The sheriffs of Mississippi were not elected in those days; and the Governor had to look a good ways to find the proper men for such positions. His faith in Col. Bruce as a man and an officer led him to select him to be sheriff of Bolivar County. Col. Bruce discharged the delicate duties of his office with eminent ability, and attained a popularity very remarkable under the circ.u.mstances.
During this time, while other politicians were dropping their money at the gaming-table and in the wine cup, Col. Bruce was saving his funds, and after purchasing a splendid farm at Floraville, on the Mississippi River, he made cautious and profitable investments in property and bonds. His executive ability was marvellous, and his successful management of his own business and that of the people of the county made him friends among all cla.s.ses and in both political parties. He was appointed tax-collector for his county, a position that was calculated to tax the most accomplished financier and business man in the State. But Col. Bruce took to the position rare abilities, and managed his office with such matchless skill, that when the term of Henry R. Pease expired, he was chosen United States Senator from Mississippi on the third of February, 1875, for the const.i.tutional term of six years. He took his seat on the 4th of March, 1875.
He did nothing in the line of oratory while in the Senate. That was not his forte. He was an excellent worker, a faithful committee-man, and finally was chairman of the Committee on the Freedman"s Savings Bank, etc. Mr. Bruce was chairman of the Committee on Mississippi Levees, where he performed good work. He presided over the Senate with dignity several times. To the charge that he was a "silent Senator,"
it may be observed that it was infinitely better that he remained silent, than in breaking the silence to exhibit a mental feebleness in attempting to handle problems to which most of the Senators had given years of patient study. His conduct was admirable; his discretion wise; his service faithful, and his influence upon the honorable Senate and the country at large beneficial to himself and helpful to his race.
In the convention of the Republican party at Chicago, in 1880, he was a candidate for Vice-President. In the spring of 1881, after the close of his senatorial career the President nominated him to be Register of the United States Treasury, and the nomination was confirmed without reference, after a complimentary speech from his a.s.sociate, Senator L.
Q. C. Lamar. He has appeared as a political speaker on several occasions. As nature did not intend him for this work, his efforts appear to be the products of hard labor, but nevertheless excellent; his estimable and scholarly wife (_nee_ Miss Wilson, of Cleveland, Ohio) has been a great blessing to him;--a good wife and a helpful companion. From a penniless slave he has risen to the position of writing his name upon the currency of the country. Register Bruce is a genial gentleman, a fast friend, and an able officer.
John Mercer Langston was born a slave in Virginia; is a graduate of Oberlin College and Theological Inst.i.tution, and as a lawyer, college president, foreign minister, and politician, has exerted a wide influence for the good of his race. As Secretary of the Board of Health for the District of Columbia, and as President of the Howard University, he displayed remarkable executive ability and sound business judgment. He is one of the bravest of the brave in public matters, and his influence upon young Colored men has been wide-spread and admirable. He is now serving as Resident Minister and Consul-General to Hayti; and ranks among the best diplomats of our Government.
In Ma.s.sachusetts, Charles L. Mitch.e.l.l, George L. Ruffin, John J.
Smith, J. B. Smith, and Wm. J. Walker have been members of the Legislature. In Illinois, a Colored man has held a position in the Board of Commissioners for Cook County--Chicago; and one has been sent to the Legislature. In Ohio, two Colored men have been members of the Legislature, one from Cincinnati and the other from Cleveland. Gov.
Charles Foster was the first Executive in any of the Northern States to appoint a Colored man to a responsible position; and in this, as in nearly every other thing, Ohio has taken the lead. The present member (John P. Green) of the Legislature of Ohio representing Cuyahoga County, is a young man of excellent abilities both as a lawyer and as an orator. John P. Green was born at New Berne, North Carolina, April 2, 1845, of free parents. His father died in 1850, and his widow was left to small resources in raising her family. But being an excellent seamstress she did very well for her five-year-old son, while she had an infant in her arms.
In 1857 Mrs. Green moved to Ohio and located at Cleveland. Her son John was now able and willing to a.s.sist his mother some; and so as an errand-boy he hired himself out for $4 per month. He obtained about a year and one half of instruction in the common schools, and did well.
