Skip to main content

Full text of "A century of negro migration"

See other formats 


.o 


.'^' 


rJ- 


.0' 


^o. 


I  w  o 


^°-*^ 


^-^^ 


,0 


.0 


r* 


V 


<7        "^ 


'^.^  S*^'         - 


'  7. 


''^-^^ 

-^^  .S-- 


\ 


A 


'^ 


o^t 


.    y  v 


<^>  'O    ,     * 


^-^^^^^ 


->-, 


/-  r\  *  0  "  w 

>■  t 


'S%.     ■!• 


-^c 


%r'"/ 


'<$>         *  o  « 


.-^^^ 


o'       .^ 


A 


/-';?i 


O    H 


A 


•^    ~C^ 


,v 


& 


.^°<. 


*•  '- 


^^  A^ 


,'- 


O     I. 


<  o  .  0  ^  • 


k^        ">j 


I-     • 


3     ^ 


tp..s'^   ,: 


\3  '..5*  .'V 


^ 


^'' 


,    N     C 


0^ 


<j> 


A^        .*• 


o  o 

^0* 


A 


n'' 


""•^^0^ 


b 


-r  '  4  o 

^         *  o  »  o  ■^        .  V^  O 


^:^. 


V  !»    '     •    O  -  'O 


.^^ 


•  °  ^ .     \;>> 


-7" 


>^ 


•«,  • 


o  > 


o  > 


^^ 


o 


'J' 


^* 


A  CENTURY  OF 
NEGRO  MIGRATION 


BY 


CARTER  G.  WOODSON,  Ph.D.  (Harvard) 

Editor  of  the  Journal  of  Negro  History,  and  AuthoT  of  The 

Education  of  the  Negro  Prior  to  1861 


WASHINGTON,  D.  C. 

THE  ASSOCIATION  FOR  THE  STUDY  OF 

NEGRO  LIFE  AND  HISTORY 

1918 


En 
.9 


^1? 


Cop>Tight,  1918 
By  Carter  Godwin  Woodson 


pproe  Qr 

THf  "tW  tR*  PR,NT,NO  COMPANY 

I.ANCA5TER,  PA. 


jLI      I   I     I  J 


id 


To  MY  Father 
JAMES  WOODSON 

WHO   MADE  IT  POSSIBLE  FOR  ME 
TO  ENTER  THE  LITERARY  WORLD 


PREFACE 

IN  treating  this  movement  of  the  Negroes,  the 
writer  does  not  presmne  to  say  the  last  word 
on  the  subject.  The  exodus  of  the  Negroes  from 
the  South  has  just  begun.  The  blacks  have  re- 
cently realized  that  they  have  freedom  of  body 
and  they  will  now  proceed  to  exercise  that  right. 
To  presume,  therefore,  to  exhaust  the  treatment 
of  this  movement  in  its  incipiency  is  far  from 
the  intention  of  the  writer.  The  aim  here  is 
rather  to  direct  attention  to  this  new  phase  of 
Negro  American  life  which  will  doubtless  prove 
to  be  the  most  significant  event  in  our  local  his- 
tory since  the  Civil  War. 

Many  of  the  facts  herein  set  forth  have  seen 
light  before.  The  effort  here  is  directed  toward 
an  original  treatment  of  facts,  many  of  which 
have  already  periodically  appeared  in  some 
form.  As  these  works,  however,  are  too  numer- 
ous to  be  consulted  by  the  layman,  the  writer  has 
endeavored  to  present  in  succinct  form  the  lead- 
ing facts  as  to  how  the  Negroes  in  the  United 
States  have  struggled  under  adverse  circunir 
stances  to  flee  from  bondage  and  oppression  in 
quest  of  a  land  offering  asylum  to  the  oppressed 
and  opportunity  to  the  unfortunate.  How  they 
have  often  been  deceived  has  been  carefully 
noted. 


vi  Preface 

With  the  hope  that  this  volume  may  interest 
another  worker  to  the  extent  of  publishing  many 
other  facts  in  this  field,  it  is  respectfully  sub- 
mitted to  the  public. 

Carter  G.  Woodson'. 

Wasuinoton,  D.  C, 
March  31,  1918. 


CONTENTS 

„  PAGE 

Chapteb 

I.— Finding  a  Place  of  Refuge 1 

11.— A  Transplantation  to  the  North. . .  18 

III.— Fighting  it  out  on  Free  Soil 39 

IV.— Colonization  as  a  Remedy  for  Mi- 
gration    61 

v.— The  Successful  Migrant 81 

yi._ Confusing  Movements  101 

VII.— The  Exodus  to  the  West 126 

VIII.— The    Migration    of    the    Talented 

Tenth    147 

IX.— The  Exodus  during  the  World  War.  167 

Bibliography    19^ 

Index    212 


Maps  and  Diagrams 

Map  Showing  the  Per  Cent  of  Negroes  in  Total 
Population,  by  States :  1910 159 

Diagram  Showing  the  Negro  Population  of  North- 
ern and  Western  Cities  in  1900  and  1910 163 

Maps  Showing  Counties  in  Southern  States  in 
which  Negroes  Formed  50  Per  Cent  of  the 
Total  Population   165 


vu 


o 


CHAPTER  I 

FINDING   A   PLACE   OP  EEFUGE 

THE  migration  of  tlie  blacks  from  the  South- 
ern States  to  those  offering  them  better 
opportunities  is  nothing  new.  The  objective 
here,  therefore,  will  be  not  merely  to  present  the 
causes  and  results  of  the  recent  movement  of 
the  Negroes  to  the  North  but  to  connect  this 
event  with  the  periodical  movements  of  the 
blacks  to  that  section,  from  about  the  year  1815 
to  the  present  day.  That  this  movement  should 
date  from  that  period  indicates  that  the  policy 
of  the  commonwealths  towards  the  Negro  must 
have  then  begun  decidedly  to  differ  so  as  to 
make  one  section  of  the  country  more  congenial 
to  the  despised  blacks  than  the  other.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  to  justify  this  conclusion,  we 
need  but  give  passing  mention  here  to  develop- 
ments too  well  known  to  be  discussed  in  detail. 
Slavery  in  the  original  thirteen  States  was  the 
normal  condition  of  the  Negroes.  When,  how- 
ever, James  Otis,  Patrick  Henry  and  Thomas 
Jefferson  began  to  discuss  the  natural  rights  of 
the  colonists,  then  said  to  be  oppressed  by  Great 
Britain,  some  of  the  patriots  of  the  Revolution 
carried  their  reasoning  to  its  logical  conclusion, 
contending  that  the  Negro  slaves  should  be 
»  1 


2        -1  C  till  HI- y  of  Negro  Migration 

freed  on  the  same  grounds,  as  their  rights  were 
also  founded  in  the  laws  of  nature.^  And  so  it 
was  soon  done  in  most  Northern  common- 
wealths. 

\'ermont,  New  Hampshire,  and  Massachu- 
setts exterminated  the  institution  by  constitu- 
tional provision  and  Rhode  Island,  Connecticut, 
New  Jersey,  New  York  and  Pennsylvania  by 
pradual  emancipation  acts.-  And  it  was  thought 
that  the  institution  would  soon  thereafter  pass 
away  even  in  all  southern  commonwealths  ex- 
cept South  Carolina  and  Georgia,  where  it  had 
seemingly  become  profitable.  There  came  later 
the  industrial  revolution  following  the  invention 
of  Watt's  steam  engine  and  mechanical  appli- 
ances like  Whitney's  cotton  gin,  all  which 
changed  the  economic  aspect  of  the  modern 
world,  making  slavery  an  institution  offering 
means  of  exploitation  to  those  engaged  in  the 
production  of  cotton.  This  revolution  rendered 
necessary  a  large  supply  of  cheap  labor  for  cot- 
ton culture,  out  of  which  the  plantation  system 
prrew.  The  Negro  slaves,  therefore,  lost  all  hope 
of  ever  winning  their  freedom  in  South  Caro- 
lina and  (leorgia;  and  in  Maryland,  Virginia, 
and  North  Carolina,  where  the  sentiment  in 
favor  of  abolition  had  been  favorable,  there  was 

*Ueke,  Anti-Slavery,  pp.  19,  20,  23;  Worlcs  of  John  Wool- 
•an.  pp.  58,  73;  and  Moore,  Notes  on  Slavery  in  MassacM- 
»«ff"    •     "1. 

.  Fcdrralu,t  System,  chap.  xii.     Hart,  Slavery  and 
AboUttoH,  pp.  153,  154. 


\ 


Finding  a  Place  of  Refuge  3 

a  decided  reaction  which  soon  blighted  their 
hopes.^  In  the  Northern  commonwealths,  how- 
ever, the  sentiment  in  behalf  of  universal  free- 
dom, though  at  times  dormant,  was  ever  ap- 
parent despite  the  attachment  to  the  South  of 
the  trading  classes  of  northern  cities,  which 
profited  by  the  slave  trade  and  their  commerce 
with  the  slaveholding  States.  The  Northern 
States  maintaining  this  liberal  attitude  devel- 
oped, therefore,  into  an  asylum  for  the  Negroes 
who  were  oppressed  in  the  South. 

The  Negroes,  however,  were  not  generally 
welcomed  in  the  North.  Many  of  the  north- 
erners who  sympathized  with  the  oppressed 
blacks  in  the  South  never  dreamt  of  having  them 
as  their  neighbors.  There  were,  consequently, 
always  two  classes  of  anti-slavery  people,  those 
who  advocated  the  abolition  of  slavery  to  ele- 
vate the  blacks  to  the  dignity  of  citizenship,  and 
those  who  merely  hoped  to  exterminate  the  in- 
stitution because  it  was  an  economic  evil.*  The 
latter  generally  believed  that  the  blacks  consti- 
tuted an  inferior  class  that  could  not  discharge 
the  duties  of  citizenship,  and  when  the  proposal 
to  incorporate  the  blacks  into  the  body  politic 
was  clearly  presented  to  these  agitators  their 
anti-slavery  ardor  was  decidedly  dampened. 
Unwilling,  however,  to  take  the  position  that  a 

3  Turner,  The  Rise  of  the  New  West,  pp.  45,  46,  47,  48,  49 ; 
Hammond,  Cotton  Industry,  chaps,  i  and  ii;  Scherer,  Cotton  as 
a  World  Power,  pp.  168,  175. 

*  Locke,  Anti-Slavery,  chaps,  i  and  ii. 


4        A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

race  should  be  doomed  because  of  personal  ob- 
jeK'tions,  many  of  the  early  anti-slavery  group 
looked  toward  colonization  for  a  solution  of  this 
problem.^  Some  thought  of  Africa,  but  since 
the  deportation  of  a  large  number  of  persons 
who  had  been  brought  under  the  influence  of 
modern  civilization  seemed  cruel,  the  most  pop- 
ular colonization  scheme  at  first  seemed  to  be 
that  of  settling  the  Negroes  on  the  public  lands 
in  the  West.  As  this  region  had  been  lately 
ceded,  however,  and  no  one  could  determine 
what  use  could  be  made  of  it  by  white  men,  no 
such  policy  was  generally  accepted. 

When  this  territory  was  ceded  to  the  United 
States  an  effort  to  provide  for  the  government 
of  it  finally  culminated  in  the  proposed  Ordi- 
nance of  1784  carrying  the  provision  that  slav- 
ery should  not  exist  in  the  Northwest  Territory 
after  the  year  1800.^  This  measure  finally 
failed  to  pass  and  fortunately  too,  thought  some, 
because,  had  slavery  been  given  sixteen  years 
of  growth  on  that  soil,  it  might  not  have  been 
abolished  there  until  the  Civil  War  or  it  might 
have  caused  such  a  preponderance  of  slave 
coramonwoalths  as  to  make  the  rebellion  suc- 
cessful. The  Ordinance  of  1784  was  antecedent 
to  the  more  important  Ordinance  of  1787,  which 
cnrriod  the  famous  sixth  article  that  neither 
Rlaven-  nor  involuntary  servitude  except  as  a 

•Jay,  An  Inquiry,  p.  30. 

•Ford  wlition,  Jefferson's  Writings,  III,  p.  432. 


Finding  a  Place  of  Refuge  5 

punishment  for  crime  should  exist  in  that  ter- 
ritory. At  first,  it  was  generally  deemed  fea- 
sible to  establish  Negro  colonies  on  that  domain. 
Yet  despite  the  assurance  of  the  Ordinance  of 
1787  conditions  were  such  that  one  could  not 
determine  exactly  whether  the  Northwest  Ter- 
ritory would  be  slave  or  free."^ 

A^Tiat  then  was  the  situation  in  this  partly  un- 
occupied territory?  Slavery  existed  in  what  is 
now  the  Northwest  Territory  from  the  time  of 
the  early  exploration  and  settlement  of  that  re- 
gion by  the- French.  The  first  slaves  of  white 
men  were  Indians.  Though  it  is  true  that  the 
red  men  usually  chose  death  rather  than  slavery, 
there  were  some  of  them  that  bowed  to  the  yoke. 
So  many  Pawnee  Indians  became  bondsmen 
that  the  word  Pani  became  synonymous  with 
slave  in  the  West.^  Western  Indians  them- 
selves, following  the  custom  of  white  men,  en- 
slaved their  captives  in  war  rather  than  choose 
the  alternative  of  putting  them  to  death.  In 
this  way  they  were  known  to  hold  a  number  of 
blacks  and  whites. 

7  For  the  passage  of  this  ordinance  three  reasons  have  been 
given:  Slavery  then  prior  to  the  invention  of  the  cotton  gin 
was  considered  a  necessary  evil  in  the  South.  The  expected 
monopoly  of  the  tobacco  and  indigo  cultivation  in  the  South 
would  be  promoted  by  excluding  Negroes  from  the  Northwest 
Territory  and  thus  preventing  its  cultivation  there.  Dr.  Cut- 
ler's influence  aided  by  Mr.  Grayson  of  Virginia  was  of  much 
assistance.  The  philanthropic  idea  was  not  so  prominent  as 
men  have  thought. — Dunn,  Indiana,  p.  212. 

8  lUd.,  p.  254. 


6        A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

Tho  enslavement  of  the  black  man  by  the 
whites  in  this  section  dates  from  the  early  part 
of  the  eighteenth  century.  Being  a  part  of  the 
IxJiiisiana  Territory  which  under  France  ex- 
tended over  the  whole  Mississippi  Valley  as  far 
as  the  Allegheny  mountains,  it  was  governed 
])y  the  same  colonial  regulations.^  Slavery, 
therefore,  had  legal  standing  in  this  territory. 
When  Antoine  Crozat,  upon  being  placed  in  con- 
trol of  Louisiana,  was  authorized  to  begin  a 
traffic  in  slaves,  Crozat  himself  did  nothing  to 
carry  out  his  plan.  But  in  1717  when  the  control 
of  the  colony  was  transferred  to  the  Compagnie 
de  r Occident  steps  were  taken  toward  the  im- 
portation of  slaves.  In  1719,  when  500  Guinea 
Xegroes  were  brought  over  to  serve  in  Lower 
iTOuisiana,  Philip  Francis  Renault  imported  500 
other  bondsmen  into  Upper  Louisiana  or  what 
was  later  included  in  the  Northwest  Territory. 
Slavery  then  became  more  and  more  extensive 
until  by  1750  there  were  along  the  Mississippi 
five  settlements  of  slaves,  Kaskaskia,  Kaokia, 
Fort  Chartres,  St.  Phillipe  and  Prairie  du 
Rocher.'^^     In    1763    Negroes    were    relatively 

»  Code  Noir. 

«» Speaking  of  these  settlements  in  1750,  M.  Viner,  a  Jesuit 
MiMionary  to  the  Indians,  said:  "We  have  here  Whites,  Ne- 
(TToon,  and  Indians,  to  say  nothing  of  cross-breeds— There  are 
five  French  villages  and  three  villages  of  the  natives  within  a 
irr.nro  of  twenty-one  leagues-In  the  five  French  villages  there 
>ro  perhaps  eleven  hundred  whites,  three  hundred  blacks,  and 
•omo  Buty  red  slaves  or  savages." 


Finding  a  Place  of  Refuge  7 

numerous  in  the  Northwest  Territory  but  when 
this  section  that  year  was  transferred  to  the 
British  the  number  was  diminished  by  the  action 
of  those  Frenchmen  who,  unwilling  to  become 
subjects  of  Great  Britain,  moved  from  the  ter- 
ritory.^^ There  was  no  material  increase  in  the 
slave  population  thereafter  until  the  end  of  the 

Unlike  the  condition  of  the  slaves  in  Lower  Louisiana  where 
the  rigid  enforcement  of  the  Slave  Code  made  their  lives  almost 
intolerable,  the  slaves  of  the  Northwest  Territory  were  for 
many  reasons  much  more  fortunate.  In  the  first  place,  subject 
to  the  control  of  a  mayor-commandant  appointed  by  the  Gover- 
nor of  New  Orleans,  the  early  dwellers  in  this  territory  managed 
their  plantations  about  as  they  pleased.  Moreover,  as  there 
were  few  planters  who  owned  as  many  as  three  or  four  Negroes, 
slavery  in  the  Northwest  Territory  did  not  get  far  beyond  the 
patriarchal  stage.  Slaves  were  usually  well  fed.  The  relations 
between  master  and  slave  were  friendly.  The  bondsmen  were 
allowed  special  privileges  on  Sundays  and  holidays  and  their 
children  were  taught  the  catechism  according  to  the  ordinance 
of  Louis  XIV  in  1724,  which  provided  that  all  masters  should 
educate  their  slaves  in  the  Apostolic  Catholic  religion  and  have 
them  baptized.  Male  slaves  were  worked  side  by  side  in  the 
fields  with  their  masters  and  the  female  slaves  in  neat  attire 
went  with  their  mistresses  to  matins  and  vespers.  Slaves 
freely  mingled  in  practically  all  festive  enjoyments. — See 
Jesuit  Belations,  LXIX,  p.  144;  Hutchins,  An  Historical  Nar- 
rative, 1784;  and  Code  Noir. 

11  Mention  was  thereafter  made  of  slaves  as  in  the  case  of 
Captain  Philip  Pittman  who  in  1770  wrote  of  one  Mr.  Beauvais, 
"who  owned  240  orpens  of  cultivated  land  and  eighty  slaves; 
and  such  a  case  as  that  of  a  Captain  of  a  militia  at  St.  Philips, 
possessing  twenty  blacks;  and  the  case  of  Mr.  Bales,  a  very  rich 
man  of  St.  Genevieve,  Illinois,  owning  a  hundred  Negroes, 
beside  having  white  people  constantly  employed." — See  Cap- 
tain Pittman 's  The  Present  State  of  the  European  Settlements 
in  the  Mississippi,  1770. 

2 


8 


A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 


i-iKhti'i'iitli  century  when  some  Negroes  came 
from  the  original  tliirteen. 

Tlie  Ordinance  of  1787  did  not  disturb  tlie  re- 
lation of  slave   and   master.     Some   pioneers 
thought  that  the  sixth  article  exterminated  slav- 
ery there ;  others  contended  that  it  did  not.    The 
latter  believed  that  such  expressions  in  the  Or- 
dinance of  1787  as  the  ''free  inhabitants"  and 
the  "free  male  inhabitants  of  full  size"  implied 
the  continuance  of  slavery  and  others  found 
ground  for  its  perpetuation  in  that  clause  of  the 
Ordinance  which  allowed  the  people  of  the  ter- 
ritof}'  to  adopt  the  constitution  and  laws  of  any 
one  of  the  thirteen  States.     Students  of  law 
saw  jjrotection  for  slavery  in  Jay's  treaty  which 
guaranteed  to  the  settlers  their  property  of  all 
kinds. '2     AMien,  therefore,  the  slave  question 
came  up  in  the  Northwest  Territory  about  the 
close  of  the  eighteenth  century,  there  were  three 
classes  of  slaves:  first,  those  who  were  in  servi- 
tude to  French  owners  previous  to  the  cession 
of  the   Territory   to   England   and   were    still 
claimed  as  property  in  the  possession  of  which 
the  owners  were  protected  under  the  treaty  of 
1763;  second,  those  who  were  held  by  British 
owners  at  the  time  of  Jay's  treaty  and  claimed 
afterward  as  property  under  its  protection;  and 
third,  those  who,  since  the  Territory  had  been 
(•f>ntroljod    by    the    United    States,    had    been 
brought  from  the  commonwealths  in  which  slav- 

>»  Dunn,  Indiana,  chap.  vi. 


Finding  a  Place  of  Befuge  9 

ery  was  allowed.^^  Freedom,  however,  was 
recognized  as  the  ultimate  status  of  the  Negro 
in  that  territory. 

This  question  having  been  seemingly  settled, 
Anthony  Benezet,  who  for  years  advocated  the 
abolition  of  slavery  and  devoted  his  time  and 
means  to  the  preparation  of  the  Negroes  for 
living  as  freedmen,  was  practical  enough  to 
recommend  to  the  Congress  of  the  Confedera- 
tion a  plan  of  colonizing  the  emancipated  blacks 
on  the  western  lands. ^^  Jefferson  incorporated 
into  his  scheme  for  a  modern  system  of  public 
schools  the  training  of  the  slaves  in  industrial 
and  agricultural  branches  to  equip  them  for  a 
higher  station  in  life.  He  believed,  however, 
that  the  blacks  not  being  equal  to  the  white  race 
should  not  be  assimilated  and  should  they  be 
free,  they  should,  by  all  means,  be  colonized 
afar  off.^^  Thinking  that  the  western  lands 
might  be  so  used,  he  said  in  writing  to  James 
Monroe  in  1801:  ''A  very  great  extent  of  coun- 
try north  of  the  Ohio  has  been  laid  off  in  town- 
ships, and  is  now  at  market,  according  to  the 
provisions  of  the  act  of  Congress.  .  .  .  There 
is  nothing,"  said  he,  ''which  would  restrain  the 
State  of  Virginia  either  in  the  purchase  or  the 

13  Hinsdale,  Old  Northwest,  p.  350. 

^i  Tyrannical  Libertymen,  pp.  10,  11;  Loeke,  Anti-Slavery, 
pp.  31,  32;  Brannagan,  Serious  Remonstrance,  p.  18. 

15  Washington  edition  of  Jefferson's  Writings,  chap,  vi,  p. 
456,  and  chap,  viii,  p.  380. 


10      .1  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

npplioation  of  these  lands. "^^  Yet  he  raised  the 
<luostion  as  to  whether  the  establishment  of  such 
a  colony  within  our  limits  and  to  become  a  part 
of  the  Union  would  be  desirable.  He  thought 
then  of  procurinc:  a  place  beyond  the  limits  of 
the  United  States  on  our  northern  boundary, 
by  purchasinc:  the  Indian  lands  with  the  consent 
of  Piroat  Britain.  He  then  doubted  that  the  black 
race  would  live  in  such  a  rigorous  climate. 

This  plan  did  not  easily  pass  from  the  minds 
of  the  friends  of  the  slaves,  for  in  1805  Thomas 
Brannagan  asserted  in  his  Serious  Remon- 
strances that  the  government  should  appro- 
priate a  few  thousand  acres  of  land  at  some  dis- 
tant part  of  the  national  domains  for  the  Ne- 
groes' accommodation  and  support.  He  be- 
lieved that  the  new  State  might  be  established 
upwards  of  2,000  miles  from  our  frontier.^'^  A 
ropy  of  the  pamphlet  containing  this  proposi- 
tion was  sent  to  Thomas  Jefferson,  who  was  im- 
pre.ssed  thereby,  but  not  having  the  courage  to 
brave  the  torture  of  being  branded  as  a  friend 
of  the  slave,  he  failed  to  give  it  his  support.^^ 
The  same  question  was  brought  prominently  be- 
fore the  public  again  in  1816  when  there  was 
presented  to  the  House  of  Eepresentatives  a 
memorial  from  the  Kentuclcy  Abolition  Society 
prayincr  tliat  the  free  people  of  color  be  colonized 

'•Ford  edition  of  Jefferson's  Writings,  III,  pp.  244-  IX  p 
S03:  X,  pp.  76.  290.  '        '  Fi  ,        ,  f- 

''    '"  Scriou.i  Txemonsirnnees,  p.  18. 

.      -lion  of  Jefferson's  Writings,  X,  pp.  295,  296. 


/ 


Finding  a  Place  of  Refuge  11 

on  tlie  public  lands.  The  committee  to  whom 
the  memorial  was  referred  for  consideration 
reported  that  it  was  expedient  to  refuse  the  re- 
quest on  the  ground  that,  as  such  lands  were  not 
granted  to  free  white  men,  they  saw  no  reason 
for  granting  them  to  others. ^^ 

Some  Negro  slaves  unwilling  to  wait  to  be 
carried  or  invited  to  the  Northwest  Territory 
escaped  to  that  section  even  when  it  was  con- 
trolled by  the  French  prior  to  the  American 
Eevolution.  Slaves  who  reached  the  West  by 
this  route  caused  trouble  between  the  French 
and  the  British  colonists.  Advertising  in  1746 
for  James  Wenyam,  a  slave,  Richard  Colgate, 
his  master,  said  that  he  swore  to  a  Negro  whom 
he  endeavored  to  induce  to  go  with  him,  that  he 
had  often  been  in  the  backwoods  with  his  mas- 
ter and  that  he  would  go  to  the  French  and  In- 
dians and  fight  for  them.^^  In  an  advertise- 
ment for  a  mulatto  slave  in  1755  Thomas  Rin- 
gold,  his  master,  expressed  fear  that  he  had  es- 
caped by  the  same  route  to  the  French.  He, 
therefore,  said:  "It  seems  to  be  the  interest,  at 
least,  of  every  gentleman  that  has  slaves,  to  be 
active  in  the  beginning  of  these  attempts,  for 
whilst  we  have  the  French  such  near  neighbors, 
we  shall  not  have  the  least  security  in  that  kind 
of  property.  "2^ 

19  Adams,  Neglected  Period  of  Anti- Slavery,  pp.  129,  130. 

20  The  Pennsylvania  Gazette,  July  31,  1746. 

21  The  Maryland  Gazette,  March  20,  1755. 


12      A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

The  good  treatment  which  these  slaves  re- 
c-eivej  among  the  French,  and  especially  at 
Pittsburgh  the  gateway  to  the  Northwest  Ter- 
ritory, tended  to  make  that  city  an  asylum  for 
those  slaves  who  had  sufficient  spirit  of  ad- 
venture to  brave  the  wilderness  through  which 
tliey  had  to  go.  Negroes  even  then  had  the  idea 
tliat  there  was  in  this  country  a  place  of  more 
l>rivilege  than  those  they  enjoyed  in  the  sea- 
board colonies.  Knowing  of  the  likelihood  of 
the  Negroes  to  rise  during  the  French  and  In- 
dian "War,  Governor  Diuwiddie  wrote  Fox  one 
of  the  Secretaries  of  State  in  1756:  ''We  dare 
not  venture  to  part  with  any  of  our  white  men 
any  distance,  as  we  must  have  a  watchful  eye 
over  our  Negro  slaves,  who  are  upward  of  one 
hundred  thousand. "^^  Brissot  de  Warville 
mentions  in  his  Travels  of  1788  several  ex- 
amples of  marriages  of  white  and  blacks  in 
Pittsburgh.  He  noted  the  case  of  a  Negro  who 
married  an  indentured  French  servant  woman. 
Out  of  this  union  came  a  desirable  mulatto  girl 
who  married  a  surgeon  of  Nantes  then  stationed 
at  Pittsburgh.  His  family  was  considered  one 
of  the  most  respectable  of  the  city.  The  Negro 
referred  to  was  doing  a  creditable  business  and 
liis  wife  took  it  upon  herself  to  welcome  for- 
eigners, especially  the  French,  who  came  that 
way.  Along  the  Ohio  also  there  were  several 
cases  of  women  of  color  living  with  unmarried 

**Wa»hington's  Writingg,  IT,  p.   134. 


Finding  a  Place  of  Refuge  13 

white  men;  but  this  was  looked  upon  by  the  Ne- 
groes as  detestable  as  was  evidenced  by  the  fact 
that,  if  black  women  had  a  quarrel  with  a  mu- 
latto woman,  the  former  would  reproach  the 
latter  for  being  of  ignoble  blood.^^ 

These  tendencies,  however,  could  not  assure 
the  Negro  that  the  Northwest  Territory  was  to 
be  an  asylum  for  freedom  when  in  1763  it  passed 
into  the  hands  of  the  British,  the  promoters  of 
the  slave  trade,  and  later  to  the  independent  col- 
onies, two  of  which  had  no  desire  to  exterminate 
slavery.  Furthermore,  when  the  Ordinance  of 
1787  with  its  famous  sixth  article  against  slav- 
ery was  proclaimed,  it  was  soon  discovered  that 
this  document  was  not  necessarily  emancipa- 
tory. Ag  the  right  to  hold  slaves  was  guaran- 
teed to  those  who  owned  them  prior  to  the 
passage  of  the  Ordinance  of  1787,  it  was  to  be 
expected  that  those  attached  to  that  institution 
would  not  indifferently  see  it  pass  away.  Va- 
rious petitions,  therefore,  were  sent  to  the  ter- 
ritorial legislature  and  to  Congress  praying  that 
the  sixth  article  of  the  Ordinance  of  1787  be  ab- 
rogated.^'* No  formal  action  to  this  effect  was 
taken,  but  the  practice  of  slavery  was  continued 
even  at  the  winking  of  the  government.  Some 
slaves  came  from  the  Canadians  who,  in  accord- 
ance with  the  slave  trade  laws  of  the  British 

23  Brissot  de  Warville,  New  Travels,  II,  pp.  33-34. 

24  Harris,  Slavery  in  Illinois,  chaps,  iii,  iv,  and  v;  Dunn,  In 
diana,  pp.  218-260;  Hinsdale,  Old  Northwest,  pp.  351-358. 


14 


A  Ceniunj  of  Negro  Migration 


Empire,  were  .supplied  with  bondsmen.  It  was 
the  Canadians  themselves  who  provided  by  act 
of  parliament  in  1793  for  prohibiting  the  impor- 
tation of  slaves  and  for  gradual  emancipation. 
When  it  seemed  later  that  the  cause  of  freedom 
would  eventually  triumph  the  proslavery  ele- 
ment undertook  to  perpetuate  slavery  through 
a  system  of  indentured  servant  labor. 

In  the  formation  of  the  States  of  Indiana  and 
Illinois  the  question  as  to  what  should  be  done 
to  harmonize  with  the  new  constitution  the  sys- 
tem of  indenture  to  which  the  territorial  legis- 
latures had  been  committed,  caused  heated  de- 
bate and  at  times  almost  conflict.  Both  In- 
diana^ and  Illinois-'^  finally  incorporated  into 

«» This  code  provided  that  all  male  Negroes  under  fifteen 
years  of  age  either  owned  or  acquired  must  remain  in  servitude 
until  they  reached  the  age  of  thirty-five  and  female  slaves  until 
thirty-two.  The  male  children  of  such  persons  held  to  service 
could  be  bound  out  for  thirty  years  and  the  female  children  for 
twenty-eight.  Slaves  brought  into  the  territory  had  to  comply 
with  contracts  for  terms  of  service  when  their  master  registered 
them  within  thirty  days  from  the  time  he  brought  them  into  the 
territory.  Indentured  black  servants  were  not  exactly  sold, 
but  the  law  permitted  the  transfer  from  one  owner  to  another 
when  the  slave  acquiesced  in  the  transfer  before  a  notary,  but 
it  wa«  often  done  without  regard  to  the  slave.  They  were  even 
bequeathed  and  sold  as  personal  property  at  auction.  Notices 
for  sale  were  frequent.  There  were  rewards  for  runaway 
sUvefi.  Negroes  whose  terms  had  almost  expired  were  kid- 
n»j>i»e<l  and  sold  to  New  Orleans.  The  legislature  imposed  a 
penalty  for  such,  but  it  was  not  generally  enforced.  They 
worp  taxable  property  valued  according  to  the  length  of  service. 
Ne|;ro«!  i-ervcd  as  Inliorcrs  on  farms,  house  servants,  and  in 
•aJt  miocs,  the  latter  being  an  excuse  for  holding  them  aa 


Finding  a  Place  of  Refuge  15 

their  constitutions  compromise  provisions  for 
a  nominal  prohibition  of  slavery  modified  by 
clauses  for  the  continuation  of  the  system  of  in- 
dentured labor  of  the  Negroes  held  to  service. 
The  proslavery  party  persistently  struggled 
for  some  years  to  secure  by  the  interpretation 
of  the  laws,  by  legislation  and  even  by  amend- 
ing the  constitution  so  to  change  the  funda- 
mental law  as  to  provide  for  actual  slavery. 
These  States,however,  gradually  worked  toward 
freedom  in  keeping  with  the  spirit  of  the  ma- 
jority who  framed  the  constitution,  despite  the 

slaves.  Persons  of  color  could  purchase  servants  of  their  own 
race.  The  law  provided  that  the  Justice  of  the  County  could 
on  complaint  from  the  master  order  that  a  lazy  servant  be 
whipped.  In  this  frontier  section,  therefore,  where  men  often 
took  the  law  in  their  own  hands,  slaves  were  often  punished 
and  abused  just  as  they  were  in  the  Southern  States.  The  law 
dealing  with  fugitives  was  somewhat  harsh.  When  appre- 
hended, fugitives  had  to  serve  two  days  extra  for  each  day 
they  lost  from  their  master's  service.  The  harboring  of  a  run- 
away slave  was  punishable  by  a  fine  of  one  day  for  each  the 
slave  might  be  concealed.  Consistently  too  with  the  provision 
of  the  laws  in  most  slave  States,  slaves  could  retain  all  goods 
or  money  lawfully  acquired  during  their  servitude  provided 
their  master  gave  his  consent.  Upon  the  demonstration  of 
proof  to  the  county  court  that  they  had  served  their  term  they 
could  obtain  from  that  tribunal  certificates  of  freedom.  See 
The  Laws  of  Indiana. 

26  Masters  had  to  provide  adequate  f  ood^  and  clothing  and 
good  lodging  for  the  slave,  but  the  penalty  for  failing  to  comply 
with  this  law  was  not  clear  and  even  if  so,  it  happened  that 
many  masters  never  observed  it.  There  was  also  an  effort  to 
prevent  cruelty  to  slaves,  but  it  was  difficult  to  establish  the 
guilt  of  masters  when  the  slave  could  not  bear  witness  against 
his  owner  and  it  was  not  likely  that  the  neighbor  equally  guUty 


ir>       .1  Ccntnnj  of  Negro  Migration 

fact  that  the  indenture  system  in  southern  Illi- 
nois and  especially  iu  Indiana  was  at  times  tan- 
t^unount  to  slavery  as  it  was  practiced  in  parts 
of  the  South. 

It  nmst  be  borne  in  mind  here,  however,  that 
the  North  at  this  time  was  far  from  becoming  a 
phice  of  refuge  for  Negroes.  In  the  first  place, 
tlie  industrial  revolution  had  not  then  had  time 
to  reduce  the  Negroes  to  the  plane  of  beasts  in 
the  cotton  kingdom.  The  rigorous  climate  and 
the  industries  of  the  northern  people,  more- 
over, were  not  inviting  to  the  blacks  and  the  de- 
veloj^nient  of  the  carrying  trade  and  the  rise  of 
manufacturing  there  did  not  make  that  section 

or  indifferent  to  the  complaicts  of  the  blacks  would  take  their 
petitions  to  court. 

Under  this  system  a  large  number  of  slaves  were  brought  into 
the  Territory  especially  after  1807.  There  were  135  in  1800. 
Thia  increase  came  from  Kentucky  and  Tennessee.  As  those 
brought  were  largely  boys  and  girls  with  a  long  period  of 
nenicc,  this  form  of  slavery  was  assured  for  some  years.  The 
children  of  these  blacks  were  often  registered  for  thirty-five 
in^tead  of  thirty  years  of  service  on  the  ground  that  they  were 
not  born  in  Illinois.  No  one  thought  of  persecuting  a  master 
for  holding  servants  unlawfully  and  Negroes  themselves  could 
»>«•  i-a-Hily  dcccive<l.  Very  few  settlers  brought  their  slaves  there 
io  tne  them.  There  were  only  749  in  1820.  If  one  considers 
the  proportion  of  this  to  the  number  brought  there  for  manu- 
miamon  this  seems  hardly  true.  It  is  better  to  say  that  during 
lh*«  firwt  two  decades  of  the  nineteenth  century  some  settlers 
came  for  both  purposes,  some  to  hold  slaves,  some,  as  Edward 
Coif,  to  free  them.  It  was  not  only  practiced  in  the  southern 
part  along  the  Mississippi  and  Ohio  but  as  far  north  in  Illinois 
MM  .H«ng»mon  County,  were  found  servants  known  as  "yellow 
boji"  and  "colored  girls."— See  the  Laws  of  Illinois. 


Finding  a  Place  of  Refuge  17 

more  attractive  to  unskilled  labor.  Further- 
more, when  we  consider  the  fact  that  there  were 
many  thousands  of  Negroes  in  the  Southern 
States  the  presence  of  a  few  in  the  North  must 
be  regarded  as  insignificant.  This  paucity  of 
blacks  then  obtained  especially  in  the  North- 
west Territory,  for  its  French  inhabitants  in- 
stead of  being  an  exploiting  people  were  pioneer- 
ing, having  little  use  for  slaves  in  carrying  out 
their  policy  of  merely  holding  the  country  for 
France.  Moreover,  like  certain  gentlemen  from 
Virginia,  who  after  the  American  Revolution 
were  afraid  to  bring  their  slaves  with  them  to 
occupy  their  bounty  lands  in  Ohio,  few  enter- 
prising settlers  from  the  slave  States  had  in- 
vaded the  territory  with  their  Negroes,  not 
knowing  whether  or  not  they  would  be  secure 
in  the  possession  of  such  property.  When  we 
consider  that  in  1810  there  were  only  102,137 
Negroes  in  the  North  and  no  more  than  3,454  in 
the  Northwest  Territory,  we  must  look  to  the 
second  decade  of  the  nineteenth  century  for  the 
beginning  of  the  migration  of  the  Negroes  in 
the  United  States. 


CHAPTER  n 

A   TRANSPLA2JTAT10N  TO  THE  NORTH 

TT'ST  after  the  settlement  of  the  question  of 
*i  holdiiijr  tlie  western  posts  by  the  British 
and  the  adjustment  of  the  trouble  arising  from 
tlieir  capture  of  slaves  during  our  second  war 
witli  England,  there  started  a  movement  of  the 
l)hu'ks  to  this  frontier  territory.  But,  as  there 
were  few  towns  or  cities  in  the  Northwest  dur- 
ing tlie  first  decades  of  the  new  republic,  the 
fliglit  of  the  Negro  into  that  territory  was  like 
that  of  a  fugitive  taking  his  chances  in  the  wil- 
derness. Having  lost  their  pioneering  spirit  in 
jmssing  through  the  ordeal  of  slavery,  not  many 
of  the  bondmen  took  flight  in  that  direction 
and  few  free  Negroes  ventured  to  seek  their 
fortunes  in  those  wilds  during  the  period  of  the 
frontier  conditions,  especially  when  the  country 
had  not  tlien  undergone  a  thorough  reaction 
against  the  Negro. 

The  migration  of  the  Negroes,  however,  re- 
ceived an  impetus  early  in  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury. Tliis  came  from  the  Quakers,  who  by  the 
middle  of  the  eighteenth  century  had  taken  the 
position  that  all  members  of  their  sect  should 
free  their  slaves.^    The  Quakers  of  North  Caro- 

» Moore,   Anti-Slavery,   p.    70;    and    Special   Beport   of   the 
^'~  '    '  '"  '     ''mmittsionrr  of  Education,lS7l,  p.  376;  Weeks, 
V       '.r.i,  pp.  215,  216,  231,  232,  242. 

18 


Transplantation  to  the  North        19 

lina  and  Virginia  had  as  early  as  1740  taken  up 
the  serious  question  of  humanely  treating  their 
Negroes.  The  North  Carolina  Quakers  advised 
Friends  to  emancipate  their  slaves,  later  pro- 
hibited traffic  in  them,  forbade  their  members 
from  even  hiring  the  blacks  out  in  1780  and  by 
1818  had  exterminated  the  institution  among 
their  communicants. ^  After  healing  themselves 
of  the  sin,  they  had  before  the  close  of  the  eight- 
eenth century  militantly  addressed  themselves 
to  the  task  of  abolishing  slavery  and  the  slave 
trade  throughout  the  world.  Differing  in  their 
scheme  from  that  of  most  anti- slavery  leaders, 
they  were  advocating  the  establishment  of  the 
freedmen  in  society  as  good  citizens  and  to  that 
end  had  provided  for  the  religious  and  mental 
instruction  of  their  slaves  prior  to  emancipating 
them.^ 

Despite  the  fact  that  the  Quakers  were  not 
free  to  extend  their  operations  throughout  the 
colonies,  they  did  much  to  enable  the  Negroes 
to  reach  free  soil.  As  the  Quakers  believed  in 
the  freedom  of  the  will,  human  brotherhood,  and 
equality  before  God,  they  did  not,  like  the  Puri- 
tans, find  difficulties  in  solving  the  problem  of 
elevating  the  Negroes.  ^Hiereas  certain  Puri- 
tans were  afraid  that  conversion  might  lead  to 
the  destruction  of  caste  and  the  incorporation 

2  The  Southern  WorTcman,  xxvii,  p.  161. 

3  Rhodes,  History  of  the  United  States,  chap,  i,  p.  6 ;  Ban- 
croft, History  of  the  United  States,  chap,  ii,  p.  401 ;  and  Locke, 
Anti-Slavery,  p.  32. 


20       .1  Cent  urn  of  Negro  Migration 

of  uiuk'sirable  persons  into  the  ''Body  Poli- 
tick," the  Quakers  proceeded  on  the  principle 
tliat  all  men  are  brethren  and,  being  equal  be- 
fore (lod,  sliould  be  considered  equal  before  the 
law.  On  account  of  unduly  emphasizing  the  re- 
lation of  man  to  God,  the  Puritans  ''atrophied 
their  social  humanitarian  instinct"  and  devel- 
oped into  a  race  of  self-conscious  saints.  Be 
lieving  in  human  nature  and  laying  stress  upon 
the  relation  between  man  and  man,  the  Quakers 
became  the  friends  of  all  humanity.* 

In  1603  George  Keith,  a  leading  Quaker  of 
his  day,  came  forward  as  a  promoter  of  the  re- 
ligious training  of  the  slaves  as  a  preparation 
for  emancipation.  William  Penn  advocated  the 
emanciiiation  of  slaves,  that  they  might  have 
every  opportunity  for  improvement.  In  1695 
the  Quakers  while  protesting  against  the  slave 
trade  denounced  also  the  policy  of  neglecting 
their  moral  and  spiritual  welfare.^  The  grow- 
ing interest  of  this  sect  in  the  Negroes  was 
shown  later  by  the  development  in  1713  of  a 
definite  scheme  for  freeing  and  returning  them 
to  Africa  after  having  been  educated  and  trained 
to  serve  as  missionaries  on  that  continent. 

When  the  manumission  of  the  slaves  was 
checked  ]»y  the  reaction  against  that  class  and  it 

*  A  Brief  Statement  of  the  Fisc  and  Progress  of  the  Testi- 
mony of  the  Qualcrs,  passim;  Wootlson,  The  Education  of  the 
Netiro  Prior  to  1861,  p.  43. 

6  Woodson,  The  Education  of  the  Negro  Prior  to  1861,  p.  44; 
aod  Locko,  Anti  Slavery,  p.  32. 


Transplantation  to  the  North        21 

became  more  of  a  problem  to  establish  them  in 
a  hostile  environment,  certain  Quakers  of  North 
Carolina  and  Virginia  adopted  the  scheme  of 
settling  them  in  Northern  States.®  At  first, 
they  sent  such  freedmen  to  Pennsylvania.  But 
for  various  reasons  this  did  not  prove  to  be 
the  best  asylum.  In  the  first  place,  Penn- 
sylvania bordered  on  the  slave  States,  Mary- 
land and  Virginia,  from  which  agents  came 
to  kidnap  free  Negroes.  Furthermore,  too 
many  Negroes  were  already  rushing  to  that 
commonwealth  as  the  Negroes'  heaven  and 
there  was  the  chance  that  the  Negroes  might  be 
settled  elsewhere  in  the  North,  where  they 
might  have  better  economic  opportunities.'^  A 
committee  of  forty  was  accordingly  appointed 
by  North  Carolina  Quakers  in  1822  to  examine 
the  laws  of  other  free  States  with  a  view  to  de- 
termining what  section  would  be  most  suitable 
for  colonizing  these  blacks.  This  committee 
recommended  in  its  report  that  the  blacks  be 
colonized  in  Ohio,  Indiana  and  Illinois. 

The  yearly  meeting,  therefore,  ordered  the 
removal  of  such  Negroes  as  fast  as  they  were 
willing  or  as  might  be  consistent  with  the  pro- 
fession of  their  sect,  and  instructed  the  agents 
effecting  the  removal  to  draw  on  the  treasury 
for  any  sum  not  exceeding  two  hundred  dollars 
to   defray   expenses.     An   increasing   number 

6  The  Southern  Worfcman,  xxxvii,  pp.  158-169. 

7  Ttiraer,  The  Negro  in  Pennsylvania,  pp.  144,  145,  151,  155. 


22      A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

reached  these  States  every  year  but,  owing  to 
tlie  inducements  offered  by  the  American  Col- 
onization Society,  some  of  them  went  to  Liberia. 
Wlien  Liberia,  however,  developed  into  every 
thins?  but  a  haven  of  rest,  the  number  sent  to  the 
settlements  in  the  Northwest  greatly  increased. 

The  quarterly  meeting  succeeded  in  sending  to 
the  AVest  133  Negroes,  including  23  free  blacks 
and  slaves  given  up  because  they  were  con- 
nected by  marriage  with  those  to  be  trans- 
planted.^  The  Negro  colonists  seemed  to  pre- 
fer Indiana.^  They  went  in  three  companies 
and  with  suitable  young  Friends  to  whom  were 
executed  powers  of  attorney  to  manumit,  set 
free,  settle  and  bind  them  out^"^  Thirteen  carts 
and  wagons  were  bought  for  these  three  com- 
panies; $1,250  was  furnished  for  their  traveling 
expenses  and  clothing,  the  whole  cost  amounting 
to  $2,490.  It  was  planned  to  send  forty  or  fifty 
to  Long  Island  and  twenty  to  the  interior  of 
Pennsylvania,  but  they  failed  to  prosper  and  re- 
ports concerning  them  stamped  them  as  desti- 
tute and  deplorably  ignorant.  Those  who  went 
to  Ohio  and  Indiana,  however,  did  well.^^ 

Later  we  receive  another  interesting  account 
of  this  exodus.  David  AAHiite  led  a  company  of 
fifty-throo  into  the  West,  thirty-eight  of  whom 

•  Southern  Workman,  xirvii,  p.  157. 

•  I/cvi  CoflTin,  Jieminiscenccs,  chaps,  i  and  ii. 
10  Southtrn    ll'orktjian,   xxxvii,   pp.   161-163. 

»»Coffln,  Reminiscences,  p.  109;  and  Howe's  Historical  Col- 
lectionM,  p.  356. 


Transplantation  to  the  North        23 

belonged  to  Friends,  five  to  a  member  who  had 
ordered  that  they  be  taken  West  at  his  expense. 
Six  of  these  slaves  belonged  to  Samuel  Law- 
rence, a  Negro  slaveholder,  who  had  purchased 
himself  and  family.  White  pathetically  reports 
the  case  of  four  of  the  women  who  had  married 
slave  husbands  and  had  twenty  children  for  the 
possession  of  whom  the  Friends  had  to  stand  a 
lawsuit  in  the  courts.  The  women  had  decided 
to  leave  their  husbands  behind  but  the  thought 
of  separation  so  tormented  them  that  they  made 
an  effort  to  secure  their  liberty.  Upon  appeal- 
ing to  their  masters  for  terms  the  owners,  some- 
what moved  by  compassion,  sold  them  for  one 
half  of  their  value.  White  then  went  West  and 
left  four  in  Chillicothe,  twenty-three  in  Lees- 
burg  and  twenty-six  in  Wayne  County,  Indiana, 
without  encountering  any  material  difficulty.^^ 

Others  had  thought  of  this  plan  but  the 
Quakers  actually  carried  it  out  on  a  small  scale. 
Here  we  see  again  not  only  their  desire  to  have 
the  Negroes  emancipated  but  the  vital  interest 
of  the  Quakers  in  success  of  the  blacks,  for 
members  of  this  sect  not  only  liberated  their 
slaves  but  sold  out  their  own  holdings  in  the 
South  and  moved  with  these  freedmen  into  the 
North.  Quakers  who  then  lived  in  free  States 
offered  fugitives  material  assistance  by  open 
and  clandestine  methods.^^     The  most  prom- 

12  Southern  WorTcman,  xxxvii,  pp.  162,  163. 
laLevi  Coffin,  Reminiscences,  pp.  108-111. 


21       .1  Ccntunj  of  Negro  Migration 

inent  leader  developed  by  the  movement  was 
I^vi  Coffin,  whose  daring  deeds  in  behalf  of 
the  fii£?itives  made  him  the  reputed  President 
of  the  Underground  Railroad.  Most  of  the 
Quaker  settlements  of  Negroes  with  which  he 
was  coimeeted  were  made  in  what  is  now  Ham- 
ilton, Howard,  Wayne,  Randolph,  Vigo,  Gib- 
son, Grant,  Rush,  and  Tipton  Counties,  Indiana, 
and  Darke  County,  Ohio. 

The  promotion  of  this  movement  by  the 
Quakers  was  well  on  its  way  by  1815  and  was 
not  materially  checked  until  the  fifties  when  the 
operations  of  the  drastic  fugitive  slave  law  in- 
terfered, and  even  then  the  movement  had 
gained  such  momentum  and  the  execution  of 
that  mischievous  measure  had  produced  in  the 
North  so  much  reaction  like  that  expressed  in 
the  personal  liberty  laws,  that  it  could  not  be 
stopped.  The  Negroes  found  homes  in  Western 
Now  York,  Western  Pennsylvania  and  through- 
out the  Northwest  Territory.  The  Negro  popu- 
lation of  York,  Harrisburg  and  Philadelphia 
ra|)idly  increased.  A  settlement  of  Negroes  de- 
veloped at  Sandy  Lake  in  Northwestern  Penn- 
sylvania'^ and  there  was  another  near  Berlin 
Cross  Roads  in  Ohio.^^  A  group  of  Negroes 
migrating  to  this  same  State  found  homes  in 
the  Van  Buren  Township  of  Shelby  County.^^    A 

>«  8i«-l>ort,  The  Underground  HaUroad,  p.  249. 
>»  IjinRnton,  From  the   Virginia  Plantation  to  the  National 
CapUol,  p.  55. 

'•  Howe,  Historical  Collections,  p.  465. 


Transplantation  to  the  North        25 

more  significant  settlement  in  the  State  was 
made  by  Samuel  Gist,  an  Englishman  possess- 
ing extensive  plantations  in  Hanover,  Amherst, 
and  Henrico  Counties,  Virginia.  He  provided 
in  his  will  that  his  slaves  should  be  freed  and 
sent  to  the  North.  He  further  provided  that  the 
revenue  from  his  plantation  the  last  year  of  his 
life  be  applied  in  building  schoolhouses  and 
churches  for  their  accommodation,  and  ''that 
all  money  coming  to  him  in  Virginia  be  set 
aside  for  the  employment  of  ministers  and 
teachers  to  instruct  them. ' '  In  1818,  Wickham, 
the  executor  of  his  estate,  purchased  land  and 
established  these  Negroes  in  what  was  called 
the  Upper  and  Lower  Camps  of  Brown 
County.^'^ 

Augustus  Wattles,  a  Quaker  from  Connecti- 
cut, made  a  settlement  in  Mercer  County,  Ohio, 
early  in  the  nineteenth  century.  In  the  winter 
of  1833-4,  he  providentially  became  acquainted 
with  the  colored  people  of  Cincinnati,  finding 
there  about '  '4,000  totally  ignorant  of  every  thing 
calculated  to  make  good  citizens."  As  most  of 
them  had  been  slaves,  excluded  from  every  ave- 
nue of  moral  and  mental  improvement,  he  es- 
tablished for  them  a  school  which  he  maintained 
for  two  years.  He  then  proposed  to  these  Ne- 
groes to  go  into  the  country  and  purchase  land  to 
remove  them  "from  those  contaminating  influ- 
ences which  had  so  long  crushed  them  in  our 

17  History  of  Brown  County,  Ohio,  pw  313. 


26       A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

cities  and  villages.  "^^  Ti^gy  consented  on  the 
condition  that  be  would  accompany  tliem  and 
teach  school.  He  travelled  through  Canada, 
Michigan  and  Indiana,  looking  for  a  suitable 
location,  and  finally  selected  for  settlement  a 
place  in  Mercer  County,  Ohio.  In  1835,  he  made 
the  first  purchase  of  land  there  for  this  purpose 
and  before  1838  Negroes  had  bought  there  about 
30,000  acres,  at  the  earnest  appeal  of  this  bene- 
factor, who  had  travelled  into  almost  every 
neighborhood  of  the  blacks  in  the  State,  and  laid 
before  them  the  benefits  of  a  permanent  home  for 
themselves  and  of  education  for  their  children.^^ 
This  settlement  was  further  increased  in  1858 
by  the  manumitted  slaves  of  John  Harper  of 
North  Carolina.^"  John  Randolph  of  Eoanoke 
endeavored  to  establish  his  slaves  as  freemen 
in  this  county  but  the  Germans  who  had  settled 
in  that  community  a  little  ahead  of  them  started 

1*  Wattles  said:  he  purchased  for  himself  190  acres  of  land, 
to  establish  a  manual  labor  school  for  colored  boys.  He  had 
maintained  a  Bchool  on  it,  at  his  own  expense,  till  the  eleventh 
of  November,  1842.  While  in  Philadelphia  the  winter  before, 
he  became  acquainted  with  the  trustees  of  the  late  Samuel 
Emlen,  a  Friend  of  New  Jersey.  He  left  by  his  will  $20,000 
for  the  "support  and  education  in  school  learning  and  the 
mechanic  arts  and  agriculture,  boys,  of  African  and  Indian 
deBccnt,  whose  parents  would  give  them  up  to  the  school.  They 
united  their  means  and  purchased  Wattles  farm,  and  appointed 
him  the  Buperintendent  of  the  establishment,  which  they  called 
the  Emlen  Institute. "—See  Howe's  Historical  Collections,  p. 
356. 

i'Howc'b  TJistorical  Collections,  p.  355. 

