A Social History of the American Negro Part 16

So far in our study we have seen the Negro as the object of interest on the part of the American people. Some were disposed to give him a helping hand, some to keep him in bondage, and some thought that it might be possible to dispose of any problem by sending him out of the country. In all this period of agitation and ferment, aside from the efforts of friends in his behalf, just what was the Negro doing to work out his own salvation? If for the time being we can look primarily at constructive effort rather than disabilities, just what do we find that on his own account he was doing to rise to the full stature of manhood?

Naturally in the answer to such a question we shall have to be concerned with those people who had already attained unto nominal freedom. We shall indeed find many examples of industrious slaves who, working in agreement with their owners, managed sometimes to purchase themselves and even to secure owners.h.i.+p of their families. Such cases, while considerable in the aggregate, were after all exceptional, and for the ordinary slave on the plantation the outlook was hopeless enough.

In 1860 the free persons formed just one-ninth of the total Negro population in the country, there being 487,970 of them to 3,953,760 slaves. It is a commonplace to remark the progress that the race has made since emanc.i.p.ation. A study of the facts, however, will show that with all their disadvantages less than half a million people had before 1860 not only made such progress as ama.s.ses a surprising total, but that they had already entered every large field of endeavor in which the race is engaged to-day.

When in course of time the status of the Negro in the American body politic became a live issue, the possibility and the danger of an _imperium in imperio_ were perceived; and Rev. James W.C. Pennington, undoubtedly a leader, said in his lectures in London and Glasgow: "The colored population of the United States have no destiny separate from that of the nation in which they form an integral part. Our destiny is bound up with that of America. Her s.h.i.+p is ours; her pilot is ours; her storms are ours; her calms are ours. If she breaks upon any rock, we break with her. If we, born in America, can not live upon the same soil upon terms of equality with the descendants of Scotchmen, Englishmen, Irishmen, Frenchmen, Germans, Hungarians, Greeks, and Poles, then the fundamental theory of America fails and falls to the ground."[1] While everybody was practically agreed upon this fundamental matter of the relation of the race to the Federal Government, more and more there developed two lines of thought, equally honest, as to the means by which the race itself was to attain unto the highest things that American civilization had to offer. The leader of one school of thought was Richard Allen, founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. When this man and his friends found that in white churches they were not treated with courtesy, they said, We shall have our own church; we shall have our own bishop; we shall build up our own enterprises in any line whatsoever; and even to-day the church that Allen founded remains as the greatest single effort of the race in organization. The foremost representative of the opposing line of thought was undoubtedly Frederick Dougla.s.s, who in a speech in Rochester in 1848 said: "I am well aware of the anti-Christian prejudices which have excluded many colored persons from white churches, and the consequent necessity for erecting their own places of wors.h.i.+p. This evil I would charge upon its originators, and not the colored people. But such a necessity does not now exist to the extent of former years. There are societies where color is not regarded as a test of members.h.i.+p, and such places I deem more appropriate for colored persons than exclusive or isolated organizations." There is much more difference between these two positions than can be accounted for by the mere lapse of forty years between the height of the work of Allen and that of Dougla.s.s. Allen certainly did not sanction segregation under the law, and no man worked harder than he to relieve his people from proscription. Dougla.s.s moreover, who did not formally approve of organizations that represented any such distinction as that of race, again and again presided over gatherings of Negro men. In the last a.n.a.lysis, however, it was Allen who was foremost in laying the basis of distinctively Negro enterprise, and Dougla.s.s who felt that the real solution of any difficulty was for the race to lose itself as quickly as possible in the general body politic.

[Footnote 1: Nell: _Colored Patriots of the American Revolution_, 356.]

We have seen that the Church was from the first the race's foremost form of social organization, and that sometimes in very close touch with it developed the early lodges of such a body as the Masons. By 1800 emanc.i.p.ation was well under way; then began emigration from the South to the central West; emigration brought into being the Underground Railroad; and finally all forces worked together for the development of Negro business, the press, conventions, and other forms of activity. It was natural that states so close to the border as Pennsylvania and Ohio should be important in this early development.

