The Journal of Negro History, Volume 6, 1921

The special interest taken by The Globe in American affairs and its sane comment on the developments in the slavery struggle were due to George Brown's understanding of the situation, resulting from his residence for a time under the stars and stripes before coming to Canada. The feeling of the public in Toronto over the execution of John Brown was shown by the large memorial service held in St. Lawrence Hall on Dec. 11, 1859, at which the chief speaker was Rev. Thomas M. Kinnaird, who had himself attended the Chatham convention.261 In his address Mr. Kinnaird referred to a talk he had had with Brown, in which the latter said that he intended to do something definite for the liberation of the slaves or perish in the attempt. The collection that was taken up at this meeting was forwarded to Mrs. Brown. At Montreal a great mass meeting was held in St. Bonaventure Hall, attended by over one thousand people, at which resolutions of sympathy were passed. Among those on the platform at this meeting were L. H. Holton, afterwards a member of the Brown-Dorion and Macdonald-Dorion administrations, and John Dougall, founder of The Montreal Witness. At Chatham and other places in the western part of the province similar meetings were held.

The slave-holding States were by no means blind to the amount of support and encouragement that was coming from Canada for the abolitionists.262 They were quite aware that Canada itself had an active abolitionist group. They probably had heard of the Chatham convention; they knew of it, at least, as soon as the raid was over. In his message to the legislature of Virginia immediately after the Harper's Ferry incident Governor Wise made direct reference to the anti-slavery activity in Canada. "This was no result of ordinary crimes," he declared. "… It was an extraordinary and actual invasion, by a sectional organization, specially upon slaveholders and upon their property in negro slaves.... A provisional government was attempted in a British province, by our own countrymen, united to us in the faith of confederacy, combined with Canadians, to invade the slave-holding states … for the purpose of stirring up universal insurrection of slaves throughout the whole south."263

Speaking further of what he conceived to be the spirit of the North he said: "It has organized in Canada and traversed and corresponded thence to New Orleans and from Boston to Iowa. It has established spies everywhere, and has secret agents in the heart of every slave state, and has secret associations and 'underground railroads' in every free state."264

Speaking on December 22, 1859, to a gathering of medical students who had left Philadelphia, Governor Wise is quoted as saying: "With God's help we will drive all the disunionists together back into Canada. Let the compact of fanaticism and intolerance be confined to British soil."265 The New York Herald quoted Governor Wise as calling upon the President to notify the British Government that Canada should no longer be allowed, by affording an asylum to fugitive slaves, to foster disunion and dissension in the United States. Wise even seems to have had the idea that the President might be bullied into provoking trouble with Great Britain over this question. "The war shall be carried into Canada," he said in one of his outbursts.266

Sympathy for the South was shown in the comment of a part of the Tory press in Canada, The Leader declaring that Brown's attack on Harper's Ferry was an "insane raid" and predicting that the South would sacrifice the union before submitting to such spoliation.267 The viewpoint of The Leader and its readers may be further illustrated by its declaration that the election campaign of 1860 was dominated by a "small section of ultra-abolitionists who make anti-slavery the beginning, middle and end of their creed." As for Lincoln he was characterized as "a mediocre man and a fourth-rate lawyer,"268 but then some of the prominent American newspapers made quite as mistaken an estimate of Lincoln at that time.

The collapse of John Brown's great adventure at Harper's Ferry furnished complete proof to the South of Canada's relation to that event. The seizure of his papers and all that they told, the evidence at the trial at Charlestown and the evidence secured by the Senatorial Committee which investigated the affair, all confirmed the suspicion that in the British provinces to the north there was extensive plotting against the slavery system. The Senatorial Committee declared in its findings that the proceedings at Chatham had had as their object "to subvert the government of one or more of the States, and, of course, to that extent the government of the United States."269 Questions were asked of the witnesses before the investigating committee which showed that in the minds of the members of that committee there was a distinctly Canadian end to the Harper's Ferry tragedy.270 Their suspicions may have been further confirmed by the fact that Brown's New England confederates, Sanborn, Stearns and Howe, all fled to Canada immediately after the raid.

