Chapter IV: The Royal Adventurers and the Plantations (7)

In giving the facts which entitle these characters to honorable mention the author did not do his task well. He mentioned too few incidents in the lives of these persons to make them interesting. In other words, instead of presenting facts to speak for themselves the author too easily yielded to the temptation to indulge in mere eulogy. These mistakes cannot be excused, even if the book is intended for children. On the whole, however, the work indicates effort in the right direction and it is hoped that more extensive and numerous sketches of women of achievement of the Negro race may be found in the literature of our day.

NOTES

At the close of this the fourth year of its existence the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History convened in biennial session in Washington, D. C., on the 17th and 18th of June at the 12th Street Branch Y. M. C. A. The reports for the year were heard, new officers were elected, and the plans for the coming year were formulated. The proceedings in full will appear in the October number.

The chief interest of the meeting centered around the informing addresses on the _Negro in the World War_. Every phase of the war history which the Negro helped to make was treated.

The Association worked out also the plans by which it will collect data to write a scientific _History of the Negro in the World War_ just as soon as the treaty of peace is signed and documents now inaccessible because of the proximity to the conflict become available. The coöperation of all seekers after the truth is earnestly solicited.

During the past two years the Association has been able to move steadily forward in spite of the difficulties incident to the war. The subscriptions to the JOURNAL OF NEGRO HISTORY have gradually increased and a number of philanthropists have liberally contributed to the fund now being used to extend the work into all parts of the country. This work is being done by a Field Agent who organizes clubs for the study of Negro life and history and, through local agents, sells the publications of the Association and solicits subscriptions to the JOURNAL OF NEGRO HISTORY.

In addition to publishing for four years the JOURNAL OF NEGRO HISTORY, a repository of truth now available in bound form, the association has brought out also _Slavery in Kentucky_, an interesting portraiture of the institution in that State; _The Royal Adventurers Trading into Africa_, one of the best studies of the early slave trade; and _A Century of Negro Migration_, the only scientific treatment of this movement hitherto published.

The circulation of these publications has been extensive. They are read in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and Africa; they reach more than three hundred college and public libraries; they are found in all Negro homes where learning is an objective; they are used by most social workers to get light on the solution of the problems of humanity; they are referred to by students and professors conducting classes carrying on research; and they reach members of the cabinet and the President of the United States.

* * * * *

Carter G. Woodson is not a contributor to the _Official History of the Negro in the World War_ by Mr. Emmett J. Scott as has been reported throughout the country. He has given the author several suggestions, however, and such editorial assistance as the many tasks and obligations of the Director permitted.

THE JOURNAL

OF

NEGRO HISTORY

VOL. IV--OCTOBER, 1919--NO. 4

LABOR CONDITIONS IN JAMAICA PRIOR TO 1917

To show the lack of progress in Jamaica since the abolition of slavery by the gradual process inaugurated in 1833 and its final extermination in 1838, nothing will better serve the purpose than the review of the system of apprenticeship established as a substitute for that institution. According to the portraiture given by Sturge and Harvey in their work entitled _The West Indies in 1837_ and the conditions now obtaining in the island, very little progress in the condition of the laboring man has been made since that time.

For scarcely any remuneration the Negroes were required by a compulsory arrangement between their overseers and the Special Magistrates to give during the crop the time granted them under the law for their own use and they were on many estates obliged to work a greater number of hours than was required by law. The apprentices were compelled to work by spells of eight hours in the field on one day, and for sixteen hours in and about the boiling house on the next day, giving up their half Friday, for which amount of extra labor they received two shillings and one penny or 50 cents a week. On one estate the wages paid for extra labor during crop was two pence or 4 cents an hour. The working hours were generally from four to eleven and from one to five, and it is interesting to note that while it was expected that on each half Friday given to the apprentices, sufficient food should be provided by them to last for the succeeding week, yet when that half day was taken from them five or six herrings were the only compensation.

The following case is taken from an agreement made in 1836 by certain cane hole diggers. Every laborer agreed to dig 405 cane holes in four and one half days due his master, and to receive ten pounds of salt fish and a daily allowance of sugar and rum, the salt fish to be diminished in the ratio of one pound for every forty holes short of 405. In the one day and a half of his own time he was paid three shillings and four pence or 80 cents for every ninety cane holes. Under this agreement the maximum work performed was that of an apprentice who in three weeks of thirteen and one half days dug in his own time 1,017 holes, for which he received 28 pounds of fish, and in cash one pound and fifteen shillings or $8.40. By this means it was possible for the master to have 58 acres of land worked at a total cost of £147 10s 0d or $708. The cost to him, if the work had been given out to jobbers, would have been £8 an acre or £464, $2,227.20. His apprentices were therefore the means of saving for him the sum of £316 l0d or $1,519.20.

The following was the scale of wages for transient labor:

Prime headman 3 pence or 6 cents.
Inferior headman 2 pence or 4 cents.
First gang--able-bodied 1-1/2 pence or 3 cents.
First gang--weakly 1-1/4 pence or 2-1/2 cents.
Second gang--able-bodied 1-1/4 pence or 2-1/2 cents.
Second gang--weakly 1 penny or 2 cents.
Third gang--active 3/4 penny or 1-1/2 cents.
Third gang--lazy 1/2 penny or 1 cent.

