The people had received, in some way or other, a love of education and a start in obtaining it under the old slave system, so that when the new chance came they were ready to make a good use of it.
G. S. d.i.c.kERMAN.
BOOK REVIEWS
_The Centennial History of Illinois, Volume III. The Era of the Civil War 1848-1870._ By ARTHUR CHARLES COLE. The Illinois Centennial Commission, Springfield, Illinois, 1919.
This volume of this work deals with the period of the most dramatic history of the State. After discussing the frontier and the rise of railroads, the author directs his attention to the agitation and compromise of 1850, the origin of the Republican party, the Lincoln-Dougla.s.s Debates, the election of 1860, the appeal to arms, the war in Illinois, new abolitionists and copperheads, and the war in its relation to agriculture and the industrial revolution. The book is ill.u.s.trated with such portraits as those of Abraham Lincoln, Stephen A. Dougla.s.s, Lyman Trumbull and Richard Yates. There are maps showing the foreign-born population in 1860, the presidential election in 1848, the vote for treasurer in 1854, the vote for congressmen in 1858, the vote on the const.i.tution in 1862, the vote for congressmen-at-large in 1860, and the presidential election in 1868.
The volume closes with an adequate bibliography and a useful index.
As a book on the Civil War is not uncommon, one does not ordinarily expect many things new from such a volume inasmuch as most of them cover familiar ground. In connecting the history of Illinois with the national drama of Civil War, however, the author has brought forward facts which, although belonging to local history, have a national significance and historians will make use of them, although they will not agree with him in all of his views. The scientific use which he has made of the newspaper material of that day is especially commendable. He has, moreover, shown that this history was as economic as political. Good farms and roads figured as conspicuously as efficient generals and wise statesmen.
There is some mention of the Negro as a human element. Sympathy for the race, "whether the southern slave or the northern victim of the black laws, was aroused by _Uncle Tom"s Cabin in 1852_." Thereafter came the effort to secure for the blacks equal rights before the law but because of opposition to them in southern Illinois the black code could not be easily repealed, for race hatred often broke out in southern towns as in the case of Mound City, which in 1857 undertook to drive out all Negroes. The author mentions also such strivings of the Negroes as the efforts of the members of the race in Chicago to defend their rights by protesting against the oppression through local indignation meetings and the Colored National Convention in Cleveland in 1848. Their Chicago Literary Society condemned the Fugitive Slave Law, they organized to resist colonizationists and kidnappers, and at the outbreak of the war organized a military force to fight for their own freedom.
_The National Encyclopedia of the Colored Race._ Volume I. By CLEMENT RICHARDSON, Editor-in-Chief. The National Publishing Company, Montgomery, Alabama, 1919.
This is a fair effort at local and national biography with no pretense to scientific treatment. Some attention is given also to religious and educational inst.i.tutions. Apparently almost any one financially able to aid the enterprise or sufficiently influential to have his sketch incorporated into the work appears in this volume. One man"s achievements seemed to count for about as much as those of another and the law of proportion was disregarded. There are farmers, business men, ministers, physicians, dentists, lawyers and the like, many of whom are well known and others who have made no impression upon the world except to complete a course in an inst.i.tution of learning and to use the knowledge thus acquired in making a living. The world has never heard of some of them and they will, of course, thank the editor for this publicity.
The aim of this work, according to the editor, is to inform and inspire. He complains that the ordinary work of this kind has merely had information for its purpose. As the only sure hope the black American can entertain for immediate notice comes through committing crime, the editor here endeavors to treat the records of a large number of Negroes who, because of their color, would never have a hearing. The aim of the book too is not only to inform the white race but it is to introduce Negroes to one another. To be properly inspired they need to be better informed as to what the ambitious members of the race are doing in their various fields of endeavor. An effort is made to get away from former biographical works largely given to eulogy of individuals unduly advertised. The aim seems rather to idealize the life of obscure men, who have achieved merit in applying themselves to the ordinary duties of life. Referring to the failure to treat more extensively the biographical material of the whole race the editor states that such accounts cannot be secured in many instances for the reason that, some are indifferent to fame, experience a shrinking from publicity, or are too busy to give attention to matters of this kind. The defects of this book, however, cannot be excused on this ground.