In 1862 he became a waiter in a hotel, and spent every leisure moment in study. He succeeded in learning something of Latin and Algebra, without a teacher.
Mr. Green had acquired an excellent style of composition, and to secure funds with which to complete his education, he wrote and published a pamphlet containing _Essays on Miscellaneous Subjects_, by a self-educated Colored youth. He sold about 1,500 copies in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York, and then entered the Cleveland Central High School. He completed a four years" cla.s.sical course in two years, two terms, and two months. He graduated at the head of a cla.s.s of twenty-three. He entered the law office of Judge Jesse P. Bishop, and in 1870 graduated from the Cleveland Law School. He turned his face Southward, and having settled in South Carolina, began the practice of law, which was attended with great success. But the climate was not agreeable to his health, and in 1872 he returned to the scenes of his early toils and struggles. He became a practising attorney in Cleveland, and in the spring of 1873 was elected a justice of the peace for Cuyahoga County by a majority of 3,000 votes. He served three terms as a justice, and in eight years of service as such decided more than 12,000 cases. As a justice he has had no equal for many years. In 1877 he was nominated for the Legislature, but was defeated by sixty-two votes. In 1881 he was again before the people for the Legislature, and was elected by a handsome majority.
Mr. Green is rather a remarkable young man; and with good health and a fair field he is bound to make a success. He will bear comparison with any of his a.s.sociates in the Legislature; and, as a clear, impressive speaker, has few equals in that body.
There are yet at least one hundred representative men of color worthy of the places they hold in the respect and confidence of their race and the country. Their number is rapidly increasing; and ere many years there will be no lack of representative Colored men.[128]
Colored women had fewer privileges of education before the war, and indeed since the war, than the men of their race, yet, nevertheless, many of these women have shown themselves capable and useful.
FRANCES ELLEN HARPER
was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1825. She was not permitted to enjoy the blessings of early educational training, but in after-years proved herself to be a woman of most remarkable intellectual powers.
She applied herself to study, most a.s.siduously; and when she had reached woman"s estate was well educated.
She developed early a fondness for poetry, which she has since cultivated; and some of her efforts are not without merit. She excels as an essayist and lecturer. She has been heard upon many of the leading lecture platforms of the country; and her efforts to elevate her sisters have been crowned with most signal success.
MARY ANN SHADD CAREY,
of Delaware, but more recently of Washington, D. C., as a lecturer, writer, and school teacher, has done and is doing a great deal for the educational and social advancement of the Colored people.
f.a.n.n.y M. JACKSON--
at present Mrs. f.a.n.n.y M. Jackson Coppin--was born in the District of Columbia, in 1837. Though left an orphan when quite a child, Mrs.
Sarah Clark, her aunt, took charge of her, and gave her a first-cla.s.s education. She prosecuted the gentlemen"s course in Oberlin College, and graduated with high honors.
Deeply impressed with the need of educated teachers for the schools of her race, she accepted a position at once in the Inst.i.tute for Colored Youth, at Philadelphia, Pa. And here for many years she has taught with eminent success, and exerted a pure and womanly influence upon all the students that have come into her cla.s.ses.
Without doubt she is the most thoroughly competent and successful of the Colored women teachers of her time. And her example of race pride, industry, enthusiasm, and n.o.bility of character will remain the inheritance and inspiration of the pupils of the school she helped make the pride of the Colored people of Pennsylvania.
LOUISE DE MORTIE,
of Norfolk, Virginia, was born of free parents in that place, in 1833, but being denied the privileges of education, turned her face toward Ma.s.sachusetts.
In 1853 she took up her residence in Boston. She immediately began to avail herself of all the opportunities of education. A most beautiful girl, possessed of a sweet disposition and a remarkable memory, she won a host of friends, and took high standing as a pupil.
In 1862 she began a most remarkable career as a public reader. An elocutionist by nature, she added the refinement of the art; and with her handsome presence, engaging manners, and richly-toned voice, she took high rank in her profession. Just as she was attracting public attention by her genius, she learned of the dest.i.tution that was wasting the Colored orphans of New Orleans. Thither she hastened in the spirit of Christian love; and there she labored with an intelligence and zeal which made her a heroine among her people. In 1867 she raised sufficient funds to build an asylum for the Colored orphans of New Orleans. But just then the yellow fever overtook her in her work of mercy, and she fell a victim to its deadly touch on the 10th of October, 1867, saying so touchingly, "I belong to G.o.d, our Father," as she expired.