The apprentices were permitted under the law to make application to be valued, and on the basis of the valuation were entitled to purchase their freedom. Here again was the system grossly abused. The slaves or apprentices, as they were at that time called, became at the hour of valuation very desirable assets; and, in many instances, so valuable did they suddenly become that it was quite out of their power to carry out their intention. The system became for this reason a premium on all the bad qualities of the Negroes and a tax upon all the good. In spite of this, however, so great was the desire for freedom that within a period of twenty-eight months, from 1st August, 1834, to 30th November, 1836, 1,580 apprentices purchased their freedom by valuation at a cost of £52,215 or $250,632, an average of £33 or $158.40 a head.

Although seventy-eight years have passed since the total abolition of slavery, however, the condition of the laborers of Jamaica remains practically the same as it was then. There has been beyond doubt much improvement in the island, but the unfortunate fact is this, that the laborer living in a country much improved in many respects, is himself no better or very little better off than his forefathers in slavery. In truth, he is still an economic slave. The conditions under which he lives and works are such as destroy whatever ambition he may possess, and reduce his life to a mere drudgery, to a mere animal existence.

Some progress has been made and there are signs of improvement, but the majority of laborers, the men and women and children who till the banana fields and work on the sugar plantations, are no better off than previously. These are still beasts of burden, still the victims of an economic system under which they labor not as human beings with bodies to be fed or clothed, with minds to be cultivated and aspiring souls to be ministered unto, but as living machines designed only to plant so many banana suckers in an hour, or to carry so many loads of canes in a day. After seventy-eight years in this fair island, side by side, with the progress and improvements above referred to, there are still hundreds and hundreds of men and women who live like savages in unfloored huts, huddled together like beasts of the field, without regard to health or comfort. And they live thus, not because they are worthless or because they are wholly without ambition or desire to live otherwise, but because they must thus continue as economic slaves receiving still the miserable pittance of a wage of eighteen pence or 36 cents a day that was paid to their forefathers at the dawn of emancipation. The system is now so well established that the employers apparently regard it as their sacred right and privilege to exploit the laborers, and the laborers themselves have been led by long submission and faulty teaching to believe that the system is a part of the natural order, a result of divine ordainment.

This attitude of the poor down-trodden laborers is one of the most effective blocks in the way of his improvement. But the despair of every one who dares to tackle this problem of improving the economic and therefore the social and moral condition of the laborers of this island is based on the inertness which almost amounts to callous indifference of the local Government.

The following letters addressed to me by the Colonial Secretary of Jamaica deserves to be put on record as evidence of the mind of the government, in 1913,--of its inability or unwillingness to take the first step. Letter A was written at the direction of Sir Sydney Olivier, K.C.M.G., then Governor of Jamaica, who recently expressed the opinion that the laborers in this island should receive one dollar a day. That letter is valuable in that it is an official statement of the maximum wages paid by the government of Jamaica to its own laborers. Letter B was written at the direction of the then Colonial Secretary, Mr. P. Cork, and is even more valuable as an official pronouncement on the important question of a living wage.

LETTER A.

"17th January, 1913.

No. 787/15568

With reference to the letter from this office No. 13099/15568
dated the 6th November last and to previous correspondence in
connection with your suggestion that the Government should raise
the wages of their laborers, I am directed by the Governor to
inform you that it appears from enquiries made by His
Excellency's direction that the average wage now earned by
laborers under the Public Works Department is approximately one
shilling and eight pence half penny (41 cents) for an average day
of ten hours, so that in an average day of ten hours the laborers
would at the same rate of pay earn two shillings and one penny
half penny" (51 cents).

LETTER B.

"8th March, 1913.

No. 2926/3268

The Acting Governor directs me to acknowledge the receipt of your
letter of the 26th ultimo on the subject of the amount of wages
paid to native laborers in the employment of the Government, and
in reply to say that no acknowledgement of the correctness of
your contention that one shilling and sixpence per diem is not a
fair living wage for any laborer to receive, and that the minimum
he ought reasonably to expect to enable him to meet the ordinary
demands of existence is two shillings per diem (48 cents), is to
be inferred from the letter from this office, No. 737/15568 dated
the 17th of January, 1913.

"2. I am to add that His Excellency is not in a position to
comply with your request that steps should be taken to ensure to
all laborers working under the Public Works Department a minimum
wage of two shillings per diem (48 cents) as from 1st April
next."

The problem becomes real and serious when the ruling authorities are unwilling to admit what is absolutely clear to every one who is not hopelessly prejudiced, namely, that eighteen pence or thirty-six cents a day, the amount which was paid to the emancipated slaves in 1838, is not a living wage for his descendants in the year 1913, and when they are either unable or unwilling to set the pace for other employers of labor by paying their own laborers a minimum wage of two shillings or forty-eight cents a day.

