Chapter XLVIII (9)

_Dear Sir:_

I want to congratulate you on the appearance and contents of this first number. It has received most favorable comment from every one to whom I have shown it. I certainly wish it every success.

Yours truly,

Caroline B. Chapin _Englewood, N.J._

_Dear Mr. Woodson:_

I have examined with more than usual interest the copy of THE JOURNAL OF NEGRO HISTORY which has just reached me through your courtesy. It certainly looks hopeful and I trust that the venture may prove its usefulness very quickly. I am sending you my check for a subscription as I shall be glad to receive subsequent issues.

Wishing you great success in your editorial position and hoping that the idea of the organization may be attained, I remain,

Yours very truly,

F.w. Shepardson, _Professor of American History, The University of Chicago_

_My dear Dr. Woodson:_

I looked over the first number of THE JOURNAL OF NEGRO HISTORY with much interest. It bears every evidence of a scientific disposition on the part of the editor and his board.

Yours sincerely,

Ferdinand Schevill, _Professor of European History, The University of Chicago_

_My dear Dr. Woodson:_

Your magazine is excellent. I am noting it in the current _Crisis_.

Very sincerely Yours,

W. E. B. DuBois, _Editor of the Crisis_

_My dear Dr. Woodson:_

Enclosed find my check for $1 for one year's subscription to THE JOURNAL OF NEGRO HISTORY. I am enjoying the reading of the first issue and shall look forward with interest to the coming of each successive one.

With best wishes for the work, I am,

Very truly yours,

T. C. Williams, _Manassas, Va._

_My dear Dr. Woodson:_

I have read THE JOURNAL OF NEGRO HISTORY with pleasure, interest, profit and withal, amazement. The typographical appearance, the size and the strong scholastic historical articles reveal research capacity of the writers, breadth of learning and fine literary taste. Having been the editor of the _Voice of the Negro_ and knowing somewhat of the literary capacity of the best writers of the race, I cannot but express satisfaction and amazement with this new venture under your leadership. I sincerely hope and even devoutly pray that this latest born from the brain of the Negro race may grow in influence and power, as it deserves, to vindicate for the thinkers of the race their claim to citizenship in the republic of thought and letters. Count upon me as a fellow worker.

Yours sincerely,

J. W. E. Bowen _Vice-President of Gammon Theological Seminary_

_My Dear Dr. Woodson:_

I have examined with interest the first number of THE JOURNAL OF NEGRO HISTORY, which you so kindly sent me. It is a credit to its editors and contributors and I hope it may continue to preserve high standards and to prosper.

Sincerely yours,

Frederick J. Turner, _Professor of American History in Harvard University_

_My dear Dr. Woodson:_

I am obliged to you for your copy of THE JOURNAL OF NEGRO HISTORY and am interested in knowing that you have undertaken this interesting work. I shall endeavor to see that it is ordered for our library. I should suppose that if you could manage to float it and keep it going for a few years, at least, that it would have considerable historical value.

Very sincerely yours,

A. C. Mclaughlin, _Head of the Department of American History, The University of Chicago_

_My dear Dr. Woodson:_

Thank you for sending me the JOURNAL OF NEGRO HISTORY, which I have examined with interest and which I am calling to the attention of the Harvard Library. You have struck a good field of work, and I am sure you can achieve genuine results in it.

Sincerely yours,

Charles H. Haskins, _Dean of the Harvard Graduate School_

_My dear Dr. Woodson:_

Please accept my thanks for an initial copy of THE JOURNAL OF NEGRO HISTORY which you were kind enough to send me. I am delighted with it. Its mechanical makeup leaves nothing to be desired and its contents possess a permanent value. It should challenge the support of all forward-looking men of the race and command the respect of the thinking men of the entire country regardless of creed or color. I wish you the fullest measure of success in this unique undertaking.

Your friend,

J.w. Scott, _Principal of the Douglass High School, Huntington, W. Va._

_My dear Mr. Woodson:_

I wish to acknowledge the receipt of the first number of THE JOURNAL OF NEGRO HISTORY. I have read it with much interest and congratulate you, as the editor, upon your achievement. The more I think of the matter, the more do I believe there is a place for such a publication. The history of the Negro in Africa, in the West Indies, in Spanish America, and in the United States offers a large field in which little appears to have been done.

Very truly yours,

A. H. Buffinton, _Instructor in History, Williams College_

_My dear Sir:_

A copy of THE JOURNAL OF NEGRO HISTORY was received yesterday and I wish to thank you and the gentlemen associated with you for this magnificent effort. There is "class" to this magazine, more "class" than I have seen in any of our race journals. May I say, notwithstanding the fact that I edited a race magazine once myself, the whole magazine is clean and high and deserves a place in our homes and college libraries alongside with the great periodicals of the land.

Yours very truly,

J. Max Barber

_Dear Sirs:_

Please find enclosed my subscription of one dollar in cash to THE JOURNAL OF NEGRO HISTORY, and permit me to congratulate you on your first publication.

Very truly yours,

Oswald Garrison Villard

_Dear Sir:_

The first number of your magazine reached me a few days ago. It is a fine publication, doing credit to its editor and to the association. I think it has a fine field.

