1. Walker's "Appeal"

The most widely discussed book written by a Negro in the period was one that appeared in Boston in 1829. David Walker, the author, had been born in North Carolina in 1785, of a free mother and a slave father, and he was therefore free.[1] He received a fair education, traveled widely over the United States, and by 1827 was living in Boston as the proprietor of a second-hand clothing store on Brattle Street. He felt very strongly on the subject of slavery and actually seems to have contemplated leading an insurrection. In 1828 he addressed various audiences of Negroes in Boston and elsewhere, and in 1829 he published his Appeal, in four articles; together with a Preamble to the Coloured Citizens of the World, but in particular, and very expressly, to those of the United States of America. The book was remarkably successful. Appearing in September, by March of the following year it had reached its third edition; and in each successive edition the language was more bold and vigorous. Walker's projected insurrection did not take place, and he himself died in 1830. While there was no real proof of the fact, among the Negro people there was a strong belief that he met with foul play.

[Footnote 1: Adams: Neglected Period of Anti-Slavery, 93.]

Article I Walker headed "Our Wretchedness in Consequence of Slavery." A trip over the United States had convinced him that the Negroes of the country were "the most degraded, wretched and abject set of beings that ever lived since the world began." He quoted a South Carolina paper as saying, "The Turks are the most barbarous people in the world—they treat the Greeks more like brutes than human beings"; and then from the same paper cited an advertisement of the sale of eight Negro men and four women. "Are we men?" he exclaimed. "I ask you, O! my brothers, are we men?... Have we any other master but Jesus Christ alone? Is He not their master as well as ours? What right, then, have we to obey and call any man master but Himself? How we could be so submissive to a gang of men, whom we can not tell whether they are as good as ourselves, or not, I never could conceive." "The whites," he asserted, "have always been an unjust, jealous, unmerciful, avaricious and bloodthirsty set of beings, always seeking after power and authority." As heathen the white people had been cruel enough, but as Christians they were ten times more so. As heathen "they were not quite so audacious as to go and take vessel loads of men, women and children, and in cold blood, through devilishness, throw them into the sea, and murder them in all kind of ways. But being Christians, enlightened and sensible, they are completely prepared for such hellish cruelties." Next was considered "Our Wretchedness in Consequence of Ignorance." In general the writer maintained that his people as a whole did not have intelligence enough to realize their own degradation; even if boys studied books they did not master their texts, nor did their information go sufficiently far to enable them actually to meet the problems of life. If one would but go to the South or West, he would see there a son take his mother, who bore almost the pains of death to give him birth, and by the command of a tyrant, strip her as naked as she came into the world and apply the cowhide to her until she fell a victim to death in the road. He would see a husband take his dear wife, not unfrequently in a pregnant state and perhaps far advanced, and beat her for an unmerciful wretch, until her infant fell a lifeless lump at her feet. Moreover, "there have been, and are this day, in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, colored men who are in league with tyrants and who receive a great portion of their daily bread of the moneys which they acquire from the blood and tears of their more miserable brethren, whom they scandalously deliver into the hands of our natural enemies." In Article III Walker considered "Our Wretchedness in Consequence of the Preachers of the Religion of Jesus Christ." Here was a fertile field, which was only partially developed. Walker evidently did not have at hand the utterances of Furman and others to serve as a definite point of attack. He did point out, however, the general failure of Christian ministers to live up to the teachings of Christ. "Even here in Boston," we are informed, "pride and prejudice have got to such a pitch, that in the very houses erected to the Lord they have built little places for the reception of colored people, where they must sit during meeting, or keep away from the house of God." Hypocrisy could hardly go further than that of preachers who could not see the evils at their door but could "send out missionaries to convert the heathen, notwithstanding." Article IV was headed "Our Wretchedness in Consequence of the Colonizing Plan." This was a bitter arraignment, especially directed against Henry Clay. "I appeal and ask every citizen of these United States," said Walker, "and of the world, both white and black, who has any knowledge of Mr. Clay's public labors for these states—I want you candidly to answer the Lord, who sees the secrets of your hearts, Do you believe that Mr. Henry Clay, late Secretary of State, and now in Kentucky, is a friend to the blacks further than his personal interest extends?... Does he care a pinch of snuff about Africa—whether it remains a land of pagans and of blood, or of Christians, so long as he gets enough of her sons and daughters to dig up gold and silver for him?... Was he not made by the Creator to sit in the shade, and make the blacks work without remuneration for their services, to support him and his family? I have been for some time taking notice of this man's speeches and public writings, but never to my knowledge have I seen anything in his writings which insisted on the emancipation of slavery, which has almost ruined his country." Walker then paid his compliments to Elias B. Caldwell and John Randolph, the former of whom had said, "The more you improve the condition of these people, the more you cultivate their minds, the more miserable you make them in their present state." "Here," the work continues, "is a demonstrative proof of a plan got up, by a gang of slaveholders, to select the free people of color from among the slaves, that our more miserable brethren may be the better secured in ignorance and wretchedness, to work their farms and dig their mines, and thus go on enriching the Christians with their blood and groans. What our brethren could have been thinking about, who have left their native land and gone away to Africa, I am unable to say.... The Americans may say or do as they please, but they have to raise us from the condition of brutes to that of respectable men, and to make a national acknowledgment to us for the wrongs they have inflicted on us.... You may doubt it, if you please. I know that thousands will doubt—they think they have us so well secured in wretchedness, to them and their children, that it is impossible for such things to occur. So did the antediluvians doubt Noah, until the day in which the flood came and swept them away. So did the Sodomites doubt, until Lot had got out of the city, and God rained down fire and brimstone from heaven upon them and burnt them up. So did the king of Egypt doubt the very existence of God, saying, 'Who is the Lord, that I should let Israel go?' ... So did the Romans doubt.... But they got dreadfully deceived."

This document created the greatest consternation in the South. The Mayor of Savannah wrote to Mayor Otis of Boston, demanding that Walker be punished. Otis, in a widely published letter, replied expressing his disapproval of the pamphlet, but saying that the author had done nothing that made him "amenable" to the laws. In Virginia the legislature considered passing an "extraordinary bill," not only forbidding the circulation of such seditious publications but forbidding the education of free Negroes. The bill passed the House of Delegates, but failed in the Senate. The Appeal even found its way to Louisiana, where there were already rumors of an insurrection, and immediately a law was passed expelling all free Negroes who had come to the state since 1825.

2. The Convention Movement

As may be inferred from Walker's attitude, the representative men of the race were almost a unit in their opposition to colonization. They were not always opposed to colonization itself, for some looked favorably upon settlement in Canada, and a few hundred made their way to the West Indies. They did object, however, to the plan offered by the American Colonization Society, which more and more impressed them as a device on the part of slaveholders to get free Negroes out of the country in order that slave labor might be more valuable. Richard Allen, bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and the foremost Negro of the period, said: "We were stolen from our mother country and brought here. We have tilled the ground and made fortunes for thousands, and still they are not weary of our services. But they who stay to till the ground must be slaves. Is there not land enough in America, or 'corn enough in Egypt'? Why should they send us into a far country to die? See the thousands of foreigners emigrating to America every year: and if there be ground sufficient for them to cultivate, and bread for them to eat, why would they wish to send the first tillers of the land away? Africans have made fortunes for thousands, who are yet unwilling to part with their services; but the free must be sent away, and those who remain must be slaves. I have no doubt that there are many good men who do not see as I do, and who are sending us to Liberia; but they have not duly considered the subject—they are not men of color. This land which we have watered with our tears and our blood is now our mother country, and we are well satisfied to stay where wisdom abounds and the gospel is free."[1] This point of view received popular expression in a song which bore the cumbersome title, "The Colored Man's Opinion of Colonization," and which was sung to the tune of "Home, Sweet Home." The first stanza was as follows:

[Footnote 1: Freedom's Journal, November 2, 1827, quoted by Walker.]

Great God, if the humble and weak are as dear To thy love as the proud, to thy children give ear! Our brethren would drive us in deserts to roam; Forgive them, O Father, and keep us at home. Home, sweet home! We have no other; this, this is our home.[1]

[Footnote 1: Anti-Slavery Picknick, 105-107.]

To this sentiment formal expression was given in the measures adopted at various Negro meetings in the North. In 1817 the greatest excitement was occasioned by a report that through the efforts of the newly-formed Colonization Society all free Negroes were forcibly to be deported from the country. Resolutions of protest were adopted, and these were widely circulated.[1] Of special importance was the meeting in Philadelphia in January, presided over by James Forten. Of this the full report is as follows:

[Footnote 1: They are fully recorded in Garrison's Thoughts on African Colonization.]

At a numerous meeting of the people of color, convened at Bethel Church, to take into consideration the propriety of remonstrating against the contemplated measure that is to exile us from the land of our nativity, James Forten was called to the chair, and Russell Parrott appointed secretary. The intent of the meeting having been stated by the chairman, the following resolutions were adopted without one dissenting voice:

WHEREAS, Our ancestors (not of choice) were the first successful cultivators of the wilds of America, we their descendants feel ourselves entitled to participate in the blessings of her luxuriant soil, which their blood and sweat manured; and that any measure or system of measures, having a tendency to banish us from her bosom, would not only be cruel, but in direct violation of those principles which have been the boast of this republic,

Resolved, That we view with deep abhorrence the unmerited stigma attempted to be cast upon the reputation of the free people of color, by the promoters of this measure, "that they are a dangerous and useless part of the community," when in the state of disfranchisement in which they live, in the hour of danger they ceased to remember their wrongs, and rallied around the standard of their country.

