UponTheseShores
Publishedin2000by Routledge 711ThirdAvenue
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LibraryofCongresscataloging-in-PublicationData
Scott,WilliamR (WilliamRandolph),1940–Upontheseshores:themesintheAfrican-Americanexperience,1600tothepresen/WilliamR ScottandWilliamG Shade pcm
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex ISBN0–415–92406–5 ISBN0–415–92407–2(pbk.)
1 Afro-Americans History 2 Afro-Americans Histroriography I Shade,WilliamG II Title E185S4162000 973’0496073 dc21
99–034688
Tothestudentsandstaff ofthe UnitedNegroCollegeFund and AndrewW.MellonMinorityFellowsProgram
voyagethroughdeath tolifeupontheseshores
From“MiddlePassage” byRobertHayden
Foreword
WilliamH.GrayIII
ChronologyofAfrican-AmericanHistory
Introduction
The Long Rugged Road
WilliamR.ScottandWilliamG.Shade
part1.outofafrica
1. Africa,theSlaveTrade,andtheDiaspora JosephC.Miller
part2.this“peculiarinstitution”
2. CreatingaBiracialSociety,1619–1720
JeanR.Soderlund
3. AfricansinEighteenth-CenturyNorthAmerica
PeterH.Wood
4. InSearchofFreedom
Slave Life in the Antebellum South NorreceT.JonesJr.
5. “ThoughWeAreNotSlaves,WeAreNotFree” Quasi-Free Blacks in Antebellum America
WilliamG.Shade
part3.thereconstructionandbeyond
6. FullofFaith,FullofHope
The African-American Experience from Emancipation to Segregation ArmsteadL.Robinson
7. BlacksintheEconomyfromReconstructiontoWorldWarI GeraldD.Jaynes
8. InSearchofthePromisedLand
Black Migration and Urbanization, 1900–1940 CaroleC.Marks
9. FromBookerT.toMalcolmX
Black Political Thought, 1895-1965
WilsonJ.Moses
10. Rights,Power,andEquality
The Modern Civil Rights Movement
EdwardP.Morgan
part4.african-americanidentityandculture
11. The Sounds ofBlackness
African-American Music
WaldoF.MartinJr.
12. BlackVoices
Themes in African-American Literature
GeraldEarly
13. BlackReligiousTraditions
Sacred and Secular Themes
GayraudS.Wilmore
part5.family,class,andgender
14. African-AmericanFamilyLifeinSocietalContext
Crisis and Hope
WalterR.Allen
15. FromBlackBourgeoisietoAfrican-AmericanMiddleClass,1957tothePresent
RobertGregg
16. TheNewUnderclass
Concentrated Black Poverty in the Postindustrial City
JohnF.Bauman
17. BlackFeminismintheUnitedStates
BeverlyGuy-Sheftan
part6.thepostwaragenda
18. AfricanAmericansandEducationsincetheBrownDecisions
A Contextual View
StephenN.Butler
19. AftertheMovement
African Americans and Civil Rights since 1970
DonaldG.Nieman
20. TheQuestforBlackEquity
African-American Politics since the Voting Rights Act of 1965
LawrenceJ.Hanks
21. BlackInternationalism
African Americans and Foreign Policy Activism
WilliamR.Scott
Afterword
The Future of African Americans
CharlesV:Hamilton
NotesonContributors
Foreword
WilliamH.GrayIII
ITGIVESMEGREATPLEASURE towritethisforewordtoanimportantIandtimelybookon Americans of African descent This anthology on I various aspects of the black experience,pastandpresent,appearstowardtheendofaneraofenormouschangein thestatusofAmerica’slargestracialminority Theessaysinthiscollectionareinformedbya deepsenseofthelongjourneyourpeoplehavetraveledsincebeingforciblybroughttothese shoresinchains Itisfittingthatthisbookshouldappearattheendofthetwentiethcentury because these are both triumphant and troublesome times for black Americans We must pauseatthispointandreflectonbothourtrialsandourtriumphsandhowwemustconfront remainingchallenges
As we try to judge the position of African Americans in today’s world and look toward reaching the goal of a truly color-blind society, we must begin with a clear view of the vibrant history of the African-American community and the diversity of African-American experience.WhenonelooksattheimagesofblackAmericacarriedaroundtheglobebythe miracleoftelevision,itiseasytoforgetthatthesepowerfulimagesfailtorepresentthelives ofthevastmajorityofAfricanAmericansandconsequentlywhowereallyare.
During my lifetime legal segregation has ended and wide areas of opportunity have opened Inthelasttwenty-fiveyears,forinstance,AfricanAmericansgainedfargreaterequal access to education. The result was more equitable opportunities in kindergarten, in elementaryschool,injuniorhighandhighschoolthatpermittedconsiderablylargernumbers ofAfricanAmericanstoearncollegedegrees.Yetinnumerousways,bothlargeandsmall, white racism remains to constrict the aspirations of black Americans and cast a shadow on the American dream The combination of economic and educational deprivation has had devastating consequences for African Americans consequences that can’t be erased in a fewdecades
ButwehavecomeamightylongwayinthehalfcenturysinceIwasborn.Icanremember having to ride in the back of the bus. I can remember drinking from a “colored” water fountain ButwhenIrecallthepast,Imarvelathowfarwe’vecome Think:intheyearIwas born,morethan90percentofallAfricanAmericanswerelivingbelowthepovertyline.As thisdecadebeganthatlevelwasaboutone-third Butthatisstilltoohigh,particularywhen thenationalaverageislessthan15percent.Westillhavealongwaytogo.
AfricanAmericansmakeup10percentoftheworkforce butcompriseonly2percentof thescientistsandengineers African-Americanseventeenyearsoldsread,onaverage,atthe level of white thirteen year olds. While African-Americans’ scores on the college board exams went up 45 points in the 1980s, the total number earning bachelor’s degrees fell 8 percent The reason is no mystery In the 1980s the cost of higher education increased 50 percent, but spending on support of education, at least at the federal level, decreased 50 percent And African-American families, whose assets average a tenth of that of white families,simplycan’taffordtosendtheirchildrentocollegewithouthelp.
Fortunately, the 1990s witnessed new and sustained growth in the black student population AfricanAmericanscontinuedtoimprovetheirSATscores,andthegapbetween thescoresofwhitestudentsandblackstudentsnarrowedconsiderably.Inthefirsthalfofthe
decade the number of bachelor’s degrees awarded, which had remained practically static in the 1980s, jumped by nearly 40 percent. Clearly some African Americans primarily the black middle class have benefited from the economic boom of the 1990s, and as we approachtheendofthedecadeandthetwentiethcentury,thenumberofAfricanAmericans enrolled in higher education two-year and four-year colleges and graduate school nears thetwomillionmark
AnotherfigurecapturesthepathosandpainthatmanyblackAmericanshaveexperienced. In 1991, there were 136,000 African-American males between eighteen and twenty-four in prison, and 378,000 black males the same age in college The number of black youths in higher education exceeds those in jail, but just think what the cost of such a high rate of incarceration means not to one community, but to this great society that must compete in a newworldrealityinthetwenty-firstcentury.
Lookingatthosetrends,andalsolookingatwherethiscountryneededtogo,Idecidedto leave government and devote my life to promoting black education Historically black colleges still graduate one-third of all African Americans with baccalaureate degrees. At UnitedNegroCollegeFundschools,forty-oneofthemprivate,enrollmenthasincreasedby 20 percent in the past five years twice the national rate. Ninety percent of the UNCF studentsreceivefinancialaid.Buttheaverageendowmentperstudentatourcollegesisonly one-thirdtheaverageforprivatefour-yearcolleges
And the cost of education has gone up across the board. Again, fortunately, the general economic situation and the support provided higher education by the recent administration has changed the picture. While unemployment has reached new lows, young black men continue to struggle. The inability to find work, often a direct result of poor primary education that plagues our hyper-segregated inner cities, blights the lives of too many and adds to the swelling prison population. Nonetheless, earlier reports turn out to have been exaggeratedandthepositivecollegeenrollmenttrendsofthe1990shaveproducedasituation in which the black male college population is two and a half times the black prison population. Aside from the increasing numbers of African Americans attending and graduating from colleges and universities (most of which are public institutions), a larger proportion are in four-year schools, and there is only a modest difference in the proportion going to graduate school, thanks in part to programs such as that sponsored by the Mellon Foundationatprivateblackcollegesanduniversities
In the next century, we will face keen competition from abroad. A united European communityhasbecomeapoliticalreality EconomicgoliathsonthePacificrimwillbeour majoreconomiccompetitors.Americacannotaffordtoenterthetwenty-firstcenturywithout applyingallofitsbrainpower.Thatmeansmakingsurethatunderprivileged,disadvantaged, and yes, the underclass, locked in our urban inner cities and in our rural poor areas, get a chancetobecomecompetent,productive,andcontributingmembersofoursociety.
