Library of Congress Subject Headings, 21st edition, 1998

Languages Used:

• English

LC Subject Headings:

• African Americans -- Biography.
  
• African Americans -- Maryland -- Biography.
  
• African Americans -- Maryland -- History.
  
• Free African Americans -- Maryland -- Biography.
  
• Maryland -- Biography.
  
• Slavery -- History.
  
• Slaves -- Maryland -- Biography.
  

Revision History:

• 2001-05-18,
  Celine Noel and Wanda Gunther
  revised TEIHeader and created catalog record for the electronic edition.
  
  
• 2001-03-05,
  Natalia Smith, project manager,
  finished TEI-conformant encoding and final proofing.
  
  
• 2001-02-09,
  Lee Ann Morawski
  finished TEI/SGML encoding
  
  
• 2001-01-31,
  Apex Data Services, Inc.
  finished transcribing and proofing.
  
  

FREDERICK DOUGLASS

MRS. F. E. W. HARPER

BISHOP HOLLY

[Frontispiece Image]

[Title Page Image]

[Title Page Verso Image]

MEN OF MARYLAND,

By THE

REV. GEORGE F. BRAGG, D. D.,
Rector of St. James' Church, Baltimore, Md., and
Editor of The Church Advocate.

CHURCH ADVOCATE PRESS.
BALTIMORE, MD.
1914

[Copyrighted, 1914, By GEORGE F. BRAGG, JR.]

THIS VOLUME IS
LOVINGLY DEDICATED
TO THE BELOVED
MOTHER, WIFE AND DAUGHTERS
OF THE AUTHOR.

THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE.

        As a result of many years of research and investigation, embracing various volumes, ecclesiastical journals, private letters, as well as information received from the lips of some of the characters mentioned, the author has accumulated considerable data bearing upon the lives of colored men, natives of the State of Maryland, which, in his opinion, ought to be known and studied by the rising generation of colored people of Maryland. It has occurred to him that such data put into a convenient form cannot but prove interesting and helpful to all intelligent and patriotic members of the race. And, again, it is his belief that the appearance of such a volume, recording the annals of the "Men of Maryland" might incite others, lovers of the historical doings of the race, to compile like volumes, with respect to notable and distinguished colored men of the various States of the Union, and, thereby, secure, in substantial form, important historical matter pertaining to the race throughout the country, for the benefit of the generations which are to follow.

        We have undertaken to present, in this volume, in addition to the historical sketches given, some important data throwing light upon the history of "black slaves," and "free blacks," in Maryland; a clear statement of the great issue of the Civil War; a few extracts from the writings of some of the characters mentioned in the book, and copies of two most important letters which made their appearance in the

year 1904, in connection with the effort to introduce "disfranchisement" and "jim-crow" conditions into this State. His Eminence James Cardinal Gibbons, of the Roman Catholic Church, is the author of one of these letters, while the remaining one is from the pen of one of Maryland's most distinguished citizens, the Hon. Charles J. Bonaparte, a former Attorney-General of the United States.

        We desire to specially acknowledge our debt, in the perfection of this volume, to Brackett's Negro in Maryland, Still's Underground Railroad, Bishop Payne's History of the A. M. E. Church, addresses by Dr. Crummell, and data from William Carl Bollivar, of Pennsylvania, and George W. Forbes, of Massachusetts.

        Notwithstanding the immense labor involved, extending over many years, in collecting the matter for this volume, the work has afforded the author the keenest pleasure and delight. If we have succeeded in bringing together such informing and cheering facts, with respect to the past history of our people in Maryland, as will stimulate a greater appreciation for the literature of the Colored race we shall feel that our task has not been in vain.

BLACK SLAVES IN MARYLAND.

        It is not definitely known when and by whom the first African Slaves were introduced into the Colony of Maryland. In 1642 records show that Governor Calvert was bargaining with a ship-master for thirteen slaves at St. Mary's. At any rate, the increase of slaves, for awhile, was not very rapidly.

        But, just as they began to increase a most interesting question came up with respect to the effect of Baptism administered to them, or to their offspring. It was held by some, that the effect of Baptism, in making them "Christians," freed them from physical bondage. That is, on being baptized they immediately became "freemen." This feeling, or conviction, greatly interfered with the increase of slavery as well as with the imparting of Christian instruction to those who had already been imported. The question occupied the minds of the local authorities, as well as the authorities in London. In 1671, an act was passed entitled "an act for the Encouraging the Importation of Negroes and Slaves," which declared that Baptism, or Conversion, should not be taken to give manumission in any way to their slaves or to their issue, who had become or should become Christians, or who had been or should be baptized, either before or after their importation to Maryland, any opinion to the contrary notwithstanding. In Virginia there was enacted, in 1667, that baptism did not

give freedom, so that diverse masters, freed from doubt, might endeavor to spread Christianity among the blacks.

        By an act of 1681, children born of white women and black men, were free. After 1692, the issue of a union between any white woman with a slave or free black, became servants for a long time. A law enacted in 1715, forbade, under penalties, the marriage of a white to any black or mulatto slave. But, by this law a white and a free mulatto could marry. The law of 1717 made a free black or mulatto, except mulattoes born of white women, slaves for life. In the record office in London, in 1712, there was a list of "Christian" men and women and children, and also black slaves in Maryland. According to this list there were then, in Maryland, 38,000 whites and 8,000 blacks. In 1790, there were over 208,000 whites and nearly half as many slaves in Maryland. Of the 2,290 blacks imported into Maryland between 1699 and 1707, all but 126 were brought in London vessels.

        It is interesting to note that from the very first there seemed to be a goodly number of whites who were opposed to Slavery. In various ways, this feeling and conviction was shown. Shortly after the Revolution, 1776, a concerted effort was made in the direction of the abolition of Slavery, members of the Society of Friends, or Quakers, were conspicuously in the lead. In 1785, the House of Delegates of Maryland received a petition along this line, and legislation was introduced to that end, but failed of adoption. Yet, it is significant that the members of that body voting upon the proposition were very nearly equally divided. Two years later, the Baltimore Yearly Meeting of Friends sent another petition to the legislature on the subject. In 1789 the Maryland Society for Promoting the Abolition of slaves, and the Relief of poor Negroes, was organized.

        One of the effects of this continued agitation was indicated in the constant increase of manumissions. An increasing number of whites were moved to set free their slaves, not a few by means of their last will and testament; and, others, were induced to permit slaves to purchase their own freedom. In 1829 a memorial from citizens of Frederick county, requesting the adoption of such legislation whereby children born of slave parents might become free at a certain time, was considered, but not adopted. The trend of affairs generally were contributing to a steady increase in the number of "free Negroes," and this condition of affairs also conspired to render more severe and cruel the lot of slaves. The presence of "free Negroes," in itself, was a constant inspiration to the slave to become dissatisfied with servitude. Then, in 1831, came the news of Nat Turner's insurrection, in Virginia, and this contributed still more to the fears of the slave-holders, and rendered them more watchful, and at the same time more cruel towards the slave. Following close upon all this was the bold attitude of William Lloyd Garrison, demanding immediate abolition. Slave laws of the greatest stringency followed fast upon each other. At the same time, all of these various conditions hastened the adoption of the "Colonization" scheme as the State policy.

        The establishment of Liberia, on the west coast of Africa, was the logical outcome of the systematic agitation, all along, of humane whites with respect to the abolition of slavery which commenced soon after the first introduction of slavery into the colony of Maryland. As judged from the exigencies of the situation, at the time, they esteemed it the very best that could be accomplished, under all the circumstances, in a merciful and humane way, for the welfare of the enslaved blacks. So they finally got the

State pledged to Colonization as the State policy, and an appropriation of a certain sum of money to pay the expenses of such as volunteered to go to Africa. Many manumissions were given with the expressed condition, that, in a reasonable time, the person set free should leave Maryland for Africa. In 1843, a clergyman of the Episcopal Church, of Charles county, brought a number of slaves owned by him to Baltimore, and, himself presenting them for Confirmation, in St. James' First African Church, to the late Bishop Whittingham, who administered the rite, immediately gave them their freedom on condition that they at once leave the country for Africa, which was done.

FREE BLACKS IN MARYLAND.

        The number of free blacks in the State of Maryland was quite small until the closing of the Eighteenth Century. The census of 1790 gave eight thousand free blacks in the State. From this time the number increased. In 1807, the permanent policy of prohibiting the removal of free blacks into this State, from elsewhere, was initiated. After that time any free black coming into the State could remain no longer than two weeks. The penalty for a longer continuance was a fine of $10 a week, and being unable to pay the fine he could be sold into slavery for a term sufficient to cover the fine. Somehow, free blacks continued to come, and the statute not being generally enforced additional and more stringent legislation was enacted. Following the great uprising in Virginia, among the blacks, in 1831, laws with increasing severity of punishment were passed. A free black coming into the State, after ten days, was fined $50 a week for every week he remained, half of the money going to the informant. Any person who harbored a free black, thus coming into the State, after four days, was fined $20 a day. Any free black, a resident of the State on going out of the State, should he remain longer than thirty days, without permission, would be deemed a non-resident, and subject to all the conditions which applied to other free blacks entering the State for the first time. But, in order to encourage Colonization, any black could come or go at will between Maryland and Liberia, West Africa.

        English women, the servant class, were early imported into the Colony, and were in limited slavery. That is, they were constrained to remain in service for a term of years, in payment of the expense in bringing them to this country. Quite a number of them married black men. The colony of Maryland was established in 1634, and as early as 1664 a law was enacted giving penalties for "such shameful matches," that is, marriage between a white person and a black slave. Such marriages were also forbidden between white women and free blacks. Penalties were specified for the Master who permitted such affiliation, and also the minister officiating. They were fined, each, ten thousand pounds of Tobacco. The law of 1717 is a little curious on this subject. A free black, or mulatto, marrying a white woman would become a slave for life. But, mulattoes, born of white women, should serve only for seven years. In 1777, by the Militia law free blacks were excluded from service, but in 1790 they were specifically included. In 1793 the same Militia law again limits service to white men.

        The education of free blacks, and slaves, was not forbidden by law, in Maryland, but, nevertheless, such enterprises depended upon individuals and members of the Society of Friends. As far back as 1761 the Rev. Thomas Bacon, a clergyman of the Church of England inaugurated a free school for black children in Frederick county. And even long before this time, the same clergyman had inaugurated a school in Talbot county for the poorer classes of both races. Of this effort, Mr. Lawrence C. Wroth, assistant Librarian of the Pratt Library, Baltimore, in a published essay, some years ago among other things, said:

        "Mr. Bacon had set an example in the Province in regard to the Christian education of Negro slaves which was

not generally to be followed by either clergy or laity for many generations. It was probably his work among the Negroes which led to the project of founding a sort of manual training or industrial school for poor children. In a subscription paper circulated in 1750, he remarks upon the 'profaneness and debauchery, idleness and immorality . . . especially among the poorer sort in this province' and asks for yearly subscriptions, 'for setting up a Charity Working School in the Parish of St. Peter's, in Talbot county, for maintaining and teaching poor children to read, write and account, and instructing them in the knowledge and practice of the Christian religion, as taught in the Church of England.' A few months later he had received from a goodly list of subscribers, among them the Proprietary and Lady Baltimore, Cecelius Calvert and Bishop Wilson, a sufficient fund for the running expenses, and in the course of a few years his subscriptions permitted the purchase of one hundred acres of land and the erection of a suitable brick home and school. Thus, in the year 1755, and for many thereafter, Talbot county boasted a fine charity school, but thirty years later, when Bacon and nearly all of the original trustees were dead it was turned over to the county for use as a poor house. The institution seems to have been born before its time in so far as Maryland was concerned."