In the actual events at Harper's Ferry the assistance given by Canada was small. Of the men who marched out with Brown on that fateful October night only one could in any way be described as a Canadian. This was Osborn Perry Anderson, a Negro born free in Pennsylvania. He was working as a printer in Chatham at the time of the convention and threw in his lot with Brown. He was one of those who escaped at Harper's Ferry. He later wrote an account of the affair, served during the latter part of the Civil War in the northern army and died at Washington in 1871. He is described by Hinton as "well educated, a man of natural dignity, modest, simple in character and manners."271

There naturally arises the question, why was the aid given John Brown by the Canadian Negroes so meagre? That Brown had counted on considerable help in his enterprise from the men who joined with him in drafting the "provisional constitution" is certain. John Edwin Cook, one of Brown's close associates, declared in his confession made after Harper's Ferry, that "men and money had both been promised from Chatham and other parts of Canada."272 Yet, apart from Anderson, a Negro, only one other Canadian of either color seems to have had any share in the raid. Dr. Alexander Milton Ross went to Richmond, Virginia, before the blow was struck, as he had promised Brown he would do, and was there when word came of its unhappy ending. Brown evidently counted on Ross being able to keep him in touch with developments at the capital of Virginia.

Chatham had been chosen as the place of meeting with special reference to the effect it might have on the large Negro population resident in the immediate vicinity. There were more Negroes within fifty miles of Chatham than in any other section of Canadian territory and among them were men of intelligence, education and daring, some of them experienced in slave raiding. Brown was justified in expecting help from them. There is also evidence that among the Negroes themselves there existed a secret organization, known under various names, having as its object to assist fugitives and resist their masters. Help from this organization was also expected.273 Hinton says that Brown "never expected any more aid from them than that which would give a good impetus."274 John Brown himself is quoted by Realf, one of his associates, as saying that he expected aid from the Negroes generally, both in Canada and the United States,275 but it must be remembered that his plans called for quality rather than quantity of assistance. A few daring men, planted in the mountains of Virginia, would have accomplished his initial purpose better than a thousand.

The real reason why the Canadian Negroes failed to respond in the summer of 1860 when Brown's men were gathering near the boundary line of slavery seems to be that too great a delay followed after the Chatham convention. The convention was held on May 8 and 10, 1858; but Brown did not attack Harper's Ferry until the night of October 16, 1859, nearly a year and a half later. The zeal for action that manifested itself in May, 1858, had cooled off by October, 1859, the magnetic influence of Brown himself had been withdrawn, and the Negroes had entered into new engagements. Frank B. Sanborn says he understood from Brown that he hoped to strike about the middle of May of 1858, that is about a week after the convention or as soon as his forces could gather at the required point.276 The delay was caused by the partial exposure of Brown's plans to Senator Henry Wilson by Hugh Forbes, who had been close to Brown. Panic seized Brown's chief white supporters in New England, the men who financed his various operations, and they decided that the plans must be changed. Brown was much discouraged by their decision, but being dependent upon them for support in his work he submitted and went west to Kansas. Among his exploits there was the running off of more than a dozen slaves whom he landed safely at Windsor, Canada.

There was some effort made in the early summer of 1859 to enlist the support of the Canadian Negroes,277 the mission being in charge of John Brown, Jr., who was assisted by Rev. J. W. Loguen, a well-known Negro preacher and anti-slavery worker. Together they visited Hamilton, St. Catharines, Chatham, London, Buxton and Windsor, helping also to organize branches of the League of Liberty among the Negroes. The letters of John Brown, Jr., show that there was little enthusiasm for the cause, which, indeed, could only have been presented in an indefinite way. There was more interest at Chatham than elsewhere, as might be expected, but even there it was not sufficiently substantial to bring the men that were needed. Against this rather dismal picture should be placed some evidence that there were a few Canadians on the way South when the end came.278

Fred Landon.

