Chapter XXVI: Introduction (3)

_Letter from Bell Jones_

Dear Mrs. X (the agent) i am writing you a fue lines to let you
here from me i am the lady you got me a home with Mrs. Jones at
Smithburg, Md I have a little boy with me you know by the name
of Bell Jones i dont want to stay up here much longer and i want
you to get me a good home down in Washington for me and my little
boy with some good white people with no children and a room in
the house for me and my little boy my little boy is a mighty good
little boy he is not noisy i want to leave sept. 4 i am tired of
this place because there is no cullard people up here they are
all white i have not been off the lot since i have been out here
please get me a good home dont let it be out of town.

Yours Bell Jones

[15] Salmon, Lucy M., _Domestic Service_, p. 124.

[16] U. S. Industrial Commission Report, _op. cit._, p. 751.

[17] THREE SAMPLE REFERENCES FOR DOMESTIC WORKERS, NEW YORK CITY

Winchester Ave., Bronx, N. Y. July 14, 1921.

To Whom it may Concern:

Doris X has been in my employ and performed her duties
satisfactory. She is honest and capable.

Signed ----

The following person had two reference blanks containing the same questions filled out by her former employers. She had been a child's nurse in the first position and nurse-maid in the second.

_First Blank._ _Second Blank._
January 27, 1923. Jan. 30, 1923.

Is she honest? Exceptionally so Yes
Is she temperate? Yes Yes
Is she neat? Yes Yes
What of her disposition? Best I have ever seen Wonderful
Does she thoroughly
understand her work? Yes Yes
Why did she leave? Presumably to be near Because she was
her husband tired of permanence
and had a chance to
go to the states
with our friend

Remarks--Her services with our family for five years have always been most satisfactory.

[18] Haynes, George E., _op. cit._, p. 87.

[19] FIVE SAMPLE REFERENCES FOR DOMESTIC WORKERS AND ONE LETTER FROM AN EMPLOYER, WASHINGTON, D. C.

Woodford Land, Va.

Lillie worked for me for a long time and she is a nice worker and a fine cook and she worked for Mrs. ---- three years going on four, and she got married there with them and she worked for Mrs. ---- and she nursed Mrs. ----'s three children.

From Mrs. ----

The following reference is for Fannie B.--who, evidently half crazy, changed her name after registering at the Washington office because she said she had so many "Enemons" (enemies).

To Whom in May Concern:

This is to certify that Fannie B has been a trustworthy maid. As to her honesty none come no better. She is very capable and in general very satisfactory.

Mrs. ----

To Whom it May Concern:

This is to say that Sarah ---- has been in my employ 8 months and that she is a good cook, tries hard to please, and has been nice always to the children.

She has been honest and reliable and likes to try new or fancy dishes.

Signed----Mrs. E. M.

(The foregoing Mrs. E. M.'s name and telephone number were given to another lady who had interviewed Sarah relative to offering her a position, Mrs. E. M. told the second lady that Sarah once stole things but she had had a good lesson so she thought she would not steal any more. She also said that Sarah was none too clean, and that she gave the girl the above reference because she thought she had improved greatly.)

Sarah Jackson held a domestic worker's certificate bearing the golden seal of a Washington, D. C., Federation of Women's Club.

The X Federation of Women's Clubs awards this certificate to Sarah Jackson for 13 years faithful service in the employ of ----

Signed,
Mrs. ---- President,
Mrs. ---- Chairman Home Economics Dept.

Robert and wife, each about 40 years of age, bring this written reference from a southern town:

This is to certify that I have known "Shine" and his wife for about a year, during which time he has been running a shoe shine establishment in this town. "Shine" is a steady, alert, energetic boy and I feel sure he will please his employer in the work in which he is given a trial.

Signed, H. C. L.

(Letter to the Employment Agent from an Employer.)

My dear Mrs. X.

I fear you think I am very hard to please but having had a butler for 38 years, since dead, a maid and a cook 32 years, since married, it cannot seem that I am, when I once get the right one.

The last girl you sent me Anna by name disliked very much being directed or being spoken to. I am giving her up for she has a most violent temper, the most impertinent person I have ever seen. In a way I am sorry for her. None of us think she is all there. Will you try again for me?

[20] TYPICAL EXAMPLES OF INEFFICIENCY AMONG WASHINGTON, D. C., DOMESTIC APPLICANTS

(1) A day worker--laundress--not knowing how to cut off the current and unscrew the wringer on an electric washing machine, when a garment wrapped around the cogs, ruined the cogs by trying to cut the garment from between them.

(2) A day worker--one of the best laundresses--hurrying to finish her work placed her hands on a revolving electric machine tub, both arms were carried beneath the tub and had not the current been speedily cut, her arms would have been crushed. As it was the tubs had to be cut in order to extricate her arms. After that she was afraid to use an electric washing machine.

(3) To ask at the office in a group of from 200 to 250 women for a first class laundress--one who knew how to fold the clothes just so after they were ironed as well as wash them out according to rule--and not find one who felt that she could do the work properly was a common occurrence.

(4) A young woman sent out to do general housework and cooking cut the bone out of a 3-1/2 pound sirloin steak which she fried up into such bits that it was not recognized by her employer. When she was questioned about it, she said "that is every bit of that steak. You did not expect me to cook bone and all, did you?"

(5) A young girl sent out to do general housework and cooking when questioned by her employer about the kinds of dessert she could make, said she sure could make jello but was not so good at making other desserts.

(6) The rank and file of general houseworkers looked upon making salad dressing and salads as an art belonging to fine cooks. Many said they had never tried to make bread of any kind.

