Chapter V: Front Matter (5)

Previous to the Revolution, when, of these causes, slavery alone
was in operation, the face of Virginia was, in every feature of
improvement and prosperity, a contrast to the Colonies where
slavery did not exist, or in a degree only, not worthy of notice.
Again, during the period of the tariff laws prior to the latter
state of them, the pressure was little, if at all, regarded as a
source of the general suffering. And whatever may be the degree
in which the extravagant augmentation of the Tariff may have
contributed to the depression, the extent of this cannot be
explained by the extent of the cause. The great and adequate
cause of the evil is the cause last mentioned, if that be indeed
an evil which improves the condition of our migrating citizens,
and adds more to the growth and prosperity of the whole than it
subtracts from a part of the community.

Nothing is more certain than that the actual and prospective
depression of Virginia is to be referred to the fall in the value
of her landed property, and in that of the staple products of
the land. And it is not less certain that the fall in both cases
is the inevitable effect of the redundancy in the market of land
and of its products. The vast amount of fertile land offered at
125 cents per acre in the West and S. West could not fail to have
the effect already experienced, of reducing the land here to half
its value; and when the labour that will here produce one
hogshead of tobacco and ten barrels of flour will there produce
two hhd and twenty barrels, now so cheaply transportable to the
destined outlets, a like effect on these articles must
necessarily ensue. Already more tobacco is sent to New Orleans
than is exported from Virginia to foreign markets; whilst the
article of flour, exceeding for the most part the demand for it,
is in a course of rapid increase from new sources as boundless as
they are productive. The great staples of Virginia have but a
limited market, which is easily glutted. They have in fact sunk
more in price, and have a more threatening prospect, than the
more southern staples of cotton and rice. The case is believed to
be the same with her landed property. That it is so with her
slaves is proved by the purchases made here for the market there.

The reflections suggested by this aspect of things will be more
appropriate in your hands than in mine. They are also beyond the
tether of my subject, which I fear I have already overstrained. I
hasten, therefore, to conclude, with a tender of the high respect
and cordial regards which I pray you to accept.[22]

TO HENRY CLAY

June, 1833.

It is painful to observe the unceasing efforts to alarm the South
by imputations against the North of unconstitutional designs on
the subject of the slaves. You are right, I have no doubt, in
believing that no such intermeddling disposition exists in the
body of our Northern brethren. Their good faith is sufficiently
guarantied by the interest they have as merchants, as
ship-owners, and as manufacturers, in preserving a union with the
slaveholding States. On the other hand, what _madness_ in the
South to look for greater safety in disunion. It would be worse
than jumping out of the frying-pan into the fire; it would be
jumping into the fire for fear of the frying-pan. The danger
from the alarm is, that the pride and resentment exerted by them
may be an overmatch for the dictates of prudence, and favor the
project of a Southern Convention, insidiously revived, as
promising, by its councils, the best securities against
grievances of every sort from the North.[23]

FOOTNOTES:

[1] _Letters and other Writings of James Madison_, III, 138.

[2] _Ibid._, 170.

[3] _Ibid._, 239.

[4] _Letters and other Writings of James Madison_, III, 168.

[5] _Letters and other Writings of James Madison_, I, 542-543.

[6] _Ibid._, III, 121.

[7] _Letters and other Writings of James Madison_, III, 122-124.

[8] _Letters and other Writings of James Madison_, III, 133-138.

[9] _Ibid._, III, 170.

[10] _Letters and other Writings of James Madison_, III, 190.

[11] _Letters and other Writings of James Madison_, III, 193-194.

[12] _Letters and other Writings of James Madison_, III, 239, 240.

[13] _Letters and other Writings of James Madison_, III, 310-315.

[14] These peculiarities, it would seem, are not of equal force in the South American States, owing, in part, perhaps, to a former degradation, produced by colonial vassalage; but principally to the lesser contrast of colours. The difference is not striking between that of many of the Spanish and Portuguese Creoles and that of many of the mixed breed.--J. M.

[15] _Letters and other Writings of James Madison_, III, 495-498.

[16] _Letters and other Writings of James Madison_, III, 541-542.

[17] _Letters and other Writings of James Madison_, III, 2-3.

[18] _Letters and other Writings of James Madison_, IV, 60.

[19] _Ibid._, IV, 188.

[20] _Letters and other Writings of James Madison_, IV, 192.

[21] _Letters and other Writings of James Madison_, IV, 213-214.

[22] _Letters and other Writings of James Madison_, IV, 274-279.

[23] _Letters and other Writings of James Madison_, IV, 301.

ADVICE GIVEN NEGROES A CENTURY AGO

The following addresses to the free people of color, taken from the _Minutes of the American Convention of Abolition Societies_ active in this country during the first fifty years of the republic of the United States, show the method employed by these early friends of the Negroes to effect their social uplift while this organization was working for the abolition of the slave trade and the destruction of slavery. The advice to the Negroes as to how they should conduct themselves is very interesting. After 1820 the American Convention of Abolition Societies paid less attention to such advice to the people of color and concerned itself primarily with appeals to others in their behalf. The free Negro made so much moral progress during the period that they ceased to be a cause of anxiety.

TO THE
FREE AFRICANS AND OTHER FREE PEOPLE OF COLOR
IN THE
UNITED STATES.

THE Convention of Deputies from the Abolition Societies in the
United States, assembled at Philadelphia, have undertaken to
address you upon subjects highly interesting to your prosperity.