On the whole, the book has a value. It is fairly well printed, is adequately ill.u.s.trated, and is readable. Although much of the information given is not now uninteresting it will in the course of time serve as a valuable source book.
_The Man Next Door._ By A. B. JACKSON, M.D. Neaula Publishing Company, Philadelphia, Pa., 1919. Pp. 253.
This is another work on the much mooted question, the Negro problem.
There was in the mind of the author some doubt as to whether or not he should make an apology for adding another such work to the many volumes written in this field. Observing, however, that the discussions of the race problem have in the past done some good as well as harm, he here endeavors to present an up-to-date discussion from a new point of view in order to conform with the exigencies of the day. The aim is to direct special attention to the failure to recognize the Negro as a human a.s.set with untold economic possibilities. He believes that the matter of race values and interdependency of all races must find "a definite and a.s.suredly positive place in the various policies of any nation which is made up of several race groups." In one sense the author believes that "racial conflict, strife and differences inspiring as they do, struggle, jealousy, and ambition, are essential to the progress of the whole group of mankind." He insists, however, that struggle should be a friendly rivalry out of which shall be woven a strong and everlasting national fabric consistent with impressing and a.s.suring the perpetuation of the various policies which guarantee national honor and uplift.
The author believes that the one great hope for the Negro is to make himself an economic a.s.set to his country. When this is accomplished, there will be little doubt as to the possibility of his securing full recognition as a citizen. He does not deplore the presence of obstacles but rather thinks that the salvation of the race will be in developing in the midst of this struggle the power to overcome these obstacles. It is suggested that the discussion of these matters should be dispa.s.sionate and efforts for adjustment should be based upon reason rather than upon sentiment. To show exactly how this can be done the author has directed his attention to such questions as citizenship, and patriotism, the producer and the consumer, the Negro and his church, and educational a.s.sets. The question is further treated under such captions as race consciousness, health and economics, tuberculosis a great waste, rent and ownership, and business development. The book closes with observations on racial grouping, political status, and the follies of prejudice.
_Darkwater._ By W. E. B. DUBOIS. Harcourt, Brace and Howe, New York, 1920. Pp. 276.
This work is a collection of essays by the well-known author of _Souls of Black Folk_, _The Philadelphia Negro_, _The Suppression of the African Slave Trade_, and _The Negro_. The aim of the work is to show that the Negro problem is essentially connected with the problem of work or wages or education and government which, when solved, will mean also the solution of the race problem. To give his point of view, the author, therefore, describes his childhood, training, and outlook on the world as a Negro. To show the "vast emotional content of the social problem, he has inserted between the chapters, bits of poetry and fancy which interpret the bewilderment, the disappointment, the longing and the faith of millions of men. The work ends with a brief philosophy of duty and death and a story and a hymn looking toward human unity.
This book, therefore, follows the trend of thought characteristic of Dr. DuBois. As in the beautifully written essays ent.i.tled _Souls of Black Folk_ he has here put himself forward as a person representative of millions of black men seriously suffering from social proscription.
Although his contention that the race problem is interwoven with the economic problems of the country is presented as the reason for directing more attention to this problem, the author does not treat the race question from an economic point of view. This has been the defect of the historical works which Dr. DuBois has written. He is at best a popular essayist with a bit of poetic genius. In all of his discussions of the race problem his mind has not as yet been adequate to the task of scientific treatment of the question. _The Suppression of the African Slave Trade_ is a literary compilation or digest of State and national legislation to curb an evil, but it does not exhibit any relief or a unifying influence. _The Philadelphia Negro_ is an ordinary report on social conditions which a local secretary of the Urban League could now compile in almost any large city in about three or six months and his _The Negro_ is merely a summary of a number of popular works setting forth such history of Africa as a few travellers have been able to learn from the outside. It is hoped, therefore, that Dr. DuBois will take his task more seriously that he may finally write a scholarly economic treatise in this long neglected field.
NOTES
The next annual meeting of the a.s.sociation for the Study of Negro Life and History will convene in Washington, D. C., next November. All inst.i.tutions interested in the teaching of Negro life and history will be invited to send representatives to this meeting to confer as to the best methods of prosecuting studies in this neglected field. The session will cover two days to be devoted to addresses by the best thinkers of the country. The official program will appear within a few weeks.
