
came into power (1876) shows that there could not have been anything objectionable in
it to the Democrats or they would have changed it immediately after regaining control. It
speaks volumes for the wisdom and foresight of the men of the Reconstruction Period.

In the Convention which met at Columbia in 1895, there were only five colored
delegates and they were all from Beaufort County, a county which has very few white
persons in it. The delegates were W. J. Whipper, Robert Smalls, Thomas E. Miller,
James Wigg, and L. R. Reed. Of these, W. J. Whipper and Robert Smalls were
delegates to the Constitutional Convention which met at Charleston in 1868.

As General Smalls died only about two or three years ago what a wealth of information
he could have furnished pertaining to the Reconstruction Period had your request been
sent out before his death.

Inclosure 2 contains the names of State Senators and the counties they represented. In
several cases of Senators and also of Members of the House of Representatives I
cannot recall their initials.

There were 32 senators, the majority being colored, of whom the following were
conspicuous for their activity on all important legislation:

S. A. Swails, J. H. Rainey, R. H. Cain, W. H. Jones, W. B. Nash and H. J. Maxwell.

Inclosure 3 contains names of members of the House of Representatives at various
times. Some served more than one term. The more prominent were: R. B. Elliott, S.J.
Lee, Dr. B.A. Bosemon, J. H. Rainey, R. C. DeLarge, J. A. Bowley, W. J. Whipper, D. A.
Straker, C. M. Wilder, Prince Rivers, F. H. Frost, T. E. Miller, and W. H. Thomas.

The House of Representatives was composed of 124 members and colored members
were always in the majority.

Inclosure 4—Names of State Officers.

Inclosure 5—Names of Federal Office holders.

Inclosure 6—Names of Congressmen who represented South Carolina.

I shall never forget the scene in 1876 when Col. A. C. Haskell, Chairman of the
Democratic State Committee at the head of the Democratic members of the legislature
forced his way into the Hall of the Representatives then occupied by the Republican
members. Pandemonium reigned for a time. There were two Houses, each having its
own officers trying to transact business at the same time. Finally the U. S. soldiers were
called upon and those Democrats who had no certificate of election were ejected.

All of the Democratic members then withdrew and formed an organization in another
hall.

Three colored Republicans whose names I do not care to mention went over to the
Democrats, but the latter could do nothing without the Senate which was admittedly
Republican.

The struggle was kept up until Mr. Hayes was inaugurated President, when he
withdrew the U. S. troops, leaving the Republicans without any protection.

Governor Chamberlain and the State Officers elected with him seeing that they were
deserted by the National Administration withdrew from the contest, leaving Gen.
Hampton who was the Democratic nominee for Governor in possession.

The Democrats then organized the Senate and House of Representatives, and in joint
session elected Gen. M. C. Butler, U. S. Senator. D. T. Corbin, who received the
Republican votes, contested, but the Senate which was Republican by a small majority
seated Butler. Senators Don Cameron from Pennsylvania and John J. Patterson from
South Carolina, both Republicans, voted for Butler.

That there was no one killed or injured while the contest was going on is remarkable
when the great excitement during and after the "Red Shirt" campaign is considered. It
shows what absolute control the gubernational candidates had over their followers. No
doubt the Democrats, who were assured that the U. S. soldiers would be withdrawn,
did not care to make a slip as Chamberlin was still governor and the troops were
practically under his orders.

Thus ended the Reconstruction Period in South Carolina.

At every step the Republican Party in South Carolina was betrayed by Republicans.

Col. T. W. Parmele, white. Superintendent of the Penitentiary, appointed as a
Republican by Gov. Chamberlin, recognized an order from Gen. Hampton for the
pardon of a convict. Legal complications ensued and the case was carried before
Associate Justice Willard, white, of the Supreme Court, a Republican elected by the
legislature, and he decided in favor of Hampton.

Three colored members of the legislature deserted to the Democrats, which practically
made the House Democratic.

Col. Parmele and Justice Willard were Northern white men.

This paper would not be complete without some reference to the prominent colored
men who helped to make history during that eventful period.

Robert Brown Elliott—

Born at Boston, Mass., August 11, 1842.

Entered High Holborn Academy, London, England, 1853.

Entered Eton College, 1855 and graduated in 1859. Studied law.

Member of the State Constitutional Convention.

Member of the House of Representatives of South Carolina, 1868-1870.

Assistant Adjutant General.

Elected to the 42nd Congress.

Resigned his seat in Congress and was elected to the House of Representatives
of S.C. for the second time, and was elected Speaker of the House.

He came within a few votes of being elected U. S. Senator in 1874, but the
powerful influence of the Pennsylvania R. R. Co., was exerted in behalf of John J.
Patterson, white, the successful candidate. There was a colored majority in both
branches of the legislature at the time and had the colored members so desired
they could have elected Gen. Elliott.

In 1876 Gen. Elliott was the nominee on the Republican ticket for Attorney General
and was elected but was forced to withdraw with the rest of the ticket.

He was Chairman of the State Republican Committee during the campaign of
1876.

For scholarly attainments, legal acumen, political sagacity and oratorical power,
Robert Brown Elliott stands out as the most brilliant figure of the Reconstruction

Period.

Joseph H. Rainey—

Born at Georgetown, S.C., June 21, 1832.

Although debarred by law from attending school he acquired a good education and
further improved his mind by observation and travel.

He was a barber by trade and followed that occupation at Charleston, S.C., until
1862, when having been forced to work upon the fortifications of the Confederates
he escaped to the West Indies, where he remained until the close of the war, when
he returned to his native town.

Delegate to the State Constitutional Convention.

State Senator from Georgetown County.

Elected to the 41st Congress, being the first colored man having that distinction,
and was re-elected to the 42nd, 43rd, 44th and 45th Congresses, five successive
terms, the only colored man with such a record.

He received a caucus nomination as Clerk of the House, from the Republican
members of Congress, the only colored man who has ever been honored by a
Republican caucus.

The House was Democratic.

He was a delegate to several National Republican Conventions.

Served as Special Agent for the Treasury Department.

Polished in his manners—a fluent and convincing speaker, he was prominent in
the Councils of the Republican Party.

Gen. Robert Smalls—

Born in South Carolina, at Beaufort, April 5, 1839.

Although debarred by Statute from attending school, he educated himself with
such limited advantages as he could secure.

Removed to Charleston, S.C., in 1851, worked as a rigger, leading a sea-faring
life.

Employed on the Planter, a steamer plying in Charleston harbor as a transport,
which he took over Charleston Bar in May, 1862, and delivered her and his
services to the U. S. Blockading Squadron.

In recognition of his services was appointed Pilot in the U. S. Navy, and served in
that capacity on the monitor "Koekuk."

Promoted as Captain for gallant and meritorious conduct, December 1, 1863, and
placed in command of the Planter, serving until she was put out of commission in
1866.

Delegate to the State Constitutional Convention.

State Senator from Beaufort Co.

Elected to the 44th Congress, and re-elected to the 45th, 48th and 49th
Congresses.

Was a delegate to every National Republican Convention up to within a short time
of his death.

Collector of the Port of Beaufort, S. C.

Died two or three years ago, the last of the "Old Guard" in S. C.

Alonzo J. Ransier—

Born at Charleston, S.C., 1834.

Self educated. Employed as a shipping clerk in 1850 by leading merchant, who
was tried for violation of law "in having a colored clerk" and fined one cent with
costs.

Delegate to the State Constitutional Convention.

Member of the House of Representatives of S.C.

Elected Lieutenant Governor on ticket with Gov. R. K. Scott, in 1870.

President of Southern States Convention held at Columbia, S.C., in 1871.

Presidential Elector on Grant and Colfax ticket in 1868.

Delegate to National Republican Convention in 1872.

Elected to the 42 Congress.

A man singularly gifted with political farsightedness.

Robert C. DeLarge.

Born at Aiken, S.C., March 15, 1842.

Farmer—Self-educated.

Agent of the Freedmen's Bureau from May, 1867 to April, 1868.

Delegate to the State Constitutional Convention.

Member of the House of Representatives, 1860-1870.

One of the State Commissioners of the Sinking Fund.

Elected State Commissioner in 1870.

Elected to the 42d Congress.

Very prominent in the Party Councils.

Rev. R. H. Cain—

Born in Greenbrier Co., Va., April 12, 1825.

His father moved to Ohio in 1831 and settled in Gallipolis.

Entered the ministry at an early age and became a student at Wilberforce
University in 1860 and remained there one year.

Removed to Brooklyn, N. Y., at the breaking out of the war where he discharged
ministerial duties as pastor for four years.

Was sent by his church as a missionary to the Freedmen in South Carolina.

Delegate to the State Constitutional Convention.

State Senator from Charleston Co.

Elected to the 43d Congress, and re-elected to the 45th Congress.

Bishop in the African Methodist Church and a power in that denomination.

William Beverly Nash—

Born in South Carolina.

Of limited education but endowed with wonderful common sense and political
foresight.

Delegate to the State Constitutional Convention.

State Senator from Richland Co., in which Columbia is located.

For one term (four years) was Chairman of the Powerful Ways and Means
Committee.

An elector on the Hayes and Wheeler ticket in 1876.

It was reported that he was offered $100,000 to vote for Tilden and Hendricks. Had
he accepted the offer the Democratic ticket would have been elected, as the vote
stood 186 for Hayes and 185 for Tilden. Be it said to his eternal honor he was
beyond price.

Stephen A. Swails—

Delegate to the State Constitutional Convention.

Represented Williamsburg Co., in the Senate.

Elected President pro term of the Senate for the whole period.

A very strong character and exerted considerable influence in legislation.

Was in the 54th Massachusetts Infantry.

Had musical talent of a high order.

Judge Lee—

Judge of the Municipal Court of Charleston, S. C.

A man of ripe scholarship and of high legal attainments.

Until President Roosevelt appointed Judge R. H. Terrell of Washington to a similar
position, I think he was the only colored man who ever occupied such a position.

Francis L. Cardozo—

Born in South Carolina, at Charleston.

Educated in Scotland, at Glasgow University.

Delegate to the State Constitutional Convention.

Secretary of State for four years.

State Treasurer for two years.

Scholarly, courtly and dignified.

Took great interest in the education of the colored youth, and was popular among
the boys on account of the fatherly interest he manifested in them.

Moved to Washington, D. C., after 1876 and accepted a position in the office of the
Auditor for the Post Office Department.

After serving for several years in the Department he was elected to the
Principalship of the Colored High School in Washington, a position he filled with
honor and credit to the race and himself. After his death the Board of Education
named one of the School Buildings the "Cardozo Building" as a tribute to his great
interest in the educational welfare of the colored race.

Henry E. Hayne—

Born in South Carolina.

Delegate to the State Constitutional Convention.

State Senator from Marion, Co.

Secretary of State.

Was very much interested in the education of the colored youth.

Richard H. Gleaves—

Served two terms as Lieutenant Governor.

Elected with Gov. F. J. Moses in 1872 and with Gov. D. H. Chamberlin in 1874.

Was nominated a third time with Gov. Chamberlin and elected but forced by the
Democrats to withdraw.

Henry W. Purvis—

Born in Philadelphia, Pa.

Son of Hon. Robert Purvis, the great Abolitionist. Member, house of
Representatives, 1868-1870, and then was Adjutant General.

Was Adjutant General of the State most of the Reconstruction Period.

He was a man without fear.

In the campaign of 1876 he went to Edgefield, the homes of Generals Butler and
Gary, the Democratic leaders, and regarded as fire eaters and spoke on the
campaign issues. He also went to other parts of the State equally as dangerous
and filled his engagements.

J. J. Wright—

Delegate to the State Constitutional Convention.

On account of his great legal ability he was elected by the legislature as an
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the State. (There were two Associate
Justices.) He had the respect of the entire Bar of the State.

He was pre-eminently fitted for the position.

He is the only colored man who has ever occupied such an exalted judicial position
in this country.

Thomas E. Miller—

Born at Ferrybeeville, Beaufort Co., June 17, 1849.

Attended the free public school for Negro youths up to the breaking out of the war.

Graduated from Lincoln University, Pennsylvania, in 1872.

Read law under Judge P. L. Wiggin and Chief Justice Moses of South Carolina and
was admitted to the Supreme Court of S. C. in 1875.

Elected to the House of Representatives of S. C., 1874-1876-1878.

Elected Senator from Beaufort Co., 1880.

Elected to the 51st Congress.

Elected to the House of Representatives of S. C., in 1866, and while serving was
instrumental in having the "State College for Colored Youth" established at
Orangeburg, S. C., and on that account was elected its first President.

Dr. B. A. Bosemon—

Born at Troy, N. Y.

Delegate to the State Constitutional Convention. Member of the House of
Representatives of S. C. Appointed Postmaster at Charleston, S. C., by President
Grant and served four years with entire satisfaction to the people of that city with
honor and credit to himself and the race.

Suave and polished he had a pleasing personality.

He had quite a large and lucrative practice in his profession.

Charles McDuffie Wilder—

Born in South Carolina. Delegate to the State Constitutional Convention.

Member of the House of Representatives of S. C. Member of the City Council of
Columbia, S. C.

Postmaster at Columbia, S. C. for sixteen years. Appointed by President Grant two
terms and one term each by Presidents Garfield and Hayes.

There were two white applicants for the position after President Garfield was
inaugurated and Postmaster General James, who was supposed to be friendly
with one of them, sent a Post Office Inspector to Columbia to find out the
sentiment of the business men. They were almost unanimously for Mr. Wilder.
They stated that he had served them efficiently for eight years and did not approve
of a change.

Generals Hampton and Butler represented the State in the U. S. Senate at the
time, Columbia being Senator Hampton's home and had he objected Senatorial
courtesy would have sustained him.

It shows in what estimation Mr. Wilder was held by his home people.

Mr. Wilder's appointment of four successive terms to a first-class post office is a
record.

Mr. Wilder was a delegate to all of the National Republican Conventions up to and
including that of 1888.

Mr. Wilder was a man of good sound judgment, of great political force and one of
the few who had anything to show after the political upheaval of 1876.

Samuel J. Lee—of Aiken, S. C.

Born in South Carolina.

Member of the House of Representatives of S. C.

Speaker of the House of Representatives for one term.

A lawyer of recognized ability.

An expert in parliamentary procedure.

A man of engaging address, of a genial disposition, a pleasing speaker, he was the
most popular presiding officer of that period.

D. Augustus Straker—

A prominent member of the House of Representatives during the latter part of the
Reconstruction Period.

A man of brilliant parts and one of the leading lawyers of the State.

Moved to Detroit, Mich., after the collapse in 1876, and played quite an active and
conspicuous part in politics there.

William J. Whipper—

Born in South Carolina.

Delegate to the State Constitutional Convention.

Member of the House of Representatives of S. C.

A man of splendid legal talent.

Elected by the legislature a Circuit Court Judge but Gov. Chamberlain refused to
commission him, (Ex. Gov. Moses, white, was elected a Circuit Court Judge at the
same time and he was also refused a commission by Gov. Chamberlin.)

Judge of Probate of Beaufort Co., for more than ten years.

Prince Rivers—

Born in South Carolina.

Delegate to the State Constitutional Convention.

Member of the House of Representatives of S. C.

Brigadier General in the South Carolina Militia.

Called the "black Prince" and he looked it with his fine physique and military
bearing as he rode at the head of the colored troops as they passed in review
before the Governor at their annual inspection.

John Lee—

Born at Columbia, S. C.

State Senator from Chester Co.

Postmaster at Chester.

Self educated.

Very prominent in his county.

W. J. McKinlay—

Born at Charleston, S. C.

Delegate to the State Constitutional Convention.

One of the most prominent colored men in Charleston Co., and one of the most
influential in the Party Councils.

Member of the House of Representatives 1868 and part of 1869. Resigned to
accept position of Register of Mesne Conveyances, a very important office which
he held for several years.

W. H. Thomas—

Born in Ohio.

A man of brilliant intellect.

One of the most prominent members of the House of Representatives at the close
of the Reconstruction Period.

I remember well the conspicuous part he took in the proceedings in the House of
Representatives in 1876. Those were times that tried men's souls but Mr. Thomas
held his own with the best men in the Democratic party.

Samuel Lee of Sumter, S. C.—

Born in South Carolina.

Delegate to the State Constitutional Convention.

A very strong character and one of the bright young men of the state.

He was elected to Congress but the Democrats counted him out.

He contested the seat and though the House was Republican and his case a good
one, the Chairman of the Committee on Elections, a Republican from Indiana, who
was personally antagonistic to him failed to report on the case and Congress
adjourned without taking any action.

Jas. A. Bowley—

Member of the House of Representatives.

For one term he was chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means.

He wielded considerable power in legislation.

Was considered the "Beau Brummel" of the House.

F. H. Frost—

Born in South Carolina.

Member of the House of Representatives.

Active in all legislation.

Polished and highly cultured.

Henry J. Maxwell—

Born in South Carolina, at Charleston.

Senator from Marlboro County.

Active in all legislation.

Considered the best dressed member in the Senate.

Known to his associates at the "Duke of Marlboro."

W. H. Jones—

State Senator from Georgetown Co.

Quite a fluent speaker and well versed on all public questions.

On account of his bellicose nature he was given the sobriquet of "Red Hot Jones."

A. C. Jones—

Born in Washington, D. C.

Clerk of the House of Representatives during the whole Reconstruction Period.

A very capable officer and very popular.

Walter R. Jones—

Born in South Carolina at Charleston.

Graduate of Oberlin College.

Secretary of the State Financial Board, consisting of the Governor, Attorney
General, State Treasurer and Comptroller, all white at that time.

Elected Clerk of the City Council of Columbia, S. C., by the unanimous vote of the
members.

Resigned that position to accept the position of Private Secretary to Governor
Chamberlain.

The best equipped and most brilliant young colored man I ever met.

J. E. Green—

Sergeant at Arms of the Senate during the whole Reconstruction Period.

A very efficient officer and a man of fine parts.

John Williams—

Sergeant at Arms of the House of Representatives during the whole period.

A very capable man and popular with the members.

There were many colored men who occupied positions of importance in the different
countries—positions such as Sheriff, Treasurer, Auditor, Clerk of Court, Commissioner,
Coroner and School Commissioner.

I never heard of any of them being removed for incompetency, dereliction of duty or
malfeasance.

I regret very much that I cannot give you any information as to whether the men
mentioned were free or slaves, as the persons from whom I could have gotten that
information have all passed away. Had I received such inquiry eight or ten years ago I
could have furnished it as there were several persons then living who, I know, were well
posted on that subject.

Of the names noted in this paper the following were from the North.

Some of them may have been from the South originally and returned after the war: R.
B. Elliott, D. A. Straker, Maj. M. R. Delaney, W. H. Jones, Dr. B. A. Bosemon, W. H.
Thomas, H. W. Purvis, R. H. Gleaves, A. C. Jones, S. A. Swails, J. A. Bowley, J. E.
Green.

The colored men of South Carolina played a more conspicuous part and held more
offices of a high grade during the Reconstruction Period than the colored men of any
other State.

South Carolina has the distinction of electing the first colored Congressman, (Joseph
H. Rainey) and the last (George W. Murray.)[27]

South Carolina was represented in Congress by eight colored men—Rainey, Elliott,
Ransier, Cain, Delarge, Smalls, Miller and Murray.

Mr. Miller and Mr. Murray served after the Reconstruction Period and most of Gen.
Smalls' service was after that period.

When I compare the present political leaders in South Carolina with those of the
Reconstruction Period I must confess that we have retrograted politically. They may be
due to conditions. Not only in South Carolina, but where would you find in any State at
the present time, political leaders who can measure up to the caliber of Elliott, Rainey,
Straker, Cardozo, Swails, DeLarge, Bosemon, Wright, Ransier, Lee, McKinlay, Cain,
Whipper and Wilder?

