:i! I I !ii FREEDOM'S BIRTHPLACE A Study of the Boston Negroes joHH,,..:a^iiEi^i i '' |l il I ! i I I ill i i i i I jllii I II MM M{ ! Class Z_. Book 7' GopyriglitN?. COPYRIGHT DEPOSrr. DU- IN rREED0K3 BIRTHPLACE A STUDY OF THE BOSTON NEGROES BY JOHN DANIELS '( Sometime Holder of the South End House Fellowship in Harvard University ; now Secretary of the Social Service Corporation, Baltimore BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY (Cbe Slitocr^^ibe ptcs'S Cambribge 1914 ^^\4Ziz COPYRIGHT, I9I4, BY THB SOUTH END HOUSE ASSOCIATION ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Published February iqi^ FEB 16 1914 e)CI.A:J6l98 9 INTRODUCTION xiii It Is not fundamentally in the outward hindrance to vocational success or cultural recognition, but in the confusion and ineptness with which color prejudice affects the productive moral faculty of a whole racial group. The one great return to be made by the white urban citizen to the Negro for the wrongs which he has suffered is to bring to him in pervading and infectious ways the stirring incentive to group capacity and group achievement, through the long, relentless drill of sys- tematic, purposeful association. Out of such constructive discipline would emerge a type of Negro leader who would no less sternly fight in defense of every accomplished right of his brethren, but would also gradually and surely place them where they would steadilj' be gaining a stronger, freer, and fuller life in terms of the indisputable material and moral currency of the city as it is. Robert A. Woods. CAMBRIDGE • MASSACHUSETTS U . S . A PREFACE To Mr. Robert A. Woods, of the South End House, the writer desires to acknowledge his deep gratitude for constant guidance in connection with the making of the present study. Also to Mr. Albert J. Kennedy and to Mr. William I. Cole, both till recently of the staff of the above Settlement, the writer is greatly indebted, particularly for the painstaking reading and candid criticism of his manuscript preceding its final revision. The plan of casting the account mainly in the historical and the descriptive, rather than the argumentative, mould, to the extent which has been done, was suggested by Dr. Robert E. Park, now of the sociological department of Chicago University. Any adequate roll of those among the Negro people who have assisted would be impossible to call in the space here permitted. Some, however, have con- tributed an especially generous quota of their time. Grateful acknowledgment for such service is due Mr. William L. Reed, Mr. Butler R. Wilson, Mr. William H. Lewis, Mr. Archibald H. Grimke, Mr. William M. Trotter, Mr. William H. Dupree, Mr. Robert M. Coursey, Mr. Joshua A. Crawford, Mr. Joseph W. Houston, and Miss Eliza Gardner, — all of Boston. Beyond this, however, the writer wishes to record that the source from which in general he has derived his measure of sympathetic understanding and of close- range information, with regard to the conditions herein vi PREFACE describedras well as constant encouragement for the continuance and completion of his inquiries, has been found in the Negro people themselves. To them, their achievements, and their higher and broader future, this study is sincerely dedicated. In the interest both of accuracy and also of possible subsequent attention to this same subject, the writer will welcome any corrections, amplifications, or sug- gestions, in connection with the present narrative. For this purpose, he may be addressed in care of the publishers. CONTENTS I. Slave, Patriot, and Pioneer Freeman 1 II. A Race Delivered 30 III. Equal Rights and Public Favor 81 IV. Reaction: The Negro Forced upon his own Resources 106 V. Taking Root 133 VI. Social Construction and Ethical Growth 158 VII. The Upward Struggle of the Negro Church 224 VIII. The Leverage of the Ballot 266 IX. Economic Achievement; the Solid Foun- dation 308 X. The Future of the Negro People 398 Appendix 443 Statistical Tables 457 Index 481 INTRODUCTION The residents of the South End House, early in the development of their work, were struck by a curious anomaly in the attitude of Boston citizens toward the Negro. Very large sums of money were annually con- tributed to schools for appropriate and effective meas- ures of improvement among colored people in the South, while practically no specific attention was paid to the serious problem of the steadily increasing Negro population of Boston itself. A few descendants of the Abolitionists, natural or spiritual, continued to have a care for the broad rights of the Negro, but this some- what abstract concern seemed to make it the more dif- ficult for them to find that there were once again new occasions bringing new duties; to realize that the issue was no longer merely one of equality but of contact. For the sake of a more human and more timely rela- tion, the South End House undertook in 1904 a small branch in a street inhabited almost entirely by an iso- lated cluster of colored families; an experiment which by gradual stages led to the establishment, on an inde- pendent basis, of the Robert Gould Shaw House, in the midst of the great Negro quarter of the city. The present study was begun among experiences associated with that development; and has been con- tinued by Mr. Daniels, as other work would permit, for a period of nine years. It is hoped that this pre- sentment may help the citizens of Boston to focalize their traditional devotion to the cause of the Negro in X INTRODUCTION greater degree upon conditions that are immediate in time and place. It may also be of service in cities and large towns throughout the country where the most distinctive of all our American problems is coming into its urban phase. It is, indeed, entirely possible that the issue, which for a century has run tantalizingly athwart every large motive of broad national progress, may proceed to play this same role, with unexpected variations and complications, in the life of our municipalities. As ever stronger magnets to unskilled labor, the cities of the North inevitably draw the Negroes to them. Even in the South it is anticipated that, with the develop- ment of cotton-picking machinery, an increasing pro- portion of Negroes will be driven from the farming regions to the towns. It cannot be doubted that the feeling of aversion on the part of the whites in the cities is increasing. Even the incoming immigrants begin to express it. It is often pathetically urged by Negro leaders that this sentiment is imparted to the newcomers by native Americans who have stifled in themselves the senti- ments inculcated by their fathers; but the actuality of the color prejudice is shown by the fact that some of the immigrants, notably the Italians, bring it with them. The city situation may be protected from this new danger, and it may be the means of shifting the Negro problem for the country as a whole into a normal and ultimately manageable angle, if the Negroes can be considered as an unassimilated social factor analogous to the diflFerent immigrant nationalities; and the people INTRODUCTION xi of the city as a whole, including the colored population, be accustomed to look upon the color line, in many of its aspects, as simply a much more extreme form of the cleavage which separates the diflferent types of immigrants from the natives and from one another. It is true that this analogy is incomplete: — at the point of racial intermixture it ceases. But its practical value can be very great. In the case of each immigrant nationality, bitter prej- udice has been encountered; but such experience has only more firmly established and specialized certain forms of economic, political, and religious allegiance within the nationality group. This formation has, on the whole, eased the process of assimilation ; has brought resource more quickly to the hand of the stranger; and made it possible to bring up within the shortest pos- sible time trained and powerful leaders who have secured for themselves, and then for their congeners, a solid and abiding foundation of influence and consider- ation throughout the community as a whole. This path beaten down by the footsteps of the great multi- tude of the new Americans is open to the Negro, and it is his only dependable way of entrance into the broad fellowship of American city life. The cities of the coun- try, in their community relations, are, for better or worse, decisively organized on the basis of racial dis- tinctions, and of a particular method for overcoming them. The Negro must adopt the method or rule him- self out of the game. The great secret is that of learning the power of asso- ciation based on racial loyalty. The immigrants have even proved that a certain sort of segregation, amid all 3di INTRODUCTION the conflicting currents of city life, is provisionally a blessing. They have also learned the relative futility of scattered pleas for a flat parity of opportunity, and the indomitable quality of collective power in hand. Here is the test of whether the Negro of the cities can develop the urban type of intelligence through which city dwellers maintain themselves and make advances. The present measure of his capacity for registering in thought and purpose the indications of reality is in such achievements and such failures as he is making in organization. If the Negroes of Boston could, for instance, consolidate their purchasing power, and direct it as they collectively chose, they could quickly double or treble the number of their representatives who should be holding responsible positions in indus- trial and mercantile establishments. Mr. Daniels's treatment will be found particularly suggestive as to whether in economic opportunity the Negroes do not, in spite of prejudice, have almost as much as they on the average and collectively merit. That the Negroes as a type do not force conviction to the mind of the citizen as an economic asset is to-day very largely owing to the relative incapacity for loyal, continuous, result-getting team-work among them- selves. Their minor leaders are destroyed by the jealousies of such as should gladly be their followers; and those who are otherwise equipped to be their major leaders see in all forms of internal organization a trucu- lent surrender of the principle of social equality. One would be far from forgetting that the Negro suf- fers under a cruel load of injustice; but the point of inci- dence of this infliction is not where he thinks it to be. IN FREEDOM'S BIRTHPLACE CHAPTER I SLAVE, PATRIOT, AND PIONEER FREEMAN The Negro has had his part in the history of Boston almost as long as his Caucasian fellow-citizens. He came into the community in 1638, only eight years after the original settlement. The first Negroes, apparently but a few in number, were brought to Boston by a trading- vessel, the De- sire, as part of a cargo which, it is interesting to note, consisted for the rest of tobacco and cotton, the two commodities which have become the staples of the Negro's labor in America. These Negroes were brought directly from Providence in the Bahamas, where presumably they had undergone a brief season- ing, but they were in all probability native Africans, who not long before had been captured in the jungle. They were purchased by the people of Boston as slaves.^ * For the account of the first landing of Negroes in Boston, see Winthrop's New England, vol. i, p. 254 (p. 305, Savage edition). There is reason to believe that Negroes had been brought to the vicinity of Boston even before 1638. See Mass. Hist. Coll. vol. i, p. 194. One of the earliest writers on New England (Josselyn, author of Two Voyages to New England) had occasion to visit Noddle's Island in the harbor, in October, 1637. He found, in the possession of one Maverick, three Negroes, two women and one man. Neither of the women could speak English. One of them seemed to have been a person of high rank in Africa. This writer observed that "the people are well accommodated with servants, some English, others Negroes." 8 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON Thus there arose, simultaneously with the Negro's advent, a contradiction between the abstract profes- sion of the white citizens of Boston and their concrete treatment of this race. The Puritans had founded the town in devotion to the cause of spiritual freedom. Yet they did not refrain, within a few years, from placing Negroes in a state of bondage, in which not only was the negation of spiritual freedom implicit, but which took away physical freedom as well. This contradic- tion was speedily to give trouble to the Puritan con- science, and was to have momentous consequences, in bringing that conscience to bear as a lever to change the Negro's lot. It was a contradiction, moreover, which in modified degree and form has survived to the pre- sent, and which still troubles the Boston community. These first Negroes were not, however, the first slaves in Boston. Indian captives had already been held in slavery. This fact naturally suggests the query as to why Indian slavery did not preclude, or at least continue to coexist with, Negro slavery. The most immediate reason why the enslavement of Indians was not kept up was that the Indian tribes made this prac- tice one of the grievances for their constant wars with the colonists, and in the treaties which were made stipulated its discontinuance. The more intrinsic reason, however, was that the Indian did not prove to be so good a slave as the Negro. On the one hand, the Indian's time-honored traditions had instilled in him the idea that manual toil was degrading, and his char- acteristic pride made him rebellious against such toil, and still more against the disgrace of being held in sub- jection. On the other hand, his equally characteristic SLAVE, PATRIOT, AND PIONEER FREEMAN 3 sulkiness, his obstinacy in clinging to his own ways and in resisting the civilized ways of the white man, and his laziness, made him unsatisfactory in point of service. The Negro, however, though he lacked the innate pride which in itself commanded respect, was of a cheerful disposition, quick to imitate, readily teach- able, and, while somewhat given to loafing and inviting his soul, was for the most part industrious. Curiously enough, it appears from the old records that the Ne- groes brought to Boston by the Desire had been pur- chased with the proceeds from the sale of fifteen Indian boys and two squaws whom the vessel had carried away on her outward voyage from her home port, near-by Salem ;^ that is, Indians were practically exchanged for Negroes, — a transaction the inference of which is obvious. Though these two peoples were not to undergo a common experience in slavery, their destinies were nevertheless interlinked by the white man's coming to America; — destinies strangely alike, yet opposite. The Negroes were to be taken away from their imme- morial home-land. The Indians were to have their immemorial home-land taken away from them. There is a suggestion of elemental sympathy in the fact that from the beginning the two races intermarried. To- day, hundreds of Negroes in Boston are imbued with an Indian strain. The Negroes may boast the unique distinction of having more aboriginal American blood flowing through their veins than any other racial group except the present-day Indians themselves. Should the "noble red man" eventually pass into ex- ^ Winthrop's New England, vol. i, p. 234 (p. 279, Savage's edition). 4 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON tinction, it will be the Negro who will transmit his heritage to the modern American composite. There is one further aspect from which the Negro in Boston is a significant figure. His advent in that city followed by only nineteen years the first appear- ance of Negroes in the colonies.^ His history in Boston, going back two hundred and seventy-five years, is therefore very nearly coextensive with, and so within bounds representative of, the history of the Negro people in the United States. For the first century and a half, roughly, from 1638 down to the Revolution, the chronicles bearing upon the subject in hand have to do chiefly with slavery and the slave-trade, and their suppression. The first slave-ship fitted out in the colonies is be- lieved to have sailed from Boston in 1646.^ Thereafter not a few Boston merchants engaged in the traffic. Some ships carried barrel-staves, fish, and rum to the Madeiras and the Canaries, and brought back Negroes from the Guinea coast and Madagascar, for sale chiefly in the West Indies, whence cargoes of sugar and mo- lasses were taken home to be manufactured into rum for further trade. ^ Other ships took miscellaneous cargoes to the West Indies and bartered for slaves, which were sold in the Southern colonies.^ Direct importation of Negroes into Boston remained slight till the close of the century, and never became large. More were obtained indirectly, from the South, and from the Dutch in New York. In 1680, Governor ' The first Negroes brought into the colonies were slaves landed at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1G19. ^ U.S. Census, 1860, vol. 2, p. iv. * Reuben Gold Thwaites, The Colonies, p. 185. SLAVE. PATRIOT, AND PIONEER FREEMAN 5 Bradstreet of Massachusetts stated, "There hath been no Company of blacks or Slaves brought into the Country since the beginning of this plantation, for the space of Fifty yeares,^ only one small Vessell about two yeares since, after twenty months' voyage to Madagasca, brought hither betwixt Forty and fifty Negro's, most women and children Sold here for 10£ 15£ and 20£ apiece, which stood the merchants in neer 40£ apiece one with another. Now and then, two or three Negro's are brought hither from Barbados and other of his Majesties plantations, and sold here for about twenty pounds apiece. So that there may be within our Government about one hundred or one hundred and twenty." ^ In 1708, Governor Dudley gave four hundred as the number of slaves in Boston, adding that half of these had been born here.^ The others had been brought in since 1698.^ From that year to 1727, when, it is recorded, "the traffic in slaves appears to have been more an object than at any period before or since, "^ from twenty -five to fifty Ne- groes were brought in annually. Thenceforth there was a steady decline. The lot of the slaves in Boston, however, was not severe. Most of them were house and body servants, and in fact the less forbidding term "servant" soon came into common use. The Massachusetts Body of * Governor Bradstreet apparently used the expression "Fifty yeares" roughly, or else the Negroes brought to Boston in 1638 were not sufficient in number to be referred to as a "Company." 2 Mass. Hist. Coll., Third Series, viii, p. 337. ^ Thirty-fourth Annual Report of the Mass. Bureau of Statistics of Labor, p. 230. ■* Drake's History of Boston, p. 574. 6 Ibid. 6 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON Liberties of 1641 contained the imperative declaration that the slaves should be accorded "all the liberties and Christian usages which the law of God established in Israel doeth morally require," and the instructions from the Crown to Governor Andros in 1668 required him to have a law passed restraining brutality on the part of masters and overseers, and making wilful kill- ing of slaves punishable by death. ^ Hardly had slavery got a foothold, moreover, before opposition to it, on humanitarian grounds, began. As early as 1701, citizens of Boston had appealed to their representatives in the colony's Legislature, "to put a period to negroes being slaves," and to encourage the bringing in of white servants.^ The same sentiment was further evidenced by persistent efforts to stop the rating of Negroes as live stock for purposes of taxation. About 1712, Judge Samuel Sewall, the leader of the anti-slavery agitation of that period, wrote a tract en- titled "The Selling of Joseph," which greatly furthered the movement toward manumission. The slaves them- selves entered upon a determined effort to obtain their freedom. In 1770, James, a slave of Richard Lech- mere, of Cambridge, brought an action against his master for detaining him in bondage. The Negroes raised money enough to employ counsel and push the matter through to a conclusion. They won a victory, and from that time on there were many such suits and the majority of them were successful.^ A pamphlet containing an account of the famous Sommersett case, * Thirty-fourth Annual Report of the Mass. Bureau of Statistics of Labor, p. 220. ^ Mass Hist. Coll., Second Series, viii, p. 184. ' Address of Charles Sumner, U. S. Senate, June 28, 1854. SLAVE, PATRIOT, AND PIONEER FREEMAN 7 which occurred in England in 1772, and in which the court had ruled that no one could be held in bondage in that country, was widely and effectively circulated in Massachusetts, as well as in the other Northern colonies. In 1773^ and again in 1777^ groups of slaves petitioned the Legislature to enact emancipation. The fact that there were free Negroes — or, as they were styled to distinguish them from the slaves, "free persons of color" — in the community, helped to un- dermine slavery. As has been mentioned, some Ne- groes were bound as slaves for a term of years only. Others gained their freedom through exceptional indus- try or the exhibition of superior qualities. Not a few were set at liberty in return for military service. Some escaped, and, thanks in large part to a public senti- ment inclined to be sympathetic, contrived to evade capture and return. Negroes already free often pur- chased the freedom of kinsmen still held in bondage. Practically from the beginning, moreover, a consider- able proportion of slaves were manumitted by more than ordinarily kind-hearted masters. In 1708, ac- cording to the town officials' lists, there were thirty- three free Negroes in Boston, and thenceforth their number rapidly increased. The presence of this class prevented slavery from coming to be accepted either by the Negroes or the whites as a foreordained and necessary institution. Slavery got its death-blow, however, from the rights-of-man fervor which inspired the Revolution. 1 Mass. Legislative Report on Free Negroes and Mulattoes, January 16, 1822. ^ William C. Nell, Colored Patriots of the Revolution. 8 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON Enthusiasm for the principles of equality could scarcely avoid being brought hard up against the paradox of the Negro's status. Augmented by appreciation of the service which, as will appear, the Negro rendered in the war, that enthusiasm finally assured the Negro his freedom. Though an exact date has never been set to mark the termination of slavery in Massachusetts, the approximate time of its disappearance is sufficiently certain. "How, or by what act particularly, slavery was abolished in Massachusetts, whether by the adop- tion of the opinion in Sommersett's case, as a declara- tion and modification of the common law, or by the Declaration of Independence, or by the constitution of 1780, it is not now very easy to determine, and it is rather a matter of curiosity than utility; it being agreed on all hands, that if not abolished before, it was so by the declaration of rights." ^ The declaration of rights here referred to was that drafted by John Adams and adopted by the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention of 1780, the first article of which read: "All men are born free and equal, and have certain natural, essential and unalienable rights: among which may be reckoned the right of enjoying and de- fending their lives and liberties; that of acquiring, possessing and protecting property; in fine, that of seeking and obtaining their safety and happiness." The slave-trade was formally prohibited in 1788, twenty years before similar action was taken by the Federal Government. In 1790 the first national census showed not a single slave in the state. Though 1 Statement by Chief Justice Shaw in 1836; — Commonwealth v. Aves, 18 Pickering, p. 209. SLAVE, PATRIOT, AND PIONEER FREEMAN 9 several other Northern states had by that time adopted acts of conditional emancipation, in the com- plete elimination of slavery Massachusetts had at- tained a unique distinction. This was the first great result wrought by the dis- turbance which slavery had produced in the Puritan conscience. Boston, as the active center of the move- ment which brought slavery to an end in Massachu- setts, became the birthplace of the Negro's freedom in America, in point of time. There, nearly a century and a half ago, the Negro first came into the estate of a free citizen. Some fourscore years later, Boston was to prove his freedom's birthplace in point of relation to his emancipation throughout the land. While slavery was being stamped out in Massa- chusetts, the historic events which terminated in the American Revolution were taking place. It seems like something more than mere coincidence — like a nat- ural intervolution of kindred issues, indeed — that the Negro's first attainment of freedom was contempo- raneous with the colonists' victorious struggle for their own independence; and that in this struggle the Negro took a worthy and in truth a memorable part. The momentous incident which finally drove the colonists to the extreme decision of separation from the mother country was the Boston Massacre. The central hero of that incident was a Negro, or a Negro- Indian half-breed, Crispus Attucks.^ English troops ^ Attucks was an escaped slave, who had run away from his mas- ter, a resident of Framingham, Massachusetts, in September, 1750. In an advertisement for his apprehension, which appeared in the Boston Gazette on October 2 of that year, he was described as a mulatto, over six feet in height, and well proportioned. 10 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON had been quartered in Boston since October, 1768, to repress any violent opposition to the obnoxious Taxa- tion Act of the previous year. The presence of these troops was most offensive to the citizens and provoked ominous friction. On the evening of the 5th of March, 1770, some soldiers leaving the main guard at the head of King (now State) Street, were met by a crowd armed with cudgels. The resulting row swelled the numbers of the crowd, which soon set itself to harrying the sentinel on duty before the custom house, opposite the head of the street. Finally this sentinel, in exas- peration, struck a boy with the butt of his musket. The boy ran off and set up an alarm, and in a few min- utes a furious crowd, headed by Attucks, rushed upon the scene. The sentinel was joined by other soldiers, till ten were in line. At last they fired, killing Attucks and two of his companions, James Caldwell and Samuel Gray, and mortally wounding two others, Samuel Maverick and Patrick Carr. The alarm bells of the city clanged, the British drums beat to arms, and the streets were thronged with soldiers and en- raged citizens. Lieutenant-Governor Hutchinson prevented fur- ther bloodshed by placing the ten soldiers under arrest and inducing the officers to send the troops back to bar- racks. But next day a town meeting was held, and the citizens voted "that nothing can rationally be ex- pected to restore the peace of the town and prevent blood and carnage but the immediate withdrawal of the troops." This action forced the removal of the troops to Castle Island in the harbor. Two days later, March 8, a public funeral was held. The four bodies SLAVE, PATRIOT, AND PIONEER FREEMAN 11 were deposited together in a single grave. Over the grave was erected a stone with this inscription : — " Long as in Freedom's cause the wise contend, Dear to your country shall your fame extend. While to the world the lettered stone shall tell. Where Caldwell, Attucks, Gray and Maverick fell." This marked grave lies in the northeast corner of the old cemetery between the Park Street Church and the Tremont Building, close to the grave of Samuel Adams, signer of the Declaration of Independence and Governor of the commonwealth. In a prominent posi- tion on the Common, midway facing Tremont Street, stands a more conspicuous memorial, in the form of a monument, erected by the State in 1888. A figure of Liberty holds in her left hand a broken chain, in her right the flag, and at her feet crouches the American eagle. The scene of the massacre is represented on a bronze tablet, the British soldiers with smoking mus- kets still raised, Attucks lying dead on the ground, and the others falling back into the arms of their fel- lows. Above, to the left, are carved the words of Daniel Webster, — "From that moment we may date the severance of the British Empire"; and to the left, those of John Adams, — "On that night the founda- tion of American independence was laid." The Fifth of March was, in fact, celebrated as the chief American holiday till the Fourth of July took its place. When the Revolution broke out, the question arose as to whether Negroes should be allowed to serve as soldiers. At that time a considerable proportion of the Negroes in Massachusetts, the majority of those in the other Northern colonies, and nearly all of those 12 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON in the Southern colonies, were still slaves. The oppo- sition to their enlistment appears to have been due mainly to recognition of the obvious inconsistency of calling upon a slave class to help in a war for independ- ence. Because the inconsistency involved was less direct, there was less opposition to enlisting free Negroes. The element that wanted slavery abolished pressed strongly for general emancipation, urging that this was the policy dictated by national self-interest. The proposal was broached in the first Provincial Con- gress in 1774, but was allowed to subside. In May, 1775, the Committee of Safety passed a resolve that in their opinion "the admission of any persons, as sol- diers, but only such as are freemen, will be inconsist- ent with the principles that are to be supported, and reflect dishonor on the Colony, and that no slaves be admitted into the army upon any consideration what- ever." Washington, having assumed command of the army around Boston on July 3, 1775, on the 10th is- sued instructions to the recruiting officers not to allow any Negro to enlist. At a council of war on October 8, it was agreed unanimously to reject all slaves, and, by a great majority, to reject Negroes altogether, and in November, Washington issued further instructions to that effect. Whatever may have been the nominal policy in this matter, however, the fact is that Negroes were allowed to serve in the Revolutionary army from the outset, and in increasing numbers till the war's close ; for the reason, evidently, that their military service was too badly needed to be refused. Bancroft states that, at Cambridge, "Free Negroes stood in the ranks by the SLAVE, PATRIOT, AND PIONEER FREEMAN 13 side of white men." On September, 1775, the Contin- ental Congress debated whether to order all Negro soldiers, slave and free, then in service, to be dis- charged, and apparently because of their number, de- cided against such action. In December, Washington issued general orders as follows: "As the General is informed that numbers of free Negroes are desirous of enlisting, he gives leave to the recruiting oflScers to en- train them, and promises to lay the matter before the Congress, who, he doubts not, will approve of it." Congress, in January, 1776, ordered that "the free Negroes who have served faithfully in the army at Cambridge may be reinstated therein, but no others." Though it thus appears that the relaxation applied mainly to free Negroes, yet there is no doubt that a considerable number of slaves served as soldiers, and that many slaves in fact earned their manumission thereby. From an official document dated August 24, 1778, it is known that altogether there were 755 Ne- groes distributed through the main army under Wash- ington's immediate command.