CHAPTER I.
MASSACHUSETTS
Crispus Attucks - Colored Americans on
Bunker Hill - Seymour Burr -Jeremy Jonah - A Brave
Colored Artilleriest - Governor Hancock's Flag - Big
Dick - Primus Hall - James and Hosea Easton - Job Lewis
- Quack Matrick - Jack Grove - Bosson Wright - Petitions
of Colored Men in Old Colony
ON the 5th of
March, 1851, the following petition was presented to the
Massachusetts Legislature, asking an appropriation of
$1,500, for the erection of a monument to
[Page 14]
the memory of CRISPUS ATTUCKS, the first martyr
in the Boston Massacre of March, 5th, 1770; -
To the Honorable the Senate and House
of Representatives of the
State of Massachusetts, in General Court assembled:
The undersigned, citizens
of Boston, respectfully ask that an appropriation of
fifteen hundred dollars may be made by your Honorable
Body, for a monument to be erected to the memory of
CHRISPUS ATTUCKS, the first martyr of the American
Revolution.
WILLIAM C. NELL,
CHARLES LENOX REMOND,
HENRY WEEDEN,
LEWIS HAYDEN,
FREDERICK G. BARBADOES,
JOSHUA B. SMITH,
LEMUEL BURR.
BOSTON, Feb. 22d, 1851.
This petition
was referred to the Committee on Military Affairs, who
granted a hearing to the petitioners, in whose behalf
appeared Wendell Phillips, Esq., and William
C. Nell, but finally submitted an adverse report, on
the ground that a boy, Christopher Snyder, was
previously killed. Admitting this fact, (which was
the result of a very different scene from that in which
Attucks fell,) it does not offset the claims of
Attucks, and those who made the 5th of March
famous in our annals - the day which history selects as
the dawn of the American Revolution.
Botta's History, and Hewes's
Reminiscences (the tea party survivor), establish the
fact that the colored man, ATTUCKS,
[Page 15]
was of and with the people, and was never
regarded otherwise.
Botta, in speaking of the scenes of the 5th of
March, says: - "The people were gently exasperated.
The multitude ran towards King street, crying, 'Let
us drive out these ribalds; they have no business here!'
The rioters rushed furiously towards the Custom House;
they approached the sentinel, crying, Kill him, kill
him' They assaulted him with snowballs, pieces
of ice, and whatever they could lay their hands upon.
The guard were then called, and, in marching to the
Custom House, they encountered," continues Botta,
"a band of the populace, led by a mulatto named
ATTUCKS, who brandished their clubs, and pelted them
with snowballs. The maledictions, the
imprecations, the execrations of the multitude, were
horrible. In the midst of a torrent of invective
from every quarter, the military were challenged to
fire. The populace advanced to the points of their
bayonets. The soldiers appeared like statues; the
cries, the howlings, the menaces, the violent din of
bells still sounding the alarm, increased the confusion
and the horrors of these moments; at length, the mulatto
and twelve of his companions, pressing forward,
environed the soldiers, and striking their muskets with
their clubs, cried to the multitude: 'Be not afraid;
they dare not fire: why do you hesitate, why do you not
kill them, why not crush them at once?' The
mulatto lifted his arm against Capt. Preston, and
having turned one of the muskets, he seized the bayonet
with his left hand, as if he intended
[Page 16]
to execute his treat. At this moment, confused
cries were heard: 'The wretches dare not fire!'
Firing succeeds. ATTUCKS is slain.
The other discharges follow. Three were killed,
five severely wounded, and several others slightly."
ATTUCKS had formed the patriots in Dock Square,
from whence they marched up King street, passing through
the street up to the main guard, in order to make the
attack.
ATTUCKS was killed by Montgomery, one of
Capt. Preston's soldiers. He had been
foremost in resisting, and was first slain. As
proof of a front engagement, he received two balls, one
in each breast.
John Adams, counsel for the soldiers, admitted
that Attucks appeared to have undertaken to be
the hero of the night, and to lead the people. He
and Caldwell, not being residents of Boston, were
both buried from Faneuil Hall. The citizens
generally participated in the solemnities.
The Boston Transcript of Mar. 7, 1861, published
an anonymous communication, disparaging the whole
affair; denouncing CRISPUS ATTUCKS as a very
firebrand of disorder and sedition, the most
conspicuous, inflammatory, and uproarious of the
misguided populace, and who, if he had not fallen a
martyr, would richly have deserved hanging as an
incendiary.* If the leader, ATTUCKS,
deserved the epithets above applied, is it not a
legitimate inference, that the citizens who followed on
are included, and hence should swing in his company on
the gallows? If the leader and his pa
---------------
* The Transcript of March 5th, 1855, honorably
alludes to CRISPUS ATTUCKS.
[Page 17]
triot band were misguided, the distinguished
orators who, in after days, commemorated the 5gth of
March, must, indeed, have been misguided, and with them,
the masses who were inspired by their eloquence; for
John Hancock, In 1774, invokes the injured shades of
Maverick, Gray, Caldwell, ATTUCKS,
Carr; and Judge Dawes, in 1775, thus alludes
to the band of "misguided incendiaries": - "The
provocation of that night must be numbered among the
master-springs which gave the first motion to a vast
machinery, - a noble and comprehensive system of
national independence."
Ramsey's History of the American Revolution,
Vol. I., p. 22, says - "The anniversary of the 5th of
March was observed with great solemnity; eloquent
orators were successively employed to preserve the
remembrance of it fresh in the mind. On these
occasions, the blessings of liberty, the horrors of
slavery, and the danger of a standing army, were
presented to the public view. These annual
orations administered fuel to the fire of liberty, and
kept it burning with an irresistible flame."
The 5th of March continued to be celebrated for the
above reasons, until the Anniversary of the Declaration
of American Independence was substituted in its place;
and its orators were expected to honor the feelings and
principles of the former as having given birth to the
latter.
On the 5th of March, 1776, Washington repaired to the
intrenchments. "Remember," said he, "it is the 5th
of March, and avenge the death of your brethren!"
In judging, then, of the merits of those who launched
[Page 18]
the American Revolution, we should not take counsel from
the Tories of that or the present
day, but rather heed the approving eulogy of Lovell,
Hancock, and Warren.
Welcome, then, be every taunt that such correspondents
may fling at ATTUCKS and his company, as the bet
evidence of their merits and their strong claim upon our
gratitude! Envy and the foe do not labor to
traduce any but prominent champions of a cause.
The rejection of the petition was to be expected, if we
accept the axiom that a colored man never gets justice
done him in the United States, except by mistake.
The petitioners only asked for justice, and that the
name of CRISPUS ATTUCKS might be honored as a
grateful country honors other gallant Americans.
And yet, let it be recorded, the same session of the
Legislature which had refused the ATTUCKS
monument, granted one to ISAAC DAVIS, of Concord.
Both were promoters of the American Revolution, but one
was white, the other was black; and this is the
only solution to the problem why justice was not
fairly meted out.
In April, 1861, Thomas Sims, a fugitive slave
from Georgia, was returned to bondage from the city of
Boston, and on Friday, June 2d, 1854, Anthony Burns,
a fugitive from Virginia, was dragged back to slavery, -
both marching over the very ground that ATTUCKS
trod. Among the allusions to the man, and the
associations clustering around King street of the past
and State street of the present, the following are
selected. The first is from a speech of the
[Page 19]
HON. ANSON BURLINGAME, in Faneuil Hall, Oct. 13,
1862, on the rendition of Thomas Sims: -
"The conquering
of our New England prejudices in favor of liberty 'does
not pay.' It 'does not pay,' I submit, to put our
fellow-citizens under practical martial law; to beat the
drum in our streets; to clothe our temples of justice in
chains, and to creep along, by the light of the morning
star, over the ground wet with the blood of CRISPIS
ATTUCKS, the noble colored man, who fell in King
street before the muskets of tyranny, away in the dawn
of our Revolution; creep by Faneuil Hall, silent
and dark; by the Green Dragon, where that noble
mechanic, Paul Revere, once mustered the sons of
liberty; within sight of Bunker Hill, where was first
unfurled the glorious banner of our country; creep
along, with funeral pace, bearing a brother, a man made
in the image of God, not to the grave, - O, that were
merciful, for in the grave there is no work and no
device, and the voice of a master never comes, - but
back to the degradation of a slavery which kills out of
a living body an immortal soul. O, where is the
man now, who took part in that mournful transaction, who
would wish, looking back upon it, to avow it!"
"Thousands of
agitated people came out to see the preacher [Burns]
led off to slavery, over the spot where Hancock
stood and ATTUCKS fell." *
"And at
high 'change, over the spot where, on the 5th of March,
1770, fell the first victim in the Boston Massacre, -
where the negro blood of CHRISTOPHER
CRISPUS ATTUCKS stained the ground, - over that
spot, Boston authorities carried a citizen of
Massachusetts to Alexandria as a slave."
†
---------------
*Worcester Spy.
†THEODORE PARKER, June 4th.
[Page 20]
"A short
distance from that sacred edifice, [Faneuil Hall,] and
between it and the Court House, where the disgusting
rites of sacrificing a human being to slavery were
lately performed, was the spot which was first moistened
with American blood in resisting slavery, and among the
first victims was a colored person." *
"Nearly all
those who had watched the trial of poor Burns,
who heard his doom, saw the slave-guard march from the
Court House, that had been closed so long, through State
street, swept as if by a pestilence, down to the vessel
that, under our flag, bore him out of the Bay of
Pilgrims entered, into captivity, would rather have
looked on a funeral procession, rather have heard the
rattling of British guns again . . . .
. Sad, shocking, was the sight of the harmless,
innocent victim of all that mighty machinery, as he
passed down Queen's street and King's street, all hung
in mourning. Better to have seen the halter and
the coffin for a criminal again paraded through our
streets, than the cutlasses and the cannon for him.
As he went down to the dock into which the tea was
thrown, the spirits that lingered about the spots he
passed vanished and fled, whilst dire and frightful
images arose in their place."
†
HENRY HILL, a colored man, and a Revolutionary
soldier, died in Chilicothe, on the 12th of August,
1833, aged eighty years. He was buried with the
honors of war, - a singular tribute of respect to the
memory of a colored man, but not doubt richly merited in
this case. Henry, I should infer from an
obituary notice in the Chilicothe Advertiser, was
at the battle of Lexington, Brandywine, Monmouth,
Princeton, and Yorktown.
---------------
* Hon. CHARLES SUMNER'S Speech in Congress, June
28, 1854.
† Speech of CHARLES M. ELLIS, (one of Burns'
counsel,) July, 1854.
Peter Salem, the Colored American, at Bunker Hill.
Page 21.
[Page 21]
Swett,
in his "Sketches of Bunker Hill Battle," alludes to the
presence of a colored man in that fight. He says:
- "Major Pitcairn caused the first effusion of
blood at Lexington. In that battle, his horse was
shot under him, while he was separated from his troops.
With presence of mind, he feigned himself slain; his
pistols were taken from his holsters, and he was left
for dead, when he seized the opportunity, and escaped.
He appeared at Bunker Hill, and, says the historian,
'Among those who mounted the works was the gallant
Major Pitcairn, who exultingly cried out, "The
day is ours!" when a black soldier named SALEM
shot him through, and he fell. His agonized son
received him in his arms, and tenderly bore him to the
boats.' A contribution was made in the army for
the colored soldier, and he was presented to Washington
as having performed this feat." *
Besides SALEM,
PETER
SALEM
there were quite a number of
colored soldiers at Bunker Hill. Among them,
TITUS COBURN, ALEXANDER AMES, and BARZILAI
LEW, all of Andover; and also CATO HOWE, of
Plymouth, - each of whom received a pension.
Lew was a fifer. His daughter, Mrs. Dalton,
now lives within a few rods of the battle field.
SEYMOUR BURR
was a slave in Connecticut, to a
brother of Col. Aaron Burr, from whom he derived
his name. Though treated with much favor by his
master, his heart
---------------
* In some engravings of the battle, this colored
soldier occupies a prominent position; but in more
recent editions, his figure is non est inventus,
A significant, but inglorious omission. On some
bills, however, of the Monumental Bank, Charlestown and
Freeman's Bank, Boston, his presence is manifest.
[Page 22]
yearned for liberty, and he seized an occasion to induce
several of his fellow slaves to escape in a boat,
intending to join the British, that they might become
freemen; but being pursued by their owners, armed with
the implements of death, they were compelled to
surrender.
Burr's master, contrary to his expectation, did
not inflict corporeal punishment, but reminded him of
the kindness with which he had been treated, and asked
what inducement he could have for leaving him.
Burr replied, that he wanted his liberty.
His owner finally proposed, that if he would give
him the bounty money, he might join the American army,
and at the end of the war be his own man. Burr,
willing to make any sacrifice for his liberty,
consented, and served faithfully during the campaign,
attached to the Seventh Regiment, commanded by Colonel,
afterwards Governor Brooks, of Medford. He
was present at the siege of Fort Catskill, and endured
much suffering from starvation and cold. After
some skirmishing, the army was relieved by the arrival
of Gen. Washington, who, as witnessed by him,
shed tears of joy on finding them unexpectedly safe.
Burr married one of the Punkapog tribe of
Indians, and settled in Canton, Mass. He received
a pension from Government. His widow died in1852,
aged over one hundred years.
JEREMY JONAH served in the same Regiment, (Col.
Brooks's,) at the same time with Seymour Burr.
The two veterans used to make merry together in
recounting their military adventures, especially the
drill on one occasion,
[Page 23]
when Jonah stumbled over a stone heap; for which
he was severely caned by the Colonel. He drew a
pension.
LEMUEL BURR, (grandson of
Seymour,) a resident of Boston, often speaks of
their reminiscences of DEBORAH GANNETT. In
confirmation of this part of their history, I give the
following extract from the Resolves of the General Court
of Massachusetts during the session of 1791: -
XXIII. - Resolve on the petition of
DEBORAH GANNETT, granting her
£34 for services in the
Continental Army. January 20, 1792.
On the petition of DEBORAH GANNETT, praying for
compensation for services performed in the late army of
the United States:
Whereas, it appears to this Court that the said
DEBORAH GANNETT enlisted, under the name of
Robert Shurtliff, in Capt. Webb's company, in
the 4th Massachusetts Regiment, on May 20th, 1782, and
did actually perform the duty of a soldier, in the late
army of the United States, to the 23d day of October,
1783, for which she has received no compensation; and,
whereas, it further appears that the said Deborah
exhibited an extraordinary instance of female heroism,
by discharging the duties of a faithful, gallant
soldier, and at the same time preserving the virtue and
chastity of her sex unsuspected and unblemished, and was
discharged from the service with a fair and honorable
character; therefore,
Resolved, That the Treasurer of this Commonwealth
be, and he hereby is, directed to issue his note to the
said Deborah for the sum of thirty four pounds,
bearing interest from Oct. 23, 1783.
Joshua B. Smith has stated to me that he was present
at a company of distinguished Massachusetts men, when
the conversation turned upon the exploits of
Revolutionary times; and that the late Judge
Story related an incident of
[Page 24]
a colored S who, while having charge of a
cannon with a white fellow soldier, was wounded in one
arm. He immediately turned to his comrade, and
proposed changing his position, exclaiming that he
had yet one arm left with which he could render some
service to his country. The change proved fatal to
the heroic soldier, for another shot from the enemy
killed him upon the spot. Judge Story
furnished other incidents of the bravery of colored
soldiers, adding, that he had often thought them and
their descendants too much neglected, considering the
part they had sustained in the wars; and he regretted
that he did not, in early life, gather the facts into a
shape for general information.
The late Governor Eustis, of Massachusetts, the
pride and boast of the Democracy of the East, himself an
active participant in the war, and therefore a most
competent witness, states that the free colored soldiers
entered the ranks with the whites. The time of
those who were slaves was purchased of their masters,
and they were induced to enter the service in
consequence of a law of Congress, by which, on condition
of their serving in the ranks during the war, they were
made freemen. This hope of liberty inspired them
with fresh courage to oppose their breasts to the
Hessian bayonet at Red Bank, and enabled them to endure
with fortitude the cold and famine of Valley Forge.
At the close of the Revolutionary War, John Hancock
presented the colored company, called "the Bucks of
America," with an appropriate banner, bearing his
initials,
[Page 25]
as a tribute to their courage and devotion throughout
the struggle. The "Bucks," under the command of
Colonel Middleton, were invited to a collation in a
neighboring town, and, en route, were requested
to halt in front of the Hancock Mansion, in
Beacon street, where the Governor and his son united in
the above presentation.
LYDIA MARIA CHILD
gives the following sketch of Col. MIDDLETON,
commander of the "Bucks": -
"Col. Middleton was not a very horse-breaker,
who owned a house that he inhabited at the head of
Belknap street. He was greatly respected by his
own people, and his house was thronged with company.
His morals were questioned, - he was passionate,
intemperate, and profane. We lived opposite to him
for five years; during all this time, my father treated
this old negro with uniform kindness. He had a
natural compassion for the ignorant and the oppressed,
and I never knew him fail to lift his hat to this old
neighbor, and audibly say, with much suavity, 'How do
you do, Col. Middleton?' or "Good morning,
colonel.' My father would listen to the dissonant
sounds that came from an old violin that the colonel
played on every summer's evening, and was greatly amused
at his power in subduing mettlesome colts. He
would walk over and compliment the colonel on his skill
in his hazardous employment, and the colonel would, when
thus praised, urge the untamed animal to some fearful
caper, to show off his own bold
[Page 26]
daring. Our negroes, for many years, were allowed
peaceably to celebrate the abolition of the slave trade;
but it became a frolic with the white boys to deride
them on this day, and finally, they determined to drive
them, on these occasions, from the Common. The
colored people became greatly incense by this mockery of
their festival, and this infringement of their liberty,
and a rumor reached us, on one of these anniversaries,
that they were determined to resist the whites, and were
going armed, with this intention. About three
o'clock in the afternoon, a shout of a beginning fray
reached us. Soon, terrified children and women ran
down Belknap street, pursued by white boys, who enjoyed
their fright. The sounds of battle approached;
clubs and brickbats were flying in all directions.