When the Negro race can again produce political leaders of the type named then we
may look forward with some degree of hope for a solution of the Negro problem.

Your idea in collecting data relative to the Reconstruction Period is a laudable one, and
the wonder is, and the pity of it is, that it had not been thought of long ere this. There
are very few now left to tell the tale, and that in a very unsatisfactory way.

Some of the data relative to the Congressmen I got from Congressional Directories. To
recall all names, dates and incidents pertaining to the Reconstruction Period after a
period of fifty years would require the prodigious memory of a Macauley, even had I
been an active participant in political affairs at that time. There may be a few errors but
they are of a minor character. I am glad that I am able to be of some assistance to you
in this matter, however, little, and I can only say in the words of Macbeth,

"The service and the loyalty I owe,
In doing it, pays itself."

Very respectfully,

(Signed) H. A. Wallace.[28]

All names referred to in this paper are of colored men unless otherwise stated.

Corrections of Data submitted by Mr. H. A. Wallace, of New York
City

103 West 131 St.,
New York, N. Y.,
February 18, 1918.

Mr. Monroe N. Work,
Editor—Negro Year Book,
Tuskegee Institute, Ala,

Dear Sir:

In reply to your letter of the 11th inst., I beg leave to state that Hunter and Dickson were
white. As to Brokenton I probably was thinking of a Brockenboro in Washington and got
the names mixed.

Before leaving Washington in 1913 I let Whitfield McKinlay have my book,
"Reconstruction in South Carolina" by John S. Reynolds, to read. When I received your
letters asking for assistance in getting the data relative to reconstruction in South
Carolina I wrote to Mr. McKinley for the book. I wrote for it several times but not until
about a month ago did he send it. I did not care to delay sending you the data,
consequently I mailed it before the book came to hand. Had I received the book in time
I could have made my paper a little more readable and avoided the errors referred to.

As you have, no doubt, taken data from the book by Reynolds I would like to correct a
few errors I found therein.

Reconstruction Convention

Colleton—W. M. Vinery, should be Viney
Darlington—Richard Humbird, should be Humbert
Edgefield—John Wooley, colored, should be white
Greenville—Wilson Cook, should be Cooke
Kershaw—John A. Chestnut, should be Chesnut

Chapter III—Scott's First Term

Senate—
Chester—Lewis Wimbush, should be Lucius Wimbush
Union—H. W. Duncan, colored, should be white
This would make ten colored Senators

House of Representatives—
Abbeville—James Martin, white, should be colored
Charleston—B. A. Bosemon, should be Dr. B. A. Bosemon, Jr.
William R. Jervay, should be Jarvey
Chesterfield—H. L. Shrewsberry, should be Shrewsbury
Colleton—W. R. Hoyt is in the Senate column Wm. Driffle,
should be Wm. A. Driffle H. James and T. Richardson, as
members in addition to Thomas and Driffle.
Edgefield—John Wooley, colored should be white
Georgetown—W. H. Jones, should be W. H. Jones Jr.
Greenville—Wilson Cook, should be Cooke

Kershaw—John A. Chestnut, should be Chesnut
Williamsburg—Jeff. Pendergrass, should be Jeffery Prendergrass.

Jas. Martin, Lee Nance and Wade Perrin, representatives and B. F. Randolph, senator,
were assassinated by the Ku-Klux Klan.

Page 111—"Among Mr Robertson's earliest official acts was the recommendation of an
incompetent colored man to be postmaster at Columbia."

If you will look at the sketch I gave of Mr Wilder, the postmaster referred to, you will
note that in 1880 when the Democrats had absolute control of South Carolina and
Gens. Hampton and Butler represented the State in the U. S. Senate, Mr Wilder was
confirmed for the fourth time, and as Columbia was the home post office of Senator
Hampton it is not likely that he or Butler would have voted to confirm an imcompetent
colored man when senatorial courtesy would have sustained them had they objected.

Page 229—W. R. Jervay, should be Jarvey.

Page 233—Relative to Henry E. Hayne going to the communion table I have to say that
is all rot in so far as there were any objections. The communicants with the exception of
Mr Babbitt and family were nearly all colored. I know that the wardens and vestrymen
were colored.

Page 234—I do not know about all of the colored men mentioned as having
matriculated in the School of Law, but I am certain that Mr Wilder did not.

Page 236—William R. Jervay, should be Jervey.

Page 333—With reference to Dr. Bosemon being under the influence of liquor I desire
to state that he did not touch, taste nor handle the stuff. Dr Bosemon was a cultured
gentleman, polished in his manners and was a surgeon in one of the colored regiments
during the war.

Page 366—Instead of N. B. Myers being the elector for the fifth district I think it was his
brother, Senator William F. Myers.

As N. B. Myers went over to the Hampton House it is not probable that he would stultify
himself by voting for Hayes and acknowledging Hampton as Governor.

Page 462—Gen. Elliott did not become a department clerk in Washington. He moved to
New Orleans where he practised law several years before his death.

All the Republican politicians who remained in South Carolina did not sink into actual
obscurity or harmless inactivity after 1876.

Mr. Wilder was postmaster at Columbia until June 30, 1885.

Gen. Smalls represented the State in Congress for several terms after 1876, and was a
delegate to the Constitutional Convention in 1895. Was also Collector of Port of
Beaufort.

Thomas E. Miller was also a delegate to the same convention and served a term in
Congress, and was a member of the S. C. House of Representatives.

W. J. Whipper was a member of the legislature. Probate judge of the county for ten
years and a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1895.

John Lee was postmaster at Chester for several years.

Mr Rainey was a special agent of the Treasury Department with headquarters in South
Carolina.

H. L. Shrewsbury and W. F. Myers were in the Revenue Service and active in politics
as was A. W. Curtis.

There were others but I cannot recall their names.

Referring to the data mailed to you I desire to make the following corrections:

Page 2—J. H. Rainey was not a member of the House of Representatives but Senator
from Georgetown.

Page 6—Relative to Judge Lee I desire to state that I am in error as to his case being
the first where a colored man was elected to a municipal judgeship. Macon B. Allen
was elected by the legislature as judge of the Inferior Court of Charlestown prior to
Lee's election or appointment. Therefore Judge Allen should be given the honor.

Of course J. J. Wright who was elected an associate Justice of the Supreme Court of
the State by the legislature was the first Negro in this country who ever occupied a
judicial position.

Page 7—Henry W. Purvis was elected Adjutant General for the four year term 1872-
1876. Member of Legislature 1868-1870.

Page 10—W. J. McKinlay was also a member of the House of Representatives for part
of 1868-69 period but resigned his seat to accept the position of Register of Mesne
Conveyanes for Charlestown, to which the legislature elected him.

Page 11—W. H. Jones, should be W H. Jones, Jr.

John Williams was Sergeant-at-Arms from 1870 to close of period.

As there were no free public schools for colored youth in South Carolina it is an error to
state that Thomas E. Miller was educated in that way. It was against the law for anyone
to teach a Negro even to read or write.

I am also told that I am in error as to giving him credit for the establishment of the "
State College" at Orangeburg. I will try to find out something about that matter.

Very respectfully,

H. A. Wallace

Some Corrections for Data Submitted by Mr. H. A. Wallace of New
York City

103 West 131 St.,
New York City.
March 11, 1918.

Mr. Monroe N. Work,
Editor Negro Year Book,
Tuskegee Institute, Ala.

Dear Sir:

I presume you received my letter of February 18, also the one of January 19, relative to
corrections in the data on Reconstruction.

I herewith send you a few more before you go to press on your book pertaining to the
part the Negro played in the political history of the Southern States during the
Reconstruction period:

I am in error as to James Martin, of Abbeville, who was assassinated, as being colored.
I was informed that he was colored, but in reading the eulogies delivered by the
different members of the House and Senate, I find that he was not even an American.
He was a native of Ireland.

W. A. Bishop, who represented the Greenville district in the first legislature, was white,
not colored. In the list of delegates to the Republican meeting at Charlestown, May 9,
1867, he is given as white in Reynolds' book. I met a friend from Greenville about ten
days ago and in speaking to him about Bishop he said that he was white and that he
knew of no colored Bishops in that district.

On page 9 of my data I state that Mr. Whipper was born in South Carolina. I met his
son, who is living here, sometime ago and he informed me that his father was born in
Pennsylvania.

With reference to Judge Whipper I would add that one of the first acts of the first
legislature was to elect a commission of three members to revise and consolidate the
Statute laws of the State and that he was the first member elected. Quite a tribute to his
legal ability.

On page 12 add the following names as from the North.

Rev. B. F. Randolph—Senator—Orangeburg district.

W. J. Whipper—Member—Beaufort district.

Judge J. J. Wright—Beaufort district—afterwards Associate Judge Supreme Court, and
on page 8, under his name please state—born in Pennsylvania.

On page 107 Reynolds' book—Abbeville Co.—W. J. Lomax, should be Hutson J.
Lomax, this is official. On page 59 and 77 he has it H. J. which is correct.

Same page—Fairfield—Henry Jacob, should be Jacobs—He was also a delegate to
the Constitutional Convention—See page 77.

Very Respectfully,

(Signed) H. A. Wallace

Copy.

Sumner and Stevens advise with Reference to Reconstruction Policy
in South Carolina

The late Honorable Francis L. Cardoza at one time Secretary of State for South
Carolina, several years before his death stated to the undersigned the following in
substance:

That a number of colored men met and appointed a committee which was sent to
Washington to get the advice of Charles Sumner and Thaddeus Stevens concerning
the formation of the political organization for the newly enfranchised Negro citizen
shortly after the adoption of the 14th Amendment.

Pains were taken to keep the plans from both the native whites and the so-called
carpet baggers from the North. That both Mr. Sumner and Mr. Stevens advised the
committee to tender the leadership to native whites of the former master class of
conservative views: but this plan was frustrated because they were not able to secure
the consent of desired representatives of the former master class to assume the
proffered leadership.

(Signed) Kelly Miller
(Signed) Whitefield McKinlay

Washington, D. C., December 14, 1917.

Subscribed to and sworn before me, Samuel E. Lacy a Notary Public in and for the
District of Columbia, this Fourteenth (14th) Day of December 1917.

(Signed) Samuel E. Lacy,
Notary Public, D. C.

Some Negro Members of Reconstruction Legislatures
Texas

J. H. Stewart who now lives in Austin.

Edward Patton, San Jacinto County, now living in Washington is in Government
service.

Nathan H. Haller, Brazoria County. House, 1892-94. Reelected and counted out.
Contested his seat and won.

R. L. Smith, Colorado County, 1895-99, now living in Waco. Is president of the Farmers
Bank and head of the Farmers Improvement Association. For sketch of, see Negro
Year Book, p. 322. For his work in the Legislature, see attached letter.

Elias May, Brazos County, in the early days of Reconstruction.

R. J. Moore, Washington County, representative.

—— Gaines, senator, Lee County.

Copy.

Cooperative Extension Work in Agriculture and Home Economics

College Station, Texas
Waco, Texas, March 26, 1918.

Prof. Monroe N. Work, Tuskegee Inst. Ala.

Dear Mr. Work:

I was elected in Nov. 1894 as representative for Colorado county and was re-elected in
1896.

My majority in 1894 was 168 and in 1896 at the next election it was 450 as I recollect it.

I was appointed on the committee on education and on privilege and election and on
agriculture.

I introduced a bill restoring colored trustees which finally passed.

I fought a bill establishing separate waiting rooms for the races at R. R. Station and
killed it for four years.

I introduced a resolution inviting manufacturing cotton plants to come to Texas. I
introduced a resolution granting the use of the Hall of the House of Representatives to

the colored citizens of Austin to hold their memorial services for Fred Douglas. When
one understands the race feeling in the South this was indeed a triumph. I introduced a
bill establishing a college course as a part of our curriculum at Prairie View Normal
which passed carrying with it a grant of fifty thousand acres of land.

I worked hard to help carry a bill through making any peace officer automatically lose
his office whenever a lynching took place in his county. This bill passed but was
declared unconstitutional by the supreme court. I was appointed by the speaker as a
member of the visiting board for Prairie View State Normal. As a member of the
committee on privileges and Election I single handed fought for a colored man elected
from Brazoria county, N. H. Haller by name who had the nerve to contest the seat of a
white man to whom the certificate of election had been awarded. After a long and bitter
fight in which three times I carried in and presented a minority report we won and Haller
was seated. This isn't the only case of its kind that I know of in this state.

Haller of course had able legal talent to take care of his case.

I voted for the purchase of the battle field of San Jacinto which is in Harris country
about twenty miles below Houston. It was on this battlefield that Texas won her
independence from Mexico in 1836. It is now a beautiful state park. For this action I
was publicly thanked by the Daughters of the Republic.

Respectfully

(Signed) R. L. Smith.

The legislatures which I served in were the 23d and 24th.

Charles A. Culberson, now U. S. senator was governor and our relations were very
cordial.

In 1902 I was tendered and accepted a position in the U. S. Marshal's office for the
Eastern Dist. of Texas by Pres. Roosevelt. Held same until 1909. This was the most
honorable and best paid federal position ever held by a Negro in Texas except that held
by Hon. N. W. Cuney who was collector of the Post of Galveston. In 1915 I took charge
of the Extension Service work for Negroes in Texas which I now hold.

Some Negro Members of the Tennessee Legislature during
Reconstruction Period and After[29]

By Honorable J. C. Napier, of Nashville, Tenn., register of United States Treasury, May,
1917

Year Name County
1871-73 Sampson W. Keeble Davidson
1877-79 Thos. A. Sykes? Davidson
1879-81 S.A. McElwee? Haywood

1881-83 T. Frank Cassells Shelby
J.F. Norris Shelby
Thos. A. Sykes? Davidson
S.A. McElwee? Haywood
1883-85 J.W. Boyd Weakley
S.A. McElwee Haywood
D.F. Rivers Fayette
1885-87 G.E. Evans Shelby
W.A. Fields Shelby
W.C. Hodge Shelby
S.A. McElwee Haywood
D.F. Rivers[30] Fayette
1887-89
1889-91 —— Goodman Fayette
1891-93
1893-95
1895-97 J. M. H. Graham Montgomery

Davidson county, Tennessee, sent two colored men to the
Legislature. The first colored member of the Legislature was
Sampson W. Keeble from 71-73. From 77-79 the colored member
was Thomas A. Sykes. Both of these were representatives.
Tennessee never had any colored senators. Sampson W. Keeble
was a native of Tennessee. Thomas A. Sykes was a native of North
Carolina and had been a member of the North Carolina legislature.
[31]

Captain James H. Sumner, of Davidson County, was elected a door-
keeper of the House of Representatives for 1867-69. He was
afterwards appointed captain of a Militia Company which rendered
the State valuable service in putting down the Ku-Klux. Later by act
of the Legislature a committee was authorized for Nashville
consisting of three persons to audit claims against the State for
destruction of property by soldiers of the Confederates and Federal
armies during the war. Governor Brownlow appointed on this
commission James H. Sumner, a white man named Lassiter, and
J.C. Napier. They examined claims amounting to millions of dollars,
some of which were afterwards paid and others rejected. There were
other colored men on such commissions in other parts of the state
whose names I do not now recall.

Haywood county first sent Samuel A. McElwee. He served from 79-
83. The same county afterwards sent Rev. D.F. Rivers who is now
pastor of the Berean Baptist Church in Washington, D.C. Rev. Rivers
defeated the father of a very popular white girl and she met him in
the street and spat in his face. McElwee made a very active member
and was highly respected by all. He was a graduate of Fisk
University and the law department of Walden University.

Weakley County sent John W. Boyd who served two or three terms
in the legislature. He ran for the senate but was defeated.

Perhaps there was one from Hamilton county or Knox county.

Shelby county sent quite a delegation of colored men from time to
time. Among them were T.F. Cassells and I.F. Norris, who is still
living in North Dakota. Cassells was a lawyer, educated at Oberlin.

Mr. Norris was a successful business man of Memphis, Mr. Keeble
was a barber in Nashville.

Mr. Sykes was Internal Revenue Collector in Nashville and came
there with high revenue officials from North Carolina. He entered
politics and was quite influential and finally died at Nashville.

Keeble was of a family highly respected and of very high standing in
Nashville. The men from Memphis and Haywood counties were
more highly educated than the others. They were free men of high
class and up to the standard of the whites who were sent to the
legislature in those days.

Colored Men in Other Positions

At one time the county government of Davidson County was run by
three Commissioners; one of these commissioners was a colored
man, named Randall Brown of limited education, but large
experience and a large amount of good common sense. He was very
influential and highly thought of by white and colored people.

Nashville city government during the days of reconstruction had
among its membership, perhaps, one-third colored members. These
men were not of the same calibre as the colored members of the
legislature. They were picked up in the different wards by their
friends. They were chosen for their popularity rather than for fitness
for the work before them.

Immediately following the reconstruction days, Josiah T. Settle was
elected Assistant Attorney General for Shelby county under General
Patterson who afterwards served as Governor of the State of
Tennessee. Mr. Settle had previously been a member of the
Mississippi Legislature.

In Knoxville men have served in the legislature of the city
government.

When they changed the form of government in Nashville, there was
a colored man a member of the Board of Aldermen. Two colored
men were elected to the council. As a result, two fire companies
were given to colored men. Mr. Charles Gowdey and Mr. J.C. Napier
were the colored members of the council. The first two brick school
houses were erected for colored children during their term. They
were the Pearl High School and the Meigs School. At that time the
people of Nashville, the Democrats especially, showed a very liberal
spirit to the colored people and divided the positions with them.
Shorty after this with a more liberal spirit, they erected the third brick
school house in the city of Nashville, The Napier School.

After things went out of the hands of the Republicans in Tennessee,
Capt. Sumner went down into Mississippi, entered politics and was
elected Sheriff of Holmes county. He became quite wealthy. His
family was of high standing. Owned property in Nashville and the
descendants still own it.

Settle and Cassells were free men. Keeble was owned by a very
distinguished Tennessee family named Keeble.

Schools for Free Negros and Slaves

In Tennessee before the war there were schools for Negroes. There
were no laws against schools for free colored people until the
agitation that brought on the war.

At Nashville, Franklin college graduated three colored men; that is
the school gave them graduation papers. They were prepared for the
ministry in the Christian church (Disciples). These men were Samuel
Lowery, Daniel Watkins and James T. Rapier. Lowery, Rapier and
Watkins were all free men. Rapier served a term or two from
Florence, Ala., in Congress during the Reconstruction Period. He
was a man of some wealth, was very active and traveled a good
deal. Lowery's father was also a minister, before him, in the Christian
Church. He had a farm as well as city property. Franklin College was
a Campbellite Institution or what is now known as the Christian
Church Institution.

When the agitation came about preceding the Civil War they closed
all of the colored schools.

Mr. Napier's father and mother with some other colored people had a
man named Rufus Conrad come down from Cincinnati, Ohio, to
teach their children. This was in 1859. Both free and slave children
went to this school. The school had been open two or three months
when one day, while the class was spelling the word baker, an
abrupt knock on the door interrupted the class and then a man
entered without waiting to be admitted. He said to the teacher, "What
is your name?" The teacher answered, "Rufus Conrad." "Where did
you come from?" was the next question. The teacher answered,
"From Cincinnati, Ohio." The man said, "I have been authorized by
the powers that be in Nashville to send these children home, to close
the doors of this school and give you just 24 hours to leave this
town." This ended this school.

There were three or four schools in Nashville, before the war. One
was taught by Samuel Watkins. He taught school in an old church
right over a branch. It was built up on stilts, and was a place of
worship built for the slaves by their owners. Another one was taught
by a Mrs. Tate, who was of a very excellent family. Mrs. Sallie Player,

a most delightful teacher taught another one of these schools. Mrs.
Player was a free woman but her husband was a slave. He belonged
to a very excellent family of white people, whose slaves enjoyed
every privilege that free people enjoyed. They were protected by
their owner. She was a woman of some education. Her husband also
had some education, although a slave. There was another school
taught by a white man and his wife whose name was Westbrooks.
They came to Nashville from St. Louis, Missouri and organized a
school. These two gathered considerable money from the free and
slave people who wanted to send their children to school. They
taught school about three weeks when they suddenly disappeared.