"  Manuscripis  in  the  possession  of  J.  E.  Moorland. 


Transplantation  to  the  North        27 

such  a  disturbance  that  Eandolph's  executor 
could  not  carry  out  his  plan,  although  he  had  pur- 
chased a  large  tract  of  land  there.^-  It  was  nec- 
essary to  send  these  freemen  to  Miami  County. 
Theodoric  H.  Gregg  of  Dinwiddle  County,  Vir- 
ginia, liberated  his  slaves  in  1854  and  sent  them 
to  Ohio.22  Nearer  to  the  Civil  War,  when  public 
opinion  was  proscribing  the  uplift  of  Negroes 
in  Kentucky,  Noah  Spears  secured  near  Xenia, 
Greene  County,  Ohio,  a  small  parcel  of  land  for 
sixteen  of  his  former  bondsmen  in  1856.^^ 
Other  freedmen  found  their  way  to  this  com- 
munity in  later  years  and  it  became  so  pros- 
perous that  it  was  selected  as  the  site  of  Wilber- 
force  University. 

This  transplantation  extended  into  Michigan. 
With  the  help  of  persons  philanthropically  in- 
clined there  sprang  up  a  flourishing  group  of 
Negroes  in  Detroit.  Early  in  the  nineteenth 
century  they  began  to  acquire  property  and  to 
provide  for  the  education  of  their  children. 
Their  record  was  such  as  to  merit  the  enco- 
miums of  their  fellow  white  citizens.  In  later 
years  this  group  in  Detroit  was  increased  by  the 
operation  of  laws  hostile  to  free  Negroes  in  the 
South  in  that  life  for  this  class  not  only  became 
intolerable  but  necessitated  their  expatriation. 
Because  of  the  Virginia  drastic  laws  and  espe- 

21  The  African  Repository,  xxii,  pp.  322,  333. 

22  Simmons,  Men  of  Marie,  p.  723. 

2^  Southern  Worlcman,  xxxvii,  p.  15&. 


28      A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

eially  that  of  1838  prohibiting  the  return  to  that 
State  of  such  Negro  students  as  had  been  ac- 
customed to  go  North  to  attend  school,  after 
they  were  denied  this  pri\alege  at  home,  the 
father  of  Richard  DeBaptiste  and  Marie  Louis 
More,  tlie  mother  of  Fannie  M.  Richards,  led  a 
colony  of  free  Negroes  from  Fredericksburg  to 
Detroit.-^  And  for  about  similar  reasons  the 
father  of  Robert  A.  Pelham  conducted  others 
from  Petersburg,  Virginia,  in  1859.^^  ^  One 
Saunders,  a  planter  of  Cabell  County,  West  Vir- 
ginia, liberated  his  slaves  some  years  later  and 
furnished  them  homes  among  the  Negroes  set- 
tled in  Cass  County,  Michigan,  about  ninety 
miles  east  of  Chicago,  and  ninety-five  miles 
west  of  Detroit. 

This  settlement  had  become  attractive  to 
fugitive  slaves  and  freedmen  because  the  Quak- 
ers settled  there  welcomed  them  on  their  way  to 
freedom  and  in  some  cases  encouraged  them  to 
remain  among  them.  When  the  increase  of 
fugitives  was  rendered  impossible  during  the 
fifties  when  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law  was  being 
enforced,  there  was  still  a  steady  gi'owth  due 
to  the  manumission  of  slaves  by  sympathetic 
and  benevolent  masters  in  the  South.^^  Most 
of  tiiese  Negroes  settled  in  Calvin  Township, 
in  tliat  county,  so  that  of  the  1,376  residing  there 

»•  The  Journal  of  Negro  History,  I,  pp.  23-33. 

"  I  hid.,  I,  p.  2(). 

»•  The  African  depository,  passim. 


Transplantation  to  the  North        29 

in  1860,  795  were  established  in  this  district, 
there  being  only  580  whites  dispersed  among 
them.  The  Negro  settlers  did  not  then  obtain 
control  of  the  government  but  they  early  pur- 
chased land  to  the  extent  of  several  thousand 
acres  and  developed  into  successful  small  farm- 
ers. Being  a  little  more  prosperous  than  the 
average  Negro  community  in  the  North,  the 
Cass  County  settlement  not  only  attracted  Ne- 
groes fleeing  from  hardships  in  the  South  but 
also  those  who  had  for  some  years  unsuccess- 
fully endeavored  to  establish  themselves  in 
other  communities  on  free  soil.^"^ 

These  settlements  were  duplicated  a  little 
farther  west  in  Illinois.  Edward  Coles,  a  Vir- 
ginian, who  in  1818  emigrated  to  Illinois,  of 
which  he  later  served  as  Governor  and  as  lib- 
erator from  slavery,  settled  his  slaves  in  that 

27  Although  constituting  a  majority  of  the  population  even 
before  the  Civil  War  the  Negroes  of  this  township  did  not  get 
recognition  in  the  local  government  until  1875  when  John 
Allen,  a  Negro,  was  elected  township  treasurer.  From  that 
time  until  about  1890  the  Negroes  always  shared  the  honors  of 
office  with  their  white  citizens  and  since  that  time  they  have 
usually  had  entire  control  of  the  local  government  in  that 
township,  holding  such  offices  as  supervisor,  clerk,  treasurer, 
road  commissioner,  and  school  director.  Their  record  has  been 
that  of  efficiency.  Boss  rule  among  them  is  not  known.  The 
best  man  for  an  office  is  generally  sought;  for  this  is  a  com- 
munity of  independent  farmers.  In  1907  one  hundred  and 
eleven  different  farmers  in  this  community  had  holdings  of 
10,439  acres.  Their  township  usually  has  very  few  delinquent 
taxpayers  and  it  promptly  makes  its  returns  to  the  county. — 
See  the  Southern  WorTcman,  xxxvii,  pp.  486-489. 


30      A  Ccntunj  of  Negro  Migration 

commonwealth.  He  brought  them  to  Edwards- 
ville,  where  they  constituted  a  community 
known  as  "Coles'  Negroes."-^  There  was  an- 
other community  of  Negroes  in  Illinois  in  what 
is  now  called  BrookljTi  situated  north  of  East 
St.  Louis.  This  town  was  a  center  of  some 
consequence  in  the  thirties.  It  became  a  station 
of  the  Underground  Kailroad  on  the  route  to 
Alton  and  to  Canada.  As  all  of  the  Negroes 
who  emerged  from  the  South  did  not  go  farther 
into  the  North,  the  black  population  of  the  town 
gradually  grew  despite  the  fact  that  slave 
liunters  captured  and  reenslaved  many  of  the 
Negroes  who  settled  there.-'' 

These  settlements  together  with  favorable 
communities  of  sympathetic  whites  promoted 
the  migration  of  the  free  Negroes  and  fugitives 
from  the  South  by  serving  as  centers  offering 
assistance  to  those  fleeing  to  the  free  States  and 
to  Canada.  The  fugitives  usually  found  friends 
in  rhiladelphia,  Columbia,  Pittsburgh,  Elmira, 
I\*ochester,  Buffalo,  Gallipolis,  Portsmouth, 
Akron,  Cincinnati,  and  Detroit.  They  passed 
on  the  way  to  freedom  through  Columbia,  Phila- 
delphia, Klizabethtown  and  by  way  of  sea  to 

2»  Davidson  and  Stowe,  xi  Complete  History  of  Illinois,  pp. 
321,  322;  nud  Washburn,  Edward  Coles,  pp.  44  and  53. 

••The  Negro  population  of  this  town  so  rapidly  increased 
after  tho  war  that  it  has  become  a  Negro  town  and  unfor- 
tunntoly  a  bad  one.  Much  improvement  has  been  made  in 
rccfht  years. — Sco  Southern  Workman,  xxx\-ii,  pp.  489-494. 


Transplantation  to  the  North        31 

New  York  and  Boston,  from  which  they  pro- 
ceeded to  permanent  settlements  in  the  North.^*^ 

In  the  West,  the  migration  of  the  blacks  was 
further  facilitated  by  the  peculiar  geographic 
condition  in  that  the  Appalachian  highland,  ex- 
tending like  a  peninsula  into  the  South,  had  a 
natural  endowment  which  produced  a  class  of 
white  citizens  hostile  to  the  institution  of  slav- 
ery. These  mountaineers  coming  later  to  the 
colonies  had  to  go  to  the  hills  and  mountains  be- 
cause the  first  comers  from  Europe  had  taken 
up  the  land  near  the  sea.  Being  of  the  German 
and  Scotch-Irish  Presbyterian  stock,  they  had 
ideals  differing  widely  from,  those  of  the  sea- 
board slaveholders.^^  The  mountaineers  be- 
lieved in  ''civil  liberty  in  fee  simple,  and  an 
open  road  to  civil  honors,  secured  to  the  poorest 
and  feeblest  members  of  society."  The  eastern 
element  had  for  their  ideal  a  government  of  in- 
terests for  the  people.  They  believed  in  liberty 
but  that  of  kings,  lords,  and  commons,  not  of  all 
the  people. ^2 

Settled  along  the  Appalachian  highland,  these 
new  stocks  continued  to  differ  from  those  dwell- 
ing near  the  sea,  especially  on  the  slavery  ques- 
tion.^^     The  natural  endowment  of  the  moun- 

33  Olmsted,  Back  Country,  p.  134. 

30  Still,  Underground  Railroad,  passim ;  Siebert,  Underground 
Eailroad,  pp.  34,  35,  40,  42,  43,  48,  56,  59,  62,  64,  70,  145,  147; 
Drew,  Refugee,  pp.  72,  97,  114,  152,  335  and  373. 

31  The  Journal  of  Negro  History,  I,  pp.  132-162. 

32  Ibid.,  I,  138. 


32       A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

taiiious  section  made  slavery  there  unprofitable 
and  tlie  mountaineers  bore  it  grievously  that 
they  were  attached  to  commonwealths  domi- 
nated by  the  radical  pro-slavery  element  of  the 
Soutii,  who  sacrificed  all  other  interests  to  safe- 
^lard  those  of  the  peculiar  institution.  There 
developed  a  number  of  clashes  in  all  of  the 
legislatures  and  constitutional  conventions  of 
the  Southern  States  along  the  Atlantic,  but  in 
every  case  the  defenders  of  the  interests  of 
slavery  won.  AMien,  therefore,  slaves  with  the 
assistance  of  anti-slavery  mountaineers  began 
to  esca]>e  to  the  free  States,  they  had  little  dif- 
ficulty in  making  their  way  through  the  Appa- 
lachian region,  where  the  love  of  freedom  had 
so  set  the  people  against  slavery  that  although 
some  of  them  yielded  to  the  inevitable  sin,  they 
never  made  any  systematic  effort  to  protect  it.^^ 
The  development  of  the  movement  in  these 
mountains  was  more  than  interesting.  During 
tiie  first  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century  there 

"  In  the  Appalachian  mountains^  however,  the  settlers  were 
loath  to  follow  the  fortunes  of  the  ardent  pro-slavery  element. 
Actual  abolition,  for  example,  was  never  popular  in  western 
Virpnia,  but  the  love  of  the  people  of  that  section  for  freedom 
kept  them  estranged  from  the  slaveholding  districts  of  the 
Bute,  which  by  1850  had  completely  committed  themselves  to 
the  proHlavor>-  propaf,'anda.  In  the  Convention  of  1829-30 
^I.^hu^  Kaid  there  existed  in  a  great  portion  of  the  West  (of 
Virjonia)  a  rooted  antipathy  to  the  slave.  John  Randolph  was 
•I»rmod  at  the  fanatical  spirit  on  the  subject  of  slavery,  which 
WM  trrowing  in  Virginia.— See  the  Jmrnal  of  Negro  History, 
I,  p.  142. 


Transplantation  to  the  North        33 

were  many  ardent  anti-slavery  leaders  in  the 
mountains.  These  were  not  particularly  inter- 
ested in  the  Negro  but  were  determined  to  keep 
that  soil  for  freedom  that  the  settlers  might 
there  realize  the  ideals  for  which  they  had  left 
their  homes  in  Europe.  When  the  industrial 
revolution  with  the  attendant  rise  of  the  plan- 
tation cotton  culture  made  abolition  in  the 
South  improbable,  some  of  them  became  col- 
onizationists,  hoping  to  destroy  the  institution 
through  deportation,  which  would  remove  the 
objection  of  certain  masters  who  would  free 
their  slaves  provided  they  were  not  left  in  the 
States  to  become  a  public  charge.^^  Some  of 
this  sentiment  continued  in  the  mountains  even 
until  the  Civil  War.  The  highlanders,  there- 
fore, found  themselves  involved  in  a  continuous 
embroglio  because  they  were  not  moved  by  re- 
actionary influences  which  were  unifying  the 
South  for  its  bold  eifort  to  make  slavery  a  na- 
tional institution.^^  The  other  members  of  the 
mountaineer  anti-slavery  group  became  at- 
tached to  the  Underground  Railroad  system,  en- 
deavoring by  secret  methods  to  place  on  free 
soil  a  sufficiently  large  number  of  fugitives  to 
show  a  decided  diminution  in  the  South.^'^  John 
Brown,  who  communicated  with  the  South 
through  these  mountains,  thought  that  his  work 

35  Adams,  Neglected  Period  of  Anti-Slavery. 

36  The  Journal  of  Negro  History,  I,  pp,  132-160. 

37  Siebert,  Underground  Bailroad,  p.  166. 


34       ,1  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

would  be  a  success,  if  lie  could  change  the  situa- 
tion in  one  count)'  in  each  of  these  States. 

The  lines  along  wliich  these  Underground 
Hailroad  operators  moved  connected  naturally 
with  the  Quaker  settlements  established  in  free 
States  and  the  favorable  sections  in  the  Appa- 
lachian region.  Man}-  of  these  workers  were 
Quakers  who  had  already  established  settle- 
ments of  slaves  on  estates  which  they  had  pur- 
chased in  the  Northwest  Territory.  Among 
these  were  John  Rankin,  James  Gilliland,  Jesse 
Lockehart,  Robert  Dobbins,  Samuel  Crothers, 
Hugh  L.  Fullerton,  and  William  Dickey.  Thus 
they  connected  the  heart  of  the  South  with  the 
avenues  to  freedom  in  the  North.^^  There  were 
routes  extending  from  this  section  into  Ohio, 
Indiana,  Illinois  and  Pennsylvania.  Over  the 
Ohio  and  Kentucky  route  culminating  chiefly  in 
Cleveland,  Sandusky  and  Detroit,  however, 
more  fugitives  made  their  way  to  freedom  than 
through  any  other  avenue,^^  partly  too  because 
thoy  found  the  limestone  caves  very  helpful  for 
hiding  by  day.  These  operations  extended  even 
through  Tennessee  into  northern  Georgia  and 
Alabama.  Dillingham,  Josiah  Henson  and  Har- 
riet Tubman  used  these  routes  to  deliver  many 
a  Negro  from  slavery. 

Tlie  oi)portunity  thus  offered  to  help  the  op- 
pre«sed  ]>rought  forward  a  class  of  anti-slavery 
men,  wlio  went  beyond  the  limit  of  merely  ex- 

••  A<lam8,  Neglected  Period  of  Anti-Slavery. 
••Hicbcrt,  Underground  Hailroad,  chaps,  v  and  vi. 


Transplantation  to  the  North        35 

pressing  their  horror  of  the  evil.  They  believed 
that  something  should  be  done  'Ho  deliver  the 
poor  that  cry  and  to  direct  the  wanderer  in  the 
right  way. '  '^^  Translating  into  action  what  had 
long  been  restricted  to  academic  discussion, 
these  philanthropic  workers  ushered  in  a  new 
era  in  the  uplift  of  the  blacks,  making  abolition 
more  of  a  reality.  The  abolition  element  of  the 
North  then  could  no  longer  be  considered  an  in- 
significant minority  advocating  a  hopeless  cause 
but  a  factor  in  drawing  from  the  South  a  part 
of  its  slave  population  and  at  the  same  time  of- 
fering asylum  to  the  free  Negroes  whom  the 
southerners  considered  undesirable.*^  Prom- 
inent among  those  who  aided  this  migration  in 
various  ways  were  Benjamin  Lundy  of  Tenn- 
essee and  James  G.  Birney,  a  former  slave- 
holder of  Huntsville,  Alabama,  who  manumitted 
his  slaves  and  apprenticed  and  educated  some 
of  them  in  Ohio. 

This  exodus  of  the  Negroes  to  the  free  States 
promoted  the  migration  of  others  of  their  race 
to  Canada,  a  more  congenial  part  beyond  the 
borders  of  the  United  States.  The  movement 
from  the  free  States  into  Canada,  moreover, 
was  contemporary  with  that  from  the  South  to 
the  free  States  as  will  be  evidenced  by  the  fact 
that  15,000  of  the  60,000  Negroes  in  Canada  in 
1860  were  free  born.    As  Detroit  was  the  chief 

40  An  Address  to  the  People  of  North  Caroli/na  on  the  Evils 
of  Slavery. 

41  Washington,  Story  of  the  Negro,  I,  chaps,  xii,  xiii  and  xiv. 


36      A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

gateway  for  them  to  Canada,  most  of  these 
refugees  settled  in  towns  of  Southern  Ontario 
not  far  from  that  city.  These  were  Dawn,  Col- 
chester, Elgin,  Dresden,  Windsor,  Sandwich, 
Bush,  Wilberforce,  Plamilton,  St.  Catherines, 
Chatham,  Riley,  Anderton,  London,  Maiden  and 
Gonfield.^-  And  their  coming  to  Canada  was  not 
checked  even  by  request  from  their  enemies  that 
they  be  turned  away  from  that  country  as  unde- 
sirables, for  some  of  the  white  people  there  wel- 
comed and  assisted  them.  Canadians  later  ex- 
perienced a  change  in  their  attitude  toward 
these  refugees  but  these  British  Americans 
never  made  the  life  of  the  Negro  there  so  in-' 
tolerable  as  was  the  case  in  some  of  the  free 
States. 

]t  should  be  observed  here  that  this  move- 
ment, unlike  the  exodus  of  the  Negroes  of  to- 
day, affected  an  unequal  distribution  of  the  en- 
lightened Negroes."  Those  who  are  fleeing  • 
from  the  South  to-day  are  largely  laborers  seek- 
ing economic  opportunities.  The  motive  at 
work  in  the  mind  of  the  antebellum  refugee  was 
higher.  In  1840  there  were  more  intelligent 
blacks  in  the  South  than  in  the  North  but  not  so 
after  18,j0,  despite  the  vigorous  execution  of  the 
Fugitive  Slave  Law  in  some  parts  of  the  North. 
AVhilo  the  free  Negro  population  of  the  slave 

*^  Father  Ilcnson's  Story  of  his  own  Life,  p.  209;  Coffin, 
Reminm:ence8,  pp.  247-256;  Howe,  The  Refugees  from  Slavery, 
p.  77;niavilan(l,  A  Woman's  Wbrk,  pp.  192,  193,  196. 

«s  Woodson,  The  Education  of  the  Negro  Prior  to  1861  pn 
236-240.  ' 


Transplantation  to  the  North        37 

States  increased  only  23,736  from/ 1850  to  1860, 
that  of  the  free  States  increased  29,839.  In  the 
South,'  only  Delaware,  Maryland  and  North 
Carolina  showed  a  noticeable  increase  in  the 
number  of  free  persons  of  color  during  the 
decade  immediately  preceding  the  Civil  War. 
This  element  of  the  population  had  only  slightly 
increased  in  Alabama,  Kentucky,  Missouri, 
Tennessee,  Virginia,  Louisiana,  South  Carolina 
and  the  District  of  Columbia.  The  number  of 
free  Negroes  of  Florida  remained  constant. 
Those  of  Arkansas,  Mississippi  and  Texas  di- 
minished. In  the  North,  of  course,  the  migra- 
tion had  caused  the  tendency  to  be  in  the  other 
direction.  With  the  exception  of  Maine,  New 
Hampshire,  Vermont  and  New  York  which  had 
about  the  same  free  colored  population  in  1860 
as  they  had  in  1850  there  was  a  general  increase 
in  the  number  of  Negroes  in  the  free  States. 
Ohio  led  in  this  respect,  having  had  during  this 
period  an  increase  of  11,394.^^  A  glance  at  the 
table  on  the  accompanying  page  will  show  in  de- 
tail the  results  of  this  migration. 

Statistics  of  the  Free  Colored  Population  of  the  United 

States 

state  Population 

1850  1860 

Alabama    2,265  2,690 

Arkansas    608  144 

California    962  4,086 

Connecticut    7,693  8,627 

Delaware  18,073  19,829 

^  ^%  United  States  Censuses  of  1850  and  1860. 

4/; 


38      A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

Florida    ^32 

Georgia   2,931 

Illinois    ^'^^^ 

Indiana    11^262 

Iowa    222 

Kentucky    10,011 

Louisiana    17,462 

Maine    1^256 

Kansas    

Maryland    '^'4,723 

Massachusetts    9,0^4 

Michigan    2,583 

Minnesota   

Mississippi    930 

Missouri    2,618 

New  Hampshire    520 

New  Jersey   23,810 

New  York    49,069 

North  Carolina    27,463 

Ohio   25,279 

Oregon     

Pennsylvania    53,626 

Rhode  Island  3,670 

South  Carolina   8,960 

Tennessee    6,422 

Texas   397 

Vermont    718 

Virginia    54,333 

Wisconsin   635 

Territories: 

Colorado    

Dakota    

District  of  Columbia   10,059 

Minnesota   39 

Nebraska 

Nevada    

New   Mexico    207 

Oregon  24 

Utah    22 

Wnhhington     30 

ToUl   434,495  070 


932 

3,500 

7,628 

11,428 

1,069 

10,684 

18,647 

1,327 

625 

83,942 

9,602 

6,797 

259 

773 

3,572 

494 

25,318 

49,005 

30,463 

36,673 

128 

56,949 

3,952 

9,914 

7,300 

355 

709 

58,042 

1,171 

46 

0 

11,131 

67 
45 
85 

30 


CHAPTER   III 

FIGHTING  IT  OUT  ON  FREE  SOIL 

HOW,  then,  was  this  increasing  influx  of  ref- 
ugees from  the  South  to  be  received  in 
the  free  States?  In  the  older  Northern  States 
where  there  could  be  no  danger  of  an  Africani- 
zation of  a  large  district,  the  coming  of  the  Ne- 
groes did  not  cause  general  excitement,  though 
at  times  the  feeling  in  certain  localities  was  sujf- 
ficient  to  make  one  think  so.^  Fearing  that  the 
immigration  of  the  Negroes  into  the  North 
might  so  increase  their  numbers  as  to  make 
them  constitute  a  rather  important  part  in  the 
community,  however,  some  free  States  enacted 
laws  to  restrict  the  privileges  of  the  blacks. 

Free  Negroes  had  voted  in  all  the  colonies  ex- 
cept Georgia  and  South  Carolina,  if  they  had  the 
property  qualification;  but  after  the  sentiment 
attendant  upon  the  struggle  for  the  rights  of 
man  had  passed  away  there  set  in  a  reaction. ^ 
Delaware,  Maryland,  Virginia  and  Kentucky 
disfranchised  all  Negroes  not  long  after  the 
Revolution.    They  voted  in  North  Carolina  until 

1  The  New  Yorh  Daily  Advertiser,  Sept.  22,  1800 ;  The  New 
YorTc  Journal  of  Commerce,  July  12^  1834;  and  The  Netv  Yorjc 
Commercial  Advertiser,  July  12,  1834. 

2  Hart,  Slavery  and  Aiolition,  pp.  53,  82. 

4  89 


40      A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

1835,  when  the  State,  feeling  that  this  privilege 
of  one  class  of  Negroes  might  affect  the  enslave- 
ment of  the  other,  prohibited  it.  The  Northern 
States,  following  in  their  wake,  set  up  the  same 
barriers  against  the  blacks.  They  were  disfran- 
chised in  New  Jersey  in  1807,  in  Connecticut  in 
1814,  and  in  Pennsylvania  in  1838.  In  1811  New 
York  passed  an  act  requiring  the  production  of 
certificates  of  freedom  from  blacks  or  mulat- 
toes  offering  to  vote.  The  second  constitution, 
adopted  in  1823,  provided  that  no  man  of  color, 
unless  he  had  been  for  three  years  a  citizen  of 
that  State  and  for  one  year  next  preceding  any 
election,  should  be  seized  and  possessed  of  a 
freehold  estate,  should  be  allowed  to  vote,  al- 
though this  qualification  was  not  required  of 
the  whites.  An  act  of  1824  relating  to  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  Stockbridge  Indians  provided 
that  no  Negro  or  mulatto  should  vote  in  their 
councils.^ 

That  increasing  prejudice  was  to  a  great  ex- 
tent the  result  of  the  immigration  into  the  North 
of  Negroes  in  the  rough,  was  nowhere  better 
illustrated  than  in  Pennsylvania.  Prior  to  1800, 
and  especially  after  1780,  when  the  State  pro- 
vided for  gradual  emancipation,  there  was  little 
race  prejudice  in  Pennsylvania.'*     When  the  re- 

s  GoodcU,  American  Slave  Code,  Part  III,  chap,  i;  Hurd,  The 
Luw  of  Freedom  and  Bondage,  T,  pp.  51,  61,  67,  81,  89,  101,  111; 
Woodson,  The  ICducation  of  the  Negro  Prior  to  1861,  pp.  151- 
178. 

*  Benczct,  Short  Observations,  p.  12. 


Fighting  it  Out  on  Free  Soil        41 

actionary  legislation  of  tlie  South,  made  life 
intolerable  for  the  Negroes,  debasing  them  to 
the  plane  of  beasts,  many  of  the  free  people  of 
color  from  Virginia,  Maryland  and  Delaware 
moved  or  escaped  into  Pennsylvania  like  a 
steady  stream  during  the  next  sixty  years.  As 
these  Negroes  tended  to  concentrate  in  towns 
and  cities,  they  caused  the  supply  of  labor  to  ex- 
ceed the  demand,  lowering  the  wages  of  some 
and  driving  out  of  employment  a  number  of 
others  who  became  paupers  and  consequently 
criminals.  There  set  in  too  an  intense  struggle 
between  the  black  and  white  laborers,^  im- 
mensely accelerating  the  growth  of  race  prej- 
udice, especially  when  the  abolitionists  and 
Quakers  were  giving  Negroes  industrial  train- 
ing. 

The  first  exhibition  of  this  prejudice  was  seen 
among  the  lower  classes  of  white  people,  largely 
Irish  and  Germans,  who,  devoted  to  menial 
labor,  competed  directly  with  the  Negroes.  It 
did  not  require  a  long  time,  however,  for  this 
feeling  to  react  on  the  higher  classes  of  whites 
where  Negroes  settled  in  large  groups.  A 
strong  protest  arose  from  the  menace  of  Negro 
paupers.  An  attempt  was  made  in  1804  to  com- 
pel free  Negroes  to  maintain  those  that  might 
become  a  public  charge.®  In  1813  the  mayor, 
aldermen  and  citizens  of  Philadelphia  asked 

5  Turner,  The  Negro  in  Pennsylvania,  pp.  143-145. 
^Journal  of  Bouse,  18-23-24,  p.  824. 


42      A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

that  free  Negroes  be  taxed  to  support  their 
j)oor.'  Two  Philadelphia  representatives  in  the 
Pennsylvania  Legislature  had  a  committee  ap- 
jx)inte<l  in  1815  to  consider  the  advisability  of 
jireventing  the  immigration  of  Negroes.^  One 
of  the  causes  then  at  work  there  was  that  the 
black  i)opulation  had  recently  increased  to  four 
thousand  in  Philadelphia  and  more  than  four 
thousand  others  had  come  into  the  city  since 
the  previous  registration. 

They  were  arriving  much,  faster  than  they 
could  be  assimilated.  The  State  of  Pennsyl- 
vania had  about  exterminated  slavery  by  1840, 
having  only  40  slaves  that  year  and  only  a  few 
hundred  at  any  time  after  1810.  Many  of  these, 
of  course,  had  not  had  time  to  make  their  way 
in  life  as  freedmen.  To  show  how  much  the 
rapid  migration  to  that  city  aggravated  the  sit- 
uation under  these  circumstances  one  needs  but 
note  the  statistics  of  the  increase  of  the  free 
people  of  color  in  that  State.  There  were  only 
22,492  such  persons  in  Pennsylvania  in  1810, 
but  in  1820  there  were  30,202,  and  in  1830  as 
many  as  37,930.  This  number  increased  to 
47,854  by  1840,  to  53,626  by  1850,  and  to  56,949 
by  1860.  The  undesirable  aspect  of  the  situa- 
tion was  that  most  of  the  migrating  blacks  came 
in  cnide  form."  "On  arriving,"  therefore, 
says  a  cnntompornry,  ''they  abandoned  them- 

^  Journal  of  Home,  1812-1813,  pp.  481,  482. 

•Ibid.,  1H14-1815,  p.  101. 

•  United  States  Ccnmscs,  1790-1860. 


Fighting  it  Out  on  Free  Soil        43 

selves  to  all  manner  of  debauchery  and  dissi- 
pation to  the  great  annoyance  of  many  cit- 
izens. "^° 

Thereafter  followed  a  number  of  clashes  de- 
veloping finally  into  a  series  of  riots  of  a  grave 
nature.  Innocent  Negroes,  attacked  at  first  for 
purposes  of  sport  and  later  for  sinister  designs, 
were  often  badly  beaten  in  the  streets  or  even 
cut  with  knives.  The  offenders  were  not  pun- 
ished and  if  the  Negroes  defended  themselves 
they  were  usually  severely  penalized.  In  1819 
three  white  women  stoned  a  woman  of  color  to 
death. ^^  A  few  youths  entered  a  Negro  church 
in  Philadelphia  in  1825  and  by  throwing  pepper 
to  give  rise  to  suffocating  fumes  caused  a  panic 
which  resulted  in  the  death  of  several  Negroes.^  ^ 
When  the  citizens  of  New  Haven,  Connecticut, 
arrayed  themselves  in  1831  against  Ihe  plan  to 
establish  in  that  city  a  Negro  manual  labor  col- 
lege, there  was  held  in  Philadelphia  a  meeting 
which  passed  resolutions  enthusiastically  en- 
dorsing this  effort  to  rid  the  community  of  the 
evil  of  the  immigration  of  free  Negroes.  There 
arose  also  the  custom  of  driving  Negroes  away 
from  Independence  Square  on  the  Fourth  of 
July  because  they  were  neither  considered  nor 
desired  as  a  part  of  the  body  politic.^ ^ 

10  Brannagan,  Serious  Remonstrances,  p.  68. 

11  Turner,  The  Negro  in  Pennsylvania,  p.   145;    The  Phila- 
delphia Gazette,  June  30,  1819. 

12  Democratic  Press,  Philadelphia  Gazette,  Nov.  21,  1825. 

13  Turner,  The  Negro  in  Pennsylvania,  p.  146. 


44      A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

It  was  thought  that  in  the  state  of  feeling  of 
the  thirties  that  the  Negro  would  be  annihilated. 
l^e  Tocqueville  also  observed  that  the  Negroes 
were  more  detested  in  the  free  States  than  in 
those  where  they  were  held  as  slaves.^^  There 
had  been  such  a  reaction  since  1800  that  no  posi- 
tions of  consequence  were  open  to  Negroes, 
however  well  educated  they  might  be,  and  the 
education  of  the  blacks  which  was  once  vig- 
orously prosecuted  there  became  unpopular .^^ 
This  was  especially  true  of  Harrisburg  and 
Philadelphia  but  by  no  means  confined  to  large 
cities.  The  Philadelphia  press  said  nothing  in 
behalf  of  the  race.  It  was  generally  thought 
that  freedom  had  not  been  an  advantage  to  the 
Negro  and  that  instead  of  making  progress  they 
had  filled  jails  and  almshouses  and  multiplied 
l)est  holes  to  afflict  the  cities  with,  disease  and 
crime. 

The  Negroes  of  York  carefully  worked  out  in 
1S03  a  plan  to  bura  the  city.  Incendiaries  set 
on  fire  a  number  of  houses,  eleven  of  which  were 
destroyed,  whereas  there  were  other  attempts 
at  a  general  destruction  of  the  city.  The  au- 
thorities arrested  a  number  of  Negroes  but  ran 
tlie  risk  of  having  the  jail  broken  open  by  their 
Bymi>athizing  fellowmen.  After  a  reign  of  ter- 
ror for  lialf  a  week,  order  was  restored  and 
twenty  of  the  accused  were  convicted  of  arson. 

>«  Do  Tocqueville,  Democracy  in  America,  II,  pp.  292,  294. 
"  Turner,  The  Negro  in  Pennsylvania,  p.  148. 


Fighting  it  Out  on  Free  Soil        45 

In  1820  there  occurred  so  many  conflagrations 
that  a  vigilance  committee  was  organized.^® 
"Whether  or  not  the  Negroes  were  guilty  of  the 
crime  is  not  known  but  numbers  of  them  left 
either  on  account  of  the  fear  of  punishment  or 
because  of  the  indignities  to  which  they  were 
subjected.  Numerous  petitions,  therefore,  came 
before  the  legislature  to  stop  the  immigration  of 
Negroes.  It  was  proposed  in  1840  to  tax  all  free 
Negroes  to  assist  them  in  getting  out  of  the 
State  for  colonization.^"^  The  citizens  of  Lehigh 
County  asked  the  authorities  in  1830  to  expel 
all  Negroes  and  persons  of  color  found  in  the 
State.^^  Another  petition  prayed  that  they  be 
deprived  of  the  freedom  of  movement.  Bills 
embodying  these  ideas  were  frequently  consid- 
ered but  they  were  never  passed. 

Stronger  opposition  than  this,  however,  was 
manifested  in  the  form  of  actual  outbreaks  on  a 
large  scale  in  Philadelphia.  The  immediate 
cause  of  this  first  real  clash  was  the  abolition 
agitation  in  the  city  in  1834  following  the  excit- 
ing news  of  other  such  disturbances  a  few 
months  prior  tO'  this  date  in  several  northern 
cities.  A  group  of  boys  started  the  riot  by  de- 
stroying a  Negro  resort.  A  mob  then  proceeded 
to  the  Negro  district,  where  white  and  colored 
men  engaged  in  a  fight  with  clubs  and  stones. 

16  Turner,  The  Negro  in  Pennsylvania,  pp.  152,  153. 
^''African  Bepository,  VIII,  pp.  125,  283;  Journal  of  House, 
1840,  I,  pp.  347,  508',  614,  622,  623,  680. 
^s  Journal  of  Senate,  1850,  I,  pp.  454,  479. 


4G      A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

The  next  day  the  mob  ruined  the  African  Pres- 
byterian Church  and  attacked  some  Negroes,  de- 
stroying their  property  and  beating  them  merci- 
lessly. ^  This  riot  continued  for  three  days.  A 
connnittee  appointed  to  inquire  into  the  causes 
of  the  riot  reported  that  the  aim  of  the  rioters 
had  been  to  make  the  Negroes  go  away  because 
it  was  believed  that  their  labor  was  depriving 
them  of  work  and  because  the  blacks  had 
shielded  criminals  and  had  made  such  noise  and 
disorder  in  their  churches  as  to  make  them  a 
nuisance.  It  seemed  that  the  most  intelligent 
and  well-to-do  people  of  Philadelphia  keenly 
felt  it  that  the  city  had  thus  been  disgraced,  but 
the' mob  spirit  continued.^ '^ 

The  very  next  year  was  marked  by  the  same 
sort  of  disorder.  Because  a  half-witted  Negro 
attempted  to  murder  a  white  man,  a  large  mob 
stirred  up  the  city  again.  There  was  a  repeti- 
tion of  the  beating  of  Negroes  and  of  the  de- 
struction of  property  while  the  police,  as  tbe 
year  before,  were  so  inactive  as  to  give  rise  to 
the  charge  that  they  were  accessories  to  the 
riot.-"  In  1838  there  occurred  another  outbreak 
which  developed  into  an  anti-abolition  riot,  as 
the  jniblic  mind  had  been  much  exercised  by  the 
discussions  of  abolitionists  and  by  their  close 
social  contact  with  the  Negroes.    The  clash  came 

>*Thi8  is  well  narrated  in  Turner's  Negro  in  Pennsylvania, 
p.  IfiO,  and  in  Du  Bois's  The  Vhiladelphia  Negro,  p.  27. 
»«  Turner,  live  Negro  in  Pmnsylvania,  pp.  161,  162. 


Fighting  it  Out  on  Free  Soil        47 

on  txo9  seventeenth  of  May  when  Pennsylvania 
Hall,  the  center  of  abolition  agitation,  was 
burned.  Fighting  between  the  blacks  and  whites 
ensued  the  following  night  when  the  Colored 
Orphan  Asylum  was  attacked  and  a  Negro 
church  burned.  Order  was  finally  restored  for 
the  good  of  all  concerned,  but  that  a  majority  of 
the  people  sympathized  with  the  rioters  was  evi- 
denced by  the  fact  that  the  committee  charged 
with  investigating  the  disturbance  reported  that 
the  mob  was  composed  of  strangers  who  could 
not  be  recognized.^^  It  is  well  to  note  here  that 
this  riot  occurred  the  year  the  Negroes  in  Penn- 
sylvania were  disfranchised. 

Following  the  example  of  Philadelphia,  Pitts- 
burgh had  a  riot  in  1839  resulting  in  the  mal- 
treatment of  a  number  of  Negroes  and  the  de- 
molishing of  some  of  their  houses.  When  the 
Negroes  of  Philadelphia  paraded  the  city  in 
1842,  celebrating  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the 
West  Indies,  there  ensued  a  battle  led  by  the 
whites  who  undertook  to  break  up  the  proces- 
sion. Along  with  the  beating  and  killing  of  the 
usual  number  went  also  the  destruction  of  the 
New  African  Hall  and  the  Negro  Presbyterian 
church.  The  grand  jury  charged  with  the  in- 
quiry into  the  causes  reported  that  the  proces- 
sion was  to  be  blamed.  For  several  years  there- 
after the  city  remained  quiet  until  1849  when 
there  occurred  a  raid  on  the  blacks  by  the  Killers 

21  Turner,  The  Negro  in  Pennsylvania,  pp.  162,  163. 


48      A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

of  Moyamensing,  using  firearms  with  Vxiich 
many  were  wounded.  This  disturbance  was 
finally  quelled  by  aid  of  the  militia.^^ 

These  clashes  sometimes  reached  farther 
north  than  the  free  States  bordering  on  the 
slave  commonwealths.  Mobs  broke  up  aboli- 
tion meetings  in  the  city  of  New  York  in  1834 
when  there  were  sent  to  Congress  numerous  pe- 
titions for  the  abolition  of  slavery.  This  mob 
even  assailed  such  eminent  citizens  as  Arthur 
and  Lewis  Tappan,  mainly  on  account  of  their 
friendly  attitude  toward  the  Negroes. ^^  On  Oc- 
tober 21,  1834,  the  same  feeling  developed  in 
Utica,  where  was  to  be  held  an  anti-slavery 
meeting  according  to  previous  notice.  The  six 
hundred  delegates  who  assembled  there  were 
warned  to  disband.  A  mob  then  organized  itself 
and  drove  the  delegates  from  the  town.  That 
same  month  the  people  of  Palmyra,  New  York, 
held  a  meeting  at  which  they  adopted  resolu- 
tions to  the  effect  that  owners  of  houses  or  ten- 
ements in  that  town  occupied  by  blacks  of  the 
character  complained  of  be  requested  to  use  all 
their  rightful  means  to  clear  their  premises  of 
such  occupants  at  the  earliest  possible  period; 
and  that  it  be  recommended  that  such  pro- 
prietors refuse  to  rent  the  same  thereafter  to 
any  person  of  color  whatever.^^    In  New  York 

"Turner,    Tin;   Negro    in   Vennsylvania,    p.    163;    and    The 
Liberator,  July  4,  1835. 

"  The  Liberator,  Oct.  24,  1834. 
"  Ibid.,  October  24,  1834. 


Fighting  it  Out  on  Free  Soil        49 

Negroes  were  excluded  from  places  of  amuse- 
ment and  public  conveyances  and  segregated 
in  places  of  worship.  In  the  draft  riots  which 
occurred  there  in  1863,  one  of  the  aims  of  the 
mobs  was  to  assassinate  Negroes  and  to  destroy 
their  property.  They  burned  the  Colored  Or- 
plan  Asylum  of  that  city  and  hanged  Negroes 
to  lamp-posts. 

The  situation  in  parts  of  New  England  was 
not  much  better.  For  fear  of  the  evils  of  an 
increasing  population  of  free  persons  of  color 
the  people  of  Canaan,  New  Hampshire,  broke 
up  the  Noyes  Academy  because  it  decided  to 
admit  Negro  students,  thinking  that  many  of 
the  race  might  thereby  be  encouraged  to  come  to 
that  State.-^  When  Prudence  Crandall  estab- 
lished in  Canterbury,  Connecticut,  an  academy 
to  which  she  decided  to  admit  Negroes,  the 
mayor,  selectmen  and  citizens  of  the  city  pro- 
tested, and  when  their  protests  failed  to  deter 
this  heroine,  they  induced  the  legislature  to  en- 
act a  special  law  covering  the  case  and  invoked 
the  measure  to  have  Prudence  Crandall  impris- 
oned because  she  would  not  desist.^^    This  very 

25  Jay,  An  Inquiry,  pp.  28-29. 

26  An  Act  in  Addition  to  an  Act  for  the  Admission  cmd  Set- 
tlement of  Inhabitants  of  Towns. 

1.  Whereas  attempts  have  been  made  to  establish  literary- 
institutions  in  this  State  for  the  instruction  of  colored  people 
belonging  to  other  States  and  countries,  which  would  tend  to 
the  great  increase  of  the  colored  population  of  the  State,  and 
thereby  to  the  injury  of  the  people,  therefore; 


50      A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

law  and  the  arguments  upholding  it  justified  the 
drastic  measure  on  the  ground  that  an  increase 

Be  it  resolved  that  no  person  shall  set  up  or  establish  in  this 
State,  any  school,  academy,  or  literary  institution  for  the 
instruction  or  education  of  colored  persons,  who  are  not  inhab- 
itants of  this  State,  nor  instruct  or  teach  in  any  school,  acad- 
emy, or  other  literary  institution  whatever  in  this  State,  or 
harbor  or  board  for  the  purpose  of  attending  or  being  taught 
or  instructed  in  any  such  schoolj  academy,  or  other  literary 
institution,  any  person  who  is  not  an  inhabitant  of  any  town  in 
this  State,  without  the  consent  in  writing,  first  obtained  of  a 
majority  of  the  civil  authority,  and  also  of  the  selectmen  of  the 
town  in  which  such  schools,  academy,  or  literary  institution  is 
situated;  and  each  and  every  person  who  shall  knowingly  do 
any  act  forbidden  as  aforesaid,  or  shall  be  aiding  or  assisting 
therein,  shall  for  the  first  offense  forfeit  and  pay  to  the  treas- 
urer of  this  State  a  fine  of  one  hundred  dollars  and  for  the 
second  ofifense  shall  forfeit  and  pay  a  fine  of  two  hundred  dol- 
lars, and  so  double  for  every  offense  of  which  he  or  she  shall  be 
convicted.  And  all  informing  officers  are  required  to  make 
due  presentment  of  all  breaches  of  this  act.  Provided  that 
nothing  in  this  act  shall  extend  to  any  district  school  estab- 
lished in  any  school  society  under  the  laws  of  this  State  or  to 
any  incorporated  school  for  instruction  in  this  State. 

2.  Any  colored  person  not  an  inhabitant  of  this  State  who 
shall  reside  in  any  town  therein  for  the  purpose  of  being  in- 
structed as  aforesaid,  may  be  removed  in  the  manner  prescribed 
in  the  sixth  and  seventh  sections  of  the  act  to  which  this  is  an 
addition. 

3.  Any  person  not  an  inhabitant  of  this  State  who  shall 
reside  in  any  town  therein  for  the  purpose  of  being  instructed 
an  aforesaid,  shall  be  an  admissible  witness  in  all  prosecutions 
under  the  first  section  of  this  act,  and  may  be  compelled  to 
givo  testimony  therein,  notwithstanding  anything  in  this  act, 
or  in  the  act  last  aforesaid. 

4.  That  80  much  of  the  seventh  section  of  this  act  to  which 
thin  is  an  addition  as  may  provide  for  the  infliction  of  cor- 
poral punishment,  be  and  the  same  is  hereby  repealed.— See 
Kurd's  Law  of  Freedom  and  Bondage,  II,  pp.  45-46. 


Fighting  it  Out  on  Free  Soil        51 

in  the  colored  population  would  be  an  injury  to 
the  people  of  that  State. 

In  the  new  commonwealths  formed  out  of  west- 
ern territory,  there  was  the  same  fear  as  to 
Negro  domination  and  consequently  there  fol- 
lowed the  wave  of  legislation  intended  in  some 
cases  not  only  to  withhold  from  the  Negro  set- 
tlers the  exercise  of  the  rights  of  citizenship  but 
to  discourage  and  even  to  prevent  them  from 
coming  into  their  territory.^^  The  question  as 
to  what  should  be  done  with  the  Negro  was  early 
an  issue  in  Ohio.  It  came  up  in  the  constitu- 
tional convention  of  1803,  and  provoked  some 
discussion,  but  that  body  considered  it  sufficient 
to  settle  the  matter  for  the  time  being  by  merely 
leaving  the  Negroes,  Indians  and  foreigners  out 
of  the  pale  of  the  newly  organized  body  politic 
by  conveniently  incorporating  the  word  white 
throughout  the  constitution.^^  It  was  soon  evi- 
dent, however,  that  the  matter  had  not  been 
settled,  and  the  legislature  of  1804  had  to  give 
serious  consideration  to  the  immigration  of  Ne- 
groes into  that  State.  It  was,  therefore,  enacted 
that  no  Negro  or  mulatto  should  remain  there 
permanently,  unless  he  could  furnish  a  certificate 
of  freedom  issued  by  some  court,  that  all  Ne- 
groes in  that  commonwealth  should  be  regis- 

27  So  many  Negroes  working  on  the  rivers  between  the  slave 
and  free  States  helped  fugitives  to  escape  that  there  arose  a 
clamor  for  the  discourage  of  colored  employees. 

28  Constitution  of  Ohio,  article  I,  sections  2,  6.  The  Journal 
of  Negro  Sistory,  I,  p.  2. 


52      A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

tered  before  the  following  June,  and  that  no 
man  should  employ  a  Negro  who  failed  to  com- 
ply with  these  conditions.  Should  one  be  de- 
tected in  hiring,  harboring  or  hindering  the  cap- 
ture of  a  fugitive  black,  he  was  liable  to  a  fine 
of  $50  and  his  master  could  recover  pay  for  the 
service  of  his  slave  to  the  amount  of  fifty  cents 
a  day.2* 

As  this  legislature  did  not  meet  the  demands 
of  those  who  desired  further  to  discourage 
Negro  immigration,  the  Legislature  of  1807  was 
induced  to  enact  a  law  to  the  effect  that  no  Negro 
should  be  permitted  to  settle  in  Ohio,  unless  he 
could  within  20  days  give  a  bond  to  the  amount 
of  $500  for  his  good  behavior  and  assurance  that 
he  would  not  become  a  public  charge.  This 
measure  provided  also  for  raising  the  fine  for 
concealing  a  fugitive  from  $50  to  $100,  one  half 
of  which  should  go  to  the  person  upon  the  tes- 
timony of  whom  the  conviction  should  be  se- 
cured.^"^  Negro  evidence  in  a  case  to  which  a 
white  was  a  party  was  declared  illegal.  In  1830 
Negroes  were  excluded  from  service  in  the  State 
militia,  in  1831  they  were  deprived  of  the  priv- 
ilege of  sennng  on  juries,  and  in  1838  they  were 
denied  the  right  of  having  their  children  edu- 
catcHl  at  the  expense  of  the  State.^i 

In  Indiana  the  situation  was  worse  than  in 

a"  Laws  of  Ohio,  II,  p.  53. 
to  Jmwh  of  Ohio,  V,  p.  53. 
•>  Hitchcock,  The  Negro  in  Ohio,  pp.  41,  42. 


Fighting  it  Out  on  Free  Soil        53 

Ohio.  We  have  already  noted  above  how  the 
settlers  in  the  southern  part  endeavored  to  make 
that  a  slave  State.  When  that  had,  after  all  but 
being  successful,  seemed  impossible  the  State 
enacted  laws  to  prevent  or  discourage  the  influx 
of  free  Negroes  and  to  restrict  the  privileges  of 
those  already  there.  In  1824  a  stringent  law  for 
the  return  of  fugitives  was  passed.^^  The  ex- 
pulsion of  free  Negroes  was  a  matter  of  concern 
and  in  1831  it  was  provided  that  unless  they 
could  give  bond  for  their  behavior  and  support 
they  could  be  removed.  Otherwise  the  county 
overseers  could  hire  out  such  Negroes  to  the 
highest  bidder.^3  Negroes  were  not  allowed  to 
attend  schools  maintained  at  the  public  expense, 
might  not  give  evidence  against  a  white  man 
and  could  not  intermarry  with  white  persons. 
They  might,  however,  serve  as  witnesses  against 
Negroes.^* 

In  the  same  way  the  free  Negroes  met  dis- 
couragement in  Illinois.  They  suffered  from  all 
the  disabilities  imposed  on  their  class  in  Ohio 
and  Indiana  and  were  denied  the  right  to 
sue  for  their  liberty  in  the  courts.  When  there 
arose  many  abolitionists  who  encouraged  the 
coming  of  the  fugitives  from  labor  in  the  South, 
one  element  of  the  citizens  of  Illinois  unwilling 
to  accept  this  unusual  influx  of  members  of  an- 

32  Eevised  Laws  of  Indiana,  1831,  p.  278. 

33  Perkins,  A  Digest  of  the  Declaration  of  the  Supreme  Court 
of  Indiana,  p.  590.     Laws  of  1853,  p.  60. 

34  Gavin  and  Hordj  Indiana  Eevised  Statutes,  1862,  p.  452. 


54      A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

other  race  passed  the  drastic  law  of  1853  pro- 
hibiting the  immigration.  It  provided  for  the 
prosecution  of  any  person  bringing  a  Negro  into 
the  State  and  also  for  arresting  and  fining  any 
Negro  $50,  should  he  appear  there  and  remain 
longer  than  ten  da5\s.  If  he  proved  to  be  unable 
to  pay  the  fine,  he  could  be  sold  to  any  person 
who  could  pay  the  cost  of  the  trial.^^ 

In  Michigan  the  situation  was  a  little  better 
but,  with  the  waves  of  hostile  legislation  then 
sweeping  over  the  new^^  commonwealths,  Mich- 
igan was  not  allowed  to  constitute  altogether 
an  exception.  Some  of  this  intense  feeling 
found  expression  in  the  form  of  a  law  hostile  to 
the  Negro,  this  being  the  act  of  1827,  which  pro- 
vided for  the  registration  of  all  free  persons  of 
color  and  for  the  exclusion  from  the  territory  of 
all  blacks  who  could  not  jDroduce  a  certificate  to 
the  effect  that  they  were  free.  Free  persons  of 
color  were  also  required  to  file  bonds  with  one 
or  more  freehold  sureties  in  the  penal  sum  of 
$500  for  their  good  behavior,  and  the  bondsmen 

85  Illinois  Statutes,  1853,  sections  1-4,  p.  8. 

3«In  1760  there  were  both  African  and  Pawnee  slaves  in 
Detroit,  96  of  them  in  1773  and  175  in  1782.  The  usual  effort 
to  have  slavcrj'  legalized  was  made  in  1773.  There  were  seven- 
teen slaves  in  Detroit  in  1810  held  by  virtue  of  the  exceptions 
made  under  the  British  rule  prior  to  the  ratification  of  Jay's 
treaty.  Advertisements  of  runaway  slaves  appeared  in  Detroit 
papers  as  late  as  1S27.  Furthermore,  there  were  thirty-two 
BlavcH  in  Michigan  in  1830  but  by  1836  all  had  died  or  had 
Wen  manumitted.— See  Farmer,  History  of  Detroit  and  Michi- 
gan, I,  p.  344. 