Resolved, That we never will separate ourselves voluntarily from the slave population of this country; they are our brethren by the ties of consanguinity, of suffering, and of wrong; and we feel that there is more virtue in suffering privations with them, than fancied advantages for a season.

Resolved, That without arts, without science, without a proper knowledge of government to cast upon the savage wilds of Africa the free people of color, seems to us the circuitous route through which they must return to perpetual bondage.

Resolved, That having the strongest confidence in the justice of God, and philanthropy of the free states, we cheerfully submit our destinies to the guidance of Him who suffers not a sparrow to fall without his special providence.

Resolved, That a committee of eleven persons be appointed to open a correspondence with the honorable Joseph Hopkinson, member of Congress from this city, and likewise to inform him of the sentiments of this meeting, and that the following named persons constitute the committee, and that they have power to call a general meeting, when they, in their judgment, may deem it proper: Rev. Absalom Jones, Rev. Richard Allen, James Forten, Robert Douglass, Francis Perkins, Rev. John Gloucester, Robert Gorden, James Johnson, Quamoney Clarkson, John Summersett, Randall Shepherd.

JAMES FORTEN, Chairman.

RUSSELL PARROTT, Secretary.

In 1827, in New York, was begun the publication of Freedom's Journal, the first Negro newspaper in the United States. The editors were John B. Russwurm and Samuel E. Cornish. Russwurm was a recent graduate of Bowdoin College and was later to become better known as the governor of Maryland in Africa. By 1830 feeling was acute throughout the country, especially in Ohio and Kentucky, and on the part of Negro men had developed the conviction that the time had come for national organization and protest.

In the spring of 1830 Hezekiah Grice of Baltimore, who had become personally acquainted with the work of Lundy and Garrison, sent a letter to prominent Negroes in the free states bringing in question the general policy of emigration.[1] received no immediate response, but in August he received from Richard Allen an urgent request to come at once to Philadelphia. Arriving there he found in session a meeting discussing the wisdom of emigration to Canada, and Allen "showed him a printed circular signed by Peter Williams, rector of St. Philip's Church, New York, Peter Vogelsang and Thomas L. Jennings of the same place, approving the plan of convention."[2] The Philadelphians now issued a call for a convention of the Negroes of the United States to be held in their city September 15, 1830.

[Footnote 1: John W. Cromwell: The Early Negro Convention Movement.]

[Footnote 2: Ibid., 5.]

This September meeting was held in Bethel A.M.E. Church. Bishop Richard Allen was chosen president, Dr. Belfast Burton of Philadelphia and Austin Steward of Rochester vice-presidents, Junius C. Morell of Pennsylvania secretary, and Robert Cowley of Maryland assistant secretary. There were accredited delegates from seven states. While this meeting might really be considered the first national convention of Negroes in the United States (aside of course from the gathering of denominational bodies), it seems to have been regarded merely as preliminary to a still more formal assembling, for the minutes of the next year were printed as the "Minutes and Proceedings of the First Annual Convention of the People of Color, held by adjournments in the city of Philadelphia, from the sixth to the eleventh of June, inclusive, 1831. Philadelphia, 1831." The meetings of this convention were held in the Wesleyan Church on Lombard Street. Richard Allen had died earlier in the year and Grice was not present; not long afterwards he emigrated to Hayti, where he became prominent as a contractor. Rev. James W.C. Pennington of New York, however, now for the first time appeared on the larger horizon of race affairs; and John Bowers of Philadelphia served as president, Abraham D. Shadd of Delaware and William Duncan of Virginia as vice-presidents, William Whipper of Philadelphia as secretary, and Thomas L. Jennings of New York as assistant secretary. Delegates from five states were present. The gathering was not large, but it brought together some able men; moreover, the meeting had some distinguished visitors, among them Benjamin Lundy, William Lloyd Garrison, Rev. S.S. Jocelyn of New Haven, and Arthur Tappan of New York.

The very first motion of the convention resolved "That a committee be appointed to institute an inquiry into the condition of the free people of color throughout the United States, and report their views upon the subject at a subsequent meeting." As a result of its work this committee recommended that the work of organizations interested in settlement in Canada be continued; that the free people of color be annually called to assemble by delegation; and it submitted "the necessity of deliberate reflection on the dissolute, intemperate, and ignorant condition of a large portion of the colored population of the United States." "And, lastly, your Committee view with unfeigned regret, and respectfully submit to the wisdom of this Convention, the operations and misrepresentations of the American Colonization Society in these United States.... We feel sorrowful to see such an immense and wanton waste of lives and property, not doubting the benevolent feelings of some individuals engaged in that cause. But we can not for a moment doubt but that the cause of many of our unconstitutional, unchristian, and unheard-of sufferings emanate from that unhallowed source; and we would call on Christians of every denomination firmly to resist it." The report was unanimously received and adopted.

Jocelyn, Tappan, and Garrison addressed the convention with reference to a proposed industrial college in New Haven, toward the $20,000 expense of which one individual (Tappan himself) had subscribed $1000 with the understanding that the remaining $19,000 be raised within a year; and the convention approved the project, provided the Negroes had a majority of at least one on the board of trustees. An illuminating address to the public called attention to the progress of emancipation abroad, to the fact that it was American persecution that led to the calling of the convention, and that it was this also that first induced some members of the race to seek an asylum in Canada, where already there were two hundred log houses, and five hundred acres under cultivation.

In 1832 eight states were represented by a total of thirty delegates. By this time we learn that a total of eight hundred acres had been secured in Canada, that two thousand Negroes had gone thither, but that considerable hostility had been manifested on the part of the Canadians. Hesitant, the convention appointed an agent to investigate the situation. It expressed itself as strongly opposed to any national aid to the American Colonization Society and urged the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia—all of which activity, it is well to remember, was a year before the American Anti-Slavery Society was organized.

In 1833 there were fifty-eight delegates, and Abraham Shadd, now of Washington, was chosen president. The convention again gave prominence to the questions of Canada and colonization, and expressed itself with reference to the new law in Connecticut prohibiting Negroes from other states from attending schools within the state. The 1834 meeting was held in New York. Prudence Crandall[1] was commended for her stand in behalf of the race, and July 4 was set apart as a day for prayer and addresses on the condition of the Negro throughout the country. By this time we hear much of societies for temperance and moral reform, especially of the so-called Phoenix Societies "for improvement in general culture—literature, mechanic arts, and morals." Of these organizations Rev. Christopher Rush, of the A.M.E. Zion Church, was general president, and among the directors were Rev. Peter Williams, Boston Crummell, the father of Alexander Crummell, and Rev. William Paul Quinn, afterwards a well-known bishop of the A.M.E. Church. The 1835 and 1836 meetings were held in Philadelphia, and especially were the students of Lane Seminary in Cincinnati commended for their zeal in the cause of abolition. A committee was appointed to look into the dissatisfaction of some emigrants to Liberia and generally to review the work of the Colonization Society.

[Footnote 1: See Chapter X, Section 3.]

In the decade 1837-1847 Frederick Douglass was outstanding as a leader, and other men who were now prominent were Dr. James McCune Smith, Rev. James W.C. Pennington, Alexander Crummell, William C. Nell, and Martin R. Delany. These are important names in the history of the period. These were the men who bore the brunt of the contest in the furious days of Texas annexation and the Compromise of 1850. About 1853 and 1854 there was renewed interest in the idea of an industrial college; steps were taken for the registry of Negro mechanics and artisans who were in search of employment, and of the names of persons who were willing to give them work; and there was also a committee on historical records and statistics that was not only to compile studies in Negro biography but also to reply to any assaults of note.[1]

[Footnote 1: We can not too much emphasize the fact that the leaders of this period were by no means impractical theorists but men who were scientifically approaching the social problem of their people. They not only anticipated such ideas as those of industrial education and of the National Urban League of the present day, but they also endeavored to lay firmly the foundations of racial self-respect.]