At this crisis, Col. Middleton opened his door,
armed with a loaded musket and, in a loud voice,
shrieked death to the first white who should approach.
Hundreds of human beings, white and black, were pouring
down the street, the blacks making but a feeble
resistance, the odds in numbers and spirit being against
them. Col. Middleton's voice could e heard
above every other, urging his party to turn and resist
to the last. His appearance was terrific, his
musket was levelled, ready to sacrifice the first white
man that came within its range. The colored party,
shamed by his reproaches, and fired by his example,
rallied, and made a short show of resistance.
Capt. Winslow Lewis and my father determined to try
and quell this tumult. Capt. Lewis
valiantly grappled with the
[Page 27]
ringleaders of the whites, and my father coolly surveyed
the scene from his own labor, and instantly determined
what to do. He calmly approached Col. Middleton,
who called to him to stop, or he was a dead man! I
can see my father at this distance of time, and never
can forget the feelings his family expressed, as they
saw him still approach this armed man. He put
aside his musket, and, with his countenance all
serenity, said a few soothing words to the colonel, who
burst into tears, put up his musket, and, with great
emotion, exclaimed, loud enough for us to hear across
the street, 'I will do it for you, for you have always
been kind to me,' and retired into his own house, and
shut his door upon the scene."
When a boy, living in West Boston, I was familiar
with the person of "BIG
DICK," and have heard the
following account of him (which is taken from the Boston
Patriot) confirmed. It is not wholly out of
place in this collection. "RICHARD SEAVERS,"
said that journal, a few days after his decease, "was a
man of mighty mould. A short time previous to his
death, be measured six feet five inches in height, and
attracted much attention when seen in the street.
He was born in Salem, or vicinity, and when about
sixteen years old, went to England, where he entered the
British navy. When the war of 1812 broke out, he
would not fight against his country, gave himself up as
an American citizen, and was made a prisoner of war.
"A surgeon on board an American privateer, who
experienced the tender mercies of the British Government
in
[Page 28]
Dartmoor prison, during the War of 1812, makes honorable
mention of "King Dick," as he was there called: -
" ' There are
about four hundred and fifty negroes in prison No. 4,
and this assemblage of blacks affords many curious
anecdotes, and much matter for speculation. These
blacks have a ruler among them, whom they call
King Dick. He is by far the largest, and,
I suspect, the strongest man in the prison. He is
six feet five inches in height, and proportionably
large. This black Hercules commands respect, and
his subjects tremble in his presence. He goes the
rounds every day, and visits every berth to see if they
are all kept clean. When he goes the rounds, he
puts on a large bearskin cap, and carries in his hand a
huge club. If any of his men are dirty, drunken,
or grossly negligent, he threatens them with a beating;
and if they are saucy, they are sure to receive one.
They have several times conspired against him, and
attempted to dethrone him, but he has always conquered
the rebels. One night, several attacked him, while
asleep in his hammock; he sprang up and seized the
smallest of them by his feet, and thumped another with
him. The poor negro who had thus been made a
beetle of was carried next day to the hospital, sadly
bruised, and provokingly laughed at. This ruler of
the blacks, this King Richard IV, is a man
of good understanding, and he exercises it to a good
purpose. If any one of his color cheats, defrauds,
or steals from his comrades, he is sure to be punished
for it.' "
CHARLES BOWLES (says his
biographer, Rev. John W. Lewis,) "was born in
Boston, 1761. His father was an African; his
mother was a daughter of the celebrated Col. Morgan,
who was distinguished as an officer in the Rifle Corps
of the American army, during the revolutionary struggle
for independence. At the early age of twelve, he
[Page 29]
was placed in the family of a Tory; but his young heart
did not fancy his new situation, for at the tender age
of fourteen, we find him serving in the colonial army,
in the capacity of waiter to an officer. He
remained in this situation for two years, and then
enlisted, - a mere boy, - in the American army, to risk
his life in defence of the holy cause of liberty.
He served during the entire war, after which he went to
New Hampshire, and engaged in agricultural pursuits.
He succeeded in drawing a pension, became a Baptist
preacher, and died Mar. 16, 1843, aged 82."
PRIMUS HALL,
a native Bostonian, was the son of Prince Hall,
founder of the Masonic Lodge of that name in Boston.
Primus Hall was long known to the citizens as a
soap-boiler. Besides his revolutionary services,
he was among those who, in the war of 1812, repaired to
Castle Island, in Boston Harbor, to assist in building
fortifications.
The following anecdote of Primus is extracted from
Godey's Lady's Book for June, 1849, to which it was
communicated by Rev. HENRY F. HARRINGTON: -
"Throughout the Revolutionary War, PRIMIS HALL
was the body servant of Col. PICKERING, of
Massachusetts. He was free and communicative and
delighted to sit down with an interested listener and
pour out those stores of absorbing and exciting
anecdotes with which his memory was stored.
"It is well known that there was no officer in the
whole American army whose memory was dearer to
WASHINGTON, and whose counsel was more
esteemed by him, than that of the honest and patriotic
Col. PICKERING. He was on inti-
[Page 30]
mate terms with him, and unbosomed himself to him with
as little reserve as, perhaps, to any confidant in the
army. Whenever he was stationed with such a
distance as to admit of it, he passed many hours with
the Colonel, consulting him upon anticipated measures,
and delighting in his reciprocating friendship.
"WASHINGTON was,
therefore, often brought into contact with the servant
of Col. PICKERING, the
departed PRIMUS. An
opportunity was afforded to the negro to note him, under
circumstances very different from those in which he is
usually brought before the public, and which possess,
therefore, a striking charm. I remember two of
these anecdotes from the mouth of PRIMUS.
One of them is very slight, indeed, yet so peculiar as
to be replete with interest. The authenticity of
both may be fully relied upon.
"WASHINGTON once came to
Col. PICKERING'S
quarters, and found him absent.
" ' It is no matter,' said said he to PRIMUS;
'I am greatly in need of exercise. You must help
me to get some before your master returns.'
"Under WASHINGTON'S
directions, a negro busied himself in some simple
preparations. A stake was driven into the ground
about breast high, a rope tied to it, and then PRIMUS
was desired breast high, a rope tied to it, and
then horizontally extended. The boys, the country
over, are familiar with this plan of getting sport.
With true boyish zest, WASHINGTON
ran forwards and backwards for some time, jumping over
the rope as he came and went, until he expressed himself
satisfied with the 'exercise.'
[Page 31]
"Repeatedly
afterwards, when a favorable opportunity offered, he
would say - 'Come, PRIMUS,
I am in need of exercise;' whereat the negro would jump
over the rope until he had exerted himself to his
content.
"On the second occasion, the great General was engaged
in earnest consultation with Col. PICKERING
in his tent until after the night had fairly set in.
Head-quarters were at a considerable distance, and WASHINGTON
signified his preference to staying with the Colonel
over night, provided he had a spare blanket and straw.
" 'O, yes,' said PRIMUS,
who was appealed to; 'plenty of straw and blankets -
plenty.'
" Upon this assurance, WASHINGTON
continued his conference with the Colonel until it was
time to retire to rest. Two humble beds were
spread, side by side, in the tent, and the officers laid
themselves down, while PRIMUS
seemed to be busy with duties that required his
attention before he himself could sleep. He
worked, or appeared to work, until the breathing of the
prostrate gentlemen satisfied him that they were
sleeping; and then, seating himself upon a box or stool,
he leaned his head on his hands to obtain such repose as
so inconvenient a position would allow. In the
middle of the night, WASHINGTON
awoke. He looked about, and descried the
negro as he sat. He gazed at him awhile, and then
spoke.
" 'PREMUS!" said he,
calling; 'PRIMUS!'
" PREMUS started up and
rubbed his eyes. 'What, General'?' said he.
[Page 32]
"WASHINGTON
rose up in his bed. "PRIMUS,'
said he, 'what did you mean by saying that you had
blankets and straw enough? Here you have given up
your blanket and straw to me, that I may sleep
comfortably, while you are obliged to sit through the
night.'
" 'It's nothing, General,' said PRIMUS.
'It's nothing. I'm well enough. Don't
trouble yourself about me, General, but go to sleep
again. No matter about me. I sleep very
good.'
" 'But it is matter - it is matter,' said WASHINGTON,
earnestly. 'I cannot do it, PRIMUS.
If either is to sit up, I will. But I think there
is no need of either sitting up. The blanket is
wide enough for two. Come and lie down here with
me.'
" 'O, no General!' said PRIMUS,
starting, and protesting against the proposition.
'No; let me sit here. I'll do very well on the
stool.'
" 'I say, come and lie down here!' said WASHINGTON,
authoritatively. 'There is room for both, and I
insist upon it!'
"He threw open the blanket as he spoke, and moved to
one side of the straw. PRIMUS
professes to have been exceedingly shocked at the idea
of lying under the same covering with the
commander-in-chief, but his tone was so resolute and
determined that he could not hesitate. He prepared
himself, therefore, and laid himself down by WASHINGTON,
and on the same straw, and under the same blanket, the
General and the negro servant slept until morning."
[Page 33]
JAMES EASTON, of
Bridgewater, was one who participated in the erection of
the fortification on Dorchester Heights, under command
of Washington, which the next morning so greatly
surprised the British soldiers then encamped in Boston.
Mr. Easton was a manufacturing blacksmith, and
his forge and nail factory, where were also made edge
tools and anchors, was extensively known, for its
superiority of workmanship. Much of the iron work
for the Tremont Theatre and Boston Marine Railway was
executed under his supervision. Mr. Easton
was self educated. when a young man, stipulating
for work, he always provided for chances of evening
study. He was welcome to the business circles of
Boston as a man of strict integrity, and the many who
resorted to him for advice in complicated matters styled
him "the Black Lawyer." His sons, Caleb,
Joshua, Sylvanus, and Hosea, inherited his
mechanical genius and mental ability.
The family were victims, however, to the spirit of
colorphobia, then rampant in New England, and were
persecuted even to the dragging out of some of the
family from the Orthodox Church, in which, on its
enlargement, a porch had been erected, exclusively for
colored people. After this disgraceful occurrence,
the Easton's left the church. They
afterwards purchased a pew in the Baptist church at
Stoughton Corner, which excited a great deal of
indignation. Not succceding in their
attempt to have the bargain cancelled, the people tarred
the pew. The next Sunday,
[Page 34]
the family carried seats in the waggon. The pew
was then pulled down; but the family set in the aisle.
These indignities were continued until the separation of
the family.
HOSEA EASTON published a
Treatise on the Intellectual Condition of the Colored
People, in which was shown the heart of a philanthropist
and the head of a philosopher. His work did great
execution among those who proclaim the innate
inferiority of colored men. Here is a chapter from
his experience: -
"I, as an
individual, have had a sufficient opportunity to know
something about prejudice and its destructive effects.
At an early period of my life, I was extensively engaged
in mechanism, associated with a number of other colored
men, of master spirits and great minds. The
enterprise was followed for about twenty years
perseveringly, in direct opposition to public sentiment
and the tide of popular prejudice. So intent were
the parties in carrying out the principles of
intelligent, active freemen, that they sacrificed every
thought of comfort and ease to the object. The
most rigid economy was adhered to, at home and abroad.
A regular school was established for the youth connected
with the factory; the rules of morality were supported
with surprising assiduity, and ardent spirits found no
place in the establishment. After the expenditure
of this vast amount of labor and time, together with many
thousands of dollars, the enterprise ended in a total
failure. By reason of the repeated surges of the
tide of prejudice, the establishment, like a ship in a
boisterous hurricane at sea, went beneath the waves, -
richly laden, well manned and well managed, sank to rise
no more. It fell, and with it fell the hearts of
several of its projectors in despair, and their bodies
into their graves.
[Page 35]
QUACK MATRICK, of
Stoughton Corner, was a regular Revolutionary soldier,
and drew a pension.
JOB LEWIS, of Lancaster,
(formerly a slave,) enlisted for two terms of three
years each; and a third time for the remainder of the
war. He died in November, 1797. His son,
JOEL W. LEWIS, when a boy, was very persevering in
study, and as he depended mainly upon himself, when away
from a brief country school term, busied himself for
seven weeks in solving one complicated lesson in
arithmetic. Mr. Lewis is now proprietor of
an extensive blacksmithing establishment in Boston,
where he gives employment to several white and colored
mechanics.
PRINCE RICHARDS, of
East Bridgewater, was a pensioned Revolutionary soldier.
While a slave, he learned to write with a charred stick;
thus evincing a burning desire to improve, even
against the command of his self-styled owner.
PHILIP ANDREWS, a
colored man, was drowned in Ludlow, on the 30th of May,
1842. He was over eighty years of age. He
was the servant of a captain of the British army, in the
Revolution, and, at the age of sixteen, deserted to the
American army, and has remained in this country ever
since.
JACK GROVE, of Portland,
while steward of a brig, sailing from the Wet Indies to
Portland, in 1812, was taken by a French vessel, whose
commander placed a guard on board. Jack
urged his commander to make an effort to retake the
vessel, but the captain saw no hope. Says Jack,
"Captain McLellan, I can take her, if you will
let me go ahead."
[Page 36]
The captain checked him, warning him not to lisp such a
word, - there was danger in it; but Jack,
disappointed though not dautned, rallied the men on his
own hook. Captain McLellan and the rest,
inspired by his example, finally joined them, and the
attempt resulted in victory. They weighed anchor,
and took the vessel into Portland. The owners of
the brig offered Jack fifty hogsheads of molasses for
his valor and patriotism, but Jack demanded one
half of the brig, which being denied him, he commenced a
suit, engaging two Boston lawyers in his behalf. I
have not been able to learn how the case was decided,
if, indeed, a decision has yet been made.
BOSSON WRIGHT resided in
Massachusetts upwards of eighty years, and could well
remember when the British burned the town of Portland.
He assisted in building two of the Forts, and parted
with two of his companions on their way to join the
American army. He was a tax-payer for more than
fifty years.
Bosson said that one Mayberry, a slave
from Gorham, saw a British sailor in the act of setting
fire to the old Parish church, (now the First Parish in
Portland,) when he (Mayberry) seized him, and carried
him before the leading men, who, being Tories, ordered
the sailor's discharge.
Being one afternoon on sailing excursion down Portland
harbor, Bosson directed attention to the Fort as
not being properly located, indicating the spot which he
would have selected. Some years after, when
President Munroe visited the Eastern States the same
observation was made by him,
[Page 37]
and the same spot pointed out as had been by Bosson
Wright.
One of his acquaintances, a colored soldier at the
Battle of Saratoga, walked up, quite elated, to
Cornwallis, after his surrender, saying: - "You used
to be named Cornwallis, but it is Corn-wallis
no longer; it must now be Cobwallis, for
General Washington has shelled off all the corn."
-------------------------
COLONIAL REMINISCENCES.
Extract from the Speech of Hon.
CHARLES SUMNER, of Massachusetts, in reply to
Senator Butler, of South Carolina, in the Senate of
the United States, June 28, 1854.
"Sir, slavery
never flourished in Massachusetts; nor did it ever
prevail there at any time, even in early colonial days,
to such a degree as to be a distinctive feature in her
powerful civilization. Her few slaves were merely
for a term of years, or for life. If, in point of
fact, their issue was sometimes held in bondage, it was
never by sanction of any statute law of Colony or
Commonwealth. (Lanesboro' vs. Westfield,
16 Mass., 73.) In all her annais, no person was
ever born a slave on the soil of Massachusetts.
This of itself is a response to the imputation of the
Senator.
"A benign and brilliant act of her Legislature, as far
back
[Page 38]
as 1646, shows her sensibility on this subject. A
Boston ship had brought home to negroes, seized on the
coast of Guinea. Thus spoke Massachusetts: -
" 'The General
Court, conceiving themselves bound by the first
opportunity to bear witness against the heinous and
crying sin of man-stealing, also, to prescribe such
timely redress for what is past, and such a law for
the future as may sufficiently deter all those belonging
to us to have to do in such vile and most odius conduct,
justly abhorred of all good and just men, do order
that the negro interpreter, with others unlawfully
taken, be, by the first opportunity, at the charge of
the country, for the present, sent to his ative country
of Guinea, and a letter with him of the indignation of
the Court thereabout and justice thereof.'"
"The Colony
that could issue this noble decree wa inconsistent with
itself, when it allowed its rocky face to be pressed by
the footsteps of a single slave. But it righteous
public opinion earnestly and constantly set its face
against slavery. As early as 1701, a vote was
entered upon the records of Boston to the following
effect: - 'The Representatives are desired to promote
the encouraging the bringing of white servants, and
to put a period to negroes being slaves.' Perhaps,
in all history, this is the earliest testimony from any
official body against negro slavery, and I thank God
that it came from Boston, my native town. In 1705,
a heavy duty was imposed upon every negro imported into
the province; in 1712, the importation of Indians as
servants or slaves was strictly forbidden, but the
general
[Page 39]
subject of slavery attracted little attention till the
beginning of the controversy which ended in the
Revolution, when the rights of the blacks were blended
by all true patriots with those of the whites.