        Daniel Coker, a mulatto, whose freedom was purchased by friends, conducted quite a large and flourishing day school for free blacks in the city of Baltimore, previous to the year 1816. In 1824, the Rev. William Levington, founder and rector of St. James' First African Protestant Episcopal Church, initiated a free school which was continued, in connection with that church, until long after the close of the Civil War. A Rev. Mr. Watkins, an African Methodist minister, also conducted a day school in the

city of Baltimore, for black children; and there were several other such enterprises. From the census of 1860, we learn that there were 1,355 free black children attending school in the State. There were a number of free colored men who owned their wives, and children. They held them in such state to more effectually secure their freedom. There were also a few blacks who owned and hired slaves. Mention is made of a free black of Dorchester county receiving payment for a slave whom he had bought for a term of years, and who was sold out of the State, for crime, by the court. Colored persons, free or slaves, could testify in court, for or against any colored person, but not in any case where a white person was concerned. The child of a white man and a mulatto slave was incapable of witnessing against a white person; but the child of a black man and a white woman--there were not a few cases of such offspring--was qualified as a witness, during the limited time he was put to service. This was up to 1717.

        In 1847, there was a very estimable colored man, the Steward of the Naval Academy at Annapolis, whose wife and children were residing in Philadelphia. Permission for such to visit the husband, and father, was conditioned on their residing in Annapolis, and they should remain only so long as the Steward remained in his present job. A Washington firm conducted a Summer Resort in St. Mary's county. This firm was only privileged to carry its colored help there on the condition that they should be restricted to the grounds; and when the season was over should immediately return to the city of Washington. A free black woman was fined $250 for five weeks' stay in Maryland, and sold into slavery for a term of years, in default of not being able to pay the fine. Color always created the presumption that a black was a slave. It was

up to him to prove that he was a "free black." The Maryland Abolition Society (1789) interested itself greatly in preventing the unlawful "kidnapping" of free black children, who were sold into slavery.

        The constitution of 1776 guaranteed the right to vote to all freemen, of age, and who held a certain amount of property. Under this constitution there were quite a number of colored men who exercised the right of franchise; but under the amended constitution of 1810 the suffrage was strictly limited to white men. The "free" black had the right of petition, and it is a significant fact that this right was most frequently used. It was through "petition" to the legislature that many evils were mitigated on their behalf. A considerable number of free blacks owned small houses, and pieces of land. Some of the Banks received deposits from free blacks. In Annapolis there were several black depositors and one owned shares of the Bank stock.

        In 1831, all colored persons were forbidden to assemble or to attend meetings for religious purposes which were not conducted by a white licensed clergyman or by some respectable white of the neighborhood authorized by the clergyman.

        In 1842, it was enacted that any free colored person convicted of becoming or continuing to be a member of any secret society whatever, whether it held its meetings in Maryland, or without, should be deemed a felon, and be fined not less than $50. In default of payment, he should be sold for a term sufficient to pay the fine. For the second offense he should be sold out of the State as a slave for life. In 1845, colored Camp-meetings, and similar outdoor gatherings, were strictly and rigidly forbidden.

        In the constitutional convention of 1850-51, a Mr.

Jacobs, of Worcester county, became the author of a bill before the State Legislature which was generally known as the "Jacobs' law," and which stirred the free blacks as, perhaps, no other measure had ever aroused them. Through strenuous efforts the bill was defeated. It had for its object the elimination of all "free" persons of color. Among some of the provisions of this measure were the following: No black should be capable of acquiring real estate in the future; he could not by lease hold any property longer than a year; no free black was permitted to enter the State to remain; no black should be manumitted except on condition that he would leave the State within thirty days. A second "Jacobs' bill" was adopted by the Legislature of 1860, but ere it became effective had to be submitted to the voters of the State at the next ensuing election. This last measure, happily, was defeated by the action of the people. Somerset county was the only county in the State where the bill received a majority of the votes cast. In this last measure manumission was absolutely forbidden, and the way made easy for the return of "free blacks" into slavery.

        It was in Baltimore that William Lloyd Garrison began the publication of his paper, "The Genius of Universal Emancipation," declaring that to hold slaves longer in bondage was both unnecessary and tyrannical, that justice demanded their liberation, and that to recompense slave-owners for emancipation would be paying a thief for giving up stolen property. This was in 1829-30. Most stringent laws were passed, with exceedingly heavy fines and imprisonment, for any person, white or black, who in any way aided in the circulation of abolition literature. These laws were particularly severe upon "free blacks." Any such person upon whom such literature was found or who

called for, or received at the postoffice, any such literature, upon conviction, was liable to imprisonment from ten to twenty years. And if any one knew that a person received or possessed such literature, he was liable to a fine of $500 and two months in jail if he failed to report the same.

        In Dorchester county, at the April term of the Circuit Court, 1857, a free black was tried before the court on two indictments. On one of these he was found not guilty, but, on the other for knowingly having in his possession a copy of "Uncle Tom's Cabin," he was given the minimum term of ten years. But, this man, in 1862, on the representation of a prominent citizen of Baltimore, that he had been innocent of any attempt at violation of the law, was pardoned by the Governor of Maryland, on the condition of his leaving the State. It was claimed that the book was left in his house by some one who desired to get him into trouble.

THE ISSUE OF THE CIVIL WAR.

        John Wesley characterized Slavery as "The sum of all villainies." Certainly, it was an extremely degrading institution. The early founders of the Republic soon realized the enormity of the evil. They endeavored to overthrow it, but failed. As it began to be immensely profitable to the people living in the southern section of the country, its roots became firmly entrenched, and, finally, involved the nation in one of the most distressing and painful civil wars in the annals of history.

        In 1773, Patrick Henry said: "A serious view of this subject gives a gloomy prospect to future times." The same year, George Mason wrote to the Virginia Legislature: "The laws of impartial Providence may avenge our injustice upon our posterity." Adjusting his conduct to his convictions, Thomas Jefferson, in Virginia, and in the Continental Congress, with the approval of Edmund Pendleton, branded the slave trade as piracy; and he fixed in the Declaration of Independence, as the corner-stone of America: "All men are created equal with an unalienable right to liberty." In laboring in the direction of Emancipation, Jefferson encountered exceedingly great difficulties, and was forced to exclaim: "I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that His justice cannot sleep forever." It was the desire of the heart of George Washington that Virginia should remove slavery by a public act; and as hope grew more dim, he did all that he

could by bequeathing freedom to his own slaves. Madison said: "Slavery is the greatest evil under which the nation labors--a portentous evil--and an evil moral, political and economical--a sad blot on our free country." Old age found him with the lamentation: "No satisfactory plan has yet been devised for taking out the stain."

        "A new generation," says Bancroft, the historian, "sprang up, impatient that an institution to which they clung should be condemned as inhuman, unwise and unjust. In the throes of discontent at the self-reproach of their fathers, and blinded by the lustre of wealth to be acquired by the culture of a new staple, they devised the theory that slavery, which they would not abolish, was not evil, but good. They turned on the friends of Colonization, and confidently demanded: 'Why take black men from a civilized and Christian country, where their labor is a source of immense gain, and a power to control the markets of the world, and send them to a land of ignorance, idolatry, and indolence, which was the home of their fore-fathers, but not theirs? Slavery is a blessing. Were they not in their ancestral land naked, scarcely lifted above brutes, ignorant of the course of the sun, controlled by nature? And in their new abode have they not been taught to know the difference of the seasons, to plow and plant and reap, to drive oxen, to tame the horse, to exchange their scanty dialect for the richest of all the languages among men, and the stupid adoration of follies for the purest religion. And since Slavery is good for the blacks, it is good for their masters, bringing opulence and the opportunity of educating a race. The Slavery of the black is good in itself; he shall serve the white man forever." And nature which better understood the quality of fleeting interest and passion, laughed as it caught the echo, 'man' and 'forever.' "

        By and by, the issue was forced. A slave was not a person, but "property." If such a black "property" came into a free state it was contended that he could be treated the same as though he were a horse or a mule, and his "master" could go anywhere in the country and recover his property. The matter was carried to the Supreme Court. What followed we shall let the historian, Bancroft, tell. Says Bancroft:

        "The Chief Justice of the United States, without any necessity or occasion, volunteered to come to the rescue of the theory of slavery; and from his court there lay no appeal, but to the bar of humanity and history. Against the Constitution, against the memory of the nation, against a previous decision, against a series of enactments he decided that the slave is property; that slave property is entitled to no less protection than any other property; that the Constitution upholds it in every Territory against any act of a local Legislature and even against Congress itself; or, as the President for that term tersely promulgated the saying: "Kansas is as much a slave State as South Carolina or Georgia; slavery, by virtue of the Constitution, exists in every Territory." Bancroft continues: "Moreover, the Chief Justice, in his elaborate opinion, announced what had never been heard from any magistrate of Greece, or Rome; what was unknown to civil law, and feudal law, and common law and constitutional law; unknown to Jay, to Rutledge, Ellsworth, and Marshall--that there are 'slave races.' "

        The crisis had come. To the people the issue was carried. The party of Mr. Jefferson Davis maintained that a colored person was not a "person," in the ordinary use of that word. That such was "property," and, as such, should be protected in the same essential manner as a horse or a

mule, in any and every section of the country. That is, if a colored person, say of Alabama, by some means made his way to Pennsylvania, this human "property" should be just as secure to his "owner" as though he were in Alabama. It was the duty of the government to return such human "property" to his owner, in the same manner as though he had been a horse that had gotten at large. When it was perceived by a number of white people, living in the Southern section of the country, that the greater part of the nation were not disposed to take such a view with respect to human "property," then, many of the Southern States concluded that they would peacefully withdraw from the Union, and set up a central government for themselves, the "corner-stone" of which new government should be the perpetual slavery of the people of African descent. Mr. Alexander H. Stephens, Vice-President of the late Confederate States, declared most plainly this purpose.

