VII-VIII-IX
NOTES ON THE PROGRESS
OF THE
COLORED PEOPLE OF MARYLAND
SINCE THE WAR.
"Equality cannot be conferred on any man, be he white or black. If he be capable of it, his
title is from God, and not from us."— James Rmsell Lowell.
JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY STUDIES
IN
HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL SCIENCE
HERBERT B. ADAMS, Editor
History is past Politics and Politics present History — Freeman
EIGHTH SERIES
VII-VIII-IX
NOTES ON THE PROGRESS
OF THE
COLORED PEOPLE OF MARYLAND
SINCE THE WAR.
A SUPPLEMENT TO THE NEGRO IN MARYLAND: A STUDY
OF THE INSTITUTION OF SLAVERY.
BY JEFFREY R. BRACKETT, PH. D.
BALTIMORE
PUBLICATION AGENCY OF THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
July, August, September, 1890
COPYRIGHT, 1890, BY N. MURRAY.
JOHN MURPHY & CO., PRINTERS.
BALTIMORE.
NOTES ON THE PROGRESS OF THE
COLORED PEOPLE OF MARY
LAND SINCE THE WAR.1
Much has been said and written of what is called the
negro problem of the South. The subject has been carried,
wisely or unwisely, into the halls of congress, and some
precious hours have been spent over it, without result. The
writer of these notes is well aware that he will be told that a
residence of a few years in Maryland will not allow him to
speak with authority on the problem, as an old resident of
the " black belt " of Virginia or Carolina might speak. To
this he would answer only, that he does not presume to enter
the lists, to champion any theory or radical solution of the
mooted problem, but would aim simply to trace the outlines
of the recent progress of the colored people in the community
about him. If the study of history, like charity, begins at
home, a few facts, though forming only a petty chapter of
historical development, may be worth more than much hear
say evidence, newspaper clipping, or speculation on what
ought to be. It may chance that the few facts of this petty
chapter may give a clue to the yet unwritten ending of the
great book of " reconstruction " between the white and colored
peoples.
1 NOTE. — The writer will be very thankful for any corrections, or addi
tions to these notes. 106 North Avenue, Baltimore, Md. April, 1890.
5
6 Colored People of Maryland since the War. [352
In some respects, Maryland is a most interesting and instruc
tive field for a study of the progress of the colored people. A
very intelligent colored man has said that his people there
would have been much further advanced, had the State se
ceded and shared the fate of the more Southern states. How
ever this may be — and, indeed, the colored men of Maryland
have been little heard of in politics or in the press — the fact
that in Maryland the extreme radical rule of reconstruction
days was not known, will prove of great significance. The
paths of both the white and colored people, there, lay very
differently from those in the states further South. We must
cast a few quick glances to the far end of both those paths ;
for distance tends to make murky many things which must
not be forgotten.
Maryland did not secede — but what would have been done,
had the federal troops not early arrived, and had public senti
ment been left entirely to itself, is not so easy to say. The
vote of the State in the presidential election of 1860, was
almost divided between the Bell and Everett ticket and the
Breckenridge and Lane, in favor of the latter. Douglass
polled some 5,500 votes, and Lincoln only some 2,000. With
out presuming to enter into the history of those troublous
times, suffice it to say that the Union party,1 backed by the
federal government, held control of the State until 1867,
when — with the safety of the Union ensured, with the more
lenient use of the " iron-clad " test oaths, and with the grow
ing division in the old Union party over the plans of recon
struction — the conservative, or democratic, party quietly took
possession.
In 1860, there were 87,000 slaves in Maryland, and almost
as many free blacks. The losses from, and the excitement
over, the escape of slaves from a border state, had been con-
1 When the Union party is spoken of, reference is made to the supporters
of the government during the war, not to the Bell and Everett party, which
died in 1860.
353] Colored People of Maryland since the War. 7
siderable; and the large number of free blacks — larger than
that of any other state — had for years been a source of griev
ance to the slave-holders of the lower counties. To the Union
or war party, slavery was a very delicate question. For
instance, Mr. Lincoln's post-master in one of the most impor
tant places in the State, was a slave-holder. Governor Brad
ford, the war governor — who had been himself a slave-holder
— when assured of the unjust imprisonment of a free black,
sentenced before the war for having in his cabin a copy of
Uncle Tom's Cabin, felt justified in giving only a pardon
conditioned on emigration, so strong was public opinion.
The assembly of 1861-2, while severe in its blame of "the
seditious and unlawful acts" of the states in rebellion, yet
dreaded as " unwise and mischievous " any interference by the
government with the institution of slavery in the South.
The preservation of the Union was one thing, the abolition of
slavery, even, was another.
Slavery in Maryland was not touched by Mr. Lincoln's
emancipation proclamation. In 1864, a convention was held,
to form a new State constitution, to supplant that of 1851.
A considerable majority of delegates were firmly resolved on
abolition. The question was discussed, at length and warmly,
pro and con. The old Bible arguments were brought up. The
economic condition of the white counties was compared favor
ably to that of the black — for the Western counties, like those
of Virginia, had very few slaves. Stress was laid on the en
couragement that would be given the Union cause by the break
ing of the most powerful link that had held Southern Mary
land largely to confederate interests. Some delegates looked
on slavery as already dead ; others feared the result of immedi
ate and unconditional emancipation ; others branded the old
institution as immoral and accursed. Finally, a clause for
immediate abolition, unconditioned, was put in the declaration
of rights, by a vote of two to one. Then the constitution
went before the people. In addition to abolition, it provided,
for use in all elections, the strictest test oaths against any sym-
8 Colored People of Maryland since the War'. [354
pathy with the Southern cause, and called for true allegiance,
not only to the United States Constitution, but to the United
States government. In the election of 1860, over 90,000
ballots had been cast ; the whole vote on this constitution was
60,000. It was defeated at the polls by 2,000 votes, and was
saved only by a majority of 375, counting in the vote of the
soldiers from Maryland in the Union camps, which was taken
under a provision of the constitution itself. Only those
voted at the polls who stood the " iron-clad " test oath.1
During these years of state control by the Union party,
very few changes were made in the " black " laws in the code.
The immigration of free blacks into Maryland was still for
bidden until 1865, though, in 1862, the penalty on the black
who could not pay the fine inflicted for immigration, was
changed from sale as a slave to any highest bidder to sale for
not over two years in the State. In 1862, the punishment
of blacks for crimes not capital, was so changed that slaves
could be imprisoned instead of sold or whipped, and that free
blacks could be whipped or imprisoned instead of sold. And
the governor was also authorized, if he saw fit, to commute
any sentences already given of sale without the State, to the
punishment of the new law, which left the place of sale, in
all cases, to the discretion of the court. All free black con
victs, on release from the penitentiary, were still banished
from the State, under penalty of sale for a term as long as
they had been imprisoned. It is interesting to note that, in
the constitutional convention of 1864, a motion to provide
for the liberation of all persons imprisoned under laws arising
exclusively from the institution of slavery, was lost by a tie
vote. Indeed, the majority of the convention, while firm
for abolition, saw plainly that public sentiment, even of the
1 The soldier vote was 2,633 for, and 263 against, the adoption of the con
stitution. State compensation to slave-holders was voted down in the con
vention by 38 to 13. It was hoped for some time that the federal govern
ment would do something in the way of recompense for abolition.
355] Colored People of Maryland since the War. 9
Union supporters, was hardly keeping pace with them. The
committee on education, so it was plainly stated, had not
prepared any provision for a system of education for the
colored population, believing that the people were not yet
ready for such a step.1 The assembly of 1865 wiped away
much of the useless slave code, including certain restrictions
on the free blacks which had been incident, largely, to the
presence of slavery, — such as the need of a permit to keep
a gun, or to purchase powder and shot, or to sell bacon, corn,
tobacco, &c., the regulation of public meetings, and the prohi
bition to navigate a vessel. Most of all, the law against
immigration of free blacks was repealed.
By 1866, the position of parties was changing. The issue
of union or disunion was a thing of the past. The radical
wing of the old Union party became a minority, as the repub
lican party of Maryland ; while the conservatives and all
those who again became voters, on a lenient use of the old
war test oaths, with those who came from the South, took
control of the State. In the presidential election of 1868,
some 93,000 votes were polled, of which over two-thirds were
for Seymour and Blair.
We shall look with interest to see what was then the
attitude to the freedmen of the great majority of the white
people of Maryland, those who, since 1866, have controlled
the State, through the democratic party. The assembly which
met early in 1867, repealed, together with some old parts of
the code, the act of 1862 on crimes, which provided for the
blacks punishments different from those given whites. While
other portions of the code — obsolete from the fall of slavery —
were wiped away, at the recommendation of the house com
mittee on judiciary procedure, there was removed entirely
1 The following assembly, as we shall see, in an elaborate act for a public
school system, offering a free education to all "white" youth, provided
that the amount of school taxes paid by colored people should be used for
colored schools.
10 Colored People of Maryland since the War. [356
the prohibition of marriage between a negro and a white,
though there was left the old penalty of a hundred dollars
from any clergyman who should marry such. Marriages pre
viously made between colored persons were declared valid, if
established by sufficient proof before a magistrate, and for the
future the usual forms of marriage were prescribed for colored
persons. There was left, also, the punishment for spreading
incendiary matter among the colored population. An attempt
was made to change the bastardy law so as to make a white
and black father equally responsible before the law, and to
make a colored woman a competent witness against a white
father, but it received few votes. The assembly of 1864 had
modified the law of evidence, but had left unchanged the
old provision that the testimony of a colored person would
not be received in a case in which a white person was con
cerned. Now, too, the judiciary committee reported unfavor
ably on any change in this, and the house of delegates sus
tained them by a vote of 36 to 15.
Shortly after this session of assembly, a new convention
met at Annapolis, to frame another state constitution. No
one could deny that it was an able body, representative of the
majority of voters. The constitution, which was adopted by
a popular vote of some 47,000 to 23,000, did not declare as
did that of 1864, that all men were "created equally free";
nor did it, in declaring the Constitution, and laws of the United
States in pursuance thereof, the supreme law of the land, call
for oaths of allegiance to the federal " government." Slavery
was not to be reestablished, but, as it had been abolished in
accord with federal policy, compensation from the United
States, in return, was due those who had suffered. The con
stitution, as a whole, was a reaction from its predecessor.
When being considered in convention, a motion to add, that
no person should be incompetent as a witness on account of
race or color unless thereafter so declared by act of assembly,
was carried by a vote of 60 to 41. Thus this radical discrim
ination was done away — for, though the convention refused by
357] Colored People of Maryland since the War. 11
a large majority to strike out the proviso in the clause, there
is little possibility of any legislative action thereon.
Thus some important steps were taken, but not enough to
reach the point, to which a member of the house judiciary
committee of 1867 urged his fellow delegates, where all laws
contrary to the changed conditions of things should be done
away, and the same justice meted out to each and all. There
still remained considerable discrimination in the law. Thence
forth, there was little action touching the colored people, in
the halls of assembly at Annapolis.
Meanwhile the proposed fourteenth amendment to the Con
stitution of the United States, had gone before the country.
The joint committee on federal relations of the assembly of
1867 reported that the measure, as coming from a con
gress from which the members from eleven states were forcibly
and illegally excluded, was not proposed in a constitutional
manner, and so should not be ratified. Besides this, they
stated, Maryland could not be expected to throw away any
claim for recompense for liberated slaves, nor to agree to a plan
to force the Southern states to give the suffrage to the colored
people or else to lose a large part of their representation. l
This was the pith, only, of the report of the committee, for it
went at length, to justify its actions, into a discussion of the
constitutional questions of the past years. Kawle on the Con
stitution was quoted, and the under-tone of the report was an
arraignment, in plain but measured words, of the party which
had directed the government since 1860. Following the four
teenth amendment, came the introduction of the colored men
to politics, and the fifteenth amendment. The idea was cur
rent, that suffrage was to be extended not from the fitness of
the blacks to wield it at once, but in order to perpetuate the
rule of the republican party, — an act of political prejudice rather
than of statesmanlike wisdom. Some thought it a measure
merely to punish the Southern people for not having thrown
1 House Journal and Doc., 1867, M. M.
12 Colored People of Maryland since the War. [358
aside at once the feelings which would naturally survive a lost
cause,, lost property and an upheaval of society. Whether
these ideas were right or wrong need not here be discussed,
for their influence on public opinion was equally potent. The
assembly of 1870, like its predecessor, was wholly conserva
tive, and its action may be anticipated. When the ratification
of the fifteenth amendment was brought up in the house,
the seventy-five members voting said — no. When a bill for
the incorporation of Chestertown, allowing white voters only,
which had already passed the assembly, was soon after vetoed
by Gov. Bowie, in respect to the fifteenth amendment — which
had since become the supreme law of the land — no fewer
than sixteen members of the house indulged in a vain effort
to pass the bill over the veto.
It is impossible to tell to-day, in how far this public senti
ment of the representative party of Maryland was the result
of the attitude of the republican party in the State. But that
public sentiment cannot be too carefully weighed before pro
ceeding to a study in detail of the progress of the colored
people. Laws without public sentiment to enforce them, in
spirit as in letter, are of doubtful worth in a community. In
this case, public feeling was not merely indifferent, it was
hostile, to the effort to legislate civil and political equality
into the recently emancipated race.
The radical wing of the unconditional Union party, in con
vention in Baltimore, in 1866, pledged itself to the mainten
ance of the constitution of 1864, "which expressly and
emphatically prohibits both rebel suffrage and negro suffrage."
The question of negro suffrage, resolved the convention, is
not an issue in Maryland, but is raised by the enemies of the
Union party, for the purpose of dividing and distracting it.
A leading article in the Baltimore republican organ called this
matter of negro suffrage " The conservative Bugaboo." l
1 See Baltimore American for June 5-6, Aug., 1866.
359] Colored People of Maryland since the War. 13
In striking contrast with this, was the republican state
convention held in the following year — one year before the
fourteenth amendment to the Constitution, and nearly three
years before the fifteenth amendment, became the law of the
land, but while the conservative party, now in majority, was
framing a new state constitution. This convention truly
marked, as its organ, the American said, " a new era in the
political history of Maryland." Of the 200 delegates from
Baltimore city, sixty-eight were colored men, and there were
as many more colored men from the counties. The delegations
varied, some six counties sending all whites, apparently.
Proceedings began with prayer by a colored clergyman. The
presiding officer, a prominent republican, afterwards high in
office at Washington, called for the passage of the Sumner bill,
and desired the people to understand, and especially the
colored people, whose battles they had been fighting, that
remembrance and appreciation of the past should be shown
by conduct at the ballot-box. In reply, a colored veteran
said there was no need to tell his people how to vote. "We
have not," he said, "the ability among us to occupy high
positions of honor, we are like a new-born babe, taking our
first steps to political life and strength, supported by the
radical party." Another prominent leader said, " it is because
we are a minority of the voting population of Maryland that
the necessity has forced upon us of casting around to see by
what means we can extricate ourselves from our present
position ; " and another still, " whenever we can get the
suffrage of the colored man, I am satisfied there is no man
that can ever betray us again." The resolutions of the con
vention called for the equality of all American citizens in all
civil and political rights, and urged the republican party, as
a last resort, should the coming conservative constitution not
give impartial suffrage, to appeal to congress for support.
One colored delegate, a member of the committee on resolu
tions, rejoiced to see a day of real political equality between
whites and blacks ; another said that he was ready, like Simeon
14 Colored People of Maryland since the War. [360
of old, to depart in peace, now that he had seen salvation. The
republican state central committee was increased by five from
Baltimore and two from each county, in order to have colored
men on it; and the convention closed with prayer by a
colored clergyman.1
All efforts of the republicans were futile, however, to prevent
the adoption of the conservative constitution, a few months
later. The following Spring, of 1868, saw a division in the
party ranks, over the wisdom of urging in every way, as a
national policy, the extension of the suffrage. This question
Avas then threatening to wreck republican supremacy in several
large Northern states. The Maryland convention declared
itself firm in devotion to justice and impartiality of the suf
frage, but voted that their delegates to Chicago should not
recommend it as a plank in the party platform. This con
vention apparently had few, if any colored members. A
bolters7 convention met soon after, about a half of the delegates
being colored ; but a number of counties were not represented.
The president said, we intend to make the negro an active
member, in politics, not to insult him by making him a con
sulting member. The other wing of the party, said one colored
man, would go for negro suffrage, if convenient. The com
mittee on resolutions, as announced, was of whites, but two
colored men were added, by special resolution, and several
colored men were put on the Chicago delegation, one as a
delegate, the others as alternates. This split in the ranks
was afterwards closed, and before the suffrage was given the
blacks by the fifteenth amendment, March, 1870, some white
and colored republicans had joined in a grand ratification
meeting, for the consolidation of the party throughout the
State. The meeting was held in a hall owned by a colored
association, and was presided over by the chairman of the
colored republican state central committee. Thanks were
given the republican state committee for taking in a fair
1 May 15, 1867.
361] Colored People of Maryland since the War. 15
representation of the colored voters, as had been requested.
The party, said a white leader, has done ail it could, here,
for the colored people, and this meeting shows that people
united, with trifling differences banished.1
The votes of colored men were received in Maryland, for
the first time since 1810,2 in several local elections in the
Spring of 1870. The first general election was for congress
men, in the Fall. Meantime, the colored people seem to have
been interested and active in the exercise of citizenship. In
the Fall previous, a large celebration and procession had been
held by them, in honor of emancipation. Soon, a young mens'
convention was held, — not as large as had been desired, but
of some forty delegates, — to further associations throughout
the State, for social, moral and political advancement ; and
fidelity Avas pledged to the republican party. This interest
was not in Baltimore alone — it is said that in one of the
county towns, where an old law limited voters of the corpo
ration to real estate owners, a sharp colored citizen recorded
the sale of forty-four square inches of land to as many col
ored men.
It is interesting to note that shortly before the congressional
election, the chairman of both the republican and democratic
state committees joined in asking the judges of election in
Baltimore, that fences might be erected in front of the polling
windows, and that the colored voters should approach on one
side, the whites on the other, exclusively. This, they said,
would conduce to a quiet and honest election. The republican
chairman soon withdrew his name, after finding, as he stated,
that the plan was opposed by the United States marshal, as
drawing a race or color line. There was opposition to it among
the judges, also ; for as votes were to be taken alternately, and
the white voters were many more than the colored, unfairness
might result to the whites, especially were the polls crowded
1 March, May, 1868; Jan. 13, 1870.
8 See The Negro in Maryland, p. 186.
16 Colored People of Maryland since the War. [362
at the last minutes. The election finally passed off with un
usual quiet and good order in Baltimore. The marshal had
given notice that no illegal discrimination of voters would be
allowed, and his deputies and the police watched the polls
without difficulty. The day after, the American, the repub
lican organ, said that the fact stood out patent to all that the
republican party, even with the addition of the colored vote,
was in a minority in the State ; that the democrats had carried
every county save one, and there the republican leaders had
made untiring efforts. The official vote showed, later, that
three of the Southern, old slave-holding, tobacco growing
counties, beside, had gone republican by very few votes. In
1868, Grant had polled over 38,000 votes, and Seymour over
62,000. Now, the republicans had thrown nearly 58,000,
but the democrats nearly 77,000. One Southern county that
had given thirty-five votes for Grant now gave nearly 1,600
republican votes; another, over 1,400 in place of thirty -eight ;
but everywhere the democratic vote was increased, and the
majority was 19,000. A leading editorial of the American
said that no true republican should be disheartened, for the
cause of equal rights to all men was just. "The prejudice/'
it added, " which is entertained against the voting of the
colored people contributed more to our defeat than all other
causes combined. The negro has proven to be an element of
weakness and not of strength, and it will take time to educate
the masses up to an appreciation of the justice of his enfran
chisement." ]
In politics there are so many movements whose causes and
effects are hard to estimate rightly, so many ways that are
dark and tricks that are far from vain, that it will not be
wise for the layman to attempt more than a notice of the
most significant features in the history of the colored men in
politics in Maryland, in the past twenty years. First of all,
1 Nov. 4-10, 1870. The U. S. marshals then had certain special powers
of oversight of elections, by federal law.