^ An additional number, it may be assumed, were enlisted in subsidiary corps. Besides, there were at least two fighting bodies com- posed entirely of Negroes. One of these was the famous Rhode Island regiment, which successfully defended Red Bank at Bunker Hill — 400 Negroes against 1500 Hessians. 2 The other was a Massachusetts company known as "The Bucks of America," and commanded by " Colonel" Middleton, a Boston Negro, who was a ' For the account of Negroes in the Revolutionary army, up to this point, the facts have been taken from the Thirty-fourth Annual Report of the Mass. Bureau of Statistics of Labor, pp. 227-28. 2 im., p. 228. 14 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON horse-tamer by vocation, and apparently a picturesque character. After the war a banner in recognition of bravery was presented to this company by the Gov- ernor.^ Of the individual Negro soldiers from Boston and vicinity, the names of several have come down by reason of their exceptional valor or other distinction. Two who made honorable records were John T. Hilton and Seymour Burr, the latter a slave who gained his freedom by serving in the army.^ Tradition has it that about a dozen members of the Lew family, which ap- pears to have combined valor, musical ability, and thrift, formed themselves into a guerrilla fighting organization known as "Lew's Band." Barzalai Lew was a fifer at Bunker Hill.^ Primus Hall, of Boston, was body-servant to Colonel Pickering, of Massachu- setts, with whom Washington was on the most inti- mate and confidential terms. There is a story that one evening Washington came to Pickering's tent, to talk over plans, and remained so late that he decided to stay all night. Some time after he had retired, he awoke and saw the Negro sitting up awake. He asked him why he was not in bed, and then, realizing that he himself was occupying the only extra bed, he com- pelled Hall, in spite of protestations, to share it with him.'* The Negro who won most note in the Revolution was Peter Salem, of Framingham, which is not far from Boston. At the Battle of Bunker Hill, he shot and killed the British major, Pitcairn, at the moment ^ W. C. Nell, Colored Patriots of the Revolution. « Ibid. 3 Ibid. * Ibid. SLAVE, PATRIOT, AND PIONEER FREEMAN 15 when the latter, leading one of the enemy's most des- perate charges, mounted the walls, shouting, "The day is ours." For this exploit he was specially pre- sented to General Washington. In the celebrated pic- ture by Colonel Trumbull, who saw the battle from Roxbury and who made a painting in 1786, the figure of Salem stands out conspicuously, and other Negroes may be discerned among the white soldiers.^ A repre- sentation of Salem also appeared on some of the bills of the old Monumental Bank of Charlestown and of the Freeman's Bank of Boston. ^ When the statue of General Joseph Warren was dedicated on the 17th of June, 1857, the Honorable Edward Everett said, in his address: "It is the monument of the event of the Battle of Bunker Hill; of all the brave men who shared its perils, — alike of Prescott and Putnam and War- ren, the chief of the day, and the colored man, Salem, who is reported to have shot the gallant Pitcairn as he mounted the parapet. Cold as the clods on which they rest, still as the silent heavens to which it soars, it is yet vocal, eloquent in their undivided praise."^ Such was the account that the Negro rendered of himself in the crisis which determined the future of the land to which he had been brought as a slave, and in which for the most part he was still held in bondage. In that crisis, he did not desert or turn against his en- slavers, though he had abundant opportunity so to do. Neither did he prove a coward or a parasite. He made common cause with the white colonials, and fought ^ George Livermore, Negroes as Slaves, Citizens, and Soldiers. 2 W. C. Nell, Colored Patriots of the Revolution. ' Edward Everett, Orations and Speeches, vol. in, p. 259. 16 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON loyally by their side as a patriot soldier. Therein was his both an honorable and a substantial part in the birth of the American nation,^ Having entered into Boston's history first in the role of slave, and then in that of Revolutionary soldier, what part was the Negro to have in the community's upbuilding in ways of free citizenship and peaceful industry? In the years of the nation's beginnings, what advance was the Negro making on his own ac- count? With respect to the size of the Negro population, the first reliable information had been obtained in 1742. According to a rough census, there were in that year 1374 Negroes in Boston, slave and free. A similar enumeration ten years later showed 1541, forming about ten per cent of a total population of 15,731. In 1754, a special count of slaves was made, and 989 were listed in Boston. At that time, therefore, the free Negroes must have formed a proportion of somewhat over one third. Owing to the decline of the slave-trade and a high mortality, the number of Boston's Negro inhabitants diminished through the remainder of the century. By 1765, it had fallen to 848, and by 1790, 1 Previous to the Revolution, the Negro had fought in the wars which the colonists waged with the French and their Indian allies. The Lew family also had one or two members in those early con- flicts. Later, in the War of 1812, which tried and proved the strength of the young nation, the Negro again rendered sturdy service. A pic- turesque story of loyalty is told about one Richard Seavers, of Bos- ton. He had entered the British navy, but at the outbreak of the war he refused to remain with the enemy and gave himself up as a prisoner. He was a man of giant physique and strength, and by vir- tue of these qualities made himself the "King" of the four hundred and fifty blacks in Dartmoor Prison. SLAVE, PATRIOT, AND PIONEER FREEMAN 17 to 766, or only four per cent of the total population. Thenceforth, though the proportion remained practi- cally the same, there was a slow biit constant growth in number; to 1174 in 1800, 1468 in 1810, and 1690 in 1820. The Increase was due in most part to the coming in of free Negroes, chiefly from other parts of the North, but to some extent from the South. Inasmuch as by 1804, emancipation had taken place in all the states north of Maryland, and the free Negroes had come to form thirteen per cent of the total Negro population of the country, it is clear how the Negro community of Boston was able to draw substantial accessions from this free element. In the earliest days most of the Negroes who did not, as slaves and servants, live in white households, were congregated about the wharves at the extreme north- ern tip of the North End, opposite Charlestown. This locality was customarily referred to as "New Guinea." Till about 1820, probably a majority of the Negroes continued to live in various parts of the North End and of the middle portion of the city, now the down- town business section, for the reason that these were till then the only thickly settled districts.^ Even before 1800, however, there had begun a shifting of the Negro population to the comparatively new and open West End. The economic status of the Negro at that period is suggested by a most interesting section of the census * For a long time the western portion of the Copp's Hill Burying Ground, which overlooks the harbor, was reserved for slaves and freedmen, the earthly remains of over a thousand of whom lie buried there. 18 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON of 1790. This section consisted of a complete list of heads of families, with their names and the number of persons in their households. The fact that the ma- jority of the 766 Negroes in Boston were not entered independently by name, but simply as "Negroes" attached to the respective white households, implies that the passing of slavery had not produced any sweeping change in the local economic and industrial position of this race. Further evidence to the same efiFect, and applying, moreover, to conditions which still prevailed forty years later, has come do\Mi from another source. The city directories of the time used to list the Negroes separately. The directory for 1829 contains the names of 224 Negroes, with their occupa- tions. The total Negro population of that year must have been close to 1690, which was the number shown by the census of the year following. Assuming even that each one of these names was that of a head of a family, and that there were four additional non-work- ing members to each family, nearly 600 persons would still be left unaccounted for. The inference is that at least these 600 Negroes, or approximately a third of the Negro population, were not reckoned of sufficient importance to be hunted up and entered in the direc- tory. They were no doubt family servants, or laborers of lowest grade, who picked up an uncertain living in whatever way they could. That the Negro was beginning to make industrial and economic progress, however, is also plain. Of the 224 Negroes listed in the directory of 1829, 54 were designated as "laborers." These were doubtless street laborers, care-takers of buildings and estates, and the SLAVE, PATRIOT, AND PIONEER FREEMAN 19 like. The number of waiters, bootblacks, cooks, win- dow-cleaners, sweeps, wood-sawers, coachmen, and unspecified "servants," was 30; that of laundresses, 8. There were 36 sailors. The trades were represented by a cordwainer, a housewright, a grain-measurer, a soap- maker, a hair-renovator, and a boot-maker. The Negroes had almost a monopoly of the barbering busi- ness. The directory gave the names of 32 " hairdress- ers," most of whom were owners of shops, situated in every part of the city. There were 2 handcart men, 14 clothes shops, most of them on Brattle Street, 4 tailors, a junk-shop, a provision shop, a general shop, and 4 boarding-houses. Thus at that early day a promising proportion of the Negroes had become business pro- prietors. The sole representatives of the professions were two ministers. The fact that 26 persons were given as having independent residences, but no occu- pations, and that some of these were widows, warrants the surmise that a few Negroes must have met with sufiicient material prosperity to enable them to live on their savings and to leave their families provided for. The higher field of cultural accomplishment was as yet unentered, save by one interesting figure who will always retain a unique place in the history of her people. This was Phillis Wheatley, the poetess. She was brought to Boston from Africa on a slave-ship in 1761, a little girl of eight or nine years, and was pur- chased by one John Wheatley as a servant for his wife. She showed a fondness for books, and, encouraged by her mistress, soon acquired what was at that time a superior education. Expression of her thoughts in 20 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON verse was natural to her, and at the age of fourteen she had written poems which indicated her latent ability. When she was nineteen she was taken to England on a visit, and was there made much of. A volume of her poems, dedicated to the Countess of Huntington, and prefaced by the signed statement of the governor and the lieutenant-governor of Massachusetts and fifteen prominent citizens of Boston, witnessing that the writer was in truth a Negro servant, was published in Lon- don in 1773, and subsequently passed through several editions, in England and America. On her return to Boston in 1775, Phillis was given her freedom. She became a member of the congregation which wor- shiped at the Old South Meeting-House. Soon after- wards the Wheatley family was broken up by death, and Phillis married a "Dr." Peters, a Negro of more show than substance, who had a small shop on Court Street. She fell into severe want, her health failed, and she died in Boston in 1796.^ Her volume of verse had been called, "Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral," and all her poems had a deeply religious character. One, entitled "On Being Brought from Africa to America," is not only typical in this respect, but because of the author's own life history and the Negro's position in the community, possesses also a peculiar interest. It is as follows : — " 'T was mercy brought me from my pagan land. Taught my benighted soul to understand That there's a God — that there's a Saviour, too: Once I redemption neither sought nor knew. 1 For Phillis Wheatley, See William Wells Brown, The Black Man; W. C. Nell, Colored Patriots of the Revolution; and the Encyclopaedia Americana. SLAVE, PATRIOT, AND PIONEER FREEMAN 21 Some view our sable race with scornful eye — 'Their color is a diabolic dye.' Remember, Christians, Negroes black as Cain May be refined, and join the angelic train." Social organization had its beginning among the Negroes in 1784, in the formation of a Masonic lodge with fifteen original members. Moreover, this lodge, it is maintained, was the first, either white or Negro, es- tablished in the United States under a charter from the Masonic body in England.^ The founder of the lodge was Prince Hall, one of the small number of Negro heads of families listed in the federal census six years later. By vocation he was a soapmaker, by avocation a preacher, and apparently he was a man of character and ability, who held the position of leader among his people. Above his grave in the old Copp's Hill Bury- ing Ground stands a commemorative shaft placed there in 1895 by the Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Mas- sachusetts (Negro Masonic), which numbers to-day over six hundred members. A further and more important advance in organiza- tion was made with the founding of the first Negro church, originally called the African Meeting-House, in 1805.2 Previously the Negroes had attended the same churches as the whites. In the earliest days, while slavery was still in existence, they were restricted to certain pews or to a slave gallery, like the one which may still be seen in the Old North Church. Even after ^ The author has not gone into the annals of Masonry to ascer- tain whether this claim is amply supported by evidence. ^ This church may have grown out of an "African Society," of which the author has been able to find no other mention than that it was formed in 1797, with forty-four members. 22 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON slavery went out of existence, as a general rule Negroes were expected to sit in the less desirable and least con- spicuous seats. It was, apparently, not such discrimin- ation, however, but rather the increase of the Negroes as an element in the population and the growth of a community of interest among them, which led to the formation of a separate Negro church. This church was erected in Smith Court, off Belknap (now Joy) Street, in the West End. The building is said to have been put up entirely with Negro labor. The establishment of the African Meeting-House had a decisive influence on the Negro colony in two ways apart from its religious life. In the first place, the fact that it was located in the West End no doubt greatly accelerated the movement of the Negroes to that section. Furthermore, by providing the Negroes with the only good-sized gathering place of their own, it naturally became their principal rallying-point, not only for religious purposes, but for whatever other object might bring them together. In this way it did much to promote their general group development. As in the case of church attendance, so it was also in the case of school attendance; — for a long time Negro children went to the public schools with the white children, though apparently they were kept more or less apart from them. The number of Negro chil- dren who took advantage of this common privilege, however, was very small, one of the alleged reasons therefor being that they were ridiculed and at times mistreated by the white children. In 1798, some of the more ambitious Negro parents made the independent move of opening a private school, in the support of SLAVE, PATRIOT, AND PIONEER FREEMAN 23 which friendly white persons soon assisted. Shortly after the erection of the African Meeting-House, in 1805, the school was transferred thither, and there continued in existence twenty -nine years. In 1800, the next step was taken; a petition, signed by sixty- six Negroes, asking that the city establish and sup- port a separate school for Negro children, was sub- mitted to the school committee. This request was refused, apparently on the ground that Negro chil- dren were still free to attend the general public schools, until 1820, when the city did start a Negro primary school. The fact that even then, however, after a school had been especially founded, not more than a third of the Negro children attended,^ shows that previously it must have been lack of ambition, combined with economic pressure, on the part of the majority of Negro parents, rather than unpleasant treatment of their children at the hands of white chil- dren, which was mainly responsible for keeping the Negro boys and girls away from the public schools. Though so far as available records show, no formal action was taken to revoke the Negro's privilege of attending the general schools, that privilege practically lapsed into disuse soon after the establishment of the separate school. The Negro's effective right to the franchise is said to have been established by the test case of Paul and John Cuffe, in 1778. These two thrifty Negroes, of whom the former, Paul Cuffe, was a successful ship- owner and far-ranging navigator, ^ were called upon by 1 Report of the Primary School Committee, June 15, 1846. * Booker Washington, The Story of the Negro. 24 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON the Town of Dartmouth, not far from Boston, to pay a personal tax. They demurred, contending that inas- much as they were not allowed to vote, they should not be held to pay taxes. After protracted argument, the town authorities admitted that taxpaying and the privilege of voting should go together. The case was regarded as establishing a precedent.^ Any further question as to the Negro's rights was settled by the adoption of the Body of Liberties of 1790, which guar- anteed manhood suffrage, without regard to race. Yet at that period very few of the Negroes in Boston exer- cised the franchise, or took any interest in political affairs. The founding of the Negro Masonic lodge, the Negro church, and the Negro school, and the success- ful protest of the Cuffes against taxation without rep- resentation, are most of all significant as bearing wit- ness to the rise of a spirit of self-reliance on the part of the Negroes. Previously they had been dependent, as slaves or servants, on the whites, with little initiative of their own. Their budding independence therefore first led them naturally into a centripetal movement of separate organization among themselves. Any hos- tility on the part of the whites was apparently a secondary factor in this result. What, however, were the actual relations between the Negro and his white fellows at that time? What place did the Negro then occupy in the community? * W. C. Nell, Colored Patriots of the Revolution. It is not entirely clear, however, whether this case established the positive right to vote, or only the negative right to withhold taxes unless allowed to vote. SLAVE, PATRIOT, AND PIONEER FREEMAN 25 The very names which many of the race bore, as shown by the heads of families section of the 1790 census, are suggestive of the Negro's status. ^ " Crum " Barnes, "Cuff" Bennett, and "Sambo" Jackson are not appellations which conjure up individuals of any great degree of dignity and respect. And in fact the Negro's position at that time, generally speaking, ap- pears to have been not far above the level of such names. It was a position too inferior to carry a sug- gestion of any sort of equality with the whites. For this very reason, the Negro was not the object of the kind of animosity on the part of the whites which in later years the suggestion of equality aroused. Rather, he was looked upon as belonging to a lower order, and as being the ordained serving-man of the community. As such he was treated for the most part with conde- scending good humor. But he was also made the butt of jest and sport, and sometimes the victim of brutal outbursts. Testimony to both the ill usage the Negro suffered, and the way he himself felt regarding the treatment ^ This census is interesting also as shedding light on the deriva- tion of Negro names and revealing them in process of formation. Many are Biblically inspired, as, for instance, "Adam" Rowe, "Joel" Harding, "Luke" Taylor, and "Samson" Brown. "Solomon Isaac" assumed or was burdened with more than his fair share of responsibility for perpetuating the memory of the Old Testament worthies. Another large class of names hark back to the heroes of ancient secular history and even to the gods of mythology; as, for instance, "Cato" Moore, "Nero" Davis, "Cyrus" Eustis, and "Jupiter" Smith. Other names were apparently geographically derived. " Boston " occurs both as a surname, as in " Philip Boston," and as a first name, as in "Boston Roby," "York" Ruggles, "Charlestown" Fluckes, "Glouster" Haskins, and "Hampshire Dennie." The majority of the surnames are those of the white fam- ilies in which the bearers or their parents had served. 36 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON meted out to him, is afforded by an extract from a "Charge to the African Lodge" which Prince Hall, to whom reference as the founder of that lodge has been made, delivered to his fellow-Masons in 1797, and which was subsequently published in pamphlet form. The extract in point is as follows : — Now, my brethren, as we see and experience, that all things here are frail and changeable and nothing here to be de- pended upon : Let us seek those things which are above, and at the same time let us pray to Almighty God, while we re- main in the tabernacle, that he would give us the grace of patience and strength to bear up under all our troubles, which at this day God knows we have our share. Patience, I say, for were we not possessed of a great measure of it, you could not bear up under the daily insults you meet with in the streets of Boston; much more on public days of recrea- tion, how are you shamefully abus'd, and that at such a de- gree, that you may truly be said to carry your lives in your hands; and the arrows of death are flying about your heads; helpless old women have their clothes torn off their backs, even to the exposing of their nakedness. . . . My brethren, let us not be cast down under these and many other abuses we at present labour under: for the darkest is before the break of day. Absence of bitterness, enduring patience, simple religious faith, and persistent hopefulness were the qualities evinced in this exhortation. And these quali- ties had in fact characterized the Negro from the be- ginning and have continued to characterize him, in his reaction to the adversities of his lot. From time to time various attempts had been made to stop the immigration of Negroes to Boston and even to get rid of those already her^, on the ground that poverty, disease, and crime were rife among them. In SLAVE, PATRIOT, AND PIONEER FREEMAN 27 1788, during the same session of the Legislature which adopted the act prohibiting the slave-trade, a law was passed for the suppression and punishment of " rogues, vagabonds, common beggars, and other idle, disorderly, and lewd persons." By Section V of this law it was provided, "that no person being an African or Negro, other than a subject of the Emperor of Mo- rocco, or a citizen of some one of the United States (to be evidenced by a certificate from the Secretary of the State of which he is a citizen), shall tarry within this Commonwealth for a longer time than two months."* And in the " Massachusetts Mercury " of September 16, 1800, appeared the following "Notice to Blacks": — The officers of police having made return to the subscriber of the names of the following persons, who are Africans or Negroes, not subjects of the Emperor of Morocco nor citizens of the United States, the same are hereby warned and di- rected to depart out of this Commonwealth before the 10th day of October next, as they would avoid the pain and pen- alties of the law in that case provided, which was passed by the Legislature March 26th, 1788. Charles Bullfinch, Swper- intendent, by order and direction of the selectmen. This and other similar efforts to get rid of the Ne- groes by a policy of intimidation failed of their object, however, because they did not after all represent the final decision of the community. The more deliberate attitude received expression in the report in 1822 of a legislative committee appointed the year before to draft a bill restricting the admission of free Negroes into the state. In submitting that report the chair- ^ Thirty-fourth Annual Report of the Mass. Bureau of Statistics of Labor, p. 223, 28 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON man of the committee, Theodore Lyman, Jr., of Bos- ton, first admitted that no doubt the severe "Black Laws " of most of the other Northern states were driv- ing Negroes into Massachusetts, where they received comparatively humane treatment; that his colleagues and himself could not but be alarmed by "the increase of a species of population, which threatened to be- come both injurious and burdensome"; that "the black convicts in the State Prison, on the first of Jan- uary, 1821, formed 146| part of the black population of the State, while the white convicts, at the same time, formed but 2140th part of the white population "; and that "it is believed a similar proportion will be found to exist in all public establishments of this State; as well Prisons as Poor-Houses." Nevertheless, he stated, his committee had been unable to report the repressive measure requested. Referring to the law of 1788, he said: — This law has never been enforced, and inefifectual as it has proved, they [i.e., his committee] would never have been the authors of placing among the Statutes a law so arbitrary in its principles, and in its operation so little accordant with the institutions, feelings, and practices of the people of this Commonwealth. The history of that law has well convinced the Committee that no measure (which they could devise) would be attended with the smallest good consequence. That it would have been a matter of satisfaction and con- gratulation to the Committee if they had succeeded in framing a law, which . . . should have promised to check and finally to overcome an evil upon which they have never been able to look with unconcern. But a law which should pro- duce that effect would entirely depart from that love of hu- manity, that respect for hospitality and for the just rights of all classes of men, in the constant and successful exercise of SLAVE, PATRIOT, AND PIONEER FREEMAN 29 which the inhabitants of Massachusetts have been sin- gularly conspicuous.