History of the Negro Race in America from 1619 to 1880 Volume II Part 18

A deeply rooted prejudice shut the Negro out from the trades. He could not acquire the art of setting type, civil engineering, building machinery, house carpentering, or any of the trades. The schools of medicine, law, and theology were not open to him; and even if he secured admission into some gentleman's office, or instruction from some divine, the future gave him no promise. The white wings of hope were broken in an ineffectual attempt to move against the bitter winds of persecution, under the dark sky of hate and proscription.

Corporations, churches, theatres, and political parties made the Negro a subject of official action. If a Negro travelled by stage coach, it was among the baggage in the "boot," or on top with the driver. If he were favored with a ride on a street car, it was in a separate car marked, "_This car for Colored people_." If he journeyed any distance by rail, he was a.s.signed to the "Jim Crow" car, or "smoker," where himself and family were subjected to inconvenience, insult, and the society of the lowest cla.s.s of white rowdies. If he were hungry and weary at the end of the journey, there was "no room for him in the inn," and, like his Master, was a.s.signed a place among the cattle. If he were so fortunate as to get into a hotel as a servant, bearing the baggage of his master, he slept in the garret, and took his meals in the kitchen. It mattered not who the Colored man was--whether it was Langston, the lawyer, McCune Smith, the physician, or Dougla.s.s, the orator--he found no hotel that would give him accommodations. And forsooth, if some host had the temerity to admit a Negro to his dining-room, a dozen white guests would leave the hotel rather than submit to the "_outrage_!"

The places of amus.e.m.e.nts in all the large cities in the North excluded the Negro; and when he did gain admission, he was shown to the gallery, where he could enjoy peanut-hulls, boot-blacks, and "black-legs." Occasionally the side door of a college was put ajar for some invincible Negro. But this was a performance of very rare occurrence; and the instances are easily remembered.

When courts and parties, corporations and companies had refused to accord the Negro the rights that were his due as a man, he carried his case to the highest earthly court, the Christian Church. He felt sure of sympathy and succor from this source. The Church had stood through the centuries as a refuge for the unfortunate and afflicted. But, alas! the Church shrank from the Negro as if he had been a reptile. If he gained admission it was to the "Negro pew" in the "organ loft." If he secured the precious "emblems of the broken body and shed blood" of his Divine Master, it was after the "white folks" were through. If the cause of the Negro were mentioned in the prayer or sermon, it was in the indistinct whisper of the moral coward who occupied the sacred desk. And when the fight was on at fever heat, when it was popular to plead the cause of the slave and demand the rights of the free Negro, the Church was the last organization in the country to take a position on the question; and even then, her "moderation was known to all men."

If the Negro had suffered from neglect only, had been left to solve the riddle of his anomalous existence without further embarra.s.sment, it would have been well. But no, it was not so. Studied insolence jostled Colored men and women from the streets of the larger cities; mobocratic violence broke up a.s.semblages and churches of Colored people; and malice sought them in the quiet of their homes--outraged and slew them in cold blood. Thus with the past as a haunting, bitter recollection, the present filled with fear and disaster, and the future a shapeless horror, think ye life was sweet to the Negro?

Bitter? Bitter as death? Ay, bitter as h.e.l.l!

Driven down from the lofty summit of laudable ambitions into the sultry plains of domestic drudgery and menial toil, nearly every ray of hope had perished upon the strained vision of the Negro. The only thing young Colored men could aspire to was the position of a waiter, the avocation of a barber, the place of a house-servant or groom, and teach or preach to their own people with little or no qualifications.

Denied the opportunities and facilities of securing an education, they were upbraided by the press and pulpit, in private gatherings and public meetings, for their ignorance, which was enforced by a narrow and contracted public prejudice.

But "none of these things moved" the Negro. Undismayed he bowed to his herculean task with a complacency and courage worthy of any race or age of the world's history. The small encouragement that came to him from the conscientious minority of white men and women was as refres.h.i.+ng as the cool ocean breeze at even-tide to the feverish brow of a travel-soiled pilgrim. The Negro found it necessary to exert _himself_, to lift himself out of his social, mental, and political dilemma by the straps of his boots. Colored men turned their attention to the education of themselves and their children. Schools were begun, churches organized, and work of general improvement and self-culture entered into with alacrity and enthusiasm. Boston had among its teachers the scholarly Thomas Paul; among its clergymen Leonard A.

Grimes and John T. Raymond; among its lawyers Robert Morris and E. G.

Walker; among its business men J. B. Smith and Coffin Pitts; among its physicians John R. Rock and John V. DeGra.s.se; among its authors Brown and Nell; and among its orators Remond and Hilton. Robert Morris was admitted to the bar in Boston, on Thursday, June 27, 1850, at a meeting of the members of the Suffolk County Bar. The record is as follows:

"_Resolved_, That ROBERT MORRIS, Esq., be recommended for admittance to practice as a Counsellor and Attorney of the Circuit and District Courts of the United States.

