Historical Romance of the American Negro

In New Bedford Mr. Douglass had attended several meetings in defence of the poor, oppressed slave; and there he had heard the most unmitigated denunciation of the whole infamous system of slavery. The eloquent, burning language of the speakers went home to his heart. In the summer of 1841, when Douglass was twenty-four years old, an anti-slavery convention was to be held at Nantucket, Massachusetts, a place not far from New Bedford, and the convention would be under the management of the famous William Lloyd Garrison, whose weekly paper, "The Liberator," Douglass had been devouring week by week with such unwonted avidity. He determined to take a little respite from his hard work in the brass foundry, and attend this gathering of anti-slavery people. There was a great assemblage of people at Nantucket. The fires of enthusiasm on behalf of the oppressed slave burned hot and high. In the midst of the vast audience here assembled, there was one Mr. Wm. C. Coffin, who had heard the eloquent and burning words of Frederick Douglass as he harangued the little audiences of the colored Methodist Church in New Bedford. Mr. Coffin sought out our unknown hero, and gave him such a vigorous invitation to speak that his hesitancy, and bashfulness, and backwardness were all entirely overcome, and Fred. Douglass, nothing daunted, now mounted the platform, and made such an oration as filled every thinking man and woman with astonishment. His simple, burning tale of his own wrongs and experiences completely swept his audience away, and like the Queen of Sheba, there seemed to be no more spirit left in them. Fred. Douglass had come to stay!

The name and fame of Fred. Douglass arose like a brilliant and new star in the heavens. He began to travel and lecture in different parts of the New England States, and paid visits to other sections of the North. His noble presence and splendid eloquence drew the eyes and ears of the whole country. His great name crossed the Atlantic, and spread throughout the British Isles. His powerful pen, in the columns of "The Liberator," and elsewhere, added still further to his fame. Everybody who hated and detested slavery desired to see him and to hear him speak. He was a power in the anti-slavery party, and he himself laid the axe most willingly with all his might and main. The question arose, "If one colored man can do so much, what can the whole race do, if they were set at liberty?" On account of the rising excitement all over the land on the slavery question, in the year 1845, the friends of Mr. Douglass sent him to England. In crossing the North Atlantic the passengers called upon him to make a speech on the question of slavery, and he complied. There were several gentlemen on board who most violently objected to any such attacks on their holy (!) institution of slavery; but the captain was master of his own vessel, and put down that Southern mutiny with a strong hand. These pro-slavery gentlemen tried to justify their conduct afterwards in the London papers; but John Bull would not hear them, and it was simply a splendid advertisement for the fair name and fame of Mr. Douglass.

For two years he travelled the British Isles, speaking upon the subject of American slavery. He was received well everywhere, and the fine spreading plains of Old England, the beautiful valleys of Wales, the green fields of Ireland, and the bold mountains of Scotland, all rang with the illustrious name of Fred. Douglass.

Such a man as he was did not belong to the colored race alone, and to the United States; he belonged to the whole world, and to all races. Such men can never be appropriated by one people, but they are, indeed, the common property of all. Douglass returned home, and founded a paper called "The North Star." He moved to Rochester, N. Y., and there he and his family took up their abode. The glorious work for the destruction of slavery went on, grew and increased, and at last brought on the war of secession, and freedom likewise for the entire enslaved race. Mr. Douglass then removed to Washington, and was honored with high offices in the services of his native country. He had the misfortune of losing his darling Anna, though after five years he married again, and went on a wedding tour to Europe and the East, this being his third voyage across the ocean. He died at Washington in February, 1895, at the age of seventy-eight – no very great age, but then he had done the work of ten men, and that wears human life rapidly away.

Thousands of eminent men have arisen from the ranks of the colored race since 1865, and thousands are now upon their feet also. Their names have reached the ends of the earth. But Fred. Douglass was early in the field, and he was a very, very bright particular star. Like John Bunyan, George Washington, and some few others, he shines for all time, and for the entire human race. He did a mighty work for God and humanity. Of all those illustrious men who have been born of women, there has never arisen a greater man, in all the annals of time, than our congenial friend and brother, Fred. Douglass.