Immediately after the last of the conventions just mentioned, those who were interested in emigration and had not been able to get a hearing in the regular convention issued a call for a National Emigration Convention of Colored Men to take place in Cleveland, Ohio, August 24-26, 1854. The preliminary announcement said: "No person will be admitted to a seat in the Convention who would introduce the subject of emigration to the Eastern Hemisphere—either to Asia, Africa, or Europe—as our object and determination are to consider our claims to the West Indies, Central and South America, and the Canadas. This restriction has no reference to personal preference, or individual enterprise, but to the great question of national claims to come before the Convention."[1] Douglass pronounced the call "uncalled for, unwise, unfortunate and premature," and his position led him into a wordy discussion in the press with James M. Whitfield, of Buffalo, prominent at the time as a writer. Delany explained the call as follows: "It was a mere policy on the part of the authors of these documents, to confine their scheme to America (including the West Indies), whilst they were the leading advocates of the regeneration of Africa, lest they compromised themselves and their people to the avowed enemies of their race."[2] At the secret sessions, he informs us, Africa was the topic of greatest interest. In order to account for this position it is important to take note of the changes that had taken place between 1817 and 1854. When James Forten and others in Philadelphia in 1817 protested against the American Colonization Society as the plan of a "gang of slaveholders" to drive free people from their homes, they had abundant ground for the feeling. By 1839, however, not only had the personnel of the organization changed, but, largely through the influence of Garrison, the purpose and aim had also changed, and not Virginia and Maryland, but New York and Pennsylvania were now dominant in influence. Colonization had at first been regarded as a possible solution of the race problem; money was now given, however, "rather as an aid to the establishment of a model Negro republic in Africa, whose effort would be to discourage the slave-trade, and encourage energy and thrift among those free Negroes from the United States who chose to emigrate, and to give native Africans a demonstration of the advantages of civilization."[3] In view of the changed conditions, Delany and others who disagreed with Douglass felt that for the good of the race in the United States the whole matter of emigration might receive further consideration; at the same time, remembering old discussions, they did not wish to be put in the light of betrayers of their people. The Pittsburgh Daily Morning Post of October 18, 1854, sneered at the new plan as follows: "If Dr. Delany drafted this report it certainly does him much credit for learning and ability; and can not fail to establish for him a reputation for vigor and brilliancy of imagination never yet surpassed. It is a vast conception of impossible birth. The Committee seem to have entirely overlooked the strength of the 'powers on earth' that would oppose the Africanization of more than half the Western Hemisphere. We have no motive in noticing this gorgeous dream of 'the Committee' except to show its fallacy—its impracticability, in fact, its absurdity. No sensible man, whatever his color, should be for a moment deceived by such impracticable theories." However, in spite of all opposition, the Emigration Convention met. Upon Delany fell the real brunt of the work of the organization. In 1855 Bishop James Theodore Holly was commissioned to Faustin Soulouque, Emperor of Hayti; and he received in his visit of a month much official attention with some inducement to emigrate. Delany himself planned to go to Africa as the head of a "Niger Valley Exploring Party." Of the misrepresentation and difficulties that he encountered he himself has best told. He did get to Africa, however, and he had some interesting and satisfactory interviews with representative chiefs. The Civil War put an end to his project, he himself accepting a major's commission from President Lincoln. Through the influence of Holly about two thousand persons went to Hayti, but not more than a third of these remained. A plan fostered by Whitfield for a colony in Central America came to naught when this leading spirit died in San Francisco on his way thither.[4]

[Footnote 1: Official Report of the Niger Valley Exploring Party, by M.R. Delany, Chief Commissioner to Africa, New York, 1861.]

[Footnote 2: Delany, 8.]

[Footnote 3: Fox: The American Colonisation Society, 177; also note pp. 12, 120-2.]

[Footnote 4: For the progress of all the plans offered to the convention note important letter written by Holly and given by Cromwell, 20-21.]

3. Sojourner Truth and Woman Suffrage

With its challenge to the moral consciousness it was but natural that anti-slavery should soon become allied with temperance, woman suffrage, and other reform movements that were beginning to appeal to the heart of America. Especially were representative women quick to see that the arguments used for their cause were very largely identical with those used for the Negro. When the woman suffrage movement was launched at Seneca Falls, N.Y., in 1848, Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and their co-workers issued a Declaration of Sentiments which like many similar documents copied the phrasing of the Declaration of Independence. This said in part: "The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations on the part of man towards woman, having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over her.... He has never permitted her to exercise her inalienable right to the elective franchise.... He has made her, if married, in the eye of the law civilly dead.... He has denied her the facilities for obtaining a thorough education, all colleges being closed to her." It mattered not at the time that male suffrage was by no means universal, or that amelioration of the condition of woman had already begun; the movement stated its case clearly and strongly in order that it might fully be brought to the attention of the American people. In 1850 the first formal National Woman's Rights Convention assembled in Worcester, Mass. To this meeting came a young Quaker woman who was already listed in the cause of temperance. In fact, wherever she went Susan B. Anthony entered into "causes." She possessed great virtues and abilities, and at the same time was capable of very great devotion. "She not only sympathized with the Negro; when an opportunity offered she drank tea with him, to her own 'unspeakable satisfaction.'"[1] Lucy Stone, an Oberlin graduate, was representative of those who came into the agitation by the anti-slavery path. Beginning in 1848 to speak as an agent of the Anti-Slavery Society, almost from the first she began to introduce the matter of woman's rights in her speeches.

[Footnote 1: Ida M. Tarbell: "The American Woman: Her First Declaration of Independence," American Magazine, February, 1910.]

To the second National Woman's Suffrage Convention, held in Akron, Ohio, in 1852, and presided over by Mrs. Frances D. Gage, came Sojourner Truth.

The "Libyan Sibyl" was then in the fullness of her powers. She had been born of slave parents about 1798 in Ulster County, New York. In her later years she remembered vividly the cold, damp cellar-room in which slept the slaves of the family to which she belonged, and where she was taught by her mother to repeat the Lord's Prayer and to trust in God. When in the course of gradual emancipation she became legally free in 1827, her master refused to comply with the law and kept her in bondage. She left, but was pursued and found. Rather than have her go back, a friend paid for her services for the rest of the year. Then came an evening when, searching for one of her children who had been stolen and sold, she found herself a homeless wanderer. A Quaker family gave her lodging for the night. Subsequently she went to New York City, joined a Methodist church, and worked hard to improve her condition. Later, having decided to leave New York for a lecture tour through the East, she made a small bundle of her belongings and informed a friend that her name was no longer Isabella but Sojourner. She went on her way, speaking to people wherever she found them assembled and being entertained in many aristocratic homes. She was entirely untaught in the schools, but was witty, original, and always suggestive. By her tact and her gift of song she kept down ridicule, and by her fervor and faith she won many friends for the anti-slavery cause. As to her name she said: "And the Lord gave me Sojourner because I was to travel up an' down the land showin' the people their sins an' bein' a sign unto them. Afterwards I told the Lord I wanted another name, 'cause everybody else had two names, an' the Lord gave me Truth, because I was to declare the truth to the people."

On the second day of the convention in Akron, in a corner, crouched against the wall, sat this woman of care, her elbows resting on her knees, and her chin resting upon her broad, hard palms.[1] In the intermission she was employed in selling "The Life of Sojourner Truth." From time to time came to the presiding officer the request, "Don't let her speak; it will ruin us. Every newspaper in the land will have our cause mixed with abolition and niggers, and we shall be utterly denounced." Gradually, however, the meeting waxed warm. Baptist, Methodist, Episcopalian, Presbyterian, and Universalist preachers had come to hear and discuss the resolutions presented. One argued the superiority of the male intellect, another the sin of Eve, and the women, most of whom did not "speak in meeting," were becoming filled with dismay. Then slowly from her seat in the corner rose Sojourner Truth, who till now had scarcely lifted her head. Slowly and solemnly to the front she moved, laid her old bonnet at her feet, and turned her great, speaking eyes upon the chair. Mrs. Gage, quite equal to the occasion, stepped forward and announced "Sojourner Truth," and begged the audience to be silent a few minutes. "The tumult subsided at once, and every eye was fixed on this almost Amazon form, which stood nearly six feet high, head erect, and eye piercing the upper air, like one in a dream." At her first word there was a profound hush. She spoke in deep tones, which, though not loud, reached every ear in the house, and even the throng at the doors and windows. To one man who had ridiculed the general helplessness of woman, her needing to be assisted into carriages and to be given the best place everywhere, she said, "Nobody eber helped me into carriages, or ober mud puddles, or gibs me any best place"; and raising herself to her full height, with a voice pitched like rolling thunder, she asked, "And a'n't I a woman? Look at me. Look at my arm." And she bared her right arm to the shoulder, showing her tremendous muscular power. "I have plowed, and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me—and a'n't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man, when I could get it, and bear de lash as well—and a'n't I a woman? I have borne five chilern and seen 'em mos' all sold off into slavery, and when I cried out with a mother's grief, none but Jesus heard—and a'n't I a woman?... Dey talks 'bout dis ting in de head—what dis dey call it?" "Intellect," said some one near. "Dat's it, honey. What's dat got to do with women's rights or niggers' rights? If my cup won't hold but a pint and yourn holds a quart, wouldn't ye be mean not to let me have my little half-measure full?" And she pointed her significant finger and sent a keen glance at the minister who had made the argument. The cheering was long and loud. "Den dat little man in black dar, he say women can't have as much rights as man, 'cause Christ wa'n't a woman. But whar did Christ come from?" Rolling thunder could not have stilled that crowd as did those deep, wonderful tones as the woman stood there with her outstretched arms and her eyes of fire. Raising her voice she repeated, "Whar did Christ come from? From God and a woman. Man had nothing to do with Him." Turning to another objector, she took up the defense of Eve. She was pointed and witty, solemn and serious at will, and at almost every sentence awoke deafening applause; and she ended by asserting, "If de fust woman God made was strong enough to turn the world upside down, all alone, dese togedder,"—and she glanced over the audience—"ought to be able to turn it back and get it right side up again, and now dey is askin' to do it, de men better let 'em."

[Footnote 1: Reminiscences of the president, Mrs. Frances D. Gage, cited by Tarbell.]

"Amid roars of applause," wrote Mrs. Gage, "she returned to her corner, leaving more than one of us with streaming eyes and hearts beating with gratitude." Thus, as so frequently happened, Sojourner Truth turned a difficult situation into splendid victory. She not only made an eloquent plea for the slave, but placing herself upon the broadest principles of humanity, she saved the day for woman suffrage as well.