^ That is, — the whites did not like the Negro, they looked upon him as an objectionable element in the community, and they would have been glad to be rid of him. But they could not bring themselves to the point of open and avowed persecution. There was the same old contradiction between principles and prac- tice. There was the same troubling of the Puritan conscience. Conscience again prevailed, with the re- sult, this time, that Massachusetts left her doors open to Negroes seeking refuge from oppression in other states. While the question of the Negro was thus a subject of debate and a cause of more or less uneasiness, it was still, however, a question which came up only inter- mittently, which on such occasions was discussed with- out excitement, and which, furthermore, was regarded as predominantly local in its bearings. It neither deeply agitated nor seriously divided the community. This, in substance, was the situation in Boston at that early period, as the first half-century following the Declaration of Independence neared its close. But an epoch-making advance beyond this largely passive attitude was close at hand. ^ Legislative Report on Free Negroes and Mulattoes, January 16, 1822. CHAPTER II A KACE DELIVERED Section 1. The Abolition Struggle The Abolition Movement arose in Boston, and till the end had its moral center in that city. It forced the question of the Negro before the community in a way that would not down, and which no longer permitted its discussion in calmness. It changed that question from one of mainly local bearing to one of vital import to the nation. It agitated Boston, the North, and the whole country, to the foundations. It hastened and was, indeed, one of the chief provoking causes of the Civil War. And ultimately it accomplished the eradi- cation of slavery throughout the reestablished Union. The Boston Negro, himself first among his people to have experienced freedom, had a specific share in the struggle which gave freedom to his brethren. Fully to understand this movement which proved so far-reaching, it is necessary to trace the previous course of public opinion with regard to the institution of slav- ery. Though it is doubtful if the sentiment against slaveholding reached equal strength elsewhere so soon as it did in Boston, the early expressions of such senti- ment in New England were not the exclusive nor even the original ones. The initial protests representing any considerable body of opinion were voiced by the Penn- sylvania Quakers, in logical accord with their religion of brotherly love, and the earliest anti-slavery society A RACE DELIVERED 31 was organized by them in 1775.^ By the close of the Revolution, whose dominant principle of the natural rights of man, and whose disenslavement of large num- bers of Negroes in compensation for military service, entered in as conclusive factors in the result, the movement toward emancipation was progressing rap- idly in the northern part of the country, and what is more, was making steady advance in the South, In 1787, Congress passed, with slight Southern opposi- tion, the famous Northwest Territorial Government Ordinance, precluding slavery from the great North- west Territory ceded by England, and as yet the only addition beyond the thirteen original states.^ Soon thereafter societies favoring manumission were formed in Maryland and Virginia. In 1794, the advocates of emancipation from various parts of the country, South as well as North, began to meet frequently in conven- tion. Thenceforth, too, the submission to Congress of petitions, some seeking the further regulation of the slave-trade, others the suppression of slaveholding in the District of Columbia, but all of a distinct, though limited, anti-slavery character, became increasingly frequent. All the Northern states had adopted eman- cipation acts by 1804. By that time it had come to be assumed in the North, and apparently agreed to in the South, that at least slavery would not be extended beyond its then existing boundaries, and that in every new state ^ The Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slav- ery, the Relief of Free Negroes unlawfully held in Bondage, and Im- proving the Condition of the African Race. ^ Comprising the present states of Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, In- diana, Wisconsin, and part of Minnesota. 32 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON created from territory outside the original thirteen, it would be expressly forbidden. Furthermore, the ma- jority opinion in the North was that even in the South the institution would eventually come to an end, partly through its own gradual decline, and partly through federal action. Though it was granted that the Federal Government had no constitutional power to exclude slavery from any of the original states, it was expected that in time a sufficient number of addi- tional free states would be admitted to insure the adop- tion of a constitutional amendment conferring that power. Meanwhile, however, had occurred an event, of an immediately industrial character, which was speedily to reverse and to alter this course of affairs. That event was the invention by Eli Whitney, in 1793, of the cotton gin. Cotton was the South's principal slave product. Formerly, it had been necessary to prepare the cotton for manufacture, separating the fiber from the seeds, either by hand or by clumsy contrivances which im- proved but little upon hand labor. Inasmuch as the process when thus carried out was exceedingly slow, it involved such an amount of slave labor as to leave the planter's margin of profit small. Whitney's inven- tion effected a revolution. It provided machinery which prepared at least a thousand pounds of cotton in place of every five or six which had been possible before. In 1793, the entire export of cotton from the South was 500,000 pounds ; only seven years later, in 1800, the export to England alone had multiplied to 16,000,000 pounds. A RACE DELIVERED 33 The basic reason why slavery had previously been losing ground in the South was because it had not proved a sufficiently paying investment. Following the introduction of Whitney's cotton-gin, however, it began to yield huge profits. As a result, the South be- came commercially wedded to the maintenance of the slave system, and Southern talk of emancipation soon ceased, except on the part of a small number of reform- ers. The South also commenced to show increasing resentment toward all Northern discussion of an anti- slavery character. Inasmuch, moreover, as North- ern textile manufacturers used a large part of the supply of raw cotton, the North on its own account came to have a considerable commercial interest in slavery. This fact worked in the direction of reconcil- ing Northern public opinion to the continuance of the "peculiar institution," at least for an indefinite period, within the Southern states; it still being tacitly as- sumed, however, that it would not be extended else- where. So the matter rested till 1818, when Missouri ap- plied for admission to statehood. Then the South showed plainly that it was no longer content to have slavery let alone where it already existed, but that it meant to engraft it upon such new territory as ap- peared suitable for its growth. Missouri was a part of the Louisiana Purchase, ac- quired from France in 1803.^ For that vast tract, 1 Comprising the present states of Louisiana, Arkansas, Mis- souri, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota and the greater part of Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, and Minnesota. 84 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON which was still the only annexation besides that of the Northwest Territory, already mentioned, no specific and decisive action, either permitting or forbidding slavery, had yet been taken. The North now proposed that the prohibition of slavery be made a condition of Missom-i's admission, A majority of her inhabitants, however, were Southern emigrants, who wanted to see slavery established. The South as a unit showed the same intention. The North arrayed itself quite as solidly on the side of free soil. Much more was actually at stake, be it said, than whether slavery should or should not prevail in Missouri, There was the same question with reference to the rest of the Louisiana Purchase. Furthermore, there was what the South held to be the most important question of all : — the right of the Federal Government to make admission to statehood dependent upon the extraordinary con- dition of slavery's exclusion. So the issue was joined, for two years contested with increasing bitterness, and at last brought to a termination only by a com- promise, — the memorable Missouri Compromise of 1820. By that agreement, Missouri was to be admit- ted with no restriction as to slavery. In the re- mainder of the Louisiana Purchase, slavery was to be allowed in the comparatively small section south of latitude 36° 30',^ and to be prohibited in all the immense area, except Missouri, lying north of that parallel. This struggle marked the first open clash, on a na- tional scale, between the anti-slavery and the pro- * Comprising the present state of Louisiana, and the greater part of Arkansas and Oklahoma. A RACE DELIVERED 35 slavery forces. Its results were momentous. It put an end once and for all to the complacent belief that there was no danger of slavery's extension. It enraged the North, which charged the South with having broken implicit faith with the nation. It made the South real- ize more fully than ever before the strength of Northern opposition to slavery. At the same time, by virtue of winning Missouri and the region south of 36° 30' from the North as slave soil, it engendered in the South a fatal confidence in its power to overcome that opposition. It gave rise to a consciousness of funda- mental and perilous difference and divergence between the two sections. In the heat of congressional debate and the excitement of popular clamor, prophecies and threats of disunion and civil war had in fact been ut- tered. Finally, the struggle left neither side satisfied. Its net result was simply to leave the question of slav- ery in suspense. The Compromise did, however, for the time being, remove that question from the field of immediate and violent contention. After the vent of passion, there came, as if half from exhaustion and half from a sense of imminent danger in forcing the conflict further, a reaction and a lull. Both North and South seemed to enter into a mutual conspiracy of silence regarding what each recognized as the paramount issue between them. In the North, anti-slavery discussion of any pronounced character was thereafter looked at askance, and agitation was actively discouraged. The anti-slavery conventions of Quakers and others, which had lapsed from 1808 to 1820 and had then been re- vived by the Missouri excitement, were abandoned 36 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON after 1829.^ The opposition to slavery became quies- cent. . Such was the situation on the eve of the Abolition Movement. The Negroes of Boston, interestingly and appropri- ately enough, were in a sense this movement's immedi- ate forerunners, and one of their number stood in a sort of John the Baptist relation to its founder. About 1826, some of the most progressive Negroes of Boston and the state at large organized the General Coloured Association of Massachusetts, which had for its pur- pose promoting the welfare of the race, principally by working for the destruction of slavery. ^ At the Asso- ciation's convention in 1828, David Walker, a leader among his people in Boston, delivered a stirring anti- slavery address, which subsequently appeared in "Freedom's Journal," the first Negro paper in the United States.* In September of the following year, Walker published a booklet of some eighty pages, en- titled "An appeal in Four Articles, together with a Preamble to the Coloured Citizens of the World, but in Particular, and very Expressly, to Those of the United States of America." It opened thus : "Having ' Except for a last formal meeting in 1838, by which time this earlier anti-slavery movement had been practically absorbed by the Abolition Movement proper. For a brief account, with dates, of the early movement, see William Lloyd Garrison, the Story of his Life, Told by his Children, vol. i, p. 89, footnote. ^ Some of the Society's more prominent members were Hosea and Joshua Easton, John E. Scarlett, Thomas Cole, James G. Barbadoes, William G. Nell, Thomas Dalton, John T. Hilton, Fred Brimley, CoflHn Pitts, and Walker Lewis. W. C. Nell, Colored Patriots of the Revolution. » Published at New York City; W. C. Nell, Colored Patriots of the Revolution. A RACE DELIVERED 37 travellecj over a considerable portion of these United States, and having in the course of my travels, taken the most accurate observations of things as they exist — the result of my observations has warranted the full and unshaken conviction that we (Coloured people of these United States) are the most degraded, wretched, and abject set of beings that ever lived since the world began." The author then proceeded to set forth the reasons for this unprecedented misery in four "Arti- cles," or chapters, and the causes he assigned were: first of all, slavery, with its legion of evil consequences; second, the Negro's own ignorance; third, the uphold- ing of the slave system by so-called Christian ministers; and fourth, the colonizing, or Liberian plan, which, by its proposal of removing the Negroes to some other country, prevented them from feeling that they were an integral part of the American nation and from be- ing regarded as such by the whites. The language is clear and forceful, the argument substantial. The fol- lowing passage from the second "Article" is impressive not only as being sufficient unto the day and condi- tions which called it forth, but as perhaps far antici- pating the future: "Your full glory and happiness . . . shall never be fully consummated, but with the entire emancipation of your enslaved brethren all over the world. . . . For I believe it is the will of the Lord that our greatest happiness shall consist in working for the salvation of our whole body. When this is accom- plished a burst of glory will shine upon you, which will indeed astonish you and the world." The "Appeal" contained also much bitter denunci- ation of the slaveowners, together with inflammatory 38 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON exhortation of the slaves to rise, throw off their bonds, and defend themselves against their oppressors. Withal, it was the first anti-slavery explosion that broke upon the brief period of constrained silence following the Missouri Compromise. It passed rap- idly through three editions and was read and dis- cussed throughout the country. The effect it pro- duced in the South was immediate and tumultuous. The slaveowners were furious that a Negro, the son of a slave, should make this open attack upon them.^ The Virginia Legislature passed a special act prohibiting the "Appeal's" circulation. The Legis- lature of North Carolina went into secret session to devise means of counteracting its influence. The governor of Georgia wrote to the mayor of Boston requesting him to suppress it. The latter replied that he should be well enough pleased to do this, but that he did not have the necessary legal power. A reward of a thousand dollars was offered in the South for Walk- er's dead body, and ten times as much for him alive. His wife and his friends urged him to go over the bor- der into Canada, but he preferred to remain in Boston and take his chances. The following year, 1830, he died, at the age of thirty -f our. ^ ' Walker was bom in Wilmington, North Carolina, in 1785, the child of a free mother and a slave father. As a boy, he had become imbued with a violent hatred for the institution of slavery, and had left the South and come to Boston, where he applied himself dili- gently to study and self-culture. In 1827, he became proprietor of a clothing shop on Brattle Street. He was a very generous man, and had the name of being always ready to help the poor and needy of his race. In many ways he had labored against slavery, but it was his "Appeal" which brought him into sudden prominence. * For the above and further facts regarding Walker and the Ap- peal, see William Lloyd Garrison, vol. i, pp. 159-61, 231. A RACE DELIVERED 39 The man who now advanced, to fulfill the mission of giving the slaves their freedom, attached so much im- portance to Walker's "Appeal" that he characterized it as "one of the most remarkable productions of the age." ^ It came into his hands shortly after its publica- tion, and before he had fully determined upon his own course.^ In all probability, it appreciably influenced him, and thus bore not only a precedent and perhaps prophetic, but in some degree a causative, relation to his subsequent crusade. This man was William Lloyd Garrison, and the de- finitive beginning of the Abolition Movement, as his- tory distinguishes it, was the appearance in Boston, on January 1, 1831, of the first number of his weekly paper, "The Liberator," with this pithy announce- ment of the editor's purpose: "Assenting to the self-evident truth maintained in the American Declaration of Independence, 'that all men are created equal, and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights — among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,' I shall strenu- ously contend for the immediate enfranchisement of our slave population."' On the one side, the Declaration of Independence; on the other, slavery: what was this? Nothing more and nothing less than the reappearance of that contra- diction which from the beginning had been the Neme- sis of the Puritan conscience. That conscience had * William Lloyd Garrison, vol. i, p. 231. 2 Ibid., vol. I, p. 160. ' For a brief sketch of Garrison's previous career, and the events leading up to his establishment of The Liberator, see Appendix, pages 443-46. 40 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON been compelled to do away with slavery first in Massa- chusetts, then in the whole North. Now it was to be mercilessly pursued till it should have put an end to slavery throughout the nation. Immediate freedom for all the slaves, in every state and territory of the Union : — that was the new and epochal element in Garrison's demand. When he raised that demand unequivocally, the North's dor- mant hostility to slavery related almost wholly to its further extension, and hardly at all to its continued existence in the area which it had already occupied. The most that earlier anti-slavery sentiment had sought was gradual abolition. Neither of these exi- gencies had greatly alarmed the slaveholders. The one afforded abundant opportunity to compromise, the other to temporize. Now, however, the South was quick to perceive that once the moral sense of the North should respond to the contention that the slaves were entitled to freedom forthwith, the institu- tion of slavery would be engripped in a struggle for life and death. A determined moral appeal to the North and the turning of this moral power upon the South, through every peaceful channel, was what Garrison proposed. He did not urge that the federal authorities should at once abolish slavery in the Southern States by the use of force. He granted that while the National Govern- ment could and should prohibit slavery in the territo- ries and the District of Columbia, it did not have the constitutional power to exclude it from any of the states. And being a non-resistant, he was in principle opposed to coercion. He uttered the warning, however, A RACE DELIVERED 41 that if the destruction of slavery by peaceful means should prove impossible, a bloody war would be inevi- table. The slow but certain enlargement through the North, in the face of apathy and even violent opposition, of the movement which Garrison started; the steadily grow- ing number of great leaders who enlisted under the banner he unfurled, and whose names have rightfully taken place beside his own; the many degrees of hos- tility to slavery, and the confusing differences over con- stitutional and political aspects of the question, which ere long divided the Abolitionists into a political -con- servative wing that broke away from Garrison, and a moral-radical wing that still followed him and contin- ued the agitation in its original form to the end; the bitter struggles over the admission or exclusion of slavery from new territory, which conspired with the Abolitionists in forcing the issue unavoidably before the nation; the rapid incensement of the South to the verge of rebellion; the Union-saving panic which then seized the North, aggravating to its maximum the de- nunciation of the Abolitionists as enemies of the na- tional welfare; the South 's acceptance of the election of a Republican President as the virtual triumph of abo- lition doctrine; secession; the infuriation of the North by the attack upon Fort Sumter ; the outbreak of the "irrepressible conflict"; and, at last. President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation : — all these momentous stages, in the progress toward slavery's destruction, necessary limitations of space make it impossible here more than barely to suggest. It will be necessary from this point to focus attention upon the 42 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON events of the Abolition struggle in Boston, taking account of those in the national arena only so far as they particularly influenced, or were particularly influ- enced by, the course of affairs in that city. Still more especially is it the present purpose to note the part taken by the Negroes of Boston. The "Liberator" immediately became the object of an onslaught of invective from the South and of cen- sure in the North. Its suppression by force was urged upon the mayor of Boston.^ That official replied that, as a result of his inquiries, he found the paper had only an "insignificant countenance and support"^ in the community, and that it " had not made, nor was likely to make, converts among the respectable classes."* He said he had "ferreted out the paper and its editor; that his office was an obscure hole,^ his only visible auxiliary a Negro boy, and his supporters a very few insignificant persons of all colors."^ One year following the establishment of the "Lib- erator," however, these "insignificant persons" took the first stride in the Abolition Movement's efiPective working organization, by launching the New England Anti-Slavery Society. The meeting at which this 1 Harrison Gray Otis, who was also the one that had been pe- titioned to suppress Walker's Appeal. * William Lloyd Garrison, vol. i, p. 242. » Ibid., vol. I. pp. 244-45. * This phrase inspired Lowell's poem "To W. L. Garrison", the first stanza of which is as follows: — " In a small chamber, friendless and unseen, Toiled o'er his type one poor, unlearned young man ; The place was dark, unfurnitured and mean; — Yet there the freedom of a race begun." * William Lloyd Garrison, vol. i, p. 245. A RACE DELIVERED 43 society was formed, on the evening of January 6, 1832, took place in the old African Meeting-House, which thereby, and also because of its subsequent use for abo- lition gatherings, may be said to have become to the Negroes in particular the "Cradle of Liberty" which Faneuil Hall is to the community at large. Though the twelve signatures affixed to the previously drafted declaration of principles were those of white men, about one quarter of the seventy -two first signers of the con- stitution were Negroes.^ This society immediately entered upon an aggres- sive campaign of agitation. During its first year, it was probably responsible for more anti-slavery addresses and petitions throughout New England than had taken place during the preceding forty years.* It be- came the prototype of similar societies which from that time forth sprang up in constantly increasing numbers all over the North. It is interesting to ob- serve in passing that among the specific objects of this organization was that of raising funds to establish a manual training school for Negro youth.' Even the pioneer band of Abolitionists, notwithstanding their apostolic zeal for the Negro's abstract rights, recog- nized what was to become increasingly obvious as the years went by — namely, that practical preparation for earning a livelihood had a vital relation to the Ne- gro's welfare. Little came of the effort in this direction in Boston, however, if indeed any persistent effort was made. ^ For fuller details regarding the society's formation, see William Lloyd Garrison, vol. I, pp. 279-82. 2 Ibid., vol. I, p. 283. » Ibid., vol. i, p. 282. 44 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON The position which the Boston Negroes occupied at that period has been described at an earlier point in the present narrative. Though they had been free for a long time, they were still looked down upon, in com- mon with the free Negroes throughout the North, as an inferior caste, to whom their liberty was in fact more of an evil than a good, and whose lot was if any- thing worse than that of the slaves. This despised element of the population no one had previously thought of addressing as though they had any inde- pendent interests of their own, and any importance in the affairs of the community. Garrison, however, made as direct and full an appeal to them as he did to his own race, calling upon them to consecrate them- selves to the cause of their brethren's emancipation. While striving for the abolition of slavery in the South, his own companion purpose was "to elevate our free colored population in the scale of society" in the North. ^ He advised that class to cultivate self-respect, as their good example would break many fetters, and their temperance, industry, peaceableness, and piety would prove the safety of granting freedom to their fellows. They should put their children in school and educate themselves; form societies for general im- provement, — among the women as well as the men, for "no cause can get along without the powerful aid of women's influence."; they should put aside jealous- ies, support each other in trade dealings, and have some sort of national organization. They should stoutly maintain all their legal rights, inasmuch as the Constitution of the United States made no "invidious * William Lloyd Garrison, vol. i, p. 234. A RACE DELIVERED 45 distinction with regard to the color or condition of free inhabitants." Wherever they possessed the franchise they should go to the polls, vote for those friendly to their cause, and, if possible, for intelligent and respect- able men of their own color. They should constantly exercise in their own behalf the privilege of petition. All thought of leaving America, and colonizing them- selves in Africa, Haiti, or elsewhere, should be aban- doned. They should once and for all look upon America as their country, be patriotic, and observe Independ- ence Day with fasting and prayer. Finally, they should put their supreme trust in God, for they of all peoples "needed the consolations of religion to sustain them in their grievous afflictions." " My countrymen and friends," he declared, "I have solemnly dedicated my health, and strength, and life, to your service. I love to plan and to work for your social, intellect- ual, political, and spiritual advancement. My hap- piness is augmented with yours: in your suflferings I participate. ... I believe, as firmly as I do my own existence, that the time is not far distant when you and the trampled slaves will all be free — free in the spirit as well as in the letter — and enjoy the same rights in this country as other citizens." The success of their cause, he told them, was part of the " signs of the times," in harmony with the French and Belgian revolutions, the Polish insurrection, the agitation over the Re- form Bill in England, and the steps toward emancipa- tion of the Negroes in the Danish, Portuguese, French, and British colonies. "The whole firmament is tremu- lous with an excess of light." ^ ^ William Lloyd Garrison, vol. i, pp. 255-58. The foregoing ex- 46 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON The Boston Negroes responded to this appeal as to a "trumpet call."