They wish to see you act worthily of the rank you have acquired
as freemen, and thereby to do credit to yourselves, and to
justify the friends and advocates of your color in the eyes of
the world.

As the result of our united reflections, we have concluded to
call your attention to the following articles of Advice. We
trust, they are dictated by the purest regard for your welfare,
for we view you as Friends and Brethren.

_In the first place._ We earnestly recommend to you, a regular
attention to the important duty of public worship; by which means
you will evince gratitude to your CREATOR, and, at the same
time, promote knowledge, union, friendship, and proper conduct
amongst yourselves.

_Secondly_,

_Secondly_, We advise such of you, as have not been taught
reading, writing, and the first principles of arithmetic, to
acquire them as early as possible. Carefully attend to the
instruction of your children in the same simple and useful
branches of education. Cause them, likewise, early and frequently
to read the holy Scriptures. They contain, among other great
discoveries, the precious record of the original equality of
mankind, and of the obligations of universal justice and
benevolence, which are derived from the relation of the human
race to each other in a COMMON FATHER.

_Thirdly_, Teach your children useful trades, or to labor with
their hands in cultivating the earth. These employments are
favorable to health and virtue. In the choice of masters, who are
to instruct them in the above branches of business, prefer those
who will work with them; by this means they will acquire habits
of industry, and be better preserved from vice, than if they
worked alone, or under the eye of persons less interested in
their welfare. In forming contracts, for yourselves or children,
with masters, it may be useful to consult such persons as are
capable of giving you the best advice, who are known to be your
friends, in order to prevent advantages being taken of your
ignorance of the laws and customs of our country.

_Fourthly_, Be diligent in your respective callings, and faithful
in all the relations you bear in society, whether as husbands,
wives, fathers, children or hired servants. Be just in all your
dealings. Be simple in your dress and furniture, and frugal in
your family expenses. Thus you will act like Christians as well
as freemen, and, by these means, you will provide for the
distress and wants of sickness and old age.

_Fifthly_, Refrain from the use of spirituous liquors. The
experience of many thousands of the citizens of the United States
has proved, that these liquors are not necessary to lessen the
fatigue of labor, nor to obviate the extremes of heat or cold;
much less are they necessary to add to the innocent pleasures of
society.

_Sixthly_, Avoid frolicking, and amusements which lead to expense
and idleness; they beget habits of dissipation and vice, and thus
expose you to deserved reproach amongst your white neighbors.

_Seventhly_, We wish to impress upon your minds the normal and
religious necessity of having your marriages legally performed;
also to have exact registers preserved of all the births and
deaths which occur in your respective families.

_Eighthly_, Endeavour to lay up as much as possible of your
earnings for the benefit of your children, in case you should die
before they are able to maintain themselves--your money will be
safest and most beneficial when laid out in lots, houses or small
farms.

_Ninthly_, We recommend to you, at all times and upon all
occasions, to behave yourselves to all persons in a civil and
respectful manner, by which you may prevent contention and remove
every just occasion of complaint. We beseech you to reflect, it
is by your good conduct alone, that you can refute the objections
which have been made against you as rational and moral creatures,
and remove many of the difficulties, which have occurred in the
general emancipation of such of your brethren as are yet in
bondage.

With hearts anxious for your welfare, we commend you to the
guidance and protection of that BEING who is able to keep you
from all evil, and who is the common Father and Friend of the
whole family of mankind.[1]

TO THE FREE AFRICANS AND OTHER FREE PEOPLE OF COLOR IN THE
UNITED STATES

The Convention of Delegates from the Abolition Societies in the
United States, having again assembled for the purpose of
promoting your happiness, consider it their duty, once more to
call your attention to the advice which was addressed to you by
the Convention of last year; and which we subjoin to the present
address, in order that you may at one view be able to profit by
these collected advices of your sincerest friends. The oftner we
review that advice, the more we are impressed with its
importance, and the more anxious we are to urge your strict and
faithful observance of it. We shall only add thereto, at present,
one other request, and that is, that you would avoid gaming in
all its varied forms--the ruinous and miserable consequences of
this most pernicious evil, are so notorious, and so generally
acknowledged, that we cannot too forcibly endeavour to guard you
against it. It subjects you to the control of the most degrading
passions, and too generally leads to the loss of fortune,
reputation, and of every good principle.

We can with peculiar satisfaction inform you, that schools and
places of worship have been established, and that they are well
attended by people of your color, in New-York, New-Jersey,
Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and other places; and we are
happy to find, that many of you have evinced, by your prudent and
moral conduct, that you are not unworthy of the freedom you
enjoy.

Go on in these paths of virtue:--By persevering in them you will
justify the solicitude and labors of your friends in your behalf,
and furnish an additional argument for the emancipation of such
of your brethren as are yet in bondage in the United States and
in other parts of the world.[2]

TO THE FREE BLACKS, AND OTHER FREE PEOPLE OF COLOUR, IN
THE UNITED STATES

The American Convention for promoting the Abolition of Slavery
and improving the Condition of the African Race, believe it
proper to address you, on subjects highly interesting to your
well being.

You can have no doubt but that our views are disinterested, and
we therefore think ourselves entitled to your attention, whilst
we speak of matters in which you are greatly concerned.