If we do not broaden our nation’s opportunities, then we will fail in our mission John Akers, president of IBM, has accurately stated, “If we are to be competitive in the next centurywemusthavecompetentworkers.”Andinthenextcenturymorethan80percentof allthenewworkforcewillcomefromthreegroups:women,minorities,andnewimmigrants Itjustmakesgoodsensetoinvestineducationandprovideopportunityforanewgeneration ifwearetohavegrowthandopportunityforallAmericans
There is a significant threat, though, to these institutions, and a threat to our society in workingtogethertoredressthepastinequitiesofoursociety.It’swhatIcallthe“color-blind” argument,whichgoessomethinglikethis:wemusthaveacolor-blindsociety Wasthatnot thegoaloftheCivilRightsmovement?WasthatnotthegoalandthedreamofMartinLuther King Jr, where all would be judged by individual merit and by “the content of their character”? Wasn’t that the dream and the ultimate goal? Therefore, the argument says that
today we must eliminate all race-conscious and race-specific remedies such as affirmative actionandhiringgoalsfortheprivateandpublicsectors.Codewords,suchas“quotas,”are devisedtoimplythatunfairadvantagesarebeinggiventounqualifiedminoritycandidates
The underlying assumption is that after three and one-half centuries of slavery and legalizedsegregation,inthelastthreedecadesenoughprogresshasbeenmadetobalancethe playing field and thus there is no longer need for any compensatory action In fact, such compensatory actions may in and of themselves be the root cause of future discrimination. Well, most Americans believe that we should strive for a color-blind society. And all of us believeultimatelythatshouldbethegoal Butthereisaquestion:Canweseriouslybelieve thatinthirtyyearswehavebeenabletoundoalltheeffectsofmorethanthreehundredand fiftyyearsofdegradation?
I want you to understand, I agree with Martin Luther King Jr. that our goal should be a color-blindsociety. ButIalso know thatitwasjustthirty yearsago when black citizenship rights were curtailed by law in this country simply because of skin color And if all compensatory remedies are stopped today, you would still leave in place many of the centuries-oldinequities Thereareexamplesofprogress,butthefactremainsthatifwestop strugglingforjustice,thenwewillfailtoproduceasocietywithtrueequalityofopportunity andturnourbacksonthepromisesoftheDeclarationofIndependence.
Onemustrecognizethatitwasonlythirty-fiveyearsagowhenCongresspassedthepublic accommodations bill and made it possible for me to stay in the Holiday Inn in Mississippi. Anditwasnotuntil1965whenCongressguaranteedthatsomeoneofmycolorinAlabama couldgotothepollsandvoteforelectedofficials.Ithinkthatitisobviousthatyoucannot reverse three and a half centuries in one-quarter of a century. It takes time to redress past inequities
Aretherenewmethodologiesthatwemayhavetoemploytomakegreaterprogress?Why, yes,wehavetodothat,andwehavetoworkthoseouttogetherasapeopleandnotplayupon the fears of one another. If we play upon the fears of each other, then we will allow those who’vebecomebatteredandembitteredinbothofourcommunitiestotakecenterstage.That wouldbeagreattragedy Wemustreachacommonagenda,anagendathatbindsusasclose as we were in the struggle for equal justice thirty and forty years ago. We may have disagreementsonstrategies,butwecanneverdisagreeontheultimategoalofacolor-blind society
Withinourcountry,workingthroughthechurchesandschools,weneedtobuildbridgesof understandingbetweenthediverseethnicandreligiouscommunitiesthatcomprisetheUnited Statesbyeducatingeachcommunityabouttheother.Understandingisbaseduponeducation. Wemustlearnanothercommunity’sbackgroundifwearetounderstanditspeople.Wemust strive to appreciate their sufferings and achievements We must hasten to comprehend both the simplicity and the complexity of their lives and open our minds to imagine seeing their worldastheyseeit,whethertheyarerichorpoor,orofhighstationinlifeorlow Wemust trytodreamtheirdreamsandsuffertheirdisappointmentsandmisfortunes.
This book offers the opportunity for knowledge, education, and understanding. It allows the opportunity for African Americans, my brothers and sisters, to look into their past and examine the complexity of their community and thus better understand themselves. It presentsinformationandguidanceforthosefromothercommunitiesandculturesthatmake up our vast multicultural nation to open their minds to our history, open their hearts to our afflictions,andopentheireyestoourachievements.
These essays enable the readers to penetrate deeply into our experience by studying its profundityanditscomplexity.Theywillbeabletoconfronttheessentiallyparadoxicalnature oftheblackconditionexpressedbyW E B DuBoisasour“doubleconsciousness”Ashe wrote,nearlyacenturyagoin The Souls of Black Folk:
The history of the American Negro is the history of this strife, this longing to attain self-conscious manhood, to mergehisdoubleselfintoabetterandtruerself Inthismerginghewishesneitheroftheolderselvestobelost He would not Africanize America, for America has too much to teach the world and Africa He would not bleach his NegrosoulinafloodofwhiteAmericanism,forheknowsthatNegrobloodhasamessagefortheworld Hesimply wishestomakeitpossibleforamantobebothaNegroandanAmerican,withoutbeingcursedandspituponbyhis fellows,withouthavingthedoorsofopportunityclosedroughlyinhisface
ChronologyofAfrican-AmericanHistory
900
1203
1230
1305
1324–1325
1415
1442
1444
1450s
1464
1468
1486
RiseinWestAfricaofthekingdomofGhana.
ConquestofGhanabySumanguru,kingoftheSossoempire
RiseofMali,thesuccessorstatetoGhana,andaccessionofSundiata, whodefeatedtheSossoandruledovertheSudanicareaofWestAfrica untilhisdeathabout1260
ReportsofexpeditionssentacrosstheAtlanticbyAbuBakariII,kingof Mali
PilgrimagetoMeccaofMusaI,themostrenownedmansaofMali
PortuguesemilitaryexpeditioncapturesCeuta,thenorthernterminusof severaltrans-SaharancaravanroutesinMorocco
PortuguesebringfirstAfricanslavestoEurope.
ThefirstPortuguesecontactsaremadewithsub-SaharanAfricainitiating theseizureandenslavementofWestAfricansinEurope
PortugueseestablishtradingpostsalongtheWestAfricancoast.
AccessionofSonniAliofSonghai
MaliisconqueredbySonniAliandabsorbedbySonghai,thelargestof theWestAfricanempires,whichlastedfrom1450to1800.
ThePortuguesestartasettlementatSãoToméintheGulfofGuineaand importAfricanslavesassugarplantationlaborers.
1488 BartholomeuDiasroundstheCapeofGoodHope.
1492 ColumbusreachestheNewWorldandclaimsitonbehalfofSpain
AnAfrican,PedroAlonsoNino,isamongColumbus’screw Other AfricanslateraccompaniedBalboa,PonceDeLeon,Cortez,Pizarro,and Menendez
1493
1501
1538
PopeAlexanderVIissuesaproclamationdividingnewlydiscovered landsintheAmericas,Africa,andAsiabetweenSpainandPortugal, whichisratifiedayearlaterbytheTreatyofTordesillas
SpanishmerchantsreceivelicensesfromtheCrowntoimportAfrican slavestotheCaribbeanislandofHispaniola,thusstartingtheslavetrade totheAmericas
Estevanico,anAfricanemployedinSpain’sservice,exploresandclaims
1619
1641
1676
1688
1712
1739
1741
1770
forMadridtheareaoftheUnitedStatesthatisnowArizonaandNew Mexico.
ThefirstAfricanslavestakentoJamestown,Virginia,andsoldas indenturedservants
MassachusettsbecomesfirstmainlandcolonyinBritishNorthAmericato recognizeslaveryinitslegalcode Connecticutfollowedin1650; Virginiain1661;Marylandin1663;NewYorkandNewJerseyin1664; SouthCarolinain1682;RhodeIslandandPennsylvaniain1700;North Carolinain1715;andGeorgiain1750
Bacon’sRebellionoccursinVirginia.
QuakersandMennonitesinGermantown,Pennsylvania,makefirst antislaveryprotestinWesternHemisphere.
SlavesrevoltinNewYorkCity.
SlavesrebelalongtheStonoRiverinSouthCarolina
SlaverevoltscareinNewYorkCityleadstoexecutionofthirty-one slavesandfivewhites.
CrispusAttuckskilledintheBostonMassacre
1773 PhillisWheatley’sbook, Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral,published
1775
1776
1777
1780
1787
ContinentalCongressbarsBlacksfromservinginContinentalArmy. LordDunmoreoffersfreedomtoslaveswhowillsupporttheCrown FirstAmericanantislaverysocietyisfoundedinPhiladelphia
ContinentalCongressapprovesGeorgeWashington’sordertoencourage enlistmentoffreeblacksintheContinentalArmy Declarationof IndependenceacceptedaftertheContinentalCongressremoved Jefferson’sprotestagainsttheslavetrade.
