THE LIBRARY OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF 
 
 NORTH CAROLINA 
 
 ENDOWED BY THE 
 
 DIALECTIC AND PHILANTHROPIC 
 
 SOCIETIES 
 
WAr - 2 T974 
 
 UMlVERs/TV n 
 
 
 This book is due at the WALTER R. DAVIS LIBRARY on 
 the last date stamped under "Date Due." If not on hold it 
 may be renewed by bringing it to the library. 
 
 DATE RET 
 DUE 
 
 %Y 
 
 JUL C 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 OCT 28: 
 
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THE 
 
 £185" 2, 
 
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 ^bJreedmen of the south. 
 
 5ri 
 
 By Linda Waf^fel Slaughter^ 
 
 AUTHORESS OF " EARLY EFFORTS" " SUMMERINGS IN THE SOUTH," ETC* 
 
 CINCINNATI : 
 Printed by the Elm Street Printing Company, 
 
 1869. 
 
 KRAUS REPRINT CO. 
 
 New York 
 1969 
 
LC 12-5310 
 
 KRAUS REPRINT CO. 
 
 A U.S. Division of Kraus-Thomson Organization Limited 
 Printed in U.S.A. 
 
T° 
 
 | ; fa JJissiotrarg fl,eacfar$ of ilt*{ %mti[, 
 
 THIS VOLUME 
 
 Is $if£ctionatd]} ©jedisated 
 
 BY ONE "WHO HAS 8HARED 
 
 Tto@to Mvat8@cts., Tb©8p P©P8©OMti@ns. 
 
 |"<H\««t I 
 
 nromlS. 
 
PART I. ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF AMERICAN SLAVERY. 
 
 PART II. THE FREEDMEN. 
 
 PART III. .... THE FREEDMEN'S BUREAU. 
 
 PART IV. THE MISSIONARY SCHOOLS OF THE SOUTH. 
 
 PART V. PRESENT CONDITION AND PROBABLE FUTURE 
 
 OF THE FREEDMEN. 
 
£5P 
 
 i 
 
 ^f(Er ACEx 
 
 N lieu of an introduction to the accompanying work, the 
 writer would fain offer an apology for its incompleteness. 
 Some months ago the finished manuscript of a similar, but 
 more ambitious, work was totally destroyed by the explosion 
 of a lamp, and the present volume, a mere skeleton of resurrected 
 ideas evoked from the scattered ashes of the former and written in the 
 intervals of labor as a missionary teacher among the Freedmen, is 
 necessarily imperfect. 
 
 The writer has long been of opinion that, were the true character 
 and condition of this "peculiar people" correctly set forth, it would 
 tend greatly to lessen the unreasoning prejudice of the North against 
 them personally, while on the other hand, were the South capable of 
 comprehending the unselfish motives and self-sacrificing zeal that char- 
 acterize the great body of the despised " Yankee Teachers " who have 
 had the effrontery to beard the Lion of Chivalry in his den, it would 
 doubtless ameliorate in great measure the malignant bitterness that 
 has heretofore prompted their persecutions. 
 
 A work of the present nature the author is convinced can not but 
 be conducive to a more thorough understanding of the vexed question, 
 as well as conciliative of kindly feeling between the two sections 
 whose interests, though divided, are one. 
 
 With such a motive, and for such a purpose, was the present work 
 designed. It is a registrar of facts, not of opinions, a record of his- 
 tory, and a " plain, unvarnished " statement of events as they occurred, 
 penned in no spirit of malice, but kindly in behalf of "God's poor." 
 
 Trusting it may be instrumental, in some slight degree, in effecting 
 so desirable a result, the author sends it adrift upon the sea of litera- 
 ture, bidding both it and the courageous laborers in the lowly vine- 
 yards of the beautiful, sunbright South an earnest "God 6peed!" 
 
PAET I. 
 
 (§RIGIN AND |§ISTORY OF i\^I\IGAR^AyEI\Y, 
 
 »T is not within the scope of the present work 
 to enter into a lengthy dissertation upon the 
 growth and progress of a system the history of 
 which is so closely interwoven in our national politics. 
 Exercising, as it did in federal legislation, an influence 
 second to none other, and rendering the name of lib- 
 erty in free America a byword and a mockery, negro 
 slavery comprises in its history the political history of 
 the United States; for, deny it as you may, the despised 
 negro, toiling hopelessly in the cotton plains of the 
 South, ignorant, degraded, smarting under the lash of 
 his taskmaster and crushed out of all semblance of 
 manhood, has been, in the Court of the Republic, the 
 Archimedean lever that moved the western world. In 
 the politics of the past he was the passive " bone of 
 contention " gnawed in succession by the hungry 
 office-seekers of each successive presidential period. 
 He was the one concrete idea about whose mental, 
 moral, social, political, physical and acquired status 
 and responsibility editors wrangled, priests dissembled, 
 politicians schemed, statesmen legislated, states dis- 
 puted, scholars argued, writers wrote, poets prosed 
 and " doctors disagreed." On the one hand, he was 
 7 
 
S OfiZGIJY 3lJf2) Hisroitr or 
 
 the unconscious object of pity and prayers that were 
 unavailing, of benevolence and sympathy that could 
 not reach him, of stirring appeals and impassioned 
 eloquence that he could not hear, of earnest pleadings 
 and plans of release that were ever unsuccessful; and 
 on the other, the patient recipient of scorn and ridi- 
 cule and cruelty and hatred that ground him to the 
 dust and adjudged him destitute of all " rights a white 
 man was bound to respect," that severed him from 
 family ties and ignored his marriage relations, that 
 shut out from him the light of Christianity, denied his 
 right to "liberty and the pursuit of happiness," and 
 granted him life only as a season of servitude, that 
 condemned him to an endless round of thankless toil 
 and cheerless drudgery, and buried him at last as a 
 beast of burden in the lowest ditch by the way-side. 
 
 But the annals of this licensed traffic in the souls of 
 men have already been recorded by abler pens than 
 mine. Aye, more than that! Its history is graven as 
 with a pen of iron into thousands of living human 
 hearts; it is carved with fetters of steel and lacerating 
 blows upon hundreds of scarred and mutilated bodies, 
 and its baleful effects still live in the debased intellect 
 and brutalized minds of the surviving millions of its 
 unhappy subjects. 
 
 But slavery in these latter days has written its own 
 epitaph in letters of blood, and the creatures of its 
 making, the helpless objects of the world's soarn and 
 loathing, stand up tremblingly to receive the world's 
 baptism of civilization. Tis for them, dear reader, 
 that I would enlist your interest, your sympathy, and 
 your charity. 
 
 But first let us turn to the pages of the past, and 
 trace through each successive era the influence of this 
 national wrong upon national legislation. 
 
vlMEftlCoiW SLAVERY. 9 
 
 In the year 1620, in the cold and silence of a winter's 
 day, the bark Mayflower landed its precious freight of 
 human courage, endurance, and patriotism upon the 
 inhospitable shores of an untried wilderness, and from 
 that little colony of determined men and women has 
 sprung the Great Eepublic of modern days — the Uni- 
 ted States <> f North America! That tiny settlement 
 upon the Atlantic coast has steadily extended its do- 
 main until now it embraces in its limits upward of 
 2,464,035 square miles, comprising thirty-seven States 
 and ten TerritorieSj the largest of which alone is equal 
 in compass to four times the entire area of England; 
 and boasting a population of thirty-eight million in- 
 habitants, it holds the key to the inland gulf, and 
 stands face to face with Asia, upon the newly bought 
 territory of the Russian, while the sun that rises daily 
 from its ocean bath, upon the landing place of the 
 Pilgrims, sinks nightly into the blue waters of the 
 Pacific, within sight of its western borders. 
 
 But the same year that witnessed the obscure birth 
 of the new nation, looked also upon the arrival of 
 another ship freighted like the former, with the in- 
 tegral elements of the future Eepublic, but unlike the 
 "Mayflower of the Puritans," it bore in its hold and 
 implanted in the infant colony the seeds of strife and 
 discord that were fated to dismember the nation. A 
 Dutch man-of-war landed a cargo of twenty negro 
 slaves at Jamestown, Virginia., in the month of August 
 of that year, who were readily purchased by the colo- 
 nists, and from this slight beginning arose the mon- 
 strous system of wrong and oppression that grew up 
 with the growth of the commonwealth and strength- 
 ened with its strength. From the decks of that Pil- 
 grim bark issued the courageous embodiments of prin- 
 
10 OftlGIJV AND HIS TO lit OF 
 
 ciples that were pure and stainless as the snow beneath, 
 stern and inflexible as the wintery sky above, that leav- 
 ened the shapeless lump out of which was to arise the 
 young republic, with the leaven of purity, of religion, 
 of charity, fidelity, and good-will to man, and hardened 
 at last into the corner-stone of the crude nation. 
 
 From the hold of the slave ship proceeded the unclean 
 representatives of enervating luxury and unhealthy 
 opulence: the hideous harbingers of a national leprosy, 
 purulent and pestilent as the sultry summer season that 
 welcomed them; death-like and unnatural as the black 
 corpses of those more fortunate victims famished by the 
 way, and flung sullenly overboard into the freedom of 
 the sea; and whose virus, touched lightly upon the yet 
 unformed republic, became a foul ulcer upon the body 
 politic, and permeated its every pore. 
 
 Thus liberty and slavery in the new world were co- 
 eval, and walked hand in hand through all the years 
 of its subsequent history, upon soil professedly free. 
 Fostered alike by its institutions and protected equally 
 by its laws, each grew so much a part and parcel of the 
 national system, that to separate them would have been 
 as dividing asunder the joints and marrow. 
 
 But united, as it were, in one destiny, bound together 
 in one union, and bearing a common name and brother- 
 hood, the opposing elements, under the battle names of 
 the " North " and " South " — the one the representative 
 of slavery, of oppression, of political intolerance; the 
 other the spokesman of liberty, of political equality, 
 and enlightened freedom of speech — were early arrayed 
 against each other in a conflict that was irrepressible, 
 because a conflict old as time itself, the right against the 
 wrong. Intrenched each in the stronghold of its own 
 peculiar section, the two combatants glared fiercely at 
 
AMERICAN SLAVERY. // 
 
 each other across the State line landmarks where the 
 North ended and the South began, and disputed inch 
 by inch the possession of governmental territory and 
 governmental offices. Nor were there wanting within 
 the limits of the former, " enemies at home," veritable 
 "traitors in the camp," who aided and abetted the foes of 
 freedom ; and to the weight of their ponderous influence, 
 thrown unjustly in the scale, is attributable the final 
 supremacy in political power of the South, herself 
 greatly the inferior in wealth and population, and the 
 fact that for full fifty years she administered the gov- 
 ernment, and dispensed its official patronage only to 
 followers of her faith. 
 
 The disheartened advocates of freedom, true to the 
 faith of the fathers of Plymouth, abated not a whit of 
 their zeal and struggled manfully against fearful odds; 
 but the chains of the bondmen seemed indissolubly 
 welded. The representatives of slavery filled the Pres- 
 idential mansion, the halls of Congress, the foreign 
 missions, and their counsels prevailed in the councils 
 of the Cabinet. The four million successors to the 
 score of hapless passengers in that hateful vessel had 
 become, unconsciously to themselves, a power in the 
 land. By an unjust system of unequal representation, 
 th£ slaves themselves were made to contribute to the 
 aggrandizement and extension of the slave power. 
 Thus their very increase in numbers but rendered their 
 condition more pitiably hopeless. 
 
 Previously to the war of the Revolution, it can not be 
 denied that the English Government was largely in- 
 strumental in sustaining and encouraging the African 
 slave trade. In a declaration of Congress, dated Oct. 
 8th, 1774, a remonstrance is uttered against George III. 
 for his complicity in the abhorred traffic, and especially 
 
12 OftlGIJV ^YD HISTORY OF 
 
 for an abuse of his kingly prerogative in preventing 
 the prohibition by law of the importation of slaves into 
 the several colonies. Even Virginia, the cradle of the 
 monster, protested in the Williamsburg Convention 
 against the royal interference, which, in 1 ke manner, 
 compelled her unwillingly to submit to their landing 
 on her soil. Thus, in the beginning, it was virtually 
 forced upon the States; but after the cessation of hos- 
 tilities it again revived, and continued uninterruptedly 
 to increase until its final abolition by act of Congress. 
 
 England subsequently made ample atonement for the 
 wrong, and her efforts in suppression of the iniquitous 
 system were wide-spread and successful. By twenty- 
 three treaties, entered into in less than thirty years 
 she prevailed upon almost all the Christian nations to 
 interdict the slave traffic and throw their influence on 
 the side of "God and humanity," the United States 
 alone refusing the right of search. 
 
 At the framing of the Constitution, in 1787, the Gov- 
 ernment had pledged itself not to abolish the slave 
 trade until 1808, the States of Georgia and South 
 Carolina refusing to enter the confederation unless it 
 was tolerated at least twenty years. The framers of 
 that instrument, with their habitual fastidiousness of 
 language in regard to the "peculiar institution," tne 
 word slave or slavery, even in acts relating solely to 
 them, never once appearing in its p'iges, delicately 
 foreshadowed their design as follows: 
 
 Article I. Section IX. §1: "The migration or im- 
 portation of such persons as any of the existing States 
 shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by 
 Congress prior to the year 1808." 
 
 Thus Congress, by granting it a twenty years' lease 
 of life, gave it an additional impetus, the interval be- 
 
tween the framing of the law and the prohibition of 
 the traffic being actively filled by the slavedealers. 
 Like wise merchantmen they laid in an abundant 
 supply of human flesh, and this beiDg effected, the 
 non-importation of slaves from abroad acted as an ef- 
 fectual tariff to protect the domestic trade; and, as a 
 consequence, the value of the resident slaves was very 
 materially hightened. 
 
 Happily, however, the progressive spirit of liberty 
 gradually pervaded the minds of the people, and com- 
 pelled the American Congress of 1794 to anticipate, by 
 a dozen years, the contemplated legal .coup de grace. 
 
 In the Northern States of the federation, where, from 
 the first, the system had met with but doubtful favor 
 and feeble encouragement, it had begotten so healthful 
 a state of public sentiment, that slavery was already 
 extinct in their borders. When the United States Con- 
 stitution was adopted, every State, except Massachu- 
 setts, tolerated slavery; although, in 1780, before the 
 close of the Evolutionary War, Pennsylvania had like- 
 wise voted its gradual extinction, an example afterward 
 followed in succession by all the other States north of 
 the Delaware Eiver; and twenty years later, slavery 
 existed in none save the six States of Delaware, Mary- 
 land, Virginia, North and South Carolina, and Georgia. 
 
 By the census of 1790 the whole aumber of slaves 
 in the original thirteen States was given at 670,633, but 
 so great was the increase that in 1820 there was shown 
 to be in those six States alone an aggregate of 1,620,340 
 slaves. 
 
 A spirit of opposition to its growth and increase was 
 early manifested at the North, culminating at length 
 in the American Anti-Slavery Society, the object and 
 aim of whose being, viz: immediate and unconditional 
 
ti. 0RIG7JV AJfD HISTORY OF 
 
 emancipation, is explicitly set forth in Article II. of its 
 Constitution: 
 
 "The objects of this Society are the entire abolition 
 of slavery in the United States. While it admits that 
 each State, in which slavery exists, has, by the Consti- 
 tution of the United States, the exclusive right to legis- 
 late in regard to its abolition in that State, it shall aim 
 to convince all our fellow-citizens by arguments ad- 
 dressed to their understandings and consciences, that 
 slaveholding is a heinous crime in the sight of God; 
 and that the duty, safety, and best interests of all con- 
 cerned, require its immediate abandonment, without 
 expatriation. The Society will also endeavor in a con- 
 stitutional way to influence Congress to put an end to 
 the domestic slave trade; and to abolish slavery in all 
 those portions of our common country, which come 
 under its control, especially in the District of Columbia, 
 and likewise to prevent the extension of it to any State 
 that may hereafter be admitted to the Union." 
 
 In contradistinction to the Anti-Slavery Society ap- 
 peared the American Colonization Society, organized 
 in 1816, the ostensible object of which was the gradual 
 extinction oi slavery, by the removal of all the blacks 
 to Africa, by means of compulsory emigration. Its 
 operations, however, appear to have been confined al- 
 most exclusively to free persons of color; and its animus 
 and purpose are sufficiently shown in this remark of 
 Mr. Randolph, one of its projectors: 
 
 " So far from b$ing in the smallest degree connected 
 with the abolition of slavery, the proposed Society 
 would prove one of the greatest securities to enable the 
 master to keep in possession his own property." 
 
 And further in the first report of its President, Henry 
 
 Clay: 
 
 11 It is not proposed to deliberate upon, ot consider at 
 all, any question of emancipation, or any that is con- 
 nected with the abolition of slavery." 
 
And again in the seventh Annual Report: 
 
 "An effort for the benefit of the blacks, in which all 
 parts of the country can unite, of course must not have 
 the abolition of slavery for its immediate object; nor 
 may it aim directly at the instruction of the blacks." 
 
 We copy further from the proceedings of its Auxili- 
 ary Societies, from its organ, the African Repository, 
 and from the speeches of its members, as showing the 
 spirit of the times in the great body of the North : 
 
 " The treatment of the slaves is in general as good as 
 circumstances and the cruel necessity of the case will 
 permit." Proceedings of N. York Col. Soc. 2d Ann. 
 
 " Suppose the slaves of the South to have the knowl- 
 edge of freemen, they would be free, or exterminated 
 by the whites. This renders it necessary to prevent 
 their instruction, and to keep them from Sunday-schools, 
 or the means of gaining knowledge." Proceedings of 
 N. York Col. Soc. 2d Ann. Rep. 
 
 "It is the business of the free, their safety requires it, 
 to keep the slaves in ignorance." Proceedings of N. Y. 
 Col. Soc. 2d Ann. 
 
 " To set them (the slaves) loose among us, would be 
 an evil more intolerable than slavery itself." Report of 
 kcncucky Col. Soc. Af. Rep. VI. 81. 
 
 "As long as our present feelings and prejudices 
 exist, the abolition of slavery can not be accomplished 
 without the removal of the blacks." 2d Report N. 
 York Soc. 
 
 "By removing the most fruitful sov.rces of discontent 
 (free blacks) from among our slaves, we should render 
 them more industrious and attentive to our commands." 
 Address of Putnam (Georgia) Col. Society. 
 
 " To remove these persons from among us, wi41 in- 
 crease the usefulness, and improve the moral character 
 of those who remain in servitude, and with whose labors 
 the country is unable to dispense." Address to a N. Caro- 
 lina Col Soc. Af. Rep. III. 67. 
 
/e ORIGIN ?iA"2) HISTORY OF 
 
 " The removal of every single free black in America, 
 would be productive of nothing but safety to the slave 
 holder." Af. Rep. III. 202. 
 
 " By removing these people (free blacks), wo rid our- 
 selves of a large party who will always be ready to 
 assist our slaves in any mischievous design they may 
 conceive." Address to a Col. Soc. in Virginia. Af. Hep. 
 I. 176. 
 
 " It is a well-established point, that the public safety 
 forbids either the emancipation or the general instruc- 
 tion of the slaves." 7 th Report, p. 94. 
 
 " The Society having declared that it is in no wise 
 allied to any Abolition Society in America or elsewhere, 
 is ready when there is need, to pass a censure upon 
 such Societies in America." 11th Report, p. 14. 
 
 " We would say, liberate them only on condition of 
 their going to Africa or Hayti." Af. Rep. III. 26. 
 
 " So far from having a dangerous tendency, when 
 properly considered, it will be viewed as an additional 
 guard to our peculiar species of property." New Orleans 
 Argus. 
 
 "So long as we can hold a pen, we will employ it 
 heart and hand, against the advocates of immediate 
 emancipation, or any emancipation that does not con- 
 template expatriation: 1 N. Y. Courier and Enquirer, a 
 Col. paper, 10th July, 1834. 
 
 " What right, I demand, have the children of Africa 
 to a homestead in the white man's country?" Speech of 
 Mr. Custiss, 14M Report, p. 21. 
 
 "The habits, the feelings, all the prejudices of so- 
 ciety — prejudices which neither refinement, nor argu- 
 ment, nor education, nor religion itself, can subdue — 
 mark the people of color, whether bond or free, as the 
 subjects of degradation inevitable and incurable. The 
 African in this country belongs by birth to the very low- 
 est station in society; and from that station he can 
 never rise, be his talents, his enterprise, his virtues, what 
 they may. They constitute a class by themselves— a 
 
AMERICAN SLAVERY. 17 
 
 class out of which no individual can be elevated, and below 
 which none can be depressed." African Repository, vol. 
 iv., pp. 118, 119. 
 
 Later, a determined effort for the gradual emancipa- 
 tion of the slaves, in the District of Columbia, was made 
 by a minority at the North, the Constitution of the 
 United States having granted to Congress, by the 8th 
 Section of the 1st Article, the right to "exercise exclu- 
 sive legislation in all cases whatever" in the seat of Gov- 
 ernment, and over the territory of the District. And, 
 by the 1st Article of the Amendments, it was restrained 
 from making any law "abridging the freedom of speech, 
 or the press, or the right of the people peaceably to 
 assemble and to petition the Government for a redress 
 of grievances." 
 
 Thus the Abolitionists, as they were called, even at 
 that early period, perceiving the right of Congress to 
 abolish slavery in the District, and arrogating their 
 own authority to petition for its removal, urged upon 
 Congress the propriety and expediency of its gradual 
 extinction. 
 
 In 1828 the Pennsylvania Legislature, by an almost 
 unanimous vote, 
 
 " Kesolved, That the Senators of this State, in the 
 Senate of the United States, are hereby requested to 
 procure, if practicable, the passage of a law to abolish 
 slavery in the District of Columbia, in such a manner 
 as they may consider consistent with the rights of in- 
 dividuals, and the Constitution of the United States." 
 
 In 1828 a petition for the suppression of this trade, 
 and for the gradual abolition of slavery, and signed by 
 more than one thousand of the inhabitants of the Dis- 
 trict, was presented to Congress. From this document 
 we extract the following: 
 
zs oftiGMV aw?) irisrosr ojf 
 
 " While the laws of the United States denounce the 
 foreign slave trade as piracy, and punish with death 
 those who are found engaged in its perpetration, there 
 exists in this District, the seat of the National Govern- 
 ment, a domestic slave trade scarcely less disgraceful 
 in its ch'Vacter, and even more demoralizing in its in- 
 fluence., * These people are without their consent torn 
 from tn'eir homes; husband and wife are frequently 
 separated and sold into distant parts — children are 
 taken from their parents, without regard to the ties of 
 nature, and the most endearing bonds of affection are 
 broken for ever. 
 
 "Nor is this traffic confined to those who are legally 
 slaves for life. Some who are entitled to freedom, and 
 many who have a limited time to serve, are sold into 
 unconditional slavery, and owing to the defectiveness of 
 our laws, they are generally carried out of the Dis- 
 trict before the necessary steps can be taken for their 
 release. 
 
 " We behold these scenes continually taking place 
 among us, and lament our inability to prevent them. 
 The people of this District, have, within themselves, 
 no means of legislative redress, and we therefore appeal 
 to your honorable body, as the ONLY ONE vested by 
 the American Constitution with power to relieve us." 
 
 In 1829 a resolution to that effect was introduced 
 into the House of Representatives by Mr. Miner, a 
 member from Pennsylvania. We make the following 
 extracts from his speech in support of the resolution: 
 
 " The slave trade, as it exists and is carried on here, 
 is marked by instances of injustice and cruelty scarcely 
 exceeded on the coast of Africa. It is a mistake to 
 suppose it is a mere purchase and sale of acknowledged 
 slaves. The District is full of complaints on the sub- 
 ject, and the evil is increasing. So long ago as 1802, 
 the extent and cruelty of the traffic, produced from a 
 grand jury, at Alexandria, a presentment so clear, so 
 strong, and so feelingly drawn, that I shall make no 
 apology for reading it to the House," 
 
AMERICAN SLAVE HX. f& 
 
 Mr. Miner then read the following: 
 
 "January Term, 1802. 
 
 "We, the grand jury for the body of the County of 
 Alexandria, in the District of Columbia, present as a 
 grievance the practice of persons coming ft\ i distant 
 parts of the United States into this Distric for the 
 purpose of purchasing slaves, where they exhibit to 
 our view a scene of wretchedness and human degrada- 
 tion, disgraceful to our characters as citizens of a free 
 government. True it is, that these dealers, in tho 
 persons of our fellow-men, collect within this District, 
 from various parts, numbers of those victims of slavery, 
 and lodge them in some place of confinement until they 
 have completed their numbers. They are then turned 
 out in our streets and exposed to view, londed with 
 chains as though they had committed some heinous 
 offense against our laws. We consider it a grievance 
 that citizens from distant parts of the United States 
 should be permitted to come within this District, am! 
 pursue a traffic fraught with so much misery to a class 
 of beings entitled to our protection by the laws of 
 justice and humanity; and that the interposition of 
 civil authority can not be had to prevent parents being 
 wrested from their offspring, and children from their 
 parents, without respect to the ties of nature. Wo 
 consider these grievances d*dma,nd\nglegidative redress." 
 
 " In August, 1821, a black man was taken up and 
 imprisoned as a runaway. He was kept confined until 
 October, 1822 — four hundred and five days. h\ this 
 time, vermin, disease, and misery had deprived him of 
 the use of his limbs. He was rendered a cripple for life, 
 and finally discharged as no one would buy him. Turned 
 out upon the world a miserable pauper, disabled by our 
 means from gaining subsistence, he is sometimes sup- 
 ported from the poor-house, sometimes receives alms 
 in your streets." 
 
 " There is now a man in this District who was in 
 the hands of the slavedealers, about to be sent off to 
 the South, when he laid his hand on a block and with 
 
20 0RIG1JV siJV^D HISTORY OF 
 
 an ax severed it from his arm. Can the slave trade 
 on the coast of Africa be more horrible, more dreaded, 
 or more prolific of scenes of misery? " 
 
 Referring to the infamous law by which negroes 
 could be arrested on suspicion of being fugitive slaves 
 and imprisoned until claimed as such, and in default 
 of that to be sold as slaves for life, to liquidate their jail 
 fees, Mr. Miner adduced the disgraceful facts, that, in 
 the five previous years, no fewer than seven hundred and 
 forty two colored persons had been lodged in the United 
 States prison at Washington, not one of whom was con- 
 victed or even accused of crime. Four hundred and 
 fifty-two were imprisoned for safe keeping, prior to 
 exportation by the slave traders; the remainder were 
 merely suspected ot being fugitive slaves, and, by au- 
 thority of Congress, liable to be sold into perpetual bond- 
 age, if indeed no generous claimant appeared to pay 
 the expenses of their imprisonment, no further proof 
 of ownership being necessary. 
 
 Thus the American slave trade, under the protection 
 of Congress, had attained a most flourishing condition 
 in the capital of the confederate republic. What 
 wonder that the "boasted banner of the free" was 
 hailed by the English satirist, as 
 
 " Tne fustian flag that proudly waves, 
 la splendid mockery, e'er a land of slaves!" 
 
 But, perhaps, the most biting sarcasm ever uttered 
 is contained in the following: 
 
 " A troop of slaves once passed through Washington 
 on the Fourth of July, while drums were beating and 
 standards flying. One of the captive negroes raised 
 his hand, loaded with irons, and waving it toward the 
 starry flag, sung, with a smile of bitter irony, 'Hail 
 Columbia! happy land?l " 
 
AMERICAN SLAVER T. 2/ 
 
 On the 28th of January, 1829, a Committee of the 
 New York Assembly reported to the House : 
 
 "Your Committee can not but view with astonish- 
 ment that in the capital of this free and enlightened 
 country, laws should exist by which the free citizens 
 of a State are liable, without trial, and even without 
 the imputation of a crime, to be seized while prosecut- 
 ing their lawful business, immured in prison, and, 
 though free, unless claimed as a slave, to be sold as 
 such for the payment of jail fees." 
 
 The Committee recommended the following resolu- 
 tion, which was adopted by the Assembly: 
 
 "Resolved (if the Senate concur herein), That the 
 Senators of this State, in the Congress of the United 
 States, be and are hereby instructed, and the Repre- 
 sentatives of this State are hereby requested, to make 
 every possible exertion, to effect the passage of a law for 
 the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia." 
 
 These urgent petitions, as will be seen, were not 
 without effect upon the honorable body to which they 
 were addressed. On the 9th of January, 1829, the 
 House of Representatives 
 
 "Resolved, That the Committee of the District of 
 Columbia, be instructed to inquire into the expediency 
 of providing by law for the gradual abolition of slavery 
 in the District, in such manner that no individual shall 
 be injured thereby." 
 
 The American Anti-Slavery Society likewise threw 
 the weight of its influence into the scale, to induce 
 Congress to exercise its right of removal. Indeed the 
 great body of the New England people were united 
 and firm in their desire for its total extinction. The 
 Hon. John Q. Adams was intrusted with fifteen peti- 
 tions for the abolition of slavery in the District of Co- 
 lumbia, yet, strange to say, he offered them to Congress, 
 
22 ORIGIJV AJTD HISTORY OF 
 
 protesting strongly against their spirit. Another mem- 
 ber from Massachusetts, who was commissioned with a 
 like memorial, had not the moral courage to present it. 
 
 Mr. Adams, however, who had always warmly con- 
 tended for the right of petition, continued to present in 
 the House all memorials on the subject sent to him, 
 nothing daunted by the violence and opposition of the 
 Southern members. 
 
 At length, so numerous and importunate became 
 these petitions, and so determined was Mr. Adams in 
 upholding the right of the people to petition for any 
 purpose whatever, that some action on the part of the 
 House became necessary. A Committee was accord- 
 ingly appointed to consider what disposal should there- 
 after be made of similar memorials; and on the 18th of 
 May, 1836, they returned a lengthy report, and recom- 
 mended the adoption of the following resolutions: 
 
 " Resolved, That Congress possesses no constitu- 
 tional authority to interfere in any way with the in- 
 stitution of slavery, in any of the States of this 
 confederacy. 
 
 " Resolved, That Congress ought not to interfere in 
 any way with slavery in the District of Columbia. 
 
 "And Whereas, It is extremely important and de- 
 sirable that the agitation of this subject should be 
 finally arrested, for the purpose of restoring tranquillity 
 to the public mind, your Committee respectfully rec- 
 ommend the adoption of the following additional res- 
 olution, viz: 
 
 "Resolved, That all petitions, memorials, resolu- 
 tions, propositions, or papers, relating in any wa} r , or 
 to any extent whatever, to the subject of slavery, or 
 the abolition of slavery, shall, without being cither 
 printed or referred, be laid upon the table, and that no 
 further action whatever shall be had thereon." 
 
 The resolution passed the House by a large mnjoritj'. 
 
siMJESlCsiJV SLAVER r. 33 
 
 In 1845, however, the resolution was rescinded, and 
 Congress consented to receive and treat respectfully all 
 petitions on the subject of slavery. 
 
 But petitions, entreaties, protestations, and argu- 
 ments, alike failed of their purpose. Slavery contin- 
 ued to flourish in the capital of the "freest nation upon 
 the earth." The crack of the driver's whip, and the 
 cries of his helpless victim, arose to the God of justice, 
 within hearing of the highest dignitaries of the land; 
 yet silently they assented to this hourly crucifixion of 
 freedom, and, Pilate-like, washed their guilty hands of 
 all complicity in the matter. 
 
 The domestic slavery of the Southern States, being 
 under the exclusive control of the several Legislatures 
 of those States, Congress had no authority (even had 
 the inclination not been wanting), to interfere in the 
 emancipation of their slaves, or in anywise to regulate 
 the laws applying to them. 
 
 In these States, the domestic commerce having super- 
 seded the foreign, it was carried on, both by land and 
 water, with a degree of energy and success unequaled 
 in the latter, but marked with all its attendant horrors 
 of separation and suffocation. Several entire States 
 were engaged in the business of raising and selling 
 slaves to supply the extreme Southern market. The 
 mode of transportation, by which this strange species 
 of live stock were transmitted by water, is shown in 
 this brief extract from a description of a slaver be- 
 longing to a wealthy firm of dealers in Alexandria, and 
 employed in conveying slaves from that point to New 
 Orleans. 
 
 'The hold is appropriated to the slaves, and is di- 
 vided into two apartments. The after-hold will carry 
 about eighty women, and the other about one hundred 
 
2£ ORIGIN AND HISTOHY OF 
 
 men. On either side were two platforms, running the 
 whole length; one raised a few inches, and the other 
 half way up to the deck. They were about five or six 
 feet deep. On these the slaves lie, as close as they can 
 stow away." 
 
 Scarcely less pitiable was the plight of those who 
 were conveyed by land into the interior. A gentleman 
 thus describes a coffle he met entering Paris, Kentucky : 
 
 "About forty black men were chained together; each 
 of them was handcuffed, and they were arranged rank 
 file. A chain, perhaps forty feet long, was stretched 
 between the two ranks, to which short chains were 
 joined, connected with the handcuffs. Behind them 
 were about thirty women, tied hand to hand. Every 
 countenance wore a solemn sadness; and the dismal 
 silence of despair was only broken by the sound of two 
 violins. Yes — as if to add insult to injury, the fore- 
 most couple were furnished with a violin apiece; the 
 second couple wece ornamented with cockades; while 
 near the center our national standard was carried by 
 hands literally in chains." 
 
 As may well be imagined, the North did not look on 
 with indifference while crimes of such magnitude were 
 being perpetrated in the name and under the sanction 
 of the republic. 
 
 A New York paper, November, 1829, contains the 
 following caution : 
 
 " Beware of Kidnappers. — It is well understood that 
 there is at present in this city a gang of kidnappers, 
 busily engaged in their vocation of stealing colored 
 children for the Southern market! It is believed that 
 three or four have been stolen within as many days. 
 A little negro boy came to this city from the country 
 three or four days ago. Some strange white persons 
 were very friendly to him, and yesterday morning he 
 was mightily pleased that they had given him some 
 new clothes. And the persons pretending thus to be- 
 
AMERICAN SLAVERY. 25 
 
 friend him, entirely secured his confidence. This day- 
 he can not be found. Nor can he be traced since seen 
 with one of his new friends yesterday. There are sus- 
 picions of a foul nature, connected with some who serve 
 the police in subordinate capacities. It is hinted that 
 there may be those in some authority, not altogether 
 ignorant of these diabolical practices. Let the public 
 be on their guard ! It is still fresh in the memories of 
 all, that a cargo, or rather drove, of negroes, was made 
 up from this city and Philadelphia, about the time that 
 the emancipation of all the negroes in this State took 
 place under our present Constitution, and were taken 
 through Virginia, the Carolinas, and Tennessee, and 
 disposed of in the State of Mississippi. Some of those 
 who were taken from Philadelphia were persons of in- 
 telligence, and after they had been driven through the 
 country in chains, and disposed of by sale on the Mis- 
 sissippi, wrote back to their friends, and were rescued 
 from bondage. The persons who were guilty of this 
 abominable transaction are known, and now reside in 
 North Carolina; they may, very probably, be engaged 
 in similar enterprises at the present time — at least 
 there is reason to believe that the system of kidnap- 
 ping free persons of color from the Northern cities has 
 been carried on more extensively than the public are 
 generally aware of." 
 
 Steadily the North continued its opposition; and as 
 new States were formed and admitted into the Union, 
 it resisted openly, and at times defiantly, its encroach- 
 ments upon their domain. In 1787 the territory north- 
 west of the Ohio Eiver had been organized with the 
 stipulation that slavery should never be introduced into 
 that section of country; but gradually the influence of 
 the South dominated in legislation, and this predomin- 
 ance was arrogantly visible in the public measures and 
 policy of the Government. 
 
 By the Constitution of the United States, represent- 
 3 
 
96 OHIGIJT AA'D HISl'Onr OF 
 
 ation was distributed among the States in proportion 
 to the amount of population, as follows: 
 
 Article I. Section II. § 3: u Representatives and di- 
 rect taxes shall be apportioned among the States ac- 
 cording to their respective numbers; which shall be 
 ascertained by adding to the whole number of free 
 persons, including those bound to servitude for a term of 
 years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three-fifths of all 
 other persons" 
 
 Thus, five slaves, in the apportionment of the repre- 
 sentatives, counted as much as three freemen, thereby 
 giving to the South an undue proportion of Congress- 
 men, in relation to the free, white population; an ad- 
 vantage they were not slow to improve in the advance- 
 ment of their own peculiar interests. 
 
 A direct appeal to the selfishness of the North was 
 the motor power that won from it a reluctant consent 
 to the unequal arrangement. 
 
 The South assumed a proportion of direct taxes to 
 be increased in the same ratio as their representation, 
 and conceded to the small States an entire equality in 
 the Senate. This was, at the time, viewed as a conces- 
 sion on the part of the slaveholding to the free States; 
 and, although at first regarded with distrust and re- 
 pugnance in the North, yet immediate self-interest 
 prevailed. Esau-like it bartered its birthright, and 
 for these equivalents slave representation was accepted. 
 
 To this representation, which in 1832 amounted to 
 twenty-five representatives, in excess of the white 
 population, the South is indebted for its uniform suc- 
 cess in shaping the course of the Government so as to 
 insure the preservation and extenuation of the slave- 
 power. We copy from the eloquent speech of John 
 Adams, on the Tariff, February 4, 1833: 
 
AMERICAN SZA}'£ft2~. 27 
 
 "The history of the Union has afforded a continual 
 proof that this representation of property, which they 
 enjoy, as well in the election of President and Vice- 
 President of the United States, as upon the floor of the 
 House of Representatives, has secured to the slave- 
 holding States the entire control of the national policy, 
 and, almost without exception, the possession of the 
 highest executive office of the Union. Always united 
 in the purpose of regulating the affairs of the whole 
 Union by the standard of the slaveholding interest, 
 their disproportionate numbers in the electoral colleges 
 have enabled them, in ten out of twelve quadrennial 
 elections, to confer the chief magistracy upon one of 
 their own citizens. Their suffrages at every election, 
 without exception, have been almost exclusively con- 
 fined to a candidate of their own caste. Availing 
 themselves of the divisions which, from the nature of 
 man, always prevail in communities entirely free, they 
 have sought and found auxiliaries in the other quarters 
 of the Union, by associating the passions of parties, and 
 the ambition of individuals, with their own purposes, 
 to establish and maintain throughout the confederated 
 nation the slaveholding policy. The office of Vice- 
 President, a station of high dignity, but of little other 
 than contingent power, had been usually, by their in- 
 dulgence, conceded to a citizen of the other section; 
 but even this political courtesy was superseded at the 
 election before the last, and both the offices of President 
 and Vice-President of the United States were, by the 
 preponderancy of slaveholding votes, bestowed upon 
 citizens of two adjoining and both slaveholding States. 
 At this moment the President of the United States, the 
 President of the Senate, the Speaker of the House of 
 Representatives, and the Chief Justice of the United 
 States, are all citizens of that favored portion of the 
 united republic." 
 
 Thus, from the beginning, the North, while socially, 
 morally, and intellectually the superior of the South, 
 was politically the weaker. A strong feeling of sec- 
 tional dislike and jealousy, engendered in great degree 
 
28 ORIGIJV AND SISTOftT OF 
 
 by the constant rivalry between the two halves of the 
 nation, was the animus that moved the latter in its 
 measures of State. The interests of the free and slave - 
 holding communities were directly antagonistic; and 
 whenever they clashed, the latter was invariably the 
 victor. The will of the one was made subservient to 
 that of the other, and thus was the majority of a great 
 nation ruled by the minority. 
 
 The acquisition of new territory on a basis of slavery, 
 likewise operated as a powerful auxiliary in building 
 up and sustaining the power of the South, Louisiana 
 was purchased from the French; Alabama and Missis- 
 sippi were wrested from the Indians; and, afterward, 
 Arkansas and Florida, thereby, with the previous ad- 
 dition of Kentucky and Tennessee, greatly increasing 
 her slave population, although this preponderance was 
 in a measure counteracted by similar annexations of 
 free territory at the North. 
 
 In 1818 Missouri having attained a population of 
 40,000 inhabitants, applied for admission into the 
 Union, having sanctioned slavery in its Constitution, 
 Twice was it rejected by the House of Eepresentatives, 
 and twice the bill admitting it, with its adjunct of 
 slavery, passed the Senate. The popular excitement 
 became intense, and at no previous period of our 
 country's history had the Union been so near the 
 verge of dissolution. The South talked violently of 
 disunion, and civil war seemedjnevitable. It was 
 
 " Eesolved, That the General Assembly of Virginia, 
 will support the good people of Missouri, in their just 
 rights, and admission into the Union, and will co-ope- 
 rate with them in resisting with manly fortitude 
 any attempt which Congress may make to impose re- 
 straints, or restrictions on the price of their admission, 
 
AMERICAN SLAVERY. 29 
 
 not authorized by the great principles of the Consti- 
 tution, and in violation of their rights, liberty, and 
 happiness! " 
 
 In 1820 Henry Clay proposed its admission with its 
 Constitution permitting slavery, but with the famous 
 agreement known as the Missouri Compromise : that 
 henceforth slavery should not be established north of 
 the parallel of 36° 30' north latitude to the east and 
 west of Missouri. 
 
 This proposition was at # length adopted, the South 
 willingly accepting a compromise, which secured it an 
 immediate gain of two more votes in the Senate, and 
 a desirable market for its surplus slaves; and the North 
 consoling itself with the ignis fatuus hope that the 
 matter was set forever at rest, and the vast territories 
 of the West saved to liberty in the future. Accord- 
 ingly, in 1821, Missouri become a slave State of the 
 confederation. 
 
 Slavery being now restricted to certain limits, an 
 extreme interest attached to the annexation of new 
 States to the South, that it might be enabled to per- 
 petuate its predominate influence by adding to its 
 representation. 
 
 The North meanwhile was not idle. A jealous ri- 
 valry sprang up between the two sections as to which 
 should first colonize and organize new States; each 
 seeking first to become the tutor and future guardian 
 of the infant candidate for territorial honors. 
 
 The constantly varying fluctuations of public feeling 
 at this period are shown by the following excerpts. The 
 Augusta Chronicle (Georgia), of October, 1833, says: 
 
 " We firmly believe, that if the Southern States do 
 not quickly unite and declare to the North, if the ques- 
 tion of slavery be longer discussed in any shape, they 
 
SO OiilGIJV c4*YD HISTORY OF 
 
 will instantly secede from the Union; that the question 
 must be settled, and very soon, by the sword, as the 
 only possible means of self-preservation! " 
 
 " Public sentiment at the North, in reference to 
 Southern interests, was never in a sounder state than it 
 is now. The language of the Northern press is cheer- 
 ing in the extreme; he feeling in favor of the South, 
 and against the Abolitionists, is deep and almost uni- 
 versal." Charleston Courier, 2\st of July, 1834. 
 
 South Carolina having failed in her scheme of nulli- 
 fication, the purchase or conquest of Mexico next 
 became a favorite scheme with the South. Their poli- 
 ticians exultingly declared that nine slave States, as 
 large as Kentucky, could be formed from it; and many 
 sanguine planters had already calculated the consequent 
 rise in the value of their slaves. 
 