As you are free men, we wish you to place a proper estimate on
your privileges, and to act in a manner becoming your character;
that, by your worthy conduct, you may destroy the prejudices
which some persons entertain against you, and relieve your
friends from the censures which they incur in consequence of your
errors; we beseech you, reflect seriously and endeavor to remove
these reproaches; and it is our earnest and affectionate advice,
that you remember your great and good Creator, who has placed you
in this life, in order that you may, by acting well your part
here, be qualified for everlasting happiness hereafter--Can you
expect that happiness, if instead of attending places of divine
worship, there to pray for his holy aid, you spend the Sabbath,
as well as much of the other parts of your time, in rolicking,
drinking, or other evil practices, which destroy your own
comfort, give cause of offense to your neighbours, and above all
greatly displease that all-seeing God, before whom you must
appear to give an account for all your conduct? Let us prevail
upon you to refrain from the use of spirituous liquors, which
have occasioned misery to thousands--from gaming, a vice which
will bring poverty upon your families, and from frolicking and
amusements, which lead to idleness and expence; these habits of
dissipation, can in no wise add to your comfort. Be industrious,
diligent in your business, frugal in your expences, and endeavour
to lay up part of your earnings against a time of need. Some of
you can read, such know the advantages of it; you who cannot,
strive to acquire that knowledge.--Surely this knowledge is an
object of great importance, were it only for the opportunity it
affords of becoming acquainted with that best of books, the
Bible. The holy Scriptures of the old and new testament, contain
invaluable treasures of instruction, and of comfort. It would
give us much satisfaction, could we oftener see them in the hands
of those who are able to read them, and that an increasing
anxiety to become possessed of their contents, and to profit by
their precepts, might be more and more observable among you.

Very much depends upon the right education of your children,
endeavour to have them brought up to labour, and taught to read
and write; early place them apprentice with suitable masters, and
whether they be tradesmen or farmers, be always particularly
careful to prefer such, as by their example, will encourage them
in industry and sobriety.

In all your dealings be just and honest, give no cause of offence
to any, and if any dispute, either among yourselves, or with
others, should unhappily arise, in which you find difficulty,
apply to such persons in your neighborhoods as you know to be
your friends, and able to give you advice and assistance. Be
assured you will find this practice contributes much more to your
peace and interest, than the settling of your differences at law.

Be careful to observe your marriage covenants, remembering that
those who violate them, will fall under the displeasure of the
Almighty. We wish also to impress your minds, the necessity of
having your marriage ceremonies legally performed, and that the
births and deaths in your respective families, be carefully
registered. In the words of an address heretofore made, we
recommend you at all times, and upon all occasions, to behave
yourselves in a civil and respectful manner, by which you may
prevent contention and remove many causes of complaint: we
beseech you to reflect, that you may, by your good conduct,
refute the objections which have been made against you as
rational and moral creatures and lessen many of the difficulties
which now occur in the emancipation of such of your brethren, as
are yet in bondage.

In all your communications with those of your brethren who remain
in slavery, we desire you unceasingly to impress them with the
necessity of contentment with their situations, submission to
their masters, and fidelity to their interests--that they be not
merely eye-servants, but carefully perform the labours assigned
them, and manage everything intrusted to their care, with as much
faithfulness as if it were their own. By this conduct they will
excite in their masters, a disposition to treat them with
humanity and gentleness, and to increase the number of their
privileges and comforts; and contribute to the peace of their own
minds.

Console them with the reflection, that unmixed happiness in a
future life, will be the portion of all good men, whatever may
have been their lot here below.[3]

TO THE FREE BLACKS AND OTHER FREE PEOPLE OF COLOUR IN THE
UNITED STATES

The American Convention for promoting the Abolition of Slavery,
and improving the Condition of the African Race, having again
assembled for the purpose of advancing your best interest, and
the welfare of your offspring; deem it expedient, once more to
address you as children of one Almighty Parent, and members of
the same extended family. The objects we have so long, and so
assiduously pursued, are highly interesting to society at large,
and infinitely important to you in particular.... For their
attainment, we therefore claim your zealous and uniform
co-operation. This demand we make with much confidence, as we are
persuaded many of you have already verified, in your own
experience, the propriety of former recommendations. You have
found that industry and economy have procured for you,
independence; that temperance has greatly promoted, if not
absolutely secured to you, health; and that the cultivation of
the faculties of the mind, has enlarged the capacity for
discharging your various duties, and for enjoying the numerous
benefits you have received. On the contrary, you have seen that
idleness, gambling, and dissipation, have uniformly produced
poverty and disgrace; that intemperance has generally been the
parent of loathsome disease, and the cause of premature death;
and that the consequences of ignorance are too frequently,
contention and loss. Trusting then, that we can with confidence
appeal to your own experience, for a test of the truth of
precepts so often inculcated, we beseech you with anxious and
tender solicitude to bear them constantly in remembrance, and,
with a steady zeal, put them in practice. We are well aware that
human nature is frail, and prone to depart from the strait path
of rectitude. On this weakness let us not however rely for a
justification of our deviations, but rather let it operate as an
inducement to double our diligence and increase our caution. Then
while we are conscious of having honestly and earnestly
endeavored to discharge the duties we owe to our Maker and to
each other, we can look with more confidence to our great Creator
for pardon of our past transgressions and strength to preserve us
from a repetition of them.