Fighting  it  Out  on  Ft^ee  Soil        55 

were  expected  to  provide  for  their  maintenance, 
if  tliey  failed  to  support  themselves.  Failure  to 
comply  with  this  law  meant  expulsion  from  the 
territory.^^ 

The  opposition  to  the  Negroes  immigrating 
into  the  new  West  was  not  restricted  to  the  en- 
actment of  laws  which  in  some  cases  were  never 
enforced.  Several  communities  took  the  law 
into  their  own  hands.  During  these  years  when 
the  Negroes  were  seeking  freedom  in  the  North- 
west Territory  and  when  free  blacks  were  be- 
ing established  there  by  .philanthropists,  it 
seemed  to  the  southern  uplanders  fleeing  from 
slavery  in  the  border  States  and  foreigners 
seeking  fortunes  in  the  new  world  that  they 
might  possibly  be  crowded  out  of  this  new  ter- 
ritory by  the  Negroes.  Frequent  clashes,  there- 
fore, followed  after  they  had  passed  through  a 
period  of  toleration  and  dependence  on  the  ex- 
ecution of  the  hostile  laws.  The  clashes  of  the 
greatest  consequences  occurred  in  the  Northwest 
Territory  where  a  larger  number  of  uplanders 
from  the  South  had  gone,  some  to  escape  the  ill 
effects  of  slavery,  and  others  to  hold  slaves  if 
possible,  and  when  that  seemed  impossible,  to 
exclude  the  blacks  altogether.^^  This  persecu- 
tion of  the  Negroes  received  also  the  hearty  co- 

37  Laws  of  Michigan,  1827 ;  and  Campbell,  Political  History 
of  Michigan,  p.  246. 

^&  Proceedings  of  the  Ohio  Anti-Slavery  Convention,  1835, 
p.  19. 

5 


50       A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

operation  of  the  foreign  element,  who,  being  an 
undeveloped  class,  had  to  do  menial  labor  in 
competition  with  the  blacks.  The  feeling  of  the 
foreigners  was  especially  mischievous  for  the 
reasons  that  they  were,  like  the  Negroes,  at  first 
settled  in  large  numbers  in  urban  communities. 
Generally  speaking,  the  feeling  was  like  that 
exhibited  by  the  Germans  in  Mercer  County, 
Ohio.  The  citizens  of  this  frontier  community, 
in  registering  their  protest  against  the  settling 
of  Negroes  there,  adopted  the  following  resolu- 
tions: 

Resolved,  That  we  will  not  live  among  Negroes,  as 
we  have  settled  here  first,  we  have-  fully  determined 
that  we  will  resist  the  settlement  of  blacks  and  mulat- 
toes  in  this  county  to  the  full  extent  of  our  means,  the 
bayonet  not  excepted. 

Resolved,  That  the  blacks  of  this  county  be,  and 
they  are  hereby  respectfully  requested  to  leave  the 
country  on  or  before  the  first  day  of  March,  1847 ;  and 
in  the  ease  of  their  neglect  or  refusal  to  comply  with 
this  request,  we  pledge  ourselves  to  remove  them, 
peace fnlhj  if  we  can,  forcibly  if  we  must. 

Resolved,  That  we  who  are  here  assembled,  pledge 
ourselves  not  to  employ  or  trade  with  any  black  or 
mulatto  person,  in  any  manner  whatever,  or  permit 
them  to  have  any  grinding  done  at  our  mills,  after  the 
first  day  of  January  next.^* 

In  1827  there  arose  a  storm  of  protest  on  the 
occasion  of  the  settling  of  seventy  freedmen  in 

«»  African  Bcpository,  XXTII,  p.  70. 


Fighting  it  Out  on  Free  Soil        57 

Lawrence  County,  Ohio,  by  a  philanthropic  mas- 
ter of  Pittsylvania  County,  Virginia.^^  On 
Black  Friday,  January  1,  1830,  eighty  Negroes 
were  driven  out  of  Portsmouth,  Ohio,  at  the  re- 
quest of  one  or  two  hundred  white  citizens  set 
forth  in  an  urgent  memorial.^^  So  many  Ne- 
groes during  these  years  concentrated  at  Cin- 
cinnati that  the  laboring  element  forced  the  exe- 
cution of  the  almost  dead  law  requiring  free 
Negroes  to  produce  certificates  and  give  bonds 
for  their  behavior  and  support.^^  ^  j^nob  at- 
tacked the  homes  of  the  blacks,  killed  a  number 
of  them,  and  forced  twelve  hundred  others  to 
leave  for  Canada  West,  where  they  established 
the  settlement  known  as  Wilberforce. 

In  1836  another  mob  attacked  and  destroyed 
there  the  press  of  James  Gr.  Birney,  the  editor 
of  the  Philanthropist,  because  of  the  encourage- 
ment his  abolitionist  organ  gave  to  the  immi- 
grating Negroes.^3  But  in  1841  came  a  decid- 
edly systematic  effort  on  the  part  of  foreigners 
and  proslavery  sympathizers  to  kill  off  and 
drive  out  the  Negroes  who  were  becoming  too 
well  established  in  that  city  and  who  were  giv- 
ing offense  to  white  men  who  desired  to  deal 
with  them  as  Negroes  were  treated  in  the  South.  • 
The  city  continued  in  this  excited  state  for  about 
a  week.     There  were  brought  into  play  in  the 

40  Ohio  state  Journal,  May  3,  1827. 

41  Evans,  A  History  of  Sciote  County,  Ohio,  p.  643. 

42  African  Eepository,  Y,  p.  185. 

43  Howe,  Historical  Collections,  pp.  225-226. 


58       A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

upheaval  the  police  of  tlie  city  and  the  State 
militia  before  the  shooting  of  the  Negroes  and 
burning  of  their  homes  could  be  checked.  So 
far  as  is  known,  no  white  men  were  punished, 
although  a  few  of  them  were  arrested.  Some 
Negroes  were  committed  to  prison  during  the 
fray.  They  were  thereafter  either  discharged 
upon  producing  certificates  of  nativity  or  giving 
bond  or  were  indefinitely  held.^'* 

In  southern  Indiana  and  Illinois  the  same 
condition  obtained.  Observing  the  situation  in 
Indiana,  a  contributor  of  Niles  Register  re- 
marked, in  1818,  upon  the  arrival  there  of  sixty 
or  seventy  liberated  Negroes  sent  by  the  society 
of  Friends  of  North  Carolina,  that  they  were  a 
species  of  population  that  was  not  acceptable  to 
the  people  of  that  State,  ''nor  indeed  to  any 
other,  whether  free  or  slaveholding,  for  they  can- 
not rise  and  become  like  other  men,  unless  in 
countries  where  their  own  color  predominates, 
but  miist  always  remain  a  degraded  and  inferior 
class  of  persons  without  the  hope  of  much  bet- 
tering their  condition. "^^ 

The  Indiana  Farmer,  voicing  the  sentiment 
of  that  same  community,  regretted  the  increase 
of  this  population  that  seemed  to  be  enlarging 
the  number  sent  to  that  territory.  The  editor 
insisted  that  the  community  which  enjoys  the 

<«  Jhid.,  p.  226,  and  The  Cincirmati  Daily  Gazette,  Sept.  14, 
1841. 
*iiNUcs  Hegister,  XXX,  416. 


Fighting  it  Out  on  Free  Soil        59 

benefits  of  the  blacks'  labor  should  also  suffer 
all  the  consequences.  Since  the  people  of  In- 
diana derived  no  advantage  from  slavery,  he 
begged  that  they  be  excused  from  its  inconveni- 
ences. Most  of  the  blacks  that  migrated  there, 
moreover,  possessed,  thought  he,  ''feelings  quite 
unprepared  to  make  good  citizens.  A  sense  of 
inferiority  early  impressed  on  their  minds,  des- 
titute of  every  thing  but  bodily  power  and  hav- 
ing no  character  to  lose,  and  no  prospect  of  ac- 
quiring one,  even  did  they  know  its  value,  they 
are  prepared  for  the  commission  of  any  act, 
when  the  prospect  of  evading  punishment  is 
favorable. '  '''^ 

With  the  exception  of  such  centers  as  Eden, 
Upper  Alton,  Bellville  and  Chicago,  this  antag- 
onistic attitude  was  general  also  in  the  State  of 
Illinois.  The  Negroes  were  despised,  abused  and 
maltreated  as  persons  who  had  no  rights  that 
the  white  man  should  respect.  Even  in  Detroit, 
Michigan,  in  1833  a  fracas  was  started  by  an  at- 
tack on  Negroes.  Because  a  courageous  group 
of  them  had  effected  the  rescue  and  escape  of 
one  Thornton  Blackburn  and  his  wife  who  had 
been  arrested  by  the  sheriff  as  alleged  fugitives 
from  Kentucky,  the  citizens  invoked  the  law  of 
1827,  to  require  free  Negroes  to  produce  a  cer- 
tificate and  furnish  bonds  for  their  behavior  and 
support.^'^     The   anti-slavery   sentiment  there, 

^^NUes  Begister,  XXX,  416;  African  depository,  III,  p.  25. 
47  Farmer,  History  of  Detroit  and  Michigan,  I,  chap.  48. 


GO      A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

however,  was  so  strong  tliat  the  law  was  not  long 
rigidly  enforced.-*^  And  so  it  was  in  several 
other  parts  of  the  West  which,  however,  were 
exceptional."*" 

«8  There  was  the  usual  effort  to  have  slavery  legalized  in 
Michigan.  At  the  time  of  the  fire  in  1805  there  were  six 
colored  men  and  nine  colored  women  in  the  town  of  Detroit. 
In  1807  there  were  so  many  of  them  that  Governor  Hiill 
organized  a  company  of  colored  militia.  Joseph  Campan 
owned  ten  at  one  time.  The  importation  of  slaves  was  dis- 
continued after  September  17,  1792^  by  act  of  the  Canadian 
Parliament  which  provided  also  that  all  born  thereafter  should 
be  free  at  the  age  of  twenty-five.  The  Ordinance  of  1787  had 
by  its  sixth  article  prohibited  it. 

<»  In  1836  a  colored  man  traveling  in  the  West  to  Cleveland 
said: 

"I  have  met  with  good  treatment  at  every  place  on  my 
journey,  even  better  than  what  I  expected  under  present  cir- 
cumstances. I  will  relate  an  incident  that  took  place  on  board 
the  steamboat,  which  will  give  an  idea  of  the  kind  treatment 
with  which  I  have  met.  When  I  took  the  boat  at  Erie,  it  being 
rainy  and  somewhat  disagreeable,  I  took  a  cabin  passage,  to 
which  the  captain  had  not  the  least  objection.  When  dinner 
was  announced,  I  intended  not  to  go  to  the  first  table  but  the 
mate  came  and  urged  me  to  take  a  seat.  I  accordingly  did  and 
was  called  upon  to  carve  a  large  saddle  of  beef  which  was 
before  me.  This  I  performed  accordingly  to  the  best  of  my 
ability.  No  one  of  the  company  manifested  any  objection  or 
seemed  anyA^'ays  disturbed  by  my  presence." — Extract  of  a 
letter  from  a  colored  gentleman  traveling  to  the  West,  Cleve- 
land, Ohio,  August  11,  1836.— See  The  FMlanthropist,  Oct.  21, 
1636. 


CHAPTER   IV 

COLONIZATION  AS  A  EEMEDY  FOR  MIGRATION 

BECAUSE  of  these  untoward  circumstances 
consequent  to  the  immigration  of  free 
Negroes  and  fugitives  into  the  North,  their  en- 
emies, and  in  some  cases  their  well-intentioned 
friends,  advocated  the  diversion  of  these  ele- 
ments to  foreign  soil.  Benezet  and  Brannagan 
had  the  idea  of  settling  the  Negroes  on  the  pub- 
lic lands  in  the  West  largely  to  relieve  the  sit- 
uation in  the  North.^  Certain  anti-slavery  men 
of  Kentucky,  as  we  have  observed,  recommended 
the  same.  But  this  was  hardly  advocated  at  all 
by  the  farseeing  white  men  after  the  close  of 
the  first  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century.  It 
was  by  that  time  very  clear  that  white  men 
would  want  to  occupy  all  lands  within  the  pres- 
ent limits  of  the  United  States.  Few  statesmen 
dared  to  encourage  migration  to  Canada  because 
the  large  number  of  fugitives  who  had  al- 
ready escaped  there  had  attached  to  that  region 
the  stigma  of  being  an  asylum  for  fugitives 
from  the  slave  States. 

The  most  influential  people  who  gave  thought 
to  this  question  finally  decided  that  the  coloniza- 
tion of  the  Negro  in  Africa  was  the  only  solu- 

1  The  African  Eepository,  XVI,  p.  22. 

61 


02       A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

tion  of  the  problem.  The  plan  of  African  col- 
onization appealed  more  generally  to  the  people 
of  both  North  and  South  than  the  other  efforts, 
which,  at  best,  could  do  no  more  than  to  offer 
local  or  temporary  relief.  The  African  coloni- 
zationists  proceeded  on  the  basis  that  the  Ne- 
groes had  no  chance  for  racial  development  in 
this  country.  They  could  secure  no  kind  of 
honorable  employment,  could  not  associate  with 
congenial  white  friends  whose  minds  and  pur- 
suits might  operate  as  a  stimulus  upon  their  in- 
dustry and  could  not  rise  to  the  level  of  the  suc- 
cessful professional  or  business  men  found 
around  them.  In  short,  they  must  ever  be 
hewers  of  wood  and  drawers  of  water.^ 

To  emphasize  further  the  necessity  of  emi- 
gration to  Africa  the  advocates  of  deportation 
to  foreign  soil  generally  referred  to  the  condi- 
tion of  the  migrating  Negroes  as  a  case  in  evi- 
dence. *'So  long,"  said  one,  "as  you  must  sit, 
stand,  walk,  ride,  dwell,  eat  and  sleep  here  and 
the  Negro  there,  he  cannot  be  free  in  any  part 
of  the  country.  "3  This  idea  working  through 
the  minds  of  northern  men,  who  had  for  years 
thought  merely  of  the  injustice  of  slavery,  be- 
gan to  change  their  attitude  toward  the  aboli- 
tionists who  had  never  undertaken  to  solve  the 
problem  of  the  blacks  who  were  seeking  refuge 

:  The  African  Hepository,  XVI,  p.  23;  Alexander,  A  History 
of  Colonuration,  p.  347. 
»/6W.,  XVr,  p.  113. 


Colonization  a  Remedy  for  Migration  63 

in  the  North.  Many  thinkers  controlling  pub- 
lic opinion  then  gave  audience  to  the  coloniza- 
tionists  and  circles  once  closed  to  them  were 
thereafter  opened.^ 

There  was,  therefore,  a  tendency  toward  a 
more  systematic  effort  than  had  hitherto  char- 
acterized the  endeavors  of  the  colonizationists. 
The  objects  of  their  philanthropy  were  not  to 
be  stolen  away  and  hurried  off  to  an  uncongenial 
land  for  the  oppressed.  They  were  in  accord- 
ance with  the  exigencies  of  their  new  situation 
to  be  prepared  by  instruction  in  mechanic  arts, 
agriculture,  science  and  Biblical  literature  that 
some  might  lead  in  the  higher  pursuits  and 
others  might  skilfully  serve  their  fellows.^ 
Private  enterprise  was  at  first  depended  on  to 
carry  out  the  schemes  but  it  soon  became  evi- 
dent that  a  better  method  was  necessary.  Fi- 
nally out  of  the  proposals  of  various  thinkers 
and  out  of  the  actual  colonization  feats  of  Paul 
Cuffe,  a  Negro,  came  a  national  meeting  for 
this  purpose,  held  in  Washington,  December, 
1816,  and  the  organization  of  the  American  Col- 
onization Society.  This  meeting  was  attended 
by  some  of  the  most  prominent  men  in  the 
United  States,  among  whom  were  Henry  Clay, 
Francis  S.  Key,  Bishop  William  Meade,  John 
Randolph  and  Judge  Bushrod  Washington. 

4  Jay,  An  Inquiry,  pp.  25,  29 ;  Hodgkin,  An  Inquiry,  p.  31. 

5  The  African  Bepository,  IV,  p.  276;   Griffin,  A  Flea  for 
Africa,  p.  65. 


64      A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

The  American  Colonization  Society,  however, 
failed  to  facilitate  the  movement  of  the  free 
Negro  from  the  South  and  did  not  promote  the 
general  welfare  of  the  race.  The  reasons  for 
these  failures  are  many.  In  the  first  place,  the 
society  was  all  things  to  all  men.  To  the  anti- 
slavery  man  whose  ardor  had  been  dampened 
by  the  meagre  results  obtained  by  his  agitation, 
the  scheme  was  the  next  best  thing  to  remove 
the  objections  of  slaveholders  who  had  said  they 
would  emancipate  their  bondsmen,  if  they  could 
be  assured  of  their  being  deported  to  foreign 
soil.  To  the  radical  proslavery  man  and  to  the 
northerner  hating  the  Negro  it  was  well 
adapted  to  rid  the  country  of  the  free  persons 
of  color  whom  they  regarded  as  the  pariahs  of 
society."  Furthermore,  although  the  Coloniza- 
tion Society  became  seemingly  popular  and  the 
various  States  organized  branches  of  it  and 
raised  money  to  promote  the  movement,  the 
slaveholders  as  a  majority  never  reached  the 
position  of  parting  with  their  slaves  and  the 
country  would  not  take  such  radical  action  as  to 
compel  free  Negroes  to  undergo  expatriation 
when  militant  abolitionists  were  fearlessly  de- 
nouncing the  scheme."^ 

The  free  people  of  color  themselves  were  not 
only  not  anxious  to  go  but  bore  it  grievously 

«Jay,  An  Inquiry,  passim;   The  Journal  of  Negro  History, 
I,  F'p.  27G-301 ;  and  Stebbins,  Facts  and  Opinions,  pp.  200-201. 
^  Hart,  Slavery  and  Abolitioti,  p.  237. 


Colonization  a  Remedy  for  Migration  65 

that  any  one  should  even  suggest  that  they 
should  be  driven  from  the  country  in  which  they 
were  born  and  for  the  independence  of  which 
their  fathers  had  died.  They  held  indignation 
meetings  throughout  the  North  to  denounce  the 
scheme  as  a  selfish  policy  inimical  to  the  inter- 
ests of  the  people  of  color.^  Branded  thus  as 
the  inveterate  foe  of  the  blacks  both  slave  and 
free,  the  American  Colonization  Society  effected 
the  deportation  of  only  such  Negroes  as  south- 
ern masters  felt  disposed  to  emancipate  from 
time  to  time  and  a  few  others  induced  to  go.  As 
the  industrial  revolution  early  changed  the  as- 
pect of  the  economic  situation  in  the  South  so 
as  to  make  slavery  seemingly  profitable,  few 
masters  ever  thought  of  liberating  their  slaves. 

Scarcely  any  intelligent  Negroes  except  those 
who,  for  economic  or  religious  reasons  were  in- 
terested, availed  themselves  of  this  opportunity 
to  go  to  the  land  of  their  ancestors.  From  the 
reports  of  the  Colonization  Society  we  learn  that 
from  1820  to  1833  only  2,885  Negroes  were  sent 
to  Africa  by  the  Society.  Furthermore,  more 
than  2,700  of  this  number  were  taken  from  the 
slave  States,  and  about  two  thirds  of  these  were 
slaves  manumitted  on  the  condition  that  they 
would  emigrate.^  Later  statistics  show  the 
same  tendency.     By  1852,  7,836  had  been  de- 

8  The  Journal  of  Negro  History,  I,  pp.  284-296;  Garrison, 
Thoughts  on  Colonization,  p.  204. 

s  The  African  Eepository,  XXXIII,  p.  1 17. 


GG      A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

l)ortGd  from  the  United  States  to  Liberia.  2,720 
of  these  were  born  free,  204  purchased  their 
freedom,  3,868  were  emancipated  in  view  of 
their  going  to  Liberia  and  1,044  were  liberated 
Africans  returned  by  the  United  States  Gov- 
ernment.^'' Considering  the  fact  that  there  were 
434,495  free  persons  of  color  in  this  country  in 
1850  and  488,070  in  1860,  the  colonizationists 
saw  that  the  very  element  of  the  population 
which  the  movement  was  intended  to  send  out 
of  the  country  had  increased  rather  than  de- 
creased. It  is  clear,  then,  that  the  American 
Colonization  Society,  though  regarded  as  a  fac- 
tor to  play  an  important  part  in  promoting  the 
exodus  of  the  free  Negroes  to  foreign  soil,  was 
an  inglorious  failure. 

Colonization  in  other  quarters,  however,  was 
not  abandoned.  A  colony  of  Negroes  in  Texas 
was  contemplated  in  1833  prior  to  the  time  when 
the  republic  became  independent  of  Mexico,  as 
slavery  was  not  at  first  assured  in  that  State. 
The  Neiv  York  Commercial  Advertiser  had  no 
objection  to  the  enterprise  but  felt  that  there 
were  natural  obstacles  such  as  a  more  expensive 
conveyance  than  that  to  Monrovia,  the  high 
l)rice  of  land  in  that  country,  the  Catholic  re- 
ligion to  which  Negroes  were  not  accustomed  to 
conform,  and  their  lack  of  knowledge  of  the 
Spanish  language.  The  editor  observed  that 
some  who  had  emigrated  to  Hayti  a  few  years 

JO  The  African  Bepository,  XXIII,  p.  117. 


Colonization  a  Remedy  for  Migration  67 

before  became  discontented  because  tliey  did  not 
know  the  language.  Louisiana,  a  slave  State, 
moreover,  would  not  suffer  near  its  borders  a 
free  Negro  republic  to  serve  as  an  asylum  for 
refugees."  Tbe  Richmond  Whig  saw  the  actual 
situation  in  dubbing  the  scheme  as  chimerical 
for  the  reason  that  a  more  unsuitable  country 
for  the  blacks  did  not  exist.  Socially  and  polit- 
ically it  would  never  suit  the  Negroes.  Already 
a  great  number  of  adventurers  from  the  United 
States  had  gone  to  Texas  and  fugitives  from 
justice  from  Mexico,  a  fierce,  lawless  and  tur- 
bulent class,  would  give  the  Negroes  little 
chance  there,  as  the  Negroes  could  not  contend 
with  the  Spaniard  and  the  Creole.  The  editor 
believed  that  an  inferior  race  could  never  exist 
in  safety  surrounded  by  a  superior  one  despis- 
ing them.  Colonization  in  Africa  was  then 
urged  and  the  efforts  of  the  blacks  to  go  else- 
where were  characterized  as  doing  mischief  at 
every  turn  to  defeat  the  ''enlightened  plan"  for 
the  amelioration  of  the  Negroes. ^^ 

It  was  still  thought  possible  to  induce  the  Ne- 
groes to  go  to  some  congenial  foreign  land,  al- 
though few  of  them  would  agree  to  emigrate  to 
Africa.  Not  a  few  Negroes  began  during  the 
two  decades  immediately  preceding  the  Civil 
War  to  think  more  favorably  of  African  col- 
onization and  a  still  larger  number,  in  view  of 

11  The  African  Eepository,  IX,  pp.  86-88. 

12  Ibid.,  IX,  p.  88, 


/ 


68      A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

the  increasing  disabilities  fixed  upon  their  class, 
tliou^rlit  of  migrating  to  some  country  nearer  to 
the  United  States.  Much  was  said  about  Cen- 
tral America,  but  British  Guiana  and  the  West 
Indies  proved  to  be  the  most  inviting  fields  to 
the  latter-day  Negro  colonizationists.  This  idea 
was  by  no  means  new,  for  Jefferson  in  his  fore- 
sight had,  in  a  letter  to  Governor  Edward  Coles, 
of  Illinois,  in  1814,  shown  the  possibilities  of 
colonization  in  the  West  Indies.  He  felt  that 
because  Santo  Domingo  had  become  an  inde- 
pendent Negro  republic  it  would  offer  a  solution 
of  the  problem  as  to  where  the  Negroes  should 
be  colonized.  In  this  way  these  islands  would 
become  a  sort  of  safety  valve  for  the  United 
States.  He  became  more  and  more  convinced 
that  all  the  West  Indies  would  remain  in  the 
hands  of  the  people  of  color,  and  a  total  expul- 
sion of  the  whites  sooner  or  later  would  take 
place.  It  was  high  time,  he  thought,  that  Amer- 
icans should  foresee  the  bloody  scenes  which 
their  children  certainly,  and  possibly  they  them- 
selves, would  have  to  wade  through.^^ 

i»"If  something  is  not  done,  and  soon  done,"  said  he,  "we 
shall  be  the  murderers  of  our  own  children.  The  '  murmura 
rrnturos  nouiis  prudcntia  ventos'  has  already  reached  us  (from 
Banto  Domingo) ;  the  revolutionary  storm,  now  sweeping  the 
Rlobe  will  be  upon  us,  and  happy  if  we  make  timely  provision 
to  give  it  an  easy  passage  over  our  land.  Prom  the  present 
Btnto  of  things  in  Europe  and  America,  the  day  which  begins 
our  combustion  must  be  near  at  hand;  and  only  a  single  spark 
i«  wanting  to  make  that  day  to-morrow.  If  we  had  begun 
Booner,  we  might  probably  have  been  allowed  a  lengthier  opera- 


Colonization  a  Remedy  for  Migration  69 

The  movement  to  the  West  Indies  was  accel- 
erated by  other  factors.  After  the  emancipation 
in  those  islands  in  the  thirties,  there  had  for 
some  years  been  a  dearth  of  labor.  Desiring  to 
enjoy  their  freedom  and  living  in  a  climate 
where  there  was  not  much  struggle  for  life,  the 
freedmen  either  refused  to  work  regularly  or 
wandered  about  purposely  from  year  to  year. 
The  islands  in  which  sugar  had  once  played  a 
conspicuous  part  as  the  foundation  of  their  in- 
dustry declined  and  something  had  to  be  done 
to  meet  this  exigency.  In  the  forties  and  fifties, 
therefore,  there  came  to  the  United  States  a 
number  of  labor  agents  whose  aim  was  to  set 
forth  the  inviting  aspect  of  the  situation  in  the 
West  Indies  so  as  to  induce  free  Negroes  to  try 
their  fortunes  there.  To  this  end  meetings  were 
held  in  Baltimore,  Philadelphia,  New  York  and 

tion  to  clear  ourselves,  but  every  day's  delay  lessens  the  time 
we  may  take  for  emancipation." 

Aa  to  the  mode  of  emancipation,  he  was  satisfied  that  that 
must  be  a  matter  of  compromise  between  the  passions,  the 
prejudices,  and  the  real  difficulties  which  would  each  have  its 
weight  in  that  operation.  He  believed  that  the  first  chapter  of 
this  history,  which  was  begun  in  St.  Domingo,  and  the  next 
succeeding  ones,  would  recount  how  all  the  whites  were  driven 
from  all  the  other  islands.  This,  he  thought,  would  prepare 
their  minds  for  a  peaceable  accommodation  between  justice 
and  policy;  and  furnish  an  answer  to  the  difficult  question, 
as  to  where  the  colored  emigrants  should  go.  He  urged  that 
the  country  put  some  plan  under  way,  and  the  sooner  it  did 
so  the  greater  would  be  the  hope  that  it  might  be  per- 
mitted to  proceed  peaceably  toward  consummation. — ^See  Ford 
edition  of  Jefferson's  Writings,  VI,  p.  349,  VII,  pp.  167,  168. 


70      A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

Boston  and  even  in  some  of  the  cities  of  the 
South,  where  these  agents  appealed  to  the  free 
Negroes  to  emigrate.^* 

Thus  before  the  American  Colonization  So- 
ciety had  got  well  on  its  way  toward  accomplish- 
ing its  purpose  of  deporting  the  Negroes  to 
Africa  the  West  Indies  and  British  Guiana 
claimed  the  attention  of  free  people  of  color  in 
offering  there  unusual  opportunities.  After  the 
consummation  of  British  emancipation  in  those 
islands  in  1838,  the  English  nation  came  to  be 
regarded  by  the  Negroes  of  the  United  States 
as  the  exclusive  friend  of  the  race.  The  Negro 
press  and  church  vied  with  each  other  in  prais- 
ing British  emancipation  as  an  act  of  philan- 
thropy and  pointed  to  the  English  dominions  as 
an  asylum  for  the  oppressed.  So  disturbed 
were  the  whites  by  this  growing  feeling  that 
riots  broke  out  in  northern  cities  on  occasions  of 
Negro  celebrations  of  the  anniversary  of  eman- 
cipation in  the  "West  Indies. ^^ 

In  view  of  these  facts,  thecolonizationists  had 
to  redouble  their  efforts  to  defend  their  cause. 
They  found  it  a  little  difficult  to  make  a  good 
case  for  Liberia,  a  land  far  away  in  an  un- 
healthy climate  so  much  unlike  that  of  the  West 
Indies  and  British  Guiana,  where  Negroes  had 

i«  Letter  of  Mr.  Sianbury  Boyce;  and  The  African  deposi- 
tory. 

^li  Philadelphia  Gazette,  Aug.  2,  3,  4,  8,  1842;  United  States 
Gascttc,  Aug.  2-5,  1842;  and  the  Pennsylvanian,  Aug.  2,  3,  4, 
8,  1842. 


Colonization  a  Remedy  for  Migration  71 

been  declared  citizens'  entitled  to  all  privileges 
afforded  by  the  government.  The  colonization- 
ists  could  do  no  more  than  to  express  doubt  that 
the  Negroes  would  have  there  the  opportunities 
for  mental,  moral  and  social  betterment  which 
were  offered  in  Liberia.  The  promoters  of  the 
enterprise  in  Africa  did  not  believe  that  the 
West  Indian  planters  who  had  had  emancipa- 
tion forced  upon  them  would  accept  blacks  from 
the  United  States  as  their  equals,  nor  that  they, 
far  from  receiving  the  consideration  of  freed^ 
men,  would  be  there  any  more  than  menials. 
When  told  of  the  establishment  of  schools  and 
churches  for  the  improvemnt  of  the  freedmen, 
the  colonizationists  replied  that  schools  might 
be  provided,  but  the  planters  could  have  no  in- 
terest in  encouraging  education  as  they  did  not 
want  an  elevated  class  of  people  but  bone  and 
muscle.  As  an  evidence  of  the  truth  of  this 
statement  it  was  asserted  that  newspapers  of  the 
country  were  filled  with  disastrous  accounts  of 
the  falling  off  of  crops  and  the  scarcity  of  labor 
but  had  little  to  say  about  those  forces  instru- 
mental in  the  uplift  of  the  people.^^ 

An  effort  was  made  also  to  show  that  there 
would  be  no  economic  advantage  in  going  to  the 
British  dominions.  It  was  thought  that  as  soon 
as  the  first  demand  for  labor  was  supplied 
wages  would  be  reduced,  for  no  new  plantations 
could  be  opened  there  as  in  a  growing  country 

16  The  African  Bepository,  XVI,  pp.  113-115. 
6 


72      A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

like  Liberia.  It  would  be  impossible,  therefore, 
for  the  Negroes  immigrating  there  to  take  up 
laud  and  develop  a  class  of  small  farmers  as 
they  were  doing  in  Africa.  Under  such  circum- 
stances, they  contended,  the  Negroes  in  the  West 
Indies  could  not  feel  any  of  the  ''elevating  in- 
fluences of  nationality  of  character,"  as  the 
white  men  would  limit  the  influence  of  the  Ne- 
groes by  retaining  practically  all  of  the  wealth 
of  the  islands.  The  inducements,  therefore,  of- 
fered the  free  Negroes  in  the  United  States  were 
merely  intended  to  use  them  in  supplying  in  the 
British  dominions  the  need  of  men  to  do  drudg- 
ery scarcely  more  elevating  than  the  toil  of 
slaves.^'^ 

Determined  to  interest  a  larger  number  of 
persons  in  diverting  the  attention  of  the  free 
Negroes  from  the  West  Indies,  the  colonization- 
ists  took  higher  ground.  They  asserted  that  the 
interests  of  the  millions  of  white  men  in  this 
country  were  then  at  stake,  and  even  if  it  would 
be  better  for  the  three  million  Negroes  of  the 
country  gradually  to  emigrate  to  the  British 
dominions,  it  would  eventually  prove  prejudicial 
to  the  interests  of  the  United  States.  They 
sliowed  how  the  Negroes  immigrating  into  the 
West  Indies  would  be  made  to  believe  that  the 
refusal  to  extend  to  them  here  social  and  political 
equalitywasci-uel  oppression  and  the  immigrants, 
therefore,  would  carry  with  them  no  good  will 

"  The  African  Hcpository,  XXI,  p.  114. 


\ 


Colonisation  a  Remedy  for  Migration  73 

to  this  country.  When  they  arrived  in  the  West 
Indies  their  circumstances  would  increase  this 
hostility,  alienate  their  affections  and  estrange 
them  wholly  from  the  United  States.  Taught 
to  regard  the  British  as  the  exclusive  friends  of 
their  race,  devoted  to  its  elevation,  they  would 
become  British  in  spirit.  As  such,  these  Ne- 
groes would  be  controlled  by  British  influence 
and  would  increase  the  wealth  and  commerce  of 
the  British  and  as  soldiers  would  greatly 
strengthen  British  power. ^^ 

It  was  better,  therefore,  they  argued,  to  direct 
the  Negroes  to  Liberia,  for  those  who  went  there 
with  a  feeling  of  hostility  against  the  white  peo- 
ple were  placed  in  circumstances  operating  to 
remove  that  feeling,  in  that  the  kind  solicitude 
for  their  welfare  would  be  extended  them  in 
their  new  home  so  as  to  overcome  their  preju- 
dices, win  their  confidence,  and  secure  their  at- 
tachment. Looking  to  this  country  as  their 
fatherland  and  the  home  of  their  benefactors, 
the  Liberians  would  develop  a  nation,  taking  the 
religion,  customs  and  laws  of  this  country  as 
their  models,  marketing  their  produce  in  this 
country  and  purchasing  our  manufactures.  In 
spite  of  its  independence,  therefore,  Liberia 
would  be  American  in  feeling,  language  and  in- 
terests, affording  a  means  to  get  rid  of  a  class 
undesirable  here  but  desirable  to  us  there  in 

18  The  African  Bepository,  XVI,  p.  116. 


71       .1  Centunj  of  Negro  Migration 

their  power  to  extend  American  influence,  trade 
and  commerce.^^ 

Negroes  migrated  to  the  West  Indies  m  spite 
of  this  warning  and  protest.  Hayti,  at  first  looked 
upon  with  fear  of  having  a  free  Negro  govern- 
ment near  slaveholding  States,  became  fixed  in 
the  minds  of  some  as  a  desirable  place  for  the 
colonization  of  free  persons  of  color.^o  t^- g  ^^g 
due  to  the  apparent  natural  advantages  in  soil, 
climate  and  the  situation  of  the  country  over 
other  places  in  consideration.  It  was  thought 
that  the  island  would  support  fourteen  millions 
of  people  and  that,  once  opened  to  immigration 
from  the  United  States,  it  would  in  a  few  years 
fill  up  by  natural  increase.  It  was  remembered 
that  it  was  formerly  the  emporium  of  the  West- 
ern AVorld  and  that  it  supplied  both  hemispheres 
with  sugar  and  coffee.  It  had  rapidly  recovered 
from  the  disaster  of  the  French  Revolution  and 
lacked  only  capital  and  education  which  the 
United  States  under  these  circumstances  could 
furnish.  Furthermore,  it  was  argued  that  some- 
thing in  this  direction  should  be  immediately 
done,  as  European  nations  then  seeking  to  es^ 
tablish  friendly  relations  with  the  islands,  would 
secure  there  commercial  advantages  which  the 
United  States  should  have  and  could  establish 
by  sending  to  that  island  free  Negroes  especially 
devoted  to  agriculture. 

>"  Thr  African  depository,  XVI,  p.  115. 
iojbid.,  XVI,  p.  116. 


Colonization  a  Remedy  for  Migration  75 

In  1836,  Z.  Kingsley,  a  Florida  planter,^!  actu- 
ally undertook  to  carry  out  such  a  plan  on  a 

21  Speaking  of  this  colony  Kingsley  said :  * '  About  eighteen 
months  ago,  I  carried  my  son  George  Kingsley,  a  healthy 
colored  man  of  uncorrupted  morals,  about  thirty  years  of  age, 
tolerably  well  educated,  of  very  industrious  habits,  and  a  native 
of  Florida,  together  with  six  prime  African  men,  my  own 
slaves,  liberated  for  that  express  purpose,  to  the  northeast  side 
of  the  Island  of  Hayti,  near  Porte  Plate,  where  we  arrived  in 
the  month  of  October,  1836,  and  after  application  to  the  local 
authorities,  from  whom  I  rented  some  good  land  near  the  sea, 
and  thickly  timbered  with  lofty  woods,  I  set  them  to  work 
cutting  down  trees,  about  the  middle  of  November,  and  returned 
to  my  home  in  Florida.  My  son  wrote  to  us  frequently,  giving 
an  account  of  his  progress.  Some  of  the  fallen  timber  was 
dry  enough  to  burn  in  January,  1837,  when  it  was  cleared  up, 
and  eight  acres  of  corn  planted,  and  as  soon  as  circumstances 
would  allow,  sweet  potatoes,  yams,  cassava,  rice,  beans,  peas, 
plantains,  oranges,  and  all  sorts  of  fruit  trees,  were  planted 
in  succession.  In  the  month  of  October,  1837,  I  again  set  off 
for  Hayti,  in  a  coppered  brig  of  150  tons,  bought  for  the  pur- 
pose and  in  five  days  and  a  half,  from  St.  Mary's  in  Georgia, 
landed  my  son's  wife  and  children,  at  Porte  Plate,  together 
with  the  wives  and  children  of  his  servants,  now  working  for 
him  under  an  indenture  of  nine  years;  also  two  additional 
families  of  my  slaves,  all  liberated  for  the  express  purpose  of 
transportation  to  Hayti,  where  they  were  all  to  have  as  much 
good  land  in  fee,  as  they  could  cultivate,  say  ten  acres  for  each 
family,  and  all  its  proceeds,  together  with  one-fourth  part  of 
the  net  proceeds  of  their  labor,  on  my  son's  farm,  for  them- 
selves; also  victuals,  clothes,  medical  attendance,  etc.,  gratis, 
besides  Saturdays  and  Sundays,  as  days  of  labor  for  themselves, 
or  of  rest,  just  at  their  option. ' ' 

"On  my  arrival  at  my  son's  place,  called  Cabaret  (twenty- 
seven  miles  east  of  Porte  Plate)  in  November,  1837,  as  before 
stated,  I  found  everything  in  the  most  flattering  and  prosperous 
condition.  They  had  all  enjoyed  good  health,  were  overflowing 
with  the  most  delicious  variety  and  abundance  of  fruits  and 
provisions,  and  were  overjoyed  at  again  meeting  their  wives 


7G      A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

small  scale.     He  established  on  the  northeast 
side  of  Playti,  near  Port  Plate,  his  son,  George 

and  children;  whom  they  could  introduce  into  good  comfortable 
log  houses,  all  nicely  whitewashed,  and  in  the  midst  of  a  pro- 
fuse abundance  of  good  provisions,  as  they  had  generally  cleared 
five  or  six  acres  of  their  land  each,  which  being  very  rich,  and 
planted  with  every  variety  to  eat  or  to  sell  on  their  own  ac- 
count, and  had  already  laid  up  thitry  or  forty  dollars  apiece. 
My  son's  farm  was  upon  a  larger  scale,  and  furnished  with 
more   commodious   dwelUng  houses,   also   with   store    and   out 
houses.     In  nine  months  he  had  made  and  housed  three  crops 
of  corn,  of  twenty-five  bushels  to  the  acre,  each,  or  one  crop 
every  three  months.     His  highland  rice,  which  was   equal  to 
any  in  Carolina,  so  ripe  and  heavy  as  some  of  it  to  be  couched 
or  leaned  down,  and  no  bird  had  ever  troubled  it,  nor  had  any 
of  his  fields  ever  been  hoed,  or  required  hoeing,  there  being  as 
yet  no  appearance  of  grass.     His  cotton  was  of  an  excellent 
staple.    In  seven  months  it  had  attained  the  height  of  thirteen 
feet;  the  stalks  were  ten  inches  in  circumference,  and  had  up- 
wards of  five  hundred  large  boles  on  each  stalk  (not  a  worm 
nor  red  bug  as  yet  to  be  seen).    His  yams,  cassava,  and  sweet 
potatoes,  were  incredibly  large,  and  plentifully  thick  in  the 
ground;  one  kind  of  sweet  potato,  lately  introduced  from  Ta- 
heita  (formerly  Otaheita)  Island  in  the  Pacific,  was  of  peculiar 
excellence;  tasted  like  new  flour  and  grew  to  an  ordinary  size 
in  one  month.    Those  I  ate  at  my  son's  place  had  been  planted 
five  weeks,  and  were  as  big  as  our  full  grovra  Florida  potatoes. 
His  sweet  orange  trees  budded  upon  wild  stalks  cut  off  (which 
every  where  abound),  about  six  months  before  had  large  tops, 
and  the  buds  were  swelling  as  if  preparing  to  flower.     My  son 
reported  that  his  people  had  all  enjoyed  good  health  and  had 
labored  just  as  steadily  as  they  formerly  did  in  Florida  and 
were  well  satisfied  with  their  situation  and  the  advantageous 
exchange  of  circumstances  they  had  made.     They  all  enjoyed 
the  friendship  of  the  neighboring  inhabitants  and  the  entire 
confidence  of  the  Haytian  Government." 

' '  T  remained  with  my  son  all  January,  1838  and  assisted  him 
in  making  improvements  of  different  kinds,  amongst  which  was 
a  now  two-story  house,  and  then  left  him  to  go  to  Port  au 


Colonization  a  Remedy  for  Migration  77 

Kingsley,  a  well-educated  colored  man  of  indus- 
trious habits  and  uncorrupted  morals,  together 
with  six  ''prime  African  men,"  slaves  liberated 
for  that  express  purpose.  There  he  purchased 
for  them  35,000  acres  of  land  upon  which  they 
engaged  in  the  production  of  crops  indigenous 
to  that  soil. 

Hayti,  however,  was  not  to  be  the  only  island 
to  get  consideration.  In  1834  two  hundred  col- 
ored emigrants  went  from  New  York  alone  to 
Trinidad,  under  the  superintendence  and  at  the 
expense  of  planters  of  that  island.  It  was  later 
reported  that  every  one  of  them  found  employ- 
ment on  the  day  of  arrival  and  in  one  or  two  in- 
stances the  most  intelligent  were  placed  as  over- 
seers at  the  salary  of  $500  per  annum.  No  one 
received  less  than  $1.00  a  day  and  most  of  them 
earned  $1.50.  The  Trinidad  press  welcomed 
these  immigrants  and  spoke  in  the  highest  terms 
of  the  valuable  services  they  rendered  the  coun- 
^j.y  22  others  followed  from  year  to  year.  One 
of  these  Negroes  appreciated  so  much  this  new 
field  of  opportunity  that  he  returned  and  in- 

Prince,  where  I  obtained  a  favorable  answer  from  the  President 
of  Hayti,  to  his  petition,  asking  for  leave  to  hold  in  fee  simple, 
the  same  tract  of  land  upon  which  he  then  lived  as  a  tenant, 
paying  rent  to  the  Haytian  Government,  containing  about 
thirty-five  thousand  acres,  which  was  ordered  to  be  surveyed  to 
him,  and  valued,  and  not  expected  to  exceed  the  sum  of  three 
thousand  dollars,  or  about  ten  cents  an  acre.  After  obtaining 
this  land  in  fee  for  my  son,  I  returned  to  Florida  in  February, 
in  1838."— See  The  African  Eepository,  XIV,  pp.  215-216. 
22mies  Begister,  LXVI,  pp.  165,  386. 


78       A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

duced  twenty  intelligent  free  persons  of  color 
living  in  Annapolis,  Maryland,  also  to  emigrate 
to  Trinidad.-^ 

The  Neiv  York  Sun  reported  in  1840  that  160 
colored  persons  left  Philadelphia  for  Trinidad. 
They  had  been  hired  by  an  eminent  planter  to 
labor  on  that  island  and  they  were  encouraged 
to  expect  that  they  should  have  privileges  which 
would  make  their  residence  desirable.  The  ed- 
itor wished  a  few  dozen  Trinidad  planters 
would  come  to  that  city  on  the  same  business 
and  on  a  much  larger  scale.^^  N.  W.  Pollard, 
agent  of  the  Government  of  Trinidad,  came  to 
Baltimore  in  1851  to  make  his  appeal  for  emi- 
grants, offering  to  pay  all  expenses.^^  At  a 
meeting  held  in  Baltimore,  in  1852,  the  parents 
of  Mr.  Stanbury  Boyce,  now  a  retired  merchant 
in  "Washington,  District  of  Columbia,  were  also 
induced  to  go.  They  found  there  opportunities 
which  they  had  never  had  before  and  well  estab- 
lished themselves  in  their  new  home.  The  ac- 
count which  Mr.  Boyce  gives  in  a  letter  to  the 
writer  corroborates  the  newspaper  reports  as  to 
the  success  of  the  enterprise.-*^ 

TJie  Neiv  York  Journal  of  Commerce  reported 
in  1841  that,  according  to  advices  received  at 
New  Orleans  from  Jamaica,  there  had  arrived 
in  that  island  fourteen  Negro  emigrants  from 

23  Niles  Register,  LXVII,  p.  180. 

2<  The  African  Bepository,  XVIj  p.  28. 

25  Ibid.,  p.  29. 

-^Letter  of  Mr.  Stanbury  Boyce. 


Colonisation  a  Remedy  for  Migration  79 

tlie  United  States,  being  the  first  fruits  of  Mr. 
Barclay's  mission  to  this  country.  A  much 
larger  number  of  Negroes  were  expected  and 
various  applications  for  their  services  had  been 
received  from  respectable  parties.^^  The  prod- 
ucts of  soil  were  reported  as  much  reduced  from 
former  years  and  to  meet  its  demand  for  labor 
some  freedmen  from  Sierra  Leone  were  induced 
to  emigrate  to  that  island  in  1842.-^  One  Mr. 
Anderson,  an  agent  of  the  government  of  Ja- 
maica, contemplated  visiting  New  York  in  1851 
to  secure  a  number  of  laborers,  tradesmen  and 
agricultural  settlers. ^^ 

In  the  course  of  time,  emigration  to  foreign 
lands  interested  a  larger  number  of  representa- 
tive Negroes.  At  a  national  council  called  in 
1853  to  promote  more  effectively  the  ameliora- 
tion of  the  colored  people,  the  question  of  emi- 
gration and  that  only  was  taken  up  for  serious 
consideration.  But  those  who  desired  to  intro- 
duce the  question  of  Liberian  colonization  or 
who  were  especially  interested  in  that  scheme 
were  not  invited.  Among  the  persons  who  pro- 
moted the  calling  of  this  council  were  William 
Webb,  Martin  E.  Delaney,  J.  Gould  Bias,  Frank- 
lin Turner,  Augustus  Greene,  James  M.  Whit- 
field, William  Lambert,  Henry  Bibb,  James  T. 
Holly  and  Henry  M.  Collins. 

27  St.  Lucia  and  Trinidad  were  then  considered  unfavorable 
to  the  working  of  the  new  system. — See  The  African  Beposi- 
tory,  XXVII,  p.  196. 

28  Niles  Register,  LXIII,  p.  65. 

29  lUd.,  LXIII,  p.  65. 


80      A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

There    developed    in    this    assembly    three 
groups,  one  believing  with  Martin  R.  Delaney 
that  it  was  best  to  go  to  the  Niger  Valley  in 
Africa,  another  following  the  counsel  of  James 
M.  Whitfield  then  interested  in  emigration  to 
Central  America,  and  a  third  supporting  James 
T.  Holly  who  insisted  that  Hayti  offered  the 
best  opportunities  for  free  persons  of  color  de- 
siring to  leave  the  United  States.    Delaney  was 
commissioned  to  proceed  to  Africa,  where  he 
succeeded  in  concluding  treaties  with  eight  Af- 
rican kings  who  offered  American  Negroes  in- 
ducements to  settle  in  their  respective  countries. 
James    Eedpath,    already    interested    in    the 
scheme  of  colonization  in  Hayti,  had  preceded 
Holly  there  and  with  the  latter  as  his  coworker 
succeeded  in  sending  to  that  country  as  many  as 
two    thousand   emigrants,    the    first    of   whom 
sailed  from  this  country  in  1861.^"     Owing  to 
the  lack  of  equipment  adequate  to  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  settlement  and  the  unfavorable 
climate,  not  more  than  one  third  of  the  emigrants 
remained.    Some  attention  was  directed  to  Cali- 
fornia and  Central  America  just  as  in  the  case 
of  Africa  but  nothing  in  that  direction  took  tan- 
gible form  immediately,  and  the  Civil  "War  fol- 
lowing soon  thereafter  did  not  give  some  of 
these  schemes  a  chance  to  materialize. 

»o  Cromwell,  The  Negro  in  American  History,  pp.  43-44.   ^^ 


k 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  SUCCESSFUL  MIGRANT 

THE  reader  will  naturally  be  interested  in 
learning  exactly  what  these  thousands  of 
Negroes  did  on  free  soil.  To  estimate  these 
achievements  the  casual  reader  of  contemporary 
testimony  would  now,  as  such  persons  did  then, 
find  it  decidedly  easy.  He  would  say  that  in 
spite  of  the  unfailing  aid  which  philanthropists 
gave  the  blacks,  they  seldom  kept  themselves 
above  want  and,  therefore,  became  a  public 
charge,  afflicting  their  communities  with  so  much 
poverty,  disease  and  crime  that  they  were  con- 
sidered the  lepers  of  society.  The  student  of 
history,  however,  must  look  beyond  these  com- 
ments for  the  whole  truth.  One  must  take  into 
consideration  the  fact  that  in  most  cases  these 
Negroes  escaped  as  fugitives  without  sufficient 
food  and  clothing  to  comfort  them  until  they 
could  reach  free  soil,  lacking  the  small  fund  with 
which  the  pioneer  usually  provided  himself  in 
going  to  establish  a  home  in  the  wilderness,  and 
lacking,  above  all,  initiative  of  which  slavery  had 
deprived  them.  Furthermore,  these  refugees 
with  few  exceptions  had  to  go  to  places  where 
they  were  not  wanted  and  in  some  cases  to 
points  from  which  they  were  driven  as  unde- 

81 


82       A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

sirables,  altbougli  preparation  for  their  coming 
had  sometimes  gone  to  the  extent  of  purchasing 
liomes  and  making  provision  for  employment 
upon  arrival.^  Several  well-established  Negro 
settlements  in  the  North,  moreover,  were  broken 
up  by  the  slave  hunters  after  the  passing  of  the 
Fugitive  Slave  Law  of  1850.2 

The  increasing  intensity  of  the  hatred  of  the 
Negroes  must  be  understood  too  both  as  a  cause 
and  result  of  their  intolerable  condition.  Prior 
to  1800  the  Negroes  of  the  North  were  in  fair 
circumstances.  Until  that  time  it  was  generally 
believed  that  the  whites  and  the  blacks  would 
soon  reach  the  advanced  stage  of  living  together 
on  a  basis  of  absolute  equality.^  The  Negroes 
had  not  at  that  time  exceeded  the  number  that 
could  be  assimilated  by  the  sympathizing  com- 
munities in  that  section.  The  intolerable  legis- 
lation of  the  South,  however,  forced  so  many 
free  Negroes  in  the  rough  to  crowd  northern 
cities  during  the  first  four  decades  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  that  they  could  not  be  easily  re- 
adjusted. The  number  seeking  employment  far 
exceeded  the  demand  for  labor  and  thus  multi- 
plied the  number  of  vagrants  and  paupers,  many 
of  whom  had  already  been  forced  to  this  condi- 
tion by  the  Irish  and  Germans  then  immigrating 
into  northern  cities.    At  one  time,  as  in  the  case 

» Cincinnati  Morning  Herald,  July  17,  1846. 
=  Woodson,  The  Education  of  the  Negro  Prior  to  1861,  p.  242. 
3  Turner,  The  Negro  in  Pennsylvania^  p.  143;  Correspondence 
of  Dr.  Benjamin  Eiish,  XXXIX,  p.  41, 


The  Successful  Migrant  83 

of  Philadelphia,  the  Negroes-  constituting  a 
small  fraction  of  the  population  furnished  one 
half  of  the  criminals.^  A  radical  opposition  to 
the  Negro  followed,  therefore,  arousing  first  the 
laboring  classes  and  finally  alienating  the  sup- 
port of  the  well-to-do  people  and  the  press. 
This  condition  obtained  until  1840  in  most 
northern  communities  and  until  1850  in  some 
places  where  the  Negro  population  was  consid- 
erable. 

We  must  also  take  into  account  the  critical 
labor  situation  during  these  years.  The  north- 
ern people  were  divided  as  to  the  way  the  Ne- 
groes should  be  encouraged.  The  mechanics  of 
the  North  raised  no  objection  to  having  the  Ne- 
groes freed  and  enlightened  but  did  not  welcome 
them  to  that  section  as  competitors  in  the  strug- 
gle of  life.  When,  therefore,  the  blacks,  con- 
verted to  the  doctrine  of  training  the  hand  to 
work  with  skill,  began  to  appear  in  northern 
industrial  centers  there  arose  a  formidable  prej- 
udice against  them.^  Negro  and  white  me- 
chanics had  once  worked  together  but  during 
the  second  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
when  labor  became  more  dignified  and  a  larger 
number  of  white  persons  devoted  themselves  to 
skilled  labor,  they  adopted  the  policy  of  elim- 
inating the  blacks.    This  opposition,  to  be  sure, 

4DuBois,  Tlie  PhiladelpMa  Negro,  pp.  26-27. 
5  The  Journal  of  Negro  History,  I,  p.  5 ;  and  Proceedings  of 
the  American  Convention  of  Abolition  Societies. 