With the labor problem of Jamaica the question of East Indian Immigration is intimately connected. While, on the one hand, we have the able-bodied native laborers miserably and cruelly underpaid, and having in consequence to emigrate in large numbers to other countries, on the other hand, we have the importation into the island of indentured immigrants under the conditions which make the economic improvement of the native laborers an impossibility. On the one side, the available records inform us that from April 1, 1905, to March 31, 1908, laborers numbering 39,060 emigrated from this island and deposited with the local Government the sum of £22,217 or $106,641.60 as required by law. The exodus to Cuba is at present a very serious comment upon the existing labor conditions. During the month of December, 1916, 761 persons emigrated from the island, 580 to Cuba and 181 to other places.

The figures, on the other side, reveal the fact that since the introduction of East Indian Immigration in 1845 to the present time 35,933 East Indians have been brought into the island; and it is estimated that there are to-day resident in the island over 20,000 East Indians, 3,000 of whom are indentured and 17,000 have completed their term of indenture. These immigrants are distributed to the several estates by the government at a cost of £20.10.0, or $90.42, paid in installments: £2 or $9.60, paid on allottment, £2.2.0 or $10.08 at the end of the first year, and £4.2.0 or $19.68 at the end of each of the succeeding four years.

For the years 1891-1908 the cost of this system to the colony is officially reported as follows:

Cost of importation £129,692.2.2 $622,522.12
Administrative expenses £ 37,377.0.2 179,409.64
Return passages 1901-8 £ 27,254.5.11 130,820.62
Gross cost £194,323.83 $932,752.38
Receipts in hand £143,171.1.1 $687,221.06
Net cost to colony £ 51,152.7.2 $245,531.32

or an average of over £3,000 or $14,400 per annum.

The immigrants are indentured for five years, and are entitled after a continuous residence of ten years in the colony to one half of the value of their passage money in the case of men and of one third in the case of women. For a working day of nine hours the men are paid one shilling or 24 cents and the women nine pence or 18 cents. A deduction of two shillings and sixpence or 60 cents a week is made for rations supplied. They receive free hospital treatment which cost the Government on the average of two pounds or $9.60 each per annum.

The system of immigration is a factor contributing to the present unsatisfactory condition of the labor market in this island. The immigrants are unfair competitors of the natives. They accept lower wages, and they lower the standard of life. They are practically modern slaves. It is not then reasonable with such competitors for the native laborer to expect a favorable response to his appeal for fairer treatment. It is asserted that the importation of East Indians is necessary because the native laborers will not give that reliable and continuous service which is necessary for the profitable working of the estates. The answer to this is that these same laborers emigrate and give their foreign employers the reliable and continuous service which they consistently withhold from the employer at home because they are paid more and treated better abroad.

The solution of the problem in so far as the first steps are concerned is then two fold. First, the government must at once determine that this systematic immigration of cheap labor must cease, and must set about without delay to make the necessary arrangements and adjustments which will be preparatory to an early discontinuance of the system. Next, the employers of labor must either by persuasion or legal coercion be led to induce the native laborers by the offer of better wages to remain at home.

With reference to the first it has been discovered that the government supports the fiction that the importation of East Indians is necessary. In a report dated October 1, 1908, the Acting Protector of Immigrants, with the apparent approval of the Governor, wrote: "As a result of having a nucleus of reliable labor in the shape of indentured coolies owners of estates have felt themselves justified in spending large sums of money in extending their cultivations, and in installing expensive machinery. This has had the effect of providing employment for a much larger number of creole laborers than formerly, and of putting a great deal more money in circulation. I think that instead of the coolie being cursed by the native laborer for taking away his work he should be blessed for having been the means of providing employment for him."

The substance of the statement given above is incorporated by Sir Sydney Olivier, K.C.M.G., in a chapter of his book entitled _White Capital and Colored Labor_, in which there occurs this remarkable assertion: "In Jamaica wages are higher in those districts where indentured coolies are employed on banana plantations." Coolies who receive a maximum wage of one shilling or 24 cents a day are introduced to the world as the wage-raising factor in Jamaica!

Just prior to the World War the labor question was a very live one in Jamaica. The weekly exodus of hundreds of laborers to the neighboring island of Cuba, the murmuring of dissatisfaction among the immigrants, friction in the working of the Immigration Department,--all have served to bring this labor problem prominently to public notice. At a meeting held in the interest of the sugar industry in January, 1917, there was adopted a suggestive resolution moved by Mr. A. W. Farquharson, a prominent and successful legal practitioner, and a man who, though the descendant of an old family of planters, is deeply interested in the improvement of the laborers. The resolution was: "That this committee is convinced that the continuous and increasing exodus of laborers from the colony to seek work in foreign countries is impeding the development of the resources of the island, and that it is of urgent importance that early measures should be adopted to arrest such exodus, by the creation of conditions which will induce an improvement in the status of the laboring population."