Sincerely yours,

T. G. Steward, _Captain, U. S. Army, Retired_

_Dear Dr. Woodson:_

I have the first number of THE JOURNAL OF NEGRO HISTORY. Permit me to congratulate you and to earnestly hope that it may live long and prosper. It is excellent in purpose, matter and method. If the present high standard is maintained, you and your friends will not only make a most valuable contribution to a dire need of the Negro, but you will add in a substantial measure to current historical data.

Truly yours,

D. S. S. Goodloe, _Principal, Maryland Normal and Industrial School_

"Why then, should the new year be signalized by the appearance of a magazine bearing the title THE JOURNAL OF NEGRO HISTORY? How can there be such a thing as history for a race which is just beginning to live? For the JOURNAL does not juggle with words; by 'history' it means history and not current events. The answer is to be found within its pages...."

"But the outstanding feature of the new magazine is just the fact of its appearance. Launched at Chicago by a new organization, the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, it does not intend 'to drift into the discussion of the Negro Problem,' but rather to 'popularize the movement of unearthing the Negro and his contributions to civilization ... believing that facts properly set forth will speak for themselves.'"

"This is a new and stirring note in the advance of the black man. Comparatively few of any race have a broad or accurate knowledge of its part. It would be absurd to expect that the Negro will carry about in his head many details of a history from which he is separated by a tremendous break. It is not absurd to expect that he will gradually learn that he, too, has a heritage of something beside shame and wrong. By that knowledge he may be uplifted as he goes about his task of building from the bottom."

_The New York Evening Post._

When men of any race begin to show pride in their own antecedents we have one of the surest signs of prosperity and rising civilization. That is one reason why the new JOURNAL OF NEGRO HISTORY ought to attract more than passing attention. Hitherto the history of the Negro race has been written chiefly by white men; now the educated Negroes of this country have decided to search out and tell the historic achievements of their race in their own way and from their own point of view. And, judging from the first issue of their new publication, they are going to do it in a way that will measure up to the standards set by the best historical publications of the day.

The opinions which the American Negro has hitherto held concerning his own race have been largely moulded for him by others. Himself he has given us little inkling of what his race has felt, and thought and done. Any such situation, if long enough continued, would make him a negligible factor in the intellectual life of mankind. But the educated leaders of the race, of whom our colleges and universities have been turning out hundreds in recent years, do not propose that this shall come to pass. They are going to show the Negro that his race is more ancient than the Golden Fleece or Roman Eagle; that Ethiopia had a history quite as illustrious as that of Nineveh or Tyre, and that the Negro may well take pride in the rock from which he was hewn. The few decades of slavery form but a small dark spot in the annals of long and great achievements. That embodies a fine attitude and one which should be thoroughly encouraged. It aims to teach the Negro that he can do his own race the best service by cultivating those hereditary racial traits which are worth preserving, and not by a fatuous imitation of his white neighbors.

At any rate, here is a historical journal of excellent scientific quality, planned and managed by Negro scholars for readers of their own race, and preaching the doctrine of racial self-consciousness. That in itself is a significant step forward.

_The Boston Herald._

A new periodical, to be published quarterly, is the journal of "The Association for the Study of Negro Life and History," a society organized in Chicago in September, 1915. The commendable aim of the Association is to collect and publish historical and sociological material bearing on the Negro race. Its purpose, it is claimed, is not to drift into discussion of the Negro problem, but to publish facts which will show to posterity what the Negro has so far thought, felt, and done.

The president of the association, George C. Hall, of Chicago; its secretary-treasurer, Jesse E. Moorland, of Washington, D.C.; the editor of the JOURNAL, Carter G. Woodson, also of Washington; and the other names associated with them on the executive council and on the board of associate editors, guarantee an earnestness of purpose and a literary ability which will doubtless be able to maintain the high standard set in the first issue of the JOURNAL. The table of contents of the January number includes several historical articles of value, some sociological studies, and other contributions, all presented in dignified style and in a setting of excellent paper and type. The general style of the JOURNAL is the same as that of the _American Historical Review._

_The Southern Workman._

An undertaking which deserves a cordial welcome began in the publication, in January, of the first number of the _Journal of Negro History_, edited by Mr. Carter G. Woodson, and published at 2223 Twelfth Street, N.W., Washington, by the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, formed at Chicago in September, 1915. The price is but $1 per annum. The objects of the Association and of the journal are admirable--not the discussion of the "negro problem," which is sure, through other means, of discussion ample in quantity at least, but to exhibit the facts of negro history, to save and publish the records of the black race, to make known by competent articles and by documents what the negro has thought and felt and done. The first number makes an excellent beginning, with an article by the editor on the Negroes of Cincinnati prior to the Civil War; one by W. B. Hartgrove on the career of Maria Louise Moore and Fannie M. Richards, mother and daughter, pioneers in negro education in Virginia and Detroit; one by Monroe N. Work, on ancient African civilization; and one by A. O. Stafford, on negro proverbs. The reprinting of a group of articles on slavery in the _American Museum_ of 1788 by "Othello," a negro, and of selections from the _Baptist Annual Register_, 1790-1802, respecting negro Baptist churches, gives useful aid toward better knowledge of the American negro at the end of the eighteenth century.