Sparing all unnecessary details, suffice it to say,
that, as early as 1769, one of the courts of
Massachusetts, anticipating, by several years, the
renowned judgment in Somersett's case, established with
its jurisdiction the principle of emancipation; and
under its touch of magic power, changed a slave into a
freeman. Similar decisions followed in other
places."
An author, who
signs himself "Old Style Freeman," says that "the
contest commenced in 1761, in the town of Boston, in the
old court-house, in the masterly speech of James Otis
against the writs of assistance. He boldly
asserted the rights not only of the white, but of the
black man . . . .
Our colonial charters make no difference between black
and white colonists.
"Massachusetts passed resolutions, in 1764, in which
the rights of all the colonists were declared without
respect to mark or color, and James Otis, under
the sanction of the House of Representatives, published
his work on the Rights of the British Colonies, in which
it was declared that all the colonists are, by the
law of nature, 'freeborn, as, indeed, all men are,
white or black; nor can any logical inference in aid of
slavery,' said Otis, 'be drawn from a flat nose
or a long or short face.' "
June 23d, 1773, the following petition was presented to
[Page 40]
the General Court, which wa sread, and referred to the
next session: -
PETITION OF SLAVES IN BOSTON.
PROVINCE OF MASSACHUSETTS BAY.
To His Excellency,
Thomas Hutchinson, Esq., Governor: -
To the Honorable, His Majesty's Council, and to the
Honorable House of Representatives, in general court
assembled at Boston, the 6th day of January, 1773: - The
humble petition of many slaves living in the town of
Boston, and other towns in the province, is this,
namely: -
That Your Excellency and Honors, and teh Honorable the
Representatives, would be pleased to take their unhappy
state and condition under your wise and just
consideration.
We desire to bless God, who loves mankind, who sent his
Son to die for their salvation, and who is now respector
of persons, that he hath lately put it into the hearts
of multitudes, on both sides of water, to bear burthens,
some of whom are men of great note and influence, who
have pleaded our cause with arguments, which we hope
will have their weights with this Honorable Court.
We presume not t dictate to Your Excellency and Honors,
being willing to rest our cause on your humanity and
justice, yet would bet leave to say a word or two on the
subject.
Although some of the negroes are vicious, (who,
doubtless, may be punished and restrained by the same
laws which are in force against others of the King's
subjects,) there are many others of a quite different
character, and who, if made free, would soon be able, as
well as willing, to bear a part in the public charges.
Many of them, of good natural parts, are discreet,
sober, honest and industrious; and may it not be said of
many, that they are virtuous and religious, although
their condition is in itself so unfriendly to reli-
[Page 41]
gion, and every moral virtue, except patience?
How may of that number have there been, and now are, in
this province, who had every day of their lives
embittered with thsi most intolerable reflection, that,
let their behavior be what it will, neither they nor
their children, to all generations, shall ever be able
to do or to possess and enjoy any thing - no, not even
life itself - but in a manner as the beasts
that perish!
We have no property! we have no wives! we have no
children! we have no city! no country! But we have
a Father in heaven, and we are determined, as far as his
grace shall enable us, and as far as our degraded
condition and contemptuous life will admit, to keep all
his commandments; especially will we be obedient to our
masters, so long as God, in his sovereign providence,
shall suffer us to be holden in bondage.
It would be impudent, if not presumptuous, in us to
suggest to Your Excellency and Honors, any law or laws
proper to be ade in relation to our unhappy state,
which, although our greatest unhappiness, is not our
fault; and this gives us great encouragement to pray
and hope for such relief as is consistent with your
wisdom, justice and goodness.
We think ourselves very happy, that we may thus address
the great and general court of this province, which
great and good court is to us the best judge, under God,
of what is wise, just and good.
We humbly beg leave to add but this one thing more:
we pray for such relief only, which by no possibility
can ever be productive of the least wrong or injury to
our masters, but to us will be as life from the dead.
In January, 1774, a bill was
brought in, which passed all the forms in the two
Houses, and was laid before Governor
Hutchinson for his approval, March 8th. The
negroes
[Page 42]
had deputed a committee respectfully to solicit the
Governor's consent; but he told them that his
instructions forbade. His successor, General
Gage, gave them the same answer, when they waited on
him.
The blacks had better success in the judicial court.
A pamphlet containing the case of a negro who had
accompanied his master from the West Indies to England,
and had there sued for and obtained his freedom, was
reprinted here, and this encouraged seeral others to sue
their masters for their freedom, and recompense for
their services.
The first trial of this kind was in 1770.
James, a servant of Richard Lechmere, of
Cambridge, brought an action against his master for
detaining him in bondage. The negroes collected
money among themselves to carry on the suit, and the
verdict was in favor of the plaintiff. Other suits
were instituted between that time and the Revolution,
and the juries invariably gave their verdicts in favor
of liberty.
During the Revolutionary War, public opinion was so
strongly in favor of the abolition of slavery, that, in
some of the country towns, votes were passed in town
meetings that they would have no slaves among them; and
that they would not exact of the masters any bonds for
the maintenance of liberated blacks, should they become
incapable of supporting themselves. A
liberty-loving antiquarian copied the following from the
Suffolk Probate Record, and published it in the Boston
Liberator, February, 1847: -
"Know all men by these presents, that I, Jonathan
Jackson, of Newburyport, in the county of Essex,
gentleman, in consideration
[Page 43]
of the impropriety I feel, and have long
felt, in beholding any person in constant bondage, -
more especially at a time when my country is so warmly
contending for the liberty every man ought to enjoy, -
and having sometime since promised my negro man, Pomp,
that I would give him his freedom, and in further
consideration of five shillings, paid me by said Pomp,
I do hereby liberate, manumit, and set him free; and I
do hereby remise and release unto said Pomp, all
demands of whatever nature I have against said Pomp.
"In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and
seal, this nineteenth June, 1776.
"JONATHAN JACKSON [Seal]
"Witness - MARY COBURN
WILLIAM NOYES.
It only remains
to say a word respecting the two parties to the
foregoing instrument.
JONATHAN JACKSON, of
Newburyport, we well remember to have heard spoken of,
in our younger days, by honored lips, as a most upright
and thorough gentleman of the old school, possessing
talents and character of the first standing. He
was the first Collector of the Port of Boston, under
Washington's administration, and was Treasurer of the
Commonwealth of Massachusetts for many years, and died
in 1810. A tribute to his memory and his worth,
said to be from the pen of the late John Lowell,
appeared in the Columbian Centinel, March 10,
1810. His immediate descendants have long resided
in this city, are extensively known, and as widely and
justly honored.
POMP
took the name of his late master, upon his eman-
[Page 44]
cipation, and soon after enlisted in the army, as
POMP JACKSON, served through the whole war of
the Revolution, and obtained an honorable discharge at
its termination. He afterwards settled in Andover,
near a pond still known as "Pomp's Pond," where
some of his descendants yet live. In this case of
emancipation, it appears, instead of "cutting his
master's throat," he only slashed the throats of his
country's enemies.
Rev. Charles Lowell, in a letter to the Boston,
Courier, May 17, 1847, says: - "I well remember,
myself, when I was a boy at Andover Academy, being often
told by an intelligent old black man, who sold buns,
that my father was the friend of the blacks, and the
cause of their being freed, or something to that effect,
and that I often had a bun or two extra on that account.
I may further state, that in October, 1773, an action
was brought against Richard Greenleaf, of
Newburyport, by Caesar (Hendrick), a colored man,
whom he claimed as his slave, for holding him in
bondage. He laid the damages at fifty pounds.
The counsel for the plaintiff, in whose favor the jury
brought in their verdict, and awarded him eighteen
pounds, damages and costs, was John Lowell,
Esq., afterwards Judge Lowell." *
From the archives in the State House, I have gleaned
many petitions and resolves of Revolutionary times, on
questions concerning the rights of Massachusetts colored
citizens, some of which I have deemed of sufficient
historical alue to be recorded in this volume.
-------------------------
*Coffin's History of Newbury, p. 339.
[Page 45]
LEGISLATION ACTION TO REDEEM TWO
SLAVES.
I find the
following Resolution on the Records of the House of
Representatives, Sept. 13, 1776. The Council
concurred, Sept. 16, 1776: -
Whereas, this
House is credibly informed that two negro men, lately
brought into this State as prisoners taken on the high
seas, are advertised to be sold at Salem, the 17th
inst., by public auction, -
Resolved, That the selling and enslaving the
human species is a direct violation of the natural
rights alike vested in all men by their Creator, and
utterly inconsistent with the avowed principles on which
this and the other United States have carried their
struggles on for liberty, even to the last appeal; and
therefore, that all persons concerned with the said
negroes be, and they hereby are, forbidden to sell them,
or in any manner to treat them other way than is already
ordered for the treatment of prisoners of war taken in
the same vessel, or others in the like employ, and if
any sale of the said negroes shall be made, it hereby is
declared null and void.
-------------------------
AN ACT FOR PREVENTING THE PRACTICE
OF HOLDING PERSONS AS SLAVES - A. D. 1777.
Whereas, the
practice of holding Africans and the children born of
them, or any other persons, in clavery, is unjustifiable
in a civil government, at a time when they are asserting
their natural freedom; wherefore, for preventing such a
practice for the future, and establishing to every
person residing within the State the invaluable blessing
of liberty, -
Be it enacted, by the Council and House of
Representatives, in General Court assembled, and by the
authority of the same, - That
[Page 46]
all persons, whether black or other complexion, above 21
years of age, now held in slavery, shall, from and after
the - day of - next, be free from any subjection to any
master or mistress, who have claimed their servitude by
right of purchase, heirship, free gift or otherwise, and
they are hereby entitled to all the freedom, rights,
privileges and immunities that do, or ought to of right,
belong to any of the subjects of this State, any usage
or custom to the contrary notwithstanding.
And be it enacted, by the authority aforesaid, that all
written deeds, bargains, sales or conveyances, or
contracts, without writing, whatsoever, for conveying or
transferring any property in any person, or to the
service and labor of any person whatsoever, of more than
twenty-one years of age, to a third person, except by
order of some court of record for some crime that has
been, or hereafter shall be, made, or by their own
voluntary contract for a term not exceeding seven years,
shall be and hereby are declared null and void.
And, whereas, divers person now have in their service
negroes, mulattoes, or others who have been deemed their
slaves or property, and who are now incapable of earning
their living by reason of age or infirmities, and may be
desirous of continuing in the service of their masters
or mistresses, - be it therefore enacted, by the
authority aforesaid, that whatever negro or mulatto, who
shall be desirous of continuing in the service of his
master or mistress, and shall voluntarily declare the
same before two justices of the county in which said
master or mistress resides, shall have a right to
continue in the service, and to a maintenance from their
master or mistress, and if they are incapable of earning
their living, shall be supported by the said master or
mistress, or their heirs, during the lives of said
servants, any thing in this act to the contrary
notwithstanding.
Provided, nevertheless, that nothing in this act shall
be understood to prevent any master of a vessel or other
person from bringing into this State any persons, not
Africans, from any other part of the
[Page 47]
world, except the United States of America, and selling
their service for a term of time not exceeding five
years, if 21 years of age, or, if under 21, not
exceeding the time when he or she so brought into the
State shall be 26 years of age, to pay for and in
consideration of the transportation and other charges
said master of vessel or other person may have been at,
agreeable to contracts made with the persons to
transported, or their parents or guardians in their
behalf, before they are brought from their own country.
Ordered to lie until second session of the General
Court. *
-------------------------
SECOND PETITION OF MASSACHUSETTS
SLAVES.
The petition of
a great number of negroes, who are detained in a state
of slavery in the very bowels of a free and Christian
country,
humbly showing, —
That your
petitioners apprehend that they have, in common with all
other men, a natural and inalienable right to that
freedom, which the great. Parent of the universe
hath bestowed equally on all man kind, and which they
have never forfeited by any compact or agreement
whatever. But they were unjustly dragged by the
cruel hand of power from their dearest friends, and some
of them even torn from the embraces of their tender
parents, — from a populous, pleasant and plentiful
country, and in violation of the laws of nature and of
nations, and in defiance of all the tender feelings of
humanity, brought hither to be sold like beasts of
burthen, and, like them, condemned to slavery for life —
among a people possessing the mild religion of Jesus
— a people not insensible of the sweets of national
freedom, nor without a spirit to resent the unjust
endeavors
of others to reduce them to a state of bondage and
subjection.
Your Honors need not to be informed that a life of
slavery like
---------------
•Vol. VII. Revolutionary Resolves.
[Page 48]
that of your petitioners, deprived of every social
privilege, of everything requisite to render life even
tolerable, is far worse than non-existence.
In imitation of the laudable example of the good people
of these States, your petitioners have long and
patiently waited the event of petition after petition,
by them presented to the legislative body of this State,
and cannot but with grief reflect that their success has
been but too similar.
They cannot but express their astonishment that it has
never been considered, that every principle from which
America has acted, in the course of her unhappy
difficulties with Great Britain, bears stronger than a
thousand arguments in favor of your humble petitioners.
They therefore humbly beseech Your Honors to give their
petition its due weight and consideration, and cause an
act of the legislature to be passed, whereby they may be
restored to the enjoyment of that freedom, which is the
natural right of all men, and their children (who were
born in this land of liberty) may not be held as slaves
after they arrive at the age of twenty-one years.
So may the inhabitants of this State (no longer
chargeable with the inconsistency of acting themselves
the part which they condemn and oppose in others) be
prospered in their glorious struggles for liberty, and
have those blessings secured to them by Heaven, of which
benevolent minds cannot wish to deprive their
fellow-men.
And your petitioners, as in duty bound, shall ever pray: —
LANCASTER HILL,
PETER BESS,
BRISTER SLENFEN,
PRINCE HALL,
JACK PIERPONT, [his X mark.]
NERO FUNELO, [his X mark.]
NEWPORT SUMNER, [his X mark.] |
[Page 49]
In 1778,
Lieut. THOMAS KENCH presented a petition to
the Legislature, asking for the appointment of a colored
regiment. The Legislature responded thus: —
STATE OF MASSACHUSETTS BAY:
The Committee of both Houses upon the letter of
THOMAS KENCH, with other papers accompanying
it, have attended to that
service, and report —
That there be one regiment of volunteers raised, as
soon as possible, to serve during the war, to consist of
the same number of
officers and privates as those of a continental
regiment; — That one sergeant in each company, and every
higher officer in said regiment,
shall be white men, and that all the other sergeants,
inferior officers and privates shall be negroes,
mulattoes, or Indians. *
* *
At a later
date, Lieut KENCH addressed the following letter
to the Council: -
To the Honorable Council:
The letter I wrote before I
heard of the disturbance with Col. Seaver, Mr. Spear,
and a number of other gentlemen, concerning the freedom
of negroes, in Congress street. It is a pity that
riots should have their freedom, and non amount us be
held as slaves, as freedom and liberty is the grand
controversy that we are contending for, and I trust,
under the smiles of Divine Providence, we shall obtain
it, if all our minds can be united; and putting the
negroes into the service will prevent much uneasiness,
and give more satisfaction to those that are offended at
the thoughts of their servants being free.
I will not enlarge, for fear I should give offence, but
subscribe myself,
Your faithful servant,
CASTLE ISLAND, April 7, 1778.
THOMAS KENCH
[Page 50]
FORMATION OF A COLORED REGIMENT IN
RHODE ISLAND.
STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND REGIMENT
PLANTATIONS, IN GENERAL ASSEMBLY.
February Session, 1778.
Whereas, for
the preservation of the rights and liberties of the
United States, it is necessary that the whole power of
Government should be exerted in recruiting the
Continental battalions; and, whereas, His Excellency,
General Washington, hath inclosed to this State a
proposal made to him by Brigadier General
Varnum, to enlist into the two battalions raising
by this State such slaves as should be willing to enter
into the service; and, whereas, history affords us
frequent precedents of the wisest, and freest and
bravest nations having liberated their slaves and
enlisted them as soldiers to fight in defence of their
country; and also, whereas, the enemy have, with great
force, taken possession of the capital and of a great
part of this State, and this State is obliged to raise a
very consider able number of troops for its own
immediate defence, whereby it is in a manner rendered
impossible for this State to furnish recruits for the
said two battalions without adopting the said measures
so recommended, —
It is Voted and Resolved, That every able-bodied negro,
mulatto, or Indian man-slave in this State may enlist
into either of the said two battalions, to serve during
the continuance of the present war with Great Britain; —
That every slave so enlisting shall be entitled to and
receive all the bounties, wages and encouragements
allowed by the Continental Congress to any soldiers
enlisting into this service.
It is further Voted and Resolved, That every slave so
enlisting shall, upon his passing muster by Col.
Christopher Greene, be immediately
discharged from the service of his master or mistress,
and be absolutely free, as though he had never been
incumbered with any kind of servitude or slavery.
And in case such slave shall, by sickness or otherwise,
be rendered unable to maintain himself, he
[Page 51]
shall not be chargeable to his master or mistress, but
shall be supported at the expense of the State.
And, whereas, slaves have been by the laws deemed the
property of their owners, and therefore compensation
ought to be made to the owners for the loss of their
service, —
It is further Voted and Resolved, That there be allowed
and paid by this State to the owners, for every such
slave so enlisting, a sum according to his worth, at a
price not exceeding one hundred and twenty pounds for
the most valuable slave, and in proportion for a slave
of less value,—provided the owner of said slave shall
deliver up to the officer who shall enlist him the
clothes of the said slave, or otherwise he shall not be
entitled to said sum.