The Church continued the growth that it had begun several decades before. The A.M.E. denomination advanced rapidly from 7 churches and 400 members in 1816 to 286 churches and 73,000 members by the close of the Civil War. Naturally such a distinctively Negro organization could make little progress in the South before the war, but there were small congregations in Charleston and New Orleans, and William Paul Quinn blazed a path in the West, going from Pittsburgh to St. Louis.

In 1847 the Prince Hall Lodge of the Masons in Ma.s.sachusetts, the First Independent African Grand Lodge in Pennsylvania, and the Hiram Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania formed a National Grand Lodge, and from one or another of these all other Grand Lodges among Negroes have descended. In 1842 the members of the Philomathean Inst.i.tute of New York and of the Philadelphia Library Company and Debating Society applied for admission to the International Order of Odd Fellows. They were refused on account of their race. Thereupon Peter Ogden, a Negro, who had already joined the Grand United Order of Odd Fellows of England, secured a charter for the first Negro American lodge, Philomathean, No. 646, of New York, which was set up March 1, 1843. It was followed within the next two years by lodges in New York, Philadelphia, Albany, and Poughkeepsie. The Knights of Pythias were not organized until 1864 in Was.h.i.+ngton; but the Grand Order of Galilean Fishermen started on its career in Baltimore in 1856.

The benefit societies developed apace. At first they were small and confined to a group of persons well known to each other, thus being genuinely fraternal. Simple in form, they imposed an initiation fee of hardly less than $2.50 or more than $5.00, a monthly fee of about 50 cents, and gave sick dues ranging from $1.50 to $5.00 a month, with guarantee of payment of one's funeral expenses and subsequent help to the widow. By 1838 there were in Philadelphia alone 100 such groups with 7,448 members. As bringing together spirits supposedly congenial, these organizations largely took the place of clubs, and the meetings were relished accordingly. Some drifted into secret societies, and after the Civil War some that had not cultivated the idea of insurance were forced to add this feature to their work.

In the sphere of civil rights the Negroes, in spite of circ.u.mstances, were making progress, and that by their own efforts as well as those of their friends the Abolitionists. Their papers helped decidedly. The _Journal of Freedom_ (commonly known as _Freedom's Journal_), begun March 30, 1827, ran for three years. It had numerous successors, but no one of outstanding strength before the _North Star_ (later known as _Frederick Dougla.s.s' Paper_) began publication in 1847, continuing until the Civil War. Largely through the effort of Paul Cuffe for the franchise, New Bedford, Ma.s.s., was generally prominent in all that made for racial prosperity. Here even by 1850 the Negro voters held the balance of power and accordingly exerted a potent influence on Election day.[1] Under date March 6, 1840, there was brought up for repeal so much of the Ma.s.sachusetts Statutes as forbade intermarriage between white persons and Negroes, mulattoes, or Indians, as "contrary to the principles of Christianity and republicanism." The committee said that it did not recommend a repeal in the expectation that the number of connections, legal or illegal, between the races would be thereupon increased; but its object rather was that wherever such connections were found the usual civil liabilities and obligations should not fail to attach to the contracting parties. The enactment was repealed. In the same state, by January, 1843, an act forbidding discrimination on railroads was pa.s.sed. This grew out of separate pet.i.tions or remonstrances from Francis Jackson and Joseph Nunn, each man being supported by friends, and the pet.i.tioners based their request "not on the supposition that the colored man is not as well treated as his white fellow-citizen, but on the broad principle that the const.i.tution allows no distinction in public privileges among the different cla.s.ses of citizens in this commonwealth."[2] In New York City an interesting case arose over the question of public conveyances. When about 1852 horse-cars began to supersede omnibuses on the streets, the Negro was excluded from the use of them, and he continued to be excluded until 1855, when a decision of Judge Rockwell gave him the right to enter them. The decision was ignored and the Negro continued to be excluded as before. One Sunday in May, however, Rev. James W.C. Pennington, after service, reminded his hearers of Judge Rockwell's decision, urged them to stand up for their rights, and especially to inform any friends who might visit the city during the coming anniversary week that Negroes were no longer excluded from the street cars. He himself then boarded a car on Sixth Avenue, refused to leave when requested to do so, and was forcibly ejected. He brought suit against the company and won his case; and thus the Negro made further advance toward full citizens.h.i.+p in New York.[3]

[Footnote 1: Nell, III.]