In our observations thus far we have chiefly endeavoured to
convince you, that on your own conduct depends your prosperity
and happiness, but be assured the consequences do not rest there.
The greater portion of your brethren still remains in bondage.
One great obstacle to their release, it is in your power and it
is eminently your duty to remove; the enemies of your liberty
have loudly and constantly asserted that you are not qualified to
enjoy it, that your proneness to dissipation, your inattention to
your particular concerns, and your disregard of the interests of
each other, will ever produce your own wretchedness and lasting
mischief to those among whom you dwell: in what degree the
imputations may be just we leave to your own candour to decide;
but we cannot leave the subject without conjuring you to remove,
by the utmost circumspection of conduct, the causes that have
been and continue to be urged against you; and thereby contribute
your part towards the liberation of such of your fellow men as
yet remain in the shackles of slavery.

The education of your offspring is a subject of lasting
importance, and has obtained a large portion of our attention and
care. In this too we call upon you for your aid; many of you have
been favoured to acquire a comfortable portion of property, and
are consequently enabled to contribute in some measure to the
means of educating your offspring. While you thus benefit your
own, you will also confer a favor on the children of those who
are indigent; in as much as there will remain a large proportion
of other funds to be applied to their improvement.

Having thus fully communicated our sentiments on subjects the
most important to your present and eternal welfare, we beg you to
give them your close attention, and sincerely wish you that
happiness which is consistent with the will of an all-wise and
protecting Providence.[4]

TO THE FREE PEOPLE OF COLOUR AND DESCENDANTS OF THE AFRICAN
RACE, IN THE UNITED STATES

The American Convention composed of Delegates from several
Abolition and Manumission Societies in the United States, being
assembled in Philadelphia, for the purpose of promoting the great
cause of emancipation, and for the melioration of the condition
and the general improvement of the descendants of the African
race; have deemed it their duty to address you, on some subjects
intimately connected with your future welfare and prosperity.
They perform this duty the more willingly, from a conviction that
such counsel and advice as they may communicate, will be received
and listened to with attention, from the circumstance of its
proceeding from those who have long had your best interests at
heart.

Vain will be the desire on the part of the friends of abolition,
to behold their labours crowned with success, unless those
colourd people who have obtained their freedom, should evince by
their morality and orderly deportment, that they are deserving
the rank and station which they have obtained in society:
unavailing will be the most strenuous exertions of humane
philanthropists in your behalf, if you should not be found to
second their endeavours, by a course of conduct corresponding
with the expectations and the wishes of your friends.

We intreat you therefore by the ties which bind us together as
children of one common Creator;--by the obligation imposed upon
us, as joint objects of redeeming love; as heirs alike with us,
of the rewards and benedictions which rest upon all who perform
the religious and social obligations of life with fidelity;--by
the sacred duties which you owe to yourselves, and to the Author
of your existence; seriously to consider the great responsibility
which rests upon you as FREEMEN, so to order and regulate your
conduct and deportment in the world and amongst men, that your
example may exhibit a standing refutation of the charge, that you
are unworthy of freedom. And let us impress it upon YOU, whose
opportunities of information have been greater than the
generality of your colour, to use the influence which your
superior knowledge may have given you among your brethren, to
dissuade _them_ from the commission and practice of those vices
which degrade and disgrace them in the eyes of mankind;
particularly let it be your constant endeavour to repress among
them dram drinking, frequenting of tippling shops and places of
diversion, idleness and dissipation of every description, and to
promote and encourage as much as possible, habits of sobriety,
industry and economy, punctual attendance on places of religious
worship, particularly on the day appointed for rest from labour,
and for the exercises of devotion; avoiding noisy and disorderly
conduct on those days, as well as at other times; and to demean
themselves peaceably and respectfully, towards all those with
whom they have intercourse. This will do more, towards advancing
your cause in the earth, than the labours of your friends can
effect in your behalf.

The great work of emancipation is not to be accomplished in a
day;--it must be the result of time, of long and continued
exertions: it is for you to show by an orderly and worthy
deportment that you are deserving of the rank which you have
attained. Endeavour as much as possible to use economy in your
expences, so that you may be enabled to save from your earnings,
something for the education of your children, and for your
support in time of sickness, and in old age: and let all those
who by attending to this admonition, have acquired means, send
their children to school as soon as they are old enough, where
their morals will be an object of attention, as well as their
improvement in school learning; and when they arrive at a
suitable age, let it be your especial care to have them
instructed in some mechanical art suited to their capacities, or
in agricultural pursuits; by which they may afterwards be enabled
to support themselves and a family. Encourage, also, those among
you who are qualified as teachers of schools, and when you are of
ability to pay, never send your children to free-schools; this
may be considered as robbing the poor, of the opportunities which
were intended for them alone.

Keep out of all contentions and law-suits with each other; by
which your valuable time, which should be spent in useful
occupations, is grievously misapplied, your money wasted, and
your character in the world, is unhappily injured and
degraded:--it is a mortifying sight to your friends, to see the
coloured people bringing each other before the civil officers
and in courts of justice for trifling causes of contention, which
by exercising an amiable and forbearing disposition might be
easily settled, without going to law, and spending their time and
money, in useless disputations.

Be faithful to the obligations of the marriage covenant. Be
diligent in your respective callings, so that you may not
disappoint the expectations of those who have confided in you,
and in the capacity of domestics or hired servants, shew
yourselves faith-ful; remembering that no situation in life is
disgraceful in itself, but that upon your own conduct, will
depend the estimation in which you will be held by others; and if
you perform your duty with fidelity, you will be respected and
esteemed. Be just in all your dealings, and strictly punctual in
the performance of all your promises; so shall you gain the
approbation and the confidence of your white neighbours, and
justify the conduct of those who have laboured for your
emancipation.

