History of the Negro Race in America from 1619 to 1880 Volume II Part 72

"I done have no home nohow, if they shoots my ole man an' the boys, an' gives me no money for de was.h.i.+n."

A bright woman of twenty-five years is asked her condition, when she answers; "I had n't much real trouble yet, like some of my neighbors who lost every thing. We had a lot an' a little house, an' some stock on the place. We sold all out 'kase we did n't dare to stay when votin' time came again. Some neighbors better off than we had been all broken up by a pack of "_night-riders_"--all in white,--who scared everybody to death, run the men off to the swamps before elections, run the stock off, an' set fire to their places. A poor woman might as well be killed and done with it."

In the early Spring of 1879, the now famous Exodus of the Negroes from the South set in toward the Northern States.

"Many already have fled to the forest and lurk on its outskirts, Waiting with anxious hearts the dubious fate of the morrow. Arms have been taken from us, and warlike weapons of all kinds; Nothing is left but the blacksmith's sledge and the scythe of the mower."

The story of the emigration of a people has been often repeated since the world began. The Israelites of old, with their wanderings of forty years, furnish the theme of an inspired poem as old as history itself.

The dreadful tale of the Kalmuck Tartars, in 1770, fleeing from their enemies, the Russians, over the desolate steppes of Asia in mid-winter; starting out six hundred thousand strong, men, women, and children, with their flocks and herds, and reaching the confines of China with only two hundred thousand left, formed an era in oriental annals, and made a combination from which new races of men have sprung. But still more appropriate to this occasion is the history of the Huguenots of France, driven by religious persecution to England and Ireland, where, under their influence, industries sprang up as the flowers of the field, and what was England's gain was irreparable loss to France.[135] The expulsion of the Acadians, a harmless and inoffensive people, from Nova Scotia, is another instance of the revenge that natural laws inflict upon tyranny and injustice. Next to the persecuted Pilgrims crossing a dreary ocean in mid-winter to the sterile coasts of a land of savages for freedom's sake, history hardly furnishes a more touching picture than that of forty thousand homeless, friendless, starving Negroes going to a land already consecrated with the blood of the martyrs to the cause of free Soil and unrestricted liberty. It was grandly strange that these poor people, persecuted, beaten with many stripes, hungry, friendless, and without clothing or shelter, should instinctively seek a home in Kansas where John Brown had fought the first battle for liberty and the restriction of slavery! Some journeyed all the way from Texas to Kansas in teams, with great horned oxen, and little steers in front no larger than calves, bowing eagerly to the weary load. Worn and weary with a nine weeks' journey, the travellers strained their eyes toward the land of hope, blindly yet beautifully "trustin' de good Lord."

Often they buried their dead as soon as they arrived, many dying on the hard floor of the hastily-built wooden barracks before beds could be provided, but praying all night long and saying touchingly: "Come, Lord Jesus. Come quickly. Come with dyin' grace in one hand and savin'

love in the other."[136]

A relief a.s.sociation was organized at once. A dear, good, old Quaker lady, in her sixty-fourth year, a quarter of a century of which had been spent in relieving suffering humanity, came forward and offered her services free of charge. The a.s.sociation was organized as _The Kansas Freedmen's Relief a.s.sociation_. Mrs. Comstock was just the person to manage the matter of raising funds and securing clothing. In Gov. J. P. St. John, Mrs. Comstock and the a.s.sociation found a warm-hearted Christian friend.

Notwithstanding the plain, world-known causes, the Hon. D. W.

Voorhees, United States Senator from Indiana, introduced a resolution providing for the investigation of "_the causes of the migration of the Colored people from the Southern to the Northern States_." It cost the Government thousands of dollars, but developed nothing save what the country had known for years, that the political cruelties and systematic robbery practised upon the Colored people in the South had forced them into a free country.

In one year those who had taken up a residence in Kansas had become self-sustaining. They took hold of the work with enthusiasm; they proved themselves industrious and frugal.