[Footnote 2: Senate doc.u.ment 63 of 1842.]

[Footnote 3: McMaster, VIII, 74.]

Thus was the Negro developing in religious organization, in his benefit societies, and toward his rights as a citizen. When we look at the economic life upon which so much depended, we find that rather amazing progress had been made. Doors were so often closed to the Negro, competing white artisans were so often openly hostile, and he himself labored under so many disadvantages generally that it has often been thought that his economic advance before 1860 was negligible; but nothing could be farther from the truth. It must not be forgotten that for decades the South had depended upon Negro men for whatever was to be done in all ordinary trades; some brick-masons, carpenters, and shoemakers had served a long apprentices.h.i.+p and were thoroughly accomplished; and when some of the more enterprising of these men removed to the North or West they took their training with them. Very few persons became paupers. Certainly many were dest.i.tute, especially those who had most recently made their way from slavery; and in general the colored people cared for their own poor. In 1852, of 3500 Negroes in Cincinnati, 200 were holders of property who paid taxes on their real estate.[1] In 1855 the Negro per capita owners.h.i.+p of property compared most favorably with that of the white people. Altogether the Negroes owned $800,000 worth of property in the city and $5,000,000 worth in the state. In the city there were among other workers three bank tellers, a landscape artist who had visited Rome to complete his education, and nine daguerreotypists, one of whom was the best in the entire West.[2]

Of 1696 Negroes at work in Philadelphia in 1856, some of the more important occupations numbered workers as follows: tailors, dressmakers, and s.h.i.+rtmakers, 615; barbers, 248; shoemakers, 66; brickmakers, 53; carpenters, 49; milliners, 45; tanners, 24; cake-bakers, pastry-cooks, or confectioners, 22; blacksmiths, 22. There were also 15 musicians or music-teachers, 6 physicians, and 16 school-teachers.[3] The foremost and the most wealthy man of business of the race in the country about 1850 was Stephen Smith, of the firm of Smith and Whipper, of Columbia, Pa.[4] He and his partner were lumber merchants. Smith was a man of wide interests. He invested his capital judiciously, engaging in real estate and spending much of his time in Philadelphia, where he owned more than fifty brick houses, while Whipper, a relative, attended to the business of the firm. Together these men gave employment to a large number of persons. Of similar quality was Samuel T. Wilc.o.x, of Cincinnati, the owner of a large grocery business who also engaged in real estate. Henry Boyd, of Cincinnati, was the proprietor of a bedstead manufactory that filled numerous orders from the South and West and that sometimes employed as many as twenty-five men, half of whom were white. Sometimes through an humble occupation a Negro rose to competence; thus one of the eighteen hucksters in Cincinnati became the owner of $20,000 worth of property. Here and there several caterers and tailors became known as having the best places in their line of business in their respective towns. John Julius, of Pittsburgh, was the proprietor of a brilliant place known as Concert Hall. When President-elect William Henry Harrison in 1840 visited the city it was here that his chief reception was held.

Cordovell became widely known as the name of the leading tailor and originator of fas.h.i.+ons in New Orleans. After several years of success in business this merchant removed to France, where he enjoyed the fortune that he had acc.u.mulated.

[Footnote 1: Clarke: _Condition of the Free Colored People of the United States_.]

[Footnote 2: Nell, 285.]

[Footnote 3: Bacon: _Statistics_, 13.]

[Footnote 4: Delany.]