^ For the first time, they felt they could draw themselves up to the stature of men. They began to express themselves through the columns of the "Liberator," of whose supporting corps of subscribers they soon came to form a substantial contingent. At the outset of the Abolition Movement they neverthe- less felt constrained, in view of their previous slight association with the whites, to keep for the most part by themselves. A Boston committee was appointed by the first annual convention of free Negroes, held at Philadelphia in June, 1831 — a gathering which was addressed by Garrison, and which had in fact been brought about as a joint result of his agitation and the circulation of Walker's " Appeal. "^ That commit- tee had the double function, apparently, of promot- ing the welfare of the free Negroes and cooperating in the anti-slavery campaign.^ Subsequently, the Negroes themselves formed a number of abolition societies, which carried on an active propaganda among their own people from that time forth.* tracts are taken chiefly from Garrison's address before the First Annual Convention of Free Colored People, Philadelphia, 1831. * William Lloyd Garrison, vol. i, p. 233. ^ This convention was attended by delegates from the five states of Pennsylvania, New York, Maryland, Delaware, and Virginia. Massachusetts, as it happened, was not directly represented. W. C. Nell, Colored Patriots of the Revolution. ' The committee consisted of Hosea Easton, Robert Roberts, James G. Barbadoes, and the Rev. Samuel Snowden, pastor of the Methodist Church on May Street, which had been organized in 1828. The latter and the Rev. Thomas Paul, pastor of the African Meet- ing-House, were the only Negro ministers in Boston at that time, and both were active in the Abolition cause. Ibid. * Two of these, for instance, whose names have come dowTi, were the African Abolition Free-Hold Society, and the African Female Anti-Slavery Society. A RACE DELIVERED 47 But while such separate organization was con- tinued for its supplementary value, the Negroes were speedily welcomed into close union with the white Abolitionists. In January, 1833, the General Coloured Association of Massachusetts sought to be affiliated with the New England Anti-Slavery Society as an auxiliary. Not only was the request cordially granted, but a representative of the Negroes was elected to the society's board of counselors. Within the next few years four more Negroes were placed on that board, and two were chosen vice-presidents.^ One of the latter, Charles Lenox Remond, also president of the Essex County Society, came later to have a prominent part in the movement, and was the first Negro to take the platform as an anti-slavery speaker. Such fraterni- zation, of course, laid the white Abolitionists open to severe criticism, even from quarters otherwise inclined to be sympathetic. But they did not compromise. At the annual meeting of the New England Society in January, 1836, the following resolution was adopted: Resolved, That we consider the Anti-Slavery cause the cause of philanthropy, with regard to which all human beings, white men and colored men, men and women, citizens and foreigners, have the same duties and the same rights. The author of the resolution thus expressed the views of his colleagues and himself: — We have been advised, if we really wished to benefit the slave and the colored race generally, not unnecessarily to shock the feelings, though they were but prejudices, of the white people, by admitting colored persons to our Anti- * For names and other information concerning these Negro Abolitionists, see W. C. Nell, Colored Patriots of the Revolution. 48 THE NEGRO EN BOSTON Slavery meetings and societies. We have been told that many who would otherwise act in unison with us were kept away by our disregard of the feelings of the community in this respect. . . . But what, I would ask, is the great, the single object of all our meetings and societies? Have we any other object than to impress upon the community this one principle, that the colored man is a man? And, on the other band, is not the prejudice which would have us exclude col- ored people from our meetings and societies the same which, in our Southern States, dooms them to perpetual bondage? ^ Thenceforth the Negro's participation in the Aboli- tion Movement steadily enlarged. Though its generals and upper oflScers were, with a few exceptions, of the other race, some of the sturdiest of its second lieuten- ants and corporals, as well as the most devoted body of its privates in the ranks, were of the lowly people whom it was to raise to the free estate of manhood. The Negro's unflinching loyalty was an ever-present consolation and support to Garrison and his co-labor- ers, "outweighing mountains of abuse from other sources."^ In December, 1833, through Garrison's initiative, the formation of the American Anti-Slavery Society was effected at an assemblage in Philadelphia, at- tended by representatives of ten states. One of Boston's six delegates was a Negro. ^ This national organization united all the anti-slavery agencies throughout the North in a common crusade.* With this measure of expansion, however, came a still larger 1 W. C. Nell, Colored Patriots of the Revolution. * William Lloyd Garrison, vol. i, p. 255. ' James G. Barbadoes. William Lloyd Garrison, vol. i, p. 395, footnote. * With headquarters at New York, and an oflScial publication called the Emancipator. A RACE DELIVERED 49 measure of persecution. One of the chief methods by which the Abolitionists now undertook to exert " moral pressure" consisted of flooding the South with their papers and tracts. Southerners condemned this as an outrageous piece of insolence, and as a covert design to incite the slaves to insurrection. They denounced the "unprincipled fanatics," who were interfering with their "domestic policy," and warned the North to silence them, lest the Union be imperiled. The cry of danger to the Union, thus raised for the first time since the bitter Missouri controversy, produced in Boston, as elsewhere, a wave of indignation against the Aboli- tionists, as alleged mischief-makers. A great anti- Abolitionist mass meeting was held in Faneuil Hall on the evening of August 21, 1835, and was presided over by the same Theodore Lyman, Jr., now in the capacity of mayor, who thirteen years before, in the State Legis- lature, had bespoken a show of humanity toward the Negroes. But the Abolitionists had gone insufferably beyond his degree of humanity! Resolutions were adopted expressing Boston's sympathy with the South- ern protests, belittling the number and importance of the agitators, and recommending the discouragement of their activity by all legal and orderly means. An omen that the public animosity might get be- yond the bounds of order, however, was afforded soon afterwards in the nocturnal erection in front of Gar- rison's house of a gallows with two nooses, one for himself and the other for George Thompson, an Eng- lish lecturer in the anti-slavery cause, and the object of special objurgation as a "foreign emissary." This omen came true. On October 21, a mob — if that is 50 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON not too crude a term to apply to a gathering composed in fact of the thoroughly respectable element ! — as- sembled before a building where an anti-slavery meet- ing, at which Thompson was mistakenly supposed to be present, was in progress. The mob shouted to have Thompson delivered over to them for chastisement. Mayor Lyman then appeared, announced that Thomp- son was not there, and in a timid and perfunctory way asked his fellow-citizens to disperse. But the disap- pointment at not catching Thompson only made the rioters more clamorous. As it happened, the "Libera- tor" oflfice was next door. So they set up a yell for Garrison. The latter, reluctantly and only upon the insistence of those in the office with him at the time, had taken refuge in another building near by. In spite of the mayor's feeble protestations, he was hunted out, and but for the unexpected intervention of several strong-armed protectors, would doubtless have suffered serious injury. As it was, he was hustled to the rear of the Old State House, and there gibed, insulted, and partly stripped of his clothing; and was rescued only by being rushed into the mayor's office and thence hurried away to a cell in the jail, for safety till the excitement subsided. An undercurrent of sympathy for the Abolitionists, however, followed in the wake of this abuse of them, which in fact overreached itself. At the same time an anti-Southern reaction was taking place in the North. It had its rise in the feeling that the South, for its own sectional advantage, was demanding too great a sac- rifice of fundamental national principles : — the free- dom of the mails, liberty of speech and publication. A RACE DELIVERED 51 and, most trying of all, the cherished right of peti- tion. That right became an issue as a result of the second leading means utilized by the Abolitionists in bringing moral influence to bear; namely, the peti- tioning of Congress to abolish slavery in the ter- ritories and the District of Columbia. In 1835, a Southern Congressman moved that thenceforth such petitions should not be received. After a prolonged and heated debate in the following year, the South was placated, while infringement of the right to peti- tion was nominally avoided, by the decision to lay all anti-slavery petitions on the table and to take no further action upon them. This notorious "gag rule" served only to spur the Abolitionists to greater activity, and by 1838 the number of petitions increased ten- fold. Two years later a rule not to receive such peti- tions at all was forced through Congress. But South- ern encroachment had gone too far, and in 1844 the restrictions which had been imposed were removed. Meanwhile, the North had become alarmed at the actual and imminent extension of slavery into new soil. In 1836, Arkansas was admitted as a slave state. The plot for the annexation of Texas, which had been colonized largely by Southern slaveholding emigrants, was already being hatched, and the contingency of a war with Mexico, bringing still further additions to slavery's area, was foreseen.^ Under these conditions Northern anti-slavery sentiment was revived, and grew apace. The Abolitionists profited by this change of feeling, ^ In 1836, Texas revolted from Mexico and became an independ- ent republic. 52 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON which, while still far from reaching their own extreme attitude, was surely tending in their direction. From 1840 on, though differences and division entered their ranks, the progress of their cause as a whole was rapid; and though public hostility to their agitation remained suflBciently in evidence and was to have its further eruptions, still from that time forth they were borne up by a consciousness that they were moving with the tide rather than struggling against it. An event from which the Abolition Movement de- rived a broader moral confirmation was the assembling of a World's Anti-Slavery Convention at London in 1840, at which representatives from the British Isles, the Continental countries, and other quarters of the globe, joined with those of the United States in a common appeal against slavery wherever it was still in existence. This convention proved equally memora- ble, moreover, by reason of an unforeseen by -result. Among the American delegates from Boston and elsewhere were a considerable number of women, for whose full participation in abolition activities Garrison had stood out determinedly. But in England at that time such equal recognition of women was unknown. All the female delegates, therefore, though the creden- tials they held from their respective societies were as formal and complete as those of the men, were ex- cluded. When Garrison, who arrived some days late, learned of this action, he felt obliged to refuse to take any part in the proceedings himself; — "to the great scandal" of the gathering, "for what sort of a World's Convention was it in which the founder of the greatest anti-slavery movement of the age, or of any age, was A RACE DELIVERED 53 debarred from taking his seat?"^ The whole episode aroused so much feeling, pro and con, and led to so much debate on the general question of the position of women in affairs, that it is regarded as marking the decisive beginning, both in the United States and in England, of the movement for woman suffrage.^ That such should have been the genesis of the demand for the civil and political equality of the sexes introduces another of those strikingly suggestive inter-relations between the emancipation of the Negro and other great human advances toward freedom's fuller reali- zation. Not a few Negroes were sent as delegates to the London Convention.^ Of these, Charles Lenox Remond, whose early connection with abolition events has been mentioned, had the most noteworthy experi- ence. On the voyage — the captain of the ship being a Virginian — he was consigned to the steerage. His reception in England, however, was in marked con- trast. "Our colored friend Remond invariably accom- panies us," wrote Garrison, "and is a great favorite in every circle.^ . . . Prejudice against color is unknown here."^ Not only was he much in demand as a speaker at public meetings, but he was warmly received and made much of by many persons of high rank. His stay was prolonged to a year and a half, and he traveled in England, Scotland, and Ireland. On his return, in December, 1841, he brought with him a remarkable document, — an "Address from the Irish People to ^ William Lloyd Garrison, vol. ii, p. 374. * Ibid., vol. n, p. 381, footnote. » 7^,^., vol. 11, p. 353. * Ibid., vol. II, p. 388. b /^j^/.^ yyi. ^^ p, 333. 54 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON their Countrymen and Countrywomen in America."^ Sixty thousand names, ^ with that of Daniel O'Connell at the head, were appended to this monster memorial, which called upon Irish-Americans to treat the Ne- groes as brethren, and to unite everywhere with the Abolitionists. It was expected that the appeal would have substantial results, but that hope was not ful- filled. Meanwhile, another Negro Abolitionist, the most remarkable of them all, had made his appearance. This was Frederick Douglass, who only a few years before had escaped from slavery in Maryland.^ He became a reader of the "Liberator," and soon after- wards, at a meeting in New Bedford, Massachusetts, where he had taken refuge, he heard Garrison speak. How he was affected he himself has told: '"You are the man — the Moses raised up by God to deliver his modern Israel from bondage,' was the spontaneous feeling of my heart as I sat away back in the hall and listened to his mighty words — mighty in truth, mighty in their simple earnestness."^ Garrison did not become acquainted with Douglass then, — in fact, did not even know of his existence. But in 1841, at another meeting in Nantucket, the two men came to- gether. Douglass had been induced to tell the story of his slave days and his escape. It was the first time 1 William Lloyd Garrison, vol. iti, p. 43 ct seq. "^ Presumably including those of grandparents and parents of some of the members of Boston's present large Irish- American popu- lation. ' The escape was made in 1838. * William Lloyd Garrison, vol. ii, p. 292. The date of the meeting was April 15, 1839. A RACE DELIVERED 55 he had spoken before a white audience. " It was with difficulty that I could stand erect," he wrote after- wards, "or that I could command and articulate two words without hesitation and stammering. I trembled in every limb. I am not sure but that my embarrass- ment was the most effective part of my speech, if speech it could be called. . . . The audience sympa- thized with me at once, and, from having been re- markably quiet, became much excited."^ What followed, another eyewitness has narrated : — When the young man [Douglass] closed, late in the evening, though none seemed to know or care for the hour, Mr. Garri- son rose to make the concluding address. I think he never before nor afterwards felt more profoundly the sacredness of his mission, or the importance of a crisis. . . . The crowded congregation had been wrought up almost to enchantment during the whole long evening, particularly by some of the utterances of the last speaker, as he turned over the terrible apocalypse of his experiences in slavery. But Mr. Garrison was singularly serene and calm. . . . He asked only a few simple, direct questions. . . . The first was: "Have we been listening to a thing, a piece of property, or a man?" "A man! A man!" shouted fully five hundred voices of women and men. "And should such a man be held a slave in a re- publican and Christian land.^*" "No, no! Never, never!" again swelled up from the same voices, like the billows of the deep. But the last [question] was this: "Shall such a man ever be sent back to slavery from the soil of old Massachu- setts?" — this time uttered with all the power of voice of which Garrison was capable. Almost the whole assembly sprang with one accord to their feet, and the walls and roof of the Athenaeum seemed to shudder with the "No, no!" loud and long continued in the enthusiasm of the scene.^ ^ William Lloyd Garrison, vol. iii, pp. 18-19. * From an account by Parker Pillsbury, a leading Boston Aboli- tionist, William Lloyd Garrison, vol. in, p. 19. 56 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON Douglass, at Garrison's instance, was at once se- cured as an agent of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, and in this capacity he traveled and lectured in the New England States for the next four years. His "Narrative of my Experience in Slavery," pub- lished in Boston in 1844, did much to further the aboli- tion cause. In 1845, he went to Europe, and spent two years in the British Isles making anti-slavery addresses. He proved the most eloquent and powerful apostle of freedom that his race produced, and in virtue of his long and brilliant career came generally to be regarded as the foremost representative of his people.^ A third Negro recruit at this juncture, who quickly rose to prominence, was William Wells Brown. He, too, was an escaped slave. ^ He came to Boston about 1845, and soon took an active part in the Abolitionist agitation, as a speaker and writer. His first book, the "Narrative of W. W. Brown, a Fugitive Slave," ap- peared in 1847, and his second, "The Anti-Slavery Harp," a collection of songs and verses, in 1848. Both had a wide circulation. In 1849, Brown visited Eng- land and the Continent, in the dual capacity of delegate to a congress on international peace and representative of the Abolitionists.^ ^ Douglas died in 1895, at the age of seventy-eight. ^ He was born in Lexington, Kentucky, of a slave woman, Elisa- beth, who was the mother of seven children, no two of whom — such were the contingencies in the lives of female slaves — had the same father. William escaped from a boat at Louisville, Kentucky, when twenty-one years old, and was helped in his flight by a Quaker, William Wells, who gave the young man his own name. He secured employment on a Lake Erie steamboat, and from May to December, 1842, assisted sixty-nine fugitives to cross the Lake into Canada. Ifarrative of W. W. Brown, a Fugitive Slave. ' His experiences were described in his third book, Three Years in A RACE DELIVERED 67 Douglass and Brown were but two very exceptional cases of the runaway slaves who sought refuge in Boston, and whose number increased rapidly after 1840. This city was of course one of the principal stations of the celebrated "Underground Railway," by which slaves were mysteriously conveyed, stage by stage, to points of comparative safety in the Northern states, or across the line into Canada.^ Those who came to Boston were hidden and cared for by the Abolitionists, and chiefly by the Negro contingent.^ The secret councils, to devise ways and means of pro- tection and general assistance, were most frequently held at the shops or homes of Negroes. A barber shop of one Peter Howard, situated at the corner of Cam- bridge and Irving Streets, in the West End, was an early rendezvous. Later on, one of the favorite gather- ing-places was another barber shop, on the corner of Howard and Bulfinch Streets in the same section, of which the proprietor was John J. Smith, a free Negro from Richmond, Virginia.^ The most popular resort of all, however, as well as one of the chief places of concealment for runaways, was the home of Lewis Europe, published in 1852. Then came Clotel, in 1852; St. Domingo, in 1854; The Fugitive in Europe, in 1855; and The Escape, in 1858. Other books were published after the War. ^ See Wilbur H. Siebert, Light on the Underground Railway. ^ Eliza Gardner, one of the few members of Boston's present Negro colony whose memory goes back to those days, recalls that her father's little cottage often sheltered as many fugitives as it could hold, and that the situation was the same in many other Negro homes. ^ Smith came to Boston in 1848. It is said that when Charles Sumner, the noted Senator and Abolitionist, could not be found at his home or office, he could usually be located at Smith's shop. 58 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON Hayden,^ who came to Boston as a fugitive from Kentucky in 1844, and who by virtue of his native strength of character soon became, and remained till his death, a dominating figure in the local Negro colony. 2 Several of the most famous fugitive slave cases oc- curred in Boston. The first of them all was the Lati- mer case of 1842. By way of preface, it should be said that the question of fugitive slaves had been more or less troublesome ever since slavery's disappearance in the North, but had become acute with the growth of the Abolition Movement. The federal laws were entirely in favor of the slave-owners. They required but little evidence in support of alleged ownership of a runaway, and made the rendition of the slave obligatory not only upon federal but also upon state officials. The North grew to resent this compulsion, and began to take the attitude that its state officials were not constitu- tionally subject to such federal control. That was the contention of the Abolitionists in Boston when the Latimer case arose. George Latimer, a fine-looking man, almost white in complexion and at least half-white in blood, es- caped to Boston from Norfolk, Virginia, with his wife and child. On the complaint of his owner he was ar- rested without a warrant, put in jail, and remanded for trial without a jury before a federal court, on the ground that only federal courts had jurisdiction. The Abolitionists at once called a meeting in Faneuil Hall. Many of the pro-Southern element, however, were * On Philips (then Southac) Street, in the West End. 2 Hayden died in 1889. A RACE DELIVERED 69 present, and by their disturbance did their utmost to break the meeting up. Remond especially was hissed and hooted when he tried to speak. Nevertheless reso- lutions were adopted, denouncing the fugitive slave laws and calling for counter-legislation by the state. Following this action, the illegality of Latimer's con- finement in jail was established to the satisfaction of the county sheriff, with the result that he was re- leased. In the confused debate over the affair he would probably have gone scot free anyway, but as it was, he and his family were ransomed with funds con- tributed from philanthropic sources.^ The Abolitionists made the most of the public in- dignation which this case aroused. " Latimer meetings" were held throughout the state, A "North Star and Latimer's Journal," issued every other day from Boston, fired the excitement. Then a Latimer and Grand Massachusetts Petition, calling for the pro- hibition of state or municipal assistance in the return of fugitives, was submitted to the State Legislature.^ So successful was this agitation that the following year, 1843, the Legislature passed a personal liberty act, which forbade state judges or justices to take part in the capture of fugitive slaves, and enjoined sheriffs, jailers, and constables from detaining them. This was an extremely radical piece of legislation, and its adoption shows the advanced stage which the anti- slavery feeling had reached. It was the first law of that character. Other Northern States soon followed Mass- ^ For a more detailed account, see William Lloyd Garrison, vol. Ill, pp. 66-67, footnote. 2 Ibid., vol. Ill, p. 67, footnote. 60 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON achusetts* lead. Slave-hunters found it increasingly difficult to recapture the runaways. The South re- newed its threats of secession. Then came the short-lived Compromise of 1850, by which, in return for the admission of California as a free state, and certain other "concessions," the North was forced to consent to the enactment of the notori- ous Fugitive Slave Law.^ That law went beyond all former bounds. The entire federal machinery, from courts to army, was enjoined for its execution, and a large force of special marshals and commissioners appointed. The marshals were liable to a fine of $1000, plus the value of the slave, if the latter escaped or even if he were forcibly rescued. Bystanders were guilty of treason in refusing to assist. The claimant's oath was full evidence, the alleged fugitive was shut out from all defense, and the right of habeas corpus denied him. Obstruction, rescue, or concealment was punishable by six months imprisonment and $2000 fine. If the claimant suspected an attempt to rescue the slave, the marshal must take the latter to the claimant's own state before surrendering him. Finally, an affidavit and general description made in the claimant's state was sufficient for reclamation in any other state. Never were expected effect and actual effect of a law more opposite. The enactment which the South confidently believed would force the North into sub- mission had the result instead of goading the North to fury. Undoubtedly, this was the element which defin- ^ California was part of the territory acquired in 1848 as a result of the war with Mexico. A RACE DELIVERED 61 itely decided the trend of events toward civil war. In Boston, the excitement was intense. The passage of the law was immediately followed by an exodus north- ward, usually to Canada, of escaped slaves who had taken refuge in the "border" states, and even of those who had got as far north as New England. Well know- ing that Boston would be the slave-hunters' chief point of attack, most of the refugees who were abiding in that city joined in the common flight.^ Vigilance committees were at once organized to assist the fugi- tives. The Negroes, at a meeting at the Old Joy Street church,^ determined if necessary to offer armed resistance. The first encounter came in 1850 over two celebrated fugitives, the Crafts, the Georgia agents in pursuit of whom were foiled by their being spirited off to England.^ In February, 1851, occurred the sensa- * Fifteen families from Boston joined the refugee colony estab- lished at Biddulph, near Little York, Canada, by J. C. Brown, a Negro who had purchased his own freedom for $1800. Booker T. Washington, The Story of the Negro, vol. i, p. 227. 