 In 1836 an insurrection of the American colonists of 
 Texas, in conjunction with a feeble minority of the 
 inhabitants, was supported by an army sent by the 
 United States, then in full peace with Mexico. The 
 rebellion was speedily put down, the Mexican army 
 defeated, and the United States, not content with its 
 victory, generously took possession of the conquered 
 territory under pretext of protecting it. 
 
 In 1843 its annexation as a State was refused, but 
 not without violent and warm discussion. It was sub- 
 sequently admitted as a slave State in 1845. 
 
 The territory of New Mexico being claimed by Texas, 
 of Mexico, the claim was disputed, and war with that 
 country was immediately proclaimed by Mr. Polk, the 
 newly-elect President. The Mexicans made a deter- 
 mined ret-istmce, but the victorious armies of the 
 United Slates swept the fertile valleys of that feeble 
 Republic, from the mouth of the Rio Grande to the 
 western base of the Rocky Mountains, devastating its 
 
AMERICAN SZaiVBSl. Sf 
 
 beautiful provinces, and defeating the opposing army 
 with overwhelming slaughter. The war terminated in 
 1847, the concession of California and New Mexico to 
 the United States being among its results. 
 
 A new difficulty between the North and South, arising 
 from a dispute in regard to the formula known as the 
 Wilmot Proviso, in which Congress declared that the 
 subsidies necessary to the operations of the war should 
 be granted only on condition of the prohibition of 
 slavery in the conquered territories, having previously 
 distracted the country, a most unhappy state of affairs 
 ensued. The Proviso was frequently passed by the 
 House of Eepresentatives, but the Senate rejected it. 
 On the occasion of the treaty with Mexico it was again 
 considered in the House, the new territories meanwhile 
 being left provisionally without organization. Com- 
 plications and dissensions continued to increase. The 
 popular excitement reached its hight in 1850, when 
 California applied for admittance as a free State. The 
 South resorted to its well-worn threat of separation, 
 thinking thereby to coerce the north into submission 
 to its terms. In Congress a resolution was introduced 
 by the Southern delegates, that the adoption of the 
 measures, then pending, would be considered as suf- 
 ficient grounds for secession. 
 
 Again Mr. Clay applied his favorite remedy of com- 
 promise. California was admitted without slaves; 
 New Mexico wa<* detached from Texas, the latter re- 
 ceiving an indemnity of $10,000,000; the terms of the 
 Proviso were discarded, and the right of organizing 
 new territories was given over exclusively to their 
 citizens. Thus the difficulty was temporarily gotten 
 rid of, only to be again revived with added vexations. 
 The same year gave birth to that stupendous outrage 
 
32 ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF 
 
 known as the Fugitive Slave Law, whose provisions au- 
 thorized masters to pursue and capture their runaway 
 slaves in the free States, compelled civil officers to assist 
 in their seizure and return to bondage, and imposed a 
 heavy fine upon any one sheltering the fugitives or 
 conniving at their escape. 
 
 Thus the free States were forcibly transformed into 
 partners and accomplices of the South; and their citi- 
 zens converted into creatures at the service of every 
 Southern master, whose trembling vassals sought the 
 asylum of their soil. In many instances citizens of the 
 free States submitted to fine and imprisonment rather 
 than comply with its requirements; and their refusal 
 to acquiesce gracefully in its unhallowed provisions 
 became a fresh grievance in the already surcharged 
 bosom of the South. 
 
 Not content with having made the North an unwill- 
 ing partaker in its legalized shame, the South insisted 
 on the abolition of the Missouri Compromise in 1854; 
 and that magic line, so long the charmed boundary, 
 separating freedom from servitude, accordingly ceased 
 to exist, and the territories were left untrammeled by 
 its presence to incorporate slavery in their Constitu- 
 tion, or powerless to resist its introduction. 
 
 The territories of Kansas and Nebraska were organ- 
 ized in 1854; and later Kansas applied for admission 
 as a State. The disgraceful quarrels and contentions 
 originating from and following this request are still 
 fresh in the memory of all, and will forever remain a 
 stigma upon the fair fame of the land. At the called 
 election of a delegate, in November, to present its pe- 
 tition in Congress, the State was invaded by a large 
 body of armed men from Missouri, best known by their 
 distinctive appellation of "Border Ruffians" who drove 
 
AMERICAN SLAVERY. 33 
 
 away the citizens from the polls, and by their own votes 
 elected as delegate a sworn ally of the South. On the 
 following March, at the election of the territorial Legis- 
 lature, the State was again overrun by a horde of several 
 thousand mounted men, who again by their illegally 
 cast ballots elected a Legislature composed exclusively 
 of the partisans of slavery. 
 
 Murders were committed with impunity; newspaper 
 offices were mobbed, and their presses destroyed ; the 
 town of Lawrence was burned, and the lives and prop- 
 erty of free State men were constantly in jeopardy. 
 The spurious Legislature, convened at Lecompton, de- 
 clared that no member could be sworn without affirm- 
 ing that slavery was right; and decided, that to main- 
 tain the contrary involved the penalty of two years' 
 hard labor; that to give shelter to a fugitive slave, or 
 to print or circulate any writing against slavery, was 
 punishable by four years' imprisonment. Death was 
 the penalty incurred for inciting insurrection among 
 the slaves, or for aiding in their escape or concealment; 
 while disfranchisement followed the refusing to support 
 the Fugitive Slave Law. 
 
 Thus the "virgin territory" seemed hopelessly given 
 over to the minions of the slave power. The sanctity 
 of the ballot-box was again violated in November, 
 1855, at the election of a new delegate to Congress. 
 The whole country was aroused to a pitch of fearful 
 excitement. The waves of political and party feeling 
 ran mountain-high, and sectional strife and discord 
 were augmented to the highest degree. In the Senate 
 Chamber Charles Sumner made an eloquent appeal in 
 behalf of the helpless territory, for which, two days 
 later, he was attacked in his seat, and beaten with a 
 cane, by Congressman Brooks, of South Carolina, who, 
 
SA OTHGIW *UY® HISTORY OF 
 
 no doubt, felt the Senator's masterly arguments un- 
 answerable through any other medium. This dastardly 
 stroke of policy met with the utmost enthusiasm 
 throughout the South; meetings of approval were 
 held, and a handsome cane was presented to the 
 chivalrous knight who had shown himself so well 
 worthy the suggestive present; and, to the shame of 
 the Republic be it said, he was not expelled from Congress. 
 
 On the other hand, a corresponding degree of indig- 
 nation was manifested at the North. Even at the 
 South there were a few who dared to disapprove the 
 deed, and a beautiful lady of South Carolina gave ut- 
 terance to the sentiment which, for the sake of the 
 early Revolutionary heroes of that State, deserves to 
 become historical: "South Carolina presents her heroes 
 with swords, and her cowards with canes." 
 
 Matters in Kansas continued to grow worse. Mur- 
 derers and outlaws were suffered to go unpunished, and 
 the whole country seemed on the eve of a violent out- 
 break. Every possible expedient was resorted to by 
 the South to strengthen the hands of the pro-slavery 
 party in the West. In 1856 the Governor of South 
 Carolina promulgated in his official message the secret 
 hope that fired the Southern heart, a proposition after- 
 ward reiterated by Alabama: 
 
 " To maintain our position we must have cheap labor. 
 This is only possible through one means — the reopening 
 of the slave trade; and nothing but a mawkish senti- 
 mentality would swoon at the idea of legalizing this 
 trade." 
 
 In 1858 troops were sent to Kansas, by the President, 
 to protect the ballot-box; and a new Legislature was 
 elected, who proceeded to frame another Constitution. 
 The great question of slavery was still undecided, the 
 
a.UjEHica^y slavery. .?s 
 
 elections being alternately against and in its favor. 
 When the former, the election was annulled by the 
 withdrawal of the inspectors; when the latter, the 
 people vehemently protested against it. Through two 
 entire sessions of Congress the matter was dragged, 
 and even then did not receive a satisfactory adjust- 
 ment. Congress advocated the amendment of its ter- 
 ritorial Constitution before its admission as a State; 
 and the President advised its immediate admittance, 
 leaving to its citizens the construction of a new Con- 
 stitution. 
 
 An expedient known as the English Compromise was 
 adopted, by which, on a slight pretext, hinged on the 
 quantity of school-lands demanded by the territory, its 
 admission was deferred until the people should declare 
 their willingness to accept lesser grants, a proposition 
 decidedly rejected by the people in a new election, and 
 a new Constitution therefore became necessary, which 
 Congress, in conformity with the principle of non-inter- 
 vention known as the Nebraska Bill, reserved to itself 
 the right of approving, without interfering in the ques- 
 tion of slavery. It was further provided and reiterated 
 in the President's message of 1859, that every citizen 
 of the United States had a right to transport his prop- 
 erty of every kind, including slaves, into the territories, 
 and to be protected therein by the Constitution. Mr. 
 Buchanan thus expresses his satisfaction at the result: 
 
 11 It is a striking proof of the sense of justice which 
 is inherent in our people, that the property of slaves 
 has never been disturbed in any of the territories. 
 Had any such attempt been made, the judiciary would 
 doubtless have afforded an adequate remedy. Should 
 they fail to do this hereafter, it will then be time 
 enough to strengthen their hands by further legis- 
 lation." 
 
36 ORIGIN oiJVD HISTORY OF 
 
 A new difficulty was subsequently opened by the 
 President himself. It being a matter of doubt that 
 the population of the territory amounted to 93,420, 
 the requisite number to entitle them to a representa- 
 tive, a new census was required. As many of its orig- 
 inal citizens, by the early struggles and disturbances 
 of the infant territory, had been intimidated to quit 
 the country, the census would doubtless have resulted 
 in a further postponement. Thus, from both the Ex- 
 ecutive and Congress, measures had originated calcu- 
 lated to produce a delay in its admission. To the 
 fearless spirit and admirable patience of its long- 
 suffering people, is to be awarded the merit of the fact 
 that Kansas to-day is a free and sovereign State; it 
 having been triumphantly admitted as such in 1861. 
 
 Disgraceful as were such recriminations, they would 
 have doubtless wrought comparatively little harm had 
 it not been for the presence of a third party, crushed 
 " between the upper and nether millstones," whose 
 humanity and claim to Christian recognition were 
 utterly ignored, and whose very existence was tacitly 
 unacknowledged, save for purposes of legislative op- 
 pression. Let us learn from the code noir of the South 
 the position and status of this silent, irresponsible ele- 
 ment of the national confusion. 
 
 " A slave is one who is in the power of his master, 
 to whom he belongs. The master may sell him, dis- 
 pose of his person, his industry, or his labor; he can 
 do nothing, possess nothing, nor acquire anything but 
 what must belong to his master." Laws of Louisiana. 
 "None shall be slaves except those who are so 
 when this chapter takes effect, such free negroes as 
 may be sold as slaves pursuant to law, such slaves 
 as may be lawfully brought into the State, and the 
 future descendants §f female slavesP Laws of 
 Virginia. 
 
AMERICAN SLATER 2. 37 
 
 " Children born of a mother then in a state of slavery, 
 whether married or not, follow the condition of their 
 mother; they are consequently slaves, and belong to 
 the master of their mother." Laws of Virginia. 
 
 "All their issue and offspring born, or to be born, 
 shall be, and are hereby declared to be and remain 
 forever hereafter absolute slaves, and shall follow 
 the condition of their mother." 
 
 " Slaves shall be deemed, taken, reputed and ad- 
 judged to be chattels personal in the hands of their 
 masters and possessors, to all intents and purposes 
 whatsoever." 
 
 " The slave is entirely subject to the will of the 
 master, who may correct and chastise him, though not 
 with unusual rigor, nor so as to maim or mutilate him, 
 or to expose him to the danger of loss of life, or to cause 
 his death." 
 
 "A slave may be whipped, cropped, or branded on the 
 cheek with the letter R, or otherwise punished, not ex- 
 tending to life, nor so as to unfit him for labor.''' 
 
 "In case any person shall willfully cut out the 
 tongue, put out the eye, cruelly scald, burn, or deprive 
 any slave of any limb, or member, or shall inflict any 
 other cruel punishment — [otherwise than by whipping, or 
 beating, with a horsewhip, cowskin, switch, or small stick, 
 or by putting irons on, or confining, or imprisoning such 
 slave] — every such person shall, for every such offense, 
 forfeit the sum of one hundred pounds, current money." 
 
 "Slaves can not marry without the consent of 
 their masters, and their marriages do not produce 
 any of the civil effects which result from such 
 contract? 
 
 " If any person shall hereafter be guilty of willfully 
 and maliciously killing a slave, such offender shall, 
 upon the first conviction thereof, be adjudged guilty of 
 murder, and shall suffer the same punishment as if he 
 had killed a free man. 
 
 "Provided always, this act shall not extend to the 
 person killing a slave outlawed by virtue of any act 
 of assembly of this State, or to any slave in the act 
 
SS ORIGIN AJVD HISTORY OF 
 
 of resistance to his lawful owner or master, or to 
 any slave dying tinder moderate correction." 
 
 " If any slave, who shall be out of the house or 
 plantation where such slaves shall live, or shall be 
 usually employed, or without some white person in 
 company with such slaves, shall refuse to submit to un- 
 dergo the examination of any white person, it shall be 
 lawful for any white person to pursue, apprehend, and 
 moderately correct such slave; and if such slave shall 
 assault and strike such white person, such slave may 
 
 be LAWFULLY KILLED." 
 
 " The slave is incapable of exercising any public 
 office, or private trust; he can not be a witness in either 
 civil or criminal matters." 
 
 " Trial by jury is utterly denied to the slave, even in 
 criminal accusations which may affect his life. 11 
 
 "The slave is not allowed to resist any white man 
 under any circumstances" 
 
 "If any slave shall presume to strike any white man, 
 such slave, upon trial and conviction before the jus- 
 tice, shall, for the first offense, suffer such punishment 
 as said justice thinks fit, not extending to life or limb; 
 and for the second offense, death." 
 
 a A slave stood by and saw his wife whipped as 
 long as he co"ld possibly endure the sight; lie then 
 called out to the overseer, who was applying the lash, 
 that he would kill him if he did not use more mercy. 
 This probably made matters worse; at all events the 
 lashing continued. The husband goaded to frenzy, 
 rushed upon the overseer, and stabbed him three times. 
 White men, what would you do if the laws admitted 
 that your wives might die of moderate correction, admin- 
 istered by your employers? The overseer died, and 
 his murderer was burned. 1 " 
 
 " If any negro, mulatto, or Indian, bond ov free, shall 
 at any time lift his or her hand, in opposition to 
 any person not colored, they shall — the offense being 
 proved beforfc a justice of the peace — receive thirty 
 lashes on his or her bare back, well laid on." 
 
 " Any person finding more than seven slaves together 
 
AMERICAN SLAVERY* 39 
 
 in the highway without a white person, may give each 
 one twenty lashes." 
 
 In the Maryland House of Delegates, in 1834, Mr. 
 Mann moved an inquiry into the expediency of abol- 
 ishing slavery, after a certain period. So great was the 
 excitement produced by this motion, that the mover 
 withdrew it, and the minute of the motion was expunged 
 from the journal. 
 
 In South Carolina, if a slave be killed " on a sudden 
 heat or passion, or by undue correction" the murderer 
 is to pay a fine and be imprisoned six months. 
 
 The law of Louisiana stipulates that a slave shall 
 have one linen shirt — usually made of a kind of coarse 
 bagging — and a pair of pantaloons for the summer, 
 and one linen shirt and a woolen great-coat and panta- 
 loons for the winter; and for food, one pint of salt, and 
 a barrel of Indian corn rice, or beans every month. 
 In North Carolina, the law decides that a quart of corn 
 per day is sufficient. 
 
 " ' Whereas, teaching slaves to read and write has a ten- 
 dency to excite dissatisfaction in their minds, and to pro- 
 duce insurrection and rebellion,' therefore it is enacted 
 that teaching a slave to read or write, or giving or 
 selling to a slave any book or pamphlet, shall be pun- 
 ished with thirty-nine lashes, if the offender be a free 
 black, or with imprisonment at the discretion of the 
 court; if a slave, the offense is punishable with thirty- 
 nine lashes, on his or her bare back, on conviction 
 before a justice of the peace." 
 
 In Georgia any slave, or free person of color, is for 
 a similar offense, fined or whipped, or fined and 
 whipped, at the discretion of the court. 
 
 In Louisiana twelve months' imprisonment is the 
 penalty for teaching a slave to read or write. 
 
 " And if any person shall use any language from the 
 
10 ORIGIN *JV& HISTORY OF 
 
 bar, bench, stage, pulpit, or any other place, or hold any 
 conversation having a tendency to promote discontent 
 among free colored people, or insubordination among 
 slaves, he may be imprisoned at hard labor, not less 
 than three nor more than twenty-one years; or he 
 may suffer death, at the discretion of the court." 
 
 " In Mississippi a white man, who prints or circu- 
 lates doctrines, sentiments, advice, or innuendoes, 
 likely to produce discontent among the colored class, 
 is fined from one hundred to a thousand dollars, and 
 imprisoned from three to twelve months." 
 
 " In Virginia white persons who teach any colored 
 person to read or write, are fined not exceeding fifty 
 dollars; for teaching slaves for pay, from ten to twenty 
 dollars for each offense." 
 
 " In Georgia if a white teach a free negro or slave 
 to read or write, he is fined $500, and imprisoned at 
 the discretion of the court; if the offender be a colored 
 man, bond or free, he is to be fined or whipped at the 
 discretion of the court." 
 
 " Any person that teaches a person of color, slave 
 or free, to read or write, or causes such persons to 
 be so taught, is subjected to a fine of thirty dollars 
 for each offense; and every person of color who shall 
 teach reading or writing, is subject to a fine of thirty 
 dollars, or to be imprisoned ten days and whipped 
 thirty-nine lashes." 
 
 " The North Carolina law declares, that the Alphabet 
 has a tendency to excite dissatisfaction; and if a white 
 person teach a slave to read or write, or give or sell 
 him any books, Bible not excepted, he is fined from 
 one to two hundred dollars." 
 
 " In Kentucky white men are condemned to death 
 for four crimes only; slaves meet a similar punishment 
 for eleven crimes." 
 
 " Any justice of the peace may, at his discretion, 
 break up any religious assembly of slaves, and may 
 order each slave present to be ' corrected without trial, 
 by receiving on the bare back, twenty-five stripes with 
 a whip, switch or cow-skin.' " 
 
 " Slaves may not meet together for the purpose of 
 
AMERICAN SLAVE ft T. if 
 
 'religious worship' before sunrise or after sunset, un- 
 less the majority of the meeting be composed of white 
 persons, under a penalty of twenty lashes well laid on." 
 
 In Mississippi if a master allow his slave to culti- 
 vate cotton for his own use, he incurs a fine of fifty 
 dollars; and if he license his slave to trade on his 
 own account, he forfeits fifty dollars for each and every 
 offense. Any person trading with a slave forfeits four 
 times the value of the articles purchased; and if unable 
 to pay, he receives thirty-nine lashes, ancUpays the costs. 
 
 " If a slave visit another plantation without leave 
 in writing from his master, the owner of the planta- 
 tion may give him ten lashes." 
 
 " All horses, cattle, hogs, or sheep, that shall belong 
 to any slave, or be of any slave's mark in this State, 
 shall be seized and sold by the County Wardens." 
 
 " Slavery was not confined to color. Mr. Paxton, a 
 Virginia writer, declared, that, ' the best blood in 
 Virginia flows in the veins of the slaves.' In the 
 description given of a fugitive slave, in the public 
 papers, it was stated, l He has sometimes been mis- 
 taken for a white man.' " 
 
 "A case of a slave, suing for his freedom, was tried 
 a few days since in Lincoln County, of which the fol- 
 lowing is a brief statement of the particulars. A youth 
 of about ten years of age sued for his freedom on the 
 ground that he was a free white person. The court 
 granted his petition to sue as a pauper upon inspection 
 of his person. Upon his trial before the jury he was 
 examined by the jury and by two learned physicians, 
 all of whom concurred in the opinion that very little 
 if any trace of negro blood could be discovered by any 
 of the external appearances. All the physiological 
 marks of distinctions which characterize the African 
 descent had disappeared. 
 
 " His skin was fair, his hair soft, straight, fine and 
 white, his eyes blue, but rather disposed to be hazle- 
 nut color; nose prominent, the lips small and com- 
 4 
 
6* ORIGIN AJV¥) HISTORY OF 
 
 pletely covering the teeth, his head round and well 
 formed, forehead high and prominent, the ears large, 
 the tibia of the leg straight, the feet hollow. Notwith- 
 standing these evidences of his claims, he was proven 
 to be a descendant of a mulatto woman, and that his 
 progenitors on his mothers side had been and still 
 were slaves ; consequently he was found to be a slave.'* 
 
 The laws of South Carolina and Virginia expressly 
 recognize Indian slaves. 
 
 Governor Miller, of South Carolina, in his message 
 
 * 
 
 to the Legislature in 1829, remarks: 
 
 "Slavery is not a national evil; on the contrary, it 
 is a national benefit. Slavery exists in some form 
 every where, and it is not of much consequence in a 
 'philosophical point of view, whether it be voluntary or 
 involuntary. In a political point of view, involuntary 
 slavery has the advantage, since all who enjoy polit- 
 ical liberty are then in fact free." 
 
 " In Missouri it is death to prepare or administer 
 medicine without the master's consent, unless it can 
 be proved that there was no evil intention." 
 
 ; ' In Georgia a fine of thirty dollars a week is im- 
 posed upon any master who allows his slave to hire 
 himself out for his own benefit." 
 
 "The following is the testimony of Jefferson, who 
 had good opportunities for observation, and who cer- 
 tainly had no New England prejudices: ' There must, 
 doubtless, be an unhappy influence on the manners of 
 the people, produced by the existence of slavery among 
 us. The whole commerce between master and slave is 
 a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions ; 
 the most unremitting despotism on the one part, ana 
 degrading submission on the other. Our children see 
 this and learn to imitate it; for man is an imitative 
 animal. The parent storms; the child looks on, 
 catches the lineaments of wrath, puts on the same airs 
 ir. a circle of smaller slaves, gives loose to the worst of 
 passions; and thus nursed, educated, and daily exer- 
 
AMERICAN SZAVESr. 4.S 
 
 cised in tyranny, can not but be stamped by it with 
 odious peculiarities. The man must be a prodigy, who 
 can retain his morals and manners undepraved in such 
 circumstances.' " 
 
 A correspondent of the Charleston (S. C.) Observer 
 remarked : 
 
 "Let us establish missionaries among our own ne- 
 groes, who, in view of religious knowledge, are as 
 debasely ignorant as any one on the coast of Africa; 
 for I hazard the assertion, that throughout the bounds 
 of our synod, there are at least one hundred thou- 
 sand slaves, speaking the same language as ourselves, 
 who never heard of the plan of salvation by a Re- 
 deemer." 
 
 The editor, instead of contradicting this broad asser- 
 tion, adds: 
 
 " We fully concur with what our correspondent hag 
 said respecting the benighted heathen among our- 
 selves." 
 
 General Charles C. Pinckney, of South Carolina, in a 
 public address, delivered in 1824, maintained that 
 slavery as it existed in that State is — 
 
 " No greater or more unusual evil, than befalls the 
 poor in general; that its extinction would be attended 
 with calamity to the country, and to the people con- 
 nected with it, in every character, and relation; that 
 no necessity exists for such extinction — that slavery is 
 sanctioned by the Mosaic dispensation — that it is a 
 fulfillment of the denunciation pronounced against the 
 second son of Noah — that it is not inconsistent with 
 cue genius and spirit of Clyistianity, nor considered 
 by St. Paul as a moral evil." — Address before the Agri- 
 cultural Society of South Carolina. 
 
 On the 5th of December, 1833, a committee of the 
 Synod of South Carolina and Georgia, to whom was 
 referred the subject of the religious instruction of the 
 
44 OSlGIJV AJ\^ HISTORY OF 
 
 colored population, made a report which has been 
 published, and in which this language is used. 
 
 " Who would credit it, that in these years of revival 
 and benevolent effort, in this Christian republic, there 
 are over two millions of human beings in the con- 
 dition of heathen, and in some respect in a worse 
 condition. From long continued and close observa- 
 tion, we believe that their moral and religious con- 
 dition is such that they may justly be considered the 
 heathen of this Christian country, and will bear com- 
 parison with heathen in any country in the world. 
 The negroes are destitute of the Gospel, and ever 
 will be under the present state of things. In the vast field 
 extending from an entire State beyond the Potomac, 
 to the Sabine -River, and from the Atlantic to the Ohio, 
 there are to the best of our knowledge not twelve men 
 exclusively devoted to the religious instruction of the 
 negroes. In the present state of feeling in the South, 
 a ministry of their own color could neither be obtained 
 
 NOR TOLERATED. 
 
 " Generally speaking they (the slaves) appear to us 
 to be without God and without hope in the world, a 
 nation of heathen in our very midst. We cannot 
 cry out against the Papists for withholding the Scrip- 
 tures from the common people, and keeping them in 
 ignorance of the way of life; for we withhold the Bible 
 from our servants, and keep them in ignorance of it, 
 while we will not use the means to have it read and 
 explained to them. The cry of our perishing servants 
 comes up to us from the sultry plains as they bend at 
 their toil — it comes up to us from their humble cot- 
 tages when they return at evening to rest their weary 
 limbs — it comes up to us from the midst of their 
 ignorance and superstition, and adultery and lewdness. 
 We have manifested no emotions of horror at abandon- 
 ing the souls of our servants to the adversary, the 
 roaring lion that walketh about seeking whom he may 
 devour. 
 
 " In Eome the introduction of Christianity abolished 
 slavery; the ictea of exclusive property in our fellow- 
 
AMERICAN SLAVERY. 4.5 
 
 men was too obviously at variance with its holy pre- 
 cepts; and its professors, in the sincerity of their 
 hearts, made a formal surrender of such claims. In 
 various ancient instruments of emancipation, the 
 masters begin by declaring, that ' for the love of God 
 and Jesus Christ, for the easing of their consciences, 
 and the safety of their souls,' they set their bondmen 
 free." 
 
 Nor were the slaves alone in this merciless proscrip- 
 tion. " Free persons of color" all over the United 
 States seem to have been regarded with a mixture of 
 prejudice and distrust entirely unwarranted in the 
 premises; and the legislative measures were taken to 
 render them helpless and incapable of harm. 
 
 The Maryland Legislature, in their session of 1831, 
 adopted the following resolution: 
 
 " .Resolved, That the increased proportion of the free 
 people of color, in this State, to the white population — 
 the evils growing out of their connection and unrestrained 
 association with the slaves, their habits and, manner of 
 obtaining a subsistence, and their withdrawing a large 
 portion of employment from the laboring class of the 
 white population, are subjects of momentous and grave 
 consideration to the good people of this State." 
 
 tl In Georgia, a white man is liable to a fine of five 
 hundred dollars for teaching a free negro to read or 
 write. If one free negro teach another, he is to be 
 fined and whipped at the discretion of the court ! Should 
 a free negro presume to preach to, or exhort his com- 
 panions, he may be seized without warrant, and 
 whipped thirty-nine lashes, and the same number of 
 lashes may be applied to each one of his congrega- 
 tion." 
 
 " In South Carolina, any assembly of free negroes, 
 even in the presence of white persons, ' in a confined 
 or secret place, for the purpose of mental instruction, 1 
 is an unlawful assembly, and may be dispersed by a 
 
IS ORIGIN AJVD HISTORY OF 1 
 
 magistrate, who is authorized to inflict twenty lashes 
 on each free negro attending the meeting." 
 
 " The corporation of Georgetown, in the District of 
 Columbia, passed an ordinance, making it penal for 
 any free negro to receive from the post- office, have in his 
 possession, or circulate, any publication or writing 
 whatsoever of a seditious character." 
 
 " In Virginia, should free negroes or their children 
 assemble at a school to learn reading and writing, any 
 justice of the peace may dismiss the school with 
 twenty stripes on the back of each pupil." 
 
 " For publishing, or circulating, in the State ol 
 North Carolina, any pamphlet or paper having an 
 evident tendency to excite slaves, or free persons of 
 color, to insurrection or resistance, imprisonment not 
 less than one year, and standing in the pillory, and 
 whipping, at the discretion of the court, for the first 
 offense; and death for the second." 
 
 " In North Carolina the law prohibits a free colored 
 man, whatever may be his attainments or ecclesiastical 
 authority, to preach the gospel." 
 
 " In Louisiana the penalty for instructing a free 
 black in a Sunday-school, is, for the first offense, five 
 hundred dollars; for the second offense, death ! !" 
 
 The law of Louisiana gravely declares: 
 
 " Free persons of color ought never to insult or 
 strike white people, nor presume to conceive them- 
 selves equal to the whites; but, on the contrary, they 
 ought to yield to them on every occasion, and never 
 speak or answer them but with respect, under the 
 penalty of imprisonment, according to the nature of 
 the offense." 
 
 " By a late law of Maryland, a free negro coming 
 into the State is liable to a fine of fifty dollars for 
 every week he remains in it. If he can not pay the 
 fine, he is sold." 
 
 " A free colored man, living near the line of the 
 District of Columbia, petitioned the Maryland House 
 of Delegates for leave to bring his grandchild from the 
 
AMJSHlCAJV SLAVERY. 4.7 
 
 city of Washington. The child had probably been 
 left an orphan, and he naturally wished to take it into 
 his own house. The petition was rejected!!" 
 
 "In Maryland a justice of the peace may order a 
 free negro's ears to be cut off for striking a white 
 man." 
 
 " Henceforth no slave or slaves can be manumitted 
 except under the express condition that, when the said 
 slaves shall have been manumitted, they shall be transported 
 out of the United States." 
 
 "A manumitted negro becomes again a slave if he 
 remains twelve months in the State." 
 
 " All slaves for years now found in the State, as 
 soon as they shall become free, shall be transporled out 
 of the State at the expense of the last owner." 
 
 " In Tennessee slaves are not allowed to be eman- 
 cipated unless they leave the State forthwith. Any 
 free colored person emigrating into this State is fined 
 from ten to fifty dollars, and hard labor in the peni- 
 tentiary from one to two years." 
 
 " Any attempt to free a slave, in any other manner 
 than the prescribed form, is punished by a fine of two 
 hundred dollars for each offense ; and the slave or 
 slaves are still, to all intents and purposes, in a state 
 of slavery." 
 
 " In Mississippi every negro or mulatto, not being 
 able to prove himself free, may be sold as a slave." 
 
 "If any omission is made in the forms of emanci- 
 pation established by law, any person whatsoever may 
 seize the negro so manumitted, and appropriate him 
 to his own use." 
 
 " If a free colored person remain in "Virginia twelve 
 months after his manumission, he can be sold by the 
 overseers of the poor for the benefit of the literary 
 fund!" 
 
 " In Georgia a free colored man, except a regular 
 articled seaman, is fined one hundred dollars for com- 
 ing into the State; and, if he can not pay it, may be 
 sold at public outcry." 
 
 "No person may, under the penalty of five dollars, 
 buy of a free negro ' any bacon, pork, beef, mutton, 
 
18 ORIGIN AJV1> HISTORY OF 
 
 corn, wheat, tobacco, rye, or oats,' unless he shall at 
 the time exhibit a certificate from a justice of the 
 peace, or three respectable persons, that he or they 
 believe the said negro came honestly by the identical 
 article offered for sale." 
 
 " We all know from a variety of considerations 
 which it is unnecessary to name, and in consequence 
 of the policy which is obliged to be pursued in the 
 Southern States, that it fs extremely difficult to free a 
 slave; and hence the enactment of those laws which a 
 fatal necessity seems to demand." Af. Rep. II. p. 12. 
 
 "We all know that the Southerners have a high 
 sense of what the world calls honor, and that they are 
 brave, hospitable and generous to people of their own 
 color; but the more we respect their virtues, the more 
 cause is there to lament the demoralizing system which 
 produces such unhappy effects on all who come within 
 its baneful influence. Most of them may be as kind as 
 can be expected of human nature, endowed with al- 
 most unlimited power to do wrong; and some of them 
 may be even more benevolent than the warmest friend 
 of the negro would dare to hope; but while we admit 
 all this, we must not forget that there is in every com- 
 munity a class of men who will not be any better than 
 the laws compel them to be." Mrs. Child. 
 
 Nor can it be denied that the condition of " free per- 
 sons of color " was at one time comparatively little 
 better at the North. In Hartford, Connecticut, a Miss 
 Crandall was tried, on the 23d of August, 1828, for the 
 crime of having established a school for the purpose of 
 educating colored youth, and from a Northern writer 
 we adduce this astonishing argument which, ridiculous 
 as it may appear, was the creed of many worthy per- 
 sons, even occasional theologians disputing the fact 
 that the negro was a human being: 
 
 " The negro's lips are thick — his zygomatic muscles 
 large and full — his jaws large and projecting — his 
 
AMERICAN SLAVERY. 19 
 
 chin retreating — his forehead low, flat and slanting, 
 and, as a consequence of this latter character, his eye- 
 balls are very prominent, apparently larger than those 
 of white men. All of these peculiarities at the same 
 time contributing to reduce his facial angle almost to 
 a level with the brute. If, then, it is consistent with 
 science to believe that the mind will be great in pro- 
 portion to the size and figure of the brain, it is equally 
 reasonable to suppose that the acknowledged mean- 
 ness of the negro's intellect only coincides with the 
 shape of his head ; or, in other word«, that his want of 
 capability to receive a complicated education renders it 
 improper and impolitic that he should be allowed the 
 privileges of citizenship in an enlightened country." 
 
 And lastly, the verdict of the North upon the legal- 
 ized crimes of the South — the judicial summing up of 
 all these legislative villainies — " A negro has no rights a 
 white man is bound to respect! 11 
 
 The slave faction, disappointed in their designs upon 
 the new territories of the West, now turned avaricious 
 eyes toward Mexico, and the tempting morsel of Cuba, 
 lying so conveniently near. To quote from Mr. Bu- 
 chanan's message, of 1859: 
 
 "The island of Cuba, from its geographical position, 
 commands the mouth of the Mississippi, and the im- 
 mense and annually increasing trade, foreign and 
 c'oastwise, from the valley of that noble river, now 
 embracing half the sovereign States of the Union. 
 With that island under the dominion of a distant for- 
 eign power, this trade, of vital importance to these 
 States, is exposed to the danger of being destroyed in 
 time of war, and it has hitherto been subjected to per- 
 petual injury and annoyance in time of peace. Our 
 relations with Spain, which ought to be of the most 
 friendly character, must always be placed in jeopardy, 
 while the existing colonial government over the island 
 shall remain in its present position. 
 
 " Whilst the possession of the island would be of 
 
 5 
 
50 ORIGIN ?1A~2) HISTORY OF 
 
 vast importance to the United States, its value to 
 Spain is, comparatively, unimportant." 
 
 And again: 
 
 "Cuba is almost within sight of our shores. Our 
 commerce with it is far greater than that of any other 
 nation, including Spain itself, and our citizens are in 
 the habit of daily and extended personal intercourse 
 with every part of the island." 
 
 But his most admirable stroke of diplomacy lies in 
 the following: 
 
 " It is the only spot in the civilized world where the 
 African slave trade is tolerated, and we are bound by 
 treaty with Great Britain to maintain a naval force on 
 the coast of Africa, at much expense both of life and 
 treasure, solely for the purpose of arresting slavers 
 bound to that isle. . . . ... 
 
 " As long as this market shall remain open, there 
 can be no hope for the civilization of benighted Africa. 
 Whilst the demand for slaves continues in Cuba, wars 
 will be waged among the petty and barbarous chiefs 
 in Africa, for the purpose of seizing subjects to supply 
 this trade. In such a condition of affairs, it is impos- 
 sible that the light of civilization and religion can ever 
 penetrate these dark abodes." 
 
 Again, what can equal this 'touching and pious ap- 
 peal? 
 
 "But we are obliged, a? a Christian and moral 
 nation, to consider what would be the effect upon un- 
 happy Africa itself, if we should reopen the slave 
 trade. This would givo the trade an impulse and ex- 
 tension which it never had even in its palmiest days. 
 The numerous victims required to supply it would 
 convert the whole slave coast into a perfect Pandemo- 
 nium, for which this country would be held responsi- 
 ble in the eyes both of God and man. Its petty tribes 
 would then be constantly engaged in predatory wars 
 against each other, for the purpose of seizing slaves to 
 
supply the American market. All hope of African 
 civilization would then be ended. 
 
 "On the other hand, when a market for African 
 slaves shall be no longer furnished in Cuba, and thus 
 all the world be closed against this trade, we may then 
 indulge a reasonable hope for the gradual improve- 
 ment of Africa. The chief motive of war among the 
 tribes will cease whenever there is no longer anv de- 
 mand for slaves. The resources of that fertile but 
 miserable country might then be developed by the 
 hand of industry, and afford subjects for legitimate 
 foreign and domestic commerce. In this manner, 
 Christianity and civilization may gradually penetrate 
 the existing gloom." 
 
 Such is the specious reasoning under which the 
 spokesman of the slave power vails his plot for the 
 annexation of a new slave State. Well may the French 
 satirist exclaim: 
 
 "It is through interest for Africa that America 
 wishes to despoil Spain; it is through aversion to the 
 slave trade that the South burns to annex one slave 
 State more! " 
 
 But what says Spain, the uneonsulted owner of the 
 property in question? On being interrogated by the 
 House of Representatives, her minister returns the 
 indignant reply: 
 
 " The government is disposed to demand the satis- 
 faction due such an insult, that it decidedly 
 
 rejects propositions so dishonorable, and that, if need 
 be, it will oppose, even by force, the dismemberment of 
 the smallest portion of the Spanish territory. 
 
 And again, he declares to the Senate: 
 
 "If any representative of a foreign power had at- 
 tempted to make me an offer for the alienation of 
 Cuba, I should have interrupted him at the first word, 
 to tell him the effect that such insinuations would pro- 
 duce on the mind of Spaniards. The preservation of 
 
52 OKIGZJV AJTD HISTORY OT 
 
 the island of Cuba is not to vis a question of interest 
 or convenience, but of dignity and honor ; all the in- 
 terest that might result from it,, all the gold that 
 might be heaped up from it, would not suffice to 
 persuade Spain to make the sacrifice of this glorious 
 relic of the precious discoveries and surprising and 
 magnificent conquests of our sires. The alienation of 
 Cuba! Such an insane thought could only enter the 
 minds of those who know nothing of Spain, and have 
 never penetrated her inmost thoughts.*' 
 
 Cuba, therefore, not being- immediately available, 
 Mexico next excited the cupidity of the Govern ment, 
 and its docile instrument thus skillfully manipulates 
 the delicate subject in his annual messag-es: 
 
 u The wrongs which we have suffered from Mexico 
 are before the world, and must deeply impress every 
 American citizen. A government which is either un- 
 able or unwilling to redress such wrongs is derelict to 
 its highest duties. The difficulty consists in selecting- 
 and enforcing the remedy. We may in vain apply to 
 the constitutional government at Yera Cruz, although 
 it is well disposed to do us justice, fbr adequate redress. 
 "Whilst its authority is recognized in all the important 
 ports and throughout the sea-coasts of the Republic, 
 its power does not extend to the city of Mexico and 
 the States in the vicinity, where nearly all the recent 
 outrages have been committed on American citizens. 
 We must penetrate into the interior before we can reach 
 the offenders, and this can only be done by passing 
 through the territory in the occupation of the consti- 
 tutional government. The most acceptable and least 
 difficult mode of accomplishing the object will be to 
 act in concert with that government. Their consent 
 and their aid might, I believe, be obtained; but if not, 
 our obligation to protect our own citizens in their just 
 rights, secured by treaty, would not be the less imper- 
 ative. For these reasons, I recommend to Congress to 
 pass a law authorizing the President, under such con- 
 ditions as they may deem expedient, to employ a suffi- 
 
AMERICAN SZsiYUm. 53 
 
 cient military force to enter Mexico for the purpose of 
 obtaining indemnity for the past, and security for the 
 future, 
 
 '* But for this expectation, I should at once have 
 recommended to Congress to grant the necessary 
 power to the President to take possession of a suf- 
 ficient part of the remote and unsettled territory of 
 Mexico, to hold in pledge, until our injuries shall be 
 redressed and our just demands satisfied. 
 
 "I can imagine no possible remedy for these evils 
 
 but for the government of the United States 
 
 to assume a temporary protectorate over the northern 
 portions of Chihuahua and Sonora, and to establish 
 military posts within the same. This protection might 
 be withdrawn as soon as local governments shall be 
 established in these Mexican States, capable of per- 
 forming their duties toward the United States" 
 
 Such was the policy of the American government 
 in 1358-59, already sufficiently shown in the semi-offi- 
 cial recognition of u Filibuster " Walker in Nicaragua. 
 Clearly the gigantic scheme of the South included in 
 its chateau de espagne the five little republics of Cen- 
 tral America, and extended to the natural bridge of 
 Panama. In reference to some existing difficulties 
 with those powers, the President says: 
 
 11 Unless this demand shall be complied with at an 
 early day, it will only remain for this government 
 then to adopt such other measures as may be neces- 
 sary, in order to obtain for itself the justice which it 
 has in vain attempted to secure through peaceful 
 means." 
 
 But the Southern mind was suddenly and rudely 
 awakened from its luxurious dreams of conquest and 
 empire by the reckless raid of John Brown upon the 
 Arsenal at Harper's Ferry. From contemplating the 
 usurpation of Mexico, the annexation of Cuba, and the 
 seizure of Central America, the bewildered Utopiaus 
 
51 ORIGVV tiJfD HISTORY OF 
 
 awoke to a realizing sense of the uncertain tenure of 
 their own domestic institutions; and the wildest ter- 
 rorism took possession of the South. 
 
 This Arsenal was the property of the United States 
 government, and guarded by United States soldiers 
 John Brown and his band remained two days in the 
 Arsenal, taking nothing but guns, the property of the 
 United States. He was captured by United States' 
 troops, a company of ninety-three marines, sent from 
 Washington by request of the Governor of Virginia, the 
 three companies of volunteers raised and armed for 
 the undertaking having proven unequal to the task of 
 capturing his one hundred negroes; yet he was sur- 
 rendered to the insane state of Virginia for trial and 
 execution. 
 
 The whole community was in a state of the most cow- 
 ardly and disgraceful panic. Absurd and impossible ru- 
 mors were implicitly believed by the terror-stricken 
 inhabitants, and a general uprising of the slaves was 
 anticipated at Eichmond. Travelers were arrested fo r 
 uttering the slightest words of sympathy in favor of 
 the brave but mistaken Brown. Large bodies of vol- 
 unteers were raised, who drilled untiringly and pa- 
 troled nightly. The universal excitement and indig- 
 nation extended to the extreme Southern States, and 
 in Savannah, Georgia, a respectable merchant was 
 tarred and feathered for expressing pity for the un- 
 fortunate old man who bore on his person six wounds, 
 and in his memory four murdered sons — two of them 
 slain by his side; the others, the early victims of the 
 Kansas outlaws. But Brown had strangely miscalcu- 
 lated the nature of the negro. He believed the slaves 
 would flock to his standard and welcome him as their 
 deliverer, but years of toil and abuse and ignorance and 
 
AMERICAN SZAYEKT. 65 
 
 degradation had brought their legitimate results. If 
 dreams of liberty had ever haunted them, they had not 
 learned that u to be free, themselvc s must strike the 
 blow;" and they looked on in apathetic wonder, their 
 dull minds scarcely able to comprehend the import of 
 the movement. The North stood coldly aloof in in- 
 difference or disapproval, and Brown was abandoned 
 to his fate. The proceedings of his trial were marked 
 b}^ the most needless haste, and the utmost caution 
 was observed in guarding the prisoner lest he should 
 be rescued. Indeed, the entire ceremony was a mere 
 farce, and his sentence a foregone conclusion. Before 
 the opening -of tne trial Governor Wise had written to 
 the Ex-Mayor of New York: 
 
 " Brown will certainly be hung, and his body will 
 be given to the surgeons to be carried beyond the 
 boundaries of the State, so that the carcass shall not 
 pollute the soil of Virginia." 
 