THE NEGRO AND THE SPANISH PIONEER IN THE NEW WORLD

Negro slaves probably made their first appearance in the New World in 1502. Those who came in the beginning were Christians and personal servants of masters who had acquired them in Spain, but soon afterwards, thanks to the influence of the religious order of Predicatores and of the more famous Las Casas, they began to be introduced directly from Africa, in order that the sufferings of the Indians who were dying out under the Spanish system of forced labor might be alleviated.279 By the close of the second decade of the sixteenth century no inconsiderable number had been brought over, and a perusal of the early accounts of the exploits of the Conquistadores will reveal the fact that the Negro participated in the exploration and occupation of nearly every important region from New Mexico to Chile. As personal attendants of the Spanish Pioneers, as burden-bearers and drudges connected with exploration and the founding of colonies, they played an indispensable though inconspicuous rôle in one of the greatest achievements which history records. Such accounts of their service as have been preserved are, for the most part, accidental: only when he performed an act of unusual heroism or connected himself with a strange or humorous occurrence was the Negro's name placed alongside of that of his Spanish master where it is destined to remain for all time.

When Balboa set out from Darién on the tour of exploration which resulted in the discovery of the South Sea, at least one Negro, Nufio de Olano, was numbered in his party. Three years later, when the timbers for the four boats with which he intended to explore the Pacific had been prepared, thirty Negroes were among those who carried them piece by piece over mountain and jungle from Acla to San Miguel. Moreover, when Balboa's successor constructed the first highway from ocean to ocean he made use of Negro labor along with that of the Indian.280

Hernán Cortés carried with him from Cuba not only Indian servants but Negro slaves who helped to drag along the artillery which he used to strike mortal terror into the Indians of Mexico. There has been preserved a list of those who set out on this famous expedition, and among the names are those of two Negroes, one of whom Saco claims to have been the first to sow and reap small grain in Mexico. Moreover, two Negroes were among the company sent out by Velásquez in 1520 to punish Cortés for his insubordination. One of these has the unenviable distinction of having introduced smallpox among the Mexican Indians. The other, who seems to have observed the fight between the men of the agent of Velásquez (Narváez) from the safe and comfortable distance of a neighboring tree, has, because of some witty and flattering remarks which he made to Cortés, received the honor of a paragraph in the Decades of Herrera.281

It is not definitely known whether Pedro de Alvarado, one of the bravest and most gallant lieutenants of Cortés, carried Negroes with him into Guatemala in 1523, but it is certain that eleven years later, when his ambition and love of gain led him to fit out that ill-fated expedition to Quito, he saw fit to include in the company two hundred black slaves, most of whom perished while making their way through the blinding snows of the Andes.282

It is certain, moreover, that several Negroes were along with the Conquistadores of Perú and Chile. The contract of Francisco Pizarro permitted him to introduce fifty Negroes into Perú free of duty; and even before this, Negroes had accompanied those who had spied out the land. In 1525, when Diego de Almagro effected a landing near the port of Quemado, on the west coast of South America, and attempted to penetrate the adjacent country, he encountered rather severe opposition from the Indians of the section. During the resulting skirmish one of his eyes was crushed by a dart and he was saved from captivity and death only by the valiant succor of his Negro slave. A year later, the debarkation of a Spaniard and his slave at Tumbez resulted in an amusing occurrence which once more gave the Negro a few brief sentences in the Decades. Astonished at the color of his face, the natives of the region had him wash time after time in order to see if the black would disappear; and the Negro, true to his good nature and love of a joke, complied willingly while he grinned so as to display his pearly white teeth.283

Several Negroes assisted the Yanaconas Indians in carrying the baggage of Diego de Almagro and Rodrigo Orgoñez during their perilous journey along the frozen Andes from Cuzco to Chile; and many of them perished on the way.284 Moreover, upon at least one occasion the forces of the great conqueror of Chile, Pedro Valdivia himself, would probably have been destroyed, had it not been for the cool-headed alertness of Captain Gonzalo de los Rios and a Negro who managed to procure the saddle-horses of the Spaniards as soon as they saw a band of Indians dart from their hiding places.285