2 As the African Meeting-House had by that time come to be known. * Ellen Craft, being almost white in complexion, disguised her- self as an invalid going North for medical treatment, with her darker husband (William) passing as her Negro servant. Thus they traveled openly in first-class conveyances from Georgia to Phila- delphia, and thence made their way to Boston, where they figured in a great Faneuil Hall mass meeting in 1849. William Lloyd Garrison, vol. Ill, page 247. After the war, the Crafts returned to America. For some time they lived at Cambridge, where their children were educated, and then they went back to their native state, Georgia, where they passed their old age in a comfortable home near Sa- vannah. One of the sons is now living in England, and a daughter is the wife of the late W. D. Crum, who was collector of customs at Charleston, South Carolina, under President Roosevelt, and subse- quently United States Minister to Liberia, in which country he met his death from fever. A grandson, Henry K. Craft, graduated 6£ THE NEGRO IN BOSTON tional "rescue" of Shadrach. This runaway slave's case was being heard in the courtroom, before a fed- eral commissioner, and a decision practically remand- ing him to bondage had been given — when a Negro lawyer, Robert Morris, and a number of others, mostly of the same race, compassed his escape. How it was done has been told by an eyewitness : ^ — Scarcely was the decision announced when the courtroom door was opened by Mr. Morris and a signal given to the crowd . . . who filled the corridor, anxiously waiting the re- sult of the hearing. The uncontrollable mass swarmed in, heedless of all attempts of the officers to keep them back; the genial deputy marshal took refuge under the table, and with a suddenness and a fervor which might almost be com- pared to the chariot of fire that swept away the prophet Elijah, Shadrach, enveloped in the cloud which darkened the whole room, disappeared from the view of those who claimed to own him, and was next heard of in Canada. The leaders in this affair were indicted by a federal grand jury, but were triumphantly acquitted, for lack of sufficiently tangible evidence of guilt. ^ The surcharged conditions which prevailed at that time were vividly portrayed in a letter written by one of the foremost of the Abolitionists, Wendell Phillips : ' from Harvard University in 1908, and is now in charge of the electri- cal plant and the teaching of electrical engineering at Tuskegee In- stitute. Booker T. Washington, The Story of the Negro, vol. i, p. 230. ' Thomas Harlow, a leading member of the Suffolk Bar at that time. ^ Those indicted included Morris, Lewis Hayden, and other Negroes, and also Charles Sumner, Theodore Parker, and Richard H. Dana, Jr. Colored American Magazine, September 1901, article on Robert Morris. Henry Clay was especially horrified because this escape had been effected by " a band who are not of our own people " thus raising the question "whether the government of white men is to be yielded to a government of blacks." William Lloyd Garrisov, vol. Ill, p. 326, footnote. « In March, 1851. A RACE DELIVERED 63 In Boston, all is activity — never before so much since I knew the cause. The rescue of Shadrach has set the whole public ablaze. I had an old woman of seventy ask my advice about flying, though originally free and fearful only of being caught up by mistake. Of course, in one so old and valueless there was no temptation to mistake, but in others it is horri- ble to see the distress of families torn apart at this inclement season, the working head forced to leave good employment and seek not employment so much as the chance of it in the narrow, unenterprising and overstocked markets of Canada. Our Vigilance Committee meets every night. The escapes have been providential. Since Shadrach's case nigh a hun- dred have left the city. ... I need not enlarge on this; but the long evening sessions — debates about secret escapes — plans to evade where we can't resist — the door watched that no spy may enter — the whispered consultations of the morning — some putting property out of their hands, plan- ning to incur penalties, and planning also that, in case of con- viction, the Government may get nothing from them — the doing and answering no questions — intimates forbearing to ask the knowledge which it may be dangerous to have — ■ all reminds one of those foreign scenes which have hitherto been known to us, transatlantic republicans, only in books. So things continued, and public feeling grew con- stantly more inflamed, till on May 26, 1854, it passed all previous limits and broke out in open armed attack upon the Government authorities which were execut- ing the rendition of Anthony Burns. The latter had been arrested as a fugitive slave two days before. Im- mediately the popular excitement mounted to fever pitch. The ensuing week is said to have been without a parallel in Boston since the days of the Revolution. The Abolitionists, the woman suffragists, and several other organizations were holding their anniversary meetings, and the city was thus crowded with visitors. Also, from the country roundabout, even as far as 64 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON Worcester, forty miles away, men poured in for the express purpose of thwarting the slave-hunters. A call was issued for volunteers to rescue Burns, at the risk of death if need be, and among the large number who responded were many Negroes. On the evening of the 26th, a great anti-slavery mass meeting was held at Faneuil Hall, and Abolitionist orators made im- passioned speeches. As that meeting broke up, a part of the crowd, by prearrangement, rushed to the court- house where Burns was held a prisoner, and using a beam as a battering-ram, broke down one of the doors and surged in. They were finally driven back, how- ever, though one of the deputy marshals was killed in the melee. All the military forces within reach were at once concentrated to prevent a second attack. A few days later the victim was delivered over to his master, and amid tumultuous counter-demonstrations, was borne down State Street between armed files to the point of embarkation,^ This local incident, combined with the enraged outcry throughout the North against the simultaneous action of Congress in opening Kansas and Nebraska as fighting ground for slavery, gave the Abolitionists, for the time, almost complete control of the situation. ^ 1 The Rev. Leonard A. Grimes, pastor of the (Negro) Twelfth Baptist Church, and a very active anti-slavery worker, followed Burns and his captors, and with funds which had been provided for the purpose, succeeded in purchasing his freedom ; — for, once the slaveholders had compelled his rendition, they had gained their most important object, and were more than willing to be rid of one who might cause them further trouble. Burns subsequently became a minister of the Gospel. 2 The so-called Kansas-Nebraska Act of May 22, 1854, was forced through Congress by the South, and, though both these A RACE DELIVERED 65 Going further than they had ever dared to go before, they demanded and in the spring of 1855 obtained from the Legislature a drastic extension of the state's personal liberty law. Claimants of runaway slaves were thenceforth required to give full proof of owner- ship, and a fair trial was assured to the fugitives. For a state officer to issue a warrant for a slave's arrest was made a cause for his removal. For an attorney to assist the claimant was equivalent to his disbarment. For a state judge to help the slave-hunters rendered him liable to impeachment. No sheriff, jailer, or policeman could help arrest a runaway, and no jail could receive him. These provisions put so many ob- stacles in the way of a slave's recapture as practically to nullify the Federal Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, so far as Massachusetts was concerned. The reclamation of runaways who took refuge in that state was, indeed, from this time next to impossible. The South stormed against such obstruction as an insufferable defiance of the Constitution, and its threats of secession grew still louder. The first act of secession was now in fact close at hand. The Republican victory at the polls in 1860 was the signal for it. Though that newly -born party, formed in 1856 by a coalition of the Whigs, Free- Soilers, Northern Democrats, and other elements, was territories were in the free-soil zone, as being north of the Mis- souri Compromise line of 36° 30', left the question of slavery within their borders to be decided by their inhabitants. The South was sure that in Kansas slavery would be firmly established. Con- trary to expectation, however, and owing largely to the organization of emigrant aid societies, great numbers of Northerners settled in that territory, armed conflict with the slaveholding settlers ensued, and the forces of freedom were victorious, j 06 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON actually so timorous in its attitude toward slavery as to incur the bitter condemnation of the Abolitionists, it was of course the party of the North as opposed to the displaced Democracy of the South. ^ At any rate, the South, doubtless making up in prevision what it lacked in logic, chose to regard Republican triumph as tantamount to the North's indorsement of abolition- ism. On December 20, 1860, South Carolina set the fatal example to her sister states, by withdrawing from the Union. The ordinance by which this action was taken, recited, as grounds for it, that the non- slaveholding states had "denounced as sinful the insti- tution of slavery," "permitted the open establishment ... of societies whose avowed object is to disturb the peace and to eloign the property of the citizens of other states," had "encouraged and assisted thous- ands of our slaves to leave their homes," and had incited the rest, "by emissaries, books, and pictures," to "servile insurrection." "For twenty-five years," it charged, "this agitation has been steadily increasing, until it has now secured to its aid the power of the com- mon Government."^ In other words, the Abolition Movement was declared to be the cause of secession. Now a Union-saving panic seized the North. Des- perate attempts were made to stay the South. Con- ciliation, concession, and subserviency stopped short of no extreme. The Abolitionists were made the scrapegoats. Once more — though not for long, and * The Republican platform came out only against the doctrine, enunciated in the Dred Scott decision of 1857, that the Constitutioa carried slavery into the territories, and against the suggested re- opening of the slave-trade. On the other hand, it made many con- cessions to the South. 2 William Lloyd Garrison, vol. iii, pp. 506, 507. A RACE DELIVERED 67 for the last time — they had to sufifer as the victims of public abuse and popular passion. In Boston, in January, 1861, rioters forced an anti-slavery meeting in Tremont Temple to adjourn, and the mayor re- fused to allow it to reassemble.^ But then, in April, came the Southern attack upon and capture of Fort Sumter, and the hauling down of the Stars and Stripes from its ramparts. This event was expected to complete the intimidation and de- moralization of the North. But never was there a more electrical transformation. There burst forth "a whirlwind of patriotism that swept all before it," and "such an uprising in every city, town, and hamlet of the North, without distinction of sect or party, as to seem like a general resurrection from the dead." " The day following Sumter's fall. President Lincoln issued the call for troops.^ The "irrepressible conflict" had come at last. The purpose of the war, however, was not to destroy slavery, but to suppress the rebellion. President Lincoln at once made that manifest beyond possible doubt. Nor did he stop there. However deep was his own antipathy toward slavery, he felt still more deeply that as head of the nation his one supreme duty was to do everything in his power to preserve the Union. He therefore made it plain also that if this paramount object could be achieved by consenting to the continu- ance of slavery, such consent would be given. First before the actual clash at arms, and then for nearly two years afterwards, every opportunity, every in- 1 William Lloyd Garrison, vol. iv, pp. 5-7. « Ibid., vol. IV, p. 19. 3 April 15. 68 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON ducement, was held out to the South to return to the old allegiance, with her "domestic institution" un- touched. Lincoln's attitude was that of the great majority of the North. "The Union!" was every- thing. It seemed as though the Negro's freedom might after all be offered up in sacrifice. The Negro's champions, however, knew that the logic of the situation was with them. For though secession was the immediate occasion of the conflict, slavery was without question its fundamental cause. And though the restoration of the Union was its pro- fessed object, how could durable union possibly be re- established, except by doing away with the element of inevitable contention? So the Abolitionists set them- selves determinedly to their final task of committing the Government to slavery's destruction. They in- voked the President and Congress to use their war power to proclaim emancipation. The "Liberator" and all the other anti-slavery journals made that de- mand their shibboleth. Abolition meetings were held on every hand. The orators of the cause, with Wendell Phillips at their head, exerted all their eloquence. Resolutions, petitions, and memorials without number were poured into Washington, and deputation upon deputation was sent to the Capitol and the White House. The President's evident willingness to con- ciliate the South by yielding on slavery, and his ap- parent hesitancy and vacillation even after all hope of conciliation had been practically abandoned, were censured unsparingly. "To refuse to deliver those captive millions who are now legally in your power," declared Garrison in an editorial addressed to the A RACE DELIVERED 69 President and his Cabinet, "is tantamount to the crime of their original enslavement."^ In a great meeting at Boston, prophetic application was made of the Scriptural text: "Therefore thus saith the Lord; Ye have not hearkened unto me, in proclaiming liberty, every one to his brother, and every man to his neigh- bour: behold, I proclaim a liberty for you, saith the Lord, to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the fam- ine."^ And the Negroes in their churches and in their homes fervently prayed that victory should be with- held from the Union arms till the slaves were set free. The military exigencies of the war, as well as Lin- coln's own inmost convictions, were on the Abolition- ists' side. At last, in September, 1862, the President announced that on the first day of the new year he would issue an edict of freedom to the slaves in all states or parts of states still in rebellion against the Federal Government. In Boston, that New Year's Day was one of joyful thanksgiving and celebration.^ Two great gatherings were held; one at the Old Music Hall, in the afternoon, and the other in Tremont Temple, through the whole day and evening. Inspiring music — including Mendels- sohn's "Hymn of Praise" and Handel's "Hallelujah Chorus" — and the reading by Ralph Waldo Emerson of a poem which he had written for the occasion,'* ^ William Lloyd Garrison, vol. iv, p. 35. ^ Jeremiah, xxxiv, 17. William Lloyd Garrison, vol. iv, p. 20. ' Solemn services had taken place the evening before in all the Negro churches. * The Boston Hymn. Greatest applause greeted the stanza refer- ring to the proposal of compensated emancipation: — " Pay ransom to the owner. And fill the bag to the brim. Who is the owner ? The slave is owner, And ever was. Pay him ! " 70 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON were the features of the afternoon meeting. At first there was painful suspense, mingled with vague fear, for the reason that no tidings of the Proclamation had yet been received. When this suspense was relieved, however, by the announcement that the text of that edict was coming over the wires, the gathering broke into a storm of applause, culminating in nine tremend- ous cheers for Lincoln, and three more for Garrison. Still more memorable was the concluding evening session in the Temple. This was in charge of the Negroes themselves, and two of the speakers — John S. Rock, a lawyer distinguished for his eloquence, and the renowned Frederick Douglass — were of the race to whom that day brought promise of deliverance.^ The climax of enthusiasm came when, a few minutes after nine o'clock, one of the Abolitionists rushed in, breathless, with a newspaper proof-sheet — which he had contrived to get into his hands and to make off with before he could be stopped ! — of the Proclama- tion. First amid hushed silence, then with outbursts of applause, this was read:^ from the beginning, "Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States," through the central clause, "do order and de- clare that all persons held as slaves . . . are and here- after shall be free," to the solemn conclusion, "And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind and ^ The other speakers were Edward Atkinson, Anna E. Dickinson, and Charles W. Slack. ^ As the newspapeps did not publish the proclamation till the fol- lowing day this was probably the first time it was read anywhere in the country outside of Washington. A RACE DELIVERED 71 the gracious favor of Almighty God." While shouts and cheers filled the hall, Douglass — a man of noble mien and figure — advanced to the front of the plat- form, with a gesture brought the multitude to their feet, and led them in singing, with fervor unrestrained, the old hymn, "Blow ye the trumpet, blow!" " Let all the nations know To earth's remotest bounds The year of jubilee has come." The meeting then ended, but the Negroes thronged to their churches for services of prayer and praise that lasted far into the night. ^ Surely it was a striking and appropriate coincidence, if nothing more, that as the first step in the Abolition Movement's working organization, — namely, the formation of the New England Anti-Slavery Society, — was taken in a Negro church, so the concluding celebration of that movement's crowning achievement, and the first reading of the immortal Proclamation in Boston, should have occurred at a gathering under the auspices of the Negro people; and that the spontane- ous psean of victory on that occasion should have been raised by one of that race who in his own life experi- ence embodied the rise from slavery to freedom. The cause of the Union and the cause of the Negro's liberty were now one and inseparable. But the ulti- mate triumph or defeat of this double mission was en- trusted to the soldier in the battlefield. There the Negro was to have a vital part. * The foregoing account of the celebrations is based on an article, "Emancipation Day in Boston, 1863," by Francis Jackson Garri- son, which appeared in the New York Evening Post, Dec. 28, 1912. 72 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON Section 2. The War When the Emancipation Proclamation was issued, the military situation was critical for the North, The Union forces had been repulsed at Fredericksburg and at Vicksburg, and had fought the battle of Stone River at tremendous cost. Some sixty-five thousand troops were due to be discharged during the ensuing summer and fall. Volunteering was at a standstill. The political opposition to the war had grown formida- ble, and the advocates of peace at any price were ac- tive for mediation and compromise. The Confederates, on the other hand, had filled their ranks, and were never better prepared for keeping up the conflict. In the face of this crisis, the Government decided upon a general arming of the Negroes, in separate regiments, under white officers.^ Emancipation of the slaves in the rebellious states, opening the way for their enlistment in the Federal ranks, was thus in truth a measure of "military necessity." The first body of Negro troops organized after the adoption of this policy was the Fifty-fourth Massachu- setts. The unique significance which attached to that regiment was emphasized in a letter written to the father of Robert Gould Shaw, its young colonel, by the famous Abolitionist " War Governor" of the State, John A. Andrew : — * This decision was tentatively arrived at in October, 1862, Though three scattered Negro regiments had already been organ- ized, — the First Kansas Colored, in the summer of that year; the Louisiana Native Guards, in September; and the First South Carol- ina, in October, — the enlistment of Negroes on a large scale and as a general policy had not previously been undertaken. Luis F. Emilio, A Brave Black Regiment, A RACE DELIVERED 73 As you have seen by the newspapers, I am about to raise a colored regiment in Massachusetts. This I cannot but re- gard as perhaps the most important corps to be organized during the whole war, in view of what must be the composi- tion of our new levies; and therefore I am very anxious to organize it judiciously, in order that it may be a model for all future colored regiments. I am desirous to have for its offi- cers — particularly for its field-officers — young men of military experience,of firm anti-slavery principles, ambitious, superior to a vulgar contempt for color, and having faith in the capacity of colored men for military service. Such offi- cers must necessarily be gentlemen of the highest tone and honor; and I shall look for them in those circles of educated anti-slavery society which, next to the colored race itself, have the greatest interest in this experiment.^ Recruiting was begun February 16, 1863, in quart- ers situated in the midst of the West End Negro colony.^ That evening a meeting to arouse enthusi- asm was held in the old Joy Street church. Enlistment followed immediately, and camp was established at Readville, near Boston. Soon many additional re- cruiting offices were opened, not only at other points in Massachusetts, but throughout the Eastern and Middle Western states. Frederick Douglass, William Wells Brown, Charles Lenox Remond, Lewis Hayden, John S. Rock, and other Negroes served as general recruiting agents. Within three months, the enroll- ment of the necessary number of volunteers was com- pleted. On May 18, Governor Andrew, in the presence of Garrison and Wendell Phillips, delivered the state and ^ Letter written January 30, 1863, to Francis G. Shaw. Luis F. Emilio, A Brave Black Regiment. ^ At the corner of Cambridge and North Russell Streets, on the site now occupied by the Negro Odd Fellows Hall. 74 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON national colors to Colonel Shaw, at the Readville camp, with the declaration that he should "stand or fall, as a man and a magistrate, with the rise or fall in history" of those Negro troops. Ten days later he re- viewed the regiment as it marched through the streets of Boston, displaying a soldierly discipline and bear- ing unsurpassed by any other regiment Massachusetts had sent to the war, and receiving enthusiastic greet- ings from the crowds assembled all along the route and about the wharf, where it embarked for the South. ^ Meanwhile the organization of the state's second Negro battalion, the Fifty-fifth Massachusetts, which was commanded by Colonel Hallowell, of Boston,^ and in which one of Garrison's sons was a second lieutenant,^ had been proceeding rapidly. On July 21, that regiment took its departure for the field of war, but under somewhat different circumstances. Anti- Negro riots were being stirred up by the pro-Southern ("Copperhead") element in various Northern cities, and such an outburst was feared in Boston. For this reason, no dress parade was held in the case of the Fifty-fifth, which made its way to the pier with loaded muskets, ready for a possible attack.^ The Fifth Cav- alry, the third and last body of Negro soldiers from Massachusetts, took the field in May of the following year. Not only in these three Massachusetts regiments, but in others organized under the auspices of other * William Lloyd Garrison, vol iv, p. 81. ^ Still living in a suburb of Boston in his strong old age, and still the Nej^ro's loyal friend. ' George T. Garrison. * William Lloyd Garrison, vol. iv, pp. 82-83. A RACE DELIVERED 75 states, and also in the navy, Negroes from Boston and the immediate vicinity enlisted; and altogether five hundred or more entered the Union ranks. ^ The pa- triotism and bravery of these Negro soldiers and their white officers were the greater, because the Confed- erates had served warning that they would enslave all the Negroes taken captive, and would put the officers to death as leaders of servile insurrection. In spite, however, of this special risk which was required, the Government at first allowed the Negro troops only the wages of military "laborers," instead of the full pay of soldiers. With remarkable spirit and fortitude, and at the cost of severe hardship to their families, the men of the Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth refused to receive any payment at all until their claim to the full amount was at last recognized.^ This dignified stand did much to raise the Negro to a higher place in the esteem of the general public. 1 How many of the 1343 men of the Fifty-fourth were from Boston cannot be exactly determined, but it may be assumed that most of the fifty or more volunteers at the Boston office, during the first fortnight of recruiting, and some of those who enlisted else- where after the Boston office was closed, were from Boston and vicinity. In the Fifty-fifth there were at least eighty men from Boston. Adding the still larger number in the Fifth Cavalry, and a considerable proportion of the 1954 Negro soldiers from Mass- achusetts in other regiments and of the 1360 enlistments at the Charlestown Navy Yard, it would appear that the total from Boston must have been five hundred or more, as above stated. ^ The pay of "laborers" was ten dollars a month, that of soldiers thirteen dollars. Congress eventually voted full pay to all Negro soldiers from January 1, 1864; and in the case of the Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth, by a subsequent decision of the Attorney-General, the full amount was allowed from the time of enlistment. The soldiers of these regiments meanwhile declined to let Massachusetts make up the amount withheld by the Government. William Lloyd Garrison, vol. IV, p. 96, footnote. 76 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON The Fifth Cavalry was organized too late to take part in any of the heavy fighting, though it was present at the final closing in on Richmond. The Fifty-fifth acquitted itself valiantly, particularly in the famous battle of Honey Hill, in South Carolina, where it bore the brunt of the conflict and by its determined resist- ance in the face of the enemy's advance saved large numbers of the white troops from annihilation. But it was the Fifty-fourth which — as though in fulfill- ment of a high destiny as the first Negro regiment to take up arms after the proclamation of the Negro's freedom, and as the body of soldiers to which all who believed in the Negro's worth looked to justify their faith — won glory above that of any other Negro battalion of the war, and displayed heroism unsur- passed by any other troops, of either race. The occa- sion at which this fame was achieved was that of the assault upon Fort Wagner, in South Carolina, on July 18, 1863. "To the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Colored was assigned the honor of leading the attack, and after the troops were formed on the beach, ready for the assault, the order to advance was withheld until the Fifty- fourth could march by and take position at the head of the column."^ And this is the account, from the pen of an eyewitness, of what followed : — When the inaction had become almost unendurable, the signal to advance came. Colonel Shaw walked along the front to the centre, and giving the command, "Attention!" the men sprang to their feet. Then came the admonition, 1 William F. Fox, Lieutenant Colonel, U.S.A., Regimental Losses in the Civil War. A RACE DELIVERED 77 "Move in quick time until within a hundred yards of the fort; then double-quick; and charge!" A slight pause, fol- lowed by the sharp command, "Forward!" and the Fifty- fourth advanced to the storming. . . . Darkness was rapidly coming on. . . . With eyes strained upon the colonel and the flag, they pressed on toward the work, now only two hun- dred yards away. At that moment Wagner became a mound of fire, from which poured a stream of shot and shell. . . . Men fell in numbers on every side, but the only response the Fifty-fourth made to the deadly challenge was to change step to the double-quick, that it might the sooner close with the foe. ... As the swifter pace was taken, and officers sprang to the fore with waving swords barely seen in the darkness, the men closed the gaps, and with set jaws, pant- ing breath, and bowed heads, charged on. . . . Every flash showed the ground dotted with killed or wounded. . . . No- thing but the ditch now separated the stormers and the foe. Down into this they went, through the two or three feet of water therein, and mounted the slope beyond in the teeth of the enemy; some of whom, standing on the crest, fired down on them. Both flags were planted on the parapet, the national flag carried there and gallantly maintained by the brave Sergeant William H. Carney of Company C.^ . . . Colonel Shaw had led his regiment from first to last. Gaining the rampart, he stood there for a moment with uplifted sword, shouting, "Forward, Fifty-fourth!" and then fell dead, shot through the heart. ^ Though the stormers were at last forced back and the assault failed, for lack of proper support of the splendid charge of the Negro troops, and because of 1 Sergeant Carney was from New Bedford, Massachusetts. He planted the flag on the parapet of the fort, and in the retreat, though wounded in the head and shoulder and both legs, he bore it back to the Union lines and handed it over with the words which made him famous: "They got me, boys, but the old flag never touched the ground." After the war, Carney lived in Boston, and some years later was appointed to the position of messenger to the Massa- chusetts Secretary of State. In December, 1908, he was crushed in an elevator accident. On the day of his death, the flags on the State House were lowered to halfmast. 