The _Daily Chronicle_ of that date comments thus on the question:

"The Sugar Committee has pointed out clearly the precise measures
that are certain to produce better remuneration for the laborer,
and this, as we have been insisting from the start, is the very
essence of the scheme. According to the recommendations forwarded
to the Government and turned down by the Privy Council--some of
whose members have evidently made up their minds that something
akin to the feudal system must, in the interest of a few, be
forever maintained in Jamaica--the Government would go into the
business for the protection of the community against the avidity
of the private capitalist; in other words, to insure a fair
distribution in this island, of the profits derived from the
rehabilitated industry. Under this arrangement the Government
factories would be in a position to set the pace in the matter of
payment of wages to the laborer. Think of what this would mean! A
higher standard of living, better health, more happiness--the
very things which the peasant is being forced to go abroad to
obtain. But the mandamus will have none of this socialism; it is
too broad, too comprehensive, too human for minds unaccustomed to
look beyond self. So they have rejected the Sugar Committee's
proposals, compelling Mr. Farquharson and his friends to appeal
to the Secretary of State for the Colonies. His Excellency the
Governor and his advisors have thus shown their utter inability
to understand the economic needs of the island. Deliberately--we
do not say with malice aforethought--have they decided to
perpetuate conditions which in the past have served to
disintegrate the population of this colony, and will in the
future continue to do this with even more harmful effects than
hitherto unless some well-considered attempt is made to produce
more wealth from our soil for the benefit, not of a few
capitalists, but of the nine hundred thousand inhabitants of
Jamaica."

One might not wholly endorse this criticism, but it should be represented that the inaction of the government, whether due to inability or indifference or to whatever cause, has been the prime preventing cause of an earlier solution of a long standing problem. It seemed, however, as if an attempt was at last to be made to do something. A news article in _The Daily Gleaner_, February, 1917, announced that the Government had at last realized the urgent need of improved barrack accommodation on the estates, and of proper medical supervision of the laborers. It desired to stem the exodus of laborers, but from its own statement given out to the press in the article referred to, not so much for the benefit of the ill-paid laborers, but in consideration for the employers who would soon have to face a labor market relieved of imported coolies. And so, for the sake of the employers, it was proposed to ask the native laborer to agree to be indentured for twelve months at the same miserable wages of eighteen pence or 36 cents a day, with the addition of a tempting (?) bonus of two pounds or $9.60 at the end of the term. And this paternal suggestion was made in order "to improve the local sources of labor supply that were available" at a time when Cuba was offering from one dollar to one dollar and a half a day!

The Labor Problem of Jamaica may then be briefly stated thus: After seventy-eight years of freedom the laboring population was economically no better off in 1916 than their forefathers who lived in the early days of emancipation. The laborers received a daily wage which was but a small pittance, and they worked under conditions that were appalling, and that were a disgrace to any community pretending to be civilized. The government instead of taking steps to improve these conditions and thus to induce the laborer to give in Jamaica that reliable and continuous service which hundreds so willingly and efficiently gave abroad, promoted the perpetuation of those conditions by spending each year over £3,000 or $14,400 of the taxpayers' money in establishing and maintaining a system of immigration which demoralized the best labor market by providing the employers with an undesirable class of laborers whose standard of life is abnormally low, and to whom twenty-four cents a day is a considerable sum, and thereby compelled the native laborer either to accept the unsatisfactory conditions or to emigrate.

The following extract from an article entitled, "What Feeding Him Means," which appeared in _The Daily Gleaner_ of February 7, 1917, throws more light on the problem:

"Captain Fist tells us that what the peasant needs to make him a
better worker is better feeding. He also suggests that decent
dwelling places should be put up on the estates and plantations
for the people, and that a small lot of land should be allowed
each family for the cultivation of ground provisions. All this
and more is being done for the Jamaican in Panama. But when we
hear of living places here, it is always 'barracks' that are
spoken of,--a long range of wretched structures where comfort and
privacy are out of the question, and where, as a rule, only
single men can live. But men are not going to work and live as
bachelors to oblige other people. We do not want laborers merely,
we want decent families of men and women and children, and if the
economic situation in this country cannot provide us with these,
so much the worse for the situation and for the whole country.
The fact is that the Jamaica peasant, if he has been decently fed
and is free from disease, is a good worker. Our Government,
therefore, if it is to justify any claim to being intelligent,
progressive and far seeing must take up the question of disease
with a degree of thoroughness never shown before; while the
employer of labor must provide decent living places for his
workers and pay a sufficient wage to enable them to eat enough
nutritious food and become better workers and improved human
beings. Unless something of the sort is done, Jamaica will
continue to lose her best able bodied population. There can be no
restriction of emigration here unless the Government fixes that
minimum at an amount not less than two shillings a day (48 cents)
and then the Government would have to see that the worker got his
money, and also obtained sufficient work to do. Nothing is to be
expected from any scheme of local indenture: the laborer who
indentured himself to work for a year at one shilling and
sixpence a day, (36 cents) even with a bonus of less than a
shilling a week thrown in at the end of a year would be an
exceptional person, a man with no intention of keeping the
contract and what would you do if he did not keep the contract?
No; these schemes are merely moonshine: we might as well dismiss
them from our minds at once. The only way in which the Government
can directly help the laborer is for the Government to start
industries and pay a decent daily or weekly wage. But the
intelligent employer can do a great deal to help himself where
labor is concerned, if he will but understand that better pay and
better conditions are what his workers want and must have; and
he will find that so long as his undertakings pay him well--that
so long as sugar, coconuts and other things bring him a large
profit (as they are doing today) it will be profitable to him to
make the lot of the worker a better one than it is. Now is the
time for employers to set to work on these necessary reforms.
They can afford to do so, and they decidedly ought to do so.