Numerous African slaves were along with the Spanish pioneers in Venezuela. Ortal, Sedeño, and Heredia each had permission to introduce one hundred Negroes to build fortresses and search for mines; and in 1537, when the licentiate Vadillo came to Cartagena to hold the residencia of Heredia, he brought down a large number who later accompanied him on the luckless excursions which he undertook apparently in the hope of finding the mines of Perú.286

But of all the members of the colored race who accompanied the Spaniards upon their explorations in the New World, it may be doubted whether any played so conspicuous a part as did Estevánico, or Estévan, an Arabian black from Azamor, in Morocco, and the slave of Andrés Dorantes de Carrança. He was a member and one of the survivors of the ill-fated expedition of Pánfilo de Narváez which went to pieces somewhere on the southern coast of the United States, (1528). For six years he was a captive and slave among the Indians of Texas where, in company with others of the expedition who had escaped with their lives, he effected miraculous cures. He was one of the three companions of Cabeza de Vaca on his historic journey across the continent from the Gulf of Mexico to Culiacán. From Culiacán he accompanied De Vaca and his companions to Mexico City, where he was honored by being made the slave of the viceroy, Antonio de Mendoza.

Surely these were rare and noteworthy experiences for a member of the black race, but still greater things awaited Estévan. He was destined ere he met his tragic fate to accompany the expedition which resulted in the discovery of New Mexico and Arizona. The party which, besides the Negro, consisted of three Spaniards—Fray Marcos de Niza, a lay brother, and Fray Onorato—and several Pima Indians, set out from Culiacán on March 7, 1539. They were in search of the famed Seven Cities.

After proceeding northward several days, Fray Marcos decided to rest while he dispatched the Negro to reconnoiter. He directed Estévan to advance to the north several leagues, and in case he discovered indications of a rich and populous country, to return in person or await his coming, sending back, by some of the Pimas who were to accompany him, a cross the size of which should be in proportion to the importance of the information gained. Four days passed, and then the messengers of Estévan returned bearing a cross "as high as a man" and the news that the Negro had discovered "the greatest thing in the world." Fray Marcos hastened to follow in the footsteps of Estévan hoping to overtake him soon, but his efforts were vain. The dusky adventurer could not resist the temptation to proceed and win for himself the honor of conquering the rich country.

This country concerning which such glowing reports had reached Estévan was none other than the land of the Pueblo Indians. His procedure after separating from Fray Marcos is thus narrated by a contemporary, though not an eyewitness:

"After Estevan had left the friars, he thought he could get all the reputation and honor himself, and that if he should discover these settlements with such famous high houses, alone, he would be considered bold and courageous. So he proceeded with the people who had followed him, and attempted to cross the wilderness which lies between the country he had passed through and Cibola, … [He] reached Cibola loaded with the large quantity of turquoises they [the Indians along the route] had given him and some beautiful women whom the Indians who followed him and carried his things were taking with them and had given him. These had followed him from all the settlements he had passed, believing that under his protection they could traverse the whole world without any danger. But as the people in this country were more intelligent than those who followed Estevan, they lodged him in a little hut they had outside their village, and the older men and governors heard his story and took steps to find out the reason he had come to that country. The account which the Negro gave them of two white men who were following him, sent by a great lord, who knew about the things in the sky, and how these were coming to instruct them in divine matters, made them think that he must be a spy or a guide from some nations who wished to come and conquer them, because it seemed to them unreasonable to say that the people were white in the country from which he came and that he was sent by them, he being black. Besides these other reasons, they thought it was hard of him to ask them for turquoises and women, and so they decided to kill him. They did this, but they did not kill any of those who went with him...."287