363] Colored People of Maryland since the War. 17
we find a strong feeling among the colored people that they
have not been sufficiently recognized in politics. There is lit
tle similarity, indeed, between the later republican conventions
and that first one in 1867 which, as the American said, gave
promise of a new era to the freedmen. Representation in the
party councils was rather the answer to request than a ready
proffer. Three years after enfranchisement, the republican
state central committee was three-quarters white, only two of
the twenty members from Baltimore city being colored ; at
present, there are a half dozen colored men on the state com
mittee of 117 members, while of the city executive committee
of twenty-four, three are colored. Twice at least, one of the
sixteen delegates to the national conventions has been a colored
man. Of positions in the federal offices in Maryland, from
thirty to forty have been held by colored men, a few as in
spectors and storekeepers, most as messengers. Two prom
inent politicians have been special agents in the postal service.
If reports be true, there are fewer colored men in the offices
here to-day, than there were years ago.1 At present, the
colored voters are a quarter of all on the registers' lists, and
a very large part of the republican party.
This has not gone on without complaint and warning from
colored leaders. As early as 1869, a delegation called on the
newly appointed collector of the port, with the hope that the
race would be recognized properly, that the principles of re
publicanism, so we read, might be no longer a parade of words
but of deeds. The chief object of the colored state committee,
which lasted for a time, was advancement in political influ
ence. In 1870, this committee asked chiefs of departments in
the federal buildings to appoint colored men, in keeping with
the progress of the republican party. Not one influential posi-
1 This may have been affected by civil-service rules. It is interesting to
note that in the custom house, under the recent democratic administration,
a colored democrat was made a messenger, while two colored republican
messengers were retained.
18 Colored People of Maryland since the War. [364
tion, they said, had as yet been given ; and they urged some
action even as a wise policy,, to keep down suspicions of self
ishness. They were opposed to the dissolution of the colored
committee until they were taken into full political fellowship
in the party. As to forming a wing of the republican party
by themselves, a black man's party, there has been always
a difference of opinion or action among the colored leaders,
but the regulars have succeeded in beating the disaffected.
Thus, in 1873, a public meeting was held in favor of a separate
organization ; but a committee of fifty soon called a counter
meeting, a band and two political clubs paraded, the meeting
was so large that addresses were made without as well as within
the halls, prominent leaders said that all men can't have offices,
that all colored men were not good men, that thirty-four col
ored men were then drawing pay at the custom-house, that all
this talk of setting themselves up at once, in a hurry, in poli
tics was injuring their cause — and the meeting adopted resolu
tions of support to the republican principles and party. In
1879, a meeting of colored republicans, attended not largely
but by some well known men, declared that the political recog
nition of their people was annually growing less, that they
had allowed themselves to be "pack-mules, sumpters and
dromedaries " to the party, and, while forming two-thirds of
it, had become mere ciphers. The democrats, they said, give
equality of rights to Germans and Irish, and we shall demand
the same from republicans. Fidelity was pledged to the
republican cause, but measures were urged in order to secure
justice.1
Some of these movements resulted in securing greater
recognition in party work. Thus, in the Fall campaign of
'79, delegations of colored men waited on the state executive
committee — for some hours, if reports be true — with the
request that some of their fellows be put on the campaign com
mittee ; and were finally assured that one would be appointed.
. 12, 1879.
365] Colored People of Maryland since the War. 19
Since then, several have been put on the city executive com
mittee. But the leaders as a body grew discouraged at the
attitude of the white politicians of the State in the dispensation
of patronage. In the Spring of 1881, at the beginning of a
new national administration, a convention of colored repub
licans of the State was held in Baltimore, for the purpose of
securing more liberal recognition. There were five delegates
from each city ward, and a number from eleven of the coun
ties. A caucus held two days before, had decided to ask
President Garfield to appoint two colored men to any two of
the thirteen first-class government offices in Baltimore, and to
secure a fair representation in the subordinate offices. The
convention was not altogether a happy family, a minority
desiring to ask the removal from office of all white repub
licans who actually disregarded the colored men. It was
stated that out of $900,000 given in salaries in the State, they
got only $13,000 ; that one high federal officer in Baltimore
did not think that colored men had any rights which need
be respected, and that another had refused to employ colored
men in taking the census. But the majority secured moderate
and respectful resolutions, declaring renewed fealty to the old
party, and thanking the President for the good words in his
inaugural address, but declaring that the distribution of patron
age was not in accord with the principles of the part}', and
that the colored vote was entitled by virtue of numbers and
services to a fairer division of it. Shortly after the convention,
a committee appointed by it presented to the President an
address, of few words and in good taste. After calling atten
tion to the fact that out of 1,300 federal offices in Maryland,
only thirty were held by colored men, the chairman said :
" We do not censure all ; but there are departments of the
federal service in our State where colored men are excluded
solely on the ground of color, and to our personal knowledge
the same positions are filled by colored men both North and
South acceptable to all classes of citizens, with honor to their
race, and to the interest of the public service." The President
20 Colored People of Maryland since the War. [366
answered that he had no sympathy with the exclusion of men
from office on account of color, that qualification should be
the test, and promised to examine the papers handed him.
There the matter ended.1
As to elective offices in the State, colored men have seldom
been nominated to them, and nomination, as a rule, has led to
defeat. Thus, in 1872, a colored man offered himself as a
candidate for congress in the fifth district, which was made
up mostly of the " black belt " of Maryland. A circular in
his favor demanded one representative for the 40,000 colored
votes of the State, and was endorsed by a number of prominent
colored men, many of whom were not residents of Maryland.
The candidate soon withdrew, however, and a white republican
was elected by a majority of over 1,000 votes over his demo
cratic rival. In the local election in Baltimore, in 1885,
when the democrats were opposed by a fusion of republicans
and independent democrats, two colored republicans ran for
the city council in a ward which had over 900 colored
voters; but received fifty-seven votes only. In 1886, a well
known and well educated colored man was nominated for
congress from Baltimore by a meeting of some sixty delegates
from the various wards ; and he soon after opened his cam
paign by addressing a meeting of hundreds of his fellow citi
zens. There were four other candidates in the field, a regular
democrat, an independent democrat or fusionist, a white bolter
from the republicans, and a prohibitionist. The total vote
was over 25,000 ; of which the democrat got over 14,000, the
fusionist over 7,000, the white bolter and prohibitionist over
1,600 each, and the colored republican just twenty-five. In
1888, the colored paper in Baltimore, calling attention to the
fact that Annapolis and Cambridge had had a few colored
men in their city government, urged the voters in two wards,
having large black population, to put forward two representa
tive men for councilmen ; but nothing was done.
1 March 22, 24, April 2, 1881.
36 7 J Colored People of Maryland since the War. 21
It must be freely stated, in weighing the complaint of the
colored leaders, that those very leaders have done much to
bring about the comparative failure of the colored people in
public life, thus far. It is not surprising that the colored
politicians, in Maryland, during the past twenty years,
should get the idea that politics exist for private and not for
public good. The air has been full of the disease, and it is
catching. There are of course many colored men interested
and active in politics who are honest and fearless, but the
reports that are current among the colored people, and the
utterances of some of their best men, notably clergymen, are
enough to cause them to look with distrust on those, as a
body, who are known as politicians. One of the colored men
mentioned in the paragraph above is said to have received a
large sum of money for standing as a candidate, in order to
divide the republican vote. In 1870, as there was much
" crimination and recrimination " between certain colored
republicans, Avhich was injuring the united action of the party,
the colored state committee asked the aspirants for leadership
to settle their personal differences between themselves, ending
with the threat that, " In the words of the immortal Andrew
Jackson, ' by the Eternal/ we, the colored workingmen, will
stump this State in our own interest, if these aspirants do not
seal their pledge of consolidation by stopping their recrimina
tions ! "
Part of the complaint against the white politicians has been
wholly selfish, from those who are outside the public crib
and who want to get in. In 1874, a small meeting was held,
for association to secure for the colored men a fairer share of
political reward. Complaint was made that certain " rings "
had controlled matters to their own interest, and the people
were called on to strip the false plumes from those men who
strut about boasting that they carry this or that ward in their
breeches pocket ! A few days after, a card appeared in the
paper from a prominent politician, stating that twenty-seven
3
22 Colored People of Maryland since the War. [368
of the thirty-two persons at this meeting were disappointed
applicants for offices, who would be thankful for anything,
and some of whom had recently been the hired servants of the
democrats ! Such facts as these show one good reason why
many movements for the benefit of their race have been
hindered, if not prevented, by a lack of unity, of confidence,
among colored men. " There has been a class of negro leaders
in Baltimore," says a prominent colored pastor, "who have
time and time again sold out the interests of their people for
whatever sum they could get." " Politicians," said a leading
colored lawyer, in an address to a large gathering of his race,
" have betrayed the people and bartered away our birthright
and lawful heritages."
For years the colored men voted almost without exception
for the republican party. Occasionally, some of them did not
vote at all, when the henchmen of the democratic bosses, as
notably in 1875, played with them what have been called the
" playful freaks of freemen's spirits " — which, being interpreted,
means bullets and black eyes. Omissions or discrepancies on
the registration books or poll lists have also thrown out many
a colored vote. In 1879, a large meeting of colored men
claimed that several thousand of their people had been
wrongly turned away from the polls by false registration.
Of late years, money has been found by the democrats to be a
more judicious means of influence than violence. In 1872,
one or two colored leaders followed Mr. Sumner, and finally
landed in the democratic ranks. One of these was given a
position as messenger in the custom-house under the recent
democratic administration. A few colored men, notably
several prominent clergymen, joined the prohibition party
in 1886, mostly from zeal for the cause of temperance, but
partly from weariness in waiting for the republicans to sup
port their people in their efforts for the abolition of the " black
laws " and for other advantages. The leaders of the prohi
bition party, then, though with some fear and trembling
369] Colored People of Maryland since the War. 23
evidently, openly advocated these measures in their platform.
But the prohibition vote has been very small.1
During the last few years, two movements are noticeable
among the colored men, one toward indifference to politics and
party ends, the other towards independent action, in local elec
tions especially. As to how many colored men have voted the
democratic ticket, and as to their reasons for so doing, opinions
differ widely. In 1885, in Baltimore, the colored paper which
had supported the democratic nominee for mayor, claimed that
several thousand votes of the democratic majority had been
cast by colored men. On the other hand, an old white
republican worker will say that colored democrats are very
few, and that most of those are willing to be bought, or wish
for some bad reason to keep on the right side of the police.
While an equally experienced colored republican estimates the
colored democratic vote in 1886, at a thousand. There are
some colored men ready to be bought, there are some who vote
the democratic ticket because their employers do ; but it is
also beyond doubt that there is a growing number who will
vote in local elections for a man who, democrat or not, has
shown an interest in the colored people and a willingness to
help them to greater opportunities. The portrait of one ex-
mayor of Baltimore, a democrat of democrats, but who bettered
the public schools for colored children, hangs in the hall of one
of the largest colored societies ; and it seems to be agreed by
good j udges among the colored men that, had he been again a
candidate, he would have polled a very large colored vote. In
the counties, also, on both the Eastern and Western shores,
there have been instances, recently, where colored men refused
to follow the old party whips, in sufficient numbers to prevent
the election of the republican candidates.
No positions under the city government, which has been
democratic for years, have been given to colored men. The
1 In 1886, it was 7,239 out of some 150,000. The next year, it was 4,414,
of 190,000.
24 Colored People of Maryland since the War. [370
colored paper which had worked for the democrats, in 1886,
remarked, on finding that the 350 nominations sent in by the
new mayor were all whites, that surely one colored man could
have been found fit to be at least a lamp-lighter. In matters
pertaining to politics, the colored people do not expect con
sideration from the democratic managers.1
The facts that politics have done the colored people more
harm than good, and that parties seem to care for them as
voters only, are making the intelligent more and more inde
pendent of party. With the spread of education and experi
ence, this spirit will grow. Prominent colored men, some
who have long been in politics, as well as clergymen, are wel
coming it. The day is past, said one clergyman, when my
people will jump the fence like a flock of sheep ; it would be
well if no one knew how they would vote. The black-bird,
said another, is no longer to be caught by a little salt sprinkled
on its tail. The old state of things cannot last, says a prom
inent colored lawyer ; our universities and colleges are annu
ally sending into the world young colored men " who have
declared their emancipation from political serfdom.7' " There
is no more reason," continued the same writer, " for the colored
race being a political unit than a religious unit. I hope to see
the day when he may feel at home in any political party, when
all parties will treat him right and no party oppress him. . . .
But the colored man had better drop practical politics for the
present, for he gains neither honor nor emoluments. He is
wasting time and energy, which, if expended in other direc
tions, would bring education, property, wealth, business and
professional success, and these alone can give the race strength
and character." The fact is, writes the editor of one of the
1 One colored man is a bailifi in the city courts ; but he was Appointed
after the reform judge movement in which many republicans and democrats
joined. The colored man appointed in the custom-house under Cleveland
is, to use his own words, a " particular friend " of an influential party man
ager.
371] Colored People of Maryland since the Wo/r. 25
colored religious papers, the time has come for colored citizens
in the South to give more time to cultivating the soil, and to
commercial pursuits, and less time to politics. We do not
advise them to do less voting, but they should use more care
in speech-making, and change their policy of voting, when
they can do so to advantage at local elections. And the present
colored daily paper, after stating, recently, a report that some
republican politicians were trying to prevent the appointment
to a modest office of an old colored republican leader, and that
the republican congressmen were working for certain white
men for the place, says : " To sum up the whole matter, it
would yield far more to colored men to pay less attention to
partisan politics, and look out for the substantial and perma
nent improvement of their material condition." The speakers
in these cases are but a few individuals among a large people,
it is true ; but the significant point is that they are of the best
educated and most progressive.1
During these years of political experience, since the franchise
was suddenly given to the untaught freedman, the colored peo
ple of Maryland have been quietly doing much in laying a
foundation, surer than politics, for future progress and influence.
In 1880, the whites in Maryland numbered nearly 725,000;
the blacks over 210,000. During twenty years, the former
had increased by considerably over 200,000, the latter by
some 40,000. For some years after emancipation there was a
marked movement of blacks from the counties to Baltimore
and the larger towns. This has been less of late years, but
the city, with its large colored population, prosperous colored
churches and societies, attractive social life, and the demand
for service, has grown in its colored population far out of
1 The writer doubts if any facts of value as to the colored vote can be
deduced from mere registration reports — especially before the appearance
of the census of 1890. The Baltimore Sun Almanacs contain very full
registration and election reports.
26 Colored People of Maryland since the War. [372
proportion to the increase in the counties. There has also
been some movement north from Virginia. There were in
Baltimore, in 1860, nearly 28,000 blacks, of whom only some
2,000 were slaves. Within a decade, 12,000 were added; in
the next decade, 14,000 again. Since 1880, it is estimated
that the increase has been some 25,000, making a total colored
population in the city of about 77,000. It is not likely that
so many colored people will be found, throughout the length
of the land, dwelling within such narrow bounds — save in
Washington, perhaps, where a study of their progress would
not be equally instructive, as the District of Columbia has a
peculiarly cosmopolitan society, and is under the control of
congress.1
The word " blacks " is often used for brevity's sake, nor is
the term usually misleading, for a man of fair skin, be it so
only that African blood can be at all recognized, is placed by
the great majority of whites on the same side of the color line
with the darkest of the black. To most of the whites, that
ominous line is single and straight. Properly speaking, how
ever, the greater part of the colored people of Maryland are
rather fair than dark. Some of them have blood in their
veins of which the}' can think only with mingled feelings of
pride and grief.
In most of the larger communities there are certain families
who have long been better off and better educated than the
rest of their fellow? ; there are some who have been better
known to, and had more to do with, the whites ; and there are
everywhere the differences in social life and mental attain
ments which mark any people ; but we do not find any exten
sive and sharply defined feeling of caste among the colored
1 In 1880, there were over 59,000 blacks in the District. In the city and
neighborhood of Charleston, South Carolina, there is a large colored popu
lation, exceeding the whites, and a study of their progress would be inval
uable. New Orleans, Richmond, and Memphis, Tenn., would also be
interesting fields.
373] Colored People of Maryland since the War. 27
people here.1 The exceptions are probably the result of social
rather than caste feeling, as when a few colored persons
objected, at first, to sending their children to the colored pub
lic schools. There have been a few cases in which persons
very fair have been deemed whites, and so have associated
with whites, but they could not then associate with their
relatives of colored blood. To hide the drop of African
blood is not, probably, in these few cases, to desire to be a
snob to one's relatives, but to get the advantages in the com
munity which all respectable whites, but no colored man, can
have.
One of the most prominent and experienced colored clergy
men of Maryland, whose duties have taken him over the
whole State for many years, recently said, when asked if his
people had made much progress : — they have made the pro
gress of fifty years in twenty-five. From all parts, indeed,
come reports of what individuals have done. For instance, a
very intelligent colored school teacher writes from the Eastern
Shore that nowhere are the colored people more prosperous
and successful than there; and, he adds, they seem to be
equally happy and contented. He estimates that nearly two-
thirds of them own good land, some as much as one to two
hundred acres, and thinks them increasing in importance and
respectability as they become real estate owners. In one of
the county towns half the population is colored, and these
compare favorably, in proportion, with the blacks of Baltimore
in intelligence and business enterprise. One man owns a score
of houses, and is said to have $50,000 in cash ; one of the
best, if not the best, of the jewelry stores belongs to another ;
a third has the best trade in beef, in the town. When one
colored citizen, well known and highly respected, lost money
by an unfortunate investment, and was threatened with the
loss of his hotel, several wealthy white fellow-citizens came to
his rescue, saying, " it will never do for Bill to fail ! "
1 As in Charleston, So. Car., for instance.
28 Colored People of Maryland since the War. [374
On every hand are the marks of progress, says this writer,
remarkable when considering the position of the blacks twenty-
five years ago. So, on the Western Shore and throughout the
State there are noteworthy examples of what industrious and
intelligent colored men can do and are doing. In no case, it
is believed, will such men meet with anything but sympathy
and encouragement in their material progress from the good
white citizens about them.1
It is a pity that there are no data for a reasonably accurate
estimate of the increase in wealth of the colored people of
Baltimore. A clergyman of long experience in the State,
made careful inquiry, and estimated the wealth of the colored
people of the State in 1885, to be about $2,250,000, exclusive
of houses, furniture and the property of societies. One of
the most prominent colored editors of Baltimore, who has
considered the matter, reports that the present aggregate
wealth of his people in the city is from three to four millions.