_The American Historical Review._

* * * * *

THE JOURNAL OF NEGRO HISTORY

VOL. I--JUNE, 1916--No. 3

PUBLISHED QUARTERLY

CONTENTS

JOHN H. RUSSELL, Ph.D.: Colored Freemen as Slave Owners in Virginia

JOHN H. PAYNTER, A.M.: The Fugitives of the Pearl

BENJAMIN BRAWLEY: Lorenzo Dow

LOUIS R. MEHLINGER: The Attitude of the Free Negro Toward African
Colonization

DOCUMENTS:
TRANSPLANTING FREE NEGROES TO OHIO FROM 1815 TO 1858:
Blacks and Mulattoes,
New Style Colonization,
Freedom in a Free State,
The Randolph Slaves,
The Republic of Liberia.
A TYPICAL COLONIZATION CONVENTION:
Convention of Free Colored People,
Emigration of the Colored Race,
Circular, Address to the Free Colored People of the State of Maryland,
Proceedings of the Convention of Free Colored People of the State of
Maryland

REVIEWS OF BOOKS:
ABEL'S _The Slaveholding Indians. Volume I: As Slaveholder and
Secessionist_;
GEORGE'S _The Political History of Slavery in the United States_;
CLARK'S _The Constitutional Doctrines of Justice Harlan_;
THOMPSON'S _Reconstruction in Georgia, Economic, Social, Political,
1865--1872_

NOTES

THE ASSOCIATION FOR THE STUDY OF NEGRO LIFE AND HISTORY, INCORPORATED

41 North Queen Street, Lancaster, PA. 2223 Twelfth Street, Washington, D. C.

25 Cents A Copy $1.00 A Year

Copyright, 1916

COLORED FREEMEN AS SLAVE OWNERS IN VIRGINIA[1]

Among the quaint old seventeenth century statutes of Virginia may be found the following significant enactment:

No negro or Indian though baptized and enjoyned their own freedome shall be capable of any purchase of Christians _but yet not debarred from buying any of their owne nation._[2]

"Christians" in this act means persons of the white race. Indented servitude was the condition and status of no small part of the white population of Virginia when this law was enacted. While it is not a part of our purpose in this article to show that white servants were ever bound in servitude to colored masters, the inference from this prohibition upon the property rights of the free Negroes is that colored freemen had at least attempted to acquire white or "Christian" servants. In a revision of the law seventy-eight years later it was deemed necessary to retain the prohibition and to annex the provision that if any free Negro or mulatto "shall nevertheless presume to purchase a Christian white servant, such servant shall immediately become free."[3]

If we see in these laws nothing more than precautionary measures against a possible reversal of the usual order of white master and black servant to that of black master and white servant, they are nevertheless significant as commentaries on the extent of the remaining unimpaired property rights of black freemen. Only in the light of these prohibitions do we see the full significance of the last clause of the act which reads: "but yet not debarred from buying any of their owne nation."

With no evidence beyond this explicit admission in the written law of the right of free Negroes to own servants and slaves of their own race it could scarcely be doubted that there were in the colony colored men known to the framers of this law who held to service persons of their own race and color. But when the court records are opened and the strange story of the free Negro Anthony Johnson and his slave John Casor is read and understood we are forced to a realization of the impartial attitude of the law toward black masters not only in its outward expression but also in its actual application. The story of the relation of these two black settlers in the young colony is worth relating in the quaint language of the times word for word as it appears in the manuscript records.

The deposition of Capt. Samll. Goldsmyth taken in open court 8th of
March [16]54 sayeth that being att ye house of Anth. Johnson Negro
about ye beginning of November last to receive a Hogsd of tobac, a
negro called Jno. Casor came to this depo[nen]t & told him yt hee came
into Virginia for seaven or eight years of Indenture; yt hee had
demanded his freedome of Antho. Johnson his mayster & further sd yt
hee had kept him his serv[ant] seaven years longer than hee should or
ought; and desired that this Depont would see yt hee might have noe
wronge; whereupon your depont demanded of Anth. Johnson his Indenture.
the sd Johnson answered hee never saw any. The negro Jno. Casor
replyed when hee came in he had an Indenture. Anth. Johnson sd hee had
ye Negro for his life, but Mr. Robert & George Parker sd they knewe
that ye sd Negro had an Indenture in one Mr. S[andys?] hand on ye
other side of ye Baye. Further sd Mr. Robert Parker & his Brother
George sd (if the sd. Anth. Johnson did not let ye negro go free) the
said negro Jno Casor would recover most of his Cows from him ye sd
Johnson. Then Anth. Johnson (as this dep't. did suppose) was in a
great feare.... Anth. Johnsons sonne in Law, his wife & his own two
sonnes persuaded the old negro Anth. Johnson to sett the sd. Jno.
Casor free ... more sth not.

Samll Goldsmyth.