        But, the party of Mr. Abraham Lincoln resolutely objected to such procedure. Mr. Lincoln maintained that no State could withdraw from the Union. The Southern people claimed that they had the right to withdraw; Mr. Lincoln solemnly denied the existence of such a right. The Civil War was the result. The object of the Southerners was to emancipate themselves from the Union, while that of the party of Lincoln was to force them to remain in the Union. The Emancipation of slaves issued from the controversy. The position assumed by the party of Lincoln is most aptly stated by Mr. Lincoln himself in his first Message to Congress, a portion of which follows:

        "Our States have neither more nor less power than that reserved to them in the Union by the Constitution--no one of them having been a State out of the Union. The original ones passed into the Union even before they cast off their British colonial dependence; and the old ones each

came into the Union directly from a condition of dependence, excepting Texas. And even Texas, in its temporary independence, was never designated a State. The new ones only took the designation of States on coming into the Union, while that name was first adopted by the old ones in and by the Declaration of Independence. Therein the 'United Colonies' were declared to be 'free and Independent States;' but, even then, the object plainly was not to declare their independence of one another or of the Union, but directly the contrary, as their mutual pledge and their mutual action before, at the time, and after wards abundantly show. The express plighting of faith by each and all of the original thirteen in the articles of Confederation, two years later, that the Union shall be perpetual, is most conclusive. Having never been States, either in substance or in name outside of the Union, whence this magical omnipotence of 'States' Rights,' asserting a claim of power lawfully to destroy the Union itself? The States have their status in the Union, and they have no other legal status. If they break from this they can only do so against law and by revolution. The Union, and not themselves separately, procured their independence and their liberty. By conquest or purchase the Union gave each of them whatever independence or liberty it has. The Union is older than any of the States, and, in fact, it created them as States. Originally some dependent colonies made the Union, and in turn the Union threw off their old dependence for them, and made them States, such as they are. Not one of them ever had a State Constitution independent of the Union. . . . What is now combatted is the position that secession is consistent with the Constitution--is lawful and peaceful. It is not contended that there is any express law for it; and nothing

should ever be implied as law which leads to unjust or absurd consequences. The nation purchased with money the countries out of which several of these States were formed; is it just that they shall go off without leave and without refunding? The nation paid very large sums (in the aggregate, I believe, nearly a hundred millions) to relieve Florida of the aboriginal tribes; is it just that she shall now be off without consent or without making any return? The nation is now in debt for money applied to the benefit of these so-called seceding States in common with the rest; is it just either that creditors shall go unpaid or the remaining States pay the whole? A part of the national debt was contracted to pay the old debts of Texas; is it just that she shall leave and pay no part of this herself?

        "Again, if one State may secede, so may another; and when all shall have seceded, none is left to pay the debts. Is this quite just to creditors? Did we notify them of this sage view of ours when we borrowed their money? If we now recognize this doctrine by allowing the seceders to go in peace, it is difficult to see what we can do if others choose to go, or to extort terms upon which they will promise to remain. The seceders insist that our Constitution admits of secession. They have assumed to make a national Constitution of their own, in which, of necessity, they have either discarded or retained the right of secession, as they insist it exists in ours. If they have discarded it, by their own construction of ours, they show that to be consistent they must secede from one another whenever they shall find it the easiest way of settling their debts or effecting any other selfish or unjust object. The principle itself is one of disintegration, upon which no government can possibly endure."

        The cause of the Union prevailed. In accomplishing such victory it became necessary, as a war measure, for the President to declare "forever free" the "human property" held as such, by those who had taken up arms against the Union. And so "freedom" came. While, technically, the war was waged to preserve the Union, yet "freedom of the slaves" was inseparably connected with the preservation of the Union.

IRA FREDERICK ALDRIDGE.

        Ira Frederick Aldridge was born in Bel Air, Maryland, in 1804. About the year 1826 he became the "valet" of the celebrated actor, Edmund Keene. Aldridge soon discovered that he would like to be an actor, and Keene encouraged him. During the latter part of the thirties, in company with Mr. Keene, he left the country for Europe where a magnificent career awaited him. "The Black Roscius," as he was called, created such a furor as a tragedian, that he was frequently carried from the theatres where he performed upon the shoulders of his enthusiastic auditors to his hotel. He was loaded down with medals, insignia of the various royal orders, the gifts of Kings and Queens whom he had charmed and delighted by his magnificent impersonations of the characters he assumed.

        He performed in the principal cities of Europe, and it is recorded of him that when he played Iago in the city of Moscow, in Russia, a number of students who had witnessed the performance unhitched the horses from the actor's carriage, after the play, and dragged him in triumph to his lodgings. In Sweden and Germany, and England, his name was a household word. He stood in the front rank with the greatest actors of his day, and the nobility of England held him in the same regard and treated him with the same consideration that Americans bestowed upon Keene, or Booth, or any other great actor who had made himself famous. Ira Aldridge gave no performance in Europe

which was not witnessed by one or more members of the royal family of the country he was in. In personal appearance he was very dark in complexion, with a full, round face which was covered with a closely shaven beard. He was nearly six feet in height. He had large lustrous eyes and a resonant voice, which he kept under perfect control. As Aaron, in "Titus Adronicus," and as the Moor, in "Othello," he established his fame as the most realistic actor who up to that period had ever assumed those roles. The newspapers of that period showered unstinted praise upon this remarkable colored man, and he was lionized in fashionable society and feted by the nobility; the king of Sweden knighted him, and the Emperor of Russia conferred a decoration upon him. His medals and decorations from other personages were estimated at the time of his death, 1867, to be worth over $250,000. Aldridge owned nine villas, situated in various parts of Europe, and each of them handsomely furnished. His principal residence was in the city of London, England, where he entertained in a royal manner the legions of friends who sought his company and that of his charming wife, a Swedish baroness, by whom he had three children. He died in 1867 as Sir Ira Aldridge, K. C. M., and a host of other titles given him at various times.

BENJAMIN BANNEKER.

        Benjamin Banneker, the Negro astronomer and scientist, was born in Baltimore county, near Ellicott's Mills, on the 9th of November, 1732. Banneker's grandmother was a white woman, Mary Welch, who was sent out from England, and, who, having served her master for seven years, purchased a farm and two black slaves. One of these slaves she married. Benjamin seems to have been quite a favorite of his grandmother who taught him how to read. About the same time there was a "pay school" in the neighborhood to which a few colored children were admitted. A part of Benjamin's education was secured in this school.

        Very early in life Banneker showed fondness for mechanical knowledge. He became much interested in the construction of the Mills which were then being erected nearby. Mr. George Ellicott was very much drawn towards Banneker, and gave him the use of his library, and such mechanical tools as were available. In 1754, Banneker constructed a clock, which not only told the time of day, but struck the hour. Through correspondence, Banneker became acquainted with scientific men in all parts of the world. Upon invitation of the Commissioner, he assisted in the laying out of the District of Columbia. After his return from this work, in 1791, he got out his first almanac, for the year 1792. Before it went to press, he sent a manuscript copy to Thomas Jefferson, seeking to interest Mr. Jefferson in the freedom of the slave. The

letter is here given, together with the reply which it elicited from Mr. Jefferson:

Maryland, Baltimore County,
Near Ellicott's Lower Mills, August 19, 1791.

To Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of State, Philadelphia:

        Sir--I am fully sensible of the greatness of that freedom which I take on the present occasion, a liberty, which to me scarcely allowable, when I reflect on that distinguished and honorable station in which you stand, and the almost general prejudice and prepossession which is prevalent in the world against those of my complexion.

        I suppose it is a truth too well attested to you to need a proof here, that we are a race of beings who have long labored under the abuse and censure of the world, that we have long been considered rather brutish, than as human, and scarcely capable of mental endowments.

        Sir, I hope I may with safety admit, in consequence of that report which hath reached me, that you are a man far less inflexible in sentiments of this nature than many others; that you are measurably friendly, and ready to lend your aid and assistance to our relief, from the many distresses and numerous calamities to which we are reduced. Now, Sir, if this is founded in truth I apprehend you will embrace every opportunity to eradicate that train of absurd and false ideas and opinions, which so generally prevail with respect to us; and that your sentiments are concurrent with mine, which are--that one Universal Father hath given being to us all, and that He hath not only made us all of one flesh, but that He hath also, without partiality, afforded us all the same sensations, and that, however variable we may be in society and religion, however diversified in situation and color, we are all of the same family and stand in the same relation to Him.

        Sir, if these sentiments, of which you have long been persuaded fully, I hope you cannot but acknowledge that it is the indispensable duty of those who maintain for themselves the rights of human nature, and who profess the obligations of Christianity, to extend their power and influence to the relief of every part of the human race, from whatever burden or oppression they unjustly labor under; and this I apprehend a full conviction of the truth and obligation of these principles should lead us all to.

        Sir, I have long been convinced that if your love for yourselves and for those inestimable laws which preserve to you the rights of human nature, was founded on sincerity, you could not but be solicitous that every individual, of whatever distinction, might enjoy equally with you the blessings thereof; neither could you rest satised short of the most active diffusion of your exertions, in order to their promotion from any state of degradation to which the unjustifiable cruelty and barbarism of men may have reduced them.

        Sir, I freely and cheerfully acknowledge that I am of the African race; and, in that color which is natural to them, of the deepest dye; and it is under a sense of the most profound gratitude to the Supreme Ruler of the Universe that I now confess to you that I am not under that state of tyrannical thraldom and inhuman captivity to which too many of my brethren are doomed; but that I have abundantly tasted of the fruition of those blessings which proceed from that free and unequal liberty with which you are favored, and which I hope you will willingly allow you have received from the immediate Hand of that Being from whom proceedeth "every good and perfect gift."

        Sir, suffer me to call to your mind that time in which

the arms and tyranny of the British Crown were exerted with every powerful effort, in order to reduce you to a state of servitude. Look back, I entreat you, to the variety of dangers to which you were exposed; reflect on that time in which every human aid appeared unavailable, and in which even hope and fortitude wore the aspect of inability to the conflict, and you cannot but be led to a serious and grateful sense of your miraculous and providential preservation.

        You cannot but acknowledge that the present freedom and tranquility which you enjoy you have mercifully received, and that it is the peculiar blessing of Heaven.

        This, Sir, was a time in which you clearly saw into the injustice of a state of slavery and in which you had just apprehensions of the horrors of its condition; it was now, Sir, that your abhorrence thereof was so excited that you publicly held forth this true and invaluable doctrine, which is worthy to be recorded and remembered in all succeeding ages:

        "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, and that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that amongst these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

        Here, Sir, was a time in which your tender feelings for yours engaged you thus to declare; you were then impressed with a proper idea of the just valuation of liberty, and the free possession of those blessings to which you were entitled by nature, but Sir, how pitiable it is to reflect, that although you were so fully convinced of the benevolence of the Father of Mankind, and of His equal and impartial distribution of those rights and privileges which He had conferred upon them, that you should, at the same time, counteract His mercies, in detaining by

fraud and violence so numerous a part of my brethren, under groaning captivity and oppression; that you should, at the same time, be found guilty of that most criminal act, which you professedly detested in others with respect to yourselves.

