The Journal of Negro History, Volume 4, 1919

485

An indorsement from the Secretary of War reads: "If all white men capable of bearing arms are put in the field, it would be as large a draft as a community could continuously sustain, and whites are better soldiers than Negroes. For war, when existence is staked, the best material should be used."—Off. Reds. Rebell., Series IV, Vol. III, pp. 693-694.

486

Off. Reds. Rebell., Series IV, Vol. III, p. 799.

487

Ibid., Series IV, Vol. III, p. 846. J. A. Seddon to Maj. E. B. Briggs, Nov. 24, 1864.

488

Ibid., Series IV, Vol. III, p. 1009.

489

Off. Reds. Rebell., Series I, Vol. XXVIII, Pt. 2, p. 13.

490

Ibid., Series I, Vol. LII, Pt. 2, p. 598.

491

Davis, Civil War and Reconstruction in Florida, p. 226.

492

Off. Reds. Rebell., Series IV, Vol. III, pp. 959-960.

493

Ibid., p. 227.

494

Off. Reds. Rebell., Series IV, Vol. III, pp. 1010-1011.

495

Rhodes, History of the United States since the Compromise of 1850, Vol. IV, p. 525.

496

Off. Reds. Rebell., Series IV, Vol. VIII, p. 1110.

497

Off. Reds. Rebell., Series IV, Vol. VIII, p. 1013.

498

Williams, Negro Troops in the War of the Rebellion, Journals of Congress, Vol. IV, pp. 572-573.

In the American Historical Review, January, 1913, N.W. Stephenson has an article upon "The Question of Arming the Slaves." The article is concerned particularly with the debate in the Confederate Congress upon this perplexing question and with the psychology of the statements made by President Davis, Secretary Benjamin, General Lee and by various Congressmen. The author has searched the Journals of the Confederate Congress, newspaper files and personal recollections and gives conclusions which show that "the subject was discussed during the last winter of the Confederate regime," and by inference the dissertation shows that the fear of the consequences of arming the slaves was alike in the minds of all southern people. The treatise is a study in historical psychology; and, as in similar works by men of the type of the author, the point of view of the South and of the Confederacy is presented and the Negro and his actual employment as a soldier is neglected. The author contends that a few southern leaders attempted to force the arming of the blacks upon an unwilling southern public. He neglects the evidence contained in the action of local authorities in arming the Negroes who were free and their attitude concerning those who were slaves. He neglects also the sentiment of southern leaders who favored the measure. The Journals of the Confederate Congress, therefore, will be more valuable to those desiring information concerning the debates on this question.

499

Journal of Congress of Confederate States, Vol. IV, p. 528 and Vol. VII, p. 595; Jones, Diary, Vol. II, p. 431.

500

Richmond Dispatch, February 24, 1865; Jones Diary, Vol. II, p. 432.

501

Journal of Congress of Confederate States, Vol. VII, p. 748.

502

Richmond Examiner, December 9, 1864—Gov. Smith's Message. Jones, Diary, Vol. II, p. 43; pp. 432-433. Schwab, The Confederate States of America, p. 194.

503

Off. Reds. Rebell., Series IV, Vol. III, p. 1161.

Ibid., Series III, Vol. V, pp. 711-712; Davis, Confederate Government, Vol. II, p. 660.

504

Rhodes, History of U. S., Vol. V, 1864-1865, p. 81.

505

Off. Reds. Rebell., Series IV, Vol. III, pp. 1193-1194 and Appendix.

506

Cf. Southern Correspondence throughout the Rebellion Records.

507

Compendium, U. S. Census (1870), pp. 13-15.

508

The Nashville American, "City of Nashville" booklet, p. 20.

509

Garrett and Goodpasture, History of Tennessee, pp. 249 sqq.

510

Ibid., pp. 245-246.

511

Proceedings of the Anti-Slavery Convention, London, 1843.

512

Ibid., p. 300.

513

See paper of E. E. Hoss, Tenn. Hist. Soc., Nashville.

514

Greely, Horace, The American Conflict, p. 79, New York, 1864.

515

Journal of The Constitutional Convention, State of Tennessee, 1834.

516

Journal of Constitutional Convention, 1834.

517

Haywood and Cobb, Statute Laws of Tenn., 1779, Ch. 5.

518

Ibid., 1741, Ch. 21.

519

Ibid., 1788, Ch. 7.

520

Ibid., 1799, Ch. 9.