2 Luis F. Emilio, A Brave Black Regiment, p. 79 et seq. 78 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON the overwhelming numbers defending the fort, it was one of those failures which go down in history as great moral victories for the vanquished. The sacrifice was heavy ; besides Colonel Shaw, 2 officers and 31 men killed, 11 officers and 135 men wounded, and 92 re- ported missing — either killed or captured — out of a total of 650 engaged.^ When the Fifty-fourth returned to Boston, in Sep- tember, 1865, it received a remarkable ovation. "The demonstrations of respect were rather more than have usually been awarded to returning regiments, even in Massachusetts, which cherishes her soldiers with an unforgetting affection. They were so honored in this case, we presume, because the regiment is a repre- sentative one. There were regiments from that state which had seen more fighting than this, though none which had done any better fighting when occasion offered; none which had a higher reputation for disci- pline, patient endurance, and impetuous valor. . . . It made Fort Wagner such a name to the colored race as Bunker Hill has been for ninety years to the white Yankees. . . . The name of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw is forever linked with that of the regiment which he first commanded, and which he inspired with so much of his own gentle and noble spirit as to make it a perpetual legacy to the men who fought under and loved him."^ On the battlefield before Fort Wagner, the body of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw lies buried in the same trench with the bodies of a score of the Negroes of the * Luis F. Emilio, A Brave Black Regiment. * Extract from editorial which appeared in the New York Tribune at the time. A RACE DELIVERED 79 regiment. At the northwest corner of the Boston Com- mon, opposite the State House, stands the Robert Gould Shaw Memorial, erected by citizens of the state in honor of the Fifty-fourth. No monument in the city is visited more frequently. The sculptural design is the work of Saint-Gaudens, who gave twelve years of thought to the task. The architectural construction was planned by Charles F. McKim, of the firm of McKim, Mead, and White. On the side facing the Capitol is represented, in raised bronze figures on a great tablet, the regiment on the march, with Colonel Shaw in advance and an angel close overhead leading the way. On the reverse side is cut in the stone this inscription, the words those of Dr. Charles W. Eliot, then president of Harvard University : ^ — TO_THE FIFTY-FOURTH OF MASSACHUSETTS REaMENT INFANTRY I THE WHITE OFFICERS' TAKING LIFE AND HONOR IN THEIR HANDS-^CAST IN THEIR LOT WITH MEN OF A DESPISED RACE UNPROVED IN WAR AND RISKED DEATH AS INCITERS OF SERVILE INSURRECTION IF TAKEN PRISONERS ^ BESIDES ENCOUNTERING ALL THE COA/UWON PERILS OF CAMP MARCH AND BATTLE* THE BLACK RANK AND FILE /VOLUNTEERED WHEN DISASTER CLOUDED THE UNION CAUSE*5ERVED' WITHOUT PAY FOR EIGHTEEN MONTHS TILL GIVEN THAT OF WHITE TROOPS* FACED THREATENED ENSLAVEMENT IF CAPTURED->WERE BRAVE IN ACTION* .PATIENT UNDER HEAVY AND DANGEROUS LABORS^AND CHEERFUL AMID HARDSHIPS AND PRIVATIONS- TOGETHER THEY GAVE TO THE NATION AND THE WORLD UNDYING PROOF THAT AMERICANS OF AFRICAN DESCENT POSSESS THE PRIDE COURAGE AND DEVOTION OF THE PATRIOT SOLDIER •* ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY THOUSAND SUCH AMERICANS ENUSTED UNDER THE UNION FLAG INj M^D-CCCLXin ->M*D-.CCCLXV * The monument was erected in 1897. 80 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON The Union was saved, and in every state in the Union slavery was destroyed. Boston, the city where in the days of the Republic's dawn the slave first at- tained his liberty, and where a half-century after- wards the determined movement for his nation-wide emancipation had its rise, was by the results of 1865 fully confirmed in history as the birthplace of the Negro's freedom. And what of the Negro himself? As he had re- sponded with ready patriotism to his country's call in the War for American' Independence, so likewise did he respond again in the War for the Preservation of the Union. His part in the establishment of the nation had been substantial. His part in saving the nation from being rent in twain was vital. For, in view of the military crisis which had arisen at the time when emancipation was proclaimed, it must be regarded as in all probability the fact, that without the one hundred and eighty thousand Negro volunteers who came to the rescue the Union forces could not have won the victory. Union defeat would have meant slavery's indefinite continuance. Thus, while by his part in the Revolution the Negro had contributed to his conse- quent emancipation throughout the North, by his part in the Civil War he himself proved the decisive factor in the establishment of his freedom throughout the nation. CHAPTER III EQUAL RIGHTS AND PUBLIC FAVOR At the conclusion of the war, a number of factors combined in making public sentiment in the North vastly more favorable to the Negro than it had ever been before. The admirable manner in which the Negro troops had acquitted themselves compelled both respect and gratitude. The noteworthy part which the Negroes had taken in the anti-slavery campaign, especially as speakers on public platforms, and the marked progress they had made during the same period, raised them appreciably in popular estimation. The zeal of the Abolitionists, moreover, had modified somewhat the attitude of the community at large. In consequence of the North's responsibility for emancipation, there was also a recognition of obligation toward the Negro, and a sincere intention to offer him a helping hand in his newborn freedom. Elation over the victory of the Union arms induced a super-normal state of mind, among whose characteristics were a prevailing optim- ism and magnanimity, that included the Negro in their generous scope. In Boston, these influences, of course, reached their maximum. Among the radical Abolitionist element, there was the utmost enthusiasm for the Negro. Among a much larger proportion of the community, which might be described as near-Abolitionist in its 82 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON views, there was genuine friendliness. In the case of the rank and file, inherited antipathy was at least softened to the extent that it did not express itself in active resistance to endeavors in the Negro's behalf. The Negroes themselves had, in the course of the struggle against slavery, and in fact as its collateral result, experienced a deep and general awakening. This new impulse had taken on greater strength in Boston than it had anywhere else. It had manifested itself in a degree of individual and collective progress much greater than would otherwise have taken place; and, still more directly, in efforts to obtain larger opportunities and a position of increased respect in the community.^ Exceptional men and women of the race, to some of whom previous reference has been made, had forced their way upward to places unheard of be- fore. Several pioneer Negro lawyers had been admitted to the bar, and several physicians to standard medical practice. A group of noteworthy authors had emerged. An artist had won a reputation. These attainments by individuals were but the most conspicuous points, moreover, in a notable advance by the Negro popula- tion as a whole. Above the level of menial and com- mon labor, a sufficient number of skilled mechanics to form the nucleus of a middle industrial class had obtained a foothold. Business proprietorships had undergone a marked growth as respects both number and size. The leading catering establishment of the city, and two of the best private gymnasiums, were 1 For a fuller account of the advance of the Negroes during the period 1830-65, with details of the matters briefly noted in the two paragraphs following the above, see Appendix, pp. 44G-53. EQUAL RIGHTS AND PUBLIC FAVOR 83 conducted by Negroes. The most remarkable case in this field was that of a bootblack who became proprie- tor of a clothing shop and at his death left an estate of $50,000. Ownership of homestead property had in- creased from almost zero to a substantial total. ^ The Negro churches had multiplied from one to five, and half a dozen new lodges and beneficial societies had been established. Evidence of the Negroes' budding pride in their part in the nation's history had appeared in a petition submitted by them, which requested the erection of a memorial to Crispus Attucks, the hero of the Boston Massacre. An aroused purpose to take fuller advan- tage of the community's cultural opportunities had been signified by the formation of a library association, which served successfully the double function of en- couraging the members of this race to take up reading and study for self -improvement, while at the same time gradually paving the way for their use of the Public Library, and their attendance at lectures and enter- tainments, with immunity from openly contemptuous treatment on the part of the whites. The point at which the Negroes had shown their new spirit most directly and plainly, however, was in a complete change of attitude on the school question. In earlier years, it will be recalled, they had themselves be- sought and finally prevailed upon the city to establish separate schools, on the ground that their children were ridiculed and abused by the white children. But early in the Abolitionist campaign, they had begun to petition the municipal and state authorities to do » Estimated in 1855 at $200,000. 84 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON away with those separate schools, on the ground that such segregation constituted objectionable and un- fair discrimination. So persistently had they pressed their demand that in 1855 they had succeeded in ob- taining the passage of a state law, forbidding thence- forth any distinction on account of race or color with respect to school attendance. That victory was the cause of great rejoicing. To the Negroes in this aroused condition resulting from the Abolition Movement, the Emancipation Proclamation had appeared as the hand of Providence, extended to raise them from their depths. The war, to their vision, was a mighty struggle ordained for their deliverance. The valor of the soldiers of their own race had thrilled them with the consciousness of recog- nized manhood, courage, and patriotism. And at last the triumph of the North, bringing the certainty of their elevation to the estate of free men, was to them the Divine fulfillment of their entrance into the prom- ised land. No wonder that when the war was over, the Negroes, especially in Boston, Anti-slavery's source and center, were in a state of accumulated emotion which bordered on spiritual exaltation. The majority of Negro leaders of the Abolition period were still alive and active, with ardor and de- votion magnified. Younger men and women, who had not taken so prominent a part before the war, now joined hands with the elders. Strong immediate rein- forcement from without was provided in the persons of several capable veterans of the battlefield, who took up their abode in Boston as soon as peace re- turned. Subsequently, the ranks were augmented by EQUAL RIGHTS AND PUBLIC FAVOR 85 other newcomers. The group thus constituted exer- cised leadership under the new order. ^ The mass of the race were aglow with the first infu- sion of the spirit of freedom. Two purely local factors which contributed to their exhilaration were those of concentration in one district and rapid increase of numbers. The movement into the West End, the de- velopment of which as early as 1820 has already been noted, had gone on, till within a decade or two there- after practically all the Negroes in the city were gathered in that section, in a single compact colony. The growth of consciousness of kind and sense of com- munity was thereby greatly furthered. During the troublous times of the anti-slavery struggle and the war, the net increase in the Negro population was not large; — from 1875 persons in 1830, to 2348, in 1865. But immediately following the war, a veritable tidal wave of immigration set in. This sudden and sustained influx brought the mutual assurance which springs from numbers. The bulk of the newcomers, furthermore, were former slaves from the South, who were filled with wonder and unbounded hope in their new life. Under these auspicious conditions, the Negroes in Boston joined with those of the other race who had their welfare at heart, for the common purpose of se- curing to the Negro people, in the South and through- out the nation, the full fruits of the Emancipation Proclamation and of the victory of the Union arms. The Proclamation, as a war measure, had been confined to the states or parts of states still in rebellion at the ^ For names and other information concerning the most promi- nent members of this group of leaders, see Appendix, pp. 453-56. 86. THE NEGRO IN BOSTON time it was issued. It had not applied to the loyal states of Maryland and Missouri, where slavery was left undisturbed/ nor to certain Southern districts un- der military occupation by the Federal troops, where the slave system continued to have a legal existence. Neither had the Proclamation forbidden the re estab- lishment of slavery, or settled the question of the Negro's future status. It remained, therefore, to com- plete slavery's eradication, and to bestow upon the Negroes throughout the Union the rights of free citi- zenship, including the franchise. These results were to be accomplished by federal legislation, in the form of amendments to the Constitution so far as such funda- mental enactments should prove necessary. Boston continued to be the center of activity in the Negro's behalf. The effort in this direction no longer had to expend itself to any appreciable degree in con- verting local sentiment. It was now focused almost entirely upon Congress, the National Administration, and the inner councils of the fully empowered Repub- lican party. There was little relaxation in the cam- paign of public meetings and addresses, petitions and delegations. As for the Negroes themselves, though, of course, their direct influence in determining the action of the Government was subordinate, their zeal surpassed even that which they had manifested during 1 Both these states, however, abolished slavery by amendments to their constitutions before the war ended. Maryland took this action in October, 1864, and Missouri in January, 1865. One of the chief factors in the remarkably speedy conversion of Maryland was the perception by the poor whites that freeing the slaves and allow- ing them to enlist would aid wonderfully in filling the state's quota of soldiers, and so would relieve these poor whites themselves from entering the army. William Lloyd Garrison, vol. iv, p. 119, footnotec EQUAL RIGHTS AND PUBLIC FAVOR 87 the anti-slavery struggle. By still further enlisting pub- lic sympathy, and by demonstrating the reality and earnestness of their own desire for a higher place in the nation, they contributed very considerably to the re- sults obtained. The first proposed federal enactment was the Thirteenth Amendment, abolishing slavery through- out the nation and prohibiting it for all time. This amendment was looked upon as a matter of course, and encountered practically no opposition. Its pas- sage through the House of Representatives was ob- served in Boston, that same day, by a salute of a hundred guns on the Common, and by the ringing of church bells all over the state. ^ The amendment was ratified by the requisite number of states and declared a part of the Constitution in December, 1865, eight and a half months after the close of the war. Its sig- nificance was thus expressed by Garrison in the next to the last number of the "Liberator": — At last, the old "covenant with death" and "agreement with hell" no longer stands. Not a slave is left to clank his fetters, of the million that were lately held in seemingly hopeless bondage. Not a slaveholder may dare to present his claim of property in man, or assume the prerogative of trafficking in human flesh and blood. ... It is not merely the abolition of slavery, with the old recognized right of each state to establish the system ad libitum, but it is the prohibition by "the Supreme law of the land," duly ratified, to enslave a human being in any part of our national domains, or to restore what has been overthrown. It is, consequently, the complete triumph of the anti-slavery struggle, as such.'^ » January 31, 1865. * WiUiam Lloyd Garrison, vol. iv, pp. 167-68. 88 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON On the point, however, of whether or not the time had arrived for the dissolution of the anti-slavery societies, a disagreement had meanwhile arisen in the Abolitionist ranks. The matter had come up first at the meeting of the Massachusetts society in Boston in the preceding January, and was carried over to the convention of the American Anti-Slavery Society at New York in May. Garrison was for disbandment, on the ground that the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment being assured, the specific task of abolish- ing slavery was accomplished. He did not contemplate any abatement whatever of the endeavor in the Negro's behalf, but believed it more fitting that thenceforth the Abolitionists should "mingle with the millions of their fellow-countrymen in one common effort to es- tablish justice and liberty throughout the land." Wendell Phillips took the opposed stand, contending that the existing organization should be kept up until the Negro was granted the franchise and the states were prohibited from enacting laws making any dis- tinction among their citizens on account of race or color. The great majority of the members, as well as Douglass, Remond, and most of the other Negro lead- ers, proved to be of the latter conviction, evidently fearing that dissolution at that juncture might im- peril the Negro's fortunes. Garrison, who was then in his sixtieth year and whose health had been broken by the long struggle, withdrew from formal connection with the anti-slavery societies, and brought the "Lib- erator" to a close the last week of that year.^ Thence- forth, his service in the Negro's cause was rendered as 1 1865. EQUAL RIGHTS AND PUBLIC FAVOR 89 speaker and writer at large. The leadership within the Abolitionist ranks during the remaining period of organization passed over to Phillips.^ The question of giving the Negroes the franchise was the next one which demanded settlement. At first, there was some doubt about taking this action. It was not, like the abolition of slavery, a measure which had practical application only to the South ; for outside of New England, and including Connecticut within that section, all the other Northern States still either withheld the ballot from the Negro entirely, or restricted its extension to him by educational and property qualifications. Indeed, Connecticut, in the autumn of 1865, refused to pass a law enfranchising Negroes, and the new State of Colorado excluded them from the suffrage. Discussion of the matter was brought to a head around the case of Louisiana, which was the first Confederate state to be put in readiness for admission to the Union, and which, in its proposed constitution, did not give the vote to the Negroes. President Lincoln was willing to readmit Louisiana on this basis, though he suggested extending the ballot to such Negroes as had borne arms for the Union or were sufficiently qualified by intelligence. For adopting this attitude he was severely rebuked by the Abolition- ists, with the notable exception of Garrison. The latter, though he came out squarely for the adoption of a constitutional amendment enfranchising the Negroes, ^ For a detailed account of the foregoing differences, see William Lloyd Garrison, vol. iv, pp. 153-62. The anti-slavery organization was continued till April, 1870, or until after the ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment. Phillips was born in Boston in 1811. 90 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON favored accomplishing this purpose in as regular and conciliatory a manner as possible. He vividly foresaw, moreover, the diflBculties which the Negro's previous status put in the way of making his right to the ballot efiFective in fact, as well as obligatory in law, in the South.^ Though the majority of Northerners were ^ In a letter to an English critic of the President, who condemned the latter for not enfranchising the Negroes in Louisiana by exercise of his war powers. Garrison expressed himself as follows: — "By what political precedent or administrative policy, in any country, could he have been justified if he had attempted to do this? When was it ever known that liberation from bondage was accom- panied by a recognition of political equality? . . . According to the laws of development and progress, it is not practicable. . . . Nor, if the freed blacks were admitted to the polls by presidential fiat, do I see any permanent advantage likely to be secured from it; for as soon as the state was organized and left to manage its own afifairs, the white population, with their superior intelligence, wealth, and power, would unquestionably alter the franchise in accordance with their prejudices, . . . Coercion would gain nothing. In other words . . . universal suffrage will be hard to win and to hold without a general preparation of feeling and sentiment. ... It will come only by a struggle on the part of the disfranchised and a growing conviction of its justice. . . . With the abolition of slavery in the South, preju- dice or 'colorphobia,' the natural product of the system, will gradu- ally disappear, as in the case of your West India colonies, and black men will win their way to wealth, distinction, eminence, and ofBcial station." William Lloyd Garrison, vol. iv, pp. 123-24. Referring to Garrison's position on this matter, another English- man wrote to one of the former's sons, in later years: "I regarded your father as a man of noble nature, but with concentrated views — I do not say 'narrow,' because they were as wide as a race and in- cluded their emancipation. But in his reply to there was that largeness of view and recognition of outside difficulties which we call the statesmanlike quality of mind." Ibid., p. 120, footnote. Accepting the foregoing expression on Garrison's part at its face value, one might find some difficulty in reconciling it with his advo- cacy of enfranchisement of the Negroes by a constitutional amend- ment. Evidently he thought that the ratification of an amendment would imply Southern acquiescence and believed that only a brief time would be required for prejudice to disappear from the South. EQUAL RIGHTS AND PUBLIC FAVOR 91 rather loath to accept the general principle of Negro suffrage, the feeling steadily gained ground that it would be necessary to safeguard the rights of the freedmen before any of the Southern States were re- admitted. The Republican party, including even its most conservative elements, steadily gravitated to- ward this position as an obligation of political faith. As a result, Congress passed in April, 1866, over President Johnson's veto, the Civil Rights Act, which provided that the Negroes were to be recognized as citizens of the United States, with all the privileges of citizenship, including the right to vote; and which made violation of these provisions a misdemeanor to be dealt with by the federal courts. Debate over the constitutionality of this act, however, led to the fram- ing of the Fourteenth Amendment, which passed both branches of Congress on June 13, 1866, and by July 28, 1868, was ratified by the requisite two thirds of the states. This amendment bestowed citizenship, with all its privileges and immunities, upon the Negroes, provided that any state which denied or in any way abridged the right to vote should have its representa- tion in Congress reduced, prohibited persons who had taken part in the rebellion from holding oflSce, and re- pudiated the Southern debt. Of course, this enactment had to be forced down the throat of the South, To accomplish that result was largely the purpose of the Reconstruction Act, passed in March, 1867, by Congress, which had by that time completely broken with the President.^ The 1 President Johnson, who had as Vice-President succeeded Lincoln after the latter's assassination on April 14, 1865, set out to follow his 92 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON former Confederate region was divided into five mili- tary districts, under the command of generals of the army, who were to direct a registration of voters which should Include Negroes and shut out ex-Con- federates. These voters were to elect conventions, in the former state areas, and the conventions in turn were to adopt constitutions, which, if acceptable to Congress, were to qualify the state for readmission as soon as it had agreed to the Fourteenth Amendment. This Act initiated the ill-fraught Reconstruction regime, under which the Southern State Governments passed into the hands of a sorry combination of un- scrupulous white politicians from the North — the so- called "carpetbaggers"^ — and the Negroes them- selves. The conditions which ensued proved so unbearable to the South as to incite the desperate retaliatory campaign of intimidation of the notorious "Ku-Klux Clan." For a time there was a veritable reign of terror, partly as a result of which the Southern whites suc- ceeded in many sections in preventing the Negroes from voting, and in getting themselves back into con- trol. A federal order aimed to destroy the Ku-Klux Clan was issued in 1869, and on May 31, 1870, and April 20, 1871, the two "force bills," designed to sup- predecessor's policy of not insisting upon unrestricted suffrage for the Negro, but readmitting the Southern States with a minimum of deLay and disturbance. Congress utterly opposed this plan, and took the situation into its own hands. The impeachment of the President followed in 1868, but ended with his acquittal. ' This epithet arose from the South's contemptuous report that the white politicians brought all their worldly belongings along with them in a Yankee carpetbag. EQUAL RIGHTS AND PUBLIC FAVOR 93 press this and ^11 similar conspiracies against the civil rights of the Negroes, were passed. Though these measures were effective in breaking up the Ku-Klux organization, it proved to be too late, as will subse- quently appear, to repress the uprising of the white South against Negro domination. Inasmuch as the Fourteenth Amendment, though imposing what was expected to be a prohibitive penalty, had not actually forbidden withholding the ballot from the Negroes, it was now deemed necessary to enact the Fifteenth Amendment, which declared that "the right of citi- zens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States, or by any State, on account of race, color, or previous condition of servi- tude." That amendment was passed by Congress in February, 1869, and declared ratified in March, 1870. Thus, so far as lay in the power of the Constitution, the Negro, who but a few years previous had been a slave, was now raised up not only to free citizenship, but to full political equality with his Caucasian fellow- countrymen. Never before in the history of the world, probably, had any people undergone such a transfor- mation of its lot in so brief a space of time. Meanwhile, the Negroes in Boston, with the en- couragement and support of their white friends, had entered upon a campaign to secure an even larger measure of equality in their own state. In Massachu- setts, where the Negro had been free since the days of the nation's birth, and where for many years, possessed of the ballot, he had stood on the same political plane as other members of the community, he now aspired to equal civil rights as well. 94 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON As a result of the Abolitionist propaganda and the other favorable influences which have been noted, Boston's Negro citizens were free in general, when peace returned, to come and go in the community as they chose, so far as availing themselves of public privileges was concerned. In certain respects, how- ever, they were still subject to objectionable discrimin- ation. This appeared principally in the refusal of some of the hotels, restaurants, theaters, and other places of recreation or amusement, to serve or admit Negroes.