And for settling and ascertaining the value of such
slaves, — It is further Voted and Resolved, That a
committee of five shall be appointed, to wit, — one from
each county, any three of whom to be a quorum', — to
examine the slaves who shall be so enlisted, after they
shall have passed muster, and to set a price upon each
slave, according to his value as aforesaid.
It is further Voted and Resolved, That upon any
able-bodied negro, mulatto or Indian slave enlisting as
aforesaid, the officer who shall so enlist him, after he
has passed muster as aforesaid, shall deliver a
certificate thereof to the master or mistress of said
negro, mulatto, or Indian slave, which shall discharge
him from the service of said master or mistress.
It is further Voted and Resolved, That the committee
who shall estimate the value of the slave aforesaid,
shall give a certificate of the sum at which he may be
valued to the owner of said slave, and the general
treasurer of this State is hereby empowered and directed
to give unto the owner of said slave his promissory note
for the sum of money at which he shall be valued as
aforesaid, payable on demand, with interest, — which
shall be paid with the money from Congress.
A true copy, examined, HENRY WARD,
Sec'y.
[Page 52]
In 1782, a
female slave named BELINDA presented a petition
to the Legislature, in which she says: - "Although I
have been servant to a Colonel forty years, my labors
have not procured me any comfort. I have not yet
enjoyed the benefits of creation. With my poor
daughter, I fear I shall pass the remainder of my days
in clavery and misery.
For her and myself, I beg freedom" *
MUM BETT.
I extract the
following account of this remarkable woman from an
Address delivered in Stockbridge, Mass., February, 1831,
by THODORE SEDGWICK,
Esq., a son of Judge Sedgwick, who had the
honor of judicially pronouncing the doom of slavery in
Massachusetts, under her Bill of Rights: -
"We have arrived, by imperceptible degrees, to a point
of elevation from which we look down and around, with a
sense of superiority, as if the height had been attained
by our unaided efforts, and without remembering or
regarding the means whereby we ascended. We
despise the abject African, become he does not at once
leap up to the ascent upon which we have been placed by
circumstances, which we could no more control than he
could have controlled his destiny.
"We should look at the subject in a different aspect.
We should make all allowances for the different
condition of the Africans and ourselves; give them
credit for what
-------------------------
* American Museum Collection.
[Page 53]
they have done, and not reproach them for not doing what
they had no means of doing. They have the same
principle of buoyancy with ourselves, and the instant
that the weight which depresses their level in society
is taken off, they will rise and occupy the space which
is left vacant for them.
"Such has been my acquaintance with individuals of this
race, that I regard the pretence of original and natural
superiority in the whites, very much as I regard the
tales of ancient fables, setting forth the superior
bodily strength of heroes. But for the care of one
of this calumniated race, I should not now, probably, be
living to give this testimony.
"A very slight sketch of the history of the person to
whom I refer may serve to illustrate this argument.
Elizabeth Freeman (known afterwards by the name
of Mum Bett) was born a slave, and lived
in that condition thirty or forty years. She first
lived in Claverac, Columbia county, in the State of New
York, in the family of a Mr. Hogeboom.
She was purchased at an early age by Col. Ashley,
of Sheffield, in the county of Berkshire, in the now
Commonwealth of Massachusetts. In both these
States, and I believe every where in the Northern
States, slavery existed in a very mitigated form.
This is not so much to be ascribed to the superior
humanity of the people, as to the circumstances of the
case. The slaves were comparatively few.
Society, except, perhaps, in the capitals, was in a
state nearly primitive. The slaves were precluded
from the table in but few families. Their masters and
mistresses wrought with the
[Page 54]
slaves. A great degree of familiarity necessarily
resulted from this mode of life. Slavery in New
York and New England was so marked, that but a slight
difference could be perceived in the condition of slaves
and hired servants. The character of the slaves
was moulded accordingly. Sales were very rare.
The same feeling which induces a father to retain a
child in his family, or at least under his control,
disinclined him from parting with his slave. There
was little distinction of rank in the country. The
younger slaves not only ate and drank, but played with
the children. They thus became familiar companions
with each other. The black women were cooks and
nurses, and, as such, assisted by their mistresses.
There was no great difference between the fare or
clothing of black and white laborers.
"In this state of familiar intercourse, instances of
cruelty were uncommon, and the minds of the slaves were
not so much subdued but that they caused a degree of
indignation not much less than if committed upon a
freeman.
"Under this condition of society, while Mum
Bett resided in the family of Col. Ashley,
she received a severe wound in a generous attempt to
shield her sister. Her mistress, in a fit of
passion, resorted to a degree and mode of violence very
uncommon in this country: she struck at the weak and
timid girl with a heated kitchen shovel; Mum
Bett interposed her arm, and received the blow; and
she bore the honorable scar it left to the day of her
death. The spirit of Mum Bett had
not been broken down by ill usage — she resented the
insult and outrage as a white person would have done.
She
[Page 55]
left the house, and neither commands nor entreaties
could induce her to return. Her master, Col.
Ashley, resorted to the law to regain possession
of his slave. This was shortly after the adoption
of the Constitution of Massachusetts. The case was
tried at Great Barrington. Mum Bett
was declared free; it being, I believe, the first
instance (or among the first instances) of the practical
application of the declaration in the Massachusetts Bill
of Rights, that 'all men are born free and equal.'
"The late Judge Sedgwick had the
principal agency in her deliverance. She attached
herself to his family as a servant. In that
station she remained for many years, and was never
entirely disconnected from his family.
"She was married when young; her husband died soon
after, in the continental service of the Revolutionary
War, leaving her with one child. During the
residue of her life, she remained a widow. She
died in December, 1829, at a very advanced age.
She supposed herself to be nearly a hundred years old.
"If there could be a practical refutation of the
imagined natural superiority of our race to hers, the
life and character of this woman would afford that
refutation. She knew her station, and perfectly
observed its decorum; yet she had nothing of the
submissive or the subdued character, which succumbs to
superior force, and is the usual result of the state of
slavery. On the contrary, without ever claiming
superiority, she uniformly, in every case, obtained an
ascendency over all those with whom she was associated
in
[Page 56]
service. Her spirit of fidelity to her employers
was such as has never been surpassed. This was
exemplified in her whole life. I can convey an
idea of it only by the relation of a single incident.
"The house of Mr. Sedgwick, in this town,
(Stockbridge,) was attacked by a body of insurgents,
during the Shay's war, so well remembered in this
vicinity. Mr. Sedgwick was then
absent in Boston, and Mum Bett was the
only guardian of the house. She assured the party
that Mr. Sedgwick was absent, but suffered
them to search the house to find him, which they did, by
feeling under the beds and other places of concealment,
with the points of their bayonets. She did not
attempt to resist, by direct force, the rifling of
property, which was one of the objects of the
insurgents. She, however, assumed a degree of
authority; told the plunderers that they 'dare not
strike a woman,' and attended them in their exploring
the house, to prevent wanton destruction. She
escorted them into the cellar with a large kitchen
shovel in her hand, which she intimated that she would
use in case of necessity. One of the party broke
off the neck of a bottle of porter. She told him
that if he or his companions desired to drink porter,
she would fetch a corkscrew, and draw a cork, and they
might drink like gentlemen; but that, if the neck of
another bottle should be broken, she would lay the man
that broke it flat with her shovel. Upon tasting
the liquor, the party decided that 'if gentlemen loved
such cursed bitter stuff, they might keep it.'
[Page 57]
'Understanding,
from the conversation of the party, that they intended
to take with them, in their retreat, a very fine gray
mare that was in the stable, which she had been in the
habit of riding, she left the house and went directly to
the stable. Before the rioters were apprised of
her intention, she led the animal to a gate that opened
upon the street, stripped off the halter, and, by a blow
with it, incited the mare to a degree of speed that soon
put her out of danger from the pursuit of the marauders.
"Even in her humble station, she had, when occasion
required it, an air of command which conferred a degree
of dignity, and gave her an ascendency over those of her
rank, which is very unusual in persons of any rank or
color. Her determined and resolute character,
which enabled her to limit the ravages of a Shay's
mob, was manifested in her conduct and deportment during
her whole life. She claimed no distinction; but it
was yielded to her from her superior experience, energy,
skill, and sagacity. In her sphere, she had no
superior, nor any equal. In the latter part of her
life, she was much employed as a nurse. Here she
had no competitor. I believe she never lost a
child, when she had the care of its mother, at its
birth. When a child, wailing in the arms of its
mother, heard her steps on the stairway, or approaching
the door, it ceased to cry.
"This woman, by her extreme industry and economy,
supported a large family of grand-children and
great-grandchildren. She could neither read nor
write; yet her conversation was instructive, and her
society was much sought.
[Page 58]
She received many visits at her own house, and very
frequently received and accepted invitations to pass
considerble intervals of time in the families of her
friends. Her death, notwithstanding her great age,
was deeply lamented.
"Having known this woman as familiarly as I knew either
of my parents, I cannot believe in the moral or
physical inferiority of the race to which she belonged.
The degradation of the African must have been otherwise
caused than by natural inferiority. Civilization
has made slow progress in every portion of the earth;
where it has made progress, it proceeds in an
accelerated ratio."
In 1795,
Judge Tucker, of Virginia, propounded to
Rev. Dr. Belknap, of Massachusetts,
eleven queries respecting the slavery and emancipation
of negroes in Massachusetts, which were answered by
Dr. Belknap in a very intelligent manner.
The queries and replies may be found in the fourth
volume of the Collections of the Massachusetts
Historical Society. In one of his letters, Dr.
Belknap says: — "The present Constitution of
Massachusetts was established in 1780. The first
article of the Declaration of Rights asserts that 'all
men are born free and equal.' This was inserted
not merely as a moral or political truth, but with a
particular view to establish the liberation of the
negroes on a general principle, and so it was understood
by the people at large: but some doubted whether this
was sufficient. Many of the blacks, taking
advantage of the public opinion and of this general
assertion in the Bill of Rights, asked
[Page 59]
their freedom and obtained it. Others took it
without leave. In 1781, at the Court in Worcester
County, an indictment was found against a white man for
assaulting, beating and imprisoning a black. He
was tried at the Supreme Judicial Court in 1783.
His defence was that the black (Walker) was his
slave, and that the beating, &c, was the necessary
restraint and correction by the master.
"The judges and jury were of opinion that he had no
right to beat or imprison him. He was found
guilty, and fined forty shillings. This decision
was a mortal wound to slavery in Massachusetts."
There is no specific record of the abolition of slavery
in Massachusetts; and, of course, different versions are
given concerning it. John Quincy
Adams, in reply to a question put by J. C.
Spencer, stated that "a note had been given for the
price of a slave in 1787. This note was sued, and
the Court ruled that the maker had received no
consideration, as man could not be sold. From that
time forward, slavery died in the Old Bay State."
I find, in Dr. Belknap's letters, the
following account of an early kidnapping enterprise in
the city of Boston. The kidnappers were not so
successful as others of a more recent date, since they
do not seem to have had the State authorities on their
side. " In the month of February, 1788," says Dr.
Belknap, "just after the adoption of the present
Federal Constitution by the Convention of Massachusetts,
a most flagrant violation of the laws of so
[Page 60]
ciety and humanity was perpetrated in Boston, by one
Avery, of Connecticut. By the assistance of
another infamous fellow, he decoyed three unsuspecting
black man on board a vessel, which he had chartered, and
sent them down into the hold to work. Whilst they
were there employed, the vessel came to sail and went to
sea, having been previously cleared out for Martinice.
"As soon as this infamous transaction was known,
Governor Hancock and M. L. Etombe, the French
consul, wrote letters to the governors of all the
islands in the West Indies, in favor of the decoyed
blacks. The public indignation being greatly
excited against the actors in this affair, and against
others who had been concerned in the traffic of slaves
it was thought proper to take advantage of the ferment,
and bring good out of evil.
"The three blacks who were decoyed were offered for
sale at the Danish island of St. Bartholomew. They
told their story publicly, which coming to the ears of
the governor, he prevented the sale. A Mr.
Atherton, of the island, generously became bound for
their good behavior for six months, in which time
letters came, in forming of their case, and they were
permitted to return.
"They arrived in Boston on the 20th of July following;
and it was a day of jubilee, not only among their
countrymen, but among all the friends of justice and
humanity.
[Page 61]
Extract from a charge delivered to the
African Lodge, June 24th, 1797, at Menotomy, (now West
Cambridge,) Mass., by the Eight "Worshipful Prince
Hall.
"Beloved Brethren of the African Lodge:
" It is now
five years since I delivered a charge to you on some
parts and points of masonry. As one branch or
superstructure of the foundation, I endeavored to show
you the duty of a mason to a mason, and of charity and
love to all mankind, as the work and image of the great
God and the Father of the human race. I shall now
attempt to show you that it is our duty to sympathise
with our fellowmen under their troubles, and with the
families of our brethren who are gone, we hope, to the
Grand Lodge above.
"We are to have sympathy," said he, " but this, after
all, is not to be confined to parties or colors, nor to
towns or states, nor to a kingdom, but to the kingdoms
of the whole earth, over whom Christ the King is head
and grand master for all in distress.
" Among these numerous sons and daughters of distress,
let us see our friends and brethren; and first let us
see them dragged from their native country, by the iron
hand of tyranny and oppression, from their dear friends
and connections, with weeping eyes and aching hearts, to
a strange land, and among a strange people, whose tender
mercies are cruel, — and there to bear the iron yoke of
slavery and cruelty, till death, as a friend, shall
relieve them. And must not the unhappy condition
of these, our fellow-men, draw forth
[Page 62]
our hearty prayers and wishes for their deliverance from
those merchants and traders, whose characters you have
described in Revelations xviii. 11-13? And who knows but
these same sort of traders may, in a short time, in like
man ner bewail the loss of the African traffic, to their
shame and confusion? The day dawns now in some of
the West India Islands. God can and will change
their condition and their hearts, too, and let Boston
and the world know that He hath no respect of persons,
and that that bulwark of envy, pride, scorn and
contempt, which is so visible in some, shall fall.
"Jethro, an Ethiopian, gave instructions to his
son-in-law, Moses, in establishing government.
Exodus xviii. 22— 24. Thus, Moses was not
ashamed to be instructed by a black man. Philip
was not ashamed to take a seat beside the Ethiopian
Eunuch, and to instruct him in the gospel. The
Grand Master Solomon was not ashamed to hold
conference with the Queen of Sheba. Our Grand
Master Solomon did not divide the living child,
whatever he might do with the dead one; neither did he
pretend to make a law to forbid the parties from having
free intercourse with one another, without the fear of
censure, or be turned out of the synagogue.
"Now, my brethren, nothing is stable; all things are
changeable. Let us seek those things which are
sure and steadfast, and let us pray God that, while we
remain here, he would give us the grace of patience, and
strength to bear up under all our troubles, which, at
this day, God knows, we
[Page 63]
have our share of. Patience, I say; for were we not
possessed of a great measure of it, we could not bear up
under the daily insults we meet with in the streets of
Boston, much more on public days of recreation.
How, at such times, are we shamefully abused, and that
to such a degree, that we may truly be said to carry our
lives in our hands, and the arrows of death are flying
about our heads. Helpless women have their clothes
torn from their backs. . . . And by whom are these
disgraceful and abusive actions committed? Not by
the men born and bred in Boston, — they are better bred;
but by a mob or horde of shameless, low-lived, envious,
spiteful persons — some of them, not long since,
servants in gentlemen's kitchens, scouring knives,
horse-tenders, chaise-drivers. I was told by a
gentleman who saw the filthy behavior in the Common,
that, in all places he had been in, he never saw so
cruel behavior in all his life; and that a slave in the
West Indies, on Sundays, or holidays, enjoys himself and
friends without molestation. Not only this man,
but many in town, who have seen their behavior to us,
and that, without provocation, twenty or thirty cowards
have fallen upon one man. (O, the patience of the
blacks!) T is not for want of courage in you, for
they know that they do not face you man for man; but in
a mob, which we despise, and would rather suffer wrong
than to do wrong, to the disturbance of the community,
and the disgrace of our reputation; for every good
citizen doth honor to the laws of the State where he
resides.
" My brethren, let us not be cast down under these and
[Page 64]
many other abuses we at present are laboring under, -
for the darkest hour is just before the break of day.
My brethren, let us remember what a dark day it was with
our African brethren, six years ago, in the French West
Indies. Nothing but the snap of the whip was
heard, from morning to evening. Hanging, breaking
on the wheel, burning, and all manner of tortures, were
inflicted on those unhappy people. But, blessed be
God, the scene is changed. They now confess
that God hath no respect of persons, and,
therefore, receive them as their friends, and treat them
as brothers. Thus doth Ethiopia stretch forth her
hand from slavery, to freedom and Equality."
About this time, the celebrated Prince Sanders
was teaching in Boston. He subsequently prepared a
compilation of Hatien documents, and presented, December
11, 1818, to the American Convention, a memorial for the
abolition of slavery, and improving the condition of the
African race.
PHILLIS WHEATLY.
PHILLIS
WHEATLY was a native of Africa, and was brought to
this country in the year 1761, and sold as a slave.
She was purchased by Mr. John Wheatly, a
respectable citizen of Boston. This gentleman, at
the time of the purchase, was already the owner of
several slaves; but the females in his possession were
getting something beyond the active periods of life, and
Mrs. Wheatly wished to obtain a young negress,
with the view of training her up
[Page 65]
under her own eye, that she might, by gentle usage,
secure to herself a faithful domestic in her old age.