        Sir, I suppose that your knowledge of the situation of my brethren is too extensive to need a recital here; neither shall I presume to prescribe methods by which they may be relieved, otherwise than by recommending to you, and to all others, to wean yourselves from those narrow prejudices which you have imbibed with respect to them, and as Job proposed to his friends, "Put your souls in their souls' stead." Thus shall your hearts be enlarged with kindness and benevolence towards them, and thus shall you need neither the direction of myself nor others in what manner to proceed therein.

        And now, Sir, although my sympathy and affection for my brethren hath caused my enlargement thus far, I ardently hope that your candor and generosity will plead with you in my behalf, when I make known to you that it was not originally my design, but having taken up my pen in order to direct to you, as a present, a copy of an Almanac which I have calculated for the ensuing year, I was unexpectedly led thereto.

        This calculation, Sir, is the production of my arduous study in this, my advanced stage of my life; for having long had undoubted desires to become acquainted with the secrets of nature, I have had to gratify my curiosity therein, through my own assiduous application to astronomical study, in which I need not recount to you the many difficulties and disadvantages I have had to encounter.

        And though I had almost declined to make my calculations for the ensuing year, in consequence of the time I

had allotted thereto, being taken up at the Federal Territory, by the request of Mr. Andrew Ellicott; yet finding myself under several engagements to printers of this state, to whom I had communicated my design, on my return to my place of residence, I industriously applied myself thereto, which I hope I have accomplished with correctness and accuracy, a copy of which I have taken the liberty to address to you, and which I hope you will favorably receive, and although you may have the opportunity of perusing it after its publication, yet I choose to send it to you in manuscript previous thereto, that thereby you might not only have an earlier inspection, but that you might also view it in my own hand-writing.

        And now, Sir, I shall conclude, and subscribe myself with the most profound respect,

Your most obedient, humble servant,

B. BANNEKER.

To Mr. Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of State:

        Mr. Jefferson at once replied and said: "Sir:--I thank you sincerely for your letter and the Almanac it contained. Nobody wishes more than I do to see such proofs as you exhibit that Nature has given to our black brethren talent equal to those of the other colors of men, and that the appearance of the want of them is owing merely to the degraded condition of their existence both in Africa and America."

SCIPIO BEANES.

        Scipio Beanes was born in Prince George's county, Maryland, in the year 1793. When he was about twenty years of age, he removed to the city of Washington. Beanes was born a slave, and having obtained permission of his master to attend a school conducted in that county, he obtained the elementary principles of an English education. In 1818, his master made him a present of his freedom. The next year he married a Miss Harriet Bell, of Washington. About the first of the year, 1825, Beanes "experienced a change of heart," and united with the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Sometime after, having been commissioned by the local church as an "exhorter," still later, he was commissioned by Bishop Allen to make a visitation of the churches on the Eastern Shore. His work there was quite successful. He remained laboring in this work as long as his health permitted, "but his delicate constitution, the severity of the winter, and the bad accommodations which were afforded, compelled him to abandon the field and return home. In his homeward journey the snow was so deep that he was compelled to quit the saddle, and on foot pursue his journey, leading his horse nearly the whole distance from Annapolis to Washington." He was seized with deep pulmonary affection, and he was advised by his physician to seek some warmer climate. In 1826, he left for Portau Prince, Haiti, to improve his health. He remained there one year, his health improving,

and in the meantime he performed valuable missionary services. On his return to this country, he met the General Conference, and he was commissioned as a regular missionary to Haiti from the African Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1828 he returned to Haiti. After a year or so there he again returned to this country, and in 1832 he went back to Port au Prince, "the Lord blessing his labors in the souls added to the Church." Of him, Bishop Payne, the historian of the A. M. E. Church, further says:

        "His health improved at first, then began to fail. He was a great sufferer, but a patient, uncomplaining one, and without flinching he continued to labor. It was his wife's desire to return home, but the rapid encroachments of the disorder prevented this, and he was content to remain and die in Haiti, saying:

        "Heaven is as near to Port au Prince as to Washington." He literally finished his life and his labors together, for we are told that he had baptized and administered the Lord's Supper on a Sabbath (January 12, 1835), and went home to Heaven the next morning at dawn, in the 42nd year of his age. He was generally beloved by the people, it seems, and esteemed as well. We are told that he performed the marriage of the French ambassador, Mr. Denny, himself a Methodist. His labors were confined, so said his wife, entirely to the city of Port au Prince, because his health did not permit him to travel over the Island. So much we know of the life and death of our first worker in the foreign missionary field of the West Indies."

DANIEL COKER.

        In view of conditions associated with human slavery it is not at all strange that definite data with respect to the birth of a number of colored men, who afterwards became distinguished, is most difficult to obtain. However, there can scarcely be any doubt that Daniel Coker was born in Frederick County, Maryland during the latter part of the eighteenth century. He was on hand in sufficient time to be identified with the very "fathers of Methodism," in this country. It so happened that a widowed white woman, Susan Coker, having already a son by her first husband, took for her second husband a colored slave. From this union there was born a colored boy, who was known, for a long while, as "Isaac Wright." There grew up an affectionate fondness between the white and the colored boy, half-brothers. The white son of Susan Coker positively refused to go to school unless Isaac accompanied him.

        So Isaac had to go as his "valet." In the long run, Isaac got more out of the schooling than his white half-brother. Isaac was very studious, and wonderfully improved the opportunity. He mastered the higher branches, as well as the classics. As a result of this remarkable achievement Isaac became a little seminary of learning in himself. He ran off and got to New York. He soon came into contact with Bishop Asbury of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

In course of time, Bishop Asbury ordained him. After spending some time in New York, he finally made up his mind to come to Baltimore. But, in the eyes of the law of Maryland he was still a slave. He kept in secret in Baltimore until friends had raised sufficient money with which to purchase his freedom. With freedom came increased activity and boldness. For a long while he taught school in connection with Sharp St. Church. His school increased from a few pupils, when he began, until it reached more than one hundred and fifty previous to his closing of the same. While in this work he became the author of a financial plan which raised a considerable sum for Sharp St. Church. He educated a score of the best educated colored men of that early day, conspicuous among the number was the Rev. William Douglass, afterwards rector of St. Thomas Episcopal Church, Philadelphia. But, his real work, that by which his name will be perpetuated, was the organization of "Bethel African Church" Baltimore, and, later, the conspicuous part he took in the organization of the connection of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1816.

        It was upon the advice and encouragement of Daniel Coker that a number of persons drew out of Sharp St. Church, and under his direction, organized "Bethel." But we should have stated that when he ran away to New York, in order to evade slave-hunters, and being returned into slavery, he discarded the name of "Isaac Wright" and assumed that of Daniel Coker. By this he was ever afterwards known. When the 16 persons assembled in April, 1816, in the city of Philadelphia to organize the African Methodist Episcopal Church, Daniel Coker was the "brain" of that historic convention. All the rest were, practically, illiterate. Coker had the distinction of being the first colored man ever

elected as a Bishop in America. He was elected Bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church immediately following its formation. But, the next day he declined the election, and Richard Allen was thereupon elected to the same office. While Coker was a brainy man, there was hardly a comparison of him with Richard Allen along the line of piety and strong character. As far back as 1810 Daniel Coker published, in the city of Baltimore, a booklet on the Slavery Question. The title page runs in the following language:

A DIALOGUE BETWEEN A VIRGINIAN AND AN
AFRICAN MINISTER.

Written by the Rev. Daniel Coker, a Descendent of Africa,
Minister of the African Methodist Episcopal Church
in Baltimore, Humbly Dedicated to the People of
Color in the United States of America.

        This little volume contains about forty-three pages. After the slavery argument is finished, the writer gives a "List of the Names of African Local Preachers" at that time in the United States. The author also informs us that the number of African Methodists in the United States at that period was 31,884.

        Dr. Martin R. Delaney gives Coker the credit for originating the plan folowed later by Garrison in the Abolition Movement.

        In 1820, Daniel Coker left the country, among the first band of emigrants, to find a home and untrameled freedom in Africa. In one of the early epistles coming from Liberia, Daniel Coker writes: "We have met trials; we are but a handful; our provisions are running low; we are in

a strange, heathen land; we have not heard from America, and know not whether provisions or people will be sent out; yet, thank the Lord, my confidence is strong in the veracity of his promises. Tell my brethren to come; fear not; this land is good; it only wants men to possess it. I have opened a little Sabbath-school for native children. Oh, it would do your hearts good to see the little naked sons of Africa around me. Tell the Colored People to come up to the help of the Lord. Let nothing discourage the Society or the Colored People."

        Upon the death of the regular officer of the colonists, Mr. Coker was in charge of affairs. Sometime after he had given up this work, he emigrated from Liberia to the British colony of Sierra Leon. There he planted a church, and reared a family. The late Bishop Payne says:

        "The building in which his congregation worshiped is still (in 1852) standing; it is built of stone, and is one of the largest in the city of Freetown. Besides the pulpit is a tablet bearing a memorial of his life and death. Two of his sons grew up to manhood. One of them became a successful trader with the natives of the interior, and at his death endowed his father's church; the other was living as late as 1861, and was then inspector of police at Sierra Leon."

FREDERICK DOUGLASS.

        Frederick Douglass is, possibly, the best known and most distinguished of the "Men of Maryland." Although the exact date of his birth is not definitely known, yet it is agreed that he was born in the month of February, 1817, at Tuckahoe, near Easton, Talbot county, Maryland. His mother was a slave, and his father was a white man, whom he never knew. He never saw his mother after his eighth year. When he was ten years of age, his master Col. Lloyd, "lent" him to a friend in Baltimore. In Baltimore he worked at the trade of a ship-carpenter. When he was fifteen years of age his master permitted him to hire his own time, which he did, paying three dollars a week. As a very small boy Frederick had a keen thirst for knowledge, which had been stimulated by hearing his mistress read the Bible. Yielding to importunity, his mistress began to instruct him, but so rapid was his progress that such instruction was soon discounted. But, alas, discontinuance was too late. He had gotten a start. In his early years, the Bible, and a copy of the "Columbian Orator" were his chief books of study. For a good while had Douglass been meditating making his escape from bondage. Having armed himself with a "pass" belonging to some one else, on September 3, 1838, leaving Washington he took a train to New York, and managed to get through without any trouble. Upon arriving there, he soon set out for New Bedford, Mass. Up to this time, he was known as "Frederick Lloyd," his real name, but in order not to be detected, caught, and returned to slavery, he changed his name to "Frederick Douglass." Here he worked, at first, around the wharves as a common laborer. He became a factor in the local colored church, and was soon licensed as a local preacher in the African Church. It was in New Bedford

that the married his first wife.

        In 1841, at an Anti-Slavery Convention held in Nantucket, which he attended, so great and prevailing was the impression of his eloquence, that he was appointed the Agent of the Society for Massachusetts. During the next few years, his work, in that direction, was with telling effect. Everywhere enthusiasm was intensified and the cause greatly advanced. In 1845, Frederick Douglass was invited, by distinguished Englishmen, to visit that country, and deliver addresses in behalf of the Anti-Slavery cause. He readily accepted the invitation, and spent two years there lecturing on behalf of his enslaved brethren in America. He swept everything before him. Ovation after ovation was his.