84      A  Century  of  Negro  Migrat'J 

was  not  a  mere  harmless  sentiment.  It  tended 
to  give  rise  to  the  organization  of  labor  groups 
and  finally  to  that  of  trades  unions,  the  begin- 
nings of  those  controlling  this  country  to-day. 
Carrying  the  fight  against  the  Negro  still 
further,  these  laboring  classes  used  their  influ- 
ence to  obtain  legislation  against  the  employ- 
ment of  Negroes  in  certain  pursuits.  Maryland 
and  Georgia  passed  laws  restricting  the  priv- 
ileges of  Negro  mechanics,  and  Pennsylvania 
followed  their  example.^ 

Even  in  those  cases  when  the  Negroes  were 
not  disturbed  in  their  new  homes  on  free  soil,  it 
was,  with  the  exception  of  the  Quaker  and  a  few 
other  communities,  merely  an  act  of  toleration."^ 
It  must  not  be  concluded,  however,  that  the  Ne- 
groes then  migrating  to  the  North  did  not  re- 
ceive considerable  aid.  The  fact  to  be  noted 
here  is  that  because  they  were  not  well  received 
sometimes  by  the  people  of  their  new  environ- 
ment, the  help  which  they  obtained  from  friends 
afar  off  did  not  suffice  to  make  up  for  the  defi- 
ciency of  community  cooperation.  This,  of 
course,  was  an  unusual  handicap  to  the  Negro, 
as  his  life  as  a  slave  tended  to  make  him  a  de- 
pendent rather  than  a  pioneer. 

It  is  evident,  however,  from  accessible  sta- 
tistics that  wherever  the  Negro  was  adequately 
encouraged  he  succeeded.    When  the  urban  Ne- 

«  DuBois  and  Dill,  The  Negro  American  Artisan,  p.  AQ. 
'  Jay,  An  Inquiry,  pp.  34,  108,  109,  114. 


The  Successful  Migrant  85 

groes  in  northern  communities  had  emerged 
from  their  crude  state  they  easily  learned  from 
the  white  men  their  method  of  solving  the  prob- 
lems of  life.  This  tendency  was  apparent  after 
1840  and  striking  results  of  their  efforts  were 
noted  long  before  the  Civil  War.  They  showed 
an  inclination  to  work  when  positions  could  be 
found,  purchased  homes,  acquired  other  prop- 
erty, built  churches  and  established  schools. 
Going  even  further  than  this,  some  of  them,  tak- 
ing advantage  of  their  opportunities  in  the  busi- 
ness world,  accumulated  considerable  fortunes, 
just  as  had  been  done  in  certain  centers  in  the 
South  where  Negroes  had  been  given  a  chance.^ 
In  cities  far  north  like  Boston  not  so  much  dif- 
ference as  to  the  result  of  this  migration  was 
noted.  Some  economic  progress  among  the  Ne- 
groes had  early  been  observed  there  as  a  result 
of  the  long  residence  of  Negroes  in  that  city  as 
in  the  case  of  Lewis  Hayden  who  established  a 
successful  clothing  business.^  In  New  York 
such  evidences  were  more  apparent.  There 
were  in  that  city  not  so  many  Negroes  as  fre- 
quented some  other  northern  communities  of 
this  time  but  enough  to  make  for  that  city  a  de- 
cidedly perplexing  problem.  It  was  the  usual 
situation  of  ignorant,  helpless  fugitives  and  free 
Negroes  going,  they  knew  not  where,  to  find  a 
better  country.    The  situation  at  times  became 

8  TJie  Journal  of  Negro  History,  I,  pp.  20-22. 

9  Delany,  Condition  of  the  Colored  People,  p.  106. 


86       .1  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

so  grave  that  it  uot  onlj^  caused  prejudice  but 
gave  rise  to  intense  opposition  against  those 
who  defended  the  cause  of  the  blacks  as  in  the 
case  of  the  abolition  riots  which  occurred  at  sev- 
eral places  in  the  State  in  1834.^*^ 

To  relieve  this  situation,  Grerrit  Smith,  an  un- 
usually philanthropic  gentleman,  came  forward 
with  an  interesting  plan.  Having  large  tracts 
of  land  in  the  southeastern  counties  of  New 
York,  he  proposed  to  settle  on  small  farms  a 
large  number  of  those  Negroes  huddled  to- 
gether in  the  congested  districts  of  New  York 
City.  Desiring  to  obtain  only  the  best  class,  he 
requested  that  the  Negroes  to  be  thus  colonized 
be  recommended  by  Reverend  Charles  B.  Ray, 
Reverend  Theodore  S.  Wright  and  Dr.  J.  Mc- 
Cune  Smith,  three  Negroes  of  New  York  City, 
known  to  be  representative  of  the  best  of  the 
race.  Upon  their  recommendations  he  deeded 
unconditionally  to  black  men  in  1846  three  hun- 
dred small  farms  in  Franklin,  Essex,  Hamilton, 
Fulton,  Oneida,  Delaware,  Madison  and  Ulster 
counties,  giving  to  each  settler  beside  $10.00  to 
enable  him  to  visit  his  farm.^^  With  these  hold- 
ings the  blacks  would  not  only  have  a  basis  for 
economic  independence  but  would  have  suf- 
ficient property  to  meet  the  special  qualifica- 
tions which  New  York  by  the  law  of  1823  re- 
quired of  Negroes  offering  to  vote. 

JO  The  Liberator,  July  9,  1835. 
"Hammond,  Gerrit  Smith,  pp.  26-27. 


The  Successful  Migrant  87 

This  experiment,  however,  was  a  failure.  It 
was  not  successful  because  of  the  intractability 
of  the  land,  the  harshness  of  the  climate,  and,  in 
a  great  measure,  the  inefficiency  of  the  settlers. 
They  had  none  of  the  qualities  of  farmers. 
Furthermore,  having  been  disabled  by  infirmities 
and  vices  they  could  not  as  beneficiaries  answer 
the  call  of  the  benefactor.  Peterboro,  the  town 
opened  to  Negroes  in  this  section,  did  maintain 
a  school  and  served  as  a  station  of  the  Under- 
ground Railroad  but  the  agricultural  results 
expected  of  the  entei-prise  never  materialized. 
The  main  difficulty  in  this  case  was  the  impos- 
sibility of  substituting  something  foreign  for 
individual  enterprise. ^^ 

Progressive  Negroes  did  appear,  however,  in 
other  parts  of  the  State.  In  Penyan,  Western 
New  York,  William  Piatt  and  Joseph  C.  Cassey 
were  successful  lumber  merchants. ^^  Mr.  W.  H. 
Topp  of  Albany  was  for  several  years  one  of 
the  leading  merchant  tailors  of  that  city.^^ 
Henry  Scott,  of  New  York  City,  developed  a 
successful  pickling  business,  supplying  most  of 
the  vessels  entering  that  port.^^  Thomas  Down- 
ing for  thirty  years  ran  a  creditable  restaurant 
in  the  midst  of  the  Wall  Street  banks,  where  he 
made  a  fortune.^''    Edward  V.  Clark  conducted 

12  FrotMngham,  Gerrit  Smith;  p.  73. 

13  Delany,  Condition  of  the  Colored  People,  pp.  107-108, 
■i-ilbid.,  p.  102. 

1-5  Ibid.,  p.  102. 

1^6  Ibid.,  pp.  103-104. 

7 


88      A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

a  thriving  business,  handling  jewelry  and  sil- 
verware.^' The  Negroes  as  a  whole,  moreover, 
had  shown  progress.  Aided  by  the  Government 
and  philanthropic  white  people,  they  had  before 
the  Civil  AVar  a  school  system  with  primary,  in- 
termediate and  grammar  schools  and  a  normal 
department.  They  then  had  considerable  prop- 
erty, several  churches  and  some  benevolent  in- 
stitutions. 

In  Southern  Pennsylvania,  nearer  to  the 
border  between  the  slave  and  free  States,  the 
effects  of  the  achievements  of  these  Negroes 
were  more  apparent  for  the  reason  that  in  these 
urban  centers  there  were  sufficient  Negroes  for 
one  to  be  helpful  to  the  other.  Philadelphia  pre- 
sented then  the  most  striking  example  of  the  re- 
making of  these  people.  Here  the  handicap  of 
the  foreign  element  was  greatest,  especially  after 
1830.  The  Philadelphia  Negro,  moreover,  was 
further  impeded  in  his  progress  by  the  pres- 
ence of  southerners  who  made  Philadelphia 
their  home,  and  still  more  by  the  prejudice  of 
those  Philadelphia  merchants  who,  sustaining 
such  close  relations  to  the  South,  hated  the 
Negro  and  the  abolitionists  who  antagonized 
their  customers. 

Tn  spite  of  these  untoward  circumstances, 
however,  the  Negroes  of  Philadelphia  achieved 
success.  Negroes  who  had  formerly  been  able 
to  toil  upward  were  still  restricted  but  they  had 

i^Delany,  Condition  of  tJie  Colored  People,  pp.  106-107. 


The  Successful  Migrant  89 

learned  to  make  opportunities.  In  1832  the 
Philadelphia  blacks  had  $350,000  of  taxable 
property,  $359,626  in  1837  and  $400,000  in  1847. 
These  Negroes  had  16  churches  and  100  benevo- 
lent societies  in  1837  and  19  churches  and  106 
benevolent  societies  in  1847.  Philadelphia  then 
had  more  successful  Negro  schools  than  any 
other  city  in  the  country.  There  were  also  about 
500  Negro  mechanics  in  spite  of  the  opposition 
of  organized  labor.^^  Some  of  these  Negroes, 
of  course,  were  natives  of  that  city. 

Chief  among  those  who  had  accumulated  con- 
siderable property  was  Mr.  James  Forten,  the 
proprietor  of  one  of  the  leading  sail  manufac- 
tories, constantly  employing  a  large  number  of 
men,  black  and  white.  Joseph  Casey,  a  broker 
of  considerable  acumen,  also  accumulated  desir- 
able property,  worth  probably  $75,000.^**  Crowd- 
ed out  of  the  higher  pursuits  of  labor,  certain 
other  enterprising  business  men  of  this  group 
organized  the  Guild  of  Caterers.  This  was  com- 
posed of  such  men  as  Bogle,  Prosser,  Dorsey, 
Jones  and  Minton,  The  aim  was  to  elevate  the 
Negro  waiter  and  cook  from  the  plane  of  me- 
nials to  that  of  progressive  business  men.  Then 
came  Stephen  Smith  who  amassed  a  large  for- 
tune as  a  lumber  merchant  and  with  him  Whip- 
per,  Vidal  and  Purnell.    Still  and  Bowers  were 

18  DuBois,  The  Philadelphia  Negro,  p.  31 ;  Beport  of  the 
Condition  of  the  Free  People  of  Color,  1838;  ibid.,  1849;  and 
Bacon,  Statistics  of  the  Colored  People  of  Philadelphia,  1859. 

19  Delany,  Condition  of  the  Colored  People,  p.  95. 


yO      A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

reliable  coal  merchants,  Adger  a  success  in 
handling  furniture,  Bowser  a  well-known  painter, 
and  AVilliam  H.  Riley  the  intelligent  boot- 
maker.-*^ 

There  were  a  few  such  successful  Negroes  in 
other  communities  in  the  State.  Mr.  William 
Goodrich,  of  York,  acquired  considerable  inter- 
est in  the  branch  of  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio 
Railroad  extending  to  Lancaster.^i  Benjamin 
Richards,  of  Pittsburgh,  amassed  a  large  for- 
tune running  a  butchering  business,  buying  by 
contract  droves  of  cattle  to  supply  the  various 
military  posts  of  the  United  States.^^  j^^, 
Henry  M.  Collins,  who  started  life  as  a  boatman, 
left  this  position  for  speculation  in  real  estate 
in  Pittsburgh  where  he  established  himself  as 
an  asset  of  the  community  and  accumulated  con- 
siderable wealth."^  Owen  A.  Barrett,  of  the 
same  city,  made  his  way  by  discovering  the  rem- 
edy known  as  B.  A.  Fahnestock's  Celebrated 
Vermifuge,  for  which  he  was  retained  in  the  em- 
ploy of  the  proprietor,  who  exploited  the  rem- 
edy.-'* Mr.  John  Julius  made  himself  indis- 
pensable to  Pittsburgh  by  running  the  Concert 
Hall  Cafe  where  he  served  President  "William 
Henry  Harrison  in  1840.^^ 

2"  DuBois,  The  Philadelphia  Negro,  pp.  31-36. 

21  Delany,  Condition  of  the  Colored  People,  p.  109. 

22  Ihid.,  p.  101. 

23  Ibid.,  p.  104. 
2*  rbid.,  p.  105. 
25  7buZ.,  p.  107. 


The  Successful  Migrant  91 

The  field  of  greatest  acliievement,  however, 
was  not  in  the  conservative  East  where  the  peo- 
ple had  well  established  their  going  toward  an 
enlightened  and  sympathetic  aristocracy  of 
talent  and  wealth.  It  was  in  the  West  where 
men  were  in  position  to  establish  themselves 
anew  and  make  of  life  what  they  would.  These 
crude  communities,  to  be  sure,  often  objected  to 
the  presence  of  the  Negroes  and  sometimes 
drove  them  out.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  not  a 
few  of  those  centers  in  the  maldng  were  in  the 
hands  of  the  Quakers  and  other  philanthropic 
persons  who  gave  the  Negroes  a  chance  to  grow 
up  with  the  community,  when  they  exhibited  a 
capacity  which  justified  philanthropic  efforts  in 
their  behalf. 

These  favorable  conditions  obtained  espe- 
cially in  the  towns  along  the  Ohio  river,  where 
so  many  fugitives  and  free  persons  of  color 
stopped  on  their  way  from  slavery  to  freedom. 
In  Steubenville  a  number  of  Negroes  had  by 
their  industry  and  good  deportment  made  them- 
selves helpful  to  the  community.  Stephen  Mul- 
ber  who  had  been  in  that  town  for  thirty  years 
was  in  1835  the  leader  of  a  group  of  thrifty 
free  persons  of  color.  He  had  a  brick  dwelling, 
in  which  he  lived,  and  other  property  in  the 
city.  He  made  his  living  as  a  master  mechanic 
employing  a  force  of  workmen  to  meet  the  in- 
creasing demand  for  his  labor.^^    In  Gallipolis, 

26T7ie  Journal  of  Negro  History,  1,  p.  22. 


92      A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

there  was  another  group  of  this  class  of  Ne- 
groes, who  had  permanently  attached  them- 
selves to  the  town  by  the  acquisition  of  prop- 
erty. They  were  then  able  not  only  to  provide 
for  their  families  but  were  maintaining  also  a 
school  and  a  church.^^  In  Portsmouth,  Ohio, 
despite  the  "Black  Friday"  upheaval  of  1831, 
the  Negroes  settled  down  to  the  solution  of  the 
problems  of  their  new  environment  and  later 
showed  in  the  accumulation  of  property  evi- 
dences of  actual  progress.  Among  the  success- 
ful Negroes  in  Columbus  was  David  Jenkins f 
who  acquired  considerable  property  as  a 
painter,  glazier  and  paper  hanger.^^  One  Mr. 
Hill,  of  Chillicothe,  was  for  several  years  its 
leading  tanner  and  currier.^^ 

It  was  in  Cincinnati,  however,  that  the  Ne- 
groes made  most  progress  in  the  West.  The 
migratory  blacks  came  there  at  times  in  such 
large  numbers,  as  we  have  observed,  that  they 
provoked  the  hostile  classes  of  whites  to  employ 
rash  measures  to  exterminate  them.  But  the 
Negroes,  accustomed  to  adversity,  struggled  on, 
endeavoring  through  schools  and  churches  to 
embrace  every  opportunity  to  rise.  By  1840 
there  were  2,255  Negroes  in  that  city.  They 
had,  exclusive  of  personal  effects  and  $19,000 
worth  of  church  property,  accumulated  $209,000 

2T  ]Iiekok,  The  Negro  in  Ohio,  p.  88. 

2«  Dclauy,  Condition  of  the  Colored  People,  p.  99. 

2^  Ibid.,  p.  10]. 


i 


The  Successful  Migrant  93 

worth  of  real  estate.  A  number  of  their  pro- 
gressive men  had  established  a  real  estate  firm 
known  as  the  "Iron  Chest"  company  which  built 
houses  for  Negroes.  One  man,  who  had  once 
thought  it  unwise  to  accumulate  wealth  from 
which  he  might  be  driven,  had,  by  1840,  changed 
his  mind  and  purchased  $6,000  worth  of  real 
estate. 

Another  Negro  paid  $5,000  for  himself  and 
family  and  bought  a  home  worth  $800  or  $1,000. 
A  freedman,  who  was  a  slave  until  he  was 
twenty-four  years  of  age,  then  had  two  lots 
worth  $10,000,  paid  a  tax  of  $40  and  had  320 
acres  of  land  in  Mercer  County.  Another,  who 
was  worth  only  $3,000  in  1836,  had  seven  houses 
in  1840,  400  acres  of  land  in  Indiana,  and  an- 
other tract  in  Mercer  County,  Ohio.  He  was 
worth  altogether  about  $12,000  or  $15,000.  A 
woman  who  was  a  slave  until  she  was  thirty  was 
then  worth  $2,000.  She  had  also  come  into  po- 
tential possession  of  two  houses  on  which  a 
white  lawyer  had  given  her  a  mortgage  to  se- 
cure the  pajTuent  of  $2,000  borrowed  from  this 
thrifty  woman.  Another  Negro,  who  was  on 
the  auction  block  in  1832,  had  spent  $2,600  pur- 
chasing himself  and  family  and  had  bought  two 
brick  houses  worth  $6,000  and  560  acres  of  land 
in  Mercer  County,  Ohio,  said  to  be  worth 
$2,500.30 

30  The  FUlanthropist,  July  21,  1840,  gives  these  statistics  in 
detail. 


94       A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

The  Negroes  of  Cincinnati  liad  as  early  as 
1820  established  schools  which  developed  dur- 
ing the  forties  into  something  like  a  modern 
system  with  Gilmore's  High  School  as  a  cap- 
stone. By  that  time  they  had  also  not  only 
several  churches  but  had  given  time  and  means 
to  the  organization  and  promotion  of  such  as  the 
Sabbath  School  Youth's  Society,  the  Total  Ab- 
stinence Temperance  Society  and  the  Anti-Slav- 
ery Society.  The  worthy  example  set  by  the 
Negroes  of  this  city  was  a  stimulus  to  noble  en- 
deavor and  significant  achievements  of  Negroes 
throughout  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi  Valleys. 
Disarming  their  enemies  of  the  weapon  that 
they  would  continue  a  public  charge,  they  se- 
cured the  cooperation  of  a  larger  number  of 
white  people  who  at  first  had  treated  them  with 
contempt.^^ 

This  unusual  progress  in  the  Ohio  valley  had 
been  promoted  by  two  forces,  the  development 
of  the  steamboat  as  a  factor  in  transportation 
and  the  rise  of  the  Negro  mechanic.  Negroes 
employed  on  vessels  as  servants  to  the  travel- 
ling public  amassed  large  sums  received  in  the 
form  of  tips.  Furthermore,  the  fortunate  few, 
constituting  the  stewards  of  these  vessels,  could 
by  placing  contracts  for  supplies  and  using 
business  methods  realize  handsome  incomes, 
^fany  Negroes  thus  enriched  purchased  real  es- 
tate and  went  into  business  in  towns  along  the 
Ohio. 

8»  The  Philanthropist,  July  21,  1840. 


The  Successful  Migrant  95 

The  other  forcej  the  rise  of  the  Negro  me- 
chanic, was  made  possible  by  overcoming  much 
of  the  prejudice  which  had  at  first  been  encoun- 
tered. A  great  change  in  this  respect  had  taken 
place  in  Cincinnati  by  1840.=^2  Many  Negroes 
who  had  been  forced  to  work  as  menial  laborers 
then  had  the  opportunity  to  show  their  useful- 
ness to  their  families  and  to  the  community. 
Negro  mechanics  were  then  getting  as  much 
skilled  labor  as  they  could  do.  It  was  not  un- 
common for  white  artisans  to  solicit  employment 
of  colored  men  because  they  had  the  reputation 
of  being  better  paymasters  than  master  work- 
men of  the  favored  race.  Wliite  mechanics  not 
only  worked  with  the  blacks  but  often  asso- 
ciated with  them,  patronized  the  same  barber 
shop,  and  went  to  the  same  places  of  amuse- 
ment.^^ 

Out  of  this  group  came  some  very  useful  Ne- 
groes, among  whom  may  be  mentioned  Robert 
Harlan,  the  horseman;  A.  V.  Thompson,  the 
tailor;  J.  Presley  and  Thomas  Ball,  contractors, 
and  Samuel  T.  Wilcox,  the  merchant,  who  was 
worth  $60,000  in  1859.3^  There  were  among 
them  two  other  successful  Negroes,  Henry  Boyd 
and  Robert  Gordon.  Boyd  was  a  Kentucky 
freedman  who  helped  to  overcome  the  prejudice 
in  Cincinnati  against  Negro  mechanics  by  in- 
venting and  exploiting  a  corded  bed,  the  demand 

32  The  Cincinnati  Daily  Gazette,  Sept.  14,  1841. 

33 Barber's  Eeport  on  Colored  People  vn  Ohio. 

34  Delany,  Condition  of  the  Colored  People,  pp.  97,  98. 


96      A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

for  which  was  extensive  throughout  the  Ohio 
and  Mississippi  valleys.  He  had  a  creditable 
manufacturing  business  in  which  he  employed 
twenty-five  men.^^ 

Robert  Gordon  was  a  much  more  interesting 
man.  He  was  born  a  slave  in  Richmond,  Vir- 
ginia. He  ingratiated  himself  into  the  favor  of 
his  master  who  placed  him  in  charge  of  a  large 
coal  yard  with  the  privilege  of  selling  the  slake 
for  his  own  benefit.  In  the  course  of  time,  he 
accumulated  in  this  position  thousands  of  dol- 
lars with  which  he  finally  purchased  himself 
and  moved  away  to  free  soil.  After  observing 
the  situation  in  several  of  the  northern  centers, 
he  finally  decided  to  settle  in  Cincinnati,  where 
he  arrived  with  $15,000.  Knowing  the  coal  busi- 
ness, he  well  established  himself  there  after 
some  discouragement  and  opposition.  He  ac- 
cumulated much  wealth  which  he  invested  in 
United  States  bonds  during  the  Civil  War  and 
in  real  estate  on  Walnut  Hills  when  the  bonds 
were  later  redeemed. ^^ 

The  ultimately  favorable  attitude  of  the  peo- 
ple of  Detroit  toward  immigrating  Negroes  had 
been  reflected  by  the  position  the  people  of  that 
section  had  taken  from  the  time  of  the  earliest 
settlements.  Generally  speaking,  Detroit  ad^ 
herod  to  this  position.^^    In  this  congenial  com- 

35  Delany,  Condition  of  the  Colored  People,  p.  98. 
30  These  facts  were   obtained   from  his  children  and  from 
Cincinnati  city  directories. 

'T  Niles  Jiegistcr,  LXIX,  p.  357. 


The  Successful  Migrant  97 

munity  prospered  many  a  Negro  family.  There 
were  the  Williams'  most  of  whom  confined  them- 
selves to  their  trade  of  bricklaying  and  amassed 
considerable  wealth.  Then  there  were  the 
Cooks,  descending  from  Lomax  B.  Cook,  a 
broker  of  no  little  business  ability.  Will  Marion 
Cook,  the  musician,  belongs  to  this  family.  The 
De  Baptistes,  too,  were  among  the  first  to  suc- 
ceed in  this  new  home,  as  they  prospered  ma- 
terially from  their  experience  and  knowledge 
previously  acquired  in  Fredericksburg,  Vir- 
ginia, as  contractors.  From  this  group  came 
Richard  De  Baptiste,  who  in  his  day  was  the 
most  useful  Negro  Baptist  preacher  in  the 
Northwest.^^  The  Pelhams  were  no  less  suc- 
cessful in  establishing  themselves  in  the  eco- 
nomic world.  Having  an  excellent  reputation 
in  the  community,  they  easily  secured  the  co- 
operation of  the  influential  white  people  in  the 
city.  Out  of  this  family  came  Robert  A.  Pel- 
ham,  for  years  editor  of  a  weekly  in  Detroit, 
and  from  1901  to  the  present  time  an  employee 
of  the  Federal  Government  in  Washington. 

The  children  of  the  Richards,  another  old 
family,  were  in  no  sense  inferior  to  the  descend^ 
ants  of  the  others.  The  most  prominent  and 
the  most  useful  to  emerge  from  this  group  was 
the  daughter,  Fannie  M.  Richards.  She  was 
born  in  Fredericksburg,  Virginia,  October  1, 
1841.    Having  left  that  State  with  her  parents 

38  Letters  received  from  Miss  Pannie  M.  Richards  of  Detroit, 


98      A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

when  she  was  quite  young,  she  did  not  see  so 
much  of  the  antebellum  conditions  obtaining 
there.  Desiring  to  have  better  training  than 
what  was  then  given  to  persons  of  color  in  De- 
troit, she  went  to  Toronto  where  she  studied 
English,  history,  drawing  and  needlework.  In 
later  years  she  attended  the  Teachers '  Training 
School  in  Detroit.  She  became  a  public-school 
teacher  there  in  1863  and  after  fifty  years  of 
creditable  service  in  this  work  she  was  retired 
on  a  pension  in  1913.^^ 

The  Negroes  in  the  North  had  not  only  shown 
their  ability  to  rise  in  the  economic  world  when 
properly  encouraged  but  had  begun  to  exhibit 
power  of  all  kinds.  There  were  Negro  inventors, 
a  few  lawyers,  a  number  of  physicians  and 
dentists,  many  teachers,  a  score  of  intelligent 
preachers,  some  scholars  of  note,  and  even  suc- 
cessful blacks  in  the  finer  arts.  Some  of  these, 
with  Frederick  Douglass  as  the  most  influential, 
were  also  doing  creditable  work  in  journalism 
with  about  thirty  newspapers  which  had  devel- 
oped among  the  Negroes  as  weapons  of  de- 
fense.^"^ 

This  progress  of  the  Negroes  in  the  North  was 
much  more  marked  after  the  middle  of  the  nine- 
teenth century.  The  migration  of  Negroes  to 
northern  communities  was  at  first  checked  by 

80  These  facts  were  obtained  from  clippings  taken  from  De- 
troit newspapers  and  from  letters  bearing  on  Miss  Kichard's 
career. 

*o  The  A.  M.  E.  Church  -Review,  IV,  p.  309;  and  XX,  p.  137. 


The  Successful  Migrant  99 

the  reaction  in  those  places  during  the  thirties 
and  forties.  Thus  relieved  of  the  large  influx 
which  once  constituted  a  menace,  those  commu- 
nities gave  the  Negroes  already  on  hand  better 
economic  opportunities.  It  was  fortunate  too 
that  prior  to  the  check  in  the  infiltration  of  the 
blacks  they  had  come  into  certain  districts  in 
sufficiently  large  numbers  to  become  a  more  po- 
tential factor.'*^  They  were  strong  enough  in 
some  cases  to  make  common  cause  against  foes 
and  could  by  cooperation  solve  many  problems 
with  which  the  blacks  in  dispersed  condition 
could  not  think  of  grappling. 

Their  endeavors  along  these  lines  proceeded 
in  many  cases  from  well-organized  etforts  like 
those  culminating  in  the  numerous  national  con- 
ventions which  began  meeting  first  in  Phila- 
delphia in  1830  and  after  some  years  of  de- 
liberation in  this  city  extended  to  others  in 
the  North.^2  These  bodies  aimed  not  only  to 
promote  education,  religion  an.d  morals,  but, 
taking  up  the  work  which  the  Quakers  began, 
they  put  forth  efforts  to  secure  to  the  free 
blacks  opportunities  to  be  trained  in  the  me- 
chanic arts  to  equip  themselves  for  participa- 
tion in  the  industries  then  springing  up  through- 
out the  North.  This  movement,  however,  did 
not  succeed  in  the  proportion  to  the  efforts  put 

41  Censuses  of  the  United  States;  and  Clark,  Present  Condi- 
tion of  Colored  People. 

42  Minutes  and  Proceedings  of  the  Annual  Convention  of  tie 
People  of  Color, 


100     A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

forth  because  of  the  increasing  power  of  the 
trades  unions. 

After  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century  too 
the  Negroes  found  conditions  a  little  more  favor- 
able to  their  progress  than  the  generation  be- 
fore. The  aggressive  South  had  by  that  time  so 
shaped  the  policy  of  the  nation  as  not  only  to 
force  the  free  States  to  cease  aiding  the  escape 
of  fugitives  but  to  undertake  to  impress  the 
northerner  into  the  service  of  assisting  in  their 
recapture  as  provided  in  the  Fugitive  Slave 
Law.  This  repressive  measure  set  a  larger  num- 
ber of  the  people  thinking  of  the  Negro  as  a 
national  problem  rather  than  a  local  one.  The 
attitude  of  the  North  was  then  reflected  in  the 
personal  liberty  laws  as  an  answer  to  this  meas- 
ure and  in  the  increasing  sympathy  for  the  Ne- 
groes. During  this  decade,  therefore,  more  was 
done  in  the  North  to  secure  to  the  Negroes  bet- 
ter treatment  and  to  give  them  opportunities 
for  improvement. 


CHAPTER   VI 

CONFUSING  MOVEMENTS 

THE  Civil  War  waged  largely  in  tlie  South 
started  the  most  exciting  movement  of  the 
Negroes  hitherto  known.  The  invading  Union 
forces  drove  the  masters  before  them,  leaving 
the  slaves  and  sometimes  poor  whites  to  escape 
where  they  would  or  to  remain  in  helpless  con- 
dition to  constitute  a  problem  for  the  northern 
army.^  Many  poor  whites  of  the  border  States 
went  with  the  Confederacy,  not  always  because 
they  wanted  to  enter  the  war,  but  to  choose  what 
they  considered  the  lesser  of  two  evils.  The 
slaves  soon  realized  a  community  of  interests 
with  the  Union  forces  sent,  as  they  thought,  to 
deliver  them  from  thralldom.  At  first,  it  was 
difficult  to  determine  a  fixed  policy  for  dealing 
with  these  fugitives.  To  drive  them  away  was 
an  easy  matter,  but  this  did  not  solve  the  prob- 
lem. General  Butler's  action  at  Fortress  Mon- 
roe in  1861,  however,  anticipated  the  policy 
finally  adopted  by  the  Union  forces.^  Hearing 
that  three  fugitive  slaves  who  were  received  into 

1  This  is  well  treated  in  John  Eaton 's  Grant,  Lincoln  and  the 
Freedmen.     See  also  Coffin's  Boys  of  '61. 

2  Williams,  History  of  the  Negro  Troops  in  the  War  of  the 
'Rebellion,  p.  70. 

101 


102     A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

his  lines  were  to  have  been  employed  in  building 
fortifications  for  the  Confederate  army,  he  de- 
clared them  seized  as  contraband  of  war  rather 
than  declare  them  actually  free  as  did  General 
Fremont^^  and  General  Hunter.^  He  then  gave 
them  employment  for  wages  and  rations  and 
appropriated  to  the  support  of  the  unemployed 
a  portion  of  the  earnings  of  the  laborers^^^Thij. 
policy  was  followed  by  General  Wood^-^utler's 
successor,  and  by  General  Banks  in  New  Or- 
leans. 

An  elaborate  plan  for  handling  such  fugitives 
was  carried  out  by  E.  S.  Pierce  and  General 
Kufus  Saxton  at  Port  Royal,  South  Carolina. 
Seeing  the  situation  in  another  light,  however, 
General  Halleck  in  charge  in  the  West  excluded 
slaves  from  the  Union  lines,  at  first,  as  did  Gen- 
eral Dix  in  Virginia.  But  Halleck,  in  his  in- 
structions to  General  McCullum,  February, 
1862,  ordered  him  to  put  contrabands  to  work 
to  pay  for  food  and  clothing.^  Other  com- 
manders, like  General  McCook  and  General 
Johnson,  permitted  the  slave  hunltrs  to  enter 
their  lines  and  take  their  slaves  upon  identifica- 
tion," ignoring  the  confiscation  act  of  August, 
1861,  which  was  construed  by  some  as  justifying 
the  retention  of  such  refugees.  Officers  of  a 
different  attitude,  however,  soon  began  to  pro- 

8  Grecly,  American  Co7iflict,  I,  p.  585. 

*  Ibid.,  II,  p.  246. 

»  Official  Hecords  of  the  HeheUion,  VIII,  p.  628. 

'Williams,  Negro  Troops,  p.  66  et  seq. 


Confusing  Movements  103 

test  against  the  returning  of  fugitive  slaves. 
General  Grant,  also,  while  admitting  the  binding 
force  of  General  Halleck's  order,  refused  to 
grant  permits  to  those  in  search  of  fugitives 
seeking  asylum  within  his  lines  and  at  the  cap- 
ture of  Fort  Donelson  ordered  the  retention  of 
all  blacks  who  had  been  used  by  the  Confederates 
in  building  fortifications/ 

Lincoln  finally  urged  the  necessity  for  with- 
holding fugitive  slaves  from  the  enemy,  believ- 
ing that  there  could  be  in  it  no  danger  of  servile 
insurrection  and  that  the  Confederacy  would 
thereby  be  weakened.^  As  this  opinion  soon  de- 
veloped into  a  conviction  that  official  action  was 
necessary.  Congress,  by  Act  of  March  13,  1862, 
provided  that  slaves  be  protected  against  the 
claims  of  their  pursuers.  Continuing  further  in 
this  direction,  the  Federal  Government  grad- 
ually reached  the  position  of  withdrawing  Negro 
labor  from  the  Confederate  territory.  Finally 
the  United  States  Government  adopted  the  pol- 
icy of  withholding  from  the  Confederates,  slaves 
received  with  the  understanding  that  their  mas- 
ters were  in  rebellion  against  the  United  States. 
"With  this  as  a  settled  policy  then,  the  United 
States  Government  had  to  work  out  some 
scheme  for  the  remaking  of  these  fugitives  com- 
ing into  its  camps. 

In  some  of  these  cases  the  fugitives  found 

1  Official  Becords  of  the  Eebellion,  VIII,  p.  370;  Williams, 
Negro  Troops,  p.  75. 

8  Eaton,  Grant,  Lincoln  and  the  Freedmen,  pp.  87,  92. 

8 


104     A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

themselves  among  men  more  hostile  to  them 
than  their  masters  were,  for  many  of  the  Union 
soldiers  of  the  border  States  were  slaveholders 
themselves  and  northern  soldiers  did  not  under- 
stand that  they  were  fighting  to  free  Negroes. 
The  condition  in  which  they  were  on  arriving, 
moreover,  was  a  new  problem  for  the  army. 
Some  came  naked,  some  in  decrepitude,  some 
afflicted  with  disease,  and  some  wounded  in  their 
efforts  to  escape.^    There  were  ' '  women  in  trav- 
ail, the  helplessness  of  childliood  and  of  old 
age,  the  horrors  of  sickness  and  of  frequent 
deaths. '  '^°    In  their  crude  state  few  of  them  had 
any  conception  of  the  significance  of  liberty, 
thinking  that   it  meant  idleness   and  freedom 
from  restraint.     In  consequence  of  this  igno- 
rance there  developed  such  undesirable  habits 
as  deceit,  theft  and  licentiousness  to  aggravate 
the  afflictions   of  nakedness,   famine   and  dis- 
ease.^^ 

In  the  East  large  numbers  of  these  refugees 
were  concentrated  at  Washington,  Alexandria, 
Fortress  Monroe,  Hampton,  Craney  Island  and 
Fort  Norfolk.  There  were  smaller  groups  of 
them  at  Yorktown,  Suffolk  and  Portsmouth.^ ^ 

"Pierce,  Freedmen  of  Port  Boyal,  South  Carolina,  passim; 
Botume,  First  Days  Among  the  Contrabands,  pp.  10-22;  and 
Pearson,  Letters  from  Port  Royal,  passim, 

10  Eaton,  Grant,  Lincoln  and  the  Freedmen,  p.  92. 

11  Ibid.,  pp.  2,  3. 

12  Rei)ort  of  the  Committee  of  Eepresentatives  of  the  New 
York  Yearly  Meeting  of  Friends  upon  the  Condition  and  Wants 
of  the  Colored  Refugees,  1862,  p.  1  et  seq. 


Confusing  Movements  105 

Some  of  tliem  were  conducted  from  these  camps 
into  York,  Columbia,  Harrisburg,  Pittsburgh 
and  Philadelphia,  and  by  water  to  New  York 
and  Boston,  from  which  they  went  to  various 
parts  seeking  labor.  Some  collected  in  groups 
as  in  the  case  of  those  at  Five  Points  in  New 
York.^^  Large  numbers  of  them  from  Virginia  as- 
sembled in  Washington  in  1862  in  Duff  Green's 
Row  on  Capitol  Hill  where  they  were  organ- 
ized as  a  camp,  out  of  which  came  a  contraband 
school,  after  being  moved  to  the  McClellan  Bar- 
racks.^^  Then  there  was  in  the  District  of  Co- 
lumbia another  group  known  as  Freedmen's  vil- 
lage on  Arlington  Heights.  It  was  said  that,  in 
1864,  30,000  to  40,000  Negroes  had  come  from 
the  plantations  to  the  District  of  Columbia. ^^ 
It  happened  here  too  as  in  most  cases  of  this 
migration  that  the  Negroes  were  on  hand  before 
the  officials  grappling  with  many  other  problems 
could  determine  exactly  what  could  or  should 
be  done  with  them.  The  camps  near  "Washing- 
ton fortunately  became  centers  for  the  employ- 
ment of  contrabands  in  the  city.  Those  repair- 
ing to  Fortress  Monroe  were  distributed  as 
laborers  among  the  farmers  of  that  vicinity. ^^ 

13  Beport  of  the  Committee  of  Eei)resentatives,  etc.,  p.  3. 

14  At  an  entertainment  of  this  school^  Senator  Pomeroy  of 
Kansas,  voicing  the  sentiment  of  Lincoln^  spoke  in  favor  of  a 
scheme  to  colonize  Negroes  in  Central  America. 

15  Special  Beport  of  the  United  States  Commission  of  Educa- 
tion on  the  Schools  of  the  District  of  Columbia,  p.  215. 

16  Christian  Examiner,  LXXVI,  p.  349. 


lOG     A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

In  some  of  these  camps,  and  especially  in  those 
of  the  West,  the  refugees  were  finally  sent  out 
to  other  sections  in  need  of  labor,  as  in  the  cases 
of  the  contrabands  assembled  with  the  Union 
army  at  first  at  Grand  Junction  and  later  at 
Memphis.^" 

There  were  three  types  of  these  camp  commu- 
nities which  attracted  attention  as  places  for 
free  labor  experimentation.  These  were  at  Port 
Koyal,  on  the  Mississippi  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Vicksburg,  and  in  Lower  Louisiana  and  Vir- 
ginia. The  first  trial  of  free  labor  of  blacks  on 
a  large  scale  in  a  slave  State  was  made  in  Port 
Eoyal.^^  The  experiment  was  generally  success- 
ful. By  industry,  thrift  and  orderly  conduct 
the  Negroes  showed  their  appreciation  for  their 
new  opportunities.  In  the  Mississippi  section 
invaded  by  the  northern  arm}^  General  Thomas 
opened  what  he  called  Infirmary  Farms  which 
he  leased  to  Negroes  on  certain  terms  which 
they  usually  met  successfully.  The  same  plan, 
however,  was  not  so  successful  in  the  Lower 
Mississippi  section. ^*^  The  failure  in  this  sec- 
tion was  doubtless  due  to  the  inferior  type  of 
blacks  in  the  lower  cotton  belt  where  Negroes 
had  been  more  brutalized  by  slavery. 

In  some  cases,   these   refugees   experienced 

IT  Eaton,  Lincoln,  Grant  and  the  Freedmen,  pp.  18,  30. 

"  Pierce,  The  Freedmen  of  Port  Eoyal,  South  Carolina,  Offi- 
cial Reports;  and  Pearson,  Letters  from  Fort  Eoyal  written  at 
the  Time  of  the  Civil  War. 

IB  Christian  Examiner,  LXXVI,  p.  354. 


Confusing  Movements  107 

many  hardships.  It  was  charged  that  they  were 
worked  hard,  badly  treated  and  deprived  of  all 
their  wages  except  what  was  given  them  for 
rations  and  a  scanty  pittance,  wholly  insufficient 
to  purchase  necessary  clothing  and  provide 
for  their  families.^^  Not  a  few  of  the  refugees 
for  these  reasons  applied  for  permission  to  re- 
turn to  their  masters  and  sometimes  such  per- 
mission was  granted;  for,  although  under  mil- 
itary authority,  they  were  by  order  of  Congress 
to  be  considered  as  freemen.  The^e  voluntary 
slaves,  of  course,  were  few  and  the  authorities 
were  not  thereby  impressed  with  the  thought 
that  Negroes  would  prefer  to  be  slaves,  should 
they  be  treated  as  freemen  rather  than  as 
brutes.^^ 

It  became  increasingly  difficult,  however,  to 
handle  this  problem.  In  the  first  place,  it  was 
not  an  easy  matter  to  find  soldiers  well  disposed 
to  serve  the  Negroes  in  any  manner  whatever 
and  the  officers  of  the  army  had  no  desire  to 
force  them  to  render  such  services  since  those 
thus  engaged  suffered  a  sort  of  social  ostracism. 
The  same  condition  obtained  in  the  case  of 
caring  for  those  afflicted  with  disease,  until 
there  was  issued  a  specific  regulation  placing 
the  contraband  sick  in  charge  of  the  army  sur- 
geons.^^    What  the  situation  in  the  Mississippi 

20  Contvnental  Monthly,  II,  p.  193. 

21  Beport  of  the  Committee  of  Eepresentatives  of  the  New 
York  Yearly  Meeting  of  Friends,  p.  12, 

22  Eaton,  Lincoln,  Grant  and  the  Freedmen,  p.  2. 


108     A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

Valley  was  during  these  montlis  has  been  well 
described  by  an  observer,  saying:  ''I  hope  I  may 
never  be  called  on  again  to  witness  the  horrible 
scenes  I  saw  in  those  first  days  of  history  of  the 
freedmen  in  the  Mississippi  Valley.    Assistants 
were  hard  to  find,  especially  the  kind  that  would 
do  any  good  in  the  camps.    A  detailed  soldier 
in  each  camp  of  a  thousand  people  was  the  best 
that  could  be  done  and  his  duties  were  so  on- 
erous that  he  ended  by  doing  nothing.     In  re- 
viewing the  condition  of  the  people  at  that  time, 
I  am  not  surprised  at  the  marvelous  stories  told 
by  visitors  who  caught  an  occasional  glimpse  of 
the  misery  and  wretchedness  in  these  camps. 
Our  efforts  to  do  anything  for  these  people,  as 
they  herded  together  in  masses,  when  founded 
on  any  expectation  that  they  would  help  them- 
selves, often  failed;  they  had  become  so  com- 
pletely broken  down  in  spirit,  through  suffering, 
that  it  was  almost  impossible  to  arouse  them."^^ 
A  few  sympathetic  officers  and  especially  the 
chaplains  undertook  to  relieve  the  urgent  cases 
of  distress.     They  could  do  little,  however,  to 
handle  all  the  problems  of  the  unusual  situation 
until  they  engaged  the  attention  of  the  higher 
officers  of  the  army  and  the  federal  function- 
aries in  Washington.     After  some  delay  this 
was  finally  done  and  special  officers  were  de- 

23  Eaton,  Lincoln,  Grant  and  the  Freedmen,  p.  19.  See  also 
Botume's  First  Days  Amongst  the  Contrabands.  This  work 
vividly  portrays  conditions  among  the  refugees  assembled  at 
points  in  South  Carolina. 


Confusing  Movements  109 

tailed  to  take  charge  of  the  contrabands.  The 
Negroes  were  assembled  in  camps  and  employed 
according  to  instructions  from  the  Secretary  of 
War  as  teamsters,  laborers  and  the  like  on  forts 
and  railroads.  Some  were  put  to  picking,  gin- 
ning, baling  and  removing  cotton  on  plantations 
abandoned  by  their  masters.  General  Grant,  as 
early  as  1862,  was  making  further  use  of  them 
as  fatigue  men  in  the  department  of  the  sur- 
geon-general, the  quartermaster  and  the  com- 
missary. He  believed  then  that  such  Negroes 
as  did  well  in  these  more  humble  positions 
should  be  made  citizens  and  soldiers.^^  As  a 
matter  of  fact  out  of  this  very  suggestion  came 
the  policy  of  arming  the  Negroes,  the  first  reg- 
iment of  whom  was  recruited  under  orders  is- 
sued by  General  Hunter  at  Port  Royal,  South 
Carolina  in  1862.  As  the  arming  of  the  slave 
to  participate  in  this  war  did  not  generally 
please  the  white  people  who  considered  the 
struggle  a  war  between  civilized  groups,  this 
policy  could  not  offer  general  relief  to  the  con- 
gested contraband  camps. ^^ 

A  better  system  of  handling  the  fugitives  was 
finally  worked  out,  however,  with  a  general 
superintendent  at  the  head  of  each  department, 
supported  by  a  number  of  competent  assistants. 
More  explicit  instructions  were  given  as  to  the 
manner  of  dealing  with  the  situation.    It  was  to 

24  Eaton,  Grant,  Lincoln  and  the  Freedmen,  p.  15. 

25  Williams,  Negro  in  the  Rebellion,  pp.  90-98. 


110     A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

be  the  duty  of  the  superintendent  of  contra- 
bands, says  the  order,  to  organize  them  into 
working  parties  in  saving  the  cotton,  as  pioneers 
on  raih-oads  and  steamboats,  and  in  any  way 
where  their  sei-vices  could  be  made  available. 
Where  labor  was  performed  for  private  indi- 
viduals they  were  charged  in  accordance  with 
the  orders  of  the  commander  of  the  department. 
In  case  they  were  directed  to  save  abandoned 
crops  of  cotton  for  the  benefit  of  the  United 
States  Government,  the  officer  selling  such  crops 
would  turn  over  to  the  superintendent  of  con- 
trabands the  proceeds  of  the  sale,  which  to- 
gether with  other  earnings  were  used  for  cloth- 
ing and  feeding  the  Negroes.  Clothing  sent  by 
philanthropic  persons  to  these  camps  was  re- 
ceived and  distributed  by  the  superintendent. 
In  no  case,  however,  were  Negroes  to  be  forced 
into  the  service  of  the  United  States  Govern- 
ment or  to  be  enticed  away  from  their  homes 
except  when  it  became  a  military  necessity.^*' 

Some  order  out  of  the  chaos  eventually  de- 
veloped, for  as  John  Eaton,  one  of  the  workers 
in  the  West,  reported:  "There  was  no  promis- 
cuous intermingling.  Families  were  estab- 
lished Ijy  themselves.  Every  man  took  care  of 
his  own  wife  and  children."  "  One  of  the  most 
touching  features  of  our  Work,"  says  he,  "was 

-•0  Official  Records  of  the  War  of  the  Bebellion,  VII,  pp.  503, 
510,  560,  595,  628,  668,  698,  699,  711,  723,  739,  741,  757,  769, 
787,  801,  802,  811,  818,  842,  923,  934;  VIII,  pp.  444,  445,  451, 
464,  555,  556,  564,  584,  637,  642,  686,  690,  693,  825. 


Confusing  Movements  111 

the  eagerness  with  which  colored  men  and 
women  availed  themselves  of  the  opportunities 
offered  them  to  legalize  unions  already  formed, 
some  of  which  had  been  in  existence  for  a  long 
time.  "^^  ' '  Chaplain  A.  S,  Fiske  on  one  occasion 
married  in  about  an  hour  one  hundred  and  nine- 
teen couples  at  one  service,  chiefly  those  who 
had  long  lived  together."  Letters  from  the 
Virginia  camps  and  from  those  of  Port  Royal 
indicate  that  this  favorable  condition  generally 
obtained.^^ 

This  unusual  problem  in  spite  of  additional 
effort,  however,  would  not  readily  admit  of  solu- 
tion. Benevolent  workers  of  the  North,  there- 
fore, began  to  minister  to  the  needs  of  these  un- 
fortunate blacks.  They  sent  considerable  sums 
of  money,  increasing  quantities  of  clothing  and 
even  some  of  their  most  devoted  men  and  women 
to  toil  among  them  as  social  workers  and  teach- 
^j.g  29  These  efforts  also  took  organized  form 
in  various  parts  of  the  North  under  the  direc- 
tion of  The  Pennsylvania  Freedmen's  Relief 
Association,  The  Tract  Society,  The  American 
Missionary  Association,  Pennsylvania  Friends 
Freedmen's  Relief  Association,  Old  School 
Presbyterian  Mission,  The  Reformed  Presby- 
terian Mission,  The  New  England  Freedmen's 

27  Eaton,  Grant,  Lincoln  and  the  Freedmen,  pp.  34-35. 

28  Ames,  From  a  New  England  Woman's  Diary,  passim;  and 
Pearson,  Letters  from  Fort  Royal,  passim. 

29  Ames,   From   a   New   England   Woman's  Diary  in   1865, 
passim. 


112     A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

Aid  Committee,  The  Neiv  England  Freedmen's 
Aid  Society,  The  Neiv  England  Freedmen's  Mis- 
sion, The  Washington  Christian  Union,  The 
Uniuersalists  of  Maine,  The  New  York  Freed- 
men's Relief  Association,  The  Hartford  Relief 
Society,  The  National  Freedmen's  Relief  Asso- 
ciation of  the  District  of  Columbia,  and  finally 
the  Freedmen's  Bureau.^^ 

As  an  outlet  to  the  congested  grouping  of  Ne- 
groes and  poor  whites  in  the  war  camps  it  was 
arranged  to  send  a  number  of  them  to  the  loyal 
States  as  fast  as  there  presented  themselves  op- 
portunities for  finding  homes  and  employment. 
Cairo,  Illinois,  in  the  West,  became  the  center  of 
such  activities  extending  its  ramifications  into 
all  parts  of  the  invaded  southern  territory. 
Some  of  the  refugees  permanently  settled  in  the 
North,  taking  up  the  work  abandoned  by  the 
northern  soldiers  who  went  to  war.^^  It  was 
soon  found  necessary  to  appoint  a  superintend- 
ent of  such  affairs  at  Cairo,  for  there  were  those 
who,  desiring  to  lead  a  straggling  life,  had  to  be 
restrained  from  crime  by  military  surveillance 
and  regulations  requiring  labor  for  self-support. 
Exactly  how  many  whites  and  blacks  were  thus 
aided  to  reach  northern  communities  cannot  be 
determined  but  in  view  of  the  frequent  mention 
of  their  movements  by  travellers  the  number 

80  Special  Ecport  of  the  United  States  Commissioner  of  Edu- 
cation on  the  Schools  of  the  District  of  Columbia,  p.  217. 
8»  Eaton,  Grant,  Lincoln  and  the  Freedmen,  p.  37. 


Confusing  Movements     -         113 

must  liave  been  considerable.  In  some  cases,  as 
in  Lawrence,  Kansas,  there  were  assembled 
enough  freedmen  to  constitute  a  distinct 
group.^^  Speaking  of  this  settlement  the  editor 
of  the  Alton  Telegraph  said  in  1862  that  al- 
though they  amounted  to  many  hundreds  not 
one,  that  he  could  learn  of,  had  been  a  public 
charge.  They  readily  found  employment  at  fair 
wages,  and  soon  made  themselves  comfortable.^^ 
There  was  a  little  apprehension  that  the  North 
would  be  overrun  by  such  blacks.  Some  had  no 
such  fear,  however,  for  the  reason  that  the  cen- 
sus did  not  indicate  such  a  movement.  Many 
slaves  were  freed  in  the  North  prior  to  1860, 
yet  with  all  the  emigration  from  the  slave  States 
to  the  North  there  were  then  in  all  the  Northern 
States  but  226,152  free  blacks,  while  there  were 
in  the  slave  States  261,918,  an  excess  of  35,766 
in  the  slave  States.  Frederick  Starr  believed 
that  during  the  Civil  War  there  might  be  an  in^ 
flux  for  a  few  months  but  it  would  not  con- 
tinue.^'* They  would  return  when  sure  that  they 
would  be  free.  Starr  thought  that,  if  necessary, 
these  refugees  might  be  used  in  building  the 
much  desired  Pacific  Railroad  to  divert  them 
from  the  North.^^ 

32  Eaton,  Grant,  Lincoln  and  the  Freedmen,  p.  38. 
S3  Ibid.,  p.  39. 

34  Starr,  What  shall  ie  done  with  the  People  of  Color  in  the 
United  States,  p.  25;  Ward,  Contrabands,  pp.  3,  4, 

35  It  is  said  that  Lincoln   suggested  colonizing  the  contra- 
bands in  South  America. 


114     A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

There  was  little  ground  for  this  apprehen- 
sion, in  fact,  if  their  readjustment  and  develop- 
ment in  the  contraband  camps  could  be  consid- 
ered an  indication  of  what  the  Negroes  would 
eventually  do.  Taking  all  things  into  consid- 
eration, most  unbiased  observers  felt  that  blacks 
in  the  camps  deserved  well  of  their  bene- 
factors.2^  According  to  Levi  Coffin,  these  con- 
trabands were,  in  1864,  disposed  of  as  follows : 
''In  military  services  as  soldiers,  laundresses, 
cooks,  officers'  servants  and  laborers  in  the 
various  staff  departments,  41,150;  in  cities,  on 
plantations  and  in  freedmen's  villages  and 
cared  for,  72,500.  Of  these  62,300  were  entirely 
self-supporting,  just  as  any  industrial  class  any- 
where else,  as  planters,  mechanics,  barbers, 
hackmen  and  draymen,  conducting  enterprises 
on  their  own  responsibility  or  working  as  hired 
laborers."  The  remaining  10,200  received  sub- 
sistence from  the  government.  3,000  of  these 
were  members  of  families  whose  heads  were 
carrying  on  plantations,  and  had  undertaken 
cultivation  of  4,000  acres  of  cotton,  pledging 
themselves  to  pay  the  government  for  their  sub- 
sistence from  the  first  income  of  the  crop.  The 
other  7,200  included  the  paupers,  that  is,  all  Ne- 
groes over  and  under  the  self-supporting  age, 
the  crippled  and  sick  in  hospitals.  This  class, 
however,  instead  of  being  unproductive,  had 
then  under  cultivation  500  acres  of  corn,  790 

^<i  Atlantic  Monthly,  XII,  p.  308. 