(7) An elderly cook who had been at the business for 50 years wished cooking and cooking only. Her price was $75 per month. That's what she "ingenally" got. When she was asked if she could read or write she said she could not. She had never been to school a day in her life, but she realized that cooking is tedious work. "Everything I does, I does by my head; its all brain work, you see I has a good 'eal to remember," said she. However, she felt confident that she could cook anything that was put before her to cook.

(8) A young woman sent out to do cleaning left the print of her hand greasy with furniture oil in a freshly papered wall.

[21] Salmon, Lucy M., _op. cit._, p. 123.

[22] _Industrial Commission Report_, _op. cit._, p. 1901.

[23] Eaton, Isabel, _op. cit._, p. 486.

[24] Haynes, G. E., _op. cit._, p. 87.

[25] Eaton, Isabel, _op. cit._, p. 449.

[26] Salmon, Lucy, _Domestic Service_, p. 90.

[27] **Transcriber Note: No footnote text in original.**

[27] Eaton, Isabel, _op. cit._, pp. 447-449.

[28] Haynes, George E., _op. cit._, p. 81.

[29] Haynes, George E., _unpublished data_.

[30] Haynes, George E., _unpublished data_.

[31] King, W. I., _Employment, Hours and Earnings in the United States, 1920-1922_, Chap. V, pp. 5, 19; Chap. IV, p. 3.

[32] Salmon, Lucy M., _op. cit._

[33] _Monthly Labor Review_, U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, August, 1920, p. 212.

[34] Eaton, Isabel, _op. cit._, p. 495.

[35] Reed, Ruth, _op. cit._, p. 35.

[36] Haynes, George E., _unpublished data_, 1921.

[37] Martin, Asa E., _Our Negro Population_, Kansas City, 1913, pp. 180, 143.

[38] Haynes, Geo. E., _unpublished data_, 1921.

[39] Reed, Ruth, _op. cit._, p. 51.

[40] Rubinow, I. M., _Depth and Breadth of the Servant Problem_, _McClure's Magazine_, Vol. 34, p. 576, 1909-1910

[41] _Monthly Labor Review_, U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Aug., 1919, p. 212, May, 1920, p. 116.

[42] Salmon, Lucy M., _op. cit._, p. 115.

[43] Kellor, Frances A., _Out of Work_, pp. 197, 222, 225, 229.

DOCUMENTS

DOCUMENTS AND COMMENTS ON BENEFIT OF CLERGY AS APPLIED TO SLAVES

The following transcripts from the records of the Superior Court of Richmond County, North Carolina, illustrate the application of benefit of clergy to slaves charged with and found guilty of crimes punishable with death.[A]

_Fall Term 1828_

State } Burglary { Pleads "not Guilty"
vs } { The following
George (A Slave)} { Jury Empaneled therein
{ (Viz) (1) Cyrus Bennet
(2) Alen Shaw (3) Try McFarland
(4) Wade LeGrand (5) George Wright
(6) James Covington (7) William Crowson
(8) Thos. B. Blewett (9) Israel Watkins
(10) Risdon Nichols (11) Lenard Webb
(12) Hampton Covington--

Who find the Prisoner "not Guilty" of Burglary in manner and Form
as charged in the Bill of Ind't'm't But guilty of Grand Larceny....

The Prisoner appeared at the Bar and being asked by the Court
If he had any thing to say why Sentence of Death should not be
pronounced against him, Answered by Council praying the benefit of
his Clergy. Which was allowed him by the Court & adjudged that he
receive THIRTY NINE lashes on his Bare Back & stand committed till
his Master enter into recognisance of $200 for his good behavior
for the Space of Twelve months & pay cost of Prosecution....
Sentence to be Carried into effect on Tomorrow at 4 Oclock P. M.

_Fall Term 1828_

State } { Pleads "Not Guilty"
vs } No. 19 { The following Jury
Dennis (a Slave) } Burglary { empanelled & sworn
{ (1) James Meacham
(2) George Wright (3) John Gibson
(4) Silas Jones (5) Lemuel Chance
(6) Wilie Chance (7) Thomas Bostick
(8) Ananias Graham (9) James LeGrand
(10) Elias Pate (11) Hugh McLean
(12) George Hunesucker ...

Who find the Dfd't not guilty of the Burglary as charged in the
Bill of Indtmt; but guilty of Grand Larceny....

The prisoner appeared at the Bar and being asked by the Court
If he had any thing to say why sentence of death should not be
pronounced against him; replied by his Council, praying the
Benefit of his Clergy; which was allowed; and the prisoner Dennis,
to be taken to the Whipping Post and receive Thirty nine lashes on
his Bare Back. Sentence to be carried into effect at 4 O'clock P.
M. on Saturday.

_Spring Term 1832_

State } No. 19 { The following Jury
vs } Burglary { empanelled & sworn--viz.
Harry (a Slave) } { (1) Alexander Shaw
(2) Cyrus Bennet (3) Try McFarland
(4) George Wright (5) Silas Jones
(6) John Gibson (7) Barton C. Everett
(8) William Everett (9) Jno McAlister
(10) William Strickland (11) Francis T. Leak
(12) Peter H. Cole

Who find the Dfdt guilty in manner and form as charged in the Bill
of Indictment.

The Prisoner appearing at the Bar, being asked by the Court if he
had any thing to say why sentence of Death should not be heaped
against him, replied through his Council praying the Benefit of
his Clergy.... Which was allowed ... and he was sentenced to be
carried to the whipping Post and there to receive Twenty Lashes on
his bare Back.... Sentence to be carried into effect at 4 Oclock
this afternoon.