My dear reader, I have given but short sketches of two eminent colored men who elevated themselves head and shoulder above their fellows, for the purpose of showing what the race can do. And I could go on to any length in the same strain, and pick out and describe other eminent men whose fame has reached the ends of the earth, though not in the same degree, as Fred. Douglass. But I need not dwell further here in showing what we can do, especially now that we are set free. Though the whole world freely admits that we have done well, and very well, still, we are only now at the threshold of our advancement, for it is only thirty odd years since the close of the war. But in that short time we have beaten every other race in the way of progress, and the sun is only yet one hour above the horizon. By and by we shall have the full noon-day.

I have mentioned Fred. Douglass and Daniel E. Payne, and it is only just that a couple of other representative women should be singled out, to show what our women can do. We have had no bright, particular star among the gentler sex, like Fred. Douglass among men; but still the colored race, like other peoples, can certainly boast of a splendid galaxy of eminent and clever women, who only lacked better education and wider and greater opportunities to shine more than they did. The women have so far not had the same chances as the men, but they are getting them now, and they are coming to the front one by one – coming out, one here and another there, like the bright stars of the night. High-schools and colleges of all kinds are now thrown open for our daughters, and wherever there are genius and ability they will forge to the front, and make themselves known.

Contemporaneous with Bishop Daniel E. Payne and Fred. Douglass we mention the name of Mrs. Frances Ellen Harper, who was born in Baltimore, Md., in the year 1825. Her home for many years has been the Queen City of Philadelphia. Mrs. Harper is a noble woman among women, and impresses all comers with her unusual natural sweetness, and graceful, lady-like ways. There is a deal of magnetism about her that attracts all those who hear her sweet, well-trained voice, and that draws us towards her by the comeliness of her graceful presence. We have all heard of "a bundle of love," but Mrs. Frances Harper is a bundle of natural and cultivated intellect, and of refined and polished manners. Her sweetness draws us to her, like the charming and fragrant rose in the flower garden. Born during the reign of slavery, when days were dark and friends were few, she did not have a right and proper opportunity of getting an early education, as the young ladies are getting to-day. But all the same, the great Creator gave her talents, and she has had a thirst for knowledge and a mind to work. This, indeed, is half the battle, and sometimes much more than half. Mrs. Harper applied herself most vigorously to study as she was growing up in her teens, and by the time she had come to woman's estate she was well educated. (Thus we see that nobody need despair of becoming well educated, for we can all learn if we only have pluck and ambition, and patience and perseverance with them to forge to the front, like the lady in question). This eminent woman soon became widely known for her brilliant talents, and all her sweet, lady-like graces, and admonished all Abolitionists and anti-slavery people what our race could do if they were once freed from their shackles!

Mrs. Harper possessed a great natural fondness for poetry, which she proceeded early to cultivate, so that she had become well-known for her sweet effusions in that line, and they have been published far and wide throughout the world, and prove that we have "birds of song" among us as well as others. She has written some pieces possessing much merit. She has a great natural facility for writing, and reminds me of a clause in Deborah's song of triumph in the fifth chapter of the Book of Judges, "Out of Zabulun came down those who handle the pen of the writer." For a facile, easy pen, Mrs. Frances Ellen Harper is a perfect Zabulunite, for she has shown that she also can handle the pen of the writer.

This gifted lady has also been a bright and shining light on the lecture platform, and, indeed, has appeared on many of the leading platforms of the nation, and crowned herself with honor and glory. She has proved to the whole world that a woman can do mighty deeds as well as man. There was a dark and doleful time in this world's history when a woman was regarded as little more than a mere serf, for man's will and pleasure everywhere. But those dark ages have passed away, and women have advanced to the front line, and taken their rightful places in the world. Mrs. Harper is a living proof of this nobility among women, and she has done yeoman service in trying to elevate her sisters of the colored race. Her splendid services will never be forgotten by either this generation or the generations to come. "Well done, good and faithful servant; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord!"