Vermontbecomesthefirststatetoabolishslavery;followedby Massachusettsin1780andNewHampshirein1783. ConnecticutandRhodeIslandbarslaveryin1784.
Pennsylvaniaprovidesforgradualemancipation Similargradual emancipationplanswereadoptedbyNewYorkin1799andNewJersey in1804,althoughtherewereasaconsequencestillslavesinNewJersey whentheThirteenthAmendmentwaspassedin1865
NorthwestOrdinancepassedoutlawingslaveryintheterritorynorthof theOhioRiver.
RichardAllenandAbsolomJonesfoundPhiladelphia’sFreeAfrican Society
PrinceHallestablishesAfricanLodgeNo 459,thefirstBlackMasonic LodgeintheUnitedStates.
UnitedStatesConstitutionwrittenwithnodirectreferencetoslavery,but
1791
1793
1794
1800
1804
1808
clausesprovidingthat:theslavetradecouldexistuntil1807;provision couldbemadefortherenditionoffugitiveslaves;andthatthree-fifthsof theslaveswouldbecountedindeterminingthenumberofdelegatesto theHouseofRepresentativesfromeachstateandthenumberof presidentialelectors.
RevoltledbyToussaintL’OuverturebeginsinSanDomingueto overthrowFrenchrule.
EliWhitneyinventsthecottonginmakingpossiblethedevelopmentof theCottonKingdomoftheLowerSouth CongresspassesthefirstFugitiveSlaveLaw
AbsolomJones,thefirstblackordainedEpiscopalministerinAmerica, foundsFirstAfricanChurchofSt ThomasinPhiladelphia
RichardAllenandhisfollowersorganizeBethelAfricanMethodist EpiscopalChurchinPhiladelphia
ZionMethodistChurchestablishedinNewYorkCity BostonAfricanSocietyfounded
GabrielProsser’sslaveconspiracyuncoveredinRichmond,Virginia.
JeanJacqueDessalinesproclaimstheindependenceofHaitiasthesecond republicestablishedintheWesternHemisphere. OhioenactsthefirstofthenorthernBlackLaws,whichrestrictedthe rightsandmovementoffreeblacks.
UnitedStatesendsthelegalimportationofslaves
1811 LargestslaverevoltintheUnitedStatestakesplaceinLouisiana.
1816
1820
1822
1827
1829
1830
1831
AfricanMethodistEpiscopalChurchisorganizedatageneralconvention inPhiladelphia
TheAmericanSocietyfortheColonizationofFreePeopleofColor, commonlycalledtheAmericanColonizationSociety,isorganizedin BaltimoretotransportfreeblackstoAfrica
MissouriCompromiseadmitsMissouriasaslavestateandMaineasa freestateandprohibitsslaveryinthatportionoftheLouisianaPurchase above3630’
DenmarkVesey’sslaveconspiracyinCharleston,SouthCarolina,is uncoveredandsuppressed.TheSouthCarolinalegislaturepassesin responsethefirstNegroSeamen’sAct
Freedom’s Journal,thefirstAfrican-Americannewspaper,establishedin NewYorkCity
PublicationofDavidWalker’s Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World.
FirstNationalNegroConventionmeetsatPhiladelphia’sBethelChurch
AbolitionistsWilliamLloydGarrisonestablishes The Liberator.
1833
1836
1839
1845
1846
1848
1850
1851
1852
1853
1854
1855
1857
1859
1860
NatTurnerleadsaslaverevoltinSouthamptonCounty,Virginia,killing 56whites.Turnerwasexecutedandskinnedandovertwohundred AfricanAmericanswerekilled
AmericanAntislaverySocietyorganizedinPhiladelphia ParliamentpassestheactabolishingslaveryintheBritishEmpirethe followingyear.
HousepassestheGagRule,whichrestricteddebateonpetitionsrelating toslavery.ItwasreenactedwitheachnewcongressuntilDecember, 1844.
TheLibertyParty,whichwastheonlyantebellumpartydedicatedtothe abolitionofslaveryandtheprotectionoftherightsoffreeblacks, organizesinWarsaw,NewYork
Publicationofthe Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave.
TheWilmotProvisotorestrictslaveryfromterritoryacquiredasaresult oftheMexicanWarisintroducedintoCongress.
FreeSoilPartyorganizedinBuffalo,NewYork.
Compromiseof1850passes,bringingCaliforniaintotheUnionasafree stateandoutlawingtheslavetradeintheDistrictofColumbia,butalso openingUtahandNewMexicoterritoriestoslaveryandenactinganew pro-slaveryfugitiveslavelaw.
Christiana“Riot”inPennsylvaniainwhichaslaveholderwaskilled attemptingtoapprehendseveralfugitiveslavesunderthenewlaw
Publicationof Uncle Tom’s Cabin byHarrietBeecherStowe.
PublicationofWilliamWellsBrown’s Clotel: The President’s Daughter, thefirstnovelpublishedbyanAfricanAmerican
AnthonyBurns,afugitiveslave,isreturnedfromBostontoVirginiaby US Army,Marines,andNavyunderordersfromPresidentFranklin Pierce.
Kansas-NebraskaActrepealstheMissouriCompromiseandopensthe LouisianaPurchaseareatoslavery.
JohnMercerLangstoniselectedclerkofBrownhelmTownshipinLorain County,Ohio,thefirstAfricanAmericanelectedtopoliticalofficeinthe UnitedStates
Dred Scottv Sanford deniesthatfreeblackswereevercitizensand declaredtheMissouriCompromiseunconstitutionalopeningthe territoriestoslavery
JohnBrownraidstheHarper’sFerryarsenalinVirginiahopingtostarta broadslaverevolt Hewashangedfortreasonagainstthestate
AbrahamLincolnelectedpresident
1861
1862
1863
SouthCarolinasecedesfromtheUnion
ConfederateStatesofAmericaisestablishedfollowingthesecessionof theotherstatesoftheLowerSouth.
TheConfederategovernmentattacksFortSumterbeginningtheCivil War Lincoln’scallfortroopstosuppresstherebellionprovokesthe secessionofVirginia,NorthCarolina,Tennessee,andArkansas. SerfdomisabolishedinRussiabyCzarAlexanderII.
African-AmericansoldiersenlistedintheUnionArmy SlaveryisabolishedintheterritoriesoftheUnitedStatesandtheDistrict ofColumbia
LincolnissuestheEmancipationProclamationfreeingtheslavesheldin theareasinrebellionagainsttheUnitedStates
1865 CivilWarends.
TheBureauofRefugees,Freedmen,andAbandonedLands(Freedmen’s Bureau)established.
BlackCodespassedbyall-whitegovernmentsofthesouthern ThirteenthAmendmentendingslaveryintheUnitedStatesisratified.
1865–1866
1866
1867
1868
TheKuKluxKlan,themostimportantoftheseveralwhite,racist paramilitarygroupscreatedbyex-rebelsisfoundedbyex-Confederate GeneralNathanBedfordForrestinPulaski,Tennessee.
CongresspassesCivilRightsbillovervetoofPresidentAndrewJohnson CongresspassesSupplementaryFreedmen’sBureauActovervetoof PresidentJohnson.
RiotsinMemphisandNewOrleans.
CongressgivesBlackmenthevoteintheDistrictofColumbia CongresspassesinitialReconstructionacts.
Constitutionalconventionschosenbyuniversalmanhoodsuffragemeetin theformerConfederatestates Theproportionofblackmembersof conventionsrangedfrom10percentinTexasto61percentinSouth Carolina
HouseofRepresentativesimpeachesAndrewJohnson.TheSenate acquitshimbyonevote.
Arkansas,NorthCarolina,SouthCarolina,Louisiana,Alabama,and FloridareadmittedtotheUnion
FourteenthAmendmentnationalizingAmericancitizenshipand guaranteeingfederalprotectionoftheFreedmen’scivilrightsisratified.
1870 Theremainingex-Confederatestates Virginia,Mississippi,Texas,and Georgia arereadmittedtotheUnion HiramR RevelsofMississippibecomesthefirstAfrican-AmericanUS Senator.
FifteenthAmendmentprohibitingthestatesfromdenyingAfrican Americansthevoteisratified
1872
1874
1875
1876–1877
1877
Thefirstofthreeacts sometimestermedtheKuKluxKlanActs passedtoenforcetheFifteenthAmendment.
JosephH.RaineyofSouthCarolinabecomesthefirstAfricanAmerican electedtotheHouseofRepresentatives.
FrederickDouglasspresidesoverColoredNationalConvention
DemocratswinamajorityintheHouseofRepresentatives.