Let an especial attention be had to keep a regular record of your
marriages, and of the births of your children, by which their
ages may at any time be legally established;--this will be of
essential service to you in placing them out as apprentices and
prevent impositions being practised upon you. Finally--be sober;
be watchful over every part of your conduct, keeping constantly
in view, that the freedom of many thousands of your colour, who
still remain in slavery, will be hastened and promoted by your
leading a life of virtue and sobriety.[5]

FOOTNOTES:

[1] American Convention Abolition Societies. Minutes, 1796, pp. 12, 14.

[2] American Convention of Abolition Societies, Minutes of, 1797, pp. 16 and 17.

[3] American Convention Abolition Societies, Minutes, 1804, pp. 30-33.

[4] Minutes of Proceedings of Tenth American Convention for promoting the Abolition of Slavery, 1805, pp. 36-39.

[5] Minutes of the American Convention Abolition Societies, 1818. Pages 43 and 47.

SOME UNDISTINGUISHED NEGROES

JUAN BAUTISTA CESAR

A few years ago a bookseller handed me a book of MSS. papers for classification. I noted that they belonged to some military court or the archives of a Spanish Audiencia having jurisdiction in New Spain. Most of them had something to do with Texas when it was part of Mexico and belonged to the kingdom of Spain. These papers were of the highest historical value in so far as Texas was concerned. My curiosity was aroused by the original transcript of a court martial called upon to judge the transgressions of the Anglo-Americans, as they were called in those days. From these papers Philip Nolan, around whom a halo of false patriotism still lingers, was nothing more or less in the judgment of the court martial than a horse thief. It was the practice of Nolan, Bean, Fero and others to make periodical incursions across the State and stampede home, domestic, and wild horses for their mutual benefit. On this occasion the Spaniards were prepared for the malefactors and when surrounded in their provisional fort they refused at first to surrender, but the killing of Nolan put an end to all resistance and Elias Bean, David Fero and the Negro Cesar were put in St. Charles jail to await the slow machinery of the Spanish courts. Bean and Fero attempted to escape from the jail. One of these patriots became intimate with the jailer's wife and his intercepted notes showed him a depraved specimen of humanity. Among the papers examined was a deposition of Nolan's slave known in the histories of Texas by the name of Cesar, under the Spanish correct form he takes the proper name of Juan Bautista Cesar, a native of Grenada, when the island belonged to France. He was a professed Christian belonging to the Roman Catholic faith. So that during the dawn of the incipient difficulties surrounding Texas, therefore, when becoming part of the United States, there figured a Negro the tool of his master, in common with Nolan and others, reputed horse thieves, the patriots whose depredations were as annoying to the Mexicans in 1804 as Villa's bandit incursions (during 1914-20) are reprehensible to Americans.

The manuscript follows:

_Juan Bautista Cesar._

En el referido Presidio de San Carlos en el mismo dia, mes y año
arriba citado el nominado Sr. Capitán hizo comparacer ante si al
Interprete José Jesús de los Santos y al Negro Juan Bautista,
conocido con el nombre de Cesar á quienes juramento en debida
forma ante mí el Escribano y bajo lo cual prometió el primero
traducir fielmente lo que declara et expresáda Juan Bautista y
este decir verdad en lo que supiere y fuere preguntado y siendo
por su Nombre, y Patria y Religión. Dijo que se llama Juan
Bautista Cesar, que es natural de las islas Francesas que llaman
la Granada y que es Católico Apostolico Romano.

Preguntado si sabe porqué está preso: dijo. Que sabe se haya
preso por haber acompañado á su amo Dn. Felipe Nolan en la
entrada que hizo á la Provincia de Texas.

Preguntado si no ha habido algun noevo motivo para que la prision
se le agrave; Dijo que no sabe si habia habido algun motivo para
tenerlo en el calabozo en donde ahora existe privandolo del
alivio que ántes disfrutaba de tener todo el Presidio por Cárcel.

Preguntado que es lo que sabe de la fuga que intentaron hacer los
Anglo-Americanos compañeros de Nolan. Dijo; Que la fuga si la
intentaron los, Anglo Americanos se la han ocultado al declarante
pues jámas le han comunicado cosa alguna relativa á ella y antes
bien ha observado que cuando hablan entre sí los expresados
Anglo-Americanos y el declarante se presenta, luega callan y solo
continuan hablando cosas diferentes: que el diá que pusieron al
que declara en el calabozo en union de Elias Bean y David Fero
oyo el declarante que David pregunto a Elias que si habia escrito
alguna carta á Chihuahua y respondiendole Elias que si, le
contestó David ya verás como por eso nos ponen en el calabozo y
te apostara una oreja que es asi; que nada mas has oido ni visto
nunca sobre la fuga de que se trata: Que el declarante desde que
se murió su amo Nolan siempre ha sido mirado con desprecio por
los Anglo-Americanos compañeros de aquel y por lo mismo le ha
quadrado mas alojarse siempre con los Españoles como se verificó
cuando lo pusieron en el calabozo que dormia con tres de los
Españoles.

Preguntado si sabe o ha oíds que lesl Anglo-Americanos tuviesen
prevenidas Armas y municiones de boca y guerra para meditar su
fuga intentarla: Dijo que nada sabe sobre lo que contiene la
Pregunta, no ha oido cosa alguna sobre el particular.