        Having run away from slavery, in the eyes of the law of this country he was still a slave. So Englishmen raised a purse of $750 for the purchase of his freedom, and $2,500 with which to set him up in the newspaper business. Thus, on his return to America, he changed his residence from New Bedford to Rochester, N. Y., and in the latter place commenced the publication of his weekly paper, "Frederick Douglass Paper," afterwards changed to the "North Star." Thus, he continued in the Anti-Slavery cause, with both voice and paper. He thrilled the multitudes by his eloquence, and edified them through the columns of the "North Star." The good work continued until emancipation came.

        The grand old man who had battled so nobly for the cause of freedom, with the close of the Civil War, changed his residence from Rochester to Washington. For the ensuing quarter of a century he was the great figure in the life of the colored community of the city of Washington. During this period, while filling public office, he was in constant

demand, all over the country, as a public lecturer. In 1871, he was appointed assistant secretary of the San Domingo Commission. In 1872, President Grant appointed him a member of the territorial council of the District of Columba. During the campaign, preceding the second election of General Grant, as President, Frederick Douglass was a Presidential Elector, at large, for the State of New York. He was designated to carry the vote of New York State to Washington. In 1876, President Hayes appointed him United States Marshal for the District of Columbia. From 1881 to 1886, he was Recorder of Deeds of the District. In 1889, President Harrison appointed him United States Minister to the Republic of Haiti. He resigned that office in 1891. His death occurred on the evening of February 20th, 1895, at his home in Anacostia. His funeral was a most imposing event, and took place from Metropolitan A. M. E. Church on the 25th of February.

        In connection with his death, an incident worthy of note was the adjournment of the North Carolina State Legislature out of respect to his demise, when the news of the same reached that body. At that time, the Republicans were in control in that state. But a few days before, the same body had refused to adjourn out of respect to the birthday of General Robert E. Lee. The matter of adjournment, with respect to the death of Frederick Douglass, was an occasion for debate, and was carried by a strict party vote.

His Last Address to a Baltimore Audience.

        The Sixth Annual Commencement of the Colored High School, of Baltimore, took place in the Academy of Music, on Friday evening, June 22, 1894. There were eleven

members of the graduating class, and the Honorable Ferdinand C. Latrobe, Mayor of Baltimore, delivered the diplomas. Mr. Douglass was the orator of the evening. This was his last public address in the city of his early childhood. Among other things, on that memorable occasion, he said in part:

        "The Colored People of this country have, I think, made a great mistake of late in saying so much of race and color as a basis of their claims to justice, and as the chief motive of their efforts and action. I have always attached more importance to manhood than to mere identity with any variety of the human family. Since emancipation we hear much from our modern colored leaders about race pride, race love, and race effort, race superiority, race men and the like. One is praised for being a race man, and another is condemned for not being a race man. The object is good, but the method is bad. It is an effort to cast out Satan by Beelzebub. The evils that are now crushing us to earth have their root and sap in this narrow spirit of race and color, and we have no more right to foster it than men of any other race. I recognize and adopt no such narrow basis for my thoughts, feelings, or my motives of action. It was not the race or the color of the Negro that won for him the battle of liberty. That great battle was won, not because the victim of slavery was a Negro, but because the Negro is, and of right ought to be, a man--a brother to all other men, a child of the common Father of mankind, and, therefore, to be recognized as a subject of government, and entitled to justice, liberty and equality before the law, to education and to an equal chance with all other men in the race of life and in the pursuit of happiness.

        "Hence, at the risk of being deficient in the quality of

love and loyalty to race and color, I have in my advocacy of our case, had more to say of manhood, and what is comprehended in manhood, than of the accident of race and color.

        "We should never forget that the ablest and most eloquent voices ever raised in behalf of the black man's cause were the voices of white men. Not for race, not for color, but for man and for manhood they labored, fought, and died. Away, then, with the nonsense that a man must be black to be true to the rights of black men.

        "A little learning, indeed, may be a dangerous thing but the want of learning is a calamity to any people, and to no people more than to the Colored People of this country. Ignorance for us means poverty, and poverty means degradation, and degradation brings contempt and persecution. There is no time in our history that I would prefer to the present. The existence of this High School in the city of Baltimore is a triumphant rebuke to any cry of despair. It is a type of institution in nearly all of the Southern States, and which are multiplying all over the country. But, it is said that we are now being greatly persecuted. I admit it. Attempts are being made to set aside the amendments of the Constitution, to wrest from us the elective franchise, to exclude us from respectable railroad cars, to draw the color line against us in religious organizations, and to make us a proscribed class. The resistance we now meet is the proof of our progress.

        "The resistance is not to the colored man as a slave, a servant or menial. It is aimed at the Negro as a man, a gentleman and a scholar. The Negro in ignorance and in rags, meets no resistance. He is rather liked. He is thought to be in his place. It is only when he acquires education, property and influence, only when he attempts to rise and be a man among men that he invites repression.

Even in the laws of the South, excluding him from railroad cars and other places, care is taken to allow him to ride as a servant, a valet or porter.

        "It is not the Negro but the quality in which he comes which makes him an offense or otherwise. In one quality he is smiled upon as a very serviceable animal. In the other he is scorned as an upstart, entirely out of his place, and is made to take a back seat. I am not much disturbed by this, for the same resistance in kind, though not in degree, is met by white men who rise from lowly conditions. The successful and opulent esteem them as upstarts. A lady, elegant and opulent, as Mrs. Potter Palmer, had to hear herself talked about as 'shoddy,' 'an upstart,' the wife of a 'tavern keeper,' and the like, during the Columbian Exposition. But the upstart of to-day is the elite of to-morrow."

WILLIAM DOUGLASS.

        William Douglass was born in Baltimore September 6, 1805, on Montgomery street near Leadenhall street. In the olden days, the father of Mr. Douglass was a well-known blacksmith who conducted business on Light street. Of the very early life of the Rev. Mr. Douglass we know little. However, he attended "Daniel Coker's School," and was one of the boys who achieved marked distinction. Mr. Douglass was well instructed in the higher branches, and the languages, by Daniel Coker. Mr. Dougless married a Miss Elizabeth Grice, daughter of the celebrated colored abolitionist Hezekiah Grice. It was while as an itinerant minister among the Methodists, in Cecil county, that he found his way into the Protestant Episcopal Church, and was the first colored man ever ordained to the ministry of the Episcopal Church, not only in the State of Maryland, but in the entire South. This ordination took place on the Eastern Shore, in the State of Maryland. It occurred on Sunday, June 22nd, 1834. The entry, with respect to the ordination, in Bishop Stone's journal, reads as follows:

        "On Sunday 22, I preached in St. Stephen's parish, Cecil County (Sassafras Neck), and admitted to the order of Deacons William Douglass (a colored man), and in the afternoon of the same day I confirmed three persons. Many persons who were present never before witnessed an ordination, and I am sure that the impression made upon their minds was favorable to the Church and her institutions.

In the afternoon, by previous arrangement, the Church was given up to the Colored People, and the Rev. Mr. Douglass preached to them an interesting sermon."

        It appears that the year before, 1833, Mr. Douglass visited Philadelphia, attending the Anti-Slavery Convention, and possibly the occasion of this visit is responsible for his introduction to the people of St. Thomas Church.

        Very soon after Mr. Douglass' ordination, he accepted a call to St. Thomas African Church, Philadelphia, which was established in 1793, and which is said to be the oldest regularly incorporated colored congregation of any denomination in the United States. This parish, St. Thomas, eventuated from the old "Free African Society" established in 1787. The occasion of the formation of the "Free African Society," was the ejectment of the band of colored Methodists from St. George's Methodist Episcopal Church, Philadelphia, where they were wont to worship. Richard Allen and Absalom Jones were the two leaders in this Society. First, the society determined to build an "African Church." Later, they held a meeting to determine with which of the white religious bodies their church should be connected. Although most of the members, up to this time, were Methodists, they decided, almost unanimously, that the church and congregation should be connected with the Protestant Episcopal Church, of the Diocese of Pennsylvania. Only two members seemed to have voted against this proposal--and they the two leaders--Absalom Jones and Richard Allen. Notwithstanding, the society requested Richard Allen that he would be their "minister," to be recommended to Bishop White, of the Episcopal Church, for a regular license. Allen maintained that he was a Methodist and could not be anything else save a Methodist; he, therefore, declined. Absalom Jones was then asked to

accept the same position, and, after due deliberation, he accepted. He was licensed as a Lay Reader by Bishop White, and, in 1795, he was ordained a deacon. Later, he was advanced to the Priesthood. Jones departed this life in 1818. From that time to the coming of the Rev. Mr. Douglass, in 1834, the church had a supply of various white ministers; but Mr. Douglass was the immediate successor of Absalom Jones as rector of the Church.

        The 14th day of February, 1836, was a great day for the Rev. Mr. Douglass; for on that particular day, in St. Thomas Church, he was raised to the holy order of Priesthood, in the Church of God. Bishop H. U. Onderdonk, who was assistant to Bishop White, officiated upon that occasion, and the following entry from his journal will show his impression of this black man, and his fitness for such an exalted position. Bishop Onderdonk says:

        "On Sunday, February 14th, in St. Thomas (African) Church, Philadelphia, I admitted the Rev. William Douglass, deacon, to the holy order of Priests. Mr. Douglass is a man of Colour; and I take the opportunity of recording my very favorable estimate of his highly respectable intellect, and most aimable qualities, which entirely relieved my mind, in his case, from the anxieties I had long felt in reference to this department of Episcopal duty. He ministers to a congregation at unity in itself, much attached to him, and improving, under his pastoral care, in the principles and duties of our common Christianity."

        Mr. Douglass was a power in Philadelphia among the race in his day. In addition to his parochial, and other duties, he became an author, even in that early day. In 1853, he issued a volume of sermons, a book of about 250 pages, containing twelve sermons. Later, he published a second volume, being the "Annals of St. Thomas Church,"

of which he was rector. A copy of both volumes the present author possesses. In 1862, at the Diocesan Convention, Bishop Alonzo Potter, in reporting the death of Mr. Douglass, said:

        "It hath pleased the Lord to call away from the Church Militant the Rev. William Douglass, rector of St. Thomas African Church, in this city, where he has ministered for the last twenty-seven years--a man of great modesty, of ripe scholarship, and of much more than ordinary talents and prudence. He is as far as I am informed, the only clergyman of unmixed African descent, who, in this country, has published works of considerable magnitude. In two volumes, one of sermons, and one a history of St. Thomas' Church, has vindicated his right to appear among our respected divines. As a reader of the Liturgy he was unsurpassed." His death occurred in Philadelphia on May 22, 1862.

An Extract from a Sermon by the Rev. Mr. Douglass.