GraduallythewhiteDemocratsweretakingovertheex-Confederatestate governmentsandundoingReconstructionintheSouth,achieving majoritiesinTennessee(1869);Virginia(1869);NorthCarolina(1870); Georgia(1871);Texas(1873);Arkansas(1874);Alabama(1874); Mississippi(1875);SouthCarolina(1876);Louisiana(1877);andFlorida (1877).
The“Lame-Duck”RepublicanCongresspassestheCivilRightsAct guaranteeingequalrightsinpublicplacesandprohibitingrestrictionof AfricanAmericansfromjuries.
RepublicanRutherfordB HayeselectedoverDemocratSamuelTildenin adisputedelectionmarredbyviolenceagainstBlacksintheSouth.
TroopsarewithdrawnfromSouthCarolinaandfederalattemptsat Reconstructionends
1881 TennesseepassesthefirstJimCrowrailroad-carlaw.
1886 SlaveryabolishedinCuba
1888 SlaveryabolishedinBrazil
1890–1908 MississippiandSouthCarolinafollowedbyLouisiana,NorthCarolina, Alabama,Virginia,Georgia,andOklahomaamendconstitutionswithpoll taxes,literacytests,andpropertyqualifications,effectivelyexcluding blacksfrompoliticallifeintheSouth.
1895 BookerT Washingtondelivers“AtlantaCompromise”speechatthe CottonStatesandInternationalExposition. Blackfeministandwomen’sclubleaderMaryChurchTerrellfoundsthe NationalAssociationofColoredWomen(NACW)
1896 Inalandmarkdecision, Plessy v. Ferguson,theSupremeCourtupholds thedoctrineofseparatebutequalpublicfacilitiesforwhitesandblacks.
1898 BlackmilitarycontingentsseeserviceintheSpanishAmericanWar, distinguishingthemselvesinbattleatElCaney,LasGuasimas,andSan JuanHill
1900 TheFirstPan-AfricanCongressisheldinLondon,England
1903 W.E.B.DuBoispublishesthe“SoulsofBlackFolk”andformallyrejects theleadershipofBookerT Washington
1905
TheNiagaraMovement,ledbyW.E.B.DuBoisandMonroeTrotter,is establishedatNiagaraFalls,NewYork,torenewpublicagitationfor
1908
1911
blackconstitutionalrights.
RaceriotinSpringfield,Illinois,onthe100thanniversaryofLincoln’s birthdayleadstofoundinginFebruary1909oftheNationalAssociation fortheAdvancementofColoredPeople(NAACP)
TheNationalUrbanLeagueisfoundedundertheleadershipofGeorgeE. HaynesandEugeneKinkleJonestoimproveconditionsforurbanblacks
1914–1929 Thegreatmigrationofnearly500,000blackworkersfromtheSouthto theNorth.
1915
CarterG WoodsonfoundstheAssociationfortheStudyofNegroLife andHistoryandthe“JournalofNegroHistory.”
1916 JamaicanimmigrantMarcusGarveyorganizestheUniversalNegro ImprovementAssociation(UNIA)inHarlem,NewYork
1917 TheUnitedStatesentersWorldWarI;3370,000blacksoldiersand1,400 officersserveintheAmericanExpeditionaryForce
1919 IntheRedSummerof1919,morethantwenty-fiveraceriotsinwhich AfricanAmericansresorttoarmeddefenseeruptinmajorU.S.cities.
1920 TheimportantliteraryandartisticmovementcalledtheHarlem Renaissanceisborn.
1923 MarcusGarveyisconvictedofmailfraudandsentencedtofiveyears imprisonmentinAtlantapenitentiary.In1927heisreleasedanddeported toJamaica.
1926 CarterG WoodsoninauguratesNegroHistoryWeek
1930 NationofIslamisfoundedinDetroit,Michigan.
1935
EducatorMaryMcLeodBethuneestablishestheNationalCouncilof NegroWomen
AfricanAmericanslaunchmassiveprotestsagainstItaly’sinvasionof Ethiopia.
1936 JesseOwenswinsfourmedalsintrackandfieldatBerlinOlympics
1937 JoeLouiswinsworldheavyweightboxingchampionship.
1941 MarchonWashingtonMovementorganizedbyA.PhilipRandolph, presidentoftheBrotherhoodofSleepingCarPorters,causesPresident FranklinRoosevelttoissueExecutiveOrder8802barringdiscrimination indefenseindustriesandcreatingaFairEmploymentPractices Commissiontoinvestigatecomplaintsofdiscrimination.
1942 TheCongressofRacialEquality(CORE)isfounded.
1943 PresidentRooseveltproclaimsastateofemergencyandsendstroopsto restoreorderinDetroit,siteofthewarperiod’smostseriousraceriot.
1945 Anestimated1millionblackmenandwomenserveinU.S.armedforces duringWorldWarII
1947
1948
1950
1954
1955
1957
1960
JackieRobinsonoftheBrooklynDodgersintegratesmajorleague baseball.
PresidentHarryTrumandesegregatesarmedforces.
TheKoreanWarof1950–1953isfirstUS warfoughtwithfall integrationoftheAmericanmilitary.
TheSupremeCourtin Brown v Board of Education of Topeka rules racialsegregationinpublicschoolsunconstitutional,overthrowing Plessy v. Ferguson.
EmmettTill,a14-year-oldblackyouth,isabductedandlynchedin Money,Mississippi.
RosaParks,aseamstressandcivilrightsactivist,isarrestedafterrefusing togiveherseattoawhitepassengersparkingtheMontgomery,Alabama busboycott
TheSouthernChristianLeadershipConference(SCLC)isorganizedin NewOrleansandnamesMartinLutherKingJr president CongresspassesfirstfederalCivilRightsActsince1875,creatinga federalcivilrightscommissionandcivilrightsdivisionintheU.S.Justice Department.
PresidentEisenhowersends1,000federaltroopstoLittleRock, Arkansas,topreventinterferencewiththeintegrationofCentralHigh School.
StudentsatNorthCarolinaA&TinGreensboro,NorthCarolina,begin the“sit-in”movementagainstsegregatedlunchcounters
TheStudentNonviolentCoordinatingCommittee(“Snick”)isorganized atShawUniversityinRaleigh,NorthCarolina.
PresidentEisenhowersignsCivilRightsActthatprovidesgreater protectionofblackvotingrights
1961 COREbeginsfreedombusridesthroughouttheSouthtochallenge segregatedinterstatepublictransportation.
1962
1963
1964
Twenty-FourthAmendmenttoUS Constitutionbarspolltaxinfederal elections.
TwelvethousandfederaltroopssenttoUniversityofMississippito ensureadmissionofJamesMeredith
MartinLutherKingJr leadsmajorcivilrightsprotestsinBirmingham, Alabama,todesegregatethecity.
MedgarEvers,localNAACPfieldsecretary,ismurderedinJackson, Mississippi
TwohundredandfiftythousandparticipateinMarchonWashington,the largestcivilrightsdemonstrationinU.S.history.
RiotsinHarlem,JerseyCity,Philadelphia,Rochester,Chicago.
MartinLutherKingJr.isawardedNobelPeacePrize. ThreecivilrightsworkersmurderedinPhiladelphia,Mississippi.
1965
1966
1967
1968
CivilRightsActbansdiscriminationineducation,employment,and publicaccommodations.
MalcolmXisassassinatedatAudubonBallroominHarlem,NewYork. PresidentLyndonJohnsonsignsVotingRightsAct,whichauthorized interventionoffederalexaminerswhenstateofficialsrefusedtoregister eligibleblackvoters.
Theterm“affirmativeaction”isdevelopedaspartofExecutiveOrder 11246,whichprohibiteddiscriminationbyfirmsdoingbusinesswith federalgovernmentandgavefederalagenciespowertoenforceminority hiring.
Fiftythousandmarchers,ledbyMartinLutherKingJr.,participatein Selma-to-Montgomerycivilrightsmarch Asix-dayrioteruptsintheWattssectionofLosAngeles
JamesMeredithiswoundedleadingavoterregistrationmarchfrom MemphistoJackson,Mississippi.
DuringcontinuationoftheMeredithmarch,StokelyCarmichael,SNCC’s leader,callsfor“BlackPower”
BobbySealeandHueyNewtonfoundtheBlackPantherPartyin Oakland,California.
EdwardBrooke,aMassachusettsRepublican,becomesfirstAfrican AmericanelectedtoU.S.SenatesinceReconstruction.
ThurgoodMarshall,theUS solicitorgeneral,becomesfirstAfrican AmericanappointedtotheSupremeCourt.
RiotinNewark,NewJersey,theworstoutbreakofurbanviolencesince Watts
MartinLutherKingJr.assassinatedinMemphis,Tennessee.
1971 CongressionalBlackCaucusisformed.
1972
1976
1977
1978
1983
1984
ShirleyChisholm,ablackcongresswomanfromBrooklyn,runsforUS president.