The Relief a.s.sociation at first supplied them with stoves, teams, and seed. In round numbers, in a little more than a year, $40,000 was used, and 500,000 pounds of clothing, bedding, etc. England contributed 50,000 pounds of goods and $8,000 in money; the chief givers being Mrs. Comstock's friends who knew her in her good work abroad. Much of the remainder had come in small sums, and from the Christian women of America. One third was furnished by the Society of Friends. Ohio gave more than any other State. The State and munic.i.p.al funds of Kansas were not drawn upon at all, though much had come from private sources.

During the first year in Kansas, the freedmen entered upon 20,000 acres of land, and plowed and fitted for grain-growing 3,000 acres.

They built 300 cabins and dugouts, and acc.u.mulated $30,000. In 1878 Henry Carter, of Tennessee, set out from Topeka on foot for Dunlap, sixty-five miles away; he carrying his tools, and his wife their bedclothes. In 1880 he had forty acres of land cleared and the first payment made, having earned his money on sheep ranches and elsewhere by daily labor. He has built a good stone cottage sixteen feet by ten, owns two cows, a horse, etc. In Topeka, where there were about 3,000 refugees, nearly all paupers when they came, all have found means in some way to make a living. These people have shown themselves worthy of aid. Mrs. Comstock has heard of only five or six cases of intoxication in nine months, and of no arrests for stealing. They do not want to settle where there is no church, and are all eager to have a Bible and to learn. Schools have been opened for the adults--the public schools of Kansas wisely making no distinction on account of color,--and also industrial schools, especially for women, who are quite ignorant of the ordinary duties of home life.

In the month of February, 1880, John M. Brown, Esq., General Superintendent of the Freedmen's Relief a.s.sociation read an interesting report before the a.s.sociation, from which the following extract is taken:

"The great exodus of Colored people from the South began about the 1st of February, 1879. By the 1st of April 1,300 refugees had gathered around Wyandotte, Ks. Many of them were in a suffering condition. It was then that the Kansas Relief a.s.sociation came into existence for the purpose of helping the most needy among the refugees from the Southern States. Up to date about 60,000 refugees have come to the State of Kansas to live. Nearly 40,000 of them were in a dest.i.tute condition when they arrived, and have been helped by our a.s.sociation. We have received to date $68,000 for the relief of the refugees. About 5,000 of those who have come to Kansas have gone to other States to live, leaving about 55,000 yet in Kansas. About 30,000 of that number have settled in the country, some of them on lands of their own or rented lands; others have hired out to the farmers, leaving about 25,000 in and around the different cities and towns of Kansas. There has been great suffering among those remaining in and near the cities and towns this winter. It has been so cold that they could not find employment, and, if they did, they had to work for very low wages, because so many of them are looking for work that they are in each other's way.

"Most of those about the cities and towns are men with large families, widows, and very old people. The farmers want only able-bodied men and women for their work, and it is very hard for men with large families to get homes among the farmers. Kansas is a new State, and most farmers have small houses, and they cannot take large families to live with them. So, when the farmers call for help, they usually call for a man and his wife only, or for a single man or woman.

"Now, in order that men with large families may become owners of land, and be able to support their families, the K. F. R.

a.s.sociation, if they can secure the means, will purchase cheap lands, which can be bought at from $3 to $5 per acre, on long time, by making a small payment in cash. They will settle the refugees on those lands, letting each family have from twenty to forty acres, and not settling more than sixteen families in anyone neighborhood, so that they can easily obtain work from the farmers in that section or near by. I do not think it best to settle too many of them in any one place, because it will make it hard for them to find employment.

"If our a.s.sociation can help them to build a small house, and have five acres of their land broken, the women and children can cultivate the five acres, and make enough to support their families, while the men are out at work by the day to earn money to meet the payments on their land as they come due. In this way many families can be helped to homes of their own, where they can become self-sustaining, educate their children, and be useful citizens to the State of Kansas.

"Money spent in this way will be much more profitable to them than so much old clothing and provisions. Then they will no longer be objects of charity or a burden to benevolent people."