 On the 2d of December, 1859, Brown was hung; not 
 
 a murmur of pain or regret or anger having passed his 
 
 lips, and thus ignobly perished the unselfish originator 
 
 of a wild scheme of liberation that wanted only success 
 to have been sublime! 
 
 In 18G0 an important decision was rendered by the 
 
 Court of Appeals at Albany, which tended still further 
 
 to exasperate the South. We subjoin a history of the 
 
 case furnished by a citizen of New York to a foreign 
 
 journal. By this it will be seen that freedom was 
 
 guanteed to every slave, not a fugitive, on his landing 
 
 on free soil : 
 
 "In November, 1852, a citizen of Virginia, Jonathan 
 Lemmon, arrived at New York on board a Norfolk 
 steamer, with his wife and eight young slaves, whom 
 he was carrying to Texas, where he designed to settle. 
 While waiting till he should be ready to start for his 
 
56 OXIGIJV AJV& HISTORY OF 
 
 place of destination, he placed the negroes in an ob- 
 scure boarding-house. A free colored man discovered 
 them there, and obtained a writ of habeas corpus to 
 bring the eight slaves before a judge of the Supreme 
 Court. 
 
 " Great agitation prevailed in New York. The 
 Democrats claimed that an inhabitant of the South 
 possessed the right of transit through the Free States 
 with everything that was considered property by the 
 laws of the State where he resided. The Abolitionists, 
 and the various shades which have since formed the 
 Republican party, maintained, on the contrary, that a 
 negro was free from the moment that he touched the 
 soil of a Free State, unless he had fled from the State 
 where he was held in slavery. 
 
 " Judge Paine wasof the latter opinion ; he declared, 
 by a long and elaborate decision, that slaves could 
 under no pretext be introduced into the State of New 
 York, and ordered the eight slaves summoned before 
 him to be immediately set at liberty. 
 
 " This verdict produced a profound sensation in the 
 Southern States. The Abolitionists of New York 
 speedily raised a subscription of $300 or $400 to send 
 the freed slaves to Canada. On their side, some mer- 
 chants who had business relations with the South 
 collected 5,000 piasters by voluntary contributions to 
 indemnify Mr. Lemraon for the loss which he had 
 sustained. 
 
 " Fully satisfied with the pecuniary reparation, the 
 Virginian turned his face toward his State, thinking 
 no more of either Texas or his slaves; but the Southern 
 planters and politicians viewed the matter from a 
 higher stand-point. The Governor of Georgia took it 
 up in his message, of 1855. 
 
 "'If it be true,' said he, 'that the citizens of the 
 Slave States, who, by force of circumstances, or for 
 their convenience, seek passage through a Free State, 
 accompanied by their slaves, are by this fact alone 
 dispossessed of their property; if it be true that these 
 slaves are thus emancipated, it is time that we knew 
 the reasons of such an assertion. The repetition of 
 
AMERICAN SLAVERY. 57 
 
 such acts of violence would be a legitimate cause of war 
 with the State which should originate or suffer then.' 
 
 " The Governor of Virginia was still more explicit, 
 and demanded of his legislature to interfere, to appeal, 
 in the name of the State, from the decision of Judge 
 Paine to the Supreme Court of JSTew York. 
 
 " On December 12, 1857, the matter was brought 
 before this court, which confirmed the decision of 
 enfranchisement. The State of Virginia appealed 
 anew to the Court of Appeal at Albany, and two years 
 passed before the case was tried and a final decision 
 rendered. 
 
 " The slavery interests were sustained with great 
 talent by Charles O'Conor; William Evarts was the 
 no less eloquent defender of the Republican cause. 
 The latter won a complete triumph, and the decision 
 rendered has dispelled all uncertainty in like matters. 
 It declares that the laws of the State of New York 
 neither protect nor tolerate within its limits property 
 consisting in slaves, and cites in particular a statute of 
 1817, which, combined with the Federal Constitution, 
 gives freedom to everyone, not a fugitive, on touching 
 the soil of a Free State." 
 
 Matters now became serious. The South for once 
 was seemingly in earnest in her cries of disunion, and 
 uttered no meaningless threats. The sympathetic Mr. 
 Buchanan, at the head of the too-easily intimidated 
 Democratic party, transferred the whole load of re- 
 sponsibility upon the shoulders of the long-suffering 
 North, who in sooth had been so long the unresisting 
 scapegoat of the whole body of political sins, that this 
 undeserved addition to its burden occasioned no un- 
 easiness. Mark the petulant tone of the President's 
 last message to Congress, the cold-blooded effusion of 
 a man who had not warmth enough in his bachelor 
 heart to love a woman, least of all, his country! 
 
 "Why is it that discontent now so extensively pre- 
 
5$ ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF 
 
 vails, and that the Union of the States is threatened 
 with destruction? The long-continued and intem- 
 perate interference of the Northern people with the 
 question of slavery in the Southern States has at length 
 
 produced its natural effects The incessant and 
 
 violent agitation of the slavery question throughout 
 the North for the last quarter of a century has at 
 length produced its malign influence on the minds of 
 the slaves, and inspired them with vague notions of 
 freedom. Hence a sense of security no longer exists 
 around the family altar. Many a matron throughout 
 the South retires to rest in dread of what may befall 
 
 herself and her children before morning The 
 
 agitation has been continued by the public press, by 
 the proceedings of State and county conventions, ser- 
 mons, lectures, pamphlets, books etc. All for which 
 the Slave States have ever contended is to be let alone, 
 and permitted to manage their domestic institutions in 
 their own way." 
 
 But Mr. Buchanan's term of office was now drawing 
 to a close, and he having obviously failed of the one 
 primary object of his administration, viz: a renomi- 
 nation, the press was actively engaged in canvassing 
 the respective merits and chances of his several pos- 
 sible successors. 
 
 The Governor of Virginia, in his inaugural message, 
 protested in advance against the election of a North- 
 ern President, and exclaimed: 
 
 " The idea of suffering such a man to have in his 
 hands the army and navy of the United States, and 
 the appointment of the highest functionaries, can not 
 for a single instant be endured by the South." 
 
 As before stated, the South had invaribly been suc- 
 cessful in its choice of President. Diverse parties in 
 the North had hitherto distracted the public mind and 
 rendered it impossible for all to agree upon any one 
 aspirant. 
 
zlMEftlCAW SLAVERY. 59 
 
 Yet the North, with its two million votes against a 
 single million, possessed the power of at any time 
 exalting a candidate of its own choosing to the presi- 
 dential chair, but as before said this certainty had 
 heretofore been balked by its utter inability to agree 
 upon a common platform and candidate, a large pro- 
 portion of its citizens invaribly voting with the South. 
 
 This difficulty at length appeared to be in a measure 
 surmounted by the formation of a new party, whose 
 political creed was equally removed from the violence 
 of Southern agitators and the fanaticism of Northern 
 abolitionists. Justice tempered with moderation, strict 
 impartiality and mildness commingled with firmness, 
 were its distinguishing characteristics, embodied in 
 the person of its representative — Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 The canvass was one of unusual interest and excite- 
 ment. The threadbare threat of disunion, if defeated, 
 was extensively promulgated on the part of the South- 
 ern States. Indeed, Governor Wise of Virginia had 
 freely foreshadowed the views of his State in his mes- 
 sage, of February, 1860: 
 
 " Is there not imminent danger of disunion, and are 
 not the minds of the people, both in the North and 
 South, deeply agitated by the fear that the days of the 
 Union are numbered? Speeches in favor of disunion 
 are the order of the day in deliberate bodies, and 
 the press is full of editorials, letters, and quotations on 
 the subject. The legislators of the South are occupied 
 in seeking the best means of protecting the honor and 
 rights of their States, and are taking measures for 
 arming and disciplining the militia, with the sole end 
 to defend and protect themselves, either in or out of 
 the Union. Every one sees and feels the danger that 
 threatens us; ev^ry one regards disunion, not only as 
 a possible, but a highly probable event, and at a not 
 very distant day." 
 
GO ORIGIN siJYft MIS roar OF 
 
 Opposed to the nominee of the republican party 
 were three candidates, representing almost impercept- 
 ible shades of difference in the slave faction, and any 
 one of whom would have made an acceptable guardian 
 of the slave interest at home or abroad. 
 
 Without entering into an analysis of the causes that 
 operated in their threefold defeat, it is enough to say 
 that Abraham Lincoln was the chosen President at 
 the November election in 1860. On the following 20th 
 of December, the State of South Carolina put into 
 execution its life-long threat of disunion, and four 
 days later its Governor issued proclamation as follows: 
 
 " His Excellency, Francis W. Pickens, Governor and 
 Commander-in-Chief of the State of South Caro- 
 lina. 
 
 " While waiting until the brave people of this State 
 assembled in Convention, by an ordinance unanimously 
 adopted and ratified on the twentieth day of December, 
 in the year of our Lord 1860, have abrogated an ordi- 
 nance of the people of this State, adopted on the 
 twentieth day of Ma} 7- , in the year of our Lord 1788, 
 and have thus dissolved the Union between the State 
 of South Carolina and the other States known as the 
 "United States of America, I, as Governor an'd Com- 
 mander-in-chief of the State of South Carolina, by 
 virtue of the authority with which I am invested, do 
 proclaim by these presents ia the face of the world 
 that this State is rightfully a separate State, sovereign, 
 free and independent, and as such has a right to make 
 war, to conclude peace, to negotiate treaties, alliances, 
 or agreements, and to do all acts whatsoever belonging 
 legitimately to a free and independent State. 
 
 "Given under my hand, and the seal of this State, 
 at Charleston, on the twenty fourth day of December, 
 in the year of our Lord I860, and the eighty-fifth year 
 of the independence of South Carolina. 
 
 "F. W. PCKENS." 
 
AMERICA JV SLAVERY. <?/ 
 
 At this critical juncture of affairs, Governor Crit- 
 tenden, of Kentucky, appeared upon the scene, and 
 tendered the oft-tried remedy of compromise to heal 
 the fast widening breach. The famous propositions 
 proposed by him in the Senate of the United States 
 provided that thenceforth slavery, or involuntary ser- 
 vitude, except for crime, should be prohibited in all 
 the territories of the United States lying north of 
 latitude thirty-six degrees and tnirty minutes; that 
 slavery should not be interfered with by Congress in 
 any of the territories south of that latitude: and that 
 when the territories north of that line were entitled 
 to admission as States of that Union, the question of 
 slavery should be disposed of as their respective in- 
 habitants should determine. They further provided 
 that Congress should have no right to abolish slavery 
 in the District of Columbia; they maintained the right 
 of transit of slaves through the free States; and, finally, 
 required that the States iu which fugitive slaves had 
 been rescued from their masters should pay their full 
 value to their alleged owners. But the day of compro- 
 mise had passed. South Carolina was ftiirly launched 
 upon her absurd career, and a convention was called 
 of all the slaveholding States, whose duty it should be 
 to adopt a constitution for the government of a South- 
 ern Confederacy. 
 
 The six States of Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, 
 Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas, hastily followed the 
 ungraceful exit of South Carolina. Maryland hesi- 
 tated, then stood firm; but not without casting many 
 longing glances after the retreating forms of her slave- 
 enamored sisters; Virginia was divided against herself. 
 ISo longer the Virginia of old, the mother of presi- 
 dents and the cradle of heroes, but the Virginia, whose 
 
62 OftlGIJV AND HIS TOUT OF 
 
 whole existence was warped by discord, and com- 
 plaints, and threats of separation between her Eastern 
 and Western portions. In these the antagonistic ex- 
 periment of free and slave labor had been fairly 
 elaborated side by side, to the manifest disfavor of the 
 latter, and at last each found its own peculiar level 
 and stood, the one on the side of freedom, the other 
 among the enemies of the government of Washington. 
 
 Missouri, trembling with her own importance, at- 
 tached herself as a dead weight to the tail of the 
 Confederate kite, and oscillated for the next four years 
 between good and evil. 
 
 Kentucky and Tennessee long quivered in the bal- 
 ance, but the gallant sons of the former were never 
 found wanting in honor and allegiance to the flag they 
 helped to consecrate. Though her fields were filled 
 with the poisoned blossoms of that root of bitterness, 
 slavery, yet the pulsations of her great heart evolved 
 no truant blood. The latter followed close on the 
 lumbering heels of Arkansas, though the strong arms 
 of many of her children were outstretched to oppose 
 her suicidal course. North Carolina, who had well 
 weighed the matter, reluctantly brought up the rear 
 of the stampeding squad, and thus arose upon the 
 astonished e} T es of the nations, the historical mon- 
 strosity, born in infamy and now dead in ignominy, — 
 the " Confederate States of North America." 
 
 Such is the beginning of the chapter: the first page 
 of the bloodiest record in the book of nations. 
 
 The North, true to her servile instincts, held public 
 meetings in her principal cities, and passed concilia- 
 tory resolutions, setting forth her own hatred of abo- 
 litionists and fanatics of every description, deprecating 
 
siM&fticAJv slavery, es 
 
 secession, and most earnestly beseeching the South to 
 discriminate between those fanatics and the mass of 
 conservative people of the North, and dwelling in the 
 most affecting terms upon the high estimation which 
 the latter placed upon the good will and intelligence 
 of the slave States. But these well-meant demonstra- 
 tions excited merely contempt, for the South, with all 
 her terrible crimes and her still more terrible mistakes, 
 had never yet been guilty of the sins of meanness and 
 hypocrisy. Those political vices, as has been shown, 
 were peculiarly Northern. Meanwhile the Southern 
 Confederacy had become a fixed fact; its officers had 
 been chosen and inaugurated; warlike preparations 
 were progressing, and the Rebel Republic proceeded 
 gravely to the transaction of weighty business, as 
 though it were already a nation. But the new govern- 
 ment, based on a false foundation, and resting on the 
 unsound doctrines of negro inferiority, carried in its 
 own bosom the elements of self-destruction. 
 
 Alexander H. Stephens, Vice-President of the new 
 experiment, in a speech at Savannah, Georgia, March 
 21st, 1861, asserted that the Southern Republic was 
 founded upon the principle that u the negro is not 
 equal to the white man ; that slavery, subordination 
 to the superior race, is his natural and normal con- 
 dition;" and exultingly exclaimed that the new nation 
 was " the first in the history of the world based on 
 that great physical, philosophical and moral truths!" 
 He declared that the most valuable ingredient in the 
 Southern constitution was its final and admirable ad- 
 justment of the subject of slavery. He further asserted 
 that the founders of the Federal government were 
 grossly mistaken in the expressed opinion that slavery 
 was a violation of the laws of nature. Their views 
 
6&. 011IGIJV siJVD HIS TOR? OF 
 
 were short-sighted, false and erroneous; slavery was 
 not a violation of the laws of nature; neither was it 
 wrong socially, morally, nor politically: and the Vice- 
 President proved himself a false prophet by affirming 
 that it was not destined to be evanescent and event- 
 ually pass away. 
 
 On the 4th of March, 1861, the President elect of the 
 United States was peacefully inaugurated; a single 
 extract from his opening address gives its thema, and 
 foreshadows the intended temperate policy of the forth- 
 coming administration in regard to the peculiar insti- 
 tution: 
 
 "I have no design for interfering, either directly or 
 indirectly, with the institution of slavery in the States 
 where it exists. I believe that I have no right, and I 
 feel no wish, to do so." 
 
 The policy thus proclaimed was rigidly adhered to. 
 The Federal government looked upon the unnatural 
 orgies of the apostate States with a strange mixture of 
 wonder and apprehension, but raised not a finger to 
 obstruct their exit. It was not until the Confederate 
 government had amply completed its preparations for 
 offense and defense and assumed a belligerent attitude, 
 with an army of well drilled men, armed from the 
 national forts and arsenals which had been ruthlessly 
 seized in the very beginning of secession, that the 
 Federal government asserted its independence. Only 
 when Fort Sumpter fell beneath the fire of the rebel bat- 
 teries, and the flames of war were enkindled through- 
 out the land, did the Chief Executive of the nation 
 take up the gauntlet so defiantly flung down. Imme- 
 diately after the fall of Sumpter, on April 13th, 1861, 
 President Lincoln issued a proclamation, calling for 
 seventy-five thousand troops to suppress the rebellion, 
 
tf..JfJ?Kl&4jY SLA >'ET? 1. 
 
 and summoning Congress to meet in extraordinary 
 session on the 4th of July following. 
 
 In reviewing the history of the slaveholder's re- 
 bellion, the most casual observer can not but be forcibly 
 impressed with the singular delicacy and forbearance 
 which, throughout the progress of the war, character- 
 ized the action of the Federal government in regard to 
 the institution of slavery. It was not a war against 
 slavery, but a war for the preservation of the Union. 
 Yet the usages of warfare would have justified the 
 employment of all lawful agencies that would contrib- 
 ute to the accomplishment of that result. Slavery 
 was the soul of the rebellion, the moving spirit of the 
 bristling tabernacle, and, if destroyed, the Confederacy 
 would perforce have died with it; but with a strange 
 favoritism the government at first not only refrained 
 from attacking this, the most vulnerable point, but 
 shielded and strengthened its weak places with a zeal 
 and efficiency unsurpassed by its warmest supporters 
 in the South. Like an unskillful surgeon the govern- 
 ment directed its energies to allay the troublesome 
 symptoms of secession, while the disease itself, un- 
 touched and carefully nourished, was daily increasing 
 in force and rigor. As the Northern armies penetrated 
 southward, the slaves who flocked in hundreds from 
 the adjoining plantations, thinking to find at last be- 
 neath the starry flag the freedom of which they dared 
 to dream, were by the United States' officers politely 
 and obsequiously delivered up to their irate owners, 
 who were granted every facility for entering the Union 
 lines in search of their peculiar species of property. 
 Even soldiers were obliged to assist in their recovery, 
 and thus was the Union army at some points of its 
 invasion but little more than a huge host of marshals, 
 
ee origin ajvJ) irisToiir of 
 
 engaged in enforcing, on an extended scale, the Fugi- 
 tive Slave Law. 
 
 Subsequently, however, by an Act of Congress rela- 
 tive to the matter, it was provided, that whenever 
 slaves should be required or permitted by their masters 
 and owners to take up arms against the United States, 
 or to assist the rebellion in any manner whatever, in 
 such cases only should the said slaves become free, 
 and their former owners forfeit all right, title and 
 interest in them. Thus the sable tide that had exult- 
 ingly risen to meet the invading armies was checked 
 and driven back into the seething sea of slavery. 
 
 It is pleasant to turn from the perusal of such 
 legislative and official drivel ings to contemplate the 
 whole-souled action of the gallant Fremont in Missouri. 
 Had he performed no other act entitling him to a fair 
 remembrance in his country's history, his proclamation 
 against slavery in the early days of the rebellion, when 
 President, Congress, and army officials, all stood in 
 cringing awe of the sacred institution should win him 
 the gratitude of posterity. In that proclamation he 
 proclaimed, that by virtue of the authority vested in 
 him, " The slaves of all persons in the State of Missouri 
 who shall take up arms against the United States, or 
 who shall be directly proven to have taken active part 
 with their enemies in the field, are hereby declared 
 freemen." Thus at last was the ax laid at the root 
 of the tree, but before a blow could be struck the timor- 
 ous administration interfered to prevent damage to its 
 favorite exotic, and President Lincoln, in alarm, wrote 
 to General Fremont, directing him to so modify his 
 proclamation as to make it correspond with the Act of 
 Congress referred to above. 
 
 But General Fremont does not wear his honors alone. 
 
AMERICAN SLAVtfRr. 67 
 
 In the spring of the following year Major Hunter, com- 
 manding the department of the South, issued a proc- 
 lamation declaring the States of Georgia, Florida, and 
 South Carolina under martial law, at the same time 
 affirming, that as martial law and slavery were incom- 
 patible, he pronounced all those persons who had for- 
 merly been held to slavery in those States thenceforth 
 forever free. This spirited pronuncianiento was how- 
 ever likewise speedily annulled by the more conserva- 
 tive President. Immediately after he issued a counter 
 proclamation, repudiating the act of General Hunter as 
 nuauthorized, and asserting that he alone, by virtue of 
 his office, possessed the right to determine whether he 
 possessed power to declare the slaves of any State free; 
 and, also, if he possessed the power, whether it would 
 become necessary for the preservation of the govern- 
 ment to exercise it. Congress having previously passed 
 a joint resolution, by which the United States was 
 pledged to assist any State which might of its own 
 accord resolve to abolish slavery in its limits, with 
 pecuniary and such other aid as might be necessary to 
 enable it to execute the design, the Chief Executive 
 called attention to its provisions, as it stood recorded, 
 as a solemn and authentic proposal from the nation to 
 the slave States. None of the latter, however, availed 
 themselves of the gracious proposal, and the law in its 
 results was a dead letter. 
 
 But the logic of events brought with it the unerriiig 
 proof that the conservative views and moderate policy 
 of the administration were seriously damaging in their 
 results to the Union arms, and the government became 
 tardily convinced that a decisive blow, struck forcibly 
 upon this, the only really vital part of the rebellion, 
 would speedily be conducive to permanent success. 
 
GS OlttGIjY AjYD JTIS20ST OF 
 
 The Federal troops had suffered many reverses, and, 
 at times, the fate of the Union seemed irrevocably 
 sealed, yet still was the nation loth to use the effective 
 weapon of emancipation that so soon would have turned 
 the scale in its favor. But reverses and misfortunes 
 multiplied, and necessity, at last, compelled a resort to 
 the long ignored and unpopular remedy. 
 
 On the 12th of July, 1862, President Lincoln, in a 
 message to Congress, recommended the adoption of a 
 bill by them, referring to the abolition of slavery; said 
 bill providing that whenever any Stal^ had abolished 
 slavery throughout its limits, either immediately or 
 gradually, the President, assisted by the Secretary of 
 the Treasury, should prepare and deliver to such State 
 an amount of interest-bearing bonds of the United 
 States, equal in amount to the aggregate value of all 
 the slaves existing in said State, according to the census 
 of 1860. The bill also provided that, if the abolition 
 of slavery in any State were immediate, the payment 
 of the designated sum should be also immediate. If, 
 however, the emancipation were gradual, the payment 
 also should be gradual. This message, however, was 
 simply referred to the Committee on Finances. An 
 appeal was subsequently addressed by the President 
 to the representatives of the Border States in Congress, 
 in which he requested them to use their influence to 
 induce their constituents to adopt the policy of eman- 
 cipation as indicated in his message to Congress. To 
 this appeal there were two replies. The majority of 
 representatives thus appealed to, including those from 
 Virginia, Kentucky, Missouri and Maryland, denied 
 that any necessity existed for the abolition of slavery 
 in any of the States which they represented, and re- 
 fused to believe that its abolition in the rebel States, 
 
AMERICAN SLAVERY. G& 
 
 by Federal power, would assist in securing the triumph 
 of the Union cause. 
 
 A minority of the representatives, however, con- 
 curred in the views of the President. They declared 
 that slavery was the " Lever-power of the Kebellion," 
 and expressed their willingness to make any sacrifice 
 for the restoration of the Union, and concluded by 
 affirming that, if the rebels could give up slavery to 
 destroy the Union, ' ; they could surely ask their people 
 to consider the question of emancipation to save the 
 "Union." 
 
 This newly-inaugurated policy of the President was 
 still further indicated by the publication of an order 
 from the Secretary of War, under direction of the 
 President, that the military commanders in the States 
 of Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, 
 Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas and Texas should 
 employ as laborers, within said States, as many persons 
 of African descent as could be advantageously used for 
 military and naval purposes, giving them reasonable 
 wages for their labor, while accounts should be kept 
 recording from whom said slaves were taken, and the 
 value of their labor, "as a basis upon which compen- 
 sation can be made in proper cases." 
 
 Previously, however, a " Confiscation and Emancipa- 
 tion Act" had, in compliance with his message, been 
 passed by both Houses of Congress, and, on July 17, 
 was approved by President Lincoln, and, by his ap- 
 proval, was converted into law. By this act it was 
 provided that whoever should thereafter be guilty of 
 treason against the United States should suffer death, 
 or be fined and imprisoned, and their slaves become 
 free. Also, any person who should in any way encour- 
 age and assist the existing rebellion should incur fine 
 and imprisonment, and his s aves be declared free. 
 
70 ORIGIN AJ\*D HISTORY OF 
 
 It further enacted that the slaves of persons engaged 
 in hostility against the Government of the United 
 States, who escaped within the lines of the Federal 
 armies, should not be restored to their masters, but be 
 declared free, and that no fugitive slave who had thus 
 escaped should be restored to his master, unless the 
 master should prove he was loyal to the Federal gov- 
 ernment, and had in no way assisted and encouraged 
 the rebellion; that, further, the President was empow- 
 ered to employ persons of African descent to assist in 
 the suppression of the rebellion, in such manner as he 
 deemed expedient; and, lastly, rendered it lawful for 
 him to make provision for the settlement and coloniza- 
 tion of such negroes who, becoming free through the 
 operations of this act, should desire to locate beyond 
 the limits of the United States. 
 
 Again, on the 22d of September, 1862, President 
 Lincoln issued a proclamation that yet stands forth in 
 bold relief, from the universal gloom that enshrouded 
 the land, and inflicted a deadly blow upon the hitherto 
 jealously-guarded institution of slavery. Circumstances 
 had rendered it necessary, and this measure, so long 
 deprecated by the President, was even then indispen- 
 sable to the subjugation of the revolted States. 
 
 Ho declared in it his intention of recommending, at 
 the next meeting of Congress, the adoption of measures 
 tendering pecuniary assistance and compensation to all 
 of the slave States whose citizens would not then be 
 engaged in rebellion against the Federal government, 
 and who might then or afterward adopt immediate or 
 gradual emancipation within their respective limits, 
 and advising the colonization of free negroes at some 
 distant place on the American Continent. 
 
 Referring to the Acts of Congress of March 13th and 
 
AMERICAN SLAVERY. 7t 
 
 July 17th, 1862, forbidding the fugitive slaves within 
 the lines of the Union armies to be returned to their 
 masters, or employing the Federal forces in any man- 
 ner to assist in restoring them, he announced that on 
 the first day of January, 1863, he would designate 
 those States and parts of States which were then in re- 
 bellion against the Federal government, and would 
 decree that the slaves of citizens of such rebel regions 
 should thereupon become free, and that all the slaves 
 of persons actively engaged in hostilities against the 
 United States should thenceforth be enfranchised. 
 Such are the main features of this famous proclamation 
 given to the world in the darkest days of the Republic 
 When men's hearts were failing them, and the loyal 
 millions who had labored and suffered so much to re- 
 store the once glorious Union were sitting in the 
 shadow of despair, it lights up the surrounding gloom 
 with an effulgent glory that shall brighten to the close 
 of time, and shines all the fairer upon the page of his- 
 tory by contrast with the dreary days of national de- 
 feat. It was received throughout the North with gen- 
 eral but calm satisfaction, a noteworthy fact, inasmuch 
 as the preceding proclamations in reference to the sub- 
 ject had provoked a degree of opposition, and even in- 
 dignation, from many of the friends and supporters of 
 the government, that under the circumstances, was 
 wholly uncalled for. But the North had now felt the 
 bitterness of defeat. It looked forward to a doubtful 
 issue of the dreadful conflict that had rapidly depleted 
 it of its blood and treasure. Its colossal armies had 
 fought with fluctuating and variable results. Some- 
 times their star of fortune seemed in the ascendency, 
 and shining with unwonted brilliancy, again paling 
 and scintillating sickly in the distance, the great hope 
 
72 0KIG1JV sIjYD HISTORY OP 
 
 of victory vibrating in unison until it culminated in 
 untoward disaster and wide-spread calamity; and now 
 the Northmen who still prayed and worked for vic- 
 tory, were reconciled to the extremest measures that 
 promised them success, and hailed with quiet satis- 
 faction this portentous indication that the government 
 had risen in its strength, and was about to exert the 
 full measure of its powerful weight to crush the body 
 of its foes. 
 
 The memorable year of 1862 was now drawing to a 
 close. The history of its gigantic battles, its pro- 
 tracted sieges and its terrible slaughters, is still fresh 
 in the annals of the nation, and the blood-marks are 
 yet warm upon its portals. Steadily had the tide of 
 war rolled on; sometimes spreading ruin and dismay 
 throughout the Southland, but oftener threatening to 
 engulf, in its angry waves, the struggling hosts who 
 battled for the Union of their common forefathers. 
 But the blood-besprinkled and battle-torn year went 
 grandly down to its death, crowned with far more than 
 war-won laurels, and was embalmed forever in the 
 incense of the slave's remembrance. With its last ex- 
 piring moment perished silently upon American soil 
 the curse of human slavery. No more slaves in Amer- 
 ica! No more traffic in the souls of men! Oh! was 
 not that a glorious result, worthy of the glorious cause 
 bo gallantly contested? 
 
 God's instruments clothed in humanity had wrought 
 out the dread problem of the ages, and from the har- 
 assing clouds of fratricidal war had evolved the divine 
 solution. On the morrow not a slave would stand 
 upon the continent. The Emancipation Proclamation, 
 that solemn death-warrant of a peculiar but most bar- 
 barous institution had received the signature of Abra- 
 
AMERICAN SL AYE RT. 73 
 
 ham Lincoln, the Chief Executive of a powerful but 
 outraged nation, and the new year was already begin- 
 ning to dawn upon a spectacle America had never 
 heretofore presented — a nation of free men ! 
 
 PROCLAMATION OF EMANCIPATION. 
 
 " I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, 
 and Commander-in-chief of the Army and Navy thereof, 
 do hereby jDroclaim and declare that hereafter, as here- 
 tofore, the war will be prosecuted for the object of prac- 
 tically restoring the constitutional relation between the 
 United States and the people thereof in those States in 
 which that relation is, or may be, suspended or dis- 
 turbed ; that it is my purpose upon the next meeting 
 of Congress to again recommend the adoption of a 
 practical measure tendering pecuniary aid to the free 
 acceptance or rejection of all the slave States, so-called, 
 the people whereof may not then be in rebellion against 
 the United States, and which States may then have 
 voluntarily adopted, or thereafter may voluntarily 
 adopt, the immediate or gradual abolishment of slavery 
 within their respective limits, and that the effort to 
 colonize persons of African descent, with their consent, 
 upon the continent or elsewhere, with the previously 
 obtained consent of the government, existing there, 
 will be continued ; that on the first day of January, in 
 the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and 
 sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State, 
 or any designated part of a State, the people whereof 
 shall then be in rebellion against the United States, 
 
 SHALL BE THEN, THENCEFORWARD AND FOREVER, FREE ; 
 
 and the military and naval authority thereof will rec- 
 ognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and 
 will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of 
 them, in any efforts they may make for actual freedom; 
 that the Executive will, on the first day of January 
 aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the States ai^d 
 parts of States, if any, in which the people thereof re- 
 7 
 
7U OftlGIJV AJ\^ HISTORY OF 
 
 spectively shall then be in rebellion against the United 
 States ; and the fact that any State, or the people 
 thereof, shall on that day be in good faith represented 
 in the Congress of the United States by members chosen 
 thereto, at elections wherein a majority of the qualified 
 voters of such State shall have participated, shall, in 
 the absence of strong countervailing testimony, be 
 deemed conclusive evidence that such State and the 
 people thereof have not been in rebellion against the 
 United States. 
 
 "Your attention is hereby called to an act of Con- 
 o-ress entitled, 'An act to make an additional article of 
 war,' approved March 13, 1862, and which act is in the 
 words and figures following: 
 
 " ' Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Represen- 
 tatives of the United States of America, in Congress 
 assembled, That hereafter the following: shall be pro- 
 mulgated as an additional article of war for the gov- 
 ernment of the Army of the United States, and shall 
 be observed and obeyed as such: 
 
 " ' Article — . All officers or persons of the military 
 or naval service of the United States are prohibited 
 from employing any of the forces under their respect- 
 ive commands for the purpose of returning fugitives 
 from service or labor who may have escaped from any 
 persons to whom such service or labor is claimed to be 
 due, and any officer who shall be found guilty by a 
 court-martial of violating this article, shall be dis- 
 missed from the service. 
 
 " ' Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, that this act 
 shall take effect from and after its passage.' 
 
 " Also to the ninth and tenth sections of an act en- 
 titled, ' An act to suppress insurrection, to punish trea- 
 son and rebellion, to seize and confiscate property of 
 rebels, and for other purposes.' approved July 17, 
 1862, and which sections are in the words and figures 
 following: 
 
 " 'Sec 9. And be it further enacted, that all slaves 
 of persons who shall hereafter be engaged in rebellion 
 against the Government of the United Sta f .es, or who 
 shall in any way give aid or comfort thereto, escaping 
 
from such persons and taking refuge within the lines 
 of the army; and all slaves captured from such persons 
 or deserted by them, and coming under the control of 
 the Government of the United States, and all slaves of 
 such persons found on (or being within) any place 
 occupied by rebel forces and afterward occupied by 
 the forces of the United States, shall be deemed cap- 
 tives of war, and shall be forever free of their servi- 
 tude and not again held as slaves. 
 
 " ' Sec. 10. And be it further enacted, that no slave 
 escaping into any State, Territory or the District of 
 Columbia, from any of the States, shall be delivered 
 up, or in any way impeded or hindered of his liberty, 
 except for crime, or some offense against the laws, un- 
 less the person claiming said fugitive shall first make 
 oath that the person to whom the labor or service of 
 such fugitive is alleged to be due, is his lawful owner, 
 and has not been in arms against the United States in 
 the present rebellion, nor in any way given aid or 
 comfort thereto; and no person engaged in the mili- 
 tary or naval service of the United States shall, under 
 any pretense whatever, assume to decide on the va- 
 lidity of the claim of any such person to the service or 
 labor of any other person, or surrender up any such 
 person to the claimant, on pain of being dismissed from 
 the service.' 
 
 "And I do hereby enjoin upon, and order all per- 
 sons engaged in the military and naval service of the 
 United States to observe, obey and enforce within their 
 respective spheres of service the act and sections above- 
 recited. 
 
 " And the Executive will, in due time, recommend 
 that all citizens of the United States who shall have 
 remained loyal thereto throughout the rebellion, shall 
 (upon the restoration of the constitutional relation be- 
 tween the United States and their respective States 
 and people, if the relation shall have been suspended 
 or disturbed) be compensated for all losses by acts of 
 the United States, including the loss of slaves. 
 
 " In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand 
 and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. 
 
7 d ORIGIN o4.J\T2) HISTORY OF 
 
 " Done at the city of Washington, this twenty-second 
 day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand 
 eight hundred and sixty-two, and of the Independence 
 of the United States the eighty-seventh. 
 
 " By the President: Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 " Wm. H. Seward, Secretary of State." 
 
rtMEfiicAJr szsiVEKr. 77 
 
 PAET II. 
 
 ;^e $|rbedmehx 
 
 HE morning of the 1st of January, 1863, dawned 
 upon the grandest spectacle the world had ever 
 seen. The two halves of a great nation, sun- 
 dered more widely by mutual hate and fear, than 
 though a mighty ocean rolled between their hostile 
 shores, were pausing, as if to gain fresh strength and 
 courage for a renewed attack upon each other's armies; 
 while out from the smoke of the conflict seemed to issue 
 a white-winged angel of peace, proclaiming " Liberty 
 to all the land and freedom to all the inhabitants 
 thereof !" The sons and the daughters of Africa, scarce 
 daring to hope that to them the heaven-sent messenger 
 had brought the "glad tidings of good news," stood 
 doubtingly upon the threshold of a new existence. 
 Slavery was dead! murdered by the suicidal folly of 
 its own too zealous advocates in a futile, though right- 
 royal, effort for its preservation. 
 
 The sublime words of the Proclamation of Emanci- 
 pation had already published its death-knell abroad 
 to the listening nations, and the dull ears of the slave 
 though scarce comprehending its import, were glad, 
 dened by the sound. The dawning of the new year 
 was likewise the dawning of a new era in the grand 
 
78 OftlGIJV AJT1) HISTORY OF 
 
 cycle of the ages, for slavery was dead, and America, at 
 last, was free! 
 
 But the liberty so reluctantly bestowed, and so 
 doubtingly received, was not, as yet, the proud, ex- 
 ultant and intelligent liberty of the hereditary freemen. 
 Instead, it was rather the spiritless, unreasoning free- 
 dom of the long caged animal suddenly turned loose, 
 frightened, distrustful, and dreading to stir lest it 
 should be remanded to its former prison house. The 
 freedmen were free but in name. Ishmael-like, they 
 issued from a worse than Egyptian bondage to wander 
 for a season in a darker wilderness of doubt and sorrow 
 than beset the weary feet of Israel's ungrateful sons. 
 
 The edict of Emancipation, though based firmly upon 
 humanity, morality and religion, was still in itself but 
 a military necessity, reluctantly resorted to when the 
 fluctuating fortunes of the imperiled Eepublic were at 
 the lowest ebb. Hitherto the armies of the rebellion 
 had been strengthened and upheld in the field by the 
 labor of the slaves. The negroes were employed in 
 cultivating the farms, in providing for the support of 
 the families of the soldiers, and upon the severer labors 
 of the camp and fortification, thereby enabling the 
 rebels to place a proportionably larger force in the 
 field than the North; and thus the slave, who was 
 really the friend of the Union, was made the powerful 
 ally of the rebel government. 
 
 Emancipation, apart from any humane or moral 
 consideration, was indispensable to the success of the 
 Union cause, and the proclamation that bestowed free- 
 dom upon the slave ultimately brought ruin upon the 
 fortunes of the rebels, by destroying the primary cause 
 of the war, and removing the chief supporting pillar of 
 the Confederacy. 
 
AMERICAN SLAYER T. 79 
 
 Arising from the Proclamation, as a necessary corol- 
 lary, was the consideration of the question of the rela- 
 tion of the negro race to the war. The question of 
 enlisting as soldiers the free colored men of the North 
 had for some time excited much discussion. The pro- 
 ject in certain circles provoked much opposition, and 
 many Congressmen, of. both political parties, took de- 
 cided ground against the measure as revolutionary and 
 repulsive; and in the highest degree insulting to the 
 feelings of the white soldiers. 
 
 But the body of the people felt convinced, from the 
 compulsory method of reasoning which had led them 
 to hail with satisfaction the enunciation of the procla- 
 mation of freedom, that the enlistment of negro troops 
 would lighten materially the burdens and sufferings of 
 their friends in the field; that in the desperate situa- 
 tion of the country the assistance, not of the free 
 negroes in the North only, but of those so recently 
 emancipated in the South, was absolutely necessary to 
 enable them to make a determined resistance to the 
 almost superhuman exertions of the rebels. 
 
 On the 28th of January, 1863, a bill was introduced 
 into the House of Eepresentatives by Mr. Stephens, 
 authorizing the employment of African troops in the 
 Federal armies. It at first met with much opposition, 
 and its passage was not secured until a later period. 
 The bill as passed by Congress and approved by the 
 President, was as follows : 
 
 " Be it enacted, etc., That the President be, and he is 
 hereby authorized, to enroll, arm, equip, and receive 
 into the land and naval service of the United States, 
 such number of volunteers, of African descent, as he 
 may deem useful to suppress the present rebellion, for 
 such term of service as he may prescribe, not exceed- 
 ing five years ; the said volunteers to be organized 
 
80 OftlGIJV AJVD HISTORY OF 
 
 according to the regulations of the branch of the serv- 
 ice in which they may be enlisted, to receive the same 
 rations, clothing, and equipments as other volunteers, 
 and a monthly pay not to exceed that of the volun- 
 teers; to be officered by white or black persons ap- 
 pointed and commissioned by the President, and to be 
 governed by the rules and articles of war, and such 
 other rules and regulations as may be prescribed by 
 the President. 
 
 " Provided, That nothing herein contained, or in the 
 rules and articles of war, shall be so construed as to 
 authorize or permit any officer of African descent to 
 be appointed to rank or to exercise military or naval 
 authority over white officers, soldiers, or men in the 
 military or naval service of the United States; nor 
 shall any greater pay than ten dollars per month, with 
 the usual allowance of clothing and rations, be allowed 
 or paid to privates or laborers, of African descent, which 
 are or may be in the military or naval service of the 
 United States. Provided farther, That the slaves or 
 loyal citizens of the States exempt by the President's 
 proclamation of January 1st, 1863, shall not be received 
 into the armed service of the United States, nor shall 
 there be recruiting offices opened in either of the States 
 of Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky, 
 Tennessee or Missouri, without the consent of the 
 Governors of the said States having been first ob- 
 tained." 
 
 The good effects of this measure became at once ap- 
 parent. " The colored troops fought nobly" and by their 
 bravery and good conduct in the battles in which they 
 were engaged fully justified the most sanguine expec- 
 tations of their friends. 
 
 Before midsummer of the year 1863 more than thirty 
 thousand troops of African descent had been enrolled 
 in the Union army. The tide of war again turned in 
 favor of the Federal forces, and victory once more 
 perched upon the banners of the Union. The negro 
 
volunteers were first employed at the siege of Vi'cks- 
 burg, and rendered effective service; completely re- 
 futing the assertions so often made, that they were 
 deficient in the courage and endurance requisite to the 
 profession of arms. On the 6th of July an attack was 
 made upon Milliken's Bend by the rebels under com- 
 mand of General Walker. The Union force then sta- 
 tioned there was composed for the most part of negro 
 troops, portions of four regiments then forming for the 
 service, but who had never been under fire. The attack- 
 ing party was first repulsed by the colored troops, but 
 not without great loss to the latter, nearly six hundred 
 of whom were lost in the engagement that followed. 
 Some two hundred of their number were taken pris- 
 oner, not one of whom was ever afterward heard from. 
 The refusal of the rebel authorities to give any account 
 of them, together with the semi-official avowal of the 
 intention of the rebel government to indiscriminately 
 slaughter the freedmen who became soldiers of the 
 United States, should they fall into their hands, jus- 
 tifies the painful assumption that they were murdered 
 after their capture. Indeed, the whole subsequent 
 history of the rebellion is blurred by the record of 
 many such inhuman butcheries. 
 