E. ETHELRED BROWN.

THE LIFE OF CHARLES B. RAY

Charles Bennett Ray was born in Falmouth, Massachusetts, December 25, 1807, and died August 15, 1886. He first attended the school and academy of his native town and then studied theology at the Wesleyan Academy of Wilbraham, Massachusetts, and later at Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut. He became a Congregational minister. His chief work, however, was in connection with the anti-slavery movement, the Underground Railroad and as editor of _The Colored American_ from 1839 to 1842. As a national character he did not measure up to the stature of Ward, Remond and Douglass, and for that reason he is too often neglected in the study of the history of the Negro prior to the Civil War. But he was one of the useful workers in behalf of the Negroes and accomplished much worthy of mention.[1]

Ray became connected with the anti-slavery movement in 1833, in the early winter of which the American Anti-Slavery Society was formed. He proved his fidelity to the sacred cause of liberty by lending practical aid which men in high places often had neither the time nor the patience to give and contributed much to the final overthrow of slavery. "Many a midnight hour," said he, "have I with others walked the streets, their leader and guide and my home was an almost daily receptacle for numbers of them at a time."[2] In those days when so many matters of importance touching the subject of slavery had to be adjusted, the advocates of freedom often met for an interchange of views; and Mr. Ray's home became, on several occasions, the scene of such gatherings where Lewis Tappan, Simeon S. Jocelyn, Joseph Sturge, the celebrated English philanthropist, and others discussed with great earnestness the inner workings of that grand moral conflict.

In coöperation with wealthy abolitionists whose purse strings were wont to be loosed at the call of humanity, he assisted in enabling many a slave to see the light of freedom. Several were taken by him to the Plymouth Church in Brooklyn, which under the inspiration of Henry Ward Beecher, the fearless champion of the cause, contributed liberally toward the succor of the oppressed. In 1850, fifteen years after the formation of the Vigilance Committee of the city of New York, of which Theodore S. Wright was president, the New York State Committee was formed with a plan and object similar to those of the more local organizations. Of this new association Gerrit Smith was president and Ray, a member of the executive board as well as corresponding secretary, an office he held also in the older society. While Ray was not every time the moving spirit of these organizations, he figured largely in carrying out the plans agreed upon by these bodies. In the discharge of the trust committed to his hands he usually acquitted himself with an honorable record.[3]

In advancing the anti-slavery cause, Ray was among the first to work with the circle of radical free Negroes who, through the conventions of the free people of color meeting in Philadelphia and in other cities of the North from 1830 until the Civil War,[4] did much to make the freedman stand out as worthy objects of the philanthropy of the anti-slavery societies. During this period the American Colonization Society was doing its best to convince free Negroes of their lack of opportunity in this country to induce them to try their fortunes in Africa and because of the rapidity with which some free Negroes yielded to this heresy, there was a strong probability that the anti-slavery movement might be weakened by such adherence to faith in colonization to the extent that the ardor of the militant abolitionists would be considerably dampened. While not among the first to start the convention movement among Negroes, Ray in the course of time became one of its most ardent supporters and no convention of the free people of color was considered complete without him.

His career as a journalist in connection with _The Colored American_ was highly creditable. This paper was established in 1837 as the _Weekly Advocate_ with Samuel E. Cornish as editor and Phillip A. Bell as proprietor. After two months it was decided to change the name of the publication to _The Colored American_, under the caption of which it appeared March 4, 1837. Bell then called to his assistance Charles B. Ray who served him as general agent. Traveling as such he went through all parts of the North, East, and West writing letters to present to the public his observations and experiences and lecturing while speaking of the claims of his paper as the champion of the slave and the organ of thought for the free Negro.[5]

Ray rose to the position of one of the proprietors of _The Colored American_ in 1838 and upon the withdrawal of Bell from the enterprise the following year, he became the sole editor and continued in that capacity until 1842 when he suspended publication. He was regarded by his contemporary, William Wells Brown, as a terse and vigorous writer and an able and eloquent speaker well informed upon all subjects of the day. "Blameless in his family relations, guided by the highest moral rectitude, a true friend to everything that tends to better the moral, social, religious and political condition of man. Dr. Ray," says Brown, "may be looked upon as one of the foremost of the leading men of his race."[6]

That the paper ceased to be was no reflection on Ray's ability to conduct the journal, for he manifested evidences of unusual editorial ability and his writings were always strong in the advocacy of liberty and justice. The failure of the enterprise was due to the fact that there were not quite 400,000 free Negroes in the United States at that time and the small number of readers among them were so unhappily dispersed throughout the country that it was difficult to secure enough support for such an enterprise. At this time _The Colored American_ was the only paper in the United States devoted to the interest of the Negro published by a man of color. Its objects were the "more directly moral, social, and political elevation and improvement of the free colored people; and the peaceful emancipation of the enslaved." It, therefore, advocated "all lawful as well as moral measures to accomplish those objects."[7] Feeling that this journal should not be narrow in restricting its efforts to better the condition of the people of color in this country, the editor proclaimed his interest in behalf of such people of all countries of the universe and his concern in the reforms of the age and whatever related to common humanity.