Investigation of the law pertaining to benefit of clergy in the slave-holding States reveals the following facts. It existed for a longer or shorter time in Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, Arkansas, and Missouri. Slaves were admitted to benefit of clergy in Virginia in 1732, and although the privilege was abolished as it applied to free persons in 1796, it remained legal for slaves until 1848. Likewise Kentucky withdrew the privilege from whites in 1798 but did not deny it to slaves until 1852. Alabama admitted slaves to benefit of clergy in 1805, but in 1807 all laws, customs and usages relating to Benefit of Clergy were abolished. Slaves were admitted to the privilege in North Carolina in 1816, and it was not denied them until benefit of clergy was abolished in 1854. In the other slave-holding States slaves were not admitted to benefit of clergy by statute but a law of Maryland of 1751 which imposed the death penalty on slaves without benefit of clergy implies that the privilege prevailed there through custom. Benefit of clergy was abolished in Maryland in 1809, in Georgia in 1817, in Mississippi in 1822, in Arkansas in 1838, in Delaware in 1852, in Missouri in 1845, and in South Carolina some time during the reconstruction period.

An interesting feature of benefit of clergy was its relation to the amelioration of the criminal law. In this respect there is a parallel between English and American practice. The English statute of 1706 (5 Anne 6) provided that "if any person shall be convicted of any such felony, for which he ought to have had the benefit of his clergy, if this act had not been made, and shall pray to have the benefit of this act, he shall not be required to read, but without reading, shall be allowed, taken and reputed to be, and punished as, a clerk convict, which shall be as effectual to all intents and purposes, and be as advantageous to him, as if he had read as a clerk; anything in this act, or any other law or statute, to the contrary notwithstanding." Thus benefit of clergy was extended to all classes in England.

A few years later Delaware adopted the principle of the English statute: "that if any person convicted of any such felony as is hereby made capital, for which he ought by the laws of Great Britain to have the benefit of clergy, and shall pray to have the benefit of this act; he shall not be required to read, but without any reading shall be allowed, taken and reputed, and punished as a clerk convict," etc. Likewise Virginia in 1732 adopted the application of benefit of clergy as laid down in the statute of Anne: "and if any person be convicted of a felony, for which he ought to have the benefit of clergy, and shall pray to have the benefit of this act, he shall not be required to read, but without any reading, shall be allowed, taken, and reputed to be, and punished as a clerk convict; which shall be as effectual, to all intents and purposes, and as advantageous to him as if he had read as a clerk; and any other law or statute, to the contrary notwithstanding." Thus, in the language of Pike, "a relic of extreme barbarism" became "the first step towards a modification of the previous laws which deprived a man of his life by a brutal mode of execution for a very petty transaction." (_A History of Crime in England_, II, 281.)

Another parallel between English and American experience was in the abolition of benefit of clergy. In Virginia and Kentucky it was denied to free persons when servitude in a penitentiary was substituted for most of the older penalties for felonies. These states anticipated the policy of England, for benefit of clergy was not there abolished and service in workhouses substituted for existing penalties until 1827. The Virginia policy adopted in 1796 was due to some extent to the example of Pennsylvania which revised its penal system in 1786. The abolition of benefit of clergy in most of the other Southern States was contemporaneous with revisions of the criminal codes.

But given a penal system in which imprisonment was the principal feature, it was not advantageous to the slave-owner or to the State to give prison sentences to slaves. And here the ghost of benefit of clergy would not down. In place of imprisonment the slave was usually corporally punished. In the language of the Alabama statute of 1807, "when any negro or mulatto whatsoever shall be convicted of any offense not punishable with death by this act, ... he or she shall be burnt in the hand by the sheriff in open court or suffer such other corporal punishment as the court shall think fit to inflict." Likewise Mississippi in 1822 enacted that "if any negro or mulatto slave was convicted of felony not punishable with death, such negro or mulatto should be burnt in the hand and suffer such other corporal punishment as the court should think fit to inflict, except when he or she shall be convicted of a second offense of the same nature, in which case such negro or mulatto slave shall suffer death." Most interesting are the laws of two States in which benefit of clergy was not provided for. According to the Black Code of Louisiana when slaves were charged with crimes punishable with death or hard labor for life, the jury might at its discretion commute the death penalty and inflict a lesser punishment. In Florida a slave guilty of crime punishable with death might at the discretion of the court suffer instead a whipping not exceeding thirty-nine lashes, have his ears nailed to a post and stand one hour, and be burned in the hand.

In the light of the documents quoted and the statutes cited the statement so frequently made that benefit of clergy disappeared in America at the time of the Revolution, and the dictum of an Indiana judge that "it is unknown to our laws" (I Blackford 63), can not be taken at their face value.

WM. K. BOYD

TRINITY COLLEGE,
DURHAM, N. C.

FOOTNOTES:

[A] These documents were collected by Prof. Wm. K. Boyd, of Trinity College, Durham, North Carolina.

COMMUNICATIONS

The following from Mr. A. P. Vrede of Paramaribo, Surinam, Dutch Guiana, South America, will be informing and interesting to persons interested in missions as a factor in the uplift of the race:

CORNELIUS WINST BLYD

_The First Negro Presbyter in Surinam_

PARAMARIBO, Feb. 5, 1923.
_Dear Sir:_

Likewise as in 1861 the Freedman Association sprang up for aid for
the enlightenment of the freed blacks on American soil, so in the
epoch from 1738 to 1818 did the missionaries of the Evangelical
Brother's Union take upon their shoulders the burden of the
enslaved blacks on Surinam. Then, too, their way was not always
paved with roses. No they had to face the same mockery, the same
martyrdom. They were jailed, despised because for the slaves to
remain in their ignorance was favorable to the filling of their
"masters" purses.