^ Immediately after the war, the Negro leaders peti- tioned for a law which should render illegal any denial to their race of privileges commonly accorded to all other citizens. The result was the adoption by the Leg- islature, in 1865, of an act forbidding discrimination, on account of color or race, in licensed inns, public places of amusement, public conveyances, or public meetings, under penalty of a fine not to exceed fifty dollars. 2 The following year another law was passed, specifying further that it should be unlawful to "ex- clude persons from, or restrict them in" any such places, "except for good cause."^ In October, 1866, was tried the only case involving the civil rights of the Negro which has ever reached the supreme court of the state. A certain Negro had been refused the privilege of playing billiards in a pub- lic billiard room kept by a white man. The ruling of the court was, that as the prohibitory statutes applied * Brigham's restaurant on Court Street, and the Boston and old Globe Theaters, were complained of especially. 2 Acts and Resolves, 1865, chap. 277. » Ibid., 1866, chap. 252. EQUAL RIGHTS AND PUBLIC FAVOR 95 only to licensed places, and as the billiard room in question was not licensed, no offense had been com- mitted, in law.^ Ere long another complaint was brought up. A well-known Negro had been put out of a public skating-rink. The case was tried by two tal- ented Negro lawyers, Archibald H. Grimke and Butler R. Wilson, both of whom were leaders in the equal rights agitation.^ It was won in the municipal court, but in the superior court was dismissed. These adverse decisions, followed by considerable public in- dignation over the difficulty which a prominent Negro oflScial from the South experienced in finding hotel accommodations in Boston,^ led to a further extension of the provisions of the law in 1884. The broadening phrase, "licensed or unlicensed," was inserted, skating- rinks were included by name among the places in which any discrimination was forbidden, and the maximum fine was increased to one hundred dollars.* In 1893, William H. Lewis, a young Negro then at- tending Harvard University Law School, and an ardent recruit to the ranks of the agitators for equality, was refused service in a barber shop in Cambridge.^ He and Wilson went before the Legislature and asked that not only barber shops, but all places open to public patronage, be included in the scope of the law. The ^ Commonwealth v. David Sylvester. 2 For further information regarding Grimke and Wilson, see Appendix, pp. 455, 456. ^ General Robert Smalls, who under the Reconstruction regime was head of the South Carolina militia, and later collector of the port at Beaufort in the same state. His experience in Boston to which reference is made above, took place in 1884. * Acts and Resolves, 1885, chap. 316. ^ For further information regarding Lewis, see Appendix, p. 456. 96 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON Act of 1885 was in consequence amended, and made to include "barber shops or other public places kept for hire, gain, or reward, whether licensed or not."^ The last revision of the law was made two years later. It increased the maximum fine to three hundred dollars, made imprisonment of not more than one year an al- ternative or additional penalty, and provided also for the recovery of damages, of not less than twenty-five nor more than three hundred dollars, by the person subjected to discrimination.^ By 1895, therefore, the Negro's civil rights — that is, his share in all public privileges of whatever sort — had been made fully equal, in Boston and Massachu- setts, to those of other elements of the community. So far as it was possible for the law to accomplish, all obstacles to the Negro's largest opportunity were removed, and he was placed abreast of his white fel- low-citizens. During the years in which this ground was being » Acts and Resolves, 1893, chap. 436. 2 Acts and Resolves, 1895, p. 519. The full text of the law, as it stands to-day, is as follows: "Whoever makes any distinction, discrimination, or restriction on account of color or race, or, except for good cause, applicable alike to all persons of every color and race, relative to the admission of any person to, or his treatment in a skating-rink or other public place of amusement, licensed or un- licensed, or in a public conveyance or public meeting, or in an inn, barber shop or other public place kept for hire, gain, or reward, licensed or unlicensed, or whoever aids or incites such distinction, discrimination, or restriction, shall, for such offense, be punished by a fine of not more than three hundred dollars or by imprisonment of not more than one year, or by both such fine and imprisonment, and shall forfeit to any person aggrieved thereby not less than twenty- five nor more than three hundred dollars; but such person so ag- grieved shall not recover against more than one person by reason of any one act of distinction, discrimination, or restriction." EQUAL RIGHTS AND PUBLIC FAVOR 97 won, the Negroes were at the same time enjoying a high degree of favor in the form of public offices. Prior to the war, no recognition of this sort had been ac- corded them. Even in those of the Northern States where they were allowed to vote, the attitude of the community, in face of the fact that the mass of their race were still held in slavery, was not indulgent to that extent. Probably the one solitary case in the whole country of a Negro being given a place of any kind, however humble, before the war, was that of Lewis Hayden, the escaped slave whose leadership among his people in Boston has been remarked. In 1859, he had been appointed messenger to the Massachusetts secretary of state; — a post which he filled with ex- emplary faithfulness until his death. Immediately following the war, however, the sentiment which had been aroused for the Negro began to manifest itself in the bestowment upon him of public positions, both appointive and elective. This impulse found expression chiefly through the medium of the Republican party, which represented the great majority of the North, and which was now fully established in power. The Negroes, on their side, realizing their indebtedness to that party for their freedom, as well as for their rights of citizenship and the franchise, followed its banner with an almost re- ligious devotion. But the friendliness toward the emancipated race was too general to be entirely con- fined in its political aspects to the Republican ranks. The Northern wing of the Democracy also was well dis- posed, and inclined toward an attitude of invitation and promise. In local affairs, where party issues were 98 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON not involved, there were a scattering few Negroes, even at the beginning, who for one reason or another went with the Democrats; and the number of such gradually increased. Many years elapsed, however, before any considerable proportion of the race had the hardihood to deviate further than that from their Republican allegiance. The Federal Administration took the lead in extend- ing patronage to representatives of Boston's Negro inhabitants. The state followed immediately. In the city government, where even at that early date senti- ment was held more closely in check by considerations of a more "practical" character, such recognition came less quickly, and was due in some measure to the claims which the Negroes themselves advanced. At first, a majority of the recipients of political favors were veterans of the anti-slavery struggle and the war. It is worthy of note, also, that most of them were from the class which had previously been referred to as "free persons of color." At the same time there was a considerable admixture of former slaves. Subse- quently, younger men, many of them sons of freed- men, came in for an increasing share of the offices. For the reason that all were pioneers in the political history of their race, they have an interest which exceeds the actual consequence of the positions they held, — though for that matter, as will appear, some of these positions were noteworthy in themselves.^ In 1865, John Lenox Remond, of whose prominent part as one of the earliest Negro Abolitionists some- ^ Information regarding some of these oflBceholders, in addition to that which follows, is given in the Appendix, Articles II and III. EQUAL RIGHTS AND PUBLIC FAVOR 99 thing has been related, was appointed a light inspector, and six years later promoted to be a clerk in the cus- tom-house.^ The next three federal appointees, curi- ously enough, were all former second lieutenants of the Fifty-fifth Massachusetts Regiment. James M. Trot- ter, who came from Ohio, was given a clerkship in the post-office, and soon rose to the head of the registered letter division. In 1887, he was appointed by Presi- dent Cleveland to the high position of registrar of deeds for the District of Columbia. William H. Dupree, hailing from the same state, was started as a letter- carrier, but progressed steadily upward until he reached the post of superintendent of one of the post- office sub-stations. 2 In 1869, Charles L. Mitchell, who had come to Boston from Connecticut shortly be- fore the war, was made a customs inspector, and was subsequently advanced to the rank of clerk, in which capacity he established an unusual record for length and efficiency of service.' That year, also, John M. Lenox, who had figured in anti-slavery activities, was given a messengership in the same federal department. In 1894, Archibald H. Grimke, previously mentioned in connection with civic rights legislation, was ap- pointed United States Consul in the Republic of Santo Domingo.^ Far more striking, however, was the Negro's sudden elevation to state honors. In 1866, Boston elected two Negro members to the House of Representatives of ^ He remained in this position till his death in 1873. ^ Sub-station A in the South End. He still retains this position. ^ He remained in the custom-house forty years, till his resigna- tion in 1909, on the eve of his eightieth birthday. He has since died. * Grimke occupied this position four years. 100 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON the Legislature. These men thereby won the distinc- tion in history of being the first of their race to sit in the legislature of any state in the Union. One of them was Edwin G. Walker. He was the only child of David Walker, who in the remarkable "Appeal," from which previous quotation has been made, had described his people as "the most degraded, wretched and abject set of beings that ever lived since the world began." Now, only a generation later, the son was raised to a place among the chosen lawmakers of the very state and in the very city where that cry had been uttered. Elements scarcely less dramatic were present in the case of Walker's colleague, Charles L. Mitchell, whose subsequent federal appointments have just been noted. For a time Mitchell had helped set the type for the "Liberator's" denunciations of slavery. Then as a soldier he had borne a valiant part in the final struggle which insured his people's freedom. Now, he not only beheld his own race transformed from chattels to free citizens, but found himself elected by his white coun- trymen to represent the whole community in the de- cision of its public interests. Both Walker and Mitchell sat in the legislature for a single term of one year.^ John J. Smith, previously mentioned as proprietor in anti-slavery days of a barber shop which was a favorite rendezvous of the Abolitionists, served in the same capacity in 1868 and 1869; George L. Ruffin, who had come to Boston in * Walker represented the district of Charlestown, which had not at that time been annexed to Boston. It appears that his aflBliations in that town had been with the Democrats, and that his nomination came from them. EQUAL RIGHTS AND PUBLIC FAVOR 101 1853, and was one of the first of his race admitted to practice as a lawyer, followed in 1870 and 1871 ; Smith was returned again in 1872; Lewis Hay den was elected in 1873; and Joshua B. Smith, another anti-slavery veteran, who had built up a large business as a caterer, came in for the same honor in 1873 — making for the second time two Negro members in the same year — and 1874.^ Thenceforth, for a period of over twenty years longer, broken by brief intervals only, the Ne- groes continued to have their representatives in the legislature; those who were chosen, however, being later comers to the city.^ Some of these men were elected from districts in which there were few of their own people, and all of them really owed their election to the generous good will of the other race. Of state appointive positions given to Negroes, the most notable was that of judge of the city court for the Charlestown district, which, in 1883, Governor Benjamin F. Butler, a Democrat, conferred upon George L. Ruffin.^ The latter was the first of his race to serve on the bench in the North. In 1893, William O. Armstrong was appointed a court officer.'* In city politics, as has been remarked, the recogni- ^ Joshua B. Smith was elected from Cambridge. For further mention of him, see Appendix, pp. 449 and 454. 2 The list of Negro members of the Legislature (strictly speaking, of its lower branch, the House of Representatives) for the remainder of the period covered in this chapter, is as follows: 1878-79, George W. Lowther; 1883-86, Julius B. Chappelle; 1887-88, WiUiam O. Armstrong; 1889-90, Andrew B. L^attimore; 1892-93, Charles E Harris; 1894-95, Robert T. Teamoh; 1896-97 William L. Reed. The only Negro subsequently sent to the Legislature was W. H. Lewis, who was elected from Cambridge in 1902. ^ Ruffin retained this position till his death in 1886. * He still holds this position. 102 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON tion which the Negroes received was due in part to their own solicitations. So rapidly did they increase in number in the West End colony, that by 1885 they constituted more than half the Republican voters in old Ward 9, which was of a strongly Republican cast. They were therefore able to put forward, and if neces- sary to enforce, a strong claim to representation in municipal affairs.^ Each ward elected three members of the Common Council, the lower branch of the city government. Beginning in 1776 and continuing, with brief lapses, till 1895, when the city was redistricted, the Negroes had one — and for the last two years of the period, two — of the councilmen from that ward. The election in 1895 of another Negro, from former Ward 10, in the South End, resulted in giving them three members of the board in that year. Since 1773 they had also been represented, though not so continu- ously, on the corresponding municipal body in the suburb of Cambridge.^ The first appointment of a 1 It might be said that this was true also with respect to repre- sentatives in the legislature, of which each ward was entitled to two. But though most of the Negro members of the latter body were elected from old Ward 9, it nevertheless appears to have been the fact that, with respect to that much higher honor, the friendliness of the whites was really the determining factor. ^ The following is a list of Negro members of the Common Council in Boston, down to 1895: from old Ward 9, 1876-77, George L. Ruffin; 1878, John J. Smith; 1881, James W. Pope; 1885-86, William O. Armstrong; 1887-88, Andrew B. Leattimore; 1889-90, Charles E. Harris; 1891, Nelson Gaskins; 1892-93, Walden Banks; 1894-95, Stanley Ruffin (son of George RuflBn) and J. Henderson Allston; from old Ward 10, 1895, Charles H. Hall. The list for the Cambridge Common Council, approximately, if not exactly, correct as to dates, is as follows: 1873, J. Milton Clark; 1882-83, William Stevenson, 1883-84, W. C. Lane; 1891-95, Louis £. Baldwin. EQUAL RIGHTS AND PUBLIC FAVOR 103 Negro to a city position appears to have been that of W. W. Bryant, whom in 1885 a Democratic mayor designated to be a deputy sealer of weights and meas- ures. Though none of this considerable array of Negro officeholders made what would be called a brilliant record, none, on the other hand, acted a discreditable part. All rendered at least ordinary, honest service. Though several were able to be of special use to their own people,^ that phase of their accountability was subordinate in importance to their trusteeship in be- half of the community at large. Most pertinent of all, however, was the fact that the elevation of these mem- bers of the race to public office made the Negroes feel that they had a part of some consequence in the affairs of the community, and at the same time caused the community to form a higher opinion of them. During these years, also, several Negro newspapers were published in Boston. ^ Besides serving the gen- eral function of expressing and stimulating the life of that element of the population, they had the particu- ^ In the Legislature, Chappelle was instrumental in obtaining the passage in 1886 of the bill to erect the Crispus Attucks Monument. Harris was identified with the bill amending the civil rights statute in 1893, and Teamoh with the bill making the final amendment of this statute in 1895. ^ The first of these was the Boston Leader, maintained from 1875 to 1883. The Advocate arose a little later and went out of existence about the same time. The Huh, edited by Archibald H. Grimke, ran from 1883 to 1885. The C our ant appeared in 1883 and con- tinued till 1899; Louis E. Baldwin, Butler R. Wilson, Mrs. George L. Ruffin, and George W. Forbes were among its editors. Bald- win and H. Gordon Street started the Republican in 1888 and kept it going till 1893. The foregoing dates are vouched for as approxi- mate only. 104 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON lar purpose of furthering the equal rights propaganda. This was likewise the prevailing motive of a number of noteworthy books by Negro authors. William Wells Brown, to whose writings before the war allusion has already been made, continued his productivity in this respect. "The Black Man" was a collection of brief sketches of Negro leaders since the time of Crispus Attucks. "The Negro in the American Rebellion" was one of the first full accounts of the part taken by the Negro troops. "The Rising Son" traced the his- tory of the race and confidently predicted for it a bright future. "My Southern Home" was a vivid portrayal of the conditions out of which Brown had himself come, and which were now gone forever.^ From the pen of Frances Harper, of whose earlier writings there has also been previous mention, came "Moses, a Story of the Nile," and " Poems. "^ Under the title of "Music and Some Highly Musical People," James Munroe Trotter assembled much interesting material concerning members of his race who had won signal credit in that field. ^ Archibald H. Grimke was the author of two stirring biographies, the one of Gar- rison, and the other of Charles Sumner, Massachu- setts' noted Abolitionist Senator.^ Altogether, these were for the Negroes years of re- joicing in their newly attained privileges, and of efflor- escence in the first warm sunshine of their freedom. Before the law of the nation they were raised to a ^ The dates at which these four books appeared were, in the above order, 1863, 1867, 1874, and 1880. 2 Published in 1869 and 1871, respectively. » Published in 1878. * The former biography appeared in 1891, the latter in 1892. EQUAL RIGHTS AND PUBLIC FAVOR 105 place of political peerage with the white man. In the law of the state of Massachusetts they were endowed also with full civil equality. They were elevated to oflSce and seated beside their white fellow-citizens in many positions of trust and esteem. In the midst of all this high fortune, their elation expressed itself in lyric and narrative celebration of their deliverance. On the side of the other race, popular sentiment with refer- ence to the emancipated people was generous to the degree of indulgence. The fact of being a Negro actu- ally counted as an element of advantage, as signifying a special claim upon the community and eliciting special sympathy and help. Such was the spirit of the period. The granting of equal rights to the Negro and the bestowal of public favor upon him were its domi- nant features. CHAPTER IV reaction: the negro forced upon his own resources But while popular favor was going out to the Negro in the degree that has been described, and while the emancipated race was in the high state of exuberance attending its attainment of full equality before the law : — even then, down below the surface, the decisive conditions were passing through a change, and the public attitude was undergoing a reaction and radical readjustment. At the same time, the Negroes, on their part, in the face of the new situation by which they were confronted, were as a people moving toward the conscious discovery of a fundamental constructive power within themselves. Northern sentiment for the Negro sustained its first check as a result of the wretched exhibition which that race gave in the South, during the period of Recon- struction. Passing reference has already been made to this dark chapter in the nation's history. Somewhat fuller note of it may advisedly be taken at this point. ' The Reconstruction Acts, by enfranchising the Negroes and disqualifying large numbers of the more influential whites, made it possible for the blacks to get possession of the governments in most of the Southern States and to rule them in a most ignorant and extravagant manner. They were made use of by unprincipled adventurers from the North, who flocked to the South in considerable numbers after the close of the war. ... A few native Southerners — "scala- FORCED UPON HIS OWN RESOURCES 107 wags," they were called — also allied themselves politically with the Northern men and Negroes, for the purpose of shar- ing in the offices. . . . The carpet-baggers secured the nomina- tions to the more important offices, and were easily elected by large black majorities. But the colored voters were not con- tent to see all the offices held by their white allies, and their ambition was frequently too great to be ignored. Consequently many of the important offices came to be held by ignorant blacks who but a few years previous were field hands on the plantations. In several states Negroes filled the offices of lieutenant-governor, secretary of state, superintendent of education. ... In some instances they even sat upon the benches of the higher courts, while they filled many minor judicial positions. They occupied seats in the legislatures of all the Southern States, that of Missis- sippi in 1871 having as many as fifty-five colored members. A considerable proportion of these were ignorant, some of whom were unable to read or write, and all of whom were the pliant dupes of unscrupulous Northern men. With the state and local governments controlled by ignorant Negroes and designing white men, an era of extravagance, misrule, and corruption set in, which in some instances amounted to outright robbery and plunder. Long and frequent sessions of the legislature were held, for service in which the members voted themselves large per diem allowances. Old laws were ruthlessly repealed, and replaced by bulky statutes, many of which bore the ear- marks of animosity and oppression. . . . Laws favoring social equality were passed . . . offices were greatly multiplied . . . many of them mere sinecures. . . . Gigantic schemes of pub- lic improvement were undertaken, most of which were marked by frauds and extravagance. The rate of taxation was in- creased out of all proportion to the ability of the people to pay, in their then impoverished condition. . . . Large gratui- ties were voted state officials, the state capitol was furnished after the manner of a European palace, and vast sums were squandered.^ * Article " Reconstruction in the United States," in the Encyclo- pedia Americana, by James Wilford Garner, Professor of Political Science at the University of Illinois. 108 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON Such, stated in very moderate terms, were the in- tolerable conditions of misgovernment, pillage, and political debauchery which afflicted the South when the Negroes were endowed with the ballot and en- trusted with power. These conditions could not be endured for long. They began with the passage of the Reconstruction Acts in 1867, and they were brought to an end in 1876, by which time the Southern whites, to some extent through Ku-Klux terrorism, but in the main by a determined political uprising on the part of the better element of the population, had suc- ceeded in regaining control of the government of all the lately rebellious states.^ This overturn was the beginning of that systematic political repression of the Negro in the South, which has not yet run its full course. The effect of Reconstruction experience upon the North was decidedly to dampen the sentiment for the Negro which there prevailed. That element of the population, probably greatly in the majority, which had from the first been more or less dubious regarding 'the bestowal of equal rights upon the Negroes, pointed in justification of their misgivings to the ignorance, in- competence, and dishonesty which that race had dis- played once the doors of equal privilege had been thrown wide open to it. People who had expected that the Negroes would become good citizens immediately the rights of citizenship were accorded them, were forced to qualify their views. Some — so deep was their ' North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Georgia, and Virginia were recovered by 1870; Alabama and Arkansas, in 1874; Mississippi, in 1875; and Louisiana and Florida, in 1876. FORCED UPON HIS OWN RESOURCES 109 disappointment and disillusionment — completely abandoned their former faith, and joined the ranks of those who were at least skeptical regarding the Negro's capacity for progress. Withal, there arose a growing belief that in forcing through the equal rights programme at all hazards the North had gone too far, and that in dealing with the Negro question in future it should follow a less pre- cipitate and more cautious policy, based upon concrete facts rather than upon abstract doctrine. That section of the country had made such a dismal failure of its at- tempt to restore order and prosperity in the South that it was in a mood to be rid of the vexing task. The ex- tremes to which the Southern whites went in regaining control, and the drastic manner in which they set out to prevent the Negroes from voting and to reduce them to a position of complete submission, were of course far from pleasant things for Northerners to stand by and observe. But inasmuch as there appeared to be no practicable alternative, events were allowed to take their new course. The action of President Hayes in 1878, in withdrawing the last of the Federal troops from the lately revolted districts, and thus removing the only remaining element of coercion, gave definite alignment to the changing attitude of the North and of the Republican Federal Administration. Another influence now entered in to give the situa- tion a further turn in the same reversed direction. Through the medium of an apparently half-sponta- neous, half-deliberate, but at any rate very skillful campaign of public addresses, books, newspapers, and magazine writing, the South began to urge its own view 110 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON of the Negro problem upon the North, and to solicit sympathy and support. One of the Southerners who accomplished most in this respect was Henry W. Grady, the editor of the Atlanta "Constitution." On the evening of Decem- ber 12, 1889, he made a notable address before the Merchants' Association in Boston. "I thank God as heartily as you do," he said, "that human slavery is gone forever from American soil. But the free man remains. With him a prob- lem without precedent or parallel. Note its appalling conditions. Two utterly dissimilar races on the same soil — with equal political and civil rights — almost equal in numbers, but terribly unequal in intelligence and responsibility — each pledged against fusion — one for a century in servitude to the other, and freed at last by a desolating war, the experiment sought by neither but approached by both with doubt — these are the conditions. Under these, adverse at every point, we are expected to carry these two races in peace and honor to the end. ... In spite of these things, we are commanded to make good this change of American policy which has not perhaps changed American preju- dice — to make certain here what has elsewhere been impossible between whites and blacks — and to re- verse, under the very worst conditions, the universal verdict of racial history. And driven, sir, to this super- human task with an impatience which brooks no delay — a rigor that accepts no excuse — and a suspicion that discourages frankness and sincerity, we do not shrink from the trial. It is so interwoven with our in- dustrial fabric that we cannot disentangle it if we FORCED UPON HIS OWN RESOURCES 111 would — so bound up with our honorable obligation to the world that we would not if we could. Can we solve it? The God who gave it into our hands, He alone can know. But this the weakest and wisest of us do know : we cannot solve it with less than your toler- ant and patient sympathy." Grady was one of the foremost orators of the day, and in the impression that he made his eloquence doubtless played as large a part as did the substance of his argument. His address in Boston on this occasion was representative of the general character of the ap- peal which the South was making, with the object of persuading the North to its way of thinking. That appeal was in fact successful in advancing the Northern change of attitude one stage farther. Though the North had withdrawn from Reconstruction, it had not done so without ranklings of resentment at the de- feat of its efforts, feelings of chagrin at its own help- lessness, and compunctions of conscience because of its apparent desertion of the constitutional rights of the Negroes in the Southern States. Now, however, the South's conciliatory professions largely overcame that resentment, while the inculcation of the peculiar char- acter and exceeding difficulty of the problem which the Negro presented, at once assuaged chagrin and soothed the Northern conscience. Two convictions, further- more, became firmly rooted. One was that the subor- dination of sectional differences on account of the Negro was essential to the peace and welfare of the nation. The other was that the question of how to deal with the emancipated race in the former slave states should be left to those states themselves to settle. 