Confusing  Movemenic;:/  115 

acres  of  vegetables,  and  1,500  acres  of  cotton, 
besides  working  at  wood  chopping  and  other  in- 
dustries. There  were  reported  jjiihe  aggregate 
over  100,000  acres  of  cotton -under  cultivation, 
7,000  acres  of  which  weriiJjieased  and  cultivated 
by  blacks.  Some  K^xroes  were  managing  as 
many  as  300  or  400  Hcres  each.^'^  Statistics 
showing  exactly  how  mfcch  the  numbers  of  con- 
trabands in  the  various  I'vranches  of  the  service 
increased  are  wanting,  but  in  view  of  the  fact 
that  the  few  thousand  soli^iers  here  given  in- 
creased to  about  200,000  before  the  close  of  the 
Civil  War,  the  other  numbers  must  have  been 
considerable,  if  they  all  grew  the  least  propor- 
tionately. 

Much  industry  was  shown  among  these  ref- 
ugees. Under  this  new  system  they  acquired 
the  idea  of  ownership,  and  of  the  security  of 
wages  and  learned  to  see  the  fundamental  dif- 
ference between  freedom  and  slavery.  Some 
Yankees,  however,  seeing  that  they  did  less 
work  than  did  laborers  in  the  North,  considered 
them  lazy,  but  the  lack  of  industry  was  cus- 
tomary in  the  South  and  a  river  should  not  be 
expected  to  rise  higher  than  its  source.  One  of 
their  superintendents  said  that  they  worked  well 
without  being  urged,  that  there  was  among 
them  a  public  opinion  against  idleness,  which 
answered  for  discipline,  and  that  those  put  to 
work  with  soldiers  labored  longer  and  did  the 

37  Levi  CoflS.li,  Reminiscences,  p.  671. 


IIG     A  iyMury  of  Negro  Migration 

nicer  parts.  ''In  natural  tact  and  the  faculty  of 
getting  a  livalihood,"  says  the  same  writer,  "the 
contrabands  ai:^,  inferior  to  the  Yankees,  but 
quite  equal  to  the. mass  of  southern  popula- 
tion."^^ The  Negro^j^  also  showed  capacity  to 
organize  labor  and  use  ct^pital  in  the  promotion 
of  enterprises.  Many  o/;'  them  purchased  land 
and  cultivated  it  to  grea^  profit  both  to  the  com- 
munity and  to  themsQ^Lves.  Others  entered  the 
service  of  the  government  as  mechanics  and 
contractors,  from  thql employment  of  which  some 
of  them  realized  handsome  incomes. 

The  more  important  development,  however, 
was  that  of  manhood.  This  was  best  observed 
in  their  growing  consciousness  of  rights,  and 
their  readiness  to  defend  them,  even  when  en- 
croached upon  by  members  of  the  white  race. 
They  quickly  learned  to  appreciate  freedom  and 
exhibited  evidences  of  manhood  in  their  desire 
for  the  comforts  and  conveniences  of  life.  They 
readily  purchased  articles  of  furniture  within 
their  means,  bringing  their  home  equipment  up 
to  the  standard  of  that  of  persons  similarly  cir- 
cumstanced. The  indisposition  to  labor  was 
overcome  ''in  a  healthy  nature  by  instinct  and 
motives  of  superior  forces,  such  as  love  of  life, 
the  desire  to  be  clothed  and  fed,  the  sense  of 
security  derived  from  provision  for  the  future, 
the  feeling  of  self-respect,  the  love  of  family 
and  children  and  the  convictions  of  duty."^^ 

^^  AUantic  Monthly,  XII,  p.  309. 
so/buZ.,  XII,  pp.  310-311. 


Confusing  Movements  117 

These  enterprises,  begun  in  doubt,  soon 
ceased  to  be  a  bare  hope  or  possibility.  They 
became  during  the  war  a  fruition  and  a  con- 
summation, in  that  they  produced  Negroes  "who 
would  work  for  a  living  and  fight  for  free- 
dom." They  were,  therefore,  considered 
"adapted  to  civil  society."  They  had  "shown 
capacity  for  knowledge,  for  free  industry,  for 
subordination  to  law  and  discipline,  for  soldierly 
fortitude,  for  social  and  family  relations,  for 
religious  culture  and  aspiration.  These  qual- 
ities," said  the  observer,  "when  stirred,  and  sus- 
tained by  the  incitements  and  rewards  of  a  just 
society,  and  combining  with  the  currents  of  our 
continental  civilization,  will,  under  the  guidance 
of  a  benevolent  Providence  which  forgets 
neither  them  nor  us,  make  them  a  constantly 
progressive  race;  and  secure  them  ever  after 
from  the  calamity  of  another  enslavement,  and 
ourselves  from  the  worst  calamity  of  being 
their  oppressors.  "^^ 

It  is  clear  that  these  smaller  numbers  of  Ne- 
groes under  favorable  conditions  could  be  easily 
adjusted  to  a  new  environment.  When,  how- 
ever, all  Negroes  were  declared  free  there  set 
in  a  confused  migration  which  was  much  more 
of  a  problem.  The  first  thing  the  Negro  did 
after  realizing  that  he  was  free  was  to  roam 
over  the  country  to  put  his  freedom  to  a  test. 
To  do  this,  according  to  many  writers,  he  fre- 

iorbid.,  p.  311. 


118     A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

quently  changed  liis  name,  residence,  employ- 
ment and  wife,  sometimes  carrying  with  him 
from  the  plantation  the  fruits  of  his  own  lahor. 
Many  of  them  easily  acquired  a  dog  and  a  gun 
and  were  disposed  to  devote  their  time  to  the 
chase  until  the  assistance  in  the  form  of  mules 
and  land  expected  from  the  government  ma- 
terialized. Their  emancipation,  therefore,  was 
interpreted  not  only  as  freedom  from  slavery 
but  from  responsibility.^^  Where  they  were 
going  they  did  not  know  but  the  towns  and  cities 
became  verv  attractive  to  them. 

Speaking  of  this  upheaval  in  Virginia,  Ecken- 
rode  says  that  many  of  them  roamed  over  the 
country  without  restraint.^^  "Released  from 
their  accustomed  bonds,"  says  Hall,  ''and  filled 
with  a  pleasing,  if  not  vague,  sense  of  uncon- 
trolled freedom,  they  flocked  to  the  cities  with 
little  hope  of  obtaining  remunerative  work. 
Wagon  loads  of  them  were  brought  in  from  the 
country  by  the  soldiers  and  dumped  down  to 
shift  for  themselves.  "^^  Eef erring  to  the  pro- 
clamation of  freedom,  in  Georgia,  Thompson  as- 
serts that  their  most  general  and  universal  re- 
sponse was  to  pick  up  and  leave  the  home  place 
to  go  somewhere  else,  preferably  to  a  town.  The 
lure  of  the  city  was  strong  to  the  blacks,  appeal- 
ing to  their  social  natures,  to  their  inherent  love 

<i  Hamilton,  Ecconstruciion  in  North  Carolina,  pp.  156,  157. 
<2  Eckenrode,  Political  History  of  Virginia  during  the  Recon- 
struction, p.  42. 

■«3  Hall,  Andrew  Johnson,  p.  258. 


Confusing  Movements  119 

for  a  crowd. '  '^"^  Davis  maintains  that  thousands 
of  the  70,000  Negroes  in  Florida  crowded  into  the 
Federal  military  camps  and  into  towns  upon 
realizing  that  they  were  free.^'^  According  to 
Ficklen,  the  exodus  of  the  slaves  from  the  neigh- 
boring plantations  of  Louisiana  into  Baton 
Rouge,  Carrollton  and  New  Orleans  was  so 
great  as  to  strain  the  resources  of  the  Federal 
authorities  to  support  them.  Ten  thousand 
poured  into  New  Orleans  alone.^^  Fleming 
records  that  upon  leaving  their  homes  the  blacks 
collected  in  gangs  at  the  cross  roads,  in  the  vil- 
lages and  towns,  especially  near  the  military 
posts.  The  towns  were  filled  with  crowds  of 
blacks  who  left  their  homes  with  absolutely  noth- 
ing, "thinking  that  the  government  would  care 
for  them,  or  more  probably,  not  thinking  at 
all."^^ 

The  portrayal  of  these  writers  of  this  phase 
of  Reconstruction  history  contains  a  general 
truth,  but  in  some  cases  the  picture  is  over- 
drawn. The  student  of  history  must  bear  in 
mind  that  practically  all  of  our  histories  of  that 
period  are  based  altogether  on  the  testimony 
of  prejudiced  whites  and  are  written  from  their 
point  of  view.  Some  of  these  writers  have 
aimed  to  exaggerate  the  vagrancy  of  the  blacks 

44  Thompson,  Reconstruction  in  Georgia,  p.  44. 

45  Davis,  Reconstruction  in  Florida,  p.  341. 

46  Ficklen,  History  of  Reconstruction  in  Louisiana,  p.  118. 

47  Fleming,  The  Civil  War  and  Reconstruction  in  Alabama, 
p.  271. 

9 


120     A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

to  justify  the  radical  procedure  of  the  whites  in 
dealing  with  it.  The  Negroes  did  wander  about 
thoughtlessly,  believing  that  this  was  the  most 
effective  way  to  enjoy  their  freedom.  But  noth- 
ing else  could  be  expected  from  a  class  who  had 
never  felt  anything  but  the  heel  of  oppression. 
History  shows  that  such  vagrancy  has  always 
followed  the  immediate  emancipation  of  a  large 
number  of  slaves.  Many  Negroes  who  flocked 
to  the  towns  and  army  camps,  moreover,  had 
like  their  masters  and  poor  whites  seen  their 
homes  broken  up  or  destroyed  by  the  invading 
Union  armies.  Whites  who  had  never  learned 
to  work  were  also  roaming  and  in  some  cases 
constituted  marauding  bands.^^ 

There  was,  moreover,  an  actual  drain  of  la- 
borers to  the  lower  and  more  productive  lands 
in  Mississippi  and  Louisiana.^^  This  developed 
later  into  a  more  considerable  movement  toward 
the  Southwest  just  after  the  Civil  War,  the  ex- 
odus being  from  South  Carolina,  Georgia,  Ala- 
bama and  Mississippi  to  Louisiana,  Arkansas 
and  Texas.  Here  was  the  pioneering  spirit,  a 
going  to  the  land  of  more  economic  opportuni- 
ties. This  slow  movement  continued  from  about 
1865  to  1875,  when  the  development  of  the 
numerous  railway  systems  gave  rise  to  land 
speculators  who  induced  whites  and  blacks  to  go 
west  and  southwest.    It  was  a  migration  of  in- 

••8  Thompson,  Eeconstruction  in  Georgia,  p.  69. 
<o  Ibid.,  p.  69. 


Confusing  Movements  121 

dividuals,  but  it  was  reported  that  as  many  as 
35,000  Negroes  were  then  persuaded  to  leave 
South  Carolina  and  Georgia  for  Arkansas  and 
Texas.^*^ 

The  usual  charge  that  the  Negro  is  naturally 
migratory  is  not  true.  This  impression  is  often 
received  by  persons  who  hear  of  the  thousands 
of  Negroes  who  move  from  one  place  to  another 
from  year  to  year  because  of  the  desire  to  im- 
prove their  unhappy  condition.  In  this  there  is 
no  tendency  to  migrate  but  an  urgent  need  to 
escape  undesirable  conditions.  In  fact,  one  of 
the  American  Negroes'  greatest  shortcomings 
is  that  they  are  not  sufficiently  pioneering.  Sta- 
tistics show  that  the  whites  have  more  inclina- 
tion to  move  from  State  to  State  than  the  Negro. 
To  prove  this  assertion,^^  Professor  William  0. 
Scroggs  hasi  shown  that,  in  1910,  16.6  per  cent 
of  the  Negroes  had  moved  to  some  other  State 
than  that  in  which  they  were  born,  while  during 
the  same  period  22.4  per  cent  of  the  whites  had 
done  the  same.^^ 

The  South,  however,  was  not  disposed  to  look 
at  the  vagrancy  of  the  ex-slaves  so  philosoph- 
ically.    That  section  had  been  devastated  by 

50  This  exodus  became  considerable  again  in  1888  and  1889 
and  the  Negro  population  has  continued  in  this  direction  of 
plentitude  of  land  including  not  only  Arkansas  and  Texas  but 
Louisiana  and  Oklahoma,  all  which  received  in  this  way  by 
1900  about  200,000  Negroes. 

5''- American  Journal  of  Political  Economy,  XXII,  pp.  10,  40. 

52  Ihid.,  XXV,  p.  1038. 


122     A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

war  and  to  rebuild  these  waste  places  reliable 
labor  was  necessary.  Legislatures  of  the  slave 
States,  therefore,  immediately  after  the  close 
of  the  war,  granted  the  Negro  nominal  freedom 
but  enacted  measures  of  vagrancy  and  labor  so 
as  to  reduce  the  Negro  again  almost  to  the  sta- 
tus of  a  slave.  White  magistrates  were  given 
wide  discretion  in  adjudging  Negroes  va- 
grants.^3  Negroes  had  to  sign  contracts  to  work. 
If  without  what  was  considered  a  just  cause  the 
Negro  left  the  employ  of  a  planter,  the  former 
could  be  arrested  and  forced  to  work  and  in 
some  sections  with  ball  and  chain.  If  the  em- 
ployer did  not  care  to  take  him  back  he  could 
be  hired  out  by  the  county  or  confined  in  jail. 
Mississippi,  Louisiana  and  South  Carolina  had 
further  drastic  features.  By  local  ordinance 
in  Louisiana  every  Negro  had  to  be  in  the  serv- 
ice of  som^e  white  person,  and  by  special  laws 
of  South  Carolina  and  Mississippi  the  Negro  be- 
came subject  to  a  master  almost  in  the  same 
sense  in  which  he  was  prior  to  emancipation.^* 
These  laws,  of  course,  convinced  the  govern- 
ment of  the  United  States  that  the  South  had 
not  yet  decided  to  let  slavery  go  and  for  that 
reason  military  rule  and  Congressional  Eecon- 
struction  followed.  In  this  respect  the  South 
did  itself  a  great  injury,  for  many  of  the  provi- 
sions of  the  black  codes,  especially  the  vagrancy 

83  Mecklin,  Blach  Codes. 

««  Dunning,  Heconstruction,  pp.  54,  59,  110. 


Confusing  Movements  123 

laws,  were  unnecessary.  Most  Negroes  soon 
realized  that  freedom  did  not  mean  relief  from 
responsibility  and  they  quickly  settled  down  to 
work  after  a  rather  protracted  and  exciting 
holiday.^^ 

During  the  last  year  of  and  immediately  after 
the  Civil  War  there  set  in  another  movement, 
not  of  a  large  number  of  Negroes  but  of  the  in- 
telligent class  who  had  during  years  of  residence 
in  the  North  enjoyed  such  advantages  of  con- 
tact and  education  as  to  make  them  desirable 
and  useful  as  leaders  in  the  Reconstruction  of 
the  South  and  the  remaking  of  the  race.  In 
their  tirades  against  the  Carpet-bag  politicians 
who  handled  the  Eeconstruction  situation  so 
much  to  the  dissatisfaction  of  the  southern 
whites,  historians  often  forget  to  mention  also 
that  a  large  number  of  the  Negro  leaders  who 
participated  in  that  drama  were  also  natives  or 
residents  of  Northern  States. 

Three  motives  impelled  these  blacks  to  go 
South.  Some  had  found  northern  communities 
so  hostile  as  to  impede  their  progress,  many 
wanted  to  rejoin  relatives  from  whom  they  had 
been  separated  by  their  flight  from  the  land  of 
slavery,  and  others  were  moved  by  the  spirit  of 
adventure  to  enter  a  new  field  ripe  with  all  sorts 
of  opportunities.  This  movement,  together  with 
that  of  migration  to  large  urban  communities, 
largely  accounts  for  the  depopulation  and  the 

BsDuBois,  Freedmen's  Bureau. 


124     A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

consequent  decline  of  certain  colored  communi- 
ties in  the  North  after  1865. 

Some  of  the  Negroes  who  returned  to  the 
South  became  men  of  national  prominence. 
William  J.  Simmons,  who  prior  to  the  Civil  War 
was  carried  from  South  Carolina  to  Pennsyl- 
vania, returned  to  do  religious  and  educational 
work  in  Kentucky.  Bishop  James  W.  Hood,  of 
the  African  Methodist  Episcopal  Zion  Church, 
went  from  Connecticut  to  North  Carolina  to  en- 
gage in  similar  work.  Honorable  E.  T.  Greener, 
the  first  Negro  graduate  of  Harvard,  went  from 
Philadelphia  to  teach  in  the  District  of  Colum- 
bia and  later  to  be  a  professor  in  the  University 
of  South  Carolina.  F.  L.  Cardoza,  educated  at 
the  University  of  Edinburgh,  returned  to  South 
Carolina  and  became  State  Treasurer.  E.  B. 
Elliot,  born  in  Boston  and  educated  in  England, 
settled  in  South  Carolina  from  which  he  was 
sent  to  Congress. 

John  M.  Langston  was  taken  to  Ohio  and  edu- 
cated but  came  back  to  Virginia  his  native  State 
from  which  he  was  elected  to  Congress.  J.  T. 
A^^lite  left  Indiana  to  enter  politics  in  Arkansas, 
becoming  State  Senator  and  later  commissioner 
of  public  works  and  internal  improvements. 
Judge  Mifflin  Wister  Gibbs,  a  native  of  Phila- 
delphia, purposely  settled  in  Arkansas  where  he 
served  as  city  judge  and  Eegister  of  United 
States  Land  Office.  T.  Morris  Chester,  of  Pitts- 
burgh, finally  made  his  way  to  Louisiana  where 


Confusing  Movements  125 

he  served  with  distinction  as  a  lawyer  and  held 
the  position  of  Brigadier-General  in  charge  of 
the  Louisiana  State  Guards  under  the  Kellogg 
government.  Joseph  Carter  Corbin,  who  was 
taken  from  Virginia  to  be  educated  at  Chilli- 
cothe,  Ohio,  went  later  to  Arkansas  where  he 
served  as  chief  clerk  in  the  post  office  at  Little 
Rock  and  later  as  State  Superintendent  of 
Schools.  Pinckney  Benton  Stewart  Pinchback, 
who  moved  north  for  education  and  opportu- 
nity, returned  to  enter  politics  in  Louisiana, 
which  honored  him  with  several  important  posi- 
tions among  which  was  that  of  Acting  Governor. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE  EXODUS  TO  THE  WEST 

HAVING  come  through  the  halcyon  days  of 
the  Reconstruction  only  to  find  themselves 
reduced  almost  to  the  status  of  slaves,  many  Ne- 
groes deserted  the  South  for  the  promising  west 
to  grow  up  with  the  country.  The  immediate 
causes  were  doubtless  political.  Bulldozing,  a 
rather  vague  term,  covering  all  such  crimes  as 
political  injustice  and  persecution,  was  the  source 
of  most  complaint.  The  abridgment  of  the  Ne- 
groes' rights  had  affected  them  as  a  great 
calamity.  They  had  learned  that  voting  is  one 
of  the  highest  privileges  to  be  obtained  in  this 
life  and  they  wanted  to  go  where  they  might 
still  exercise  that  privilege.  That  persecution 
was  the  main  cause  was  disputed,  however,  as 
there  were  cases  of  Negroes  migrating  from 
parts  where  no  such  conditions  obtained.  Yet 
some  of  the  whites  giving  their  version  of  the 
situation  admitted  that  violent  methods  had 
been  used  so  to  intimidate  the  Negroes  as  to 
compel  them  to  vote  according  to  the  dictation 
of  the  whites.  It  was  also  learned  that  the  bull- 
dozers concerned  in  dethroning  the  non-taxpay- 
ing  blacks  were  an  impecunious  and  irrespon- 

126 


The  Exodus  to  the  West  127 

sible  group  themselves,  led  by  men  of  the 
wealthy  class. ^ 

Coming  to  the  defense  of  the  whites,  some 
said  that  much  of  the  persecution  with  which  the 
blacks  were  afflicted  was  due  to  the  fear  of 
Negro  uprisings,  the  terror  of  the  days  of  slav- 
ery. The  whites,  however,  did  practically  noth- 
ing to  remove  the  underlying  causes.  They  did 
not  encourage  education  and  made  no  efforts  to 
cure  the  Negroes  of  faults  for  which  slavery 
itself  was  to  be  blamed  and  consequently  could 
not  get  the  confidence  of  the  blacks.  The  races 
tended  rather  to  drift  apart.  The  Negroes  lived 
in  fear  of  reenslavement  while  the  whites  be- 
lieved that  the  war  between  the  North  and 
South  would  soon  be  renewed.  Some  Negroes 
thinking  likewise  sought  to  go  to  the  North  to  be 
among  friends.  The  blacks,  of  course,  had  come 
so  to  regard  southern  whites  as  their  enemies 
as  to  render  impossible  a  voluntary  division  in 
politics. 

Among  the  worst  of  all  faults  of  the  whites 
was  their  unwillingness  to  labor  and  their  tend- 
ency to  do  mischief.2  As  there  were  so  many 
to  live  on  the  labor  of  the  Negroes  they  were  re- 
duced to  a  state  a  little  better  than  that  of  bond- 
age. The  master  class  was  generally  unfair  to 
the  blacks.  No  longer  responsible  for  them  as 
slaves,  the  planters  endeavored  after  the  war  to 

■i- Atlantic  Monthly,  LXIV,  p.  222;  Nation,  XXVIII,  pp.  242, 
386. 

2  Thompson,  Reconstruction  in  Georgia,  p.  69. 


128     A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

get  their  labor  for  nothing.  The  Negroes  them- 
selves had  no  land,  no  mules,  no  presses  nor 
cotton  gins,  and  they  could  not  acquire  sufficient 
capital  to  obtain  these  things.  They  were  made 
victims  of  fraud  in  signing  contracts  which  they 
could  not  understand  and  had  to  suffer  the  con- 
sequent privations  and  want  aggravated  by  rob- 
bery and  murder  by  the  Ku  Klux  Klan.^ 

The  murder  of  Negroes  was  common  through- 
out the  South  and  especially  in  Louisiana.  In 
1875,  General  Sheridan  said  that  as  many  as 
3,500  persons  had  been  killed  and  wounded  in 
that  State,  the  great  majority  of  whom  being 
Negroes ;  that  1,884  were  killed  and  wounded  in 
1868,  and  probably  1,200  between  1868  and  1875. 
Frightful  massacres  occurred  in  the  parishes  of 
Bossier,  Catahoula,  Saint  Bernard,  Grant  and 
Orleans.  As  most  of  these  murders  were  for 
political  reasons,  the  offenders  were  regarded  by 
their  communities  as  heroes  rather  than  as  crim- 
inals. A  massacre  of  Negroes  began  in  the 
parish  of  St.  Landry  on  the  28th  of  September 
and  continued  for  three  days,  resulting  in  the 
death  of  from  300  to  400.  Thirteen  captives 
were  taken  from  the  jail  and  shot  and  as  many  as 
twenty-five  dead  bodies  were  found  burned  in 
the  woods.  There  broke  out  in  the  parish  of 
Boissier  another  three-day  riot  during  which 
two  hundred  Negroes  were  massacred.  More 
than  forty  blacks  were  killed  in  the  parish  of 

8  Williams,  Eistory  of  the  Negro  Bace,  II,  p.  375. 


The  Exodus  to  the  West  129 

Caddo  during  the  following  month.  In  fact,  the 
number  of  murders,  miaimings  and  whippings 
during  these  months  aggregated  over  one  thou- 
sand.* The  result  was  that  the  intelligent  Ne- 
groes were  either  intimidated  or  killed  so  that 
the  illiterate  masses  of  Negro  voters  might  be 
ordered  to  refrain  from  voting  the  Republican 
ticket  to  strengthen  the  Democrats  or  be  sub- 
jected to  starvation  through  the  operation  of 
the  mischievous  land  tenure  and  credit  system. 
What  was  not  done  in  1868  to  overthrow  the 
Republican  regime  was  accomplished  by  a  re- 
newed and  extended  use  of  such  drastic  meas- 
ures throughout  the  South  in  1876. 

Certain  whites  maintained,  however,  that  the 
unrest  was  due  to  the  work  of  radical  politicians 
at  the  North,  who  had  sent  their  emissaries 
south  to  delude  the  Negroes  into  a  fever  of  mi- 
gration. Some  said  it  was  a  scheme  to  force 
the  nomination  of  a  certain  Republican  candi- 
date for  President  in  1880.  Others  laid  it  to  the 
charge  of  the  defeated  white  and  black  Repub- 
licans who  had  been  thrown  from  power  by  the 
whites  upon  regaining  control  of  the  recon- 
structed States.^  A  few  insisted  that  a  speech 
delivered  by  Senator  Windom  in  1879  had  given 
stimulus  to  the  migration.^  Many  southerners 
said  that  speculators  in  Kansas  had  adopted 

4  Williams,  History  of  the  Negro  Mace,  IIj  pu  374. 

5  American  Journal  of  Social  Science,  XI,  p,  34. 

6  Ibid.,  XI,  p.  33. 


130     A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

this  plan  to  increase  the  value  of  their  land. 
Then  there  were  other  theories  as  to  the  funda- 
mental causes,  each  consisting  of  a  charge  of 
one  political  faction  that  some  other  had  given 
rise  to  the  movement,  varying  according  as  they 
were  Bourbons,  conservatives,  native  white  Re- 
publicans, carpet-bag  Republicans,  or  black  Re- 
publicans. 

Impartial  observers,  however,  were  satisfied 
that  the  movement  was  spontaneous  to  the  ex- 
tent that  the  blacks  were  ready  and  willing  to 
go.  Probably  no  more  inducement  was  offered 
them  than  to  other  citizens  among  whom 
land  companies  sent  agents  to  distribute  lit- 
erature. But  the  fundamental  causes  of  the 
unrest  were  economic,  for  since  the  Civil  War 
race  troubles  have  never  been  sufficient  to  set 
in  motion  a  large  number  of  Negroes.  The  dis- 
content resulted  from  the  land-tenure  and  credit 
systems,  which  had  restored  slavery  in  a  modi- 
fied form.^ 

After  the  Civil  War  a  few  Negroes  in  those 
parts,  where  such  opportunities  were  possible, 
invested  in  real  estate  offered  for  sale  by  the 
impoverished  and  ruined  planters  of  the  con- 
quered commonwealths.  Wihen,  however,  the 
Negroes  lost  their  political  power,  their  property 
was  seized  on  the  plea  for  delinquent  taxes  and 
they  were  forced  into  the  ghetto  of  towns  and 
cities,  as  it  became  a  crime  punishable  by  social 

T  Nation,  XXVIII,  pp.  242,  386. 


The  Exodus  to  the  West  131 

proscription  to  sell  Negroes  desirable  residences. 
The  aim  was  to  debase  all  Negroes  to  the  status 
of  menial  labor  in  conformity  with  the  usual 
contention  of  the  South  that  slavery  is  the  nor- 
mal condition  of  the  blacks.^ 

'Most  of  the  land  of  the  South,  however,  al- 
ways remained  as  large  tracts  held  by  the  plant- 
ers of  cotton,  who  never  thought  of  alienating  it 
to  the  Negroes  to  make  them  a  race  of  small 
farmers.  In  fact,  they  had  not  the  means  to 
make  extensive  purchases  of  land,  even  if  the 
planters  had  been  disposed  to  transfer  it.  Still 
subject  to  the  experimentation  of  white  men,  the 
Negroes  accepted  the  plan  of  paying  them 
wages ;  but  this  failed  in  all  parts  except  in  the 
sugar  district,  where  the  blacks  remained  con- 
tented save  when  disturbed  by  political  move- 
ments. They  then  tried  all  system's  of  working 
on  shares  in  the  cotton  districts;  but  this  was 
finally  abandoned  because  the  planters  in  some 
cases  were  not  able  to  advance  the  Negro  tenant 
supplies,  pending  the  growth  of  the  crop,  and 
some  found  the  Negro  too  indifferent  and  lazy 
to  make  the  partnership  desirable.  Then  came 
the  renting  system  which  during  the  Eecon- 
struction  period  was  general  in  the  cotton  dis- 
tricts. This  system  threw  the  tenant  on  his  own 
responsibility  and  frequently  made  him  the  vic- 
tim of  his  own  ignorance  and  the  rapacity  of  the 
white  man.    As  exorbitant  prices  were  charged 

8  Williams,  History  of  the  Negro  Bace,  II,  p.  378. 


132     A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

for  rent,  usually  six  to  ten  dollars  an  acre  for 
land  worth  fifteen  to  thirty  dollars  an  acre,  the 
Xegro  tenant  not  only  did  not  accumulate  any- 
thing but  had  reason  to  rejoice  at  the  end  of  the 
year,  if  he  found  himself  out  of  debt.^ 

Along  with  this  went  the  credit  system  which 
furnished  the  capstone  of  the  economic  structure 
so  harmful  to  the  Negro  tenant.  This  system 
made  the  Negroes  dependent  for  their  living  on 
an  advance  of  supplies  of  food,  clothing  or  tools 
during  the  year,  secured  by  a  lien  on  the  crop 
when  harvested.  As  the  Negroes  had  nO'  chance 
to  learn  business  methods  during  the  days  of 
slavery,  they  fell  a  prey  to  a  class  of  loan  sharks, 
harpies  and  vampires,  who  established  stores 
everywhere  to  extort  from  these  ignorant  ten- 
ants by  the  mischievous  credit  system  their 
whole  income  before  their  crops  could  be  gath- 
ered.^" Some  planters  who  sympathized  with 
the  Negroes  brought  forward  the  scheme  of  pro- 
tecting them  by  advancing  certain  necessities  at 
more  reasonable  prices.  As  the  planter  himself, 
however,  was  subject  to  usury,  the  scheme  did 
not  give  much  relief.  The  Negroes'  crop,  there- 
fore, when  gathered  went  either  to  the  merchant 
or  to  the  planter  to  pay  the  rent ;  for  the  mer- 
chant's supplies  were  secured  by  a  mortgage  on 
the  tenant's  personal  property  and  a  pledge  of 
the  growing  crop.    This  often  prevented  Negro 

0  Atlantic  Monthly,  LXIV,  p.  225. 
iolbid.,  p.  226. 


The  Exodus  to  the  West  133 

laborers  in  the  employ  of  black  tenants  from 
getting  their  wages  at  the  end  of  the  year,  for, 
although  the  laborer  had  also  a  lien  on  the  grow- 
ing crop,  the  merchant  and  the  planter  usually 
had  theirs  recorded  first  and  secured  thereby 
the  support  of  the  law  to  force  the  payment  of 
their  claims.  The  Negro  tenant  then  began  the 
year  with  three  mortages,  covering  all  he  owned, 
his  labor  for  the  coming  year  and  all  he  expected 
to  acquire  during  that  twelvemonth.  He  paid 
"one-third  of  his  product  for  the  use  of  the  land, 
he  paid  an  exorbitant  fee  for  recording  the  con- 
tract by  which  he  paid  his  pound  of  flesh;  he 
was  charged  two  or  three  times  as  much  as  he 
ought  to  pay  for  ginning  his  cotton ;  and,  finally, 
he  turned  over  his  crop  to  be  eaten  up  in  com- 
missions, if  any  was  still  left  to  him."" 

The  worst  of  all  results  from  this  iniquitous 
system  was  its  effect  on  the  Negroes  themselves. 
It  made  the  Negroes  extravagant  and  unscrupu- 
lous. Convinced  that  no  share  of  their  crop 
would  come  to  them  when  harvested,  they  did 
not  exert  themselves  to  produce  what  they  could. 
They  often  abandoned  their  crops  before  harvest, 
knowing  that  they  had  already  spent  them. 
In  cases,  however,  where  the  Negro  tenants  had 
acquired  mules,  horses  or  tools  upon  which  the 
speculator  had  a  mortgage,  the  blacks  were  actu- 
ally bound  to  their  landlords  to  secure  the  prop- 
erty.   It  was  soon  evident  that  in  the  end  the 

^■^  Atlantic  Monthly,  LXIV,  p.  224. 


J 


134     A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

white  man  himself  was  the  loser  by  this  evil 
system.  There  appeared  waste  places  in  the 
country.  Improvements  were  wanting,  land  lay 
idle  for  lack  of  sufficient  labor,  and  that  which 
was  cultivated  yielded  a  diminishing  return  on 
account  of  the  ignorance  and  improvidence  of 
those  tilling  it.  These  Negroes  as  a  rule  had 
lost  the  ambition  to  become  landowners,  pre- 
ferring to  invest  their  surplus  money  in  per- 
sonal effects ;  and  in  the  few  cases  where  the  Ne- 
groes were  induced  to  undertake  the  buying  of 
land,  they  often  tired  of  the  responsibility  and 
gave  it  up.^^ 

There  began  in  the  spring  of  1879,  therefore, 
an  emigration  of  the  Negroes  from  Louisiana 
and  Mississippi  to  Kansas.  For  some  time 
there  was  a  stampede  from  several  river  par- 
ishes in  Louisiana  and  from  counties  just  oppo- 
site them  in  Mississippi.  It  was  estimated  that 
from  five  to  ten  thousand  left  their  homes  be- 
fore the  movement  could  be  checked.  Persons 
of  influence  soon  busied  themselves  in  showing 
the  blacks  the  necessity  for  remaining  in  the 
South  and  those  who  had  not  then  gone  or  pre- 
pared to  go  were  persuaded  to  return  to  the 
plantations.  This  lull  in  the  excitement,  how- 
ever, was  merely  temporary,  for  many  Negroes 
had  merely  returned  home  to  make  more  ex- 
tensive preparations  for  leaving  the  following 
spring.    The  movement  was  accelerated  by  the 

"  The  Atlantic  Monthly,  XLIV,  p.  223, 


The  Exodus  to  the  West  135 

work  of  two  Negro  leaders  of  some  note,  Moses 
Singleton,  of  Tennessee,  the  self-styled  Moses 
of  the  Exodus ;  and  Henry  Adams,  of  T.ouisiana, 
who  credited  himself  with  having  organized  for 
this  purpose  as  many  as  98,000  blacks. 

Taking  this  movement  seriously  a  convention 
of  the  leading  whites  and  blacks  was  held  at 
Vicksburg,  Mississippi,  on  the  sixth  of  May, 
1879.  This  body  was  controlled  mainly  by  un- 
sympathetic but  diplomatic  whites.  General  N. 
R.  Miles,  of  Yazoo  County,  Mississippi,  was 
elected  president  and  A.  W.  Crandall,  of  Louisi- 
ana, secretary.  After  making  some  meaning- 
less but  eloquent  speeches  the  convention  ap- 
pointed a  committee  on  credentials  and  ad- 
journed until  the  following  day.  On  reassem- 
bling Colonel  W.  L.  Nugent,  chairman  of  the 
the  committee,  presented  a  certain  preamble 
and  resolutions  citing  causes  of  the  exodus  and 
suggesting  remedies.  Among  the  causes, 
thought  he,  were:  ''the  low  price  of  cotton  and 
the  partial  failure  of  the  crop,  the  irrational  sys- 
tem of  planting  adopted  in  some  sections 
whereby  labor  was  deprived  of  intelligence  to 
direct  it  and  the  presence  of  economy  to  make  it 
profitable,  the  vicious  system  of  credit  fostered 
by  laws  permitting  laborers  and  tenants  to  mort- 
gage crops  before  they  were  grown  or  even 
planted;  the  apprehension  on  the  part  of  many 
colored  people  produced  by  insidious  reports 
circulated  among  them  that  their  civil  and  polit- 
ic 


136     A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

ical  rights  were  endangered  or  were  likely  to  be ; 
the  liuiiful  and  false  rumors  diligently  dissem- 
inated, that  by  emigrating  to  Kansas  the  Ne- 
gi:Q(?^  would  obtain  lands,  mules  and  money 
from  the  guv^'  ment  without  cost  to  them- 
selves, and  become  independent  forever.  "^^ 

Referring  to  the  grievances  and  proposing  a 
redress,  the  committee  admitted  that  errors  had 
been  committed  by  the  whites  and  blacks  alike, 
as  each  in  turn  had  controlled  the  government 
of  the  States  there  represented.  The  committee 
believed  that  the  interests  of  planters  and  la- 
borers, landlords  and  tenants  were  identical; 
that  they  must  prosper  or  suffer  together;  and 
that  it  was  the  duty  of  the  planters  and  land- 
lords of  the  State  there  represented  to  devise 
and  adopt  some  contract  by  which  both  parties 
would  receive  the  full  benefit  of  labor  governed 
by  intelligence  and  economy.  The  convention 
affirmed  that  the  Negro  race  had  been  placed  by 
the  constitution  of  the  United  States  and  the 
States  there  represented,  and  the  laws  thereof, 
on  a  plane  of  absolute  equality  with  the  white 
race;  and  declared  that  the  Negro  race  should 
be  accorded  the  practical  enjoyment  of  all  civil 
and  political  rights  guaranteed  by  the  said  con- 
stitutions and  laws.  The  convention  pledged 
itself  to  use  whatever  of  power  and  influence  it 
possessed  to  protect  the  Negro  race  against  all 
dangers  in  respect  to  the  fair  expression  of  their 

13  The  Vicl'shurg  Daily  Commercial,  May  6,  1879. 


The  Exodus  to  the  West  137 

wills  at  the  polls,  which  they  apprehended  might 
result  from  fraud,  intimidation  or  bulldozing 
on  the  part  of  the  whites.  And  as  there  could 
be  no  liberty  of  action  without  freedom  of 
thought,  they  demanded  that  all  elections  should 
be  fair  and  free  and  that  no  repressive  measures 
should  be  employed  by  the  Negroes  ''to  deprive 
their  own  race  in  part  of  the  fullest  freedom  in 
the  exercise  of  the  highest  right  of  citizen- 
ship. "^^ 

The  committee  then  recommended  the  aboli- 
tion of  the  mischievous  credit  system,  called 
upon  the  Negroes  to  contradict  false  reports  as 
to  crimes  of  the  whites  against  them  and,  after 
considering  the  Negroes'  right  to  emigrate, 
urged  that  they  proceed  about  it  with  reason. 
Ex-Governor  Foote,  of  Mississippi,  submitted  a 
plan  to  establish  in  every  county  a  committee, 
composed  of  men  who  had  the  confidence  of  both 
whites  and  blacks,  to  be  auxiliary  to  the  public 
authorities,  to  listen  to  complaints  and  arbi- 
trate, advise,  conciliate  or  prosecute,  as  each 
case  should  demand.  But  unwilling  to  do  more 
than  make  temporary  concessions,  the  majority 
rejected  Foote 's  plan.^^ 

The  whites  thought  also  to  stop  the  exodus 
by  inducing  the  steamboat  lines  not  to  furnish 
the  emigrants  transportation.  Negroes  were 
also  detained  by  writs  obtained  by  preferring 

14  The  VicTcshurg  Daily  Commercial,  May  6,  1879. 
isiud.,  May  6,  1&79. 


138     A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

against  them  false  charges.  Some,  who  were 
willing  to  let  the  Negroes  go,  thought  of  import- 
ing white  and  Chinese  labor  to  take  their  places. 
Hearing  of  the  movement  and  thinking  that  he 
could  offer  a  remedy.  Senator  D.  W.  Voorhees, 
of  Indiana,  introduced  a  resolution  in  the  United 
States  Senate  authorizing  an  inquiry  into  the 
causes  of  the  exodus.^®  The  movement,  how- 
ever, could  not  be  stopped  and  it  became  so 
widespread  that  the  people  in  general  were 
forced  to  give  it  serious  thought.  Men  in  favor 
of  it  declared  their  views,  organized  migration 
societies  and  appointed  agents  to  promote  the 
enterprise  of  removing  the  freedmen  from  the 
South. 

Becoming  a  national  measure,  therefore,  the 
migration  evoked  expressions  from  Frederick 
Douglass  and  Richard  T.  Greener,  two  of  the 
most  prominent  Negroes  in  the  United  States. 
Douglass  believed  that  the  exodus  was  ill-timed. 
He  saw  in  it  the  abandonment  of  the  great  prin- 
ciple of  protection  to  persons  and  property  in 
every  State  of  the  Union.  He  felt  that  if  the 
Negroes  could  not  be  protected  in  every  State, 
the  Federal  Government  was  shorn  of  its  right- 
ful dignity  and  power,  the  late  rebellion  had 
triumphed,  the  sovereign  of  the  nation  was  an 
empty  vessel,  and  the  power  and  authority  in 
individual  States  were  supreme.    He  thought, 

^0  Congressional  'Record,  46th  Congress,  2d  Session,  Vol.  X,  p. 
104. 


The  Exodus  to  the  West  139 

therefore,  that  it  was  better  for  the  Negroes  to 
stay  in  the  South  than  to  go  North,  as  the  South 
was  a  better  market  for  the  black  man's  labor. 
Douglass  believed  that  the  Negroes  should  be 
warned  against  a  nomadic  life.  He  did  not  see 
any  more  benefit  in  the  migration  to  Kansas 
than  he  had  years  before  in  the  emigration  to 
Africa.  The  Negroes  had  a  monopoly  of  labor 
at  the  South  and  they  would  be  too  insignificant 
in  numbers  to  have  such  an  advantage  in  the 
North.  The  blacks  were  then  potentially  able 
to  elect  members  of  Congress  in  the  South  but 
could  not  hope  to  exercise  such  power  in  other 
parts.  Douglass  believed,  moreover,  that  this 
exodus  did  not  conform  to  the  ''laws  of  civiliz- 
ing migration,"  as  the  carrying  of  a  language, 
literature  and  the  like  of  a  superior  race  to  an 
inferior;  and  it  did  not  conform  to  the  geo- 
graphic laws  assuring  healthy  migration  from 
east  to  west  in  the  same  latitude,  as  this  was 
from  south  to  north,  far  away  from  the  climate 
in  which  the  migrants  were  born.^'^ 

The  exodus  of  the  Negroes,  however,  was 
heartily  endorsed  by  Eichard  T.  Greener.  He 
did  not  consider  it  the  best  remedy  for  the  law- 
lessness of  the  South  but  felt  that  it  was  a 
salutary  one.  He  did  not  expect  the  United  States 
to  give  the  oppressed  blacks^  in  the  South  the 
protection  they  needed,  as  there  is  no  abstract 

17 For   a   detailed   statement   of   Douglass's  views,   see   the 
American  Journal  of  Social  Science,  XI,  pp.  1-21. 


140     A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

limit  to  the  right  of  a  State  to  do  anything.  He 
would  not  encourage  the  Negro  to  lead  a  wan- 
dering life  but  in  that  instance  such  advice  was 
gratuitous.  Greener  failed  to  find  any  analogy 
between  African  colonization  and  migration  to 
the  West  as  the  former  was  promoted  by  slave- 
holders to  remove  the  free  Negro  from  the  coun- 
try and  the  other  sprang  spontaneously  from 
the  class  considering  itself  aggrieved.  "  One 
led  out  of  the  country  to  a  comparative  wilder- 
ness; the  other  directed  to  a  better  land  and 
larger  opportunities."  He  did  not  see  how  the 
migration  to  the  North  would  diminish  the  po- 
tentiality of  the  Negro  in  politics,  for  Massa- 
chusetts first  elected  Negroes  to  her  General 
Court,  Ohio  had  nominated  a  Negro  representa- 
tive and  Illinois  another.  He  showed  also  that 
Mr.  Douglass's  objection  on  the  grounds  of  mi- 
grating from  south  to  north  rather  than  from 
east  to  west  was  not  historical.  He  thought 
little  of  the  advice  to  the  Negroes  to  stick  and 
fight  it  out,  for  he  had  evidence  that  the  return 
of  the  unreconstructed  Confederates  to  power 
in  the  South  would  for  generations  doom  the 
blacks  to  political  oppression  unknown  in  the 
annals  of  a  free  country. 

Greener  showed  foresight  here  in  urging  the 
Negroes  to  take  up  desirable  western  land  be- 
fore it  would  be  preempted  by  foreigners.  As 
the  Swedes,  Norwegians,  Irish,  Hebrews  and 
others   were   organizing   societies   and   raising 


The  Exodus  to  the  West  141 

funds  to  promote  the  migration  of  their  needy 
to  these  lands,  why  should  the  Negroes  be  de- 
barred? Greener  had  no  apprehension  as  to  the 
treatment  the  Negroes  would  receive  in  the 
West.  He  connected  the  movement  too  with  the 
general  welfare  of  the  blacks,  considering  it  a 
promising  sign  that  they  had  learned  to  run 
from  persecution.  Having  passed  their  first 
stage,  that  of  appealing  to  philanthropists,  the 
Negroes  were  then  appealing  to  themselves.^^ 

Feeling  very  much  as  Greener  did,  these  Ne- 
groes rushed  into  Kansas  and  neighboring 
States  in  1879.  So  many  came  that  some  sys- 
tematic relief  had  to  be  offered.  Mrs.  Corn- 
stock,  a  Quaker  lady,  organized  for  this  purpose 
the  Kansas  Freedmen's  Relief  Association,  to 
raise  funds  and  secure  for  them  food  and  cloth- 
ing. In  this  work  she  had  the  support  of  Gov- 
ernor J.  P.  Saint  John.  There  was  much  suf- 
fering upon  arriving  in  Kansas  but  relief  came 
from  various  sources.  During  this  year  $40,000 
and  500,000  pounds  of  clothing,  bedding  and  the 
like  were  used.  England  contributed  50,000 
pounds  of  goods  and  $8,000.  In  1879,  the  ref- 
ugees took  up  20,000  acres  of  land  and  brought 
3,000  under  cultivation.  The  Relief  Association 
at  first  furnished  them  with  supplies,  teams  and 
seed,  which  they  profitably  used  in  the  produc- 
tion of  large  crops.  Desiring  to  establish  homes, 
they  built  300  cabins  and  saved  $30,000  the  first 

18  American  Journal  of  Social  Science,  XI,  pp.  22-35. 


142     A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

year.  In  April,  1,300  refugees  liad  gathered 
around  Wyandotte  alone.  Up  to  that  date 
60,000  had  come  to  Kansas,  nearly  40,000  of 
whom  arrived  in  destitute  condition.  About 
30,000  settled  in  the  country,  some  on  rented 
lands  and  others  on  farms  as  laborers,  leaving 
about  25,000  in  cities,  where  on  account  of 
crowded  conditions  and  the  hard  weather  many 
greatly  suffered.  Upon  finding  employment, 
however,  they  all  did  well,  most  of  them  becom- 
ing self-supporting  within  one  year  after  their 
arrival,  and  few  of  them  coming  back  to  the  Ee- 
Kef  Association  for  aid  the  second  time.^^ 
This  was  especially  true  of  those  in  Topeka, 
Parsons  and  Kansas  City. 

The  people  of  Kansas  did  not  encourage  the 
blacks  to  come.  They  even  sent  messengers  to 
the  South  to  advise  the  Negroes  not  to  migrate 
and,  if  they  did  come  anyway,  to  provide  them- 
selves with  equipment.  When  they  did  arrive, 
however,  they  welcomed  and  assisted  them  as 
human  beings.  Under  such  conditions  the 
blacks  established  five  or  six  important  colonies 
in  Kansas  alone  between  1879  and  1880.  Chief 
among  these  were  Baxter  Springs,  Nicodemus, 
Morton  City  and  Singleton.  Governor  Saint 
John,  of  Kansas,  reported  that  they  seemed  to 
be  honest  and  of  good  habits,  were  certainly  in- 
dustrious and  anxious  to  work,  and  so  far  as 
they  had  been  tried  had  proved  to  be  faithful 

10  Williams,  History  of  the  Negro,  II,  p.  379. 


The  Exodus  to  the  West  143 

and  excellent  laborers.  Giving  his  observations 
there,  Sir  George  Campbell  bore  testimony  to 
the  same  report.^*^  Out  of  these  communities 
have  come  some  most  progressive  black  citizens. 
In  consideration  of  their  desirability  their  white 
neighbors  have  given  them  their  cooperation, 
secured  to  them  the  advantages  of  democratic 
education,  and  honored  a  few  of  them  with  some 
of  the  most  important  positions  in  the  State. 

Although  the  greater  number  of  these  blacks 
went  to  Kansas,  about  5,000  of  them  sought 
refuge  in  other  Western  States.  During  these 
years,  Negroes  gradually  invaded  Indian  Terri- 
tory and  increased  the  number  already  infil- 
trated into  and  assimilated  by  the  Indian  na- 
tions. When  assured  of  their  friendly  attitude 
toward  the  Indians,  the  Negroes  were  accepted 
by  them  as  equals,  even  during  the  days  of  slav- 

20  "  In  Kansas  City, ' '  said  Sir  George  Campbell^  '  *  and  still 
more  in  the  suburbs  of  Kansas  proper  the  Negroes  are  much 
more  numerous  than  I  have  yet  seen.  On  the  Kansas  side  they 
form  quite  a  large  proportion  of  the  population.  They  are 
certainly  subject  to  no  indignity  or  ill  usage.  There  the  Ne- 
groes seem  to  have  quite  taken  to  work  at  trades."  He  saw 
them  doing  building  work,  both  alone  and  assisting  white  men, 
and  also  painting  and  other  tradesmen's  work.  On  the  Kansas 
side,  he  found  a  Negro  blacksmith,  with  an  establishment  of 
his  own.  He  had  come  from  Tennessee  after  emancipation. 
He  had  not  been  back  there  and  did  not  want  to  go.  He  also 
saw  black  women  keeping  apple  stalls  and  engaged  in  other 
such  occupations  so  as  to  leave  him  under  the  impression  that 
in  the  States,  which  he  called  intermediate  between  black  and 
white  countries  the  blacks  evidently  had  no  difficulty. — See 
American  Journal  of  Social  Science,  XI,  pp.  32,  33. 


144     A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

ery  when  the  blacks  on  account  of  the  cruelties 
of  their  masters  escaped  to  the  wilderness.^i 
Here  we  are  at  sea  as  to  the  extent  to  which  this 
invasion  and  subsequent  miscegenation  of  the 
black  and  red  races  extended  for  the  reason  that 
neither  the  Indians  nor  these  migrating  Ne- 
groes kept  records  and  the  United  States  Gov- 
ernment has  been  disposed  to  classify  all  mixed 
breeds  in  tribes  as  Indians.  Having  equal  op- 
portunity among  the  red  men,  the  Negroes  easily 
succeeded.  A  traveler  in  Indian  Territory  in 
1880  found  their  condition  unusually  favorable. 
The  cosy  homes  and  promising  fields  of  these 
freedmen  attracted  his  attention  as  striking  evi- 
dences of  their  thrift.  He  saw  new  fences,  ad- 
ditions to  cabins,  new  barns,  churches  and  school- 
houses  indicating  prosperity.  Given  every  priv- 
ilege which  the  Indians  themselves  enjoyed,  the 
Negroes  could  not  be  other  than  contented.^- 

It  was  very  unfortunate,  however,  that  in  1889, 
when  by  proclamation  of  President  Harrison 
the  Oklahoma  Territory  was  thrown  open,  the 
intense  race  prejudice  of  the  white  immigrants 
and  the  rule  of  the  mob  prevented  a  larger 
number  of  Negroes  from  settling  in  that  prom- 
ising commonwealth.  Long  since  extensively 
advertised  as  valuable,  the  land  of  Oklahoma 
had  become  a  coveted  prize  for  the  adventurous 
squatters  invading  the  territory  in  defiance  of 

^^  American  Journal  of  Social  Science,  XI,  p.  33. 
22  Ibid.,  XI,  p.  33. 


The  Exodus  to  the  West  145 

the  law  before  it  was  declared  open  for  set- 
tlement. 'The  rush  came  with  all  the  excite- 
ment of  pioneer  days  redoubled.  Stakes  were 
set,  parcels  of  land  were  claimed,  cabins  were 
constructed  in  an  hour  and  towns  grew  up 
in  a  day.^^  Then  came  conflicting  claims  as  to 
titles  and  rights  of  preemption  culminating  in 
fighting  and  bloodshed.  And  worst  of  all,  with 
this  disorderly  group  there  developed  the  fixed 
policy  of  eliminating  the  Negroes  entirely. 

The  Negro,  however,  was  not  entirely  ex- 
cluded. Some  had  already  come  into  the  terri- 
tory and  others  in  spite  of  the  barriers  set  up 
continued  to  come.^^  "With  the  cooperation  of  the 
Indians,  with  whom  they  easily  amalgamated, 
they  readjusted  themselves  and  acquired  suf- 
ficient wealth  to  rise  in  the  economic  world.  Al- 
though not  generally  fortunate,  a  number  of 
them  have  coal  and  oil  lands  from  which  they 
obtain  handsome  incomes  and  a  few,  like  Sara 
Rector,  have  actually  become  rich.  Dishonest 
white  men  with  the  assistance  of  unprincipled 
officials  have  defrauded  and  are  still  endeav- 
oring to  defraud  these  Negroes  of  their  prop- 
erty, lending  them  money  secured  by  mortgages 
and  obtaining  for  themselves  through  the 
courts  appointments  as  the  Negroes'  guardians. 
They  turn  out  to  be  the  robbers  of  the  Negroes, 

^^  Spectator,  LXVII,  p.  571;  Dublin  Beview,  CV,  p.  187; 
Cosmopolitan,  VII,  p.  460;  Nation,  LXVIII,  p.  279. 