Eight March Anno 1654.[4]

John Casor was not, however, permitted to enjoy long his freedom. Johnson decided to petition the county court to determine whether John Casor was a slave for life or a servant "for seven years of indenture." The court record of the suit is as follows:

Whereas complaint was this daye made to ye court by ye humble peticion
of Anth. Johnson Negro ag[ains]t Mr. Robert Parker that hee detayneth
one John Casor a Negro the plaintiffs Serv[an]t under pretense yt
the sd Jno. Casor is a freeman the court seriously considering &
maturely weighing ye premises doe fynd that ye sd Mr. Robert Parker
most unrightly keepeth ye sd Negro John Casor from his r[igh]t
mayster Anth. Johnson as it appeareth by ye Deposition of Capt. Samll
Gold smith & many probable circumstances. be it therefore ye
Judgement of ye court & ordered that ye sd Jno. Casor negro, shall
forthwith bee turned into ye service of his sd master Anthony Johnson
and that the sd Mr. Robert Parker make payment of all charges in the
suite and execution.[5]

In thus sustaining the claim of Anth. Johnson to the perpetual service of John Casor the court gave judicial sanction to the right of Negroes to own slaves of their own race. Indeed no earlier record, to our knowledge, has been found of judicial support given to slavery in Virginia except as a punishment for crime. Additional gleanings from the records show that this black slavemaster was a respected citizen of wealth and one of the very earliest Negro arrivals upon this continent, if, indeed, he was not one of the first twenty brought in on the Dutch man-of-war in 1619. Every doubt of the correctness of this assertion should be banished by a perusal of the somewhat detailed evidence upon which the conclusion is based.

The discovery of the fact that Anthony Johnson was a slaveowner led to a further examination of court records and land patents for additional information concerning him. In the court records of Northampton County in 1653 it was found recorded that "Anth. Johnson negro hath this daye made his compl[ain]t to ye court that John Johnson, Senr. most unrightly detayneth a pattent of his for 450 acres of land (which pattent sd. Jno. Johnson negro claymeth & boldly affirmeth to bee his land."[6]

A search in the early land patents of the State revealed a grant by the authorities of the State of two hundred and fifty acres of land in Northampton County to Anthony Johnson a Negro. The grant was made as "head rights" upon the importation by the Negro of five persons into the colony.[7] Still pursuing the record of this black freeman, who was able to maintain a slave, the following was discovered in the records of the county court of Northampton:

Upon ye humble pet[ition] of Anth. Johnson negro & Mary his wife &
their Information to ye Court that they have been Inhabitants in
Virginia above thirty years, consideration being taken of their hard
labor and honored service performed by the petitioners in this
Country for ye obtayneing of their Livelyhood and ye great Llosse
they have sustained by an unfortunate fire with their present charge
to provide for. Be it therefore fitt and ordered that from the day of
the debate hearof during their natural lives the sd Mary Johnson &
two daughters of Anthony Johnson Negro be disingaged and freed from
payment of Taxes and leavyes in Northampton County for public use.[8]

Subtracting thirty years from 1652, the date of this order of the court, it appeared that this Negro and his wife were in Virginia in 1622. Examination of a census taken in Virginia after the Indian massacre of 1622 and called "The Lists of Living and Dead in Virginia" revealed the fact that there were only four Negroes in the colony beside the surviving nineteen out of the twenty that came in in 1619. The name of one of these four was Mary and the name of one of the first twenty was Anthony.[9] It may with good reason be surmised, if it cannot be proved, that Mary became the wife of Anthony and that in the course of the next thirty years they acquired the surname Johnson as well as a large tract of land and a slave by the name of John Casor.

THE EXISTENCE OF BLACK MASTERS AFTER COLONIAL TIMES

Some readers may be inclined to regard the case of the slave John Casor as altogether exceptional and peculiar to an early period in the growth of slavery before custom had fully crystallized into law. It is true that similar examples are hard to find in the seventeenth century when the free Negroes were few in number. But if from the paucity of examples it is argued that such a case was a freak of the seventeenth century and that nothing similar could have occurred after slavery became a settled and much regulated institution, the answer is that slave-owning by free Negroes was so common in the period of the Commonwealth as to pass unnoticed and without criticism by those who consciously recorded events of the times. For abundant proof of the relation of black master and black slave we must refer again to court records and legislative petitions from which events and incidents were not omitted because of their common occurrence. Deeds of sale and transfer of slaves to free Negroes, wills of free Negroes providing for a future disposition of slaves, and records of suits for freedom against free Negroes, all relate too well the story of how black masters owned slaves of their own race, to require additional proof.

The following record of the court of Henrico County under date of 1795 is an example of what is to be found in the records of any of the older counties of Virginia:

Know all men by these presents that I, James Radford of the County
of Henrico for and in consideration of the sum of thirty-three pounds
current money of Virginia to me in hand paid by George Radford a
black freeman of the city of Richmond hath bargained and sold unto
George Radford one negro woman aggy, to have and to hold the said
negro slave aggy unto the said George Radford his heirs and assigns
forever.

James Radford (seal)[10]

Judith Angus, a well-to-do free woman of color of Petersburg, was the owner of two household slaves. Before her death in 1832 she made a will which provided that the two slave girls should continue in the service of the family until they earned money enough to enable them to leave the State and thus secure their freedom according to law.[11]

From the records of the Hustings Court of Richmond may be gotten the account of a suit for freedom begun by Sarah, a slave, against Mary Quickly, a free black woman of the city. It is worthy of note that no claim was made by the plaintiff that Mary Quickly, being a black woman, had no right to own a slave. The grounds for the suit had no relation whatever to the race or color of the defendant, Mary Quickly.[12]

The only evidence at hand of the kind of relations that existed between black masters and their chattel slaves is supplied by the word of old men who remember events of the last two decades before the war. All that have been heard to speak of the matter are unanimously of the opinion that black masters had difficulty in subordinating and controlling their slaves. William Mundin, a mulatto barber of Richmond, seventy-five years of age, when interviewed, but still of trustworthy memory and character, is authority for the statement that Reuben West, a comparatively wealthy free colored barber of Richmond, went into the slave market and purchased a slave cook, but because of the spirit of insub ordination manifested by the slave woman toward him and his family he disposed of her by sale. James H. Hill, another free colored man to whose statements a good degree of credence is due, corroborates in many points this story about Reuben West as a slaveowner. His statement is that Reuben West was a free colored barber of some wealth and the owner at one time of two slaves, one of whom was a barber working in his master's shop on Main Street. So much of these statements has been confirmed by reference to tax books and court records that the entire story may be accepted as true.