CHAPTER IX

LIBERIA

In a former chapter we have traced the early development of the American Colonization Society, whose efforts culminated in the founding of the colony of Liberia. The recent world war, with Africa as its prize, fixed attention anew upon the little republic. This comparatively small tract of land, just slightly more than one-three hundredth part of the surface of Africa, is now of interest and strategic importance not only because (if we except Abyssinia, which claims slightly different race origin, and Hayti, which is now really under the government of the United States) it represents the one distinctively Negro government in the world, but also because it is the only tract of land on the great West Coast of the continent that has survived, even through the war, the aggression of great European powers. It is just at the bend of the shoulder of Africa, and its history is as romantic as its situation is unique.

Liberia has frequently been referred to as an outstanding example of the incapacity of the Negro for self-government. Such a judgment is not necessarily correct. It is indeed an open question if, in view of the nature of its beginning, the history of the country proves anything one way or the other with reference to the capacity of the race. The early settlers were frequently only recently out of bondage, but upon them were thrust all the problems of maintenance and government, and they brought with them, moreover, the false ideas of life and work that obtained in the Old South. Sometimes they suffered from neglect, sometimes from excessive solicitude; never were they really left alone. In spite of all, however, more than a score of native tribes have been subdued by only a few thousand civilized men, the republic has preserved its integrity, and there has been handed down through the years a tradition of constitutional government.



1. The Place and the People

The resources of Liberia are as yet imperfectly known. There is no question, however, about the fertility of the interior, or of its capacity when properly developed. There are no rivers of the first rank, but the longest streams are about three hundred miles in length, and at convenient distances apart flow down to a coastline somewhat more than three hundred miles long. Here in a tract of land only slightly larger than our own state of Ohio are a civilized population between 30,000 and 100,000 in number, and a native population estimated at 2,000,000. Of the civilized population the smaller figure, 30,000, is the more nearly correct if we consider only those persons who are fully civilized, and this number would be about evenly divided between Americo-Liberians and natives. Especially in the towns along the coast, however, there are many people who have received only some degree of civilization, and most of the households in the larger towns have several native children living in them. If all such elements are considered, the total might approach 100,000. The natives in their different tribes fall into three or four large divisions. In general they follow their native customs, and the foremost tribes exhibit remarkable intelligence and skill in industry. Outstanding are the dignified Mandingo, with a Mohammedan tradition, and the Vai, distinguished for skill in the arts and with a culture similar to that of the Mandingo. Also easily recognized are the Kpwessi, skillful in weaving and ironwork; the Kru, intelligent, sea-faring, and eager for learning; the Grebo, ambitious and aggressive, and in language connection close to the Kru; the Bassa, with characteristics somewhat similar to those of the Kru, but in general not quite so ambitious; the Buzi, wild and highly tattooed; and the cannibalistic Mano. By reason of numbers if nothing else, Liberia's chief asset for the future consists in her native population.

2. History

(a) Colonization and Settlement

In pursuance of its plans for the founding of a permanent colony on the coast of Africa, the American Colonization Society in November, 1817, sent out two men, Samuel J. Mills and Ebenezer Burgess, who were authorized to find a suitable place for a settlement. Going by way of England, these men were cordially received by the officers of the African Institution and given letters to responsible persons in Sierra Leone. Arriving at the latter place in March, 1818, they met John Kizell, a native and a man of influence, who had received some training in America and had returned to his people, built a house of worship, and become a preacher. Kizell undertook to accompany them on their journey down the coast and led the way to Sherbro Island, a place long in disputed territory but since included within the limits of Sierra Leone. Here the agents were hospitably received; they fixed upon the island as a permanent site, and in May turned their faces homeward. Mills died on the voyage in June and was buried at sea; but Burgess made a favorable report, though the island was afterwards to prove by no means healthy. The Society was impressed, but efforts might have languished at this important stage if Monroe, now President, had not found it possible to bring the resources of the United States Government to assist in the project. Smuggling, with the accompanying evil of the sale of "recaptured Africans," had by 1818 become a national disgrace, and on March 3, 1819, a bill designed to do away with the practice became a law. This said in part: "The President of the United States is hereby authorized to make such regulations and arrangements as he may deem expedient for the safe-keeping, support, and removal beyond the limits of the United States, of all such Negroes, mulattoes, or persons of color as may be so delivered and brought within their jurisdiction; and to appoint a proper person or persons residing upon the coast of Africa as agent or agents for receiving the Negroes, mulattoes, or persons of color, delivered from on board vessels seized in the prosecution of the slave-trade by commanders of the United States armed vessels." For the carrying out of the purpose of this act $100,000 was appropriated, and Monroe was disposed to construe as broadly as necessary the powers given him under it. In his message of December 20, he informed Congress that he had appointed Rev. Samuel Bacon, of the American Colonization Society, with John Bankson as assistant, to charter a vessel and take the first group of emigrants to Africa, the understanding being that he was to go to the place fixed upon by Mills and Burgess. Thus the National Government and the Colonization Society, while technically separate, began to work in practical cooeperation. The ship Elizabeth was made ready for the voyage; the Government informed the Society that it would "receive on board such free blacks recommended by the Society as might be required for the purpose of the agency"; $33,000 was placed in the hands of Mr. Bacon; Rev. Samuel A. Crozer was appointed as the Society's official representative; 88 emigrants were brought together (33 men and 18 women, the rest being children); and on February 5, 1820, convoyed by the war-sloop Cyane, the expedition set forth.

An interesting record of the voyage—important for the sidelights it gives—was left by Daniel Coker, the respected minister of a large Methodist congregation in Baltimore who was persuaded to accompany the expedition for the sake of the moral influence that he might be able to exert.[1] There was much bad weather at the start, and it was the icy sea that on February 4 made it impossible to get under way until the next day. On board, moreover, there was much distrust of the agents in charge, with much questioning of their motives; nor were matters made better by a fight between one of the emigrants and the captain of the vessel. It was a restless company, uncertain as to the future, and dissatisfied and peevish from day to day. Kizell afterwards remarked that "some would not be governed by white men, and some would not be governed by black men, and some would not be governed by mulattoes; but the truth was they did not want to be governed by anybody." On March 3, however, the ship sighted the Cape Verde Islands and six days afterwards was anchored at Sierra Leone; and Coker rejoiced that at last he had seen Africa. Kizell, however, whom the agents had counted on seeing, was found to be away at Sherbro; accordingly, six days after their arrival[2] they too were making efforts to go on to Sherbro, for they were allowed at anchor only fifteen days and time was passing rapidly. Meanwhile Bankson went to find Kizell. Captain Sebor was at first decidedly unwilling to go further; but his reluctance was at length overcome; Bacon purchased for $3,000 a British schooner that had formerly been engaged in the slave-trade; and on March 17 both ship and schooner got under way for Sherbro. The next day they met Bankson, who informed them that he had seen Kizell. This man, although he had not heard from America since the departure of Mills and Burgess, had already erected some temporary houses against the rainy season. He permitted the newcomers to stay in his little town until land could be obtained; sent them twelve fowls and a bushel of rice; but he also, with both dignity and pathos, warned Bankson that if he and his companions came with Christ in their hearts, it was well that they had come; if not, it would have been better if they had stayed in America.

[Footnote 1: "Journal of Daniel Coker, a descendant of Africa, from the time of leaving New York, in the ship Elizabeth, Capt. Sebor, on a voyage for Sherbro, in Africa. Baltimore, 1820."]

[Footnote 2: March 15. The narrative, page 26, says February 15, but this is obviously a typographical error.]

Now followed much fruitless bargaining with the native chiefs, in all of which Coker regretted that the slave-traders had so ruined the people that it seemed impossible to make any progress in a "palaver" without the offering of rum. Meanwhile a report was circulated through the country that a number of Americans had come and turned Kizell out of his own town and put some of his people in the hold of their ship. Disaster followed disaster. The marsh, the bad water, and the malaria played havoc with the colonists, and all three of the responsible agents died. The few persons who remained alive made their way back to Sierra Leone.

Thus the first expedition failed. One year later, in March, 1821, a new company of twenty-one emigrants, in charge of J.B. Winn and Ephraim Bacon, arrived at Freetown in the brig Nautilus. It had been the understanding that in return for their passage the members of the first expedition would clear the way for others; but when the agents of the new company saw the plight of those who remained alive, they brought all of the colonists together at Fourah Bay, and Bacon went farther down the coast to seek a more favorable site. A few persons who did not wish to go to Fourah Bay remained in Sierra Leone and became British subjects. Bacon found a promising tract about two hundred and fifty miles down the coast at Cape Montserado; but the natives were not especially eager to sell, as they did not wish to break up the slave traffic. Meanwhile Winn and several more of the colonists died; and Bacon now returned to the United States. The second expedition had thus proved to be little more successful than the first; but the future site of Monrovia had at least been suggested.