 In Louisiana a body of five hundred negroes, from 
 the abandoned plantations of the Attakapas country, 
 resolved to reach the Union camp and enlist as soldiers. 
 Accordingly, they armed themselves with such weapons 
 as they could find — pitchforks, old shot guns, etc., and 
 proceeded peaceably on their way; but on reaching the 
 town of St. Martinsville, through which they must 
 pass, they concluded to demand the surrender of the 
 place, deeming this the best plan to avert a collision 
 with the citizens. The people of St. Martinsville went 
 
$2 OftZGIJV AND JflSlORT OF 
 
 out to meet them with the Union flag, and by profes- 
 sions of friendship induced them to lay down their 
 arms and enter the town. On doing so they were at 
 once seized by the inhabitants, and every one hung on 
 the spot; the rebel officers who assisted in the murder 
 afterward boasting of the number they helped to kill. 
 
 A month later occurred the massacre of more than 
 two thousand helpless negro prisoners at Brashear, 
 Louisiana, mostly the infirm, and old men, women, 
 and children — the able-bodied men having joined the 
 colored regiments. The rebels having defeated the 
 Union forces and captured the town, rushed upon the 
 contraband camp and slaughtered all indiscriminately, 
 save a very few who managed to effect their escape. 
 But the crowning act of butchery, which stamps upon 
 the Southern Confederacy the ineffaceable disgrace of 
 mingled cowardice and brutality, was reserved for 
 General Forrest, at Fort Pillow. Having by the most 
 pusillanimous treachery obtained possession of the 
 fort on April 12th, an inhuman massacre of four hun- 
 dred persons ensued, the heart-sickening details of 
 which are almost too horrible for belief. 
 
 " Then followed a scene of cruelty and murder with- 
 out parallel in civilized warfare, which needed but the 
 tomahawk and scalping knife to exceed the worst 
 atrocities ever committed by savages. The rebels com- 
 menced an indiscriminate slaughter, sparing neither 
 age nor sex, white or black, soldier or civilian. The 
 officers and men seemed to vie with each other in the 
 fiendish work; men, women, and even children, wher- 
 ever found, were deliberately shot down, beaten, and 
 hacked with sabers; some of the children, not more 
 than ten years old, were forced to stand up and face 
 their murderers while being shot; the sick and the 
 wounded were butchered without mercy, the rebels 
 <even entering the hospital building and dragging them 
 
AMERICAN SLAVERY. 89 
 
 out to be shot, or killing them as they lay there un- 
 ble to offer the least resistance. All around were 
 heard cries of 'No quarter!" ' Nu quarter!' 'Kill the 
 niggers; shoot them down !" All who asked for mercy 
 were answered by the most cruel taunts and sneers. 
 Some were spared for a time, only to be murdered 
 under circumstances of greater cruelty. No cruelty 
 which the most fiendish malignity could devise was 
 omitted by these murderers. One negro, who had 
 been ordered by a rebol officer to hold his horse, was 
 killed by him when he remounted; another, a mere 
 child, whom an officer had taken up behind him on his 
 horse, was seen by Chalmers, who at once ordered the 
 officer to put him down and shoot him, which was 
 done. The huts and tents, in which many of the 
 wounded had sought shelter, were set on fire, both 
 that night, and the next morning, while the wounded 
 were still in them — those only escaping who were able 
 to get themselves out; and even some of those, thus 
 seeking to escape the flames, were met by those ruffians 
 and brutally shot down, or had their brains beaten out. 
 One man was deliberately fastened down to the floor 
 of a tent, face upward, by means of nails driven through 
 his clothes and into the boards under him, so that he 
 could not possibly escape, and then the tent set on fire; 
 another was nailed to the side of a building outside the 
 fort, and then the building set on fire and burned." 
 
 Yet such atrocities were unquestionably ordered and 
 sanctioned by the rebel leaders, they justifying the 
 outrages and asserting that they were under orders to 
 show nu quarter to the negro troops when captured. 
 
 On the next day, Forrest dispatched the rebel Gen- 
 eral Buford to Columbus, Kentucky, demanding the un- 
 conditional surrender of the post, and threatening, if 
 his request were not immediately complied with, he 
 would, if compelled to storm the fort, show no quarter 
 to the negro troops. 
 
 Colonel Lawrence, commander of the fortress, re- 
 
«$>4 ORIGIN rt.JYD HISlOftT OF 
 
 fused emphatically to surrender the post, and Buford, 
 taking advantage of his flag of truce to steal a number 
 of horses, prudently returned to the rebel camp, mak- 
 ing no attempt to attack the Union garrison. 
 
 In nothing is the patient, forgiving disposition of 
 the negroes more apparent than in their having ab- 
 stained from taking retributive vengeance, in the many 
 opportunities offered them afterward, upon the mur- 
 derers of their families and kinsmen. Yet, as may be 
 supposed, the recital of such bloody deeds nerved them 
 for the most daring exhibitions of heroism. The cer- 
 tainty of a horrible fate, if captured, precluded all 
 thoughts of surrender; and they fought desperately, 
 to the death. The record of the negro regiments dur- 
 ing the war is replete with instances of individual 
 valor and of combined bravery. In nothing did they 
 fall below the white soldiers of either of the opposing 
 armies. They fought, as their commanding officers 
 have testified, " like madmen," and freely flung down 
 their lives to save the shattered country that hereto- 
 fore had deserved no gratitude from any of their race. 
 
 But the military atrocities of the South were des- 
 tined to meet a fitting parallel at the North. In 
 the later j^ears of the war the action of the Federal 
 government had been seriously embarrassed by the 
 opposition of a party calling themselves " Peace Demo- 
 crats," who sympathized strongly with the slave- 
 holder's rebellion, and lost no opportunity of covertly 
 assisting it, or of conniving to defeat the aims and 
 measures of the government. This party obtained a 
 prominency in the second year of the war, and though 
 highly unpopular at the North, yet maintained its 
 organization and consistency until the close of the war, 
 when the sudden conversion of its adherents to war 
 
AMERICAN SLAVERY. S5 
 
 measures was edifying, not to say amusing. Their 
 relation to the war of the rebellion is analogous to that 
 of the Tories and Royalists to the Revolutionary era. 
 The pernicious doctrines they had taken such pains 
 to inculcate, culminated on July 13th, 1863, in a dis- 
 graceful riot in the city of New York, in which prop- 
 erty to the amount of nearly two million dollars was 
 destroyed, twenty-five of the police were killed, and 
 about one hundred wounded, while thirty negroes were 
 murdered and some seventy wounded. Never had the 
 malignant hatred of a certain class of people at the 
 North toward the negro obtained a more repulsive 
 demonstration than on this occasion. Meetings of the 
 prominent rioters had been held on Sunday the 12th, 
 and their revolutionary schemes which had been under 
 consideration for some time were fully perfected. At 
 an early hour of Monday morning organized parties, 
 chiefly but not exclusively composed of Irish, gathered 
 in the streets, shouting their admiration for Jefferson 
 Davis, the Southern Confederacy, Fernando Wood, and 
 other prominent officials of their j)arty. The authori- 
 ties were panic stricken, and offered but little resist- 
 ance to the mob; and the police, who alone opposed 
 them, met with severe losses. The railroad tracks were 
 torn up, and the telegraph wires cut. Frantic attempts 
 were made to destroy the offices of the New York Trib- 
 une and New York Times, both of which had rendered 
 themselves especially obnoxious to the rioters by their 
 strong advocacy of the energetic prosecution of the 
 war. But it was upon the hapless negroes that the 
 most violent fury of the mob expended itself. If col- 
 ored men or women appeared upon the street they 
 were instantly pursued, hunted down like wild ani- 
 mals, beaten, stamped upon, hung to lamp-posts, or 
 
S6 OftlGIJf #LJV¥) HISTORY OF 
 
 thrown into the river. Their houses were plundered, 
 torn down, or burned, and their helpless occupants, 
 infirm women and little children, beaten and murdered. 
 The Colored Orphan Asylum, a large substantial build- 
 ing upon Fifth Avenue, occupied by seven or eight 
 hundred colored children, was plundered and burned 
 to the ground, the teachers and children barely escap- 
 ing with their lives. The negroes had been for years 
 the most quiet, orderly, and unoffending class in the 
 city. But for the offense of being negroes they were 
 persecuted with the most relentless hostility. Men and 
 women too of the lowest class, and chiefly Irish, were 
 guilty of the most shameless atrocities and barbarity 
 upon these unresisting victims of unprovoked bru- 
 tality. On the evening of Tuesday Governor Seymour 
 came to the city, and addressing the mob as " friends " 
 begged them to desist from further mischief, but the 
 rioters raged on unheeding. On Thursday Archbishop 
 Hughes caused a placard to be posted throughout the 
 city, addressed " to the men of New York, who are now 
 called in many of the papers rioters," inviting them to 
 his house that he might address them. Such concilia- 
 tory measures proved fruitless. Only when the mob 
 had satiated its malignant desires for innocent blood, 
 and exhausted its demoniac rage upon the poor, bruised 
 black bodies of its victims, did the disturbances cease, 
 and quiet once more resume its reign. 
 
 As may naturally be supposed, the remarkable events 
 that characterized the four years' struggle, for the 
 safety of the Union, excited no ordinary degree of 
 interest in the nations of the Old World. From the be- 
 ginning they had marked the progress of the war with 
 varied emotions. Looking upon the United States as 
 a powerful rival, they saw already in the decline of 
 
AMERICAN SLATER T> 8? 
 
 her prestige their own future aggrandizement, and 
 proclaimed her long-tried Kepublicanism already a 
 failure. The sympathies of the sovereigns of Europe 
 were not with her, but the people, the toiling observing 
 masses, accepted her cause as their own, and watched 
 prayerfully the progress of the dubious struggle. Espe- 
 cially was this true of the common people of England. 
 On the last day of 1862, a meeting composed mainly of 
 the working men and operatives of Manchester, but at 
 which were present several distinguished persons, pre- 
 pared and sent to Abraham Lincoln an address, in 
 which was expressed their fraternal sentiments toward 
 America, and lauding the United States as " a singu- 
 larly happy abode for the working millions." The 
 address then declared that but one thing alone had 
 lessened the respect of its authors for the American 
 people, and this was, that their politicians, so far from 
 endeavoring to mitigate the existence of slavery among 
 them, had endeavored to root it more firmly and ex- 
 tend it more widely. But since the efforts of the gov- 
 ernment were now powerfully directed to the extinc- 
 tion of slavery, their sympathies were bestowed wholly 
 upon the cause of the Union. The address further 
 declared : 
 
 " We assure you that you can not now stop short of 
 a complete uprooting of slavery. It would not become 
 us to dictate any details, but there are broad prin- 
 ciples of humanity which must guide you. If complete 
 emancipation of some States be deferred, though only 
 to a predetermined day, still, in the interval, human 
 beings should not be counted as chattels. Women must 
 have rights of chastity and maternity, men the rights of 
 husbands, masters the liberty of manumission. Justice 
 demands for the black, no less than for the white, the pro- 
 tection of laic — that his voice be heard, in your courts* 
 
SS ORIGIN AJYD HISTORY OF 
 
 Nor must any such abomination be tolerated as slave- 
 breeding States and a slave market — if you choose to 
 earn the reward of all your sacrifices in the approval 
 of the universal brotherhood, and of the Divine Father. 
 
 " It is for your free country to decide whether any 
 thing but immediate and total emancipation can secure 
 the most indispensable rights of humanity against the 
 inveterate wickedness of local laws and local execu- 
 tives. We implore you, for your own honor and wel- 
 fare, not to faint in your providential mission. While 
 your enthusiasm is aflame, and the tide of events run 
 high, let the work be finished effectually. Leave not 
 the root of bitterness to spring up and work fresh 
 misery to your children. It is a mighty task, indeed, 
 to reorganize the industry, not only of four millions of 
 the colored race, but of five millions of whites. Never- 
 theless, the vast progress which you have made, in the 
 short space of twenty months, fills us with hope that 
 every stain on j 7 our freedom will shortly be removed, 
 and that the erasure of that foul blot upon civilization 
 and Christianity — chattel-slavery — during your Presi- 
 dency, will cause the name of Abraham Lincoln to be 
 honored and revered by posterity. We are certain 
 that such a glorious consummation will cement Great 
 Britain to the United States. 
 
 "Accept our high admiration of your firmness in 
 upholding the proclamation of freedom," 
 
 To this address the President returned an exceed- 
 ingly appropriate and dignified response; while the 
 loyal people of the "United States received with pleas- 
 ure this testimonial of friendly feeling from this esti- 
 mable portion of the British people, many of whom 
 had shown so decided a lack # of sympathy for the Union 
 eause. 
 
 The attention of the charitable people of the North 
 had been early attracted to the destitute condition of 
 the freedmen and refugees who pressed into the Union 
 
jlMEftZC^W SLAVERY. 89 
 
 lines, and accompanied the armies on the march. " Con- 
 traband camps " arose, as if by magic, all over the 
 Southern country, and twenty-five thousand liberated 
 captives joyfully toiled onward with the triumphant 
 cavalcade that swept the verdant valleys of Georgia 
 and South Carolina when " Sherman marched down to 
 the sea." 
 
 Freedmen's Aid Societies in co-operation with the 
 Soldiers' Aid Societies, were formed in the cities and 
 villages of the North, and energetic measures were 
 speedily inaugurated, looking to the relief of the un- 
 fortunates. Nor were their spiritual wants forgotten. 
 Organizations were formed for the purpose of furnish- 
 ing them with teachers, books, and whatever else was 
 most needed. In this way much good was effected, 
 and the war which had opened with slavery in the 
 ascendency closed peacefully upon the ruins of the 
 system, while the millions of its trembling bondmen 
 joyfully accepting the long-denied right of liberty, 
 stood ready to enter the new life, not of freedmen only, 
 but of free men. 
 8 
 
90 OftlGJJV tiJyD tflSTORX OF 
 
 PAKT III. 
 
 J^E ^REBDMEJ^S jgU^EAUx 
 
 HE close of the war in 1865 found the condition 
 of the masses of the freedmen but little im. 
 proved. A fearful rate of mortality prevailed, 
 and many had perished on the field of battle, or were 
 massacred by the pitiless soldiery of the South. Many 
 were wholly dependent upon the government for the 
 means of sustenance, and many more eked out a bare 
 subsistence upon scanty and unwholesome food, while 
 all shared largely in the demoralization of the country. 
 The South groaning under the burdens of its own bind- 
 ing, distracted with excitement and anxiety, impover- 
 ished and humiliated by the sacrifices and disappoint- 
 ments entailed upon its unhappy people by the fortunes 
 of war, was shattered to the very center of its social 
 system. Confusion and anarchy reigned supreme, save 
 in those districts occupied by the national troops, and 
 reduced to order by military commanders. The con- 
 dition of the colored people at this early stage of 
 emancipation was deplorable in the extreme. Sud- 
 denly set free, but scarcely realizing the full import of 
 their freedom, without employment, without means of 
 sustenance, and beyond the reach of friends who could 
 assist or would advise — for strangely enough, their for- 
 
aiMJESlCsiJV SLAVES Y. 9* 
 
 mer masters looked upon this unoffending people as 
 the primary cause of all the horrors and sufferings en- 
 gendered by the reign of terror their own rash mis- 
 deeds had inaugurated, and regarded them with a bitter, 
 revengeful spirit, that frequently found vent in unpro- 
 voked cruelty and outrage — while their isolated posi- 
 tion, in the midst of a rebellious territory, debarred 
 from them the charity and benevolence of the North. 
 Thus a situation more horribly helpless, more hopeless, 
 and more truly lamentable can not well be imagined. 
 Thousands of men, women and children, wretched, 
 destitute, suffering, sick, and in many instances perish- 
 ing from lack of shelter, food, clothing, and medical 
 care — crowded into the cities and villages of the South, 
 while many of the more able-bodied, who had followed 
 the invading armies on the march, were collected in 
 miserable camps on deserted plantations, and com- 
 manding officers were obliged to issue rations from the 
 commissariat to save multitudes from absolute starva- 
 tion. 
 
 Naturally, the horrors of their situation were aggra- 
 vated by their uncertainty and ignorance regarding 
 their new relations, and by well-founded fears of pun- 
 ishment should they be obliged to return to their 
 former owners and abandoned drudgery. 
 
 About 20,000 of such wretched refugees were in the 
 District of Columbia; 100,000 in Virginia; nearly 50,000 
 in North Carolina; and as many more in South Caro- 
 lina, Georgia, New Orleans, and along the Mississippi 
 Biver. 
 
 Here indeed was a fruitful field for charity, and the 
 active benevolence of the Christian people of the North 
 — following in the wake of the army — began to flow in 
 one broad and steady channel toward the homeless 
 
92 0SIG1JV AJ\TD HISTORY OF 
 
 exiles. Private associations and public societies were 
 formed, and engaged zealously in the work of relief. 
 But the work was too vast for private means and 
 agencies, and the government came tardily with its 
 powerful support. 
 
 Here were four million helpless human beings, ap- 
 pealing silently to the sympathy and charity of the 
 world, and enduring their privations and misfortunes 
 with a degree of heroism or stoicism, that showed, too 
 well, they were inured to such hardships. Four mill- 
 ion human beings destitute and ignorant, anxious to 
 work should labor be provided to obtain food\and cloth- 
 ing, silently demanding protection from injustice and 
 brutality, scattered throughout the length and breadth 
 of a rebellious and unfriendly territory, and threatened 
 with utter immolation unless the strong arm of the 
 government was extended to their relief, were to be 
 provided with hospitals for their sick, homes for their 
 orphans, labor for their middle-aged, asylums for their 
 old, and schools for their young. 
 
 From such contingencies, and for such benevolent 
 purposes, arose the Freedmen's Bureau, that grand 
 
 j combination of charity and protection that has stood 
 as a wall of defense between the humble ex-slave and 
 his revengeful master. 
 
 ' On the first day of January, 1863, the Emancipation 
 Proclamation was promulgated, and, on the following 
 12th of January a bill to establish a Bureau of Eman- 
 cipation in the War Department was presented in the 
 House of Representatives, and on the 19th of January 
 was referred to a committee. Congress adjourned how- 
 ever on the 4th of March following, no action having 
 been taken in the House upon the report of the com- 
 mittee. 
 
AMERICAN SZAT'Eltr. Oj 
 
 On the 14th of December, 1863, at the first session of 
 the thirty-eighth Congress, a bill to establish a Bureau 
 of Emancipation was again introduced in the House, 
 and again referred to a select committee of nine mem- 
 bers. The bill was reported on the 22d of December, 
 and came up for debate in the House on the 10th of 
 the following February. Its discussion was continued 
 until the 1st of March, 1864, when a motion to lay the 
 bill on the table was rejected by sixty-two yeas against 
 sixty-eight nays, and the bill passed by a vote of sixty- 
 nine yeas against sixty-seven nays, with the title of 
 " A bill to establish a Bureau of Freedmen's Affairs." 
 It was sent to the Senate on the 2d of March, 1864, 
 and on the 29th of June was returned to the House 
 with an amendment placing the Bureau under the 
 charge of the Secretary of the Treasury. On the 2d 
 of July the bill was reported back from* the House 
 Committee, with the recommendation that the Senate 
 amendment be not concurred in. Its further consid- 
 eration was then postponed, and on the next day Con- 
 gress adjourned. At the second session of the thirty- 
 eighth Congress the bill was again considered, the 
 House dissenting from the Senate amendment, and a 
 Committee of Conference was appointed on the 20th 
 of December, 1864. On the 2d of February, 1865, the 
 committee reported a bill " to establish a department 
 of Freedmen and Abandoned Lands." Again a dispo- 
 sition to lay the whole subject on the table was mani- 
 fested, but a motion to that effect was defeated by a 
 vote of sixty-seven yeas to eighty -two nays. On Feb- 
 ruary 9th the report of the committee was accepted by 
 the House, but the Senate rejected it, and a new con- 
 ference was ordered. On the 3d of March, 1865, a bill 
 was reported as a substitute, by the committee entitled, 
 
91 OHIGIJV jIjYD Misrour OF 
 
 "An act to establish a Bureau for the relief of Freed- 
 men and Eefugees." This report was agreed to, by 
 both Houses of Congress, and President Lincoln on the 
 same day approved the bill; more than one year hav- 
 ing elapsed since the first bill was passed by the House- 
 By the terms of the law its duration was originally 
 limited to one year after the close of the war, but it 
 was subsequently amended so as to continue in force 
 for two years. The Bureau was organized by General 
 O. O. Howard, previously of the army of Tennessee, 
 he having been selected as commissioner by President 
 Lincoln, and afterward confirmed in the appointment 
 by President Johnson. On the 15th of May, 1865, 
 Commissioner Howard entered upon his duties. Con- 
 gress having adjourned on the day following the pas- 
 sage of the act creating the Bureau, no appropriation 
 had been made for its support, and its various officers 
 and agents accordingly were detailed for service from 
 the army, and these were directed to apply for the 
 means of relieving the wants of the destitute to the 
 different charitable associations of the country, which, 
 during the one year of legislation required by Congress 
 to enact a single humane statute, had labored faithfully 
 and successfully in proportion to their means to as- 
 suage the sorrows and lighten the burdens of a shiver- 
 ing^starving, outcast people. 
 
 While no direct appropriation of moneys for the use 
 of the Bureau was made by Congress until July 13th, 
 1866, yet by the provisions of the law authorizing it, 
 arrangements were made for its support by means of 
 abandoned property, rents of abandoned lands, and 
 confiscated property of leading rebels. Thus, by means 
 of material furnished by the rebellion itself, the Bu- 
 reau, if properly managed, would doubtless soon have 
 
AMERICAN SLATER 2. 95 
 
 become an independent and self-sustaining institu- 
 tion, and thus the terrible " mistake " of the Southern 
 people, as an offset to the incalculable amount of harm 
 wrought through the period of its duration, would 
 eventually have been productive of no small amount of 
 good through its debris. But shortly after the passage 
 of the law appeared President Johnson's proclamation 
 of pardon, and in the restoration of lands and prop- 
 erty to pardoned rebels that followed, the Bureau was 
 deprived of its expected support. 
 
 Commissioner Howard, in reply to a resolution of 
 the House of Representatives, referred to the conse- 
 quent disarrangement of his plans as follows: 
 
 " The real property turned over to it at its organ- 
 ization was seized, for the most part, as abandoned. 
 
 " It was intended not only to allot this to freedmen, 
 but also to use it as a means of revenue. For the latter 
 purpose it had already become exceedingly useful and 
 valuable to the Bureau, and measures had been ini- 
 tiated to use portions for the former purpose, when, 
 on the 16th of August, instructions were received to 
 the effect that abandoned property should be restored 
 to former owners when pardoned. Under these in- 
 structions the Bureau has parted with the greater por- 
 tion of this property. Its tenure upon it has been 
 rendered so uncertain that the steps taken to allot it 
 to freedmen have been countermanded in most in- 
 stances, and its revenue has been so curtailed that it 
 is not now a self-supporting institution. " 
 
 Previously to the formation of the Freedmen's Bu- 
 reau, under what was then called the Department of 
 Negro Affairs, a fund collected by the Treasury De- 
 partment from the rent of abandoned lands and from 
 the sale of property set apart for the use of the freed- 
 men, and held by the Secretary of the Treasury, was 
 by order of President Johnson transferred to the Bu- 
 
96 ORIGIN AJVD HISTORY OF 
 
 reau on June 2d, 1865. Also such commissary, quarter- 
 master, medical and hospital stores as were pressingly 
 needed to supply immediate want were furnished by 
 the war department: 
 
 " The whole expenditure since the pas- 
 sage of the law, March 3, 1865, down 
 to January 1, 1868, from moneys ap- 
 propriated by Congress for the Bu- 
 reau, amounts to $4,397,854 39 
 
 " But of that amount the sum of $500,000 
 was applied, under a resolution of 
 Congress directing the Secretary of 
 War to issue supplies of food to pre- 
 vent starvation and extreme want, to 
 destitute white persons in the South- 
 ern and Southwestern States, where 
 failure of crops had caused destitu- 
 tion. This amount was set apart for 
 that purpose April 3, 1867. A fur- 
 ther sum of $50,000 was transferred 
 by Congress to the Agricultural De- 
 partment for seeds to the South 550,000 00 
 
 " These sums should not be charged to 
 the expense account of the Bureau; 
 so that the whole expenditure from 
 appropriations by Congress for the 
 
 use of the Bureau since its establish- 
 
 ment amount to 3,847,854 39 
 
 " There has been expended by the Bureau, in addi- 
 tion to what Congress has appropriated, since the 
 establishment of the Bureau, the sum of $1,561,602 62. 
 But this sum had been collected from abandoned prop- 
 erty and from property assigned to freedmen before 
 the Bureau went into operation ; and of this sum 
 there has been expended for educational purposes 
 $392,526 98. ' 
 
 Immediately on General Howard's accession to the 
 charge of the Bureau, he began zealously and untir- 
 
AMERICAN SZATERr. 97 
 
 jngly the work of creating a new world of law and 
 order from the floating, heterogeneous mass of crude 
 material scattered through the South. 
 
 His first order to his assistant commissioners was to 
 protect loyal refugees from abuse, and to maintain and 
 declare everywhere the freedom of the freedmen. With 
 the approval of the President they were authorized to 
 adjudicate all difficulties arising between whites and 
 negroes in cases where justice could not be obtained 
 through the civil courts. They were also directed to 
 exert all their influence to pre serve peace and good 
 order in the districts over which their jurisdiction ex- 
 tended. To execute these orders it was necessary lor 
 the officers stationed in the rebel States to resort to a 
 variety of ways and expedients. As may be supposed 
 in a community educated to believe in the divine origin 
 of slavery, magistrates and judges could now seldom be 
 persuaded to regard colored men as equals before the 
 law with whites; and at first they positively refused to 
 receive the testimony of negroes against white per- 
 sons. Hence became necessary bureau courts, provost 
 courts, and boards of arbitration for the settlement of 
 all ordinary complaints. In cases of capital crime and 
 felony, or involving titles to real estate, appeal was 
 made to the military commanders. 
 
 Earely indeed has an attempt been made by a civil 
 officer to bring guilty persons to justice when the 
 aggrieved party was a negro ; and yet the reports 
 of these bureau officers are replete with instances of 
 cruelty and violence toward the freedmen. l ' Mur- 
 ders, whipping, tying up by the thumbs, defrauding of 
 wages, over-working, combining for purposes of extor- 
 tion, and binding out of children as apprentices with- 
 out their parent's consent," are some of the varied 
 9 
 

 99 ORIGIN zlJY& HISTORY OF 
 
 forms in which Southern planters and property holders 
 testified their affection for their emancipated slaves; 
 and no pen can do justice to the self-denying labors 
 and steadfast exertions of the body of bureau agents 
 stationed at remote parts throughout the subjugated 
 but unsettled territory of the South. A position more 
 isolated, more unenviable, more dangerous, and more 
 productive of hard work can not easily be imagined. 
 Probably, since the origin of the government, no single 
 institution save the Freedmen's Bureau, and no sepa- 
 rate body of men beside its agents in the South, have 
 been so vigorously assailed, so maliciously misrepre- 
 sented, and so bitterly maligned. 
 
 Many of the latter were mobbed, some were mur- 
 dered, and all of them during their enforced sojourn in 
 the South subjected to insults the most coarse, threats 
 the most brutal, and annoyances the most contempt- 
 ible, that ever disgraced civilized barbarians. But if 
 attention to duty, persevering patience, and the con- 
 sciousness of a good work well t ? performed can compen- 
 sate for lack of sympathy, social ostracism, and per- 
 sonal abuse, then verily they have their reward! 
 
 For the more successful furtherance of its objects the 
 Bureau was divided into the. several departments of the 
 land_and claim division, the financial, medical, sub- 
 sistence, and educational divisions; each of which, in 
 its offices, operations, and results, contributed to pro- 
 mote the primary ends of the institution, viz: to pre- 
 pare the freedman for his new condition; to aid him 
 during the transition period from slavery to freedom; 
 to protect him in the enjoyment of his natural and 
 acquired rights immediately consequent on emancipa- 
 tion; to inaugurate and secure a system of free labor, 
 and to foster and develop education. It was not the 
 
AMERICAN SLAVERY. 99 
 
 purpose of the Bureau to supersede the benevolent 
 agencies already engaged in the work of instruction, 
 but to systemize and facilitate them. From the report 
 of the Congressional Committee on Freedmen, March 
 10, 1868, we condense the following brief account of 
 the operations of the Bureau in regard to the latter: 
 
 "When our armies entered the South two facts be- 
 came apparent: first, a surprising thirst for knowledge 
 among the negroes; second, a large volunteer force of 
 teachers for their instruction. 
 
 "Without delay schools were successfully established 
 and the earliest efforts to impart knowledge found the 
 freedmen ready for its reception. Teachers of charac- 
 ter and culture were ready from the first. To some 
 extent the army had carried its own instructors. Ne- 
 gro servants of officers studied at the camp-fires of 
 fellow servants. Chaplains of colored troops became 
 instructors. In the campaigns of 1864 and 186.5 the 
 Christian Commission employed 50 teachers in colored 
 camps and regiments. 
 
 "At the close of the war it is believed that 20,000 y 
 colored soldiers could read intelligently, and a much 
 larger number were learning their first lessons. 
 
 " Eeally wonderful results had been accomplished 
 through the disinterested efforts of benevolent associa- 
 tions working in connection with the government. 
 But arrangements were soon made to give, on a larger 
 scale, systematic and impartial aid to all of them. This 
 consisted in turning over for school use temporary gov- 
 ernment buildings no longer needed for military pur- 
 poses, and buildings seized from disloyal owners; also 
 transportation for teachers, books, and school furni- 
 ture, with quarters and rations for teachers and super- 
 intendents when on duty. 
 
 " Schools were taken in charge by the Bureau, and 
 in some States carried on wholly (in connection with 
 local efforts) by use of the 'refugees and freedmen's 
 fund.' Teachers came under the general direction of 
 the assistant commissioners, and protection through 
 
fOO OXIGIJV dJYD EISlORr OF 
 
 the department commanders was given to all engaged 
 in the work. 
 
 "Superintendents of schools for each State were ap- 
 pointed July 12, 1865, whose duty it was ' to work as 
 much as possible in connection with State officers who 
 may have had school matters in charge, and to take 
 cognizance of all that was being done to educate refu- 
 gees and freedmen, secure protection to schools and 
 teachers, promote method and efficiency, and to cor- 
 respond with the benevolent agencies which were sup- 
 plying his field. ' 
 
 "The total number of pupils January 1, 1866, in all 
 the colored schools, as near as could be ascertained, 
 -7was 90,589 ; teachers, 1,314 ; schools, 740. 
 
 " Wherever our troops broke through the lines of 
 the enemy, schools followed. At Hampton, Beaufort, 
 North Carolina, Roanoke Island, and New Orleans, 
 they were soon in operation. A very efficient system 
 was instituted for Louisiana in the early part of 1864, 
 by Major General Banks, then in command of that- 
 State. It was supported by a military tax upon the 
 whole population. Schools were opened in Savannah, 
 Georgia, on the entrance of General Sherman, in De 
 cember, 1864, and 500 pupils were at once enrolled. 
 Ten intelligent colored persons were the first teachers, 
 and nearly $1,000 were immediately contributed by the 
 negroes for their support. This work was organized 
 by the Secretary of the American Tract Society, Bos- 
 ton. Two of the largest of these schools were in 
 4 Bryan's slave mart,' where platforms occupied a few 
 days before with bondmen for sale became crowded 
 with children learning to read. 
 
 " At the end of the school year, July 1, 1866, it was 
 found that while complete organization had not been 
 reached, the schools in nearly all the States were stead- 
 ily gaining in numbers, attainment, and general in- 
 fluence. 
 
 "The official reports of superintendents gave 975 
 schools, 1,405 teachers, and 90,778 pupils. But these 
 figures were not a true exhibit of the actual increase. 
 They did not include many schools which failed to re- 
 
AMERICAN SLAVERY. fOl 
 
 port. It was estimated that in all the different meth- 
 ods of teaching there had been, during the preceding 
 six months, 150,000 freedmen and their children earn- 
 estly and successfully occupied in study. 
 
 "Some change of sentiment had, at this time, been 
 observed among the better classes of the South; those 
 of higher intelligence acknowledging that education 
 must become universal. Still, multitudes bitterly op- 
 posed the schools. Teachers were proscribed aDd 111- 
 treated ; school-houses were burned ; many schools 
 could not be opened, and others, after a brief struggle, 
 had to be closed. Nevertheless, the country began to 
 feel the moral power of this movement. Commenda- 
 tions came from foreign lands, and the universal de- 
 mand of good men was that the work should go on. 
 
 u As showing the desire for education among the 
 freedmen, we give the following facts : When the col- 
 lection of the general tax for colored schools was sus- 
 pended in Louisiana by military order, the consterna- 
 tion of the colored population was intense. Petitions 
 began to pour in. I saw one from the plantations across 
 the river, at least thirty feet in length, representing 
 ten thousand negroes. It was affecting to examine it, 
 and note the names and marks [X] of such a long list 
 of parents, ignorant themselves, but begging that their 
 children might be educated, promising that from be- 
 neath their present burdens, and out of their extreme 
 poverty, they would pay for it. 
 
 " In September, 1865, J. W. Al vord, the present gen- 
 eral superintendent, was appointed 'Inspector of 
 Schools. ' He traveled through nearly all the States 
 lately in insurrection, and made the first general re- 
 port to the Bureau on the subject of education, Janu- 
 ary 1, 1866. 
 
 " Extracts from this report give the condition of the 
 freedmen throughout the whole South. He says, 'The 
 d esire o f the freedmen for knowledge has not been 
 ove rstated . This comeYlr^hTseveralcauses. 
 ~'l. The natural thirst for knowledge common to all 
 men. 
 
 " '2. They have seen power and influence among 
 
t02 ORIGIJV siJVD &IS20HY OF 
 
 white people always coupled with learning ; it is the 
 sign of that elevation to which they now aspire. 
 
 " '3. Its mysteries, hitherto hidden from them in 
 written literature, excite to the special study of books. 
 
 '"4. Their freedom has given wonderful stimulusto 
 all effort, indicating a vitality which augurs well for 
 their whole future condition and character. 
 
 " ' 5. But, especially, the practical business of life now 
 upon their hands shows their immediate need of edu- 
 cation. 
 
 "'This they all feel and acknowledge; hence their 
 unusual welcome of and attendance upon schools is 
 confined to no one class or age. Those advanced in 
 life throw up their hands at first in despair, but a 
 little encouragement places even these as pupils at the 
 alphabet. 
 
 " 'Such as are in middle life, the laboring classes, 
 gladly avail themselves of evening and Sabbath- 
 schools. They may be often seen during the intervals 
 of toil, when off duty as servants, on steamboats, 
 along the railroads, and when unemployed in the 
 streets in the city, or on plantations, with some frag- 
 ment of a spelling-book in their hands, earnestly at 
 study. 
 
 " 'Regiments of colored soldiers have nearly all made 
 improvement in learning. In some of them, where but 
 few knew their letters at first, nearly every man can 
 now read, and many of them write. In other regi- 
 ments one-half or two-thirds can do this. 
 
 " 'Even in hospitals I discovered very commendable 
 efforts at such elementary instruction. 
 
 " 'Bat the great movement is among children of the 
 usual school ager Their parents, if at all intelligent, 
 encourage them to study. Your officers add their in- 
 fluence, and it is a fact, not always true of children, 
 that among those recently from bondage, the school- 
 house, however rough and uncomfortable, is of all 
 places most attractive. A very common punishment 
 for misdemeanor is the threat of being kept at home for 
 a day. The threat, in most cases, is sufficient.' 
 
 " The report goes on to say, ' Much opposition has 
 
been encountered from those who do not believe in the 
 elevation of the negro. A multitude of facts might be 
 given. It is the testimony of all superintendents that 
 if military power should be withdrawn, our schools 
 would cease to exist. 
 
 u ' This opposition is sometimes ludicrous as well as 
 inhuman. A member of the legislature, in session 
 while I was at New Orleans, was passing one of the 
 schools with me, having at the time its recess, the 
 grounds about the building being filled with children. 
 He stopped and looked intently, then earnestly inquired 
 •'Is this a school?" "Yes," I replied. " What ! of niggers?" 
 " These are colored children, evidently," I answered. 
 u Well! well!" said he, and raising his hands, "I have 
 seen many an absurdity in my lifetime, but this is the 
 climax of absurdities /" I am sure he did not speak 
 from effect, but as he felt. He left me abruptly, and 
 turned the next corner to take hig seat with legislators 
 similarly prejudiced.' / 
 
 " The act of July 16, 1866, enlarged the powers of the*' 
 Bureau in regard to education. It sanctioned co-oper- 
 ation with private benevolent associations, and with 
 agents and teachers accredited by them. It directed 
 the Commissioner to ' hire or provide, by lease, build- 
 ings for purposes of education whenever teachers and 
 means of instruction, without cost to the government, 
 should be provided.' And, also, that he should ' fur- 
 nish such protection as might be required for the safe 
 conduct of such schools.' 
 
 " The schools, on the passage of this act, assumed in 
 all respects a more enlarged and permanent character. 
 Schools in the cities and larger towns began to be 
 graded. Normal or high schools were planned, and a 
 few came into existence. The earliest of these were at 
 Norfolk, Charleston, New Orleans and Nashville. 
 
 " Industrial schools for girls, in which sewing, knit- 
 ting, straw-braiding, etc., were taught, were encouraged. 
 School buildings, \>y rent or construction, were largely 
 provided, and new stimulus was given to every de- 
 partment. 
 
 " The freedmen, in view of new civil rights, and 
 
iOi. OHTGIJV siJV^) HISTORIC OJT 
 
 what the Bureau had undertaken for them, had gained 
 an advanced standing, with increasing self-respect and 
 confidence that a vastly improved condition was with- 
 in their reach. 
 
 " Up to this time it had been questioned whether 
 colored children could advance rapidly into the higher 
 branches, but it was found that 23,727 pupils were in 
 writing, 12,970 in geography, 31,692 in arithmetic, and 
 1,573 in higher branches ; and that out of 1,430 teach- 
 ers of the day and night schools, 458 were colored 
 persons. 
 
 " The January report stated that ' the actual results 
 reached, since these schools commenced, both in num- 
 bers and in advancement, were surprising.' At the 
 end of the school year, July 1, 1867, it could be said, 
 ' We look back with astonishment at the amount ac- 
 complished. Such progress as is seen under auspices 
 admitted to be unfavorable; the permanency of the 
 schools, scarcely one failing when once commenced; 
 the rapid increase of general intelligence among the 
 whole colored population, are matters of constant re- 
 mark by every observer. Thus far this educational 
 effort, considered as a whole, has been eminently suc- 
 cessful. The country and the world are surprised to 
 behold a depressed race, so lately and so long in bond- 
 age, springing to their feet and entering the lists in 
 hopeful competition with every rival.' 
 
 " Reports from all the States show that there are 
 1,839 day and night schools, 2,087 teachers, and 
 111,442 pupils. By adding industrial schools, and 
 those 'within the knowledge of the superintendent,' 
 the number will be 2,207 schools, 2,442 teachers, and 
 130,735 pupils. 
 
 "Sabbath-schools also show much larger numbers 
 during the past year, the figures being 1,126 schools 
 and 80,647 pupils; and if we add those 'not regularly 
 reported,' the whole number of Sabbath-schools will 
 be 1.468, with 105,786 pupils ; totals, schools of all 
 kinds, as reported, 3,695 ; pupils, 238.342. Of these 
 schools 1,086 are sustained wholly or in part by the 
 freedmen, and 391 of the buildings in which these 
 
AMEJtlCAJV SLAYER*. /05 
 
 schools are held are owned by themselves; 699 of the 
 teachers in the day and night schools are colored and 
 1,388 white; 28,068 colored pupils have paid tuition, 
 the average amount per month being $12,720 96, or a 
 fraction nvgr 45 oprnts p p.r £fihnjfl.r._ Only 8^74-3 pupils 
 were free before the war. 
 
 " As showing the progress of the schools, it will be 
 observed that 42.879 pupils are now in writing, 23,957 
 in geography, 40,454 in arithmetic, and 4 661 in higher 
 branches. Twenty-one normal or high schools are in 
 operation, with 1 821 pupils, the schools having doubled 
 in number during the last year with three times the 
 number of pupils. Of these schools not many are far 
 advanced, but they are intended to be what their name 
 implies. 
 
 "There are now 35 industrial schools, giving instruc- 
 tion to 2,124 pupils in the various kinds of female 
 labor, not including 4,185 in the day schools, who are 
 taught needle-work. The average daily attendance 
 in all the above schools has been nearly 75 per cent, of 
 the enrollment. 
 
 " There are now connected with these schools 44 
 children's temperance societies, called the ' Vanguard of 
 Freedom/ having, in the aggregate, 3,000 members. 
 These societies are constantly increasing, and doing 
 much to train children in correct moral habits. 
 
 " Education in thrift and economy is effected through 
 the influence of the 'Freedmen's Savings and Trust 
 Company,' chartered by Congress, and placed under 
 the protection of this Bureau. Twenty branches of 
 thi^ institution, located in as many of the central cities 
 and larger towns of the Southern States, are now in 
 operation Six of these banks have, at this time (Jan- 
 uary 1, 1868), on deposit an average of over $50,000 
 each, the whole amount now due depositors at all the 
 branches being $585,770 17. Four times this amount 
 has been deposited and drawn out for use in important 
 purchases, homesteads etc. Both the business and the 
 influence of the banks are rapidly increasing. Multi- 
 tudes of these people never before had the first idea of 
 saving for future use. Their former industry was only 
 
foe ORIGIJV siJYD HIS 2 It Y OF 
 
 a hard, profitless task, but under the instructions of 
 the cashiers the value of money is learned, and they 
 are stimulated to earn it." 
 
 In accordance with an act of Congress arrangements 
 have been made for the discontinuance of the opera- 
 tions of the Bureau, save in the Educational and Claim 
 Departments, after the 31st day of December, 1868. 
 Having in great measure accomplished the work for 
 which it was designed, its further continuance was 
 deemed unnecessary, not even its founders having 
 wished to engraft it as a permanent institution upon 
 the government. 
 
 Did not the incalculable amount of good wrought 
 through its instrumentality yet remain as witness to 
 its beneficial influence, no higher eulogium upon the 
 character of the Freedmen's Bureau could be produced 
 than this significant fact: throughout all the South its 
 enemies have been the men who persistently fought 
 against the government; its steadfast and loyal friends 
 were those, who, during the progress of the rebellion, 
 faithfully adhered to the fortunes of the Union. 
 
stMJ2RCri.W SZdYERY* tO? 
 
 PAET IV. 
 
 J^e Missionary ^c^ools of tub @out^ x 
 
 HE ecclesiastical history of America has long 
 furnished many of the most sublime instances 
 of missionary faith and enterprise ever placed 
 on record. The charities of her churches are un- 
 bounded ; the zeal and liberality of her professors pro- 
 verbial; and the labors of her ministers unsurpassed. 
 The various religious sects of the country have con- 
 stantly vied with each other in extending the limits 
 of their usefulness, and the number of their proselytes. 
 Her missionary ships have sailed on every sea. Her 
 boundless love embraces every land and nation. In 
 every clime and for every race of men her missionaries 
 have toiled and suffered. They have braved the dan- 
 gers of the deep, the treachery of savage men, the 
 sickliness of sultry climates, the loneliness of foreign 
 and unfriendly lands ; and amid the many difficult 
 duties and weighty responsibilities that are none the 
 less burdensome because voluntarily assumed, they 
 have borne with a sublime courage and resignation 
 the thousand trivial trifles and discouragements insep- 
 arable from their station. 
 