Let us go back to the year 1850 to see what had been happening
on one of the plantations situated on the beach of the Matapica.
On these plantations, there we found the administrator, Mr.
Rouse, in charge of the plantation administration, busy in
making arrangements for transportation of the properties of the
plantation, nicknamed by the slaves, "Domiri," to upper Surinam,
to the plantation St. Barbara. Among the properties over which
Mr. Rouse's superintendenceship extended, we found among living
stock a slave family, Father Dami, his wife bearing the name of
Ma Jetty, but better known by the name of Ma Jetty of Domiri, so
called because her birth-place is Domiri. Father Dami and Jetty
had two daughters, the one called Christina and the other, known
in slave registration by name of Wilhelmina. So it was on a windy
morning of the dry season, that we found this little family. They,
too, were occupied with the removal of the plantation properties.
It was a busy day. The rays of the sun pierced the backs of the
slaves. Their bodies glimmered in their going to and fro as rubbed
black-ebony wood furniture.

When the work was over, we left Domiri with its slave caravan
for St. Barbara. St. Barbara as aforesaid situated on the upper
Surinam the main-stream of the colony Surinam. Entering Mr.
Rouse's new dominion from the rear we found the slaves uncommonly
active, so different from that they had displayed for a time ago
at Domiri.--They were jolly about the coming emancipation days.
As we were wandering along the slaves' cabin-rows, it was then
July 19, 1860, we heard a baby cry. Turning our heads toward
where the voice had been coming from, we detected that it came
from the cabin inhabited by the family headed by Father Dami. We
walked into, found that Wilhelmina, Dami's daughter, had added
to her family a male member. There he lay down sprawling on the
floor in pieces of rag clothes used for his bed and pillow. But
this child will grow up to become a distinguished man among his
people, a shepherd to watch over his flock. Winst, or Profit,
the administrator, Mr. Rouse, called him. One would try to solve
that puzzle of nomenclature in those days. But we know and
understand it now better. It was the time when the administrator
was expecting to get for every slave three hundred guilders on
the emancipation day. So we may suppose that this was done, as a
profit upon his debit on the government account. Let us now see
what became of that slave child Winst.

Cornelis Winst Blyd was born of slave parents, as stated above,
on the plantation St. Barbara July 19, 1860. He was the son of
Wilhelmina, a daughter of Father Dami. Besides Winst, his mother
had two other sons. It came to pass that when Winst's mother
Wilhelmina died, survived by her three sons, they were put
under care of their Aunt Christina. Blyd, his brothers and Aunt
afterward moved into town. His aunt placed Blyd in one of the
Moravian mission boarding schools for boys, formerly known as
"Amtri" School. It was desired that after he should finish his
literary training he should be instructed in the handicraft of
carpentry. So he was brought in to Mr. Ammon, the carpenter well
renowned in the colony for furniture.

But this was not the way traced for him by our Lord. So they took
him from Mr. Ammon to the "Central School" a former preparatory
boarding school for teachers. Blyd, with his pious, gentle and
sincere character, had won in no time the friendship of everyone
who inhabited the institution. His educational instruction in
the Bible was received from Rev. E. A. Renkemir. For song he was
trained by Mr. Batenburg. In the classroom of the normal school
for teachers, he was one of the beloved pupils of Dr. H. D.
Benjamin, then the Inspector of the Board of Education in Surinam.
Blyd had in competition among his fellow classmates held by his
teachers, distinguished himself as a remarkable student in solving
Bible questions. So we see he showed more inclination to the
clergy and to become a minister than a school teacher. But in that
time no natives were exalted to the order of preacher. So Blyd
became a teacher.

Blyd followed his occupation as a teacher in several districts of
the colony. His first field of operation was on the plantation,
Berger Dal, one of the largest Negro settlements in Surinam. We
may mention here an uproar that took place during his stay there.
These will make us a little acquainted with his sincere and pious
character. It came to pass, one day after school hours, two school
boys got to quarreling about a pocket-knife. The quarrel became
so noisy that the family of both the boys were coming up with
hatchet, walking-stick and some more murderous weapons. So much
feeling had then developed that the uproar would not have been
prevented had not Mr. Blyd undertaken this difficult task and by
his unusual moral power brought both parties to reflection. After
a reprimand in well chosen words the quarrel was suppressed.

When Mr. Blyd later moved to plantation Wederzorg, situated on
the Commewyne river, he then got permission from the Director of
the Mission in Surinam, to lead now and then the church service.
But these all were for Blyd merely as forerunner to reach his
mile-stone. At the plantation Alkmaar, he came into touch with the
Rev. Mr. Kersten, and it was not long before this man detected in
Mr. Blyd a preacher of power. Blyd's impression made upon Rev. Mr.
Kersten was so favorable that soon in 1899, the Mission Director
in Surinam decided to appoint him as sub-preacher. And once the
words spoken by the old Rev. Mr. Haller (white) became truth. He
had said to Mr. Blyd "You should try to train yourself for the
uplift of your fellow race-men, and to teach them the words of
our living God." In the year 1902 Mr. Blyd was ordained to the
order of deacon, and from that time, his name as a preacher was
established.