Cordovell was representative of the advance of the people of mixed blood in the South. The general status of these people was better in Louisiana than anywhere else in the country, North or South; at the same time their situation was such as to call for special consideration. In Louisiana the "F.M.C." (Free Man of Color) formed a distinct and anomalous cla.s.s in society.[1] As a free man he had certain rights, and sometimes his property holdings were very large.[2] In fact, in New Orleans a few years before the Civil War not less than one-fifth of the taxable property was in the hands of free people of color. At the same time the lot of these people was one of endless humiliation. Among some of them irregular household establishments were regularly maintained by white men, and there were held the "quadroon b.a.l.l.s" which in course of time gave the city a distinct notoriety. Above the people of this group, however, was a genuine aristocracy of free people of color who had a long tradition of freedom, being descended from the early colonists, and whose family life was most exemplary. In general they lived to themselves. In fact, it was difficult for them to do otherwise. They were often compelled to have papers filled out by white guardians, and they were not allowed to be visited by slaves or to have companions.h.i.+p with them, even when attending church or walking along the roads.

Sometimes free colored men owned their women and children in order that the latter might escape the invidious law against Negroes recently emanc.i.p.ated; or the situation was sometimes turned around, as in Norfolk, Va., where several women owned their husbands. When the name of a free man of color had to appear on any formal doc.u.ment--a deed of conveyance, a marriage-license, a certificate of birth or death, or even in a newspaper report--the initials F.M.C. had to be appended. In Louisiana these people pet.i.tioned in vain for the suffrage, and at the outbreak of the Civil War organized and splendidly equipped for the Confederacy two battalions of five hundred men. For these they chose two distinguished white commanders, and the governor accepted their services, only to have to inform them later that the Confederacy objected to the enrolling of Negro soldiers. In Charleston thirty-seven men in a remarkable pet.i.tion also formally offered their services to the Confederacy.[3] What most readily found ill.u.s.tration in New Orleans or Charleston was also true to some extent of other centers of free people of color such as Mobile and Baltimore. In general the F.M.C.'s were industrious and they almost monopolized one or two avenues of employment; but as a group they had not yet learned to place themselves upon the broad basis of racial aspiration.

[Footnote 1: See "The F.M.C.'s of Louisiana," by P.F. de Gournay, _Lippincott's Magazine_, April, 1894; and "Black Masters," by Calvin Dill Wilson, _North American Review_, November, 1905.]

[Footnote 2: See Stone: "The Negro in the South," in _The South in the Building of the Nation_, X, 180.]

[Footnote 3: Note broadside (Charleston, 1861) accessible in Special Library of Boston Public Library as Doc.u.ment No. 9 in 20th Cab. 3. 7.]

Whatever may have been the situation of special groups, however, it can readily be seen that there were at least some Negroes in the country--a good many in the aggregate--who by 1860 were maintaining a high standard in their ordinary social life. It must not be forgotten that we are dealing with a period when the general standard of American culture was by no means what it is to-day. "Four-fifths of the people of the United States of 1860 lived in the country, and it is perhaps fair to say that half of these dwelt in log houses of one or two rooms. Comforts such as most of us enjoy daily were as good as unknown.... For the workaday world s.h.i.+rtsleeves, heavy brogan boots and shoes, and rough wool hats were the rule."[1] In Philadelphia, a fairly representative city, there were at this time a considerable number of Negroes of means or professional standing. These people were regularly hospitable; they visited frequently; and they entertained in well furnished parlors with music and refreshments. In a day when many of their people had not yet learned to get beyond showiness in dress, they were temperate and self-restrained, they lived within their incomes, and they retired at a seasonable hour.[2]

[Footnote 1: W.E. Dodd: _Expansion and Conflict_, Volume 3 of "Riverside History of the United States," Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, 1915, p.

208.]

[Footnote 2: Turner: _The Negro in Pennsylvania_, 140.]