        (The extract here given, is from a sermon of the Rev. William Douglass, preached in St. Thomas Church, Philadelphia, November 15, 1840, in memory of the Rev. Peter Williams, late founder and rector of St. Philip's Church, New York. His text was: "For David after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep"--Acts xiii.--36.)

        "Such was the character and end of our late friend and brother, the Rev. Peter Williams; called away suddenly to us, but not to him, from the field of toil and labor, to rest in Abraham's bosom. Our departed friend was brought under the influence of saving grace in the most favorable season of life. He gave heed to the admonition: 'Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil

days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them.' Blessed as he had been with the advantage of pious parents, he very probably traced his early religious impressions to their Godly admonitions and counsels. The time however came that must come to all, when the sacred tie that bound the hearts of parents and child together, had to be severed by death. He was left behind to mourn the loss of them for awhile; but with what raptures must they have hailed each other as they met again on the borders of the heavenly world, to part no more forever.

        "At the age of seventeen or eighteen years, he became a communicant member of the Episcopal Church, of which Dr. Lisle was pastor. Soon after, he assisted an aged gentleman, whose name was Thomas McKoon, in giving catechetical instruction to the children assembled in a private room rented for that purpose. In the same place a number of adults regularly met on Sunday evenings for religious purposes. The exercises were generally conducted by Mr. McKoon. After the death of this gentleman, Mr. Williams was regularly appointed lay-reader. He acted in that capacity until the year 1820, at which time he was ordained deacon by Bishop Hobart, in the church in which he dispensed the word of life to the close of his earthly pilgrimage. He was ordained priest by the same Bishop in the year 1826. He manifested a deep concern for the improvement not only of the people of his charge, but for his brethren generally. Hence, he was found contributing his influence and pecuniary means towards supporting the various organized instrumentalities that had a tendency to elevate and improve the condition and character of his oppressed people. I doubt very much whether there exists in the city of New York one single society having an immediate

bearing on the general interests of our people, but what met with his countenance and support. He was not conspicuous in these matters. For no man, perhaps, was less given to display or aimed less at popular applause than he. If he could hide himself from personal gaze, he seemed to be best pleased. His whole deportment seemed to say:

                         'Let me be little and unknown,
                         Lov'd and priz'd by God alone.'

        "A retiring modesty and unaffected diffidence formed a very prominent feature in his character. His hopes for an improvement in the character of our people were in the young and rising generation, in whom he manifested a lively interest. Did he see a promising youth, who lacked nothing but the necessary advantages to enable him to reflect credit on himself and people, in a moral and intellectual point of view; he was the man who would spare no pains to get such a one in a situation favorable to the development of his powers. He took delight in seeking out such cases. There is now a high school in the city of New York that owes its establishment chiefly to his untiring efforts.

        "He was a universal friend. His countenance, which was expressive of kind and benevolent feelings, added to that ease and gentleness which were ever seen in his manners, told every one that approached him, that he was in the presence of a friend. He loved every one, hence he was universally beloved in return. To use the language of one with whom he had long been most intimate: "He was a friend to everybody--he was always in trouble about other people's troubles. He was a kind of depository for every one to lodge his cares and anxieties. People of different denominations, whenever they got into difficulty, would invariably go to him; and he, in the kindness of his heart,

would as often use his endeavors to have their affairs satisfactorily settled.

        "As regards his fidelity and zeal in the discharge of his ministerial duties, I need only quote the words of his Diocesan, delivered on the day of his interment:

        "'It was my privilege,' says the venerable Prelate, 'to be often the depository of the cares and anxieties, the longing desires and earnest endeavors, the watchful solicitudes, the cheering hopes, the affectionate fears, and practical dependence upon God's grace, with which he gave himself, instant in season and out of season to his pastoral charge. I have often said, and would now say, in conscious sincerity and integrity of heart, that in all the wide range of my observation, I never knew a pastor whose whole soul seemed more engaged in the great work to which he had been set apart. I have seen this in the happy results of his ministry, and felt it in the many occasions on which he has taken counsel with me in matters pertaining to his high and holy trust.'

        "During the last two or three years of our departed friend's life, it was evident to his friends that his health was declining. I have been informed that a little while previous to his death, he had one or two attacks of apoplexy; and that he was impressed with the idea that he would be called away in one of these attacks. The solemn messenger it is true, did not come in this form, but his purpose was executed with less despatch. He was aroused from his bed at the hour of 11 o'clock Saturday night, 17th ult., by an alarm of fire. He looked out at his window, and immediately complained of a difficulty in breathing; and at 3 o'clock Sunday morning, he leaned his head on his Savior's bosom, and breathed his life out sweetly there. Peace to his mortal remains, until reanimated by the voice of the Archangel and the trump of God."

HENRY HIGHLAND GARNET.

        On the Eastern Shore of Maryland, in the County of Kent, on December 23, 1815, Henry Highland Garnet was born. He was born in slavery, as was his father before him. His father was a slave on the plantation belonging to Colonel William Spencer. But, the father of George Garnet, grandfather of Henry, was a native African, Mandingo chieftain, who also was one of the victims of the African Slave trade. He was brought to America and sold into slavery.

        When Henry Garnet was about nine years of age, his father, with his mother, made their escape from slavery. George Garnet got permission of his master to attend the funeral of a friend, a slave, who had died; but, instead of attending the funeral he procured a covered wagon, and in it placed young Garnet, his sister and their mother, and, under cover of night, drove to Wilmington, Delaware. There the family was taken in charge by Thomas Garret, the veteran abolitionist. From there they were sent on to New York. In New York apartments were secured on Leonard street, next door to Boston Crummell, father of the late Rev. Dr. Crummell. Henry Garnet and Alexander Crummell grew up together as boys, were schoolmates and fast friends through life until separated by death. They attended together the old African Free School in Mulberry street. A number of the colored boys attending this school in after life became celebrated characters. Among the

number were: Patrick and Charles L. Reason, Ira Aldridge, George T. Downing, Isaiah G. Degrasse, Dr. McCune Smith and Samuel Ringgold Ward. Later, about 1831, through the efforts of the late Rev. Peter Williams, Boston Crummell, and others, a colored high school was inaugurated; and these boys also attended this institution. When about 15 years of age, Henry Garnet, through an accident, contracted a white swelling, which rendered him a cripple for life. In view of this calamity, the future scholarship which he achieved, and the marked distinction which he won, are perfectly marvelous. Very early in life he became a pupil of the Sunday School of the First Presbyterian Church, under the pastoral charge of the Rev. Theodore S. Wright. In 1835, Garnet, with Crummell and other boys, attended a boarding school in Canaan, New Hampshire. There they remained for awhile until finally "race prejudice" broke up the school. Yet, a cripple, weak, sickly and feeble, undaunted, Garnet persevered in obtaining his education. From here he went to the Oneida Institute, Whitesboro, N. Y. He graduated from this institution in 1839. He then settled at Troy, N. Y., and taught the colored school there; at the same time he studied theology under Rev. Dr. Beman, and acted as secretary of the Colored Presbyterian Church. In 1842 he was licensed and ordained to the Presbyterian ministry. He remained there for a period of ten years. During this time he published a newspaper called the "Clarion." Very soon, he had enlisted in the great abolition movement, and, in which cause he became one of its most celebrated speakers. The late Rev. Dr. Crummell, in his eulogium of Dr. Garnet, relates an incident which will give some idea of the "maiden speech" of Dr. Garnet, in connection with the Anti-Slavery campaign.

        Says Dr. Crummell: "I was the guest last November of a distinguished and learned clergyman of my own church in New Jersey." He told me the following facts: "I was born," he said, "in the South, the son of a slave-owner. Passing through New York, in May 1841, I read a notice that a black man would speak at the anniversary of the American Anti-Slavery Society. The idea of a Negro making a speech was the most ludicrous thing imaginable, but for the sport of the thing, I said, I will go and hear this fellow. I had never seen a Negro who could read. I had not the most distant idea that a black man could be taught to think, to be intelligent, to be cultivated. I thought I should have fine fun in hearing something burlesque and clownish." "I went," he said, "to the Broadway Tabernacle, took my seat and waited for the speaker. Two or three white men spoke, and then the chairman introduced a tall, slender, black young man, leaning on a crutch whom he announced by the name of Garnet. Dr. Crummell, as soon as he opened his mouth and began his speech I was filled with amazement. Never in my life, before or since, have I heard such pure and beautiful English, such finely turned sentences, such clear and polished rhetoric, such lucid, crystal thought. His gesticulation, too, was as refined and elegant as his speech was chaste and manly." "Never from that day," he said, "have I ever had any doubts of the full capacity of the Negro."

        After the close of the Civil War, Dr. Garnet settled down to the pastorate. He was, for awhile, in Washington, also pastor of Shiloh Presbyterian Church, New York. He was appointed United States Minister to Liberia, West Africa, and died in that country shortly after his arrival there. Following his death, the following minute was adopted by the Presbytery of New York, of which he was an honored and distinguished member:

        "At the stated meeting of the Presbytery of New York, April 10, 1882, the following resolution was adopted: 'That the Presbytery has heard with profound regret of the death of the Rev. Henry Highland Garnet, D. D., a member of this body, the late pastor of the Shiloh Presbyterian Church of this city and Minister of the United States to the Republic of Liberia. His long service in the church, his ability and fidelity as a preacher and pastor, the dignity, purity, and usefulness of his life, and the courage with which he maintained the honor of his high calling in the church and the community, commanded our esteem and respect, and render his departure a real loss to this Presbytery. That his death as he was just entering upon his duties as Minister of Liberia, where he had a wide field for the exercise of his talents, and where he promised to be greatly useful, is to be deplored as a calamity to that republic and to the colored race.' "

        That a copy of this minute be sent to the family of Dr. Garnet and be published."

        There is hardly anything more beautiful, and really touching, than the mangnificent eulogium of Dr. Garnet, by the late Rev. Dr. Crummell, before the Bethel Literary, of Washington, D. C., on the 4th day of May, 1882, and from which we have already quoted. In closing this sketch, we shall again borrow the words of his life-long friend. Says Dr. Crummell:

        "I have spoken of the genius, the eloquence, and the labors of Henry Highland Garnet. Spare me a few moments longer, for a few words concerning the man himself, for a man, i. e., the personal quality of any human being, is always of more value than any of his parts.

        "There are two words, which I think more than any other, will serve to delineate his character--LARGENESS and

SWEETNESS. I can well believe the tradition in his family that his ancestors were kings in Africa. Things, ideas of magnitude, grand prospects, seemed ever, even in boyhood to occupy his mind. There was nothing of stint or contractedness about him. He was generous, beneficent, unselfish, hospitable.

        " 'Large was his bounty, and his soul sincere.'