And he cited twenty individuals who represent, probably, a
half million. One was thought to be worth $75,000 ; another,
$60,000 ; another, $50,000 ; three others, $30,000 each ; four,
again, $25,000 each ; and the others varying from $15,000 to
$8,000. Many more might have been named, and the figures
given were below what common report frequently gave. The
biography of some of these men would be more interesting
than instructive here, for no rational being can question the
energy and capacity which many individual colored men have
shown. The best known caterers of Baltimore are colored,
1 One colored dealer and shipper of produce, in an eastern county, is said
to have netted $1,600, on strawberries alone, in one year. Others have ex
tensive canning houses. There are several coasting and oyster vessels on
the Bay owned by colored men.
It is interesting to note that a delegation of some forty colored oystermen
of Southern Maryland have taken steps to make claims against the govern
ment for their boats, which were destroyed by the government during the
search for Wilkes Booth, in 1865, and which they estimate as representing
a capital of $10,000.
375] Colored People of Maryland since the War. 29
and there are several provision and produce stores, well patron
ized by whites. The greater number of stores, however, are
small, and deal mostly with the colored people and the poorer
whites. In these are sold china and glass-ware, groceries,
produce, oysters, " notions," &c., as the case may be. Several
colored persons have, for years, had stalls in the markets ;
one butcher has a slaughter-house and does his own killing.
There are several dealers in coal. At least one shoemaker
is well knoAvn, and has had good patronage for many years.
Most of the "jobbing" and independent trucking is by col
ored men, who own from one to fourteen wagons. There is
constant activity in this small express business and in furniture
moving : one man, for instance, who began with one wagon,
three years ago, has now six " teams " — and has bought three
fair houses, besides. The junk business — which, before the
war, was the work of Jews — is now mostly done by blacks,
though the great majority, probably, have little capital in
trade beside a hand-cart or a bag over the shoulder. In such
ways as these, by day labor and, to a certain extent, by skilled
labor, the colored man who is provident is laying aside
money.
It is, unhappily, to a limited extent only that the colored
people can work at skilled labor. Before the war, the circum
stances in Baltimore were more like those in the more South
ern states, to-day. Certain work was done mostly, if not
wholly, by blacks. Thus, they made bricks in Summer and
" shucked " oysters in Winter ; as stevedores, they loaded and
unloaded the ships ; they had a monopoly of the ship-caulk
ing. Some of the richest colored men in Baltimore began
life, in the old days, as caulkers or stevedores. In the counties
especially, some of them were made carpenters and blacksmiths.
But foreign labor came in, especially after the war. German
women could shuck oysters cheaper than colored men ; the
work of making bricks, of caulking and loading ships, became
more and more divided between whites and blacks. Now,
30 Colored People of Maryland since the War. [376
the whites are, with a few exceptions, the skilled workmen,
the artisans, of the community.
There are some colored messengers in offices, and there are
many porters. Occasionally, the duties of these may become
that of a shipping clerk ; but it is doubtful if colored clerks
can be seen outside of colored stores. There are several
colored printers ; there are one or two manufacturers of hair
work and dressmakers' trimmings, but their work is so small
that they teach the trades to a very few only. There are a
very few painters and carpenters, but their work has to be
mostly jobbing, especially among their own people, for the
iron-clad rules of the trade-unions shut out those who, for one
reason or another, are not union men. In only such branches
as " hod-carrying/' brick-making and caulking, do the colored
men have influence.
For ten years or more, the hod-carriers' union has been
strong and beneficial. Of this work, of handling bricks and
mortar, the colored men have here a perfect monopoly. In
the rhyme with which all New England boys are so familiar,
" Paddy, be quick, — more mortar, more brick ! " Sambo would
here have to be substituted for Paddy. Begun with some
thirty members — on the basis of a smaller union previously
disbanded — the union now has eight hundred names on the
rolls, most of whom, in times of work, will have paid all dues
and therefore be beneficial members and in good standing. A
union price for labor is fixed, and membership is refused to
those who would work for less ; while members will not work
with any hod-carriers without the union. The beneficial side,
which is as successful as the protective, is managed from
monthly dues of fifty cents, and assessments on the death of
members. AVhile a member in good standing is ill, he receives
$4 a week ; should he die, $75 is given as a burial due. $25
is given on the death of a member's wife, and $15 on the
death of a child. Recently, SI, 500 has been divided as divi
dends among the members, and some $3,500 cancelled from
377] Colored People of Maryland since the War. 31
back dues, and there is a cash balance in the bank of over
$4,000.'
The caulkers were all colored until shortly before the war.
Then, when the white caulkers grew to be a considerable
number,, there was trouble between the whites and blacks,
resulting in rioting, and the latter were driven off to their
own resources. After an interval of many years, they came
together in the Knights of Labor, for mutual protection
against a reduction in wages by the employers. Soon they
drew out, some four years ago, and formed together the
caulkers7 protective union. This is based on strictly protec
tive principles, all caulkers being of necessity union men, and
those coming from elsewhere pay an increased admission due,
amounting to $50, if from abroad. The beneficial features
are a burial payment of $50, for a member, and of $20 for a
member's wife; and $4 a week while ill, if injured in the
course of work. The dues, for this, amount to $3 a year. The
present membership is somewhat under two hundred.
The history of the brick-makers — workmen in the brick
yards — was somewhat like that of the caulkers, in that the
majority of them, who were blacks, took measures, soon after
the war, to protect themselves against a reduction of wages.
Several times, too, efforts were made to keep up a protective
union among all the brick-workers. Finally, five years ago,
a colored man and one or two white fellow-workmen, lying
on the grass in idleness near their old yard, planned the brick-
makers' protective union, which has since continued, and has
kept reasonable wages. The beneficial dues are $3.00 a year,
in return for which, in addition to the mere benefit of mem
bership, a funeral payment of $56 is given, on a member's
death. The membership soon grew to be three thousand or
more. The oyster " smickers," to a large extent the same
men who made bricks in summer, also several times, and to
aOn a hod-carriers' picnic to Washington, in 1887, some 500 men and
200 women and children turned out.
32 Colored People of Maryland since the War. [378
large numbers also, banded together for protection ; but they
have not kept up any permament organization. One move
ment, toward the close of the war, was successful in raising the
price of work from a low figure to which it had fallen.
The interesting feature of these protective unions, is the
association together, perfectly naturally, of white and black
fellow-laborers, for their common good. On the one hand,
we find the hod-carriers with a half dozen white members
with the colored members, several hundred strong. Of the
caulkers, rather more than half are white ; of the brick-
makers, over two-thirds are white. On the other hand, the
three or four colored ship-carpenters in Baltimore belonged
for a time to the ship-carpenters' union, and left for no reason
touching color or race. The caulkers and brick-makers
meet regularly together, as members of the same branches,
and the officers may be black or white. If a white president
presides, a colored secretary records. And when there have
been parades of labor organizations, these bodies in which
white and blacks are united, were represented without distinc
tion. Were there enough good colored artisans, as carpenters
and painters, &c., to raise the question of their admission into
the various trades unions, it is certain that there would be
complaint and remonstrance ; but were the number of them
sufficient to endanger prices, there Avould probably be unions
resulting, for the common good of fellow workmen.
Curious results frequently occur from motives of self-interest
and race discrimination. Many colored barbers must turn
away colored men from their chairs, for good white custom
would otherwise be lost. When a very respectable colored
man asked for a glass of lemonade, one hot Summer da}',
from a little stand in a down-town street, the dark proprietor
hesitated ; then said, " I know you don't want to injure my
business ; " and finally flatly refused to sell. In the office of
a Baltimore colored newspaper, managed entirely by colored
men, several white compositors were recently employed ; but
these stopped work at once when a colored printer was engaged.
379] Colored People of Maryland since the War. 33
When the Chesapeake Marine Railway was entirely owned
and managed by the colored people, some years ago, several
white carpenters worked in the yard, drawing their pay from
colored hands.
Much has been said in excellent editorials and communica
tions, in the colored papers of Baltimore, to incite the colored
people to greater business activity and to earnest efforts to
open the higher trades and occupations to their race. The
need of manual, industrial training has been felt keenly by
some, who see so many of the youth growing up to citizenship
on the street corner, under the scant schooling of " odd jobs/7
So far, the public authorities have not been far-sighted enough
to open manual training to the blacks ; though the house of
refuge for colored boys and the home at Mel vale for colored
girls — the result very largely of the labor of a few whites
friendly to the advance of the freedmen and of society at large
— have been good examples. In 1886, a number of well
known colored men planned the organization of a mechanical
and industrial school for colored boys and girls. A large and
representative board of officers was chosen, the school was
incorporated in 1887, and meetings were held to arouse gen
eral interest. Thirty-six colored clergymen endorsed the
work, and an appeal for aid was made to some prominent
whites. In response, about $125 was subscribed by a few
friendly white citizens, and over $550 by the colored people —
mostly in dollar contributions. About $234 was paid in, but
popular interest in the work was not sufficient to make it a
success — although the plan of the managers was to raise a
moderate sum only, two or three thousand dollars, and then
to ask for an appropriation from the authorities. The colored
papers urged their readers to respond. One suggested the issue
of stock in small shares. Another calculated that $10,000
would put the school in operation successfully, and that a
goodly sum could be gotten from the State and from friendly
citizens, if the colored people raised half or more of the required
amount. Is there not enough race pride, race ambition, said
34 Colored People of Maryland since the War. [380
the editor, to bring forward 200 boys to pay a tuition of $10
apiece, to raise contributions of $30 in each of the thirty col
ored churches, and of $5 in each of the 500 lodges and socials
in the city ? There was no response ; the promoter of the
school is a hard-working man, whose life is spent in his shop ;
and so the little capital is in the bank, and the work has
halted where it was. The Centenary Biblical Institute, a
school for colored youth, maintained by the Methodist Epis
copal conference, has given some industrial training, especially
at its branch in Queen Anne's county.
Early in 1888 was incorporated the Maryland Colored
Industrial Fair Association, with a board of twelve directors,
well known, representative men. The object of the association
is explained in the circular which was then issued : —
Dear Sir: — By reference to the inclosed Circular, you will at
once see, that it is the object of the MARYLAND COLORED INDUS
TRIAL FAIR ASSOCIATION, to put on Exhibition annually, in the
month of October, the products of the skill of the Colored people
of the State of Maryland. The advantages to be derived by the
race are incalculable :
First. By the means, or agency of this exhibition, we shall
be able to demonstrate that the Colored citizen is something more
than a " hewer of wood and drawer of water," that he has genius
and educated talent, the full development of which, only needs
the same advantages and encouragement that is accorded to
other races.
Second. That to display this talent and bring it forcibly to
the attention of the State, it cannot better be done than in an
Exhibition, where each article exhibited is the product of his
own brain and hand.
Third. That the Annual Display as proposed by the Associa
tion will have a tendency to develop the skill and talent of our
men, women and children, the effects of which, will not only add
to their own prosperity, and enhance their value as citizens, but
must add to the general good of society and the State of which
we have the honor to be citizens.
381] Colored People of Maryland since the War. 35
The Board of Directors, therefore, requests that you will co-oper
ate with them, in finding out all men, women and children of
genius and enterprise in your locality, or elsewhere in the State,
to your knowledge, who may be engaged in Farming, Gardening,
Manufacturing, Artistic Work of any kind and Mechanism.
As Colored Maryland Cooks have a fame that is world wide,
and the cultivation of this talent is beneficial both to employer
and employed, as well as to the comfort and economy of our own
homes, it is desirable to make an extensive Annual Exhibit in
the Household Department.
As soon as you forward the names and Postoffice address, we
will put ourselves in communication with the proposed Exhibitor,
and arrange all details.
No application for space in the Exhibition can be received
after August 1st, 1888. Your prompt action will therefore, be a
necessity, which will be thankfully received and reciprocated.
The time for the fair was fixed for the 1st of October ;
prominent clergymen endorsed the movement ; and an address
was sent out to the colored citizens of the State, to refute the
common impression in the community that the colored race
is a consuming and not a producing one, and to show that
that race in Maryland "possess in a very large degree all
the elements that go to make the citizen useful." Soon, an
auxiliary board was formed by many prominent colored women,
to promote the fair. Reports came in that much interest was
being roused, throughout the State. The fair was accordingly
held, very successfully, the first week in October following.
The Monumental Assembly hall was filled, and many articles
were refused at the last moment, from lack of room. At the
formal opening, the first evening, when over a thousand persons
were present, complimentary and encouraging remarks were
made by Gov. Jackson and Mayor Latrobe. The chief speaker,
a rising young lawyer of Baltimore, said : "we propose to show
the people of our city, State and country, that we are a pro
ducing as well as a consuming class ; that the idlers and
vagrants among us are but the cast off clothing of the race."
36 Colored People of Maryland since the War. [382
The regular evening attendence on the fair was estimated at
800 ; the whole was respectable and orderly. On one day
there came excursions from out of town, notably from Belair,
Annapolis and Washington, including the Capitol City Guards,
and numbering altogether some 2,000. To give the exhibit
in detail would be impossible ; it included, for example, excel
lent portraits, crayons, fine needle-work, dress-making, uphol
stery work, shoe-making, a floral display, some agricultural
products, and, notably, the work of the kitchen, — breads,
cakes, preserves, pickles, wine — for which the colored people
of Maryland are famous. From the Cheltenham house of
reformation came farm products, shoes, clothing and specimens
of penmanship.
The second colored exhibit was held a year later, in connec
tion with the Pimlico exhibition, the management of which
facilitated in every way a worthy representation of the work
of the colored citizens. The exhibit consisted of some 250
articles, occupying a space over seventy feet long and nine
feet wide. Among the articles were a hand-made cabinet,
upholstery work, horse-shoes, fancy bricks, paintings, draw
ings, needle-work, — kitchen-work, &c. The Cheltenham re
formatory and the girls' industrial home sent excellent work.
The articles from the Maryland schools for blind and deaf
mutes, included hand-made mattresses, chair-seats, needle
work, shoes, drawing, penmanship.
Already, between the first and second exhibits, a number of
prominent colored business men had formed a permanent
organization, the " Colored Business Men's Association of Balti
more/' to further the business progress of their people by
organization and intelligent discussion. The plan was to
open rooms in some central locality, where members of the
various trades would meet and report all matters of interest ;
but as yet no active work has been done.1
1 These various movements have been due largely to one man, intelligent
and active, who has been for many years a business and political leader.
383] Colored People of Maryland since the War.
There are several things which have hindered much, any
organized trade or business efforts on the part of the colored
people of Baltimore. Indifference and lack of public spirit
are very noticeable — but these traits are limited by no
sharp race line. The colored people, more than the whites,
are jealous of one another. This feature has been often
mentioned by their writers, and ascribed by them largely to
the influence of slavery. However that may be, — it is
important to note the influence of politics in raising jealousy
and distrust among the colored leaders. If the white " carpet
bag" leaders of the South were a curse to their associates,
surely the system of practical politics, as it has been carried
on in Maryland, is a bad school for the colored voters. The
ambitious colored leader is very liable to have his movements
and motives mistrusted. This mistrust may be right or
wrong, in individual cases ; but the colored people know well
that the ballot-box as a rule is surrounded by those who buy
and sell. More potent still than any jealousy and distrust
against the political leaders, is the fact that a number of
colored men's enterprises have been failures, or, if partially
successful, have not fulfilled the reasonable expectations of
the people. When one of the wealthiest colored merchants
in town was approached, three years ago, by an earnest
advocate for a business association, the answer was, that he
looked upon any such organization with discredit, that he had
been the victim of many swindles and misappropriations ; and
he censured the management of several corporations in which
he had lost nearly a thousand dollars.
Soon after the war there was a brick-makers' strike, and
the colored brick -makers, in order to maintain good wages,
undertook the control of a brick -yard. All the bricks that
they could make were sold, and the effort of the employers to
cut wages was frustrated, but the yard had to be given up.
Good bricks and good bargains were made, but were not fol
lowed up in a business-like way. At about the same time
came the great strike against the colored caulkers and " 'long-
4
38 Colored People of Maryland since the War. [384
shoremen," in which a thousand were finally forced from work.
Thereupon, by a great effort, $10,000 was raised in ready
money, within four months, by the colored people alone.
Much of it was the result of small and hard-earned savings.
With this partial payment, a ship-yard and marine railway was
secured, and several hundred colored caulkers were soon busily
at work. Money was made, and the remaining capital,
$30,000, was quickly paid, together with one or two dividends.
Afterwards, the shipping interests went down, as through
out the land ; but many of the older colored men will tell,
to-day, of their surprise on finding that the ship-yard, instead
of being purchased in fee, had only been leased for twenty
years, at the end of which time it passed back to its owner's
hands, leaving nothing in their hands. Whether rightly or
not, there has been much dissatisfaction, and the ship-yard,
the first and greatest enterprise of the colored people here, has
probably therefore done more harm than good. Again, the
failure of the Freedmen's Bank was a serious blow to the rap
idly progressing colored people. For instance, one of the
colored building associations lost nearly $1,000 by it; and
one individual lost $1,200, the savings from his barber-shop
— and, if report be true, lost his health besides by his misfor
tune. Later still, the management of a piece of property
bought by colored subscribers, for some $20,000, for a meeting
place for the colored societies, military companies, <fec., has
been considerably blamed. For one reason or another, the
project failed.
It is no wonder, then, that people hesitate to promise
support to many applicants, — as, for instance, to the man who
tried, a year or two ago, to get up a steamboat and commer
cial company of colored men, for boats on the Bay. On the
other hand, because the colored people have learned a few
business lessons by a harsh experience, there is no ground for
discouragement.1 If the lessons be taken aright, the experi-
1 One of the best colored lawyers here, said, in an address to a large
meeting of his people, in 1888 : " When a new enterprise is proposed among
385] Colored People of Maryland since the War. 39
ence will do more good than harm. And the money which
the prosperous ones have been quietly putting into their own
business or the old, trusted banks, or into real estate, will not
have been unwisely placed.
It has been said that in no city are there so many colored
house-holders as in Baltimore. Many of the wealthy colored
men have invested largely in houses — in a few cases, a whole
row is owned by one man. The extent of the town, the
number of alleys, and the great number of small houses, of
two stories only, facilitate this — for one must not suppose
that the seventy-five houses said to be owned by one colored
citizen of Annapolis, for instance, are all expensive buildings
or on valuable ground. A few colored men may belong to
building or loan associations of whites, but there have been
several such associations exclusively of their own people.
Thus, some of them without capital were helped to get homes,
and some with capital were helped to increase it. One asso
ciation, begun in 1867, in South Baltimore, handled some
$12,000 to $15,000. When this was closed, in six or seven
years, another was formed by very much the same manage
ment, and so another in 1881, and another in 1886; but these
have hardly had as much capital as the first. The member
ship has never been very large. The par value of a share
was $125, the issue of shares was limited to 1,000, and, in the
first organization, no member could hold over twenty. On
every share taken, the borrower paid a dollar a month, and
interest, and the association was closed when each member had
received back from the treasury the value of each share he
might hold. Another series of associations, organized in East
Baltimore in 1868, had about a hundred members and probably
facilitated the purchase of forty or fifty houses. In both cases
the members have been mostly poor men. These associations
colored people, they are prone to call up the ghosts of similar projects, or
even entirely different undertakings, which have failed. This is babyish
and unworthy of a manly vigor.''