Concerning this paper the _Herald of Freedom_ said the following:

"_The Colored American_, we are glad to see, has reappeared in
the field, under the conduct of our enterprising and talented
Brother Ray. It will maintain a very handsome rank among the
antislavery periodicals, and we hope will be well sustained and
kept up by both, colored and uncolored patronage.

"It must be a matter of pride to our colored friends, as it is to
us, that they are already able to vindicate the claims our
enterprise has always made in their behalf,--to an equal
intellectual rank in this heterogeneous (but 'homogeneous')
community.

"It is no longer necessary for abolitionists to contend against
the blunder of pro-slavery,--that the colored people are inferior
to the whites; for these people are practically demonstrating its
falseness. They have men enough in action now, to maintain the
anti-slavery enterprise, and to win their liberty, and that of
their enslaved brethren,--if every white abolitionist were drawn
from the field: McCune Smith, and Cornish, and Wright and Ray and
a host of others,--not to mention our eloquent brother, Remond,
of Maine, and Brother Lewis who is the stay and staff of field
antislavery in New Hampshire.

"The people of such men as these cannot be held in slavery. They
have got their pens drawn and tried their voices, and they are
seen to be the pens and voices of human genius; and they will
neither lay down the one, nor will they hush the other, till
their brethren are free.

"The Calhouns and Clays may display their vain oratory and
metaphysics, but they tremble when they behold the colored man is
in the intellectual field. The time is at hand, when this
terrible denunciation shall thunder in their own race."[8]

_The Christian Witness_ said the following:

"_The Colored American._ Returning from the country, we are glad
to find upon our table several copies of this excellent paper,
which has waked up with renewed strength and beauty. It is now
under the exclusive control of Charles B. Ray, a gentleman in
every manner competent to the duties devolving upon him in the
station he occupies. Our colored friends generally, and all those
who can do so, would bestow their patronage worthily by giving it
to _The Colored American_."[9]

As to the sort of editor Charles B. Ray was, we can best observe by reading two of his striking editorials on _Prejudice_ and _This Country, our only Home_.

PREJUDICE

"'Prejudice,' said a noble man, 'is an aristocratic hatred of
humble life.'

"Prejudice, of every character, and existing against whom it may,
is hatred. It is a fruit of our corrupt nature, and has its being
in the depravity of the human heart. It is sin.

"To hate a man, for any consideration whatever, is murderous; and
to hate him, in any degree, is, in the same degree murderous; and
to hate a man for no cause whatever, magnifies the evil.
'Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer,' says Holy Writ.

"There is a kind of aristocracy in our country, as in nearly all
others, a looking down with disdain upon humble life and a
disregard of it. Still, we hear little about prejudice against
any class among us, excepting against color, or against the
colored population of this Union, which so monopolizes this state
of feeling in our country that we hear less of it in its
operations upon others, than in other countries. It is the only
sense in which there is equality; here, the democratic principle
is adopted and all come together as equals, and unite the rich
and the poor, the high and the low, in an equal right to hate the
colored man; and its operations upon the mind and character are
cruel and disastrous, as it is murderous and wicked in itself.
One needs to feel it, and to wither under its effects, to know
it: and the colored men of the United States, wherever found, and
in whatever circumstances, are living epistles, which may be read
by all men in proof of all that is paralyzing to enterprise,
destructive to ambition, ruinous to character, crushing to mind,
and painful to the soul, in the monster, Prejudice. For it is
found equally malignant, active, and strong--associated with the
mechanical arts, in the work-shop, in the mercantile houses, in
the commercial affairs of the country, in the halls of learning,
in the temple of God; and in the highways and hedges. It almost
possesses ubiquity; it is every where, doing its deleterious work
wherever one of the proscribed class lives and moves.

"Yet prejudice against color, prevalent as it is in the minds of
one class of our community against another, is unnatural, though
habitual. If it were natural, children would manifest it with the
first signs of consciousness; but with them, all are alike
affectionate and beloved. They have not the feeling, because it
is a creature of education and habit.

"While we write, there are now playing at our right, a few steps
away, a colored and white child, with all the affection and
harmony of feeling, as though prejudice had always been unknown.

"Prejudice overlooks all that is noble and grand in man's being.
It forgets that, housed in a dark complexion is, equally alike
with the whites, all that is lofty in mind and noble in soul,
that there lies an equal immortality. It reaches to grade mind
and soul, either by the texture of the hair, or the form of the
features, or the color of the skin. This is an education fostered
by prejudice; consequently, an education almost universally
prevalent in our country; an education, too, subverting the
principles of our humanity, and turning away the dictates of our
noble being from what is important, to meaner things.[10]

"THIS COUNTRY, OUR ONLY HOME.