A TRULY BENEVOLENT SLAVERY

The type of black master represented by Reuben West or Anthony Johnson must be distinguished from the colored slaveowner who kept his slaves in bondage, not for their service, but wholly in consideration of the slaves. A very considerable majority of black masters, unlike the examples above cited, were easily the most benevolent known to history. It was owing to a drastic state policy toward freedmen that this unusually benevolent type of slavery arose.

During the last quarter of the eighteenth century slaveowners in Virginia possessed unrestricted powers to bestow freedom upon their slaves. Under such circumstances free blacks became instrumental in procuring freedom for many of their less fortunate kinsmen. They frequently advanced for a slave friend the price at which his white master held him for sale and, having liberated him, trusted him to refund the price of his freedom. A free member of a colored family would purchase whenever able his slave relatives. The following deed of sale is a striking example of such a purchase:

Know all men of these presents that I David A. Jones of Amelia County
of the one part have for and in consideration of the sum of five
hundred dollars granted unto Frank Gromes a black man of the other
part a negro woman named Patience and two children by name Phil and
Betsy to have and to hold the above named negroes to the only proper
use, behalf and benefit of him and his heirs forever.

David Jones (seal)[13]

Phil Cooper, of Gloucester County, in 1828 was the chattel slave of his free wife. Janette Wood of Richmond was manumitted in 1795 by her mother, "natural love" being the only consideration named in the legal instrument. John Sabb, of Richmond, purchased in 1801 his aged father-in-law Julius and for the nominal consideration of five shillings executed a deed of manumission.[14]

Purchases of this kind before 1806 were usually followed immediately by manumission of the slave. Scattered through the deeds and wills of Virginia County records in the quarter century ending with 1806 are to be found numerous documents of which the following is an example:

To all whom these presents may come know ye, that I Peter Hawkins a
free black man of the city of Richmond having purchased my wife Rose,
a slave about twenty-two years of age and by her have had a child
called Mary now about 18 mo. old, for the love I bear toward my wife
and child have thought proper to emancipate them and for the further
consideration of five shillings to me in hand paid ... I emancipate
and set free the said Rose and Mary and relinquish all my right ...
as slaves to the said Rose and Mary.

Peter Hawkins (seal)[15]

Indeed the kindness of free Negroes toward their friends and relatives seeking freedom afforded such an accessible avenue to liberty that those vigilant white citizens who desired to preserve the institution of slavery deemed it necessary to put obstructions in the way. A law which required any slave manumitted after May 1, 1806 to leave the State within the space of twelve months was passed in 1806 and remained in force until the war rendered it obsolete. Forfeiture of freedom was the penalty for refusal to accept banishment. From this act dates the beginning of this benevolent type of slavery. Free Negroes continued to purchase their relatives but held them as slaves, refusing to decree their banishment by executing a deed or will of manumission.

A pathetic example of this kind was the case of Negro Daniel Webster of Prince William County. At the age of sixty when an illness forced him to the conclusion that life was short, he sent a petition to the legislature saying that he had thus far avoided the evil consequences of the law of 1806 by retaining his family in nominal slavery but that then he faced the alternative of manumitting his family to see it disrupted and banished or of holding his slave family together till his death, when its members like other property belonging to his estate would be sold as slaves to masters of a different type. He begged that exception be made to the law of 1806 in the case of his wife and children so that he might feel at liberty to manumit them.[16]

A similar petition to the Legislature in 1839 by Ermana, a slave woman, stated that her husband and owner had been a free man of color, that he had died intestate and that she, her children and her property had escheated to the literary fund. Scores of similar petitions to the Legislature for special acts of relief tell the story of how black men and women who owned members of their families neglected too long to remove from them the status of property.

A case more amusing than pathetic was that of Betsy Fuller, a free Negro huckstress of Norfolk, and her slave husband. The colored man's legal status was that of property belonging to his wife. Upon the approach of the Civil War he was blatant in his advocacy of Southern views, thus evincing his indifference to emancipation.[17]

Feeble efforts were made by the legislature for a score of years before the war to limit the power of free Negroes to acquire slaves for profit. By an act of 1832 free Negroes were declared incapable of purchasing or otherwise acquiring permanent ownership, except by descent, of any slaves other than husband, wife, and children. Contracts for the sale of a slave to a black man were to be regarded as void.[18] But even this attempt at limitation was passed by a bare majority of one.[19] Within three years of the beginning of the War the law was revised to read: "No free negro shall be capable of acquiring, except by descent, any slave." [20] In the opinion of a judge who passed upon this law, its object was "to keep slaves as far as possible under the control of white men only, and to prevent free negroes from holding persons of their own race in personal subjection to themselves. Perhaps also it is intended to evince the distinctive superiority of the white race." [21]

Whatever may have been their object these acts are of more significance because of the story they tell than they ever were in accomplishing the emancipation of slaves from masters of the black race. The period of the existence of the black master was conterminous with the period of the existence of slavery. By the same immortal proclamation which broke the shackles of slaves serving white masters were rent asunder, also, the bonds which held slaves to masters of their own race and color.