In spite moreover of all the laws and disadvantages that they had to meet the Negroes also made general advance in education. In the South efforts were of course sporadic, but Negroes received some teaching through private or clandestine sources.[1] More than one slave learned the alphabet while entertaining the son of his master. In Charleston for a long time before the Civil War free Negroes could attend schools especially designed for their benefit and kept by white people or other Negroes. The course of study not infrequently embraced such subjects as physiology, physics, and plane geometry. After John Brown's raid the order went forth that no longer should any colored person teach Negroes.

This resulted in a white person's being brought to sit in the cla.s.sroom, though at the outbreak of the war schools were closed altogether. In the North, in spite of all proscription, conditions were somewhat better. As early as 1850 there were in the public schools in New York 3,393 Negro children, these sustaining about the same proportion to the Negro population that white children sustained to the total white population.

Two inst.i.tutions for the higher education of the Negro were established before the Civil War, Lincoln University in Pennsylvania (1854) and Wilberforce University in Ohio (1856). Oberlin moreover was founded in 1833. In 1835 Professor Asa Mahan, of Lane Seminary, was offered the presidency. As he was an Abolitionist he said that he would accept only if Negroes were admitted on equal terms with other students. After a warm session of the trustees the vote was in his favor. Though, before this, individual Negroes had found their way into Northern inst.i.tutions, it was here at Oberlin that they first received a real welcome. By the outbreak of the war nearly one-third of the students were of the Negro race, and one of the graduates, John M. Langston, was soon to be generally prominent in the affairs of the country.

[Footnote 1: For interesting examples see C.G. Woodson: _The Education of the Negro prior to 1861_.]

It has been maintained that in their emphasis on education and on the highest culture possible for the Negro the Abolitionists were mere visionaries who had no practical knowledge whatever of the race's real needs. This was neither true nor just. It was absolutely necessary first of all to establish the Negro's right to enter any field occupied by any other man, and time has vindicated this position. Even in 1850, however, the needs of the majority of the Negro people for advance in their economic life were not overlooked either by the Abolitionists or the Negroes themselves. Said Martin V. Delany: "Our elevation must be the result of _self-efforts_, and work of our _own hands_. No other human power can accomplish it.... Let our young men and young women prepare themselves for usefulness and business; that the men may enter into merchandise, trading, and other things of importance; the young women may become teachers of various kinds, and otherwise fill places of usefulness. Parents must turn their attention more to the education of their children. We mean, to educate them for useful practical business purposes. Educate them for the store and counting-house--to do everyday practical business. Consult the children's propensities, and direct their education according to their inclinations. It may be that there is too great a desire on the part of parents to give their children a professional education, before the body of the people are ready for it.

A people must be a business people and have more to depend upon than mere help in people's houses and hotels, before they are either able to support or capable of properly appreciating the services of professional men among them. This has been one of our great mistakes--we have gone in advance of ourselves. We have commenced at the superstructure of the building, instead of the foundation--at the top instead of the bottom.

We should first be mechanics and common tradesmen, and professions as a matter of course would grow out of the wealth made thereby."[1]

[Footnote 1: _The Condition, Elevation, Emigration, and Destiny of the Colored People of the United States, Politically Considered_, Philadelphia, 1852, P. 45.]

In professional life the Negro had by 1860 made a noteworthy beginning.

Already he had been forced to give attention to the law, though as yet little by way of actual practice had been done. In this field Robert Morris, Jr., of Boston, was probably foremost. William C. Nell, of Rochester and Boston, at the time prominent in newspaper work and politics, is now best remembered for his study of the Negro in the early wars of the country. About the middle of the century Samuel Ringgold Ward, author of the _Autobiography of a Fugitive Negro_, and one of the most eloquent men of the time, was for several years pastor of a white Congregational church in Courtlandville, N.Y.; and Henry Highland Garnett was the pastor of a white congregation in Troy, and well known as a public-spirited citizen as well. Upon James W.C. Pennington the degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred by Heidelberg, and generally this man had a reputation in England and on the continent of Europe as well as in America. About the same time Bishops Daniel A. Payne and William Paul Quinn were adding to the dignity of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