In November came Dr. Eli Ayres as agent of the Society, and in December Captain Robert F. Stockton of the Alligator with instructions to cooeperate. These two men explored the coast and on December 11 arrived at Mesurado Bay. Through the jungle they made their way to a village and engaged in a palaver with King Peter and five of his associates. The negotiations were conducted in the presence of an excited crowd and with imminent danger; but Stockton had great tact and at length, for the equivalent of $300, he and Ayres purchased the mouth of the Mesurado River, Cape Montserado, and the land for some distance in the interior. There was also an understanding (for half a dozen gallons of rum and some trade-cloth and tobacco) with King George, who "resided on the Cape and claimed a sort of jurisdiction over the northern district of the peninsula of Montserado, by virtue of which the settlers were permitted to pass across the river and commence the laborious task of clearing away the heavy forest which covered the site of their intended town."[1] Then the agent returned to effect the removal of the colonists from Fourah Bay, leaving a very small company as a sort of guard on Perseverance (or Providence) Island at the mouth of the river. Some of the colonists refused to leave, remained, and thus became British subjects. For those who had remained on the island there was trouble at once. A small vessel, the prize of an English cruiser, bound to Sierra Leone with thirty liberated Africans, put into the roads for water, and had the misfortune to part her cable and come ashore. "The natives claim to a prescriptive right, which interest never fails to enforce to its fullest extent, to seize and appropriate the wrecks and cargoes of vessels stranded, under whatever circumstances, on their coast."[2] The vessel in question drifted to the mainland one mile from the cape, a small distance below George's town, and the natives proceeded to act in accordance with tradition. They were fired on by the prize master and forced to desist, and the captain appealed to the few colonists on the island for assistance. They brought into play a brass field piece, and two of the natives were killed and several more wounded. The English officer, his crew, and the captured Africans escaped, though the small vessel was lost; but the next day the Deys (the natives), feeling outraged, made another attack, in the course of which some of them and one of the colonists were killed. In the course of the operations moreover, through the carelessness of some of the settlers themselves, fire was communicated to the storehouse and $3000 worth of property destroyed, though the powder and some of the provisions were saved. Thus at the very beginning, by accident though it happened, the shadow of England fell across the young colony, involving it in difficulties with the natives. When then Ayres returned with the main crowd of settlers on January 7, 1822—which arrival was the first real landing of settlers on what is now Liberian soil—he found that the Deys wished to annul the agreement previously made and to give back the articles paid. He himself was seized in the course of a palaver, and he was able to arrive at no better understanding than that the colonists might remain only until they could make a new purchase elsewhere. Now appeared on the scene Boatswain, a prominent chief from the interior who sometimes exercised jurisdiction over the coast tribes and who, hearing that there was trouble in the bay, had come hither, bringing with him a sufficient following to enforce his decrees. Through this man shone something of the high moral principle so often to be observed in responsible African chiefs, and to him Ayres appealed. Hearing the story he decided in favor of the colonists, saying to Peter, "Having sold your country and accepted payment, you must take the consequences. Let the Americans have their land immediately." To the agent he said, "I promise you protection. If these people give you further disturbance, send for me; and I swear, if they oblige me to come again to quiet them, I will do it to purpose, by taking their heads from their shoulders, as I did old king George's on my last visit to the coast to settle disputes." Thus on the word of a native chief was the foundation of Liberia assured.

[Footnote 1: Ashmun: History of the American Colony in Liberia, from 1821 to 1823, 8.]

[Footnote 2: Ashmun, 9.]

By the end of April all of the colonists who were willing to move had been brought from Sierra Leone to their new home. It was now decided to remove from the low and unhealthy island to the higher land of Cape Montserado only a few hundred feet away; on April 28 there was a ceremony of possession and the American flag was raised. The advantages of the new position were obvious, to the natives as well as the colonists, and the removal was attended with great excitement. By July the island was completely abandoned. Meanwhile, however, things had not been going well. The Deys had been rendered very hostile, and from them there was constant danger of attack. The rainy season moreover had set in, shelter was inadequate, supplies were low, and the fever continually claimed its victims. Ayres at length became discouraged. He proposed that the enterprise be abandoned and that the settlers return to Sierra Leone, and on June 4 he did actually leave with a few of them. It was at this juncture that Elijah Johnson, one of the most heroic of the colonists, stepped forth to fame.

The early life of the man is a blank. In 1789 he was taken to New Jersey. He received some instruction and studied for the Methodist ministry, took part in the War of 1812, and eagerly embraced the opportunity to be among the first to come to the new colony. To the suggestion that the enterprise be abandoned he replied, "Two years long have I sought a home; here I have found it; here I remain." To him the great heart of the colonists responded. Among the natives he was known and respected as a valiant fighter. He lived until March 23, 1849.

Closely associated with Johnson, his colleague in many an effort and the pioneer in mission work, was the Baptist minister, Lott Cary, from Richmond, Va., who also had become one of the first permanent settlers.[1] He was a man of most unusual versatility and force of character. He died November 8, 1828, as the result of a powder explosion that occurred while he was acting in defense of the colony against the Deys.

[Footnote 1: See Chapter III, Section 5.]

July (1822) was a hard month for the settlers. Not only were their supplies almost exhausted, but they were on a rocky cape and the natives would not permit any food to be brought to them. On August 8, however, arrived Jehudi Ashmun, a young man from Vermont who had worked as a teacher and as the editor of a religious publication for some years before coming on this mission. He brought with him a company of liberated Africans and emigrants to the number of fifty-five, and as he did not intend to remain permanently he had yielded to the entreaty of his wife and permitted her to accompany him on the voyage. He held no formal commission from the American Colonization Society, but seeing the situation he felt that it was his duty to do what he could to relieve the distress; and he faced difficulties from the very first. On the day after his arrival his own brig, the Strong, was in danger of being lost; the vessel parted its cable, and on the following morning broke it again and drifted until it was landlocked between Cape Montserado and Cape Mount. A small anchor was found, however, and the brig was again moored, but five miles from the settlement. The rainy season was now on in full force; there was no proper place for the storing of provisions; and even with the newcomers it soon developed that there were in the colony only thirty-five men capable of bearing arms, so great had been the number of deaths from the fever. Sometimes almost all of these were sick; on September 10 only two were in condition for any kind of service. Ashmun tried to make terms with the native chiefs, but their malignity was only partially concealed. His wife languished before his eyes and died September 15, just five weeks after her arrival. He himself was incapacitated for several months, nor at the height of his illness was he made better by the ministrations of a French charlatan. He never really recovered from the great inroads made upon his strength at this time.

As a protection from sudden attack a clearing around the settlement was made. Defenses had to be erected without tools, and so great was the anxiety that throughout the months of September and October a nightly watch of twenty men was kept. On Sunday, November 10, the report was circulated that the Deys were crossing the Mesurado River, and at night it became known that seven or eight hundred were on the peninsula only half a mile to the west. The attack came at early dawn on the 11th and the colonists might have been annihilated if they had not brought a field-piece into play. When this was turned against the natives advancing in compact array, it literally tore through masses of living flesh until scores of men were killed. Even so the Deys might have won the engagement if they had not stopped too soon to gather plunder. As it was, they were forced to retreat. Of the settlers three men and one woman were killed, two men and two women injured, and several children taken captive, though these were afterwards returned. At this time the colonists suffered greatly from the lack of any supplies for the treatment of wounds. Only medicines for the fever were on hand, and in the hot climate those whose flesh had been torn by bullets suffered terribly. In this first encounter, as often in these early years, the real burden of conflict fell upon Cary and Johnson. After the battle these men found that they had on hand ammunition sufficient for only one hour's defense. All were placed on a special allowance of provisions and November 23 was observed as a day of prayer. A passing vessel furnished additional supplies and happily delayed for some days the inevitable attack. This came from two sides very early in the morning of December 2. There was a desperate battle. Three bullets passed through Ashmun's clothes, one of the gunners was killed, and repeated attacks were resisted only with the most dogged determination. An accident, or, as the colonists regarded it, a miracle, saved them from destruction. A guard, hearing a noise, discharged a large gun and several muskets. The schooner Prince Regent was passing, with Major Laing, Midshipman Gordon, and eleven specially trained men on board. The officers, hearing the sound of guns, came ashore to see what was the trouble. Major Laing offered assistance if ground was given for the erection of a British flag, and generally attempted to bring about an adjustment of difficulties on the basis of submitting these to the governor of Sierra Leone. To these propositions Elijah Johnson replied, "We want no flagstaff put up here that it will cost more to get down than it will to whip the natives." However, Gordon and the men under him were left behind for the protection of the colony until further help could arrive. Within one month he and seven of the eleven were dead. He himself had found a ready place in the hearts of the settlers, and to him and his men Liberia owes much. They came in a needy hour and gave their lives for the cause of freedom.