The sad stories of this persecuted people had touched the hearts of the friends of humanity everywhere. Money and clothing came on every train, and as fast as the a.s.sociation could secure homes for the refugees they were distributed throughout the State.[137]

A special correspondent of the "Chicago Inter-Ocean" was despatched to Topeka to report the condition of things there, and to throw some light upon the great intellect of Senator Voorhees. He reported as follows:

"TOPEKA, KAN., April 9.--During the last few days I have, in obedience to your request, been taking notice of the exodus, as it may be studied here at the headquarters for relief among the refugees in Kansas. This is the third visit your correspondent has made to the 'promised land' of the dusky hosts who, fleeing from persecution and wrongs, have swarmed within its borders to the number of 25,000. In a letter written while here in December last the number then within the State was estimated at about 15,000, and since that date at least 12,000 more have come. In the 'barracks' to-day I found what seemed to be the same one hundred * * * who crowded about the stove that cold December day; but they were not the same, of course, for their places have been filled many times with other hundreds, who have found their first welcome to Kansas in the rest, food, and warmth which the charity of the North has provided here. So efficient have the plan of relief and the machinery of distribution been made, that of the thousands who have pa.s.sed through here, none have remained as a burden of expense to the a.s.sociation more than four or five days before places were found where their own labor could furnish them support.

"If that pure statesman of Indiana whose great heart was so filled with solicitude for the welfare of his colored brethren, that he asked Congress to appropriate thousands of dollars to ascertain why they moved from one State to another, will come here he will be rewarded by such a flood of light on the question as can never penetrate the recesses of his committee room in Was.h.i.+ngton. He need hardly propound an inquiry; he had, indeed, best not let his great presence be known, for in the presence of Democracy the negro has learned to keep silence. But in search of the truth let him go to the file of over 3,000 letters in the Governor's office from negroes in the South, and read in them the homely but truthful tales of suffering, oppression, and wrongs.

Let him note how real is their complaint, but how modest the boon they seek; for in different words, sometimes in quaint and often in awkward phrases, the questions are always the same: Can we be free? Can we have work, and can we have our rights in Kansas? Let him go next to the barracks and watch the tired, ragged, hungry, scared-looking negroes as they come by the dozens on every train.

If he is not prompted by shame, then from caution necessary to the success of his errand, let him here conceal the fact that he is a Democrat, for these half-famished and terrified negroes have been fleeing from Democrats in the South, and in their ignorance they may not be able to comprehend the nice distinction between a Northern and Southern Democrat. If he will be content simply to listen as they talk among themselves, he will soon learn much that the laborious cross-examination of witnesses has failed to teach him. He may take note of the fact that fleeing from robbery, oppression, and murder, they come only with the plea for work and justice while they work. He may see reason to criticise what generally has been deemed by Southern Democrats at least, the unreasonable folly in a negro which prompts husband and wife to go only where they can go together, but he will find nothing to cause him to doubt the sincerity and good faith with which the negro grapples with the problem of his new life here. If he would learn more of this strength of resolution and the patience which they have brought to the search for a home in a free land, let him inquire concerning the lives of these refugees in Kansas. It may seem of significance and worthy of approving note to him, that as laborers they have been faithful and industrious; that in no single case have they come back asking aid of the relief a.s.sociation nor become burdens in any way upon corporate or public charities; that as citizens they are sober and law-abiding to such a degree that he would hardly be able to discover a single case of crime so far among them; and, finally, that in those instances where they were able to purchase a little land and stock, they have made as good progress toward the acquirement of homes and property as have the average poor white immigrants to the State. He will first learn, then, from the refugees themselves something of the desperate nature of the causes that drove them from the South, and secondly, from their lives here, with what thrift, patience, and determination they have met the difficulties which they have encountered in their efforts to gain a foothold, and as men among men, in the land of equal rights.

From the Hon. Milton Reynolds, President of the Auxiliary Relief a.s.sociation at Parsons, I learn that the negroes who have come into the southern part of the State, mostly from Texas, are all either settled on small tracts of land or employed as laborers at from $8 to $12 per month, and are all doing well. Mr. Reynolds's testimony to this effect was positive and unqualified. To a.s.sist these refugees in Southern Kansas--over 3,000 in all--only $575 has been expended. From Judge R. W. Dawson, who was the Secretary of the a.s.sociation under the old management and during the early months of the movement, one year ago, when 6,000 refugees were distributed throughout the State and provided with homes at a cost of $5,000, I learned much of interest concerning the welfare and progress of this advance guard of the great exodus. Judge Dawson, although not connected now with the relief work, feels of course a great interest in the welfare of those to whose a.s.sistance he contributed much, and loses no opportunity for observation of their condition while travelling over the State.