Slaves in Business and Negroes who Owned Slaves

Slaves had more money than is generally thought. Henry Harding, a
slave with some education, was a thorough business man from
beginning to end. Everything he touched turned to money. His home
in Nashville now is as pretty a home as you want to see. He was
allowed every liberty by his owners that a free person enjoyed. He
was a carpenter and contractor. He did all the construction work on
three plantations, that of General Harding, his son's, John Harding
and of David Gavock's. One of the Hardings was his father. He was
held as a slave until Emancipation in '63. He immediately came to
Nashville and went into business building houses. When he died he
had considerable property.

Hardy Perry, a slave in Nashville, had a line of hacks and transfer
teams during slavery time. He hired his own time. Steven Boyd and
Mr. Napier kept a livery stable.

My father's father was a pioneer iron man in middle Tennessee. His
parents came from England and went to Dixon county and
established what is still known as the Napier Iron Works. He was a
man of considerable force of character and influence. He had four
colored sons and daughters. He had these sons go to school along
with the white children. When he died his will provided that they
should leave Tennessee and go to a free state or to Liberia. They
went to Ohio and lived on Walnut Hill where they bought a farm.

They concluded to sell the farm on Walnut Hill, trading it for a farm at
New Richmond, Ohio. Two of the sons went to Richmond with my
grandmother, another went to St. Louis, Mo., and my father went
back to Nashville. Two of the brothers who went to Richmond with
their mother became school teachers in Richmond. The one who
went to Nashville went into the livery business.

My father's father was a physician, having graduated from the
medical school of the University of Pennsylvania. He had great
political influence and it was through his influence that one of the
governors of Tennessee was elected.

Alice Bosley, whose husband was white, and her family owned two
large plantations south of Nashville and the other north-east of
Nashville. They owned about twenty-five or thirty slaves. She was a
thoroughly religious woman and every Sunday would have her
slaves and children attend church.

Manse Bryant was another large land owner and slave owner.

Virginia State Library
Richmond, Va.

September 28, 1916.

Mr. Monroe N. Work, Editor,
Tuskegee, Alabama.

My Dear Sir:—

The Journals of the Senate and House of Delegates for the years in which there have
been Negro members do not indicate which of the members were white and which
negro. The almanacs, however, do as a general thing though the almanacs are not
extremely reliable. I have gotten the following information from the almanacs. The first
year in which negroes were allowed to hold office in Virginia was 1869.

The almanac for the year 1870 (which was printed the latter part of 1869 and which
gives, therefore, the members of the General Assembly for the session of 1869-70)
gives no negro members of the Senate of Virginia, but 18 negro members of the
House. The total membership of the House was 137. The membership of the Senate
was 40. For the session of 1870-71 there were, according to the almanac, no negro
members of the Senate. For the session of 1870-71, I regret to say that the almanac

does not differentiate between white and negro members. For the session of 1871-72, I
regret to say that the almanac does not give the members of the House of Delegates;
nor in the list of the members of the Senate does it differentiate between the two races.
For the session of 1872-3 the almanac does not differentiate. For the session of 1873-4
the almanac gives 3 negro members out of 40 in the Senate, and 17 out of 132
members in the House. For the session of 1874-5 there were three negro members out
of 40 in the Senate, and there were 17 negro members in the House. In the session of
1875-6 there were 3 negro Senators, and 13 negro members of the House. In the
session of 1876-77 there were three negro members in the Senate, and 12 negro
members of the House. In 1877-78 there were 3 negro members of the Senate, and
four negro members of the House. In 1878-9 there were three negro members of the
Senate and four negro members of the House. For the session of 1879-80 the almanac
gives no marks of differentiation. For the session of 1880-81 the almanac makes no
distinction. For the 1881-2 session the almanac has no list of the members. For the
session of 1882-3 the almanac does not differentiate. For the session of 1883-4 there
were 3 negro senators and 8 members of the House. For the session of 1884-5 there
was one negro senator, and 7 members of the House, out of a total membership of one
hundred. In the session of 1885-6 there was only one senator out of a membership of
39, and only one member of the House of Delegates, out of one hundred. In the
session of 1886-7 there was one senator and one member of the House. In the session
of 1887-8 there was one negro senator, and there were seven members of the House.
In the session of 1889-9 there was one senator, and seven members of the House. In
the session of 1889-90 there was one negro senator, and three members of the House.
In the session of 1890-91 there was one negro senator, and three members of the
House. In the session of 1891-2 there were no negroes in either the Senate or the
House, that is, none marked. For the session of 1892-3 no negroes were marked. For
the session of 1893-4 there seem to have been none. I have not looked further, but I do
not believe there has been a negro member in either House since that time.

Very truly yours,

(Signed) H. R. McIlwaine
State Librarian.

FOOTNOTES:
[1] Compiled by Monroe N. Work.

[2] Beverly, History of Alabama, 202, 208.

[3] Not returned for the 1875-1876 session.

[4] Beverly, History of Alabama, pp. 202-208.

[5] Served only in the session of 1874-1875.

[6] Served only in the session of 1875-1876.

[7] Alexander is said to have been counted out. He is said to have held
the position of postmaster at Madison and also to have had a deputy

reserve collector.

[8] Lewis and Scott were the last Negro members of the Florida
Legislature.

[9] Lewis and Scott were the last Negro members of the Florida
Legislature.

[10] Letter on October 11, 1916, from L. L. Knight, official compiler of
Georgia Records; Thompson, Reconstruction in Georgia, pp. 211-214,
262, 264.

[11] The names of these four were later stricken out. They were so nearly
white that their race was indeterminate. They remained in the house after
the others were expelled.—Thompson, Reconstruction in Georgia, p.
213; House Journal Georgia Legislature, p. 229.

[12] Letter on October 11, 1916, from L.L. Knight, official compiler of
Georgia Records.

[13] Furnished by Major John R. Lynch, May 19, 1915.

[14] North Carolina Manual, by North Carolina Historical Commission,
1913, pp. 863-906.

[15] Ibid., pp. 481-862.

[16] Reynolds, Reconstruction in South Carolina, pp. 76-79.

[17] In 1895 South Carolina again revised her constitution. In the
convention held for this purpose there were found Negro delegates, viz.:
Thomas E. Miller, L. R. Reed, Robert Smalls, W. J. Whipper and James
Wigg, all from Beaufort County. Smalls and Whipper had been delegates
in the 1868 convention. (Reported by H. H. Wallace.)

[18] Furnished by Mr. H. A. Wallace, a former page in the South Carolina
House of Representatives in the Reconstruction Period.

[19] Names marked with asterisk not in lists given in Reynold's
Reconstruction in South Carolina, pp. 106-107, 394-396.

[20] Furnished by H. A. Wallace, a former page in the South Carolina
House of Representatives in the Reconstruction Period.

[21] Names marked with asterisk not in lists given in Reynold's
Reconstruction in South Carolina, pp. 107-108, 394-396.

[22] Reynolds, Reconstruction in South Carolina, pp. 106-108.

[23] Reynolds, Reconstruction in South Carolina, pp. 394-396.

[24] Furnished by H. A. Wallace, a former page in the South Carolina
House of Representatives in the Reconstruction Period.

[25] Ibid.

[26] Ibid.

[27] George H. White, North Carolina, member of 55th and 56th
Congresses, as the last Negro member. (Editor.)

[28] He was a page in the South Carolina House of Representatives in
the Reconstruction Period.

[29] There were no colored members of the Tennessee Senate.

[30] Contested, not seated.

[31] 1868, 1870, see North Carolina list, Pasquotank County.

JAMES G. THOMPSON, THE ORIGINAL
CARPETBAGGER[1]
"I suppose I might call myself the first Carpet Bagger." This
expression casually let fall by Mr. J.G. Thompson, of this city, in a
conversation with the writer, was so striking and so suggestive that I
asked him to explain. He complied, and in so doing, gave the
following extraordinary narrative, which he subsequently consented
to have published:

From the 7th of November, 1861, when Hilton Head was captured by
the United States naval forces, the sea islands of South Carolina
never passed out of the hands of the United States. Those islands
and a considerable portion of the mainland were thereupon brought
under the operation of the United States direct tax act, and were in
time sold for United States taxes to whoever would buy them. They
were mainly bought in by the United States and were subsequently
re-sold to soldiers, army followers and Negroes. Towards the close
of the war, having concluded my service under the government, I
resolved to settle in the South, and purchased in 1864, a plantation
on St. Helena, one of these islands, with the intention of becoming a
Southern planter. I was thus engaged when Andrew Johnson began
his reconstruction efforts and appointed Benjamin F. Perry
provisional governor. This was the first attempt at the reconstruction
of the South, and South Carolina was the first state called upon to
resume its relations with the Union, as she had been the first to go
out. In October, 1865, the provisional governor issued a
proclamation setting a day for an election of delegates to a

Constitutional Convention

His Proclamation called upon the people to repeal the ordinances of
secession form a constitution and make such preparations as were

necessary to obtain admission into the Union. St. Helena parish was
entitled to one delegate to that constitutional convention.

All the original inhabitants of the parish, upon the approach of the
Federal forces, had fled. There was but one man left in the whole
parish when the United States took possession of the town of
Beaufort, and he was found in a garret dead drunk. Consequently
when the convention was called the question arose who were
citizens of the parish. There were few white natives of South
Carolina in the parish. The managers of election were not present.
Governor Perry had named the managers of the previous elections
held under the confederate government as the ones to conduct the
election now to be held, but none of these people were there. So a
town meeting in the New England style was called to consider the
situation, at which the colored people were in a large majority.
Probably one hundred white ex-soldiers, army officers, settlers,
clerks, quartermasters, employes, etc., came to the meeting. An
examination of the law of South Carolina as to

What Constituted Citizenship

showed that it required a three years' residence to be a citizen, and
that no person then a soldier of the United States could vote in the
state at any election. A long discussion followed, whether to
nominate a candidate or not, which ended in a decision to nominate.
Then came the query whether every one at the town meeting could
take part in naming a candidate to be voted for. The advocates of
Negro suffrage claimed that the colored native citizens of South
Carolina had a better right to select the candidate to be voted for
than any of the white men present. It should be remembered that at
this time the Fifteenth amendment had not been adopted. The point
was made on the other side that only those who would have the right
to vote for such a candidate had the right to participate in the
nomination. This proposition was voted down, however, by a large
majority, and H.G. Judd, a philanthropist engaged in the work of
educating the Negroes, was nominated. Subsequently, however,
another meeting was held by the white settlers who had acquired a

residence, and who were entitled under the laws of South Carolina to
vote, having resided there three years, at which meeting I was
nominated.

This Election

occurred the next day, and I received 36 votes and H.G. Judd 8
votes. There being no authorized managers of the election, the
voters assembled at the polls on the morning of the election and
elected three persons to act in that capacity. These persons made a
certificate that I had received the largest number of votes at the
election.

When the convention assembled in Columbia, I presented by
credentials and could have been sworn in without question if I had
preferred to make a statement to the convention that it might not act
unadvisedly of the circumstances of my election. I asked that the
credentials be referred to the committee on credentials. It was so
ordered and I then appeared before the committee and related the
facts. After the hearing a report was presented which stated that
perhaps this was the only case known to legislative history in which
a man contested his own seat, and that all the evidence for and
against my right to the seat was presented by myself. The committee
reported unanimously in favor of

Seating Me

A long debate, however, ensued in the convention upon the
question, and it was finally decided only by the close vote of 53 to 50
that I be seated. George D. Tillman, now a member of Congress
from South Carolina, made a very bitter speech against seating me.
He thought the insolence of this Yankee was beyond precedent in
claiming to represent the grand old parish of St. Helena, which had
been represented in the past by Middleton, Rhett, Bull and other
distinguished citizens of the State. In a speech that was really
prophetic, he predicted that to admit me would be to show dragons'
teeth, and that ultimately I would be followed by a horde which
should devour the state.

James L. Orr made a speech in favor of my admission, and said that
he hoped to see the state overrun with just such newcomers. I was,
perhaps, the youngest man in the convention, and was surrounded
by men of the first rank of the State. Scarcely a man in that
convention but had a title. There were ex-senators, ex-governors,
ex-chancellors, ex-judges and ex-members of Congress. It was the
intellectual power of the state to say nothing of ex-generals, colonels
and ex-captains of the confederate army. Probably two-thirds of
those men had been members of the convention which carried the
state out of the Union, and had looked upon that act at the time it
was performed as

The Crowning End

of a lifetime of agitation and anxiety. Now they were called upon to
undo it all, but they seemed incapable of understanding the true
position of affairs, and were totally ignorant of what had been
accomplished by the war and blind to the logic of events.

For instance, one of the questions early raised and referred to the
judiciary committee was whether Negroes should be allowed to
testify in the courts. Judge Frost of Charleston introduced a
resolution that the ordinance fixing the status of the Negro upon this
question should be passed by the convention. Chancelor Ingalls,
who recently died in Baltimore, opposed the proposition, claiming
that a sovereign convention called as this was for a special purpose,
ought not to legislate. Upon the question of discharging the
committee from further consideration of the subject, there were but
two votes in the negative, Judge Frost, the mover, a man of 80
years, and myself.

Isolated as I was from the start, I was treated by the convention with
the utmost courtesy, and when I occasionally rose to speak, I
received the

Undivided Attention

of the members, and the rather obtrusive attention of the ladies who
filled the galleries. Such remarks could be heard as: "There, that
Yankee is going to speak."

Another point that agitated the convention was, what laws should be
passed to fix the status of the Negro, and, after a long discussion, a
committee was appointed to frame a code of laws to be submitted to
the legislature, which should assemble under the constitution
adopted by this convention. The product of that commission was
"The Black Code." Its intentions and provisions were foreshadowed
in the debates of the convention. At the close of the debate I spoke
for five minutes, closing with the prediction that if the convention
thought that its work would be of any value to the state, they were
mistaken. If the convention thought it possible to provide a different
code of laws for the government of the loyal black citizens of the
United States, from that which governed the disloyal white citizens of
South Carolina, they did not understand what the war had
accomplished. I said that I knew more of the

Opinion of the War

than it was possible for any man in that convention or all of them to
know. While I spoke with modesty before men who had occupied
high political positions in the past, I spoke with confidence as to the
opinion of the people of the North who had waged a successful war
against secession and slavery. Speaking for them I predicted that
their laws would be made by major-generals and executed by
provost-marshals until the last man present would fall into his grave
before the North would admit the state into the Union under a
constitution which did not recognize that all men were equal before
the law. When I sat down there was a dead silence and solemn
faces.

To show the opposition I excited, let me give another anecdote.

James L. Orr came to my room one evening and asked me not to be
offended if he requested that upon a certain question he proposed to
bring before the convention the next day I would not speak in its

favor. He said: "There are fools enough in this convention that do not
want anything that you do want, and every time you speak on a
measure you hinder its adoption." The proposition he had at hand
was to

Reduce the Time

requisite to obtain citizenship in the state from three years to one,
and after much difficulty he persuaded the convention to make the
change. He also wished to abolish the property qualification for state
senators. Tillman appealed to him in an eloquent speech to spare
this last relic of South Carolina conservatism. Orr, in reply, asked
what in God's name had South Carolina conservatism done for
South Carolina. He pointed to what its condition was once and what
it now was, and charged South Carolina conservatism with the
result. His speech was a powerful one, and brought the convention
to his views, and no property qualification was thereafter imposed
upon any officer.

Near the close of the convention I asked leave to present a petition
from 250 colored property owners of the city of Charleston, who
asked that the right of suffrage be extended to them. This, I suppose,
was the first petition of the kind ever offered in the slave states. A
member of the convention immediately moved that the petition be
returned to me and not received by the convention. Mr. Orr said that
the petition was respectful in form and ought to be received. He
moved that it be laid on the table. Another delegate moved that

No Mention

of the reception of the petition be made in the journal. I then rose to
speak upon the last of these motions, but the president of the
convention entertained a motion to adjourn, and the convention did
so.

The convention made a constitution which was not, however,
submitted to the people for their approval. Under it a governor and
legislature were elected.

The Black Code

was ratified by the legislature, and many preposterous laws relating
to the Negroes were passed. It was evident that the freedman was to
be reduced to a condition worse than slavery—he was to be made a
serf, attached to the land, and to be under all the disabilities of
slavery without having the protection of the property interest of the
owner. Congress took charge of the reconstruction, and the new
government of South Carolina fell to pieces, after a brief and
inglorious existence.

Although I was the first "carpet bagger," I did not pursue the
occupation. I never held office again in the state, although I
continued to live there for sixteen years, and taking part in politics as
the editor of the Beaufort Republican and the Columbia Union-
Herald.

FOOTNOTE:
[1] This account was taken from James G. Thompson's Papers by his
daughter, Caroline B. Stephen, of Washington, D.C. Special
Correspondence of the New York Tribune.

BOOK REVIEWS
The Negro in Virginia Politics, 1865-1902. By Richard L. Morton,
Ph.D., Phelps Stokes Fellow in the University of Virginia, 1917-
1918. Charlottesville, Virginia, 1919. Pp. 199. Price, $1.50.

This is the fourth number of a series of studies in the race problem
promoted by the Phelps Stokes Fund with a view to interesting a
larger number of southern white scholars in this field. The
seriousness of the problem during recent years has driven home the
thought that without scientific investigation it will be extremely difficult
to find a rational basis upon which the two races may cooperate for
the greatest good of the greatest number. These monographs are
very much like the addresses and studies of the University
Commission making an effort to meet this need. Judged from the
value of the monographs hitherto produced, however, one must
express the regret that these works do not measure up to the
desired standard. The chief difficulty lies in the misconception that
the whole matter of readjustment may be effected by using the white
man only. He is to do the thinking, outline the method of attack, and
direct the movement. The Negro, the other half of the equation, has
not been invited to share this work and the writers making these
investigations are unfortunately biased rather than scientific.

The purpose of this monograph is to show the bad effects of Negro
suffrage which had no place in Lincoln's plan of Reconstruction or in
the early Congressional plan, but was forced upon the South by a
group of aggressive radicals led by Thaddeus Stevens and Charles
Sumner as a means of their personal aggrandizement and of
executing punishment and revenge upon the Southern States. It is
not true that these two statesmen desired to force Negro rule upon
the South. They tried to give that section a democratic government.
At first they advised the Negroes to choose for their leaders the
intelligent southern whites and the Negroes entreated their former
masters to serve them in this capacity. When the whites refused to

coöperate, therefore, Congress could do nothing else but make the
Negroes the basis of the reconstructed governments. From this
partisan point of view only then the monograph is very much of a
success. The writer suffered from a preoccupation of mind and in his
researches was governed accordingly. He knew what he wanted to
write and found facts to assist him toward this end.

The book covers in detail form the beginnings of Negro suffrage in
Virginia, the campaign of 1867 in which radicals and Negroes drew
the color line, the constitutional convention of 1867-68, the
committee of nine, the campaign of 1869, the restoration of Virginia,
the elimination of the Carpetbaggers from 1869 to 1879, the
Readjuster movement in Virginia from 1879 to 1883, politics and
race friction from 1885 to 1900, the constitutional convention of
1901-1902, and the new constitution. He, therefore, discusses
certain topics already treated in J.A.C. Chandler's Representation in
Virginia, and The History of Suffrage in Virginia; J.P. McConnell's
Negroes and their Treatment in Virginia from 1865-1867; H.J.
Eckenrode's The Political History of Virginia during Reconstruction;
and C.C. Pearson's The Readjuster Movement in Virginia.