"(Signed) ELLIS GRAY LORING, _Chairman_.

"CHAS. THEO. RUSSELL, _Secretary_."

John V. DeGra.s.se, M.D., an eminent physician of Boston was perhaps the most accomplished Colored gentleman in New England between 1850-1860.

The following notice appeared in a Boston journal in August, 1854:

"On the 24th of August, 1854, Mr. DeGra.s.se was admitted in due form a member of the 'Ma.s.sachusetts Medical Society.' It is the first instance of such honor being conferred upon a colored man in this State, at least, and probably in the country; and therefore it deserves particular notice, both because the means by which he has reached this distinction are creditable to his own intelligence and perseverance, and because others of his cla.s.s may be stimulated to seek an elevation which has. .h.i.therto been supposed unattainable by men of color. The Doctor is a native of New York City, where he was born in June, 1825, and where he spent his time in private and public schools till 1840.

He then entered the Oneida Inst.i.tute, Beriah Green, President, and spent one year; but as Latin was not taught there, he left and entered the Clinton Seminary, where he remained two years, intending to enter college in the fall of 1843. He was turned from this purpose, however, by the persuasions of a friend in France, and after spending two years in a college in that country, he returned to New York in November, 1845, and commenced the study of medicine with Dr. Samuel R. Childs, of that city.

There he spent two years in patient and diligent study, and then two more in attending the medical lectures of Bowdoin College, Me. Leaving that inst.i.tution with honor in May, 1849, he went again to Europe in the autumn of that year, and spent considerable time in the hospitals of Paris, travelling, at intervals, through parts of France, England, Italy, and Switzerland. Returning home in the s.h.i.+p 'Samuel Fox,' in the capacity of surgeon, he was married in August, 1852, and since that time he has practised medicine in Boston. Earning a good reputation here by his diligence and skill, he was admitted a member of the Medical Society, as above stated. Many of our most respectable physicians visit and advise with him whenever counsel is required. The Boston medical profession, it must be acknowledged, has done itself honor in thus discarding the law of caste, and generously acknowledging real merit, without regard to the hue of the skin."

The Colored population of New York was equal to the great emergency that required them to put forth their personal exertions. Dr. Henry Highland Garnet, Dr. Charles B. Ray, and the Rev. Peter Williams in the pulpit; Charles L. Reason and William Peterson as teachers; James McCune Smith and Philip A. White as physicians and chemists; James Williams and Jacob Day among business men, did much to elevate the Negro in self-respect and self-support.

Philadelphia early ranked among her foremost leaders of the Colored people, William Whipper, Stephen Smith, Robert Purvis, William Still, Frederick A. Hinton, and Joseph Ca.s.sey. From an inquiry inst.i.tuted in 1837, it was ascertained that out of the 18,768 Colored people in Philadelphia, 250 had paid for their freedom the aggregate sum of $79,612, and that the real and personal property owned by them was near $1,500,000. There were returns of several chartered benevolent societies for the purpose of affording mutual aid in sickness and distress, and there were sixteen houses of public wors.h.i.+p, with over 4,000 communicants. And in Western Pennsylvania there were John Peck, John B. Vashon, Geo. Gardner, and Lewis Woodson. Every State in the North seemed to produce Colored men of marked ability to whom G.o.d committed a great work. Their examples of patient fort.i.tude, industry, and frugality, and their determined efforts to obtain knowledge and build up character, stimulated the youth of the Negro race to greater exertions in the upward direction.

The African Methodist Episcopal Church was organized as early as 1816.

Its churches grew and its ministry increased in numbers, intelligence, and piety, until it became the most powerful organization of Colored men on the continent. The influence of this organization upon the Colored race in America was excellent. It brought the people together, not only in religious sympathy, but by the ties of a common interest in all affairs of their race and condition. The men in the organization who possessed the power of speech, who had talents to develop, and an ambition to serve their race, found this church a wide field of usefulness.

The Colored Baptists were organized before the Methodists, [in Virginia,] but their organization has always lacked strength. The form of government, being purely Democratic, was adapted to a people of larger intelligence and possessed of greater capacity for self-government. But, notwithstanding this fact, the "independent"

order of Colored Baptists gave the members and clergymen of the denomination exalted ideas of government, and abiding confidence in the capacity of the Negro for self-government. No organization of Colored people in America has produced such able men as the Colored Baptist Church.

In Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan, Colored men distinguished themselves in the pulpit, in the forum, in business, and letters.