40 Colored People of Maryland sinee the War. [386
are well spoken of, and have no doubt done good ; but little
has been done in this way by the colored people in proportion
to the work among the German residents of Baltimore. One
would not compare them, for the opportunities of the latter
have been infinitely greater ; but the diligence and economy
of the Germans, in this and many other ways, may well be
offered as a stimulating example. It is said that it was not
easy for colored men, until recently, to secure houses in reason
ably good localities. A recent mayor of Baltimore has stated —
and the statement appeared in print — that in his experience the
colored people have proved themselves good tenants.
Intelligent colored men have complained that, setting indi
viduals aside, their people as a whole are poor. A prominent
clergyman of Baltimore, who is familiar with the counties,
stated in a sermon, the result of a painstaking investigation
into the amount of property held by the 21 0,000 colored people
of Maryland in 1885 — that all the wealth of any amount was
held by less than 2,000 individuals. I presume, he added,
there are 205,000 who own nothing. Yet he estimated that
the net balance of the earnings by moderate daily wages of
those who were able to work, after deducting not only neces
sary but very unnecessary expenses, should be over $1,000,000
a year. The annual wages should be over $38,000,000. If
the necessary expenses are 85 per cent., there would be a
balance of nearly $6,000,000. But the unnecessary expenses
take nearly all of this — for drinks, $2,000,000 ; tobacco and
snuff, $1,000,000 ; excursions, picnics, camp-meetings, &c.,
$245,000; and $1,500,000 for incidentals. This estimate
may not be correct, but the figures are interesting, as show
ing the large amount which an intelligent man of experience
thinks is spent by the mass of his people for idle purposes,
and which ought to be turned to the benefit of individuals
and of the race. That a large part of the colored race live
from day to day, without saving, is certainly true. But that
they have done so, is surely not very remarkable, consider
ing the few generations that separate the colored blood from
387] Colored People of Maryland since the War. 41
the life of Africa, the total irresponsibility of the life of slavery,
the sudden manner of emancipation, and the beguiling influ
ences of social life, which, as we shall see, has been highly
developed in the larger communities.
Baltimore is called by the colored people themselves, the
grave-yard for colored newspapers. Within the last twenty-
three years, there have been over a dozen secular papers,
mostly weeklies. None of them have lived long — a few
months has been the usual time. The editor of one, writing in
1885, said that nine papers had already died, and that it was
said that one could not succeed. The reason for it, he gave, was
that the publishers never had much money, without which
pluck and brains were of little use ; that wealthy colored men
did not, as a rule, subscribe or advertise ; that the subscribers
often delayed to pay, and often did not pay at all. The rea
son for the failure of all these papers is very obviously the
failure of the colored people to be interested enough to take
them. The highest number of subscribers for which recent
papers have appealed has been 10,000; the highest number
reached has not, probably, been half that ; yet the colored
population of the city alone has been 60,000 to 75,000. As
a rule, these papers have been well worthy of patronage. The
editorials are often admirable. But the field of such papers is
necessarily limited largely to the interests of the colored race,
for they cannot compete for general and telegraphic news with
the large, well supported city dailies. From week to week,
there is often little to record of special note ; and in several
cases, there has been much repetition of editorials and other
matter. Another probable reason for some of the lack of
public support, is that editorial jealousy and tendency to per
sonality has occasionally appeared. It is surely not elevating,
and, after a time, not interesting, to hear that a contemporary,
" a brilliant quill-driver," " takes the cake and several plates
of cream " for " downright mendacity, pusillanimity and sub
lime egotism," nor to hear another fellow editor called a
" thin and emaciated wind-shoveler." Again, some of these
42 Colored People of Maryland since the War. [388
papers have been wrecked in politics. One, for instance, spoke
bravely for the republican party until within a few days of
election, when it announced that, after mature deliberation,
it found the prohibition party to be the only one that recog
nized the negro as a citizen and a man ; was sorry it had not
changed before ; and could not further " stultify " its manhood
by supporting the republican candidate. Another paper be
came practically an out-and-out democratic paper ; thus los
ing, of course, the confidence of the mass of the colored
people. According to one very intelligent colored writer,
it died " a stench to decent-thinking people."
Some prominent colored men have said much for the estab
lishment and support of good colored papers, as a mark of
race power and progress, and as a means of manual and
intellectual training for colored youth. Several religious or
denominational papers have been for some years successfully
published by colored men in Baltimore ; but they do not appeal-
often, and are given largely to household reading. In con
clusion, — while the colored editors have, as a rule, deserved
great credit and greater patronage, it must be remembered that
they cannot compete with the white papers in the giving of
news. The press of to-day is a great public educator ; and it
may not be a mark of lack of progress that the colored man
prefers to give his pennies, in so far as he will read any paper,
for that which the white man next him is reading, which tells
best what is going on.1
1 A colored paper published, in 1885, a catechism, between the editor and
a youth :
Editor.— " What paper publishes our news in full?" Youth.— "The
Director."
E.—" That's right. By whom is it published ? " Y.— " By black men."
E—" Right, my boy. Who set the type ? " Y.—" Black boys.''
E.—" How perfect you are. Who should support it ? " Y.—" The col
ored people."
E. — " What does their support guarantee?" Y. — " Work for our boys
and girls."
389] Colored People of Maryland since the War. 43
The growth in religious work among the colored people of
Baltimore has been remarkable, and shows what that people
will do in work and give in money, when their interests are
aroused. Thus, the African Methodist Episcopal church,
with nearly 4,200 full members and some 500 probationers,
has nine societies with church property valued at over $200,-
000. Four of these have over $20,000 ; one of them, $75,000.
Again, the Methodist Episcopal church, with over 6,000 full
members and nearly 800 probationers, has eight societies with
property worth some $275,000, one society having $68,000
and another $91,000. Many of these societies, of both
churches, own parsonages beside. In some cases there are
debts on the church buildings, but the prosperous colored
societies seem to have little trouble in paying them oif. The
Methodist churches have long been influential among the col
ored people, and have large membership throughout the State.
Some of the Methodist Episcopal societies had white pastors, a
generation ago. One of these, which had 648 members and
property amounting to $8,000 in 1865, had grown to 1,000
members in 1886, with property worth $40,000, including a
large cemetery. More interesting than these older churches is
the recent growth of the Baptist church. In 1870, there were
two societies in Baltimore, one being very small. Soon, a
vigorous pastor began the building up of this small society, in
a central part of the city. The numbers increased, the work
spread, and then a Sunday school and mission work were
begun in an outlying street. Soon, the mission grew into a
separate society, which now numbers 800 members. In 1885,
nine members of this society, in turn, pushed further on, and
another society has grown up to over 200 members. Mean-
E— " What else does it show?" Y.— "Appreciation for colored enter
prise."
E.— " Have there been any other papers here ? " Y.— " There have."
E.— " Where are they ? " Y.— " Dead as Julius Caesar."
E.— " Who killed them ? " Y.— " The colored people/' Ac., Ac.
44 Colored Peopk of Maryland since the War. [390
dine, the parent church of all had sent forth another band of
twenty-seven, which in nine years has become nearly 900 and
has paid $10,000 for a church building. And during these eigh
teen years, the parent church has grown in membership from less
than 100 to 2,200, and has a church building worth $30,000
free from debt. Another Baptist society, ten years ago, con
sisted of ten persons, who met in a room over a carpenter's
shop. Now, it numbers 550, and has the finest church build
ing used by the colored people of Baltimore, which cost $35,-
000. Of this sum all but $3,000 is paid ; and all but $1,200
was raised from the colored people. To-day, the Baptists have
eight societies in Baltimore, with over 5,700 members. The
number of colored Baptists in the counties is very small.
The growth of the colored Presbyterians is another interesting
example. From some years before the war, there was a mission
supported by the First Presbyterian church, but by 1880 it
numbered only ninety members. Soon after, it became self-
supporting, and now numbers 215 ; while there are two other
societies, partly missionary, one with about seventy-five mem
bers, the other with about 125.
While the Baptists and Presbyterians have been thus grow
ing, and while the Roman Catholic and Episcopal churches
have increased their work — which is largely missionary —
among the colored people, there have been movements towards
wholesome changes in the other large colored churches. The
value of many of the old features of religious life is more and
more called in question. The old-time " shout/' the frenzy
which fastened upon one who "got religion," are passing
away as the old-time plantation has passed away. All the
ministers present at a district conference of the African Meth
odist Episcopal church, in 1887, voted for a resolution, offered
by one of the present young clergy of Baltimore, that camp
and bush-meetings, as carried on among their people, were not
productive of sufficient good to make amends for the evil
effects they had on the churches. These views are not yet
universal and are held more in city than in county, but the
391] Colored People of Maryland since the War. 45
whole body of the churches must become gradually touched
by the leaven of education. The influence of an enlightened
and progressive clergy cannot be overestimated. It is interest
ing to see how such men are the real leaders of the people, in
Baltimore. The piety and zeal of the old-time minister is
everywhere respected, but the one on whom his mantle falls,
who has been well educated and looks to the future rather than
from the past, will not be satisfied until his people have all
possible opportunities for better living.1
One work which the leaders should take up is the vigorous
spread of young men's Christian association rooms, for reading
and profitable enjoyment. One association has held weeks of
prayer and special meetings, and there have been a few associ
ations connected with churches or of a private nature. The
largest Baptist church has recently formed one of over 100
members, meeting weekly, who have distributed several thou
sand religious papers. A young pastor of one of the large
down-town churches preached on the need of reading and
meeting rooms, last year, with no response ; but, this year,
when he again urged the matter, considerable interest was
manifested. The barber shops and favorite street corners will
be crowded, of an afternoon, with the young men, many of
whom know the day's news and talk it over intelligently.2
A few of the older generation of colored men have long
been interested in associations for profitable enjoyment of a
literary or instructive nature. This interest spread widely, a
1 It is interesting to note that the Baptist and Presbyterian colored clergy
meet in conference and in preachers' meetings with the white clergy. The
work of the Koman Catholic and Episcopal churches here among the col
ored people has been done by white clergy. There are said to be over 3,000
colored Romanists in Baltimore and a number in Southern Maryland. The
work of the Episcopal church has been much advanced by the present
bishop of the diocese.
* A workingmen's club for young colored men was opened a few years
ago, under the lead of an energetic white Episcopal clergyman, but it had
not many members and did not survive his departure.
46 Colored People of Maryland since the War. [392
few years ago, until lyceums or " literaries " became fashion
able. There were no less than thirteen in Baltimore, and over
a half-dozen in the counties, mostly in the large towns. Of
those in Baltimore, one or two were private clubs or socials,
and two were connected with the Centenary Biblical Institute ;
the rest were a part of the church work, usually meeting Sun
day afternoons in the churches. Early in 1885, a literary
convention was held, of seventy-two delegates from nine of
the lyceums ; and in the Fall following, a permanent literary
union was formed, to meet twice a year, for literary exercises,
reports of progress, and general encouragement to instructive
work. In 1887, several Sunday evening meetings were held
by a number of the lyceums, together. But the movement
met with considerable opposition, especially from members of
the clergy. All approved, of course, any desire for education
and improvement, but many held that the lyceums, as con
ducted, did not lead to those ends, and were at the same time
injurious to church work. This opposition was probably least
strong in the Methodist Episcopal church, but even there,
nearly all the ministers at a local conference of colored clergy,
in 1888, agreed that the manner in which the literaries were
conducted tended to detract from public worship; and so
greater pains were taken to keep away from the Sunday meet
ings, any irrelevant or irreverent discussions. The result of
the experience of the last few years has been, in short, that
some of the lyceums have died, and that the surviving ones,
as a rule, have been improved. The Literary Union died,
also ; its death being hastened, possibly, by touches of the
spirit of rivalry among leaders and of the deadly influence of
politics. At present, there is but one purely literary society
connected with the Baptist churches, and that meets during
the week ; there is one, also meeting during the week, con
nected with a Presbyterian church ; there are Sunday after
noon meetings in five of the Methodist Episcopal churches,
held under the auspices of the lyceum of the society, but more
or less under the supervision of the pastor ; of the African
393] Colored People of Maryland since the War. 47
Methodist Episcopal churches, one or two have week-day
meetings, one only has the Sunday afternoon meeting. There
is one rather small lyceum at the Biblical Institute. These
Sunday meetings are very large, usually, and the exercises —
perhaps one should say, because the exercises — are of an enter
taining character, often including music, declamations, &c. It
is noticeable that the other meetings of the members of the
church lyceums, for debates and more purely educational fea
tures, are not so frequent or so well attended. In order to
unite the best workers in this movement for improvement,
there was organized, in 1885, the Monumental Literary and
Scientific Association. For a time it met at different churches,
but now meets, Tuesday evenings, at the Madison St. Presby
terian church. The actual membership is not large, some
sixty or seventy representative men and leaders of the colored
people, but the meetings are usually crowded with attentive
listeners. The paper or address of the evening is followed by
debate. The association is doing a great work.
As education increases, the old " literary," so-called, will
give way more and more to such really educational work.
Instead of laughing over a paper on the " Death of King
Pain by St. Jacob's Oil," or debating " Which is the more
attractive, beauty or manners?" or "Whether it was really a
whale that swallowed Jonah ? " the young men and women
are now discussing " The future of our boys and girls," or
" What is the cause of the anti-negro spirit in the United
States — his color, his past condition or his present condition ? "
or the merits and demerits of the Morgan emigration bill.
The daily paper now published in Baltimore by colored men
recently said — and this is a good example of many of the
admirable editorials which have been offered the colored peo
ple — " The literary associations of this city are doing much
toward enlightening the colored youth, but their work should
not stop with their weekly meetings for addresses, songs and
declamations. They should organize reading rooms, with the
best periodicals, newspapers and books, inviting the young
48 Colored People of Maryland since the War. [394
men and women to spend an evening in profitable reading.
The colored people of Baltimore ought to open and support at
least one large reading room upon the same basis as the Y.
M. C. Association Until our race learns to use such
means to enlighten the masses, the race problem can never be
solved." l
There is probably no city in the land where there are as
many societies among the colored people as in Baltimore.
And several of the large societies which have spread far and
wide, North and South, had their origin here. Nearly all the
societies are beneficial, but they may be divided in general
into two classes, those beneficial merely, and those with secret
features.
Among the things which the colored people dislike, are
very noticeably the public hospital, ante- or post-mortem sur
gical operations, and burial in potter's field. In order to help
one another in sickness and provide for decent burial, from a
system of small but regular payments, beneficial societies were
formed among little groups of acquaintances or fellow laborers.
In Baltimore, they date back to 1820, surely, and were after
wards, in the days of excitement over slavery, specially ex
empted from the state laws forbidding meetings of colored
people. Twenty-five at least had been formed before the
war; from 1860— 1870, seventeen or more were formed; since
1870 twenty or more have been added, several as late as
1884-5. There are now, thus, between sixty and seventy.
The number of members vary from a dozen to over a hun
dred ; often of men and women both, often of a group of
women connected with some church or denomination, or of
men in some particular work, as barbers or draymen, &c. In
1884, was held a meeting of many connected with these socie
ties, to rouse a more general interest in the work, and very
1 The Ledger, Feb. 15th, 1890.
395] Colored People of Maryland since the War. 49
interesting reports were presented. Forty of them gave an
aggregate membership of over 2,100. The numbers varied
from sixteen to 121, but as a rule were from thirty to sixty.
In the whole course of their work — and reports were very full
— nearly 1,400 members had been buried, over $45,000 having
been given for funeral expenses; $125,000 had been given as
sick dues ; $27,000 had been paid widows by some thirty of
the societies; over $10,700 had been given towards house
rent; and over $11,300 been paid for incidental expenses.
Yet there had been paid back to the members of many of the
societies, from unexpended balances, as dividends, a total of
over $40,000 ; and there remained in the banks, to the credit
of the societies, over $21,400, and in the treasurers' hands cash
balances amounting to some $1,400. Five had small sums
invested, besides ; and one, the goodly sum of $5,642. The
total amount of money handled by all had been nearly $290,000.
These societies vary somewhat in details. The usual fees
from members are fifty cents a month ; the usual benefits are
$4.00 a week for a number of weeks, and then reduced sums,
in sickness, and $40.00 for burial. Some pay as long as sick
ness lasts. Some give widows' dues from special assessments,
according to need. One, for example, the Friendly Beneficial
Society, organized chiefly by the members of a Baptist church,
some fifteen years ago, with the usual fees and benefits, carries
a standing fund of about Si, 000, and the yearly fees of the
members has paid the current expenses of from $300 to $500,
and has usually allowed an annual dividend of $5.00 to each.
The colored Barbers' Society, over fifty years old, required for
membership, originally, an experience of three years as appren
tice, but now, of two years as apprentice or of three years as
a ''boss" barber — in addition, always, to good recommenda
tions. The fees and benefits are the usual ones, save that $80
is given at the death of a member, for funeral and other
expenses. Attendance at meetings, held quarterly, is required
under penalty of a small fine. Dividends have been declared
from time to time. Three societies, originally very large, have
50 Colored People of Maryland since the War. [396
been gotten up in the last twenty years by one colored woman,
whose name one of them bears. The constitution of one of
these, for example, opens with a preamble in which the mem
bers agree, " as a band of sisters/7 to unite for mutual relief
in sickness and death. Besides the ordinary officers, there are
to be six managers and twelve stewards. The former receive
the dues, and visit the sick members within twenty-four hours
after receiving notice of illness, see that stewards are appointed
for special care of the sick, and make every arrangement for a
decent and timely burial of deceased members. Members who
are receiving sick benefits must be under the care of a suitable
physician, and are entitled to $4.00 a week for eight weeks,
and then to $2.00 a week for eight weeks, when further aid rests
in the discretion of the society. The dues are fifty-one cents a
month ; but members must be of good health and morals. A
member becomes entitled to benefits after four months of
regular payment of dues. The funeral benefit is $40, which is
paid the family in all cases, for one might be a member
of several societies and the benefit from anyone of them would
give a proper burial. At burials, the members are expected,
under penalty of fine except when excused, to assemble in
regulation dress, of black dress, shawl and gloves, with lead-
colored bonnet and trimming, and white cuffs. The society
will follow no other in funeral processions. Some of the other
societies, as the " Union Star of the Rising Generation," do not
compel a general attendance at funerals, a special committee
being chosen to represent the society.