President-electJimmyCarterappointsGeorgiahouserepresentative AndrewYoungambassadortotheUnitedNations
AtelevisedversionofAlexHaley’snovel, Roots,isviewedbymorethan 130millionAmericans
SupremeCourt’srulesin Regents of University of California v. Allan Bakke thattheUniversityviolatedtheequalprotectionclauseofthe Constitution,thusviolatingBakke’scivilrights,givingsupportto positionthataffirmativeactionconstitutedreversediscrimination.
PresidentReagansignsbillmakingthethirdMondayinJanuaryafederal holidayhonoringMartinLutherKingJr.
TransAfrica’santi-apartheidprotestsattheSouthAfricanEmbassyin WashingtonleadtocreationofnationwideFreeSouthAfricaMovement (FSAM).
1986
1989
1991
JesseJackson,headofOperationPush,seekstheDemocraticParty nominationforU.S.president.
U.S.CongressoverridespresidentialvetoandpassestheComprehensive Anti-ApartheidAct(CAAA),mandatingselectivesanctionsagainstSouth Africa.
DouglasWilderofVirginiaiselectedfirstblackgovernorinthenation GeneralColinPowellisappointedchairmanofthearmedforcesJoint ChiefsofStaff.
DavidDinkinselectedasthefirstAfrican-AmericanmayorofNewYork City.
FirstAfricanandAfrican-AmericanSummit,organizedbyReverend LeonSullivan,isheldinAbidjan,IvoryCoast.
AiringofthevideotapedbeatingbyLosAngelespoliceofblackmotorist RodneyKingsparksnationaloutrage.
JudgeClarenceThomasisconfirmedbySenatetofilltheseatvacatedby retiringJusticeThurgoodMarshall
1992 CarolMoseleyBraunbecomesfirstAfrican-Americanwomantoservein US Senate
1993
PresidentClintonappointsfiveAfricanAmericanstohiscabinet.
1995 AtthecallofministerLouisFarrakhanoftheNationofIslam,morethan amillionAfrican-AmericanmenattendmarchinWashington,DC
TheLongRuggedRoad
WilliamR.ScottandWilliamG.Shade
AWe are the children of the black sharecroppers, the first-born of the city tenements We have trampeddownaroadthreehundredyearslong Wehavebeenshuntedtoandfrobycataclysmic socialchanges Weareafolkbornofculturaldevastation,slavery,physicalsuffering,unrequited longing, abrupt emancipation, migration, disillusionment, bewilderment, joblessness, and insecurity allenactedwithinashortspaceofhistoricaltime
RichardWright, 12 Million Black Voices (1941)
MERICANSOF AFRICANDESCENT have struggled a long time since their ancestors arrived “upon these shores” to survive and thrive in a democracy originally conceived by and for Americans from Europe Plagued by pervasive color proscriptions and prejudices since their ancestors’ forced passage to the New World nearly 400 years ago, black Americans have persistently strived to overcome racial adversity and achieve human harmony. Even now, after victories long ago over slavery and more recently over segregation, vestiges of discrimination based on white power and privilege persist and repress black progress. Likewise, demeaning racial myths and stereotypes, dissent over welfare policy and affirmative action, resistance in some urban and suburban neighborhoods to residential integration, and ghastly hate crimes committed by white supremacists continue to fan the flames of racial antagonism So does the alienation produced by dire poverty and the reactionaryrhetoricofblackextremistswhocastigatewhitesasademonraceandavarietyof recentimmigrantgroupsasracists
Themarkedintegrationsincethe1960sofblacksinfieldssuchasbusiness,law,education, entertainment, government, sports, television, and the military sometimes at top levels suggeststhatdespitethedivisionscausedbycontinuingracialantipathynotanunsubstantial number of Americans have outwardly and inwardly rejected racism the belief in the superiorityofoneraceoveranother AsPresidentClinton’sadvisoryboardonracerelations found,racialattitudesamongwhiteAmericanshaveimprovedsteadilyduringthepastforty years. There exists, the panel concluded, “a deep-rooted national consensus to the ideals of racial equality and integration” Debate abounds, however, on the best means to achieve lastingracialpeaceandhowfarthenationmuststillgotoeraseremainingbarrierstoblack justice.There’snopublicaccordonthedistancewemuststilltraveltoreachtheproverbial “promisedland”whereonewillnotbejudgedbythecoloroftheirskinbutbythecontentof theircharacter.
OutofAfrica
W. E. B. DuBois, the prolific black scholar who left the United States at the age of ninetythree to live the end of his long life in exile in the newly independent African nation of Ghana, was one of the first historians of the black experience to note the longevity of the black presence in North America. In his classic work The Souls of Black Folk, DuBois recognizednearlyacenturyagothatblackshadcometoAmerica’sshoresfarinadvanceof
the ancestors of most Americans. Records of the arrival in the seventeenth century of some twentyAfricancaptivesatJamestown,Virginia,causedhimtoobservethattheNegrohadas muchclaimtothislandastheAnglo-Saxon,thatAfricanshadreachedBritishAmericaeven before the persecuted band of English Puritans had arrived at Plymouth Rock “Before the PilgrimslandedaboardtheMayflower,”declaredDuBois,“wewerehere.”
Few Americans are aware, even a century later, that the ancestors of the nation’s 34 million African Americans, almost 13 percent of the population, crossed the Atlantic in chains in massive waves during the initial European colonization and conquest of the New World Asidefromscholars,thepublicismostlyunawarethattheblackpresenceinAmerica antedatedthemigrationsoftheScotch-IrishandGermansintheeighteenthcenturyandlong precededthearrivalofCatholicIrishandGermansinthemid-nineteenthcenturyaswellas thelatermigrationofsouthernandeasternEuropeansinthedecadesbeforeWorldWarI.As a result, we have commonly slighted facts that explain the vastly different historical experiencesofblackandwhiteAmericans
It is true that a sizable number of white immigrants came to the New World in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries as indentured servants or as convicts sentenced to overseas labor. But the majority of Europeans migrated voluntarily. And, although many enduredprejudiceandpenury,allwereextended inrelativelyshortorder therightstolife, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness eventually pronounced in America’s Declaration of Independence. Africans, in contrast, arrived involuntarily and were commonly denied basic human rights In fact, blacks were typically discriminated against in England’s American coloniesevenbeforethelegalcodificationofracialslavery.Thisdrasticdistinctionbetween theearlyexperiencesofAmericansfromAfricaandthosefromEurope,whichpreparedthe patternforfutureracerelations,wasdrivenbybotheconomicandemotionalfactors Among thesewasthedecisionofsettlerplanterstobuildanagriculturaleconomybasedonenslaved blacklaborwhenfarmerswerefacedwithacriticalshortageofwhiteindenturedservantsin thelastquarteroftheseventeenthcentury.Thepejorativeperceptionsofblacknessprevalent in the culture of Elizabethan England and Enlightenment Europe also inspired a racial ideologythatstarklydividedtheworldintoblackandwhite
Inthisvolume,JosephC.MillerrevealstheAfricanheritageofAfricanAmericansandthe crucialconnectionbetweentheriseofplantationeconomiesintheNewWorldtropicsandthe emergencethereofracialslavery Hedescribestheappearanceofanewtradingsystembased on the sale of human beings between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries, which brought Europe, Africa, and America together in a vast maritime and commercial network that produced far-reaching riches and ruin simultaneously Miller also points out the derivations and destinations of the slaves. He notes that captured Africans were taken to the Americas fromeveryinhabitedpartofAfrica’sAtlanticcoastandthatmost morethan85percent of those Africans who survived the ocean voyage found themselves laboring as slaves on the sugarislandsoftheCaribbeanorinPortugueseBrazil Onlyasmallminority about6or7 percentofthetotal werecarriedtoBritishNorthAmerica.
A notably controversial aspect of the slave trade is the number of Africans who were shipped across the Atlantic to the Americas from the European encounter in 1492 to about 1870,whentheslavetradeeffectivelyendedinNorthAmerica,andthenumberwhoexpired inthecourseofcaptureandrupturefromhome Estimatesvarygreatly,butscholars,ledby historian Philip D. Curtin, now generally agree that between eleven and thirteen million Africans were seized and sold into transoceanic bondage. Students of the slave trade also speculatethatabouttenmillionsurvivedthedeadlyoceaniccrossingtotheAmericasknown asthe“MiddlePassage,”whichtypicallytookPortuguese,English,French,Spanish,Dutch, andAmericanslaveshipsfivetoeightweekstocomplete
Anothercontentiouspointisthefactthattheslavetradeinvolvedenterpriseandexchanges
between the agents of European merchants and monarchies and African princes and principalities.HowcouldAfricans,itisoftenasked,seizeandsellotherAfricansforsaleas slaves? How could they barter fellow Africans for European cloth, horses, metals, muskets, andliquor?ApartoftheansweristhatAfricanslavedealersusuallysharednoculturalties with the people they sold. Victims of the slave trade were mostly kidnapped or captured in war and were normally from other ethnic groups who were viewed as aliens without legal rights.UntilaftertheEuropeandominationofAfricainthenineteenthcentury,Africansheld no transethnic or continental identity. Between the time of the first and final passage of capturedpersonsacrosstheAtlantic,Africansviewedthemselvesastheyhadforthousands ofyears,asmembersofspecifickinshipgroups,ratherthanasanAfricanpeople.