 But while thus keenly alive to the miseries and de- 
 gradation of the ignorant natives of the Old World, 
 
/OS OftlGIJV ri.JY2) JTIST0S2 OJf 
 
 America was strangely blind to the existence of a class 
 of heathen in her midst, who in point of ignorauce and 
 degradation were not a whit behind their benighted 
 brethren on the coast of Africa. The beam of Southern 
 slavery in her own eye occasioned no inconvenience, 
 nor cost her a single pang of conscience, while busied 
 in removing those unsightly motes in the clear vision 
 of Christendom. 
 
 But a day of awakening came at last, heralded it is 
 true by the confused sounds of battle, and denied by 
 garments rolled in blood ; yet in the dread struggle 
 that ensued the scales fell from her eyes, and she heard 
 in the heat of the conflict the divine behest of the God 
 of battles commanding her to let his people go! 
 
 And when strengthened and purified by the trying 
 ordeal from whence she emerged victorious, she saw 
 the last stronghold of rebellion subdued, with her own 
 glorious ensign again raised in undimmed splendor 
 over land and sea, and heard the united voices of mill- 
 ions of free men swell in the glad tones of rejoicing, 
 the triumphant notes of victory; then, in the hour of 
 her triumph, and the day of her rejoicing, America 
 remembered the poor ! 
 
 At the close of the war the whole Southern country, 
 with its 4,000,000 of emancipated slaves, was opened to 
 missionary effort. The Freedmen's Bureau was created 
 by the government for their protection against violence 
 and oppression. The steady stream of supplies which 
 the generous people of the North had been pouring out 
 for suffering soldiers was not permitted to subside. 
 Naturally it reverted to the freedmen, and saved thou- 
 sands from starvation. But millions of dusky hands 
 were reached forth imploringly for knowledge, and 
 eager tongues were asking for instruction. Nor did 
 
AMERICAN SLAYER*. 109 
 
 they ask in vain. The various educational agencies 
 of the North responded nobly. Philanthropic and 
 Christian men and women tendered their services as 
 instructors, and the people proffered means propor- 
 tionate to the magnitude of the work. 
 
 The American Missionary Association was first in 
 the field, and by a strange coincidence its first school 
 was stationed at Fortress Monroe, Virginia, near the 
 spot where the first slave ship had landed its cargo on 
 the continent in 1620. Thus have the slave ship and 
 the colored school marked the two great eras in the 
 history of the Southern States; the one founding a 
 system of error and iniquity, the other building upon 
 the ruins of that system a fair structure of piety and 
 intelligence that shall stand in its effects forever. 
 
 The Association was eminently fitted for the task of 
 Christianizing the late slaves. Aside from its unsec- 
 tarian character, which especially recommended it to 
 the churches of the North as an impartial medium 
 through which their charities could be dispensed, its 
 history not only as an anti-slavery society, but as a 
 missionary organization was well calculated to prepare 
 it for the work. For fifteen years it had struggled 
 against the terrible power of slavery, North and South 
 in Church and State, as well as in social and business 
 life. Founded in sympathy for the oppressed, it found 
 a fruitful field for the labors of its representatives 
 among this unlettered people, and aiming to educate 
 not their minds only, but to elevate their moral natures 
 also, it early engaged in the glorious undertaking of 
 lifting up the lowly from the deeps of sin made 
 doubly dark by their ignorance and destitution. 
 
 Other similar societies and church organizations fol- 
 lowed. Schools by various religious denominations 
 
ffO ORIGIN AJV'D HISZORT OF 
 
 were organized in rapid succession, and the astonished 
 eyes of the ex-confederates saw with amazement that 
 their late chattels, personal, were actually possessed of 
 souls and minds. 
 
 This was the great result of the war. The army of 
 blue-coated heroes who had marched down to battle 
 with so lofty a courage was succeeded by the army of 
 " Yankee schoolmams" armed with the Bible and spell- 
 ing-book, who invaded the South in as genuine a spirit 
 of heroism, for as patriotic and deserving a cause, and 
 with as triumphant results, as the grand army of pio- 
 neers who had led the way and thrown down the 
 barriers of caste. 
 
 No eulogium is needed for them. They came in the 
 name and in the spirit of Jesus, asking no reward, 
 looking not for fame, and expecting no praise of men. 
 They enlisted in an humble cause to contend with an 
 enemy whose weapons were keener and more relent- 
 less than the bayonets of warriors — the terrible giant 
 of public opinion. 
 
 They came to bring relief to humble homes, to read 
 the blessed pages of the Bible to their ignorant but 
 gladdened inmates, to breathe gentle prayers beside 
 the bedside of the sick and dying, to teach daily lessons 
 of meekness, of charity, and of self denial, to brighten 
 the lot of the poor and lowly by their quiet presence, 
 and above all to tell them of that Savior who had loved, 
 and, in loving, had died for them. We will let them tell 
 their own story in their own words, prefacing it with 
 this vivid picture of their personnel, sketched by the 
 artist pen of the gifted Mrs. Mary Clemmer Ames: 
 
 ( " Harper's Ferry, West Ya., 
 
 | December, 1866. 
 
 " Yesterday, looking from my window, I caught a 
 glimpse of 'animated nature,' which quickened with 
 
new life the repose caught from the blending here of 
 ruins, rocks, and rivers. What was it? It was a small 
 procession of Yankee girls, just from the cars, coming 
 into Harper's Ferry, to scatter through the valley of 
 Virginia, as teachers of the freed-people. That was a 
 sight you would have to come all the way to the old 
 slave-lands to appreciate ! There they were — ' the 
 teachers ! ' The teachers ! for whom Virginians had 
 the most chivalric contempt, and the few Northern 
 hearts here the warmest greeting. 
 
 " A troop of maidens, who, in some undefinable way, 
 suggest Tennyson's ' sweet girl graduates with their 
 golden hair,' although I am very sure that their tresses 
 are not all of the hue of the sun. I see jaunty hats and 
 natty jackets, gay scarfs and graceful robes. I see 
 elegance, beauty and youth; all come to brighten the 
 lot of the lowly, to deliver from ignorance and vice 
 that victim race which our brothers with their blood 
 delivered from chains. 
 
 " Opposite my window they encounter a Virginian 
 belle, arrayed in the splendor of a purple dress, a 
 scarlet shawl, a green hat, and a blue vail. Her scorn- 
 ful eyes behold the object which of all others she 
 despises most — ' a nigger teacher.' What is worse, she 
 beholds more than a dozen 'nigger teachers' all to- 
 gether. It is a dreadful, unbearable sight, is it not, my 
 dear? I suppose I ought to be very sorry for you; 
 but I am not sorry a bit. It is an affliction of great 
 magnitude, to be sure, that your whilom servants 
 should be taught by better and prettier teachers than 
 you ever had in your life ; but it is a humiliation which 
 you will have to bear, and the only way that you can 
 lessen it is to improve yourself. 
 
 " This old house, once occupied by the superintendent 
 of the armories is now used as the temporary abode 
 of the superintendent of the freed-people's schools in 
 the valley of the Shenandoah, the Eev. Mr. Brackett, 
 of Maine. In a grand old room, defaced by war, yet 
 brightened with pictures and books from home, over- 
 looking the prospect which I just inadequately sketched, 
 I saw yesterday a scene not to be forgotten. That 
 
fj9 OftlGIJV AJTD HIS 20 ft Y OF 
 
 lovely Sabbath afternoon no church-doors opened to 
 
 the teachers! With their books in their hands, they 
 
 surrounded this wide room, holding a simple service of 
 
 their own. A room full of youthful women, far from 
 
 home and all its loves, sang the Lord's song in a 
 
 strange land. Those old walls, which within the last 
 
 five years had resounded so often to the oath and jest 
 
 of dissolute men, now sent back the echoes of sweet 
 
 womanly voices, through which loving hearts trembled 
 
 as they sang, 
 
 ' Nearer, my God, to Thee, 
 Nearer to Thee.' 
 
 "Here was the red -lipped school-girl, just from 
 school; here the young widow, holding in tearful love 
 the memory of buried husband and child; here were 
 women in the prime of matured power, with their 
 rare beauty of sumptuous womanhood — women, whose 
 elegance and grace and line mentality would have lent 
 luster to the highest sphere. Such were the teachers 
 of the freed slaves, who sat and knelt together; whose 
 soft eyes dimmed with tears as they sang the hymns of 
 home, and prayed for the blessing of God upon their 
 work. After making due allowance for all superficial 
 enthusiasm and the romance which may be inseparable 
 from the womanly nature and missionary labor, who 
 can measure the significance of the fact that hundreds 
 of voung, gifted and cultivated women from the North 
 are now scattered through the South as teachers of its 
 former slaves ; and though much against their will, 
 and almost contrary to their knowledge, teachers as 
 well of the old-time masters? 
 
 " All unconsciously to themselves, in their mere 
 presence, these women are educators. Their very ap- 
 pearance on the street has won the respect of people 
 who at first despised and hated them." 
 
 Yes, retributive justice had at last frowned upon 
 Harper's Ferry, and John Brown's murder was 
 avenged. A correspondent writes: 
 
 " Here is the little Engine-house which John Brown 
 
AMERICA JV S.LAYERY. //<? 
 
 chose as his headquarters and his fortress when he un- 
 dertook the liberation of the Virginian bondmen, and 
 from which he came forth a wounded prisoner on his 
 way to the cell and the scaffold. Eight miles away, at 
 Charlestown, is the battered and gutted Court-house 
 where his meek but sublime bravery and his simple 
 eloquent words redeemed the trial-scene from contempt 
 and rendered it historic. 
 
 " The great national struggle has here a cloud of 
 witnesses. All along these slopes the white tents of 
 the soldiers might be seen by day during all the years 
 of war, and when the sun went down the whole area 
 blazed with camp-fires till they seemed like a reflection 
 of the constellations in the sky. Every one of these 
 lofty high ts frowned with the ordnance; all the hills 
 were gashed with rifle-pits and the wounds are yet 
 unhealed ; in the midst of that field the hostile armies 
 met in the shock of battle. * * * 
 
 "Harper's Ferry is now the headquarters of our 
 missionary and educational work among the freedmen 
 in the Old Dominion." 
 
 Another charming lady tells how Andersonville 
 Prison was purified: 
 
 "How often, in the course of my rambles among 
 missionary scenes in the South, have I longed that 
 friends, far, far away, might see the things that I saw. 
 Never, perhaps, did I long more intensely than last 
 Thursday evening at Andersonville. As I stepped out 
 from night school at half past ten o'clock, and stood 
 with the ladies in the exquisite moonlight, watching 
 the patient, plodding men and women disperse to their 
 homes, how many thoughts crowded my mind. 
 
 " Did they ever imagine, those rebel officers, who 
 used our poor boys to erect those buildings— buildings 
 put up to enable them to hold 30,000 prisoners in un- 
 heard of torture— did they ever imagine, to what use 
 those buildings were to be applied, and so soon? Did 
 they dream that the wail of the captive would scarcely 
 be hushed, and the last victim laid to sleep his last 
 sleep in those awful witness-bearing trenches, before 
 
 10 
 
//4 OXZGIJV AW& JTZS10R2 OF 
 
 two angels of mercy should take their abode there, 
 transforming that hell upon earth into a little earthly- 
 heaven? Yes, Andersonville has been cleaused and 
 sanctified, and, thank God, by the purity, the presence, 
 the labor and the love of woman. Where the rebel 
 soldier's jeer and oath used to be heard, now daily 
 ascends the sweet sound of prayer and praise. For 
 the howl of the hungry hound, eager to chase the 
 perishing Union fugitive, you may now hear the sweet 
 voices of the children blending in song. The jailer has 
 fled, haunted by the memory of his crimes (for Wirz 
 was not alone in the charge), and two gentle women 
 have taken possession of his dwelling; the persecuted 
 slave has found a shelter in the huts erected by his 
 persecutors, and the freedman's corn is now growing 
 in the empty stockade, 
 
 " Ye who dwell in luxurious houses, who rest on 
 cushioned chairs and elastic mattresses, think of your 
 sisters at Andersonville. Through the severest part 
 of the winter, which has been severe enough even in 
 Georgia, they have lived within rough boards whose 
 cracks let in the cold in every direction, and without 
 a single pane of glass in the whole frames, so that to 
 exclude the cold the light must be excluded also. In 
 addition to this, they were threatened by enemies from 
 without, and actually sat up one entire night expecting 
 their dwelling to be burned. Neither privation, nor 
 loneliness, nor threats could drive them from their 
 post, and He who walked with the three children in 
 the fiery furnace has been with them; they sat down 
 under His shadow with great delight, and His banner 
 over them was love. J. A, S." 
 
 Another, a teacher in the old prison, has penned 
 
 these touching words in a letter to a friend: 
 
 " You would scarcely know the place were you to 
 come here now. The trees are heavy with the wealth 
 of foliage, the air resonant with the sweet song of 
 birds, and odorous with the breath of flowers. But the 
 stockade with its silent tale of suffering, and the ceme- 
 tery with its quiet sleepers, are still there. Ander- 
 
amjericsuv slayer r. //s 
 
 sonville will ever be to me a memory of suffering, a 
 home of dead heroes, a planting of freedom's seed. I 
 am glad to have been here, glad of the record we shall 
 leave — I only wish it were more glorious with fruit; 
 but one soweth and another reapeth. I am content 
 with sowing and with the evidence of life in the seed. 
 It is germinating; already the mellowed soil is break- 
 ing from the struggles of the embryo which wants 
 light and air. We have but to lay our ear to the 
 earth, to hear the swelling and the struggling of the 
 new life beneath. A few more rains of love, a few 
 more dews of mercy, a few more suns of grace, and the 
 blade will appear : after that, the going on from 
 strength to strength till the harvest time shall come. 
 Oh ! it has been good to work here. I thank God for 
 it and the rich experience it has brought!" 
 
 Yes, we will let the teachers* tell their own story in 
 little fragments of letters, written for the most part 
 with no thought of publication. Sweet sisters, if at 
 first you feel inclined to blame the hand that seemingly 
 betrays your confidence, reflect that it is not your- 
 selves but the grace given unto you that we would fain 
 perpetuate, and you must, perforce, forgive. 
 
 Another teacher gives the following statement: 
 
 " This is the Andersonville of dreadful memory — a 
 place made sacred by the dust of sixteen thousand 
 martyred heroes — a place at whose mention patriotic 
 hearts throb with new impulse; for here was wrought 
 out most visibly the spirit of the system which has so 
 cursed our land with its presence. Here our brave 
 men were distressed, persecuted, murdered, and here 
 we institute our plan of revenge. 
 
 " Our school began — in spite of threatenings from 
 the whites, and the consequent fears of the blacks — with 
 twenty-seven pupils, four only of whom could read, 
 even the simplest word. At the end of six weeks, we 
 have enrolled eighty-five names, with but fifteen unable 
 
 * Of the American Missionary Association. 
 
//# 0X1GIJV oiJVD JETIS2 OR Y OF 
 
 to read. In seven years' teaching at the North, 1 have 
 not seen a parallel to their appetite for learning, and 
 their active progress. Whether this zeal will abate 
 with time is yet a question. I have a little fear that 
 it may. Meanwhile it is well to ' work while the day 
 lasts.' Their spirit now may be estimated somewhat, 
 when I tell you that three walk a distance of four 
 miles, each morning, to return after the five hours' 
 session. Several come three miles, and quite a number 
 from two-and-a-half miles. 
 
 " The night school, taught by Miss E , numbers 
 
 about forty, mostly men, earnest, determined, ambitious. 
 One of them walks six miles, and returns after the close 
 of the school, which is often as late as ten o'clock. One 
 woman walks three miles, as do a number of the men. 
 
 " On Sabbath mornings, at half-past nine, we open 
 our Sabbath-school, which is attended by about fifty 
 men, women and children who give earnest attention 
 to our instruction. The younger ones are given to the 
 charge of ' Uncle Charlie,' a good old negro who 
 
 wants to do something to help. Miss E takes the 
 
 women, and leaves the men to my care. As they are 
 unable to read, we take a text or passage of Scripture, 
 enlarge upon and apply it as well as we are able, 
 answering their questions, correcting erroneous opin- 
 ions, extending their thoughts, and endeavoring to 
 bring their souls from nature^s daikness to the mar- 
 velous light of God's truth. Their views of the sacred- 
 ness of life, its object, or of true living, are extremely 
 limited; they need instruction absolutely in every- 
 thing." 
 
 The same lady narrates this touching incident: 
 
 " A few weeks since, I read from the ' Child at 
 Home,' an article entitled ' No more Slaves in Amer- 
 ica,' which closes with Whittier's ' Laus Deo.' As I 
 announced the title, every eye was fixed on me with a 
 look of eager interest, and as the reading continued, 
 tears began to flow — tears of joy and gladness — and 
 from several directions we heard, ' Thank God! Thank 
 Godl' 
 
"As I concluded the poem, poor, old, sick 'Uncle 
 Charlie' slid from his seat to his knees, and with 
 clasped hands and streaming eyes, looking toward 
 heaven, cried, 'Oh! glory, glory to God for what he 
 has done for us wretched people! Praise to God!' And 
 so our school closed. 
 
 " Thinking that the tribute to the spirit of the poem 
 might do good to the heart of the author, I wrote at 
 once the simple story to John G. Whittier, and after a 
 few days received an autograph letter from him, thank- 
 ing me for the facts, and saying, 'Uncle Charlie's 
 prayer is worth more to me than the praise of all the 
 oppressors of his race,' and inclosing a sum of money 
 for Uncle Charlie ; if he needs it.' " 
 
 From another teacher we have the following: 
 
 " I write to inform you of the close of the season at 
 Andersonville. The numbers in the schools were well 
 sustained, while the desire for learning was not a whit 
 less the last week than the very first. 
 
 " In the night school great interest and diligence have 
 been manifest. By the fire-light, and often till eleven 
 o'clock, those determined ones toiled through the sea- 
 son, to find the reward of their perseverance in being 
 able to read for themselves ' de bressed Word.' 
 
 " Our Sabbath-school has increased in numbers and 
 interest. Every seat, every window, and sometimes 
 the door steps have been crowded. All seemed quiet, 
 eager, earnest. Although we have no great visible 
 work of grace to report, still we speak what we do 
 know when we say that the Spirit has been in Ander- 
 sonville, working silently but surely in the hearts of 
 those most constant at Sunday-school and prayer-meet- 
 ing. One young man, whose course we have watched 
 from the first, told us in our last meeting, ' I feels like 
 I love Jesus; I not only feels like it; I do love him!' 
 and certainly no one who knows him will doubt it. 
 Another bore witness to the strivings of the still small 
 voice; and yet another said: 'I hasn't yet foun' de 
 Lord, but hope he'll soon find me.' Many others have 
 their hearts open to good influences. May the work 
 
//<? oniG&v sij\n> sisTonr of 
 
 be a sure work, laid on the sure foundation — Jesus 
 Christ! 
 
 " We have said good-by to Andersonville. but more 
 than any other will that place be remembered, for 
 there we have felt more than elsewhere that ' God is 
 our refuge and strength.' " 
 
 Another furnishes the following: 
 
 " Wild Thorn (near Savannah). 
 " I had anticipated a most cordial welcome, but was 
 not prepared for the demonstrations of joy which I 
 witnessed. The people were expecting us, because 
 they had been praying for our return. The first ex- 
 pression from almost every one was thanksgiving to 
 God for answering their prayers. Old Aunt Rhina, 
 whose head is frosted by age, and her feet so swollen 
 that you would not think she could walk on them, 
 came almost running from her cabin. I went to meet 
 her. Her first words were: ' O! bress de Lord, you's 
 come. My eyes is so proud to see you once more. 
 Ise prayed lor you ebery day.' Others exclaimed, 
 ' Bressed Jesus, you heard my prayer, and I have saw 
 my teachers once more.' One old man said, ' I seen 
 you, I seen you. I know'd you was coming. De Lord 
 showed you to me all ready to come.' " 
 
 A minister writes from Beaufort, South Carolina : 
 
 "To-day we need a thousand added to our corps of 
 teachers. Applications came in from every quarter for 
 books and teachers. All around us the freedmen are 
 struggling hard against poverty, some against actual 
 starvation, yet they beg harder for a school than for 
 food or clothing. No philosophy can account for this 
 intense thirst for education, only to say that God is 
 here; that God can rouse a nation to wants unknown 
 before, to thirst for waters never yet tasted. Oh! 
 that those who love the Master might comprehend the 
 extent of the work. A million of sable children thirst- 
 ing for mental life!" 
 
 This is from a lady teacher in Milledgeville, Georgia : 
 
siMJEJRlCA JV* SLAYER?* 1J9 
 
 " I wish I could say the ladies here had treated us 
 with the kindness and respect that the gentlemen have, 
 but it is impossible to say this, because it is untrue. 
 They shrink from contact with us in the street, point 
 us out, and stare at us in church, evidently desiring to 
 annoy, and make us uncomfortable. It is very obvious 
 to us that the women of the South are greater rebels 
 than the men. 'They have not been whipped.' We 
 find our work so pleasant and satisfying, however, that 
 we can well put up with some unpleasant things. We 
 are more than paid for slights and insults by the grate- 
 ful tears and prayers of these humble children of our 
 blessed Lord and Savior." 
 
 Another adds her testimony as follows : 
 
 " We shall ever look back with pleasure upon the 
 days spent in teaching the colored people of Baton 
 Rouge, and I should be very glad if health would allow 
 us to prosecute the good work there. 
 
 "I feel extremely anxious for the prosperity of this 
 great work among the victims of oppression, and, from 
 my experience among them, am fully satisfied there is 
 no nobler and more encouraging field in which wise 
 and Christian men and women can engage." 
 
 From Halletsville, Georgia, the lady teacher writes: 
 
 "News of my arrival spread rapidly through the 
 community, among whites and blacks, and as the 
 latter had been in anxious expectation of that event 
 for several days, they were now perfectly delighted 
 that the teacher had really come, and very soon mani- 
 fested their appreciation by calling at the room, send- 
 ing up bouquets, etc. This is the first freedmen's school 
 ever organized in the county, and the people were 
 very bitterly opposed to it, making numerous terrible 
 threats as to what would be done if an attempt were 
 made to open a school; but on Monday, April 15th, 
 the school commenced and has continued through the 
 month without molestation; however, I attribute my 
 peace and safety, not so much to the kind considera- 
 tion of the citizens, as to their want of power. 
 
J20 ORIGIJV siJVD HISTORY OF 
 
 " Our school-house consists of an old shell of a build- 
 ing with no ceiling overhead, and had no lining what- 
 ever, until the agent, fitting it up for a School-room, 
 had the walls lined with canvas. The seats are benches 
 such as the colored people have hewn out in the woods, 
 consequently quite rough. For windows we have close 
 blinds, which must be opened in order to have suffi- 
 cient light, though considerable is admitted through 
 the numerous openings in the walls. I have now, in 
 school, forty-five pupils, and expect an increase in 
 number next month. Many of the scholars come in 
 from the country, from distances varyiDg from two to 
 eight miles, though those living farthest from town 
 generally stay in the village from Monday until Friday. 
 But one comes from a distance of five, and quite a 
 number from three miles, walking each morning, and 
 returning after a five hours' session. Many of them 
 manifest great eagerness to learn, and are earnest in 
 effort. When school commenced there were only four 
 that could read, even the simplest words. Now, at the 
 end of two weeks, I enrolled more than half the school 
 
 ABLE TO READ. 
 
 " The colored people here, in town, have no houses 
 of their own, but are still the servants of white families, 
 which render my visiting among them impracticable, 
 to say the least. I think the people in this section of 
 the country, particularly, have suffered much from the 
 hatred of their late masters, and are still suffering, 
 though their condition is gradually improving. Quite 
 a number have been murdered. One old 'Aunty' told 
 me that her husband was shot while asleep, soon after 
 they were freed — shot for being free. 
 
 "I have organized a Sabbath-school, which is at- 
 tended by men, women, and children, all seeming inter- 
 ested and attentive." 
 
 Another says : 
 
 " Darlington, July 1st, 1867. 
 
 " My work this month has been very encouraging. 
 The scholars improve rapidly and are much inter- 
 ested in their lessons. On the 20th we had an exami- 
 
siMEHlCAJV SLAVERY* 72f 
 
 nation; the proceeds were for thejbenefit of the school. 
 It passed off very creditably. A number of white 
 Marylanders deigned their presence, who, in spite of 
 past and present prejudices, expressed their surprise 
 and satisfaction with the system on which our school 
 was conducted, and the promptness of recitations, espe- 
 cially in arithmetic, which they thought they had never 
 seen excelled by such small children. I was gratified 
 to think they spoke particularly^ of ^this branch of 
 study, for by their manner I was assured they were 
 among those who believe in the oft-repeated assertion 
 of the incapacity of the negro to acquire a knowledge 
 of arithmetic. So these little ones in their humble 
 sphere made some converts, besides causing their 
 parents to thank God and take courage, that they had 
 lived to see the dawn of better days." 
 
 A brave young woman writes from Savannah, Geor- 
 gia: 
 
 " I can hardly tell whether I have really been in 
 much danger or not, but I truly believe m} T self to be, 
 and I know that nothing but my being a lady, and 
 utterly without protection, saved me. Bad as they 
 were, they could not quite make up their minds to 
 take a woman out of her house and whip her, as they 
 threatened to do." 
 
 Another says : 
 
 " The children sing with a spirit and sweetness that 
 is heart-satisfying. I defy any Northern skeptic to 
 spend an hour in my school and depart unconvinced 
 thftt Southern negroes are endowed with not merely 
 common, but very noble manhood." 
 
 And still another: 
 
 U I know of no greater field for usefulness, and no 
 happier work, than is to be found among this people, 
 and I would gladly spend my life in such a work." 
 
 A lady in Milledgeville, Georgia, says truthfully: 
 
 " I think the Christian, or rather the religious com- 
 11 
 
722 OIiIGIjY AJV^) HISTORY OF 
 
 munity here, feel mortified, that they have in their 
 midst so ignorant a people, and it really sounds very 
 inconsistent on a Sabbath morning to listen to the 
 earnest prayers which the Presbyterian minister never 
 fails to offer, for the success of the missionaries labor- 
 ing for the salvation of the heathen — one feels instinct- 
 ively that his thoughts are across the sea — that his 
 heathen live on the banks of the Ganges, or in some 
 foreign climate. Among the thoughtless, the educa- 
 tion of the freedmen is a special abhorrence, and an 
 object of supreme contempt." 
 
 From Baltimore a lady writes: 
 
 " One day, our little ones were listening to the story 
 of Ananias and Sapphira. On being asked why God 
 does not strike everybody dead who tells a lie, one of 
 the least in the room quickly replied : 'Because there 
 wouldn't be anybody left.' This afforded the teacher 
 an opportunity for impressing those little hearts with 
 the love and patience of God, and with the meaning 
 of that precious word grace; and many listened as if 
 it were the first time they had heard of such things, 
 and their eyes grew brighter and their faces seemed 
 happier. How sacred the teacher's work, and how 
 precious her reward!" 
 
 From Mississippi another writes: 
 
 " Sometimes I attend the cabin prayer-meetings. 
 In these, of course, the wild, quaint modes of worship 
 which prevailed in the olden time of slavery, are some- 
 what prominent; still I have often found them pre- 
 cious seasons, and felt that God was there. I went to 
 Aunt P.'s cabin the other night. It was early when I 
 arrived, but a few converts were shaking hands with 
 older professors, and relating their experience. A 
 single tallow candle threw a dim, uncertain light over 
 the room, half revealing the wooden benches and scat- 
 tered occupants. The cabin walls were adorned with 
 a few prints — among them the immortal Lincoln — and 
 with old copies of the Freedman and Wellspring. A log 
 fire was blazing on the hearth. It was a strange but 
 
siMERlCAJV SLAVERY. t23 
 
 impressive scene — that lowly cabin with its group of 
 dark-browed worshipers, the constant hand-shaking, 
 and the measured rise and fall of the convert's song: 
 ' I am free; I am free indeed. He has taken my feet 
 from the miry clay, and placed them on the Rock of 
 eternal ages, where the winds may blow and the waters 
 roll, but nothing shall ever disturb my soul.' 
 
 " It is impossible to describe the widely-varying 
 notes and long-drawn syllables of this half-chant, halt- 
 song, as it rose and fell in that humble cabin. Some- 
 times it took the form of an address to the impenitent, 
 and then it was full of solemn warning. 
 
 11 Meantime the cabin became thronged. Singing 
 and prayer alternated. As some of the hymns went 
 up with a mighty chant, it seemed as if that humble 
 roof must be lifted from its place. The prayers wece 
 full of quaint expressions, but were earnest and simple. 
 One brother prayed, ' O Lord ! please to hist the 
 diamond winders of hebben, an' shake out dy table- 
 cloth, and let a few crumbs fall among us.' Another 
 plead for ' de mourners, 'way down in de lonesome 
 valley, where de sun nebber shines.' Another asked 
 God to « open de diamond winders, lay back de lovely 
 curtains, an' take a peep into dis world of sin an' 
 sorrer.' 
 
 " Toward the close of the evening I read part of a 
 chapter, and spoke for a few minutes. All gave earnest 
 attention. After the benediction most of those present 
 remained to sing. Verse after verse of those old plan- 
 tation songs was chanted, every voice joining in the 
 mighty chorus : 
 
 " I am huntin' for a city, 
 Where pleasure never dies: 
 Come mourner, come mourner, 
 Where pleasure never dies." 
 
 " As I walked home in the beautiful moonlight, I 
 could but think that perhaps God was as well pleased 
 with that lowly group in the humble cabin, as with 
 many a gilded throng in splendid cathedrals. '* 
 
 Another, also from Mississippi, testifies as follows: 
 
tau oniG&v AND HisTonr of 
 
 " But what is better than all this, a deep quiet work 
 of grace is in progress, extending almost over the 
 entire colored population, and to some of the colored 
 regiments stationed there. The work is characterized 
 by great stillness with a corresponding earnestness. 
 Several of my pupils are indulging hopes, and others 
 are inquiring. We are greatly encoimi,ged and re- 
 freshed . . . God follows his work of justice with 
 his work of grace." 
 
 From a Baltimorean lady : 
 
 " Baltimore, May 28, 1365. 
 "I have just returned from the Hospital where are 
 our sick and wounded colored soldiers, many of whom 
 I find to be from Kentucky and Missouri. A few of 
 them can read. In distributing books among them I 
 would ask, ' Can you read?' the answer would be ' No 
 mam, but I'm trying to,' or 'I'm learning fast,' or 
 * I can spell a bit,' etc. All were anxious 10 have a 
 prettily bound book. These men are of all shades of 
 color, from very black to almost white. Most of them 
 are in some way crippled; having lost either an arm 
 or leg. As I watched their coming into church on 
 their crutches, as I saw their earnest and devout atten- 
 tion, the intelligence manifested in their engaging in 
 the different parts of worship, their bright fates lighted 
 up in singing praises to their Great Deliverer, as if 
 they felt that they were now freemen before the law, 
 the uniform designating them as set apart to fight the 
 battles of the country — theirs now as well as the white 
 man ' s — [ thought, can there be found a man who 
 would dare deny these men the rignt of suffrage or 
 any other privilege which freemen have? If so, God 
 will by some other judgment teach us His will." 
 
 From Louisiana: 
 
 " Nor alone does the voice of duty or personal profit 
 invite. There is a pure and exquisite pleasure to be 
 found in this work, that few other forms of Christian 
 effort afford. 
 
 «' Even the old gray-haired men and women plod 
 
along with their alphabet, with the hope that, ere they 
 die, they may be able k to read out of de good book 
 what de Lord nays, for demselves ' It is touching to 
 hear their expressions of devotion and trust, they are 
 eo simple and sincere." 
 
 From "Virginia : 
 
 '* One of the most beautiful instances of the power of 
 grace that I have seen, is an old woman, who in a few 
 months will be one hundred. She is entirely blind, 
 but her mind seems clear and strong. She is living in 
 sweet reliance on Christ from day to day, chiefly de- 
 sirous that His will be done. It is a privilege to talk 
 with her. She is delighted in hearing the Bible read, 
 and with religious conversation, even her aged sight- 
 less lace then becomes animated, and beams with an 
 expression that could only originate in a heart en- 
 riched by the Savior's love. All her life in the prison 
 and mire of slavery, branded by prejudice, never per- 
 mitted to read the Word of God for herself, feeble, soon 
 expecting the summons — in her hundredth year — bHnd, 
 yet triumphing in her risen Savior. What a witness 
 to the beauty of the Gospel, and the victory that is in 
 Christ. 
 
 A teacher in Maryland thus writes of her pupils: 
 
 "They are remarkably susceptible to religious im- 
 pressions and religious instruction; readily commit to 
 memory passages from tie Bible, little hym< s and 
 prayers. I have taught them the fundamental doc- 
 trine of our holy Christianity, simplified to their ca- 
 pacities, hoping that from the seed sown, a harvest 
 will be gathered to the divine glory. God has given 
 me great sympathy for them. I have been the reposi- 
 tory of their perplexities, cares and griefs; and much 
 of the time between the afternoon session and dark, 
 I have spent in their tents, visiting the sick, distribu- 
 ting clothing, etc." 
 
 Another says: 
 
 " Our work here has its fruits, even now, and we 
 believe that the harvest of which the first-fruits are 
 
726 RIGHT siJ^D HIS 2 012 1 OF 
 
 now given, will be a very bounteous one. But not unto 
 ns be the glory. It is God's work, and it is indeed mar- 
 velous in our eyes." 
 
 Another lady writes: 
 
 " I have always been taught to abhor slavery, but 
 never, until I came among its victims, did I know any- 
 thing of the blasting effects of that system; and the 
 more I became acquainted with these people, the more 
 do I realize the great work that is to be accomplished 
 before their souls are brought from natural darkness 
 into the marvelous light of God's truth. Their ideas 
 of life, its sacredness or true purpose, are exceedingly 
 limited. They need instruction in everything." 
 
 A young girl writes to a friend: 
 
 " I enjoy more, day by day, with my scholars. They 
 have come to seem more like a family than a school, so 
 well have I learned the character, the desires, the life 
 of each — so much do they depend upon me for advice 
 in their home affairs. The days spent in that little 
 school-room will always be sunny in memory, through 
 however long or bright a way I may look back to 
 them." 
 
 A Christian woman writes prayerfully: 
 
 " We want no philosophy of the head and infidelity 
 of the heart in our instructions. Our work shall be 
 moral as well as mental, and the elements of a Chris- 
 tian faith shall inspire u&. We are laboring for God 
 as well as man — for the future as well as the present — 
 for the elevation of the soul as well as the mind. 
 
 " We will try to do our duty in the fear of God, 
 trusting in his care over us, and the efficacy he may 
 give to our vineyard operations." 
 
 A delicate lady thus describes her school-room: 
 
 " The school-house is one that has been provided by 
 the freed men, and a very indifferent one it is. A part 
 of the floor in the center of the room is bare ground, 
 on which sat a little old cooking-stove, used to warm 
 
riME'RlCAJf SLAVERY. 127 
 
 the room. The roof of the houso was covered with 
 shingles, but the light was shining through in many 
 places; and should it rain, water could easily come 
 through. Its windows were open holes in its sides, 
 and should it storm, there would be no light there, for 
 the shutters must then be closed." 
 
 We make the following extracts from the journal of 
 a teacher at Columbus, Kentucky: 
 
 " I had in my school at Columbus a strange, half- 
 witted child, who by virtue of her supposed idiocy was 
 allowed to go where she pleased, and spent the greater 
 part of her time wandering alone by the riverside, 
 gathering little shells and pebbles, talking to herself 
 all the while in a weird, most unchildlike way. 
 
 " ' Mandy ' at length began to come to school, but 
 refused to study or even to play with the other chil- 
 dren, most of whom seemed rather afraid of her. 
 
 "She would sit for hours as if spell-bound, her large 
 wild eyes fastened on my face with an intensity of 
 gaze that pained me, eagerly watching my every move- 
 ment, and occasionally putting out her hand timidly 
 to touch the folds of my dress as I passed her seat. 
 
 " She would never answer any question, but when 
 I spoke to her would close her eyes and seem to listen 
 attentively. I could make nothing of the shy, shrink- 
 ing child, and was for a time at a loss to account for 
 her singular behavior. I had often observed her sitting 
 quite still and gazing steadily up into the clouds, mut- 
 tering to herself, as was her wont when alone. One day 
 I came upon her thus engaged, and began to question 
 her. For some time she made no reply, but at length 
 suddenly opening her eyes and pointing to the sky 
 said rapidly, 'I don't see no hole; I don't see no 
 hole!' Completely puzzled, I said, ' What do you mean, 
 Mandy? What hole are you looking for?' ' Why, 
 Miss Linnie,' she said impatiently, ' didn't you make 
 a hole in de sky when you cumed down?' I told her 
 I did not come down from the sky, that I lived ' up 
 North,' and had come down the river in a steamboat, 
 when she spoke again more rapidly, ' Miss Linnie, 
 
f23 QfilGMT *Urt) fflSlORl OJP 
 
 isn't you an angel? "Uncle Pete say you is an angel, 
 and 1 tot angels lib up in de sky. Didn't you lib 
 where God stays 'fore you eumed here?' 
 
 " This then was the secret of my silent little wor- 
 shiper's infatuation! Uncle Pete, in his gratitude for 
 his new spelling-book and Sunday coat, had likened 
 me to an angel, and poor Mandy had interpreted him 
 literally. Never shall I forget her grieved look of 
 disappointment when I told her that I was not an 
 angel, but only a sinful, naughty child like herself; 
 that I had never seen God, but He had promised us 
 both, if we loved him, to take us up to heaven when 
 we died, where we would see him always. She walked 
 away slowly, with large tears rolling down her cheeks, 
 and after that she seldom came to school, but though 
 she seemed less afraid of me, yet all my efforts to in- 
 duce her to return proved unavailing. ' I dos'nt luba 
 you any more,' she said plaintively; nor ever alter 
 would she enter into conversation with me. 
 
 " One morning on my way to school I met some men 
 carrying upon a rough plank the dripping form of a 
 child, in whose stiffened lineaments I recognized my 
 poor little protege. She had slipped from the bank 
 into the river and was drowned. J hastened onward 
 with a saddened heart, but poor Mandy I trust has 
 seen the angels, and is living 'where God stays.' 
 
 " This feeling of pride of color never was more 
 strikingly illustrated than in the case of an old Irish 
 woman, whose dilapidated shanty in one of my morn- 
 ing rounds I had mistaken for a negro cabin. The 
 good woman, with her shockheaded brood of young 
 Patricks, was just sitting down to a smoking breakfast 
 of praties and mush, and as I looked in at the door 
 greeted me volubly : * And would yees be after coming 
 in and taking a bite wid us the morning? Shure, and 
 its not often the likes of yees comes into me poor 
 house. Tim, yee spalpeen, git off of yer cheer I' And 
 administering a sound box on the ear of the abashed 
 youngster, she wiped the chair he had just vacated 
 with her dingy apron and hospitably insisted on my 
 coming in and sharing the meal with them, until I 
 
AMERICAN SLAYER r. f29 
 
 make her comprehend that I was the teacher of the 
 colored people and had mistaken her house for the 
 residence of Aunt VVinnie, when her sudden change of 
 countenance and attitude was ludicrous in the extreme. 
 'Aunt Botherydab! Divil run away with yees, to be 
 after takin the likes of me for a nagur! Git away 
 from me house, ye pinkfaced hussey!' As the com- 
 mand was emphasized with a heavy stamp of her foot 
 and a lengthened stride in my direction, I lost no time 
 in making good my retreat, not daring to laugh or even 
 stop to take breath until I had put a safe distance 
 between us. Ever afterward we exercised great cir- 
 cumspection in our visits, and on one occasion, when, 
 in response to our knock, a sharp-featured white 
 woman appeared at the cabin door, my heart leaped 
 up in my throat, and I stood speechless before her. 
 ' Does Mrs. Jones live here?' asked my companion with 
 remarkable presence of mind. 'No, marm, she don't 
 live nowhars in the street as I knows on,' was the 
 prompt response, and politely bidding her 'good morn- 
 ing,' we went our way congratulating ourselves on 
 the success of our ruse. 
 
 " But how many of our Northern people could sym- 
 pathize with this pride of Mrs. Biddy's and feel that 
 color is the only distinction between themselves and 
 the negro? Poor creatures! Let them enjoy their 
 fancied superiority! They have nothing else to be 
 proud of !" 
 
 " The daily life of a teacher in the South is rep'ete 
 with amusing incident and grotesque adventure. Once 
 during a time of danger I was prevailed upon to carry 
 a loaded pistol in my pocket to night school; h-ut once 
 arrived there, and finding no cause for alarm, I be^me 
 terribly afraid of it that 1 scarcely dared to stir or even 
 breathe lest it should explode in my pocket, and even 
 a rebel would have been a relief. 
 
 "Another night we were awakened by a suspicious 
 rattling at one of our windows, and clinging closely 
 together for protection, we stole out frightened and 
 breathless across the hall to the door of Lieutenant 
 B 'a room, and aroused him with the startling in- 
 
/so origin AND Hisronr of 
 
 telligence that a man was trying to effect an entrance 
 at our window! The good lieutenant, in an undress 
 uniform, and with a pistol in each hand, made a hasty 
 reconnoissance around the corner of the house, and 
 returned shortly after in no very pleasant mood to 
 inform us that it was nothing but an old cavalry horse 
 affectionately rubbing his head against the shutter. 
 Mortified and ashamed we slunk quickly back to bed, 
 and next day made a mutual contract never to tell of 
 our awkward midnight adventure so long as we lived 
 — in Dixie. 
 
 " I was at first much entertained by the peculiar 
 phraseology of the people : ' Well Aunty, what do you 
 do for a living?' I asked of one old woman whom I 
 knew to be extremely destitute. 'Oh! I just trusts in 
 the Lord, Honey; and my ole man he patters roun'!' 
 A new way of ' making a living' certainly, but Aunty 
 after all was a true philosopher." 
 
 From Union City, Tennessee: 
 
 " Buckeye School, May, 1868. 
 
 " This school, though so recently organized, bids 
 fair to rival in numbers and interest the older missions 
 of the State. Aside from a few Ku Klux manifestoes 
 I have been unmolested, and the people, though de- 
 cidedly hostile, have done nothing worse than ' let me 
 alone severely.' In Major F. H. Torbett, commandant 
 of the Union troops at this post, the freed men have 
 friend a steadfast friend and judicious counselor, and 
 to his exertions mainly are due the prosperity and 
 progress of the school. Although a Southerner by 
 birth and education, he has not scorned to listen to the 
 lowest, nor to relieve the wants of the humblest among 
 them, while they in turn regard him with unbounded 
 gratitude and respect, relying upon his assistance, and 
 asking and following his advice with the confidence 
 and almost the helplessness of children." 
 
 From Columbus, Kentucky : 
 
 " On the 23d of February, 1868, in company with 
 
AMERICAN SLAVERY. fS/ 
 
 Miss B , I came to this place and organized the 
 
 mission schools. 
 