The author makes a survey of the situation prior to the Civil War,
explaining why the aristocratic Virginians long since accustomed to
rule even by excluding the poor whites from the electorate could not
tolerate the enfranchisement of the Negroes. An effort is made also
to show that inasmuch as most of the Northern States prior to the
Civil War had not accepted Negro suffrage, it was natural for the
southern people to be opposed to such a policy. To strengthen this
point he refers to such authorities as Oliver P. Morton, Governor
Andrew and Abraham Lincoln.

The author considers the Negro a failure in politics and supports his
contention by a quotation from George W. Murray, who felt that it
was the mistake of the nineteenth century to attempt to make the ex-
slave a governor before he had learned to be governed and of
Booker T. Washington who said, "There is no doubt but that we
made a mistake at the beginning of our freedom of putting the

emphasis on the wrong end. Politics and the holding of office were
too largely emphasized almost to the exclusion of every interest."

Since the Negro has been eliminated, the author seems to rejoice
that the races in Virginia now work together in harmony and are
friends. He believes that this relationship will continue only so long
as no exterior factor disturbs the equilibrium and concludes with a
quotation from John Sharp Williams who feels that "It will be well that
wise men think more, that good men pray more and that all men talk
less and curse less." If the author really intends to set forth the views
of such radicals as John Sharp Williams as those upon which the
races may expect to coöperate in the South, he might have added
his recent pronunciamento that "when it comes to maintaining the
honor of a white woman the South respects no law human or divine."

These observations are sufficient to establish the idea of the book.
The Negro during the Reconstruction period was a failure. The white
man who has been restored to absolute power so as to establish
social ostracism, segregation and lynching is a success. In other
words, the whole study is from the white man's point of view. The
Negro has no political rights which the white man should respect and
unless things are in conformity with the white man's prejudice they
are wrong.

No one would gainsay that the enfranchisement of all ex-slaves was
a mistake. Oliver P. Morton, and Governor Andrew, of
Massachusetts, were to some extent right in their criticism of such a
policy. It would have been much better to have followed Abraham
Lincoln's plan of enfranchising those Negroes who were owners of
property or able to read and write and those white men who had not
taken any part in the Rebellion. While it should not have been
expected that ex-slaves could administer the affairs of the country it
could not, on the other hand, have been imagined that their masters
who had begrudgingly abandoned their title to men as property
would in a few years deal with them as one should with human
beings. As a matter of fact the black codes which the Southern
States enacted immediately after the war show the inability of the

aristocratic southerners to deal humanely with a subject people. If,
therefore, Abraham Lincoln's policy, of gradually recruiting voters
from such blacks as gave evidence of wealth and education and
from such whites as manifested a disposition to do the right thing by
the country and by the freedmen had been followed, the mistakes of
the Reconstruction would have been avoided.

The Negro Trail Blazers of California. By Delilah L. Beasley, Los
Angeles, California, 1919. Pp. 317.

This is, according to the author, a compilation of records from the
California Archives in the Bancroft Library at the University of
California and from the diaries, papers and conversations of
pioneers in the State of California. It includes also a record of
present-day Negroes in that State. The book is illustrated with
portraits exhibiting the life of the people past and present. The work
is divided into three parts, the first being historical, the second
biographical, and the third an account of the present-day Negro.

Taking up the historical task, the author accounts for the discovery of
California and mentions the important roles played by Estevanecito
and the Negro priest accompanying the explorers. She then
discusses the rule of Spain in California, the Bear Flag Party, the
landing of Commodore John D. Sloate, the admission of California to
the Union, the Pony Express, the right of testimony, the homestead
law, the elective franchise, slavery in California, and freedom papers.
Although intended as a continuous sketch, however, this portion of
the work, like most of it, is a mixture of narratives and documents.

In the second part of the book giving biographical sketches there is a
chapter on the first Negro settlers on the Pacific coast, a pioneer list
and the Forty-Niners of color engaged in mining. Into this are worked
all sorts of personal narratives without any organizing or unifying
scheme as to place or achievement. Not much attention is paid to
proportion. The author seemingly wrote all she had heard or

collected in each case regardless of the worth of these personal
achievements.

The same style holds in the treatment of the present-day Negro of
California. There is something about almost everything. The Negro
churches and the Negro in education, law and music have
considerable space. The author next takes up distinguished women
of color, doctors, dentists, literary persons, Negroes at the Panama
Pacific International Exposition, and Negroes in the army. Then
follow the notes on the text which, instead of being given throughout
the work as footnotes are placed at the end of the work.

Judged from the point of view of the scientific investigator, the work
is neither a popular nor a documented account. When one considers
the numerous valuable facts in the book, however, he must regret
that the author did not write the work under the direction of some one
well grounded in English composition. As it is, it is so much of a
hodge-podge that one is inclined to weep like the minister who felt
that his congregation consisted of too many to be lost but not
enough to be saved.

A History of South Africa. By Dorothea Fairbridge, Oxford University
Press, London, 1918. Pp. 319.

One hears much nowadays about the history of South Africa and the
development of that recently enlarged domain under the direction of
Great Britain adds further interest to the story. The present volume
differs, however, from the type of most recent accounts of South
Africa in that it is a small illustrated work within the reach of those too
busy or not sufficiently well grounded in the social sciences to read
an intensively scientific treatise. As such, it has a place in the current
historical volumes growing out of the reconstruction of the countries
revolutionized by the world war.

The work begins with a picture of the country as nature made it.
There is an account of early plant life, prehistoric animals, paleoliths,
and prehistoric man. The early inhabitants are then given more
detailed treatment. Attention is directed to the Bushman, the
Hottentot, and the Bantu as each figured in South Africa. An effort to
contrast the country as the natives kept it with the country as the
white man developed it, is a large part of this chapter.

Beginning then with Prince Henry of Portugal the author presents an
array of "Great Adventurers." Following this sketch comes the
account of the rounding of the Cape of Good Hope by Bartholomew
Diaz and next Vasco da Gama's voyage around the Cape to India.
The climbing of the Table Mountain by Antonio de Saldanha, the
landing of Don Francisco of Almeida, the voyage of Sir Francis
Drake, and the adventures of other travellers appear in chronological
order.

The rise of settlements in South Africa or on the neighboring islands
as half-way stations, show the early importance of the country which,
after being conquered, soon experienced considerable expansion.
Then followed in the seventeenth century an era of prosperity which
paved the way for better beginnings the next century under
Governors Hendrik, Swellengrebel and Tulbagh. The troubles of the
eighteenth century when the settlements had to reckon with natives
and foreigners constitute a critical period of the colony ending with
the capture of the Cape by the English in 1795. Then follow the first
British occupation, the restoration of the Cape to the Dutch by the
Treaty of Amiens in 1802, the second rule of the Dutch and the
second coming of the British.

With the nineteenth century the British were to be free to start upon
an all but uninterrupted rule of prosperity. The establishment of
courts, the rise of missions, the improvement in agriculture, and the
extension of the frontier characterized the first efforts of the
pioneering British. Their relations with the natives and difficulties with
the Boers are treated in the chapters on the Story of Natal, the
Vootrekkers, the founding of the Boer Republic and the retrocession

of the Transvaal. The chapters covering the subsequent period
consist of a discussion of new influences, the Uitlanders, the
Jameson Raid, the War of 1899-1902, and the problems of peace
and reconstruction.

Reconstruction in Louisiana. By Ella Lonn, Assistant Professor in
Grinnell College. G.P. Putnam's Sons, New York and London,
1919. Pp. 538. Price $3.00 net.

Miss Lonn's book is an exhibition of the true scholarly spirit. Her
analysis of the situation in Louisiana politics during the period of
Reconstruction is most ably executed. She has neglected no source
which would throw light upon this very anachronistic epoch. Public
documents of all kinds, and especially those which embody the
debates in the Senate and assembly of Louisiana have been made
to yield interesting testimonies of the passing shows of the years
1867-1876. Not content, however, with these testimonies, she has
called to her aid many other sources including the newspapers of the
day wherein is displayed popular reaction towards the orgies being
indulged in the State House. And thus the reader's mind, by means
of most carefully chosen quotations from these records, as if by a
lightning flash, is frequently illumined; so that the whole comedy
unfolds before the eyes in a most interesting fashion.

The book is not only filled with a wealth of detailed information
concerning the period, it not only tells the story of political
debauchery, ignorance and fraud; but notes also the few shreds of
constructive work done by the legislators under the coercion of
public opinion. All of these facts are put together in a logical manner
and show that the author is not only gifted with keen analytic powers,
but is also endowed with a peculiar faculty for organizing and
marshalling facts in such a manner as to weave a beautiful mosaic of
otherwise widely divergent elements.

Miss Lonn has succeeded in writing a very interesting narrative and
her book will hold the attention of a widely differing clientele. The
student of American politics will find an illuminative study of this very
remarkable period, and therefore much food for thought. But this
book offers to the lover of fiction a new field. There is the hero,
Warmoth, the villain, whose protraiture has been limned by a
masterly hand. Little by little, sometimes directly and sometimes
indirectly; sometimes by the words of his own mouth, oftener by the
mouths of those whom he attacked, and almost constantly by the
unfriendly newspapers, she deftly portrays the elements of his
character. Warmoth had almost unlimited power and he used it like
Cataline to corrupt the corruptible elements of the State. He was
essentially a Nero, callous to the last degree and indifferent to the
progressive anemia which was destroying the State's finances. Like
Julius Caesar he attained his gubernatorial power by making multiple
false promises and kept it by a species of corrupt practices which
were incredibly vile. There is the tragic setting, the broken, maimed,
devastated State of Louisiana, just out of the War of Rebellion and
struggling hard to regain her "former glory." There are the
carpetbaggers, irresponsible, predatory and indigent, of whom an
army estimated to have been five hundred thousand strong invaded
the State attracted as vultures by the rich pickings of political
conquest. There are scalawags, remnants of the Confederate army,
also indigent, nevertheless troublesome and among whom many
brigands, murderers and cut-throats sprang up. There were
respectable Republicans and Democrats, whites and blacks who
formed the background for the tragedy of Reconstruction in
Louisiana. There were also the Manichean gods of sharply defined
good and evil, sanity and insanity, righteousness and corruption,
civic pride and utmost indifference; murder, theft, malfeasance,
ignorance and crass stupidity. All these thrown in the pot of political
regeneration made a situation that was tragically immoral and
horrific.

During Warmoth's administration the legislature was a minstrel show.
It was worse than a minstrel show; it was profoundly corrupt.
Lobbyists openly paid legislators, black and white, for their votes.

And what is more, the money was parceled out to each one on the
very floor of the Senate and House. This corruption was so rife that it
was sickening; it is even nauseating now to read about it. He was
finally impeached by the Senate. When it became certain to him that
the Senate would vote for his impeachment he cowardly sought to
nullify the vote by resigning and fleeing the State. But he regained
his power and influence and held office two years longer. And during
this time his power was so absolute that the fear of him is manifest in
the Senate and House debates. Speakers in making charges of
corruption, and even when speaking against bills aimed at increasing
the power of the governor, always added, so great was their fear of
him, "no reflection is meant upon the present incumbent," or words
to that effect. This although they knew well that it was his very abuse
of power which called forth many of the bills under consideration.

It was scarcely possible, however, that such abuses, such corruption
and infamy, such vile and degraded practices as those which
characterized Warmoth's administration as Governor of Louisiana
could long continue. So in 1871 came the crash. An open rupture in
the ranks of the Republican party developed. The gatling gun
convention, so-called, because federal troops with two gatling guns,
guarded the convention building, was held. Warmoth, scenting a
conspiracy, bolted and held an independent convention in Turner
Hall. With him as the leading spirit of the gathering was Pinchback,
then majority leader in the Senate.

The career of Pinchback sheds additional light upon this period. He
held a high place in the political life of that day, rising from majority
leader, by successive stages, to the lieutenant-governorship, and to
the presidency of the Senate. He also became immensely wealthy
on account of his association with Warmoth, who is said to have
acquired a fortune of more than a million dollars during three years
of his administration. While Pinchback was Park Commissioner he
was accused by Antoine of cheating him out of $40,000 at one clip.
For a time Pinchback was one of Warmoth's staunchest supporters,
and when the party in Louisiana was split by the two factions, the
Custom House ring and the Warmoth faction, Pinchback was elected

permanent chairman of the Warmoth convention and made the
keynote speech for the campaign. Subsequently, Warmoth's utter
degeneracy alienated him and so they parted company. Warmoth's
star descended, and he went down to ignominious defeat. Upon his
name and memory were heaped derogations, curses and
anathemas. And unfortunately these will always be associated with
his memory. On the other hand, Pinchback's star rose to the
ascendant and he was elected to the United States Senate.

Pinchback was a man of good breeding, education and culture; and
if he yielded to the corrupt influences of his time, it was because he
was unable to withstand the flood; it was because the corrupt hand
of everyone in politics at that time, Ishmael-like, was turned against
the forces of righteousness in political affairs. For, at that time, as the
author clearly shows, crime, corruption and fraud were so rife, so
common, that they were taken for granted. And the moral sense was
so low, so negligible, that men did not think of their crimes as crimes.
They committed them simply because "everybody was doing so,"
and unrighteousness filled the State as "the waters the great deeps."

Finally, by a species of corrupt and criminal practices which made
those of the Warmoth régime pale into the utmost insignificance, the
tide was turned. Another party came into power and the lily-white
government was established. Out of such conditions as Miss Lonn
has depicted the government of all the Southern States sprang. This
book helps us to understand, in some slight degree, the curious
political bias of these States. It is in part a heritage of unreasoning
fear—not so much of Negro domination as of again being
overwhelmed by a flood of corruption let loose by their own kind.
How this fear has expressed itself in more recent times we all know
too well.

Miss Lonn closes her book with this fitting paragraph: "And therewith
the curtain fell upon the last act in this long and weary drama. One
can hardly help feeling that surely if Louisiana had sinned, she had
paid the penalty of her sins in full measure of atonement."

R. T. Browne

NOTES
Recently there passed from this life Sir T. F. Victor Buxton, Bart., a
man attracted to Africa, no doubt, by the record of his distinguished
great grandfather T. F. Buxton, Bart., who belonged to that group of
English reformers instrumental in giving the death blow to the African
slave trade. Early interested in the natives of Africa, the grandson
soon became associated with the Church missionary movement. He
was largely concerned in the establishment of two corporations, the
Uganda Company and the East African Industries, both intended to
benefit the natives.

Closely connected with Africa, he often visited various parts with a
view to studying the many problems arising in the commercial, social
and political world. On these occasions many Africans were
entertained by him and he maintained friendly relations with them so
as to bring together the representatives of various interests to work
for the good of all. His interest in the African natives is further shown
by his service as president of the Anti-Slavery and Aborigines
Protection Society and as a firm supporter of the Native Races and
Liquor Traffic Committee.

Owing to the printers' strike the publication of Dr. C.G. Woodson's
illustrated textbook, The Negro in our History, has been delayed. It is
highly probable that the volume will appear before spring.

The Journal
of
Negro History

Vol. V—April, 1920—No. 2

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEGRO
PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM IN MISSOURI[1]
THE PERIOD FROM 1865 TO 1875

On Tuesday, the eleventh day of January, 1865, the Negro of
Missouri awoke a slave; that night he retired a free man.[2] His
darkest hour had passed but before him loomed a great task, that of
living up to the requirements of a man. His emancipators were
confronted with the responsibility of preparing him for his new duties
and for the proper use of suffrage which was to be granted him a few
years later.

Prior to 1865 the State had seen fit to prohibit the education[3] of the
slave because, although the educated slave was the more efficient,
yet he was the more dangerous; as his training might aid him to
make a better revolt against his position. But the qualities which
were objectionable in the slave were necessary to the freed man, if
he was to prove other than a menace to the State. His emancipators
faced the education of the Negro fairly, and the same convention
which had passed the Emancipation Act of 1865, drew up a new
State constitution which was ratified the same year. This
constitution[4] provided for the establishment and the maintenance of
free public schools for the instruction of all persons in the State who
were between the ages of five and twenty-one. It further provided
that all funds for the support of the public schools should be
appropriated in proportion to the number of children without regard to
color.

The legislature, which met the same year, passed a law[5] which
required that the township boards of education, and those in charge
of the educational affairs in the cities and the incorporated villages of
the State should establish and maintain one or more separate
schools for the colored children of school age within their respective

jurisdictions, provided the number of such children should exceed
twenty. Persons over twenty-one were to be admitted to these
schools. The same officers who were in charge of the educational
interests of the white schools were to control the Negro schools. The
length of the term and the other advantages to be enjoyed by these
schools were to be the same as those enjoyed by the white schools
of the same grade. This law further provided that if the average
attendance for any month should drop below twelve the school might
be closed for a period not to exceed six months. In districts where
there were less than twenty Negro children, the money raised for
their education was to be reserved by the boards of education in
those districts and to be appropriated as the boards saw fit for the
education of the Negro children upon whom the money had been
raised. The same legislature[6] passed an act authorizing towns,
cities, and villages to organize for school purposes with special
privileges. This act, however, provided that any town, city or village
so incorporated should be required to establish one or more Negro
schools according to the law. At this session of the legislature[7] there
was enacted a law to compel the school authorities in each sub-
district to prepare a school census of their respective jurisdictions
which should enumerate separately and according to sex the white
and the Negro children who were permanently resident within the
sub-district. In case the directors failed to perform this duty the
township clerk was to have the census taken and to recover from the
directors by judicial proceedings the cost of the work.

If we were to judge from the constitutional and the statutory laws of
this period, we might conclude that the education of the Negro was
very popular and that his needs were well taken care of. But before
we can draw any conclusion we must study certain conditions. We
must know something of the character of the men who were to
enforce the law, of the desire of the Negroes for an education, of
popular opinion concerning public education, and of the distribution
of the Negro population.

The State Superintendents of this period were well trained men,[8]
and their reports show that they were faithful in the discharge of their

duty. One of these superintendents, John Monteith,[9] showed great
zeal in the establishment and development of the Negro school
system. He was born in the Western Reserve district of Ohio, a
section noted for its strong anti-slavery sentiment. He belonged to a
family of educators. His father was one of the first presidents of the
University of Michigan. Monteith completed his education at Yale and
served for a number of years as a minister in St. Louis. Upon
becoming State Superintendent, he wrote in favor of Negro
education a pamphlet which he sent to each of the county
superintendents. His annual reports,[10] to which we shall refer later,
show the interest and the effort which this man put forth to develop
the Negro schools of the State.

The Negroes were not indifferent to the efforts which were put forth
in their behalf. There is much evidence to show that they took an
active part in the establishment[11] and the maintenance of schools
for their children. In those districts in which Negro schools were
maintained and an honest effort was made to better the conditions of
the Negroes, they responded heartily to their opportunities. The
following quotations are typical of the reports which the
superintendents in those counties were able to make in 1874: "In
most of the townships a commendable interest is manifested in the
support of Negro schools, which I am happy to report, is appreciated
by the Negroes[12] themselves. The schools have been well attended
with considerable diligence manifested by the pupils." A.A. Neal,
Superintendent of Pettis County, reported:[13] "The Negro schools
are doing better than could be expected under existing
circumstances." The Superintendent of Bay County said:[14] "The
Negro schools have been well attended. The pupils have manifested
great enthusiasm, and have made surprising advancement in the
rudiments." The Journal of Education[15] which was printed in St.
Louis, by J.B. Merwin in 1869, states: "It is a well known fact that our
Negro population manifests the greatest zeal in taking advantage of
every opportunity for acquiring education."