In1619,AfricancaptivesarrivedinJamestown,Virginia,thefirstpermanentsettlementin British North America. But it took about a century for a stratified biracial society based on blackslaverytoemergeamongtheEnglishsettlers.ThisearlyperiodofprovincialAmerica, as portrayed by Jean R Soderlund, witnessed the evolution of the legal status of chattel slavery essentially new to the English common law and its codification by colonial magistrates throughout Britain’s American provinces The evolving caste system of racial slaveryledtothepetrificationinthecoloniesofpreviousEnglishprejudicestowardthelower classes, outsiders, and darker races and produced the emergence of white racism in the eighteenthcentury
Initially, the black population of colonial society was small, amounting in 1660 to only about three thousand It grew rapidly, however, at the end of the seventeenth century when theBritishactivelyenteredtheslavetrade.By1700thenumberofAfricansinNorthAmerica hadleapttotwenty-seventhousand nearlyallofwhomwereslavesandwhoconstituted11 percent of the English colonies’ total population The rising demand for forced labor to cultivatelarge-scalecashcropshadledtothemassimportationofAfricanslavesmostlyinto the colonies of the Chesapeake Bay region and the lower South These huge imports, combined with the natural increase of the slave population caused by lower death rates and thehighbirthratesofnative-bornslavewomen,producedalargeblackpresenceinprovincial America
By the middle of the eighteenth century, four different kinds of slave societies had emergedincolonialAmerica:oneintheNorthwhereslaverywaspartofamixedeconomy; another in the Chesapeake Bay region where tobacco was the primary crop; another in the Carolina low country based on rice and indigo; and another in the lower Mississippi valley that featured sugar and, later, cotton production The blacks enslaved within these sundry colonial economies constituted a critical part of the country’s demography. The English colonies’ total population of slightly more than one million included some 236,000 AmericansofAfricandescent,almostaquarterofthenation’sinhabitants And,inthefifteen years before the American Revolution, nearly 40 percent of the 222,000 immigrants who crossedtheAtlantictoBritishNorthAmericaarrivedasslavesfromAfricaortheCaribbean This swelling black presence along the North Atlantic seaboard played a crucial role in the developmentofadistinctlyAmericansocietyintheBritishcolonies.
PeterH WoodnotesthatintheEnglish-controlledsettlementsAfricansservedaspartners with Europeans in the construction of an evolving American culture. This world that the colonists black and white, slave and free subsequently “made together” in the areas of work,family,language,andspirituallifecametoreflectastrongAfricanambience.Despite theenormousconstraintsofslavery,Africanshadanimmediate,varied,andlastinginfluence on the character of American culture through their numbers, broad geographic distribution, andcustomstheystrovetorememberandadapttothealienworldoftheAmericanplantation. Africans also had a strong impact on the psychology of the American ruling class, which became increasingly fearful of black resistance and revolt as the nation’s black populace
steadilygrew
The American Revolution freed England’s thirteen colonies from control of the mother countrybutproducedambiguousresultsforthenewrepublic’sexpandingblackpopulace As Britishcriticsoftherebellionoftennoted,thosecolonistsmostloudlyprotestinglimitations of their own freedom within the Empire often owned slaves. And, while the war for independence was fought with the aid of five thousand black volunteers, the patriots’ successfulstruggleforfreedomnevergeneratedthebroademancipationofenslavedAfrican Americans.Therepublicanidealismthatproducedtherebellionledthenorthernstates,where it was economically feasible, to adopt gradual emancipation plans in the two decades following the American colonists’ victory. Elsewhere slavery remained pretty much untouched
The southern states, where the economy was slave-based and 90 percent of the slaves resided, did little more than make voluntary manumission easier for liberal masters. Furthermore, the new Constitution of the United States, ratified in 1789, comprised contradictionsandcompromisesontheissueofinvoluntaryservitude.TheFoundingFathers providedfor,butdelayedfortwentyyears,theterminationofAmericanparticipationinthe internationalslavetrade,assuredfederalsupportforthecaptureandreturnoffugitiveslaves, and,throughthefamousthree-fifthsclause,guaranteedthepoliticalpowerofslaveholdersby agreeing to count three-fifths of the slave population for the purpose of representation in Congress. When the first ten amendments known as the Bill of Rights were added to the Constitution in 1791, they provided for the protection of the rights of free men from encroachment by the federal government, but they left the control of slaves up to the individualstates.
BythetimeoftheelectionoftheVirginiastatesmanandslaveholderThomasJeffersonto theAmericanpresidency,thecountry’sblackpopulationhadgrowntomorethanonemillion, just under 20 percent of the nation’s entire population Nine out of ten blacks were still enslaved,however,andlivedbelowtheMason-Dixonline,whichdividedtheNorthfromthe South. There, slaves built and tended the homes of their masters, tilled the fields, toiled in their workshops and factories, and worked as hired-out laborers on public works projects Sometimestheybargainedwithslavemasterstoproduceextrafoodforthemselvesandtheir familiesbyraisingtheirowncropsorlivestockandmarketingtheirownproducts Theresult was an “internal economy” that reduced the drudgery of plantation life and boosted bondsmen’ssenseofautonomy.
The“peculiarinstitution”ofslavery,whichbecameanexclusivelysouthernpracticeafter abolition in the North, expanded with the development of the Cotton Kingdom in the early nineteenthcenturyasthepopulationofthesouthernstatesshiftedtothesouthandwestfrom theoriginalareasofslaveconcentrationaroundtheChesapeakeBayandthelowcountryof South Carolina and Georgia. Three-quarters of the region’s slaves were involved in agriculturallabor,andbythemid-nineteenthcenturymorethanhalfworkedingangsonthe cotton plantations of the lower South. Most of the slaveholders owned only a handful of slaves(fiveorfewer),butmostslaveslivedonplantationswithmorethantwentyslaves.
Inhisexaminationofantebellumblackplantationlife,NorreceT Jonesexploresthework, family,andreligionofthemassesofslavesandthewaysforcedblacklaborersstruggledto survive and defy the power of the slaveocracy He notes that a strong sense of community oftensurfacedintheslavequarters,asequesteredpartoftheplantationwhereresidentwhites rarely tarried. The semiautonomous world the slaves forged there jones writes, became a fertilegroundforsubtleandcovertformsofday-to-dayresistanceaswellasmoredramatic kindsofdefiancethatincludedflightandrevolt.
Large numbers of slaves ran away, only to be captured and flogged and frequently sold away from their families as punishment. Some who fled settled among Indians, like the
Seminoles of Florida, with whom they intermarried Perhaps as many as 100,000 fugitives successfullyescapedslaveryforfreedominthenorthernstatesorCanadawiththeaidofthe “UndergroundRailroad,”aninformalnetworkoffreeblacksandwhiteabolitionists Others, suchasGabrielProsser,DenmarkVesey,andNatTurnerandtheirfollowers,tookuparmsto endslavery.
Studiesofslaveresistancehaverevealedsome250slaverevoltsandconspiraciesfromthe early seventeenth century through the Civil War. Unlike black rebels in the Caribbean or SouthAmerica,however,rebelliousNorthAmericanslavesneverhadampleunity,numbers, weapons, or safe refuge to organize successful armed opposition to the slaveocracy Furthermore,asscholarshaveshown,slavesintheAmericanSouthweresowidelydispersed andsocarefullypolicedthatrebellionwasvirtuallyimpossible Inaddition,ownerscarefully cultivated family formation and familial ties as a further means of control over potential rebels.
SouthernslaveryasconstitutedineithertheChesapeakeBay,theCarolinalowcountry,or thelowerMississippivalleywasneversimplyanagrarianinstitution.OntheeveoftheCivil War the slave population had grown to nearly four million Of those between 160,000 and 200,000 slaves worked in industry and about 6 percent lived in cities and towns. In areas outside the countryside discipline was notoriously lax, however, undermining urban slavery andcreatingbroadminglingoftheracesthatproducedlargeconcentrationsofraciallymixed people known as mulattoes. Around Charleston, South Carolina, and New Orleans, Louisiana, manumitted and free-born mulattoes formed a separate caste and some, as the Federalcensusesreveal,wereevenslaveholders,butmostofthe260,000legallyfreeblacks livingintheslavestatesweredirtpoor.