A few of these beneficial societies have disbanded, a few
have changed to secret societies. Very few of them have been
badly managed — although unincorporated and without any
public oversight — and everybody seems to speak well of them
and of their work. One colored woman, for instance, belongs
to five; in one family, in another part of the city, the husband
belongs to four, the wife to four, and the daughter to one. It is
said that one woman, who was instrumental in forming many,
belonged to eleven when she died • and that another belonged
397J Colored People of Maryland since the War. 51
to fourteen, and received sick benefits amounting to some
$50.00 a week, at one time. Yet new societies do not seem to
be growing up in any number, and in most of the old ones the
membership has fallen off. This may partly be accounted for
by the fact that members are chosen with some care, and that
they can come in without paying an admission fee only when,
as after dividends have been declared, the financial standing of
all is the same. It is likely, however, that persons have been
more attracted to the secret societies, and to the legally incor
porated beneficial associations, which have more recently been
formed.1
Secret societies among the colored people are now very
numerous. The most important ones date back to before the
war. The colored Masons and Independent Order of Odd
Fellows do practically the same work as the whites, but the
organizations are entirely independent of the whites here, the
colored men having been obliged, from the state of public
feeling in the United States in the old days, to get their
charter from the white brethren in England. The colored
Masons have increased in Maryland. In 1884, there were
nearly 500, now there are probably 700, mostly in Baltimore.
The Independent Order of Odd Fellows is much larger, fifty
lodges out of the seventy-seven working ones, giving a mem
bership of over 2,300. The absence of reports makes estimates
of little worth, but it is not likely that the order has grown
as much, in proportion, as the Masons. The fifty lodges
mentioned had, during the past two years, aided their sick,
1 Connected with one of the Baptist churches is a society of some twenty-
five young women, which has a banking committee to receive and invest
all sums deposited by members. The money is subject to call, together with
any interest accrued to it. When one of the members marries, a general
assessment of twenty cents is levied, for a fund for the bride. There is also
a sinking-fund society, with some sixty members, who are encouraged
to save small sums which would be spent often in profitless ways, and who
thus find reasonable sums to their credit at Christmas or other special
occasions.
52 Colored People of Maryland since the War. [398
buried eighty-three brothers, and relieved seventy-seven
widows and seventy orphans, at a total expenditure of over
$13,000. The order held real estate worth $18,500, and
had over $10,000 in cash. About ten years ago, the ranks of
the Odd Fellows split, the discontented wing starting the
National Progressive Order of Odd Fellows, an entirely
independent organization, managed by its members without
any trouble or expense by reason of conventions or "com
mittees of management'7 elsewhere. This order now numbers
about 1,500, the last five years showing a small increase.
They are mostly in Baltimore. The property of the order is
over $5,000, a considerable increase. The dues and benefits
are mostly like those of the beneficial societies, but in addition,
$20 is paid a member on the death of his wife, and $10 or $15
on the death of a child.
Of the secret societies peculiar to, or originating in, Balti
more, the most influential are the Samaritans, the Nazarites,
the Galilean Fishermen, the Wise Men. The first two were
instituted some years before the War. The first has spread
from Baltimore, during the forty years of its existence, to a
number of states ; but a third of all the lodges and nearly a
third of all the members are in Maryland. About one half
of the order are women, Daughters of Samaria, and they meet
by themselves in their own lodges, in the afternoons, except
occasionally in the country, where they cannot well meet in
the day time. There are now in Maryland, fifty-eight lodges,
with a membership of 1,925, a slight gain over the preceding
year, but apparently a considerable loss in the past six or
eight years. The order has held a building, Samaritan
Temple, for some years, but with some difficulty, evidently.
During the past year, the lodges in Maryland have paid out
nearly $5,000, have invested over $4,000 and hold over
$10,000 in property and cash. The Nazarites are almost all
in Maryland, mostly in Baltimore, and now number about
900 men, in twenty "pastures," and over 1,600 women in
twenty-one "courts." During the last few years there has
399] Colored People of Maryland since the War. 53
been a decrease of about a hundred in the men, and an increase
of women by several hundred. The order does not own much
property, but has $25,000 in the bank. Like the Samaritans,
it requires a membership of six months before benefits are
given, and a year of non-payment of dues makes one liable
to suspension. After some weeks of non-payment, a member
becomes unfinancial. The Nazarites do not pay sick benefits,
as a rule, for more than sixteen weeks a year. The order of
Galilean Fishermen, of men and women together, was begun
in Baltimore, in 1856, by a handful of earnest workers. It
was legally incorporated in Maryland in 1869, and has since
spread in large numbers, far and wide ; becoming apparently
the largest society among the colored people. In Maryland,
a few years ago, it was not as large as the Samaritan order ;
in 1884, there were eighteen adult tabernacles of 2,269 mem
bers, holding but little over $2,000 in the bank. Of these,
all but 259 were in Baltimore. Since then, a building for
meetings and a general headquarters of the order has been
erected, the Galilean Temple; many members have been added;
and the order has become influential. It is said to number
now over 5,000 in Maryland, and a few disaffected members
are forming an independent order. The order of Seven Wise
Men is a more recent order, having now, mostly in Baltimore,
some two thousand or more members, about equally divided
between men and women, meeting in lodges and " households,"
separately. In one year, recently, this order buried twenty-
four members, and relieved 201, paying out altogether $4,300,
and having left some $2,000 in property and $4,175 in
cash.
These are the largest societies only ; there are many more
of the same secret-beneficial nature that might be given, as
the Sons and Daughters of Moses, Sons and Daughters of
Ezekiel, Queens of Night, Hosts of Israel, the order of True
Reformers, &c., &c. Among the families and friends of
members of societies which do not include women, a number
of societies have been formed, auxiliary to or more or less
5
54 Colored People of Maryland since the War. [400
dependent on the others. Thus, the Queen Esther's House
holds are connected with one branch of the Odd Fellows ; the
Sisterhood of Miriam with the other ; and there is an auxiliary
body to further the beneficial work of the Masons. Many
societies also have juvenile branches, with a system of small
dues and benefits, and of promotion of members, at a certain
age, to the adult bodies. Thus the Galileans have several
juvenile tabernacles ; the Nazarites have nearly 600 " ewes,"
as the children are called, under the case of special " shepherd
esses;" the Wise Men have some 500 children; the Samaritans
recently had nineteen lodges, but the number of children was
not very large. The various temperance societies have done
considerable work among the young.
The secret features or peculiar ceremonies in these societies,
vary from the few sisters in colored capes who say the ritual at
the coffin of a deceased member, to the anniversary procession
of the Galilean Fishermen, a few years ago, in which — consist
ing of over a thousand members in full regalia — were the
Bishops commandery, the Gideonites commandery, the Priest
hood of twelve persons, representing the tribes of Israel, each
bearing a white stone on which the name of the tribe was cut,
and 500 Virgins of the Ascension, with white dresses and veils
and with purple streamers about the waist, with the Ark of the
Covenant in their midst.
\Ve may disapprove of such secret societies, but we must .
remember that secret rites and ceremonial displays are not
peculiar to any one race or color. The colored people, indeed,
are peculiarly imitative. It was natural that many of them
should be attracted by comradeship, and by display and
secrecy alike. The larger societies seem to have thrown their
doors wide open ; one has just advertised in the paper for
25,000 recruits from one year of age to seventy-five.1 A few
years since, societies were very fashionable and popular. At
• The Galilean Fishermen.
401] Colored People of Maryland since the War. 55
a meeting of the colored clergy of Baltimore, about ten years
ago — when occasional meetings were held for the discussion
of non-sectarian matters of interest — the question was raised,
not without some opposition, that secret societies were not
beneficial to the people. Only three of the clergy present
were opposed to them. It is now the opinion of many
intelligent colored men that the societies are not as popular as
they were ; surely, if the clergymen were again called on, as
to the benefit of them to the colored race, a goodly number
would oppose them altogether, a majority would oppose all
expenditure of time and money in useless forms and show.
Many of the most well-to-do, influential and intelligent
colored men have no sympathy with them, as they have been
carried on.
The chief criticisms against the secret societies by those
who have no part in them, are that much money is uselessly
spent, and that morality and the progress of the race are not
really advanced. It may please some to feel that their little
lodge in Maryland may secure charters from some " committee
of management " elsewhere, or may be represented by delegates
in a national council at Chicago, but these things cost money
and no hard-working individual in Maryland is bettered
thereby. Ministers will often bear witness to the fact that
lodge meeting will draw from prayer meeting, and lodge
expenses from church offerings. Many of the better class
of colored women oppose meetings for women at night, and
any general mingling of men and women, as in some of these
large orders. There are direct charges that persons of bad
character are not rigidly excluded. A colored preacher said,
in a sermon to a number of benevolent societies in 1884: —
the secret societies have proven themselves useful, but they
are burdened with some of low morality ; you say, let these
alone, perhaps they will change, but you have waited long,
and they don't change ! In a few cases, there may be some
ground for complaint that the management has been bad ;
56 Colored People of Maryland since the War. [402
but this would seem in part due to a fault of the members in
trusting too much and too long, without demanding business
like methods and reports.
Already many wholesome changes in these secret societies
have been quietly going on. A few years ago, there were
the street parades and ostentatious funeral processions — when
the death of a member occasionally, said a colored man with
a smile, was a God-send to a society; there were sermons
constantly being preached to special bodies, calling out the
young and old of both sexes on Sunday night, in expensive
regalia. All this has been much given up ; and there is every
reason to believe that experience and education will have the
same effect here that they have had in the religious life of the
colored people, that useless forms will be thrown more and
more aside. In as far as the societies can become purely
beneficial, with strict business management, in so far they
will meet the approval of all, and be of the greatest help
to the race.
Several regularly incorporated mutual aid associations
in Baltimore are being well patronized by colored people.
The largest one, the Baltimore Mutual Aid Society, has
thousands of colored subscribers, and employs several colored
agents. In 1885 was incorporated the colored Mutual Bene
ficial Association — the only one in the State — entirely managed
by colored men, with a colored doctor, and a prominent col
ored lawyer for counsel. It is endorsed by all the clergy,
has grown rapidly, and proven itself worthy of the sup
port of the people. The sick benefits vary, according to
the weekly payments and to age, from seventy-five cents to
§7.00 a week, but not for more than twenty weeks in any
one year ; the funeral benefit from §8.00 to $60.00. In these
first few years, some $10,000 has been paid out in benefits.
The sworn statement recently filed in the office of the State
insurance commissioner, shows that, during the past year, the
number of deaths has been nine, and of members claiming
403] Colored People of Maryland since the War. 57
sick benefits, 203 ; while the total number of members was
2,909, a very large increase.1
There are a considerable number of colored men in the
Grand Army of the Republic, in Baltimore. They form
several posts by themselves ; but no color line is drawn in
the sessions of the department of Maryland, and colored men
are represented on the committee of administration ; while one
colored man of Baltimore is now on the staff of the national
commander-in-chief of the Grand Army.
Social life among the colored people is very much like that
among the whites, only on a smaller scale ; a reflection of the
larger world about them. There are the small fashionable
groups ; there are the large masses who are out of fashion.
There are the prosperous and unpretentious, and the poor and
showy. Among some, in fashionable circles, we find New
Year receptions, at which visitors are received in full dress,
and cake and wines are served. A few privileged daughters
are brought out into society by a party or reception. At one
party, for instance, the dresses were elaborate and many flowers
were worn ; the men were mostly in full dress with button-hole
bouquets ; and a supper was served at midnight. Assemblies
are also frequently held, usually given under the management
of some social club, in a public hall, with entrance open to all
who purchase tickets. To one of these, so we read, fully
two-thirds of the guests came in carriages, and flowers were
abundant. The society columns of the colored papers have
often had elaborate accounts of the toilets at these assemblies
1 Regularity in payment of dues is strictly enjoined. There are special
provisions for cases of total disability. No benefits are given in cases of
confinement, diseases peculiar to women or venerial troubles; nor at death
from suicide, under the law, or from military service, &c. The only
objection heard against the mutual aid societies is that they are inclined
to take advantage of technicalities in their favor, sometimes to the
injury of a worthy applicant for aid.
58 Colored People of Maryland since the War. [404
and receptions. Nor does gaiety, in these circles, even stop
with the Spring, for we read of visitors to Atlantic City,
Newport, and even Bar Harbor, and of a reception in evening
dress at a summer resort in Western Maryland. This is all
among a favored few only. At the other and larger extreme
of social life, there are the little entertainments given in order
to raise a few dollars for charity or pay off some house rent ;
and further back still, the " cake-walk " and other diversions
of a ruder kind, which come from the old plantation days.
Picnics and excursions have always been held in Summer, but
these are usually connected with some church or other society.
One thing peculiar to the colored people was the popularity,
a few years ago, of small social clubs. There were probably
150 of these in Baltimore, with an average membership of
twenty or thereabouts. The names were various : Golden
Anchor, Montebello, Immaculate Conception, Mexican Cro
quet, Amphion Pleasure, Christian Leaf, Entre Nous, Ne
Plus Ultra, Nonpareil, Private Waiters, &c. A few have had
club-rooms, and several have had some system of friendly or
beneficial work, but they met, as a rule, in private houses, and
were for pleasure only. Sometimes, sermons were preached to
them ; one Sunday night, for instance, eighteen of them
attended a special service. They frequently gave parties and
promenades as benefits for their own members. At one, some
400 persons were present, representing fifteen or more clubs.
Another club, of only eleven members, sold 1,000 tickets to
an entertainment. Another gave a yearly concert and prome
nade, at which prizes — on one occasion, a silver cup and a
plush album — were awarded to the best promenaders. On
one programme were twenty promenades, led by leaders of
twenty clubs respectively. At one of the most elaborate recep
tions, there was a crowd of men and boys selling flowers about
the entrance, there were the conveniences of dressing-rooms,
with checks, there were visitors from out of town, the orchestra
was large, and the supper included oysters, croquettes and
peas, salad, Roman punch, ices, fruits, wines and coffee.
405] Colored People of Maryland since the War. 59
It is no wonder that many old heads among the colored
people, and some of the young heads, too, looked with regret
on the great expense, the late hours, and the many temptations
to careless living, which were fostered by these socials and
promenades. Some of the clergy preached against them, and
wholesome advice was given both by editorials and communi
cations in the colored weekly, at that time, the Star. One
vigorous writer — known to be a prominent and intelligent
man — under the nomme-de-plume of Uncle Zeke, said that
these social pleasures were afast becoming a curse to our
young people," and calculated that some $56,000 were wasted
in money every Winter in halls, dresses, hacks, music, refresh
ment, &c., by the 300 or more promenades given. Besides,
he added, " millions lost in health and character " — and yet,
in spite of all this, our people whine at being poor !
In this respect, again, the strong influence of the clergy and
intelligent leaders, ambitious for the race, seems to be bearing
fruit in a general progress. The expensive social and the
promenade are less popular, and the entertainments and pic
nics that are held are, as a rule, more creditable. The cake-
walks and clrum-corp matches — and there were nine colored
drum-corps, a few years ago — used often to end with necessary
interference of the police, and the patrol-wagon has sometimes
been summoned to the assembly halls. One who has for years
played a violin at dances of the colored people, recalls, with a
laugh, how he often had to retreat for safety beneath the stage,
and bears witness to the improvement, now. But there is still
vast room for improvement.
There are clubs and socials, of course, which have been
useful as well as pleasant. One, for instance, became a pub
lishing company, to encourage one of the colored papers, and
thus exert at large an influence for good ; another is connected
with a church society and gives musical and literary evenings.
Some of these have done good church work. There are also
several musical clubs or associations, of not large member
ship ; one of which, of some fifteen male voices, has given one
60 Colored People of Maryland since the War. [406
or two good concerts. There is one colored orchestra of eight
or ten pieces, which does quite a good business in playing for
assemblies; and there are several bands, one of them being
quite well known. There are in Baltimore several professional
organists and music teachers, reflecting considerable credit on
the colored race ; and organ recitals have been given in several
churches. There have also been one or two dramatic clubs.
One of these, in 1888, gave a public performance of Othello.
Prominent in the best social life of the colored people are
their clergy, and their professional class, their doctors, lawyers
and school-teachers, a class of educated and progressive men,
as a rule, just now growing up in Maryland.
The public libraries in Baltimore are open to the colored
people. And tickets for seats in the galleries of the theatres
are usually sold them, the rule being in all cases that whites
only are admitted to the floor. But hotels and restaurants
patronized by whites will not serve colored persons, except
the railway restaurants. When a colored clergyman of Balti
more was refused food at the Relay House station, and com
plained to the president of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad,
several years ago, he was assured that the attendants had
acted without orders, and should be reprimanded. Some
little complaint has been made by respectable colored men
against the discrimination between white and colored citizens
in the city park, in that the lessees of the restaurant will serve
the latter only at a stand without the restaurants. In such
matters as these, however, the complaint of the colored people
usually runs against a high wall, of strong and widely spread
public sentiment against any changes.
The slave-code, as we saw, was wiped out of the statute
books, in 1867, together with some of the laws which had
grown up with it, discriminating against all persons of color.
There still remained some of these laws, together with much
old custom and old ways of thinking.
407] Colored People of Maryland since the War. 61
Before noting the important steps by which these laws and
customs have been done away or modified, it is important to
understand plainly that the leading colored men, while zealous
for the abolition of all race discrimination, have clearly recog
nized that civil equality and social equality are two entirely
different things, and that the latter cannot be brought within
the sphere of legislation. It is evident to anyone, be he white
or colored, who looks about him and thinks of what he sees,
that social matters must always be regulated by individual
taste. Though Alderman White and Alderman O'Harrity
have desks in the same room in a New England city hall,
there is no social equality, or obligation even, created between
them thereby — beyond the ordinary politeness which every
gentleman will show to a fellow man who may be near
him. Said one of the first colored political leaders, to the
republican state convention in 1867 : "You talk about equality
— I recognize political equality ; there is no such thing as
social equality or moral equality. A man makes his equality
in proportion as he studies, reads and learns. I am glad to
see the day that colored and white can associate in the same
terms of political equality — I hope there is nobody in the
audience that is afraid of the great bear of social equality.
When there is a special affinity between the intellectual powers
of the white and black man, they will be one socially." And,
he added, the poor man sits beside the millionaire in the car
but that does not make him the social equal. " The negroes
do not ask for any special laws," wrote a prominent and
progressive clergyman of Baltimore, twenty years later ; " we
only ask that the laws that be, be applied equally to all. We
don't want any social rights. There are plenty of black people
and white ones I would not allow to enter my house." The
colored people, said an editorial in a colored paper, never did
demand social rights; they "are building up their own social
circle." " Many evil disposed white people," said a promi
nent colored lawyer of Baltimore to a large gathering of his
people, in 1888, "distort the efforts for civil and legal rights
62 Colored People of Maryland since the War. [408
of colored people into a clamor for social equality, thus engen
dering prejudice to our cause. Colored people no more
demand social equality than do white people desire it. I
have seen white men that I would not let black my boots.
No legislature enactment can or ought to regulate social mat
ters. Animals have their choice and preference; why not
men ? " And but a few weeks since, a committee of an influ
ential body of colored citizens of Baltimore, in presenting to
his honor the mayor and one or two prominent citizens a book
on the injustice of race discrimination, again bore witness to
the fact that they asked for the fullest recognition of civil rights
alone, which was not to be confounded with social rights.
The two, they said, " stand widely apart.''