521

R. T. Q., Jr., State Archives, Capitol Library, Tennessee.

522

This is most natural, of course, but is inserted to emphasize the absolute quality of ownership, for the master was held responsible for the deed just as if he himself had committed it, and the slaves were morally irresponsible. But for other breaches of social good conduct the slave was the direct victim of the penalty, thus at once being slave and man, property and human being.

523

Statute Laws of Tenn., 1819, Chap. 35.

524

Acts, 2d Session Gen. Assembly (Knoxville), 1809.

525

Statute Laws, 1813, Chap. 135.

526

Ibid., 1826, Ch. 22, Sec. 1.

527

Ibid., 1801, Ch. 27, Sec. 1.

528

Acts of Gen. Assembly (Tenn.), 1822, Ch. 102.

529

Cf. 1 and 2.

530

Statute Laws, 1831, Ch. 102, Sec. 2.

531

Ibid., Sec. 2.

532

Statute Laws, 1826, Ch. 22, Sec. 6.

533

Ibid., 1741, Ch. 24, Sec. 23.

534

Proceedings of the Anti-Slavery Convention, London, 1843.

535

Acts of the Gen. Assembly, Tennessee, 1821, Chap. 26.

536

Statute Laws, Tenn., Chap. 6, Sec. 2. Laws of 1787.

537

Statute Laws, Tenn., Chap. 6, Sec. 2, Laws of 1787.

538

Ibid., 1833, Chap. 4, Sec. 1.

539

Tenn. Constitutional Convention Journal, 1834.

540

Tenn. Constitutional Convention Journal, pp. 31-40.

541

Ibid., p. 53.

542

Southern Statesman (clipping from Knoxville Register, Oct., 1831).

543

Tenn. Constitutional Convention Journal, 1834, pp. 102-104.

544

Ibid., pp. 125-126.

545

Journal Const. Conv., op. cit., pp. 214 et seq.

546

Tennessee Constitutional Journal, 1834, pp. 126 et seq.

547

Ibid., pp. 184 et seq.

548

Ibid., p. 200, p. 209.

549

Constitution of Tenn., 1834, Art. 3, Sec. 1.

550

Code of Tenn. '57, '58, Sec. 3809.

551

Stephenson, Race Distinctions in American Law, p. 284. Tenn. Const. Conv. Journal, 1834, op. cit., p. 209.

552

Bureau of the Census, "A Century of Pop. Growth," p. 82. Washington, 1909.

553

Acts of Tenn., 1846, Chap. 47 (Nicholson).

554

Code of 1858, Tenn., Art. IV, See. 2725.

555

Ibid., Sec. 2725.

556

Ibid., Sec. 2728.

557

Nicholson, Acts of Tenn., 1846, Chap. 191, Sec. 1.

558

Code of Tenn., op. cit., Sec. 2714.

559

Ibid., Sec. 2793-2794. Cf. Statute Laws here.

560

Statute Laws, Tenn., 1846, Ch. 191.

561

Brackett, "The Negro in Maryland," Johns Hopkins Studies, Ch. V, p. 191.

562

Ibid., pp. 191-192.

563

Personal Testimony, B. S.; J. P. Q. E.; E. S. M. Nashville, 1912.

564

{Transcriber's Note: Missing footnote text in original.}

565

I discharge a duty in disclosing to the public the names of the persons to whom I am indebted for the biography of this estimable African, concerning whom Dr. Gall was the first to speak to me. Upon the request of my fellow-citizens, D'Hautefort, attaché to the embassy, and Dudon, First Secretary to the French legation in Austria, they hastened to satisfy my curiosity. Two estimable ladies of Vienna, Mme. Stief and Mme. Picler, worked at it with great zeal. All the details furnished by the defunct Angelo's friends were carefully collected. From this material has been written the interesting account which follows. In the French translation it loses in delicacy of style, for Mme. Picler, who wrote it down in German, possesses the rare talent of writing equally well in prose and in poetry. I take great pleasure in expressing to these kind persons my just gratitude.

566

Collected under the direction of Emmett J. Scott.

567

A very good account of C. B. Ray's literary efforts is given in I. Garland Penn's The Afro-American Press, pp. 32-47.

568

Papers in the possession of Ray's family.

569

For further information see manuscripts in the possession of Ray's family.

570

This convention movement is well treated in J. W. Cromwell's The Negro in American History, pp. 27-46.

571

Penn, The Afro-American Press, p. 35.

572

Brown, The Rising Son, p. 473.