At the beginning of this period, popular opinion concerning free
public schools in general and Negro schools in particular was not

favorable. The school laws of the State were in advance of the
people. These laws[16] were the product of a few statesmen who
appeared at intervals, and who, in spite of well known social
protests, pushed forward with great energy school laws modeled
after those of the more progressive eastern States.[17] The State
Superintendent complained in his report for 1867 that in those
counties in which the southern sympathizers predominated, the
people were either wholly negligent or bitterly opposed to their public
school right. Three classes of opposers were enumerated;[18] those
who believed that the public schools tended to foster infidelity, those
who believed that the State, the county or a municipal body had no
right to tax for educational purposes, and those who regarded as
unnecessary any education beyond reading, writing, and simple
arithmetic. In March of the year 1866, four months after the
constitution of 1865 had gone into effect, of the thirty-four Negro
schools[19] in the State only two were situated in counties in which
the southern element predominated. Thus we see that the attitude
toward public schools in general was reflected upon the Negro
schools.

The school laws themselves, which seem to have been adequate to
provide equal school rights for all the children in the State, were
easily evaded when the officials of a community were hostile to
them. In his first annual report,[20] State Superintendent Parker
called attention to the following facts: No remedy was provided in
case the township board refused to comply with the statutes. There
was no remedy in case the local board of directors refused to hire
teachers for the school when the requisite number of pupils were in
the district. In this manner, he reported, the Negro children in many
districts were deprived of an opportunity to attend school. Even
where there was no apparent hostility to the statutes and to the
education of the Negroes there was a failure to make the requisite
enumeration of the Negro children in many townships and
consequently many children were by the very law itself deprived of
the benefits of the State school fund. He pointed out that in the year
1867 many would thus be deprived, since the law regulating the
apportionment of the State school fund, compelled the

apportionment to be made on the basis of the enumeration which
had already been made, and which in many cases did not include
the Negro children. The law concerning the establishment of Negro
schools was abused here and there throughout the entire period. As
late as 1876 the State Superintendent complained[21] that in many
cases through ignorance of the law and in other cases through willful
disobedience of the law, schools for the Negroes had not been
established. In the first case, he reported that merely explaining the
law had the desired effect and in the other case it was necessary to
call the assistance of county clerks and of grand juries.

During this period there was a growing sentiment in favor of public
schools. This is shown by the reports which came from the various
counties to the State Superintendent's office, and also by the
increase in the number of children enumerated and by the increasing
number of schools. In 1870,[22] the county superintendents reported
a great deal of opposition and indifference to the schools especially
on the part of the tax-payers. In 1872 a majority of the county
superintendents were able to report[23] a growing sentiment in favor
of public education. They could then say that the enemies of this
institution were becoming its friends. The State Superintendent[24]
reported in 1874 that in the four years of his administration there had
been a steady growth in the popularity of the public school system.
We can better appreciate the progress made in this period when we
remember that prior to the Civil War, the public school in Missouri
had been considered a pauper's school. The Constitution[25] of 1820
had provided: "One or more schools shall be established in each
county township as soon as practicable and necessary where the
poor shall be taught gratis." The attendance also showed a healthy
growth. In 1870[26] there were 280,473 pupils attending 7,547 public
schools in the State. There were 389,956 pupils attending these
schools in 1872. In 1874 the enumeration showed that there were
708,354 children of school age in the State.

As sentiment in favor of the public school grew, the willingness to
enumerate and to provide schools for the Negro children also
increased. In 1867 the number of Negro children enumerated was

33,619. This was an increase of 13,709 over the previous year. Fifty-
six public schools were provided for these children. In 1869 forty
counties reported 12,871 Negro children and 80 schoolhouses which
were devoted to their use. The average school term was four and
one-third months. In 1871 the enumeration had increased to 37,173,
and the number of public schools to 212. These schools had an
enrollment of 4,358 pupils. In 1873[27] the enumeration had
increased to 38,234 and the number of schools to 252.

The work of the public school for the education of the Negro was
supplemented by two other classes of schools. In 1867[28] the State
Superintendent called attention to three classes of schools which
were educating the Negroes in the State. In the first place there were
those supported by benevolent societies in other States. These
schools were generally supplied with white teachers and were doing
good work. There were then the private or subscription schools,
which were supported by the tuition of the pupils and in many cases
these were taught by colored teachers of inferior qualifications.
Finally there were the public schools as contemplated by the law. A
few such schools had been established in the large towns and cities.

In 1869[29] it was estimated that there were in the State 34,000
Negro children of educable age. For their accommodation there were
59 Negro public schools with an average attendance of 2,000. This
report also states that the majority of these schools were taught in
churches and cabins with walls admirably adapted for ventilation and
for admission of copious shower baths of rain. The same year
Colonel Seely, Agent for the Freedman's Bureau in Missouri,
reported 114 schools for the freedmen. Most of these were public
schools and the attendance was 6,240. The ninth census for 1870,
reported that 9,080 Negro children were attending school in
Missouri. Thus we see that the public schools of this period were
greatly aided by mission and private schools.

In 1868 the legislature enacted a law[30] which gave the State
Superintendent the authority to assume the powers of the school
board for establishing and maintaining a school for Negro children

when the township, city, or village, neglected to establish and to
maintain such a school in accordance with the law. The same year
the school law was amended[31] so as to require the township, the
city or the incorporated village to establish one or more schools for
Negro children when there was more than fifteen children in the
jurisdiction. A Negro school could be closed for six months when the
attendance for any month dropped below ten.

There is evidence to show that the State Superintendent used his
power to establish Negro schools when the local authorities
neglected this task. In 1873, he reported:[32] "I have established
between 50 and 60 Negro schools in the State without resorting to
the expedient of a tax as indicated and authorized by law." In 1875
he reported: "I have levied taxes for Negro schools in three
instances. The medicine is good and effective and I trust it will be
administered in every similar case in the State until the Negroes
enjoy schools equally good in every way as the white schools." Thus
we see that by the Law of 1868 the State Superintendent had the
power to remedy conditions as far as the Negroes were concerned
but there was no evidence to show that he used this power prior to
1872, although there are reports of violations of the law. In 1874
there was passed a law[33] which made a school official subject to a
fine of not less than fifty or more than five hundred dollars, for the
persistent neglect or refusal to perform any duty or duties pertaining
to his office. In view of this and the offensiveness of the results
threatened in the civil rights bill,[34] the State Superintendent[35] was
astonished at the number of delinquencies and persistent evasions
of the law.

The Commissioner of Education was able to report in 1870: "This
State has a larger proportion of schools[36] for Negro children than
any former slave State. Opposition to the education of the Negroes
is rapidly disappearing. Their rapid improvement and good conduct
help to disarm prejudice." Among the methods of evading the law the
following were reported; the failure to enumerate the Negro children,
the complaints of a lack of funds, and the plea of an inability to
secure teachers. In 1875 the State Superintendent reported[37] that

the citizens of Calloway County, the most strongly southern county in
the State during the Civil War, were evincing the greatest readiness
to provide good schools for their large Negro population. This, he
believed, augured well for the future of the Negro schools of the
State, since it indicated a growing kindly disposition of the southern
element of the State towards them. How great was the change in
sentiment can be readily seen by contrasting this report with those of
the county superintendent for 1866 and 1867. In 1866 the
Superintendent of Calloway reported[38] much objection to public
schools in that county on account of the impartial application to
children of all races and colors. The only Negro school in the county
had been established under very discouraging circumstances at
Fulton. In many rural districts there were not enough children to
permit the establishment of a school and in other districts the
existing opposition to Negro schools made their establishment
impossible. The next year it was reported[39] that the white schools
were better fitted for pigs than for children and that there was no
interest at all in the education of Negro children.

Another factor which effected the development of the Negro school
system was the sparseness of the Negro population. In many
districts and even in some counties there were not enough Negro
children to form a school. In 1871, reports[40] were received from 109
of the 115 counties of the State. Thirty-nine of the 109 counties did
not report a single school district with the required number of Negro
children to establish a school. The other seventy counties reported
395 school districts having twenty or more Negro children of school
age. The same counties also reported 158 schools for these
children. In their annual letters for 1872 twenty-one county
superintendents called attention to the fact that the Negro population
was so distributed over the counties that it was impossible to provide
schools for them according to the law. Three of these
superintendents asked that the law might be so amended as to
provide for Negro children in the sparsely settled districts, and one
superintendent advocated[41] that in districts in which there were too
few Negro children to form separate schools, they should be
admitted to the white schools.

That same year the State Superintendent reported[42] that in several
cases in which no schools were provided because of the small
number of pupils, that their parents had asked why their children
could not enter the white schools since there was no direct law
prohibiting it. The next year[43] the Negro children in several districts
did enter the white schools with the tacit consent of the white
population. When the State Superintendent was asked whether or
not they could be ejected[44] he replied that there was no law to that
effect. At this time the enactment of a civil rights bill was being
agitated in the State. This bill[45] provided that the public schools of
the State should be open to all children regardless of color. When
the civil rights bill was defeated in 1874, there was passed another
bill which aimed to relieve the situation in the sparsely settled
districts.

In 1869 the legislature had passed a law[46] permitting two or more
districts, each of which had less than fifteen Negro population but
which when taken together had more than that number, to establish
a union school for those children. This law on account of its lack of
force did not accomplish much good. In 1874 the law[47] was
amended in such a way as to make it obligatory for two or more
districts, each of which had too few Negro children, to form a school
to unite to form a union school. It was also ordered that all taxable
property in a township in which a Negro school was situated should
be taxed for its support.

In 1875 each district supported its own school[48] for white children,
while the whole township in which a Negro school was situated was
taxed for its support. No district in the State could be compelled by
the law to maintain a school for its white children, but if there were
more than fifteen Negro children in the district, the law compelled the
local authorities to establish a school for them. If they failed to do so,
the law directed the State Superintendent to establish and to levy
taxes for the support of Negro schools in such communities. In those
districts in which there were too few Negro children to form a
separate school, union schools were to be established. The last
mentioned law, however, was passed too late to have much effect

upon the period under discussion. School officials who refused to
perform the duties of their office could be fined[49] not less than fifty
nor more than five hundred dollars.

In the larger centers of the State where there was a large Negro
population the necessity of establishing schools[50] for the Negroes
seems to have been better realized. Thirty-nine out of seventy-three
towns and villages incorporated under the special Act for Towns and
Villages, reported[51] a sufficient population for a Negro school.
There were 19,879 white and 3,609 Negro pupils enrolled in the
public schools of these thirty-nine towns and villages. The length of
the school term was the same in the white and the Negro schools in
a number of cases; but the average length was lower in the Negro
schools than in the white schools. The average length of the white
school was thirty-four weeks and the average length of the Negro
school term was twenty-eight weeks. The average expense a pupil in
these schools was 8.1 cents a day for each white pupil and 7.8 cents
a day for each Negro pupil. The average attendance in the Negro
schools was below that in the white schools. The average
attendance of the white schools was 61.89 per cent and that of the
Negro schools was 51.86 per cent of the enrollment.

The lower attendance of the Negro children may be accounted for as
Asa Martin accounts for a similar condition in Kansas City.[52] In this
city from 1885 to 1913 a larger per cent of the Negro than of the
white children of school age attended the public schools, but the
average attendance of the white children enrolled was above that of
the Negro children. This he accounted for by the poverty of the
Negro population. Since the Negroes were poorer as a whole than
the whites, they were more poorly housed and clothed.
Consequently the Negro children were more susceptible to sickness
and to the disagreeable effects of inclement weather. On this
account they were oftener absent from school than the white
children.

The report of the State Superintendent of Schools for the year 1874
contains reports[53] from thirty-five of the urban communities which

were organized under the act for cities, towns and villages. Five of
these towns reported that they did not have any Negro children of
school age. The thirty towns reported 4,701 Negro children, 2,379 of
whom were enrolled in the public schools. Salisbury was the only
town having more than sixteen Negro children for whom no school
was maintained, while Bolivar and Augusta, which had in the first
case eleven and in the second four Negro children of school age,
reported respectively five and three Negro children in the public
schools.

The largest cities in the State were St. Joseph, Kansas City and St.
Louis. These cities provided public schools for the freedmen soon
after the war. St. Joseph opened a school[54] with seventy seats for
Negro children in 1866. In 1871 the city had for Negro children, two
schools,[55] each of which was provided with one teacher. One of
these schools had an enrollment of 96 pupils and the other 94. In
1874 this city enumerated[56] 651 Negro children of school age, 386
of whom were enrolled in the two public schools. The number of
teachers had increased from two to four.

The first Negro public school[57] in Kansas City was reported in 1867.
The enumeration[58] for 1873 was 408 Negro children of school age.
The average attendance was 165. The length of the school term was
forty weeks. The amount spent on each pupil was 7.5 cents a day in
the Negro school and 8.6 in the white school. The average salary
paid to male teachers was $68.33 in the Negro school and $112.50
in the white schools. The average salary paid to female teachers
was $45 in the Negro school and $65 in the white schools. In 1874
the number of Negro children enumerated was 885.[59] There was
one Negro school in the city for their use which had 356 pupils and
five teachers.

In St. Louis, the largest city in the State, there was a steady growth
of the Negro school system. The State Legislature granted this city
the power to establish separate schools[60] for Negro children in
1865. The next year Ira Divoll, the City Superintendent, established
three schools for Negro children.[61] One was in the northern, one in

the central and another in the southern part of the city. In 1868 there
were five Negro schools[62] in the city with a total enrollment of 924
pupils. Three of these schools held night sessions which ran from
the first Monday in October of the year 1867 to the fifth of February,
1868. Twelve teachers were employed in these schools. In 1871 a
sixth Negro school[63] was added and school No. 3 was improved to
accommodate five hundred pupils. There were sixteen teachers and
seventeen school rooms. The expenses for the year amounted to
$11,787.80.[64]

The next year it was reported[65] that good buildings had been built
for the Negro schools. A gain of eight pupils over the number
enrolled the previous year was reported. This small gain was not
charged to indifference, but to a decrease in the Negro population. In
1875 there were twelve Negro schools in the city. The legislature of
that year passed a bill[66] which permitted the city to establish a
Negro high school with a normal department in the old Washington
School building and was known from this time on as the Sumner
High School.

The first teachers of these schools were white, but they were
gradually replaced by Negro teachers. The first teacher[67] of color
was appointed largely through the influence of Samuel Crupples,
who was a member of the Board of Education of St. Louis and also a
regent of Lincoln Institute. He was so impressed with the work done
by Lincoln Institute in preparing Negro children that he favored the
giving of its graduates a trial in the public schools of that city. The
chance to try teachers of color came when the friends of a white
teacher, who had been assigned to a Negro school, protested
against the assignment. From this time on the white teachers in the
Negro schools were gradually replaced by those of color.

Very early in the history of the Negro schools the question of training
teachers came up. The white teachers did not care to teach in the
Negro schools and it was hard to find trained teachers of color at this
date. Ten county superintendents in their annual[68] letters for 1872
mentioned the difficulties which they experienced in obtaining good

teachers for their Negro schools. There was a prejudice on the
part[69] of both the white and the black people of the State against
white teachers for Negro schools; and it is reported[70] that in many
cases the white teachers in these schools did not take the interest in
the advancement of the people which was taken by the Negro
teachers. The positions in the Negro school, moreover, were less
desirable than those in the white schools because the financial
returns were less in teaching in the Negro schools. In 1873 the cities,
towns and villages which reported[71] Negro schools also reported an
average salary of $46.70 per month for male teachers and $40.00
per month for female teachers. The white schools in the same towns
paid an average monthly salary of $87.72 to male teachers and
$46.64 to female teachers.

The first school[72] in the State which was devoted to the work of
training Negro teachers was Lincoln Institute. This school[73] had its
origin in a fund of $6,379 which was contributed by the soldiers of
the sixty-second and sixty-fifth United States Negro infantry. These
men upon being mustered out of service at the close of the war gave
part of their pay to found in Missouri a school where their children
might enjoy the blessings of a good education. The school was
opened at Jefferson City,[74] the State Capital, September 17, 1866.
Richard Baxter Foster, a New England white man who was educated
at Dartmouth College and who had served as first lieutenant in the
sixty-second United States Negro Infantry, became the first principal
of this school.

In his report[75] to the adjourned session of the Twenty-fifth General
Assembly, T.A. Parker, the State Superintendent of Schools, offered
as his most important suggestion for the improvement of Negro
schools in the State, the establishment of a Normal School for the
training of Negro teachers. He gave five reasons why such a school
should be supported by the State: first, the number of teachers were
insufficient to supply the rapidly increasing demand; second, the
character of the teaching in a large proportion of the Negro schools
needed elevating as white teachers of high qualifications could
usually do better in white schools and Negro teachers of high

qualifications could not be found in any great number; third, as
Negroes had not, in many vocations, an equal opportunity with white
people, and as teaching is one of the most respectful and useful
vocations open to them, they should be encouraged to engage in it;
fourth, justice demanded it, for as a large part of the wealth of
Missouri had been produced by the unrequited labor of slaves, it was
but a small return that the State should give to their children, now
free, the largest privileges of education; and fifth, the State gave no
funds to institutions of learning above the grade of common schools,
which were practically, if not by force of law, limited to white pupils.
Equality of treatment demanded that something be appropriated for
a school of higher learning to which the people of color could have
access. If such a school could not be established at the time, he
advised that a sum of $5,000 per year should be given to the normal
department of Lincoln Institute to aid in the training of Negro
teachers.

Acting on this advice, the legislature passed in 1870 a bill[76] granting
the normal department of Lincoln Institute an annual sum of $5,000
for the training of teachers. In his reports for 1872 and 1873 the
State Superintendent commented on the excellent work which this
school was doing. But as this school was hampered by debt and
could not train the number of teachers needed, he advocated that
the State should take a greater interest in the school or better still,
the State should take the school over entirely and make it into a
normal school for Negro teachers. The annual reports of the State
Superintendents from this time up to 1879, when the school was
finally given over to the State, contained accounts of the excellent
work which this school was doing in the training of teachers and he
recommended from year to year that the State should give it more
financial aid.

By the year 1875 the Negro public school system of Missouri was
well established. Elementary schools had been started in all parts of
the State. A high school for Negroes had been established in St.
Louis and the first steps had been taken towards the establishment
of a Negro State normal school. Popular opinion had crystallized in

favor of separate schools for Negro children taught by teachers of
color. The progress of the Negro schools had been somewhat
retarded by a prejudice against public schools in general and to a
greater extent by a prejudice against the education of Negroes.
Towards the end of the period there was evidence to show that this
prejudice was dying out. Much good legislation had been passed
with the idea of giving the Negro children the same educational
advantages as were held by the white children of the State. The
Negro school system of this period was in advance of the
corresponding systems in the other States which had recently held
slaves.[77] The report of the Commissioner of Education for 1872,
shows that there were no public schools for the education of the
Negro in Georgia, Alabama, Delaware, Kentucky, and Maryland.
Ninety per cent of the Negro school population of Tennessee was
without the benefit of public schools. Although the Negro public
schools of Louisiana and West Virginia were established before
those of Missouri, the greater illiteracy of their population in 1870
and 1880 show that these schools were not as efficient as those in
Missouri.

The Critical Period, 1875 to 1885

The year 1875 marked an epoch in Negro education in Missouri.
That year a new State constitution was adopted. This meant the
beginning of a critical period in the school history of the State. In
order to understand the educational trend of this period it is
necessary to consider the political history of this and the preceding
period. During the Civil War the State had been almost equally
divided between the Union and the Confederate sympathizers; but
the Union forces held control of the government. At the close of the
war and while the feeling between the two factions was still very
bitter, there were enacted very harsh laws[78] by which those who
had sided with the South were not only disfranchised, but were also
deprived of the right to practice law, to preach, or to teach. As the
intense bitterness of the war died out there was strong agitation to
restore the right of suffrage to the disfranchised citizens. In 1870[79]
the Liberal Republicans gained control of the State with the result

that there was passed the next year a law removing the restriction
placed upon the southern element. In 1872 the Liberal Republicans
and the Democrats united to defeat the Radical Republicans, and at
the next election which took place in 1874 the Democratic Party
came into full power.