Rev. Mr. Blyd had to wrestle with many storms that touched his
social life. There came upon him the bad deportment of his two
sons. He who knows the battle which he had to fight, brought upon
him by his sons' evil deeds, will find in him, the preacher of
God, a true and sincere knight of our Lord. Rev. Mr. Blyd sought
in his hours of these temptations his refuge on his Savior knees
and he always was consoled. Many had wondered at his patience
and long suffering amid these storms of life. But this man, the
preacher by the grace of God, the sincere Christian in the full
sense of the word, had as his encouragement, that had been giving
him consolation and confidence: "The Lord shall provide, be still
my soul."

Rev. Mr. Blyd's sermons were of an uncommon sort. Never would one
part from his service not being touched in the depths of his inner
life. His sermons were delivered in Dutch and Negro-English. They
were a splendor of oratory. In spite of all of these, however,
Rev. Mr. Blyd still retained his humility, without overrating
himself. His words won many hearts, even many a stranger. Among
them we may count Bishop Hamilton, High Commissioner of the
Moravian Board of Missions in England. In 1913, the year of the
celebration of the Fifty Emancipation Anniversary, the Mission
Director in Surinam decided to send Rev. Mr. Blyd to Europe, to
the Netherlands, our mother country, to represent the black race.
Rev. Mr. Blyd traveled also throughout Germany and Denmark. There
in Europe, he came into touch with several notables.

He won many friends by his sermon preached at the celebration of
the mission feast at Utrecht in the Netherlands as attested by H.
M. Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands. Many ministers with the
degree of Doctor of Divinity had addressed the audience on that
occasion. After them Rev. Mr. Blyd rose from his seat to walk
to the pulpit for he was being given a turn. When he was on the
way to the pulpit, a white minister hastened to offer to him a
minister's gown, but the man Blyd kept his simplicity and refused
to accept it.[1] After the service everyone longed to cheer and
greet the black minister. By hundreds and thousands they crowded
themselves to see him pass. Photographers were busy taking his
photo. To and fro they went to ask for a picture of the black
minister. Rev. Mr. Blyd had made a deep impression upon H. M.
Queen Wilhelmina, and under the emotion that Rev. Mr. Blyd had
caused H. M. the Queen, he was invited by Her Majesty to deliver a
sermon at the court, attended by all H. M. court representatives.
Rev. Mr. Blyd was later invited to dinner at H. M. residence at
Hagen, and he sat at the same table near by H. M. the Queen. This
extraordinary event took place after his traveling from North
Europe.

His love for his native land will be illustrated by the following
event. It was at H. M. Queen Wilhelmina's residence that this took
place. When the Queen put before him this question: "Reverend
Mr. Blyd," H. M. turning to him, "which of the two places do you
prefer? The Netherlands or Denmark?" And without hesitation he
answered the Queen's question in his simple words: "Your Majesty,
East, West, home is best!"

Rev. Mr. Blyd surrounded by all these courtesies has never forgot
his race. He took the opportunity to bring before the Queen the
needs of his people. He had made also his entrance at the courts
of Germany and Denmark. In Denmark he was received with great
enthusiasm and great homage. He had so impressed the clergy of
Denmark that they made efforts to retain him for the order in that
country. But the man with his humble character chose above all to
serve among his own people. In Germany he had held several street
meetings. A white eye-witness, now in the colony, told about the
impression Rev. Mr. Blyd made upon his hearers. He said that the
longer he lived the more he learned from Rev. Mr. Blyd.

During Rev. Mr. Blyd's sojourn in Europe the mission authorities
were offered a better opportunity to study his character. And so
this led to the conclusion to exalt him to the order of presbyter.
This event took place before a large audience when he was
returning to the Colony.

Alas! the poor slave boy, Cornelis Winst Blyd, with his unlimited
energy traced his way from the slave cabin to kings and queens'
palaces. From body bondage to liberty of spirit and body--raised
to the highest order of Protestant dignity, the order which no man
of his color in the Colony has since attained.

Of the literature which Rev. Mr. Blyd has left, we may mention
here his well-styled booklet: "Superstition in Surinam." Therein
he has showed a great capacity as a writer. In this booklet he
warned his people of the devil's sacrifice--the fetishism and the
belief in witchcraft, an African religion transplanted here in the
colony by their ancestors from Africa. His effort in doing so was
only as he has said, to release his people from the chains of such
an empty religion.

It was on April 12, 1921, that the Colony was shocked from its
foundation. People stood in groups, heads sadly bent. Black clouds
now and then saluted in snow-white rainy cloud, to regain after a
few moments their original ash-grey color. Rev. Mr. Blyd, nursed
in the Military Hospital, had passed away. The sickness that
had ended his life so suddenly had returned. It was known that
physically his body was overpowered by a disease. But none had
expected his end so suddenly. On Sunday he had delivered his last
sermon. In the week when his sickness had become more serious they
decided to take him to the Military Hospital at Paramaribo for a
careful nursing. But his end was at hand.

The day of his burial, a funeral-service was conducted by the
Rev. Dr. Muller. It would require too much space in this Journal
to note here all that he spoke on that occasion. But I shall note
here some passages. Dr. Muller said: "He was one of the most
popular and loveliest personalities among our society. He was
the first among his co-workers. Everyone respected his name with
deep respect, the young as well as the aged. He stood for better
days above all parties; above all difference of color, sect and
confession. He was the man that won the general confidence of the
Colony.

"Yea! he was a man loved by all, respected by his own people the
black, as well as by white. His name will live forever in the
hearts of his people, friends and all. His name is holy for young
and old. His wandering upon this earth was a guide to and for many
in this Colony. He was simplicity itself and his life ended the
same."