She visited the slave-market, that she might make a
personal selection from the group of unfortunates for
sale. There she found several robust, healthy
females, exhibited at the same time with Phillis,
who was of a slender frame, and evidently suffering from
change of climate. She was, however, the choice of
the lady, who acknowledged herself influenced to this
decision by the humble and modest demeanor, and the
interesting features, of the little stranger.
The poor, naked child (for she had no other covering
than a quantity of dirty carpet about her, like a "fillibeg")
was taken home in the chaise of her mistress, and
comfortably attired. She is supposed to have been
about seven years old, at this time, from the
circumstance of shedding her front teeth. She soon
gave indications of uncommon intelligence, and was
frequently seen endeavoring to make letters upon the
wall with a piece of chalk or charcoal.
A daughter of Mrs. Wheatly, not long
after the child's irst introduction to the family,
undertook to learn her to read and write; and, while she
astonished her instructress by her rapid progress, she
won the good-will of her kind mistress by her amiable
disposition and the propriety of her behavior. She
was not devoted to menial occupations, as was at first
intended; nor was she allowed to associate with the
other domestics of the family, who were of her own color
and condition, but was kept constantly about the person
of her mistress.
[Page 66]
She does not
seem to have preserved any remembrance of the place of
her nativity, or of her parents, excepting the simple
circumstance, that her mother poured out water before
the sun at its rising — in reference, no doubt, to an
ancient African custom.
As Phillis increased in years, the development
of her mind realized the promise of her childhood; and
she soon attracted the attention of the literati of the
day, many of whom furnished her with books. These
enabled her to make considerable progress in
belles-lettres; but such gratification seems only to
have increased her thirst after knowledge, as is the
case with most gifted minds, not misled by vanity; and
we soon find her endeavoring to master the Latin tongue.
She was now frequently visited by clergymen, and other
individuals of high standing in society; but,
notwithstanding the attention she received, and the
distinction with which she was treated, she never for a
moment lost sight of that modest, unassuming demeanor,
which first won the heart of her mistress in the
slave-market. Indeed, we consider the strongest
proof of her worth to have been the earnest affection of
this excellent woman, who admitted her to her own board.
Phillis ate of her bread, and drank of her cup,
and was to her as a daughter; for she returned her
affection with unbounded gratitude, and was so devoted
to her interests, as to have no will in opposition to
that of her benefactress.
In 1770, at the age of sixteen, Phillis was
received as a member of the church worshipping in the
Old South Meet-
[Page 67]
ing House, then under the pastoral charge of the Rev.
Dr. Sewall. She became an ornament
to her profession; for she possessed that meekness of
spirit, which, in the language of inspiration, is said
to be above all price. She was very
gentle-tempered, extremely affectionate, and altogether
free from that most despicable foible, which might
naturally have been her besetting sin, — literary
vanity.
The little poem, commencing,
" 'T was mercy brought me from my
heathen land,"
will be found to be a beautiful
expression of her religious sentiments, and a noble
vindication of the claims of her race. We can
hardly suppose any one, reflecting by whom it was
written — an African and a slave — to read it, without
emotions both of regret and admiration.
Phillis never indulged her muse in any fits of
sullenness or caprice. She was at all times accessible.
If any one requested her to write upon any particular
subject or event, she immediately set herself to the
task, and produced something upon the given theme.
This is probably the reason why so many of her pieces
are funeral poems, many of them, no doubt, being written
at the request of friends. Still, the variety of
her compositions affords sufficient proof of the
versatility of her genius. We find her, at one
time, occupied in contemplation of an event affecting
the condition of a whole people, and pouring forth her
thoughts in a lofty strain. Then the song sinks to
the soft tones of sympathy, in the affliction occasioned
by domestic bereavement.
[Page 68]
Again, we see her seeking inspiration from the sacred
volume, or from the tomes of heathen lore; now excited
by the beauties of art, and now hymning the praises of
Nature to "Nature's God." On one occasion, we
notice her — a girl of but fourteen years — recognizing
a political event, and endeavoring to express the
grateful loyalty of subjects to their rightful king —
not as one, indeed, who had been trained to note the
events of nations, by a course of historical studies,
but one whose habits, taste and opinions, were
peculiarly her own; for in Phillis, we have an
example of originality of no ordinary character.
She was allowed, and even encouraged, to follow the
leading of her own genius; but nothing was forced upon
her, nothing suggested or placed before, her as a lure;
her literary efforts were altogether the natural
workings of her own mind.
There is another circumstance respecting her habits of
composition which peculiarly claims our attention.
She did not seem to have the power of retaining the
creations of her own fancy, for a long time, in her own
mind. If, during the vigil of a wakeful night, she
amused herself by weaving a tale, she knew nothing of it
in the morning — it had vanished in the land of dreams.
Her kind mistress in dulged her with a light, and, in
the cold season, with a fire, in her apartment, during
the night. The light was placed upon a table at
her bedside, with writing materials, that, if any thing
occurred to her after she had retired, she might,
without rising or taking cold, secure the swift-wing
fancy ere it fled.
[Page 69]
By comparing
the accounts we have of Phillis's progress with
the dates of her earliest poems, we find that she must
have commenced her career as an authoress as soon as she
could write a legible hand, and without being acquainted
with the rules of composition. Indeed, we very much
doubt if she ever had any grammatical instruction, or
any knowledge of the structure or idiom of the English
language, except what she imbibed from the perusal of
the best English writers, and from mingling in polite
circles, where, fortunately, she was encouraged to
converse freely with the wise and the learned.
We gather, from her writings, that she was acquainted
with astronomy, ancient and modern geography, and
ancient history: and that she was well versed in the
scriptures of the Old and New Testament. She
discovered a decided taste for the stories of Heathen
Mythology, and Pope's Homer seems to have been a great
favorite with her.
The reader is already aware of the delicate
constitution and frail health of Phillis.
During the winter of 1773, the indications of disease
had so much increased, that her physician advised a sea
voyage. This was earnestly seconded by her
friends; and a son of Mr. and Mrs. Wheatly, being
about to make a voyage to England, to arrange a
mercantile correspondence, it was settled that
Phillis should accompany him, and she accordingly
embarked in the summer of the same year.
She was at this time but nineteen years old, and was at
the highest point of her short and brilliant career.
It is
[Page 70]
with emotions of sorrow that we approach the strange and
splendid scenes which were now about to open upon her —
to be succeeded by grief and desolation.
Phillis was well received in England, and was
presented to Lady Huntingdon, Lord Dartmouth, Mr.
Thornton, and many other individuals of
distinction; but, says our informant, "not all the
attention she received, nor all the honors that were
heaped upon her, had the slightest influence upon her
temper or deportment. She was still the same
singlehearted, unsophisticated being."
During her stay in England, her poems were given to the
world, dedicated to the Countess of Huntingdon, and
embellished with an engraving, which is said to have
been a striking representation of the original. It
is supposed that one of these impressions was forwarded
to her mistress, as soon as they were struck off; for a
grand niece of Mrs. Wheatly informs us
that, during the absence of Phillis, she one day
called upon her relative, who immediately directed her
attention to a picture over the fire-place, exclaiming,
— "See! look at my Phillis! Does she
not seem as though she would
speak to me?"
Phillis arrived in London so late in the season,
that the great mart of fashion was deserted. She
was, therefore, urgently pressed, by her distinguished
friends, to remain until the Court returned to St.
James, that she might be presented to the young monarch,
George III. She would probably have
consented to this arrangement, had not letters from
America informed her of the declining health of
[Page 71]
her mistress, who entreated her to return, that she
might once more behold her beloved protege.
Phillis waited not a second bidding, but immediately
reembarked for that once happy home, soon after made
desolate by the death of her affectionate mistress.
She soon after received
an offer of marriage from a respectable colored man, of
Boston. The name of this individual was Peters.
He kept a grocery in Court street, and was a man of
handsome person. He wore a wig, carried a cane,
and quite acted out "the gentleman.'' In an
evil hour, he was accepted; and, though he was a man of
talents and information, — writing with fluency and
propriety, and, at one period, reading law, — he proved
utterly unworthy of the distinguished woman who honored
him by her alliance.*
The following letter, written by General
Washington in reply to a communication sent to him
by Phillis, will be read with the deepest
interest. The letter may be found in Spark's Life
of Washington.
|
|
CAMBRIDGE,
Mass., Feb. 28, 1776 |
MISS PHILLIS
—
Your favor of the 26th. of October did not reach my
hands till the middle of December. Time enough,
you will say, to have given an answer ere this. Granted.
But a, variety of important occurrences, continually
interposing to distract the mind and with draw the
attention, I hope will apologize for the delay, and
plead
---------------
* For this account of Phillis Wheatlv, I am
principally indebted to a compilation from the original
memoir published by Mr. George W. Light, and
understood to have been written by Miss M. M. OdelL
[Page 72]
my excuse for the seeming, but not real, neglect.
I thank you most sincerely for your polite notice of me,
in the elegant lines you enclosed: and, however
undeserving I may be of such encomium and panegyric, the
style and manner exhibit a striking proof of your
poetical talents; in honor of which, and as a tribute
justly due to you, I would have published the poem, had
I not been apprehensive that, while I only meant to give
the world this new instance of your genius, I might have
incurred the imputation of vanity. This, and
nothing else, determined me not to give it place in the
public prints.
If you should ever come to Cambridge, or near
head-quarters, I should be happy to see a person so
favored by the Muses, and to whom Nature has been so
liberal and beneficent in her dispensations.
I am, with great respect, your obedient, humble servant
As a preface to
the edition of Miss Wheatly's poems
published in Boston about 1770, I find this card from
the publisher: —
TO THE PUBLIC.
As it has been
repeatedly suggested to the publisher, by persons who
have seen the manuscript, that numbers would be ready to
suspect they were not really the writings of PHILLIS,
he has procured the following attestation, from the most
respectable characters in Boston, that none'
might have the least ground for disputing their
Original.
We whose Names
are under-written, do assure the World, that the Poems
specified in the following page were (as we verily
believe) written by Phillis, a young Negro Girl,
who was, but a
[Page 73]
few Years since, brought, an uncultivated Barbarian,
from Africa, and has ever since been, and now is,
under the disadvantage of serving as a Slave in a family
in this town. She has been examined by some of the
best judges, and is thought qualified to write them.
His Excellency THOMAS
HUTCHINSON,
Governor,
The Hon. ANDREW
OLIVER,
Lieutenant Governor, |
Hon.
Thomas Hubbard,
Hon. John Erving,
Hon. James Pitts,
Hon. Harrison Gray,
Hon. James Bowdoin,
John Hancock, Esq.
John Green Esq.
Richard Cary Esq. |
Rev.
Charles Chauncey
Rev. Mather Byles,
Rev. Ed. Pemberton
Rev. Andrew Elliot
Rev. Samuel Cooper
Rev. Samuel Mather
Rev. John Morrhead
Mr. John Wheatly her
master. |
PAUL CUFFE.
PAUL CUFFE'S
father was a native of Africa, whence, at an early age,
he was dragged by the unfeeling hand of avarice from his
home and connections; torn from the parental roof and
every thing in this world that was near and dear to him;
transported over the wide and trackless ocean, many
thousand miles from the land of his birth, to be for
ever consigned to rigorous and cruel bondage:
"To increase a stranger's treasures,
O'er the raging billows born."
He was
purchased as a slave by a person named Slocum,
residing in Massachusetts, one of the United States of
North America, by whom he was kept in slavery a
considerable
[Page 74]
portion of his life; and there is no reason to doubt,
had it not been for his laudable enterprise, aided by
great perseverance, he would have worn out his life in
perpetual bondage, and ended his days, like many of his
degraded and unjustly oppressed fellow-countrymen, under
the galling yoke of fetters and chains, or the smart
inflicted by the whip of the unrelenting driver.
Being possessed, however, of a mind far superior to his
degraded and unhappy condition, he was always diligent
in his master's business, and proved himself in numerous
instances faithful to his interests; so that, by
unremitting industry and economy, he was enabled, after
a considerable length of time, under the blessing of a
kind Providence, to procure the means for purchasing his
personal liberty, of which he had been deprived, as
already stated, in very early life.
According to the custom of the country into which he
was transported, Cuffe also received the name of
Slocum, as expressing to whom he belonged; though
it appears in after life he was known by the name of
John Cuffe. Soon after the happy period
in which Cuffe effected his emancipation, and
succeeded in releasing himself from the bonds of slavery
and unjust oppression, he became acquainted with Ruth
Moses, an honorable woman, descended from one of
the Indian tribes residing in Massachusetts.
Cuffe's acquaintance- with Ruth Moses
ended in their taking each other in marriage; and
continuing in his praise worthy habits of industry and
frugality, he was enabled, soon after this occurrence,
to purchase a farm of 100 acres
[Page 75]
of land, in Westport, Massachusetts. Cuffe and
Ruth continued to live happily together, and brought
up a family of ten children — four sons, and six
daughters. Three of the former, David,
Jonathan and John, were farmers in the
neighborhood of Westport, filled respectable stations in
society, and were endowed with good intellectual
capacities. They all married well, and gave their
children a good education.
Cuffe died in 1745, leaving behind him a
considerable property in land, the fruits of his
industry.
PAUL, the youngest son of Cuffe, and the
interesting subject of the present memoir, was born on
Cutterhunker, one of the Elizabeth Islands, near
New Bedford, in the year 1759; so that, when his father
died, he was about fourteen years of age, at which time
he had learned but little more than the letters of the
alphabet. The land which his father had left
behind him proving unproductive, afforded but little
provision for the numerous family; so that the care of
supporting his mother and sisters devolved jointly upon
himself and his brothers.. Thus he labored under
great disadvantages, being deprived of the means and
opportunity for acquiring even the rudiments of a good
education. He was not, however, easily to be
discouraged, and found opportunities of improving
himself in various ways, and cultivating his mind.
Having never received the benefits of an education, the
knowledge he possessed was obtained entirely by his own
indefatigable exertions, and the little assistance which
he occasionally received from persons who were
[Page 76]
friendly disposed towards him. Aided by these
means, he soon learned to read and write, and he also
attained to a considerable proficiency in arithmetic,
and skill in navigation; and we may form some estimate
of the natural talent with which he was endowed for the
speedy reception of learning, from the fact that, with
the assistance of a friend, he acquired such a knowledge
of the latter science, in the short space of two weeks,
as enabled him to command the vessel, in the voyages
which he subsequently made to England, to Russia, to
Africa, and to the West Indies, as well as to several
different ports in the southern section of the United
States.
It has already been stated that his three brothers were
respectable farmers in the neighborhood of Westport.
The mind of Paul, however, was early inclined to
the pursuits of commerce. Conceiving that they
furnished to industry more ample rewards than
agriculture, and conscious that he possessed qualities
which, under proper culture, would enable him to pursue
commercial employments with prospects of success, he
entered, at the age of sixteen, as a common hand, on
board of a vessel destined to the Bay of Mexico, on a
whaling expedition. His second voyage was to the
West Indies; but on his third, which was during the
American war, about the year 1776, he was captured by a
British ship. After three months' detention as a
prisoner at New York, he was permitted to return home to
Westport, where, owing to the unfortunate continuance of
hostilities, he spent about two years in agricultural
pursuits. During this inter-
[Page 77]
val, Paul and his brother, John Cuffe,
were called on by the collector of the district in which
they resided for the payment of a personal tax. It
appeared to them that, by the laws and the Constitution
of Massachusetts, taxation and the whole rights of
citizenship were united. If the laws demanded of
them the payment of personal taxes, the same laws must
necessarily and constitutionally invest them with the
rights of representing, and being represented, in the
State Legislature. But they had never been
considered as entitled to the privilege of voting at
elections, or of being elected to places of trust and
honor. Under these circumstances, they refused to
comply. The collector resorted to the force of the
laws and after many delays and vexations, Paul
and his brother deemed it most prudent to silence the
suit by payment of the demands, which were only small.
But they resolved, if it were possible, to obtain the
rights which they believed to be connected with
taxation. In pursuance of this resolution, they
presented a respectful petition to the State
Legislature, which met with a warm and almost indignant
opposition from some in authority. A considerable
majority, however, perceiving the propriety and justness
of the petition, were favorable to the object, and, with
an honorable magnanimity, in defiance of the prejudice
of the times, a law was enacted by them, rendering all
free persons of color liable to taxation, according to
the ratio established for white men, and granting them
all the privileges belonging to other citizens.
This was a day equally honorable to the petitioners and
to the Legislature; a day in which justice
[Page 78]
and humanity triumphed over prejudice and oppression,
and a day which ought to be gratefully remembered by
every person of color within the boundaries of
Massachusetts, and the names of John and Paul Cuffe
should always be united with its recollection.
Paul, being at this time about twenty years of
age, thought himself sufficiently skilled to enter into
business on his own account, and laid before his brother
David a plan for opening a commercial intercourse
with the State of Connecticut. His brother was
pleased with the prospect, and they built an open boat
and proceeded to sea.
They encountered such numerous and untoward
discomfitures, as would have caused the courage of most
persons to fail. But Paul's dispositions
were not of that yielding nature. He possessed
that inflexible spirit of perseverance, and firmness of
mind, which entitled him to a more successful issue of
his endeavors; and he believed that, while he maintained
integrity of heart and conduct, he might humbly hope for
the protection of Providence. Under these
impressions, he prepared for another voyage. In
his open boat, with a small cargo, he again directed his
course
towards the island of Nantucket. The weather was
favorable, and he arrived in safety at the destined
port, and disposed of his little cargo to advantage.