 " A large, rudely constructed school-building has just 
 been erected, which will answer our purpose nicely in 
 summer, but is very uncomfortable at present. Our 
 pupils attend regularly; all are so eager for instruction 
 and progress so rapidly that it is a pleasure to teach 
 them. 
 
 " We have also opened a night school for those who 
 can not attend during the day, and thus far have met 
 with success. Many of the old men and women would 
 make almost any sacrifice to be able to read and write. 
 
 " Our Sabbath-school numbers one hundred and fifty 
 pupils, and much interest is manifested in the Bible 
 lessons. They love to learn of Jesus. Most of the 
 people whom we have visited appear to be quite ' re- 
 ligious,' as the phrase goes; that is, they belong to 
 ' meeting,' have knowledge of their Creator, of heaven, 
 and a place of punishment, but the story of the life 
 and death of the Savior is new to them, and they 
 listen with pleased interest to its recital. 
 
 "The citizens of Columbus are bitterly opposed to 
 educating the freedmen, and we are made to feel con- 
 stantly that we are in the ' enemy's country.' Much 
 of the opposition seems to arise from the non-education 
 of the whites themselves. They are just'beginning to 
 feel their own deficiency in this respect, and it mor- 
 tifies them to see the negroes receiving advantages 
 which they and their children have never enjoyed. 
 This was fitly illustrated by the remark of a rebel lady 
 to whom I had spoken respecting the progress of our 
 pupils. Lamenting her own lack of education, she 
 said, ' Since its got to be fashionable to teach the 
 niggers, I feel as if Id like to know a little somethin' 
 myself.' Thus it is probable that the impetus given 
 to education by the colored schools, will lead in time 
 to the institution of better schools for the white chil- 
 dren of the South. 
 
 " Many outrages have been perpetrated upon the 
 freedmen this spring, and several unprovoked murders 
 were committed during the past two months. It is 
 
/S2 OftlGIJV siJ^D HIS 2 OUT OF 
 
 rare, indeed, to find a case in which they have been 
 fairly recompensed lor their labor by their white em- 
 ployers. The Slate laws are insufficient for the pro- 
 tection of freed men and poor Unionists, and. in tact, 
 are almost wholly inoperative, as far as the freedmen 
 are concerned. 
 
 "We find, usually, a strong feeling of gratitude to- 
 ward the mit-sion 1* aehers and bureau agents. Often, 
 ■w bile pat-sing through the row s of shanties, Lieutenant 
 
 B , agent of the Bureau, is saluted by ' Dar go de 
 
 Freedmen Bureau, may de good Lord bress him,' and 
 similar ejaeulath ns. In many ways they show their 
 regard for us, and the mission work, though attended 
 with many dangers and hardships, is Htill the most 
 pleasant in which I have ever engaged. It is full of 
 pleasing incident, instructive experience, and labor 
 that is its own reward." 
 
 "Trinity School, Athens, Alabama. 
 
 " They often speak of the trials and triumphs of 
 their fugitive biethren during those dark days when 
 few among them dreamed that freedom's blessed light 
 would ever dawn on them. But now says one, 'Here 
 we is, right on the ole plantation, j » st as free as dey is 
 in Canada. We waited for de Lord and now he am 
 come!' 
 
 'A few days ago I had a call from Aunt Milly, an 
 old prophetess and quite a celebrity among her people. 
 Having belonged to the Washington family in 'Ole 
 Yirginy,' she seems inclined to boast of royal hlood, 
 and ot course knows all about ' Massy George,' and 
 indeed of the whole lineff presidents Irom Washington 
 down to Abraham Lincoln. But when she spoke of 
 our martyred President her voice quivered with emo- 
 tion. Crossing her hands reverently upon her breast, 
 she lifted her streaming eyes to heaven and evclaimed, 
 ' Bress de Lord for Abraham Lincoln! Bress de Man- 
 cipation Proclamation! Bress de locomotives on de 
 Underground Railroad! D<y has finally pulled we 
 all into freedom. An now Jet»us. he's tugging away to 
 make us Jree indeed.' Alter a solemn pause she broke 
 
AMERICAN SLAVE 'ft T. /SJt 
 
 forth again : ' Bress yon, Honey! Pears like it takes 
 a heap of pullin' to get some on us whar we can see his 
 glory. We has awful wicked hearts. Honey; dey is a 
 heap blacker dan dese ole bodies, and has worse scars 
 dan our backs. But de Lord am going to wash em in 
 his own blood, and den dey'll be white, oh berry 
 white, an we'll be white too, case Jesus am white, an 
 de Bible says we shall be like him. Yes, like him, 
 Honey.' She warmed with her theme, and as she 
 grew more excited her utterances became less distinct, 
 and her ecstasy found vent in shouts, and finally her 
 full soul poured out its joy in the sublime strains of 
 Uncle Joe's w Hail Columbia.' ' De Lord am come to 
 save his people, now let me die.' 
 
 "Sometimes when I witness these j'03'ful demonstra- 
 tions as they dwell upon the blessings of freedom, I 
 momentarily exclaim, can they, even in heaven, be 
 any happier? But ah me, this full cup of happiness 
 has its drops of bitterness. Yesterday we found two 
 old helpless women and three small children huddled 
 together in a rude cabin, with little or no fire, scarcely 
 clothing enough to cover them, and with no means of 
 support except the left hand of one of the women (the 
 other hand being long ago disabled by rheumatism). 
 The other woman is a cripple, has not walked for four- 
 teen years. But now that she is free she is graciously 
 permitted to go forth and perish. Such is the strong 
 attachment existing between master and slave. Though 
 the former owner of this woman is wealthy and abun- 
 dantly able to provide for her, yet she brought her to 
 town to be taken care of by the k colored people,' when 
 not one family in ten have any home for themselves. 
 
 "Yet Aunt Dinah utters no complaint; on the con- 
 trary, she rejoices that she is free, that none can sell 
 her children or prevent them from learning to read; 
 that ' by an by dey 11 read de blessed Bible to poor ole 
 Dinah.' We sent them some blankets which seemed 
 to warm them soul and body, and their glad voices 
 united in that grand old choral, ' Praise God from 
 whom all blessings flow.' " 
 
/SI ORIGIJV siJYD KIS2 0RY OF 
 
 From Buckeye School, Tennessee: 
 
 How 1 wish you could hear my children sing their 
 strange, wild melodies, that bring back so vividly the 
 old slave life with its toil and servile ignorance I Yet 
 their old plantation songs are falling into disuse, and 
 in their stead we hear chanted daily the hymns and 
 psalms so familiar to Northern ears. Imagine if you 
 can the effect produced by the shrill, untutored voices 
 of several hundred children, clustered under the green 
 arches of the forest and singing with wild energy and 
 earnestness the teachers improvised song, " We are 
 Free!" 
 
 Free ! We are free ! With a wild and joyous cry, 
 We children in our gladness are shouting far and nigh ! 
 Free ! We are free ! Oh, let the tidings tiy, 
 We are free to-day ! 
 
 Chorus — Glory, glory, Halleluiah, etc. 
 We are free to-day ! 
 
 Free I We are free ! though dusky be the skin, 
 Pure may the spirit be that God has put within, 
 For Jesus has redeemed it from misery and fr^m sin. 
 We are free to-day 1 
 
 Chorus. 
 
 Chorus. 
 
 Free 1 We are free 1 and our toil shall be repaid, 
 
 The cravings of a hungry mind with knowledge shall be 
 
 stayed; 
 And ignorance no longer bind the soul for glory made. 
 We are free to-day 1 
 
 We will think of the President 
 Who signed the Freedom Bill, 
 We'll think of the Northern hearts who pray for freedom 
 
 still. 
 We are free to-day 1 
 
 Chorus. 
 
 Here is a rude snatch of song that possesses a pe- 
 culiar charm when sung as it usually is with power 
 and feeling : 
 
AMERICAN SLAVERY. /SS 
 
 " I'll hoist my flag in the wilderness, in the wilderness, in the wilder- 
 ness; 
 I'll hoist my flag in the wilderness, 
 For I am a going home ! 
 The grace of God is so sweet, 
 The grace of God is so sweet, 
 The grace of God is so sweet, 
 For I am a going home. 
 
 " I'll baptize John in the wilderness, in the wilderness, in the wilder- 
 ness; 
 I '11 baptize John in the wilderness, 
 For I am a going home ! 
 The grace of God is so sweet, 
 The grace of God is so sweet, 
 The grace of God is so sweet, 
 For I am a going home." 
 
 This is a graveyard song, usually sung by the grave 
 of a buried brother or sister, and is frequently spun 
 out to great length by the recapitulation of the names 
 of all the community who have died during the year: 
 
 Brother Daniel don't sing no longer, 
 Brother Daniel don't sing no longer, 
 Brother Daniel don't sing no longer, 
 Lord, I don't want to stay behind. 
 See dark clouds a risin' in de mornin', 
 See dark clouds a risin' in de mornin', 
 See dark clouds a risin' in de mornin', 
 I don't want to stay behind. 
 
 Sister Martha don't sing no longer, 
 Sister Martha don't sing no longer, 
 Sister Martha don't sing no longer, 
 Lord, I don't want to stay behind. 
 Make ready to meet de angels in de mornin', 
 Make ready to meet de angels in de mornin', 
 Ready to meet de angels in de mornin', 
 Lord, I don't want to stay behind. 
 
 When sung at funerals this song is terminated by each 
 of the singers taking up a handful of earth and tossing 
 it with a muttered prayer into the open grave : " Down 
 in the valley to pray," is a general favorite, and is 
 likewise made a recapitulation of the names of all the 
 members present at meeting : 
 
f36 ORIGTJV AJV& HISTORY OF 
 
 Oh, Mother, let's go down, let's go down, in the valley to pray. 
 As the mother went down in the valley to pray, 
 Studying about dat good old way; 
 And who shall wear the starry crown, 
 Good Lord ! show me the way. 
 
 Here is a wild refrain that sounds sweetly when 
 
 well sung: 
 
 Oh, just behold that number ! 
 
 Oil, just behold that number! 
 
 Oh, just behold that number ! 
 
 Come up through tribulation, 
 
 From every graveyard; 
 
 Put on a long white robe, 
 
 We'll wear the starry crown, 
 
 Walk up and down the pale gold streets, 
 
 From every graveyard. 
 
 And here is another that fairly makes the blood 
 
 curdle in the veins when sung by an excited shouting 
 
 congregation: 
 
 Oh, Israel ! Oh, Israel ! Oh, Israel ! in that great day I 
 Oh, Mother! where's you runnin'? 
 Oh, Mother ! where's you runnin'? 
 Oh, Mother! where's you runnin'? 
 In that great day. 
 I'm runnin' from the fire ! 
 I'm runnin' from the lire ! 
 I'm runnin' from the fire ! 
 In that great day. 
 Crying — Oh, Israel ! Oh, Israel! in that great day, 
 The fire'll overtake you, 
 The fire'll overtake you, 
 In that great day. 
 
 Oh, Israel ! Oh, Israel ! Oh, Israel ! in that great day, 
 You'll see graveyards a bustin', 
 You'll see graveyards a bustin', 
 You'll see graveyards a bustin', 
 In that great day. 
 Crying — Oh, Israel ! Oh," Israel! in that great day, 
 You'll see the earth a sinkin', 
 You'll see the earth a sinkin', 
 In that great day. 
 
 This is of a different character: 
 
 Oh, do come along, we'll see Jesus, 
 Oh, do come along, we'll see Jesus," 
 Oh, do come along, we'll see Jesus, 
 When the last trumpet sounds. 
 
tfMBRICAJV* SLAVER*. f37 
 
 Mary says Martha, Martha says Mary; 
 Dare's a band of angels waitin' 
 Till dc last trumpet sounds, 
 
 A few more days and we'll see Jesus, 
 A few more days and we'll see Jesus, 
 A few more days and we'll see Jesus, 
 When de last trumpet sounds. 
 Go blow your trumpet^ Gabriel, 
 Go blow a little louder, 
 When the last trumpet sounds. 
 
 Here is a disconnected link, from the singing of 
 which the older members appear to derive peculiar 
 {satisfaction : 
 
 All Israel love feast in heaven to-day, 
 
 My soul will outshine the sun, 
 
 Love feast to-day; 
 
 Eat all de honey and drink all de wine, 
 
 Love feast in heaven to-day. 
 
 It is impossible to describe the wild, weird melody 
 produced from these uncouth jargonic rhymes. To 
 you who merely read them, they will doubtless seem 
 to be destitute of rhythm, and incapable of being ren- 
 dered into music; but who that has stood by their 
 camp-meeting fires, and listened to the soul-swelling 
 strains, in which the simple hearts of rustic worship- 
 ers poured forth their fervent feelings, can ever forget 
 the waves of sound that rose and ebbed and died away 
 among the overhanging foliage of the forest ? It is 
 the music of nature, the divine melody of untaught 
 devotion, swelling rich and free from the fountains of 
 untutored hearts. 
 
 A teacher writing from Dawfuskie Island, says: 
 
 " Twice per week we have an industrial school for the 
 girls. They are quite interested in making garments 
 which are to be their own when finished. Four nights 
 each week we have an interesting night school — often 
 have forty present — but the average is less. All come 
 after toiling all day in the cotton field. One woman is 
 
 12 
 
fSS ORIGIJY HJVD HIS 2 OUT OF 
 
 always present with ber babe in ber arms, except when 
 sick; six young men walk two and a half miles, and 
 several others three miles. How few of those who call 
 the Freedmen 'lazy niggers ' would walk five and six 
 miles after working hard all day, for the sake of learn- 
 ing to read! Sabbath morning I have a school of 
 forty-eight children who are intensely interested. 
 Some of ' dem chilen ' who are ' mindin birds 'or 'do 
 chile,' through the week, come in on that day, and I 
 trust a seed or two falls into their young hearts." 
 
 Another writes of the opening of her school: 
 
 "Like untamed animals the children flocked in, 
 without any ideas of order or application. Cleanliness 
 was disregarded in many cases. Disorder prevailed, 
 and it was almost disheartening to contemplate the 
 array of untutored little ones moving about so uneasily 
 upon their benches. The question naturally arose, 
 can these turbulent spirits ever be quieted and sub- 
 dued?" 
 
 Another writes this hopefully: 
 
 " It is scarcely requisite to enter into any deta'led 
 account of the amount of work I find daily necessary 
 to perform. The fact of one hundred pupils undermy 
 charge, all of whom can read, and whom it is impos- 
 sible to hear in concert recitations, which would econ- 
 omize time and strength, speaks for itself. In this 
 school the teacher's body must be literally 'a living 
 sacrifice ' to God and duty. Through the hours of 
 exhausting labor I repeat again and again, ' Be not 
 weary in well doing, O soul; be not weary, — think of 
 Gethsemane and the hill of Calvary, and forget your 
 small burdens; Christ has done so much for you, it is 
 so little you can do for him.' I know that every 
 effort made from an earnest and conscientious desire 
 to advance the Father's kingdom and to show forth his 
 glory will bo blessed; and so I trust his promise, that 
 1 in due season ye shall reap if you faint not/ and 
 that he who faithfully performs the duty to which he 
 is appointed, 'shall doubtless come again rejoicing, 
 bringing his sheaves with him.' 
 
AMERICAN SLATER*. 739 
 
 "I have a large and deeply interesting Sabbath-school 
 class Oar earnest and prayerful study of the divine 
 word I trust may make them wise unto salvation, may 
 lead them to become followers of God as dear children, 
 and ' to know the love of Christ which passeth knowl- 
 edge.' " 
 
 From Nashville, Tennessee: 
 
 " The experience of the last month is quite like that 
 of the past, only affording additional evidence of the 
 great need of gospel truth in this community, and the 
 importance of doing our work now. Soil kept in the 
 dark produces little vegetation, but when exposed to 
 the light and warmth, soon develops its latent activi- 
 ties; soil neglected may yield to its owner a crop of 
 weeds, or a harvest from his neighbor's thistles or his 
 enemy's tares. How like such soil is the mind com- 
 mitted to our care! Be it ours to let in upon it the 
 genial light of education, and to sow the precious 
 wheat of gospel truth, meanwhile guarding against the 
 lodgment of evil influence from the vast moral wastes 
 around." 
 
 The following is an extract from a letter written by 
 a teacher, who gives her ti tie receiviii iary: 
 
 " I receive my pay daily, in feeling that ' mmi < ' 
 ing in the 'Masters vineyard.* After hearing Mr 
 Williams an agent for the A. M A speak in behalf of 
 the Freedmen I felt that I would like to do something 
 for them, and ottered riiy services as teacher tor one 
 year. I have never regretted so doing, bu 1 constantly 
 thank God that he has permitted me to labor in this 
 field. I am contented and happy. I never saw 
 scholars who made as ra|>id advancement as do some 
 of these knowledge-thirsty colored people." 
 
 From Staunton, Virginia: 
 
 "I am much encouraged by the interest manifested 
 by my scholar* in their books, and their industrious 
 application, and by Lite earnest endeavor of many to 
 ' walk humbly with God.' I have enjoyed precious 
 
no oftiGiJv and irisioftr or 
 
 hours of prayer with my little ones, and the spirit of 
 God has been with us. Even our usual morning 
 devotions have been seasons of refreshment and profit. 
 Oh, that the Father's gracious love may sustain us, 
 and my efforts, poor and imperfect as they are, be by 
 his grace blessed to the eternal welfare of these pre- 
 cious souls. 
 
 " The change in the school is very marked, so much 
 so that it has attracted general attention, even from 
 those who have felt no interest in the schools. The 
 deportment of the pupils both in school and out, con- 
 vinces me that the change is radical and permanent, 
 that many are walking uprightly before God. The 
 influence and example of tluse over the others is most 
 happy. 
 
 '* How tenderly God guides and preserves us when we 
 rest wholly and unreservedly upon him; how weak we 
 are in our own strength, but how strong when we do 
 all things unto him." 
 
 From Augusta, Georgia: 
 
 " But the whole picture of our work is not as dark 
 as I have painted it thus lar. There are sunny places 
 after all. As we have been from cabin to cabin, and 
 found the inmates destitute and suffering, and had only 
 to write on a bit of paper, 'Please give the bearer a 
 pair of blankets, or clothing or food,' as the case might 
 be, it seemed as if we must be in the land of ' Utopia.' 
 ]s it possible, we can not help asking, that in this 
 world which sometimes looks so cold and selfish, we 
 have only to say to the poor and oppressed — Be ye 
 clothed, and it is done? Yes, thanks to the kind 
 people of the North, it has been so. I have often 
 wished that the donors of the articles could have been 
 present when the garments were appropriated, to see 
 how nicely they fitted, how perfectly adapted they 
 were to the need of the wearer, and how happy they 
 made him look. Well, they will not lose their reward." 
 
 Fiom Atlanta, Georgia: 
 
 " I remember one case that seemed particularly 
 
XMERlCAJf SLAVERY. /// 
 
 touching. A woman came to work for us, leaving 
 three children at home. From her conversation we 
 judged they were needy, and went to see. The oldest 
 child, a boy about ten, was sitting by the stove bare- 
 footed; he kept the door open to admit light, for there 
 was no window in the cabin. We looked around for 
 the other children. The little woolly-headed sisters 
 were smuggled together upon the bed, shivering be- 
 neath a piece of tent-cloth, a spread no thicker than a 
 sheet, and a bed tick. All the clothing that one had 
 was a little cotton frock and stockings — the other had 
 rather more. And yet this mother said, she knows 
 God would never leave her to suffer. She had neither 
 knife, fork nor spoon in the house, and no food except- 
 ing a little we gave her the day before. Surely, if she 
 does not call this suffering she will never suffer." 
 
 From St. Louis, Missouri: 
 
 "It is almost impossible to convey any adequate idea 
 of the school by writing — one only needs to see it in 
 order to take in its peculiarities. Here is seated a 
 middle-aged man intently studying the first principles 
 of Arithmetic, yonder is his wife as diligently poring 
 over her primer. Here a mother just commencing to 
 read, there her son of sixteen, trying to conquer the 
 Multiplication Table. In this class is a man just learn- 
 ing his letters; by his side are children five years old 
 at the same lesson, and soon. 
 
 " May the grace of God enable me to do all that is 
 acceptable to him." 
 
 From North Carolina: 
 
 1 Every time I carry a pail of meal or a few potatoes 
 to put into the bony fingers of sickly sufferers, I say, 
 1 God sent you this.' And in their dark cabins they 
 have a thanksgiving unknown in the lands of plenty." 
 
 From Mississippi: 
 
 "You who have looked in upon the filth of these 
 most desolate homes, can measure the breadth of the 
 tangled wilderness the people are crossing. And when 
 
?U3 OftlGHV ?1JYD JTISIOftT OF 
 
 one after another arrives upon the very borders of civ- 
 ilization, their son^s of deliverance are soul-stirring 
 indeed. This month, too, has developed more than we 
 remember, in any previous month, of the benefits of 
 God's lessons, in his School of Affliction. Want and 
 destitution are the order of the day. The government 
 on which they depended too much, is to them a broken 
 reed, so far as bread is concerned. Now, more than 
 ever, they turn instinctively to God, and strike, with 
 their own right arm more potent blows lor the pres- 
 ervation of life under sore trials. 
 
 "The schools this month have been very prosperous. 
 Their discipline is becoming easier. The first draught 
 from fountains unopened fcnfore intoxicated them. 
 'Drinking largely sobers them again.' They are all 
 coming to think education necessary. Some of our 
 pupils are our fathers and mothers, in age. Sitting, 
 the other day, beside a gray-haired man, while with 
 difficulty he spelled out, ' Let not your hearts be 
 troubled; ye believe in God, believe also in me,' he 
 exclaimed, 'Thank God, thank God.' The religion of 
 these people is not a cold abstraction. Its life giving 
 influence lightens the eye, quickens the step, gives 
 tone and vigor to the whole man. Where other hearts 
 would sink under the weight of trial, their voices, often 
 triumphant in prayer, exclaim, ' Give us this day our 
 daily bread.' And God hears them. Do not we know 
 that God hears them?" 
 
 A resident minister writes from Maryland: 
 
 "When, a few weeks since. I addressed gatherings of 
 colored people, mutterings of distant thunder were oc- 
 casionally heard, but when my daughter actually be- 
 came a teacher — ' a white lady teaching niggers ' — the 
 storm came on apace. As my daughter passes through 
 the street, boys and middle aged men call out, 'Snow- 
 ball!' 'Nigger teacher!' anH, in passing our house, 
 they jeer and ridicule. Yesterday something was 
 hinted to me about mobbing abolitionists. The spirit 
 of rebellion is as bitter here as in South Carolina, and 
 we are without protection from government." 
 
^MERICAJV SLAVERY. f&3 
 
 " The Freedmen are proving their appreciation of 
 efforts in their behalf. They beg me to stay, and cling 
 to me as if I were their Moses. A field for telling 
 labor opens here, such as I never saw before, unless I 
 except my labor in the army. Could I see any means 
 of support, I should feel that I could not leave without 
 being guilty of taking ship for Tarshish." 
 
 From the lady teachers of Charleston, S. C: 
 " The return of the rebels to this vicinity, after the 
 fall of Richmond, made our home a little less pleasant 
 than before. Of course, they look down upon us 
 'Yankees' and -Nigger teachers,' with 'superior dis- 
 dain,' and wish us all sorts of unhappy fates; but this 
 was to be expected when they saw us working right 
 against the labor of their lives, that is, striving to ele- 
 vate those whom they have made every effort to de- 
 grade, and so, as they dare do no more than talk, we 
 pass it by unnoticed." 
 
 From Arkansas: 
 
 "Another failure of crops, with the fall of cotton, 
 has spread over the whole community a general de- 
 spondency. The entire withdrawal of government 
 rations from hundreds of disabled men, women, and 
 orphan children of both races, is the most severe mis- 
 fortune they have ever met. How fondly had we 
 hoped this year to be able to give a bright picture of 
 Southern prosperity. But, alas! for earthly hopes. 
 On the heels of war, famine presses. The darkening 
 of the sun would not more visibly display God's dis- 
 pleasure against a nation's sins, but how long the poor 
 Freedmen must suffer with the guilty, is unknown to 
 us. We trust they will come up out of this sea of 
 trouble, a purer, nobler race." 
 
 From Teachers' Home, Augusta, Ga , Oct. 18, 
 "Back again in my place, after three months ab- 
 sence, and right glad to be back too ! The dusky faces 
 seem a little strange to me after so unbroken a period 
 of intercourse with the race which claims a leudal 
 right over all the other races of the earth. Yet I find 
 
/44 ORIGIN riA'D HIS TORT OF 
 
 my interest in these said dusky faces no less than for- 
 merly. Sickness and death have been making sad 
 havoc among the people, and a report had spread 
 among them that / was myself dead. Here comes a 
 quaint epistle from a boy who learned to make the let- 
 ters in the primary school last term, but who. during 
 our absence, has contrived to wield the pen He writes 
 ttous: 'I am glad to see that you is not ded yet, and 
 that the lord has not taken you to heven to fly with 
 the angels, for you is a heep of use to the world, and I 
 want you to live as long as the lord will let you.' 
 
 " I have no doubt that the dear boy will receive the 
 accomplishment of his wish, and since he and a few 
 others express their delight that I am still alive, I can 
 not but reciprocate the sentiment " 
 
 A lady writes from Virginia: 
 
 " Only once had I occasion to administer reproof for 
 untidiness and neglect of proper ablution. I spoke to 
 the child, a flaxen haired, rosy cheeked little boy, pri- 
 vately and as tenderly as possible, understanding that 
 little children have sensitive hearts as well as those of 
 1 larger growth.' The little one's face flushed painfully, 
 and turning his sad blue eyes filled with tears to my 
 face, he said simply, 'My mother is dead, and I never 
 had any father.' J think my own eyes filled then, and 
 my heart yearned inexpressibly over this poor neg- 
 lected orphan, whose Saxon face was sufficient evi- 
 dence that he had said truly, ' I never had any father.' 
 There are many such as he in the school; the great 
 preponderance of the mulattoes over the blacks imme- 
 diately arrests the attention of the spectator. Of the 
 whole number (one hundred) there are not, I think, 
 twenty blacks." 
 
 From Tennessee: 
 
 " This little school is a very oasis in the desert. I 
 do not by this mean to imply that the field here is 
 generally a barren one, for fact would warrant no such 
 estimate. 
 
 " The men with whom this school brings me into 
 contact are men who ask no title of nobility, but whose 
 
alMEftlCAJV SLAYER Y. fl>5 
 
 whole bearing tells the story of a princely heart and a 
 manhood that puts doubt to shame. They show a zeal 
 in study which is a joy to their instructor, and the re- 
 sults attained are quite commensurate with the effort 
 they make, for I never saw more rapid progress with 
 any class of scholars. Does any man tell me that the 
 negro was forgotten when God made man a living soul? 
 my experience will be warrant for expressing the con- 
 viction that Providence favored him with only a scant 
 supply of soul life." 
 
 But enough! We could go on multiplying instances 
 indefinitely; and adduce still more abundant testimony 
 from these girlish missionaries, who have forgotten 
 race and color in their most womanly labors of love. 
 
 But let these suffice: gathered at random from a 
 mighty pile of missionary correspondence, they ex- 
 press, in their unstudied language, the freshest feelings 
 of youthful hearts overflowing with the dews of mercy, 
 and refined by contact with the world's stern opposi- 
 tion. 
 
 We will close this brief tribute to their self-denying 
 labors, by evidencing, as proof of the progress of lib- 
 eral opinions in the South, this contrast between the 
 tone of the leading journals of Norfolk, Virgela, be- 
 fore and after a year's toleration of mission schools. 
 
 From the leading editorial in the Norfolk Virginian 
 of July 2, 1866: 
 
 " They are gone or going. — The only joy of our exist- 
 ence in Norfolk has deserted us. The ' negro school- 
 marms ' are either gone, going, or to go, and we don't 
 much care which, whereto, or how — whether it be to 
 the more frigid regions of the northern zone, or to a 
 still more torrid climate; indeed, we may say that we 
 care very little what land tbe} T are borne to, so not 
 again to ' our'n,' even though it be that bourn whence 
 no traveler returns. Our grief at their departure is, 
 
 rj 
 
 CO 
 
/ig oniGijy ajv¥> jiiszoffi* or 
 
 however, lightened somewhat by the recollection of the 
 fact that we will get rid of an abominable nuisance. 
 
 "Oar only fear is that their departure will not be 
 eternal, and like other birds of prey they may return 
 to us in season, and again take shelter, with their 
 brood of black birds, under the protecting wings of 
 that all gobbling and foulest of old fowls, the well- 
 known buzzard yclept Freedmen's Bureau. 
 
 " In all seriousness, however, we congratulate our 
 citizens upon a ' good riddance of bad baggage ' in the 
 reported departure of these impudent missionaries. 
 Of all the insults 10 which the Southern people have 
 been subjected, this was the heaviest to bear. It was 
 the refinement of torture. It did not draw our flesh 
 off the bones as with hot pincers; nor did it stretch 
 our muscles on the rack and fill our whole physical 
 system with aches and pinches; but it was the more 
 refined torture of an insult to our pride of manhood 
 and oar feelings; it was heaping coals upon our mental 
 anguish — to have sent among us a lot of ignorant, nar- 
 row-minded, bigoted fanatics, ostensibly for the pur- 
 pose of propagating the gospel among the heathen, 
 and teaching our little negroes and big negroes, and 
 all kinds of negroes, to read the Bible and show them 
 the road to salvation, just as if we were Fecjee Island- 
 ers and worshipers of the African Fetish gods, snakes, 
 toads, and terrapins; but whose real object was to dis- 
 organize and demoralize still more our peasantry and 
 laboring population. 
 
 "And the people of "Norfolk have submitted to all 
 of this — to this terrible indignity, without even a mur- 
 mur. Was ever such respect shown for women, fcr 
 order, for peace, for obligations imposed by the adverse 
 fortunes of war? Would any other people — would the 
 citizens of any of the Northern States — have allowed 
 themselves to be so foully insulted? 
 
 " We hail with satisfaction the departure of these 
 female disorganizes, and trust no favoring gale will 
 ever return them to our shores, and that their bureau 
 and other furniture may soon follow in their wake." 
 
slMERlCAJV SLAVE "R Y. f&? 
 
 From the Norfolk Journal, June 1, 1867. 
 
 " To tell the plain truth, many people wish to see 
 what these schools have done, but fear public opinion. 
 They believe that a smart set of boys and girls are 
 being educated by a smart set of people, all which is 
 as true as Holy Writ. But it goi-s against the grain 
 to see and acknowledge the fact. To some it would be 
 a bitter pill. Not so to us; and when we dropped in 
 on yesterday, we did it regardless of the world's fear — 
 public opinion. We shall renew our visits and make 
 up parties of acknowledged judgment and standing 
 to go in with us. and encourage, not only the societies, 
 but the ladies representing those societies, by showing 
 our appreciation of their labors, and lauding them 
 whenever merit is discovered. A quiet healthful sys- 
 tem of gymnastics was combined with the intellectual 
 culture of the pupils. The ladies who teach in this 
 school were courteous and kind and took great pleas- 
 ure in exhibiting the various faculties of their scholars. 
 Their exertions must necessarily advance the colored 
 boys and girls among us to a high order of talent, and 
 more encouragement must be given by our councils to 
 our public schools, to prevent our white children from 
 being outstripped in the race for intelligence by their 
 sable competitors. 
 
 Verily, the world does move, and reluctant Virginia 
 moves with it. 
 
 We append a brief sketch of the various educational 
 agencies of the North, which co-operated with the 
 Freedmen's Bureau in the colored schools of the South. 
 The list is not by any means complete; many ener- 
 getic organizations making no public report of their 
 proceedings; also many have labored, rendering effect- 
 ive service with no united organization whatever; but 
 to the following societies, churches, and ecclesiastical 
 bodies may be attributed the greater proportion of the 
 work : 
 
 " The American Missionary Association was formed 
 
/4.S OVIGIJV A JTD JUS'TORT OF 
 
 September 3, 1846, at which time a number of tempo- 
 rary organizations preceding it and having the same 
 object, were merged into this association. 
 
 k ' Dissatisfaction at the comparative silence of other 
 missionary societies with regard to slavery was the 
 main cause of this movement. 
 
 "At the opening of the rebellion the association 
 found itself, by an experience of fifteen years' struggle 
 with the spirit of slavery north and south, singularly 
 prepared to enter upon the work of educating and ele- 
 vating the colored race Accordingly, when emanci- 
 pation followed the march of our armies, this associa- 
 tion was among the first to meet the little bands of es- 
 caping slaves with clothing, schools, and the gospel of 
 Christ. 
 
 " By a noteworthy ordering of Providence, its first 
 school was established at Fortress Monroe, Virginia, 
 near the spot where the first cargo of slaves was landed 
 in 1620. From this small beginning the association 
 has gone forward until its corps of teachers and mis- 
 sionaries, laboring among the freed people, numbered, 
 at the date of its last annual report, 528. with over 
 40,000 scholars. In central localities its schools are 
 rapidly advancing to the higher grades. 
 
 " The association has recently devoted a large share 
 of its resources and attention to normal schools. It 
 has purchased lands for this purpose, and by the aid of 
 the Bureau erected permanent and commodious build- 
 ings. Its oldest school, founded before the war, is Be- 
 rea College, Kentucky; a peculiar feature of which is, 
 that of its 200 pupils this year a little over one-third 
 are white. Many of its scholars are in the normal de- 
 partment. 
 
 "Fisk University, Nashville, Tennessee, another of 
 its institutions, has a corps of 10 instructors and 413 
 pupils, 88 in the normal department, 85 in the gram- 
 mar school, and the remainder in the lower depart- 
 ments. Atlanta University, Georgia, has a large num- 
 ber of pupils in the earlier stages of study, and is des- 
 tined to exert a wide influence over the State. 
 
 "At Hampton, Virginia, the association is making 
 
AMERICAN SLAVER*. /4.9 
 
 the experiment of an industrial school, wi^h a three 
 years course of stud's including a normal department. 
 It is located on a farm of 120 acres of choice land, in 
 the cultivation ot which the young men defray a con- 
 siderable part of th< ir exp> nses th< 3 oung women les- 
 sening theirs by doing the work of the boarding-house. 
 
 11 The association has also normal schools at Charles- 
 ton South Carolina; Macon Georgia; Talladega and 
 Mobile Alabama; and high schools at Wilmington and 
 Beaufort. North Carolina; Savannah Georgia; Mem- 
 phis and Cha'tanooga, Tennessee; and Louisville, 
 Kentucky. 
 
 " Its receipts have increased from $43 000, in the year 
 preceding ihe rebellion, to $334 500 in cash and 
 $90,000 wor'h of clothing and supplies in the year 
 1807; total, $424 500. Its funds ot late have come lib- 
 erally from all classes and denominations, and in con- 
 siderable sums from other countries. 
 
 ' All the labors of this association have been greatly 
 blessed in the material, educational, and religious im- 
 provement of the Freedmen who have come within its 
 influence. 
 
 " The American Freedmen's Union Commission. — This 
 commission unites in its organization the Freedmen's 
 aid societies of the country which are undenomina- 
 tional, with the exception ot the American Missionary 
 Association. 
 
 'A general desire to act for the poor of the South, 
 without reference to color, had originated what was 
 called the American Union Commission. It aimed 
 largely at benefiting the ignorant white population, 
 and commenced work with great and good effect. 
 
 "A central commission for all these societies was 
 also felt to be desirable, and in January, 1864, the 
 friends of the Freedmen in New York united with the 
 American Union Commission in forming the American 
 Freedmen's and Union Commission. The western so- 
 cieties did not at first co-operate, but on the 16th of 
 May, 1866. a convention of delegates from all parts of 
 the country met at Cleveland. Ohio, and formed the 
 present American Freedmen's Union Commission. Its 
 
750 ORIGIJV oiJfl) HIS20R7 OF 
 
 object, as stated in the constitution, is 'to aid and co- 
 operate with the people of the South, without distinc- 
 tion of race or color, in the improvement of their con- 
 dition, upon the basis of industry, education, freedom, 
 and Christian morality.' This commission has been 
 of essential service in stimulating the efforts of the va- 
 rious societies, while they as branches have acted 
 through this common center with great unanimity. 
 
 u The central office in New York has done much to 
 draw public attention to the work, and gather funds 
 from all parts of this and other countries. 
 
 " The last aggregate report from all the branches 
 gave 458 schools as sustained by this commission. 
 
 " The New England Branch of the Freedmen's Union 
 Commission was organized at Boston, February 7, 1862, 
 and was called at first the Boston Educational Com- 
 mission. The object of this commission, as defined in 
 its own language, is ' the industrial, social, intellect- 
 ual, moral, and religious improvement of persons re- 
 leased from slavery in the course of the war for the 
 Union.' 
 
 " On the 3d of March, less than four weeks after, 
 they nominated 31 teachers and superintendents, who 
 (as accepted by the government agent, Edward L. 
 Pierce, Esq.) sailed from New York to Port Royal. 
 During the first year 72 teachers were sent to Port 
 Royal, and four to Craney Island, Norfolk, and Wash- 
 ington. The committee on clothing and supplies ex- 
 pended the first year, besides forwarding a large 
 amount of goods intrusted to its care, $5,306 93 for 
 clothing, blankets, etc. 
 
 "As the work of the commission increased, it was 
 deemed advisable to organize auxiliary societies. In 
 1865 there were 22 such societies; and at the present 
 time there are not less than 70 who support teachers, 
 besides a large number raising small amounts and send- 
 ing their contributions directly to the commission. The 
 whole number of these societies is now about 200. 
 
 "In May, 1866, when the various societies, east and 
 west united under the name of the American Freed- 
 men's Union Commission, the New England society 
 
AMERICAN S'ZAVJZftl' 15 f 
 
 took its present name. For the year ending April, 
 1866, the society reported 180 teachers, with 10,000 
 pupils under their instruction. 
 
 " Its schools are located in the District of Columbia, 
 Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina, and 
 Georgia. These were carried on through the year 
 1867 with unabated zeal, both its schools and teachers 
 ranking among the very best in the field. 
 
 " The total expenditures of the commission to Janu- 
 ary 1, 1868, amount to $240,420 81, besides distribut- 
 ing clothing and supplies to the estimated value of 
 $161,900. 
 
 " New York Branch American Freedmen's Union Com- 
 mission, formerly National Freedmen's Relief Associa- 
 tion. — This association, instituted February 20, 1862, 
 has labored with great zeal and energy. 
 
 " The first year it had 34 teachers employed, mainly 
 in South Carolina, and expended $5,420 22, besides 
 sending very large quantities of clothing and books to 
 the needy Freedmen. 
 
 " Its labors increased from year to year, until it be- 
 came the above branch in 1866. It had then 125 
 schools in different parts of the South, with 14,048 
 pupils and 222 teachers. It also had two orphan 
 homes and six industrial schools. Besides this educa- 
 tional work, the association that year received and dis- 
 tributed supplies for the relief of physical want valued 
 at $194,667 73, making their total receipts for the year 
 nearly $340,000. 
 
 " The Pennsylvania Branch of the American Freed- 
 men' s Union Commission, at first called the Port Royal 
 Relief Committee, and afterward known as the Penn- 
 sylvania Freedmen's Relief Association, was organized 
 March, 1862. During the first two years it expended 
 $48,459 69 in cash, besides collecting and distributing 
 $10,000 worth of clothing and other needful articles. 
 The attention of this organization has been given lat- 
 terly to the work of education alone. The average 
 number of teachers employed by it has been 60 per 
 year; the highest number employed at any one time 
 being 65. Its schools are located in the District of 
 
f52 ORIGIN rtJVD HlSZOlil OF 
 
 Columbia, and in the States of Virginia, Maryland, 
 Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, North and South 
 Carolina. It has expended monthly in support of its 
 schools from $3,500 to $4,000 In October, 1865, there 
 was organized at Philadelphia the Women's Central 
 Branch of the American Freedmen's Aid Commission. 
 This organization is connected with, and in some sense 
 auxiliary to, the Pennsylvania branch. Prom Octo- 
 ber, 1865, to October, 1866, this organization raised by 
 donation and subscription $8,347 75, and during the 
 same time packed and forwarded for the benefit of 
 the Freedmen 186 boxes of clothing, valued at about 
 $35,000. The labors of these associations have been 
 abundant and successful. 
 
 " The Baltimore Association for the Moral and Edu- 
 cational Improvement of the Colored People" commenced 
 its work in 1864, and during the last year its receipts 
 have been $58,608 50, of which $20,000 were from the 
 mayor and city council of Baltimore, and $23,371 14 
 from the colored people of the State; the latter have- 
 also built, at their own expense, from lumber furnished 
 by this Bureau, 50 school-houses, ready for use, and 30 
 others are in course of erection, which will compare 
 favorably with the country school-houses throughout 
 the State; the association, at its last annual meeting, 
 reported 73 schools, numbering on their rolls 5,000 
 scholars. It has recently provided a normal school 
 building in Baltimore, which will accommodate 150 pu- 
 pils. 
 
 %L The Northwestern Branch American Ereedmen's 
 Union Commission, formerly Freedmen's Aid Commis- 
 sion, was organized in the summer of 1864. For 
 two years this association employed and supported 
 among the Freedmen over 50 teachers. 
 
 " In May, 1866, this association merged itself into 
 the American Freedmen's Union Commission, and since 
 that time has been known as the Northwestern Branch 
 of that central commission. Its operations are now 
 carried on under the direction of an advisory commit- 
 tee. Leading men of all classes and religious beliefs 
 lend their influence and contribute of their means to 
 
AMERICAN SLAVERY. 153 
 
 forward its objects, and its operations give promise of 
 larger results than in the past. 
 
 " Michigan Branch of the Freedmen's Union Commis- 
 sion — This society was organized soon after the war 
 began. Finding large numbers of colored orphan 
 children in the seceded States, who were utterly desti- 
 tute of home and friends, the society deemed it advis- 
 able to establish a home for such in the State of Michi- 
 gan, where they might be cared for at less expense than 
 they could be at the South. Accordingly an Orphans' 
 Home was established, and on the first consignment 
 of children, 70 or 80 in number, the task of care and 
 instruction began. 
 
 " The support of the home absorbed all the funds of 
 the commission until the close of the year 1866. In 
 January, 1867, funds were furnished and teachers sent 
 to Columbia, South Carolina, and Alexandria, Vir- 
 ginia; and more recently they have sent teachers to 
 Louisiana. 
 
 " The Western Freedmeris Aid Commission, co-operat- 
 ing with the American Missionary Association, was or- 
 ganized in the winter of 1862. 
 
 " During that cold season it gave its attention to 
 physical relief. In the spring of 1863 the commission 
 sent a few teachers to the camps of the colored troops 
 on the Mississippi. In 1864-65 it expended for schools, 
 etc., $26,128, and for physical relief $101,049 During 
 the year the commission had 58 teachers in the South, 
 located at the following points: Cairo, Illinois; Colum- 
 bus, Kentucky; Island No. 10, Memphis, President's 
 Island. Camp Holly Springs, Fort Donelson, Clarks- 
 ville, Providence, Gallatin, Nashville, Murtreesboro, 
 Tennessee; Helena and Little Rock, Arkansas; Good- 
 rich's Landing and Milliken's Bend. Louisiana; Yicks- 
 burg and Natchez Mississippi; and in several colored 
 regiments, and on a few plantations 
 
 " 1865-66 the work was somewhat enlarged, mainly 
 by the co-operation of friends of the Freedmen in 
 Great Britain, and the commission had 80 teachers in 
 the field. The estimated value of stores furnished for 
 physical relief was $78,000. 
 