He says he knows of no case where one has come back to the a.s.sociation for aid, and that, as laborers and citizens, their conduct has been such as to win the approval of all cla.s.ses. Four colonies have been established. State lands were bought by the a.s.sociation and given to the colonies with the understanding that, to secure their t.i.tle, they must make the second and third payments on the land purchased on the one-third cash and two-thirds time payment plan. Two of the newest of these colonies are still receiving aid from the a.s.sociation, but the others are self-sustaining and will be able, it is thought, to make the small purchase payments on the land as they become due.

"If our inquiring Statesman is interested in observing in what spirit these refugees receive the aid which has made existence possible here during the cold winter months, he may be profited by spending a few days in looking about the city of Topeka. There are in Topeka alone over 3,000 refugees, and nearly all of them, paupers when they came, have found means in some way to make a living. In many cases it is a precarious subsistence that is gained, and in not a few cases among late arrivals he would find evidences of want and dest.i.tution, but, compared with this, he cannot but be struck with the small number of applicants to the Relief a.s.sociation for aid. Only 213 rations were issued outside the barracks last week to the 3,000 refugees who came here only a few months since without money, and frequently without clothing, to undertake what seemed under the circ.u.mstances the desperate purpose of making a living.

"The dangers and difficulties which beset the refugees' departure from a land where even the right to emigrate is denied him are great. * * * He may learn (Mr. Voorhees), however, from copies of over 1,000 letters in the Governor's office, that Gov. St. John has never, in reply to their appeals, failed to warn them of the difficulties that would beset their way here, and has never extended them promise of other a.s.sistance than that implied in the equal rights which are guaranteed to every citizen of Kansas.

Further than this, however surprising it may be to Mr. Voorhees'

theory of the causes of the exodus, it is nevertheless a fact that this very a.s.sociation, which is charged with encouraging the exodus, has sent the Rev. W. O. Lynch, a colored man, to the South to warn the colored people that they must not come here expecting to be fed or to find homes already prepared, and to do all in his power to dissuade them from coming at all. Still they come, and why they come the country has determined long in advance of Mr. Voorhees' report. * * *

"While we have Mr. Voorhees here we would be glad to have him glance at a State doc.u.ment to be found upon Governor St. John's table, which bears the Great Seal and signature of Gov. O. M.

Roberts, of the State of Texas. It is a requisition by the Governor of Texas upon the Governor of Kansas for the body of one Peter Womack, a colored man, who was indicted by the Grand Jury of Grimes County at the last November term for the felony of fraudulently disposing of ten bushels of corn. From further particulars we learn that this Peter Womack gave a mortgage early in the spring of 1879 upon his crop just planted to cover a debt of twenty dollars due the firm of Wilson and Howel. When Womack came to gather his crop, he yields to the importunities of another white creditor ten bushels of corn _to be applied_ upon the debt. About this time this Peter Womack becomes influential in inducing a number of his colored neighbors in Grimes County to emigrate to Kansas. Undeterred by threats and despite the bull-dozing methods employed to cause him to remain a 'citizen'

of Texas, Womack, with others, sick of a condition of citizens.h.i.+p which is nothing less than hopeless peonage, leaves stock and crops behind to seek a home in Kansas. His acts in inciting the movement of these black serfs are not forgotten, however, by the white chivalry of Grimes County. The evidence of this surrender on a debt of ten bushels of corn, mortgaged for another debt, is hunted up, presented to the Grand Jury of Grimes County, he is promptly indicted for a felony, and the great State of Texas rises in her majesty and demands a surrender of his body. The demand is in accordance with law, undoubtedly,--Texas law,--but if Texas would occasionally punish one of the white murderers who do not think it necessary to leave her borders, this pursuit of a negro for selling ten bushels of corn from a mortgaged crop would seem a more imposing exhibition of the power of the commonwealth to enforce its laws."[138]