JOHN H. RUSSELL, PH.D., (_Professor of Political Science, Whitman College, Walla Walla, Washington._)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Acknowledgments are due to the Johns Hopkins Press for permitting the use in this article of data included in the author's monograph entitled "The Free Negro in Virginia, 1619-1865."

[2] Hening's Statutes at Large of Virginia, Vol. II, p. 280 (1670). Italics my own.

[3] Hening, Vol. V, p. 550.

[4] Original MS. Records of the County Court of Northampton. Orders, Deeds and Wills, 1651-1654, p. 20.

[5] Original MS. Records of the County Court of Northampton. Orders, Deeds and Wills, 1651-1654, p. 10.

[6] Original MS. Records of Northampton Co., 1651-1654, p. 200.

[7] MS. Land Patents of Virginia, 1643-1651, 326.

[8] MS. Court Records of Northampton Co., 1651-1654, p. 161.

[9] J. C. Hotten, "Lists of Emigrants to America," pp. 218-258.

[10] MS. Deeds of Henrico County, No. 5, p. 585.

[11] MS Legislative Petitions, Dinwiddie County, 1833, A 5123, Virginia State Library.

[12] Orders of the Hustings Court of Richmond, Vol. 5, p. 41.

[13] MS. Deeds of Henrico County, No. 4, p. 692.

[14] MS. Deeds of Henrico County, No. 6, p. 274.

[15] MS. Deeds of Henrico County, No. 6, p. 78.

[16] MS. Legislative Petitions, Prince William Co., 1812, Virginia State Library.

[17] _Lower Norfolk County Antiquary_, Vol. IV, p. 177.

[18] Acts of Assembly, 1831-1832, p. 20.

[19] Senate Journal, 1832, p. 176.

[20] Acts of Assembly, 1857-1858.

[21] Grattan's Reports, Vol. 14, p. 260.

THE FUGITIVES OF THE PEARL

The traditional history of the Negro in America, during nearly three hundred years, is one in which the elements of pathos, humor and tragedy are thoroughly mixed and in which the experiences encountered are of a kind to grip the hearts and consciences of men of every race and every creed. Just as colonial Americans resented their enforced enlistment for maritime service under the flag of King George, so it may be assumed that with equal vigor did the little band of Africans object to a forced expatriation from their native wilds, even though, as it happened, they were destined to be, in part, the builders of a great and prosperous nation and the progenitors of a strong and forward-looking race.

There are few incidents that distinguish the bondage of the descendants of that first boat load of involuntary African explorers, that evince, in so large a degree, the elements alluded to, as do those which cluster about the story of the "Edmondson Children." There were altogether fourteen sons and daughters of Paul and Amelia who passed as devoutly pious and respectable old folks. Paul was a freeman who hired his time in the city. Amelia was a slave. Their little cabin, a few miles out of the city of Washington proper, was so neat and orderly that it was regarded as a model for masters and slaves alike for many miles around. They were thus permitted to live together by the owners of Amelia, who realized how much more valuable the children would be as a marketable group after some years of such care and attention as the mother would be sure to bestow. Milly, as she was familiarly called, reared the children, tilled the garden, and, being especially handy with the needle, turned off many a job of sewing for the family of her mistress. She was entirely ignorant so far as books go, but Paul read the Bible to her when visiting his loved ones on Sunday and what he explained she remembered and treasured up for comfort in her moments of despair.

The older boys and girls were hired out in prominent families in the city and by their intelligence, orderly conduct and other evidences of good breeding came to be known far and wide as "The Edmondson Children," the phrase being taken as descriptive of all that was excellent and desirable in a slave. The one incurable grief of these humble parents was that in bringing children into the world they were helping to perpetuate the institution of slavery. The fear that any day might bring to them the cruel pangs of separation and the terrible knowledge that their loved ones had been condemned to the horrors of the auction block was with them always a constant shadow, darkening each waking moment. More and ever more, they were torn with anxiety for the future of the children and so they threw themselves with increasing faith and dependence upon the Master of all, and no visit of the children was so hurried or full of other matters but that a few moments were reserved for prayer. At their departure, one after another was clasped to the mother's breast and always this earnest admonition followed them, "Be good children and the blessed Lord will take care of you." Louisa and Joseph, the two youngest, were still at home when there occurred events in which several of their older brothers and sisters took so prominent a part and which are here to be related.

The incidents of this narrative which are reflected in its title are contemporary with and in a measure resultant from the revolution out of which came the establishment of the first French Republic and the expulsion of Louis-Philippe in 1848. The citizens of the United States were felicitating their brothers across the water upon the achievement of so desirable a result. In Washington especially, the event was joyously acclaimed. Public meetings were held at which representatives of the people in both houses of Congress spoke encouragingly of the recent advance toward universal liberty. The city was regally adorned with flags and bunting and illumination and music everywhere. The White House was elaborately decorated in honor of the event and its general observance, scheduled for April 13. A procession of national dignitaries, local organizations and the civic authorities, accompanied by several bands of music and throngs of citizens, made its way to the open square (now Lafayette Park) opposite the White House. Speeches were in order. Among the addresses which aroused the large crowd to enthusiasm were those of Senator Patterson of Tennessee and Senator Foote of Mississippi.[1] The former likened the Tree of Liberty to the great cotton-wood tree of his section, whose seed is blown far and wide, while the latter spoke eloquently of the universal emancipation of man and the approaching recognition in all countries of the great principles of equality and brotherhood.