"When we say, 'our home,' we refer to the colored community. When
we say, 'our only home,' we speak in a general sense, and do not
suppose but in individual cases some may, and will take up a
residence under another government, and perhaps in some other
quarter of the globe. We are disposed to say something upon this
subject now, in refutation of certain positions that have been
assumed by a class of men, as the American people are too well
aware, and to the reproach of the Christian church and the
Christian religion, too, viz.: that we never can rise here, and
that no power whatsoever is sufficient to correct the American
spirit, and equalize the laws in reference to our people, so as
to give them power and influence in this country.

"If we cannot be an elevated people here, in a country the resort
of almost all nations to improve their condition; a country of
which we are native, constituent members; our native home, (as we
shall attempt to show) and where there are more means available
to bring the people into power and influence, and more territory
to extend to them than in any other country; also the spirit and
genius of whose institution we so well understand, being
completely Americanized, as it will be found most of our people
are,--we say, if we can not be raised up in this country, we are
at great loss to know where, all things considered, we can be.

"If the Colored Americans are citizens of this country, it
follows, of course, that, in the broadest sense, this country is
our home. If we are not citizens of this country, then we cannot
see of what country we are, or can be, citizens; for Blackstone
who is quoted, we believe, as the standard of civil law, tells us
that the strongest claim to citizenship is birthplace. We
understand him to say, that in whatever country or place you may
be born of that country or place you are, in the highest sense, a
citizen; in fine, this appears to us to be too self-evident to
require argument to prove it.

"Now, probably three-fourths of the present colored people are
American born, and therefore American citizens. Suppose we should
remove to some other country, and claim a foothold there, could
we not be rejected on the ground that we were not of them,
because not born among them? Even in Africa, identity of
complexion would be nothing, neither would it weigh anything
because our ancestry was of that country; the fact of our not
having been born there would be sufficient ground for any civil
power to refuse us citizenship. If this principle were carried
out, it would be seen that we could not be even a cosmopolite,
but must be of nowhere, and of no section of the globe. This is
so absurd that it is as clear as day that we must revert to the
country which gave us birth, as being, in the highest sense,
citizens of it.

"These points, it appears to us, are true, indisputably true. We
are satisfied as to our claims as citizens here, and as to this
being the virtual and destined home of colored Americans.

"We reflect upon this subject now, on account of the frequent
agitations, introduced among us, in reference to our emigrating
to some other country, each of which, embodies more or less of
the colonizing principle, and all of which are of bad tendency,
throwing our people into an unsettled state; and turning away our
attention in this country, to uncertain things under another
government, and evidently putting us back. All such agitations
introduced among us, with a view to our emigrating, ought to be
frowned upon by us, and we ought to teach the people that they
may as well come here and agitate the emigration of the Jays, the
Rings, the Adamses, the Otises, the Hancocks, et al., as to
agitate our removal. We are all alike constituents of the same
government, and members of the same rising family. Although we
come up much more slowly, our rise is to be none the less sure.
This subject is pressed upon us, because we not infrequently meet
some of our brethren in this unsettled state of mind, who, though
by no means colonizationists yet adopt the colonization motto,
and say they can not see how or when we are going to rise here.
Perhaps, if we looked only to the selfishness of man, and to him
as absolute, we should think so, too. But while we know that God
lives and governs, and always will; that He is just, and has
declared that righteousness shall prevail; and that one day with
Him is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day; we
believe that, despite all corruption and caste, we shall yet be
elevated with the American people here.

"It appears to us most conclusive, that our destinies in this
country are for the better, not for the worse, in view of the
many schemes introduced to our notice for emigrating to other
countries having failed; thus teaching us that our rights, hopes,
and prospects, are in this country; and it is a waste of time and
of power to look for them under another government; and also,
that God, in His providence, is instructing us to remain at home,
where are all our interests and claims and to adopt proper
measures and pursue them, and we yet shall participate in all the
immunities and privileges the American nation holds out to her
citizens, and be happy. We are also strongly American in our
character and disposition.

"We believe, therefore, in view of all the facts, that it is our
duty and privilege to claim an equal place among the American
people; to identify ourselves with American interests, and to
exert all the power and influence we have, to break down all the
disabilities under which we labor, and thus look to become a
happy people in this extensive country."[11]

Ray rendered equally as valuable services to the Negroes as a promoter of the Underground Railroad. In fact he was approaching the climax of his career when the Underground Railroad became an efficient agency in offering relief to the large number of Negro slaves who found themselves reduced to the plane of beasts in the rapidly growing cotton kingdom. One of the striking cases in which he figured was that of the escape of the Weims family, so well known for the almost unparalleled deliverance from bondage of the entire family with one exception.

Exactly how the freedom of these slaves was obtained appears to better effect in the language of Ray himself. "But I must say a word about the younger girl, the price of whom they held as high as we gave for Catherine. We proposed another method for her freedom and carried it out, in which the mother acted a good part, as she could; we proposed to run her off. I was written to, to know whether a draft for three hundred dollars would be forwarded, conditioned upon the appearance of Ann Maria in my house or hands--the sum being appropriated to compensate the one who should deliver her safely in the North. I answered, of course, in the affirmative."[12]

The escape of Ann Maria, as proposed by this new plan, can best be explained by the correspondence between Mr. Ray and Mr. Bigelow in Washington, who, writing according to a method often adopted in those days in order the more effectually to secure concealment, designates Ann Maria as the parcel sent.[13] The letter reads thus:

"WASHINGTON, D. C., Nov. 17, 1855.