The profits of this voyage, by strengthening the
confidence of his friends, enabled him further to
enlarge his plans, and by a steady perseverance, he was
at length enabled, under Divine assistance, to overcome
obstacles apparently insurmountable.
[Page 79]
Having become
master of a small covered vessel, of about twelve tons
burthen, he hired a person to assist him as a seaman,
and made many advantageous voyages to different parts of
the State of Connecticut; and, when about twenty-five
years of age, he married a native of the country, and a
descendant of the same tribe to which his mother
belonged. For some time after his marriage, he
attended chiefly to his agricultural concerns; but from
an increase of family, he at length deemed it necessary
to pursue his commercial undertakings more extensively
than he had before done. He arranged his affairs
for a new expedition, and hired a small house on
Westport river, to which he removed, his family. A
vessel of eighteen tons was now procured, in which he
sailed to the banks of St. George, in quest of codfish,
and returned home with a valuable cargo. This
important adventure was the foundation of an extensive
and profitable fishing establishment from Westport
river, which continued for a considerable time, and was
the source of an honest and comfortable living to many
of the inhabitants of that district.
At this period, Paul formed a connection with
his brother-in-law, Michael Wainer, who
had several sons well qualified for the sea service,
four of whom, subsequently, laudably filled responsible
situations as captains and first mates. A vessel
pf twenty-five tons was built, and in two voyages to the
Straits of Bellisle and Newfoundland, he met with such
success as enabled him, in conjunction with another
person,
[Page 80]
to build a vessel of forty-two tons burthen, in which he
made several profitable voyages.
Paul had experienced the many disadvantages of
his very limited education, and he resolved, as far as
it was practicable, to relieve his children from similar
embarrassments. The neighborhood had neither a
tutor nor a school for the instruction of youth, though
many of the citizens were desirous that such an
institution should be established. About 1797,
Paul proposed convening a meeting of the
inhabitants, for the purpose of making such arrangements
as should accomplish the desired object, the great
utility and necessity of which was undeniable. The
collision of opinion, however, respecting mode and
place, occasioned the meeting to separate without
arriving at any conclusion. Several meetings of
the same nature were held, but all were alike
unsuccessful in their issue. Perceiving that all
efforts to procure a union of sentiment were fruitless,
Paul, by no means disheartened, set himself to
work in earnest, and had a suitable house built on his
own ground, and entirely at his own expense, which he
freely offered for the use of the public, without
requiring any pecuniary remuneration, feeling himself
fully compensated in the satisfaction he derived in
seeing it occupied for so useful and excellent a
purpose; and the school was opened to all who pleased to
send their children.
How gratifying to humanity is this anecdote! and who,
that justly appreciates human character, would not
prefer Paul Cuffe, the off spring of an
African slave, to the proud-
[Page 81]
est statesman that ever dealt out destruction amongst
man kind?
About this time, Paul proceeded on a whaling
voyage to the Straits of Bellisle, where he met with
"four other vessels, completely equipped with boats and
harpoons, for capturing whales. Paul
discovered that he had not made proper preparations for
the business, having only ten hands on board, and two
boats, one of which was old and almost useless.
When the masters of the other vessels discovered his
situation, they refused to comply with the customary
practices adopted on such voyages, and refused to mate
with his crew. In this emergency, Paul resolved
to prosecute his undertaking alone, till, at length, the
other masters thought it most prudent to accede to the
usual practice, apprehending his crew, by their
ignorance, might alarm and drive the whales from their
reach, and thus defeat the object of their voyage.
During the season, they took seven whales. The
circumstances which had taken place roused the ambition
of Paul and his crew; they were diligent and
enterprising, and had the honor of killing six of the
seven whales, two of which fell by Paul's own hands.
He returned home in due season, heavily freighted with
oil and bone, and arrived in the autumn of 1793, being
then about his thirty-fourth year. He went to
Philadelphia to dispose of his cargo, and found his
pecuniary circumstances were by this time in a
flourishing train. When in Philadelphia, he
purchased iron necessary for bolts, and other work
suitable for a schooner of sixty or seventy tons, and,
soon
[Page 82]
after his return to Westport, the keel for a new vessel
was laid. In 1795, his schooner, of sixty tons
burthen, was launched, and called "The Ranger."
He also possessed two small fishing boats; but his
money was exhausted, and the cargo of his new vessel
would require a considerable sum beyond his present
stock. He now sold his two boats, and was enabled
to place on board his schooner a cargo valued at two
thousand dollars; with this he sailed to Norfolk, on the
Chesapeake Bay, and there learned, that a very plentiful
crop of Indian corn had been gathered that year on the
eastern shore of Maryland, and that he could procure a
schooner-load, for a low price, at Vienna, on the
Nantcoke river. Thither he sailed, but, on his
arrival, the people were filled with astonishment and
alarm. A vessel, owned and commanded by a black
man, and manned with a crew of the same complexion, was
unprecedented and surprising.
The white inhabitants were struck with apprehensions of
the injurious effects which such circumstance would have
on the minds of their slaves, suspecting that he wished
secretly to kindle the spirit of rebellion, and excite a
destructive revolt among them. Under these
notions, several persons associated themselves, for the
purpose of preventing Paul from entering his
vessel or remaining among them. On examination,
his papers proved to be correct, and the custom-house
officers could not legally refuse the entry of his
vessel. Paul combined prudence with
resolution; and, on this occasion, conducted himself
with candor, modesty,
[Page 83]
and firmness; and his crew behaved, not only
inoffensively, but with a conciliating propriety.
In a few days, the inimical association vanished, and
the inhabitants treated him and his crew with respect,
and even kindness. Many of the principal people
visited his vessel, and, in consequence
of the pressing invitation of one of them, Paul
dined with his family in the town.
During the year 1797, after his return home, he
purchased the house in which his family resided, and the
adjoining farm. For the latter, including
improvements, he paid $3500, and placed it under the
management of his brother, who, as before stated, was a
farmer.
By judicious plans, and diligence in their execution,
Paul gradually increased his property, (one farm
covered a hundred acres,) and by the integrity and
consistency of his conduct, he gained the esteem and
regard of his fellow-citizens. In the year 1800,
he was concerned in one-half of the expenses of building
and equipping a brig of 162 tons burthen. One
fourth belonged to his brother, and the other fourth was
owned by persons not related to his family. The
brig was commanded by Thomas Wainer,
Paul Cuffe's nephew, whose talents and
character were perfectly adapted to such a situation.
The ship "Alpha," of 268 tons, carpenter's measure, of
which Paul owned three fourths, was built in
1806. Of this vessel, he was the commander; the
rest of the crew consisting of seven men of color.
The ship performed a
[Page 84]
voyage, under his command, from Wilmington to Savannah,
thence to Gottenburg, and thence to Philadelphia.
After Paul's return, in 1806, the brig "Traveller,"
of 109 tons burthen, was built at Westport, of one half
of which he was the owner. After this period,
being extensively engaged in his mercantile and
agricultural pursuits, he resided at Westport.
In his person, Paul Cuffe was tall,
well-formed, and athletic; his deportment conciliating,
yet dignified and prepossessing; his countenance
blending gravity with modesty and sweetness, and
firmness with gentleness and humanity; in speech and
habit, plain and unostentatious. His whole
exterior indicated a man of respectability and piety,
and such would a stranger have supposed him to be at
first view. His prudence, strengthened by parental
care and example, was, no doubt, a safeguard to him in
his youth, when exposed to the dissolute company which
unavoidably attends a seafaring life; whilst the
religion of Jesus Christ, influencing his mind, under
the secret guidance of the Holy Spirit of Truth, in
silent reflection, added, in advancing manhood, to the
brightness of his character, and instituted or confirmed
his disposition to practical good.
He became fully convinced of the principles of truth,
as held by the Society of Friends, and, uniting himself
in membership with them, it pleased the great Head of
the Church, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom
and knowledge, who respecteth not the persons of men, in
his own due time,
[Page 85]
to entrust him with a gift in the ministry, which he
frequently exercised, to the comfort and edification of
his friends and brethren.
When he was prevented from going abroad, as usual, in
the pursuit of his business, on account of the rigors of
the winter, he often devoted a considerable portion of
his time in teaching navigation to his own sons, and to
the young men in the neighborhood in which he resided.
And, even on his voyages, when opportunities occurred,
he employed him self in imparting a knowledge of this
invaluable science to those under him, so that he had
the honor of training-up, both amongst the white and
colored population, a considerable number of skilful
navigators.
He was careful to maintain a strict integrity and
uprightness in all his transactions in trade, and,
believing himself to be accountable to God for the mode
of using and acquiring his possessions, he was at all
times willing, and conceived it to be his bounden duty,
as a humble follower of a crucified Lord, to sacrifice
his private interests, rather than engage in any
enterprise, however lawful in the eyes of the world, or
however profitable, that might have a tendency, in the
smallest degree, either directly or indirectly, to
injure his fellowmen. On these grounds, he would
not deal in intoxicating liquors, or in slaves, though
he might have done either, without violating the laws of
his country, and with great prospects of pecuniary gain.
He turned his attention to the British settlement at
Sierra Leone, being induced to believe, from various
communica-
[Page 86]
tions he had received from Europe and other sources,
that his endeavors to contribute to its welfare, and to
that of his fellow-men, might not be ineffectual.
On examination, he found his affairs were in so
prosperous and flourishing a state as to warrant the
undertaking; and, being fully convinced that he was
called upon to appropriate a portion of what he had
freely received from the hands of an ever bountiful
Providence, to the benefit of his unhappy race, he
embarked, in the commencement of 1811, in his own brig"
Traveller," manned entirely by persons of color, his
nephew, Thomas Wainer, being the captain.
After a passage of about two months, they arrived at
Sierra Leone, where Paul remained about the same
length of time, during which interval he made himself
acquainted with the real state and condition of the
colony. He had frequent conversations with the
Governor and principal inhabitants, during which
opportunities he suggested several important
improvements. Amongst other things, he recommended
the formation of a society, for the purpose of promoting
the interests of its members and the colonists in
general; which measure was immediately acceded to and
adopted, and the society named, " he Friendly Society of
Sierra Leone," composed principally of respectable men
of color.
Paul Cuffe terminated his labors and his
life, which he departed in peace, the 7th of the 9th
mo., 1817, being then in the fifty-ninth year of his
age.*
---------------
* I am indebted for this account of PAUL
CUFFE to the Address of
Rev. Peter Williams, delivered in 1812, and since
published in the Liverpool Mercury.
[Page 87]
Joseph Congdon, Esq., of New
Bedford, has kindly obtained for me the following
valuable documents, bearing on Paul Cuffe's
exertions in behalf of equal suffrage: —
"To the Selectmen of the Town of
Dartmouth, Greeting:
"We the subscribers, your humble petitioners, desire
that you would, in your capacity, put a stroke in your
next warrant for calling a town meeting, so that it may
legally be laid before said town, by way of vote, to
know the mind of said town, whether all free negroes and
mulattoes shall have the same privileges in this said
Town of Dartmouth as the white people have, respecting
places of profit, choosing of officers, and the like,
together with all other privileges in all cases that
shall or may happen or be brought in this our said Town
of Dartmouth. We, your petitioners, as in duty
bound, shall ever pray.
[Page 88]
depressed circumstances; and your poor petitioners, ass
in duty bound, shall ever pray, &c
|
|
JOHN CUFFE,
ADVENTUR CHILD,
PAUL CUFFE,
SAMUEL X GRAY,
his mark
PERO X HOWLAND
his mark
PERO X RUSSELL
his mark
PERO COGGESHALL |
Dated at Dartmouth, the 10th of
February, 1780.
Memorandum in
the hand-writing of John Cuffe: -
"This is the copy of the petition which we did
deliver unto the Honorable Council and House, for relief
from taxation in the days of our distress. But we
received non.
There is also a copy of the
petition, with the date, "January 22d, 1781," not
signed, by which it would appear that they intended to
renew their applicaiton to the government for relief.
[From the Records of Dartmouth, May 10, 1780]
"The town [Dartmouth] took
in consideration the form of Government, &c.
"The Committee recommend
* * *
that in the 4th article, 25th page, the words 'sui juris
and that pays a pole taxx, except such who, from their
respective offices and age, are exempted by law,' be
added after the words, 'every male person'; and to
expunge the following clause in said article, namely, -
'having a
[Page 89]
freehold estate within the same town of the annual
income of three pounds, or any estate of the value of
sixty pounds,' — for the following reason: such
qualification appears to your Committee to be
inconsistent with the liberty we are contending for, so
long, especially, as any subject, who is not a qualified
voter, is obliged to pay a poll tax.
|
"(Signed,) |
EDWARD POPE, Chairman |
"The report was
accepted by an unamious vote of one hundred and fifty
persons present."
Extract from
the Town warrant of Dartmouth, dated Feb. 20, 1781:
" To choose an
agent or agents to defend an action against John
and Paul Cuff, at the next Court to
be holden at Taunton." At the meeting, March 8,
1781, — "The Honorable Walter Spooner,
Esquire, chosen agent, in behalf of the town, to
make answer to John and Paul
Cuff at the next Inferior Court to be held at
Taunton."
"A REQUEST.
"To the Selectmen of the Town of
Dartmouth, Greeting:
"We the
subscribers, your humble petitioners, desire that you
would, in your capacity, put a stroke in your next
warrant for calling a town meeting, so that it may
legally be laid before said town, by way of vote, to
know the mind of said town, whether all free negroes and
mulattoes shall have the same privileges in this said
Town of Dartmouth as the white people have, respecting
places of profit, choosing of officers, and the like,
together with all other privileges in all cases that
shall or may happen or be brought in this our said Town
of Dartmouth. We, your petitioners, as in duty
bound, shall ever pray.
|
"(Signed,) |
JOHN CUFFE,
PAUL CUFFE. |
"Dated at
Dartmouth, the 22d of the 4th mo., 1781."
[Page 90]
This "Request" bears the following endorsement: -
"A true copy of
the request which John Cuffe and Paul Cuffe
delivered unto the Selectmen of the Town of Dartmouth,
for to have all free negroes adn mulattos to be entered
equally with the white people, or to have relief granted
us jointly from taxation, &c.
|
"Given under my hand, |
JOHN CUFFE." |
|
|
"DARTMOUTH, June 11, 1781. |
"Then received
of John Cuffe, eight pounds twelve shillings,
silver money, in full for all John Cuffe's and
Paul Cuffe's Rates, until this date; also, for all
my Court charges. Received by me,
|
|
RICHARD COLLENS,
Constable" |
"John and Paul Cuff, of Dartmouth, Dr. to
Elijah Dean, of Taunton, -
To summoning the
assessors of Dartmouth to Taunton Court 24f.
£1
4 0
[On the back]
"Rec'd of
John Cuff twenty-four shillings, being the contents
of the within acc't, in behalf of Elijah Dean.
It was
ascertained by these proceedings, that taxes must be
paid, the receipts being forwarded; and this case,
although no action followed in Court, settled the right
of the colored man to the elective franchise in the
State of Massachusetts.
RICHARD JOHNSON,
who married a daughter of Paul Cuffe, resided at
New Bedford nearly fifty years. In early life, he
was engaged as a mariner, and filled every capacity,
from a cabin boy to a captain.
[Page 91]
During the war
of 1812, he was taken prisoner, but was released, after
having been confined six months.
He was distinguished for prudence and sagacity in his
business operations, and, despite the obstacles that
prejudice against color so constantly strewed in his
path, he succeeded in his mercantile affairs,
accumulated a competency, and retired from business
several years since.
Mr. Johnson was always ready to extend
the hand of relief to his enslaved countrymen, and no
one was more ready to assist, according to his ability,
in the elevation of his people.
He was one of the earliest friends of Mr.
Garrison; a subscriber to his paper, from the time
the first number was issued in Baltimore, and for
several years an efficient agent for the Liberator;
and very active in circulating Mr. Garrison's
" Thoughts on Colonization," in 1832. In all the
vicissitudes through which the anti-slavery cause has
been called to pass, Mr. J. always maintained a
straight-forward, consistent course, firmly adhering to
the pioneer who first sounded the alarm.
He died in peace, February 15, 1853, aged
seventy-seven; and the funeral service of himself and
wife (whose death preceded his one day) was numerously
attended by New Bedford citizens.
RICHARD POTTER.
On the Northern
New Hampshire Railroad, some thirty miles from Concord,
in the town of Andover, is a station
[Page 92]
from RICHARD POTTER,
the celebrated Ventriloquist and Professor of
Legerdemain. Within twenty rods of the track
stands a neat white, one-story building, with two
projecting wings, all of Grecian architecture.
From this extends, south-westerly, a fine expanse of
level meadow. This house, and the adjacent two
hundred acres, were owned by RICHARD
POTTER. There once
stood, on pillars before the house, two graven images,
taken from Lord Timothy Dexter's place, in
Newburyport. Potter built the house and
cultivated the farm, which were estimated, in the days
of Potter, and long before the railroad was
built, to be worth $5000. This Potter owned
in fee simple, unincumbered, - the fruits of his
successful illusions, optical and auricular.
Potter was a colored man, half-way between fair
and black. He for a long time monopolized the
market for such wares as sleight of hand, and "laborious
speaking from the stomach." Says one writer in the
Boston Traveler, of November 6, 1861: -
"We well remember how our astonished eyes first beheld
his debut upon the stage, - a portentous-looking
magician from India. And then, to see him perform;
eat two, spit fire, and draw from his mouth yards and
yards of ribbon, all made out of tow; far down in his
crop to hear him command an egg to roll all over him,
from head to foot, from foot to head, etc., etc.