An American steamer passing in December, 1822, gave some temporary relief. On March 31, 1823, the Cyane, with Capt. R.T. Spence in charge, arrived from America with supplies. As many members of his crew became ill after only a few days, Spence soon deemed it advisable to leave. His chief clerk, however, Richard Seaton, heroically volunteered to help with the work, remained behind, and died after only three months. On May 24 came the Oswego with sixty-one new colonists and Dr. Ayres, who, already the Society's agent, now returned with the additional authority of Government agent and surgeon. He made a survey and attempted a new allotment of land, only to find that the colony was soon in ferment, because some of those who possessed the best holdings or who had already made the beginnings of homes, were now required to give these up. There was so much rebellion that in December Ayres again deemed it advisable to leave. The year 1823 was in fact chiefly noteworthy for the misunderstandings that arose between the colonists and Ashmun. This man had been placed in a most embarrassing situation by the arrival of Dr. Ayres.[1] He not only found himself superseded in the government, but had the additional misfortune to learn that his drafts had been dishonored and that no provision had been made to remunerate him for his past services or provide for his present needs. Finding his services undervalued, and even the confidence of the Society withheld, he was naturally indignant, though his attachment to the cause remained steadfast. Seeing the authorized agent leaving the colony, and the settlers themselves in a state of insubordination, with no formal authority behind him he yet resolved to forget his own wrongs and to do what he could to save from destruction that for which he had already suffered so much. He was young and perhaps not always as tactful as he might have been. On the other hand, the colonists had not yet learned fully to appreciate the real greatness of the man with whom they were dealing. As for the Society at home, not even so much can be said. The real reason for the withholding of confidence from Ashmun was that many of the members objected to his persistent attacks on the slave-trade.

[Footnote 1: Stockwell, 73.]

By the regulations that governed the colony at the time, each man who received rations was required to contribute to the general welfare two days of labor a week. Early in December twelve men cast off all restraint, and on the 13th Ashmun published a notice in which he said: "There are in the colony more than a dozen healthy persons who will receive no more provisions out of the public store until they earn them." On the 19th, in accordance with this notice, the provisions of the recalcitrants were stopped. The next morning, however, the men went to the storehouse, and while provisions were being issued, each seized a portion and went to his home. Ashmun now issued a circular, reminding the colonists of all of their struggles together and generally pointing out to them how such a breach of discipline struck at the very heart of the settlement. The colonists rallied to his support and the twelve men returned to duty. The trouble, however, was not yet over. On March 19, 1824, Ashmun found it necessary to order a cut in provisions. He had previously declared to the Board that in his opinion the evil was "incurable by any of the remedies which fall within the existing provisions"; and counter remonstrances had been sent by the colonists, who charged him with oppression, neglect of duty, and the seizure of public property. He now, seeing that his latest order was especially unpopular, prepared new despatches, on March 22 reviewed the whole course of his conduct in a strong and lengthy address, and by the last of the month had left the colony.

Meanwhile the Society, having learned that things were not going well with the colony, had appointed its secretary, Rev. R.R. Gurley, to investigate conditions. Gurley met Ashmun at the Cape Verde Islands and urgently requested that he return to Monrovia.[1] This Ashmun was not unwilling to do, as he desired the fullest possible investigation into his conduct. Gurley was in Liberia from August 13 to August 22, 1824, only; but from the time of his visit conditions improved. Ashmun was fully vindicated and remained for four years more until his strength was all but spent. There was adopted what was known as the Gurley Constitution. According to this the agent in charge was to have supreme charge and preside at all public meetings. He was to be assisted, however, by eleven officers annually chosen, the most important of whom he was to appoint on nomination by the colonists. Among these were a vice-agent, two councilors, two justices of the peace, and two constables. There was to be a guard of twelve privates, two corporals, and one sergeant.

[Footnote 1: This name, in honor of President Monroe, had recently been adopted by the Society at the suggestion of Robert Goodloe Harper, of Maryland, who also suggested the name Liberia for the country. Harper himself was afterwards honored by having the chief town in Maryland in Africa named after him.]

For a long time it was the custom of the American Colonization Society to send out two main shipments of settlers a year, one in the spring and one in the fall. On February 13, 1824, arrived a little more than a hundred emigrants, mainly from Petersburg, Va. These people were unusually intelligent and industrious and received a hearty welcome. Within a month practically all of them were sick with the fever. On this occasion, as on many others, Lott Cary served as physician, and so successful was he that only three of the sufferers died. Another company of unusual interest was that which arrived early in 1826. It brought along a printer, a press with the necessary supplies, and books sent by friends in Boston. Unfortunately the printer was soon disabled by the fever.

Sickness, however, and wars with the natives were not the only handicaps that engaged the attention of the colony in these years. "At this period the slave-trade was carried on extensively within sight of Monrovia. Fifteen vessels were engaged in it at the same time, almost under the guns of the settlement; and in July of this year a contract was existing for eight hundred slaves to be furnished, in the short space of four months, within eight miles of the cape. Four hundred of these were to be purchased for two American traders."[1] Ashmun attacked the Spaniards engaged in the traffic, and labored generally to break up slave factories. On one occasion he received as many as one hundred and sixteen slaves into the colony as freemen. He also adopted an attitude of justice toward the native Krus. Of special importance was the attack on Trade Town, a stronghold of French and Spanish traders about one hundred miles below Monrovia. Here there were not less than three large factories. On the day of the battle, April 10, there were three hundred and fifty natives on shore under the direction of the traders, but the colonists had the assistance of some American vessels, and a Liberian officer, Captain Barbour, was of outstanding courage and ability. The town was fired after eighty slaves had been surrendered. The flames reached the ammunition of the enemy and over two hundred and fifty casks of gunpowder exploded. By July, however, the traders had built a battery at Trade Town and were prepared to give more trouble. All the same a severe blow had been dealt to their work.

[Footnote 1: Stockwell, 79.]

In his report rendered at the close of 1825 Ashmun showed that the settlers were living in neatness and comfort; two chapels had been built, and the militia was well organized, equipped, and disciplined. The need of some place for the temporary housing of immigrants having more and more impressed itself upon the colony, before the end of 1826 a "receptacle" capable of holding one hundred and fifty persons was erected. Ashmun himself served on until 1828, by which time his strength was completely spent. He sailed for America early in the summer and succeeded in reaching New Haven, only to die after a few weeks. No man had given more for the founding of Liberia. The principal street in Monrovia is named after him.

Aside from wars with the natives, the most noteworthy being the Dey-Gola war of 1832, the most important feature of Liberian history in the decade 1828-1838 was the development along the coast of other settlements than Monrovia. These were largely the outgrowth of the activity of local branch organizations of the American Colonization Society, and they were originally supposed to have the oversight of the central organization and of the colony of Monrovia. The circumstances under which they were founded, however, gave them something of a feeling of independence which did much to influence their history. Thus arose, about seventy-five miles farther down the coast, under the auspices especially of the New York and Pennsylvania societies, the Grand Bassa settlements at the mouth of the St. John's River, the town Edina being outstanding. Nearly a hundred miles farther south, at the mouth of the Sino River, another colony developed as its most important town Greenville; and as most of the settlers in this vicinity came from Mississippi, their province became known as Mississippi in Africa. A hundred miles farther, on Cape Palmas, just about twenty miles from the Cavalla River marking the boundary of the French possessions, developed the town of Harper in what became known as Maryland in Africa. This colony was even more aloof than others from the parent settlement of the American Colonization Society. When the first colonists arrived at Monrovia in 1831, they were not very cordially received, there being trouble about the allotment of land. They waited for some months for reenforcements and then sailed down the coast to the vicinity of the Cavalla River, where they secured land for their future home and where their distance from the other colonists from America made it all the more easy for them to cultivate their tradition of independence.[1] These four ports are now popularly known as Monrovia, Grand Bassa, Sino, and Cape Palmas; and to them for general prominence might now be added Cape Mount, about fifty miles from Monrovia higher up the coast and just a few miles from the Mano River, which now marks the boundary between Sierra Leone and Liberia. In 1838, on a constitution drawn up by Professor Greenleaf, of Harvard College, was organized the "Commonwealth of Liberia," the government of which was vested in a Board of Directors composed of delegates from the state societies, and which included all the settlements except Maryland. This remote colony, whose seaport is Cape Palmas, did not join with the others until 1857, ten years after Liberia had become an independent republic. When a special company of settlers arrived from Baltimore and formally occupied Cape Palmas (1834), Dr. James Hall was governor and he served in this capacity until 1836, when failing health forced him to return to America. He was succeeded by John B. Russwurm, a young Negro who had come to Liberia in 1829 for the purpose of superintending the system of education. The country, however, was not yet ready for the kind of work he wanted to do, and in course of time he went into politics. He served very efficiently as Governor of Maryland from 1836 to 1851, especially exerting himself to standardize the currency and to stabilize the revenues. Five years after his death Maryland suffered greatly from an attack by the Greboes, twenty-six colonists being killed. An appeal to Monrovia for help led to the sending of a company of men and later to the incorporation of the colony in the Republic.

[Footnote 1: McPherson is especially valuable for his study of the Maryland colony.]

Of the events of the period special interest attaches to the murder of I.F.C. Finley, Governor of Mississippi in Africa, to whose father, Rev. Robert Finley, the organization of the American Colonization Society had been very largely due. In September, 1838, Governor Finley left his colony to go to Monrovia on business, and making a landing at Bassa Cove, he was robbed and killed by the Krus. This unfortunate murder led to a bitter conflict between the settlers in the vicinity and the natives. This is sometimes known as the Fish War (from being waged around Fishpoint) and did not really cease for a year.