One of the first acts of the new administration was to call a
constitutional convention which drew up a new State constitution
which was ratified by the people in 1875. With the return to power of
a party[80] which strongly favored local self-government, and which
was supported to a great extent by those who but a few years before
had been reported to have been opposed to the extension of their
public school rights, it is not surprising that the progress of the public
school system was for a time checked. In many districts the people
had accepted the public schools but they had not become thoroughly
reconciled to the system.

In 1870 the local district school boards[81] were subordinate to the
township boards of education. The clerk of the township board was
both treasurer and recording secretary of all the school districts
within his township. He was responsible to the county school
superintendent and he made statistical reports to him as well as to
the county clerks. The county school superintendents and the county
clerks were in turn responsible to the State Superintendent of
Schools. In 1874 the legislature[82] so changed the old statutes as to
do away with county and township supervision. The office of county
superintendent was abolished and each district became
independent. Even the district board was deprived of some of its
power and the right which it had to extend the school term and to
levy money for new buildings was vested in the voters of the district.
The new State constitution sanctioned tendency toward
decentralization by providing[83] that the right of the people to local
self-government should not be impaired.

Although the old constitution was very objectionable to a large
number of the citizens of the State, nevertheless, it contained some
good school legislation and fortunately much of this was embodied in

the new constitution. The Constitution of 1865 had provided[84] that
"separate schools may be established for children of African
descent." The new constitution provided that "separate free public
schools shall be established for the education of children of African
descent." The legal school age provided by the old constitution was
from five to twenty-one but the legal school age provided by the new
constitution was from six to twenty.

The decentralization of the public school system caused many
abuses to spring up. Statistics became harder and harder to collect,
and school practice less and less uniform in the different parts of the
State. The school law was disregarded to such an extent as to cause
a decrease in the school enumeration and enrollment in spite of the
fact that the population was steadily increasing. In 1875 the
enumeration[85] showed 720,186 children of school age, 394,780 of
whom were enrolled in the public schools. In 1877 the enumeration
had shrunk to 553,278 and the enrollment to 364,189. From this time
on there was a steady growth until 1880 when the enumeration
surpassed that of 1875.

The Negro public schools of the State also suffered a decline[86] in
this period. In 1875 there was a Negro school population of 41,916
and an enrollment of 14,832. In 1877 the reported enumeration was
32,411 and the enrollment was 14,505. The enumeration did not
equal that of 1875 until 1885, but the enrollment of 1878 surpassed
that of 1875 by 6,376. The enrollment of 1877 was only 328 smaller
than the enrollment of 1875. Thus, it would appear that while there
was a failure in some districts to enumerate their children of color,
that in those districts in which they were enumerated an increasing
percentage of the children of color attended the public schools.

As has been pointed out before, the emancipators[87] of the Negro, in
attempting to provide equal school rights for the Negro child, made
more stringent laws for the enforcement of his school rights than
were made for the enforcement of the school rights of the white
child. The State Superintendent was empowered to enter districts
which did not provide schools for Negro children according to the

law, and to establish schools for these children, and to levy taxes for
the maintenance of the schools. It is not surprising, therefore, to find
that the State Superintendent was called upon a number of times in
this period to exercise his power.

This official reported[88] in 1878 that the law in relation to the public
schools for Negro children had been repeatedly evaded and violated
during the two preceding years, and that a wicked and malicious
advantage was being taken of the ignorance and the weakness of
the Negro to shield the law-breaker who was using the money
appropriated by the law for the education of the Negro youth. The
method of evasion was fully described. In the first place, there was a
failure to enumerate a sufficient number of Negroes of school age
before the convening of the annual school meeting. After the
meeting, when the directors were appealed to, they required the
production of evidence that there was a sufficient number and then
required time to look into the evidence which took a month or more.
They would then inform the Negroes that it was too late to do
anything that year, that they should have attended to the matter
before the annual school meeting and that they must attend to it in
time the following year. In many cases while the money due the
Negroes was being used for other purposes, they were promised
schools for the next year which the directors did not intend to give
them. Sometimes the directors promised well and were then unable
to find teachers or they disagreed with the Negroes concerning the
site of the school. The year would thus elapse and a new board
knowing nothing of the promises of the old board would be elected.
The same course would then be followed sometimes with a little
variation to suit the emergency. Finally the case would be brought to
the State Superintendent and after an annoying and repeated
correspondence to collect the facts in the case and to explain the
law, the officers were induced to comply with the law by threats of its
execution. In counties at a distance from the capital this threat was
frequently of no avail because the Negroes were either induced to
drop the matter by promises of future fulfillment, were unwilling to
proceed to law, or lacked intelligent leadership.

The next year the State Superintendent complained that the demand
upon this functionary to establish Negro schools in districts which
neglected to fulfill the law required an undue amount of his time. The
legislature which met that year, therefore, removed from the State
Superintendent the responsibility of enforcing this law. But it
provided[89] that any school district which neglected to establish a
Negro school or schools according to the law should be deprived of
any portion of the State school funds for that year. This was a severe
punishment in a State having as large a school fund as Missouri has.
[90]

By the year 1885 the public school system of Missouri was on a firm
basis. The right of every child in the State to the benefits of a free
public school education had been established. The Negro public
schools were prosperous. The Negro school population[91] had
increased to 44,215 and the percentage of the enumerated actually
enrolled in the public schools had increased from forty-two per cent
in 1877 to sixty-three per cent in 1885.

The Period of Growth, 1885 to 1915

A few minor changes have been made in the State statutory law
since 1885. Prior to 1889 not only the district but the whole township
in which a Negro school was located, was taxed for the support of
this school. In 1889 the law[92] was so revised as to throw the entire
burden of support upon the district in which the school is located. In
the same year, the statute which gave Negro adults the right to
attend the public schools was abrogated.

The last revision of the law relating to Negro public schools was
made in 1909. By the present law[93] the boards of directors in
districts having fifteen or more Negro children of school age are
required to establish and maintain schools for these children which
shall have the same length of term and shall enjoy the same
privileges as are enjoyed by the white schools of the same grade in
the district. The indebtedness incurred by the board of directors in
providing suitable buildings, hiring teachers, and maintaining the

school shall be paid out of the appropriate funds of the district. If the
average daily attendance for any month falls below eight, the school
can be closed for a period not to exceed six months. If there are
adjoining districts in either or both of which there are less than
twenty-five Negro children of school age, a joint Negro school may
be established in either of the districts. The expense of maintaining
the school is borne by the districts which established it in proportion
to the number of Negro children enumerated in each. The control of
the school is vested in the board of directors of the district in which
the school is located.

When the number of Negro children residing in a district is less than
fifteen as shown by the last enumeration, these children have the
right of attending any school for Negro children in the county for the
same length of time as school is maintained in their own district.
Their tuition is paid by the district in which they reside. When the
directors of a district neglect to establish a Negro school according to
the law, the district is deprived of any part of the State school funds
for that year.

From 1885 to 1890 the Negro schools of Missouri steadily grew. In
1890, 70.8 per cent of the school population[94] was enrolled in the
schools. This marked the high water mark in the per cent of
enrollment. From this date to 1900 the per cent of the school
population enrolled in the public school decreased. In 1899 only
55.05 per cent of the school population was enrolled in the public
schools. The school population, however, increased from 44,214 in
1885 to 54,600 in 1899. In 1900 there were 472 Negro schools with
769 school rooms with 804 Negro teachers employed. The
Negroes[95] of the State received about $475,000 as their share of
the State school fund, between a third and a half of the money
appropriated for the support of their schools coming from the white
tax payers. As the result of this good school system, Missouri stood
last among the sixteen ex-slave States in illiteracy in 1890.

Since 1900 the rural Negro population has been decreasing and city
population has been steadily increasing. Lured by the prospect of

better wages, shorter hours, and better educational advantages for
his family, the rural Negro has migrated just as his white brother[96]
has to the large cities. The Negro population of the small towns is
also decreasing. The populations of Kansas City and of St. Louis are
being swelled by the Negro from the farm and from the small town.
The problem of Negro education, therefore, is largely a city problem.
In 1910 the Negro school population was 42,764. Of this population
33,465[97] dwelt in cities and only 9,299 dwelt in the rural districts.
The enrollment showed that of the 29,562 pupils who were attending
school, 21,694 were enrolled in the city schools and only 7,868 in the
rural schools.

In 1915 St. Louis had a Negro school population of 7,233 and an
enrollment of 5,811. Nine grade schools and a high school were
maintained by the city to accommodate these children.[98] In 1916 a
Negro industrial[99] school was opened for delinquent youth, and
$40,000 was appropriated to build two cottages on the city farms at
Bellefountaine for delinquent Negro children. The Negro schools are
modern and well equipped. Kindergarten classes are provided,
manual training courses are open to the boys and domestic science
classes are provided for the girls. In the year of 1915-16 three
elementary night schools were in session with an enrollment of 759.

The Negro school population of Kansas City is also well provided for.
In 1880 this city had a Negro school population of 2,035[100] and
there was an enrollment of 623 or of 30.5 per cent of the school
population. In 1911 the Negro school population was 6,500 and the
number of pupils enrolled reached 3,251. 54.1 per cent of the Negro
school population and 47 per cent of the white school population
were enrolled in the public schools. The school property[101] devoted
to the use of the Negroes was valued at $465,565 and the value of
the property devoted to the white people was $5,792,468. The Negro
population which comprised 9.7 per cent of the total population had
public school property valued at 7.4 of the total. The average cost for
each white pupil enrolled was $42.20 a year and the average cost for
each Negro child was $35.02. In 1910-11, there were 86 Negro
teachers in the system. There was one teacher for every 37 children

enrolled in the white schools and one teacher for every 41 Negro
pupils. In the same year the Negro night schools had an enrollment
of 472. In 1915 there were ten elementary and one high school[102]
devoted to the use of the Negroes. The Negro school population had
increased to 7,637 and the enrollment was 3,654.

In 1915 there were fifteen colored schools in the State doing work of
a high school grade. Two of these, Sumner High School of St. Louis
and Lincoln High School of Kansas City are first class high schools.
[103] The Negro high schools of Hannibal and of Springfield are
ranked second class and the high schools of Chillicothe and St.
Joseph are rated third class. The other nine high schools are
unclassified.

Until the opening of the new Dunbar High School in Washington,
District of Columbia, in 1916 the Sumner High School was
considered the finest Negro high school in the country. This school
was established in 1875 and had only twenty pupils[104] in 1885. By
the year 1900 the enrollment had increased to 250. In 1907 the city
appropriated $297,827[105] for the building of the new Sumner High
School, a magnificent building. It is three stories high and is well
equipped. It contains a large auditorium, and gymnasiums on the top
floor. On the second floor are laboratories, for the teaching of
chemistry, physics, physiology, and biology. Courses for girls are
given in domestic science and in domestic art. The school also
maintains a commercial department. In the basement there are
shops in which the boys are taught carpentry, cabinet making,
machinery, and blacksmithing. A swimming pool for the boys is also
located in the basement. There is provided a cafeteria at which the
children can purchase at a small cost their noonday meal. It is
possible for the pupil to take any one of the several courses. He may
prepare himself to enter a first-class college, to enter the business
world, or to become an artisan.

Sumner High School also maintains[106] a normal training course for
its girl graduates. The Cottage Avenue graded school is under the
supervision of the High School principal and it serves as an

observation school for those taking normal work. This high school
also maintains an evening school. In 1915-16 the enrollment was
457. The Negroes of St. Louis are very proud of their high school,
and it is well patronized. In 1915-16 the enrollment[107] was 811 and
in 1916-17 it passed the 1,000 mark. There were employed in this
high school in 1915 thirty-five teachers who received an average
salary of $127 a month. The school has a library containing about
2,000 volumes and equipment[108] valued at $30,000.

The Lincoln High School of Kansas City, although it is not as large or
as well equipped as Sumner High School, is nevertheless a good
high school. The first Negro high school[109] was opened in the
Lincoln Grade School Building. A high school building was erected
on Eleventh Street in 1890. This building was used as such until the
erection of the present high school, the site of which was purchased
in 1899 and the new building was opened September 6, 1906. In
1915 this school had an enrollment[110] of 462 pupils. Seventeen
instructors were employed at the average salary of $115 a month.
Besides the regular high school courses, this school has
departments of domestic science and domestic arts for the girls.
Vocational courses are open to the boys and a course in military
training has recently been opened for the boys. In 1915 the
equipment[111] of the school was valued at $10,000. The library
contained a number of valuable works.

In the development of Negro education in keeping with the policy of
establishing high schools the State in 1879 assumed complete
control[112] of Lincoln Institute. Prior to this date, the legislature had
merely given the normal department of this institution $5,000
annually for the purpose of training teachers. The Thirty-fourth
General Assembly established an academic and a college
department in the school, and the Thirty-sixth General Assembly
established an industrial department. The State has since then dealt
very liberally with its Negro normal school. In 1915 the legislature
appropriated[113] $116,600 for the bi-annual period of 1915-1916.
This school then had a campus of twenty acres, upon which was
situated six modern buildings and a model training school for the use

of students preparing to teach. The school also had a farm of sixty
acres. The property[114] of the school was valued at $222,202. There
were thirty-one teachers employed and the school enrollment was
343. The academic work is divided between a high school course
and a two year normal course. Graduates from the normal
department obtain life certificates to teach in Missouri. The following
trades are taught: domestic science and domestic art, carpentry,
wood-turning, machinery and blacksmithing. The work which this
school has done in preparing teachers for the Negro rural schools of
the State cannot be over estimated.

Because of these many efforts in behalf of Negro education,
therefore, Missouri stood in 1915 in the lead of the ex-slave States in
the provisions which it had made for the education of Negro children.
Only the District of Columbia stood ahead of it in the amount of
money[115] which was invested in public school property for Negroes.
The District of Columbia had $135.30 invested for every Negro child
of school age and Missouri had $50 for each Negro child. Oklahoma
and West Virginia ranked next to Missouri, each having $26.00
invested for every Negro child of school age. Missouri ranked first
among the States in the proportion of the total school investment
devoted to the education of the Negro child. Missouri had 96 per
cent as much invested for each Negro child as was invested for each
white child while the District of Columbia had only 74 per cent as
much invested in Negro school property[116] as it had invested in
white school property for every child of school age. If we leave out
the District of Columbia, which is not comparable with a State,
Missouri stood at the head of the States, in which separate schools
were maintained for Negro children, in the annual expenditure for
every child of school age. Missouri spent $12.13 for every Negro
child[117] of school age enumerated. This was more than was spent
by 12 of the southern States for every white child enrolled. Missouri's
nearest rivals, Oklahoma and West Virginia, spent $11.16 and
$10.38 for every Negro child respectively. As the result of her
excellent school system, Missouri had, according to the census of
1910, a smaller proportion of her population illiterate[118] than did any
of the other ex-slave States.

Henry Sullivan Williams

FOOTNOTES:
[1] This dissertation was in 1917 submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate
School of Arts and Literature of the University of Chicago, in candidacy
for the degree of Master of Arts by Henry S. Williams.

The following original sources were used in the preparation of this
manuscript: Reports of Superintendent of the Public Schools of the State
of Missouri, 1866-1917; Session Laws of the State of Missouri, 1866-
1913; Reports of the U.S. Commissioner of Education, 1870-1916; U.S.
Census Reports, 1860-1910; The Missouri Republican, 1866-1870;
Journal of Education, Vols. I and II (St. Louis, Missouri, 1879); Revised
Statutes of Missouri, 1879-1909; Proceedings and Occasional Papers of
the Slater Fund (Baltimore, Maryland); Missouri Historical Society
Collections, Vols. II and III; Asa E. Martin, Our Negro Population (Kansas
City, Missouri, 1913); N.H. Parker, Missouri as it is in 1867 (Philadelphia,
1867); Am. Annual Cyclopedia, 1870-1877; Annual Reports of the Board
of Education of St. Louis, 1867-1916; Annual Reports of the Board of
Education, of Kansas City, 1870-1915.

The secondary sources consulted follow: Lucian Carr, American
Commonwealths, Missouri a Bone of Contention (Boston, 1894); C.R.
Barnes, Switzler's Illustrated History of Missouri (St. Louis, 1889); W.B.
Davis, and D.S. Durrie, An Illustrated History of Missouri (Cincinnati,
Ohio); S.B. Harding, Life of George R. Smith (Sedalia, Missouri, 1904);
W.E.B. DuBois, The Negro Common School (Atlanta, Georgia); C.L. Butt,
History of Buchanan County (Chicago, 1915); H.A. Trexler, Slavery in
Missouri, 1804-1865 (Baltimore, Maryland, 1914); C.G. Woodson, The
Education of the Negro Prior to 1861, (New York, 1915); History of
Calloway County (St. Louis, 1884); History of Cole, Moniteau, Morgan,
Benton, Miller, Maries, and Orange Counties, Missouri (Chicago, 1889);
J.T. Shaff, History of St. Louis City and County (Philadelphia, 1885); R.A.
Campbell, Campbell's Gazetteer of Missouri (St. Louis, 1875);
Encyclopedia of the History of St. Louis (New York, 1889); Missouri
Historical Review, Vols. I, II, IV, VI, VII, and IX (Columbia, Missouri); The
Negro Year Book (Tuskegee, Alabama, 1917).

[2] Parker, N.H., Missouri as it is in 1867, p. 424.

[3] Woodson, C.G., Education of the Negro Prior to 1861, p. 159-168.

[4] Missouri State Convention of 1865, Art. IX.

[5] Laws of State of Missouri, Adjourned Session 23d General Assembly,
p. 177.

[6] Laws of the State of Missouri, op. cit., p. 191.

[7] Ibid., p. 173.

[8] Ira Divoll, see Schaff, Hist. of City and County of St. Louis, Vol. I, p.
843; R.D. Shannon, see Davis, W.B., Ill. Hist. of Mo., p. 587.

[9] Ibid., p. 550.

[10] Ann. Reports of Supt. of Pub. Schools, 1871-'72-'73-'74.

[11] 8th Ann. Report of Supt. of Pub. Schools, 1874, p. 37.

[12] 7th Ann. Report of Supt. of Pub. Schools, 1873, p. 250.

[13] 7th Ann. Report of Supt. of Schools, 1873, p. 281.

[14] Ibid., p. 256.

[15] Journal of Education, Vol. II, No. 1, p. 5, St. Louis, 1869.

[16] Report of Commissioner of Education, 1870, p. 202.

[17] N. H. Parker, Missouri as it is in 1865, p. 53. Op. cit.

[18] Report of Commissioner of Ed., 1871, p. 260.

[19] Parker, op. cit., p. 54.

[20] 1st Ann. Report of Supt. of Schools of Missouri, 1867, p. 9.

[21] 27th Ann. Report of Supt. of Schools of Mo., 1877, p. 17.

[22] 5th Ann. Report of Supt. of Schools of Mo., 1871, p. 125-245.

[23] 7th Ann. Report of Supt. of Schools of Mo., 1873, pp. 233-300.

[24] 9th Annual Report of Supt. of Schools, 1875, p. 23.

[25] Missouri State Constitution of 1840, Art. 6.

[26] 5th Ann. Report of Supt. of Schools, 1871, p. 6.

[27] 8th Ann. Report of Supt. of Schools, 1874, p. 5.

[28] 2nd Ann. Report of Supt. of Schools, 1868, p. 10.

[29] Journal of Education, 1869, Vol. I, p. 181.

[30] Laws of State of Mo., Adj. Sess., 24th Assembly, p. 170.

[31] See page 140 of this work.

[32] Ann. Report of Supt. of Schools, 1874, p. 44.