The effect, or rather the results of the Exodus have been twofold. It taught the Southern people that there was need of some effort to regain the confidence of the Negroes; that the Negro is the only laborer who can cultivate that section of the country; that the Negro can get on without the Southern people a great deal better than they can get on without Negro labor; that the severe political treatment and systematic robbery of the Negroes had not only driven them out, but had discouraged white people from settling or investing money at the South; that dissatisfied labor was against their interests; that it was the duty of business men in the South to take a firm stand for the protection of the Negroes, because every stroke of violence administered to the Negroes shocked and injured the business of that section; and that kind treatment of and protection for the Negroes would insure better work and greater financial prosperity. On the other hand, the Exodus benefited the Negroes who sought and found new homes in a new country; and it secured better treatment for those who remained behind. The Exodus was in line with a great law that governs nations. The Negro race must win by contact with the white race; by absorbing all that is good; by the inspiration of example. He must come in contact now not with a people who hate him, but with a people of industrious, sober, and honest habits; a people willing to encourage and instruct him in the duties of life. Race lines must be obliterated at the South, and the old theory of the natural inferiority of the Negro must give way to the demonstrations of Negro capacity. A new doctrine must supplant the old theories of pre-slavery days, and every man in the Republic must enjoy a citizens.h.i.+p as wide as the continent, and, like the coin of the Government, pa.s.s for his intrinsic value, and no more.

FOOTNOTES:

[134] See Senator Windom's speech on the Exodus, Monday, June 14, 1880; also the report of the Senate Committee having under consideration the investigation of the causes of the migration of the Colored people from the Southern to the Northern States.

[135] Pamphlet on Exodus.--Anonymous.

[136] The Congregationalist, Aug. 11, 1880.

[137] We visited Kansas twice in 1880, and again in 1881. We conversed with Gov. St. John, Mr. John M. Brown, and other gentlemen related to and familiar with the matter of the Exodus, and found that those who at the first so violently opposed the coming of the Negroes had been pleased with their simplicity, patience, industry, and character. They were all doing well. The a.s.sociation had discontinued its work, and the people were settled in quiet homes.

[138] Chicago Inter-Ocean, April 15, 1880.

CHAPTER XXIX.

RETROSPECTION AND PROSPECTION.

THE THREE GRAND DIVISIONS OF THE TRIBES OF AFRICA.--SLAVE MARKETS OF AMERICA SUPPLIED FROM THE DISEASED AND CRIMINAL CLa.s.sES OF AFRICAN SOCIETY.--AMERICA ROBS AFRICA OF 15,000,000 SOULS IN 360 YEARS.--NEGRO POWER OF ENDURANCE.--HIS WONDERFUL ACHIEVEMENTS AS A LABORER, SOLDIER, AND STUDENT.--FIRST IN WAR, AND FIRST IN DEVOTION TO THE COUNTRY.--HIS IDIOSYNCRASIES.--MRS. STOWE'S ERRORS.--HIS GROWING LOVE FOR SCHOOLS AND CHURCHES.--HIS GENERAL IMPROVEMENT.--THE NEGRO WILL ENDURE TO THE END.--HE IS CAPABLE FOR ALL THE DUTIES OF CITIZENs.h.i.+P.--AMALGAMATION WILL NOT OBLITERATE THE RACE.--THE AMERICAN NEGRO WILL CIVILIZE AFRICA.--AMERICA WILL ESTABLISH STEAMs.h.i.+P COMMUNICATION WITH THE DARK CONTINENT.--AFRICA WILL YET BE COMPOSED OF STATES, AND "ETHIOPIA SHALL SOON STRETCH OUT HER HANDS UNTO G.o.d."

It has been shown that the tribes of Africa are divisible into three cla.s.ses: The tribes of the mountain districts, the tribes of the sandstone districts, and the tribes of the alluvial districts; those of the mountain districts most powerful, those of the sandstone districts less powerful, and those of the alluvial districts least powerful. The slave markets of America were supplied,[139] very largely, from two cla.s.ses of Africans, viz.: the criminal cla.s.s, and the refuse of African society, which has been preyed upon by local disease, decimated by wars waged by the more powerful tribes which have pushed down from the abundant supply that has poured over the terraces of the mountains for centuries. Nevertheless, some of the better cla.s.s have found their way to this country. About 137 Negro tribes are represented in the United States.