(b) The Commonwealth of Liberia

The first governor of the newly formed Commonwealth was Thomas H. Buchanan, a man of singular energy who represented the New York and Pennsylvania societies and who had come in 1836 especially to take charge of the Grand Bassa settlements. Becoming governor in 1838, he found it necessary to proceed vigorously against the slave dealers at Trade Town. He was also victorious in 1840 in a contest with the Gola tribe led by Chief Gatumba. The Golas had defeated the Dey tribe so severely that a mere remnant of the latter had taken refuge with the colonists at Millsburg, a station a few miles up the St. Paul's River. Thus, as happened more than once, a tribal war in time involved the very existence of the new American colonies. Governor Buchanan's victory greatly increased his prestige and made it possible for him to negotiate more and more favorable treaties with the natives. A contest of different sort was that with a Methodist missionary, John Seyes, who held that all goods used by missionaries, including those sold to the natives, should be admitted free of duty. The governor contended that such privilege should be extended only to goods intended for the personal use of missionaries; and the Colonization Society stood behind him in this opinion. As early as 1840 moreover some shadow of future events was cast by trouble made by English traders on the Mano River, the Sierra Leone boundary. Buchanan sent an agent to England to represent him in an inquiry into the matter; but in the midst of his vigorous work he died in 1841. He was the last white man formally under any auspices at the head of Liberian affairs. Happily his period of service had given opportunity and training to an efficient helper, upon whom now the burden fell and of whom it is hardly too much to say that he is the foremost figure in Liberian history.

Joseph Jenkin Roberts was a mulatto born in Virginia in 1809. At the age of twenty, with his widowed mother and younger brothers, he went to Liberia and engaged in trade. In course of time he proved to be a man of unusual tact and graciousness of manner, moving with ease among people of widely different rank. His abilities soon demanded recognition, and he was at the head of the force that defeated Gatumba. As governor he realized the need of cultivating more far-reaching diplomacy than the Commonwealth had yet known. He had the cooeperation of the Maryland governor, Russwurm, in such a matter as that of uniform customs duties; and he visited the United States, where he made a very good impression. He soon understood that he had to reckon primarily with the English and the French. England had indeed assumed an attitude of opposition to the slave-trade; but her traders did not scruple to sell rum to slave dealers, and especially were they interested in the palm oil of Liberia. When the Commonwealth sought to impose customs duties, England took the position that as Liberia was not an independent government, she had no right to do so; and the English attitude had some show of strength from the fact that the American Colonization Society, an outside organization, had a veto power over whatever Liberia might do. When in 1845 the Liberian Government seized the Little Ben, an English trading vessel whose captain acted in defiance of the revenue laws, the British in turn seized the John Seyes, belonging to a Liberian named Benson, and sold the vessel for L8000. Liberia appealed to the United States; but the Oregon boundary question as well as slavery had given the American Government problems enough at home; and the Secretary of State, Edward Everett, finally replied to Lord Aberdeen (1845) that America was not "presuming to settle differences arising between Liberian and British subjects, the Liberians being responsible for their own acts." The Colonization Society, powerless to act except through its own government, in January, 1846, resolved that "the time had arrived when it was expedient for the people of the Commonwealth of Liberia to take into their own hands the whole work of self-government including the management of all their foreign relations." Forced to act for herself Liberia called a constitutional convention and on July 26, 1847, issued a Declaration of Independence and adopted the Constitution of the Liberian Republic. In October, Joseph Jenkin Roberts, Governor of the Commonwealth, was elected the first President of the Republic.

It may well be questioned if by 1847 Liberia had developed sufficiently internally to be able to assume the duties and responsibilities of an independent power. There were at the time not more than 4,500 civilized people of American origin in the country; these were largely illiterate and scattered along a coastline more than three hundred miles in length. It is not to be supposed, however, that this consummation had been attained without much yearning and heart-beat and high spiritual fervor. There was something pathetic in the effort of this small company, most of whose members had never seen Africa but for the sake of their race had made their way back to the fatherland. The new seal of the Republic bore the motto: THE LOVE OF LIBERTY BROUGHT US HERE. The flag, modeled on that of the United States, had six red and five white stripes for the eleven signers of the Declaration of Independence, and in the upper corner next to the staff a lone white star in a field of blue. The Declaration itself said in part:

We, the people of the Republic of Liberia, were originally inhabitants of the United States of North America.

In some parts of that country we were debarred by law from all the rights and privileges of men; in other parts public sentiment, more powerful than law, frowned us down.

We were everywhere shut out from all civil office.

We were excluded from all participation in the government.

We were taxed without our consent.

We were compelled to contribute to the resources of a country which gave us no protection.

We were made a separate and distinct class, and against us every avenue of improvement was effectually closed. Strangers from all lands of a color different from ours were preferred before us.

We uttered our complaints, but they were unattended to, or met only by alleging the peculiar institution of the country.

All hope of a favorable change in our country was thus wholly extinguished in our bosom, and we looked with anxiety abroad for some asylum from the deep degradation.

The Western coast of Africa was the place selected by American benevolence and philanthropy for our future home. Removed beyond those influences which depressed us in our native land, it was hoped we would be enabled to enjoy those rights and privileges, and exercise and improve those faculties, which the God of nature had given us in common with the rest of mankind.

(c) The Republic of Liberia

With the adoption of its constitution the Republic of Liberia formally asked to be considered in the family of nations; and since 1847 the history of the country has naturally been very largely that of international relations. In fact, preoccupation with the questions raised by powerful neighbors has been at least one strong reason for the comparatively slow internal development of the country. The Republic was officially recognized by England in 1848, by France in 1852, but on account of slavery not by the United States until 1862. Continuously there has been an observance of the forms of order, and only one president has been deposed. For a long time the presidential term was two years in length; but by an act of 1907 it was lengthened to four years. From time to time there have been two political parties, but not always has such a division been emphasized.

It is well to pause and note exactly what was the task set before the little country. A company of American Negroes suddenly found themselves placed on an unhealthy and uncultivated coast which was thenceforth to be their home. If we compare them with the Pilgrim Fathers, we find that as the Pilgrims had to subdue the Indians, so they had to hold their own against a score of aggressive tribes. The Pilgrims had the advantage of a thousand years of culture and experience in government; the Negroes, only recently out of bondage, had been deprived of any opportunity for improvement whatsoever. Not only, however, did they have to contend against native tribes and labor to improve their own shortcomings; on every hand they had to meet the designs of nations supposedly more enlightened and Christian. On the coast Spanish traders defied international law; on one side the English, and on the other the French, from the beginning showed a tendency toward arrogance and encroachment. To crown the difficulty, the American Government, under whose auspices the colony had largely been founded, became more and more halfhearted in its efforts for protection and at length abandoned the enterprise altogether. It did not cease, however, to regard the colony as the dumping-ground of its own troubles, and whenever a vessel with slaves from the Congo was captured on the high seas, it did not hesitate to take these people to the Liberian coast and leave them there, nearly dead though they might be from exposure or cramping. It is well for one to remember such facts as these before he is quick to belittle or criticize. To the credit of the "Congo men" be it said that from the first they labored to make themselves a quiet and industrious element in the body politic.

The early administrations of President Roberts (four terms, 1848-1855) were mainly devoted to the quelling of the native tribes that continued to give trouble and to the cultivating of friendly relations with foreign powers. Soon after his inauguration Roberts made a visit to England, the power from which there was most to fear; and on this occasion as on several others England varied her arrogance with a rather excessive friendliness toward the little republic. She presented to Roberts the Lark, a ship with four guns, and sent the President home on a war-vessel. Some years afteryards, when the Lark was out of repair, England sent instead a schooner, the Quail. Roberts made a second visit to England in 1852 to adjust disputes with traders on the western boundary. He also visited France, and Louis Napoleon, not to be outdone by England, presented to him a vessel, the Hirondelle, and also guns and uniforms for his soldiers. In general the administrations of Roberts (we might better say his first series of administrations, for he was later to be called again to office) made a period of constructive statesmanship and solid development, and not a little of the respect that the young republic won was due to the personal influence of its first president. Roberts, however, happened to be very fair, and generally successful though his administrations were, the desire on the part of the people that the highest office in the country be held by a black man seems to have been a determining factor in the choice of his successor. There was an interesting campaign toward the close of his last term. "There were about this time two political parties in the country—the old Republicans and the 'True Liberians,' a party which had been formed in opposition to Roberts's foreign policies. But during the canvass the platform of this new party lost ground; the result was in favor of the Republican candidate."[1]

[Footnote 1: Karnga, 28.]

Stephen Allen Benson (four terms, 1856-1863) was forced to meet in one way or another almost all of the difficulties that have since played a part in the life of the Liberian people. He had come to the country in 1822 at the age of six and had developed into a practical and efficient merchant. To his high office he brought the same principles of sobriety and good sense that had characterized him in business. On February 28, 1857, the independent colony of Maryland formally became a part of the republic. This action followed immediately upon the struggle with the Greboes in the vicinity of Cape Palmas in which assistance was rendered by the Liberians under Ex-President Roberts. In 1858 an incident that threatened complications with France but that was soon happily closed arose from the fact that a French vessel which sought to carry away some Kru laborers to the West Indies was attacked by these men when they had reason to fear that they might be sold into slavery and not have to work simply along the coast, as they at first supposed. The ship was seized and all but one of the crew, the physician, were killed. Trouble meanwhile continued with British smugglers in the West, and to this whole matter we shall have to give further and special attention. In 1858 and a year or two thereafter the numerous arrivals from America, especially of Congo men captured on the high seas, were such as to present a serious social problem. Flagrant violation by the South of the laws against the slave-trade led to the seizure by the United States Government of many Africans. Hundreds of these people were detained at a time at such a port as Key West. The Government then adopted the policy of ordering commanders who seized slave-ships at sea to land the Africans directly upon the coast of Liberia without first bringing them to America, and appropriated $250,000 for the removal and care of those at Key West. The suffering of many of these people is one of the most tragic stories in the history of slavery. To Liberia came at one time 619, at another 867, and within two months as many as 4000. There was very naturally consternation on the part of the people at this sudden immigration, especially as many of the Africans arrived cramped or paralyzed or otherwise ill from the conditions under which they had been forced to travel. President Benson stated the problem to the American Government; the United States sent some money to Liberia, the people of the Republic helped in every way they could, and the whole situation was finally adjusted without any permanently bad effects, though it is well for students to remember just what Liberia had to face at this time. Important toward the close of Benson's terms was the completion of the building of the Liberia College, of which Joseph Jenkin Roberts became the first president.