From this and other contemporary sources, Lowery288 has constructed a more complete and lively picture of Estévan's last days. Lowery says that "he travelled with savage magnificence, gaily dressed with bells and feathers fastened about his arms and legs. He carried with him a gourd decorated with bells and two feathers, one white and the other red. This gourd he sent before him by messengers as a symbol of authority and to command obedience, as he had seen successfully done in the western part of Texas, when in company with Cabeza de Vaca.... As soon as they had delivered the gourd to the chief [of the pueblo] and he had observed the bells he became very angry," and ordered Estévan and his party to depart at once. But the Negro was persistent. He and his retinue lodged just outside the walls of the Pueblo of Hawaikuh. Early the next morning they were attacked by a large band of warriors from the Pueblo and Estévan was killed while attempting to make his escape.

There has been preserved among the legends of the Zuñi Pueblos of New Mexico one which apparently dates back to the coming of Estévan, the Black Mexican from the south. The scene of his death is placed at Kiakima, and the single Black Mexican has been magnified into many, but the legend is nevertheless interesting and significant.

"It is to be believed that a long time ago, when roofs lay over the walls of Kya-ki-me, when smoke hung over the housetops, and the ladder rounds were still unbroken in Kya-ki-me, then the Black Mexicans came from their abodes in Everlasting Summerland. One day, unexpectedly, out of Hemlock Cañon they came, and descended to Kya-ki-me. But when they said they would enter the covered way, it seems that our ancients looked not gently at them; for with these Black Mexicans came many Indians of So-no-li, as they call it now, … who were enemies of our ancients. Therefore, these our ancients, being always bad-tempered, and quick to anger, made fools of themselves after their fashion, rushing into their town and out of their town, shouting, skipping and shooting with their sling-stones and arrows and tossing their war-clubs. Then the Indians of So-no-li set up a great howl, and thus they and our ancients did much ill to one another. Then and thus was killed by our ancients, right where the stone stands down by the arroyo of Kya-ki-me, one of the Black Mexicans, a large man, with chilli lips [i.e., lips swollen from eating chilli peppers], and some of the Indians they killed, catching others. Then the rest ran away, chased by our grandfathers, and went back toward their country in the Land of Everlasting Summer...."289

J. Fred Rippy.

THE ECONOMIC CONDITION OF THE NEGROES OF NEW YORK PRIOR TO 1861

The institution of slavery existed in the State of New York until 1827. The number of slaves had increased from 6,000 slaves in 1700 to 21,000 in 1790.290 Moved by the struggle for the rights of man, the legislature of New York passed in 1799 an act of emancipation, providing that all children born of slave parents after July 4 ensuing should be free and subject to apprenticeship in the case of males until the age of 28, and of the females until the age of 25, while the exportation of slaves was forbidden. By the process of emancipation all slaves were liberated in 1827. Thenceforth, birth on the soil of New York was a guaranty of freedom and slaves from other States fled to New York as an asylum.291 As a result of these efforts at gradual emancipation, there were more than 10,000 free Negroes in New York City in 1800.

We are to inquire here as to exactly what was the economic condition of these Negroes. What of their wealth, their means and methods of living well and wisely? With gradual emancipation and the cessation of the sale of slaves the Negroes became economically unimportant to the whites.292 They were employed as servants, laborers, sailors and mechanics.293 It was reported to the American Convention of Abolition Societies in 1797, however, "that a degree of decorum and industry prevailed among them much to their honor and advantage." This report further said that "Many in the town and country were freeholders, several worth from $300 to $1,300. Various associations among the free blacks for mutual support, benefit and improvement had been established. One of these had a lot for a burying ground and the site of a church worth fifteen hundred dollars. All were in a state of progressive improvement."294 Still another part of the report made by these delegates stated that "on the whole they exhibited an example of successful industry highly honorable to themselves, gratifying to their parents, encouraging to patrons and consoling to humanity."295 Again, in 1803, the New York delegates reported that the "increase of the number of freeholders among the free blacks is an evidence of the progress of industry, sobriety, and economy, and strengthens the hope that they will gradually emerge from their degraded condition to usefulness and respectability."296