573

Penn, The Afro-American Press, p. 38.

574

Penn, The Afro-American Press, pp. 39-40.

575

Ibid., p. 41.

576

Penn, The Afro-American Press, pp. 42-43.

577

Penn, The Afro-American Press, pp. 43-46.

578

From papers in the possession of Ray's family.

579

These letters are in the possession of the author.

580

This paper has appeared in Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada, May, 1919.

581

Per Hargrave arguendo, Somerset v. Stewart (1772), Lofft 1, at p. 4; the speech in the State Trials Report was never actually delivered.

582

(1772) Lofft 1; (1772) 20 St. Trials 1.

583

These words are not in Lofft or in the State Trials but will be found in Campbell's Lives of the Chief Justices, Vol. II, p. 419, where the words are added: "Every man who comes into England is entitled to the protection of the English law, whatever oppression he may heretofore have suffered and whatever may be the colour of his skin. 'Quamvis ille niger, quamvis tu candidus esses'" and certainly Vergil's verse was never used on a nobler occasion or to nobler purpose. Verg. E. 2, 19.

William Cowper in The Task, written 1783-1785, imitated this in his well-known lines:

"Slaves cannot breathe in England; if their lungsReceive our air, that moment they are free.They touch our country and their shackles fall."

584

I use the spelling in Lofft; the State Trials and Lord Campbell have "Somersett" and "Steuart."

585

See, e. g., Vinogradoff, Villeinage in England, passim; Hallam's Middle Ages (ed. 1827), Vol. 3, p. 256; Pollock & Maitland, History of English Law, Vol. 1, pp. 395 sqq. Holdsworth's History of English Law, Vol. 2, pp. 33, 63, 131; Vol. 3, pp. 167, 377-393.

586

See Pollock & Maitland's History Eng. Law, Vol. 1, pp. 1-13, 395, 415; Holdworth's Hist. Eng. Law, Vol. 2, pp. 17, 27, 30-33, 131, 160, 216.

587

"So spake the fiend and with necessity,The tyrant's plea, excused his devilish deeds."Paradise Lost, Bk. 4, ll. 393, 394.

Milton a true lover of freedom well knew the peril of an argument based upon supposed necessity. Necessity is generally but another name for greed or worse.

588

E. g., the Statute of (1732) 5 Geo. II, C. 7, enacted, sec. 4, "that from and after the said 29th. September, 1732, the Houses, Lands, Negroes and other Hereditaments and real Estates situate or being within any of the said (British) Plantations (in America) shall be liable" to be sold under execution. Note that the Negroes are "Hereditaments and Real Estate."

589

The name Pani or Panis, Anglicized into Pawnee, was used generally in Canada as synonymous with "Indian Slave" because these slaves were usually taken from the Pawnee tribe. Those who would further pursue this matter will find material in the Wisconsin Historical Collections, Vol. XVIII, p. 103 (note); Lafontaine, L'Esclavage in Canada cited in the above; Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections, Vol. XXVII, p. 613 (n); Vol. XXX, pp. 402, 596. Vol. XXXV, p. 548; Vol. XXXVII, p. 541. From Vol. XXX, p. 546, we learn that Dr. Anthon, father of Prof. Anthon of Classical Text-book fame, had a "Panie Wench" who when the family had the smallpox "had them very severe" along with Dr. Anthon's little girl and his "aeltest boy" "whoever they got all safe over it and are not disfigured."

Dr. Kingsford in his History of Canada, Vol. V, p. 30 (n), cites from the Documents of the Montreal Historical Society, Vol. I, p. 5, an "ordonnance au sujet des Nègres et des sauvages appelés panis, du 15 avril 1709" by "Jacques Raudot, Intendant." "Nous sous le bon plaisir de Sa Majesté ordonnons, que tous les Panis et Nègres qui ont été achetés et qui le seront dans la suite, appartiendront en pleine proprieté a ceux qui les ont achetés comme étant leurs esclaves." "We with the consent of His Majesty enact that all the Panis and Negroes who heretofore have been or who hereafter shall be bought shall be the absolute property as their slaves of those who bought them." This ordinance is quoted (Mich. Hist. Coll., XII, p. 511), and its language ascribed to a (nonexistent) "wise and humane statute of Upper Canada of May 31, 1798"—a curious mistake, perhaps in copying or printing.