The administrations of Daniel Bashiel Warner (two terms, 1864-1867) and the earlier one of James Spriggs Payne (1868-1869) were comparatively uneventful. Both of these men were Republicans, but Warner represented something of the shifting of political parties at the time. At first a Republican, he went over to the Whig party devoted to the policy of preserving Liberia from white invasion. Moved to distrust of English merchants, who delighted in defrauding the little republic, he established an important Ports-of-Entry Law in 1865, which it is hardly necessary to say was very unpopular with the foreigners. Commerce was restricted to six ports and a circle six miles in diameter around each port. On account of the Civil War and the hopes that emancipation held out to the Negroes in the United States, immigration from America ceased rapidly; but a company of 346 came from Barbadoes at this time. The Liberian Government assisted these people with $4000, set apart for each man an allotment of twenty-five rather than the customary ten acres; the Colonization Society appropriated $10,000, and after a pleasant voyage of thirty-three days they arrived without the loss of a single life. In the company was a little boy, Arthur Barclay, who was later to be known as the President of the Republic. At the semi-centennial of the American Colonization Society held in Washington in January, 1867, it was shown that the Society and its auxiliaries had been directly responsible for the sending of more than 12,000 persons to Africa. Of these 4541 had been born free, 344 had purchased their freedom, 5957 had been emancipated to go to Africa, and 1227 had been settled by the Maryland Society. In addition, 5722 captured Africans had been sent to Liberia. The need of adequate study of the interior having more and more impressed itself, Benjamin Anderson, an adventurous explorer, assisted with funds by a citizen of New York, in 1869 studied the country for two hundred miles from the coast. He found the land constantly rising, and made his way to Musardu, the chief city of the western Mandingoes. He summed up his work in his Narrative of a Journey to Musardo and made another journey of exploration in 1874.

Edward James Roye (1870-October 26, 1871), a Whig whose party was formed out of the elements of the old True Liberian party, attracts attention by reason of a notorious British loan to which further reference must be made. Of the whole amount of L100,000 sums were wasted or misappropriated until it has been estimated that the country really reaped the benefit of little more than a quarter of the whole amount. President Roye added to other difficulties by his seizure of a bank building belonging to an Industrial Society of the St. Paul's River settlements, and by attempting by proclamation to lengthen his term of office. Twice a constitutional amendment for lengthening the presidential term from two years to four had been considered and voted down. Roye contested the last vote, insisted that his term ran to January, 1874, and issued a proclamation forbidding the coming biennial election. He was deposed, his house sacked, some of his cabinet officers tried before a court of impeachment,[1] and he himself was drowned as he was pursued while attempting to escape to a British ship in the harbor. A committee of three was appointed to govern the country until a new election could be held; and in this hour of storm and stress the people turned once more to the guidance of their old leader, Joseph J. Roberts (two terms, 1872-1875). His efforts were mainly devoted to restoring order and confidence, though there was a new war with the Greboes to be waged.[2] He was succeeded by another trusted leader, James S. Payne (1876-1877), whose second administration was as devoid as the first of striking incident. In fact, the whole generation succeeding the loan of 1871 was a period of depression. The country not only suffered financially, but faith in it was shaken both at home and abroad. Coffee grown in Liberia fell as that produced at Brazil grew in favor, the farmer witnessing a drop in value from 24 to 4 cents a pound. Farms were abandoned, immigration from the United States ceased, and the country entered upon a period of stagnation from which it has not yet fully recovered.

[Footnote 1: But not Hilary R.W. Johnson, the efficient Secretary of State, later President.]

[Footnote 2: President Roberts died February 21, 1876, barely two months after giving up office. He was caught in the rain while attending a funeral, took a severe chill, and was not able to recover.]

Within just a few years after 1871, however, conditions in the United States led to an interesting revival of the whole idea of colonization, and to noteworthy effort on the part of the Negroes themselves to better their condition. The withdrawal of Federal troops from the South, and all the evils of the aftermath of reconstruction, led to such a terrorizing of the Negroes and such a denial of civil rights that there set in the movement that culminated in the great exodus from the South in 1879. The movement extended all the way from North Carolina to Louisiana and Arkansas. Insofar as it led to migration to Kansas and other states in the West, it belongs to American history. However, there was also interest in going to Africa. Applications by the thousands poured in upon the American Colonization Society, and one organization in Arkansas sent hundreds of its members to seek the help of the New York State Colonization Society. In all such endeavor Negro Baptists and Methodists joined hands, and especially prominent was Bishop H.M. Turner, of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. By 1877 there was organized in South Carolina the Liberian Exodus and Joint Stock Company; in North Carolina there was the Freedmen's Emigration Aid Society; and there were similar organizations in other states. The South Carolina organization had the threefold purpose of emigration, missionary activity, and commercial enterprise, and to these ends it purchased a vessel, the Azor, at a cost of $7000. The white people of Charleston unfortunately embarrassed the enterprise in every possible way, among other things insisting when the Azor was ready to sail that it was not seaworthy and needed a new copper bottom (to cost $2000). The vessel at length made one or two trips, however, on one voyage carrying as many as 274 emigrants. It was then stolen and sold in Liverpool, and one gets an interesting sidelight on Southern conditions in the period when he knows that even the United States Circuit Court in South Carolina refused to entertain the suit brought by the Negroes.

In the administration of Anthony W. Gardiner (three terms, 1878-1883) difficulties with England and Germany reached a crisis. Territory in the northwest was seized; the British made a formal show of force at Monrovia; and the looting of a German vessel along the Kru Coast and personal indignities inflicted by the natives upon the shipwrecked Germans, led to the bombardment of Nana Kru by a German warship and the presentation at Monrovia of a claim for damages, payment of which was forced by the threat of the bombardment of the capital. To the Liberian people the outlook was seldom darker than in this period of calamities. President Gardiner, very ill, resigned office in January of his last year of service, being succeeded by the vice-president, Alfred F. Russell. More and more was pressure brought to bear upon Liberian officials for the granting of monopolies and concessions, especially to Englishmen; and in his message of 1883 President Russell said, "Recent events admonish us as to the serious responsibility of claims held against us by foreigners, and we cannot tell what complications may arise." In the midst of all this, however, Russell did not forget the natives and the need of guarding them against liquor and exploitation.

Hilary Richard Wright Johnson (four terms, 1884-1891), the next president, was a son of the distinguished Elijah Johnson and the first man born in Liberia who had risen to the highest place in the republic. Whigs and Republicans united in his election. Much of his time had necessarily to be given to complications arising from the loan of 1871; but the western boundary was adjusted (with great loss) with Great Britain at the Mano River, though new difficulties arose with the French, who were pressing their claim to territory as far as the Cavalla River. In the course of the last term of President Johnson there was an interesting grant (by act approved January 21, 1890) to F.F. Whittekin, of Pennsylvania, of the right to "construct, maintain, and operate a system of railroads, telegraph and telephone lines." Whittekin bought up in England stock to the value of half a million dollars, but died on the way to Liberia to fulfil his contract. His nephew, F.F. Whittekin, asked for an extension of time, which was granted, but after a while the whole project languished.[1]

[Footnote 1: See Liberia, Bulletin No. 5, November, 1894.]

Joseph James Cheeseman (1892-November 15, 1896) was a Whig. He conducted what was known as the third Grebo War and labored especially for a sound currency. He was a man of unusual ability and his devotion to his task undoubtedly contributed toward his death in office near the middle of his third term. As up to this time there had been no internal improvement and little agricultural or industrial development in the country, O.F. Cook, the agent of the New York State Colonization Society, in 1894 signified to the legislature a desire to establish a station where experiments could be made as to the best means of introducing, receiving, and propagating beasts of burden, commercial plants, etc. His request was approved and one thousand acres of land granted for the purpose by act of January 20, 1894. Results, however, were neither permanent nor far-reaching. In fact, by the close of the century immigration had practically ceased and the activities of the American Colonization Society had also ceased, many of the state organizations having gone out of existence. In 1893 Julius C. Stevens, of Goldsboro, N.C., went to Liberia and served for a nominal salary as agent of the American Colonization Society, becoming also a teacher in the Liberia College and in time Commissioner of Education, in connection with which post he edited his Liberian School Reader; but he died in 1903.[1]

[Footnote 1: Interest in Liberia by no means completely died. Contributions for education were sometimes made by the representative organizations, and individual students came to America from time to time. When, however, the important commission representing the Government came to America in 1908, the public was slightly startled as having heard from something half-forgotten.]