/j£ OHIGIJV S4.JVD HISTORY OF 
 
 « In 1866-67 71 teachers were employed, and there 
 was expended in education and physical relief $226,- 
 939 37. It is proper to state that a portion of these 
 funds was for a home in the vicinity of Cincinnati, 
 which was a temporary refuge for children, and for de- 
 crepit and superannuated persons driven from homes 
 where they could no longer be made profitable. 
 
 "In the fall of 1866 this society united its agency 
 and office-work with the American Missionary Associ- 
 ation. In so doing each association retains its incor- 
 porate existence, but it was considered by both that 
 economy and harmony in the work required this 
 union. Notwithstanding the scarcity of money, the 
 number of teachers this past year under the supervis- 
 ion of the united office has been 129. 
 
 " National Freedmen's Relief Association of the Dis- 
 trict of Columbia. — This association was organized April 
 9, 1862, and was among the first of the kind in the 
 country. The object of the gentlemen forming it was 
 mainly to provide for the bodily wants of the fugitives 
 arriving in large numbers at the capital, and to im- 
 prove the condition of those remaining here perma- 
 nently. 
 
 " Afterward, in addition to the above, they defended 
 the legal rights of Freedmen in the courts, and rescued 
 them from the remorseless grasp of slave-catchers. 
 They also labored earnestly lor the establishment of 
 free schools for colored people in different sections of 
 the city. The first school was opened by the associa- 
 tion on November 23, 1863. Soon they reported 10 
 schools with 800 pupils, and 9 evening schools with 
 about 1000 regular attendants. They have, for the six 
 years past, done a good work in all respects; not only 
 by ordinary teaching day and night, but clothing the 
 naked, feeding the hungry, establishing industrial 
 schools, and soup-houses in different parts of the city; 
 and the same is still prosecuted with zeal, energy, and 
 success. 
 
 " The Soldiers' Memorial Society of Boston, Massa- 
 chusetts, is a continuation of the New England branch 
 of the Sanitary Commission, and commenced with the 
 
AMERICAN SZATBnr. f-55 
 
 close of the war. It has devoted its labors to the dis- 
 tribution of clothing and supplies throughout the 
 South, especially in Alexandria, Kichmond, Hampton, 
 Wilmington, Harker's Island, and Charleston. It has 
 also furnished supplies to orphan asylums, both white 
 and colored. 
 
 " At several prominent centers, it has supported ref- 
 ugees' schools, employing in them some 75 teachers, 
 and conducting its work with special reference to 
 bringing the authorities to establish a system of public 
 schools. In this school work for poor whites, it is the 
 special successor of the American Union Commission 
 of New York City. 
 
 "The society has expended about 82,500 annually, 
 and has had in the field an average of about 50 teach- 
 ers and missionaries. 
 
 " 0. S General Assembly Presbyterian Church. — This 
 body operates through a standing committee, who 
 made their first report in May, 1866. 
 
 " The following summary will exhibit the results 
 for the year ending May 1, 1868: Funds expended, 
 $63,959 62, of which the Freedmen gave $8,264 38; 
 missionary and teachers, 165; of these 110 were col- 
 ored persons; day schools, 53; pupils in schools, 2,889; 
 Sabbath-schools, 51 ; pupils in Sabbath-schools, 3,812; 
 total schools, 104; pupils, 6,701 ; church buildings com- 
 pleted or begun during the year, 31; teachers' houses, 
 7; lots for church buildings secured, 7. 
 
 "Teachers labor five days in the week, six hours a 
 day, and generally have night schools three nights of 
 the week. One day of the week is usually spent in 
 visiting the people, and in teaching them to order their 
 households. They hold prayer- meetings, teach Sab- 
 bath-schools, and assist catechists in the conduct of 
 Sabbath services in the absence of the ministers. 
 
 "No difficulty has been found in enlisting teachers. 
 Females, with the true spirit of missions, are to be 
 found in all parts of the church, who are ready to en- 
 ter the work, and bear all its trials and reproaches, 
 upon the promise of a bare support The committee 
 bear testimony to the singular fidelity and moral hero- 
 
/5G ORIGIN ^iJVT) HIS2 Oft Y OF 
 
 ism with which these teachers have performed their 
 work. 
 
 " Fieedmens Aid Society of the Methodist Episcopal 
 Clmrch. — This society was organized in August 1866, 
 and entered at once upon the educational work among 
 the Freedmen ll established schools in the States of 
 Virginia, Keivueky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, 
 Alabama, and fte< rgia. In these States this society, 
 at the date of its la-t report, had 29 schools, in which 
 were employed 51 teachers, having under their care 
 about 5,000 pupils. 
 
 : In us first year the society collected and expended, 
 in cash, goods bo. ks etc., over $33,134. The field of 
 its operations has steadily widened and its labors are 
 being crowned with abundant success 
 
 {i Baptist Borne Missionary Society. — This society has, 
 since the war closed, sustained schools for the educa- 
 tion of colored children, so far as special provision for 
 their support has been made. 
 
 "Thirty of their missionaries and assistants have 
 devoted themselves wholly, or in part, to the education 
 of colored preachers. Their schools have been at 
 Nashvile, Memphis, New Orleans, Beaufort, S. C , Ra- 
 leigh and Charlotte, N. C, Alexandria, and Wash- 
 ington. 
 
 " They have all been engaged in giving elementary 
 and theological training to preachers. The school in 
 Washington has an average of 25 ministerial students 
 fur the last year, and the principal says: 
 
 1 ' I have the satisfaction of knowing that one class 
 of colored men have had a year of thorough discipline. 
 As many as 20 of them have education enough to teach 
 a good school. I am glad to say, also that the students 
 seem to grow in grace as well as in knowledge. They 
 teach in school or go among the poor every Sabbath 
 afternoon ' 
 
 " The teacher of the Nashville school writes: 
 
 "'They will not turn out great theologians; but, 
 with the help of God, they will do much for their race. 
 I have heard some of them preach, and have been 
 amazed as well as pleased to perceive with what accu- 
 
AMEHICAjY SLAVERY. 757 
 
 racy they reproduce in their own language the ideas 
 conveyed in the recitation room.' 
 
 " Home Missionary Society of the Free Will Baptist 
 Church. — The work of this society has been conducted 
 by two branches, east and west 
 
 " In the east it is confined mainly to the Shenandoah 
 Valley. This valley is the home of 30,000 Frcedmen, 
 and is not only the garden of Virginia, but the colored 
 people there are far more intelligent than where they 
 have been herded together further south. 
 
 "Twenty missionaries and teachers commenced in 
 in 1867 to labor in this valley, and about the same 
 number at the west. # The whole number of pupils 
 taught in all their schools, for the year, has been 3,467, 
 varying in age from 4 to 70 years. A very promising 
 normal school has been commenced at Harper's Ferry. 
 
 " It has been the policy of this society, from the com- 
 mencement of its work among Freedmen, to have some 
 portion of these laborers devote their whole time to 
 missionary work, and to the formation of churches. 
 Their teachers and missionaries deserve great praise 
 for their faithfulness. A number of colored preachers 
 are employed, who have proved themselves worthy of 
 the respect of the Christian Church. 
 
 "New England Yearly Meeting of Friends. — This so- 
 ciety, through a select committee, has labored with 
 great success for the last four years, mainly in the city 
 of Washington. 
 
 " They purchased an estate on Thirteenth Street in 
 the latter part of the year 1864, and soon after opened 
 a store for selling goods to the colored people at cost; 
 employed persons to distribute needed^ supplies among 
 the suffering; commenced an industrial school for 
 teaching ba-ket-making, straw-braiding, etc. ; and es- 
 tablished a Sabbath and evening school. The next 
 year day schools were opened, which increased rapidly 
 in attendance, and were ably and faithfully sustained. 
 
 " The Pennsylvania Friends' Freedmen 's Relief Associ- 
 ation of Philadelphia was organized on the 11th day 
 of November, 1863; its object being to 'relieve the 
 
f5S OKIGIJV s4.JVft HISIO'RY OF 
 
 wants, provide for the instruction, and protect the 
 rights of the Freedmen.' 
 
 "During the year 1865 it supported a number of ex- 
 cellent schools in a large building, erected by itself, in 
 the city of Washington. When, however, schools 
 were provided for here in a large measure by other so- 
 cieties, the Friends withdrew from the field, and gave 
 their attention and efforts more especially to the 
 Freedmen of Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, and 
 a portion of Delaware. They now operate mainly in 
 North Carolina and Virginia. 
 
 "From the date of its organization to April, 1867, 
 this association has expended in cash $210,500; dis- 
 tributing garments to the number of 118,453 pieces. 
 The average number of schools supported has been 18; 
 scholars, 4,300; teachers, 44. 
 
 "Organizations among the colored people. — The colored 
 people of the country have shown no lack of interest 
 in the matter of laboring, and giving of their scanty 
 means for the education of their race now made free. 
 
 "In this connection the efforts of the African Civil- 
 ization Society, and the African Methodist Episcopal 
 Church, are worthy of special mention In the an- 
 nual appeal of the former organization for 1868, it is 
 stated that 2,500 freed people have been taught in its 
 schools during the past year, and thousands more of an 
 older class have been reached and instructed in the 
 duties of their new life of freedom. 
 
 "The Missionary Society of the African. Methodist 
 Episcopal Church has sustained, for the past four years, 
 74 missions among the Freedmen; and in co-operation 
 with other educational organizations working in the 
 South, has supported 60 schools. The children and 
 older persons attending the Sabbath-schools connected 
 with its churches number 40,000. The libraries ot 
 the schools contain 39,119 volumes. 
 
 "The whole expenditure of the society for all pur- 
 poses, during the past fiscal year, amounted to $130,- 
 276 46, all of which was collected from colored per- 
 sons. It received and expended, from 1862 to 1867, 
 $36,383 06. Its work, as arranged for the coming year 
 
AMERICAN SLAYER r. /59 
 
 will require not less than $50,000, to obtain which they 
 make a hopeful appeal to the benevolent public." 
 
 In the above voluntary agencies for the education 
 of the Freedmen where all have done so nobly, it is 
 impossible to discriminate in the bestowal of merited 
 praise. All have labored untiringly, and with wonder- 
 ful success, and deserve the lasting gratitude of man- 
 kind for their munificent and disinterested charities. 
 
 In addition to these there are a number of church 
 organizations, purely sectarian in their basis and in- 
 structions, whose labors have likewise been amply 
 blest in the conversion and education of this ignorant 
 class of people. As the most prominent of these, we 
 will give a brief sketch of 
 
 " The United Presbyterian Board of Missions to the 
 Freedmen of the South." — This society was organized in 
 Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, on July 4, 1863. Two 
 corps of teachers were sent out in the fall of that year, 
 one of which was located at Goodrich Landing, Mis- 
 sissippi. These schools continued and prospered for 
 several months, when the government protection was 
 withdrawn, and most of the contrabands removed to 
 Davis' Bend. The teachers were then transferred to 
 that point, and continued the schools for two years, 
 with headquarters in the house of Jefferson Davis. 
 After the close of the war, the schools at the Bend 
 were abandoned. The other corps was located at 
 Vicksburg, Mississippi. Their schools were well at- 
 tended and great good was done. In the early part of 
 1863 schools were commenced in Memphis, Tennessee, 
 but were in 1865 given up, as other associations seemed 
 adequate to carry on the schools. In the same year 
 schools were opened on President's Island, and in Nash- 
 ville, Tennessee. The station at the latter place has 
 
/GO OltlGTJY siJTT) HISTORY OF 
 
 been a great success from the first, a colored congrega- 
 tion having been organized there. In 1867 a station 
 was established at Leavenworth, Kansas, and a congre- 
 gation organized with much success. Another con- 
 gregation of colored people had been previously formed 
 in Vicksburg. 
 
 From the beginning of the work among the Freed- 
 men, over 150 persons have labored under the care of 
 the board, many of them for three years consecutively. 
 The number taught each year has been from 1500 to 
 2000. At present there are over 1600 pupils in the 
 United Presbyterian schools, and about an equal num- 
 ber receive Sabbath-school instruction. 
 
 There are also a number of other sectarian societies, 
 of which we would be pleased to make honorable men- 
 tion, but the data of their operations are not at 
 hand. 
 
 The Roman Catholics are likewise fully alive to the 
 importance of securing a foothold among the Freed- 
 men, and the College l 'De Propaganda," at Romeh, as 
 carefully considered the field, as is shown in the fol- 
 lowing extract relative to the proceedings of the coun- 
 cil of Roman Catholics recently held in Baltimore: 
 
 "The consideration of the condition of the Freedmen 
 was pressed upon the council by a letter from Cardinal 
 Barnabo, prefect of the Propaganda at Rome. The 
 points to be discussed are the appointment of an apos- 
 tolic prefect, with episcopal powers, for the s-pecial su- 
 perintendence of missions among the blacks; the erec- 
 tion of separate churches for these people; the admis- 
 sion of colored men to the priesthood; the establish- 
 ment of convents of colored nuns, and of schools for 
 children; and finally, the introduction of congrega- 
 tional singing in the vernacular into negro churches." 
 
 Catholic schools are numerous throughout the South, 
 
AMERICAN SLAVES T, fOf 
 
 and the teachers and priests of this denomination have 
 labored assiduously and with great success. 
 
 "The Presbyterian Committee of Home Missions,'" con- 
 sisting of fifteen persons, was organized as a perma- 
 nent committee, intrusted with the prosecution of the 
 work of home missions, by the (New School) General 
 Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, in May, 1861 
 and was duty incorporated by the legislature of the 
 State of New York, in April, 1862. 
 
 The general assembly of 1868 charged this commit- 
 tee with the work among the Freedmen; which, in 
 ^November, 1868, was made a separate department and 
 intrusted provisionally to the superintendence cf the 
 chairman, Rev. Ei. F. Hatfield, JJ. D. It is now less 
 than four months since the work of this department 
 was commenced in the South, yet it has already in 
 commission 3 general agents (one of them colored), 7 
 missionaries (two of them colored), and 61 teachers 
 (of whom twenty-five are colored). It maintains 55 
 schools, in which are taught more than 3000 pupils. 
 The schools are mostly in Tennessee; several are in 
 the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia; and others are in 
 Maryland, District of Columbia, North Carolina, South 
 Carolina, Alabama, Florida, and Missouri. With such 
 encouraging results at the outset, the committee in the 
 ensuing year will press forward to a more extended 
 work. The New School Presbyterian Church is fully 
 committed to do her part in elevating and evangeliz- 
 ing the colored people of the South, and no denomina- 
 tion of Christians in the land in respect to the past of 
 slavery has a fairer record. 
 
 We also give a list of the various colleges, universi- 
 ties, and normal or high schools for the education of 
 
 15 
 
/62 OftJGJJV AJVD HI S 2 031 T OF 
 
 Freedmen, together with several for colored persons in 
 the Free States: 
 
 " Howard University. — Howard University, Wash- 
 ington,!). C, incorporated by Congress March 2, 1867, 
 is designed to afford special opportunities for a higher 
 education to the newly enfranchised of the South. 
 
 " The trustees, soon after obtaining their charter, 
 purchased 150 acres of land in a very favorable loca- 
 tion near the city, and by selling about two-thirds of 
 it for building lots, secured, with a little additional help, 
 the means of payment for the whole, reserving a very 
 eligible site for university buildings, with a public 
 square and park. Here, by the aid of educational funds 
 ot the Freedmen's Bureau, there have been erected two 
 large buildings; one for recitation rooms, philosophical 
 chamber, laboratory, library, offices and chapel; and 
 the other for dormitories and a boarding hall. 
 
 '•A competent number of able instructors has been 
 elected, and others are to be chosen if the means for 
 their support can be obtained. A department prepar- 
 atory for college and to fit teachers was opened in May, 
 1867. This has been very prosperous, having over a 
 hundred pupils the firstyear; and asmall college class, 
 to which additions are expected, has been formed. Pre- 
 liminary lectures on theological study are given, to 
 answer a present demand in the case of several who 
 have not completed the usual academic course. 
 
 " The medical department will be opened in the com- 
 ing autumn, and arrangements have been made for 
 commencing the law department. 
 
 " The expenses for students are fixed very low, and 
 measures have been taken to provide manual labor, 
 that any one can earn, in part, the means of support; 
 also, in exceptional cases, to remit more or less from 
 the bills of tuition and room rent. Applications are 
 constantly coming from various parts of the South for 
 the admission of pupils to all the departments. 
 
 " While making special provision for Freedmen and 
 white refugees, as demanded by the aid furnished by 
 
alMEftldiJV SLAVEftl. .GS 
 
 the Freed men's Bureau, still all classes, including 
 both sexes, are carefully provided *or. 
 
 k - It is the design ot the trustees to build u[) at the 
 nation's capital a large and efficient institution, amply 
 sufficient for supplying the demand of this new era, 
 and to give intelligent youth, whatever may have been 
 their previous condition, the benefits of a thorough 
 collegiate and professional education. 
 
 '•The great want of the institution now, is funds for 
 scholarships of §150 each, the endowment of professor- 
 ships, and tor purchase of books, apparatus and other 
 important material. 
 
 tk Fisk school, Nashville, Tennessee — This school was 
 founded by the American Missionary Association and 
 Western Freedmen's Aid Commission. In August, 
 1867 (the city of Nashville having provided tree schools 
 for all classes), a charter was secured for the Fisk Uni- 
 versi'y, and academic and normal departments were 
 opened the tollowing September. Its hist catalogue 
 shows, whole number enrolled 412; in the grammar 
 school. 85. academic department, 88; normal depart- 
 ment, 41. The normal pupils are mostly from differ- 
 ent portions of the State, and board with the family in 
 the Mission Home. Erich normal pupil teaches in the 
 model school at least one-half hour per day, under the 
 direction of the principal. 
 
 "A commercial department, under the management 
 of a competent master, has recently been added to the 
 university. Special attention will be given to book- 
 keeping, penmanship, and kindred branches, to fit 
 young men and, women for the transaction of ordinary 
 legal, mechanical, and commercial business 
 
 1 The average daily attendance in all the depart- 
 ments has been 232. 
 
 "The property secured for the university by the' as- 
 sociation and the Bureau is valued at $40,000 
 
 lt Btrea College. — This institution commenced in 
 1858, at Berea Madison County, Kentucky, was the 
 outgrowth of previous missionary labor, and one of 
 the first efforts south of the Ohio to f>und an educa- 
 tional institution whose privileges should be extended 
 
fOU ORIGIN rtWD IflSlORY OF 
 
 to all. without distinction of race. During the war this 
 school was suspended; but it, reopened two years ago, 
 and has since had a vigorous growth The last cata- 
 logue gives the names of 301 students, one-third of 
 whom are white, and the remainder colored. Twenty- 
 four are in the normal department. 
 
 '• The institution furnishes labor for industrious 
 young men sufficient to pay a portion of their ex- 
 penses. 
 
 u Although the capacity of the college to accommo- 
 date students has been more than doubled the past 
 year, it is still insufficient to meet the wants of those 
 who are seeking its privileges. 
 
 '• Berea deserves credit tor its noble struggle, for 
 years against pro slavery prejudice, and should now 
 have a liberal patronage. It lias an able corps of in- 
 structors. The president is its original founder, Rev. 
 John Gr Fee, and the institution has been, from the 
 first, under the patronage of the American Missionary 
 Association. 
 
 "Bid die Memorial, Institute. — This institute is located 
 in the city of Charlotte, North Carolina It was 
 founded by a generous donation from the widow of the 
 late Henry J. Biddle, of Philadelphia, who gaVe his 
 life to his country in the great rebellion. 
 
 "A beautiful site of eight acres has been secured near 
 the city, the gift of Colonel W R. Myers, a citizen of 
 Charlotte, and the main building is now being erected. 
 Two houses for the professors have been completed 
 free of debt. Eight thousand dollars are needed to 
 complete the whole work. 
 
 'Since the lGth of hist September, when the first ses- 
 sion opened, 43 students have been admitted. Great 
 care has been exercised in admitting students, and all 
 of them are required to spend part of their time in 
 teaching among the people. The institutiou has an 
 incorporated board of trustees under the laws of North 
 Carolina. 
 
 " The Freedmen themselves have taken hold of this 
 enterprise with great vigor, and are spreading its rep- 
 utation far and wide; but their absolute poverty pre- 
 
oiMEftlCAjY SLAVERY. fG5 
 
 vents them from actually doing much toward its ma- 
 terial prosperity. If means were furnished, more 
 than a hundred promising young men could be gath- 
 ered to the Biddle Institute during its next session. 
 
 "High School, Quindaro, Kansas. — This institution 
 was established under the auspices of the Old School 
 Presbyterian Assembly's Committee. It is situated on 
 the west bank of the Missouri River, on the line of the 
 Pacific Railroad, and is thus of easy access from every 
 quarter. The last catalogue shows 180 pupils, 95 of 
 whom are males and 85 females. 
 
 " The institution has accumulated property, consist- 
 ing of the seminary building of stone, 22 by 48 feet, 
 with two stories and basement, and three dwelling 
 houses for teachers, valued at $G,ZQ0. On this there 
 is a debt of $500. 
 
 "Efforts are now being made to obtain an efficient 
 principal, who shall be able to give instruction to a 
 theological class. Also, to secure land for farming and 
 gardening purposes, that the students may be in- 
 structed in agriculture and trained to habits of in- 
 dustry. 
 
 "Lincoln University, Oxford, Pa. — This university has 
 now an efficient faculty of eight members and 115 stu- 
 dents. Forty of these are Freedmen. These students 
 are gathered from 15 different States, a fact which 
 evinces the widespread influence of the institution. 
 Theie are at present in the theological department 15 
 pupils; in the collegiate, 82; preparatory, 18; total, 
 115. Four professorships are already endowed, attd 
 above $10,000 is needed to increase the accommoda- 
 tions made necessary by the growing success of the 
 university. 
 
 "Avery College. — Avery College, in Allegheny City, 
 Pennsylvania, was built and donated to the trustees of 
 the institution by the late Rev. Charles Avery, for the 
 education of colored youth of both sexes, and was in- 
 corporated by the legislature of the State of Pennsyl- 
 vania, A. D 1849. The edifice is attractive, conven- 
 ient, and ample in its proportions, and furnished with 
 
fG6 O'RIGJJV XJV2) instoRr OF 
 
 a fine library, and a good assortment of philosophical, 
 chemical, and astronomical apparatus 
 
 " The course of study is substantially that adopted 
 by other colleges in our- country. 
 
 "Every person admitted must give satisfactory testi- 
 monials of good moral character, and those coming 
 from other institutions must present a certificate ot 
 honorable dismission. 
 
 "The academical year is divided into three terms, 
 as follows: The fall term, beginning on the second 
 Monday in September and continuing 15 weeks; vaca- 
 tion lor two weeks. The winter term, beginning on 
 the first Monday of January and continuing 13 weeks; 
 vacation of two weeks "The spring term, beginning 
 on the third Monday in April and^ continuing \t 
 weeks; vacation of eight weeks. 
 
 " This college is not under the control of any relig- 
 ious denomination, although its charter provides that 
 all its officers shall be professors ot Christianity. It 
 is in no way connected with any sectarian organiza- 
 tion, yet the design of its founders was to incorporate 
 the teaching of Christian precepts with its appropriate 
 course of studies. 
 
 "-Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute. — Under 
 the auspices of the American Missionary Association 
 this institution was opened in April, 18(38. It received 
 an incorporation the following September k for the pur- 
 pose of preparing youth of the South without distinc- 
 tion of color, for the work of organizing and instruct- 
 ing schools.' The extreme poverty of those who 
 needed such an institution, and the value of self-help 
 as a means of culture and true manhood, induced the 
 association to purchase a farm of 120 acres and pro- 
 vide it with all appliances of profitable labor. 
 
 "This farm lies upon Hampton Roads. The school 
 and home buildings, valued at 820,000, occupy a beau- 
 tiful site upon the shore. They are so furnished and 
 arranged as to offer students the aids to right living 
 which belong to a cultivated Christian home. 
 
 " In the farm work, under the constant direction of 
 an educated practical farmer, the graduates of this in- 
 
AMEftlCriJY SLAVER T. 167 
 
 stitution will have learned both the theory and prac- 
 tice of the most profitable methods of agriculture. 
 
 "The female students do all the housework of the 
 boarding department. Thus, in the home, on the farm, 
 and in the school-room, the students have the oppor- 
 tunity to learn the three great lessons of life — how to 
 live, how to labor, and how to teach others. 
 
 "Pupils are received between the ages of 15 and 25; 
 if younger or older, a special arrangement will be 
 made. They must enter with the intention to become 
 teachers and to remain through the whole course of 
 study. Each student is on probation for three months 
 after admission. Fifty-two were in the boarding de- 
 partment of this institution the last year. 
 
 "It is required that students shall abstain entirely 
 from the use of intoxicating liquors and tobacco, and 
 improve the fine opportunity for sea and fresh-water 
 bathing, and always govern themselves by the laws of 
 good deportment which belong to every well-ordered, 
 cheerful Christian household." 
 
 " Results of labor. — The first crop has been planted 
 and gathered under all the disadvantages of an exper- 
 iment, and with a very heavy outlay in recovering a 
 farm wasted by war, stocking it with fruit trees, small 
 fruits, hotbeds, etc., and erecting a barn and an entire 
 new fence, amounting to $4,059. 
 
 "The gross sales of produce in the northern markets 
 have been $2156 56; crops now in the ground (esti- 
 mated), $1800 00; total, $3956 56. 
 
 "The 19 male students who entered in April earned 
 during the term and spring vacation an average of 
 $1 10 per week above their expenses. The earnings 
 of the 13 female students fell a little short of their 
 expenses. 
 
 "In the summer vacation (six weeks) male students 
 earned $3 per week above expenses; females from 50 
 cents to $1. 
 
 "It is believed that this institution offers superior 
 advantages to all. Youth, who are in earnest and who 
 come with a stout heart and two willing hands, ma}' 
 feel that it is entirely possible for them here to push 
 
f6S ORIGIN ri. J\"& HIST0R2 OF 
 
 their way to a good preparation for the life work be- 
 them. 
 
 u St. Augustine Normal School. — The St. Augustine 
 Normal School, under the charge of the Freedmen's 
 Committee of the Protestant Episcopal Church, is lo- 
 cated at Ealeigh, North Carolina. It was incorporated 
 in July, 1867, but did not commence operations until 
 January, 1868. During the first session there were in 
 attendance 26 pupils. The second term commenced 
 September 28, with 20 pupils. There is now a pros- 
 pect of a very large increase. 
 
 "The trustees have purchased 100 acres of land in a 
 most desirable location adjoining the city, and a com- 
 modious edifice is now going up. It will furnish ac- 
 commodation for at least 150 pupils. The building is 
 in a most beautiful grove, and is at once convenient 
 and retired. 
 
 •'It is purposed at the earliest moment possible to 
 erect a building near the normal school as a home for 
 pupils who come from a distance. 
 
 "There is on hand and promised to the institution a 
 fund of about $43,000, which will be set apart as a per- 
 manent endowment. 
 
 "National Theological Institute and University, Wash- 
 ington, District of Columbia.— This institute commenced 
 its organized work among the Freedmen in 1864. 
 Eevs. Solomon Peck, 1). D., and J. W. Parker, D. D., 
 were its pioneer laborers. The former began the first 
 Freedmen's school south of Virginia, at Beaufort, South 
 Carolina, in 1862. The latter made early public ef- 
 forts and journeys South, having for his object the bet- 
 ter instruction of the preachers of the colored people. 
 
 "In May of 1867 an executive committee was con- 
 stituted to adjust all pre-existing agencies, and the in- 
 stitute, mainly under the care of the gentlemen in 
 Boston of the Baptist denomination, assumed its pres- 
 ent form. 
 
 "Their total expenditure for the year ending April 
 23, 1868, was $18,368 09. 
 
 "The work is not simply educational, for the main- 
 tenance of secular schools, but is missionary and evan- 
 
gelizing, by means of a native ministry, trained, en- 
 Tightened, and thoroughly finished. 
 
 " The institute has schools lor this purpose at the 
 following places: Washington, with a whole number 
 in attendance during the first five months of 125; 
 Richmond, with an attendance, night and day, of 88; 
 St. Helena, South Carolina, with 50 pupils; Augusta, 
 Georgia, with about 60. 
 
 " These pupils are nearly all mature men, of good 
 native talent, many of whom have for a long time been 
 preachers of the gospel among their brethren. In- 
 struction is adapted accordingly; extremely element- 
 ary in many respects, but as time passes and the op- 
 portunity of these men presents, and especially as 
 young men come from the children's schools, instruc- 
 tion will become more extended. 
 
 "Great good must ultimately result from the labors 
 of such an institute, and we may hope it will in time 
 grow to be, as its name implies, a broadly endowed and 
 thorough university. 
 
 " Miss M. R. Mann's School, Washington, D. (7.— This 
 school, though small, and until recently a private en- 
 terprise, is an admirably conducted institution. It 
 commenced December 5, 1865, Through the influence 
 of the friends of the Hon. Horace Mann, in Massachu- 
 setts, a school-house, with the best appliances, was fur- 
 nished. A small tuition fee was charged, but many 
 pupils were taken gratuitously, particularly those wish- 
 ing to become teachers. 
 
 " The teacher is a niece of Mr. Mann, and is well 
 qualified for her charge. "Visitors are surprised with 
 the beautifully furnished room, the neatness and order 
 preserved, and the high character of the recitations. 
 
 "All ages have been admitted, that the school might 
 contain within itself its own experimental class "for 
 practice in teaching; and thus those who never entered 
 for" that purpose become qualified for the work. 
 
 " The average registered attendance for the past 
 three years has been about 40, and a number of teach- 
 ers have already been sent out from the school, all 
 but one of whom are now successfully employed. 
 16 
 
770 ORIGIN AJVD IHSIOftr Or 
 
 " The school is at present under the direction of the 
 school board of Washington, and they propose to have 
 it receive the most advanced pupils from several of the 
 public schools. This plan carried out practically will 
 make it, with the patronage these trustees can bestow, 
 a model school, and one of the best for normal instruc- 
 tion in the city. 
 
 "■Talladega Normal School. — Talladega is in North- 
 ern Alabama, just at the upper line of the best cotton 
 lands and mineral regions. It is a central and excel- 
 lent location for educational purposes. Here the 
 Cleveland Freedmen's Aid Commission had maintained 
 an excellent school since 1865, where most of the chil- 
 dren in the vicinity received primary instruction. 
 
 '• In November, 1867, the American Missionary As- 
 sociation opened the Talladega Normal School with 140 
 pupils. It now numbers 231, with the best prospects 
 of success. A large three-story brick building is pro- 
 vided, with 30 acres of land. Normal students are 
 carefully instructed in the rudiments of two or three 
 of the most needed branches, and by practice in drill- 
 ing the younger pupils in those branches. Nine 
 months of such training in the elements makes of an 
 earnest person a more than average teacher for the or- 
 dinary schools. Fifteen teachers have already been 
 sent out from this institution, nearly all of whom are 
 conducting both day and Sabbath-schools, in which 
 their efforts prove to be very acceptable. It is ex- 
 pected that this normal class will be increased to 50 or 
 60 during the coming term. 
 
 " Storer Normal School. — The Storer Normal School 
 is located at Harper's Ferry, West Virginia, and is 
 under the patronage of the Free-will Baptist denomi- 
 nation. It has 43 pupils enrolled, with an average at- 
 tendance of 32. Sixteen of the pupils are over 16 
 years of age. 
 
 u An eligible site has been purchased by the society 
 
 having the work in charge, and it is expected that a 
 
 school of a high order will here be gathered. Suitable 
 
 buildings have been furnished by the government. 
 
 "A benevolent gentleman, John Storer, Esq., of San- 
 
AMERICAN SLATER T. /? i 
 
 ford, Me., has given $10,000 to assist this undertaking, 
 on condition that an equul amount shall be raised for 
 the same purpose on or before January 1, 1869. The 
 larger part of this sum is already secured, and agents 
 are still at work obtaining funds, with very cheering 
 success. 
 
 '•The location of this school is excellent, its man- 
 agers are enterprising, and its prospects are full of en- 
 couragement. 
 
 "Richmond Normal and High School. — In October, 
 1867, the Richmond Normal and High School was fully 
 organized and commenced operations. It is conducted 
 by a board of directors under a charter from the cir- 
 cuit court of Richmond. The principal building is a 
 handsome new brick edifice, 52 by 32, and two sto- 
 ries high. It is thoroughly constructed, well pro- 
 vided with the best modern school furniture, and sup- 
 plied with all necessary educational appliances: phi- 
 losophical apparatus, map3, charts, globes, books of 
 reference, a new and well-selected miscellaneous libra- 
 ry, with historical pictures and other works of art to 
 add to the attractiveness of the rooms. 
 
 "The school has had two excellent teachers, and 65 
 pupils. These have made fine progress, their examin- 
 ations eliciting much praise from gentlemen who have 
 been present. This institution is exceedingly useful, 
 not only for instructing and disciplining the pupils, 
 but for its effect upon the whole community. It has 
 elevated the aspirations of the colored youth of the 
 city, and succeeded in conquering a portion of that 
 unfounded prejudice which has hitherto existed among 
 white citizens. 
 
 The school will hereafter accommodate 100 pupils 
 and three teachers. As the average scholarship in 
 schools of lower grade in the city becomes elevated, 
 the conditions of admission to this will be advanced. 
 The course of study and methods of instruction are 
 those common to the best normal schools. 
 
 " Shaw School, Charleston, South Carolina — This ex- 
 cellent school was first established in the Morris Street 
 public school building, March 14, 1865, and is supported 
 
f?2 OftZGUV AJV3) HIS TO It Y OF 
 
 oy the New England branch of the Freedmen's Union 
 Commission. At the beginning of the term, just closed 
 in Military Hall, 375 pupils were received, after which, 
 for want of room, nearly all applications had to be re- 
 fused. 
 
 "The following facts, showing an interesting detail 
 of instruction, are furnished by its principal, iVtr. Ar- 
 thur Sumner: 
 
 " ' Beginning with the lowest classes, 48 scholars are 
 in the Fourth Eeader. They can read the books com- 
 monly used in families of children ; 70 per cent, of 
 these scholars are in the Third and Fourth Readers. 
 There are 10 in fractions, and several more, equally ad- 
 vanced, have lately left school; 27 .-an perform exam- 
 ples in long division. They are taught the reasons of 
 the process, and the brightest can explain it. Fifty- 
 four can do short division; 43 are in multiplication ; 51 
 in subtraction ; 22 can only add "numbers of four to six 
 figures each, So that 207 in these classes can be said 
 to be in written arithmetic, having also made equal 
 progress in mental arithmetic. 
 
 '"In the higher classes of the school, most of the 
 scholars can add, subtract, multiply, and divide long 
 combinations of units and tens, given out orally and 
 rapidly by the teacher. They display as much aptness 
 in these exercises as children do at the North. 
 
 '"The larger number are writing in books, the re- 
 mainder on the slate. Two hundred have been taught 
 writing by dictation. This system has been eminently 
 successful. 
 
 '" One hundred and twelve are studying geography. 
 They have had the use of a large globe and Guyot's 
 wall maps. 
 
 "'The highest class has been in English composition, 
 with constant practice, having written carefully pre- 
 pared compositions all the term. Very few of the pu- 
 pils in this school had any education before the war. 
 
 "'The library of over 1300 volumes is a great 
 feature of the school. More than 600 books have been 
 issued since the library was first opened, and not one 
 has been lost by the pupils.' 
 
AMERICAN SLAVER*. 173 
 
 " Institute for Colored Youth, Philadelphia, Pennsyl- 
 vania, Ebenezer D. Bassett, Principal. — This institute 
 was founded about the year 1837, upon a bequest made 
 by Richard Humphreys, member of the Society of 
 Friends. Its design was to qualify colored youth to 
 act as teachers. In addition to this, the founder also 
 contemplated some instruction in mechanic arts and 
 agriculture. In order to accomplish this, an associa- 
 tion of Friends, which had been formed, purchased, in 
 1839, a piece of land in Bristol Township, Philadel- 
 phia County, and educated a number of boys in farm- 
 ing, and, to some extent, in shoemaking and other use- 
 ful occupations. In 18-42 an act of incorporation was 
 obtained from the legislature. 
 
 " In 1844 the funds of the institute were increased 
 by a bequest of over 818.000 from Jonathan Zane, an- 
 other member of the Society of Friends. Several 
 small legacies were also received about this time. 
 
 "The experiment of the combined literary, agricul- 
 tural, and manual labor school was abandoned in 1846, 
 and the farm and stock sold. 
 
 " During the next six years the managers endeav- 
 ored to carry out the objects of their trust by appren- 
 ticing colored lads to mechanical occupations, and by 
 maintaining an evening school. In 1851 a lot of ground 
 on Lombard street, Philadelphia, was selected, and a 
 building erected. In the autumn of 1852 it was opened 
 as a high school, under the care of Prof. Charles L. 
 Reason, of New York, the pupils being selected from 
 those of a standing above that of the ordinary schools. 
 
 " The growth of the school soon demanded increased 
 accommodations. The first step looking to this desir- 
 able end was taken in 1863, when the executors of the 
 estate of Josiah Dawson made an appropriation of 
 ^5,000 to a building fund. Soon after two Friends of- 
 fered to the board the sum of $5,000 each, provided an 
 amount necessary to complete a building fund of $30,000 
 could be raised by the board. This movement was 
 vigorously followed up. and resulted favorably. 
 
 " Since the early part of 1866 the school has been 
 conducted in a large and commodious building, on 
 
371 CRIGTJV siJVD &ZS20RI OF 
 
 Shippen Street, west of Ninth Street, Philadelphia. 
 The cost of the building and grounds was about 
 $40,000. Its funds now amount to about $150,000. 
 
 'The institute is under the management of an asso- 
 ciation composed exclusively of members of the "So- 
 ciety of Friends " The teachers are all colored per- 
 sons, four of each sex. Accommodations are provided 
 for nearly 300 pupils. 
 
 "A small charge is made for tuition of $10 per an- 
 num for pupils in the high school, and $5 for those in 
 the preparatory department. Its effect has been very 
 beneficial, in relieving the pupils from a feeling of de- 
 pendence, and causing an improvement in regularity 
 of attendance and diligence in study. 
 
 " The current expenses of maintaining the schools 
 for the fiscal year just closed have been $7,612 67; av- 
 erage cost of each pupil for the year $38 14. Whole 
 number of alumni the present year, 48, 31 of whom 
 are now teaching." 
 
 We regret that no authentic account of Wilberforce 
 University, Xenia, Ohio, is at hand. The institution, 
 we know, is prospering under the able management of 
 its president, Rev. D. A. Payne, Bishop of the African 
 Methodist Episcopal Church. 
 
 The American Missionary Association report the fol- 
 lowing normal classes. 
 
 "At Charleston, South Caralina, Avery Institute has 
 a two-story brick building, erected by the Bureau, ca- 
 pable of accommodating 600 pupils, designed for nor- 
 mal school purposes A normal class is organizing at 
 the present time out of the graded classes which have 
 
 been taught in this school for three years. 
 
 "At Macon, Georgia, in the Lewis School, erected by 
 the Bureau at an expense of $12,000, a normal class of 
 25 is taught. These pupils are the most advanced 
 scholars from the schools of the association in Ander- 
 sonville, Albany, Americus, and other points in South- 
 west Georgia. They are received into the family with 
 
AMERICAN SLATER 2' *75 
 
 the teachers in the mission home, and thus are under 
 constant refining influence. 
 
 "At Atlanta, Georgia, the graded classes in the Storr 
 schools having been under instruction for the past 
 three years, furnish the material for a promising nor- 
 mal class. The association is making arrangements to 
 open the boarding department for this normal school 
 during the coming winter. 
 
 "At Mobile, Alabama, in the Blue Stone College, pur- 
 chased by the aid of the Bureau, a large graded school 
 has been taught, and a normal class has been organ- 
 ized. Provision is also about to be made for boarding 
 pupils from abroad, similar to that at Macon, Georgia." 
 
 Thus, from our imperfect gleanings may be sifted a 
 fair idea of the gigantic efforts that are made for the 
 elevation of an alien and once despised race. 
 
 Scarcely a religious denomination exists in the land 
 that has not, in some manner, done something to ame- 
 liorate the condition of these poor people, or to assist 
 in reclaiming them from the viler bondage of vice and 
 degradation. The good work still goes on with una- 
 bated interest, and already it has become the firm con- 
 viction, not of the " fathers of the church " only, but 
 of the entire body of religious people of the North, 
 that there is not in the wide world another field for 
 missionary labor superior, or even equal, to that found 
 among the Freedmen of the South. 
 
?7G 0HIG1JV AJVD H1S20H2 Of 
 
 PAET Y. 
 
 I^BSENT ||0NDITI0]SL AND jfl\OBABLE $|uTURE 
 
 OF Tr\B ^REEMIE^x 
 
 'IJNE of the most remarkable features that marks 
 
 prominently the present age, is the rapid and 
 complete development of the Freed people. 
 The world never before beheld 60 eager and healthy 
 a growth. At the opening of the war, in 1861, they 
 were only little handfuls of escaping fugitives fleeing 
 from the strongholds of slavery into the uncertain 
 refuge of the Union lines. Emancipation swelled 
 their numbers to millions, and the close of the war, in 
 1865, found them helpless and dependent as children 
 cowering under the imperfect protection of military 
 authority. Anon, they were shielded by law, eman- 
 cipated, enfranchised, and now they are sitting in con- 
 yentions framing organic laws for the government of 
 the States in which they so recently were slaves! They 
 were ignorant, but they sprung eagerly into the open 
 doors of the missionarj' school provided by the gener- 
 osity of the North, and speedily mastered the alphabet, 
 
AMERICAN SLAYER Y. 177 
 
 the primer, the reader, and the arithmetic. The fore- 
 most in the race are pressing into the normal school, 
 and many will soon enter college. Their religion was 
 wholly emotional and unenlightened, but they com- 
 pelled the alphabet to lead them as quickly as possible 
 into the Scriptures, and already they have felt the 
 transforming power But they have had many hard- 
 ships to endure, many sacrifices to make. Enemies at 
 home and abroad have conspired to oppress them, and 
 trials and misfortunes have marked the way; but God's 
 hand is still guiding them onward and upward to a 
 higher destiny and a more developed manhood. Al- 
 ready has the Freedman been quickened intellectually. 
 Partly is he regenerated morally, and in great measure 
 has he been reclaimed from evil habits and the bond- 
 age of hereditary degradation. His incipient educa- 
 tion has lifted him to a nobler level, and he sees dimly 
 through the scattering mists of ignorance, and assays 
 to grasp the grand realities of the higher life. 
 