Preguntado si tiene algo mas que declarar sobre el particular:
Dijo que no tiene mas que declarar sobre el particular y que lo
dicho es la verdad a cargo del juramento que lleva hecho en que
se afirmó y ratificó despues de enterado por el Interprete de lo
que contiene esta su declarencion y por no saber escribir
pusieron ambos la señar de cruz firmando dicho señor y el
presente Escribano.

(Firmado) Texada X X Ante mi Jose Cano

Provincia de la Nueve Vizcaya Año de 1804. Diligencias
practicadas de órden del Sr. Comandants General en la Fuga que
intentaron hacer los Anglo-Americanos. Comisionado el Capiten Dn
Antonio Garcia de Texada.

ARTHUR A. SCHOMBURG.

A BENEVOLENT SLAVEHOLDER OF COLOR

John Barry Meachum, a free man of color, became prominent as pastor of the African Baptist Church at St. Louis. Meachum was born a slave, but obtained his liberty by his own industry. By his hard earnings he purchased his father, a slave, and Baptist preacher in Virginia. He was then a resident of Kentucky, where he married a slave, and where he professed religion.

Soon thereafter his wife's master removed to Missouri, and Meachum followed her, arriving at St. Louis, with three dollars, in 1815. Being a carpenter and a cooper, he soon obtained employment, purchased his wife and children, commenced preaching, and was ordained in 1825. During subsequent years he purchased, including adults and children, about twenty slaves, but he never sold them again. His method was to place them in service, encourage them to form habits of industry and economy, and when they had paid for themselves, he set them free. In 1835 he built a steamboat, which he provided with a library, and from which he excluded the use and sale of intoxicating drinks. He was then worth about $25,000.

He was not less enterprising in religious matters. The church of which he was pastor, consisted of about 220 members of whom 200 were slaves. A large Sabbath school, a temperance society, a deep-toned missionary spirit, good order and correct habits among the slave population in the city, strict and regular discipline in the church, were among the fruits of his arduous, persevering labor.[1]

FOOTNOTES:

[1] _The Liberator_, December, 10, 1836.

BOOK REVIEWS

_The Republic of Liberia._ By R. C. F. MAUGHAN, F.R.G.S. and
F.Z.S., etc., H. B. M., Consul-General at Monrovia. New York,
Charles Scribner's Sons, 1919. Pp. 299. Price $6.50.

This work is a general description of the Negro Republic, with its history, commerce, agriculture, flora, fauna, and present methods of administration. The book contains several maps and thirty-seven illustrations. The more interesting topics as to history and administration appear first and those of the statistically scientific and commercial order come nearer to the end.

The book was written in 1918 before the United States took sufficient interest in the republic to bring about certain epoch-making changes. The United States has since offered the country a loan of five million dollars and with the approval of Great Britain and France and with the request of the Liberian Government has consented to become the sole adviser in Liberian affairs. Since then Hon. C. D. B. King, who became President of Liberia in January 1920, has participated in the world's peace conference and visited Europe and America, where the heads of nations have assured him of deeper interest in Liberia than they have heretofore manifested.

This book was written from a point of view decidedly different from that of most writers on Liberia, whose tone is that of "gentle melancholy," descanting "upon the country and the people to whom it belongs as with a pen dipped in sighs." Instead of criticising he has in most cases merely described. Where criticisms have crept in they have been given in a spirit of sympathetic friendship. He finds in the country, therefore, much to admire and praise and an economic situation "which will assuredly bid fair, when normal conditions shall have returned to us once more, to attain to a measure of gratifying expansion and progress." He believes that Liberia will then be in a position "of having her feet placed firmly upon the ladder which should bring her in time to great heights. The author concedes that the rung which Liberia has already reached is not a high one perhaps, "but the way before her seems plain and unmistakable." He believes that the present guidance from the outside guarantees these most sanguine expectations in as much as the foreigners controlling the financial policy of the little republic are hard-working men who have already set the house somewhat in order. This, supplemented by a liberal policy of internal improvements, will result in the prosperity of the whole land.

In discussing this phase of the administration of Liberian affairs, the author does not bring out any particular resentment on the part of the natives as to foreign interference. The native officials welcome helpful advice and when not given they sometimes seek it. The author himself came into contact with a number of functionaries who frankly asked him to tell them what he thought of their methods. Except so far as such foreign guidance may bring financial relief, however, it is doubtful that these natives so easily yield to this sort of domination; for many Liberians are to-day endeavoring to get rid of the American loan which they fear may lead to conquest like that in Haiti. On the whole, however, this work comes nearer to the true portraiture of the Liberian situation than most volumes in this field.

* * * * *

_The United States in Our Own Times, 1865-1920._ By PAUL HAWORTH,
Ph.D. New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1920. Pp. vii, 563.

The publication of this volume is justified by the author on the ground that in as much as an important object of history study is to enable one to understand the present, greater emphasis than hitherto must be laid on the period since the Civil War. Hoping then to supply the need of students who desire to know our own country in our own times the author has directed his attention to the problems of the new day, to social and industrial questions which have attained importance since the Civil War, and which, as the author views it, served as a break between these two distinct periods in our history.