[33] Laws of State of Mo., Adj. Sess., 27th Assemb., p. 168.

[34] A Bill to establish mixed schools.

[35] 9th Ann. Report of Supt. of Schools, 1875.

[36] Report of Com. of Ed., 1870, p. 202.

[37] 26th Ann. Report of Supt. of Schools, 1876, p. 12.

[38] Ann. Report of Supt. of Schools, 1867, p. 28.

[39] Ibid., 1868, p. 59.

[40] 6th Ann. Report of Supt. of Schools, 1872, p. 257.

[41] E.H. Davis, Clark County. See 7th Ann. Report of Supt. of Schools,
1872, p. 246.

[42] Ibid., p. 45.

[43] 8th Ann. Report of Supt. of Schools, 1873, p. 38.

[44] Ibid.

[45] 9th Ann. Report of Supt. of Schools, 1875, p. 18.

[46] Laws of State of Missouri, 25th Gen. Ass., 1869, p. 86.

[47] Laws of State of Missouri, Reg. Session, 25th Gen. Assemb., p. 164.

[48] 26th Ann. Report of Supt. of Schools, 1876, p. 12.

[49] 27th Gen. Assemb., Adj. Sess., p. 168.

[50] 7th Ann. Report of Gen. Ass. Adj. Sess., p. 233. By reading the
annual letters of the county superintendents the fact is brought out that
most of the colored schools of that period were in the towns and cities. It
was in the rural districts that the Negro suffered most.

[51] 8th Ann. Report of Supt. Of Schools, 1874, p. 165-219.

[52] Asa E. Martin, Our Negro Population, p. 165.

[53] 9th Ann. Report of Supt. of Schools, p. 90 to 136.

[54] Ann. Report of Supt. of Schools, 1867, p. 10.

[55] Ibid., 1872, p. 51.

[56] Ibid., 1875, p. 84.

[57] 2nd Ann. Report of Supt. of Schools, 1868, p. 94.

[58] Ibid., 1874, p. 185.

[59] Report of Supt. of Schools, 1875, p. 77.

[60] Reg. Session, 28th Gen. Assembly, p. 349.

[61] Ency. of History of St. Louis, Vol. IV, p. 2076.

[62] 14th Ann. Report of Bd. of Dir. of St. Louis Pub. Schools, 1868, pp.
63 and 67.

[63] Report of Commissioner of Education, 1871, p. 264.

[64] Ann. Report of Supt. of Schools, 1876.

[65] Ibid., 1873, pp. 263 and 268.

[66] Report of Commissioner of Education, 1871.

[67] Ibid., 1871.

[68] Ann. Report of Supt. of Schools, 1873, p. 253-303.

[69] Ibid., 1876.

[70] Ibid., 1873, p. 263-268.

[71] Ibid., 1873, pp. 263-268.

[72] 8th Ann. Report of Supt. of Schools, 1874, p. 165.

[73] Report of Commissioner of Education, 1870, p. 204.

[74] 44th Ann. Catalog of Lincoln Institute, p. 6.

[75] 4th Ann. Report of Supt. of Schools, 1870, p. 36.

[76] Adj. Session 25th Gen. Assembly, 1870, p. 136.

[77] This fact can be verified by studying abstracts from the State
Superintendents' reports for this period. These abstracts are found in the
Reports of the Commissioner of Education for this period.

[78] Ann. Cyclopedias for 1870-75. Art. Missouri.

[79] Ibid., 1871, p. 516.

[80] 9th Ann. Report Supt. of Schools, 1874, p. 7.

[81] 9th Ann. Report of Supt. of Schools, p. 6.

[82] Ibid.

[83] Art. II, Sec. 3.

[84] Art. XI, Sec. 3.

[85] Report of Commissioners of Education, 1880, p. 184.

[86] Ibid.

[87] See page 26.

[88] Report of Supt. of Schools, 1877, p. 18.

[89] Rev. Statutes of Mo. 1879, Vol. II, p. 1861.

[90] In this period a very noteworthy step was taken by the Negro
teachers. In 1878 they organized a State teachers' association. In that
year its meeting was held in Columbia, Missouri, and a number of
professors in the State University took an active part. The next year the
Association met in Jefferson City. Since that time, the meeting of the
Association has become an annual affair.

[91] DuBois, Negro Common School, p. 61.

[92] Rev. Statutes of Mo., 1889, p. 2271.

[93] Ibid., 1909, p. 790.

[94] DuBois, Negro Common School, p. 61.

[95] Ibid.

[96] Report of Supt. of Schools, 1910, p. 69.

[97] Report St. Louis Board of Education, 1916, p. 302.

[98] Ibid., p. 350.

[99] Ibid., p. 308.

[100] Martin, op. cit.

[101] Ibid., op. cit.

[102] Ann. Report Board of Ed. of Kansas City, 1915, p. 123.

[103] Report of Supt. Public Schools, 1916, p. 69.

[104] Report of The Board of Education of St. Louis, 1908, p. 234.

[105] Report of Board of Education of St. Louis, 1908, p. 235.

[106] Ibid., 1913, p. 108.

[107] Report of Public Schools of Mo., 1916, p. 290.

[108] Ibid.

[109] Report of Board of Dir. of Schools, Kansas City, 1911, p. 243.

[110] Report of Supt. of Schools, 1916, p. 286.

[111] Ibid., p. 292.

[112] Ann. Cat. Lincoln Inst., 1916, p. 6.

[113] Laws of Mo., 1915, p. 69.

[114] Report of Commissioner of Education, 1916, p. 586.

[115] Negro Year Book, 1917, pp. 234-241.

[116] Ibid., pp. 234-240.

[117] Ibid.

[118] Missouri had 174 illiterate out of every one thousand, and
Oklahoma and West Virginia had 177 and 203 respectively.

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION IN NEGRO
COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES[1]
Within the last few decades a deepening sense of responsibility for
the religious direction of the American College and University
students has arisen. The problem of religious education has become
a part of our national consciousness. The term "religious education"
has come into general circulation respecting every grade of
education. And in every instance it seems to be more or less a
characterization of an ideal type of education and a method of
realizing that type. Evidence of this is presented in the numerous
religious, semi-religious and educational periodicals, as well as in the
reports and published statements of educational institutions and
organizations since 1903.

There is a new conscience for character and social usefulness in the
college and university. It manifests itself in topics under discussion in
conferences of educators, in their personal inquiries, and in the
hearty cooperation given agencies for the higher life. In the whole
range of education there is a growing recognition of the religious and
moral elements inherent in all education. The former emphasis on
the difference between religious education and secular education is
passing. The foundation of teaching is being lifted into the religious
realm. Education is aiming to develop men and women to their
highest possibilities for their own sakes and for the sake of their
contribution to the welfare and progress of society. The National
Educational Association is a potent factor in establishing a strong
belief in the worth of religion in education.

The Religious Education Association, organized in 1903, is one of
the chief, if not the chiefest, agencies in hastening this new era. The
secretary has said: "The leadership of this new crusade seemed
successful in directing a passion for religious education born of the
fusion of the scientific spirit with the spirit of humanistic idealism."

Between 1903 and 1913 over $120,000 was spent in religious
educational endeavor. The period subsequent to 1913 shows a
larger proportionate expenditure. The larger part of this sum stands
for gifts.

How has the movement demanding efficiency in religious education
affected Negro institutions? The status of religious education in
Negro colleges and universities, considered quantitatively and
qualitatively is the task of this investigation. What do the supervisors
of Negro institutions conceive religious education to be? How does
religion function in student life? These are questions arising during
the investigation of the problem before us.

There are 38 private and denominational institutions for Negroes,
which do college grade of work with varying degrees of efficiency. Of
this number, thirty-four are co-educational colleges, two are colleges
for men and two are colleges for women. There are six State
colleges which do some college work. These are all land-grant
colleges with donations from the respective States in which they are
located. There are several so-called colleges having curricula for
college grade of work prescribed but no students matriculated to
take the courses. They are not included in this study for obvious
reasons.

The terms "colleges and universities" are by no means safe criteria
for measuring the efficiency of, or even for classification of Negro
colleges and universities. This condition is not peculiar to Negro
colleges. Those for whites, in the South especially, present the same
condition of variety. It seems that there has been a special mania, in
our South Land especially, for setting up a laudable ideal in the
classification of educational institutions, and then working up to it
during subsequent ages. They believe there is much in a name or
title. This keen sense of potentiality being in the classification,
college or university, is too often misleading if taken on faith.

Another phase of this classification may throw some light on the
numerous Negro "colleges" with such wide divergences in standards
of curricula. In the South, $9,000,000 are spent for the elementary

education of the Negro, when $25,000,000 should be used for that
purpose by the States. There are 1,000,000 without any school
facilities at all, and 2,000,000 who cannot read or write. Then the
money spent does not begin to meet the needs of those who are
receiving the education given. For example, the South spends
$10.23 for each white student of elementary age and $2.82 for each
Negro student of the same age now given the opportunity to attend
school. Thus many institutions of a private nature are stimulated by
this State of affairs and seek to meet it. But in so doing, they are
actuated by various motives and perhaps they all could not justly be
labelled sinister. It is evident then that our study deals with 38 private
colleges, all denominational except four, and six State colleges on
land-grant bases.

The method of the thesis, therefore, has assumed a four-fold form.
The writer took nine months in making personal investigation of
twelve typical Negro colleges. One in the Northwest, one in the
Northeast, and ten in the South. Of these ten, five are in Georgia,
two in South Carolina, two in Tennessee and one in Alabama. The
second method was the questionnaire. Questionnaire No. 1 was sent
to 60 educational institutions. 38 responded in full. Eight returned the
questionnaires with some answers. These were excluded from the
study because they lacked desired data. A second questionnaire was
used. It contained data from students in the respective institutions
considered typical. The Y.M.C.A. leaders also contributed to this sort
of data.

Questionnaire No. I follows:
Religious Education in Negro Colleges

1. Name of the institution, president and dean.

2. Enrollment in the college department.

3. What religious services are held by the school? Is attendance required and what
number attend?

4. What curriculum courses in religious education have you, viz: Bible courses, Sunday
School Teacher Training, Psychology of Religion, Philosophy of Religion, Religious
Pedagogy, Social Service, Social Ethics, Methods of Social Reform, etc.

5. Which of the courses are elective and which are required? How much credit is given
for each?

6. Have you any courses in the Seminary or Divinity School for which you give college
credit? What are they?

7. Are the teachers of curriculum courses of religious education professionally trained
for their task, for example; were they trained in a school of religious education or in a
divinity school? What institution attended and what degrees received?

8. How many students are in your curriculum courses of religious education?

9. What voluntary religious organizations have you, for example: the Y.M.C.A., Students
Volunteer Movement, B.Y.P.U., C.E. League, College Church, Sunday School, etc.?

10. Are the teachers or conductors of your voluntary organizations professionally
trained (viz, as in question 7)?

11. How many students are enrolled in your voluntary organizations?

12. What opportunity have the students for the expression of ideals received through
these organizations? What Christian work is done, such as handling boys' or girls'
clubs, ministering to the poor and infirm, orphans, foreign missions, visiting prisons,
asylums, or orphanages, teaching vacation Bible schools, etc.?

13. What is your own estimate of the religious value of your courses and organizations?
Have you any definite data upon which to base your estimate?

14. Does your school have a special appropriation for religious work, viz: for the
Y.M.C.A., for a chaplain, college pastor, etc.?

15. In your opinion, are the Negro colleges meeting the needs of definite religious
training?

16. Any other information or suggestion concerning religious education in Negro
colleges will be gladly received.

Questionnaire No. II
1. What is your estimate of the religious services at your college, viz: Church preaching
service, Sunday School, Young People 's meetings, Week-day Prayer meetings, Week
of Prayer for colleges, Y.M.C.A., Y.W.C.A. or any other religious service? (Mark each
according to your estimate as Church 1, Prayer meeting 2, Y.W.C.A. 3, etc.)

2. What are the items of importance in these respective services, the sermon, prayer,
ritual, congregational singing, special music, etc.?

3. Why did you make the preceding ranking as you did?

4. What suggestion have you to offer for the improvement of these services? What
other criticism have you to offer on these services?

5. What is your church affiliation? For example, Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, etc.?

The majority of Negro institutions—all included in this study—have
published statements concerning religious education in their
respective curricula and voluntary organizations. These statements
appear in announcements, catalogues, and reports. These have
been secured and critically reviewed. From these the spirit of
religious education, the attitude towards the work, their aim, their
own ideas as to value of results obtained from such instruction may
in a large measure be determined.

The last means resorted to were the reports of denominations on
education. These reports appear in various forms, sometimes in year
books, and at other times in the quadrennial reports, viz: the General
Conference reports of the Methodist Episcopal, the African Methodist
Episcopal, the A. M. E. Zion and Colored Methodist Episcopal
Churches.

I. Religious Education in Private and Denominational
Colleges and Universities

Let us first direct our attention to the work as it is being conducted in
private and sectarian schools. The most important factor in this study
is the teacher. What is the type of teachers in Negro institutions, for
the progressive socialization of the individuals whom they instruct?
The student's religious life will be conditioned very likely, by the
teachers in the colleges. The preparation of the teacher then
requires careful consideration.

There are 86 teachers of religious education in some form in these
institutions. Of these 86 instructors, 64 have had some degree of
professional training for their tasks. Thirty-one of those who have
received professional training are graduates of first rank institutions.
The institutions in which they were trained are among the best in the
country and of long standing. The distribution shows: Yale College 1;
Yale Divinity School 3; Drew Theological Seminary 3; Oberlin
College and Divinity School 2; Ohio Wesleyan University 1;

Columbia University 1; Union Seminary 1; Boston University 2;
Colgate University 1; Rochester Theological Seminary 2; the
University of Chicago and Divinity School 3; Princeton University 2;
Newton Theological Seminary 2; the Chicago Bible Training School
2; Grinnell College 1; Hillsdale College 1; New York School of
Philanthropy 1; Andover Theological Seminary 1; Union Theological
Seminary 1; and the Chicago Theological Seminary 1. The
remaining 33 teachers were trained in Negro seminaries and
colleges, the most of them coming from the older institutions for
Negroes, such as Wilberforce, Howard, Lincoln, Talladega, and Fisk.

Though these latter have had some type of professional training, it
still remains for us to see the types. The classical theological course
claims most of this number as its representatives. We should be
surprised if it were otherwise, because it has been comparatively
recent that the seminaries of America have begun what they term a
reconstruction of the seminary curriculum. The most of these men
and women were middle-aged persons and had taken their courses
before the evolution took place. Of the sixty-four who have had
professional training, forty-five have had the traditional seminary
courses which contained no work in "scientific religious education." I
am not at this point arguing whether they were the losers or gainers.
I am simply stating a fact in terms which all students of religious
education understand. The remaining nineteen had received courses
in scientific religious education, either theoretical and laboratory
exercises, or laboratory courses in practical social service and
philanthropy. 57 of these teachers are ministers.

In this study it was discovered that very few of the teachers of
religious education have chairs of Religious Education. Most of them
give only part of their time to that work and their programs are
divided up to meet the urgent needs of other departments in the
colleges and universities. Three are teachers of education and give
courses in the Psychology of Religion, the Psychology of the Bible,
and the Educational Method applied to the Bible. Those three give
the rest of their time to the college and normal school courses in
Education. Four have chairs established for teaching the Bible and

give almost all of their time to this work. All others are only
occasional religious education teachers, so far as curriculum courses
are concerned.

What then is the attitude of these teachers toward their task? In the
first place we note a large amount of optimism over results achieved
or thought or hoped to be achieved. Sixty-four of them said directly,
in answer to a question concerning their attitude and estimate, that
they were optimistic. Seven were uncertain, and withheld their
opinions and three were very pessimistic indeed. The presidents and
deans answering the major questionnaire were quite certain that the
teachers had the attitude of sustained interest in the work of religious
education.

Teachers and conductors of voluntary religious courses and
organizations were found helpful. Much of the work in religious
training in Negro colleges is done by voluntary organization, some of
the most prominent of which are the Young Men's Christian
Association, the Young Women's Christian Association, the Student
Volunteer Movement associations, the Young People's Societies of
the various denominations and Temperance Societies. Sometimes
they are centralized and sometimes otherwise. But our task here is
to see what preparation the leaders and instructors of these
organizations have received, the time given and the attitude.

These volunteers are, for the most part, not professionally trained.
Only seven are so reported, and six of the seven are professors who
give Bible or social service courses upon the invitation of these
voluntary organizations. There is in all America, so far as has been
ascertained, only one Negro college that has a paid professionally
trained director of one of these organizations. Perhaps it would not
be unjust to name that institution, on account of its uniqueness, at
least. It is Howard University. The leader is the Y. M. C. A. secretary
who has been trained at the Y. M. C. A. Training School and is a
salaried officer of the University.

The most accurate account given of the amount of time spent by
these instructors and conductors is found in the reports of the Young

Men's Christian Association. There are 36 Young Men's Christian
Associations and 36 Young Women's Christian Associations in the
institutions represented in this study. The average time spent per
week for the leaders of these two organizations is one hour and
forty-seven minutes. Of this time one hour is spent in the weekly
meetings and the other forty-six minutes in meeting committees,
planning for activities of the associations, or in conducting Bible
study, Mission study or social service classes. Extra time not
counted in the estimate is given on extraordinary occasions.

The average time given to the young people's meetings is an hour
and twelve minutes. About the same would no doubt represent the
other voluntary organizations, the social service work excepted
perhaps. The present study has data only on the time spent in
certain cases. The attitude of the volunteer is, as would be expected,
usually that of optimism and sustained interest. He or she is selected
by the students, and on the basis of some manifested interest in the
particular line of endeavor.

The courses of religious education will give further light in this study.
The courses are not the only agencies, besides the teachers, for
assisting college men and women in acquiring a religious personality
which will function efficiently in society. Nevertheless, they are one of
the factors and are connected with the educative process in such a
way that any endeavor similar to the present one must consider
them. What then are the courses included in the curricula of these
institutions? How much credit is given for them, and how many
students are affected by them? These queries are necessary to find
the part which intellectual knowledge plays in the educative process,
in behalf of religious education. Does intellectual knowledge of this
particular type function religiously in the lives of the students?

Let us first investigate the required courses of the curriculum. The
Bible is the leader in the list of requirements. Thirty-six colleges and
universities require it as a text book. Three give it as an elective and
one does not offer it at all. These exceptions are Howard University,
Talladega College, Tillotson College and Straight College

respectively. Social Ethics is prescribed by ten colleges as follows:
Allen University, Lane College, Clark University, Paine College,
Roger Williams College, Rust College, Samuel Houston College,
Shorter College, Spellman Seminary, and Virginia Theological
Seminary and College. Bishop College, Claflin University, Clark
University, Knoxville College and Samuel Houston College have
required their students at some stages in their college courses to
study Christian Evidences. Morris Brown University, Paine College,
and Swift Memorial College prescribe courses in social service or
Practical Sociology.

Comparative Religion, a course in Sunday School Teacher Training,
New Testament History, Philosophy of Religion and Church History
are designated as requirements by State University, Knoxville
College, Lane College, Paine College and Knoxville College
respectively. Spellman Seminary, Tougaloo, State University, Fisk
University, and Claflin University require courses in Hebrew History.
The requirements in Negro colleges are as follows: thirty-five require
the Bible as a text book; ten prescribe Social Ethics; six prescribe
Christian Evidences; three make courses in Social Service or
Practical Sociology requirements; five prescribe Hebrew History; one
college requires Comparative Religion; one, Sunday School Teacher
Training; one, New Testament History; one, Philosophy of Religion;
and two, Church History.