A. P. VREDE,
Paramaribo, Surinam

The following communication from Captain T. G. Steward, U. S. A., retired, contains several statements of interest to students of Negro History:

WILBERFORCE, OHIO, January 13, 1923.
MR. CARTER G. WOODSON,
Washington, D. C.

_Dear Sir_: Allow me to kindly refer you to page 67 of my book
"Fifty Years in The Gospel Ministry" where you will find recounted
the opening of the school in Marion, S. C, the names of the
teachers, and a copy of their credentials, etc.

Also on page 47 of your "Negro in Our History" you mention one
"Irish Nell." I am quite confident that the late Bishop James
Theodore Holly, bishop of Haiti, was a descendant of the union of
that lady with a black man. I do not know how the name Holly came
in, but I may be able to cite you to the facts if you think it
worth while to publish the matter.

I am glad to find you doing so much first hand work; and were I
able I should be delighted to be engaged with you.

I suppose you are aware of the fact that the keeper of Fraunce's
tavern or Faunce's tavern in New York where Washington took leave
of his officers was a negro. Also his daughter was Washington's
house-keeper when the latter lived on Murray Hill in New York.

I would think the Faunce hotel at that time was probably among the
best, if not itself the best hotel in the country.

Yours truly,
T. G. STEWARD

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Here in Surinam the Moravian preacher needs no gown by the church service. This offering was then for Rev. Blyd a sign of his worthiness, an honor and an acknowledgment of his true Christian soul.

BOOK REVIEWS

_Das unbekannte Afrika_ (Unknown Africa). By Leo Frobenius. (O.
Beck, München, 1923.)

The war has fettered Frobenius to his country and his desk, and he has found time to study his material, and the series of diaries, written every day while in Africa. Ten volumes of folklore, three volumes of _Atlas Africanus_, several philosophical books, and this one under discussion, have been the fruits of his unwelcome restraint. Frobenius is now preparing another book, "The dying Africa." Many of his collections have gone to the various museums, but he has a large number of interesting objects, and many thousands of pictures which are contained in his recent publications, and, at last, made known.

Each chapter of _Das unbekannte Afrika_ is headed by small maps showing the distribution of the cultural elements treated in it. This is the form of registration which Frobenius has practiced for the last 25 years. Thus the enormous wealth of ethnological data is statistically fixed. The area, for instance, for a house type or a custom, when found in his travels, is compared with data found, in literature, on the same subject, and all the findings are, again, registered on a map. The results of seven expeditions, on which skilled artists accompanied him, have been kept under control in this manner. As soon as the center of a district which seemed of interest was reached, numerous trained assistants were sent in different directions. Each took notes and pictures on a given subject, so that a marvelous amount of work could be accomplished. Other data were gained by leaving questionnaires among the resident missionaries, merchants, or government officials, to whom letters were sent later, where matters did not seem sufficiently clear, when studied at home.

The deductions made are illustrated by the fascinating pictures contained in _The unknown Africa_, in which more than half of the space is devoted to illustrations. By them the interrelation between Neolithic European, Asiatic, Phoenician, Carthaginian, and the African cultures is shown, mainly in regard to art and architecture.

African art is nearer related to the prehistoric European than to the Asiatic and the American. On the whole, that of the south is historic, as compared with that of northwestern Africa. Linguistically the south African idioms are the oldest, while the illiterate eastern constitutes the second period, and the northwestern the youngest.

Racially the lighter Hamite in the northwest has displaced older types, which are now prevalent in the east. The Hamitic culture extends between the Canaries and the Indian Ocean, with extensions into Abyssinia and the southern apex. In the south dwell the Ethiopians. Originally there were two main points of cultural influx, one in Erythraea, and one on the western shores, having travelled through the Mediterranean and Gibraltar, around northwestern Africa. Some influence was also introduced from the north, and traversed the Sahara desert. There it did not survive, but penetrated the Soudan.

The two cultures are explained distinctly. The Hamitic contains remnants of the solar cult, while the Ethiopian shows that of the moon. The first has the matriarchal while the second has the patriarchal system. Hamitic inclinations are connected with the animal world, the Ethiopian with Mother Earth and the plant. Proofs for the entry of Hamitic elements by way of Erythraea are found in the fact that the matriarchate has existed on the eastern coast of India, and in southern Arabia, and that it still exists in northern Africa. Also, the ritual killing of the kings which exists near the White Nile, and in the eastern Soudan, was reported, by Diodorus, to have existed on the eastern coast of India and in Meroe.

The Nile kept Egypt in touch with the rest of the civilized world, while the western parts of northern Africa had no great stream to retain the ancient height of culture, but this tended to the guarding of traditions, and the preservation of ancient customs.

The same ritual procedure which is depicted on the rock-drawings, thousands of years old, prevails in these days in western Soudan. The same posture is taken by the supplicant huntsman, in regard to the cardinal points, while he traces similar images on the sand. The present-day pious Yoruba consults the replica of boards which were found in Ife, and which were thousands of years old. On them are carved the four main pairs of deities, or the sixteen cardinal points.

Frobenius found ancient terra-cotta heads and wood carvings which represented the same objects as those found in Benin. The latter must be considered as mediaeval. The pupils of the Benin heads are perforated, while the Ilife heads have blind eyes. This would affix, to the latter, a much greater age, as it is a feature of ancient Mediterranean sculpture. The Atlantic art of western Africa is highly developed, and has nothing in common with primitive Negro art. Some of the boards are exquisite, and rows of beautiful figures and mythological representations are carved on a door, in Yoruba, as shown in the book.