Louise de Mortie, of Norfolk, Va., was born of free parents in that place in the year 1833. As she was not allowed to receive an education at the home of her youth, she decided to go to Boston, where she could get one. It was in the year 1853 that she took up her residence in that city, when she was twenty years of age, with life and all its opportunities before her in a free State. At once she took a vigorous hold, and availed herself of all favoring opportunities that presented themselves. She was a young maiden of great personal beauty, and possessed a sweet disposition and a most remarkably good memory. She took very high standing as a pupil in the schools and seminaries of Boston, and made a whole host of friends, won over by her graces and accomplishments.

In 1862 she came out as a public reader, and shone like a very brilliant star. She showed that she was a perfect elocutionist by birth, and had been polished like a rich jewel. Her natural beauty and personal graces, engaging manners and richly-toned voice, drew the eyes of the whole country. Just as she had come to be well-known, she heard of the great destitution among the colored orphans at New Orleans at the close of the war. Hither she hastened, and in 1867 raised funds to build an asylum for the colored people of that city. This she did in her spirit of Christian love, and she won the hearts of all those who beheld her, like another angel of mercy, at her good works. But the yellow fever struck her down on the 10th of October of the above year, 1867, when she said so touchingly, "I belong to God, our Father," and then expired. Thus was this brave young woman cut off in her thirty-fourth year. But she lived long enough to show to others a brilliant example that will never be forgotten.

CHAPTER XX

Our First Great Men and Women – New Lights to the Front – Our Own Humble Beginning in 1865 – Cleanliness and Industry – Music and Song – Immense Progress in Education, and a Mighty Advance Along the Whole Line – The Rapid Increase of Wealth – The Crime of Lynching – The Church and Sunday-School – The Colored Man's Right to Vote, and to Rule the Nation.

Though I have only sketched the lives of two most eminent members of color, and two famous women of the same race, I must confess that I feel greatly tempted to go on with the subject, and speak of many others, some of whom have gone to their reward, and others remain alive unto the present day. At first sight the general reader might imagine that those first bright stars that shone in our intellectual firmament were brighter than the talented men and women whom we can see at this day and hour, walking up and down our streets, and shining like suns in their different professions, doing splendid service in elevating the colored race in America. We had Fred. Douglass, Bishop Payne, Mrs. Frances Ellen Harper, and some other bright, particular stars, who shone with apparently unusual brilliancy some fifty or sixty years ago, and they have been set down for the seven wonders of the world (Fred. Douglass, at least, was a genuine wonder for all time). But while we are inclined to look upon these worthies as towering geniuses, and most extraordinary lights in the heavens in but recently bye-gone days, we forget that the thick darkness that surrounded them went a long way in making their brilliance and splendor appear far brighter than they really were. This is quite true of all races, and is no detraction whatever from the real merits that were justly their own. I am safe in saying that 10,000 clever colored men and women, representing all the different arts and professions, could be picked out at this day, who would have passed for stars of the first magnitude, had they made their appearance upon the stage of time some fifty or sixty years ago. To shine to the same extent of brilliancy and glory nowadays would indeed be a very difficult matter, when the whole United States is flooded with a great tide of knowledge that was never known before.

In these happy days of ours knowledge covers the land, as the waters cover the seas. It is perfectly laughable for me now to look back and remember the taunting expressions that were flung upon our dear people, saying that we had no originality, and that we could never rise above being mere imitators of the white man! In those days our people were in slavery, and had no opportunities of showing what they were capable of doing. But now we are free, and we can all go to school, and education can polish us like other races, in the same way as we polish the block of marble, and cut out the precious jewels of all descriptions. If we leave a diamond in its rude, rough state, like the colored race in the dark days of slavery, that diamond will continue to be rude and rough still; but place the precious stone in the hand of the jeweler, and we shall soon behold a bright and shining precious stone, indeed. It was not only cruel, but it was cowardly to taunt a whole race of people with incapacity and lack of talent, when our enemies had our hands tied, and were unwilling to give us a chance. But by the grace of God, and the blood of the Americans, both white and black, we are now all free, and thousands upon thousands of our dear people have acquired splendid educations, in all the different professions and walks of life, and they have proved to the whole world, both men and women, that there is talent and genius among our sons and daughters who have forged to the front, who are self-made men and women, indeed – men and women who have risen from the ranks, just the same as officers and commanders start up from the ranks in the time of war.