For every slave landed safely in North America, there was one lost in procuring and bringing down to the coast, and in transportation. Thus in the period of 360 years, Africa was robbed of about 30,000,000 of souls! When it is remembered that the Negroes in America sprang from the criminal, diseased, and inferior cla.s.ses of Africa, it is nothing short of a phenomenon that they were able to endure such a rigorous state of bondage. Under-fed and over-worked; poorly clad and miserably housed; with the family altar cast down, and intelligent men allowed to run over it as swine; and with the fountains of knowledge sealed by law against the thirstings of human souls for knowledge, the Negroes of America, nevertheless, have shown the most wonderful signs of recuperation, and the ability to rise, against every cruel act of man and the very forces of nature, to a manhood and intelligent citizens.h.i.+p that converts the cautious, impartial, and conservative spirit of history into eulogy! They have overcome the obstacles in the path of the physical civilization of North America; they have earned billions of dollars for a profligate people; they have made good laborers, efficient sailors, and peerless soldiers. In three wars they won the crown of heroes by steady, intrepid valor; and in peace have shown themselves the friends of stable government. During the war for the Union, 186,017[140] Colored men enlisted in the service of the nation, _and partic.i.p.ated in 249 battles_. From 1866 to 1873, besides the money saved in other banking houses, they deposited in the Freedmen's Banks at the South $53,000,000! From 1866 to 1875 there were seven Negroes as Lieutenant-Governors of Southern States; two served in the United States Senate, and thirteen in the United States House of Representatives. There have been five Negroes appointed as Foreign Ministers. There have been ten Negro members of Northern legislatures; and in the Government Departments at Was.h.i.+ngton there are 620 Negroes employed. Starting without schools this remarkable people have now 14,889 schools, with an attendance of 720,853 pupils!

And this does not include the children of color who attend the white schools of the Northern States; and as far as it is possible to get the statistics, there are at present 169 Colored students attending white colleges in the Northern States.

The first blood shed in the Revolution was that of a Negro, Crispus Attucks, on the 5th of March, 1770. The first blood shed in the war for the Union was that of a Negro, Nicholas Biddle, a member of the very first company that pa.s.sed through Baltimore in April, 1861; while the first Negro killed in the war was named _John Brown!_ The first Union regiment of Negro troops raised during the Rebellion, was raised in the State that was first to secede from the Union, South Carolina.

Its colonel was a Ma.s.sachusetts man, and a graduate of Harvard College. The first action in which Negro troops partic.i.p.ated was in South Carolina. The first regiment of Northern Negro troops fought its first battle in South Carolina, at Fort Wagner, where it immortalized itself. The first Negro troops recruited in the Mississippi Valley were recruited by a Ma.s.sachusetts officer, Gen. B. F. Butler; while their first fighting here was directed by another Ma.s.sachusetts officer, Gen. N. P. Banks. The first recognition of Negro troops by the Confederate army was in December, 1863, when Major John C.

Calhoun, a grandson of the South Carolina statesman of that name, bore a flag of truce, which was received by Major Trowbridge of the First South Carolina Colored Regiment. The first regiment to enter Petersburg was composed of Negroes; while the first troops to enter the Confederate capital at Richmond were Gen. G.o.dfry Weitzel's two divisions of Negroes. The last guns fired at Lee's army at Appomattox were in the hands of Negro soldiers. And when the last expiring effort of treason had, through foul conspiracy, laid our beloved President low in death, a Negro regiment guarded his remains, and marched in the stately procession which bore the ill.u.s.trious dead from the White House. And on the 15th of May, 1865, at Palmetto Ranch, Texas, the 62d Regiment of Colored Troops fired the last volley of the war!

Several attempts have been made to define the racial characteristics of the Negro, but they have not been attended with success.

Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe has written more and written better about the American Negro than any other person during the present century.

She has given laboriously and minutely wrought pictures of plantation life. She has held up to the gaze of the world portraitures comic and serio-comic, which for the gorgeousness and awfulness of their drapery will perish only with the language in which they are painted.