A very interesting theory is put forth, in this connection. So far, it was accepted that time, in archaeology, could be measured only by stone objects, as these were lasting. The author, however, is of the opinion that rock drawings and carvings may answer the aesthetic or ritual requirements of a region or a people for many centuries, while wooden implements and works of art must be replaced, being eminently perishable. Wood is available everywhere. The idea underlying a figure is renewed, with each generation of carvers, and the traditions are handed down as faithfully by wooden carvings as by folk-lore.

Drawings, in the strict sense of the word, are found, in Africa, only in ancient Egypt. They are more closely related to the Bushman paintings of South Africa than to the petrography of the western parts of the continent. Hamitic rock drawings, with depressed lines of contour, and tinted in the intervening surfaces, are seen in Egypt. Prehistoric and early historic figures were found in Egypt, Lesser Africa, and the Guinea Coast. In the east the lines are generally severe, while in the northwest they are rounded. The Hamitic culture zone has no plastic art, among Berber, Bisharin, Somali, Masai, and Hottentot. The Bushman who drew the beautiful rock ornaments has produced no plastic. What is found among this tribe must be considered as Carthaginian.

The primitive Hamite fears representations of the human and animal, from magic. Later the plastic representations have, however, penetrated the Hamitic boundaries, and reached the Nile. The peoples of Lesser and North Africa do not recognize what is on the rocks. The Negro is not gifted in this sense. The Hamite who does not readily see a drawing or picture, and never seems to have produced plastic art, draws well, realistically or ornamentally. The Negro is a good carver but draws very badly. Even those Negroes who recognize every photograph and carve excellently cannot draw.

Many deductions are made in studying the migration of cultures, and many parallels are shown up. One of the relationships found is that between the tattooing of the Neolithic Period of France and that of the living individual near the Niger. The lines run from the ear to the nose. Another well-known feature is the figure of the obese woman which extends from France to Malta. It is quite prevalent in Hamitic art, in the graphic productions of northern Africa, and in Egyptian plastic. Steatopygy, in the living, is natural to the South African tribes. The deduction made is that those models which seemed desirable to the artist, during the stone age of the northwest, still exist in the south. Therefore Hamitic culture must have wandered from the north, east and south.

Other stone-age elements, the stone graves, are found in the Hamitic regions. In Morocco the stone tumuli are explained as remnants of the houses of forebears. When food ran low, goes the tale, the head of the family collected all its members about him, and tore the home down, over them.

Two main types of dwellings are found in Africa, one a cave, the other a pile structure. The Hamitic culture prefers the first, the Ethiopian the latter. The oldest Hamitic "chthonic" bed is a pit. The oven and storehouse is built in the ground. The inhabitants of the Canary Islands, who are the descendants of the ancient Guanches, and most of the Kabyle tribes of Morocco, Algeria, and Tunis still have artificial caves, which are, however, not generally known. In Matamata, in the south of Tunis, tunnel-shaped, honeycomb dwellings constitute the newer type of cave dwelling.

Ethiopian "telluric" architecture uses the pile in the construction of beds, huts for guards, dwelling houses, and meeting places. The edifices are round or rectangular, and thatched. Later the thatch is covered with clay. Fortresses are constructed of clay and rafters. In parts of the Soudan the walls are beautifully ornamented with reliefs of humans and animals, or geometrical figures. In the interior of the houses the clay walls are tinted and polished, and the pictures show many beautiful decorative designs.

BEATRICE BICKEL

* * * * *

_A History of the United States Since the Civil War._ By Ellis
Paxon Oberholtzer. In five volumes. Volume II, 1868-1872. (New
York: The Macmillan Company, 1922. Pp. XI, 649. $4.00.)

This is the second of five volumes of a history of the United States since the Civil War to be completed by this author. Covering the period from 1868 to 1872, this treatise deals in detail with the Reconstruction, the Ku Klux Klan, international questions resulting from the Civil War, the building of railroads, and Oriental problems.

It is not usual, however, to find one publishing such a large and expensive volume as this for the purpose of giving merely the author's opinion about the problems of that day and the shortcomings of the men who were trying to solve them. Not unlike most writers on the Reconstruction, this author endeavored to commend those who achieved as he would have them and to condemn those who addressed themselves to these tasks in a different way. In most places, however, he found many to censure and few to praise. If the book has any purpose at all, it is intended not as a history of the period but a survey of the corruption and vice of the age. Very little of the malfeasance in positions of public trust escaped the attention of this writer.

Beginning with President Grant himself, the author has tried to show that there was little of virtue and efficiency among public functionaries of that time. He refers to Grant as being ignorant, stupid, and simple, holds up to scorn James G. Blaine, and questions Garfield's connection with Credit Mobilier in the style characteristic of the book. Other crimes to the credit of the leading statesmen of that day are given detailed treatment. The book abounds in so many recriminations and epithets belaboring the most distinguished men of the time that the uninformed reader would expect something like the fall of Rome to follow.

If the white people with all their advantages had degenerated to such a low level, the reader might wonder why the author should make any comment at all on the corruption of the Negroes in the South. Inasmuch as they had not been generally educated and had been denied participation in civic affairs, he might have excused them for abandoning work to enjoy their freedom, stealing from their former masters, and obtruding themselves socially upon haughty persons of the old regime. In the same style, however, the Negroes are given their share of vilification. "He refers to them as 'Sambo' and 'Cuffee' entering the halls of government, and a 'Coal Black' member made temporary chairman," "'The Black Crook Convention,' 'Ring-tailed Coons,' 'Outlaws and Rag-a-muffins,' and a 'Gang of Jailbirds.'"