Special interest attaches to the Negro physician. Even in colonial times, though there was much emphasis on the control of diseases by roots or charms, there was at least a beginning in work genuinely scientific. As early as 1792 a Negro named Caesar had gained such distinction by his knowledge of curative herbs that the a.s.sembly of South Carolina purchased his freedom and gave him an annuity. In the earlier years of the last century James Derham, of New Orleans, became the first regularly recognized Negro physician of whom there is a complete record. Born in Philadelphia in 1762, as a boy he was transferred to a physician for whom he learned to perform minor duties.

Afterwards he was sold to a physician in New Orleans who used him as an a.s.sistant. Two or three years later he won his freedom, he became familiar with French and Spanish as well as English, and he soon commanded general respect by his learning and skill. About the middle of the century, in New York, James McCune Smith, a graduate of the University of Glasgow, was prominent. He was the author of several scientific papers, a man of wide interests, and universally held in high esteem. "The first real impetus to bring Negroes in considerable numbers into the professional world came from the American Colonization Society, which in the early years flourished in the South as well as the North ... and undertook to prepare professional leaders of their race for the Liberian colony. 'To execute this scheme, leaders of the colonization movement endeavored to educate Negroes in mechanic arts, agriculture, science, and Biblical literature. Especially bright or promising youths were to be given special training as catechists, teachers, preachers, and physicians. Not much was said about what they were doing, but now and then appeared notices of Negroes who had been prepared privately in the South or publicly in the North for service in Liberia. Dr. William Taylor and Dr. Fleet were thus educated in the District of Columbia. In the same way John V. De Gra.s.se, of New York, and Thomas J. White, of Brooklyn, were allowed to complete the medical course at Bowdoin in 1849. In 1854 Dr. De Gra.s.se was admitted as a member of the Ma.s.sachusetts Medical Society.'"[1] Martin V. Delany, more than once referred to in these pages, after being refused admission at a number of inst.i.tutions, was admitted to the medical school at Harvard. He became distinguished for his work in a cholera epidemic in Pittsburgh in 1854.

It was of course not until after the Civil War that medical departments were established in connection with some of the new higher inst.i.tutions of learning for Negro students.

[Footnote 1: Kelly Miller: "The Background of the Negro Physician,"

_Journal of Negro History_, April, 1916, quoting in part Woodson: _The Education of the Negro prior to 1861_.]

Before 1860 a situation that arose more than once took from Negroes the real credit for inventions. If a slave made an invention he was not permitted to take out a patent, for no slave could make a contract. At the same time the slave's master could not take out a patent for him, for the Government would not recognize the slave as having the legal right to make the a.s.signment to his master. It is certain that Negroes, who did most of the mechanical work in the South before the Civil War, made more than one suggestion for the improvement of machinery. We have already referred to the strong claim put forth by a member of the race for the real credit of the cotton-gin. The honor of being the first Negro to be granted a patent belongs to Henry Blair, of Maryland, who in 1834 received official protection for a corn harvester.

Throughout the century there were numerous attempts at poetical composition, and several booklets were published. Perhaps the most promising was George Horton's _The Hope of Liberty_, which appeared in 1829. Unfortunately, Horton could not get the encouragement that he needed and in course of time settled down to the life of a janitor at the University of North Carolina.[1] Six years before the war Frances Ellen Watkins (later Mrs. Harper) struck the popular note by readings from her _Miscellaneous Poems_, which ran through several editions.