Although cut off in the morning of a useful life, she is of blessed memory among those for whose improvement and elevation she gave the strength of a brilliant mind and the warmth of a genuine Christian heart.
MISS CHARLOTTE L. FORTUNE--
now the wife of the young and gifted clergyman, Rev. Frank J.
Grimke,--is a native of Pennsylvania. She comes of one of the best Colored families of the State. She went to Salem, Ma.s.sachusetts, in 1854, where she began a course of studies in the "Higginson High School." She proved to be a student of more than usual application, and although a member of a cla.s.s of white youths, Miss Fortune was awarded the honor of writing the Parting Hymn for the cla.s.s. It was sung at the last examination, and was warmly praised by all who heard it.
Miss Fortune became a contributor to the columns of the "Anti-Slavery Standard" and "Atlantic Monthly." She wrote both prose and poetry, and did admirably in each.
EDMONIA LEWIS,
the Negro sculptress, is in herself a great prophecy of the possibilities of her sisters in America. Of lowly birth, left an orphan when quite young, unable to obtain a liberal education, she nevertheless determined to be somebody and do something.
Some years ago, while yet in humble circ.u.mstances, she visited Boston.
Upon seeing a statue of Benjamin Franklin she stood transfixed before it. It stirred the latent genius within the untutored child, and produced an emotion she had never felt before. "I, too, can make a stone man," she said. Almost instinctively, she turned to that great Apostle of Human Liberty, Wm. Lloyd Garrison, and asked his advice.
The kind-hearted agitator gave her a note to Mr. Brackett, the Boston sculptor. He received her kindly, heard her express the desire and ambition of her heart, and then giving her a model of a human foot and some clay, said: "Go home and make that. If there is any thing in you it will come out." She tried, but her teacher broke up her work and told her to try again. And so she did, and triumphed.
Since then, this ambitious Negro girl has won a position as an artist, a studio in Rome, and a place in the admiration of the lovers of art on two continents. She has produced many meritorious works of art, the most noteworthy being _Hagar in the Wilderness_; a group of the _Madonna with the Infant Christ and_ _two adoring Angels_; _Forever Free_; _Hiawatha"s Wooing_; a bust of _Longfellow, the Poet_; a bust of _John Brown_; and a medallion portrait of _Wendell Phillips_. The _Madonna_ was purchased by the Marquis of Bute, Disraeli"s Lothair.
She has been well received in Rome, and her studio has become an object of interest to travellers from all countries.
Of late many intelligent young Colored women have risen to take their places in society, and as wives and mothers are doing much to elevate the tone of the race and its homes. Great care must be given to the education of the Colored women of America; for virtuous, intelligent, educated, cultured, and pious wives and mothers are the hope of the Negro race. Without them educated Colored men and the miraculous results of emanc.i.p.ation will go for nothing.
FOOTNOTES:
[123] Hiram R. Revels was the successor of Mr. Jefferson Davis. He was a Methodist preacher from Mississippi. It was our privilege to be present in the Senate when he was sworn in and took his seat.
[124] This idea had been put forth in a speech by Alexander H.
Stephens just after he had been chosen Vice-president of the Confederate States.
[125] My Bondage and My Freedom, p. 396.
[126] While this history is pa.s.sing through the press, the sad intelligence comes of the death, after a painful illness, of his beloved wife. All through her life she was justly proud of her husband and children; and she leaves a precious memory.
[127] Mr. Greener was turned back one year upon the ground of alleged imperfection in mathematics; but it was done in support of an old theory, long since exploded, that the Negro has no capacity for the solution of mathematical problems. We know this to be the case. But the charming nature and natural pluck of young Greener brought him out at last without a blemish in any of his studies.
[128] Biography is quite a different thing from history; and the Colored men who may imagine themselves neglected ought to remember that this is a _History of the Negro Race_. We have mentioned these men as representative of several cla.s.ses.