The ill.u.s.trated textbook in Negro history by Dr. C. G. Woodson has been further delayed by disturbances among the printers. It is hoped that it will appear before the end of the year.
A. B. Caldwell, of Atlanta, has published Volume III (South Carolina edition) of what he calls the _History of the American Negro_.
THE JOURNAL
OF
NEGRO HISTORY
VOL. V--JULY, 1920--NO. 3
THE SLAVE IN CANADA
PREFACE
When engaged in a certain historical inquiry, I found occasion to examine the magnificent collection of the Canadian Archives at Ottawa, a collection which ought not to be left unexamined by anyone writing on Canada. In that inquiry I discovered the proceedings in the case of Chloe Cooley set out in Chapter V of the text. This induced me to make further researches on the subject of slavery in Upper Canada. The result was incorporated in a paper, _The Slave in Upper Canada_, read before the Royal Society of Canada in May 1919, and subsequently published in the JOURNAL OF NEGRO HISTORY for October, 1919. Some of the Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada and the editor of the JOURNAL OF NEGRO HISTORY have asked me to expand the paper. The present work is the result.
I have spent many happy hours in the Canadian Archives and have read all and copied most of the doc.u.ments referred to in this book; but I cannot omit to thank the officers at Ottawa for their courtesy in forwarding my labor of love, in furnishing me with copies, photographic and otherwise, and in unearthing interesting facts. It will not be considered invidious if I mention William Smith, Esq., I.S.O. and Miss Smillie, M.A., as specially helpful. My thanks are also due to Messrs. Herrington, K.C., of Napanee, F. Landon, M.A., of London, Mrs. Hallam and Mrs. Seymour Corley of Toronto, General Cruikshank of Ottawa, the Very Reverend Dean Raymond of Victoria, as well as to many others of whose labors I have taken advantage. This general acknowledgment will, I trust, be accepted in lieu of special and particular acknowledgment from time to time.
The chapter on the Maritime Provinces is almost wholly taken from the Reverend Dr. T. Watson Smith"s paper on _Slavery in Canada_ in the _Nova Scotia Historical Society"s Collections_, Vol. X, Halifax, 1899.
CHAPTER I
BEFORE THE CONQUEST
That slavery existed in Canada before its conquest by Britain in 1759-60, there can be no doubt, although curiously enough it has been denied by some historians and essayists.[1] The first Negro slave of which any account is given was brought to Quebec by the English in 1628. He was a young man from Madagascar and was sold in Quebec for 50 half crowns.[2] Sixty years thereafter in 1688, Denonville, the Governor and DeChampigny, the Intendant of New France, wrote to the French Secretary of State, complaining of the dearness and scarcity of labor, agricultural and domestic, and suggesting that the best remedy would be to have Negro slaves. If His Majesty would agree to that course, some of the princ.i.p.al inhabitants would have some bought in the West Indies on the arrival of the Guinea ships. The minister replied in 1689 in a note giving the King"s consent but drawing attention to the danger of the slaves coming from so different a climate dying in Canada and thereby rendering the experiment of no avail.[3]
The Indians were accustomed to make use of slaves, generally if not universally of those belonging to other tribes: and the French Canadians frequently bought Indian slaves from the aborigines. These were called "Panis."[4] It would seem that a very few Indians were directly enslaved by the inhabitants: but the chief means of acquiring Panis was purchase from _les sauvages_.
The property in slaves was well recognized in International Law. We find that in the Treaty of Peace and Neutrality in America signed at London, November 16, 1686,[5] between the Kings of France and England, which James II had arranged shortly after attaining the throne, Article 10 provides that the subjects of neither nation should take away the savage inhabitants, or their slaves or the goods which the savages had taken belonging to the subjects of either nation, and that they should give no a.s.sistance or protection to such raids and pillage. In 1705 it was decided that Negroes in America were "moveables," meubles, corresponding in substance to what is called "personal property" in the English law.[6] This decision was on the _Coutume de Paris_, the law of New France.