My dear reader, we are often told that poverty is no disgrace, but that it is very inconvenient. Which is all true, indeed, too true; and what is still worse, it often cannot be helped. In days not so long since gone by, we used to be taunted with poverty, but if we had no possessions of our own in the days of slavery, we at least, like the apostle Paul, made others rich, and it was our oppressed people who built up the Sunny South – the richest section of the United States before the war. If we had had all the wealth that was thus stolen away from us and given to those who led on the great rebellion, we would never had been turned loose with nothing in our hands in 1865, and to begin life anew at the lowermost round of the ladder of prosperity. It is very true that even in the days of slavery there were colored men scattered over all the free States of the Union, many of whom had amassed vast sums of money, and who were invariably treated with great respect and honor by white people because they were rich. So long as they had plenty of money it was all right, and there was nothing either thought or said about the color of their skin. But if the whole race of colored people in the South were turned loose with nothing in 1865, they have at least made in the aggregate immense sums of money since then, and devoted it all to those noble purposes whereby the entire race has been raised up and elevated in the scale of nations. Above all other causes, religion and education have been thus spread all over the land, the money being supplied by a willing people, whose good natural inclination to give has never been surpassed, and very seldom equalled by any race under the sun. Immense sums of money have been put away in savings banks, and property in land is a noble feature of the wisdom of our people in the South.

Take the more than 8,000,000 colored people all over the Union, and behold what a vast number own their own houses, and have money to their credit stored up in banks against a rainy day. And then see the comfort, cleanliness and order to be observed everywhere in an untold number of dwellings. The colored race are unusually fond of cleanliness and order in their nice and cosy snug homes, when they can get them; and take the United Stages all over to-day, it is most astonishing to behold such a number of beautiful and comfortable homes as there are. I think, dear reader, that our own people taken as a whole, have been both industrious and thrifty since the close of the war, and, as the Bible tells us, they have succeeded in building up the walls of Jerusalem, because they have had a mind to work. Wherever there is a will there is a way. It is all very true that some among us are extravagant, lazy, shiftless, but that is quite true of the white race, too, only I think more so, and we never condemn a whole race for the faults of a few.

Let us then judge fairly, and award to the colored race what belongs to them by right. As in the days of slavery, so at the present day it is the colored man who still extracts the wealth from the soil of the South, partly for himself, and partly for the white man. He can stand the heat of the sun far better than the white tiller of the soil, and it seems that the rich white man would rather have him than the other. In the days of slavery we had to do the best we could. We had no Vanderbilt palaces to live in then. But now we have at least lots of comforts – nice furniture, carpets, pictures hanging from our walls, whole libraries on our book-shelves, and hundreds of other things too numerous to mention.

Music and song are more or less bound up with the history of every nation of which we have ever heard or read. Away back in the dark night of slavery in America, the slaves in the field used to sing their mournful, plaintive, yet musical ditties to lighten their heavy labors, and cheer up their hearts. These ditties were songs and prayers at one and the same time. In the day of his distress, the African never forgot the God who brought Israel out of Egypt, and we know quite well that many of our own people confidently expected that day of happy deliverance that came at last to all. Therefore they sang praises unto the Lord, God of Israel, and, like the Psalmist, they prayed and sang at the same time; and we have it plainly on record that they had powerful lungs and most wonderfully rich voices, showing in advance what great and famous singers they would become if their musical talents were only fully developed like others. I have already spoken of the "Jubilee Minstrels," who were mostly born in slavery, many of whom indeed "came up by the rough side of the mountain," and yet who possessed such a wealth of music and song within themselves that they surprised the whole country, and even crossed the North Atlantic, and rendered themselves illustrious for all coming time by performing and singing before Queen Victoria, the grandees and general population of the British Isles, and some of the royal families, and magnates and peoples of continental Europe. This was honor, indeed, with a vengeance! Old England and all the rest cared nothing for the color of the skin. They all at once set their seals upon the wonderful talents of the colored race in the musical line, and there was rejoicing among Freedom's friends over all the earth.