In 1867, Chief Justice Chase, of the Supreme Court of the
United States, in the case of a young colored girl, declared
null and void the old law of Maryland which did not require
the master of a colored apprentice to have any education given,
while masters of white apprentices had to have them taught
a certain rudimentary knowledge of reading, writing and
arithmetic. Also, Judge Giles, of the district court in Balti
more, protected several colored men, of Kent and Anne Artm-
del counties, in the exercise of the suffrage ; holding that while
the right to vote was not given in the fifteenth amendment
to the Constitution, the right not to be discriminated against,
from race or color, was certainly conveyed.1 But the first
step of great interest, was the abolition of discrimination in
the use of the horse-cars.
Colored people had been allowed to ride only on the front
platforms of the cars. There was no protection there from
bad weather, and no seat — excepting when, as is said to have
occasionally happened, a good-natured driver would give his
stool to some old or feeble colored person. Yet the fare was
the same. If a colored woman, however, were attending her
1 1st Abbot, 87. Cases of U. 8. r.s. Mason and U. S. vs. Shumaker, Boone
et als.
409] Colored People of Maryland since the War. 63
mistress or carried a white child, she could enter the car freely ;
and there are cases known in which a colored woman who had
long distances to go would borrow a white child, to entitle
her to a seat. So the custom of the community remained —
and there was probably little thought about it — until early
in 1870, a colored man from New York quietly sat down in
a Baltimore street-car, was thereupon ejected, and therefore
entered suit against the railway company, in the United States
court. Damages were awarded in the sum of $10, the court
— Judge Giles — holding that the companies might provide
separate cars or compartments, with reasonable equality of
accommodations, but had no right to discriminate as had been
done, between passengers who were orderly and offered to pay
their fare. The railway company at once put on a number of
cars marked " colored persons admitted into this car." " We
advise all our colored citizens," said the republican organ, the
American, next day, " for the present to be satisfied with the
provisions that have been made for their transportation, and
not to insist on what very probably is their legal right — to
ride in any car. . . . Before six months pass by, the red-
lettered labels, will have disappeared from our streets." The
separate cars did not bring about what was intended, for many
whites, rather than lose time on the street corner, took the
first car, whether colored persons were in it or not. Within a
week, a resolution was introduced in the city council, to forbid
whites from riding in the cars marked for blacks ; and the
old straw of slavery and of divine separation of races was
thrashed over by one or two members — but it amounted to
nothing more than a reference of the resolution to the com-
o
mittee on railways. Other street lines that were started made
no distinction between orderly passengers. Finally, in less
than a year, a colored man from Virginia, on being ejected
from one of the ordinary cars of the old company, brought
suit against it for $2,500 in the United States circuit court.
The testimony brought out the interesting facts, from officers
of the company, that four out of fifteen cars were then being
64 Colored People of Maryland since the War. [410
run for colored people, and that of the passengers who rode
in these cars, specially marked, ninety-six out of every hun
dred were white. The question as argued was chiefly of fact,
as to the conveniences afforded the blacks, following the
previous decision of Judge Giles ; and the court, Judges Giles
and Bond, charged that if the plaintiff was refused transpor
tation because of his color, after having offered to pay his
fare, he could recover reasonable damages. The jury gave
him $40. Thereupon, the red-lettered signs came down, and
all the cars have since been open to all orderly passengers.
Such is now the custom, and people apparently think no more
of it than they did of some other customs, years ago.1
In 1882, the State Medical and Chirurgical Faculty ad
mitted colored doctors, and there are now three colored doctors
in Baltimore members of it. A leader among them bears
witness to the professional courtesy with which he is treated
by the white doctors. Several have offered the facilities of
their laboratories to him ; consultations have been freely given
when asked ; and he is soon to present a report on a matter of
interest at a meeting of the Faculty. Altogether, there are
six colored doctors in Baltimore, two of them new comers,
and at least two well known ones outside — one in Annapolis
and one on the Eastern Shore. The most striking fact is that
those of them who have received a college or university med
ical-school education have had to get it outside of Maryland.
One comes from the Harvard Medical School, another comes
back to his birth-place from the Howard Medical School at
Washington, a third comes recently with high honor from
Michigan University at Ann Harbor ; but no medical college
in Maryland has as yet opened its doors to a colored student.
Many of the medical students in Baltimore are of Southern
birth and bringing up. One colored student has recently been
refused admittance to the University of Maryland School, and
See papers for April 28-May 3, 1870; Nov. 11, &c., 1871.
411] Colored People of Maryland since the War. 65
has gone, at considerable expense, to a Northern school. It
is not likely, however, that this discrimination will last. The
medical instruction of the great Johns Hopkins foundation
will be open to all ; and there are some influential members
of the management of the University of Maryland who feel
that the profession of medicine is too high and beneficial a
calling to know any narrow bounds.1 There is also, as yet, no
dental school at which colored men can study here. There
were formerly two colored dentists, one of whom came from
Liberia. Now there are three, who have gotten their education
or experience by pluck and observation. One was assistant
for six years to a white dentist, who gave him regular instruc
tion ; one was for years the janitor in the dental college ; the
third was also employed in a dental office. All of them now
have certificates of recognition from the Maryland Dental
Association. The colored people patronize both white and
colored dentists. And, it is interesting to add in conclusion,
the leading colored doctors have had not a few white patients,
notably Germans. The doctors and dentists here mentioned
devote themselves exclusively to their professions.
For several years after the war, colored organizations could
not carry fire-arms in Baltimore, and the right was afterwards
taken away, after an affair between a colored company and a
crowd of bystanders on the streets. The laws limited the
militia to whites, for years, but there are now three independent
colored companies on the rolls, two of them in Baltimore.
They encamp by themselves. One company — so report goes —
was the result of some political work. The brigade officers
have spoken well of the drilling of some of them.
There has been no system of discrimination between whites
and blacks, on the steam railroads in Maryland. But the
1 At a mass meeting of colored people, in 1873, resolutions of gratitude
were passed, to Johns Hopkins, for his great gifts to the public, in which
white and colored were both to share. Every man and woman rose as the
vote was taken, that " we will teach our children to do honor to his memory
when we shall have passed away."
66 Colored People of Maryland since the War. [412
right to use some regulation, within the State, has been recog
nized by the United States court here. When, in 1876, some
colored excursionists on the Baltimore & Ohio R. E-. were
ordered — with some rough language on the part of a local
official — from the cars of a regular train into cars specially
put on for the picnic, suits were brought against the rail
road by eighteen of them, for damages of $500 each,
under the supplementary civil rights act of the preced
ing year, for being refused admission to a car with white
passengers, and compelled to occupy a separate and inferior
car. Judge Giles decided the matter against them, on con
stitutional grounds — calling attention to the difference between
these cases and the horse-car cases, in which the plaintiffs had
not been citizens of Maryland — holding that, in accord with
recent decisions of the Supreme Court, the privilege of using
any public conveyance, for local travel in a State, was not a
right belonging to a citizen of the United States, as such.1
When the article forbidding intermarriage of free negroes
and whites was wiped out of the code, in 1867, with many
of the " black " Lws, a member of the house of delegates
obtained leave to introduce a bill for another law of the same
purport — but no law was enacted. In 1884, however, all
marriages between whites and those of negro descent to the
third generation inclusive, were prohibited under penalty of
imprisonment for from eighteen months to ten years. There
does not seem to have been any special call for the law at that
time ; on the other hand, there was little opposition to its
passage in the assembly.2 But in December, 1886, nearly
three years after, a case under this law was brought before the
circuit court of Washington county, in Western Maryland.
For some years a colored man and a white woman, with
1 1 Hughes, 536.
2 The vote was 14 to 4 in the senate, and 61 to 12 in the house. It is
said that the marriage of Mr. Frederick Douglass to a white woman, though
in no way connected with Maryland, caused the introduction of the bill.
413] Colored People of Maryland since the War. 67
several children, had been living together, when the man
determined, led partly if not wholly by the influence of
religion, to have the sanction of marriage to their relations.
On being married they were indicted, and the court gave them
eighteen months imprisonment, the lightest possible sentence.
This case created considerable feeling among the colored clergy
and others throughout the State. A large meeting was held
in Baltimore, and several prominent colored men wrote at
length in the papers and in addresses, for a movement for the
repeal of the law. A petition for the pardon of the offenders,
signed by a few white clergymen also, was presented by a com
mittee to the governor ; but a pardon was not granted.
It is important to note that the colored leaders desired a repeal
of this law, as of all such laws, not on grounds of social
equality, but chiefly because they thought it a race discrimi
nation, and a cloak for immoral living. Said one speaker, at a
large meeting, a clergyman : " It is as unpleasant for a high-
minded colored person to discuss this question of intermarrying
as it is for a high-minded white person. Intermarriage after
the law shall have been repealed will be a matter of selection,
and there is no just reason why anybody should be offended.
Our object is to make it respectable. The white people have
mingled with us in the dark, but when we want to bring the
clear light of day upon such things . . . they are shocked."
The leading colored paper in Baltimore, edited by a prominent
man of the younger men, opposed intermarriage of the races,
with a belief in the excellence of the colored women, but urged
his people to raise again, and increase, their efforts for a repeal
of all " black " laws. " Shall this man and woman," he asked,
"for obeying God's behest, to enter into clean, pure, sacred
matrimony, be permitted to suffer martyrdom, and we remain
in masterly inactivity ? " It is doubtful if the agitation accom
plished anything, considering the present state of public senti
ment on such questions.1
1 A white man of Annapolis is now awaiting trial for marrying, recently,
a colored woman.
68 Colored People of Maryland since the War. [414
In the old days, such a thing as a colored juror was not
dreamed of, for the testimony, even, of a colored man would
not be received in a case in which any white person was inter
ested. Since 1867, the juries had been selected from two lists,
one of " white male taxables," the other of all the names on
the poll-books used at elections. All colored voters were on
the latter list, of course ; but nothing in the law prescribed
who should, and who should not, be selected out of these lists,
and the officials who made the selections very naturally fol
lowed their inclinations, which, as a rule, were opposed to
giving to colored persons any more recognition than necessary.
As time went on, colored men were taken on the juries, more
or less, in some counties ; in Baltimore there have been some
excellent colored jurors. In some counties, on the other hand,
none but white men had ever been drawn. The first colored
juror, for instance, in Anne Arundel county, is said to have
served in 1880. In 1885, the counsel for a colored man
under trial for a very heinous assault on a white woman,
in Baltimore county — adjoining Baltimore city — tried to
remove the case to the United States circuit court, on the
ground that there was a partial exclusion of colored men from
the jury box, by the laws of Maryland, and that, on account
of color, no colored man had ever been drawn in that county.
The criminal court of the city, to which the case had been
removed in order to avoid the strong popular feeling in the
county, denied the motion for removal. This opinion was
sustained by the court of appeals ; which said that if the law
required jurors to be drawn from the list of white taxables
only, the objection of the counsel would be good, but the taxa
bles were all on the poll list, and so it was practically the poll
list from which jurors were drawn. As to which of the races
would preponderate on a jury, would depend on the official
judgment as to which had the highest standard of the " intelli
gence, sobriety and integrity " called for in the law.s. To put
colored men on juries because of color, would be a violation of
law, as well as to exclude them therefor. Some of the colored
415] Colored People of Maryland since the War. 69
leaders, anxious to have the jury law tested by the highest
tribunal, set about to raise the necessary sum — about $50.00 —
for entering the case in the United States Supreme Court. But
the matter was not quickly pushed ; the advisability of action in
this case was questioned by some — and the very day that the
money was finally handed the prisoner's counsel, but a few
days before the time of execution under the sentence, the man
was taken from the county jail by a mob and lynched. The
chief cause of any difference of opinion among the colored
people as to the appeal, was that public sentiment might mis
understand the movement for one of sympathy for the accused
man. It would be better, said a colored paper of Baltimore,
to take up some case of larceny for a test, than one in which the
crime was so horrible and the proof of guilt so plain. The
leaders of the movement, while zealous against any race dis
crimination, urged that they had no desire to shield a man
properly convicted of crime.1
A very intelligent colored man, who has served as a grand
juror, states that little is usually said about any person under
suspicion, before some juror asks the question : " Is he white or
colored ? " In what way, ask the colored people, does the
color of a man's skin enter into guilt ? The fact is, not that
the average juror would be, or will be, prejudiced, but that
customs cannot be quickly changed — as political conditions,
for instance, may be revolutionized. No one can deny the
existence of race prejudice in certain cases, notably those of
felonious assault by blacks. And it is believed that, in the
counties especially, in previous years, many a young colored
fellow has been sent to jail or penitentiary for some petty theft,
where a white man would have been handled lightly. On the
other hand, there has been a large class of more or less idle
blacks ; and the propensity of the race to pilfer is well known.
But in how far, again, the white man has been responsible for
this class of blacks, is not an easy question to answer. Until
1 64 Md. Reports, 40.
6
70 Colored People of Maryland since the War. [416
the opening of the reformatory at Cheltenham, colored boys
were sent to prison or the jails. And that valuable institution
would never have been opened, if it had not been for the
Prisoner's Aid Society and a number of white subscribers,
of Baltimore, largely republicans by politics.1
But the colored papers, while looking for a day when all
men in public station shall be color blind, have been able to
note, from time to time, such cases as that on the Eastern
Shore, in which a white man not only got the contempt of the
better classes in the community but was fined some $15, by a
magistrate, for striking a very respectable colored woman with
a whip ; or that of another colored women who received a slap
in the face and other indignities from a white man — against
whom she was entering a complaint for a previous assault —
and who was awarded $1,000 by a jury in the United States
district court ; or, again, the interesting fact that of the few
cases brought, for some time, in Baltimore, under the new law
prescribing a sound whipping for men convicted of wife beat
ing, two had been white and one colored.2 And in 1889, a
young white man, of well-to-do parents, was sent to Baltimore
jail for several mouths, for a common assault on a rather
degraded colored girl.
Early in 1885, suit was brought in the U. S. district court
by six colored persons against the steamer Sue for unjust dis
crimination on account of color, in that, holding first-class
tickets, they were forced into inferior cabins. The court stated
that there were two issues, one of law, as to whether owners
could separate passengers for any reason on account of color,
and one of fact, as to whether the separate cabins were equal
in comfort and convenience. It was a matter of interstate
commerce, for the boat took them to Virginia, but as congress
1 For these various reasons, and from the danger of dealing, in general,
with mere tables of figures, it is believed that no facts of great value will
be gotten from comparisons of jail and prison reports. The charity organ
ization of Baltimore is little troubled by colored persons.
8 1885.
417] Colored People of Maryland since the War. 71
had refrained from legislation on it, owners were allowed, by
decisions of the Supreme Court, to adopt such reasonable regu
lations as local laws permitted. The leaning of the Supreme
Court had been that, to some extent and under certain circum
stances, a separation of the races was allowable. The common
law said that the regulations made by carriers must be reason
able and tend to the comfort and safety of the passengers
generally, and that equal accommodations in comfort and
safety must be offered to all who pay the same price. Steam
boat men had stated that it was customary to separate the
races, on all night boats on the bay, and that the great
majority of passengers would demand this. Testimony had
also shown that the cabin to which the plaintiffs were allotted
was much inferior to the cabin for first-class whites. " The
separation of the colored from the white passengers, solely on
the ground of race and color, goes to the verge of the carrier's
legal right, and such a regulation cannot be upheld unless bona
fide and diligently the officers of the ship see to it that the
separation is free from any actual discrimination in comfort or
attention." So saying, the court awarded the plaintiffs $100
each.1 The Baltimore Herald, in speaking of the case, said
the colored people would now be given accommodations " more
in conformity with the notion that a colored person is a human
being and not a brute ; " the American said the decision was
" so obviously just that it must appeal to the good sense of
all ; " the Sun appears to have made no editorial comment. A
Sun reporter interviewed several steamboat agents, all of
whom feared that the decision would cause some unpleasant
ness in future. The colored paper, the Director, was thankful
for the decision, but did not think the learned judge had gone
far enough in the right direction.
Since then, a suit has been brought before the United States
courts here, by a colored clergyman, against another steamer
running from Baltimore to Virginia. The complaint was of
1 22 F. R., 843.
72 Colored People of Maryland since the War. [418
discrimination in the dining-saloon and unjust treatment result
ing therefrom. It appears that there was one table set apart
for white and another for colored passengers, but with the
intention that both should be equally served. The plaintiff
insisted on going to the table for whites, whereupon the three
white passengers took seats at the other table, where there
chanced to be no colored persons. Both courts decided against
the plaintiff, holding that all common carriers are bound to
furnish equal accommodations for those holding equal tickets,
and that the steamboat had made a separation but no distinc
tion. And, added the judge of the higher court, on dismissing
the libel with costs, the appellant appears to have been the
person who made the greatest distinction against colored people,
by refusing to sit at their table.1
Beside the prohibition of intermarriage and the partial dis
crimination in the jury law, the word " white " still remained,
in the code, in the bastardy law and the law regulating the
practice of attorneys in the State. No colored man could prac
tice law here, and colored women were not recognized in the
law which allowed any white woman to make known the
father of her illegitimate child, that he might be required to
secure some means to the county or city for the support of the
child. Several efforts had been quietly made by some of the
colored people to have the word " white'7 struck out of these
laws by the legislature. In 1884, a bill to open the State bar
to colored lawyers was reported favorably by the judiciary
committee. A petition for its passage was presented the
house, with a hundred signatures ; and the paper with the
largest circulation in Maryland, the conservative organ, the
Sun, said in its editorial columns : " the law has no right to
keep a colored man from earning his bread in any honest way
he may see fit, provided that he shows himself able to meet
1 Baltimore papers of May 3rd, ]890. It is interesting to note that the
judge quoted is an old republican leader, friendly to the advancement of
the colored race.
419] Colored People of Maryland since the War. 73
the requirements imposed on all other classes of citizens, . . .
the law, as it stands, forms only one part of a system that has
passed away, and which no one wishes to bring back." * Yet
the bill was lost — somewhere in the State-house. At the same
time, three petitions were presented, for equal protection to all
women by the passage of a bill which had been introduced
two years before. One petition was of 115, another of 256,
citizens of Baltimore, and the third from 214 members of the
African Methodist Episcopal church in Harford county. The
committee on judiciary soon reported against any change, but
the old bill of two years standing was substituted for the
report by a vote of forty-six to thirty-two, and the bill was
later passed by fifty-six to twenty-four. In the senate, it
was referred to the judiciary committee, and was seen no
more.
The colored people could expect nothing of the democratic
politician, but those of them who were most zealous for the
repeal of the " black " laws were disappointed in the absence
of vigorous assistance from the republican leaders and from
many of the politicians of their own race. If the democrats
were " copperheads " to them, the republican politicians were
" weak-knees." Not that individuals would not vote for them,
but the party managers, who felt pretty sure of a solid colored
vote, were afraid to put in their platforms any questionable
timber. It was at the request of several prominent colored
men that the prohibition party alone — a party that had little
to gain and little to lose — put in their platform in 1886 the
desire to have the word "white" wiped out of the statute
books, and to give justice and equality to all. As to the
colored politicians, as a body, they had been striving after
offices for many years, and advising those who wanted equality
of rights to have patience. " Politicians," said a prominent
colored lawyer, later, in a public address, " have betrayed the
people and bartered away our birthright and lawful heritages.
1 Baltimore Sun, Feb. 7, 1884.
74 Colored People of Maryland smce the War. [420
We must pursue new methods — not special legislation, but the
enforcement of the law as it is."