24  According  to  the  United  States  Census,  of  1910,  there  are 
137,612  Negroes  in  Oklahoma. 


146     A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

in  case  they  do  not  live  in  a  community  where 
an  enlightened  public  opinion  frowns  down  upon 

this  crime. 

During  the  later  eighties  and  the  early  nine- 
ties there  were  some  other  interstate  movements 
worthy  of  notice  here.  The  mineral  wealth  of 
the  Appalachian  mountains  was  being  exploited. 
Foreigners,  at  first,  were  coming  into  this  coun- 
try in  sufficiently  large  numbers  to  meet  the  de- 
mand ;  but  when  this  supply  became  inadequate, 
labor  agents  appealed  to  the  blacks  in  the  South. 
Negroes  then  flocked  to  the  mining  districts  of 
Birmingham,  Alabama,  and  to  East  Tennessee. 
/A  large  number  also  migrated  from  North  Caro- 
lina and  Virginia  to  West  Virginia  and  some 
few  of  the  same  group  to  Southern  Ohio  to  take 
the  places  of  those  unreasonable  strikers  who 
often  demanded  larger  increases  in  wages  than 
the  income  of  their  employers  could  permit. 
Many  of  these  Negroes  came  to  West  Virginia 
fas  is  evidenced  by  the  increase  in  Negro  popula- 
'tion  of  that  State.  West  Virginia  had  a  Negro 
population  of  17,980  in  1870;  25,886  in  1880; 
32,690  in  1890;  43,499  in  1900;  and  64,173  in 
1910.25 

25  See  Censuses  of  the  United  States. 


CHAPTER  Vin 

THE  MIGEATION  OF  THE  TALENTED  TENTH 

IN"  spite  of  these  interstate  movements,  the 
Negro  still  continued  as  a  perplexing  prob- 
lem, for  the  country  was  unprepared  to  grant 
the  race  political  and  civil  rights.  Nominal 
equality  was  forced  on  the  South  at  the  point  of 
the  sword  and  the  North  reluctantly  removed 
most  of  its  barriers  against  the  blacks.  Some, 
still  thinking,  however,  that  the  two  races  could 
not  live  together  as  equals,  advocated  ceding 
the  blacks  the  region  on  the  Grulf  of  Mexico.^ 
This  was  branded  as  chimerical  on  the  ground 
that,  deprived  of  the  guidance  of  the  whites, 
these  States  would  soon  sink  to  African  level 
and  the  end  of  the  experiment  would  be  a  recon- 
quest  and  a  military  regime  fatal  to  the  true  de- 
velopment of  American  institutions.^  Another 
plan  proposed  was  the  revival  of  the  old  col- 
onization idea  of  sending  Negroes  to  Africa,  but 
this  exhibited  still  less  wisdom  than  the  first  in 
that  it  was  based  on  the  hypothesis  of  deporting 
a  nation,  an  expense  which  no  government 
would  be  willing  to  incur.  There  were  then  no 
physical  means  of  transporting  six  or  seven  mil- 

1  Pike,  The  Prostrate  State,  pp.  3,  4. 

2  Spectator,  LXVI,  p.  113. 

147 


148     A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

lions  of  people,  moreover,  as  there  would  be  a 
new  born  for  every  one  the  agents  of  coloniza- 
tion could  deport.^ 

With  the  deportation  scheme  still  kept  before 
the  people  by  the  American  Colonization  So- 
ciety, the  idea  of  emigration  to  Africa  did  not 
easily  die.  Some  Negroes  continued  to  emi- 
grate to  Liberia  from  year  to  year.  This  policy 
was  also  favored  by  radicals  like  Senator  Mor- 
gan, of  Alabama,  who,  after  movements  like 
the  Ku  Klux  Klan  had  done  their  work  of  in- 
timidating Negroes  into  submission  to  the  dom- 
ination of  the  whites,  concluded  that  most  of  the 
race  believed  that  there  was  no  future  for  the 
blacks  in  the  United  States  and  that  they  were 
willing  to  emigrate.  These  radicals  advocated 
the  deportation  of  the  blacks  to  prevent  the 
recurrence  of  ''Negro  domination."  This  plan 
was  acceptable  to  the  whites  in  general  also, 
for,  unlike  the  consensus  of  opinion  of  today,  it 
was  then  thought  that  the  South  could  get  along 
without  the  Negro.^  Even  newspapers  like  the 
Charleston  Neivs  and  Courier,  which  denounced 
the  persecution  of  the  Negroes,  urged  them  to 
emigrate  to  Africa  as  they  could  not  be  per- 
mitted to  rule  over  the  white  people.  The  Min- 
neapolis Times  wished  the  scheme  success  and 

8  Frederick  Douglass  pointed  out  this  difficulty  prior  to  the 
Civil  War. — See  John  Lobb's  Life  and  Times  of  FredericTc 
Douglass,  p.  250. 

*  Labor  was  then  cheap  in  the  South  because  of  its  abundance 
and  the  foreign  laborer  had  not  then  been  tried. 


Migration  of  the  Talented  Tenth    149 

Godspeed  and  believed  that  the  sooner  it  was 
carried  out  the  better  it  would  be  for  the 
Negroes. 

Most  of  the  influential  newspapers  of  the 
country,  however,  urged  the  contrary.  Citing 
the  progress  of  the  Negroes  since  emancipation 
to  show  that  the  blacks  were  doing  their  full 
share  toward  developing  the  wealth  of  the 
Souths  the  Indianapolis  Journal  characterized 
as  barbarism  the  suggestion  that  the  govern- 
ment should  furnish  them  transportation  to 
Africa.  "The  ancestors  of  most  of  the  Negroes 
now  in  this  country,"  said  the  editor,  "  have 
doubtless  been  here  as  long  as  those  of  Senator 
Morgan,  and  their  descendants  are  as  thor- 
oughly acclimated  and  have  as  good  a  right  here 
as  the  Senator  himself. '  '^  This  was  the  opinion 
of  all  useful  Negroes  except  Bishop  H.  M. 
Turner,  who  endorsed  Morgan's  plan  by  advo- 
cating the  emigration  of  one  fourth  of  the 
blacks  to  Africa.  The  editor  of  the  Chicago 
Record-Herald  entreated  Turner  to  temper  his 
enthusiasm  with  discretion  before  he  involved 
in  unspeakable  disaster  any  more  of  his  trust- 
ful compatriots. 

Speaking  more  plainly  to  the  point,  the  editor 
of  the  Philadelphia  North  American  said  that 
the  true  interest  of  the  South  was  to  accommo- 
date itself  to  changed  conditions  and  that  the 

5  During  these  years  Senator  Morgan  of  Alabama  was  en- 
deavoring to  arouse  the  people  of  the  country  so  as  to  make 
this  a  matter  of  national  concern. 


150     A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

duty  of  tlie  freedmen  lies  in  making  themselves 
worth  more  in  the  development  of  the  South 
than  they  were  as  chattels.  Although  recog- 
nizing the  disabilities  and  hardships  of  the 
South  both  to  the  whites  and  the  blacks,  he 
could  not  believe  that  the  elimination  of  the 
Negroes  would,  if  practicable,  give  relief.^  The 
Boston  Herald  inquired  whether  it  was  worth 
while  to  send  away  a  laboring  population  in  the 
absence  of  whites  to  take  its  place  and  referred 
to  the  misfortunes  of  Spain  which  undertook  to 
carry  out  such  a  scheme.  Speaking  the  real 
tiTith,  The  Milwaukee  Journal  said  that  no  one 
needed  to  expect  any  appreciable  decrease  in 
the  black  population  through  any  possible  emi- 
gration, no  matter  how  successful  it  might  be. 
''The  Negro,"  said  the  editor,  "is  here  to  stay 
and  our  institutions  must  be  adapted  to  com- 
prehend him  and  develop  his  possibilities." 
The  Colored  American,  then  the  leading  Negro 
organ  of  thought  in  the  United  States,  believed 
that  the  Negroes  should  be  thankful  to  Senator 
Morgan  for  his  attitude  on  emigration,  because 
he  might  succeed  in  deporting  to  Africa  those 
Negroes  who  affect  to  believe  that  this  is  not 
their  home  and  the  more  quickly  we  get  rid  of 
such  foolhardy  people  the  better  it  will  be  for 
the  stalwart  of  the  race.^ 
A  number  of  Negroes,  however,  under  the  in- 

8  Public  Opinion,  XVIII,  p.  371. 
7  Ibid.,  XVIII,  p.  371. 


Migration  of  the  Talented  Tenth    151 

spiration  of  leaders^  like  Bishop  H.  M.  Turner, 
did  not  feel  that  the  race  had  a  fair  chance  in 
the  United  States.  A  few  of  them  emigrated  to 
Wapimo,  Mexico;  but,  becoming  dissatisfied 
with  the  situation  there,  they  returned  to  their 
homes  in  Georgia  and  Alabama  in  1895.  The 
coming  of  the  Negroes  into  Mexico  caused  sus- 
picion and  excitement.  A  newspaper,  El 
Tiempo,  which  had  been  denouncing  lynching 
in  the  United  States,  changed  front  when  these 
Negroes  arrived  in  that  country. 

Going  in  quest  of  new  opportunities  and  de- 
siring to  reenforce  the  civilization  of  Liberia, 
197  other  Negroes  sailed  from  Savannah,  Geor- 
gia, for  Liberia,  March  19,  1895.  Commending 
this  step,  the  Macon  Telegraph  referred  to  their 
action  as  a  rebellion  against  the  social  laws 
which  govern  all  people  of  this  country.  This 
organ  further  said  that  it  was  the  outcome  of  a 
feeling  which  has  grown  stronger  and  stronger 
year  by  year  among  the  Negroes  of  the  South- 
ern States  and  which  will  continue  to  grow  with 
the  increase  of  education  and  intelligence 
among  them.  The  editor  conceded  that  they  had 
an  opportunity  to  better  their  material  condi- 
tion and  acquire  wealth  here  but  contended  that 
they  had  no  chance  to  rise  out  of  the  peasant 
class.  The  Memphis  Commercial  Appeal  urged 
the  building  of  a  large  Negro  nation  in  Africa 
as  practicable  and  desirable,  for  it  was  ''more 

8  Simmons,  Men  of  MarJc,  p.  817. 
11 


152     A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

and  more  apparent  that  the  Negro  in  this  coun- 
ivx  must  remain  an  alien  and  a  disturber,"  be- 
cause there  was  ''not  and  can  never  be  a  future 
for  him  in  this  country."  The  Florida  Times 
Union  felt  that  this  colonization  scheme,  like  all 
others,  was  a  fraud.  It  referred  to  the  Negro's 
being  carried  to  the  land  of  plenty  only  to  find 
out  that  there,  as  everywhere  else  in  the  world, 
an  existence  must  be  earned  by  toil  and  that  his 
own  old  sunny  southern  home  is  vastly  the  bet- 
ter place.^ 

Only  a  few  intelligent  Negroes,  however,  had 
reached  the  position  of  being  contented  in  the 
South.  The  Negroes  eliminated  from  politics 
could  not  easily  bring  themselves  around  to 
thinking  that  they  should  remain  there  in  a  state 
of  recognized  inferiority,  especially  when  dur- 
ing the  eighties  and  nineties  there  were  many 
evidences  that  economic  as  well  as  political  con- 
ditions would  become  worse.  The  exodus 
treated  in  the  previous  chapter  was  productive 
of  better  treatment  for  the  Negroes  and  an  in- 
crease in  their  wages  in  certain  parts  of  the 
South  but  the  migration,  contrary  to  the  expec- 
tations of  many,  did  not  bcome  general.  Actual 
prosperity  was  impossible  even  if  the  whites  had 
been  willing  to  give  the  Negro  peasants  a  fair 
chance.  The  South  had  passed  through  a  dis- 
astrous war,  the  etfects  of  which  so  blighted  the 
hopes  of  its  citizens  in  the  economic  world  that 

0  Public  Opinion,  XVIII,  pp.  370-371. 


Migration  of  the  Talented  Tenth    153 

their  land  seemed  to  pass,  so  to  speak,  through 
a  dark  age.  There  was  then  little  to  give  the 
man  far  down  when  the  one  to  whom  he  of  neces- 
sity looked  for  employment  was  in  his  turn  bled 
by  the  merchant  or  the  banker  of  the  larger 
cities,  to  whom  he  had  to  go  for  extensive 
credits. ^^ 

Southern  planters  as  a  class,  however,  had  not 
much  sympathy  for  the  blacks  who  had  once 
been  their  property  and  the  tendency  to  cheat 
them  continued,  despite  the  fact  that  many 
farmers  in  the  course  of  time  extricated  them- 
selves from  the  clutches  of  the  loan  sharks. 
There  were  a  few  Negroes  Who,  thanks  to  the 
honesty  of  certain  southern'  gentlemen,  suc- 
ceeded in  acquiring  considerable  property  in 
spite  of  their  handicaps."  They  yielded  to  the 
white  man's  control  in  politics,  when  it  seemed  _^ 

that  it  meant  either  to  abandon  that  field  or  die,  IjiC/^*^^ 
and  devoted  themselves  to  the  accumulation  of  drox^-tW-- 
wealth  and  the  acquisition  of  education. 

This  concession,  however,  did  not  satisfy  the 
radical  whites,  as  they  thought  that  the  Negro 
might  some  day  return  to  power.  Unfortu- 
nately, therefore,  after  the  restoration  of  the 
control  of  the  State  governments  to  the  master 
class,  there  swept  over  these  commonwealths  a 

10  Because  of  these  conditions  the  last  fifty  years  has  been 
considered  by  some  writers  as  a  "  dark  age, ' '  for  the  South, 

11  The  Negroes  are  now  said  to  be  worth  more  than  a  billion 
dollars.  Most  of  this  property  is  in  the  hands  of  southern 
Negroes. 


vT 


154     A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

wave  of  hostile  legislation  demanded  by  the  poor 
white  uplanders  determined  to  debase  the  blacks 
to  the  status  of  the  free  Negroes  prior  to  the  Civil 
War.^2  Tjjg  Negroes  have,  therefore,  been  dis- 
franchised in  most  reconstructed  States,  de- 
prived of  the  privilege  of  serving  in  the  State 
militia,  segregated  in  public  conveyances,  and 
excluded  from  public  places  of  entertainment. 
They  have,  moreover,  been  branded  by  public 
opinion  as  pariahs  of  society  to  be  used  for 
exploitation  but  not  to  be  encouraged  to  expect 
that  their  status  can  ever  be  changed  so  as  to 
destroy  the  barriers  between  the  races  in  their 
social  and  political  relations. 

This  period  has  been  marked  also  by  an  effort 
^^,-^  to  establish  in  the  South  a  system  of  peonage 

^  not  unlike  that  of  Mexico,  a  sort  of  involuntary 

V-J  *.  "  servitude  in  that  one  is  considered  legally  bound 

to  serve  his  master  until  a  debt  contracted  is 
paid.    Such  laws  have  been  enacted  in  Florida, 
"*        '  Alabama,  Georgia,  Mississippi,  North  Carolina 

"^    ^         and  South  Carolina.    No  such  distinction  in  law 
\  has  been  able  to  stand  the  constitutional  test  of 

the  United  States  courts  as  was  evidenced  by 
->  the  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  in  1911  de- 

claring   the    Alabama    law    unconstitutional.^^ 
"•  '*  But  the  planters  of  the  South,  still  a  law  unto 

^J  themselves,  have  maintained  actual  slavery  in 

^^  American  Law  Eeview,  XL,  pp.  29,  52,  205,  227,  354,  381, 
--^  547,  590,  695,  758,  865,  905. 

13  No.  300.— Original,  October  Term,  1910. 


f 


Migration  of  the  Talented  Tenth    155 

sequestered  districts  where  public  opinion 
against  peonage  is  too  weak  to  support  federal 
authorities  in  exterminating  it.^"*  The  Negroes 
themselves  dare  not  protest  under  penalty  of 
persecution  and  the  peon  concerned  usually  ac- 
cepts his  lot  like  that  of  a  slave.  Some  years 
ago  it  was  commonly  reported  that  in  trying  to 
escape,  the  persons  undertaking  it  often  fail  and 
suffer  death  at  the  hands  of  the  planter  or  of 
murderous  mobs,  giving  as  their  excuse,  if  any 
be  required,  that  the  Negro  is  a  desperado  or 
some  other  sort  of  criminal. 

Unfortunately  this  reaction  extended  also  to 
education.  Appropriations  to  public  schools 
for  Negroes  diminished  from  year  to  year  and 
when  there  appeared  practical  leaders  with 
their  sane  plan  for  industrial  educationithe  South 
ignorantly  accepted  this  scheme  as  a  desirable 
subterfuge  for  seeming  to  support  Negro  edu- 
cation and  at  the  same  time  directing  the  de- 
velopment of  the  blacks  in  such  a  way  that  they 
would  never  become  the  competitors  of  the  white 
people.  This  was  not  these  educators'  idea 
but  the  South  so  understood  it  and  in  effecting 
the  readjustment,  practically  left  the  Negroes 
out  of  the  pale  of  the  public  school  systems. 
Consequently,  there  has  been  added  to  the  Ne- 
groes' misfortunes,  in  the  South,  that  of  being 
unable  to  obtain  liberal  education  at  public  ex- 
pense, although  they  themselves,  as  the  largest 

i4Hershaw,  Peoimge,  pp.  10-11. 


156     A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

consumers  in  some  parts,  pay  most  of  the  taxes 
appropriated  to  the  support  of  schools  for  the 
youth  of  the  other  race.^^ 

The  South,  moreover,  has  adopted  the  policy 
of  a  more  general  intimidation  of  the  Negroes 
to  keep  them  down.  The  lynching  of  the  blacks, 
at  first  for  assaults  on  white  women  and  later 
for  almost  any  offense,  has  rapidly  developed 
as  an  institution.  Within  the  past  fifty  years^^ 
there  have  been  lynched  in  the  South  about  4,000 
Negroes,  many  of  whom  have  been  publicly 
burned  in  the  daytime  to  attract  crowds  that 
usually  enjoy  such  feats  as  the  tourney  of  the 
Middle  Ages.  Negroes  who  have  the  courage  to 
protest  against  this  barbarism  have  too  often 
been  subjected  to  indignities  and  in  some  cases 
forced  to  leave  their  communities  or  suffer  the 
fate  of  those  in  behalf  of  whom  they  speak. 
These  crimes  of  white  men  were  at  first  kept 
secret  but  during  the  last  two  generations  the 
culprits  have  become  known  as  heroes,  so  pop- 
ular has  it  been  to  murder  Negroes.  It  has  often 
been  discovered  also  that  the  officers  of  these 
communities  take  part  in  these  crimes  and  the 
worst  of  all  is  that  politicians  like  Tillman, 
Blease  and  Vardaman  glory  in  recounting  the 
noble  deeds  of  those  who  deserve  so  well  of  their 
countrymen  for  making  the  soil  red  with  the  Ne- 

15  These  facts  are  well  brought  out  by  Dr.  Thomas  Jesse 
Jones'  recent  report  on  Negro  Education. 

10  This  is  based  on  reports  published  annually  in  the  Chicago 
Tribune. 


Migration  of  the  Talented  Tenth    157 

groes '  blood  rather  than  permit  the  much  feared 
Africanization  of  southern  institutions.^'^ 

In  this  harassing   situation  the   Negro  has 
hoped  that  the  North  would  interfere  in  his  be- 
half, but,  with  the  reactionary  Supreme  Court  ■i.»,-«i 
of  the  United  States  interpreting  this  hostile  <^ 

legislation  as  constitutional  in  conformity  with  -^  cLa^ji,^  :  ■ 
the  demands  of  prejudiced  public  opinion,  and 
with  the  leaders  of  the  North  inclined  to  take 
the  view  that  after  all  the  factions  in  the  South 
must  be  left  alone  to  fight  it  out,  there  has  been 
nothing  to  be  expected  from  without.  Matters 
too  have  been  rendered  much  worse  because  the 
leaders  of  the  very  party  recently  abandoning 
the  freedmen  to  their  fate,  aggravated  the  crit- 
ical situation  by  first  setting  the  Negroes 
against  their  former  masters,  whom  they  were 
taught  to  regard  as  their  worst  enemies  whether 
they  were  or  not. 

The  last  humiliation  the  Negroes  have  been 
forced  to  submit  to  is  that  of  segregation.  Here 
the  effort  has  been  to  establish  a  ghetto  in  cities 
and  to  assign  certain  parts  of  the  country  to  Ne- 
groes engaged  in  farming.  It  always  happens, 
of  course,  that  the  best  portion  goes  to  the 
whites  and  the  least  desirable  to  the  blacks,  al- 
though the  promoters  of  the  segregation  main- 
tain that  both  races  are  to  be  treated  equally. 
The  ultimate  aim  is  to  prevent  the  Negroes  of 
means  from  figuring  conspicuously  in  aristo- 

17  This  is  the  boast  of  southern  men  of  this  type  when  speak- 
ing to  their  constituents  or  in  Congress. 


158     A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

cratic  districts  where  they  may  be  brought  into 
rather  close  contact  with  the  whites.  Negroes 
see  in  segregation  a  settled  policy  to  keep  them 
down,  no  matter  what  they  do  to  elevate  them- 
selves. The  southern  white  man,  eternally 
dreading  the  miscegenation  of  the  races,  makes 
the  life,  liberty  and  happiness  of  individuals 
second  to  measures  considered  necessary  to  pre- 
vent this  so-called  evil  that  this  enviable  civili- 
zation, distinctly  American,  may  not  be  de- 
stroyed. The  United  States  Supreme  Court  in 
the  decision  of  the  Louisville  segregation  case 
recently  declared  these  segregation  measures 
unconstitutional.^^ 

These  restrictions  have  made  the  progress  of 
the  Negroes  more  of  a  problem  in  that  directed 
toward  social  distinction,  the  Negroes  have  been 
denied  the  helpful  contact  of  the  sympathetic 
whites.  The  increasing  race  prejudice  forces 
the  whites  to  restrict  their  open  dealing  with 
the  blacks  to  matters  of  service  and  business, 
maintaining  even  then  the  bearing  of  one  in  a 
sphere  which  the  Negroes  must  not  penetrate. 
The  whites,  therefore,  never  seeing  the  blacks  as 
they  are,  and  the  blacks  never  being  able  to 
learn  what  the  whites  know,  are  thrown  back  on 
their  own  initiative,  which  their  life  as  slaves 
could  not  have  permitted  to  develop.  It  makes 
little  difference  that  the  Negroes  have  been  free 
a  few  decades.    Such  freedom  has  in  some  parts 

18  Report,  October  Term,  1917. 


■■!*■ 


o 

.-I 

05 


« 
o 

►J 

o 

Ph 

►J 
o 


M 

O 

o 

a 

fin 

a 

a 

Eh 


o 

W 

Pu 


tn 

3 

CQ 

d 
O 


3 
03 

3 

pq 


CO 

'3 

v 
H 
en 


3 

CQ 


a 

o3 


Migration  of  the  Talented  Tenth   159 

been  tantamount  to  slavery,  and  so  far  as  con- 
tact with  the  superior  class  is  concerned,  no 
better  than  that  condition;  for  under  the  old 
regime  certain  slaves  did  learn  much  by  close 
association  with  their  masters.^^ 

For  these  reasons  there  has  been  since  the 
exodus  to  the  West  a  steady  migration  of  Ne- 
groes from  the  South  to  points  in  the  North. 
But  this  migration,  mainly  due  to  political 
changes,  has  never  assumed  such  large  propor- 
tions as  in  the  case  of  the  more  significant  move- 
ments due  to  economic  causes,  for,  as  the  ac- 
companying map  shows,  most  Negroes  are  still 
in  the  South.  When  we  consider  the  various 
classes  migrating,  however,  it  will  be  apparent 
that  to  understand  the  exodus  of  the  Negroes 
to  the  North,  this  longer  drawn  out  and  smaller 
movement  must  be  carefully  studied  in  all  its 
ramifications.  It  should  be  noted  that  unlike 
some  of  the  other  migrations  it  has  not  been 
directed  to  any  particular  State,  It  has  been 
from  almost  all  Southern  States  to  various 
parts  of  the  North  and  especially  to  the  largest 

cities.^^ 

What  classes  then  have  migrated!  In  the 
first  place,  the  Negro  politicians,  who,  after  the 
restoration  of  Bourbon  rule  in  the  South,  found 
themselves  thrown  out  of  office  and  often  humil- 

19  This  danger  has  been  often  referred  to  when  the  Negroes 
were  first  enoancipated. — See  Spectator,  LXVI^  p.  113. 

20  Compare  the  Negro  population  of  Northern  States  as  given 
in  the  census  of  1800  with  the  same  in  1900. 


160      i  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

iated  and  impoverished,  had  to  find  some  way 
out  of  the  difficulty.  Some  few  have  been  re- 
lieved by  sympathetic  leaders  of  the  Republican 
party,  who  secured  for  them  federal  appoint- 
ments in  Washington.  These  appointments 
when  sometimes  paying  lucrative  salaries  have 
been  given  as  a  reward  to  those  Negroes  who, 
although  dethroned  in  the  South,  remain  in 
touch  with  the  remnant  of  the  Republican  party 
there  and  control  the  delegates  to  the  national 
conventions  nominating  candidates  for  Presi- 
dent. Many  Negroes  of  this  class  have  settled 
in  Washington.-^  In  some  cases,  the  observer 
witnesses  the  pitiable  scene  of  a  man  once  a 
prominent  public  functionary  in  the  South  now 
serving  in  Washington  as  a  messenger  or  a 
clerk. 

The  well-established  blacks,  however,  have 
not  been  so  easily  induced  to  go.  The  Negroes 
in  business  in  the  South  have  usually  been  loath 
to  leave  their  people  among  whom  they  can  ac- 
quire property,  whereas,  if  they  go  to  the  North, 
they  have  merely  political  freedom  with  no  as- 
surance of  an  opportunity  in  the  economic 
world.  But  not  a  few  of  these  have  given  them- 
selves up  to  unrelenting  toil  with  a  view  to  ac- 
cumulating sufficient  wealth  to  move  North  and 
live  thereafter  on  the  income  from  their  invest- 
ments. Many  of  this  class  now  spend  some  of 
their  time  in  the  North  to  educate  their  children. 

21  Hart,  Southern  South,  pp.  171,  172. 


Migration  of  the  Talented  Tenth    161 

But  they  do  not  like  to  have  these  children  who 
have  been  under  refining  influences  return  to 
the  South  to  suffer  the  humiliation  which  during 
the  last  generation  has  been  growing  more  and 
more  aggravating.  Endeavoring  to  carry  out 
their  policy  of  keeping  the  Negro  down,  south- 
erners too  often  carefully  plan  to  humiliate  the 
progressive  and  intelligent  blacks  and  in  some 
cases  form  mobs  to  drive  them  out,  as  they  are 
bad  examples  for  that  class  of  Negroes  whom 
they  desire  to  keep  as  menials.^^ 

There  are  also  the  migrating  educated  Ne- 
groes. They  have  studied  history,  law  and  eco- 
nomics and  well  understand  what  it  is  to  get  the 
rights  guaranteed  them  by  the  constitution.  The 
more  they  know  the  more  discontented  they  be- 
come. They  cannot  speak  out  for  what  they 
want.  No  one  is  likely  to  second  such  a  protest, 
not  even  the  Negroes  themselves,  so  generally 
have  they  been  intimidated.  The  more  out- 
spoken they  become,  moreover,  the  more  neces- 
sary is  it  for  them  to  leave,  for  they  thereby  de- 
stroy their  chances  to  earn  a  livelihood.  White 
men  in  control  of  the  public  schools  of  the  South 
see  to  it  that  the  subserviency  of  the  Negro 
teachers  employed  be  certified  beforehand. 
They  dare  not  complain  too  much  about  equip- 
ment and  salaries  even  if  the  per  capita  appro- 

22  This  is  based  on  the  experience  of  the  writer  and  others 
whom  he  has  interviewed. 


162     A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

priation  for  the  education  of  the  Negroes  be  one 
fourth  of  that  for  the  whites.^^ 

In  the  higher  institutions  of  learning,  espe- 
cially the  State  schools,  it  is  exceptional  to  find 
a  principal  who  has  the  confidence  of  the  Ne- 
groes. The  Negroes  will  openly  assert  that  he 
is  in  the  pay  of  the  reactionary  whites,  whose 
purpose  is  to  keep  the  Negro  down;  and  the 
incumbent  himself  will  tell  his  board  of  regents 
how  much  he  is  opposed  by  the  Negroes  because 
he  labors  for  the  interests  of  the  white  race. 
Out  of  such  sycophancy  it  is  easily  explained 
why  our  State  schools  have  been  so  inetfective 
as  to  necessitate  the  sending  of  the  Negro  youth 
to  private  institutions  maintained  by  northern 
philanthropy.  Yet  if  an  outspoken  Negro 
happens  to  be  an  instructor  in  a  private  school 
conducted  by  educators  from  the  North,  he  has  to 
be  careful  about  contending  for  a  square  deal; 
for,  if  the  head  of  his  institution  does  not  sug- 
gest to  him  to  proceed  conservatively,  the  mob 
will  dispose  of  the  complainant.^^  Physicians, 
lawyers  and  preachers  who  are  not  so  economic- 
ally dependent  as  teachers  can  exercise  no  more 
freedom  of  speech  in  the  midst  of  this  tri- 
umphant rule  of  the  lawless. 

A  large  number  of  educated  Negroes,  there- 
fore, have  on  account  of  these  conditions  been 

28  In  his  report  on  Negro  education  Dr.  Tliomas  Jesse  Jones 
has  shown  this  to  be  an  actual  fact. 

23  Negroes  applying  for  positions  in  the  South  have  the  situa- 
tion set  before  them  so  as  to  know  what  to  expect. 


Diagram  Showing  the  Negro  Population  of  Northern  and 

Western  Cities  in  1900  and  the  Extent  to  which  it 

increased  by  1910. 

Thousands 
0    10     20     30    40     50     60     70     80     90  100 

Atlantic  City 

Boston 

Cambridge 

Camden 

Chicago 

Cincinnati 

Cleveland 

Columbus 

Des  Moines  U  I 1 1 il      I     '  1 1910 

Detroit 
Harrisburg 

Indianapolis 
Jersey  City 
Kansas  City,  Kan 
Kansas  City,  Mo. 
Minneapolis 
New  York 
Omaha 
Philadelphia 
Pittsburg 
Providence 
Seattle 
St.  Louis 


1 

t 

J 

D 

1 

JHHJ 1 

1_1   1 

c 

] 

L_ 

1 

■ 

k 

k 

Migration  of  the  Talented  Tenth   163 

compelled  to  leave  the  South.  Finding  in  the 
North,  however,  practically  nothing  in  their 
line  to  do,  because  of  the  proscription  by  race 
prejudice  and  trades  unions,  many  of  them 
lead  the  life  of  menials,  serving  as  waiters, 
porters,  butlers  and  chauffeurs.  While  in 
Chicago,  not  long  ago,  the  writer  was  in  the 
office  of  a  graduate  of  a  colored  southern  col- 
lege, who  was  showing  his  former  teacher  the 
picture  of  his  class.  In  accounting  for  his 
classmates  in  the  various  walks  of  life,  he  re- 
ported that  more  than  one  third  of  them  were 
settled  to  the  occupation  of  Pullman  porters. 

The  largest  number  of  Negroes  who  have 
gone  North  during  this  period,  however,  belong 
to  the  intelligent  laboring  class.  Some  of  them 
have  become  discontemed  for  the  very  same 
reasons  that  the  higher  classes  have  tired  of  op- 
pression in  the  South,  but  the  larger  number  of 
them  have  gone  North  to  improve  their  eco- 
nomic condition.  Most  of  these  have  migrated 
to  the  large  cities  in  the  East  and  Northwest, 
such  as  Philadelphia,  New  York,  Indianapolis, 
Pittsburgh,  Cleveland,  Columbus,  Detroit  and 
Chicago.  To  understand  this  problem  in  its 
urban  aspects  the  accompanying  diagram  show- 
ing the  increase  in  the  Negro  population  of 
northern  cities  during  the  first  decade  of  this 
century  will  be  helpful. 

Some  of  these  Negroes  have  migrated  after 
careful  consideration;   others  have  just  hap- 

12 


164     A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

pened  to  go  north  as  wanderers;  and  a  still 
larger  number  on  the  many  excursions  to  the 
cities  conducted  by  railroads  during  the  summer 
mouths.  Sometimes  one  excursion  brings  to 
Chicago  two  or  three  thousand  Negroes,  two 
thirds  of  whom  never  go  back.  They  do  not 
often  follow  the  higher  pursuits  of  labor  in  the 
North  but  they  earn  more  money  than  they  have 
been  accustomed  to  earn  in  the  South.  They 
are  attracted  also  by  the  liberal  attitude  of  some 
whites,  which,  although  not  that  of  social 
equality,  gives  the  Negroes  a  liberty  in  northern 
centers  which  leads  them  to  think  that  they  are 
citizens  of  the  country.^^ 

This  shifting  in  the  population  has  had  an 
unusually  significant  effect  on  the  black  belt. 
Frederick  Douglass  advised  the  Negroes  in 
1879  to  remain  in  the  South  where  they  would  be 
in  sufficiently  large  numbers  to  have  political 
power,2^  but  they  have  gradually  scattered 
from  the  black  belt  so  as  to  diminish  greatly 
their  chances  ever  to  become  the  political  force 
they  formerly  were  in  this  country.  The  Ne- 
groes once  had  this  possibility  in  South  Caro- 
lina, Georgia,  Alabama,  Mississippi  and  Louisi- 
ana and,  had  the  process  of  Africanization 
prior  to  the  Civil  War  had  a  few  decades  longer 
to  do  its  work,  there  would  not  have  been  any 
doubt  as  to  the  ultimate  preponderance  of  the 

24  The  American  Journal  of  Political  Economy,  XXV,  p.  1040. 

25  The  Journal  of  Social  Science,  XIj  p.  16. 


I 


Counties  in  the  Southern  States  having  at 

1  9  1  O 


~1 


l- 


T 


■-M' 
I 


1\  ^—^■AV./ 


18  8  0 


y^~Ji   50  TO  75   PER   CENT  HW  75    PER   CENT  AND  OVER 

(Maps  3  niid  4,  Bullotin  129,  U.  S.  T^nrenn  of  the  Census.) 


LEAST  50  Per  Cent  of  their  Population  Negro. 


1  <>  o  <» 


1  §  «o 


1  \ J         \      H^^ 


i 
i 
I 


a 


s 


■vV         ■^. 


s 


-^      id)       \  ?^-'^ 


V. 


Igrrj   50  TO   75    PER  CENT  ^M  75    PER    CENT  AND   OVER 

(Maps  5  and  6,  Bulletin  129,  IT.  S.  Bureau  of  the  Census.) 


Migration  of  the  Talented  Tenth    165 

Negroes  in  those  commonwealtlis.  The  tend- 
encies of  the  black  population  according  to  the 
censuses  of  the  United  States  and  especially 
that  of  1910,  however,  show  that  the  chances  for 
the  control  of  these  State  governments  by  Ne- 
groes no  longer  exist  except  in  South  Carolina 
and  Mississippi.-*^  It  has  been  predicted,  there- 
fore, that,  if  the  same  tendencies  continue  for 
the  next  fifty  years,  there  will  be  even  few  coun- 
ties in  which  the  Negroes  will  be  -in  a  majority. 
All  of  the  Southern  States  except  Arkansas 
showed  a  proportionate  increase  of  the  white 
population  over  that  of  the  black  between  1900 
and  1910,  while  West  Virginia  and  Oklahoma 
with  relatively  small  numbers  of  blacks  showed, 
for  reasons  stated  elsewhere,  an  increase  in  the 
Negro  population.  Thus  we  see  coming  to  pass 
something  like  the  proposed  plan  of  Jefferson 
and  othe:-  statesmen  who  a  hundred  years  ago 
advocated  the  expansion  of  slavery  to  lessen 
the  evil  of  the  institution  by  distributing  its 
burdens.^'^ 

The  migration  of  intelligent  blacks,  however, 
has  been  attended  with  several  handicaps  to  the 
race.  The  large  part  of  the  black  population 
is  in  the  South  and  there  it  will  stay  for  decades 
to  come.  The  southern  Negroes,  therefore,  have 
been  robbed  of  their  due  part  of  the  talented 
tenth.     The  educated  blacks  have  had  no  con- 

26  American  Economic  Beview,  IV,  pp.  281-292. 

27  Ford  edition  of  Jeferson's  Writings,  X,  p.  231. 


166     A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

stituency  in  the  North  and,  consequently,  have 
been  unable  to  realize  their  sweetest  dreams  of 
the  land  of  the  free.  In  their  new  home  the 
enlightened  Negro  must  live  with  his  light  under 
a  bushel.  Those  left  behind  in  the  South  soon 
despair  of  seeing  a  brighter  day  and  yield  to  the 
yoke.  In  the  places  of  the  leaders  who  were 
wont  to  speak  for  their  people,  the  whites  have 
raised  up  Negroes  who  accept  favors  offered 
them  on  the  condition  that  their  lips  be  sealed 
up  forever  on  the  rights  of  the  Negro. 

This  emigration  too  has  left  the  Negro  sub- 
ject to  other  evils.  There  are  many  first-class 
Negro  business  men  in  the  South,  but  although 
there  were  once  progressive  men  of  color,  who 
endeavored  to  protect  the  blacks  from  being 
plundered  by  white  sharks  and  harpies  there 
have  arisen  numerous  unscrupulous  Negroes 
who  have  for  a  part  of  the  proceeds  from  such 
jobbery  associated  themselves  with  ill-designing 
white  men  to  dupe  illiterate  Negroes.  This 
trickery  is  brought  into  play  in  marketing  their 
crops,  selling  them  supplies,  or  purchasing  their 
property.  To  carry  out  this  iniquitous  plan  the 
persons  concerned  have  the  protection  of  the 
law,  for  while  Negroes  in  general  are  imposed 
upon,  those  engaged  in  robbing  them  have  no 
cause  to  fear. 


i 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE  EXODUS  DUEING  THE  WORLD  WAR 


WITHIN  the  last  two  years  there  has  been  a 
steady  stream  of  Negroes  into  the  North 
in  such  large  numbers  as  to  overshadow  in  its 
results  all  other  movements  of  the  kind  in  the 
United  States.  These  Negroes  have  come 
largely  from  Alabama,  Tennessee,  Florida, 
Georgia,  Virginia,  North  Carolina,  Kentucky, 
South  Carolina,  Arkansas  and  Mississippi.  The 
given  causes  of  this  migration  are  numerous  and 
complicated.  Some  untruths  centering  around 
this  exodus  have  not  been  unlike  those  of  other 
migrations.  Again  we  hear  that  the  Negroes 
are  being  brought  North  to  fight  organized 
labor,^  and  to  carry  doubtful  States  for  the 
Republicans.^  These  numerous  explanations 
themselves,  however,  give  rise  to  doubt  as  to  the 
fundamental  cause. 

Why  then  should  the  Negroes  leave  the  South! 
It  has  often  been  spoken  of  as  the  best  place  for 
them.  There,  it  is  said,  they  have  made  unusual 
strides  forward.  The  progress  of  the  Negroes 
in  the  South,  however,  has  in  no  sense  been  gen- 
eral, although  the  land  owned  by  Negroes  in  the 

1  New  York  Times,  Sept.  5,  9,  28,  1916. 

2  Ibid.,  Oct.  18,  28;  Nov.  5,  7,  12,  15  j  Dec.  4,  9,  1916. 

167 


168     A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

country  and  tlie  property  of  thrifty  persons  of 
their  race  in  urban  communities  may  be  exten- 
sive, fn  most  parts  of  the  South  the  Negroes 
are  still  unable  to  become  landowners  or  suc- 
cessful business  men.  Conditions  and  customs 
have  reserved  these  spheres  for  the  whites. 
Generally  speaking,  the  Negroes  are  still  de- 
pendent on  the  white  people  for  food  and 
shelter.  Although  not  exactly  slaves,  they  are 
yet  attached  to  the  white  people  as  tenants, 
servants  or  dependents.  Accepting  this  as  their 
lot,  they  have  been  content  to  wear  their  lord's 
cast-off  clothing,  and  live  in  his  ramshackled 
barn  or  cellar.  In  this  unhappy  state  so  many 
have  settled  dowii,  losing  all  ambition  to  attain 
a  higher  station.!  The  world  has  gone  on  but 
in  their  sequestered  sphere  progress  has  passed 
them  by. 

What  then  is  the  cause?  There  have  been 
bulldozing,  terrorism,  maltreatment  and  what 
not  of  persecution ;  but  the  Negroes  have  not  in 
large  numbers  wandered  away  from  the  land  of 
their  birth.  What  the  migrants  themselves 
think  about  it,  goes  to  the  very  heart  of  the 
trouble.  Some  say  that  they  left  the  South  on 
account  of  injustice  in  the  courts,  unrest,  lack 
of  privileges,  denial  of  the  right  to  vote,  bad 
treatment,  oppression,  segregation  or  lynching. 
Others  say  that  they  left  to  find  employment,  to 
secure  better  wages,  better  school  facilities,  and 

8  The  New  Orleans  Times  Picayune,  Marcli  26,  1914. 


I 


Exodus  during  the  World  War     169 

better  opportunities  to  toil  upward.^  Soutliern 
white  newspapers  unaccustomed  to  give  tlie  Ne- 
groes any  mention  but  that  of  criminals  have 
said  that  the  Negroes  are  going  North  because 
they  have  not  had  a  fair  chance  in  the  South 
and  that  if  they  are  to  be  retained  there,  the  at- 
titude of  the  whites  toward  them  must  be 
changed.  |  Professor  William  0.  Scroggs,  of 
Louisiana  State  University,  considers  as  causes 
of  this  exodus  "the  relatively  low  wages  paid 
farm  labor,  an  unsatisfactory  tenant  or  crop- 
sharing  system,  the  boll  weevil,  the  crop  failure 
of  1916,  lynching,  disfranchisement,  segrega- 
tion, poor  schools,  and  the  monotony,  isolation 
and  drudgery  of  farm  life."  Professor 
Scroggs,  however,  is  wrong  in  thinking  that 
the  persecution  of  the  blacks  has  little  to  do 
with  the  migration  for  the  reason  that  during 
these  years  when  the  treatment  of  the  Negroes 
is  decidedly  better  they  are  leaving  the  South./ 
This  does  not  mean  that  they  would  not  have 
left  before,  if  they  had  had  economic  opportuni- 
ties in  the  North,  fit  is  highly  probable  that  the 
Negroes  would  not  be  leaving  the  South  today, 
if  they  were  treated  as  men,  although  there 
might  be  numerous  opportunities  for  economic 
improvement  in  the  North.^*^  / 

The  immediate  cause  of  this  movement  was 
the  suffering  due  to  the  floods  aggravated  by 

9  The  Crisis,  July,  1917. 

T^o  American  Journal  of  Political  Economy,  XXX,  p.  1040. 


170     A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

the  depredationsi  of  the  boll  weevil.  Although 
generally  mindful  of  our  welfare,  the  United 
States  Government  has  not  been  as  ready  to 
build  levees  against  a  natural  enemy  to  prop- 
erty as  it  has  been  to  provide  fortifications  for 
warfare.  It  has  been  necessary  for  local  com- 
munities and  State  governments  to  tax  them- 
selves to  maintain  them.  The  national  govern- 
ment, however,  has  appropriated  to  the  purpose 
of  facilitating  inland  navigation  certain  sums 
which  have  been  used  in  doing  this  work,  espe- 
cially in  the  Mississippi  Valley.  There  are  now 
1,538  miles  of  levees  on  both  sides  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi from  Cape  Girardeau  to  the  passes. 
These  levees,  of  course,  are  still  inadequate  to 
the  security  of  the  planters  against  these  inun- 
dations. Carrying  406  million  tons  of  mud  a 
year,  the  river  becomes  a  dangerous  stream  sub- 
ject to  change,  abandoning  its  old  bed  to  cut  for 
itself  a  new  channel,  transferring  property  from 
one  State  to  another,  isolating  cities  and  leaving 
once  useful  levees  marooned  in  the  landscape 
like  old  Indian  mounds  or  overgrown  intrench- 
ments.3 

This  valley  has,  therefore,  been  frequently 
visited  with  disasters  which  have  often  set  the 
population  in  motion.  The  first  disastrous 
floods  came  in  1858  and  1859,  breaking  many  of 
the  levees,  the  destruction  of  which  was  prac- 
tically completed  by  the  floods  of  1865  and  1869. 
There  is  an  annual  rise  in  the  stream,  but  since 

'The  World's  WorTc,  XX,  p.  271. 


Exodus  during  the  World  War     171 

1874  this  river  system  has  fourteen  times  de- 
vastated large  areas  of  this  section  with  de- 
structive floods.  The  property  in  this  district 
depreciated  in  value  to  the  extent  of  about  400 
millions  in  ten  years.  Farmers  from  this  sec- 
tion, therefore,  have  at  times  moved  west  with 
foreigners  to  take  up  public  lands. 

The  other  disturbing  factor  in  this  situation 
was  the  boll  weevil,  an  interloper  from  Mexico 
in  1892.  The  boll  weevil  is  an  insect  about  one 
fourth  of  an  inch  in  length,  varying  from  one 
eighth  to  one  third  of  an  inch  with  a  breadth  of 
about  one  third  of  the  length.  When  it  first 
emerges  it  is  yellowish,  then  becomes  gray- 
ish brown  and  finally  assumes  a  black  shade. 
It  breeds  on  no  other  plant  than  cotton  and 
feeds  on  the  boll.  This  little  animal,  at  first 
attacked  the  cotton  crop  in  Texas.  It  was  not 
thought  that  it  would  extend  its  work  into  the 
heart  of  the  South  so  as  to  become  of  national 
consequence,  but  it  has,  at  the  rate  of  forty  to 
one  hundred  sixty  miles  annually,  invaded  all 
of  the  cotton  district  except  that  of  the  Caro- 
linas  and  Virginia.  The  damage  it  does,  varies 
according  to  the  rainfall  and  the  harshness  of 
the  winter,  increasing  with  the  former  and  de- 
creasing with  the  latter.  At  times  the  damage 
has  been  to  the  extent  of  a  loss  of  50  per  cent, 
of  the  crop,  estimated  at  400,000  bales  of  cotton 
annually,  about  4,500,000  bales  since  the  inva- 
sion or  $250,000,000  worth  of  cotton."    The  out- 

*The  World's  WorTc,  XX,  p.  272. 


172     A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

put  of  tlie  South  being  thus  cut  off,  the  planter 
has  less  income  to  provide  supplies  for  his  black 
tenants  and,  the  prospects  for  future  production 
being  dark,  merchants  accustomed  to  give  them 
credit  have  to  refuse.  This,  of  course,  means 
financial  depression,  for  the  South  is  a  borrow- 
ing section  and  any  limitation  to  credit  there 
blocks  the  wheels  of  industry.  It  was  fortunate 
for  the  Negro  laborers  in  this  district  that  there 
was  then  a  demand  for  labor  in  the  North  when 
this  condition  began  to  obtain. 

This  demand  was  made  possible  by  the  cut- 
ting off  of  European  immigration  by  the  World 
War,  which  thereby  rendered  this  hitherto  un- 
congenial section  an  inviting  field  for  the  Negro. 
The  Negroes  have  made  some  progress  in  the 
North  during  the  last  fifty  years,  but  despite 
their  achievements  they  have  been  so  handi- 
capped by  race  prejudice  and  proscribed  by 
trades  unions  that  the  uplift  of  the  race  by  eco- 
nomic methods  has  been  impossible.  The  Euro- 
pean immigrants  have  hitherto  excluded  the  Ne- 
groes even  from  the  menial  positions.  In  the 
midst  of  the  drudgery  left  for  them,  the  blacks 
have  often  heretofore  been  debased  to  the  status 
of  dependents  and  paupers.  Scattered  through 
the  North  too  in  such  small  numbers,  they  have 
been  unable  to  unite  for  social  betterment  and 
mutual  improvement  and  naturally  too  weak 
to  force  the  community  to  respect  their  wishes 
as  could  be  done  by  a  large  group  with  some 


Exodus  during  the  World  War     173 

political  or  economic  power.  At  present,  how- 
ever, Negro  laborers,  wlio  once  went  from  city 
to  city,  seeking  such  employment  as  trades 
unions  left  to  them,  can  work  even  as  skilled 
laborers  throughout  the  North.^  Women  of 
color  formerly  excluded  from  domestic  service 
by  foreign  maids  are  now  in  demand.  Many 
mills  and  factories  which  Negroes  were  pro- 
hibited from  entering  a  few  years  ago  are  now 
bidding  for  their  labor.  Railroads  cannot  find 
help  to  teep  their  property  in  repair,  con- 
tractors fall  short  of  their  plans  for  failure  to 
hold  mechanics  drawn  into  the  industrial  boom 
and  the  United  States  Government  has  had  to 
advertise  for  men  to  hasten  the  preparation  for 
war. 

Men  from  afar  went  south  to  tell  the  Negroes 
of  a  way  of  escape  to  a  more  congenial  place. 
Blacks  long  since  unaccustomed  to  venture  a 
few  miles  from  home,  at  once  had  visions  of  a 
promised  land  just  a  few  hundred  miles  away. 
Some  were  told  of  the  chance  to  amass  fabulous 
riches,  some  of  the  opportunities  for  education 
and  some  of  the  hospitality  of  the  places  of 
amusement  and  recreation  in  the  North.  The 
migrants  then  were  soon  on  the  way.  Railway 
stations  became  conspicuous  with  the  presence 
of  Negro  tourists,  the  trains  were  crowded  to 
full  capacity  and  the  streets  of  northern  cities 

5  New  York  Times,  Marcli  29,  April  7,  9,  May  30  and  31, 
1917. 


174     A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

were  soon  congested  with  black  laborers  seeking 
to  realize  their  dreams  in  the  land  of  unusual 
opportunity. 

Employment  agencies,  recently  multiplied  to 
meet  the  demand  for  labor,  find  themselves  un- 
able to  cope  with  the  situation  and  agents  sent 
into  the  South  to  induce  the  blacks  by  offers  of 
free  transportation  and  high  wages  to  go  north, 
have  found  it  impossible  to  supply  the  demand 
in  centers  where  once  toiled  the  Poles,  Italians 
and  the  Greeks  formerly  preferred  to  the  Ne- 
groes.^ In  other  words,  the  present  migration 
differs  from  others  in  that  the  Negro  has  op- 
portunity awaiting  him  in  the  North  whereas 
formerly  it  was  necessary  for  him  to  make  a 
place  for  himself  upon  arriving  among  enemies. 
The  proportion  of  those  returning  to  the  South, 
therefore,  will  be  inconsiderable. 

Becoming  alarmed  at  the  immensity  of  this 
movement  the  South  has  undertaken  to  check  it. 
To  frighten  Negroes  from  the  North  southern 
newspapers  are  carefully  circulating  reports 
that  many  of  them  are  returning  to  their  native 
land  because  of  unexpected  hardships."^  But 
having  failed  in  this,  southerners  have  com- 
pelled employment  agents  to  cease  operations 
there,  arrested  suspected  employers  and,  to  pre- 

6  Survey,  XXXVII,  pp.  569-571  and  XXXVIII,  pp.  27,  226, 
331,  428;  Forum,  LVII,  p.  181;  The  World's  Work,  XXXIV, 
pp.  135,  314-319;  OutlooJc,  CXVI,  pp.  520-521;  Independent, 
XCI,  pp.  53-54. 

7  The  Crisis,  1917. 


Exodus  during  the  World  War     175 

vent  tlie  departure  of  tlie  Negroes,  imprisoned 
on  false  charges  those  who  appear  at  stations  to 
leave  for  the  North.  This  procedure  could  not 
long  be  effective,  for  by  the  more  legal  and  clan- 
destine methods  of  railway  passenger  agents  the 
work  has  gone  forward.  Some  southern  com- 
munities have,  therefore,  advocated  drastic 
legislation  against  labor  agents,  as  was  sug- 
gested in  Louisiana  in  1914,  when  by  operation 
of  the  Underwood  Tariff  Law  the  Negroes 
thrown  out  of  employment  in  the  sugar  district 
migrated  to  the  cotton  plantations.^ 

One  should  not,  however,  get  the  impression 
that  the  majority  of  the  Negroes  are  leaving 
the  South.  Eager  as  these  Negroes  seem  to  go, 
there  is  no  unanimity  of  opinion  as  to  whether 
migration  is  the  best  policy.  The  sycophant, 
toady  class  of  Negroes  naturally  advise  the 
blacks  to  remain  in  the  South  to  serve  their 
white  neighbors.  The  radical  protagonists  of 
the  equal-rights-for-all  element  urge  them  to 
come  North  by  all  means.  Then  there  are  the 
thinking  Negroes,  who  are  still  further  divided. 
Both  divisions  of  this  element  have  the  interests 
of  the  race  at  heart,  but  they  are  unable  to  agree 
as  to  exactly  what  the  blacks  should  now  do. 
Thinking  that  the  present  war  will  soon  be  over 
and  that  consequently  the  immigration  of  for- 
eigners into  this  country  will  again  set  in  and 
force  out  of  employment  thousands  of  Negroes 
who  have  migrated  to  the  North,  some  of  the 


176     A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

most  representative  Negroes  are  advising  their 
fellows  to  remain  where  they  are.  The  most 
serious  objection  to  this  transplantation  is  that  it 
means  for  the  Negroes  a  loss  of  land,  the  rapid 
acquisition  of  which  has  long  been  pointed  to  as 
the  best  evidence  of  the  ability  of  the  blacks 
to  rise  in  the  economic  world.  So  many  Ne- 
groes who  have  by  dint  of  energy  purchased 
small  farms  yielding  an  increasing  income  from 
year  to  year,  are  now  disposing  of  them  at 
nominal  prices  to  come  north  to  work  for  wages. 
Looking  beyond  the  war,  however,  and  thinking 
too  that  the  depopulation  of  Europe  during  this 
upheaval  will  render  immigration  from  that 
quarter  for  some  years  an  impossibility,  other 
thinkers  urge  the  Negroes  to  continue  the  mi- 
gration to  the  North,  where  the  race  may  be 
found  in  sufficiently  large  numbers  to  wield  eco- 
nomic and  political  power. 

