Part 11 (1/2)
WHEREAS, Our ancestors (not of choice) were the first successful cultivators of the wilds of America, we their descendants feel ourselves ent.i.tled to partic.i.p.ate in the blessings of her luxuriant soil, which their blood and sweat manured; and that any measure or system of measures, having a tendency to banish us from her bosom, would not only be cruel, but in direct violation of those principles which have been the boast of this republic,
_Resolved_, That we view with deep abhorrence the unmerited stigma attempted to be cast upon the reputation of the free people of color, by the promoters of this measure, ”that they are a dangerous and useless part of the community,” when in the state of disfranchis.e.m.e.nt in which they live, in the hour of danger they ceased to remember their wrongs, and rallied around the standard of their country.
_Resolved_, That we never will separate ourselves voluntarily from the slave population of this country; they are our brethren by the ties of consanguinity, of suffering, and of wrong; and we feel that there is more virtue in suffering privations with them, than fancied advantages for a season.
_Resolved_, That without arts, without science, without a proper knowledge of government to cast upon the savage wilds of Africa the free people of color, seems to us the circuitous route through which they must return to perpetual bondage.
_Resolved_, That having the strongest confidence in the justice of G.o.d, and philanthropy of the free states, we cheerfully submit our destinies to the guidance of Him who suffers not a sparrow to fall without his special providence.
_Resolved_, That a committee of eleven persons be appointed to open a correspondence with the honorable Joseph Hopkinson, member of Congress from this city, and likewise to inform him of the sentiments of this meeting, and that the following named persons const.i.tute the committee, and that they have power to call a general meeting, when they, in their judgment, may deem it proper: Rev.
Absalom Jones, Rev. Richard Allen, James Forten, Robert Dougla.s.s, Francis Perkins, Rev. John Gloucester, Robert Gorden, James Johnson, Quamoney Clarkson, John Summersett, Randall Shepherd.
JAMES FORTEN, Chairman.
RUSSELL PARROTT, Secretary.
In 1827, in New York, was begun the publication of _Freedom's Journal_, the first Negro newspaper in the United States. The editors were John B. Russwurm and Samuel E. Cornish. Russwurm was a recent graduate of Bowdoin College and was later to become better known as the governor of Maryland in Africa. By 1830 feeling was acute throughout the country, especially in Ohio and Kentucky, and on the part of Negro men had developed the conviction that the time had come for national organization and protest.
In the spring of 1830 Hezekiah Grice of Baltimore, who had become personally acquainted with the work of Lundy and Garrison, sent a letter to prominent Negroes in the free states bringing in question the general policy of emigration.[1] received no immediate response, but in August he received from Richard Allen an urgent request to come at once to Philadelphia. Arriving there he found in session a meeting discussing the wisdom of emigration to Canada, and Allen ”showed him a printed circular signed by Peter Williams, rector of St. Philip's Church, New York, Peter Vogelsang and Thomas L. Jennings of the same place, approving the plan of convention.”[2] The Philadelphians now issued a call for a convention of the Negroes of the United States to be held in their city September 15, 1830.
[Footnote 1: John W. Cromwell: _The Early Negro Convention Movement_.]
[Footnote 2: _Ibid_., 5.]
This September meeting was held in Bethel A.M.E. Church. Bishop Richard Allen was chosen president, Dr. Belfast Burton of Philadelphia and Austin Steward of Rochester vice-presidents, Junius C. Morell of Pennsylvania secretary, and Robert Cowley of Maryland a.s.sistant secretary. There were accredited delegates from seven states. While this meeting might really be considered the first national convention of Negroes in the United States (aside of course from the gathering of denominational bodies), it seems to have been regarded merely as preliminary to a still more formal a.s.sembling, for the minutes of the next year were printed as the ”Minutes and Proceedings of the First Annual Convention of the People of Color, held by adjournments in the city of Philadelphia, from the sixth to the eleventh of June, inclusive, 1831. Philadelphia, 1831.” The meetings of this convention were held in the Wesleyan Church on Lombard Street. Richard Allen had died earlier in the year and Grice was not present; not long afterwards he emigrated to Hayti, where he became prominent as a contractor. Rev. James W.C.
Pennington of New York, however, now for the first time appeared on the larger horizon of race affairs; and John Bowers of Philadelphia served as president, Abraham D. Shadd of Delaware and William Duncan of Virginia as vice-presidents, William Whipper of Philadelphia as secretary, and Thomas L. Jennings of New York as a.s.sistant secretary.
Delegates from five states were present. The gathering was not large, but it brought together some able men; moreover, the meeting had some distinguished visitors, among them Benjamin Lundy, William Lloyd Garrison, Rev. S.S. Jocelyn of New Haven, and Arthur Tappan of New York.
The very first motion of the convention resolved ”That a committee be appointed to inst.i.tute an inquiry into the condition of the free people of color throughout the United States, and report their views upon the subject at a subsequent meeting.” As a result of its work this committee recommended that the work of organizations interested in settlement in Canada be continued; that the free people of color be annually called to a.s.semble by delegation; and it submitted ”the necessity of deliberate reflection on the dissolute, intemperate, and ignorant condition of a large portion of the colored population of the United States.” ”And, lastly, your Committee view with unfeigned regret, and respectfully submit to the wisdom of this Convention, the operations and misrepresentations of the American Colonization Society in these United States.... We feel sorrowful to see such an immense and wanton waste of lives and property, not doubting the benevolent feelings of some individuals engaged in that cause. But we can not for a moment doubt but that the cause of many of our unconst.i.tutional, unchristian, and unheard-of sufferings emanate from that unhallowed source; and we would call on Christians of every denomination firmly to resist it.” The report was unanimously received and adopted.