 What has not freedom done for him ? The brutish 
 mind, the servile demeanor, and the clouded soul have 
 given place to nobler impulses, polite but manly man- 
 ners, and the Christian's faith and hopes of immortal- 
 ity. Slavery is a dead thing of the past, and with it 
 has perished the old forms of superstition, of ignorant 
 credulity, and of apathetic unbelief. A nation has 
 been born in a day A nation of earnest, humble, anx- 
 ious men and women, hungering and thirsting for the 
 divine word, for the truths of the gospel, and for the 
 blessings of a Christian education. 
 
 Already they have drunk deeply of these perennial 
 springs, and the transformation is permanent and un- 
 mistakable. Yet still is it progressing. The laborers 
 of the church in these Southern vineyards have not 
 
/7S ORIGIJV siJ\T7) HISZORY OF 
 
 fallen nor fainted by the way, but, animated with a 
 lofty purpose, have held down helping hands to raise 
 these millions of eager aspirants to a level with their 
 more favored brethren. Lovingly and reverently they 
 have spoken of Jesus, and the new nation, listening in 
 childlike wonder and veneration, has accepted this di- 
 vine ransom. 
 
 A nation of Christians, humble, self sacrificing, and 
 devoted, has sprung suddenly from the smoldering 
 ruins of the Southern Confederacy, and already in 
 their meek example; their quiet orderly lives, and pa- 
 tient resignation have become a power in the land. 
 They love freedom for its own sake, for the sake of 
 their wives and children who are now all their own, 
 aS well as for the blessings of education and knowl- 
 edge it has conferred upon them. They love their lit- 
 tle homelike cabins with their modest improvements 
 and simple attempts at elegance, for have they not 
 purchased them with the fruits of their own honest 
 and non-recompensed labor? They are good citizens, 
 loving the land that gave them birth, and still more 
 the government that has given them freedom. Abra- 
 ham Lincoln is to them a martyred saint, a buried 
 Moses, who divided the turbid waters of slavery and 
 led them through in safety. A grateful, happy, con- 
 tented people, they look forward to a peaceful, pros- 
 perous future, and cherish no resentment against their 
 old time oppressors, but dwell quietly amongst them, 
 asking and expecting no favors, but laboriously work- 
 ing their way to home comfort and independence. 
 
 They have disarmed prejudice, they have made 
 friends even among the ranks of their enemies, and 
 have borne their sufferings, their cruel persecutions, 
 and their manifold wrongs with a lofty patience and 
 
AMERTCAJV SLAYEftT. 179 
 
 submission that in their very simplicity are sublime. 
 Steadily are they rising; steadfastly are they progress- 
 ing. Their unparalleled advancement is but the be- 
 ginning of the end, and time, in its ceaseless march 
 toward eternity, will bear them on its bosom triumph- 
 antly. Throughout the succeeding years the Freed- 
 men will live and labor, as in the present, ambitious 
 only for an extended freedom of soul and mind. A 
 nation born from the ruin of another, they will sup- 
 plant it in moral stamina, in honest intentions, and 
 patriotic principle. The Freedmen are destined 
 shortly to become the ruling race in the South. Labor 
 and education, linked hand in hand and tempered with 
 religion, soon will elevate them above the aristocratic 
 level of their former masters. They have entered the 
 broad highway to national respect, and self-elevation 
 is the goal toward which their unfaltering footsteps 
 are directed. Behind them are the ruins of the sys- 
 tem which has blighted the South with the curse of 
 unrequited toil, and desolated the whole land with the 
 miseries of civil war. Before them is the prospect of 
 rewarded industry, universal liberty, general educa- 
 tion, freedom of speech, and an unfettered gospel! 
 
 For the following exhibit of the present condition of 
 the emancipated slaves in the several States of the ex- 
 Confederacy, we are indebted to the Eeport of Major- 
 General O. O. Howard, Commissioner of the Freed- 
 men's Bureau, October 14, 1868: 
 
 VIRGINIA. 
 
 " The tone of public opinion exhibits a gradual but 
 constant improvement, though the prevailing senti- 
 ment of the white people leaves much to be desired 
 with respect to a cheerful recognition of the rights of 
 
/SO OHIGIJV siJVT) E-7SZ0RY OF 
 
 the Freedmen as citizens. The assistant commissioner, 
 in his report of operations for the month of April, 1868, 
 states that the secret organization known as the Ku-klux 
 Klan have made their appearance in various localities, 
 visiting the houses of color* d men at night, in some 
 cases placing rores around their necks and threaten- 
 ing to hang them on account of their political opin- 
 ions. No further violence has been offered. The ob- 
 ject of these midnight demonstrations, which have been 
 very rare in this State, appears to be to intimidate 
 and control the Freedmen in the exercise of their right 
 of suffrage. 
 
 "In November and December, 1867. the opposition 
 to negro suffrage developed itself in the general dis- 
 charge of those colored laborers who voted contrary to 
 the wishes of their employers. 
 
 "The interest of the Freed people in their schools 
 remains unabated. The schools themselves have been 
 highly prosperous, and their classification and disci- 
 pline have been constantly improving. In November, 
 1867, the number cf schools in operation was 197, of 
 which 154 were public free schools The number of 
 teachers was 250 ot whom 160 were white. Number 
 of pupils, 12,657. In April, 1867. the number of schools 
 was 269; teachers, 310; pupils, 16,403. 
 
 " The Freedmen have endeavored to the extent of 
 their slender means to share the expense of conducting 
 these schools. 
 
 " Many schools have been opened by the Freedmen 
 and the expenses borne by themselves. 
 
 " Thus, in the month of May, 1868, of 249 schools 
 which were in operation in the Slate, 72 were wholly 
 and 67 partially sustained by Freedmen. The remain 
 ing 110 were wholly sustained by various benevolent 
 agencies. One sixth of the entire expense of the 
 schools during the month was borne by the Freed peo- 
 ple." 
 
viMElilCAJV SLAVERY. fS/ 
 
 NORTH CAROLINA. 
 
 ' The progress of the educational work in this State 
 is very gratifying. The greatest attention and inter 
 est have been aroused not only among the colored peo- 
 ple, but also among the white. The school year opened 
 in October with 158 schools, 158 teachers, and 7,897 
 scholars. In April, 1868, there were in operation 336 
 day and night schools, with 339 teachers (138 white 
 and 201 colored) and 16,435 pupils in attendance. The 
 number of Sunday sehoo's reported during the same 
 period was 238, with 1,034 teachers and 16,187 pupils. 
 
 "The duties of agents have been rendered more 
 difficult in consequence of the animosities developed 
 in the recent political contests The great majority of 
 the Freedmen, actuated by the same views of their in- 
 terests, have been united upon one side, and many 
 threats of revenge upon them for so doing have been 
 made. These threa's, and many petty persecutions in 
 pursuance thereof, have helped to stagnate and paral- 
 i'ze labor interests. 
 
 " The assistant cmomissioner bears emphatic testi- 
 mony to the exemplary conduct of the Freed people 
 through the entire canvass which resulted in the adop- 
 tion of the new State constitution and the election of 
 State and local officers." 
 
 SOUTH CAROLINA. 
 
 " In some districts land owners formed clubs agree- 
 ing to employ no Freedmen who would not vote in ac- 
 cordance with their wishes. These sentiments were 
 controlled, however, by self-interest and the necessity 
 of procuring labor. 
 
 "As a result of past habits and training under the 
 slavery system, many cases of disregard of the obliga- 
 tions of the marriage contract and of wife desertion by 
 Freedmen have been reported. 
 
 " The superintendent of education for the State, re- 
 ports that during the term of nine months ending June 
 30, 1868, the average number of schools in operation 
 
fS2 0XIGIJ\T siJ\T3> HIS2 0RT OF 
 
 was 49; number of teachers. 87 white and 36 colored; 
 number of pupils, 6,698. Though the number of schol- 
 ars enrolled is less than that reported for the preced- 
 ing school term, yet the average attendance has been 
 better and the grade of schools much higher. In ad- 
 dition to the above the superintendent estimates that 
 at least 8,000 pupils were, June 1st, attending volun- 
 tary or self-supporting schools, making a total attend- 
 ance upon colored schools in the State, during the past 
 term, of nearly 15,000 pupils. There are besides a 
 large number of Sunday-schools throughout the State, 
 which are well attended and doingmuch good. Many 
 are located in places where no secular schools have been 
 started, and through their agency large numbers of 
 adults and children have learned to read who other- 
 wise would have remained in total ignorance." 
 
 FLORIDA. 
 
 " The condition of the Freed people in this State, 
 during the past year, has been very favorable. Their 
 conduct and demeanor in their new relations to gov- 
 ernment and society, have been almost uniformly re- 
 ported as excellent. Peace and good order have pre- 
 vailed throughout the State. Acts of outrage or vio- 
 lence perpetrated upon Freed persons have been very 
 rare. More harmonious relations between the races 
 have obtained here than in most portions of the South. 
 
 "Wherever the local civil authorities have been in- 
 fluenced by prejudice against the Freedmen to the per- 
 version of justice, the military power has been inter- 
 posed to protect the colored man in the rights defined 
 in the civil rights bill and other laws. 
 
 "Though the influence of political agitation has been 
 to introduce a source of discord and difficulty, yet no 
 active hostility on the part of white citizens toward 
 the Freedmen in their new relations has been reported. 
 On the contrary, the assistant commissioner, in his re- 
 port for July, said: 
 
 " ' Mutual interests and abundant crops tend to har- 
 
AMERICAN SZAmftY. fSS 
 
 monize the white and colored men, and cause them to 
 acknowledge their mutual dependence upon each other.' 
 
 ''The assistant commissioner, reporting for July, 1868, 
 said: 
 
 11 'The Freedmen of Florida will hereafter be compar- 
 atively independent. The majority of them have now 
 a house or hut. and from 10 to 40 acres of land, well 
 plowed and fenced. The character of labor has been 
 much improved during the year.' 
 
 "The scattered and unsettled condition of theinhab- 
 itants of this State has not been favorable to inter- 
 change of viewsor association for school purposes, while 
 the poverty of the Freed people has prevented any 
 considerable contributions by them. The cause of ed- 
 ucation is therefore in a backward condition." 
 
 GEORGIA. 
 
 "In this State, also, Freedmen have been discharged 
 and driven from their homes for voting contrary to the 
 wishes of their employers. White men have also been 
 abused for the manner in which they have exercised the 
 right of sutfrage. The assistant commissioner was di- 
 rected to relieve distress or starvation occasioned there- 
 by, and to appeal to the commanding general of the 
 military division for a remedy of this evil. 
 
 '-Much has been accomplished in the establishment 
 and conduct of colored schools, and the educational in- 
 terests of the Slate are in flourishing condition. 
 
 " The highest number of schools, day and night, re- 
 ported during the year, is 132; teachers, 174; pupils, 
 8,930. Besides these there are 80 Sabbath-schools, with 
 502 teachers and 15,141 pupils, and three industrial 
 schools, with 184 pupils. 
 
 "Public sentiment regarding colored schools has 
 changed very little during the year, except that for the 
 last three months there has been more bitterness ex- 
 hibited toward all men engaged in the work, and there 
 are few who have not received threats either openly or 
 anonymously. It is not known that any have received 
 
/Si ORTGTJV siJTT) HISTORY OF 
 
 personal injury, except the colored teacher at Hawk- 
 insville, wlio was shot and seriously wounded, yet he 
 adds that there are 100,000 children in the State who 
 have never learned the alphabet or been inside of a 
 school-house, and says that there are 91 points in the 
 State where, in all, 145 new schools might be organized, 
 each in the midst of a dense colored population." 
 
 ALABAMA. 
 
 " The condition of affairs in this State throughout 
 the year has, in general, been quiet and satisfactory. 
 
 "The stationing of troops in the more turbulent dis- 
 tricts of the State by the commanding officer of the sub- 
 district of Alabama, and the late action of military 
 courts in punishing offenders for outrage upon loyal 
 persons white or black, have greatly tended to restore 
 the confidence of the Freed people in the government, 
 and also prevent the repetition of these crimes. 
 
 " The great necessity of the thorough education of 
 their children and the many benefits which would re- 
 sult therefrom are fully appreciated by the colored 
 people; but their poverty has crippled their efforts in 
 this cause. The unsettled condition of affairs and the 
 opposition manifested in some sections have confined 
 the operations of Freedme.n's schools m ost e ntirely 
 to towns in which agents are stationed. 
 
 " The superintendent of education, in August, esti- 
 mated the number of schools organized and in opera- 
 tion in the State of Alabama at 72, with an average 
 attendance of 3,562 pupils. Besides these, some schools 
 have been maintained by private effort. These schools 
 compare favorably with the average of schools in the 
 North. No more competent or devoted teachers can 
 be lound anywhere, than those engaged in this work." 
 
 MISSISSIPPI. 
 
 "The condition of the Freed people throughout the 
 State is not only improving but is satisfactory. The 
 Freed men have worked well. 
 
AMERICAN S LAYER T* f85 
 
 "At all times the demand for labor has been greater 
 than could be supplied, and consequently but a small 
 degree of destitution has prevailed. 
 
 "The superintendent of education made a special 
 effort to secure the continuance of those schools lo- 
 cated in the healthy districts of the State, and suc- 
 ceeded in keeping open 75 day schools, with an aver- 
 age number of 3 500 pupils and 76 teachers (38 being 
 colored). 
 
 "The number of teachers employed in the regular 
 season is 102, and the number of pupils who have re- 
 ceived instruction in the regular schools is about 
 14,000. 
 
 " The extreme poverty of the Freedmen has made it 
 necessary for the Bureau to sustain a considerable pro- 
 portion of the expenses of conducting the schools. 
 But it is expected that when the crops are harvested 
 the Freedmen generally will be able to contribute 
 much more for this object." 
 
 LOUISIANA. 
 
 "The condition of the colored race in this State is 
 not promising. The poor results of the year's labor 
 have had a depressing effect upon many planters and 
 Freed people. The latter have done all that was in 
 their power. 
 
 " The educational work has been vigorously prose- 
 cuted. The measure of success attained is quite grati- 
 fying considering the obstacles that have been encoun- 
 tered — the poverty of the Freedmen, the small amount 
 of aid received from benevolent associations at the 
 JSorth, and, in the more remote sections, the prejudice 
 and opposition of white citizens. In May the total 
 number of schools in operation was 217, with 244 
 teachers, and 10,971 pupils. 
 
 " While the Freedmen, as a class, exhibit a very gen- 
 eral interest in religious matters, many of their habits 
 still show the debasing influence of the slave system. 
 Prominent among these is the want of a due apprecia- 
 tion of the obligations of the marriage contract. In 
 17 
 
fSG ORIGIN AJVD HTSIO'RY OF 
 
 this respect, however, their conduct is undergoing 
 much improvement, and cases of desertion of wife and 
 family are becoming rare. 
 
 " The condition of society in the more remote and 
 sparsely settled parishes is greatly disorganized. In 
 some sections the treatment of the colored people has 
 been deplorable. Outrage and crimes of every de- 
 scription have been perpetrated upon them with im- 
 punity. 
 
 " ' Vigilance Committees' and ' Ku-klux Klans,' dis- 
 guised by night, have burned the dwellings and shed 
 the blood of unoffending Freedmen." 
 
 TEXAS. 
 
 "The unsettled condition of this district has ren- 
 dered necessary the distribution of a large military 
 force over the State. 
 
 "Armed bands, styling themselves Ku-klux, etc., 
 have practiced barbarous cruelties upon the Freedmen. 
 Murdersby the desperadoes who have long disgraced 
 this State are of common occurrence. From informa- 
 tion on file in the office of the assistant commissioner 
 it appears that in the month of March the number of 
 Freedmen murdered w as 21 ; the number of Freedmen 
 assaulted with the intent to kill, 11. In July the num- 
 ber of Freedmen murdered was 32. 
 
 " In consequence of this condition of affairs a kind 
 of a quiet prevails among the Freed people lacking 
 but little in all the essentials of slavery. In the more 
 remote districts, where Bureau agents are 50 or 100 
 miles apart, and stations of troops still further distant, 
 Freedmen do not dare or presume to act in opposition 
 to the will of their lat<; masters. They make no effort 
 to exercise rights conferred upon them by the acts of 
 Congress, and few even of Union men are brave 
 enough, or rather foolhardy enough, to advise them in 
 anything antagonistic to the sentiments of the people 
 lately in rebellion. 
 
 " Owing to these causes and the lack of schools the 
 Freedmen of Texas do not compare favorably with 
 
AMERICAN SLAVE ft 7. /S? 
 
 those of the States east of the Mississippi Eiver. 
 They have not made the same progress, and are less 
 thrifty and provident. Nevertheless they have worked 
 faithfully and industriously, as the condition of the 
 crops testifies. 
 
 " The progress of the educational work in Texas has 
 been much impeded by the poverty of the Freedmen, 
 and in the more' remote sections by the determined op- 
 position of white citizens. The Freedmen's schools 
 do not compare favorably with those of many other 
 Southern States." 
 
 ARKANSAS. 
 
 "Great attention has been given to the important 
 work of fostering the educational interests of the Freed 
 people. It has been the aim of the assistant commis- 
 sioner to dot the State all over with school-houses as 
 thickly as possible. Schools previously confined to 
 the principal towns, have been pushed into the interior 
 and more remote sections. 
 
 '• The Freedmen have shown great interest in the 
 work, and nothing but their poverty has prevented 
 them trom assuming a large proportion o the expense 
 incurred. Considering the disadvantageous circum- 
 stances under which the school work has been prose- 
 cuted, the progress secured is encouraging. 
 
 " The administration of justice by the civil authori- 
 ties has teen far from effective. Lawless violence and 
 ruffianism have prevailed to an alarming extent. 
 
 "Three churches belonging to Freedmen. in Oua- 
 chita county were burned by parties unknown on the 
 night of April 4, 1868. The assistant commissioner 
 attributes this wanton act to the bitter feelings aroused 
 by the part the Freedmen had taken in the then recent 
 election, and states that similar deeds are not uncom- 
 mon 'The Ku klux Klan serve their mysterious notices 
 and make their midnight rounds in different parts of 
 the State Every precaution has been taken with the 
 forces at hand Troops were stationed at 24 different 
 points in the State; but even this distribution has 
 failed to check the evil. The civil law in this State, 
 
fSS OftlGIJV rtWD IUS2 0Rr OF 
 
 so far as the punishment of Grime is concerned, exists 
 only in name.' 
 
 ''On the night of May 16 a Freedmen's church and 
 school house (not erected by government aid) in Mis- 
 sissippi county was burned by incendiaries. Several 
 other gross irregularities occurred in different sections 
 of the State during this month. Each case was as 
 fully investigated as practicable, but with no t-atistac- 
 tory ^esult, so far as the arrest or punishment of the 
 criminals is concerned." 
 
 KENTUCKY. 
 
 " During the year 31 school-houses have been erected 
 by t tie Bureau in Kentucky The superintendent of 
 education estimates that 20,000 children have received 
 the rudiments of an education in the schools supported 
 by the Bureau. 
 
 " More than 1.100 colored soldiers in Kentucky have 
 received their bounty through the Bureau during the 
 year. Having served in the Union army, they have 
 been the especial objects of persecution, and in hun- 
 dreds of instances have been driven from their homes. 
 The outrages perpetrated by the Ku klux Klan have 
 caused a great exodus into other States. 
 
 u Notwithstanding these disadvantages a majority of 
 the Freed men have labored faithfully. Many have be- 
 come property-holders and wherever they have been 
 fairly treated they have shown marked improvement 
 in every respect. 
 
 ''The number of outrages reported as committed by 
 whites upon colored people in the State of Kentucky 
 during the year is: murders. 26; rapes. 3; shootings, 
 30 j otherwise maltreated, 265; total, 321." 
 
 TENNESSEE. 
 
 'At the close of the year 1867 the organization of 
 the secret society known as the Ku-klux Klan took 
 place. 
 
 u The number of outrages perpetrated by this band, 
 
AMERICAN SLAVERY. f$9 
 
 or by desperadoes apparently belonging to it, has been 
 very great. The intimidation of the colored people 
 seemed to be its object, to effect which colored men are 
 frequently taken from their beds at night and flogged 
 unmercifully, and occasionally killed. These outrages, 
 and occasional efforts of the colored men to resist them, 
 have given to several counties the character of lawless 
 and disorderly communities; but for several months 
 past such outrages have ceased, and the opposition to 
 colored schools is decreasing. 
 
 " The most important work of the Bureau during 
 the past year has been the erection and repair of the 
 school buildings and the employment of teachers. But 
 little pecuniary aid has been received from the colored 
 people. In the month of June, 1868, there were in op- 
 eration 120 schools, with 1G1 teachers (49 colored and 
 112 white), and 8,246 pupils. 
 
 "A very important branch of the labor of the Bureau 
 has been the collecting and disbursing of bounty claims 
 to colored soldiers or their widows and heirs. The 
 amount disbursed by the agent at Nashville alone dur- 
 ing the year is $83,402 03.'" 
 
 DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, WEST VIRGINIA, MARYLAND, AND 
 
 DELAWARE. 
 
 " More attention than usual has been devoted to ed- 
 ucational matters in the district during the past year. 
 
 "This Bureau has aided in the construction of 111 
 school houses. The plan adopted has been to furnish 
 lumber, and sometimes other material, and the Freed- 
 men would procure a site and agree to pay for the con- 
 struction. 
 
 "From the consolidated monthly reports are derived 
 the following: Total number of schools (Sabbath- 
 schools not included), 257; total number of teachers, 
 326; total number of pupils, 12 494. 
 
 '•Public sentiment toward colored schools has im- 
 proved during the year. And yet the only allowance 
 made by law for the support of public schools for col- 
 ored children in Maryland is that part of the school 
 
/90 OR/GUV rtWD HISTOH^ OF 
 
 fund derived from the taxes paid by colored people. 
 In some parts of Maryland bitter hatred has been 
 shown to colored schools. One case is reported ot as- 
 sault of a colored teacher in Cecil County, and another 
 ot a colored female teacher at Havre de Grace. In a 
 locality of Anne Arundel County, known as 'the For- 
 est,' the prejudice is so great ihat the Freedmen have 
 not been able to obtain a site tor a school house. 
 
 " In Delaware one school building has been burnt, 
 but the judicious and energetic management of the 
 Delaware Association seems likely to triumph over all 
 opposition. 
 
 "In West Virginia, though the law allows an equal 
 share of the public fund tor the colored schools, yet 
 the public sentiment in two or three counties was so 
 strongly opposed that the school authorities took cour- 
 age to resist the law. 
 
 "Negro testimony is nowgenerally admitted through- 
 out this district, but the difficulty remains that the ju- 
 ries and local magistrates allow it no weight when op- 
 posed t>3 T white witnesses. 
 
 "Under the heading Asylums,' the assistant com- 
 missioner reports the details of the breaking up of 
 Freedmen's Village, Arlington. Average number of 
 inmates during three months, 682. The superintendent 
 in his final report gives an interesting history of many 
 of the cases classified under 'old age,' 'disabled,' 
 'blind,' and ' insane or imbecile.' 
 
 "This class, including also orphans in the District of 
 Columbia, from various causes, has accumulated dur- 
 ing the war and since, and as they are not considered 
 properly residents the local authorities have declined 
 to make provision for their support. It would he im- 
 practicable to send them to be provided for by the 
 counties of the various States where they were born 
 in slavery, even were there any ground tor believing 
 the county < authorities would consent to receive and 
 care for them. They must therefore remain a public 
 charge, and would seem to have peculiar claims upon 
 the United States government. 
 
 The records of the employment offices of this dis- 
 
 £. T1 
 
si.lfElilCrtJSr SI^iVE'RV. 107 
 
 trict give: Number provided with employment from 
 July 1, 1867, to August 31, 1808, 1.077. 
 
 " The Barry Farm enterprise mentioned in my last 
 annual report, has continued to justify the expecta- 
 tions of the trustees. The land has been taken with 
 avidity, and the payments, with some few exceptions, 
 promptly and regularly made. 
 
 " The Froedmcn who have made the purchases seem 
 greatly encouraged Mt the prospect of owning a home 
 stead. They have made up a fund among themselves 
 for school purposes, and bought one of the lots upon 
 which the erection of a school-house large enough to 
 accommodate 150 pupils has been completed during 
 the year, by aid of this Bureau. 
 
 " Any one who sees the prosperity of this commun- 
 ity, and witnesses the new hopefulness with which 
 most of its mt-mbers seem to be inspired, can not fail 
 to regard the experiment as one of the most judicious 
 and beneficent yet undertaken in behalf of the Freed- 
 men. 
 
 li Twenty industrial schools are reported in this dis- 
 trict, with 823 scholars." 
 
 Thus, as has been seen, the pathway of the Freed- 
 men, in their tortuous exit, from the prison-house ot 
 slavery, has not bet n wholly lined with roses. Much 
 has been done for them; they have done much for 
 themselves — but the perils of the wilderness have bet'n 
 before and around them. Couragously they have sur- 
 mounted many difficulties. Bravely and hopefully 
 they have striven to overcome the obstacles in their 
 way. Cheerfully and prayerfully they look forward 
 to similar trials and greater victories. They are mod- 
 erate in their desires and expectations. They ask not 
 social equality, and have no thought of thrusting them- 
 selves into social notice and recognition. They de- 
 mand equality alone before the law, and ask to be pro- 
 
192 OZIIGIJY j1J\*2) HIS TORI OF 
 
 tected only in their political rights, their personal 
 property, and their family relations. Yet in great 
 measure they hold in their hands the destiny and will 
 mold the future of America. Our modern politicians 
 might learn a lesson from the humble ex-slaves. 
 A teacher writes from Carsville: 
 
 "The Freedmen are holding numerous political 
 meetings. They always open them with prayer, and 
 the whole assembly get upon their knees, and bow 
 humbly before God, and thank him for the great priv- 
 ilege they have." 
 
 Public opinion in the South must change. Already 
 are there indications that the change is half begun. 
 Henry A Wise, Ex-Governor of Virginia, in a lecture 
 at Norfolk for the benefit of the Southern Churches, 
 made this extraordinary declaration: 
 
 "He is, I fear, an infidel who doesn't see that the 
 fire and sword of this war were sent from heaven. 
 God knew that we could be torn away from our black 
 idol of slavery only by fire and blood and the drawn 
 sword of the destining angel of war. He sent them, 
 and we ought to praise the Most High that he did not 
 send worse plagues, like those of Egypt, against what- 
 ever weakness or wickedness we clung to like Pha- 
 raoh." 
 
 Many of the more intelligent and prominent South- 
 ern citizens sympathize strongly with the praiseworthy 
 efforts of the Freedmen to elevate themselves, and lend 
 them all the encouragement in their power, although 
 the mass of the people are bitterly opposed to their ed- 
 ucation, and resort to every expedient both to discour- 
 age the colored people and to throw obstacles in the 
 way of their instructors. But prejudice such as this 
 will be mellowed and softened by time, and especially 
 by the dissemination of a more liberal education among 
 
AMERICA JV SLAYJERT* /£«? 
 
 the so-called " poor white trash " of the South, a class 
 largely in the ascendancy, and from whom emanate 
 the most intense and malignant opposition and perse- 
 cution, although no class in the nicely graduated social 
 scale is wholly exempt from the chivalrous weakness 
 of hatred to " Yankee schools " and " Yankee teach- 
 ers." In time, by their correct deportment, the Freed- 
 men will compel the respect and win the co-operation 
 of their white fellow-citizens, and with it the privilege 
 of dwelling unmolested by their side. 
 
 A marked change is already visible in the children 
 of theso poor black people, and, compared with their 
 elders who have never enjoyed the privileges of 
 of school, one can scarcely realize that they are of 
 contemporaneous generations. Who doubts that tho 
 little black boy who wrote this letter, at the request of 
 his teacher, to the children of a white Sabbath-school 
 at the North, will, if he lives, have good sense, and 
 render efficient service to his race? 
 
 " Trinity School, Athens, Alabama, ) 
 
 •'Feb. 15, 1868. j 
 
 "Dear Children — My teacher asked me to write a let- 
 ter to you. I am a little black boy. I don't suppose 
 I'll ever be white. I'm free, though. My mother is 
 dead, my father went off with the Yankees. I lived 
 in the camps one year with the Yankee soldiers. I 
 used to dance around the camp for sugar and bread; 
 
 " • Dej gives me hard-tack, 
 Tougher as a rack 
 
 It almost break my jaw.' 
 
 "When I left the camp, I went to live with Aunt Mary 
 She beat me, and knocked me about, and almost put 
 out my eye. One time they beat me very bad, and 
 tied me to the fence to keep the chickens off the gar- 
 den. I untied the string and runned away, and now I 
 
 18 
 
194 OHIGIJY AJVi) HIS2 011Y OF 
 
 has a nice home with Miss \Y. She teaches me to b©> 
 good; and I am trying to he the best boy in the world. 
 
 "I have learned to pray and read the Bible. I recite? 
 my Sunday school lesson with the big class. I am go- 
 ing to be a minister, and preach the gospel; and I am 
 going to do my work well. I am going to have good 
 sense. I am going to be energetic, too ! 
 
 " I had some Christmas presents, and I've got them* 
 yet. I pick up chips, and learn my lessons, and read 
 the paper. I have read through the First Header and 
 the Second Header, and now I am in the Third Reader, 
 and I study Geography. I have very nice clothes, with 
 pockets in them; I eat with a fork. I used to sit on 
 the floor and eat with my fingers, and get grease and 
 molasses all over myself. I didn't have any apron 
 then, nor any manners, nor anything to eat hardly. 
 Now I have everything nice, and I try very hard to be 
 a nice boy. I am a temperance boy. I don't drink 
 any rum, and I never will. I make temperance speeches, 
 too; and Miss R. is teaching me a song about, 
 
 "•' These temperance folks do crowd us so awfally/ 
 
 I shall sing it at the exhibition next summer. I played 
 on the melodeon three times, and 
 
 u ' I want to be an angel, 
 
 And have a harp within my ftanC 
 
 " Do you sing 
 
 " 'Beautiful land of rest?' 
 
 I sing it every day. 
 
 " I am quick to duty, up and at it. I walk very still. 
 I do what is told me, and do it cheerfully. I learn 
 Latin, too, when Miss W.'s class recites their lesson; 
 Hie, ilia, Mud. Sum, esse,fui. Rego, regere, rexi, rec- 
 tum! ' The verb must agree with its subject in num- 
 ber and person.' I shall study Latin, I think, before 
 I preach, and history too. History tells about George 
 Washington who never told a lie; and Abraham Lin- 
 coln, who made us free; but Miss W. says 'twas God 
 though. 
 
 "I go to bed early, and I always pray before I go to 
 
^.MEHICAJV SLAYEltr. /#o» 
 
 bed. I love to pray. When I didn't live here, I didn't 
 •have any prayers, then I had whippings. But I like 
 praying a good deal the best, don't you? I hope you 
 pray every day, and every night before you go to bed, 
 ■and think all about what you have done. Jesus hears 
 me when I pray, and He loves me, too. Do you love 
 Jesus? He is good and blessed, and he wants you to 
 love him. 
 
 '• Perhaps I shall get on the cars some time and come 
 to see you. Would you speak to a black boy? I shall 
 fee 8 years old next May. I will now close my letter. 
 
 " George Wells." 
 
 This child is not a prodigy. He is but one of the 
 thousands of sprightly ehildreu now under the guar- 
 dianship of the Northern teacher, and whom time will 
 develop into earnest mei and women. The nation has 
 much to hope from them. When their fathers have 
 passed from the stage of action, there will stand ready 
 to succeed them a healthful, sanguine generation, bear- 
 ing in their brains and cherishing in their souls the 
 perfected fruit of mental energy and moral culture, 
 the certain harvest already ripening from the good 
 £eeds of gentle words and pure example sown by the 
 tireless hands of the fair girl missionaries of the 
 North, who for such a result have courageously ex- 
 pended youth and health. 
 
 Nor is any class indifferent to their newly-acquired 
 rights and responsibilities. We can not better illus- 
 trate the intense feeling prevalent among them than 
 by adducing these extracts from the speech of Hon. H. 
 M. Turner (colored), on the eligibility of colored mem- 
 bers to seats in the G-eorgia Legislature, delivered be- 
 fore that body, September 3, 1868: 
 
 " I stand here to-day, sir, pleading for ninety thou- 
 sand black men — voters— of Georgia; and I shall stand 
 
?9G o'Rigijv 3urz> jzisroftr of 
 
 and plead the cause of my race until God, in His prov- 
 idence, shall see proper to take me hence. I trust that 
 He will give me strength to stand, and power to ac- 
 complish the simple justice that I seek for them. 
 
 " The great question, sir, is this-: Am I a man? If I 
 am such, I claim the rights of a man . Am I not a man, 
 because I happen to be of a darker hue than honorable 
 gentlemen around me? Let me see whether I am or 
 not. I want to convince the House, to day, that I am 
 entitled to my seat here. A certain gentleman has ar- 
 gued that the negro was a mere development similar 
 to the ourang-outang or chimpanzee, but it so happens 
 that, when a negro is examined, physiologically, phre- 
 nologically and anatomically, and, I may say,physiog- 
 nomically, he is found to be the same as persons of dif- 
 ferent color. I would like to ask any gentleman on 
 this floor, where is the analogy? Do you find me a 
 quadruped, or do you find me a man? Do you fiud 
 three bones less in my back than in that of the white 
 man? Do you find less organs in the brain? If you 
 know nothing of this, I do; for I have helped to dis- 
 sect fifty men, black and white, and I assert that by the 
 time you take off the mucous pigment — color of the 
 skin — you can not, to save your liie, distinguish be- 
 tween the black man and the white. Am I a man? 
 Have I a soul to save, ae you have? Am I susceptible 
 of eternal development, as you are? Can I learn all 
 the arts and sciences that you can — has it ever been 
 demonstrated in the history of the world? Have black 
 men ever exhibited bravery, as white men have done? 
 Have they ever been in professions! Have they not as 
 good articulative organs as you? Some people argue 
 that there is a very close similarity between the larynx 
 of the negro and that of the ourang outang. Why sir, 
 there is not so much similarity between them as there 
 is between the larynx of the man and that of the dog, 
 and this fact I dare any member of this House to dis- 
 pute. God saw fit to vary everything in Nature. There 
 are no two men alike — no two voices alike — no two 
 trees alike. God has woven and tissued variety and 
 versatility throughout the boundless space of His ere- 
 
AMERICAN SLA YEli Y. /Q? 
 
 ation. Because God saw fit to make some red, and 
 some vvhite, and some black, and some brown, are we 
 to sit here in judgment upon what God has seen fit to 
 do? As well might one play with the thunderbolts of 
 heaven as with that creature that bears God's image — 
 God's photograph. 
 
 " The question is asked: ' What is it that the negro 
 race has done?' "Well, Mr. Speaker, all I have to say 
 upon the subject is this: that if we are the class of peo- 
 ple that we are generally represented to be, I hold that 
 we are a very great people. It is generally considered 
 that we are the children of Canaan, and that the curse 
 of a father rests upon our heads, and has rested, 
 through all history. Sir, I deny that the. curse of 
 Noah has anything to do with the negro. We are not 
 the children of Canaan; and if we were, sir, where 
 should we stand? Let us look a little into history. 
 Melchisedek was a Canaanite; all the Phoenicians — all 
 those inventors of the arts and sciences — were the 
 posterity of Canaan; but, sir, the negro is not. We 
 are the children of Cush, and Canaan's curse has noth- 
 ing whatever to do with the negro. 
 
 " Why did your forefathers come to this country? 
 Did they not flee from oppression? They came to free 
 themselves from the chains of tyranny, and to escape 
 from under the heel of the autocrat. Why, sir, in 
 England, for centuries together, men — and white men 
 at that — wore metal collars around their necks, bear- 
 ing, in graven characters, the names by which they 
 were known. Your great and noble race were sold in 
 the slave-marts of Home. The Irish, also, held many 
 white slaves, until 1172; and even Queen Elizabeth, in 
 her day, had to send a deputation to inquire into the 
 condition of such white slaves as had been born in 
 England. King Alfred the Great, in his time, provided 
 that for seven years' work the slave should be set free. 
 And, going back to more ancient and more valuable 
 authority, did not God himself, when he brought the 
 children of Israel out of Egypt, say unto them: 'Re- 
 member that you were slaves in Egypt?' I say to 
 you, white men, to-day, that the great deliverance of 
 
/.9<? OKIGIJV AJTD HIS2 01RY OF 
 
 the recent past is not altogether dissimilar to the great 
 deliverance of ancient times. Your Democratic party 
 may be aptly said to represent Pharaoh ; the North to 
 represent one of the walls, and the South the other. 
 Between these two great walls the black man passes 
 out to freedom, while your Democratic party — the 
 Pharaoh of to day — follows us, with hasty strides 
 and lowering visage. 
 
 "These gentlemen do not consider for a moment the 
 dreadful hardships which these people have endured, 
 and especially those who in any way endeavored to 
 acquire an education. For myself, sir, I was raised in 
 the cotton field of South Carolina, and, in order to 
 prepare myself for usefulness, as well to mj'self as to 
 my race, I determined to devote my spare hours to 
 study. When the overseer retired at night to his 
 comfortable couch, I sat and read, and thought, and 
 studied, until I heard him blow his horn in the morn- 
 ing. He frequently told me, with an oath, that if he 
 discovered me attempting to learn, he would whip me 
 to death, and I have no doubt he would have done so, 
 if he had found an opportunity. I prayed to Almighty 
 God to assist me, and He did, and I thank Him with 
 my whole heart and soul. 
 
 "Personally, I have the highest regard for the gen- 
 tleman, but I need scarcely say that I heartily despise 
 the political sentiments which he holds. I would 
 pledge myself to do this, however: to take the Holy 
 Bible and read it in as many different languages as he 
 will. If he reads it in English, /will do it; if Rereads 
 it in Latin, I will do the same; if in Greek, 2 will read 
 it in that language, too; and if in Hebrew, /will meet 
 him, also, there. It can scarcely, then, be upon the 
 plea of ignorance that he would debar me from the 
 exercise of political rights. 
 
 "I want to take your memories back to 1862. In 
 that year the Emperor of Eussia, with one stroke 
 of his pen, freed 22.000,000 of serfs. What did Eussia 
 do then? Did she draw lines of distinction between 
 those who had been serfs and her other citizens? No; 
 that noble prince, upon whose realm the sun never sets, 
 
oiMEKlCzUf SLAVERY. f09 
 
 after having freed these serfs, invested them with all 
 the political rights enjoyed by his other subjects. 
 America boasts of being the most enlightened, intelli- 
 gent, and enterprising nation in the world, and many 
 people look upon Russia as not altogether perfectly 
 civilized. But, look at what Russia has done for her 
 slaves; there were 22 000,000 of them, while there 
 are but 4 000 000 of us in the whole South, and only 
 half a million in Georgia. How can you say you have 
 a Republican form of government when you make 
 such distinctions and enact such proscriptive laws? 
 
 " But, Mr. Speaker, I do not regard this movement 
 as a thrust at me. It is a thrust at the Bible — a thrust 
 at the God of the' universe, for making a man and not 
 finishing him; it is simp'y calling the Great Jehovah 
 a fool. Why, sir, though we are not white, we have 
 accomplished much. We have pioneered civilization 
 here; we have built up your country; we have worked 
 in } 7 our fields, and garnered your harvests, for two 
 hundred and fifty years! And what do we ask of you 
 in return? Do we ask you for compensation for the 
 sweat our fathers bore for you — for the tears you have 
 caused, and the hearts you have broken, and the lives 
 you have curtailed, and the blood you have spilled? 
 Do we ask retaliation ? We ask it not. We are will- 
 ing to let the dead past bury its dead ; but we ask you 
 now for our rights. You have all the elements of su- 
 periority upon your side; you have our money and 
 your own ; you have our education and your own ; and 
 you have our land and your own, too. We, who num- 
 ber hundreds of thousands in Georgia, including our 
 wives and families, with not a foot of land to call our 
 own — strangers in the land of our birth; without 
 money, without education, without aid, without a roof 
 to cover us while we live, nor sufficient clay to cover 
 us when we die! It is extraordinary that a race such 
 as yours, professing gallantry, and chivalry, and edu- 
 cation, and superiority, living in a land where ringing 
 chimes call child and sire to the Church of God — 
 a land where Bibles are read and gospel truths are 
 spoken, and where courts of justice are presumed to 
 
200 ORIGIN ?UVf) HISTORY OF 
 
 exist; it is extraordinary, I say, that, with all these 
 advantages on your side, you can make war upon the 
 poor defenseless black man. You know we have no 
 money, no railroads, no telegraphs, no advantages of 
 any sort, and yet all manner of injustice is placed upon 
 us. You know that the black people of this country 
 acknowledge you as their superiors, by virtue of your 
 education and advantages. 
 
 "Where have you ever heard of 4 000,000 of freemen 
 being governed by laws, and yet have no hand in their 
 making? Search the records of the world, and you 
 will find no example. ' Governments derive their just 
 powers from the consent of the governed.' How dare 
 you to make laws by which to try me and my wife and 
 children, and dony me a voice in the making of these 
 laws? 
 
 " Gentlemen talk a good deal abont the negroes 
 'building no monuments.' I can tell the gentlemen 
 one thing; that is, that we could havebuilt monuments 
 of fire while the war was in progress. We could have 
 fired your woods, your barns and fences, and called 
 you home. Did we do it? No, sir! And God grant 
 that the negro may never do it, or do anything else that 
 would destroy the good opinion of his friends. No epi- 
 thet is sufficiently opprobrious for us now. I say, sir, 
 that we have built a monument of docility, of obedi- 
 ence, of respect, and of self control, that will endure 
 longer than the Pyramids of Egypt. 
 
 " We are a persecuted people. Luther was perse- 
 cuted; Galileo was persecuted; good men in all na- 
 tions have been persecuted: but the persecutors have 
 been handed down to posterity with shame and igno- 
 miny. 
 
 'You may think you are doing yourselves honor by 
 expelling us from this House; but when we go we will 
 do as Wickliffe and as Latimer did. We will light a 
 torch of truth that will never be extinguished — the 
 impression that will run through the country, as peo- 
 ple picture in their mind's eye these poor black men, 
 in all parts of the Southern country, pleading for their 
 rights. 
 
slMERlCsUT SLAVERY. 20* 
 
 "I hope our poor, down-trodden race may act well 
 and wisely through this period of trial, aDd that they 
 will exercise patience and discretion under all circum- 
 stances. 
 
 " You may expel us, gentlemen, by your votes, to- 
 day ; but, while you do it, remember that there is a just. 
 God in Heaven, whose All-Seeing Eye beholds alike the 
 acts of the oppressor and oppressed, and who despite 
 the machinations of the wicked never fails to vindicate 
 the cause of justice and the sanctity of his own handi- 
 work." 
 
 But enough! the aptitude and ability of the negro 
 race to receive the nobler grades of education, and to 
 exercise understandingly the highest religious and po- 
 litical privileges, has been amply demonstrated by their 
 own action and example. 
 
 As citizens of the restored Union, they will faithfully 
 and intelligently discharge their sacred trust. Under 
 the benign protection of the government, they will fos- 
 ter and develop all noble and praiseworthy sentiments. 
 The Eepublic need not blush for these her true home- 
 born sons; and the nations of the earth, who now are 
 looking curiously and in astonishment upon their rapid 
 transformation, well may learn a potent lesson from the 
 humble, silent teachings of The Freed men of America