William Howard Day, of Cleveland, during this period [1850-1860]

Librarian of the Cleveland Library and editor of a newspaper; John Mercer Langston, of Oberlin; John Liverpool and John I. Gaines, of Cincinnati, Ohio, were good men and true. What they did for their race was done worthily and well. At the Ohio Anti-Slavery Convention, held at Putnam on the 22d, 23d, and 24th of April, 1835, the committee on the condition of the "people of Color," made the following report from Cincinnati:

The number of Colored people in Cincinnati is about 2,500. As ill.u.s.trating their general condition, we will give the statistics of one or two small districts. The families in each were visited from house to house, taking them all as far as we went:

Number of families in one of these districts 26 " of individuals 125 " of heads of families 49 " of heads of families who are professors of religion 19 " of children at school 20 " of _heads of families_ who have been slaves 39 " of individuals who have been slaves 95 Time since they obtained their freedom, from 1 to 15 years; average, 7 years.

Number of individuals who have purchased themselves 23 Whole amount paid for themselves $9,112 Number of fathers and mothers still in slavery 9 " of children 18 " of brothers and sisters 98 " of newspapers taken 0 " of heads of families who can read 2

EMPLOYMENT OF HEADS OF FAMILIES.

Common laborers and porters 7 Dealers in second-hand clothing 1 Hucksters 1 Carpenters 2 Shoe-blacks 6 Cooks and waiters 11 Washer-women 18

Five of these women purchased themselves from slavery. One paid four hundred dollars for herself, and has since bought a house and lot worth six hundred dollars. All this she has done by was.h.i.+ng.

Another individual had bargained for his wife and two children.

Their master agreed to take four hundred and twenty dollars for them. He succeeded at length in raising the money, which he carried to their owner. "I shall charge you thirty dollars more than when you was here before," said the planter, "for your wife is in a family-way, and you may pay thirty dollars for that or not take her, just as you please." "And so," said he (patting the head of a little son, three years old, who hung upon his knee), "I had to pay thirty dollars for this little fellow six months before he was born."

Number of families in another district 63 " of individuals 258 " of heads of families 106 " of families who are professors of religion 16 " of heads of families at school 53 " of newspapers taken 7 Amount of property in real estate $9,850 Number of _individuals_ who have been slaves 108 " of _heads of families_ who have been slaves 69 Age at which they obtained their freedom, from 3 months to 60 years; average, 33 years.

Time since they obtained their freedom, from 4 weeks to 27 years; average, 9 years.

Number of heads of families who have purchased themselves, 36 Whole amount paid for themselves $21,515.00 Average price $597.64 Number of children which the same families have already purchased 14 Whole amount paid for these children $2,425.75 Average price $173.27 Total amount paid for these parents and children $23,940.75 Number of parents still in slavery 16 " of husbands or wives 7 " of children 35 " of brothers and sisters 144

These districts were visited without the least reference to their being exhibited separately. If they give a fair specimen of the whole population (and we believe that to be a fact), then we have the following results: 1,129 of the Colored population of Cincinnati have been in slavery; 476 have purchased themselves, at the total expense of $215,522.04, averaging for each, $452.77; 163 parents are still in slavery, 68 husbands and wives, 346 children, 1,579 brothers and sisters.

There are a large number in the city who are now working out their own freedom--their free papers being retained as security.

One man of our acquaintance has just given his master seven notes of one hundred dollars each, one of which he intends to pay every year, till he has paid them all; his master promises then to give him his free papers. After paying for himself, he intends to buy his wife and then his children. Others are buying their husbands or wives, and others again their parents or children. To show that on this subject they have sympathies like other people, we will state a single fact. A young man, after purchasing himself, earned three hundred dollars. This sum he supposed was sufficient to purchase his aged mother, a widow, whom he had left in slavery five years before, in Virginia. Hearing that she was for sale, he started immediately to purchase her. But, after travelling five hundred miles, and offering all his money, he was refused. Not because she was not for sale, nor because he did not offer her full value. She had four sons and daughters with her, and the planter thought he could do better to keep the family together and send them all down the river. In vain the affectionate son pleaded for his mother. The planter's heart was steel. He would not sell her, and with a heavy heart the young man returned to Cincinnati. He has since heard that they were sold in the New Orleans market "_in lots to suit purchasers_."

Cincinnati produced quite a number of business men among her Colored population.