OnlyathinlineseparatedfreedomfromslaveryinantebellumAmerica WilliamG Shade contendsthatfreeblacksbeforetheCivilWarwereonlynominallyfree.Amostlydestitute group, they were barred by law and custom from many of the rights that whites typically enjoyed. While some free persons of color prospered despite the prevalence of white prejudices,theyweregenerallyperceivedbywhitesofallclassesassocialpariahs.AsChief JusticeRogerB Taneywroteinthemajorityopinioninthe1857freedomsuitof Dred Scott v. Sanford,“negroesoftheAfricanrace”couldnotbecitizensand“hadnorightswhichthe whitemanwasboundtorespect”
Consequently, legally free African Americans, even those who lived north of slavery in states where human bondage was ended after the American Revolution, were regularly denied citizenship rights and frequently forced into separate black enclaves in the nation’s cities.Itwaspartlyinresponsetotherisingracialsegregationtheyexperiencedinnorthern urban centers that free blacks built autonomous economic, social, and religious institutions. Theseassociations especiallytheblackchurch,theconventionmovement,andabolitionist societies notonlyfosteredmoralandsocialdevelopmentbutalsoprovidedtheinstitutional basisinthefreestatesforAfrican-Americanresistancetoslaveryanddiscrimination
UpfromSlavery
ThedevastatingCivilWarthateruptedin1861afterdecadesofsectionaldissensionoverthe westernexpansionofslaveryendedindefeatfortheConfederacyandpromptedratification of amendments to the Constitution that ended the long nightmare of black bondage By the war’s end, the transplanted Africans who had endured slavery and grown in great numbers had been transformed as a body from assorted African identities into a new people an amalgam of black, white, and red humanity. By the time of emancipation, most African Americans had ceased to dream of a return to their ancestral lands. They had become acculturated, absorbed with an American consciousness and attainment of the “American dream.” The black masses and leaders the politicians, ministers, teachers, independent
farmers, and small businessmen had become with the proclamation of their freedom quintessential advocates of the democratic principles passionately preached, but poorly practiced, by the larger society Moved by the gospel of equality under God espoused by evangelicalChristianity,towhichmanyofthemwereconvertedincolonialtimes,andhuman rightstenetsintheConstitution,AfricanAmericansembarkedaftercaptivityonacampaign to achieve complete equality in America and rejected periodic calls for either separatism or massmigrationbacktoAfrica.
Historiansstillcontest,morethanacenturyafteritsannouncement,theimportanceofthe Emancipation Proclamation issued by Abraham Lincoln in 1863 Because the order was restricted to slaves in rebel-controlled territory where it was rejected by Confederate authorities and left unaffected some 800,000 bondsmen in loyal border states, scholars disputetheproclamation’simpactandLincoln’scredentialsasthe“greatemanicipator.”To clarify its significance, Armstead L. Robinson discusses the edict’s impact on black Americansofthewarera Heshowsthattheproclamation,despiteitslimitations,temporarily filled most blacks even those who had seriously considered emigration to another land withfaithinthepromiseofAmerica Herevealstoothatblackhopegraduallyfadedasnew formsofwhitesupremacyemerged.
WiththepassageoftheThirteenthAmendmenttotheConstitution,whichformallyended slavery in 1865, and subsequent ratification of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments guaranteeingblackcitizenshipandvotingrights,AfricanAmericansheldgreathopethatthe dayof“Jubilee”hadarrived,thatthedarknightofracialdegradationwasforeverover These beliefswerebuttressedbyblackparticipationfirstasUnionsoldiersinthewaritselfandthen inthepoliticalprocessduringReconstructionwhenforthefirsttimeblackswereelectedto publicofficeatthelocal,state,andnationallevels
Trustthattheyhadbeenessentiallyrelievedofracistrepressionwasshortlived.Thetrain of fatal events following passage of the Fifteenth Amendment and the readmission to the Unionofthesecededsouthernstatesledrelentlesslytotheresurgenceofracedominationand the establishment of segregation throughout the South in the 1890s. The account of black advancement in the South after slavery and the subsequent revival of white supremacy constitutes a sad chapter in American history. In the postbellum era, the nation’s white leadership grew tired of “the Negro question” and became far more committed to sectional reconciliationthantheprotectionofAfricanAmericans’newlygrantedrights Compromises made between white politicians in both sections of the country led to the end of Reconstructionin1877andtheresumptionintheformerConfederacyofwhite“homerule”
AsGeraldD.Jaynesshows,thefourmillionnewlyemancipatedslavesmostlyremainedin the rural South from the end of the Civil War until World War II and worked the land as sharecroppers and tenant farmers The freedmen’s hope was to achieve property and autonomy, but black economic independence based on landownership was frustrated as planters and their partners, resolved to reinstate white supremacy in the postbellum South, droveblackworkersfromthepoliticalprocessandpreventedAfricanAmericansfromusing collective efforts to improve their economic status. As black political power and economic developmentwaned,theplightofrurallaborworsenedandmanyblacksabandonedagrarian life,firstmovingtothegrowingcitiesoftheNewSouth,whichpromisedimprovedeconomic opportunities Others looked west to Kansas and Oklahoma, and a few even considered migrationandcolonizationinAfrica.Eventuallyhugenumbersturnedtotheurbancentersof theindustrializedNorthinsearchofthepromisedland.
Carole C Marks stresses the significance of urbanization and migration at the time of WorldWarI.Thesetwinprocessesdoubledtheproportionofblackslivingincitiesbetween 1900 and 1940 and began the dramatic shift of the African-American population northward that would reach its pinnacle in the decades following World War II. The dramatic
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The Project Gutenberg eBook of Munsey's Magazine, Vol. VI, No. 1, October 1891
This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.
Title: Munsey's Magazine, Vol. VI, No. 1, October 1891
Author: Various
Release date: December 31, 2023 [eBook #72571]
Language: English
Original publication: New York: Frank A. Munsey & Company, 1892
Credits: hekula03 and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from images made available by the HathiTrust Digital Library.) *** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MUNSEY'S MAGAZINE, VOL. VI, NO. 1, OCTOBER 1891 ***
A SCENE ON THE FAST DRIVE OF CENTRAL PARK ON A SEPTEMBER AFTERNOON.
DRAWN BY ALEXANDER COLES.
SNAP SHOTS IN CENTRAL PARK.
By J. Crawford Hamilton.
THE TERRACE STEPS LEADING DOWN TO THE BETHESDA FOUNTAIN AND THE LAKE
The provincial, who knows all about Central Park and regards it as the eighth wonder of the modern world, is more nearly right than the New Yorker, who is inclined to take it as a matter of course. There are comparatively few who remember the unpromising aspect of the rocky, swampy waste which, thirty five years ago, occupied the midmost portion of Manhattan Island. The designers of the park have been so signally successful in overcoming the difficulties that confronted them when they took their task in hand, that the visitor of
today hardly gives them due credit for the remarkable result, or realizes the vast expenditure of money, labor, and skill that has here created the most beautiful park possessed by any of the world’s great capitals.
THE CENTRAL PARK MENAGERIE ON A SUMMER AFTERNOON
For where can Central Park’s charms be matched? Not beneath the smoky sky of London, where vegetation cannot attain anything like the variety and luxuriance possible in our clear, pure atmosphere. Besides, little attempt at landscape gardening has been made in any of the parks of the British metropolis. They may be termed useful rather than ornamental, and are valued more for their practical hygienic effect as breathing spots in a vast and crowded city than as fields for the artistic reproduction of natural beauties. And in Paris, the allées of the Bois de Boulogne, prim and formal in their straightness, lack the charm of Central Park’s winding drives with their changing vistas of bordering woodland and meadow.
Philadelphia and Chicago—if we admit those cities to a comparison —have parks of larger acreage, but inferior attractions. Quantity can never atone for defects of quality.
Central Park is not so very small, either. It is over half a mile in width, and more than two and a half miles in length. It covers 840 acres, which will hardly compare with Fairmount’s 2740 or the Bois de Boulogne’s 2150, but is enough to rank it with other large metropolitan parks, and to afford ample scope to the various arts that have contributed to make it what it is. Londoners call Hyde and Regent’s Parks large, but their united extent is but five acres more than that of Central Park.
Indeed, one of the most wonderful and attractive features of Central Park is the skill with which its apparent size has been magnified. A stranger driving or walking through it would never suppose that in his entire journey he had never been more than four hundred and fifty yards away from the streets of New York. The almost total exclusion of the outer world, and the production of effects of distance, are really remarkable triumphs of landscape gardening.
