A Social History of the American Negro Part 31

The Black Man, His Antecedents, His Genius, and His Achievements.

New York, 1863.

The Rising Son; or The Antecedents and Advancement of the Colored Race. Boston, 1874.

To Thomas J. Gantt, Esq. (Broadside), Charleston, 1861.

Dougla.s.s, William: Annals of St. Thomas's First African Church.

Philadelphia, 1862.

Proceedings of the National Convention of Colored Men, held in the city of Syracuse, N.Y., October 4, 5, 6, and 7, 1864, with the Bill of Wrongs and Rights and the Address to the American People. Boston, 1864.

The Budget, containing the Annual Reports of the General Officers of the African M.E. Church of the United States of America, edited by Benjamin W. Arnett. Xenia, O., 1881. Same for later years.

Simms, James M.: The First Colored Baptist Church in North America.

Printed by J.B. Lippincott Co., Philadelphia, 1888.

Upton, William H.: Negro Masonry, being a Critical Examination of objections to the legitimacy of the Masonry existing among the Negroes of America. Cambridge, 1899; second edition, 1902.

Brooks, Charles H.: The Official History and Manual of the Grand United Order of Odd Fellows in America. Philadelphia, 1902.

Cromwell, John W.: The Early Convention Movement. Occasional Paper No. 9 of American Negro Academy, Was.h.i.+ngton, D.C., 1904.

Brooks, Walter H.: The Silver Bluff Church, Was.h.i.+ngton, 1910.

Crawford, George W.: Prince Hall and His Followers. New Haven, 1915.

Wright, Richard R., Jr. (Editor-in-Chief): Centennial Encyclopaedia of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. A.M.E. Book Concern, Philadelphia, 1916.

Also note narratives or autobiographies of Frederick Dougla.s.s, Sojourner Truth, Samuel Ringgold Ward, Solomon Northrup, Lunsford Lane, etc.; the poems of Phillis Wheatley (first edition, London, 1773), and George M.

Horton; Williams's History for study of some more prominent characters; Woodson's bibliography for the special subject of education; and periodical literature, especially the articles remarked in Chapter XI in connection with the free people of color in Louisiana.

2. On Chapter V (Indian and Negro)

A standard work on the Second Seminole War is The Origin, Progress, and Conclusion of the Florida War, by John T. Sprague, D. Appleton & Co., New York, 1848; but also important as touching upon the topics of the chapter are The Exiles of Florida, by Joshua R. Giddings, Columbus, Ohio, 1858, and a speech by Giddings in the House of Representatives February 9, 1841. Note also House Doc.u.ment No. 128 of the 1st session of the 20th Congress, and Doc.u.ment 327 of the 2nd session of the 25th Congress. The Aboriginal Races of North America, by Samuel G. Drake, fifteenth edition, New York, 1880, is interesting and suggestive though formless; and McMaster in different chapters gives careful brief accounts of the general course of the Indian wars.

3. On Chapter VII (Insurrections)

(For insurrections before that of Denmark Vesey note especially Coffin, Holland, and Horsemanden above. On Gabriel's Insurrection see article by Higginson (_Atlantic_, X. 337), afterwards included in Travellers and Outlaws.)

Denmark Vesey

1. An Official Report of the Trials of Sundry Negroes, charged with an attempt to raise an Insurrection in the State of South Carolina. By Lionel H. Kennedy and Thomas Parker (members of the Charleston Bar and the Presiding Magistrates of the Court). Charleston, 1822.

2. An Account of the Late Intended Insurrection among a Portion of the Black of this City. Published by the Authority of the Corporation of Charleston. Charleston, 1822 (reprinted Boston, 1822, and again in Boston and Charleston).

The above accounts, now exceedingly rare, are the real sources of all later study of Vesey's insurrection. The two accounts are sometimes identical; thus the list of those executed or banished is the same. The first has a good introduction. The second was written by James Hamilton, Intendant of Charleston.

3. Letter of Governor William Bennett, dated August 10, 1822. (This was evidently a circular letter to the press. References are to Lundy's _Genius of Universal Emanc.i.p.ation_, II, 42, Ninth month, 1822, and there are reviews in the following issues, pages 81, 131, and 142. Higginson notes letter as also in _Columbian Sentinel_, August 31, 1822; _Connecticut Courant_, September 3, 1822; and _Worcester Spy_, September 18, 1822.)

Three secondary accounts in later years are important:

1. Article on Denmark Vesey by Higginson (_Atlantic_, VII. 728) included in Travellers and Outlaws: Episodes in American History. Lee and Shepard, Boston, 1889.

2. Right on the Scaffold, or the Martyrs of 1822, by Archibald H.

Grimke. No. 7 of the Papers of the American Negro Academy, Was.h.i.+ngton.

3. Book I, Chapter XII, "Denmark Vesey's Insurrection," in Robert Y.

Hayne and His Times, by Theodore D. Jervey, The Macmillan Co., New York, 1909.

Various pamphlets were written immediately after the insurrection not so much to give detailed accounts as to discuss the general problem of the Negro and the reaction of the white citizens of Charleston to the event.

Of these we may note the following:

1. Holland, Edwin C.: A Refutation of the Calumnies Circulated against the Southern and Western States. (See main list above.)

2. Achates (General Thomas Pinckney): Reflections Occasioned by the Late Disturbances in Charleston. Charleston, 1822.

3. Rev. Dr. Richard Furman's Exposition of the Views of the Baptists Relative to the Colored Population in the United States. (See main list above.)

4. Practical Considerations Founded on the Scriptures Relative to the Slave Population of South Carolina. By a South Carolinian. Charleston, 1823.