HENRY BOYD

was born in the State of Kentucky, on the 14th day of May, 1802. He received some instruction in reading and writing. He was bound out to a gentleman, from whom he learned the cabinet-making trade. He developed at quite an early age a genius for working in all kinds of wood--could make any thing in the business. He came to Ohio in 1826, and located in Cincinnati. He was a fine-looking man of twenty-four years, and a master mechanic. He expected to secure employment in some of the cabinet shops in the city. Accordingly, he applied at several, but as often as he applied he was refused employment on the ground of complexional prejudice. In some instances the proprietor was willing that a Colored man should work for him, but the white mechanics would not work by the side of a Colored man. In other cases it was quite different. The proprietors would not entertain the idea of securing the services of a "Black mechanic." So it was for weeks that Mr. Boyd sought an opportunity to use his skill in the direction of his genius and training; but he sought in vain. Disappointed, though not disheartened, he turned to the work of a stevedore, which he did for four months. At the expiration of this time he found employment with a house-builder. Within six months from the time he began work as a builder he had so thoroughly mastered the trade that he quit working as a journeyman, formed a co-partners.h.i.+p with a white man, and went into business. The gentleman with whom he joined his fortunes was a mechanic of excellent abilities, and acknowledged the superior fitness of Boyd for the business.

As a builder he succeeded first-rate for four years. But his color was against him. His white partner would make the contracts, secure the jobs, and then Boyd would come forward when the work was to be done.

He had an abundance of work, and always finished it to the entire satisfaction of his patrons. It is impossible to estimate just how many houses he built, but the number is not small. He had made a beginning, and secured some capital. He did not like the builder's trade, and only entered it at the first from necessity--as a stepping-stone to his own trade, for which he had a great deal of enthusiasm. In 1836, ten years after his arrival in Cincinnati, he engaged in the manufacture of bedsteads. For six years he carried on this business--found a ready market and liberal pay. He brought to his business some of the oldest buyers in the bedstead line, and had a trade that kept him busy at all seasons of the year. His very excellent business habits won for him many friends, and through their solicitations he enlarged his business by manufacturing all kinds of furniture. He put up a building on the corner of Eighth Street and Broadway, where he carried on his manufacturing from 1836 till 1859, a period of twenty-three years. His business required four large buildings and a force of skilful workmen, never less than twenty, frequently fifty. He used the most approved machinery and paid excellent wages.

His manufactory presented, perhaps, what was never seen in this country before or since. His workmen represented almost all the leading races. There were Negroes, Americans, Irishmen, Scotchmen, Englishmen, Frenchmen, and men of other nationalities. And they didn't bite each other! Their relations were pleasant.

He was burned out three times, but he rebuilt and went ahead. He was doing such an extensive business that some thought it advisable to destroy his buildings. His losses were very heavy, yet he kept right on, and kept up his business for some time; but finally had to yield at the last fire, when he had no insurance.

He invented a machine to turn the rails of a bed, but being a Colored man he could not take out a patent. He, therefore, had one taken out in the name of a white gentleman. "The Boyd bedstead" sold throughout the United States then, and was popular for many years after he quit the business.

He has been engaged in several different businesses since he quit manufacturing, and for the last nine years has been in the employ of the city.

SAMUEL T. WILc.o.x.

In 1850 Samuel T. Wilc.o.x decided to embark in some business venture in Cincinnati. Accordingly he built a store on the northeast corner of Broadway and Fifth streets. He at once occupied it as a grocer. In those days fancy groceries were not kept. But Mr. Wilc.o.x opened a new era in the business. He introduced fancy articles, such as all varieties of canned fruit, choice liquors, cigars, first quality of hams, all kinds of dried fruit, the best brands of sugars, mola.s.ses, and fine soaps. He made a specialty of these, and succeeded admirably.

His trade was divided between two cla.s.ses--the finest river packets and the best families of the city. His customers were the very _best families_--people of wealth and high standing. And perhaps no grocer of his times in Cincinnati did so large a business as Samuel T.

Wilc.o.x.

His business increased rapidly until he did about $140,000 _of trade per year_! This continued for six years, when his social habits were not favorable to permanent success. He had been sole owner of the business up to this time. He sold out one half of the store to Charles Roxboro, Sr.; thus the firm name became "Wilc.o.x & Roxboro." The latter gentleman was energetic and business-like in his habits. He cast his courage and marvellous tact against the high tide of business disaster that came sweeping along in the last days of the firm. He resorted to every honorable and safe expedient in order to avert failure. But the handwriting was upon the wall. He failed. Wilc.o.x had begun business with $25,000 cash. He had acc.u.mulated $60,000 in real estate, and had transacted $140,000 of business in a single year! He failed because his life was immoral, his habits extravagant, and his attention to business indifferent.

ALEX. S. THOMAS.

This gentleman came to Cincinnati in 1852, where he made the acquaintance of a Colored gentleman of intelligence, J. P. Ball, who was in the daguerrian business at Nos. 28 and 30 West Fourth Street.

Mr. Thomas became affianced to Miss Elizabeth Ball, sister of J. P.

Ball; and after they were married, Mr. Thomas accepted the position of reception clerk for his brother-in-law. He filled this position with credit and honor for the s.p.a.ce of one year. It was now 1853.