About the same time William Wells Brown was prominent, though he also worked for several years after the war. He was a man of decided talent and had traveled considerably. He wrote several books dealing with Negro history and biography; and he also treated racial subjects in a novel, _Clotel_, and in a drama, _The Escape_. The latter suffers from an excess of moralizing, but several times it flashes out with the quality of genuine drama, especially when it deals with the jealousy of a mistress for a favorite slave and the escape of the latter with her husband. In 1841 the first Negro magazine began to appear, this being issued by the A.M.E. Church. There were numerous autobiographies, that of Frederick Dougla.s.s, first appearing in 1845, running through edition after edition. On the stage there was the astonis.h.i.+ng success of Ira Aldridge, a tragedian who in his earlier years went to Europe, where he had the advantage of a.s.sociation with Edmund Kean. About 1857 he was commonly regarded as one of the two or three greatest actors in the world. He became a member of several of the continental academies of arts and science, and received many decorations of crosses and medals, the Emperors of Russia and Austria and the King of Prussia being among those who honored him. In the great field of music there was much excellent work both in composition and in the performance on different instruments. Among the free people of color in Louisiana there were several distinguished musicians, some of whom removed to Europe for the sake of greater freedom.[2] The highest individual achievement was that of Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield, of Philadelphia. This singer was of the very first rank. Her voice was of remarkable sweetness and had a compa.s.s of twenty-seven notes. She sang before many distinguished audiences in both Europe and America and was frequently compared with Jenny Lind, then at the height of her fame.

[Footnote 1: See "George Moses Horton: Slave Poet," by Stephen B. Weeks, _Southern Workman_, October, 1914.]

[Footnote 2: See Was.h.i.+ngton: _The Story of the Negro_, II, 276-7.]

It is thus evident that honorable achievement on the part of Negroes and general advance in social welfare by no means began with the Emanc.i.p.ation Proclamation. In 1860 eight-ninths of the members of the race were still slaves, but in the face of every possible handicap the one-ninth that was free had entered practically every great field of human endeavor. Many were respected citizens in their communities, and a few had even laid the foundations of wealth. While there was as yet no book of unquestioned genius or scholars.h.i.+p, there was considerable intellectual activity, and only time and a little more freedom from economic pressure were needed for the production of works of the first order of merit.

CHAPTER XII

THE CIVIL WAR AND EMANc.i.p.aTION

At the outbreak of the Civil War two great questions affecting the Negro overshadowed all others--his freedom and his employment as a soldier.

The North as a whole had no special enthusiasm about the Negro and responded only to Lincoln's call to the duty of saving the Union. Among both officers and men moreover there was great prejudice against the use of the Negro as a soldier, the feeling being that he was disqualified by slavery and ignorance. Privates objected to meeting black men on the same footing as themselves and also felt that the arming of slaves to fight for their former masters would increase the bitterness of the conflict. If many men in the North felt thus, the South was furious at the thought of the Negro as a possible opponent in arms.

The human problem, however, was not long in presenting itself and forcing attention. As soon as the Northern soldiers appeared in the South, thousands of Negroes--men, women, and children--flocked to their camps, feeling only that they were going to their friends. In May, 1861, while in command at Fortress Monroe, Major-General Benjamin F. Butler came into national prominence by his policy of putting to work the men who came within his lines and justifying their retention on the ground that, being of service to the enemy for purposes of war, they were like guns, powder, etc., "contraband of war," and could not be reclaimed. On August 30th of this same year Major-General John C. Fremont, in command in Missouri, placed the state under martial law and declared the slaves there emanc.i.p.ated. The administration was embarra.s.sed, Fremont's order was annulled, and he was relieved of his command. On May 9, 1862, Major-General David Hunter, in charge of the Department of the South (South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida) issued his famous order freeing the slaves in his department, and thus brought to general attention the matter of the employment of Negro soldiers in the Union armies. The Confederate government outlawed Hunter, Lincoln annulled his order, and the grace of the nation was again saved; but in the meantime a new situation had arisen. While Brigadier-General John W. Phelps was taking part in the expedition against New Orleans, a large sugar-planter near the city, disgusted with Federal interference with affairs on his plantation, drove all his slaves away, telling them to go to their friends, the Yankees. The Negroes came to Phelps in great numbers, and for the sake of discipline he attempted to organize them into troops.

Accordingly he, too, was outlawed by the Confederates, and his act was disavowed by the Union, that was not ready to take this step.