It was with such an idea, for the enforcement of the
highest law of the land, and the need of assistance to in
jured members of their race — as in the case of the steamer
Sue — that a number of leading colored men of Baltimore,
notably Baptist clergymen, associated together in 1885, as the
Mutual United Brotherhood of Liberty. The organization
was simple ; the purpose was " to use all legal means within
our power to procure and maintain our rights as citizens of this
our common country." The constitution opens with the words,
that as it is a Scriptural truth that God has made of one blood
all nations of men, and as it is equally true, according to the
Declaration of American Independence, that all men are
endowed with the inalienable rights of life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness, therefore it is the solemn duty of every
man to seek to maintain these rights. The brotherhood soon
held a public meeting, at which Frederick Douglass spoke, in
order to rouse general interest ; the membership was increased
by not a large number but by a very desirable element, of
various denominations; and it took a leading part in the
movements which thereupon followed, for the elevation of the
colored people of Maryland.
First of these steps was the opening of the bar, which
colored men had for years been trying to accomplish in various
ways, and which the legislature, as we saw, had refused or
neglected to do. In October, 1877, a colored man, who had
been admitted to the bar of, Massachusetts by the supreme
court of that State, and had since moved to Baltimore and
been admitted to the United States' courts, but had applied in
vain to practice in the city courts, applied to the court of
appeals. He argued that the right to limit admission to the
bar to whites had been rendered inoperative ; but the court
decided otherwise, holding the matter settled by decisions of
the Supreme Court of the United States, that the federal
powers protected those privileges only which belonged to citi-
421] Colored People of Maryland since the War. 75
zens of the United States, as such, and that the right to
practice law in a state court was not such a privilege. In
1884, some of the colored leaders who were soon to form the
Brotherhood of Liberty, decided to make an effort to have the
law tested again, in the case of another colored member of the
Massachusetts bar then living in Maryland. The associates
became responsible for any expenses necessary, the services of
a lawyer were secured, and a petition for admission filed, in
December, in the city of Baltimore supreme bench. The
matter dragged along, the court evidently considering it as
settled by the court of appeals7 rulings in 1877, until the
counsel for the petitioner secured a day for a hearing, on the
claim that more recent decisions of the Supreme Court of the
United States might raise a question. A few days before the
hearing, the Baltimore Sun called attention to its editorials of the
previous year, when the bill to open the bar was before the legis
lature, and added : " Sooner or later all restrictions on freedom
of citizenship must disappear, and there is no reason why the
legal profession should be the last to recognize the inevitable."
A reporter of the Sun also interviewed a number of prominent
citizens on the subject, including several of the judges of the
supreme bench. The mayor, Mr. Latrobe, said that all
restrictions on the freedom of citizenship should be removed ;
and several prominent lawyers, democrats, of Southern instincts,
expressed themselves as having personally no objections, if the
colored men proved their fitness. One lawyer said the matter
had been discussed at a club, without any expressions of race
prejudice. The judges who were seen agreed in the injustice of
the law, one calling it " a relic of barbarism," but they seemed
to feel hopeless of redress except from legislative action. Some
members of the bar were opposed to any change, of course.
The American advised an appeal to the legislature.1
^n the day before the hearing, the Baltimore American advised the
colored people to appeal to the legislature. The next day, the colored
paper, the Director, called attention to the strong utterances of the Sun, the
76 Colored People of Maryland since the War. [422
The hearing took place on Feb. 14, 1885, and a few weeks
later the supreme bench gave their unanimous opinion that,
in accordance with decisions of the Supreme Court of the
United States since 1877, colored men must be admitted to
practice law despite the word " white" in the State code.
The law in the States, the Supreme Court had said in 1879,
shall be the same for the black as for the white man ; and,
again, in 1883, the States cannot deny to any citizen athe
right to pursue any peaceful avocation allowed to others."
By the constitution of Maryland, also, said the city bench,
judges must be selected from those who have been admitted to
the bar. But the United States Supreme Court had decided
that colored men cannot be excluded from the jury box on
account of color, and this decision would apply equally to a
law excluding them from the judicial office and participation
in the selection of juries. So, as a statute must give way
rather than a provision of the State constitution, when the
provision alone is not repugnant to federal law, the act of
assembly limiting members of the bar to whites is made void.
As the result of this test case, thus carried through by a
few men, in the face of much discouragement and at a cost of
over $200, there are now five colored lawyers in Baltimore,
young, intelligent, progressive men, bidding fair to be success
ful in their profession. They bear witness to the professional
courtesy shown them by all decent lawyers.1
The State bar was not opened to colored men until 1888,
when the colored lawyer who had first taken up the practice
of law in Baltimore was admitted to the court of appeals.
democratic organ, and asked where their staunch republican friends were
in this fight. On receiving from the editor of the American his article of
the day before, the Director asked if he did not know that the assembly
of 1884 had been appealed to in vain. The Herald came out, a few days
after the hearing, and said : We knew that our opinion was well known, and
that nothing that we could do would have any effect, in a matter which was
not before the popular judgment, but a court of law.
1 See Baltimore papers, Feb. 9-17, March 20, 1885.
423] Colored People of Maryland since the War. 77
The word " white " had then been dropped from the law, in
the new code. There is, at least, one colored lawyer in the
counties. It is interesting to note a case which came up in
Baltimore county court, in November, 1889, in which a
young colored man was acquitted of a charge of assault on a
white girl — and against him, when he was arrested, months
before, there had been some popular feeling — by a jury of
white men, being defended by two young colored lawyers,
recent graduates of the University of Maryland. It was the
first time a colored lawyer had been heard in the court-house.1
The first two colored men to practice here were graduates of
Howard University ; but the law school of the University of
Maryland had soon, with the opening of the bar, admitted
colored applicants, and the two young men just mentioned
were the first graduates, in the Spring of 1889. There was
some little talk of dissatisfaction, nothing more, among some
of the white students, and there were some among the faculty
who disliked the change. One of the colored students said,
in a paper he was then editing : " We are as cordially received
and as finely treated " here as when we were in a Northern
college. And it is pleasant to note that the graduating students
themselves, by the good judgment and tact of the two colored
ones, and the kindly feeling of the majority of the white ones,
in return, prevented any color discrimination in seating the
guests at the graduation exercises. One of the colored students
stood very high in the class, and is now — as one of his white
classmates is doing also — assisting a judge of the city bench,
an instructor in the law school, in the preparation of some
work on equity jurisprudence. There are at present two
colored students at the law school.
The next movement of the Brotherhood of Liberty, the bar
having been opened, was against the retention of the word
"white" in the bastardy law. In 1886, a bill to strike out
the discrimination had been introduced in the senate at
alibi was maintained by the counsel for the prisoner.
78 Colored People of Maryland since the War. [424
Annapolis, had been reported favorably by the judiciary com
mittee, and had then shared the fate of similar bills and dis
appeared. Thereupon, the counsel of the Brotherhood of
Liberty carried a test case before the Baltimore city bench,
which decided that the law was constitutional, and dismissed
the parties, who were colored. Soon after, a white man came
before the criminal court, under the law, on a charge brought
by a white woman ; but the case was dismissed on the ground
that the law was unconstitutional as not applying alike to all
citizens. Finally, in the Spring of 1887, a case under the
law was brought from the circuit court of Washington
county to the court of appeals, on the same ground, that
the bastardy law was made void by the fourteenth amendment
to the constitution. The court said there was need of a decis
ion in such a question, which had been decided in different
ways, and had been a matter of popular comment and dis
cussion. Stating that individual opinions as to the wisdom of
the law should not be given from the bench, the court showed
that while the law applied only to white women, there was no
discrimination, by color or otherwise, of the fathers of bas
tards ; and declared that there was no discrimination against
colored women by their omission from the law. Any money
paid the white mother was simply for the care of the child, to
protect the county often — the law aiming at no redress for
personal wrong done the mother, who was a consenting party
to wrong doing. The state of living together unmarried was
not made a crime by it. This decision was given from the
chief judge and three associates — a fourth associate judge, the
only republican on the bench, giving the short dissenting
opinion that, if the fourteenth amendment meant anything,
it meant that there should not be in any State one law apply
ing to the white race and another applying to the black,
especially in criminal law.1 After the failure of this appeal,
arangements were made to carry the case to the Supreme
67 Md., 364.
425] Colored People of Maryland since the War. 79
Court, and a subscription was opened in the leading colored
paper in Baltimore, to defray the expenses. Seventy-five
dollars were needed, and a half of this was soon given,
mostly in sums of a dollar. But several months went by
before the paper could announce that some sixty dollars had
been pledged, and all subscribers were urged to pay up, that
the case might be begun. The leaders in the movement
decided, then, to await the action of the assembly soon to
meet. In March, 1888, another bill to change the law,
though reported favorably by the judiciary committee, failed
in the house of delegates, by a large majority. In April, a
similar bill passed the senate by a vote of seventeen to one,
but was defeated in the house by a large majority. It is inter
esting to note, to show that the agitation was not confined to
a few leaders in Baltimore, that two petitions were sent the
assembly, one from seventy-six colored citizens of Frederick
county, and the other from 242 colored citizens of Allegany.
Disappointed again by the legislature, the counsel of the
brotherhood renewed the call for subscriptions to pay for an
appeal, stating that only $36.85 had been actually received.
Meantime, in 1887, an association of colored women had been
formed, largely by the influence of a few prominent members
of the African Methodist Episcopal church, to rouse a general
interest for the repeal of the old law. It grew somewhat out
of a protective union that had been formed two years before,
for work among colored women in Baltimore ; it now increased
to two hundred or more members, and by 1S88, had raised a
small fund for the expected expenses in testing the bastardy
law. It was at this time, when the house of delegates, for
partisan or other reasons, had refused to change the law, that
the new code of general public laws for the State was quietly
accepted by the assembly. That code did not contain the
word "white" in the jury law, the bastardy law, or the law
regulating admission to the bar. The practical working of
the change may be seen, to a certain extent at least, in a recent
case in a county near Baltimore, where a colored man, in jail
80 Colored People of Maryland since the War. [426
for inability to pay the necessary sum for the support of his
child, married the woman, thus legitimizing the child, and was
set free by the court with an admonition that he would be
expected to care for his family and behave himself. The
colored people feel that a stigma, which had its origin in the
old slave days, has been lifted from them.
In the abolition of these " black laws," one chief object of
those colored leaders most zealous for the progress of their
people, had been accomplished ; but other work was before
them. We have noticed already the lynching of Cooper, taken
by a mob from Baltimore county jail, on the eve of an appeal
in his case to the Supreme Court, in order to test the jury law.
Within a decade up to 1887, some eight colored men had been
lynched in Maryland, nearly all, like Cooper, for felonious
assault on white women. One, however, had been a house
breaker, of bad repute; and in one case, in 1885, a brutal
negro of criminal character and record, who had atrociously
assaulted a little colored girl, was taken out of jail and hanged
by an organized mob of colored men. The colored people of
the neighborhood, if reports be true, pretty generally said — good
riddance. But the colored leaders, as a rule, have felt that
lynch law was largely the result of race prejudice, in that it
was applied practically by whites to blacks alone. In the
Fall of 1887, a colored man was in the jail at Frederick city,
in the midst of a large community, waiting trial on the charge
of felonious assault on a white woman in the city. The
identity of the man as the guilty party had yet to be positively
proven in court. There was intimation of violence abroad, to
the extent that the state's-attorney advised the sheriff to be
on his guard. But no steps were taken for special protection,
and the man was taken from the jail and hung. There was
considerable excitement among the colored residents for some
days ; especially as, two years before, a colored youth had been
shot, in pursuit for some offense, by a city policeman, unpopular
among the blacks. The policeman had then been tried and
acquitted, but the colored people had been so aroused as to
427] Colored People of Maryland since the War. 81
form a temporary organization for self-protection by legal
means. Now there was more excitement, and some threats were
made against the policeman mentioned. All this soon quieted
down. But the Brotherhood of Liberty in Baltimore adver
tised a reward of $500 for the arrest and conviction of any
one of the lynchers. None were discovered ; but since then
the only person lynched in Maryland, it is believed, has been
a white man, of bad record and waiting trial for barn burning,
in jail, in Prince George's county. He was taken from the
jail and hung to a bridge near by, by white men. No action
in the matter has been taken by the authorities until the recent
charge of the circuit judge to the grand jury, to try to have
the lawlessness properly punished.
Meantime, for many years, the thinking and progressive
minority of the colored people of Baltimore city had been
asking for better school facilities. Previous to 1865, the
public schools — the academies excepted — depended almost
entirely on the local authorities of city or county. Then an
educational revolution took place, the public schools being put
under a State system, and a course of rudimentary instruction
offered every white child. A State normal school was pro
vided for ; and an annual tax of fifteen cents on every hundred
dollars in the State was levied, to be divided between the
counties, and the city of Baltimore, in proportion to their pop
ulations between the ages of five and twenty. This tax was
in addition to the local school tax, by which the schools had
previously been mostly supported. The few free colored per
sons of means, in the old days of slavery, had, with a few
exceptions by local legislation, been taxed along with their
white neighbors for the county levy, although no school facil
ities were given them. The law of 1865 provided that this
part of the school taxes paid by colored men should be specially
used for founding schools for the colored people ; the schools
to be under the care of the commissioners, and to be frequently
visited. It is interesting to note that in the constitutional
convention of the preceding year, the convention which carried
82 Colored People of Maryland since the War. [428
through the abolition of slavery, the committee on education
refrained from offering any provision for the education of the
blacks, believing that as yet the people of the State — and they
referred largely to the Union party which alone could vote —
were not ready for it. But a motion to limit the schools to be
established entirely to whites was defeated by a vote of forty-
three to eighteen.
The political revolution in the State in 1867 was followed
by another school law, but the principles of the system already
in operation were kept. That system, wrote the principal of
the normal school in 1869, began under circumstances which
seemed to render its success impossible ; but despite " all the
difficulties necessarily attendant on the attempt to introduce
the most advanced educational ideas among a community not
prepared for so radical a change," despite " the odium attaching
to the law (i. e. of 1865) on account of its origin," and the
fact that the first administrators of it were not in polit
ical sympathy with the great body of the people, the intrinsic
value of the law itself and the success of the work begun under
it, have made the system a part of the settled policy of the State.
The law of 1868, under the new constitution, ordered a tax of
ten cents on the hundred dollars for the State school tax, and
continued the former provision, that the local school taxes paid
by colored men be used for colored schools. Down to 1872,
this petty sum was all that the colored schools could expect,
except donations from individuals. The annual reports of the
school commissioners for the various counties, for 1868, refer
to the colored people only three times; in one case, on the
Eastern Shore, to note that the small taxes due colored schools
had been given to an institution for colored children, largely
aided from Baltimore, and that the colored people were help
ing themselves, in addition to the tax; in another, from a
Western county, to call attention to the need of education for
the blacks, with the exhortation to "give him education or
take back that (i. e. liberty) which has been thrust upon him ; "
in the third case, from a Southern county, to explain the recent
429] Colored People of Maryland since the War. 83
decrease in the donations for schools (i. e. for whites, as usual)
as due largely to the losses from a large portion of the property
of the county " having been taken by the government as a sort of
patent medicine, i to save the life of the nation/ without being
paid for." It is not surprising to learn that by some of these
local authorities, the founding of the colored schools, even from
the school taxes paid by colored men, was discouraged. In
1872, the State ordered that there should be at least one school
for colored children, if the average attendance was fifteen, in
each election district, to be kept open for full terms; and
appropriated the sum of $50,000 yearly for the support of the
colored schools, in addition to the local colored tax, to be
divided according to the school population. The white schools
continued to receive all the regular State school tax. In 1878,
the sum of $100,000 was appropriated to colored schools, to
be taken from the State school tax, at the expense of the white
schools. The white schools, which had received $412,088 in
1868, now, ten years later, received $377,875. So the law
remained until 1888, when the rate of the school tax was
raised one half-cent, and the appropriation for colored schools
raised from $100,000 to $125,000, or as much of this increase
as the tax might give over the sum of $500,000.
The result has been that, in the past year, the white schools
received from the State tax $405,001, and the colored schools
$118,049. The local school taxes have grown, in the past
decade, from $788,828, to $1,012,600. All but a small frac- '
tion of this sum goes to white schools, but Baltimore city and
several counties have already set an example by having only
one local school fund and drawing from that according to need
for both colored and white. This plan was urged upon all the
counties by Governor Lloyd in a recent message. The amount
now received by the colored schools in some of the lower
counties, where the black population is largest, is singularly
small, nearly all expenses being paid from the State tax. In
seventeen counties together, last year, less than $10,000 was
received by colored schools from the local authorities. The
,-<
84 Colored People of Maryland since the War. [430
State school tax of last year was divided very nearly in the
proportion of the colored and white populations; but the
advantage is now on the side of the colored people, for the
number of whites who are on the school rolls is larger than
that of the blacks proportionately ; while the attendance of the
blacks enrolled is proportionately less than the whites, and
according to official reports, is decreasing in the counties rather
than increasing. The last twenty years have seen a great
advance in the colored schools throughout the State. What is
needed now is, on the part of the white people and notably the
local authorities, an increasing willingness to give the colored
people all reasonable facilities, in proper school buildings, in
full terms of instruction, and in encouragement to educate
themselves ; and, on the part of the colored people, a greater
appreciation of the facilities they already have.
In Baltimore, even before the war, there were no less than
six private schools taught by colored persons, with from fifty
to a hundred pupils each, many of them being adults. Several
of these schools continued during the war. At the same time
some members of the Union party, aided by money and
workers from the North, interested themselves in founding
schools for the freed men. From this movement grew up the
Baltimore normal school for colored teachers, which has done
a valuable work, and has for some years been given $2,000
from the State appropriations. Some of the colored schools still
meet in buildings erected by the Freedmen's Bureau. A number
of public schools were begun in Baltimore, and a considerable
sum appropriated by the city government of that day. Sta
tistics, as given in the papers, showed that in 1867 there were
2,800 colored pupils registered in Baltimore, and over twice
as many in the counties ; and that the colored people of the
State had contributed over $23,000 in the year preceding,
while the city council had appropriated §20,000, for colored
schools. When the political revolution came, there chanced
to be no balance for salaries in Baltimore for the teachers of
the colored schools. Some, if not all, of the colored ones kept on
431] Colored People of Maryland since the War. 85
teaching, however ; one or two, who had some means, giving
their services. Meetings were held by the colored people, and
money contributed towards the school expenses. Finally, in
1868, the city paid the arrears, amounting to several thousand
dollars, and the colored schools were continued, but with white
teachers entirely. There were then thirteen colored schools,
under twenty-nine teachers, with 1,312 scholars enrolled, and
an average attendance of 1,012. The total cost of these schools
for that year had been a little over $22,000. At that time,
scholars who could afford it, were expected to pay a small
sum, somewhat over a dollar a month, for the use of books,
and it is interesting to note that of the 1,312 colored scholars,
944 paid over $2,800, thus reducing the cost of the schools
by this sum. The 107 white schools had then 21 ,465 scholars,
under 526 teachers. Of these scholars, 11,353 were pay, and
10,112 free. The total cost of the white schools was about
$390,000. Of this sum, over $120,000 came through the
State levy. Of the 11,400 odd scholars in the white primary
schools, those nearest in grade to the colored, a good many
more than half paid nothing. The school committee then
estimated that primary schools were needed for about 3,000
colored children, and that these could be maintained, on the
same grade as the white primaries, for some $55,000 yearly.