All of these expressions are not original with the author. They are taken from southern newspapers and books of the same sort of authorship. Instead of using such evidence only when known to be unconscious, the author has accepted this information as the truth. According to the requirements of modern historiography, newspapers are generally valuable only in determining the sentiment of the people except when the evidence obtained is unconscious. Furthermore, the author has too often accepted second-hand information, found in books of writers who have produced treatises on the Reconstruction for the express purpose of vilifying the Negroes who participated in that drama, and to justify the high-handed action of the whites who through such invisible powers as the Ku Klux Klan overthrew the liberal governments, and re-established the power of the aristocracy of the South. It is unreasonable to suppose that orators and editors interested in disfranchising and re-enslaving the Negroes would tell the truth about the freedmen.

It is most unfortunate that writers have accepted the point of view of these biased authors instead of making a research for the facts in the case. In too many instances, this author quotes Fleming for facts of Reconstruction in Alabama, Hamilton for North Carolina, Ficklen for Louisiana, Garne for Mississippi, Ramsdell for Texas, Reynolds for South Carolina, Davis for Florida, Eckenrode for Virginia, Thompson for Georgia, and the like. These "authorities" do not strengthen the claims of a work because of the very bias with which these books were written, for these writers accepted rumors, violent newspaper comments, and inflammatory speeches as reasons for their conclusions. Any history built upon such authority cannot be considered trustworthy.

From the point of view of the Negro himself, this book is not a history of the United States for the period which it purports to cover. It has very little to say about the Negroes except to refer to them as an ignorant, illiterate mass of thieves and rascals. In a work covering merely four years, a seeker of the truth would expect some information therefrom as to how the freedmen began their social and economic stride upward, what forces were set to work among them, and how susceptible they proved to be of the training offered in the schools and churches established for their special needs. Inasmuch as he found so much space for the Carpet-Baggers who went South to control the State governments through the Negro vote, it would have hardly been out of place for the author to mention that throng of apostles who came South as teachers to give their lives as a sacrifice in the uplift of these belated people. What these Negroes did, during these very years, to help themselves should have received some consideration. Every Negro of consequence in the South was not a politician or an office-seeker. What the race is accomplishing today is due in a large measure to the foundation laid at that time by Negroes of foresight, who acquired education and property and joined the missionary teachers from the North in the noble effort for the education and economic amelioration of the freedmen.

* * * * *

_The Partition of Africa._ By Sir Charles Lucas, K.C.B., K.C.M.G.
(Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1922. Pp. 228.)

This book consists of the lectures given by the author at the Royal Colonial Institute to a circle of teachers of the London County Council in 1921. The author disclaims any pretension to exhaust the subject. He acknowledges that these lectures are somewhat discursive with the intention of suggesting diverse points of view and a variety of subjects for further study. With this purpose in mind he freely quotes a number of books and papers, evidently desiring to stimulate the reader to further study. It is admitted, moreover, that while these lectures have been awaiting publication there has taken place in Africa so many developments that this volume will not suffice to inform the reader.

The work begins with a survey of Africa in ancient times as it connected with the Mediterranean World. Unfortunately, in this chapter the author follows the well-beaten path of misrepresenting that land by referring to it as the "Dark Continent," which, from his point of view, was dependent and backward because it had no facilities of communication with Europe. In this chapter, therefore, he proves not that Africa had not made much advancement but that the European was merely ignorant of that part of the world.

In the chapter discussing "Africa from Ancient Times to the Nineteenth Century" there is little more than a casual sketch of the invasion of the Vandals, the Mohammedan conquest, followed by a rather brief and unscientific discussion of the natives of Africa. This chapter, however, presents in epitome the leading facts of the explorations of Europeans beginning with Prince Henry of Portugal, the forerunner of other adventurers from England, Italy, Spain and France.

Taking up the slave trade, the author becomes a little more interesting. He discusses the question from two points of view, distinguishing between the Mohammedan slave trade and the European traffic in men on the West Coast of Africa. He undertakes to give the causes of the West African slave trade in terms of the commercial revolution. Then follows a more detailed account of the participation therein by various European nations. In this connection is treated also the effort of philanthropic Europeans who exposed the horrors of the slave trade and finally abolished it. Further efforts for the improvement of the Negroes are traced to the establishment of Sierra Leone and Liberia.

The author then shows how this interest in the Negro, developing along with European expansion into Africa, led to further exploration and settlement and to the missionary enterprise of David Livingston. The interest in the uplift of the natives, however, as the book admits, was lost sight of after the Franco-German war, the prelude to the scramble for Africa. Then came the beginning of Belgian Congo, the Anglo-Portuguese treaty of 1884, the general acts of the Berlin Conference, the Congo atrocities, and the partition of the continent into Northeast-Africa, East-Africa, South-Africa, West-Africa and other spheres of influence. There followed also another sort of scramble in building African railways, tapping the wealth of the hinterland of Africa. The bearing of the Anglo-French Convention of 1904, the Franco-German Agreement of 1911 and other European treaties are all set forth.

Discussing North-Africa, the author first makes a comparison of the situation in the different parts of the continent, allowing for such influences as the proximity of that portion of the continent to Europe, the effect of the orientalization of Egypt, Tunis, Algeria, Tripoli, and Morocco. This discussion, however, is not carried out in all of its ramifications and the reader must make further investigation for adequate information.