And then his comic songs! Donning another attire,
he would hobble around in stage, an old woman; and the
old woman would tell over her
[Page 93]
various troubles, in successive stanzas, always
concluding with the cheerful refrain - 'Howsever, I keep
up a pretty good heart.' "
Richard was born in the town of Hopkinton,
Mass., and, when quite a boy, was prevailed upon to
engage himself in the service of Samuel Dillaway,
Esq., of Boston, - a relative of the family being on
a wedding tour to that pleasant town. After being
" brought up" by Mr. Dillaway, he became a
valued and esteemed servant in the family of Rev.
Daniel Oliver, of Boston; and in his kitchen, he
studied out the theory and began the practice of
legerdemain. Mr. Oliver's son, late
Adjutant General of Massachusetts, often alludes to the
winter evening amusements afforded to the children at
home by the tricks and pranks of Potter.
He, who was so successful in these, his first efforts,
and so able to set up business on his own account, could
not long be retained as a servant. He followed his
vocation, ever after, till death arrested him in his
course. Columbian Hall, and Concert Hall, in the
olden time, were the prominent places, in Boston, for
Potter's levees.
Potter was temperate, steady, attentive to his
business, and his business was his delight. He
took as much pleasure in pleasing others, as others did
in being pleased. I have never heard a lisp
against his character for honesty and fair dealing.
He was once the victim of persecution from a Mr.
Fitch, who had him arrested as a juggler.
Potter plead his own case, and secured an
acquittal.
Close by Potter's house, in a small
enclosure, stands two
[Page 94]
monumental slabs, of white marble; one, for his wife,
Sally H., ____ the other.
In Memory of
RICHARD POTTER,
THE CELEBRATED VENTRILOQUIST,
Who died
Sept. 20, 1835,
Aged 52 years
THE MARSHPEE INDIANS.
The Marshpee
Indians also did noble service in our revolutionary
struggle. During the discussion of the subject of
the militia laws before the Massachusetts Constitutional
Convention of 1853, it was stated that the practice of
excluding colored men from the militia did not exist
previous to the United States Militia Law of 1792, which
first introduced the word "white"; and in confirmation
of this statement, the following interesting fact in our
own State history was mentioned. During the War of
the Revolution, when the county of Barnstable was
required to raise a regiment of four hundred men in the
Continental army, the Indian district of Marshpee, in
that county, furnished twenty-seven colored soldiers,
who fought in the battles, and all but one of them
perished, and he died a pensioner a few years ago.
At that time, (1776,) Marshpee had a population of thre
hundred and twenty-seven colored persons, of whom
fourteen were negroes married to Indian women.
There were sixty-four married couples and thirty-three
widows on
[Page 95]
the plantation; so that, in proportion to adult male
population, Marshpee furnished a larger quota for that
regiment than any white town in the county. A
census taken after the Revolutionary War, showed that
there were seventy-three colored widows in Marshpee,
whose husbands had been slain or died in the service of
their country during that war.
And yet, the Legislature of Massachusetts, in 1788-89,
treated these Indians with extreme rigor, by abolishing
their charter - under which, in 1763, they had been
incorporated into a district, with right to choose their
selectmen - and putting them under guardians, who had
power to take all their lands and income, and treat the
proprietors as paupers. Under these laws, the
Indians could make no contract and hold no property,
that the overseers could take all their earnings, bind
out their children without their parents' consent; and,
still further, by a subsequent act, these overseers,
from whose decision there was no appeal, could sell the
proprietors, male or female adults, to service, for
three years at a term, and renew it at pleasure.
These laws, and worse, against these poor Indians, who
all the time were sole owners of ten thousand acres of
land, were continued in force util 1834, when,
principally by the efforts of Benj. F. Hallett, Esq.,
as their counsel, in exposing their injustice, the
system was broken up, and the district of Marshpee was
incorporated under free laws, and the property divided
among the proprietors in fee. They are now a very
prosperous and thriving community, deserving.
[Page 96]
the interest and encouragement of every wise statesman
or true philanthropist.
Among the Marshpee volunteers in the War of the
Revolution were the following: -
Francis
Websquish,
Samuel Moses,
Demps Squibs,
Mark Negro,
Tom Caesar,
Joseph Ashur,
James Keeter,
Joseph Keeter,
Daniel Pocknit,
Job Rimmon,
George Shaun,
Castel Barnet,
Joshua Pognit,
Job Rimmon, |
George
Shaun,
Castel Barnet,
Joshua Pognit,
James Rimmon,
David Hatch,
James No Cake,
Abel Hoswitt,
Elisha Keeter,
John Pearce,
John Mapix,
Amos Babcock,
Hosea Pognit,
Church Ashur,
Gideon Tumpum. |
In 1783,
Parson Holly presented a memorial to the
Legislature, in behalf of the seventy-three widows
whose husbands had died in their country's service.
PATRIOTS OF THE OLDEN TIME.
The wife of
Samuel Adams, of revolutionary celebrity, one
day informed her husband that a friend had made her
a present of a female slave. Mr. Adams
replied, in a very decided manner, "She may come,
but not as a slave; for a slave cannot breathe in my
house. If she comes, she must come free."
The woman took up her abode with the family of this
champion of liberty; and there she lived free and
died free.
LOYALTY OF AN AFRICAN BENEVOLENT SOCIETY.
Some of the
colored citizens, in 1796, instituted at Boston the
African Society. Its objects were
benevolent ones, as
[Page 97]
set forth in the preamble, which also expressed its
loyalty as follows: - "Behaving ourselves, at the same
time, as true and faithful citizens of the commonwealth
in which we live, and that we take no one into the
Society who shall commit any injustice or outrage
against the laws of their country."
I subjoin the names of the members of the African
Society."
Plato
Alderson,
Hannibal Allen,
Thomas Burdine,
Peter Bailey,
Joseph Ball,
Peter Branch,
Prince Brown,
Boston Ballard,
Anthony Battis,
Serico Collens,
Rufus Callehorn,
John Clark,
Scipio Dalton,
Arthur Davis,
John Decruse,
Hamlet Earl,
Caesar Fayerweather,
Mingo Freeman,
Cato Gardner,
Jeremiah Green,
James Hawkins,
John Harrison, |
Glosaster
Haskins,
Prince M. Harris,
Juber Holland,
Richard Holsted,
Thomas Jackson,
George Jackson,
Lewis Jones,
Isaac Johnson,
John Johnson,
Sear Kimball,
Thomas Lewis,
Joseph Low,
George Middleton,
Derby Miller,
Cato Morey,
Richard Marshall,
Joseph Ocruman,
John Phillips,
Cato Rawson,
Richard Standley,
Cyrus Vassall,
Derby Vassall |
[Page 98]
ISAAC WOODLAND.
The following obituary of one who will be long
remembered in Boston is inserted here as connected with
the associations of by-gone days.
ISAAC WOODLAND was a native of Maryland, but many
years since, he adopted for his home the State of
Massachusetts. His life here was marked with an
active zeal for the fugitive from Southern bondage.
His money was always generously appropriated for their
aid and comfort. At one of the meetings in Belknap
Street Church, when the question whether Boston jail
should longer confine George Latimer as a
slave was the theme of discussion in every gathering, I
well remember Isaac Woodland walking up the
aisle, and placing upon the table a handful of silver,
with the remark that he had more shot in the locker, if
by that means the man could be kept from slavery.
In the olden time, when the abolitionists of Boston
celebrated the 14th of July, commemorative of the
abolition of slavery in the State, (the day was not
historical, for no special act of emancipation had taken
place, but the grateful heart of the colored man thus
wished to signalize the fact that slavery had departed
from the old Bay State,) in their processions, his
towering and manly form was always the observed of all
observers. And when that was superseded by the
glorious First of August, the Jubilee of British West
India Emancipation, no one name was more sure of
appointment as Marshal than
[Page 99]
his; and, surely, but few, if any, could better adorn
the office.
His occupation was that of grain inspector, and by his
application and integrity in business, he won the
respect and patronage of a large circle of Boston
merchants.
He was genial and mirthful, fond of children and
friends, but yet had that in him which, when roused in
defence of his race, was not easily subdued. This
last trait was fully illustrated in an encounter on one
of the wharves, several years since, between a party of
white aud colored laborers, when, but for his prowess
and Herculean strength, the fate of his companions would
have been much worse than the event proved. He was
" in war a tiger chafed by the hunter's spear; but in
peace, more gentle than the unweaned lamb." His
death took place in Boston, May 24, 1853, aged 68.
EPITAPHS ON SLAVES.
The following
celebrated epitaph from the old burial ground of
Concord, Mass., although it has been often published,
will bear to be reprinted here. It is understood
to have been written by Daniel Bliss, Esq., a
lawyer at Concord, before the Revolutionary War.
He was the son of a minister of that place, whose name
and history occupy a large space in the ecclesiastical
annals of the town. This single production will
secure to its author for ever the credit of taste,
ingenuity, and an enlightened moral sense;
[Page 100]
and proves that sound abolition sentiments were
cherished then as strongly as at the present day.
GOD
"Wills us free.
MAN
Wills us slaves.
I mil as God wills.
God's will be done.
Here lies the body of John Jack, a native
of Africa,
who died March, 1773, aged about 60 years.
Though born in a land of slaves,
He was born free.
Though he lived in a land of liberty,
He lived a slave;
Till, by his honest, though stolen labors,
He acquired the source of Slavery,
"Which gave him his freedom.
Though not long before
Death, the grand tyrant,
Gave him his final emancipation,
And set him upon a footing with kings.
Tho' a slave to vice,
He practic'd those virtues
Without which, kings are but slaves.
The following
inscription is taken from a gravestone in a
burying-ground in the town of North Attleboro, Mass.,
near what was formerly called " Hatch's Tavern."
It is an interesting memento of what the state of things
was in this Commonwealth seventy years, ago. The
testimony thus borne to the goodness of Caesar's"
heart certainly reflects
[Page 101]
but little credit on the person who could make him or
keep him a slave.
" Here lies the best of slaves,
Now turning into dust;
Caesar, the Ethiopian, craves,
A place among the just.
His faithful soul is fled,
To realms of heavenly light,
And, by the blood that Jesus shed,
Is changed from black to white.
Jan. l0th he quitted the stage,
In the 77th year of his age,
1780." |
-------------------------
THE EQUAL RIGHTS MOVEMENT.
A number of the chivalric portion of the colored
Bostonians, having taken the initiatory steps for a
military company, petitioned the Legislature, in the
year 1852, for a charter, the claims of which were
advocated by Charles Lenox Remond and
Robert Morris, Esqs.; but, like the
Attucks petitioners, they, too, "had leave to
withdraw." In February, 1853, the subject was
again presented to the Constitutional Convention, and
Robert Morris, Esq., before a
committee of that body, alluded to an old law of the
Massachusetts colony, which called upon all negroes,
inhabitants of
[Page 102]
the colony, of the age of sixteen and upwards, to make
their appearance in case of alarm, armed and equipped,
in connection with the regularly enrolled militia
company, under a penalty of twenty shillings. And they
always did appear, and performed efficient service.
He further remarked, that a charter had been lately
granted to an Irish company, and said that the colored
citizens, who are native born, desired the same rights
which were given to our adopted brethren. "We do
not want," said he, " a step-mother in the case, who
will butter the bread for one, and sand it for another.
We hunger and thirst for prosperity and advancement,
and, so far as in your power lies, we wish you to do all
you can to aid us in our endeavors. We wish you to
make us feel that we are of some use and advantage, in
this our day and generation."
William J. Watkins, Esq., concluded an able
argument as follows: —
" We love Massachusetts; if she reciprocates that love,
let her show forth her love by her works. Let her
throw around us the mantle of her protection, and then,
O Massachusetts, if we forget thee, " may our right hand
forget its cunning, and our tongue cleave to the roof of
our mouth." Yes! let the old Bay State treat us as
men, and she shall elicit our undying, indissoluble
attachment; and neither height, nor depth, nor
principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor
things to come, shall ever be able to alienate our
affection from her. We will be with her in the
sixth trouble, and in the seventh; we will neither leave
nor forsake
[Page 103]
her. Amid the angry howling of the tempest, as well as
in the cheering sunshine, we shall be ever found, a
faithful few, indomitable, unterrified, who know their
friends to love them with that affection which nought
but the destroying angel can annihilate.
" Again, grant us this petition, and it will induce in
us a determination to surmount every obstacle calculated
to impede our progress; to rise higher, and higher, and
Higher, until we scale the Mount of Heaven, and look
down, from our lofty and commanding position, upon our
revilers and persecutors. Yes, sir; it will incite
us to renewed diligence, and cause our arid desert to
rejoice and blossom as the rose. It will inspire
us with confidence, and encourage us to hope, amid the
almost tangible darkness that envelopes us. We
care not for the hoarse, rough thunder's voice, nor the
lightning's lurid gleamings, if we are yet to be a
people; if we are yet to behold the superstructure of
our liberties consummated amid paeans of thanksgiving,
and shouts from millions, redeemed, regenerated, and
disenthralled."
Sixty-five colored citizens of Boston petitioned the
Massachusetts Constitutional Convention, in June, 1853,
— "That the Constitution be so amended as to remove the
disabilities of colored citizens from holding military
commissions and serving in the militia."
An amendment was offered, "That it is inexpedient to
act thereon; " when Henry Wilson,
Charles Sumner, E. L. Keyes, D. S. Whitney,
and others, advocated the colored
[Page 104]
man's equality. The following are extracts from
the speech of Hon. Henry Wilson, in support of
his amendment, viz.:
"Resolved, That no distinction shall ever
hereafter be made, in organizing the volunteer militia
of the Commonwealth, by reason of color or race."
" If it be true," said Mr. Wilson, "that
our 'volunteer system' is 'not contemplated by the laws
of the United States' — that it is the creature of
Massachusetts law — that 'no reference in the law is
made to color '— that the ' officers 'authorized' to
grant petitions for raising companies 'have' control and
authority' over the ' whole subject' — and that they may
grant petitions for companies without distinction of
color, — then it is in accordance with the ideas and
sentiments of the people, to declare in the fundamental
law of the Commonwealth, that in the organization of
these volunteer companies, no distinction on account of
color or race shall ever be made by those 'officers '
having' control and authority over the whole subject.'
This is my proposition — nothing more, nothing less.
If our voluntary militia system is the creature of local
law, purely a Massachusetts system, 'not contemplated by
the laws of the United States,' no distinction on
account of race or color should be allowed. The
Constitution of this Commonwealth knows no distinction
of color or race. A colored man may fill any
office in the gift of the people. A colored man
may be the 'Supreme Executive Magistrate' of
Massachusetts, and ' Commander-in-chief of the army and
navy, and of the military forces of
[Page 105]
the State by sea and land,' and he 'shall have full
power from time to time to train, instruct, exercise,
and govern the militia,' and ' to lead and conduct them,
and with them to encounter, repel, resist, expel and
pursue,' 'and also to kill, slay and destroy ' the
invading enemies of the Commonwealth. If a colored
man may be by the Constitution 'Captain General and
Commander-in-chief and Admiral' of the Commonwealth,
should he be denied admission into the ranks of her
volunteer militia? The colored men of Massachusetts have
been denied admission into the volunteer militia,
although the Committee tell us that ' no reference is
made by law to color or race.' If 'officers,' who are
authorized by law 'to grant petitions for companies,'
and who have 'control and authority over the whole
subject,' have made distinctions on account of color or
race, when 'no reference is made to color' in the laws,
then they should be compelled by constitutional
authority to abandon the position they have without law
assumed, and to carry out the idea which pervades our
Constitution, that all men, of every race, are equal
before the laws of this Commonwealth. The
democratic idea of the equality before the law of all
men, no matter where they were born or from what race
they sprung, is the sentiment of the people.
"This right, claimed by the colored men of
Massachusetts, to become members of the volunteer
militia, is of little practical importance to them or to
the public. They feel the exclusion as an
indignity to their race. If we have the power to
remove that unjust exclusion, we are false to the
[Page 106]
principles and ideas upon which our Constitution is
founded, if we do not do so. If we have not the
power, or if its exercise would bring us in conflict
with the laws of the United States, which we acknowledge
to be the supreme laws of the land, we must submit to
the necessity imposed upon us, and bow to what we cannot
control. I have said, Sir, that the question was
of little practical importance, whether the right of the
colored men of Massachusetts to become members of the
volunteer militia was admitted or not. To them, it
can be of little practical value, although they have
wives, children and homes, and a country, to defend. To
the country, it is of little practical importance. We
are strong and powerful now, able to drive into the
ocean any power on earth
that should step with hostile foot upon the soil of the
Republic. But it was not always so. In our
days of weakness, the men of this wronged race gave
their blood freely for the defence and liberties of the
country.
"The first victim of the Boston massacre, on the 5th of
March, 1770, which made the fires of resistance burn
more intensely, was a colored man. Hundreds of colored
men entered the ranks and fought bravely on all the
fields of the Revolution. Graydon, of
Pennsylvania, in his Memoirs, informs us that many of
the Southern officers disliked the New England
regiments, because so many colored men were in their
ranks. When the country has required their blood
in days of trial and conflict, they have given it
freely, and we have accepted it; but in times of peace,
when their blood is not needed, we spurn and trample
them under foot.
[Page 107]
I have no part in this great wrong to a race.
Wherever and whenever we have the power to do it, I
would give to all men, of every clime and race, of every
faith and creed, freedom and equality before the law.
My voice and my vote shall ever be given for the
equality of all the children of men before the laws of
the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the United
States."
The petition was received, referred, and finally
rejected, on the ground that it could not be granted
without bringing Massachusetts into conflict with the
United States Constitution and the laws of the land.