Briefly stated, the author covers a little better than usually the field in which many others have recently written. There appears the aftermath of the Rebellion, then the drama of Reconstruction followed by national development making possible a new era, the changing order, the revival of the Democratic Party, hard times, free silver, troubles with Spain, imperialism, Roosevelt and the Panama Canal, the New West, Progressivism, the "New Freedom," "Watchful Waiting," the World War, and the Peace Conference. The book is well illustrated with useful maps showing the West in 1876, the Cuba and Porto Rican campaigns, the Philippines, Mexico, West Indies, and Central America, the percentage of foreign-born whites in the total population in 1910, the percentage of Negroes in the total population in 1910, the Western Front in 1918, and the United States in 1920.

Discussing thus a period during which the most important problems before the American people has been how to segregate the Negroes within the law, the author touched here and there the so-called Negro question. While Dr. Haworth has not shown all of the breadth of mind expected in an historian he has been much more liberal than the pseudo-historians who endeavor merely to justify the proscription of the freedmen on the basis of so-called racial inferiority. Dr. Haworth does occasionally mention a Negro as having said or done something worthy of notice. In the average Reconstruction history there is no personal mention of the Negro except for the purpose to condemn him and to advise him how to make himself acceptable to his so-called superiors.

In his last chapter which he calls "A Golden Age in History" he says some things which we do not find in the works of the would-be historians of this period. On page 509 he writes: "A historian ought not to suppress uncomfortable facts, and it is undeniable that the treatment of the Negroes forms a blot on America's fair name. In parts of the South they are kept in a state of practical serfdom; in all cities they are herded into unsanitary districts; they are denied equal opportunities for advancement; and not infrequently they are maltreated and murdered by brutal mobs. It is true that individual Negroes, by fiendish assaults on white women, now and then rouse men to frenzy, but statistics show that only about a fifth of the lynchings of Negroes are because of the 'usual crime.' Burning at the stake is never justifiable under any circumstance, and it is undeniable that in race riots scenes of horror have been enacted that are a disgrace to American civilization. Such scenes are sadly out of place in a nation that proclaims itself the special champion of liberty and justice and which enlists in a crusade 'to make the world safe for democracy.'"

* * * * *

_The American Colonization Society, 1817-1840._ By EARLY LEE FOX, Ph.D., Professor of History in Randolph-Macon College. Baltimore. The John Hopkins Press, 1919. Pp. viii, 231. This is another study made under the direction of the Johns Hopkins University faculty of Historical and Political Science and like many others of this order lies in the field of southern history and is written from the ex parte point of view. It does not cover the whole history of the American Colonization Society but restricts itself to that period when it was largely a southern enterprise primarily interested in getting rid of the Negro. Throughout the story there is too much effort to evade eloquent facts, too much effort to excuse the sins of the South by showing that the North itself was once slaveholding and slavetrading. On the whole, however, the author has in the use of such valuable material as the manuscripts and especially the letters of the American Colonization Society brought to light significant facts which the historian will be glad to use more advantageously.

After a brief introduction the book treats of the free Negro and the slave. Then comes the chapter on the organization, purpose, and early record of the Society. Attention is next directed to the conflict between the colonizationists and the abolitionists. Colonization is afterward discussed in connection with emancipation and finally with the African slave trade. Throughout the whole treatise there is a defense of the "lofty" motives of the men who labored so hard for the expatriation of the Negroes. As the author sees it, although the Society did not send many Negroes to Africa, it was after all a success; for it had a bearing on the emancipation of slaves, and on the suppression of the African slave trade. Abolitionists, attacking this undertaking based upon national sentiment, were endangering the union by their propaganda founded upon sectional sentiment. Colonization, therefore, was just because it was "born out of a desire to unite the North and the South in the settlement of the Negro problem." The purpose of the treatise then is to (page 127) "set forth the true aims of orthodox Colonizationists, or from another point to demonstrate that their aims were as sincerely expressed as sound policy would admit, and that, where motives were concealed, they were concealed in order to secure the freedom of the slaves."

Written from this point of view the dissertation becomes too much of a polemic to be accepted as a scientific treatise. Too much space is devoted to the task of unifying the widely different views of the colonizationists, too much effort is made to contrast the methods of the colonizationists with those of the abolitionists. The author does not seem to realize or at least fails to admit that the abolitionists were radical reformers seeking to eradicate the cause of social disease whereas the colonizationists were merely treating the symptoms of the malady in undertaking the impossible task of transplanting a whole race.

The general argument of the author in favor of the beneficence of colonization is not convincing. There is no authority for the contention that colonization promoted emancipation when the records show that the majority of slaveholders who supported it had in mind the expatriation of the free Negroes who among the bondmen were a living testimony against slavery. To say that colonization might check the slave trade by establishing one small colony in Africa is about as unsound, contended some free Negroes in 1831, as to argue that "a watchman in the city of Boston would prevent thievery in New York; or that the custom house officers there would prevent goods being smuggled into any other part of the United States." It is an insult to the intelligence of men who have seriously considered history to say that colonization was so built upon national sentiment as to have a direct bearing on the preservation of the Union when the colonizationists differed widely among themselves in the very beginning and finally divided just as the abolitionists, who at one time had also a national standing, in that most anti-slavery societies were once found in the South. Until Negro history, therefore, has been removed from the hands of those using it to whitewash their ancestors the world must still lack knowledge as to how the progress of mankind has been influenced by the Negro.

* * * * *

_The Voice of the Negro._ By ROBERT T. KERLIN, Professor of
English at the Virginia Military Institute. New York, E. P.
Dutton and Company, 1920. Pp. xii, 188.