ON THE DRIVE
Another great charm of Central Park is the marvelous variety of its scenery and embellishments. In the Mall, and especially in the
terrace that leads from it to the lake, we find the highest development of artificial decoration. The broad promenade and the straight avenue of trees, the work of masons and sculptors, the plashing fountain and the lake below—all these combine to produce the appearance of the garden of some old French chateau. On the other hand, on the banks of the Harlem Mere, in the North Park, sylvan nature reigns in almost primeval wildness. Here and there in the park are broad, level meadows, divided by stretches of thick wood. The Ramble, with its labyrinth of winding paths, its rustic bridge, its cave, and its miniature water falls, is an ideal Arcadian spot, while the lawn tennis ground presents a fin de siècle contrast. Then there are over thirty buildings, put to almost as many different uses, from the monkey house in the menagerie to the lofty tower of the Belvedere, which seems like a picturesque corner of a Rhine castle. As further evidence of the amount of work that has been done to perfect the park, and of the variety of its contents, it may be stated that it can boast of nine sheets of water, forty eight bridges and archways, nine miles of drives, five miles of bridle path, and nearly thirty miles of walks; that it has nineteen gates, and that over half a million trees have been set out within its limits.
THE OBELISK IN CENTRAL PARK.
The list of statues to be found in Central Park is a long and rather curiously mixed one. Daniel Webster, Alexander Hamilton, FitzGreene Halleck, S. F. B. Morse—these names are well worthy to be thus commemorated. It is not inappropriate that the marble image
of Columbus, the discoverer of the New World, should stand in the chief pleasure ground of its metropolis. Nor can there be any objection to the ideal figures—that of Commerce, the cleverly modeled Indian Hunter, and the memorial to the soldiers of the Seventh Regiment who fell in the civil war. But strangely enough, all the other statues in the park are those of foreigners. The German residents of New York presented the busts of Humboldt and Schiller. Citizens of Italian birth erected the bust of Mazzini, while sons of stern Caledonia contributed the statues of Burns and Scott. From South America came the equestrian bronze of Bolivar, and the list of monuments is completed by those of Shakespeare and Beethoven. Great men as all these worthies were, and laudable as is the desire of their fellow countrymen to do them honor, it is somewhat unfortunate that the erection of a statue in Central Park should have come to be the recognized method of giving expression to this feeling. If the process is continued indefinitely, the park will become so thickly dotted with the monuments of foreigners that the statues of Webster and Hamilton may have to be removed to make room for the images of the deceased poets and scientists of England and France, Finland and Kamskatka.
Of this tendency to cosmopolitanism the Mall seems to be headquarters. Halleck (the poet, not the general), is the solitary American represented in its statuary. The visitor may listen there to imported music discoursed by a band principally composed of imported musicians, or stroll to the terrace to admire the most ambitious ornament of the park—the Bethesda fountain, which, although designed by a New York artist—Miss Emma Stebbins—was modeled in Rome and cast in Munich.
IN THE NORTH PARK A SOLITARY STROLL.
In its vegetation, too, Central Park has a cosmopolitan tone. Much has been done to make it a sort of Jardin d’Acclimatation for the trees and shrubs indigenous to other climes. The commissioners’ efforts in this direction have had good results in varying its flora with
exotics whose foliage or flowers make them pleasing to the eye as well as interesting to the botanist. They have not always been equally fortunate, however, and have been criticised for an apparent partiality to foreign trees in preference to natives of sturdier growth and better suited to the climate. It is not every European plant that will flourish here. For instance, six years ago a splendid row of English hawthorn bushes lined a long stretch of the park’s western edge between Sixtieth and Seventieth Streets, and in May bore a wealth of the white blossoms that take their name from the month. They are there no more, killed by the severity of our winters.
AN AFTERNOON GATHERING ON THE MALL.
Asia, and especially Japan, have contributed some valuable additions to Central Park’s woods and shrubbery The most conspicuous of these is the Rose of Sharon, whose pink and white blossoms are the park’s chief floral ornament in the latter days of
summer—for it is in spring that most of the other shrubs and creepers flower.
In the spring, indeed, Central Park reaches its acme of natural beauty and artificial attraction. In the spring its drives are thronged by the equipages of the Four Hundred who later in the year are scattered over two or three continents. In the spring the trees and meadows are clothed with a fresh garb of green, and the Park policeman in a new suit of gray, the cynosure of admiring nursemaids. In the spring the wistaria, the honeysuckle, the jasmine, and the guelder rose make the landscape gay with color. In the spring the dogwood, the most beautiful and characteristic of our lesser trees, sends down its falling petals in a snow white shower. In the spring the New Yorker may be pardoned if for once he feels positively poetical as he witnesses in Central Park the annual miracle of nature’s rejuvenation.
THE BRIDGE ACROSS THE STRAIT BETWEEN THE UPPER AND LOWER LAKES
But more observers’ eyes, probably, are turned upon the driveways and their wonderful parade of vehicles than upon the panorama of wood and meadow. Such a sight as the wheeled procession that pours through the entrance at Fifty Ninth Street and Fifth Avenue cannot be found elsewhere in America, and is indeed only matched by the displays of Rotten Row and the Champs Elysées. Other American cities admittedly look to New York as their leader and mentor in the matter of fine horseflesh and smart equipages. The very latest and handsomest products of the carriage builders’ skill are here to be seen whirling along behind teams whose value represents a small fortune. There comes the banker’s victoria, drawn by a pair of horses whose clock-like gait and well fed aspect of sleekness show that they appreciate their position in the establishment to which they belong. Behind this comes a trim, light phaeton; then a family party in a barouche; these predominating types of vehicle being interspersed with the tall and ostentatious four in hand, the more unconventional buckboard, the natty dogcart, and the democratic park coach, whose passengers take in all the beauties of the scene at twenty five cents a trip.
The bridle path, too, on a sunny afternoon in May, is a spectacle to be remembered. Its pictures come and pass more swiftly than those of the drive, where moderation of speed is a necessity, and is promptly enforced, in the rare cases of its infraction, by the mounted policemen. And, by the way, these sublimated graycoats are themselves worthy of a second glance. Their animals are a really beautiful and well groomed set—most of them bays—and the riders’ horsemanship is of such uniform excellence that a stranger in the park can hardly distinguish one member of the mounted force from another. And in their patrol over fourteen miles of driveway and bridle path their duty is by no means a sinecure. Their courage and promptitude have often been tried by the accidents caused from time to time by untrained horses or reckless or inexperienced drivers and riders. At the season and the hour when it is most frequented, the bridle path is no place for the careless or unskilled horseman. As much space has been given to it as can well be spared, but its width is so comparatively small that at some of the bends serious
accidents might easily occur The rule against riding more than two abreast is a highly necessary one.
The separation of the drives and the bridle paths is a point in which convenience has been subordinated to other considerations. If they lay close together throughout their length, instead of winding through the park on wholly divergent lines, the enjoyment of both riders and drivers would be increased. A radical alteration in the plan of the park, however, would be necessary to effect such a change.
Nearly a quarter of Central Park is occupied by its various bodies of water These have their ornamental and their practical side. The latter is of course represented by the reservoirs that receive the principal portion of the water supply brought down by the Croton aqueduct. There is a smaller double basin (now being deepened) in the center of the park opposite Eightieth Street, overlooked by the Belvedere, and the main reservoir that fills nearly the whole of the space between Eighty Sixth and Ninety Sixth Streets, and forms the division between the North Park and the South Park. That this big pond, pretty nearly half a mile in length and in width, adds nothing to the attractions of the park, few who have walked or ridden along its border will maintain.
CHILDREN AND NURSES IN THE PARK.
Of the ornamental waters the Lake—so called par excellence—is the chief. The effect with which irregularity of outline may be used to add to apparent size is well exemplified by comparing this with the reservoir. Take a boat on the upper part of the Lake, near the foot of the Terrace, row under the bridge across the strait into its lower expanse, and continue to the furthest extremity of the creeks that open into it, and you will hardly guess that the whole sheet of water measures but twenty acres, while the Croton reservoir covers more than a hundred. You will also be likely to think that you have found a remarkably pleasant place for a row, especially if your expedition is made in the dusk of a summer evening, when the red lanterns that glow dimly in the bows of the boats make a picturesque scene which is often pronounced to be “just like Venice” by those who have never been in that city of watery streets.
A “TALLY HO” IN CENTRAL PARK THE FAVORITE VEHICLE OF THE JEUNESSE DORÉE
The other lakes are the Pond, near the Fifty Ninth Street entrance, on which ply the swan boats; the Conservatory water near Fifth Avenue and opposite Seventy Fourth Street; and three in the North Park—Harlem Mere, in the northwestern corner, and the two miniature lakelets called the Pool and the Lock.
The swan boats are by no means the park’s only attraction especially designed for children. There are the swings and merry-goround of the carrousel, and the little carriages that are drawn up and down the Mall by well trained goats. The menagerie, too, is a source of never failing wonder and amusement. There is always a crowd, in which young people predominate, watching the monkeys, gazing with something like awe at Tip, the huge elephant who has murdered more than one of his keepers, or throwing peanuts and similar esculents to the more docile pachyderm whose quarters are in the neighboring cage.
The enjoyment of the children would be greater yet if the grass covered lawns were not forbidden territory to them. In a few places,