There does not seem to have been any distinction in status or rights or anything but race between the Panis and the other slaves. I do not know of an account of the numbers of slaves in Canada at the time; in Detroit, March 31, 1779, there were 60 male and 78 female slaves in a population of about 2,550 (Mich. Hist. Coll., X, p. 326); Nov. 1, 1780, 79 male and 96 female slaves in a somewhat smaller population (Mich. Hist. Coll., XIII, p. 53); in 1778, 127 in a population of 2,144 (Mich. Hist. Coll., IX, p. 469); 85 in 1773, 179 in 1782 (Mich. Hist. Coll., VII, p. 524); 78 male and 101 female (Mich. Hist. Coll., XIII, p. 54). The Ordinance of Congress July 13, 1787, forbidding slavery "northwest of the Ohio River" (passed with but one dissenting voice, that of a Delegate from New York) was quite disregarded in Detroit (Mich. Hist. Coll., I, 415); and indeed Detroit and the neighboring country remained British (de facto) until August, 1796, and part of Upper Canada from 1791 till that date.

590

This Act (1790) 30 Geo. III, c. 27, was intended to encourage "new settlers in His Majesty's Colonies and Plantations in America" and applied to all "subjects of the United States." It allowed an importation into any of the Bahama, Bermuda or Somers Islands, the Province of Quebec (then including all Canada), Nova Scotia and every other British territory in North America. It allowed the importation by such American subjects of "negros, household furniture, utensils of husbandry or cloathing free of duty," the "household furniture, utensils of husbandry and cloathing" not to exceed in value £50 for every white person in the family and £2 for each negro, any sale of negro or goods within a year of the importation to be void.

591

The Royal Proclamation is dated 7th October, 1763; it will be found in Shortt & Doughty, Documents relating to the Constitutional History of Canada published by the Archives of Canada, Ottawa, 1907, pp. 119 sqq. The Proclamation fixes the western boundary of the (Province or) Government at a line drawn from the south end of Lake Nipissing to where the present international boundary crosses the River St. Lawrence.

The Quebec Act is (1774) 14 Geo. III, C. 83. It extends Quebec south to the Ohio and west to the Mississippi; Shortt & Doughty, pp. 401 sqq.

592

The division of the Province of Quebec into two provinces, i. e., Upper Canada and Lower Canada, was effected by the Royal Prerogative, Sec. 31 George III, c. 31, the celebrated Canada of Constitutional Act. The Message sent to Parliament expressing the Royal intention is to be found copied in the Ont. Arch. Reports for 1906, p. 158. After the passing of the Canada Act, an Order in Council was passed August 24, 1791 (Ont. Arch. Rep., 1906, pp. 158 et seq.), dividing the Province of Quebec into two provinces and under the provisions of sec. 48 of the act directing a royal warrant to authorize the Governor or Lieutenant-Governor of the Province of Quebec or the person administering the government there, to fix and declare such day as he shall judge most advisable for the commencement of the effect of the legislation in the new provinces not later than December 31, 1791. Lord Dorchester (Sir Guy Carleton) was appointed, September 12, 1791, Captain General and Governor-in-Chief of both provinces and he received a Royal warrant empowering him to fix a day for the legislation becoming effective in the new provinces (Ont. Arch. Rep., 1906, p. 168). In the absence of Dorchester, General Alured Clarke, Lieutenant Governor of the Province of Quebec, issued November 18, 1791, a proclamation fixing Monday, December 26, 1791, as the day for the commencement of the said legislation (Ont. Arch. Rep., 1906, pp. 169-171). Accordingly technically and in law, the new province was formed by Order in Council, August 24, 1791, but there was no change in administration until December 26, 1791.

593

The first session of the First Parliament of Upper Canada was held at Newark (now Niagara-on-the-Lake) September 17 to October 15, 1792; the statute referred to is (1792) 32 Geo. III, c. 1 (U. C.).

594

Everyone will remember the words of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States in the celebrated Dred Scott case. In Dred Scott v. Sandford, 1856 (19 How. 354, pp. 404, 405), Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, speaking of the view taken of the Negro when the Constitution was framed, says: "They were at that time considered as a subordinate and inferior class of beings who had been subjugated by the dominant race and whether emancipated or not, yet remained subject to their authority and had no rights or privileges but such as those who held the power and the Government might choose to grant them" (p. 407). "They had no more than a century before been regarded as beings of an inferior order … and so far inferior that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect, and that the negro might justly and lawfully be reduced to slavery for his benefit. He was bought and sold and treated as an ordinary article of merchandise and traffic" (p. 411). "All of them had been brought here as articles of merchandise."