The purpose of this book may best be expressed in the words of the author himself, when he says, in the preface: "The following work is a compilation from the colored press of America for the four months [July 1st to November 1st, 1919] immediately succeeding the Washington riot. It is designed to show the Negro's reaction to that and like events following, and to the World War and the discussion of the Treaty. It may, in the Editor's estimation, be regarded as a primary document in promoting a knowledge of the Negro, his point of view, his way of thinking upon race relations, his grievances, his aspirations, his demands." A book of such purport, especially when coming from the pen of a white man, must attract attention, and if the newspapers and periodicals from which the various extracts are chosen may be called truly representative, as in this case they are, the compiler has performed a distinct service in the field of American History.

Professor Kerlin has culled his clippings from eighty current Negro periodicals, published from Massachusetts to Georgia, and ranging from the startlingly radical to the most hide-bound conservative type. He has used only articles written by Negroes in Negro publications, has sorted them and grouped them under ten heads, entitled respectively: The Colored Press, The New Era, The Negro's Reaction to the World War, The Negro's Grievances and Demands, Riots, Lynchings, The South and the Negro, The Negro and Labor Unionism and Bolshevism, Negro Progress, and The Lyric Cry,--a remarkable assortment of first-hand information concerning Negro thought with regard to each topic.

Professor Kerlin makes no attempt to interpret the material of his book; he merely presents it. It is for him who reads also to read between the lines. It is doubtless impossible to choose any one expression that will accurately represent Negro thought as caught in these pages, yet four lines of poetry included in the book will serve as well as any:

"We would be manly--proving well our worth,
Then would not cringe to any _god_ on earth.

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

"We would be peaceful, Father,--but when we must,
Help us to thunder hard the blow that's just!"

This is the Voice of the Negro which Professor Kerlin intimates cannot go unheeded.

The book might have been made more useful by the addition of an alphabetical and topical index of the periodicals used.

D. A. LANE.

NOTES

The following account of the centenary celebration of St. Philip's Episcopal Church from the _New York World_ of November 14, 1920, will be interesting to all persons interested in Negro history:

"The Right Rev. Charles Sumner Burch, D.D., Bishop of New York, and the Right Rev. Henry Beard Delany, D.D., Suffragan Bishop of North Carolina, will participate in the centennial celebration at St. Philip's Church, No. 212 West 134th Street, the Rev. H. C. Bishop, rector, which will begin to-day.

"One hundred years ago Nov. 14 St. Philip's Church was incorporated under the laws of the State of New York. The event is significant, for it antedated the Civil War by forty-one years and the Emancipation Proclamation of Abraham Lincoln by forty-five years. It is not only, nor primarily, an ecclesiastical event, but a political and social one as well, inasmuch as this act of Legislature recognized and confirmed the citizenship of the petitioners, showing that these colored Episcopalians were an integral part of the body politic.

"It was in 1809, under the leadership of Mr. McCoombs, a lay reader, that a mission for colored people was opened in a school room on the corner of Frankfort and William Streets, where they remained until 1812, and after the death of Mr. McCoombs removed to a room in Cliff Street with Peter Williams, Jr., a colored man, as lay reader, where they remained five years, moving from there to a school room on Rose Street.

"In 1819 three lots were obtained on the west side of Collect, now Centre Street, and upon this site a wooden building was erected at a cost of $5,000. It was consecrated by Bishop John Henry Hobart, July 19, 1819, and was named St. Philip's Church. After its incorporation in 1820 Mr. Williams, who had been ordained to the Deaconate in October, was appointed minister in charge, Dec. 24, 1821, the building was destroyed by fire, but was rebuilt the following year of brick at a cost of $8,000.

"Mr. Williams was advanced to the priesthood in 1827, and became the first rector of the church. He died in 1840. In 1853 the parish was received into union with the Convention of the Diocese of New York. At that time the church was at No. 305 Mulberry Street, and the Rev. William Morris LL.D., rector of Trinity School, was the officiating minister.

"The parish was without a rector from 1840 to 1872, when the Rev. William J. Alston, trained at Kenyon College, Gambier, O., was called to the rectorship. He continued in office until 1874, and there was a vacancy until 1875, when the Rev. Joseph J. Atwell, a native of Barbados, British West Indies, was elected rector. His death in 1882 again left the office vacant until 1886, when the present incumbent, the Rev. Hutchens C. Bishop, was elected.

"During Mr. Atwell's incumbency the Parish House for Aged Women was founded. The long years of vacancy retarded the growth of the parish so that in 1885 there were but 284 communicants after a group existence of seventy-six years.

"In 1886 the congregation made another journey, locating at No. 161 West 125th Street, where it remained until 1910, when, following the migration northward, lots running from 133d to 134th Street were obtained and a commodious church and parish house were erected. The growth of the parish since that time has been phenomenal. There are now over 2,500 communicants and not room enough in the parish house to accommodate the various activities.

"At the present time St. Philip's may be said to be the only church in the neighborhood in any way equipped to serve the colored people of the community. Churchmen point out that if there is one place in Manhattan where there should be buildings adapted for indoor recreation and entertainment for the young colored people, it is that particular part of the city. They claim there should be day nurseries, gymnasiums, beneficial societies and forums for the discussion of industrial problems, where employer and employee might meet and each present his side.

"The centennial celebration will extend over a week. Bishop Burch will preach at the special thanksgiving service to-day at 11 o'clock, while Bishop Delany and one of the two negro Bishops in the Episcopal Church will make an address at the evening service.