        "Every stranger, minister, foreigner, fugitive, refugee, was welcome to his board, and could command his purse. The great fault of his character was in this direction. Not merely unselfish, he lacked somewhat in the quality of self-love. There was a princeliness in his largeness which not seldom landed him into poverty. For, like Daniel Webster, and I am speaking of no faultless man, he never seemed to think there were limitations to the boundliness of his beneficence and the capacity of his pocket. If in the future as in the past, men continue to prize noble gifts used for the highest purposes; to honor our devoted service freely given for the maintenance of truth and justice; to applaud lofty speech used for the upbuilding of humanity and the advancement of the race; to revere pure and lofty character, a life-time illustration of the finest qualities of our kind,

                         " 'Then o'er his mound a sanctity shall brood,
                         Till the stars sicken at the day of doom.' "

HEZEKIAH GRICE AND OTHERS.

The Convention Movement.

        At present, National race conventions, of various kinds, are quite familiar to all. The "Convention Movement" has reference to the very beginning of such assemblies in this country among our people. Of course, before the Civil War such were necessarily confined to "free persons of color." In the years following the War of 1814, the troubles, disadvantages, and oppression of "free colored persons" in the so-called free states multiplied and increased. The air was filled with colonization schemes, and the various uprisings among the blacks, in other sections of the country, contributed towards rendering the lot of the free colored person far from being a happy one. The idea of holding a convention of free colored persons, somewhere in the free states, was born in the mind of Hezekiah Grice, a free person of color of the city of Baltimore. Early in the spring of 1830 he sent out a number of circulars to free colored men in the various free states to elicit their views. A primary meeting was held, shortly, in the city of Philadelphia, and the call for the convention was formally sent out, which convened in that same city of Philadelphia on the 15th of September, 1830. The convention was held in Bethel Church, and Bishop Allen was its president. The delegates attending from the city of Baltimore were: Hezekiah Grice, James Deaver, Aaron Wilson and Robert Cowly There were forty delegates present, representing seven

states: Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia. The convention registered its protest against the colonization scheme and appointed committees to make investigation with respect to settlements in some part of Canada. These conventions became a fixed annual institution, and were regularly held until the Civil War. The convention of 1831 is memorable from the fact that the "free colored persons" of that day seemed to have anticipated both Hampton and Booker T. Washington. In the former convention something was said of the need of a "Manual Training School," and adequate land had been tendered for the purpose, near New Haven, Conn. But the white people of that vicinity vigorously "protested" against the establishment there of such an institution for colored people.

        But, of Hezekiah Grice we know but little. He was a man of considerable ability, an ardent race lover, and an aggressive anti-slavery man. He was associated with Benjamin Lundy and William Lloyd Garrison in the publication in Baltimore of "The Genius of Universal Emancipation." When the publishers of that paper were mobbed and their plant destroyed, he fled with them, but subsequently he returned. He organized in Baltimore, in that early day, among the free colored people, a "Legal Rights Association." A few years after, he emigrated to Haiti, where he became a large contractor. A daughter of Hezekiah Grice, Miss Elizabeth, became the wife of the Rev. William Douglass, rector of St. Thomas' Church, Philadelphia. Mr. Douglass, himself, was ordained to the Episcopal ministry by Bishop Stone, an Eastern Shore man, and a lineal descendant of Governor Stone, of Colonial days in Maryland.

Other Prominent Characters.

        There are quite a number of names of distinguished colored men, of the past, concerning whom it is difficult to ascertain definite and reliable data. Jacob C. Greenough, grandfather of Prof. Richard T. Greener (the first colored person to graduate from Harvard University), was quite active in Maryland affairs as early as the year 1815, at which time, being a communicant of St. Paul's Parish, Baltimore, and also a licensed lay-reader, he made the first attempt to raise a Colored Episcopal Church in Baltimore, by holding services in his own house. He was one of, it not the leader, in antagonizing the Colonization Movement. The Rev. William Watkins not only conducted a day school, but also associated with Frederick Douglass in his journalistic and anti-slavery work. Isaiah C. Wears, the celebrated orator and debater, of Philadelphia, was also a Marylander by birth. Samuel W. Chase and George Hackett were giant leaders of the race in their day. Chase was known far and near for his moving and captivating eloquence. During the period immediately following the Civil War, Isaac and George Myers were the distinguished and effective leaders of racial interests. Isaac Myers was also most active in Bethel Sunday School and Church.

        About this same time, there arose to prominence and leadership, a man, although not a native, whose good work earned for him a worthy place among the "Men of Maryland." From the humble occupation of a "teamster" he gradually arose to real, potential, and effective leadership of his race. For a number of years he was a United States Inspector of Customs. Many years later, he was elected a member of the Baltimore City Council. He exercised a wonderful influence over the leaders of both political parties. Few men enjoyed such extensive personal acquaintance

with the big men of the country, both white and colored. He adapted himself to conditions such as they were. He could play "ring" politics, or otherwise. Our present prosperity in schools and many other civic affairs, are due, in a large measure, to his efficient leadership. Naturally, he had political enemies. Some very good people characterized him as a "corrupt boss." But, the author of this volume knew him quite well for well-nigh twenty years, during which time we never discerned in him other than a straightforward, courteous, and honest man. Our estimate of Hiram Watty, for we refer to him, is that of one of the most genuinely useful and serviceable men of the race, in his day and generation.

JAMES ANDERSON HANDY.

        James Anderson Handy, D. D., Bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, was born in Baltimore, Md., on the 22nd day of December, 1826. His mother died when he was about six years of age, leaving five children. He was placed in the care of his uncle who reared him. When a boy, about seven years of age, he was baptized by the Rev. Peter Schureman. About the same time, he became a member of Bethel Sunday School, and always thereafter considered himself a member of the School unto the day of his death. He occupied every position in the Sunday School, from scholar to superintendent. In 1852 he became a full member of the congregation, and filled every office therein, save being a licensed exhorter. Bishop Handy was true and faithful in every position from sexton to Bishop. In due season, he became an elder in the Church, and at the close of the Civil War, was one of the few picked men chosen by Bishop Payne to accompany him in the far South, to open up the work of that Church.

        In 1888, he was elected financial secretary of the connection, and purchased and established the present headquarters in the city of Washington. In 1892 he was elected a Bishop of his Church. We was also the author of "Scraps" of Methodist history." He was a strong character, and universally beloved, but nowhere more than in Baltimore, his own native city, where, full of years and full of honors, he breathed his last, October 3, 1911. He was buried from Bethel Church.

FRANCES ELLEN WATKINS HARPER.

        Frances Ellen Watkins was born in the city of Baltimore in the year 1825. Although of "free" parentage, she was subjected to many of the disadvantages and oppressive influences which bond and free alike experienced under slave laws. Mrs. Harper, after she had grown up, expressed very pathetically, but clearly, the loneliness of her childhood days, in the following extract from her writings:

        "Have I yearned for a mother's love? The grave was my robber. Before three years had scattered their blight around my path, death had won my mother from me. Would the strong arm of a brother have been welcome? I was my mother's only child."

        The earliest portion of her life was spent in the care of her aunt, while she enjoyed the privilege of attending the day school taught by her uncle, Rev. William Watkins, for the benefit of "free" colored children. But, when she was about thirteen years of age, she was taken from school and put to work to earn her own living. She had, of course, many trials and temptations; but, at the same time, she greatly profited by her environment, in the white family where she was employed. Very early, in her teens, she gave unmistakable evidence of poetic and literary ability. She was taught sewing, while she cared for the children of the household, and, at the same time she satisfied her

ever-growing fondness for books and good literature. She had scarcely reached her majority 'ere she had written a number of prose and poetic pieces which were deemed of sufficient merit to be published in a small volume under the title of "Forest Leaves." Some of her efforts found their way into the newspapers. Her mind was of a strictly religious caste, and all the effusions of her pen bear a highly moral and elevating tone. About the year 1851, she left Baltimore to seek a home in a free State; and, for a short while, took up her abode in the State of Ohio, where she engaged in teaching. Her residence in Ohio was but for a short time. She removed to Little York, Pennsylvania, where she continued the work of teaching. It was while teaching in York that she became thoroughly drawn to the work of the Anti-Slavery cause, and, eventually, became one of its leading public lecturers, and with devotion and energy, gave herself, wholly to the cause.

        What may be termed her "maiden speech" was delivered in August, 1854, and the following extract of that date is interesting:

        "Well, I am out lecturing. I have lectured every night this week; besides, addressed a Sunday School, and I shall speak, if nothing prevents, to-night. My lectures have met with success. Last night I lectured in a white church in Providence. Mr. Gardener was present, and made the estimate of about six hundred persons. Never, perhaps, was a speaker, old or young, favored with a more attentive audience. . . . My voice is not wanting in strength, as I am aware of, to reach pretty well over the house. The Church was the Roger Williams; the pastor, a Mr. Furnell, who appeared to be a kind and Christian man. . . . My maiden lecture was Monday night in New Bedford, on the 'Elevation and Education of Our People.' "

        In 1856, Mrs. Harper, desiring to see the fugitives in Canada, visited the Upper Province, and, in a letter dated at Niagara Falls, September 12 she gives the impression of that visit upon her heart and mind in the following language:

        "Well I have gazed for the first time upon Free Land, and, would you believe it, tears sprang to my eyes, and I wept. Oh, it was a glorious sight to gaze for the first time on a land where a poor slave flying from our glorious land of liberty would in a moment find his fetters broken, his shackles loosed, and whatever he was in the land of Washington, beneath the shadow of Bunker Hill Monument or even Plymouth Rock, here he becomes a man and a brother. I have gazed on Harper's Ferry, or rather the Rock at the Ferry; I have seen it towering up in simple grandeur, with the gentle Potomac gliding peacefully at its feet, and felt that that was God's masonry, and my soul has expanded in gazing on its sublimity. I have seen the ocean singing its wild chorus of sounding waves, and ecstacy has thrilled upon the living chords of my heart. I have since then seen the rainbow-crowned Niagara chanting the choral hymn of Omnipotence, girdled with grandeur, and robed with glory; but none of these things have melted me as the first sight of Free Land. Towering mountains lifting their hoary summits to catch the first faint flush of day when the sunbeams kiss the shadows from morning's drowsy face may expand and exalt your soul. The first view of the ocean may fill you with strange delight. Niagara--the great, the glorious Niagara--may hush your spirit with its ceaseless thunder; it may charm you with its robe of crested spray and rainbow crown; but the land of Freedom was a lesson of deeper significance than foaming waves or towering mounts."

        When we recall the scenes of those awful days of sorrow, anxieties, and genuine affliction, centering around the tragic outcome of the "John Brown's raid," at Harper's Ferry, we can get some idea of the deep sensations which energized the heart of the subject of this sketch, from the note addressed by her, from her home in Ohio, to John Brown's wife. On that memorable occasion, she wrote thus:

        "My Dear Madam:--In an hour like this the common words of sympathy may seem like idle words, and yet, I want to say something to you, the noble wife of the hero of the Nineteenth Century. Belonging to the race your dear husband reached forth his hand to assist, I need not tell you that my sympathies are with you. I thank you for the brave words you have spoken. A republic that produces such a wife and mother may hope for better days. Our heart may grow more hopeful for humanity when it sees the sublime sacrifice it is about to receive from his hands. Not in vain has your dear husband perilled all, if the martydom of one hero is worth more than the life of a million cowards. From the prison comes forth a shout of triumph over that power whose ethics are robbery of the feeble and oppression of the weak, the trophies of whose chivalry are a plundered cradle and a scourged and bleeding woman. Dear sister, I thank you for the brave and noble words you have spoken. Enclosed I send you a few dollars as a token of my gratitude, reverence and love.