This repulsive subject now chiefly of historical interest is treated at large in such works as Cobb's Law of Slavery, Philadelphia, 1858; Hurd's Law of Freedom and Bondage, Boston, 1858; Von Holst's Const. Hist. U. S. (1750-1833), Chicago, 1877; the judgments of all the Judges in the Dred Scott case are well worth reading, especially that of Mr. Justice Curtis.

595

This is copied from the Canadian Archives Collection, Q. 282, pt. I, pp. 212 sqq.; taken from the official report sent to Westminster by Simcoe. There is the usual amount of uncertainty in spelling names Grisley or Crisly, Fromand, Frooman, Froomond or Fromond (in reality Vrooman).

Osgoode was an Englishman, the first Chief Justice of Upper Canada. Arriving in this Province in the summer of 1792, he left to become Chief Justice of Lower Canada in the summer of 1794. Resigning in 1801, he returned to England on a pension which he enjoyed until his death in 1824. He left no mark on our jurisprudence and never sat in any but trial courts of criminal jurisdiction. Osgoode Hall, our Ontario Palais de Justice, is called after him.

Russell came to Upper Canada also in 1792 as Receiver-General and Legislative Councillor; he was an Executive Councillor and when Simcoe left Canada in 1796, he acted as Administrator until the coming of the new Lieutenant Governor Peter Hunter in 1799. Russell was not noted for anything but his acquisitiveness but he was a faithful servant of the Crown in his own way.

Col. John Butler, born in Connecticut in 1728, became a noted leader of Indians. He took the Loyalist side, raising the celebrated Butler's Rangers; he settled at Niagara after the Revolutionary war and proved himself a useful citizen; he died in 1796. See Cruikshanks' Butler's Rangers, Lundy's Lane Historical Society's publication; Robertson's Free Masonry in Canada, Vol. I, p. 470; Riddell's edition of La Rochefoucauld's Travels in Canada, 1795, published by the Ontario Archives, 1917, p. 177.

Navy Hall was in the little town which Simcoe named "Newark," which before this had been called Niagara, West Niagara, Nassau, Lenox and Butlersburg, now called Niagara or Niagara-on-the-lake. Navy Hall was the seat of government from 1792 to 1797. Queens Town is the present Queenston; Mississagua Point is at the embouchure of the Niagara River; it is still known by the same name, spelled generally however with a final "a." Nothing seems to be known of the subsequent fate of Chloe Cooley.

The Vroomans and Cryslers (or Chrystlers or Chryslers) the same family as Chrystler of Chrystler's Farm, the scene of an American defeat, November 11, 1813, were well-known residents. I am indebted to General E.A. Cruikshank for the following note:

"The Vrooman Farm is situated on the west bank of the Niagara, in the township of Niagara, about a mile below the village of Queenston, and includes that feature of the river bank generally known as Vrooman's Point; it was still in the possession of the Vrooman family when I last visited the place about twelve years ago. The remains of a small half-moon or redan battery on the point which had been constructed in the War of 1812, and played a considerable part in the battle of Queenston were then quite well marked. One of the Vrooraans of that time was in the militia artillery, and assisted to serve the gun mounted on the battery. The possessor of the farm was then, I think, more than eighty years of age, but he was active and in possession of his memory and other faculties. He stated to me the exact number of shots which he had been informed by his father, or the Vrooman engaged in the action, had been fired from this gun, which of course, may or may not be correct. An Adam Chrysler, who was a lieutenant in the Indian Department in the Revolutionary War, and before that, a resident in the Scoharie district, of the Mohawk country, received lands either in the township of Niagara or the township of Stamford, near the village of Queenston. His grandson, John Chrysler, some twenty years ago, then being quite an old man, who is now dead, loaned me some very interesting documents which had been preserved in the family, and belonged to this Adam Chrysler. One of them, I remember, was the original instructions issued to him, and signed by Lieut.-Colonel John Butler, the deputy superintendent general, strictly enjoining him to restrain the Indians, with whom he was acting, from all acts of cruelty upon prisoners and non-combatants. Some members of his family, ladies, were residing at Niagara Falls, Ontario, ten years ago, and I presume still are there. I have no doubt that it was some member of Adam Crysler's family who took part in the abduction of the Cooley girl. The original spelling of this name was Kreisler, which is a fairly common German name in the Rhine Palatinate, from which this family came."