We shall omit the consideration of the amount of credit given and the
number of students enrolled in these courses until we have given
attention to elective courses. Here the Sunday School Teacher
Training courses lead. They are composite courses in most
instances. In other words, they are elective courses, composed
chiefly of sketches of child psychology, the principles of teaching,
school management, Old Testament History, New Testament History,
geography of Bible lands and story telling. These courses have
become very popular in Negro colleges during the last seven or eight
years.

Dr. H.C. Lyman, Superintendent of the Negro work under the
auspices of the International Sunday School Association, has done
incalculable good in the way of encouraging this particular kind of
work. The great majority of these courses have been installed as a
result of his endeavors. Only three of the 21 courses in these
colleges have been established independently of his encouragement
but in most instances by his formal installation. The following
institutions offer as electives courses in Sunday School
management, organization and teaching: Atlanta University, Benedict
College, Lane College, Claflin University, Clark University, Fisk
University, Howard University, Lincoln University, Livingstone
College, Morehouse College, Morgan College, New Orleans
University, Roger Williams University, State University, Swift
Memorial College, Talladega College, Tillotson College, Wilberforce
University, Spellman Seminary, and Morris Brown College.

Social Ethics is elective in Virginia Union University, Morris Brown
College, Fisk University, and Knoxville College. Social Service
courses are offered under the elective provision in several
institutions. Seven of them offer these courses under their
departments of sociology. They are: Atlanta University, Benedict
College, Fisk University, Howard University, Morgan College,
Talladega College, Virginia Union University and Wilberforce
University.

Comparative Religion is offered at Talladega and Wilberforce. The
Principles of Religious Education and the Organization of Religious
Education have been offered recently by Talladega and Fisk. Howard
University, Knoxville College and Morris Brown College offer in their
elective systems New Testament Greek. The Bible is elective at Fisk,
Tillotson and Howard Universities. Mission Study is elective at
Talladega College.

Howard University has a wide range of electives covering a large
scope of religious subjects which are offered in the School of
Religion. They are New Testament and Old Testament introduction
courses, Comparative Religion, Church History, Hebrew, Missions,

the Teachings of Jesus, the Teachings of Paul, and New Testament
biographical courses. Wilberforce has a similar condition. They allow
New Testament Greek, Hebrew, Social Service courses, the Life of
Christ and the Life of Paul to count toward the Bachelor of Arts
Degree. These courses, however, are all given in Payne Theological
Seminary which is a part of the Wilberforce system.

Morehouse College has a combination of the elective and prescribed
system relative to the Bible. The English Bible is required in the
Freshman year but elective in all of the other years. The following
will show the courses in religion which are offered in Negro colleges
and will designate the number of institutions offering the several
courses as well as whether they are elective or prescribed.
Courses Elective Required
1. English Bible 3 36
2. Philosophy of Religion 1 1
3. New Testament Greek 3
4. Hebrew 2
5. The Principles of Religious Education 2
6. The Methods and Organization of R. E. 2
7. Social Ethics 4 10
8. Social Service 7 3
9. Comparative Religion 2 1
10. Hebrew History 5
11. New Testament History 1
12. Church History 2 2
13. Christian Evidences 6
14. Missions 2
15. New Testament Introduction 1
16. Old Testament Introduction 1
17. Sunday School Teacher Training 20 1
18. Teachings of Jesus 1
19. Teachings of Paul 1
20. Life of Jesus 1
21. Life of Paul 1
___ ___
18 10

Thus it is seen that the colleges under investigation offer 18 courses
for the religious education of those who come under their supervision
and prescribe 10 courses for the same purpose.

What is the number enrolled in these curriculum courses? In the 38
private institutions for Negroes of college rank, which come under
our observation, there were enrolled for the scholastic year 1916-
1917 college students numbering 1,952. The numbers in the several
colleges run from 558 to 6. It is interesting to observe that over one-
half of that number was registered in four universities as follows:
Howard University, 558; Wilberforce University, 202; Fisk University,
208; and Lincoln University, 163. The total is 1,131. Of the remaining
821 Negro college students over fifty per cent of them were
distributed as follows among these eight institutions: Talladega
College, 66; Virginia Union University, 66; Morehouse College, 65;
Benedict College, 60; Bishop College, 60; Atlanta University, 59;
Shaw University, 49; and Biddle University, 40. The total is 465. In
these twelve colleges and universities we have 1,596 students or
over 75 per cent of the total for all of the 38 institutions.

The investigation shows that 1,104 of the 1,952 students are
enrolled in these religious education courses. This is more than fifty
per cent. In fact, it is 56 per cent of the total number enrolled. Making
a comparison of the same institutions which have the majority of
students we note a difference in their proportion of students in
religious education to the total number enrolled. Howard University
has 98; Fisk 110; Lincoln 163; and Wilberforce 60. The total is 331,
which is less than a third of the total number enrolled. Talladega has
25; Virginia Union University 51; Shaw University 12; Benedict
College 40; Bishop College 40. And the total is 262, which is
considerably less than 50 per cent of the remaining 773. But when
the twelve schools are taken together they afford 53 per cent of the
entire number enrolled in the courses of religious education in the 38
colleges and universities.

The investigation of the amount of credit given for these religious
courses reveals facts as interesting as those relative to the number
influenced by these courses. We have selected the unit to describe
the credit given. By unit we mean a course given 4 or 5 times a week
for 36 weeks. This is not intended to be technical. Most of these
institutions have 45-minute periods. There are only four exceptions

of which three have 60- and one 50-minute periods and a few 55-
minute periods. Their periods have been translated in terms of the
45-minute periods for the sake of convenience. The units designate
the amount of credit given for both prescribed and elected courses.
In the colleges where the elective system is extensive, the units
represent the maximum amount of credit which one may receive for
courses in religion. For an itemized description of the amount of
credit given see chart on last page.

Only one college of the 38 which we had under investigation offered
no credit for courses in Bible or correlated subjects. The other 37
offered credit varying from one unit up to six units. Howard University
leads in the amount of units offered, and Knoxville College, Virginia
Union and Lincoln contend for second place each having four and
one-half units. Wilberforce takes third rank with four and one-fourth
units. Texas College, one of the smallest in numbers, ties Fisk
University for the fourth place. The whole number of institutions
investigated offer 85½ units of credit for courses in religious
education.

The volunteer courses in colleges have been considered by many
exceedingly efficacious for social and religious development. These
volunteer courses have various sources. In some few colleges they
are offered by the faculty. But in the great majority of cases they
come through the channels of the voluntary religious organizations of
the respective institutions. The Young Men's Christian Association
and the Young Women's Christian Association are the most active
sources. The Young People's Societies such as the Christian
Endeavor and The Epworth League foster this project in a few of our
Negro colleges but very little data can be obtained therefrom,
because they keep no accurate records from year to year.

There are thirty-six Young Men's Christian Associations in the
colleges comprising this study. All of the co-educational institutions
and those for women especially have the Young Women's Christian
Association. Therefore, we have thirty-six Young Men's Christian
Associations and thirty-six Young Women's Christian Associations in

these private colleges and universities. Fourteen institutions report
Bible study classes for men under the direction of students, more or
less prepared. The membership in these classes is one hundred and
seventy. Only five report Bible classes for women.

Mission study classes are also offered under the supervision of the
Association in some of the colleges. The men in eleven colleges
attend the mission study classes and number three hundred nine.
The women have such provisions in two colleges with a membership
of eighteen. The numbers in these classes fluctuate from year to
year depending largely on two factors, the leaders of the respective
association and the leaders of the classes. The personnel of the
student body is also a factor. It is among the things natural that from
time to time changes in the personnel of the student body bring
changes of interest and there is no guarantee of fixity so far as
numbers are concerned. It is the ideal of the Central Associations to
have the classes sustained each year with an increased efficiency,
but all of the institutions testify to the fluctuation caused by the
human element in the problem. These courses are mostly mapped
out, even to the assigning of specific texts by accepted authors, by
the International Association.

To what extent do religious services figure in this work? Worship has
always played an important part in the life of human beings. Whether
man is in Babylonia worshipping the stars, or in Egypt at the Isis-
Osiris shrine, or whether he ascends Mount Olympus with Homer, he
is a worshipper. He may ascend to the indescribable, unthinkable
realms with Plotinus or he may with twentieth century enlightenment
claim allegiance to the God designated Father of all. Yet he
worships. It will prove interesting to note the stimulation of this
instinct under the supervision of the Negro colleges and universities.

The chapel services claim our attention first because it was
unanimously denoted in the questionnaires as one of the services
which these institutions emphasize in the life of the students; many
of them point out its significance even for the teachers. Every one of
these institutions require daily chapel attendance at a service, which

lasts on the average one-half hour among the thirty-eight institutions
investigated. In nine-tenths of the announcements or bulletins sent
from these institutions to prospective students, the chapel
attendance is emphasized as one of the rigid requirements of the
institutions. In four-fifths of these same institutions, chapel
attendance is recorded by some member of the faculty or some one
deputized by the authority vested with that right.

What value is the chapel service to the religious development? This
cannot be answered indiscriminately. The answer depends upon the
chapel activities. One should ask what happens at the chapel
service. One student answered that question thus: "The chapel is the
place where the president gets us all together to give us all a general
'cussing out' instead of taking us one by one." This expresses the
sentiment of several hundred students in those colleges included in
our study. During this investigation I visited and had reports from 21
chapel services. Out of the 21 investigated, 19 were exhibits of the
opportune reprimand, with the president or his vice-president or the
dean performing the task effectively. But it would be a gross injustice
even to the twenty-one institutions referred to, if we should leave the
impression that the sum total of chapel services is described in the
remarks relative to reprimands. A professor of one of the leading
Negro colleges, in defending the chapel service, said the "calling
down" is merely the introduction and conclusion of the chapel
exercises to give opportunity for ex-officio display.

There is obtaining in Negro institutions another condition which
perhaps does not suffice as a legitimate excuse for the daily
reprimand but at least explains it or is provocative of it. I have in
mind the indiscriminate assembling of students from the high school
or preparatory department and too often from the grammar school
along with the college students. Very often the official censor of
morals aims his remarks at some grammar school or high school
character of notoriety, but is democratic enough to include "some of
you students." There are only two of these colleges of the entire 38
where the high school students are separated from the college
students for chapel services. In all cases, except these two, they all

assemble in the same auditorium at the same time with the same
privileges and under the same circumstances. The most prominent
index of distinction between a Junior college student and a Junior
High School student in chapel is the locus of the seats.

The chapel exercises are led by the president, chaplain university
pastor, or some member of the faculty. Occasionally local and
visiting ministers are asked to serve in this capacity. Where the
members of the faculty lead they either come in their turn serving
every morning, or whenever chapel services take place, until
relieved by members of the faculty who likewise serve for a
designated period.

The nature of the service varies very slightly in these colleges and
universities. One might readily get the impression that they all have
the same model. They all begin with religious music selected in most
cases by the one who has the music of the institution under
supervision. Scripture reading or a brief moral, æsthetic, or ethical
address follows. Then prayer usually closing with the Lord's Prayer.
In seven of the institutions the scripture reading follows the prayer. A
song usually closes the devotional period, but not the chapel
exercises. It is subsequent to this song that the moral admonition
undisguised usually follows. This is the time when visitors of
distinction and otherwise, entertain or detain the students.

The attitude of the students has much to do with the religious value
received from the chapel service. All of the authorities have
estimated that their particular chapel services have excellent effects
upon the students, judging from their attitude at chapel, which they
describe as fair. They are confronted, however, with the problem not
so easily solved in answering the question. It is extremely difficult for
them to distinguish just what part of that attitude comes from the
influence of rules and regulations regarding chapel attendance and
what part comes from choice.

One of the common religious agencies among Negro colleges is the
college church. Twenty-nine of these colleges have church services
every Sunday, either morning, afternoon or evening. In twelve

institutions they have preaching twice a day. All of them require
attendance at church. The nine which have no preaching service at
their places every Sunday have it occasionally and make up the
deficit by requiring the students to attend a neighboring church, in
most cases a church of the denomination under whose auspices the
institution is operated. The students attending so far as the
requirements of the colleges are concerned are those who live in
college dormitories. In no case has this requirement affected
students living in the community, beyond campus control. This
means that the attendance at the college church aside from that
given by those under dormitory supervision is voluntary. A large
proportion of the students, therefore, attend other churches, the
where and why of which is not known by the investigator. The
proportion attending the college churches, however, is ascertained.

The "boarding" students are the church goers so far as the college
churches are concerned. The number of college students living in
the dormitories of these various institutions is 651 or just a fraction
over one-third of the entire number enrolled in the thirty-eight private
institutions. The other students, numbering 1,301, go whither they
please so far as the institutions are concerned, and no data as to the
number attending the college church are available. In these
churches the pastors are usually the presidents or some other
member of the faculty. In two instances the pastors are called
chaplains and have other religious functions during week days. In
four cases, the pastors and presidents are identical. This assures the
college church which operates on the basis just stated, a good
pastor. There are eighteen which have these pastors. Eleven have
no pastors or chaplains but invite ministers of the city or neighboring
cities to conduct their religious services on Sunday. This service is
had at the time which is most convenient for pastors of local
churches. The most frequently used hour is from three or three-thirty
to four-thirty or five in the afternoon.

The established churches have prayer meeting during the week on
one of the following nights: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday or
Saturday. Just why Friday night is boycotted one is unable to say.

The "luck" psychology may not have had any part in establishing the
tradition along that line. Here again we find the law of the "Medes
and Persians" working effectively in securing corporeal attendance.
The students are required to be there and are there in a body at
least. The times for convening these prayer meetings are chiefly two.
Just after supper in nine of the institutions and at the close of the
"study" period in twenty-five. Four have the hours between seven
and eight o'clock in the evening or thereabouts.

The Sunday School is a prevalent religious agency among the Negro
colleges and universities. We find a Sunday School reported in thirty-
seven of these. In these Sunday Schools the teachers who reside at
the college dormitories constitute a part of the Sunday School
faculty. Some of the advanced students are used as teachers and
officers.

Another phase of religious service prescribed by several colleges is
the Young People's Society. They are all of the same general nature.
They take different names such as the Epworth League, The Baptist
Young People's Union, the Allen Christian Endeavor and so forth,
depending in the main upon their denominational affiliation. Thirty
colleges expect their boarding students to be present at these
meetings. These thirty institutions have 388 students of college rank
living in the dormitories of these respective institutions. Thus three
hundred eighty-eight students attend these Sunday afternoon or
Sunday evening meetings.

Five colleges which are co-educational have the "quiet" hour for girls
on Sunday afternoon. It was designed to be religious or semi-
religious at least. Each girl goes to her room and remains there quiet
for a designated period of time. During this time she is expected to
read her Bible or some religious book, or engage in some meditation
which is in keeping with the holy day. Where this idea originated, the
writer is unable to say. He, with those who have observed this
mystical quiet hour, is puzzled concerning its religious efficacy. One
naturally asked those in authority why not a "quiet" hour for the boys
as well. There seems to be either a very high compliment paid to the

boys or quite an unpardonable insinuation on the inherited
tendencies of the girls.

The nature of the Sunday services and the Sunday School is evident
without further elaboration. Perhaps a more detailed description of
the prayer meeting and the Young People's meeting is in order. A
common element is seen in the prayer meetings, "sentence prayers"
and singing. Several students think I should add a third, namely,
sleeping. Another very frequent activity is the testimony of religious
achievements, disappointments and hopes. Eleven colleges have
topics which are posted each week prior to the meeting. These
topics are religious in the orthodox sense but three of the eleven
have pushed far away from the shore of orthodoxy and discuss
current topics of vital interest. In these three institutions the meeting
re-resembles a forum where every one expresses his opinion, and
exhausts his energy on favorite themes. The Young People's
meetings without exception, according to reports, have two common
phases. The first is the study and discussion of the specified topics,
accompanied of course with music and prayers. This might be called
the devotional phase of the meeting. Then there is a change in
program, in which the literary side is given precedent. Music of a
classical nature constitutes the feature of the program.

One of the all important interrogations in this connection is the
feeling of the students concerning these religious organizations
mentioned. Do they function in the lives of the students? Do they feel
that these organizations are vital to them or do they feel as one
student in an eastern university? When interviewed he said: "Oh,
well, I guess they are pretty good. I suppose they are among the
necessary evils of college life."

An extensive interview of the students at seven institutions revealed
some interesting facts. The presidents or deans from the thirty-eight
colleges gave some data and much opinion on the benefits which
the students derived from these organizations, according to the
students testimonies and the observation of these presidents or
deans. I am not inclined to place too much emphasis upon the

students' testimony to the presidents, because, the psychological
situation of a student who is asked by a college president what he
thinks of the church service, Sunday School and Epworth League is
not conducive to frankness. This is especially true of students who
know what the president wants him to say. It is a sort of begging the
question. The average college student is apt to have too much
respect for the president's feelings to be frank in such a case. He
likewise has a keen sense of self-preservation. He does not want to
incur the displeasure of the president.

In the case of five other institutions, therefore, I had students, Y. M.
C. A. workers, interview the leaders of various activities in these
colleges with a view to getting their candid opinion and the reflection
of the opinion of the other students. In these various ways we
secured data which represented a high degree of probability to say
the least. Ninety-five per cent of the students in Negro colleges
reckon the church service on Sunday a beneficial agency for
religious functioning. They vary greatly as to the degree of good
derived. In eleven institutions the singing and liturgy are placed first
in the rank of importance and the prayer last. These same colleges
think the sermon takes second place. By many of this same number
congregational singing is given a very high place. The general
complaint against the sermon is that it is too dry. I think what is
meant by this is that the sermon lacks enthusiasm.

There may be two reasons for the impression of the dryness of the
sermon, if the complaint is justified. In the first place, a large number
of the college pastors begin their sermons on the assumption that a
student's religious life is essentially different from that of the average
person in a congregation eight blocks away in another church, a
matter which cannot always be taken for granted. That assumption
conditions his sermons in character of composition and especially in
delivery. The minister works on the assumption that the college man
will be interested and benefited by science, philosophy and so forth,
regardless of how it is presented. In the reaction against excessive
emotion he too often swings to the other extreme.

Again the college students in these universities have come from
such a variety of environments. It would be a safe estimate to say
that in all Negro colleges 90 per cent of the students are Baptist and
Methodists. The registrar's records from these 38 organizations
show the following: 983 Baptists; 790 Methodists; and 179 divided
among the other denominations. This gives the Baptist and
Methodists 90.8 per cent of the total enrollment in these 38
institutions. This means then that 90.8 per cent of these students
have had a Baptist-Methodist environment for eighteen or twenty
years. Well, what does that matter so far as the estimate of the value
of sermons delivered to them? It means that, at least, it is not likely
that the impression through childhood, youth, and young manhood or
womanhood will be easily offset by the college religious environment
in one, two, three or four years. Ideals theoretical, of course, change
remarkably, but inevitably some elements of satisfaction afforded by
the earlier environment will be demanded in the college environment
by the students. Then the Baptist-Methodist environment among the
Negroes is, if anything at all, an enthusiastic environment. The
sermon is one of the conspicuous features. A student affected by
such an environment does not necessarily demand all of the
crudities but he does not like the swing to the other extreme.

It is the opinion of students and teachers that the Sunday School is
beneficial. From answers received it is calculated that 98 per cent of
all the college students believe in the Sunday School's beneficent
influence in student life. Several included in their remarks criticism of
the literature used. The same beneficent functioning was attested to
in behalf of the Young People's meetings, but the hammer falls
heavily on the mid-week prayer meeting, out of which very few see
any good come. One dubs "the prayer meeting, the driest, deadest
event, which takes place just at the time when it is most difficult to be
interested in such." Many other similar expressions concerning the
prayer meetings were made. It was noted, however, that the schools
which had been diverged the fartherest from the traditional prayer
meeting had the most good to say in behalf of the prayer meeting. In
the great majority of instances the opinion is that the prayer meeting
is a bore and should be abandoned. A student in one of the southern