The time would fail to mention the names of all those eminent singers who have made themselves illustrious in these latter years in this country, and not in this country alone, but they have crossed the wide oceans in ships, and sung before the admiring audiences of many a foreign land. But among all these great singers of our race who have thus distinguished themselves, I will simply mention the name of Miss Flora Batson, who has justly been called the "Jenny Lind of America," and she can sing, indeed, before any audience in this nation – a veritable nightingale and queen of song. But leaving her and a whole host of other warblers on one side, there is a grandeur in singing of our church members and congregations on the Sabbath-day that has become the standing wonder of the country; and it is my own deliberate opinion, and the openly-confessed opinion of many of the white race, that for music and song, at least, we have no equals in the United States.

I think we may safely claim that not only can we play and sing, but we can play and sing well, there arising from the great congregation a grand volume of music and song that reminds me of the "voice of many waters," mentioned in the Revelations – a volume of song rising from powerful lungs, and helped on by the warm feelings and enthusiasm of the race. And as our oppressed forefathers whiled away the long hours in the field, and lightened their labors by singing, so our people nowadays bring home the latest new hymn or fine anthem of praise, and sing them at home to brighten up their domestic cares, and find a vent for that joyous nature and devotional enthusiasm for which the colored race are famed over all the earth.

The greatest blot at the present time upon the fair fame and name of the internal and domestic doings of the United States, as it appears to me, is lynching. And this lynching is not confined to any particular race, or any particular crime, but we find, to a greater or less degree, all over the land, from the Lakes to the Gulf, a mob spirit among the people to take the law into their own hands, whenever any flagrant breach of law occurs, and hang their victim on the nearest tree. The mob is unwilling to leave the matter in the hands of the regularly constituted authorities, and proceeds to murder the supposed criminal in its own way. I say supposed criminal, because the man they are hunting after is often not the right man at all; an innocent man is put to death, and the guilty man escapes. It has also been proven beyond the shadow of a doubt, because we have "all seen the records of the same in the public papers at the time, that white men have been in the habit of blackening their faces when about to commit some heinous offence, and thus try to produce the impression that the guilty party was a colored man, and not a white man at all! Cases have thus occurred where innocent colored men have been lynched, and the real criminals made their escape by simply discoloring their faces. There is hardly a week passes but we find the hurrying mobs themselves discovering their own mistakes, sometimes in time to prevent the execution, but at other times too late. It is very true that on many occasions the really guilty party is taken, confesses his crime, and is duly executed by the wild and unruly mob of lynchers.

The chief fault, as it appears to my mind, is a lack of firmness on the part of the States, and I might also add of the central government at Washington. It is a perfect scandal to a duly constituted government to say that they are not able to carry out the law, or let the law take its course. Who would believe for a moment that England or Russia would allow any and every wild mob to take their victims out of the hands of the police, and, in fact, administer the law for them? Such a test of home authority would never run on for twenty-four hours in any foreign civilized land. If the Governors and the authorities would show a proper amount of firmness, and the central government at Washington would tighten up the screws a little all these lynchings would come to an end, and such a thing would be heard of no more. With regard to the Southern States, at least, where lynchings have been more common, the taunting question has been asked by foreign nations, "Are the Southern States fit for civilization, and ought they to be depended on to govern themselves?" Well, I think they are fit for self-government, but the screws ought to be tightened up considerably, and I think the sooner the better. If I had any power to advise the Houses at Washington, I would advise them to take the scandal of lynching by the wild mobs into their own hands, and put a stop to it in their own way. And let Congress see that all races and crimes are treated alike, and let the duly constituted authorities of the States administer the laws for which they are appointed and paid. Lynching is not only a breach of the law, but it is murder itself, and a horrible system of crime and public disorder that have brought this most shameful nation into great disrepute. Let us hope and pray that something may be done very soon to bring this national scandal to an end; and let public murder by infuriated mobs come to an end, and be heard of no more.