Here and there huddled unobtrusively in groups on the fringe of the crowd were numbers of slaves. The enthusiasm of the throng, frequently manifested in shouts of approval, was discreetly reflected in the suppressed excitement of the slaves, who whispered among themselves concerning the curious and incredible expressions they had heard. Could it possibly be that these splendid truths, this forecast of universal liberty, might include them too? A few of the more intelligent, among whom was Samuel Edmondson, drew together to discuss the event and were not long concluding that the authority they had listened to could not be questioned and that they should at once contribute their share towards so desirable a consummation.

Coincident with this celebration there had arrived at Washington the schooner _Pearl_ with Daniel Drayton[2] as super-cargo, Captain Sayres, owner, and a young man, Chester English, as sailor and cook. Drayton witnessed the great demonstration near the White House and, as might have been expected, the sentiment that seemed to have won all Washington found a natural and active response, for when the news of the purpose of his visit was communicated by the woman for whose deliverance he had agreed to make the trip, he was appealed to on behalf of others and consented to take all who should be aboard by ten o'clock that night.

The Edmondson boys actively promoted the scheme and, rightly in so just a cause, abused the privileges which their integrity and unusual intelligence had won for them. The news was passed to an aggregate of 77 persons, all of whom faithfully appeared and were safely stowed away between decks before midnight. Samuel sought his sisters Emily and Mary at their places of employment and acquainted them with his purpose. They at first hesitated on account of the necessity of leaving without seeing their mother, but were soon persuaded that it was an opportunity they should not be willing to neglect.

The _Pearl_ cast free from her moorings shortly after midnight Saturday and silently, with no sign of life aboard, save running lights fore and aft, crept out to mid-stream and made a course towards the lower Potomac. The condition that obtained on Sunday morning after the discovery of the absence of so many slaves from their usual duties may be accurately described as approaching a panic. Had the evidences of a dreadful plague become as suddenly manifest, the community could not have experienced a greater sense of horror or for the moment been more thoroughly paralyzed. A hundred or more families were affected through the action of these seventy and seven slaves and the stern proofs of their flight were many times multiplied.

The action of the masters in this emergency is eloquent testimony that the fine orations of two days before concerning the spread of liberty and universal brotherhood had been nothing more than so many meaningless conversations. When confronted on Sunday morning with the fact that theirs and their neighbors' slaves, in so great numbers, had disappeared during the night, the realization of the difference between popular enthusiasm for a sentiment and a real sacrifice for a principle was borne in upon them and they found that while they enjoyed the former they were not at all ready to espouse the latter.

As a result the day was but little advanced when an excited cavalcade of the masters, after scouring every portion of the city, broke for the open country to the North, designing to cover each of the roads leading from the city. They had not reached the District limits, however, when they whirled about and galloped furiously in the opposite direction and never checked rein, until panting and foaming, their horses were brought up at the wharves. A vessel was chartered and steamed away almost immediately on its mission to capture the party of runaway slaves.

Fate, which occasionally plays such strange and cruel tricks in the lives of men, presented in this instance a Machiavellian combination of opposing forces, that was disastrous to the enterprise of the fugitives. Judson Diggs,[3] one of their own people, a man who in all reason might have been expected to sympathize with their effort, took upon himself the role of Judas. Judson was a drayman and had hauled some packages to the wharf for one of the slaves, who was without funds to pay the charge, and although he was solemnly promised that the money should be sent him, he proceeded at once to wreak vengeance through a betrayal of the entire party.

Even so, it would seem they might have had an excellent chance to escape, but for the adverse winds and tides which set against them towards the close of Sunday. They were approaching the open waters of the Bay and the little vessel was already pitching and tossing as from the lashing of a gale. The captain decided that it was the part of prudence to remain within the more quiet waters of the Potomac for the night and make the open sea by light of day. Under these circumstances they put into Cornfield Harbor and here in the quiet hours before midnight the pursuing masters found them.

It is difficult to realize the consternation felt by the fugitives when the noise of tramping feet and the voices of angry men broke upon their ears. They seemed to realize at once that they were lost and many gave themselves up to shrieks and tears until wise counsel prevailed. Captain Drayton and his mate were immediately the storm center of the infuriated masters, many of whom were loud in the demand that summary vengeance be wreaked upon them and that these two at least should be hung from the yard arm. It was easily possible that this demand might have been acceded to, had not a diversion been caused by some of the others who were anxious to locate the slaves.

To satisfy themselves as to their safety they proceeded to break open the hatchways when, so suddenly as to create something of a panic, Richard Edmondson bounded on deck and in a voice of suppressed excitement exclaimed, "Do yourselves no harm, gentlemen, for we are all here!" Richard was young, muscular and of splendid proportions and seeing him thus by the poor light of smoky lanterns, with flashing eyes and swinging arms, leaping into their midst with an unknown number of others following, some of the masters experienced a feeling of terror, and dropping their guns, scurried away to safety among the dark shadows of the vessel.