On the last day of the Convention, the following
petition was presented by the Hon. E. L. Keyes,
of Dedham: —
To the
Convention for revising and amending the Constitution of
Massachusetts:
The undersigned, acknowledged citizens of this
Commonwealth, (notwithstanding their complexional
differences,) and there fore citizens of the United
States, with the feeling and spirit becoming freemen,
and with the deepest solicitude, respectfully submit —
That having petitioned your honorable body for such a
modification of the laws as that no able-bodied male
citizen shall be forbidden or prevented from serving, or
holding office or commission, in the militia, on account
of his color, their petition was duly referred and
considered, but not granted, and therefore they are
still a proscribed and injured class. The reason
assigned for the rejection of their request, in the
report submitted by the Committee to whom the subject
was referred, was, " that this Convention cannot
incorporate into the Constitution of Massachusetts any
provision which
[Page 108]
shall conflict with The Laws of the United States."
In the course of the debate that ensued upon this
report, the Attorney General of Massachusetts [Hon.
Rufus Choate] said, — "You can raise no colored
regiment, or part of a regiment, that shall be of the
militia of the United States — none whatever. . .
. It is certain that, if they were to go upon parade,
and to win Bunker Hills, yet they never can be
part of the militia of the United States. . . . Nay,
more; he did not see how he could do any thing for this
colored race, by putting them in one of the high places
of the Commonwealth, with weapons in their hands, and
allow our glorious banner to throw around them all the
pomp and parade and condition of war; the color
cleaves to them there, and on parade is only the
more conspicuous."
Another distinguished member of the Convention [Hon.
Benj. F. Hallett] said, — "If Massachusetts should
send a colored commander-in-chief at the head of her
militia, the United States would not recognise his
authority, and would at once supersede him."
Your petitioners feel bound to protest, (in behalf of
the colored citizens of Massachusetts,) that all such
opinions and declarations constitute —
(1) A denial of their equality as citizens of this
Commonwealth, and are clearly at variance with the
Constitution of this State, which knows nothing of the
complexion of the people, and which asserts [Art. I.]
that "all men are born free and EQUAL, and have certain
natural, essential and inalienable rights; among which
may be reckoned the right of enjoying and DEFENDING
their lives and liberties; that of acquiring, possessing
and protecting property; in fine, that of seeking and
obtaining their safety and happiness." It would be
absurd to say that the General Government, or that
Congress, has the constitutional right to declare, if it
think proper, that the white citizen of Massachusetts
shall not be enrolled in the militia of the country; and
it is not to be supposed, for a moment,
[Page 109]
that, if such a proscriptive edict were to be issued, it
would be tamely submitted to. It is, surely, just
as great an absurdity, just as glaring an insult, to
assume that colored citizens may be legally excluded
from the national militia.
(2) In the
Constitution of the United States, not a sentence or a
syllable can be found, recognising any distinctions
among the citizens of the States, collectively or
individually, but they are all placed on the same
equality. Article IV., Section 2d, declares — "The
citizens of each State shall be entitled to all the
privileges and immunities of citizens in the several
States." It is not possible to make a more unequivocal
recognition of the equality of all citizens; and,
therefore, whatever contravenes or denies it, in the
shape of legislation, is manifestly unconstitutional.
Whatever may have been the compromises of the
Constitution, in regard to those held in bondage as
chattel slaves, none were ever made, or proposed,
respecting the rights and liberties of citizens.
(3) It is true that, by the United States Constitution,
Congress is empowered "to provide for organizing, arming
and disciplining the militia"; it is also true,
that Congress, in "organizing" the militia, has
authorised none but "white" citizens to be enrolled
therein; nevertheless, it is not less true, that the law
of Congress, making this unnatural distinction, is, in
this particular, unconstitutional, and therefore ought
to exert no controlling force over the legislation of
any of the States. To organize the militia of the
country is one thing; to dishonor and outrage a portion
of the citizens, on any ground, is a very different
thing. To do the former, Congress is clothed with
ample constitutional authority; to accomplish the
latter, it has no power to legislate, and resort must be
had, and has been had, to usurpation and tyranny.
Your petitioners, therefore, earnestly entreat the
Convention, by every consideration of justice and
righteousness, not to adjourn without asserting and
vindicating the entire fitness and equal right
[Page 109]
that, if such a proscriptive edict were to be issued, it
would be tamely submitted to. It is, surely, just
as great an absurdity, just as glaring an insult, to
assume that colored citizens may be legally excluded
from the national militia.
(2) In the Constitution of the United States, not a
sentence or a syllable can be found, recognising any
distinctions among the citizens of the States,
collectively or individually, but they are all placed on
the same equality. Article IV., Section 2d,
declares — " The citizens of each State shall be
entitled to all the privileges and immunities of
citizens in the several States." It is not
possible to make a more unequivocal recognition of the
equality of all citizens; and, therefore, whatever
contravenes or denies it, in the shape of legislation,
is manifestly unconstitutional. Whatever may have
been the compromises of the Constitution, in regard to
those held in bondage as chattel slaves, none were ever
made, or proposed, respecting the rights and liberties
of citizens.
(3) It is true that, by the United States Constitution,
Congress is empowered " to provide for organizing,
arming and disciplining the militia"; it is also true,
that Congress, in "organizing" the
militia, has authorised none but "white" citizens to be
enrolled therein; nevertheless, it is not less true,
that the law of Congress, making this unnatural
distinction, is, in this particular, unconstitutional,
and therefore ought to exert no controlling force over
the legislation of any of the States. To organize
the militia of the country is one thing; to dishonor and
outrage a portion of the citizens, on any ground, is a
very different thing. To do the former, Congress
is clothed with ample constitutional authority; to
accomplish the latter, it has no power to legislate, and
resort must be had, and has been had, to usurpation and
tyranny.
Your petitioners, therefore, earnestly entreat the
Convention, by every consideration of justice and
righteousness, not to adjourn without asserting and
vindicating the entire fitness and equal right
[Page 110]
of the colored citizens of Massachusetts to be enrolled
in the national militia; or, if this be not granted,
then they respectfully ask that this protest may be
placed on the records of the Convention, and published
with the official proceedings, that the stigma may not
rest upon their memories of having tamely acquiesced in
a proscription, equally at war with the American
Constitution, the Massachusetts Bill of Rights, and the
claims of human nature.
William C.
Nell,
Jonas W. Clark,
Edward Gray,
John Thompson,
Enoch L. Stallad,
John Wright,
John P. Coburn,
Thomas Brown,
John Lockley,
Ira S. Gray,
Benjamin P. Bassett,
Benjamin Weeden, |
William J.
Watkins,
Isaac H. Snowden,
Simpson H. Lewis,
John J. Fatal,
Lemuel Burr,
Thomas Cummings,
N. L. Perkins,
John Oliver,
H. L. W. Thacker,
George Washington,
James Scott. |
This petition
having been read, it was ordered to be entered upon the
records, by a vote of 97 to 66; but subsequently, on
motion of Mr. Stetson, of Braintree, the vote was
reconsidered.
Hon. B. F. Hallett, for Wilbraham, upon a
question of privilege, spoke at some length in defence
of his action in the matter, and in favor of
reconsideration, which, under the previous question, was
carried - 97 to 57; and, on motion of Mr. Bird,
of Walpole, the whole question was laid on the table
without dissent. This final action was highly
discreditable to the Convention; for the petitioners.
[Page 111]
having been virtually excluded from the pale of American
citizenship by that body, had a right at least to have
their protest against such an exclusion placed on the
records of the Convention; nor was there a sentence or
word in their petition uncalled for or offensively used.
The limits of this work will not allow of an elaborate
or statistical report of the present condition of the
colored Americans, though very much that is encouraging
is at the compiler's disposal. It will be found
that, throughout the book, references are made to
representative cases of individual enterprise and
genius, sufficient, it is presumed, to convey a general
idea of the improvements daily developed by that class,
which has commonly been stigmatized as incapable of
mental and social elevation.
So far as Massachusetts' is concerned, it is safe to
say that, in many respects, her record is one to be
proud of. Her colored citizens (in all but the
militia clause in the Constitution) stand, before the
law, on an equality with the whites. Her public
schools are accessible to all, irrespective of
complexion, - prophetic of the day, soon, I hope, to be
ushered in, when the mechanic's shop and the merchant's
counting-room will be alike ready to extend to them
equal facilities with those of another and more favored
race.
New Bedford occupies a very prominent position in all
that contributes to the prosperity of the colored
American, in general intelligence, business enterprise,
and public spirit; much of which is justly attributable
to the impetus given by Paul Cuffe's efforts for
the franchise. Some of his de-
[Page 112]
scendants yet live in New Bedford. The colored
voters there hold the balance of power, and hence exert
a potent influence on election day. The faithful
Friends, or Quakers, have always borne such a testimony
at New Bedford, as materially to have aided the progress
of the colored citizens.
Worcester can boast, among her colored mechanics,
Wm. H. Brown, whose well-established reputation as
an upholsterer reflects great credit upon the large firm
in Boston with whom he served a faithful apprenticeship.
Salem, Springfield, and Lowell, together with many
smaller localities, have good and true colored men among
their inhabitants, sustaining creditable business
relations, and the owners of real estate in a fair
proportion with their white fellow-citizens.
Boston compares favorably, in this respect, with larger
cities in the United States. Several causes have
combined to retard the progress of colored mechanics;
but these are being removed, and, in a few years, the
results will be manifest. Business and
professional en are continually increasing. In
addition to the mechanical, artistical, and professional
colored men in Boston, elsewhere mentioned, it may be
noted, that the two most popular gymnasium galleries are
in the proprietorship of J. B. Bailey and
Peyton Stewart; the prince of caterers is J. B.
Smith; a dentist highly recommended is J. S. Rock
J. S. Rock, M. D.;
a young artist in crayon portraits is winning his way to
excellence and reputation; and other equally meritorious
aspirants, - women inclu-
[Page 113]
ded, — are soaring to those heights that challenge the
ambition of earth's gifted children. Real estate
to the value of, at least, $200,000, is in the hands of
our colored citizens. During the struggle for
equal school rights, many of the largest tax payers
removed into the neighboring towns, and withdrew their
investments from Boston real estate.
American colorphobia is never more rampant towards its
victims, than when one would avail himself of the
facilities for mental improvement, in common with the
more favored dominant party, — as if his complexion was,
indeed, prima facie evidence that he was an
intruder within the sacred portals of knowledge.
In Boston, the so-called " Athens of America," large
audiences have been thrown almost into spasms by the
presence of one colored man in their midst; and, on one
occasion, (in the writer's experience,) a mob grossly
insulted a gentleman and two ladies, who did not happen
to exhibit the Anglo-Saxon (constitutional) complexion.
But, within a few years past, this spirit of caste has
lost much of its virulence, owing somewhat to the
efforts put forth by the colored people themselves.
For ten years, they sustained the Adelphic Union Library
Association, and were generally fortunate in securing
the most talented and distinguished gentlemen as
lecturers. Though proscribed themselves, they
removed from the colored locality, opened a hall in the
central part of the city, and magnanimously in vited all
to avail themselves of its benefits. A number of
white young men associated themselves with this Society,
[Page 114]
and participated in several public elocutionary
exhibitions; and their lecture-room was usually visited
by representatives from all classes of the community,
which has had a tendency to excite something of a
reciprocal feeling on the part of other associations, —
now extending itself through all the ramifications of
society; so that the presence of colored persons at
popular lectures is now a matter of common occurrence,
and excites scarcely any notice or remark. This
agreeable state of things superseded the necessity of an
exclusive organization, though social literary clubs,
mostly composed of colored members, have continued to
exist.
In New Bedford, a deserved rebuke was administered to
colorphobia, which grew out of an attempt to prescribe
colored patrons of the Lyceum from the privileges
heretofore shared by them in common with others.
This persecution aroused the indignation of those
ever-to-be-honored
friends of equal rights, Charles Sumner
and Ralph Waldo Emerson. They were
both announced to lecture, but, on learning the
proceedings, they immediately, recalled their
engagements, rather than sanction, by their presence on
the rostrum, such an outrage on the rights of man.
This noble
deed was not without its effect, and, as a legitimate
consequence, prompted the freemen of New Bedford to
establish an independent Lyceum, where men, irrespective
of accidental differences, could freely assemble, and
have dispensed to them the precious stores of knowledge.
Various
circumstances combined to create an impetus in favor of
the free Lyceum, which completely superseded the other,
and thus a victory was achieved in humanity's behalf.
[Page 115]
A similar
triumph, in many respects, was also won in Lynn, where
opposition was manifested to a Lyceum lecture by
Charles Lenox Remond. A majority united in the
formation of another institution, thus proving that,
where there is a will, a way can always be found for
united hearts to bear a faithful and effective testimony
against proscription and tyranny.
Since then, Samuel R. Ward, Frederick
Douglass, and other distinguished colored lecturers,
have been welcomed to Lyceum platforms in different
parts of the country.
To Raynal, who expressed surprise that America
had not produced any celebrated man, Jefferson
replied, — "When we shall have existed as a nation as
long as the Greeks be fore they had a Homer, the Romans
a Virgil, or the French a Racine, there will be room for
inquiry; " and I would say, Let the evil spirit of
American pro-slavery and prejudice only remove its feet
from the neck of its outraged victims, and if
improvement be not made commensurate with the means
afforded, then, — but not till then, — will we
admit the truth of the gratuitous assertion, that the
Author of the universe has stamped upon the brow of the
colored American a mark of inferiority.
This feeling must have moved C. V.Caples, a colored
teacher, when he uttered the following eloquent words at
an early Anti-Slavery Convention in Boston: — " I am
pained," said he, " when I think of the condition of
colored men in the United States. My blood is as
warm as yours, Mr. President, or that of any patriot;
and when I behold the finger
[Page 116]
of scorn pointed at my brethren, and the curled lip, my
soul weeps. I think, there may be thus insulted
one possessing the highest attributes of man; a mind,
perhaps, that, if trained like other minds, might leads
to great deeds, - some Cincinnatus, capable of
influencing the destinies of a nation, a Hampden, to
inspire patriotism, or a Milton, 'pregnant with
celestial fire.' "
The colored man's friends are constantly claiming of him an
equality of privileges, based on his nativity, loyalty,
and the immutable law of God. There have been
those, however, sometimes found deficient in a trying
hour. Such "fallings from grace" doubtless occur
in the ranks of every reform; for all who profess are
not always fully imbued with the principle, thereby
losing opportunities of squaring their practice with
their preaching. To those colored friends,
however, who constantly harp upon real or supposed
derelictions of white Abolitionists, it is but
seasonable to hint, that some of their own number are
very indifferent to practical Anti-Slavery, and that, at
the South, there are black, as well as white,
slaveholders, - a fact teaching humility to both
classes, while, at the same time, it proves the identity
of both with the human family. These Anti-Slavery
tests are presented in the every-day routine of business
and social life, and ofttimes prove severe trials,
except to those of the genuine radical stamp. All
reformers owe it to their high calling to be consistent;
not to place their light under a bushel, but to let its
rays be conspicuous, as a direct means of influencing
public sentiment.
[Page 117]
A few years
since, when the State of Massachusetts was agitated,
from Cape Cod to Berkshire, with the exclusion of
colored passengers from equal railroad privileges, many
an instance occurred where Abolitionists wholly
identified themselves with the proscribed, -
"remembering those in bonds as bound with them;" and, on
some occasions, encountering peril of life and limb, and
sharing indignities equally with those whose sin was the
"texture of hair and hue of their skin.""
It is with the most grateful emotions that I would here
record the names of WILLIAM LLOYD
GARRISON and WENDELL
PHILLIPS, both of whom, on
separate occasions, remonstrated against the
colonization of colored friends from the cars, and, in
the crisis, exiled themselves to the "Jim Crow car,"
rather than remain in comfort with the oppressor.
Such exhibitions of fidelity to principle were not lost
upon their fellow-passengers.
There is abundant reason to believe that these and
similar incidents, in connection with the eloquent
appeals of CHARLES LENOX
REMOND
and other Anti-Slavery lecturers, were instrumental in
removing asll odious restrictions from the Eastern
Railroad; and, at this day, who ventures to exclude a
colored passenger, in this section of country? The
idea has been consigned to the tomb of the capulets,
from whence we do not anticipate a resurrection.
Until within a few years, the Boston Directory had a
Liberia department for persons of color; but it luckily
fell into the hands of an Anti-Slavery man, GEORGE
ADAMS, Esq., who, to his honor
[Page 118]
be it remembered, abolished this inglorious distinction,
inserted the names of colored citizens among "the rest
of mankind," and, to this day, no orb ahs been so
eccentric as to wander from its sphere in consequence
thereof. "So shines a good deed in a naughty
world." Live the true life, speak the true word,
and God will bless the effort.
There is a sun-dial in Italy, with the inscription,"
I mark only the hours that shine," - inculcating the
lesson, that through this life is not all happy and
beautiful, yet we should not dwell always upon the
darker portion of the picture, but remember to look also
upon the bright side. What a satisfaction to the
proscribed colored American is the fact, that, in this
slavery-cursed land, there are those true hearts ready
to accord the rights and privileges to others so prized
by them selves; that, in the highways and byways of
life, on the railroad car and in the steamboat, in the
lyceum and college, in the street, the store, and the
parlor, a noble band is found, united in purpose,
uncompromising in principle, fearless in action, whose
examples are like specks of verdure amidst universal
barrenness, - as scattered lights amidst thick and
prevailing darkness.
END OF CHAPTER I.
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