Great  as  is  the  dearth  of  labor  in  the  South, 
moreover,  the  Negro  exodus  has  not  as  yet 
caused  such  a  depression  as  to  unite  the  whites 
in  inducing  the  blacks  to  remain  in  that  section. 
In  the  first  place,  the  South  has  not  yet  felt  the 
worst  effects  of  this  economic  upheaval  as  that 
part  of  the  country  has  been  unusually  aided  by 
the  millions  which  the  United  States  Govern- 
ment is  daily  spending  there.  Furthermore,  the 
poor  whites  are  anxious  to  see  the  exodus  of 
their  competitors  in  the  field  of  labor.  This 
leaves  the  capitalists  at  their  mercy,   and  in 


Exodus  during  the  World  War     177 

keeping  with  their  domineering  attitude,  they 
will  be  able  to  handle  the  labor  situation  as  they 
desire.  As  an  evidence  of  this  fact  we  need  but 
note  the  continuation  of  mob  rule  and  lynching 
in  the  South  despite  the  preachings  against  it 
of  the  organs  of  thought  which  heretofore 
winked  at  it.  'This  terrorism  has  gone  to  an  un- 
expected extent.  Negro  farmers  have  been 
threatened  with  bodily  injury,  unless  they  leave 
certain  parts. 

The  southerner  of  aristocratic  bearing  will 
say  that  only  the  shiftless  poor  whites  terrorize 
the  Negroes.  This  may  be  so,  but  the  truth 
offers  little  consolation  when  we  observe  that 
most  white  people  in  the  South  are  of  this  class; 
and  the  tendency  of  this  element  to  put  their 
children  to  work  before  they  secure  much  educa- 
tion does  not  indicate  that  the  South  will  soon 
experience  that  general  enlightenment  neces- 
sary to  exterminate  these  survivals  of  barbar- 
ism. Unless  the  upper  classes  of  the  whites 
can  bring  the  mob  around  to  their  way  of 
thinking  that  the  persecution  of  the  Negro  is 
prejudicial  to  the  interests  of  all,  it  is  not  likely 
that  mob  rule  will  soon  cease  and  the  migration 
to  this  extent  will  be  promoted  rather  than  re- 
tarded. 

It  is  unfortunate  for  the  South  that  the  grow- 
ing consciousness  of  the  Negroes  has  culminated 
at  the  very  time  they  are  m'ost  needed.  Finally 
heeding  the  advice  of  agricultural  experts  to  re- 


1^' 


178     A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

construct  its  agricultural  system,  tlie  South  has 
learned  in  the  school  of  bitter  experience  to  de- 
part from  the  plan  of  producing  the  single  cot- 
ton crop.  It  is  now  raising  food-stuffs  to  make 
that  section  self-supporting  without  reducing 
the  usual  output  of  cotton.  With  the  increasing 
production  in  the  South,  therefore,  more  labor 
is  needed  just  at  the  very  time  it  is  being  drawn 
to  centers  in  the  North.  The  North  being  an  in- 
dustrial and  commercial  section  has  usually  at- 
tracted the  immigrants,  who  will  never  fit  into 
the  economic  situation  in  the  South  because 
they  will  not  accept  the  treatment  given  Ne- 
groes. The  South,  therefore,  is  now  losing  the 
only  labor  which  it  can  ever  use  under  present 
conditions. 

Where  these  Negroes  are  going  is  still  more 
interesting.  The  exodus  to  the  west  was  mainly 
directed  to  Kansas  and  neighboring  States,  the 
migration  to  the  Southwest  centered  in  Okla- 
homa and  Texas,  pioneering  Negro  laborers 
drifted  into  the  industrial  district  of  the  Ap- 
palachian highland  during  the  eighties  and  nine- 
ties and  the  infiltration  of  the  discontented  tal- 
ented tenth  affected  largely  the  cities  of  the 
North.  But  now  we  are  told  that  at  the  very 
time  the  mining  districts  of  the  North  and  West 
are  being  filled  with  blacks  the  western  planters 
are  supplying  their  farms  with  them  and  that 
into  some  cities  have  gone  sufficient  skilled  and 
unskilled  Negro  workers  to  increase  the  black 


Exodus  during  the  World  War     179 

population  more  than  one  hundred  per  cent. 
Places  in  the  North,  where  the  black  population 
has  not  only  not  increased  but  even  decreased  in 
recent  years,  are  now  receiving  a  steady  influx 
of  Negroes/  In  fact,  this  is  a  nation-wide  mi- 
gration affecting  all  parts  and  all  conditions. 

Students  of  social  problems  are  now  wonder- 
ing whether  the  Negro  can  be  adjusted  in  the 
North.  Many  perplexing  problems  must  arise. 
This  movement  will  produce  results  not  unlike 
those  already  mentioned  in  the  discussion  of 
other  migrations,  some  of  which  we  have  evi- 
dence of  today.  There  will  be  an  increase  in 
race  prejudice  leading  in  some  communities  to 
actual  outbreaks  as  in  Chester  and  Youngstown 
and  probably  to  massacres  like  that  of  East  St. 
Louis,  in  which  participated  not  only  well- 
known  citizens  but  the  local  officers  and  the  State 
militia.  The  Negroes  in  the  North  are  in  com- 
petition with  white  men  who  consider  them  not 
only  strike  breakers  but  a  sort  of  inferior  indi- 
viduals unworthy  of  the  consideration  which 
white  men  deserve.  And  this  condition  obtains 
even  where  Negroes  have  been  admitted  to  the 
trades  unions. 

Negroes  in  seeking  new  homes  in  the  North, 
moreover,  invade  residential  districts  hitherto 
exclusively  white.  There  they  encounter  prej- 
udice and  persecution  until  most  whites  thus 
disturbed  move  out  determined  to  do  whatever 
they  can  to  prevent  their  race  from  suffering 

13 


180     A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

from  further  depreciation  of  property  and  the 
disturbance  of  their  community  life.  Lawless- 
ness has  followed,  showing  that  violence  may 
under  certain  conditions  develop  among  some 
classes  anywhere  rather  than  reserve  itself  for 
vigilance  committees  of  primitive  communities. 
It  has  brought  out  too  another  aspect  of  lawless- 
ness in  that  it  breaks  out  in  the  North  where 
the  numbers  of  Negroes  are  still  too  small  to 
serve  as  an  excuse  for  the  terrorism  and  lynch- 
ing considered  necessary  in  the  South  to  keep 
the  Negroes  down. 

The  maltreatment  of  the  Negroes  will  be  na- 
tionalized by  this  exodus.  The  poor  whites  of 
both  sections  will  strike  at  this  race  long  stig- 
matized by  servitude  but  now  demanding  eco- 
nomic equality.  Eace  prejudice,  the  fatal  weak- 
j  ness  of  the  Americans,  will  not  so  soon  abate 
although  there  will  be  advocates  of  fraternity, 
equality  and  liberty  required  to  reconstruct  our 
government  and  rebuild  our  civilization  in  con- 
formity with  the  demands  of  modern  efficiency 
by  placing  every  man  regardless  of  his  color 
wherever  he  may  do  the  greatest  good  for  the 
greatest  number. 

The  Negroes,  however,  are  doubtless  going  to 
the  North  in  sufficiently  large  numbers  to  make 
themselves  felt.  If  this  migration  falls  short  of 
establishing  in  that  section  Negro  colonies  large 
enough  to  wield  economic  and  political  power, 
their  state  in  the  end  will  not  be  any  better  than 


Exodus  during  the  World  War     181 

that  of  the  Negroes  already  there.  It  is  to  these 
large  numbers  alone  that  we  must  look  for  an 
agent  to  counteract  the  development  of  race 
feeling  into  riots.  In  large  numbers  the  blacks 
will  be  able  to  strike  for  better  wages  or  con- 
cessions due  a  rising  laboring  class  and  they 
will  have  enough  votes  to  defeat  for  reelection 
those  officers  who  wink  at  mob  violence  or  treat 
Negroes  as  persons  beyond  the  pale  of  the  law. 

The  Negroes  in  the  North,  however,  will  get 
little  out  of  the  harvest  if,  like  the  blacks  of  Re- 
construction days,  they  unwisely  concentrate 
their  efforts  on  solving  all  of  their  problems  by 
electing  men  of  their  race  as  local  officers  or  by 
sending  a  few  members  even  to  Congress  as  is 
likely  in  New  York,  Philadelphia  and  Chicago 
within  the  next  generation.  The  Negroes  have 
had  representatives  in  Congress  before  but  they 
were  put  out  because  their  constituency  was  un- 
economic and  politically  impossible.  There  was 
nothing  but  the  mere  letter  of  the  law  behind 
the  Eeconstruction  Negro  officeholder  and  the 
thus  forced  political  recognition  against  public 
opinion  could  not  last  any  longer  than  natural 
forces  for  some  time  thrown  out  of  gear  by  un- 
natural causes  could  resume  the  usual  line  of 
procedure. 

It  would  be  of  no  advantage  to  the  Negro  race 
today  to  send  to  Congress  forty  Negro  Repre- 
sentatives on  the  pro  rata  basis  of  numbers, 
especially  if  they  happened  not  to  be  exception- 


182     A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

ally  well  qualified.  They  would  remain  in  Con- 
gress only  so  long  as  the  American  white  people 
could  devise  some  plan  for  eliminating  them  as 
they  did  during  the  Reconstruction  period. 
Near  as  the  world  has  approached  real  democ- 
racy, history  gives  no  record  of  a  permanent 
government  conducted  on  this  basis.  Interests 
have  always  been  stronger  than  numbers.  The 
Negroes  in  the  North,  therefore,  should  not  on 
the  eve  of  the  economic  revolution  follow  the 
advice  of  their  misguided  and  misleading  race 
leaders  who  are  diverting  their  attention  from 
their  actual  welfare  to  a  specialization  in  pol- 
itics. To  concentrate  their  efforts  on  electing  a 
few  Negroes  to  office  wherever  the  blacks  are 
found  in  the  majority,  would  exhibit  the  nar- 
rowness of  their  oppressors.  It  would  be  as  un- 
wise as  the  policy  of  the  Republican  party  of 
setting  aside  a  few  insignificant  positions  like 
that  of  Recorder  of  Deeds,  Register  of  the 
Treasury  and  Auditor  of  the  Navy  as  segre- 
gated jobs  for  Negroes.  Such  positions  have 
furnished  a  nucleus  for  the  large,  worthless, 
office-seeking  class  of  Negroes  in  Washington, 
who  have  established  the  going  of  the  people  of 
the  city  toward  pretence  and  sham. 

The  Negroes  should  support  representative 
men  of  any  color  or  party,  if  they  stand  for  a 
square  deal  and  equal  rights  for  all.  The  new 
Negroes  in  the  North,  therefore,  will,  as  so 
many  of  their  race  in  New  York,  Philadelphia 


Exodus  during  the  World  War     183 

and  Chicago  are  now  doing,  ally  themselves 
with  those  men  who  are  fairminded  and  consid- 
erate of  the  man  far  down,  and  seek  to  embrace 
their  many  opportunities  for  economic  progress, 
a  foundation  for  political  recognition,  upon 
which  the  race  must  learn  to  build.  Every  race 
in  the  universe  must  aspire  to  becoming  a  factor 
in  politics;  but  history  shows  that  there  is  no 
short  route  to  such  success.  Like  other  despised 
races  beset  with  the  prejudice  and  militant  op- 
position of  self-styled  superiors,  the  Negroes 
must  increase  their  industrial  efficiency,  improve 
their  opportunities  to  make  a  living,  develop  the 
home,  church  and  school,  and  contribute  to  art, 
literature,  science  and  philosophy  to  clear  the 
way  to  that  political  freedom  of  which  they 
cannot  be  deprived. 

The  entire  country  will  be  benefited  by  this 
upheaval.  It  will  be  helpful  even  to  the  South. 
The  decrease  in  the  black  population  in  those 
communities  where  the  Negroes  outnumber  the 
whites  will  remove  the  fear  of  Negro  domina- 
tion, one  of  the  causes  of  the  backwardness  of 
the  South  and  its  peculiar  civilization.  Many 
of  the  expensive  precautions  which  the  southern 
people  have  taken  to  keep  the  Negroes  down, 
much  of  the  terrorism  incited  to  restrain  the 
blacks  from  self-assertion  will  no  longer  be  con- 
sidered necessary ;  for,  ha\Hng  the  excess  in  num- 
bers on  their  side,  the  whites  will  finally  rest  as- 
sured that  the  Negroes  may  be  encouraged  with- 


184     A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

out  any  apprehension  that  they  may  develop 
enough  power  to  subjugate  or  embarrass  their 
former  masters. 

The  Negroes  too  are  very  much  in  demand  in 
the  South  and  the  intelligent  whites  will  gladly 
give  them  larger  opportunities  to  attach  them  to 
that  section,  knowing  that  the  blacks,  once  con- 
scious of  their  power  to  move  freely  throughout 
the  country  wherever  they  may  improve  their 
condition,  will  never  endure  hardships  like  those 
formerly  inflicted  upon  the  race.  The  South  is 
already  learning  that  the  Negro  is  the  most  de- 
sirable laborer  for  that  section,  that  the  perse- 
cution of  Negroes  not  only  drives  them  out  but 
makes  the  employment  of  labor  such  a  problem 
that  the  South  will  not  be  an  attractive  section 
for  capital.  It  will,  therefore,  be  considered 
the  duty  of  business  men  to  secure  protection 
to  the  Negroes  lest  their  ill-treatment  force  them 
to  migrate  to  the  extent  of  bringing  about  a 
stagnation  of  their  business. 

The  exodus  has  driven  home  the  truth  that  the 
prosperity  of  the  South  is  at  the  mercy  of  the 
Negro.  Dependent  on  cheap  labor,  which  the 
bulldozing  whites  will  not  readily  furnish,  the 
wealthy  southerners  must  finally  reach  the  posi- 
tion of  regarding  themselves  and  the  Negroes 
as  having  a  community  of  interests  which 
each  must  promote.  ''Nature  itself  in  those 
States,"  Douglass  said,  "came  to  the  rescue  of 
the  Negro.    He  had  labor,  the  South  wanted  it, 


Exodus  during  the  World  War     185 

and  must  have  it  or  perisli.  Since  lie  was  free 
he  could  then  give  it,  or  withhold  it ;  use  it  where 
he  was,  or  take  it  elsewhere,  as  he  pleased.  His 
labor  made  hinj  a  slave  and  his  labor  could,  if 
he  would,  make  him  free,  comfortable  and  inde- 
pendent. It  is  more  to  him  than  either  fire, 
sword,  ballot  boxes  or  bayonets.  It  touches  the 
heart  of  the  South  through  its  pocket.  "^^ 
Knowing  that  the  Negro  has  this  silent  weapon 
to  be  used  against  his  employer  or  the  commu- 
nity, the  South  is  already  giving  the  race  better 
educational  facilities,  better  railway  accommo- 
dations, and  will  eventually,  if  the  advocacy  of 
certain  southern  newspapers  be  heeded,  grant 
them  political  privileges.  Wages  in  the  South, 
therefore,  have  risen  even  in  the  extreme  south- 
western States,  where  there  is  an  opportunity  to 
import  Mexican  labor.  Reduced  to  this  ex- 
tremity, the  southern  aristocrats  have  begun  to 
lose  some  of  their  race  prejudice,  which  has  not 
hitherto  yielded  to  reason  or  philanthropy. 

Southern  men_are^telling  their  neighbors  that 
their  section  must  abandon  the  policy  of  treat- 
ing  the  Negroes  as  a  problem  and  construct  a 
prograrfTTor  recognTHiSrratEerlEan  f ofTepres- 
sionT  Meetings"~afer  therefore,  being  held  to 
fiJQd  out"  what  theTNegro  wants  and  wha^may  be 
done  to  keep  them  contented^  They  are  told  that 
the  Negro  must  be  elevated  not  exploited,  that 
to  make  the  South  what  it  must  needs  be,  the  co- 

11  American  Journal  of  Social  Science,  XI,  p.  4. 


186     A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

operation  of  all  is  needed  to  train  and  equip  the 
men  of  all  races  for  efficiency.  The  aim  of  all 
then  must  be  to  reform  or  get  rid  of  the  unfair 
proprietors  who  do  not  give  their  tenants  a  fair 
division  of  the  returns  from  their  labor.  To 
this  end  the  best  whites  and  blacks  are  urged  to 
come  together  to  find  a  working  basis  for  a  sys- 
tematic effort  in  the  interest  of  all. 

To  say  that  either  the  North  or  the  South  can 
easily  become  adjusted  to  this  change  is  entirely 
i  too  sanguine.    The  North  will  have  a  problem. 
1  The  Negroes  in  the  northern  city  will  have  much 
j  more  to  contend  with  than  when  settled  in  the 
j  rural  districts  or  small  urban  centers.    Forced 
•  by  restrictions  of  real  estate  men  into  congested 
districts,  there  has  appeared  the  tendency  to- 
ward further  segregation.     They  are  denied  so- 
cial  contact,   are   sagaciously   separated   from 
the  whites  in  public  places  of  amusement  and 
are  clandestinely  segregated  in  public  schools 
in  spite  of  the  law  to  the  contrary.    As  a  con- 
sequence the  Negro  migrant  often  finds  him- 
self with  less  friends  than  he  formerly  had.    The 
northern  man  who  once  denounced  the  South  on 
account  of  its  maltreatment  of  the  blacks  grad- 
ually grows  silent  when  a  Negro  is  brought  next 
door.    There  comes  with  the  movement,  there- 
fore, the  difficult  problem  of  housing. 

"Where  then  must  the  migrants  go.  They  are 
not  wanted  by  the  whites  and  are  treated  with 
contempt  by  the  native  blacks  of  the  northern 


Exodus  during  the  World  War     187 

cities,  who  consider  their  brethren  from  the  South 
too  criminal  and  too  vicious  to  be  tolerated. 
In  the  average  progressive  city  there  has  hereto- 
fore been  a  certain  increase  in  the  number  of 
houses  through  natural  growth,  but  owing  to  the 
high  cost  of  materials,  high  wages,  increasing 
taxation  and  the  inclination  to  invest  money  in 
enterprises  growing  out  of  the  war,  fewer  houses 
are  now  being  built,  although  Negroes  are  pour- 
ing into  these  centers  as  a  steady  stream.  The 
usual  Negro  quarters  in  northern  centers  of  this 
sort  have  been  filled  up  and  the  overflow  of  the 
black  population  scattered  throughout  the  city 
among  white  people.  Old  warehouses,  store 
rooms,  churches,  railroad  cars  and  tents  have 
been  used  to  meet  these  demands. 

A  large  per  cent  of  these  Negroes  are  located 
in  rooming  houses  or  tenements  for  several 
families.  The  majority  of  them  cannot  find  in- 
dividual rooms.  Many  are  crowded  into  the 
same  room,  therefore,  and  too  many  into  the 
same  bed.  Sometimes  as  many  as  four  and  five 
sleep  in  one  bed,  and  that  may  be  placed  in  the 
basement,  dining-room  or  kitchen  where  there 
is  neither  adequate  light  nor  air.  In  some  cases 
men  who  work  during  the  night  sleep  by  day  in 
beds  used  by  others  during  the  night.  Some  of 
their  houses  have  no  water  inside  and  have  toilets 
on  the  outside  without  sewerage  connections. 
The  cooking  is  often  done  by  coal  or  wood 
stoves  or  kerosene  lamps.    Yet  the  rent  runs 


188     A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

high  although  the  houses  are  generally  out  of 
repair  and  in  some  cases  have  been  condemned 
by  the  municipality.  The  unsanitary  conditions 
in  which  many  of  the  blacks  are  compelled  to 
live  are  in  violation  of  municipal  ordinances. 

Furthermore,  because  of  the  indiscriminate 
employment  by  labor  agents  and  the  dearth  of 
labor  requiring  the  acceptance  of  almost  all 
sorts  of  men,  some  disorderly  and  worthless  Ne- 
groes have  been  brought  into  the  North.  On 
the  whole,  however,  these  migrants  are  not  lazy, 
shiftless  and  desperate  as  some  predicted  that 
they  would  be.  They  generally  attend  church, 
save  their  money  and  send  a  part  of  their  sav- 
ings regularly  to  their  families.  They  do  not 
belong  to  the  class  going  North  in  quest  of 
whiskey.  Mr.  Abraham  Epstein,  who  has  written 
a  valuable  pamphlet  setting  forth  his  researches 
in  Pittsburgh,  states  that  the  migrants  of  that 
city  do  not  generally  imbibe  and  most  of  those 
who  do,  take  beer  only.^  ^  q^^  ^f  f q^j.  jjundred 
and  seventy  persons  to  whom  he  propounded 
this  question,  two  hundred  and  ten  or  forty-four 
per  cent  of  them  were  total  abstainers.  Sev- 
enty per  cent  of  those  having  families  do  not 
drink  at  all. 

With  this  congestion,  however,  have  come 
serious  difficulties.  Crowded  conditions  give 
rise  to  vice,  crime  and  disease.  The  prevalence 
of  vice  has  not  been  the  rule  but  tendencies, 

12  Epstein,  The  Negro  Migrant  in  Pittsburgh. 


Exodus  during  the  World  War     189 

whicla  better  conditions  in  tlie  Soutli  restrained 
from  developing,  have  under  these  undesirable 
conditions  been  given  an  opportunity  to  grow. 
There  is,  therefore,  a  tendency  toward  the 
crowding  of  dives,  assembling  on  the  corners 
of  streets  and  the  commission  of  petty  offences 
which  crowd  them  into  the  police  courts.  One 
finds  also  sometimes  a  congestion  in  houses  of 
dissipation  and  the  carrying  of  concealed  weap- 
ons. Law  abiding  on  the  whole,  however,  they 
have  not  experienced  a  wave  of  crime.  The 
chief  offences  are  those  resulting  from  the 
saloons  and  denizens  of  vice,  which  are  fur- 
nished by  the  community  itself. 

Disease  has  been  one  of  their  worst  enemies, 
but  reports  on  their  health  have  been  exag- 
gerated. On  account  of  this  sudden  change  of 
the  Negroes  from  one  climate  to  another  and  the 
hardships  of  more  unrelenting  toil,  many  of 
them  have  been  unable  to  resist  pneumonia, 
bronchitis  and  tuberculosis.  Churches,  rescue 
missions  and  the  National  League  on  Urban 
Conditions  Among  Negroes  have  offered  re- 
lief in  some  of  these  cases.  The  last-named  or- 
ganization is  serving  in  large  cities  as  a  sort  of 
clearing  house  for  such  activities  and  as  means 
of  interpreting  one  race  to  the  other.  It  has 
now  eighteen  branches  in  cities  to  which  this  mi- 
gration has  been  directed.  Through  a  local 
worker  these  migrants  are  approached,  prop- 
erly placed  and  supervised  until  they  can  adjust 


190     A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

themselves  to  the  community  without  apparent 
embarrassment  to  either  race.  The  League  has 
been  able  to  handle  the  migrants  arriving  by  ex- 
tending the  work  so  as  to  know  their  movements 
beforehand. 

The  occupations  in  which  these  people  engage 
will  throw  further  light  on  their  situation. 
About  ninety  per  cent  of  them  do  unskilled 
labor.  Only  ten  per  cent  of  them  do  semi-skilled 
or  skilled  labor.  They  serve  as  common  la- 
borers, puddlers,  mold-setters,  painters,  car- 
penters, bricklayers,  cement  workers  and  ma- 
chinists. What  the  Negroes  need  then  is  that 
sort  of  freedom  which  carries  with  it  industrial 
opportunity  and  social  justice.  This  they  can- 
not attain  until  they  be  permitted  to  enter  the 
higher  pursuits  of  labor.  Two  reasons  are 
given  for  failure  to  enter  these:  first,  that  Ne- 
gro labor  is  unstable  and  inefficient;  and  sec- 
ond, that  white  men  will  protest.  Organized 
labor,  however,  has  done  nothing  to  help  the 
blacks.  Yet  it  is  a  fact  that  accustomed  to  the 
easy-going  toil  of  the  plantation,  the  blacks  have 
not  shown  the  same  efficiency  as  that  of  the 
whites.  Some  employers  report,  however,  that 
they  are  glad  to  have  them  because  they  are 
more  individualistic  and  do  not  like  to  group. 
But  it  is  not  true  that  colored  labor  cannot  be 
organized.  The  blacks  have  merely  been  neg- 
lected by  organized  labor.  Wherever  they 
have  had  the  opportunity  to  do  so,  they  have 


Exodus  during  the  World  War    191 

organized  and  stood  for  their  rights  like  men. 
The  trouble  is  that  the  trades  unions  are  gen- 
erally antagonistic  to  Negroes  although  they 
are  now  accepting  the  blacks  in  self-defense. 
The  policy  of  excluding  Negroes  from  these 
bodies  is  made  effective  by  an  evasive  pro- 
cedure, despite  the  fact  that  the  constitutions  of 
many  of  them  specifically  provide  that  there 
shall  be  no  discrimination  on  account  of  race  or 
color. 

Because  of  this  tendency  some  of  the  repre- 
sentatives of  trades  unions  have  asked  why  Ne- 
groes do  not  organize  unions  of  their  own.  This 
the  Negroes  have  generally  failed  to  do,  think- 
ing that  they  would  not  be  recognized  by  the 
American  Federation  of  Labor,  and  knowing 
too  that  what  their  union  would  have  to  contend 
with  in  the  economic  world  would  be  diametri- 
cally opposed  to  the  wishes  of  the  men  from 
whom  they  would  have  to  seek  recognition.  Or- 
ganized labor,  moreover,  is  opposed  to  the 
powerful  capitalists,  the  only  real  friends  the 
Negroes  have  in  the  North  to  furnish  them 
food  and  shelter  while  their  lives  are  often  be- 
ing sought  by  union  members.  Steps  toward 
organizing  Negi'O  labor  have  been  made  in  vari- 
ous Northern  cities  during  1917  and  1918.1^ 
The  objective  of  this  movement  for  the  present, 
however,  is  largely  that  of  employment. 

Eventually  the  Negro  migrants  will,  no  doubt, 

18  Epstein,  The  Negro  Migrant  in  Pittsburgh. 


192     A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

without  much  difficulty  establish  themselves 
among  law-abiding  and  industrious  people  of 

fthe  North  where  they  will  receive  assistance. 

I  Many  persons  now  see  in  this  shifting  of  the 
Negro  population  the  dawn  of  a  new  day,  not  in 
making  the  Negro  numerically  dominant  any- 
where to  obtain  political  power,  but  to  secure 
for  him  freedom  of  movement  from  section  to 
section  as  a  competitor  in  the  industrial  world. 
They  also  observe  that  while  there  may  be  an  in- 
crease of  race  prejudice  in  the  North  the  same 
will  in  that  proportion  decrease  in  the  South, 
thus  balancing  the  equation  while  giving  the 
Negro  his  best  chance  in  the  economic  world 
out  of  which  he  must  emerge  a  real  man  with 
power  to  secure  his  rights  as  an  American 
citizen. 


BIBLIOaRAPHY 

As  the  public  has  not  as  yet  paid  very  much  attention  to 
Negro  History,  and  has  not  seen  a  volume  dealing  primarily 
with  the  migration  of  the  race  in  America,  one  could  hardly 
expect  that  there  has  been  compiled  a  bibliography  in  this 
special  field.  "With  the  exception  of  what  appears  in  Still's 
and  Siebert's  works  on  the  Underground  Eailroad  and  the 
records  of  the  meetings  of  the  Quakers  promoting  this  move- 
ment, there  is  little  helpful  material  to  be  found  in  single 
volumes  bearing  on  the  antebellum  period.  Since  the  Civil 
War,  however,  more  has  been  said  and  written  concerning  the 
movements  of  the  Negro  population.  E.  H.  Botume's  First 
Days  Among  the  Contrabands  and  John  Eaton's  Grant,  Lincoln 
and  the  Freedmen  cover  very  well  the  period  of  rebellion.  This 
is  supplemented  by  J.  C.  Knowlton's  Contrabands  in  the  "Uni- 
versity Quarterly,  Volume  XXI,  page  307,  and  by  Edward  L. 
Pierce's  The  Freedmen  at  Fort  Royal  in  the  Atlantic  Monthly, 
Volume  XII,  page  291.  The  exodus  of  1879  is  treated  by  J. 
B.  Runnion  in  the  Atlantic  Monthly,  Volume  XLIV,  page  222; 
by  Frederick  Douglass  and  Eichard  T.  Greener  in  the  American 
Journal  of  Social  Science,  Volume  XI,  page  1;  by  F.  E,  Guern- 
sey in  the  International  Eeview,  Volume  VII,  page  373;  by  E. 
L.  Godkin  in  the  Nation,  Volume  XXVIII,  pages  242  and  386 ; 
and  by  J.  C.  Hartzell  in  the  Methodist  Quarterly,  Volume 
XXXIX,  page  722.  The  second  volume  of  George  W.  Wil- 
liams's History  of  the  Negro  Bace  also  contains  a  short  chapter 
on  the  exodus  of  1879.  In  Volume  XVIII,  page  370,  of  Public 
Opinion  there  is  a  discussion  of  Negro  Emigration  and  Depor- 
tation as  advocated  by  Bishop  H.  M.  Turner  and  Senator  Mor- 
gan of  Alabama  during  the  nineties.  Professor  William  O,  ,ij 
Scroggs  of  Louisiana  University  has  in  the  Journal  of  Political  jj 
Economy,  Volume  XXV,  page  1034,  an  article  entitled  Inter-I 
state  Migration  of  Negro  Population.  Mr.  Epstein  has  pub- 
lished a  helpful  pamphlet,  The  Negro  Migrant  in  Pittsburgh. 

193 


194     A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

Most  of  the  material  for  this  work,  however,  was  collected  from 
the  various  sources  mentioned  below. 

BOOKS   OF   TRAVEL 

Bkissot  de  Warville,  J,  p.  New  Travels  in  the  United  States 
of  America:  includi7ig  the  Commerce  of  America  with 
Europe,  particularly  with  Great  Britain  and  France.  Two 
volumes.  (London,  1794.)  Gives  general  impressions,  few 
details. 

Buckingham,  J.  S.  America,  Historical,  Statistical,  and  De- 
scriptive.    Two  volumes.     (New  York,  1841.) 

Eastern  and  Western  States  of  America.     Three  volumes. 

(London  and  Paris,  1842.)     Contains  useful  information. 

Olmsted,  Frederick  Law.  A  Journey  in  the  Seal)oard  Slave 
States,  with  Bemarks  on  their  Economy.  (New  York, 
1859.) 

A  Journey  in  the  BacTc  Country.     (London,  1860.) 

Journeys  and  Explorations  in  the  Cotton  Kingdom.  (Lon- 
don, 1861.)  Olmsted  was  a  New  York  farmer.  He  re- 
corded a  few  important  facts  about  the  Negroes  imme- 
diately before  the  Civil  "War. 

WooLMAN,  John.  Journal  of  John  Woolman,  with  an  Intro- 
duction iy  John  G.  Whittier.  (Boston,  1873.)  Woolman 
traveled  so  extensively  in  the  colonies  that  he  probably 
knew  more  about  the  Negroes  than  any  other  Quaker  of 
his  time. 

LETTEBS 

BoYCE,  Stanburt.  Letters  on  the  Emigration  of  the  Negroes 
to  Trinidad. 

Jefferson,  Thomas.  Letters  of  Thomas  Jefferson  to  Athe 
Gregoire,  M.  A.  Julien,  and  Benjamin  Banneker.  In  Jef- 
ferson's Works,  Memorial  Edition,  xii  and  xv.  He  com- 
ments on  Negroes'  talents. 

Madison,  James.  Letters  to  Frances  Wright.  In  Madison's 
Works,  vol.  iii,  p.  396.  The  emancipation  of  Negroes  is 
discussed. 

May,  Samuel  Joseph.  The  Eight  of  the  Colored  People  to 
Education.  (Brooklyn,  1883.)  A  collection  of  public  let- 
ters addressed  to  Andrew  T.  Judson,  remonstrating  on  the 
unjust  procedure  relative  to  Miss  Prudence  CrandaU. 


Bihliograpliy  195 

McDoNOGH,  John.  "A  Letter  of  John  McDonogh  on  African 
Colonization  addressed  to  the  Editor  of  the  New  Orleans 
Commercial  Bulletin."  McDonogh  was  interested  in  the 
betterment  of  the  colored  people  and  did  much  to  promote 
their  mental  development. 

BIOGEAPHIES 

BiRNEY,  William.  James  G.  Birney  and  His  Times.  (New 
York,  1890.)     A  sketch  of  an  advocate  of  Negro  uplift, 

BowEN,  Clarence  W.  Arthur  and  Lewis  Tappan.  A  paper 
read  at  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  the  New  York  Anti- 
Slavery  Society,  at  the  Broadway  Tabernacle,  New  York 
City,  October  2,  1883.  An  honorable  mention  of  two 
friends  of  the  Negro, 

Drew,  Benjamin.  A  North-side  View  of  Slavery.  The  Befu- 
gee:  or  the  Narratives  of  Fugitive  Slaves  in  Canada.  Be- 
lated by  themselves,  with  an  Account  of  the  History  and 
Condition  of  the  Colored  Population  of  Upper  Canada. 
(New  York  and  Boston,  1856.) 

Frothingham,  O.  B.  Gerritt  Smith:  A  Biography.  (New 
York,  1878.) 

Garrison,  Francis  and  Wendell  P.  William  Lloyd  Garrison, 
1806-1879.  The  Story  of  his  Life  told  by  his  Children. 
Four  volumes.  (Boston  and  New  York,  1894.)  Includes 
a  brief  account  of  what  he  did  for  the  colored  people. 

Hammond,  C.  A.  Gerritt  Smith,  The  Story  of  a  Noble  Man's 
Life.     (Geneva,  1900.) 

Johnson,  Oliver.  William  Lloyd  Garrison  and  Ms  Times. 
(Boston,  1880.  New  edition,  revised  and  enlarged,  Bos- 
ton, 1881.) 

MoTT,  A.  Biographical  Sketches  and  Interesting  Anecdotes 
of  Persons  of  Color;  with  a  Selection  of  Pieces  of  Poetry. 
(New  York,  1826.)  Some  of  these  sketches  show  how 
ambitious  Negroes  succeeded  in  spite  of  opposition. 

Simmons,  W,  J,  Men  of  Mark;  Eminent,  Progressive,  and 
Bising,  with  an  Introductory  Sketch  of  the  Author  by 
Beverend  Henry  M.  Turner.  (Cleveland,  Ohio,  1891,)  Ac- 
counts for  the  adverse  circumstances  under  which  many 
antebellum  Negroes  made  progress. 
14 


I 


196     A  Century  of  Neqro  Migration 

AUTOBIOGEAPHIEiS 

Coffin,  Levi.  Reminiscences  of  Levi  Coffin,  reputed  President 
of  the  Underground  Bailroad.  Second  edition.  (Cin- 
cinnati, 1880.)     Contains  many  facts  concerning  Negroes. 

Douglass,  Frederick.  Narrative  of  the  Life  of  Frederick 
Douglass,  as  an  American  Slave.  "Written  by  himself. 
(Boston,  1845.)  Gives  several  cases  of  secret  Negro 
movements  for  their  own  good. 

The  Life  and  Times  of  FredericTc  Douglass  from  1817  to 

1882.  (London,  1882.)  Written  by  himself.  With  an 
Introduction  by  the  Right  Honorable  John  Bright,  M.P. 
Edited  by  John  Loeb,  F.R.G.S.,  of  the  Christian  Age. 
Editor  of  Uncle  Tom's  Story  of  his  Life. 

HISTORIES 

Bancroft,  George.  History  of  the  United  States.  Ten 
volumes.     (Boston,  1857-1864.) 

Brackett,  Jeffrey  R.  The  Negro  in  Maryland.  Johns  Hop- 
kins University  Studies.     (Baltimore,  1889.) 

COLUNS,  Lewis.  Historical  Sketches  of  Kentucky.  (Mays- 
ville,  Ky.,  and  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  1847.) 

Dunn,  J.  P.  Indiana;  A  redemption  from  Slavery.  (In  the 
American  Commonwealths,  vols.  XII,  Boston  and  New 
York,  1888.) 

Evans,  W.  E.  A  History  of  Scioto  County  together  with  a 
Pioneer  Record  of  Southern  Ohio.     (Portsmouth,  1903.) 

Farmer,  Silas.  The  History  of  Detroit  and  Michigan  or  the 
Metropolis  Illustrated.  A  chronological  encyclopedia  of 
the  past  and  the  present  including  a  full  record  of  terri- 
torial days  in  Michigan  and  the  annals  of  Wayne  County. 
Two  volumes.     (Detroit,  1899.) 

Harris,  N.  D.  The  History  of  Negro  Servitude  in  Illinois  and 
of  the  Slavery  Agitation  in  that  State,  1719-1864.  (Chi- 
cago, 1904.) 

Hart,  A.  B.  The  American  Nation  ;  A  History,  etc.  Twenty- 
seven  volumes.  (New  York,  1904-1908.)  The  volumes 
which  have  a  bearing  on  the  subject  treated  in  this  mono- 
graph are  W.  A.  Dunning 's  Reconstruction,  F.  J.  Turner's 
Evie  of  the  New  West,  and  A.  B.  Hart's  Slavery  and  Aboli- 
tion. 


BibliograpJiy  197 

Hinsdale,  B,  A,  The  Old  Northwest;  with  a  view  of  the  thir- 
teen colonies  as  constituted  hy  the  royal  charters.  (New 
York,  1888.) 

Howe,  Henry.  Historical  Collections  of  Ohio.  Contains  a 
collection  of  the  most  interesting  facts,  traditions,  bio- 
graphical sketches,  anecdotes,  etc.,  relating  to  its  general 
and  local  history  with  descriptions  of  its  counties,  prin- 
cipal towns  and  villages.      (Cincinnati,  1847.) 

Jones,  Chakles  Colcock,  Jr.  History  of  Georgia.  (Boston, 
1883.) 

MoMaster,  John  B.  History  of  the  United  States.  Six 
volumes.     (New  York,  1900.) 

Ehodes,  J.  F.  History  of  the  United  States  from  the  Com- 
promise of  1850  to  the  Final  ^Restoration  of  Home  Bule  in 
the  South.  (New  York  and  London,  Maemillan  &  Com- 
pany, 1892-1906.) 

Steiner,  B.  C.  History  of  Slavery  in  Connecticut.  (Johns 
Hopkins  University  Studies,  1893.) 

Stuve,  Bernard,  and  Alexander  Davidson.  A  Complete  His- 
tory of  Illinois  from  1673  to  1783.      (Springfield,  1874.) 

Tremain,  Mary  M.  A,  Slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia. 
(University  of  Nebraska  Seminary  Papers,  April,  1892.) 

History  of  Brown  County,  Ohio.     (Chicago,  1883.) 

ADDRESSES 

Garrison,  William:  Lloyd.  An  Address  Delivered  before  the 
Free  People  of  Color  in  Philadelphia,  New  YorJc  and  other 
Cities  during  the  Month  of  June,  1831.     (Boston,  1831.) 

Griffin,  Edward  Dorr.  A  Plea  for  Africa.  (New  York, 
1.817.)  A  Sermon  preached  October  26,  1817,  in  the  First 
Presbyterian  Church  in  the  City  of  New  York  before  the 
Synod  of  New  York  and  New  Jersey  at  the  Request  of  the 
Board  of  Directors  of  the  African  School  established  by 
the  Synod.     The  aim  was  to  arouse  interest  in  colonization. 

REPORTS  AND  STATISTICS 

Special  Report  of  the  Commissioner  of  Education  on  the  Im- 
provement of  Public  Schools  in  the  District  of  Columbia, 
containing  M.  B.  Goodwin's  "History  of  Schools  for  the 


198     A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

Colored  Population  in  tlie  District  of  Columbia. ' '     (Wash- 
ington, 1871.) 
Beport  of  the  Committee  of  Representatives  of  the  New  Yorh 
Yearly  Meeting  of  Friends  upon  the  condition  and  wants 
of  the  Colored  Eefugees,  1862. 
U-'<^LABKE,  J.  F.    Present  Condition  of  the  Free  Colored  People 
of  the  United  States.     (New  York  and  Boston,  the  Ameri- 
can  Antislavery    Society,    1859.)      Published    also   in    the 
March  number  of  the  Christian  Examiner. 
Condition  of  the  Free  People  of  Color  in  Ohio.     With  interest- 
ing anecdotes.     (Boston,  1839.) 
Institute  for  Colored  Youth.     (Philadelphia,  1860-1865.)     Con- 
tains a  list  of  the  officers  and  students, 
{/    Jones,   Thomas   Jesse.    Negro  Education:   A   study   of  the 
private  and  higher  schools  for  colored  people  in  the  United 
States.    Prepared   in   cooperation   loith   the  Phelps-Stokes 
Fund.     In  two  volumes.     (Bureau  of  Education,  Washing- 
ton, 1917.) 
Official  Becords  of  the  War  of  Rebellion. 
Beport  of  the  Condition  of  the  Colored  People  of  Cincinnati, 

1835.     (Cincinnati,  1835.) 
Beport  of  a  Committee  of  the  Pennsylvania  Society  of  Aboli- 
tion on  Present  Condition  of  the  Colored  People,  etc.,  1838. 
(Philadelphia,  1838.) 
Statistical  Inquiry  into  the  Condition  of  the  People  of  Color  of 
the    City    and    Districts    of   Philadelphia.     (Philadelphia, 
1849.) 
Statistics  of  the  Colored  People  of  Philadelphia  in  1859,  com- 
piled by  Benj.  C.  Bacon.     (Philadelphia,   1859.) 
Statistical  Abstract  of  the  United  States,  1898.     Prepared  by 
the  Bureau  of  Statistics.     (Washington,  D.  C,  1899.) 
I^^tatistical   View   of  the  Population  of  the   United  States,  A 
1790-1830.     (Published  by   the   Department    of   State   in 
1835.) 
Trades  of  the  Colored  People.     (Philadelphia,  1838.) 
United  States  Censuses. 

A  Brief  Statement  of  the  Bise  and  Progress  of  the  Testimony 
of  Friends  against  Slavery  and  the  Slave  Trade.  Published 
by  direction  of  the  Yearly  Meeting  held  in  Philadelphia  in 
the  Fourth  Month,  1843.  Shows  the  action  taken  by 
various  Friends  to  elevate  the  Negroes. 


Bibliography 


199 


A  Collection  of  the  Acts,  Deliverances  and  Testimonies  of  the 
Supreme  Judicatory  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  from  its 
Origin  in  America  to  the  Present  Time.  By  Samuel  J. 
Baird.     (Philadelphia,  1856.) 

American  Convention  op  Abolition  Societies.  Minutes  of 
the  Proceedings  of  a  Convention  of  Delegates  from,  the 
Abolition  Societies  established  in  different  Parts  of  the 
United  States.     From  1794-1828. 

The  Annual  Eeports  of  the  American  and  Foreign  Anti-Slavery 
Societies,  presented  at  New  York,  May  6,  1847,  with  the 
Addresses  and  Hesolutions.     From  1847-1851. 

The  Annual  Eeports  of  the  American  Anti-Slavery  Society. 
From  1834  to  1860. 

The  Third  Annual  Report  of  the  Managers  of  the  New  England 
Anti-Slavery  Society  presented  June  2,  1835.  (Boston, 
1835.) 

Annual  Eeports  of  the  Massachusetts  {or  New  England)  Anti- 
Slavery  Society,  1831-end. 

Eeports  of  the  National  Anti-Slavery  Convention,  1833-end. 

Eeports  of  the  American  Colonization  Society,  1818-1832. 

Eeport  of  the  New  York  Colonization  Society,  October  1,  1823. 
(New  York,  1823.) 

The  Seventh  Annual  Eeport  of  the  Colonization  Society  of  the 
City  of  New  York.     (New  York,  1839.) 

Proceedings  of  the  New  York  State  Colonisation  Society,  1831. 
(Albany,  1831.) 

The  Eighteenth  Annual  Eeport  of  the  Colonization  Society  of 
the  State  of  New  York.     (New  York,  1850.) 

Minutes  and  Proceedings  of  the  First  Annual  Convention  of 
the  People  of  Color.  Held  by  Adjournment  in  the  City  of 
Philadelphia,  from  the  sixth  to  the  eleventh  of  June,  in- 
clusive, 1831.     (Philadelphia,  1831.) 

Minutes  and  Proceedings  of  the  Second  Annual  Convention  for 
the  Improvement  of  the  Free  People  of  Color  in  these 
United  States.  Held  by  Adjournments  in  the  City  of 
Philadelphia,  from  the  4th  to  the  13th  of  June,  inclusive, 
1832.     (Philadelphia,  1832.) 

Minutes  and  Proceedings  of  the  Third  Annual  Convention  for 
the  Improvement  of  the  Free  People  of  Color  in  these 
United   States.    Held   by   Adjournments   in   the   City   of 


200     A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

PJiiladelpUa,  in  1833.  (New  York,  1833.)  These  pro- 
ceedings were  published  also  in  the  New  Yoric  Commercial 
Advertiser,  April  27,  1833. 

Minutes  and  Proceedings  of  the  Fourth  Annual  Convention  for 
the  Improvement  of  the  Free  People  of  Color  in  the 
United  States.  Held  hy  Adjournments  in  the  Ashury 
Church,  New  York,  from  the  2d  to  the  12th,  of  June,  1834. 
(New  York,  1834.) 

Proceedings  of  the  Convention  of  the  Colored  Freedmen  of 
Ohio  at  Cincinnati,  January  14,  1852.  (Cincinnati,  Ohio, 
1852.) 

MISCELLANEOUS  BOOKS  AND  PAIVIPHLETS 

Adams,  Alice  Dana.  The  Neglected  Period  of  Anti-Slavery 
in  America.  Eadcliffe  College  Monographs  No.  14.  (Bos- 
ton and  London,  1908.)  Contains  some  valuable  facts 
about  the  Negroes  during  the  first  three  decades  of  the 
nineteenth  century. 

Agricola  (pseudonym).  An  Impartial  View  of  the  Beal  State 
of  the  Blaclc  Population  in  the  United  States.  (Philadel- 
phia, 1824.) 

Alexander,  A.  A  History  of  Colonization  on  the  Western 
Continent  of  Africa.     (Philadelphia,  1846.) 

Ames,  Mary.  From  a  New  England  Woman's  Diary  in  1865. 
(Springfield,  1906.) 

An  Address  to  the  People  of  North  Carolina  on  the  Evils  of 
Slavery,  iy  the  Friends  of  Liberty  and  Equality,  1830. 
(Greensborough,  1830.) 

An  Address  to  the  Presbyterians  of  Kentucl:y  proposing  a  Plan 
for  the  Instruction  and  Emancipation  of  their  Slaves  by 
a  Committee  of  the  Synod  of  Kentucly.  (Newburyport, 
1836.) 

Baldwin,  Ebenezer.  Observations  on  the  Physical  and  Moral 
Qualities  of  our  Colored  Population  with  Eemarlcs  on  the 
Subject  of  Emancipation  and  Colonisation.  (New  Haven, 
1834.) 

Bassett,  J.  iS.  Slavery  and  Servitude  in  the  Colony  of  North 
Carolina.  (Johns  Hopkins  University  Studies  in  Historical 
and  Political  Science.  Fourteenth  Series,  iv-v.  Balti- 
more, 1896.) 


Bibliography  201 

Slavery  in  the  State  of  North  Carolina.     (Jolins  Hopkins 

University  Studies  in  Historical  and  Political  Science. 
Series  XVII.,  Nos.  7-8.     Baltimore,  1899.) 

Anti-Slavery  Leaders  of  North  Carolina.  (Johns  Hop- 
kins University  Studies  in  Historical  and  Political  Science. 
iSeries  XVI.,  No.  6.     Baltimore,  1898.) 

Benezet,  Anthony.  A  Caution  to  Great  Britain  and  Her 
Colonies  in  a  Short  Bepresentation  of  the  calamitous  State 
of  the  enslaved  Negro  in  the  British  Dominions.  (Phila- 
delphia, 1784.) 

The  Case  of  our  Fellow -Creatures,  the  oppressed  Africans, 

respectfully  recommended  to  the  serious  Consideration  of 
the  Legislature  of  Great  Britan,  hy  the  People  called 
Qualcers.     (London,  1783.) 

Observations  on  the  enslaving,  Importing  and  PurcJiasing 

of  Negroes;  with  some  Advice  thereon,  extracted  from  the 
Epistle  of  the  Yearly-Meeting  of  the  People  called  Qualcers, 
held  at  London  in  the  Year  1748.     (Germantown,  1760.) 

The  Potent  Enemies  of  America-,  laid  open:  being  some 

Account  of  the  baneful  Effects  attending  the  Use  of  dis- 
tilled spirituous  Liquors,  and  the  Slavery  of  the  Negroes. 
(Philadelphia.) 

A  Short  Account  of  that  Part  of  Africa,  inhabited  by  the 

Negroes.  With  respect  to  the  Fertility  of  the  Country; 
the  good  Disposition  of  many  of  the  Natives,  and  the 
Manner  by  which  the  Slave  Trade  is  carried  on.  (Phila- 
delphia, 1792.) 

Short  Observations  on  Slavery,  introductory  to  Some  Ex- 
tracts from  the  Writings  of  the  Abbe  Baynal,  on  the  Im- 
portant Subject. 

Some  Historical  Account  of  Guinea,  its  Situation,  Pro- 
duce, and  the  General  Disposition  of  its  Inhabitants.  With 
an  Inquiry  into  the  Rise  and  Progress  of  the  Slave  Trade, 
its  Nature  and  Lamentable  Effects.     (London,  1788.) 

BiENEY,  James  G.  The  American  Churches,  the  BulioarTcs  of 
American  Slavery,  by  an  American.     (Newburyport,  1842.) 

Bibney,  William.  James  G.  Birney  and  his  Times.  The 
Genesis  of  the  Bepublican  Party,  ivith  Some  Account  of 
the  Abolition  Movements  in  the  South  before  1828.  (New 
York,  1890.) 


202     A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

Brackett,  Jeffery  E.  The  Negro  in  Maryland.  A  Study  of 
the  Institution  of  Slavery.  (Baltimore,  Johns  Hopkins 
University,  1889.) 

Brannagan,  Thomas.  A  Preliminary  Essay  on  the  Oppres- 
sion of  the  Exiled  Sons  of  Africa,  Consisting  of  Animad- 
versions on  the  Im,policy  and  Barbarity  of  the  Deleterious 
Commerce  and  Subsequent  Slavery  of  the  Human  Species. 
(Philadelphia:  Printed  for  the  Author  by  John  W.  Seott, 
1804.) 

Brannagan,  T.  Serious  'Remonstrances  Addressed  to  the  Citi- 
zens of  the  Northern  States  and  their  Representatives, 
being  an  Appeal  to  their  Natural  Feelings  and  Common 
Sense;  Consisting  of  Speculations  and  Animadversions,  on 
the  Recent  Revival  of  the  Slave  Trade  in  the  American 
Republic.     (Philadelphia,  1805.) 

Campbell,  J.  V.  Political  History  of  Michigan.  (Detroit, 
1876.) 

Code  Noir  ou  Recueil  d' edits,  declarations  et  arrets  concemant 
la  Discipline  et  le  commerce  des  esclaves  Negres  des  isles 
franeaises  de  I'Amerique  {in  Recueils  de  reglemens,  edits, 
declarations  et  arrets,  concemant  le  commerce,  I' adminis- 
tration de  la  justice  et  la  police  des  colonies  frangaises  de 
I'Amerique,  et  les  engages  avec  le  Code  Noir,  et  I'addition 
audit  code.     (Paris,  1745.) 

Coffin,  Joshua.  An  Account  of  Some  of  the  principal  Slave 
Insurrections  and  others  which  have  occurred  or  been 
attempted  in  the  United  States  and  elseivhere  during  the 
last  two  Centuries.  With  various  Remarks.  Collected  from 
various  Sources.     (New  York,  I816O.) 

Columbia  University  Studies  in  History,  Economics  and  Public 
Law.  Edited  by  the  faculty  of  political  science.  The 
useful  volumes  of  this  series  for  this  field  are: 

W.  L.  Fleming's  Civil  War  and  Reconstruction  in  Ala- 
bama, 1906. 

W.  W.   Davis's  The  Civil   War   and  Reconstruction  in 
Florida,  1913. 

Clara   Mildred   Thompson's   Reconstruction  in   Georgia, 
Economic,  Social,  Political,  1915. 