Jocelyn, Tappan, and Garrison addressed the convention with reference to a proposed industrial college in New Haven, toward the $20,000 expense of which one individual (Tappan himself) had subscribed $1000 with the understanding that the remaining $19,000 be raised within a year; and the convention approved the project, _provided_ the Negroes had a majority of at least one on the board of trustees. An illuminating address to the public called attention to the progress of emanc.i.p.ation abroad, to the fact that it was American persecution that led to the calling of the convention, and that it was this also that first induced some members of the race to seek an asylum in Canada, where already there were two hundred log houses, and five hundred acres under cultivation.
In 1832 eight states were represented by a total of thirty delegates. By this time we learn that a total of eight hundred acres had been secured in Canada, that two thousand Negroes had gone thither, but that considerable hostility had been manifested on the part of the Canadians.
Hesitant, the convention appointed an agent to investigate the situation. It expressed itself as strongly opposed to any national aid to the American Colonization Society and urged the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia--all of which activity, it is well to remember, was a year before the American Anti-Slavery Society was organized.
In 1833 there were fifty-eight delegates, and Abraham Shadd, now of Was.h.i.+ngton, was chosen president. The convention again gave prominence to the questions of Canada and colonization, and expressed itself with reference to the new law in Connecticut prohibiting Negroes from other states from attending schools within the state. The 1834 meeting was held in New York. Prudence Crandall[1] was commended for her stand in behalf of the race, and July 4 was set apart as a day for prayer and addresses on the condition of the Negro throughout the country. By this time we hear much of societies for temperance and moral reform, especially of the so-called Phoenix Societies ”for improvement in general culture--literature, mechanic arts, and morals.” Of these organizations Rev. Christopher Rush, of the A.M.E. Zion Church, was general president, and among the directors were Rev. Peter Williams, Boston Crummell, the father of Alexander Crummell, and Rev. William Paul Quinn, afterwards a well-known bishop of the A.M.E. Church. The 1835 and 1836 meetings were held in Philadelphia, and especially were the students of Lane Seminary in Cincinnati commended for their zeal in the cause of abolition. A committee was appointed to look into the dissatisfaction of some emigrants to Liberia and generally to review the work of the Colonization Society.
[Footnote 1: See Chapter X, Section 3.]
In the decade 1837-1847 Frederick Dougla.s.s was outstanding as a leader, and other men who were now prominent were Dr. James McCune Smith, Rev.
James W.C. Pennington, Alexander Crummell, William C. Nell, and Martin R. Delany. These are important names in the history of the period. These were the men who bore the brunt of the contest in the furious days of Texas annexation and the Compromise of 1850. About 1853 and 1854 there was renewed interest in the idea of an industrial college; steps were taken for the registry of Negro mechanics and artisans who were in search of employment, and of the names of persons who were willing to give them work; and there was also a committee on historical records and statistics that was not only to compile studies in Negro biography but also to reply to any a.s.saults of note.[1]
[Footnote 1: We can not too much emphasize the fact that the leaders of this period were by no means impractical theorists but men who were scientifically approaching the social problem of their people. They not only antic.i.p.ated such ideas as those of industrial education and of the National Urban League of the present day, but they also endeavored to lay firmly the foundations of racial self-respect.]
Immediately after the last of the conventions just mentioned, those who were interested in emigration and had not been able to get a hearing in the regular convention issued a call for a National Emigration Convention of Colored Men to take place in Cleveland, Ohio, August 24-26, 1854. The preliminary announcement said: ”No person will be admitted to a seat in the Convention who would introduce the subject of emigration to the Eastern Hemisphere--either to Asia, Africa, or Europe--as our object and determination are to consider our claims to the West Indies, Central and South America, and the Canadas. This restriction has no reference to personal preference, or individual enterprise, but to the great question of national claims to come before the Convention.”[1] Dougla.s.s p.r.o.nounced the call ”uncalled for, unwise, unfortunate and premature,” and his position led him into a wordy discussion in the press with James M. Whitfield, of Buffalo, prominent at the time as a writer. Delany explained the call as follows: ”It was a mere policy on the part of the authors of these doc.u.ments, to confine their scheme to America (including the West Indies), whilst they were the leading advocates of the regeneration of Africa, lest they compromised themselves and their people to the avowed enemies of their race.”[2] At the secret sessions, he informs us, Africa was the topic of greatest interest. In order to account for this position it is important to take note of the changes that had taken place between 1817 and 1854.
When James Forten and others in Philadelphia in 1817 protested against the American Colonization Society as the plan of a ”gang of slaveholders” to drive free people from their homes, they had abundant ground for the feeling. By 1839, however, not only had the personnel of the organization changed, but, largely through the influence of Garrison, the purpose and aim had also changed, and not Virginia and Maryland, but New York and Pennsylvania were now dominant in influence.
Colonization had at first been regarded as a possible solution of the race problem; money was now given, however, ”rather as an aid to the establishment of a model Negro republic in Africa, whose effort would be to discourage the slave-trade, and encourage energy and thrift among those free Negroes from the United States who chose to emigrate, and to give native Africans a demonstration of the advantages of civilization.”[3] In view of the changed conditions, Delany and others who disagreed with Dougla.s.s felt that for the good of the race in the United States the whole matter of emigration might receive further consideration; at the same time, remembering old discussions, they did not wish to be put in the light of betrayers of their people. The Pittsburgh _Daily Morning Post_ of October 18, 1854, sneered at the new plan as follows: ”If Dr. Delany drafted this report it certainly does him much credit for learning and ability; and can not fail to establish for him a reputation for vigor and brilliancy of imagination never yet surpa.s.sed. It is a vast conception of impossible birth. The Committee seem to have entirely overlooked the strength of the 'powers on earth'