"FRANCES ELLEN WATKINS.

        It was in the fall of 1860 that Miss Watkins was married

to a Mr. Harper, of Ohio. Mr. Harper died in May, 1864.

        This brave woman who had traveled throughout the North in the interest of the Anti-Slavery cause, immediately after the close of the Civil War, was among the very first to go South, and labor on behalf of her emancipated brethren. She traveled, and labored in nearly every one of the Southern States. She went on the plantations, and amongst the lowly, as well as to the cities and towns, addressing schools, churches, meetings in Court Houses, Legislative Halls, and sometimes under the most trying and hazardous circumstances; influenced in her labor of love, wholly by the noble impulses of her own heart, working her way along unsustained by any society. She came into contact with all classes, the original slave holders, and the Freedmen. In no instance did she permit herself, through fear, to disappoint an audience when engagements had been made for her to speak, although frequently admonished that it would be dangerous to venture in so doing.

        In a letter from Darlington, S. C., to the late Mr. William Still, of Philadelphia, under date of May 13, 1867, she writes:

        "You will see by this that I am in the sunny South. I here read and see human nature under new lights and phases. I meet with a people eager to hear, ready to listen, as if they felt that the slumber of the ages had been broken, and that they were to sleep no more. . . . I am glad that the colored man gets freedom and suffrage together; that he is not forced to go through the same condition of things here, that has inclined him so much to apathy, isolation, and indifference, in the North. You, perhaps, wonder why I have been so slow in writing to

you, but if you knew how busy I am, just working up to or past the limit of my strength. Traveling, conversing, addressing day and Sunday Schools (picking up scraps of information, takes a large portion of my time) besides what I give to reading. For my audiences I have both white and colored. On the cars, some find out that I am a lecturer, and then, again, I am drawn into conversation. 'What are you lecturing about?' the question comes up, and if I say, among other topics, politics, then I may look for an onset. There is a sensitiveness on this subject, a dread it may be that some one will 'put the devil in the nigger's head,' or exert some influence inimical to them; still, I get along somewhat pleasantly.

        "Last week I had a small congregation of listeners in the cars, where I sat. I got in conversation with a former slave-dealer, and we had rather an exciting time. I was traveling alone, but it is not worth while to show any signs of fear. . . . Last Saturday I spoke in Sumter; a number of white persons were present, and I had been invited to speak there by the Mayor and editor of the paper. There had been some violence in the district, and some of my friends did not wish me to go, but I had promised, and, of course, I went. . . . I am in Darlington, and spoke yesterday, but my congregation was so large, that I stood near the door of the church, so that I might be heard both inside and out for a large portion, perhaps, nearly half of my congregation were on the outside; and this is Darlington where, about two years ago, a girl was hung for making a childish and indescreet speech. Victory was perched on our banners. Our army had been through, and this poor, ill-fated girl, almost a child in years, about seventeen years of age, rejoiced over the event, and said that she was going to marry a Yankee and set up housekeeping. She was

reported as having made an incendiary speech and arrested, cruelly scouraged, and then brutally hung. Poor child, she had been a faithful servant--her master tried to save her, but the tide of fury swept away his efforts. . . . Oh, friends, perhaps, sometimes your heart would ache, if you were only here and heard of the wrongs and abuses to which these people have been subjected. . . . Things, I believe, are a little more hopeful, at least, I believe, some of the colored people are getting better contracts, and, I understand that there is less murdering. While I am writing a colored man stands here, with a tale of wrong--he has worked a whole year, year before last, and now he has been put off with fifteen bushels of corn and his food; yesterday he went to see about getting his money, and the person to whom he went, threatened to kick him off, and accused him of stealing. I don't know how the colored man will vote, but, perhaps many of them will be intimidated at the polls."

        In June of the same year, Mrs. Harper writes the following from Cheraw, South Carolina:

        "Well, Carolina is an interesting place. There is not a State in the Union I prefer to Carolina. Kinder, more hospitable, warmer-hearted people, perhaps, you will not find anywhere. I have been to Georgia; but Carolina is my preference. . . . The South is to be a great theatre for the colored man's development and progress. There is brain power here. If any doubt it, let him come into our schools, or even converse with some of our Freedmen, either in their homes or by the way-side."

        Mrs. Harper's Philadelphia correspondent had jestingly, suggested to her in one of his letters, that she should be careful not to allow herself to be "bought by the rebels." Her reply to this jesting remark is specially interesting,

revealing as it does, her wonderful grasp of the grave and intricate situation. She said:

        "Now, in reference to being bought by rebels and becoming a Johnsonite, I hold that between the white people and the colored people there is a community of interests, and the sooner they find it out, the better it will be for both parties; but that community of interest does not consist in increasing the privileges of one class, and a curtailing of the rights of the other, but in getting every citizen interested in the welfare, progress and durability of the State. I do not, in lecturing, confine myself to the political side of the question. While I am in favor of Universal Suffrage, yet I know that the colored man needs something more than a vote in his hands; he needs to know the value of a home life; to rightly appreciate and value the marriage relation; to know how to be incited to leave behind him the old shards and shells of slavery and to rise in the scale of character, wealth, and influence. Like the Nautalus outgrowing his home to build for himself more 'stately temples' of social condition. A man landless, ignorant and poor may use the vote against his interests; but with intelligence and land he holds in his hand the basis of power and elements of strength."

        Writing from Greenville, Ga., Mrs. Harper says:

        "I am now going to have a private meeting with the women of this place, if they will come out. I am going to talk with them about their daughters, and about things connected with the welfare of the race. Now is the time for our women to begin to try to lift up their heads and plant the roots of progress under the hearthstone. Last night I spoke in a school house, where there was not, to my knowledge, a single window glass; to-day I write to you in a lowly cabin where the windows in the room are formed

by two apertures in the wall. There is a widespread and almost universal appearance of poverty in this State where I have been, but, thus far, I have seen no, or scarcely any, pauperism. I am not sure that I have seen any. The climate is so fine, so little cold that people can live off less than they can in the North. Last night my table was adorned with roses although I did not get one cent for my lecture. . . .

        "The political heavens are getting somewhat overcast. Some of this old rebel element, I think, are in favor of taking away the colored man's vote, and if he loses it now it may be generations before he gets it again. Well, after all, perhaps, the colored man, generally, is not really developed enough to value his vote and equality with other races so he gets enough to eat and drink, and be comfortable, perhaps the loss of his vote would not be a serious grievance to many; but his children differently educated and trained by circumstances might feel political inferiority rather a bitter cup. After all, whether they encourage me or discourage me, I belong to this race, and when it is down I belong to a down race; when it is up I belong to a risen race."

        Mrs. Harper was not only an educated and queenly woman, but she possessed wonderful self-control, coupled with a remarkable tactfulness. These rare gifts were greatly in evidence in her extensive Southern campaign, after the close of the Civil War. For, the woman who had been so bold and energetic in the Anti-Slavery cause, without delay, took up her work in the South among her recently enfranchised brethren, going in among the most ultra of Southern white people, and compelling their admiration by her wise, gracious, and discriminating good

sense. An extended account of her Mobile address is given, for it presents a true grasp of the most intricate situation, and her clever handling of the same.

        It was in the month of July, 1871, in the city of Mobile, Ala. The extract here presented is by Mr. John Forsyth, editor of the Mobile, Alabama, Register, and it was published in his paper, at the time, indicating the impression made upon this prominent Southerner, who had attended the "lecture" more out of curiosity than for any other reason.

A Lecture.

        "We received a polite invitation from the trustees of the State St. African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church to attend a lecture in that edifice on Thursday evening. Being told that the discourse would be delivered by a female colored lecturer from Maryland, curiosity, as well as interest to see how the colored citizens were managing their own institutions, led us at once to accept the invitation. We found a very spacious church gas light, and the balustrades of the galleries copiously hung with wreaths and festoons of flowers, and a large audience of both sexes, which, both in appearance and behavior, was respectable and decorously observant of the proprieties of the place. The services were opened, as usual, with prayer and a hymn, the latter inspired by powerful lungs, and in which the musical ear at once caught the Negro talent for melody. The lecturer was then introduced as Mrs. F. E. W. Harper, from Maryland. Without a moment's hesitation she started off in the flow of her discourse, which rolled smoothly and uninterruptedly on for nearly two hours. It was very apparent that it was not a cut and dried

speech, for she was as fluent and as felicitous in her allusions to circumstances immediately around her as she was when she arose to a more exalted pitch of laudation of the 'Union,' or of execration of the old slave system. Her voice was remarkable--as sweet as any woman's voice we ever heard, and so clear and distinct as to pass every syllable to the most distant ear in the house. Without any effort at attentive listening we followed the speaker to the end, not discerning a single grammatical inaccuracy of speech, or the slightest violation of good taste in manner or matter. At times, the current of thoughts flowed in eloquent and poetic expression, and often her quaint humor would expose the ivory in a half a thousand mouths. We confess that we began to wonder, and we asked a fine looking man before us, 'What is her color?' 'Is she dark or light?' He answered: 'She is mulatto; what they call a red mulatto.' The 'red' was new to us. Our neighbor asked, 'How do you like her?' We replied: 'She is giving your people the best kind and the very wisest of advice.' He rejoined, 'I wish I had her education.' To which we added, 'that's just what she tells you is your great duty, and your need and if you are too old to get it yourself, you must give it to your children."

        The speaker left the impression on our mind that she was not only intelligent and educated, but--the great end of education--she was enlightened. She comprehends perfectly the situation of her people, to whose interests she seems ardently devoted. The main theme of her discourse, the one string to the harmony of which all the others were attuned, was the grand opportunity that emancipation had afforded to the black race to lift itself to the level of the duties and responsibilities enjoined by it. "You have muscle power and brain power," she said; "you must

utilize them, or be content to remain forever the inferior race. Get land, every one that can, and as fast as you can. A landless people must be dependent upon the landed people. A few acres to till for food and a roof, however humble, over your head, are the castle of your independence, and when you have it you are fortified to act and vote independently whenever your interests are at stake."

        That part of her lecture (and there was much of it) that dwelt on the moral duties and domestic relations of the colored people was pitched on the highest key of sound morality. She urged the cultivation of the "home life," the sanctity of the marriage state (a happy contrast to her strong-minded, free love, white sisters of the North), and the duties of mothers to their daughters, "Why," said she in a voice of much surprise. "I