By the time the others reached the deck, the shock of Richard's strange appearance had somewhat died away and when Samuel, who was one of the last, appeared, a sharp blow which, but for a sudden lurch of the vessel, would have laid him low fell on one side of his head. Drayton and Sayres,[4] who were witnesses of this incident, were horrified to think that, having not so much as a penknife with which to defend themselves, these poor creatures might be brutally murdered, and, notwithstanding the serious aspect of their own fortunes,[5] protested vigorously against such violence. But for this timely interference, there is but little doubt that some of these poor people would have been cruelly if not fatally injured.

The true condition of affairs, however, was speedily recognized and seeing there was nothing to fear in the way of resistance, order was soon evolved out of the general chaos and then came the decision to make an early start on the return trip. Among the slaves, the reaction from a feeling of hope and joyous anticipation of the delights of freedom was terrible indeed. The bitter gall and wormwood of failure was the sad and gloomy portion of these seventy and seven souls. Among them then there were but few who were not completely crushed, their minds a seething torrent, in which regret, misery and despair made battle for the mastery. Children weeping and wailing clung to the skirts of their elders. The women with shrieks, groans and tearful lamentations deplored their sad fate, while the men, securely chained wrist and wrist together, stood with heads dropped forward, too dazed and wretched for aught but to turn their stony gaze within upon the wild anguish of their aching hearts.

Their arrival at Washington was signalized by a demonstration vastly different but little short of that which had taken place a few days before. The wharves were alive with an eager and excited throng all intent upon a view of the miserable folks who had been guilty of so ungrateful an effort. So disorderly was the mob that the debarkation was for some time delayed. This was finally accomplished through the strenuous efforts of the entire constabulary of the city.

The utmost watchfulness and care was, however, unavailing to prevent assaults. The most serious instance of this kind was the act of an Irish ruffian, who so far forgot the traditions and sufferings of his own people as to cast himself upon Drayton with a huge dirk and cut off a piece of his ear.[6] For a few moments all the horrors incident to riot and bloodshed were in evidence. The air was filled with the screams of terrorized women and children and the curses and threats of vengeful men. The whole was a struggling, swaying mass, which for a season had been swept beyond itself by brutish passion.

Numerous arrests were made and in due course the march to the jail was begun with the accompanying crowd hurling taunts and jeers at every step. While they were proceeding thus, an onlooker said to Emily, "Aren't you ashamed to run away and make all this trouble for everybody?" To this she replied, "No sir, we are not and if we had to go through it again, we'd do the same thing."

The controversy that was precipitated through the attempted escape, between the advance guard of abolition and the defenders of slavery, was most bitter and violent. The storm broke furiously about the offices of _The National Era_. In Congress, Mr. Giddings of Ohio moved an "inquiry into the cause of the detention at the District jail of persons merely for attempting to vindicate their inalienable rights." Senator Hale of New Hampshire moved a resolution of "inquiry into the necessity for additional laws for the protection of property in the District."[7] A committee consisting of such notable characters as the Channings, Samuel May, Samuel Howe, Richard Hildreth, Samuel Sewell and Robert Morris, Jr., was formed at Boston to furnish aid and defense for Drayton. These men were empowered to employ counsel and collect money. Horace Mann, William H. Seward, Salmon P. Chase and Fessenden of Maine volunteered to serve gratuitously.[8]

Other philanthropists directed their attention to the liberation of these slaves. The Edmondsons were owned by an estate. The administrator, who was approached by John Brent,[9] the husband of the oldest sister of the children, agreed to give their friends an opportunity to effect their purchase, as he was unwilling to run any further risk by keeping them. He failed to keep this promise and when Mr. Brent went to see them the next day he was informed that they had been sold to Bruin and Hill, the slave-dealers of Alexandria and Baltimore, and had been sent to the former city. A cash sum of $4,500 had been accepted for the six children and when taxed with the failure to keep his promise, he simply said he was unwilling to take any further risk with them. Bruin also refused to listen to any proposals, saying he had long had his eyes on the family and could get twice what he paid for them in the New Orleans market.

They were first taken to the slave pens at Alexandria, where they remained nearly a month. Here the girls were required to do the washing for a dozen or more men with the assistance of their brothers and were at length put aboard a steamboat and taken to Baltimore where they remained three weeks. Through the exertions of friends at Washington, $900 was given towards their freedom by a grandson of John Jacob Astor, and this was appropriated towards the ransom of Richard, as his wife and children were said to be ill and suffering at Washington. The money arrived on the morning they were to sail for New Orleans but they had all been put aboard the brig _Union_, which was ready to sail, and the trader refused to allow Richard to be taken off. The voyage to New Orleans covered a period of seven days, during which much discomfort and suffering were experienced. There were eleven women in the party, all of whom were forced to live in one small apartment, and the men numbering thirty-five or forty, in another not much larger. Most of them being unaccustomed to travel by water were afflicted with all the horrors of sea-sickness. Emily's suffering from this cause was most pitiable and so serious was her condition at one time that the boys feared she would die. The brothers, however, as in all circumstances, were very kind and would tenderly carry her out on deck whenever the heat in their close quarters became too oppressive and would buy little comforts that were in their reach and minister in all possible ways to her relief.