"REV. CHAS. B. RAY,

"_Dear Sir:_ I have a friend passing through the city on his way
to New York, and I mean to avail myself of his kindness to send
to your lady the little parcel she has been so long expecting.
You can name it to her, and I now suggest that as soon as you
find it convenient, you send me by express the wrapper and
covering in which the valuables are packed, for I have another
similar parcel to send and shall find these things exactly
convenient for that purpose. My friend intends to leave here on
Monday morning, with his own conveyance, taking it leisurely, and
may not reach New York before about Thursday, but of this I speak
more exactly before I close. I need not suggest to you how
anxious I shall be to get the earliest news of the arrival of the
package without breakage or injury."

Also he adds as follows:

"WASHINGTON, D. C., November 22, 1855.

"REV. CHAS. B. RAY,
"_Dear Sir:_

"My last letter will lead you to expect to see the boy Joe to-day
but it was afterwards calculated that he will not arrive till
sometime to-morrow. I am requested for the gratification of Joe's
mother that you will be pleased on his arrival and before he
changes his sex, to have his daguerrotype taken for her use. It
will make up a part of the Record."

Mr. Ray's narration continues thus:

"Accordingly, one afternoon upon arriving home I found, sitting
on the sofa at my home, a little boy about ten years old in
appearance and looking rather feminine. I knew at once who it
was, that it was Ann Maria. Upon her arrival I was to take her to
Mr. Tappan, in whose hands the balance of the money was placed.
This I did, and the little boy Joe was taken to her uncle or to
where he could obtain her and finally reached Canada."

The following incident has often been told in Mr. Ray's family. "One summer morning, a loud rap with the knocker at the front door arrested the attention and the door being opened, a man entered, who after asking, 'Does the Rev. Mr. Ray live here?' and receiving an affirmative answer, whistled as a signal to attract the notice of his comrades, then cried out, 'Come on, boys!' and forthwith fourteen men in all entered, quite alarming the inmates of the house on seeing such a train of fugitives."

In the midst of these busy days Mr. Ray also served as a minister. For twenty years he was the pastor of the Bethesda Congregational Church in New York City where many learned to wait upon his ministry. He lived until 1886, long enough to enjoy some of that liberty for which he so patiently toiled. His more valuable services to his race, however, were rendered during the period prior to the Civil War. Although in the midst of this struggle of the subsequent period there came forward men who towered higher in the public opinion than he did, the valuable work which he did as an abolitionist, and an editor, should not be neglected.

M. N. WORK

FOOTNOTES:

[1] A very good account of C. B. Ray's literary efforts is given in I. Garland Penn's _The Afro-American Press_, pp. 32-47.

[2] Papers in the possession of Ray's family.

[3] For further information see manuscripts in the possession of Ray's family.

[4] This convention movement is well treated in J. W. Cromwell's _The Negro in American History_, pp. 27-46.

[5] Penn, _The Afro-American Press_, p. 35.

[6] Brown, _The Rising Son_, p. 473.

[7] Penn, _The Afro-American Press_, p. 38.

[8] Penn, _The Afro-American Press_, pp. 39-40.

[9] _Ibid._, p. 41.

[10] Penn, _The Afro-American Press_, pp. 42-43.

[11] Penn, _The Afro-American Press_, pp. 43-46.

[12] From papers in the possession of Ray's family.

[13] These letters are in the possession of the author.

THE SLAVE IN UPPER CANADA[A]

The dictum of Lord Chief Justice Holt: "As soon as a slave enters England he becomes free"[1] was succeeded by the decision of the Court of King's Bench to the same effect in the celebrated case of Somerset _v._ Stewart[2] where Lord Mansfield is reported to have said: "The air of England has long been too pure for a slave and every man is free who breathes it."[3]

James Somerest,[4] a Negro slave of Charles Stewart in Jamaica, had been brought by his master to England "to attend and abide with him and to carry him back as soon as his business should be transacted." The Negro refused to go back, whereupon he was put in irons and taken on board the ship _Ann and Mary_ lying in the Thames and bound for Jamaica. Lord Mansfield granted a writ of habeas corpus requiring Captain Knowles to produce Somerset before him with the cause of the detainer. On the motion, the cause being stated as above indicated, Lord Mansfield referred the matter to the Full Court of King's Bench; whereupon, on June 22, 1772, judgment was given for the Negro. The basis of the decision, the theme of the argument, was that the only kind of slavery known to English law was villeinage, that the Statute of Tenures (1660) (12 Car. 11, c. 24) expressly abolished villeins regardant to a manor and by implication villeins in gross. The reasons for the decision would hardly stand fire at the present day. The investigation of Paul Vinogradoff and others have conclusively established that there was not a real difference in status between the so-called villein regardant and villein in gross, and that in any case the villein was not properly a slave but rather a serf.[5] Moreover, the Statute of Tenures deals solely with tenure and not with status.