J.  G.  de  E.  Hamilton's  Reconstruction  in  North  Caro- 
lina, 1914. 


Bibliography  203 

C.  W.  Ramsdell.     Reconstruction  in  Texas,  1910. 

Connecticut,  PuMic  Acts  passed  hy  the  General  Assembly  of. 

Cromwell,  J.  W.  The  Negro  in  American  History:  Men  and 
Women  Eminent  in  the  Evolution  of  the  American  of 
African  Descent.     (Washington,  1914.) 

Davidson,  A.,  and  Stowe,  B.  A  Complete  History  of  Illinois 
from  1673  to  1873.  (Springfield,  1874.)  It  embraces  the 
physical  features  of  the  country,  its  early  explorations, 
aboriginal  inhabitants,  the  French  and  British,  occupation, 
the  conquest  of  Virginia,  territorial  condition  and  subse- 
quent events. 

Delany,  M.  E.  The  Condition,  Elevation,  Emigration  and 
""^  Destiny  of  the  Colored  People  of  the  United  States:  polit- 
ically considered.     (Philadelphia,  1852.) 

DuBois,  W.  E.  B.  The  Philadelphia  Negro:  A  Social  Study. 
Together  with  a  special  report  on  domestic  service  by 
Isabel  Eaton.     (Philadelphia,  1899.) 

Atlanta    University    Publications,      The   Negro    Common 

School.     (Atlanta,  1901.) 

The  Negro  Church.     (Atlanta,  1903.) 

and    Dill,    A.    G.     The    College-Bred   Negro    American. 

(Atlanta,  1910.) 

•  The  Negro  American  Artisan.     (Atlanta,  1912.) 

De  Toqueville,  Alexis  Charles  Henri  Maurice  Clerel  de. 
Democracy  in  America.  Translated  by  Henry  Reeve. 
Four  volumes.      (London,  1835,  1840.) 

Eaton,  John.  Grant,  Lincoln  and  the  Freedmen:  reminis- 
cences of  the  Civil  War  with  special  reference  to  the  worlc 
for  the  Contrabands,  and  the  Freedmen  of  the  Mississippi 
Valley.     (New  York,  1907.) 

Epstein.  The  Negro  Migrant  in  Pittsburgh.  (Pittsburgh, 
1917.) 

Exposition  of  the  Object  and  Plan  of  the  American  Union  for 
the  Relief  and  Improvement  of  the  Colored  Race.  (Bos- 
ton, 1835.) 

Fee,  John  G.     Anti-Slavery  Manual.     (Maysville,  1848.) 

Fertig,  James  Walter.  The  Secession  and  Reconstruction  of 
Tennessee.     (Chicago,  1898.) 

Frost,  W.  G.  "Appalachian  America."  (In  vol.  i  of  The 
Americana.)     (New  York,  1912.) 


204     A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

Gaenett,  H.  H.  The  Past  and  Fresent  Condition  and  the  Des- 
tiny of  the  Colored  Bace.     (Troy,  1848.) 

Greelt,  Horace.  The  American  Conflict.  A  history  of  the 
great  rebellion  in  the  United  States  of  America,  1860-64, 
its  causes,  incidents  and  results:  intended  to  exhibit  espe- 
cially its  moral  and  political  phases,  with  the  drift  of 
progress  of  American  opinion  respecting  human  slavery 
from  1776  to  the  close  of  the  war  for  its  union.  (Chicago, 
1864.) 

Hammond,  M.  B.  The  Cotton  Industry:  an  Essay  in  American 
Economic  History.  It  deals  with  the  cotton  cultuie  and 
the  cotton  Trade.     (New  York,  1897.) 

Hart,  A.  B.     The  Southern  South.     (New  York,  1906.) 

Henson,    Josiah,     The    Life    of    Josiah    Benson.     (Boston, 
y      1849.) 

•yHERSHAW,  L.  M.  Peonage  in  the  United  States.  This  is  one 
of  the  American  Negro  Academy  Papers.  (Washington, 
1912.) 

HiCKOK,  Charles  Thomas.  The  Negro  in  Ohio,  1802-1870. 
(Cleveland,  1896.) 

HoDGKiN,  Thomas  A.  Inquiry  into  the  Merits  of  the  American 
Colonization  Society  and  Beply  to  the  Charges  brought 
against  it  with  an  Account  of  the  British  African  Coloniza- 
tion Society.     (London,  1833.) 

Howe,  Samuel  G.  The  Befugees  from  Slavery  in  Canada 
West.  Beport  to  the  Freedmen's  Inquiry  Committee. 
(Boston,  1864.) 

HuTCHiNS,  Thomas.  An  Historical  Narrative  and  Topograph- 
ical Description  of  Louisiana  and  West  Florida,  compre- 
hending the  river  Mississippi  with  its  principal  Branches 
and  Settlements  and  the  Bivers  Pearl  and  Pescagoula. 
(Philadelphia,  1784.) 

Illinois,  Laws  of,  passed  by  the  General  Assembly  of. 

Indiana,  Laws  passed  by  the  State  of. 

Jay,  John.  The  Correspondence  and  Public  Papers  of  John 
Jay.  First  Chief  Justice  of  the  United  States  and  Presi- 
dent of  the  Continental  Congress,  Member  of  the  Com- 
mission to  negotiate  the  Treaty  of  Independence,  Envoy 
to  Great  Britain,  Governor  of  New  YorTc,  etc.,  1783-1793. 
(New   York   and   London,    1891.)     Edited   by    Henry   P. 


Bihliograpliy  205 


Johnson,  Professor  of  History  in  the  College  of  the  City 
of  New  York. 

Jay,  William.  An  Inquiry  into  the  Character  and  Tendencies 
of  the  American  Colonization  and  American  Anti-Slavery 
Societies.     Second  edition.     (New  York,  1835.) 

Jefferson,  Thomas.  The  Writings  of  Thomas  Jefferson,  Me- 
morial Edition.  Autobiography,  Notes  on  Virginia,  Par- 
liamentary Mannual,  Official  Papers,  Messages  and  Ad- 
dresses, and  other  writings  Official  and  Private,  etc. 
(Washington,  1903.) 

Johns  HopMns  University  Studies  in  Historical  and  Political 
Science.  H.  B.  Adams,  Editor.  (Baltimore,  Johns  Hop- 
kins Press.)  Among  the  useful  volumes  of  this  series  are: 
J.  R.  Ficklen's  History  of  "Reconstruction  in  Louisiana, 
1910. 

H.   J.    Eckenrode's   The  Political  History  of   Virginia 
during  Eeconstruction,  1904. 

Langston,  John  M.  From  the  Virginia  Plantation  to  the 
National  Capital;  or.  The  First  and  Only  Negro  Repre- 
sentative in  Congress  from  The  Old  Dominion.  (Hart- 
ford, 1894.) 

Locke,  M.  S.  Anti-Slavery  in  America  from  the  Introduction 
of  African  Slaves  to  the  Prohibition  of  the  Slave  Trade, 
1619-1808.  Kadcliffe  College  Monographs,  No.  ii.  (Bos- 
ton, 1901.)     A  valuable  work. 

Lynch,  John  E.  The  Facts  of  Reconstruction.  (New  York, 
1913.) 

Madison,  James.  Letters  and  Other  Writings  of  James  Madi- 
son Published  by  Order  of  Congress.  Four  volumes. 
(Philadelphia,  1865.) 

May,  S.  J.     Some  Recollections  of  our  Anti-Slavery  Conflict. 

Monroe,  James.  The  Writings  of  James  Monroe,  including 
a  Collection  of  his  public  and  private  Papers  and  Corre- 
spondence now  for  the  first  time  printed.  Edited  by  S. 
M.  Hamilton.     (Boston,  1900.) 

Moore,  George  H.  Notes  on  the  History  of  Slavery  in  Massa- 
chusetts.    (New  York,  1866.) 

Needles,  Edward.  Ten  Years'  Progress  or  a  Comparison  of 
the  State  and  Condition  of  the  Colored  People  in  the  City 
of  and  County  of  Philadelphia  from  1837  to  1847.  (Phil- 
adelphia, 1849.) 


206     A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

New  Jersey,  Acts  of  the  General  Assembly  of. 

Ohio,  Laws  of  the  General  Assembly  of. 

OviNGTON,  M.  W.  Half-a-Man.  (New  York,  1911.)  Treats 
of  the  Negro  in  the  State  of  New  York.  A  few  pages  are 
devoted  to  the  progress  of  the  colored  people. 

Paerish,  John.  Bemarks  on  the  Slavery  of  the  Black  People; 
Addressed  to  the  Citizeris  of  the  United  States,  particu- 
larly to  those  who  are  in  legislative  or  executive  Stations, 
particularly  in  the  General  or  State  Governments ;  and  also 
to  such  Individuals  as  hold  them  in  Bondage.  (Phila- 
delphia, 1806.) 

Pearson,  E.  W.  Letters  from  Port  Boyal,  written  at  the  Time 
of  the  Civil  War.     (Boston,  1916.) 

Pearson,  C.  C.  The  Eeadjuster  Movement  in  Virginia.  (New 
Haven,  1917.) 

Pennsylvania,  Laws  of  the  General  Assembly  of  the  State  of. 

Pierce,  E.  L.  The  Freedmen  of  Port  Boyal,  South  Carolina, 
Official  Beports.     (New  York,  1863.) 

Pike,  James  S.  The  Prostrate  State:  South  Carolina  under 
Negro  Government,     (New  York,  1874.) 

Pittman,  Philip.  The  Present  State  of  European  Settlements 
on  the  Mississippi  with  a  geographic  description  of  that 
river.     (London,  1770.) 

QuiLLEN,  Frank  U.  The  Color  Line  in  Ohio.  A  History  of 
Ea«e  Prejudice  in  a  typical  northern  State.  (Ann  Arbor, 
Mich.,  1913.) 

EeynoIxDS,  J.  S.  Beconstruction  in  South  Carolina.  (Colum- 
bia, 1905.) 

Bhode  Island,  Acts  and  Besolves  of, 

KiCE,  David.  Slavery  inconsistent  with  Justice  and  Good 
Policy:  proved  by  a  Speech  delivered  in  the  Convention 
held  at  Danville,  Kentucky.  (Philadelphia,  1792,  and 
London,  1793.) 

Scherer,  J.  A.  B.  Cotton  as  a  World  Power.  (New  York, 
1916.)  This  is  a  study  in  the  economic  interpretation  of 
History.  The  contents  of  this  book  are  a  revision  of  a 
series  of  lectures  at  Oxford  and  Cambridge  universities  in 
the  Spring  of  1914  with  the  caption  on  Economic  Causes 
in  the  American  CivU  War. 

Siebert,  Wilbur  H.     The  Underground  Bailroad  from  Slavery 


Bibliography  207 

to  Freedom,  by  W.  H.  Siebertj  Associate  Professor  of 
History  in  the  Ohio  State  University,  with  an  Introduction 
by  A.  B.  Hart.     (New  York,  1898.) 

Stake,  Frederick.  What  shall  be  done  with  the  people  of 
color  in  the  United  States?  (Albany,  1862.)  A  discourse 
delivered  in  the  First  Presbyterian  Church  of  Penn  Yan, 
New  York,  November  2,  1862. 

Still,  Wllliam.  The  Underground  Railroad.  (Philadelphia, 
1872.)  This  is  a  record  of  facts,  authentic  narratives, 
letters  and  the  like,  giving  the  hardships,  hair-breadth 
escapes  and  death  struggles  of  the  slaves  in  their  efforts 
for  freedom  as  related  by  themselves  and  others  or  wit- 
nessed by  the  author. 

The  Jesuit  Relations  and  Allied  Documents,  Travels  and  Ex- 
plorations of  the  Jesuit  Missionaries  in  New  France,  1619- 
1791.  The  Original  French,  Latin,  and  Italian  Texts  with 
English  Translations  and  Notes  illustrated  by  Portraits, 
Maps,  and  Facsimiles.  Edited  by  Eeuben  Gold  Thwaites, 
Secretary  of  the  State  Historical  Society  of  Wisconsin. 
(Cleveland,  1896.) 

Thompson,  George.  Speech  at  the  Meeting  for  the  Extension 
of  Negro  Apprenticeship.     (London,  1838.) 

The  Free  Church  Alliance  with  Manstealers.     Send  bade 

the  Money.  Great  Anti- Slavery  Meeting  in  the  City  Rail, 
Glasgow,  containing  the  Speeches  delivered  by  Messrs. 
Wright,  Douglass,  and  Buffum  from  America,  and  by 
George  Thompson  of  London,  with  a  Summary  Account  of 
a  Series  of  Meetings  held  in  Edinburgh  by  the  above 
named  Gentlemen.     (Glasgow,  1846.) 

ToRREY,  Jesse,  Jr.  A  Portraiture  of  Domestic  Slavery  in  the 
United  States  with  Reflections  on  the  Practicability  of  re- 
storing the  Moral  Rights  of  the  Slave,  without  impairing 
the  legal  Privileges  of  the  Possessor,  and  a  Project  of  a 
Colonial  Asylum  for  Free  Persons  of  Color,  including 
Memoirs  of  Facts  on  the  Interior  Traffic  in  Slaves  and  on 
Kidnapping,  Illustrated  with  Engravings  by  Jesse  Torrey, 
Jr.,  Physician,  Author  of  a  Series  of  Essays  on  Morals 
and  the  Diffusion  of  Knowledge.     (Philadelphia,  1817.) 

American  Internal  Slave  Trade;  with  Reflections  on  the 

project  for  forming  a  Colony  of  Blacks  in  Africa.  (Lon- 
don, 1822.) 

15 


208     A  Century  of  Negro  Migration 

'''^Turner,  E.  E.  The  Negro  in  Pennsylvania.  (Washington, 
1911.) 

Tyrannical  Liheriymen:  a  Discourse  upon  Negro  Slavery  in  the 

United  States,  composed  at  in  New  Hampshire:  on 

the  Late  Federal  Thanksgiving  Day.  (Hanover,  N.  H., 
1795.) 

Walkkr,  David.  Walker's  Appeal  in  Four  Articles,  together 
with  a  Preamble  to  the  Colored  Citizens  of  the  World,  but 
in  particular  and  very  expressly  to  those  of  the  United 
States  of  America,  Written  in  Boston,  State  of  Massa- 
chusetts, September  28,  1829.  Second  edition.  (Boston, 
1830.)  Walker  was  a  Negro  who  hoped  to  arouse  his  race 
to  self-assertion. 

Ward,  Charles.  Contrabands.  (Salem,  1866.)  This  sug- 
gests an  apprenticeship,  under  the  auspices  of  the  govern- 
ment, to  build  the  Pacific  Railroad. 

Washington,  B.  T.  The  Story  of  the  Negro.  Two  volumes. 
(New  York,  1909.) 

Washington,  George.  The  Writings  of  George  Washington, 
being  his  Correspondence,  Addresses,  Messages,  and  other 
papers,  official  and  private,  selected  and  published  from 
the  original  Manuscripts  with  the  Life  of  the  Author, 
Notes  and  Illustrations,  by  Jared  Sparks.     (Boston,  1835.) 

Weeks,  Stephen  B.  Southern  Quakers  and  Slavery.  A  Study 
in  Institutional  History.  (Baltimore,  The  Johns  Hopkins 
Press,  1896.) 

The  Anti-Slavery  Sentiment  in  the  South;  with  Unpub- 
lished Letters  from  John  Stuart  Mill  and  Mrs.  Stowe. 
(Southern  History  Association  Publications,  Volume  ii, 
No.  2,  Washington,  D.  C,  April,  1898.) 

WiiiLiAMS,  G.  W.  A  History  of  the  Negro  Troops  in  the  Wnr 
of  the  Rebellion,  1861-1865,  preceded  by  a  Peview  of  the 
military  Services  of  Negroes  in  ancient  and  modern  Times. 
(New  York,  1888.) 

History  of  the  Negro  Pace  in  the   United  States  from 

1619-1880.  Negroes  as  Slaves,  as  Soldiers,  and  as  Citi- 
zens.•  together  with  a  preliminary  Consideration  of  the 
Unity  of  the  Human  Family,  an  historical  Sketch  of 
Africa  and  an  Account  of  the  Negro  Governments  of 
Sierra  Leone  and  Liberia.     (New  York,  1883.) 


Bibliograpliy  209 

Woodson,  C.  G.  The  Education  of  the  Negro  Trior  to  1861. 
(New  York  and  London,  1915.)  This  is  a  history  of  the 
Education  of  the  Colored  People  of  the  United  States  from 
the  beginning  of  slavery  to  the  Civil  War. 

WooLMAN,  John.  The  WorTcs  of  John  Woolman.  In  two 
Parts,  Fart  I:  A  Journal  of  the  Life,  Gospel-Labors,  and 
Christian  Experiences  of  that  faithful  Minister  of  Christ, 
John  Woolman,  late  of  Mount  Molly  in  the  Province  of 
New  Jersey.     (London,  1775.) 

Same,    Part    Second.     Containing    his    last    Epistle    and 

other  Writings.     (London,  1775.) 

Soine  Considerations  on  the  Keeping  of  Negroes.  'Recom- 
mended to  the  Professors  of  Christianity  of  every  Denomi- 
nation.    (Philadelphia,  1754.) 

Considerations  on  Keeping  Negroes;  "Recommended  to  the 

Professors  of  Christianity  of  every  Denomination.     Part 
the  Second.     (Philadelphia,  1762.) 

Weight,  E.  R.,  Je.  The  Negro  in  Pennsylvania.  (Philadel- 
phia, 1912.) 

MAGAZINES 

The  African  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  Review.  The  follow- 
ing articles: 

The  Negro  as  an  Inventor.     By  R.  R.  Wright,  vol.  ii, 
p.  397. 

Negro  Poets,  vol.  iv,  p.  236. 

The  Negro  in  Journalism,  vols,  vi,  p.  309,  and  xx,  p.  137. 
p.  137. 
The  African  Repository;  Published  by  the  American  Coloniza- 
tion Society  from  1826  to  1832.  A  very  good  source  for 
Negro  history  both  in  this  country  and  Liberia.  Some  of 
its  most  valuable  articles  are: 

Learn  Trades  or  Starve,  by  Frederick  Douglass,  vol.  xxix, 
p.  137.     Taken  from  Frederick  Douglass's  Paper. 

Education  of  the  Colored  People,  by  a  highly  respectable 
gentleman  of  the  South,  vol.  xxx,  pp.  194,  195  and  196. 

Elevation  of  the  Colored  Race,  a  memorial  circulated  in 
North  Carolina,  vol.  xxxi,  pp.  117  and  118. 

A  lawyer  for  Liberia,  a  sketch  of  Garrison  Draper,  vol. 
xrxiv,  pp.  26  and  27. 


210     A  Century  of  Xegro  Migration 

The  American  Economic  Bevieic. 

The  American  Journal  of  SociaJ  Science. 

The  American  Journal  of  Poliiical  Economy. 

The  American  Laic  Beiieic. 

The  American  Journal  of  Sociology. 

The  Atlantic  Monthly. 

The  Colonizationist  and  Journal  of  Freedom.  The  author  has 
been  able  to  find  onlv  the  volume  whicb  contaiiLS  the  num- 
bers for  the  vear  1834. 

The  Christian  Examiner. 

The  Cosmopolitan. 

The  Crisis.  A  record  of  the  darker  races  published  bv  the  Na- 
tional Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Colored  People. 

Dublin  Bevieic. 

The  Forum. 

The  Independent. 

The  Journal  of  Xegro  Elstory. 

The  Maryland  Journal  of  Colcnization.  Published  as  the  offi- 
cial organ  of  the  Maryland  Colonization  Society.  Among 
its  important  articles  are:  The  Capacities  of  the  Xegro 
Eace,  voL  iii.  p.  367;  and  The  Educational  Facilities  of 
Liberia,  voL  vii,  p.  223. 

Hie  Xation, 

The  Xon-Slaveholder.  Ttvo  volumes  of  this  publication  are 
now  found  in  the  Library  of  Congress. 

The  Outlool: 

Fuilic  Opinion. 

The  Southern  irorJ:man.  Volume  xsxvii  contains  I>r.  E.  B. 
Wright's  valuable  dissertation  on  Xegro  Eural  Commu- 
nities in  India. 

The  Spectator. 

The  Survey. 

The  World's  JVorl: 

XEWSPAPEES 

District  of  Columbia. 

The  Daily  National  Intelligencer. 
Louisiana. 

The  Xew  Orleans  Commercial  Bulletin. 

The  Xew  Orleans  Times-Ficayune. 


Bihliograpliy  211 

Maryland. 

The  Maryland  Journal  and  Baltimore  Advertiser. 

The  Maryland  Gazette. 

Bunlop's  Maryland  Gazette  or  The  Baltimore  Advertiser. 
Massachusetts. 

The  Liberator. 
Mississippi. 

The  VicTcsburg  Daily  Commercial. 
New  York. 

The  New  York  Daily  Advertiser. 

The  New  YorJc  Tribune. 

The  New  YorTc  Times. 


INDEX 


Adams,  Henry,  leader  of  the 
exodus  to  Kansas,   135 

Akron,  friends  of  fugitives  in, 
30 

Alton  Telegraph,  comment  of, 
113 

Anderson,  promoter  of  settling 
of  Negroes  in  Jamaica,   79 

Anti-slavery,  leaders  of  the 
movement,  became  more 
^helpful  to  the  refugees, 
34,   35 

Anti-slavery  sentiment,  of 
two  kinds.  3 

American  Federation  of  La- 
bor, attitude  of,  toward  Ne- 
gro labor,  191 

Appalachian  highland,  settlers 
of,  aided  fugitives,  31-34; 
exodus  of  Negroes  to,  146 

Arkansas,  drain  of  laborers 
to,  120 

Ball,  J.  P.,  a  contractor,  95 

Ball,  Thomas,  a  contractor,  95 

Barclay,  interest  of,  in  the 
sending  of  Negroes  to  Ja- 
maica, 79 

Barrett,  Owen  A.,  discoverer 
of  a  remedy,  90 

Bates,  owner  of  slaves  at  St. 
Genevieve,  7 

Beauvais,  owner  of  slaves, 
Upper  Louisiana,  7 

Benezet,  Anthony,  plan  of,  to 
colonize  Negroes  in  West, 
9;  interest  of,  in  settling 
Negroes  in  the  West,  61 

Berlin  Cross  Eoads,  Negroes 
of,  24 

Bibb,  Henry,  interest  of,  in 
colonization,  79 


Birney,  James  G.j  promoter 
of  the  migration  of  the  Ne- 
groes, 35j  press  of,  de- 
stroyed by  mob  in  Cincin- 
nati, 57 

BlacTc  Friday,  riot  of,  in 
Portsmouth,  57 

Blackburn,  Thornton,  a  fugi- 
tive claimed  in  Detroit,  59- 
60 

Boll  weevil,  a  cause  of  migra- 
tion, 169 

Boston,  friends  of  fugitives 
in,  31 

Boyce,  Stanbury,  went  with 
his  father  to  Trinidad  in 
the  fifties,  7& 

Boyd,  Henry,  a  successful  me- 
chanic in  Cincinnati,  95 

Brannagan,  Thomas,  advocate 
of  colonizing  the  Negroes 
in  the  West,  10 ;  interest 
of,  in  settling  Negroes  in 
the  West,  61 

Brissot  de  Warville,  observa- 
tions of,  on  Negroes  in  the 
West,  12 

British  Guiana,  attractive  to 
free  Negroes,  68 

Brooklyn,  Ilinois,  a  Negro 
community,  30 

Brown,  John,  in  the  Appa- 
lachian  highland,   33-34 

Brown  County,  Ohio,  Negroes 
in,  25 

Buffalo,  friends  of  fugitives 
in,  30 

Butler,  General,  holds  Ne- 
groes as  contraband,  107 ; 
policy  of,  followed  by  Gen- 
eral Wood  and  General 
Banks,  102 


212 


Index 


213 


Cairo,  Illinois^  an  outlet  for 
the  refugees,  112 

Calvin  Township,  Cass  Coun- 
ty, Michigan,  a  Negro  com- 
munity, 28-29;  note  on 
progress  of,  29 

Campbell,  Sir  George,  com- 
ment on  condition  of  Ne- 
groes  in   Kansas   City,   143 

Canaan,  New  Hampshire, 
break-up  of  school  of,  ad- 
mitting Negroes,  49 

Canada,  the  migration  of  Ne- 
groes to,  35 ;  settlements  in, 
36 

Canadians,  supply  of  slaves 
of,  13;  prohibited  the  im- 
portation of  slaves,  14 

Canterbury,  people  of,  im- 
prison Prudence  Crandall 
because  she  taught  Ne- 
groes, 49 

Cardoza,  F.  L.,  return  of 
from  Edinburgh  to  South 
Carolina,  124 

Cassey,  Joseph  C,  a  lumber 
merchant,  87 

Cassey,  Joseph,  a  broker  in 
Philadelphia,  89 

Chester,  T.  Morris,  went  from 
Pittsburgh  to  settle  in 
Louisiana,  124 

Cincinnati,  friends  of  fvigi- 
tives  in,  30 ;  mobs,  56-58 ; 
successful  Negroes  of,  92- 
95 

Clark,  Edward  V.,  a  jeweler, 
88 

Clay,  Henry,  a  colonization- 
ist,  63 

Code  for  indentured  servants 
in  West,  note,  14—16 

Coffin,  Levi,  comment  on  the 
condition  of  the  refugees, 
114 

Coles,  Edward,  moved  to  Illi- 
nois to  free  his  slaves,  29; 
correspondence  with  Jeffer- 
son on  slavery,  68-80 

Colgate,    Kichard,    master    of 


James  Wenyam  who  escaped 
to  the  West,  11 

Collins,  Henry  M.,  interest  of, 
in  colonization,  79;  a  real 
estate  man  in  Pittsburgh, 
90 

Corbin,  J.  C,  return  of,  from 
Chillicothe  to  Arkansas,  125 

Colonization  proposed  as  a 
remedy  for  migration,  4; 
in  the  West,  4,  10;  organ- 
ization of  society  of,  63 ; 
failure  to  remove  free  Ne- 
groes, 64-65,  66;  opposed 
by  free  people  of  color,  65- 
66;  meetings  of,  in  the  in- 
terest of  the  West  Indies, 
69-70;  impeded  by  the  ex- 
odus to  the  West  Indies,  70 ; 
a  remedy  for  migration,  61- 
80 

Colonization  Society,  organiza- 
tion of,  63 ;  renewed  ef- 
forts of,  148 

Colonizationists,  opposition  of, 
to  the  migration  to  the 
West  Indies,   70-74 

Columbia,  Pa^,  friends  of  fu- 
gitives in,  30 

Compagnie  de  1 'Occident  in 
control   of   Louisiana,   6 

Condition  of  fugitives  in  con- 
traband camps,  103,  104, 
107-108,  109-110,  114,  115 

Congested  districts  in  the 
North,  188-189 

Connecticut  exterminated  slav- 
ery, 2;  law  of,  against 
teaching  Negroes,  49-50 

Conventions  of  Negroes,  99^ 
100 

Cook,  Forman  B.,  a  broker, 
97 

Crandall,  A.  W.^  interest  in 
checking  the  exodus  to  Kan- 
sas,  135 

Crandall,  Prudence,  imprisoned 
because  she  taught  ISTegroes, 
49 


214 


Index 


Credit  system^,  a  cause  of  un- 
rest, 132,  133,  134 

Crozat,  Antoine,  as  Governor 
of  Louisiana,  6 

Cuflfe,  Paul,  an  actual  coloni- 
zationist,  63 


Davis,  comment  on  f  reedmen  's 

vagrancy,  119 
De   Baptiste,   Richard,   father 

of,  in  Detroit,  28,  97 
Debasement     of     the     blacks 

after  Eeconstruction,  154 
Delany,    Martin    R.,    interest 

of,  in  colonization,  79-80 

De     Tocqueville,     observation 

of,  on  the  condition  of  free 

Negroes  in  the  North,  44 

Delaware,  disfranchisement  of 

Negroes  in,  39 
Detroit,      Negroes      in,      27 
friends  of  fugitives  in,  30 
a  gateway  to   Canada,  35^ 
the  Negro  question  in,  54^ 
55;    mob    of,    rises   against 
Negroes,    59-60;    successful 
Negroes  of,  96 
Dinwiddie,     Governor,     Fears 
of,    as   to    servile    insurrec- 
tion, 12 
Diseases    of    Negroes    in    the 

North,  189 
Distribution      of      intelligent 

blacks,  36-38 
Douglass,  Frederick,  the  lead- 
ing Negro  journalist,  98; 
advice  of,  on  staying  in  the 
South  to  retain  political 
power,  164;  comment  of,  on 
exodus  to  Kansas,  138-139 
Downing,    Thomas,    owner    of 

a  restaurant,  87 
Drain    of   laborers   to    Missis- 
sippi   and    Louisiana,    120; 
to  Arkansas  and  Texas,  120 

Eaton,  John,  work  of,  among 

the  refugees,  110-111 
Economic     opportunities     for 


the  Negro  in  the  North, 
183-184;  economic  oppor- 
tunities for  Negroes  in  the 
South,  184-185 

Educational  facilities,  the 
lack  of,  155 

EUzabethtown,  friends  of  fu- 
gitives in,  30 

Elliot,  R.  B.,  return  of,  from 
Boston  to  South  Carolina, 
124 

Elmira,  friends  of  fugitives 
in,  30 

Emancipation  of  the  Negroes 
in  the  West  Indies,  the  ef- 
fect of,  68-71 

Epstein,  Abraham,  an  author- 
ity on  the  Negro  migrant 
in  Pittsburgh,   188 

Exodus,  the,  during  the  World 
War,  167-192;  causes,  167- 
171,  172-176;  efforts  of  the 
South  to  check  it,  172;  Ne- 
groes divided  on  it,  175; 
whites  divided  on  it,  176; 
unfortunate  for  the  South, 
177;  probable  results,  179- 
180;  will  increase  political 
power  of  Negro,  180-181; 
exodus  of  the  Negroes  to 
Kansas,  134-136 

Fear  of  Negro  domination  to 
cease,  183 

Ficklen,  comment  on  freed- 
men's  vagrancy,  119 

Fiske,  A.  S..  work  of,  among 
the  contrabands.  111 

Fleming,  comment  of,  on 
freedmen  's  vagrancy,  119 

Floods  of  the  Mississippi,  a 
cause  of  migration,  167- 
169 

Foote,  Ex-Governor  of  Mis- 
sissippi, liberal  measure  of, 
presented  to  Vicksburg  con- 
vention,  137 

Fort   Chartres,   slaves   of,   6 

Forten,  James,  a  wealthy  Ne- 
gro, m 


Index 


215 


Freedman  's  relief  societies, 
aid  of,  111-112 

Free  Negroes,  opposed  to 
American  Colonization  So- 
ciety, 65-66;  interested  in 
African  colonization,  67- 
68;  National  Council  of,  79 

French,  departure  of,  from 
West  to  keep  slaves,  7; 
welcome  of,  to  fugitive 
slaves  of  the  English  col- 
onies, 11;  good  treatment 
of,  12 

Friends  of  fugitives  30 

l^igitive  Slave  Law,  a  de- 
stroyer of  Negro  settle- 
ments,  82 

Ihigitives  coming  to  Pennsyl- 
vania, 41 

Gallipolis,  friends  of  fugi- 
tives in,  30 

Georgia,  laws  of,  against  Ne- 
gro mechanics,  84 ;  slavery 
considered  profitable  in,  2 

Germans  antagonistic  to  Ne- 
groes, 41;  favorable  to  fu- 
gitives in  mountains,  31; 
opposed  Negro  settlement 
in  Mercer  County,  Ohio,  26- 
27 ;  their  hatred  of  Negroes, 
82 

Gibbs,  Judge  M.  W.,  went 
from  Philadelphia  to  Ar- 
kansas, 124 

Gilmore's  High  School,  work 
of,  in   Cincinnati,  94 

Gist,  Samuel,  settled  his  Ne- 
groes in  Ohio,  25 

Goodrich,  William,  owner  of 
railroad  stock,  90 

Gordon,  Robert,  a  successful 
coal  dealer  in  Cincinnati, 
95-96 

Grant,  General  U.  S.,  pro- 
tected refugees  in  his  camp, 
103 ;  retained  them  at  Fort 
Donelson,  103 ;  his  use  of 
the  refugees,  109 

Greener,   E.    T.,   comment   of, 


on  the  exodus  to  Kansas, 
139-141;  went  from  Phila- 
delphia to  South  Carolina, 
124 

Gregg,  Theodore  H.,  sent  his 
manumitted  slaves  to  Ohio, 
27 

Gulf  States,  proposed  Negro 
commonwealths  of,  147 

Guild  of  Caterers,  in  Phila- 
delphia, 89 

Halleck,  General,  excluded 
slaves  from  his  lines,  102 

Harlan,  Robert,  a  horseman, 
95 

Harper,  John,  sent  his  slaves 
to  Mercer  County,  Ohio,  26 

Harrisburg,  Negroes  in,  24; 
reaction  against  Negroes  in, 
44 

Harrison,  President  William 
H.,  accommodated  at  the 
cafe  of  John  Julius,  a  Ne- 
gro, 90 

Hayden,  a  successful  clothier, 
85 

Hayti,  the  exodus  of  Negroes 
to,  74-76,  79-80 

Henry,  Patrick,  on  natural 
rights,  1 

Hill  of  Chillicothe,  a  tanner 
and  currier,  92 

Holly,  James  T.,  interest  of, 
in  colonization,  79 

Hood,  James  W.,  went  from 
Connecticut  to  North  Caro- 
lina, 124 

Hunter,  General,  dealing  wdth 
the  refugees  in  South  Caro- 
lina, 109 

Hlinois,  the  attitude  of,  to- 
ward the  Negro,  54;  race 
prejudice  in,  50;  slavery 
question  in  the  organiza- 
tion of,  14;  effort  to  make 
the  constitution  proslavery, 
15 


216 


Index 


Immi^ation  of  foreigners, 
cessation'  of,  a  cause  of  the 
Negro  migration,  172-173 

Indian  Territory,  exodus  of 
Negroes  to,  143 

Indiana,  the  attitude  of,  to- 
ward the  Negro,  53;  coun- 
ties of,  receiving  Negroes 
from  slave  states,  24; 
slavery  question  in  the  or- 
ganization of,  14;  effort  to 
make  constitution  of  pro- 
slavery,  15;  race  prejudice 
in,  58;  protest  against  the 
settlement  of  Negroes  there, 
58-59 

Indians,  attitude  of,  toward 
the  Negroes,  144,  145,  146 

Infirmary  Farms,  for  refugees, 
106 

Intimidation,  a  cause  of  mi- 
gration,  156 

Irish,  antagonistic  to  Negroes, 
41 ;  their  hatred  of  Negroes, 
82 

Jamaica,  Negroes  of  the 
United  States  settled  in, 
78-79 

Jay's  Treaty,  8 

Jefferson,  Thomas,  his  plan 
for  general  education  in- 
cluding the  slaves,  9;  plan 
to  colonize  Negroes  in  the 
West,  9-10;  natural  rights 
theory  of,  1;  an  advocate 
of  the  colonization  of  the 
Negroes  in  the  West  Indies, 
68-69 

Jenkins,  David,  a  paper 
hanger  and  glazier,  92 

Johnson  General,  permitted 
slave  hunters  to  seek  their 
slaves  in  his  lines,  102 

Julius,  John,  proprietor  of  a 
cafe  in  which  he  entertained 
President  William  H.  Har- 
rison, 90 

Kansas  Freedmen  's  Belief  As- 


sociation, the  work  of,  141 
Kansas  refugees,  condition  of, 

142;   treatment  of,  142-143 
Kaokia,  slaves  of,  6 
Kaskaskia,   slaves  of,  6 
Keith,    George,    interested    in 

the  Negroes,  20 
Kentucky,  disfranchisement  of 

Negroes    in,    39;     abolition 

society    of,    advocated    the 

•colonization    of    the    blacks 

in  the  West,  10 
Key,    I'Vancis   S.,  a   coloniza- 

tionist,  63 
Kingsley,  Z.,  a  master,  settled 

his   son   of   color  in   Hayti, 

75-77 
Ku  Klux  Klan,  the  work  of, 

128 

Labor  agents  promoting  the 
migration  of  Negroes,  173- 
174 

Lambert,  William,  interest  of, 
in  the  colonization  of  Ne- 
groes, 79 

Land  tenure,  a  cause  of  un- 
rest, 131,  133,  134;  after 
Reconstruction,    131-132 

Langston,  John  M.,  returned 
from  Ohio  to  Virginia,  124 

Lawrence  County,  Ohio,  Ne- 
groes   immigrated    into,    57 

Liberia,  freedmen  sent  to,  22 

Lincoln,  Abraham,  urged  with- 
holding  slaves,   103 

Louis  XrV,  slave  regulations 
of,  7 

Louisiana,  drain  of  laborers 
to,  120;  exodus  from,  134; 
refugees  in,  106 

Lower  Camps,  Brown  County, 
Negroes  of,  25 

Lower  Louisiana,  conditions 
of,  7;  conditions  of  slaves 
in,   7 

Lundy,  Benjamin,  promoter 
of  the  migration  of  Ne- 
groes, 35 


Index 


217 


Lynching,  a  cause  of  migra- 
tion, 128-129,  156;  number 
of   Negroes  lynched,   156 

McCook,  General,  permitted 
slave  hunters  to  seek  their 
Negroes  in  his  lines,  102 

Maryland,  disfranchisement  of 
Negroes  in,  39;  passed  laws 
against  Negro  mechanics, 
84;   reaction  in,  2 

Massachusetts  exterminated 
slavery,  2 

Meade,  Bishop  William,  a 
colonizationist,  63 

Mercer  County,  Ohio,  success- 
ful Negroes  of,  93 ;  resolu- 
tions of  citizens  against  Ne- 
groes, 56 

Miami  County,  Randolph 's 
Negroes  sent  to,  27 

Michigan,  Negroes  trans- 
planted to,  27;  attitude  of, 
toward  the  Negro,  54 

Migration,  the,  of  the  talented 
tenth,  147-166;  handicaps 
of,  165,  166;  of  politicians 
to  Washington,  160;  of  edu- 
cated Negroes,  161 ;  of  the 
intelligent  laboring  class, 
162;  effect  of  Negroes' 
prospective  political  power, 
163;  to  northern  cities,  85, 
163 

Miles,  N.  R.,  interest  in  stop- 
ping the  exodus  to  Kansas, 
135 

Mississippi,  drain  of  laborers 
to,  120;  exodus  from,  134; 
refugees  in,  106;  slaves 
along,  6 

Morgan,  Senator,  of  Alabama, 
interested  in  sending  the 
Negroes  to  Africa,  148 

Movement  of  the  blacks  to  the 
western  territory,  18;  pro- 
moted by  Quakers,  18 

Movements  of  Negroes  during 
the  Civil  War,  101-124;  of 
poor  whites,  101 


Mulber,  Stephen,  a  contractor, 

91 
Murder    of    Negroes    in    the 

South,  128-129 

Natural  rights,  the  effect  of 
the  discussion  of,  on  the 
condition  of  the  Negro,  1-2 

Negro  journalists,  the  number 
of,  98 

Negroes,  condition  of,  after 
Reconstruction,  126-129 ;  es- 
caped to  the  West,  11; 
those  having  wealth  tend  to 
remain  in  the  South,  160; 
migration  of,  to  Mexico, 
151 ;  exodus  of,  to  Liberia, 
157 ;  no  freedom  of  speech 
of,  165;  not  migratory,  121; 
leaders  of  Reconstruction, 
largely  from  the  North,  123 ; 
mechanics  in  Cincinnati,  94- 
95;  servants  on  Ohio  river 
vessels,  94 

New  Hampshire,  exterminated 
slavery,  2 

New  Jersey,  abolished  slavery, 
2 

New  York,  abolition  of  slavery 
in,  2 ;  friends  of  fugitives 
in,  31;  mobs  of,  attack  Ne- 
groes, 48;  Negro  suffrage 
in,  40;  restrictions  of,  on 
Negroes,  48-49 

North  Carolina,  Negro  suf- 
frage in,  39-40;  Quakers 
of,  promoting  the  migration 
of  the  Negroes,  18-19,  21, 
22 ;  reaction  in,  2 

North,  change  in  attitude  of, 
toward  the  Negro,  100;  di- 
vided in  its  sentiment  as  to 
method  of  helping  the  Ne- 
gro, 83 ;  favorable  senti- 
ment of,  3;  trade  of,  with 
the  South,  3;  fugitives  not 
generally  welcomed,  3;  its 
Negro  problem,  186;  hous- 
ing the  Negro  in,  186-187; 
criminal  class  of  Negroes  in, 


218 


Index 


188,  189;  loss  of  interest 
of,  in  the  ISTegrOj  157;  not 
a  place  of  refuge  for  Ne- 
groes, 16 

Northwest,  few  Negroes  in,  at 
first,  17;  hesitation  to  go 
there  because  of  the  ordi- 
nance of  1787,  17 

Noyes  Academy  broken  up  be- 
cause it  admitted  Negroes, 
49 

Nugent,  Colonel  W.  L.,  inter- 
est in  stopping  the  exodus 
to  Kansas,  135 

Occupations  of  Negroes  in  the 
North,  190-191 

Ohio,  Negro  question  in  con- 
stitutional convention  of, 
51 ;  in  the  legislature  of 
1804,  51;  black  laws  of, 
51-53;  protest  against  Ne- 
groes, 57 

Oklahoma,  Negroes  in,  144; 
discouraged  hj  early  settlers 
of,  144-145 

Ordinance  of  1784  rejected,  4 

Ordinance  of  1787  passed,  4 ; 
meaning  of  sixth  article  of, 
4,  5;  reasons  for  the  pas- 
sage of,  5;  did  not  at  first 
disturb  slavery,  8;  construc- 
tion of,  8-9,  13 

Otis,  James,  on  natural  rights, 
1 

Pacific  Eailroad,  proposal  to 
build,  with  refugee  labor, 
113 

Palmyra,  race  prejudice  of, 
42 

Pelham,  Robert  A.,  father  of, 
moved  to  Detroit,  27,  97 

Penn,  William,  advocate  of 
emancipation,  20 

Pennsylvania,  effort  in,  to 
force  free  Negroes  to  sup- 
port their  dependents,  42; 
effort  to  prevent  immigra- 
tion   of    Negroes,    42;    in- 


crease in  the  population  of 
free  Negroes  of,  42;  peti- 
tions to  rid  the  State  of 
Negroes  by  colonization,  45 ; 
era  of  good  feeling  in,  40; 
exterminated  slavery,  2  ;  the 
migration  of  freedmen  from 
North  Carolina  to,  21;  Ne- 
gro suffrage  in,  40 ;  passed 
laws  against  Negro  me- 
chanics, 84 ;  successful  Ne- 
groes of,  88-90 

Peonage,  a  cause  of  migra- 
tion, 154 

Philadelphia,  Negroes  rush  to, 
24;  race  friction  of,  44; 
woman  of  color  stoned  to 
death,  44;  Negro  church 
disturbed,  44 ;  reaction 
against  Negroes,  44;  riots 
in,  45-48;  successful  Ne- 
groes of,  88-90;  property 
owned  by  Negroes,  89 

Pierce,  E.  S.,  plan  for  hand- 
ling refugees  in  South  Car- 
olina, 102 

Pinchback,  P.  B.  S.,  return 
of,  from  Ohio  to  Louisiana 
to  enter  politics,  125 

Pittman,  Philip,  account  of 
West,  of,  7 

Pittsburgh,  friends  of  fugi- 
tives in,  30 ;  Negro  of,  mar- 
ried to  French  woman,  12; 
kind  treatment  of  refugees, 
12;  respectable  mulatto 
woman  married  to  a  sur- 
geon of  Nantes,  12;  riot  in, 
47 

Piatt,  William,  a  lumber  mer- 
chant, 8'7 

Political  power,  not  to  be  the 
only  aim  of  the  migrants, 
181 ;  the  mistakes  of  such 
a  policy,  181-183 

Politics,  a  cause  of  unrest, 
153 

Pollard,  N.  W.,  agent  of  the 
Government     of     Trinidad, 


Index 


219 


sought      Negroes      in      the 

United  States,  78 
Portsmouth,   friends   of   fugi- 
tives of,  30 
Portsmouth,     Ohio,     mob     of, 

drives     Negroes     out,     57; 

progressive  Negroes  of,  92 
Prairie  du  Rocher,  slaves  of,  6 
Press    comments    on    sending 

Negroes  to  Africa,  148-150 
Puritans,  not  much  interested 

in  the  Negro,  19 

Quakers,  promoted  the  move- 
ment of  the  blacks  to  West- 
ern territory,  18-38;  in  the 
mountains  assisted  fugi- 
tives, 34 

Eace  prejudice,  the  effects  of, 
82-83 ;  among  laboring 
classes,  82-84 

Randolph,  John,  a  coloniza- 
tionist,  63 ;  sought  to  settle 
his  slaves  in  Mercer  County, 
Ohio.  26 

Reaction  against  the  Negro, 
20 

Reconstruction,  promoted  to 
an  extent  bv  Negro  natives 
of  North,  123 

Redpath.  James,  interest  of, 
in  colonization.  80 

Refugees  assembled  in  camps, 
105-106;  in  West,  106;  in 
Washington,  155:  in  South, 
106;  exodus  of,  to  the 
North,  112;  fear  that  they 
would  overrun  the  North, 
113;  development  of,  116; 
vagrancy  at  close  of  war, 
117-118 

Renault,  Philip  Francis,  im- 
ported slaves,  6 

Resolutions  of  the  Vicksburg 
Convention  bearing  on  the 
exodus  to  Kansas,  136-137 

Rhode  Island  exterminated 
slavery,  2 


Richards,  Benjamin,  a  wealthy 
Negro   of   Pittsburgh,   90 

Richard,  Fannie  M.,  a  success- 
ful teacher  in  Detroit,  97- 
98 

Riley,  William  H.,  a  well-to- 
do  bootmaker,  90 

Ringold,  Thomas,  advertise- 
ment of,  for  a  slave  in  the 
West,  11 

Rochester,  friends  of  fugi- 
tives in,  30 

Saint  John,  Governor,  aid  of, 
to  the  Negroes  in  Kansas, 
141 

Sandy  Lake,  Negro  settlement 
in,  24 

Saunders  of  Cabell  County, 
Virginia,  sent  manumitted 
slaves  to  Cass  County,  Mich- 
igan, 28 

Saxton,  General  Rufus,  plan 
for  handling  refugees  in 
South  Carolina,  102 

Scotch-Irish  Presbyterians, 
favorable  to  fugitives,  31 

Scott,  Henry,  owner  of  a  pick- 
ling business,  87 

Scroggs,  Wm.  O.,  referred  to 
as  authority  on  interstate 
migration,  121 

Segregation,  a  cause  of  migra- 
tion, 157 

Shelby  County,  Ohio,  Negroes 
in,  24 

Sierra  Leone,  Negroes  of,  set- 
tled in  Jamaica,  79 

Simmons,  W.  J.,  returned 
from  Pennsylvania  to  Ken- 
tucky, 124 

Singleton,  Moses,  leader  of  the 
exodus  from  Kansas,  135 

Sixth  Article  of  Ordinance  of 
1787,  4-5 

Slave  Code  in  Louisiana,  7 

Slavery  in  the  Northwest,  5, 
6,  7;  slavery  in  Indiana,  5; 
slavery  of  whites,  5 


220 


Index 


Slaves,  mingled  freely  with 
their  masters  in  early  West, 
7 

Smith,  Gerrit,  effort  to  col- 
onize Negroes  in  New  York, 
86-87 

Smith,  Stephen,  a  lumber  mer- 
chant, 89 

South  Carolina,  slavery  con- 
sidered profitable  there,  2 

South,  change  of  attitude  of, 
toward  the  Negro,  185; 
drastic  laws  against  vag- 
rancy, 121-123 

Southern  States  divided  on 
the  Negro,  32-33 

Spears,  Noah,  sent  his  manu- 
mitted slaves  to  Greene 
County,  Ohio,  27 

Starr,  Frederick,  comment  of, 
on  the  refugees,  113 

Steubenville,  successful  Ne- 
groes of,  91 

Still,  William,  a  coal  mer- 
chant, 89-90' 

St.  Philippe,  slaves  of,  6 

Success  of  Negro  migrants, 
81-101 

Suffrage  of  the  Negroes  in  the 
colonies,  39^0 

Tappan,  Arthur,  attacked  by 
New    York    mob,    41 

Tappan,  Lewis,  attacked  by 
New  York  mob,  48 

Terrorism,  a  cause  of  migra- 
tion, 177 

Texas,  drain  of  laborers  to, 
120;  proposed  colony  of 
Negroes   there,   66 

Thomas,  General,  opened  farms 
for  refugees,  106 

Thompson,  A.  V.,  a  tailor,  95 

Thompson,  C.  M.,  comment  on 
freedmen's  vagrancy,  118 

Topp,  W.  H.,  a  merchant 
tailor,   82 

Trades  unions,  attitude  of,  to- 
ward Negro  labor,  190-192 


Trinidad,  the  exodus  of  Ne- 
groes to,  77-88;  Negroes 
from  Philadelphia  settled 
there,  78 

Turner,  Bishop  H.  M.,  inter- 
ested in  sending  Negroes  to 
Africa,  157 

Upper  and  Lower  Camps  of 
Brown  County,  Ohio,  Ne- 
groes of,  25 

Upper  Louisiana,  conditions 
of,  7;  conditions  of  slaves 
in,  7 

Unrest  of  the  Negroes  in  the 
South  after  Reconstruction, 
126-130;  causes  of,  127-129, 
130;  credit  system  a  cause, 
132;  land  system  a  cause, 
131 ;  further  unrest  of  in- 
telligent Negroes,  152,  153 

Utica,  mob  of,  attacked  anti- 
slavery  leaders,  48 

Vagrancy  of  Negroes  after 
emancipation,  117-119;  dras- 
tic legislation  against,  121- 
123 

Vermont,  exterminated  slav- 
ery, 2 

Vicksburg,  Convention  of,  to 
stop  the  Exodus,   135 

Viner,  M.,  mentioned  slave 
settlements  in  West,  6 

Virginia,  disfranchisement  of 
Negroes  in,  39;  Quakers  of, 
promoting  the  migration  of 
the  Negroes,  18-19;  reac- 
tion in,  2;   refugees  in,  106 

Vorhees,  Senator  D.  W.,  of- 
fered a  resolution  in  Senate 
inquiring  into  the  exodus 
to  Kansas,  138 

Washington,  Judge  Bushrod, 
a   colonizationist,   63 

Washington,  D.  C,  refugees 
in,  105;  the  migration  of 
Negro  politicians  to,  160 


Index 


221 


Wattles,  Augustus,  settled  with 
Negroes  in  Mercer  County, 
Ohio,  25-26 

Watts,  steam  engine  and  the 
industrial   revolution,  2 

Wayne  County,  Indiana,  freed- 
men  settled  in,  23 

Webb,  William,  interest  of, 
in  colonization,  79 

Wenyam,  James,  ran  away  to 
the  West,  11 

West  Indies,  attractive  to  free 
Negroes,  68 

West  Virginia,  exodus  of  Ne- 
groes to,  146 

White,  David,  led  a  company 
of  Negroes  to  the  North- 
west, 22-23 

White,  J.  T.,  left  Indiana  to 
enter  politics  in  Arkansas, 
124 


Whites  of  South  refused  to 
work,  127-128 

Whitfield,  James  M.,  interest 
of,  in  colonization,  79 

Whitney's  cotton  gin  and  the 
industrial  revolution,  2 

Wickham,  executor  of  Samuel 
Gist,  settled  Gist's  Negroes 
in  Ohio,  25 

Wilberforce  University  estab- 
lished at  a  slave  settlement^, 
27 

Wilcox,  Samuel  T.,  a  mer- 
chant of  Cincinnati,  95 

Yankees,  comment  of,  on  Ne- 
gro labor,  115-116 

York,  Negroes  of,  24;  trouble 
with  the  Negroes  of,  44 


/ 


2  ^  ' 


H9a  yi;  ' 


^^  2^e.  H^ 


-^^a^ 


^^-n^..  \' 


■  "  •  ^     ^^'  %. 


<>/ 


\)0  a 


?;r 


■^  0 


-^-  0< 


^, 


^ 


A 


'bb" 


.0 


f 


0 


,0 


S  .^v^.^c^        /  ^-o  ^-.  '"    <^ 


^^' 


> 


'r.^^A^  ■  -^    .^*'  /,^'^<^^^  "%,^   .^^  .v:^i:--  -^.^     .^  ^^^ 


vwrW<'^', 


•    *  «?  vp-.         o  H/JiS^VF  *         A*^        "^^  Peacidified  using  the  Bookkeeper  process 

-         .<.*,•<?-  <;^  •     S"^^      4         ^  <f>  Neutralizing  Agent:  Magnesium  Oxide 

'   •  .  *  ^0  O  'o  .    .  "  \  ^       Treatment  Date; 


C"     .^ 


'M^v^.' 


■Jy^ 


miB! 


MAY 


1998 


BBKKEEPER 


PRESERVATION  TECHNOLOGIES,  LP. 
1 1 1  Thomson  Park  Dfiue 
Cranberrv  TownsfiiD.  PA  Ifinss 


M\C^        1 1 1  Thomson  Park  Drive 
/^      era 


.0 


.V 


0°    .^ 


J-      -y 


^ 


.     <■ 


<^ 


^  0 


^^ 


1  >       v<»  " 


'^"^     N.  MANCHESTER, 
*i^  INDIANA 


^:     lO-n..    *>