Nat Turner

1. The Confessions of Nat Turner, Leader of the Late Insurrection in Southampton, Va., as fully and voluntarily made to Thos. C. Gray, in the prison where he was confined--and acknowledged by him to be such, when read before the court at Southampton, convened at Jerusalem November 5, 1831, for his trial. (This is the main source. Thousands of copies of the pamphlet are said to have been circulated, but it is now exceedingly rare. Neither the Congressional Library nor the Boston Public has a copy, and Cromwell notes that there is not even one in the State Library in Richmond. The copy used by the author is in the library of Harvard University.)

2. Horrid Ma.s.sacre. Authentic and Impartial Narrative of the Tragical Scene which was witnessed in Southampton County (Virginia) on Monday the 22nd of August last. New York, 1831. (This gives a table of victims and has the advantage of nearness to the event. This very nearness, however, has given credence to much hearsay and accounted for several instances of inaccuracy.)

To the above may be added the periodicals of the day, such as the Richmond _Enquirer_ and the _Liberator_; note _Genius of Universal Emanc.i.p.ation_, September, 1831. Secondary accounts or studies would include the following:

1. Nat Turner's Insurrection, exhaustive article by Higginson (_Atlantic_, VIII. 173) later included in Travellers and Outlaws.

2. Drewry, William Sidney: Slave Insurrections in Virginia (1830-1865).

A Dissertation presented to the Board of University Studies of the Johns Hopkins University for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. The Neale Company, Was.h.i.+ngton, 1900. (Unfortunately marred by a partisan tone.)

3. The Aftermath of Nat Turner's Insurrection, by John W. Cromwell, in _Journal of Negro History_, April, 1920.

_Amistad and Creole_ Cases

1. Argument of John Quincy Adams before the Supreme Court of the United States, in the case of the United States, Apellants, vs. Cinque, and others, Africans, captured in the Schooner _Amistad_, by Lieut. Gedney, delivered on the 24th of February and 1st of March, 1841. New York, 1841.

2. Africans Taken in the _Amistad_. Doc.u.ment No. 185 of the 1st session of the 26th Congress, containing the correspondence in relation to the captured Africans. (Reprinted by Anti-Slavery Depository, New York, 1840.)

3. Senate Doc.u.ment 51 of the 2nd session of the 27th Congress.

4. On Chapter IX (Liberia)

Much has been written about Liberia, but the books and pamphlets have been very uneven in quality. Original sources include the reports of the American Colonization Society to 1825; _The African Repository_, a compendium issued sometimes monthly, sometimes quarterly, by the American Colonization Society from 1825 to 1892, and succeeded by the periodical known as _Liberia_; the reports of the different state organizations; J. Ashmun's History of the American Colony in Liberia from December, 1821 to 1823, compiled from the authentic records of the colony, Was.h.i.+ngton, 1826; Ralph Randolph Gurley's Life of Jehudi Ashmun, Was.h.i.+ngton, 1835, second edition, New York, 1839; Gurley's report on Liberia (a United States state paper), Was.h.i.+ngton, 1850; and the Memorial of the Semi-Centennial Anniversary of the American Colonization Society, celebrated at Was.h.i.+ngton, January 15, 1867, with doc.u.ments concerning Liberia, Was.h.i.+ngton, 1867; to all of which might be added Journal of Daniel c.o.ker, a descendant of Africa, from the time of leaving New York, in the s.h.i.+p _Elisabeth_, Capt. Sebor, on a voyage for Sherbro, in Africa, Baltimore, 1820. J.H.B. Latrobe, a president of the American Colonization Society, is prominent in the Memorial volume of 1867, and after this date are credited to him Liberia: its Origin, Rise, Progress, and Results, an address delivered before the American Colonization Society, January 20, 1880, Was.h.i.+ngton, 1880, and Maryland in Liberia, Baltimore, 1885. An early and interesting compilation is G.S. Stockwell's The Republic of Liberia: Its Geography, Climate, Soil, and Productions, with a history of its early settlement, New York, 1868; a good handbook is Frederick Starr's Liberia, Chicago, 1913; mention might also be made of T. McCants Stewart's Liberia, New York, 1886; and George W. Ellis's Negro Culture in West Africa, Neale Publis.h.i.+ng Co., New York, 1914, is outstanding in its special field. Two Johns Hopkins theses have been written: John H.T. McPherson's History of Liberia (Studies, IX, No. 10), 1891, and E.L. Fox's The American Colonization Society 1817-1840 (Studies, x.x.xVII, 9-226), 1919; the first of these is brief and clearcut and especially valuable for its study of the Maryland colony. Magazine articles of unusual importance are George W. Ellis's Dynamic Factors in the Liberian Situation and Emmett J. Scott's Is Liberia Worth Saving? both in _Journal of Race Development_, January, 1911. Of English or continental works outstanding is the monumental but not altogether unimpeachable Liberia, by Sir Harry H. Johnston, with an appendix on the Flora of Liberia by Dr. Otto Stapf, 2 vols., Hutchinson & Co., London, 1906; while with a strong English bias and incomplete and unsatisfactory as a general treatise is R.C.F. Maughan's The Republic of Liberia, London (1920?), Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. Mention must also be made of the following publications by residents of Liberia: The Negro Republic on West Africa, by Abayomi Wilfrid Karnga, Monrovia, 1909; New National Fourth Reader, edited by Julius C. Stevens, Monrovia, 1903; Liberia and Her Educational Problems, by Walter F. Walker, an address delivered before the Chicago Historical Society, October 23, 1916; and Catalogue of Liberia College for 1916, and Historical Register, printed at the Riverdale Press, Brookline, Ma.s.s., 1919; while Edward Wilmot Blyden's Christianity, Islam, and the Negro Race is representative of the best of the more philosophical dissertations.