Only $15,000 was appropriated by the city council, to be added
to the local school tax paid by colored men. The year before,
the superintendent of schools had stated that there were in the
city over 8,000 colored youth between the ages of ten and
nineteen. The republican leaders were in favor of better
schools for the blacks, of course ; while the conservative organ,
the Sun, said : " Without taking into account any higher con
siderations, it is evident we cannot afford to let the colored
people among us go uneducated. There is a duty to them as
well as ourselves in the matter."
But for nearly twenty years there was little change to be
noted in the colored school system in Baltimore. By 1879,
the year of the first payment for colored schools from the
7
86 Colored People of Maryland since the War. [432
State school tax, one new school had been added, the number
of teachers had grown from twenty-nine to eighty-nine, the
number of pupils on the rolls was 4,398. The total expense of
the colored schools was nearly $60,000, of which over $18,000
came through the State tax. The sum expended for white
schools was over $540,000, of which some $121,000 came
through the State tax. The total of white pupils in all schools
was about 32,000 ; in the primaries, nearly 16,000. Of these
primary schools, 3,863 were pay, and 11,905 were free ; while
of the colored scholars, now, only seventy-one paid. The
average attendance of the colored scholars was from five to
six per cent, below that of the white primary schools.
Five years later, still, while the number of schools remained
the same, the teachers had increased to 104, and the scholars
to nearly 6,000; and the average attendance was almost as
good as that of the white primaries. The white scholars had
increased in greater proportion ; although between 1870 and
1880 the colored population of Baltimore had grown more
than the white, and was not far from one fifth of it.1 The
proportion of the State school tax for colored schools, based
on a census of the whole population, was about one-sixth and
a half; that of the total expenditure for colored schools was
less than one-eighth — the white scholars paying for use of
books some $47,000, the colored, less than $100. The total
amount used yearly for current school expenses in the city had
increased, in the five years, some $50,000. All the teachers
were white, though colored teachers had been used in the
counties from the beginning of the public school system, and
had steadily increased in numbers until white teachers in the
county colored schools were few. Several colored persons had
already passed the school-board examination in Baltimore, but
to no result. For years the colored schools were all primaries,
but one had been made of higher grade, called a grammar or
1 According to estimates, the white population has increased in greater
proportion, recently ; owing largely to the extension of the city.
433] Colored People of Maryland, since the War. 87
colored high school. The building used for it, however, was
in very bad condition, and there was evident need of new
buildings for some of the other schools.
For years, a few colored leaders had been asking for better
schools and for some colored teachers. Thus, for instance, a
series of meetings was held in several of the colored churches
in 1879. " The white teachers," said one speaker, " do not
throw their hearts into the work. Go to Cumberland, Hagers-
town, &c., and you will see justice done!" Another, a very
well-informed man, of prominence, compared Baltimore to
Charleston, S. C., St. Louis and Washington, and told how,
in the latter city, five of the nineteen members of the school-
board were colored men, how a colored man was principal of
the colored schools, how there were ninety-two colored teachers,
and how the average attendance of the colored children had been
raised high. A few months later, in 1880, the irrepressible
question, as the American called it, was raised again at a
large meeting ; resolutions were passed, giving thanks to the
American and to the large number of liberal citizens who had
befriended the cause; and a petition, with several hundred
names, was prepared for the city council. In the Summer
following, the chairman of the committee appointed, a colored
clergyman, stated he had seen every member of the school-
board, and that promises were given that, as soon as suitable
buildings were found, colored schools should be opened, and
colored teachers should have charge of them. And then more
meetings were held. At one of these, a colored clergyman,
principal of a colored school in Jacksonville, Florida, said
that nearly all Southern cities were ahead of Baltimore in
colored schools. " You must be up and doing, not merely
talking," he added. At that time there were several colored
candidates for teachers' positions, high on the school-board
lists. After some postponements, the matter came before the
school-board, which decided by five to three that it was inex
pedient, from lack of means, to open the two new colored
schools proposed six months before. But at the next meeting,
88 Colored People of Maryland since ike War. [434
it was voted that the schools should be opened in rented build
ings, in January, 1881. The temper of the board was said
to be for trying the schools, and its faith was pledged to them.1
By 1885, however, nothing had been gained by the colored
people, and the leaders felt as discouraged of getting any help
from the city hall — wherever the check lay, in school com
mittee or in city council, the result was the same — as they had
of help from the State assembly in abolishing the black laws.
The Brotherhood of Liberty, having already had the bar
opened to colored men, then determined to try, through the
courts, to have some colored teachers appointed, from those
waiting on the school-board list, to provide in some way a
proper high school for the more advanced colored pupils, and
to have the colored grammar school removed from the build
ing it then occupied, which was deemed unsafe for occupancy.
Measures to this end were being prepared, when it was thought
that the objects desired might be obtained by further applica
tion to the city authorities.
While the lead for better schools was taken, now, by the
Brotherhood of Liberty, there was quite a movement among
the colored people at large. It was increased by the inter
marriage question which arose, at the same time, from the trial
at Hagerstown. A Maryland Educational Union was formed,
largely under the lead of one of the younger clergymen, and
public meetings were held. The colored women were called
upon to form auxiliary unions. Sums of money were pledged
— in one case several hundreds of dollars — by colored men,
should it be necessary to try to force the city authorities. It
was stated that, by the school board reports, the colored schools
would not hold 6,000, while the colored school population
must be 14,000.
It is probable that a better means of moving the city
authorities to act than all these meetings — in some of which
politics were kept out with difficulty — was quietly going on
1 See American for Sept., 1879. Sept. 22, 29 ; Oct. 6, 1880.
435] Colored People of Maryland since the War. 89
all this time, in attempts by several colored individuals to
educate the children about them, Where there were no schools.
In 1885, a day school was opened m the little Patterson
Avenue Baptist church, with some twenty scholars. The
church gave room and fuel, the scholars paid ten cents a week
each. The number soon grew to over 200. Beside this school,
there were several private schools, at the houses of the teachers,
in North west Baltimore; one kindergarten was soon established,
encouraged by friendly whites ; and night schools were held at
the Biblical Centenary Institute, and at one of the Baptist
churches. In these and other schools where teachers and
pupils were of the same race, better work was done, the colored
leaders claimed ; as more sympathy and mutual interest was
shown, and the work of the teachers went beyond the school
room into the homes and the churches.
Officers of the Brotherhood of Liberty, and those working
with them, then asked the city for new schools, and interested
some of the city government in their requests. So, early in
1887, the city appropriated $14,000 for land and $24,000 for
a building, for a new high and grammar school. Curiously,
a part of the ceiling of the old grammar school building fell
during school hours, but a few weeks later; and this stimulated
the colored leaders in their exertions. The council also passed
an appropriation for a new colored school in Northwest Balti
more, but the mayor vetoed it, together with other things,
fearing too much taxation. An ordinance was also proposed
by one of the republican councilmen, that colored teachers
should thereafter be appointed to all vacancies arising in col
ored schools ; but the committee on education would not consider
it, and the council rejected it. The vote in the second branch
of the council was a party one, the republicans present being
in favor of it, the democrats opposed; in the first branch,
which was wholly democratic, it failed to appear. The next
year, 1888, $7,000 for land and $18,000 for a building were
appropriated for a new school in Northwest Baltimore; and
a few weeks later was passed the ordinance that in all colored
90 Colored People of Maryland since the War. [436
schools thereafter established, colored teachers should be ap
pointed, after passing the same examinations as are set for
white candidates. The salaries were to be the same also. The
objection to the ordinance of the previous year was now avoided
by providing that in no case should white and colored teachers
be employed in the same school.1 Since then, $31,000 more
have been appropriated for a new primary school. At the
same time, a regular high school course with regular certificates
of graduation, was secured for advanced colored scholars ; and
now those who finish the course with the same degree of pro
ficiency as is required in the white female high schools, are
eligible for the position of teacher, in certain school work, for
ten years after graduation, like the white high school graduates.2
The new school in Northwest Baltimore is already in suc
cessful operation, crowded with pupils under colored teachers,
while the nearest old primary school, which sent forth many
to it, was at once filled up. The private schools continue, the
one in the Patterson Avenue Baptist church, which was really
the nucleus of the new school, having still some fifty paying
pupils. There are still two small night schools under the
patronage of the Centenary Biblical Institute. One, for instance,
meets every Monday night, under a young colored teacher, and
has grown to have twenty-two scholars, mostly adults living
in the neighborhood of the Institute in West Baltimore, who
pay each one dollar a term for tuition. A second kindergarten
is now in its third year, having grown to thirty-five, all that
the young colored teacher can accommodate in her house. The
children pay forty cents each a mouth. At the time of the
agitation for better schools, a few leading pastors in the Afri
can Methodist church tried to raise the means to establish
a college for the higher education of colored youth of Wash-
1 Ordinance of May 3, 1888.
2 The per cent, required at the examination at graduation, ia order to
secure a certificate to teach, is 85 for males and females both, while the per
cent, in the white male high school is only 80.
437] Colored People of Maryland since the War. 91
ington and Baltimore, but there was no hearty response.
Meantime, the old Baltimore colored normal school was
continuing its good work, dating from the Freedmen's Bureau
days, but now for years receiving assistance from the State.
The Biblical Centenary Institute, and its branch in Queen
Anne's county, maintained by the neighboring Methodist
Episcopal conferences, has been training numbers of young
colored men and women. Much good work has also been
done in connection with one of the colored Episcopal churches,
under white clergymen. The colored girls7 home at Melvale,
and the colored house of refuge at Cheltenham, are educating
in mind and body some of those who need help the most.
These two institutions receive State aid, but had their origin
rather in private philanthropy than in public policy. When
the Prisoners7 Aid Society asked for the house of refuge, the
legislature finally agreed to give a goodly sum for the founda
tion, if an equal sum could be raised by individuals. This was
done, probably to the surprise of some of the legislators.1
The new colored high school is in a good central location.
The graduation exercises of the first class to complete the
regular high-school course, and thus to be eligible as teachers
in Baltimore without further examination, were held at Ford's
Opera House in June last. The democratic mayor, a repub
lican congressman from Baltimore, several members of the
city council and of the school board were present, amid a
gathering of representative colored people. Congratulatory
addresses were made by the mayor, the president of the school
board and the principal of the school, and the address to the
graduates was given by one of the prominent colored clergy
men who had been a leader in the movement for the better
1 The writer does not attempt to give more than mention of such excellent
institutions, which sprang from the interest of white individuals, and whose
maintenance is little due to the colored people. Some of the old republicans
of Baltimore should put on record the work done here in freedman days.
Much of interest of work among the colored people here is told in Kev. C.
B. Perry's Twelve Years Among the Colored People.
92 Colored People of Maryland since the War. [438
schools. Seven young women and two young men were grad
uated.
For several years, conventions of the colored teachers had
been held, but the movement seemed to meet with little sym
pathy from some of the local authorities and with little zeal
from many of the teachers themselves. Several of the colored
clergymen of Baltimore then took hold of the movement, and
a teachers' association has been formed, which meets twice a
year, to listen to papers and addresses on school work. In
one county, at least, on the Eastern Shore, a teachers7 institute
for colored teachers has been held during several weeks yearly,
for some years ; and in one of the Southern counties the
school commissioners have recently appropriated something
towards the traveling expenses of colored teachers to the asso
ciation. More zeal and greater regularity in attendance is
hoped for. The ordinary teachers' meetings of the State
public school system, have been open to all the teachers, but
there have been some marks of dissatisfaction on the part of
white teachers at the meeting of colored and whites together,
and at the prominence which the colored minority are inclined
to take unto themselves on such occasions.
To show how the colored people, in so far as their part is
concerned, owe everything that they have gained to a few
leaders, it is only necessary to quote one of their young but
most prominent men, from the columns of a colored weekly
paper. Early in the Winter of 1887, before the new primary
school and the trial of colored teachers had been finally made
sure, he wrote : " The Maryland Educational Union is either
dead or sleeping . . . our people are too prone to grow tired
in well doing." . . The " colored people are too spasmodic ; "
last Spring they were all zeal, now there is absolute indifference.
This is a great discouragement to the few who have the
supreme welfare of the people at heart !
For what they have received, the colored leaders are
thankful. Most of them realize that they will only injure
their cause by seeking too much at once, without regard to
public sentiment. The Brotherhood of Liberty continues,
439] Colored People of Maryland since the War. 93
and has just had published a book which a white lawyer of
Baltimore, a democrat by politics, has been preparing for
them for several years. It is entitled Justice and Jurispru
dence, and its aim is, in short, to draw public opinion to the
belief that the recent decisions of the Supreme Court of the
United States have departed from the aim and spirit of the
fourteenth and fifteenth amendments to the Constitution ; and
that the example of a departure from the spirit of the law — a
departure which public opinion now allows to exist against the
interests of the colored people — may some" day be followed to
the disadvantage of other classes or interests.1
The history of the colored people of Maryland, in these
twenty-five years, certainly teaches a few facts — facts which
apply to some extent to all the Southern states.
First — all the circumstances under which freedom, citizen
ship and the franchise were given the blacks, tended to make
the vast majority of the white people, among whom they were
to live, especially averse to their progress as citizens. This
dislike was naturally increased by the way in which the blacks
as a people — who were to learn of citizenship by practice and
not preparation — grasped the prizes offered them. The idea
seemed to be abroad, that the exercise of right implied new
born faculties, and that custom which grows unseen by cen
turies can be changed in the twinkling of an eye. Yet the
boyish enthusiasm of the blacks was as natural as the chagrin
of the whites ; the "day of jubilee7' had come to them instead
1 The writer of these notes does not wish to enter into any elaborate criti
cism of Justice and Jurisprudence. The book is interesting, and stimulating
in places. But it does not sufficiently regard the exact state of public and
party sentiment throughout the whole country, at the time of the adoption
of the amendments and now — it often speaks of the amendments as if they had
been free-will offerings of the people of the whole land. It is to be regretted
also that the book is so voluminous. The same things might have been said
in a book of half the size and selling for half the money— thus having more
influence. Such use of quotations, of piece-meal extracts, may be question
able, too.
94 Colored People of Maryland since the War. [440
of the years of bondage. The inevitable result was that a
reaction followed ; the political career of the colored people
was brief, and their way to legal equality was much hindered.
Considering this, it is surprising that they have progressed as
much as they have.
Secondly — there is among the colored people a growing
class of men who see that the position their people are to take,
among a larger people of more favored race, must come not
by virtue of any laws but by their own virtue. The colored
leaders are looking more for aid, from without, to the best men
of the community without regard to party, and are trying to
do away, within their people, with marks of childishness in
political, religious and social life. " We have a reputation to
build up," says one leader in Baltimore, " and full rights of
citizenship to contend for, but far more urgently than these
are needed reforms amongst ourselves, abuses to be restrained
and frivolities to be suppressed." "I make the unqualified
statement," said another, "that we as a race are not doing
what we can for ourselves. . . . We cannot expect to pass
up a royal highway, with glittering banners, to a goal of
success. We must work, and persist and insist ; we must
organize, concentrate, agitate; we must economize, accumulate
and have enterprise. . . . Such a course will make us stronger
and command more respect for us." This class of leaders, the
colored men of energy, thrift, public spirit and consistent zeal,
is still very small. The great mass of the race do not think
much and have little public spirit. " It requires no extraor
dinary observant eye," says a colored man who for thirty years
has known all that has been going on among his people here, " to
see that the great mass of the colored people of the country are
drifting, drifting like a ship at sea without a rudder or captain.
True, they have performed wonders since the emancipation,
but that does not alter the fact." But the class of thinking
colored men is growing, and there does not seem to be any
reason why it should not grow. These leaders are mostly of
much white blood ; but they are not all so ; and the majority
of the colored people in this part of the country are fair in skin.
441] Colored People of Maryland since the War. 95
Thirdly — the number of white citizens who are willing to
help the colored people to elevate themselves, especially in
matters apart from politics, seems to be slowly growing. This
may be much from motives of prudence, for the welfare of the
community, rather than from philanthropy, but the result is
the same.
Fourthly — if the colored man stays in the community, the
exact place he is to fill in it must be determined by his white
fellow citizens and himself. Forces from without may tem
porarily, but they cannot permanently, arrange such relations.
As a Baltimore colored editor said when a Western colored
editor called attention to the injustice done the colored people
in Maryland : " Our judgment is that all these needed reforms
in the various states and communities are to be wrought out
by the people who reside in them. A healthy, just and equit
able public sentiment must be created where it does not exist,
by the advances of civilization and Christianity, on the one
hand, and the improvement of the condition of the colored
people, on the other."
Fifthly — the colored people, as a people, have no more idea
of leaving home, of migrating or being " deported/7 than the
whites have. A few may go from the most crowded parts,
some good missionary work may be done in Africa ; but the
mass of the colored men are here to stay.1
Sixthly — while any idea of social equality should be an
idle fear — except to those who think that proximity in a public
place creates necessarily some irksome social relations — all
must frankly recognize that there is a strong feeling of caste
on the part of the whites. Whether natural or artificial, or
right or wrong, this feeling of caste exists. Tt cannot be
hurried away by legislation. And so long as it exists, the
1 The work of the Maryland Colonization Society practically ceased years
ago. Despite the earnest efforts of its officers, there was always room for
more emigrants in its vessels — when slavery or the fettered position of the
free negro was the only sure prospect before the colored men.
96 Colored People of Maryland since the War. [442
colored people must reasonably consider it, or they will hinder
their own advancement.1
Lastly — the most intelligent colored men know full well
that if their people in the course of time prove themselves to
be unworthy of citizenship and a permanent menace to the
welfare of society, that the weaker must give way before the
stronger. What they want is help to do their best. " The
colored race is an infant amid the civilization of the age,"
writes a colored editor, a prominent colored lawyer of Balti
more — " We are coping with the ancient problem of the sur
vival of the fittest. Any people who fail in a struggle for
equality or preeminence are lacking needed qualities of mind,
soul or body ... a race with small mental powers and the conse
quent inferior character, can no more exist in free contact with
a superior people, than can man live amid the raging Vesuvius."
The answer to that " problem" which some persons are
talking of, and which some politicians are agitating, with no
good result to the colored men or to their white neighbors, is
not yet to be finally given. It does not seem possible,
however, that the majority of good citizens of our land will
allow the colored people to be condemned before the testimony
is all in, at a fair, unbiased trial. It is probable that the pro
cess which we have seen quietly going on will continue to go
on — that the better class of blacks will strive to help them
selves and the race more and more, and the better class of
whites will help them to do so. It is but twenty-five years
since the end of slavery ; but fifteen years since the " recon
struction " days. Another reconstruction should be going on,
a reconstruction of mutual duties on the part of whites and
blacks, throughout the land. It is hard for men to take the
lesson of those lines so often said, yet always so new —
"New occasions teach new duties,
Time makes ancient good uncouth."
1 We must expect conservatism, said a colored clergyman, but what we object
to is prejudice — that is (to use his own words) " conservatism gone to seed ! "
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