112 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON It was inevitable, however, that this change of belief should apply not only to Conditions in the South, but also, though in different sort and degree, to the position of the Negro in the North. There, moreover, in addi- tion to the effect of Reconstruction experience and Southern proselytizing, other kindred factors, closer at hand and of more immediate influence, were at work. Because sentiment for the Negro had mounted higher in Boston than anywhere else, the subsidence which was now taking place was, by contrast, most marked in that city. In the first place, the Abolitionists gradually passed away. Garrison died in 1879, Phillips in 1884, and by the end of the third decade after the war most of the others were gone. With these zealots disappeared also that ardor for the Negro and that vehement champion- ship of his cause which they embodied. The feeling that they cherished toward the Negro people grew out of the long and absorbing struggle through which they had gone in their behalf, and shoulder to shoulder with them. It was humanly impossible for that feeling to be shared in its fullness by others who had not also shared the same experience. To the sons and daugh- ters of the Abolitionists, anti-slavery ideals did not and could not have the same transcendent significance. To the generation of the Abolitionists' grandchildren, emancipation and the war were things of the past, whose meaning was vague and pale beside the concrete living realities of the present. Likewise, conditions among the Negroes themselves were taking a new aspect. The leaders of the "Old Guard" had been able, by virtue of the position of FORCED UPON HIS OWN RESOURCES 113 general respect and attention which they held, to act as middlemen between the whites and the rank and file of their race, and thus to exert a large influence toward mutual understanding. But the ranks of those old leaders were thinned by the years. Remond, the senior member of the group, died in 1873 ; Hay den, the most picturesque and forceful, in 1889. Soon thereafter only a scattering few, rendered comparatively inactive by age, still survived. The younger men who had come to Boston since the war were not able fully to assume the fallen mantles of the elders. They did not have the same stirring times to fire them with enthusiasm, nor were they subjected to such elemental incentives as would arouse in them an equal degree of devotion to the common cause of their people. Nor, finally, did they meet with the same close and real sympathy and support from the other race. To complete the passing of the old order, there be- gan immediately after the war, as has already been noted, a sudden and constantly increasing influx of Negro immigrants from the South. They came in thousands. Most of them were utterly uneducated and ignorant. Nearly all were more or less uncouth, many were ragged and dirty, and a large proportion were crude, dull, and indeed brutish, in appearance. These new arrivals became a common sight in the streets. They crowded into the cars, among the white passen- gers. They explored the shops, with mouths agape and eyes bulging at the marvels there displayed. They entered restaurants and took seats alongside the white patrons. They even invaded some of the most select Back Bay churches. In short, they were ubi- 114 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON quitous. Never before had Boston experienced the Southern Negro en masse. Its previous acquaintance had been chiefly with the Northern free persons of color — a highly refined type in comparison. True, most of the escaping slaves of Abolition days were suf- ficiently abject specimens; but the majority of the latter had been kept out of sight, biding their flight still farther north. As for the refugees who took up their permanent abode in the city, the few exceptional individuals among them, like William Wells Brown or the others who have been mentioned, made such a disproportionate impression upon the popular imagina- tion as to cast a sheen of semi-illusion over the others, who, moreover, were soon inclosed and somewhat polished ofif by the Negro population of longer Boston residence. But in the face of the black horde which came pouring in after the war, the white inhabitants of Boston involuntarily and at first unwillingly re- coiled. Gradually, this recoil hardened into permanent withdrawal. The combined result, therefore, of the several influ- ences which have been cited was to effect a pronounced reaction in Boston's attitude toward the Negro. Though during its formative period this reaction de- veloped as an undercurrent, it made itself more and more distinctly felt, as time went by, and constantly rose nearer to the surface. Whatever expectation had formerly been entertained that the Negro, endowed with equal rights, would forthwith rise automatically to the level of the other elements of the community and be received by them into full association, was now replaced by the conviction that the Negro was FORCED UPON HIS OWN RESOURCES 115 different from these other elements and of a lower gra- dation. This change of view was in fact an approxima- tion to the attitude held by the South. It was far more, however, than mere reconciliatory truckling to sec- tional opinion or prejudice. It amounted to an accept- ance, in certain measure, of the South's anthropologi- cal theory with respect to the Negro, — the substance of which was, in the already quoted words of Grady, that he belonged to a "dissimilar " race, " unequal in intelligence and responsibility," thus constituting "a problem without precedent or parallel." This conclusion, however, was not positive, but nega- tive. It removed all doubt of the difficulty of the prob- lem, but it did not supply any clear, concrete, and prac- ticable plan of solution. It was an admission that the course previously followed with regard to the Negro had proved inadequate, but it was not a demarcation of any other course which could be pursued with the likelihood of proving adequate. It was destructive of former misconceptions, but it did not constructively replace them by practical understanding sufficient to the need. It compelled recognition of failure in the past, but it did not hold out any reasonable hope of success in the future. At that juncture, however, the positive, constructive, hopeful note was clearly sounded. The way out was plainly indicated. And this was accomplished, not by a member of the white race, but by one of the Negro people — Booker T. Washington,^ founder and work- ^ Washington was born near Hale's Ford, Virginia, in 1858 or 1859, and received his education at the Hampton Institute, situated at Hampton in the same state. He founded the Tuskegee School in 1881. Prior to his Atlanta address he was already somewhat known 116 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON ing head of the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute at Tuskegee, Alabama. On September 18, 1895, Washington delivered an address, not at Boston, but at the other end of the country, and, dramatically enough, in the very city — Atlanta, Georgia — whence six years before Grady had gone forth to appeal to the white people of the North for sympathy and patience with the white South in its perplexities. This address brought its author into sudden and lasting fame. It proved a great landmark in the history of his race. Its effect has been so momentous as to render essential the citation at this point of some of its most important passages : — Ignorant and inexperienced, it is not strange that in the first years of our new life we began at the top instead of at the bottom, that a seat in Congress or the state legislature was more sought than real estate or industrial skill; that the political convention or stump-speaking had more attractions than starting a dairy farm or truck garden. . . . Our greatest danger is that in the great leap from slavery to freedom we may overlook the fact that the masses of us are to live by the productions of our hands, and fail to keep in mind that we shall prosper in proportion as we learn to dignify and glorify common labor and put brains and skill into the com- mon occupations of life; shall prosper in proportion as we learn to draw the line between the superficial and the sub- stantial, the ornamental gewgaws of life and the useful. No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem. It is at the bottom of life we must begin, and not at the top. Nor should we per- mit our grievances to overshadow our opportunities. ... In all things that are purely social we can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress. . . . The wisest among my race understand that in Boston, whither he had journeyed, first in the later eighties, and after that at regular intervals, in the interests of his institution. FORCED UPON HIS OWN RESOURCES 117 the agitation of questions of social equality is the extremest folly, and that progress in the enjoyment of all the privileges that will come to us must be the result of severe and constant struggle, rather than of artificial forcing. No race that has anything to contribute to the markets of the world is long in any degree ostracized. It is important and right that all privileges of the law be ours, but it is vastly more important that we be prepared for the exercise of these privileges. The opportunity to earn a dollar in a factory just now is worth infinitely more than the opportunity to spend a dollar in an opera house. This was one " of the most notable speeches, both as to character and the warmth of its reception, ever delivered to a Southern audience," wrote the Honor- able Clark Howell, who had succeeded Grady as edi- tor of the Atlanta "Constitution." ^ " It was an epoch- making talk and marks distinctly a turning-point in the progress of the Negro race. . . . The whole speech is a platform on which the whites and blacks can stand with full justice to each race." Not only in the South, but in the North as well, — throughout the country, indeed, — the address made a profound impression. The tremendous significance of what Washington said lay in the fact that he effectually shifted the em- phasis in the Negro problem, placing chief stress not upon the question of the immediate endowment of the emancipated race with rights and privileges fully equal to those of the whites, — which had previously been regarded as the cardinal point, — but upon that of the Negro's substantial preparation for rising to a higher place in the nation through self-effort on his own part. The concrete means which Washington proposed, in or- 1 This statement was made in a letter to the New York Herald, written soon after the address was delivered. 118 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON der to achieve that result, was the development by the Negro of his own economic resources. Primary strate- gic importance was attached to agriculture — this with a view especially to conditions in the South — and to manual occupations requiring some degree of skill ; for the reason that these fields offered the race both the readiest immediate foothold and at the same time the surest stepping-stone to still further economic advance. The most fundamental and practical education along those lines, of the sort for which Tuskegee stood, was — by implication — to be utilized to the fullest degree in this industrial ascent. After this manner only, Wash- ington declared, would the Negro eventually obtain, through the actual demonstration of his own inherent worth, such political and civil privileges and enjoy- ments as were for the present withheld from him, on ac- count of his obvious and indeed inevitable deficiencies. As has already been suggested, the view thus taken, in giving to the whole problem of the Negro this new and radically altered orientation, was in fact the con- structive complement of the change in the community's attitude toward the Negro which was then, as has pre- viously appeared, in progress. The truth of this state- ment will appear still more clearly , however, in the light of a counter-movement which meanwhile had arisen among the Negroes themselves, and which directed it- self against both the reaction in Northern sentiment, and against Washington's interpretation of conditions. When, with the collapse of Reconstruction, the Negroes realized that their rights under the Constitu- tion were not to be maintained in the South, and when, later on, they saw also that the tide of sentiment was FORCED ON HIS OWN RESOURCES 119 beginning to ebb in the North, the great mass of the race simply accepted and reconciled themselves to these reversals as to irrevocable matters of fact. But a cer- tain element, consisting chiefly of the more highly educated Negroes, and of those who through long Northern residence had become saturated with Aboli- tion doctrine, entered upon a movement of protest and agitation. This was, so to speak, a resumption of the earlier campaign for the passage of the Amendments and the Civil Rights Laws, — but it was a resumption on the defensive. As Boston had been the scene of the Negro's greatest activity in the anti-slavery struggle and the demand for equality, so now it became the principal center of his resistance to the current that was setting in against him. This protest on the Negro's part first showed itself in murmurings of rebuke of the Republican party, for not standing by the race in the Southern States. For a long time such complaints remained almost entirely within the party lines, and did not grow so strong as to cause defections. Very early, however, there were a few who revolted outright. One of the first of these was James M. Trotter, to whose prominence among his people sev- eral previous references have been made. Shortly after President Hayes, in 1878, withdrew the Federal troops from the South, leaving the way open for the return of the Southern whites to power, Trotter declared he could no longer retain his Republican allegiance. His subsequent appointment by President Cleveland to the office of registrar of deeds for the District of Columbia, already mentioned, was at once a recognition of his go- ing over to the Democrats — on the ground that he pre- 120 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON ferred no pledges at all to pledges broken ! — and also a bid from the Northern wing of that party for Negro votes. But there was no considerable breaking-away from the Republican ranks until General Benjamin F. Butler ran independently for governor of Massachu- setts in 1882. As major-general in eastern Virginia, Butler had in 1861 issued a famous order which, by proclaiming that escaped slaves who came within the Union lines should be regarded as contraband of war, in effect set the Negroes in that section at liberty. He had also organized the Louisiana Native Guards from free Negroes. For these reasons he obtained in the state campaign in 1882 a large Negro vote, which con- tributed appreciably to his election.^ From that time the proportion among the Negroes of political inde- pendents, who on occasion would support Democratic or other candidates or policies, gradually increased. The defection from the Republican standard, however, was not based upon any disagreement with planks ex- pressed in the party platform, but solely upon the fail- ure of the Republicans to enforce the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, and generally to accord the Negro what he regarded as just treatment. In other words, this revolt has been an integral part of the Ne- gro's protest against the derogation of his rights and immunities. 1 Governor Butler's conferring of the judgeship of the Charles- town municipal court upon George L. RufBn, to which previous al- lusion has been made, was an acknowledgment of his indebtedness to the Negroes. He wished to appoint to this position Edwin G. Walker, who, as has been mentioned, was a Democrat. But as the Republican majority of his Council would not ratify Walker's se- lection, he appointed RufEn, who was a Republican. FORCED ON HIS OWN RESOURCES 121 Two of the earliest organizations formed to voice this protest were the Wendell Phillips Club, started in 1876, and the Colored National League, formed about the same time and maintained till about 1900.^ In 1899, the latter association sent to President McKinley an open letter, which began thus: "We, colored peo- ple of Massachusetts, in mass meeting assembled, to consider our oppressions and the state of the country relative to the same " ; and, after reciting various grievances, went on to demand " the enjoyment of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness equally with other men." Washington's Atlanta address at first bore practi- cally all of his own people along in the general wave of commendation which it elicited. But after a time, as its underlying significance came to be more fully appre- ciated, and as those portions of it which deprecated insistence upon privileges, and appeared to relegate the Negro for the present mainly to an industrial role, were taken up and enlarged upon the country over, the address incurred the angry reprobation of the agitators for equality. Some of the author's subsequent utter- ances, of similar purport, were even more fiercely con- demned. Thenceforth, one of the most prominent features of this agitation has been the vehement and bitter denunciation of Washington as recreant to the highest aspirations of his race, and the advocate of an unworthy and disastrous submissiveness. The attack upon Washington^ was definitely initi- ^ The former organization is still in existence, though compara- tively inactive during recent years. It includes members of both races. 122 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON ated, in Boston, by William Munroe Trotter and George W. Forbes. The latter, to whom there has been previous reference, was a recruit to the equality pro- paganda in the third decade after the war.^ Trotter is the son of James M. Trotter, who died in 1892. In view of the father's already mentioned declaration of hostility against the Republican party, the son may be said to have come into his fighting spirit by inheri- tance.2 In 1901, these two men launched the "Guard- ian," a weekly newspaper devoted to agitation. The following year they and several others engineered an anti-Washington demonstration which, though in ap- pearance at the time it was little more than a disor- derly fracas, had in fact a real significance. Washing- ton was to speak on the evening of July 30, in one of the Negro churches,^ under the auspices of the local branch of the Negro Business League, an organization which had recently come into being through his own ef- forts. When that occasion arrived, the hall was crowded with an audience in part friendly and in part unfriendly to him, but swelled withal by the rumor that some- thing of an unusual nature was to occur. The intro- ductory remarks of the presiding oSicer and those of 1 See chapter iii, and Appendix, article iii. 2 William Munroe Trotter was born in 1872. He grew up in a white neighborhood, went to school with white children, and was valedictorian of his class both in grammar and high school. In high school he was also elected class president, and still holds this posi- tion since graduation in 1890. Entering Harvard College in 1891, he stood among the first four in scholarship in his freshman year, was elected to the Phi Beta Kappa in his junior year, and graduated ■with the degree of A.B. and A.M., the latter magna cum laude. Prior to starting the Guardian, he held various clerical and business positions. ' The Zion African Methodist. FORCED ON HIS OWN RESOURCES 123 several preliminary speakers occasioned hissing and other disturbance, and at one point led to the interven- tion of police officers. As soon as Washington began his address, one of the hostile contingent jumped up and started to put to him a number of questions that had been prepared. The police removed the disturber. An uproar ensued. Washington attempted to proceed, but was again interrupted. This time it was Trotter and another man, who shouted out the questions. They, together with a companion who had joined in the disorder, were arrested and taken to the police station. After being bailed out by Trotter's mother, they has- tened back to the church to renew the attack. By that time, however, the meeting had broken up. Shortly after this aflFair, Trotter and the two others who had been taken into custody were brought to trial, the plaintiff in the case being the church in which the fracas had occurred, and the charge that of mali- ciously disturbing a public meeting. The courtroom was crowded with Negroes, and many white people also were present. A white attorney acted for the prosecution, but the defendants were represented by four lawyers of their own race. The outcome was, that while one of the defendants was let off with a fine of $25, Trotter and the other were sentenced to a fine of $50 and thirty days' imprisonment. An appeal was taken to the supe- rior court, but the sentence was there confirmed. Trotter and his companion went to jail, regarding them- selves as martyrs, and held up as martyrs by those who shared their general point of view on the Negro ques- tion. What this point of view is may be gathered from the 124 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON five leading questions which at the meeting that has been described, Washington was called upon to an- swer : — 1. In your letter to the Montgomery "Advertiser," No- vember 27, you said: "Every revised constitution through- out the Southern States has put a premium upon intelligence, ownership of property, thrift, and character." Did you not thereby indorse the disfranchising of our race? 2. In your speech before the Twentieth Centurj' Club here in March you said: "Those are most truly free who have passed through the most discipline." Are you not act- ually upholding oppressing our race as a good thing for us, advocating peonage? 3. Again you say: "Black men must distinguish between freedom that is forced and the freedom that is the result of struggle and self-sacrifice." Do you mean that the Negro should expect less from his freedom than the white man from his? 4. When you said, "It was not so important whether the Negro was in the inferior car as whether there was in that car a superior man, not a beast," did you not minimize the outrage of the insulting jim-crow car discrimination and jus- tify it by the "bestiality" of the Negro? 5. In an interview with the Washington "Post," June 25, as to whether the Negro should insist on his ballot, you were quoted as saying: "As is well known, I hold that no people in the same economic and educational condition as the masses of the black people of the South should make politics a matter of the first importance in connection with their development." Do you not know that the ballot is the only self-protection for any class of people in this country? In an anniversary edition of the "Guardian" issued in 1904, the editors reviewed the so-called Zion Church affair.^ They maintained that because of Washing- ton's personal influence and the rapid dissemination of * The exact date of this number of the Guardian was July 30. FORCED ON HIS OWN RESOURCES 125 his ideas, the Negroes who held diverse views had lost nearly all opportunity for a public hearing through the press, and that a prime object of the demonstration at the church had been to reach the public. This object they claimed to have accomplished, pointing in con- firmation to the far larger amount of newspaper notice accorded their subsequent meetings and activities. They contended also that, by virtue of this setting forth of their principles, they had compelled Washing- ton somewhat to modify his utterances, — which were still, however, sufficiently obnoxious. Since these events occurred, Trotter has continued his agitation with unremitting vigor. He directs his protest against everything which can be even remotely suspected of drawing the color line or relegating the Negroes to an inferior place. One of the most signal local achievements in which he had a leading part, was the forcing from the Boston stage, in the winter of 1910, of the notorious play, "The Clansman," which portrays the Negro as essentially a brute. In his never-ceasing attack he is unyielding to the last degree, and has repudiated many a former friend for some deviation from what is to himself the true belief. The extreme to which he carries his pursuit of color dis- crimination is shown by the fact that he opposed a promising local effort on the part of a number of his race to carry on betterment work among newly arrived Southern immigrants, and attacked a social settle- ment established by whites for the benefit of Negroes, on the ground that both these enterprises furthered segregation and discrimination. His activity is not confined to Boston. He helped to launch the New Eng- 126 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON land Suffrage League in 1904, the Niagara Movement in 1905, and the National Independent Political League in 1908, and has become one of the leaders in the larger movement to combat race prejudice which these organizations represent. Recently this movement has enlisted noteworthy support from an element of the other race. In 1910 was organized the National Association for the Advance- ment of Colored People. Its president is Moorfield Storey, the well-known anti-imperialist, of Boston, in which city it also has one of its most vigorous branches. Jane Addams is a member of the executive committee. This society, which draws no color line in its membership, has secured W. E. B. DuBois, formerly of Atlanta University, to direct its endeavors. Dr. DuBois is regarded as probably the most intellectual man of the Negro race to-day, as well as its foremost present representative in the equal-rights agitation. He is also one of the well-recognized sociologists of the country. The line along which he will strive is indi- cated by the following statement which the association sent out soon after its formation : — The attitude of the American people toward our Negro citizens has given rise to conditions, the spread of which cannot fail seriously to imperil our democracy. . . . Race prejudice is increasing, North and South. . . . On all sides we hear of the grossest discrimination in the courts, in the pub- lic education system, and in industry. The remedy for this state of affairs lies solely in a right attitude of the public mind, and the endeavor to bring about such an attitude will call for active, untiring work by our association. We must leave no misstatement unanswered, no injustice unpro- tested, and by a close, united organization must build up, step by step, a public opinion that will make impossible our FORCED ON HIS OWN RESOURCES 127 present barbarities to a race which we have set aside, in its entirety, from normal citizenship. Thus in recent years the agitation for equal rights has evidently made a certain amount of headway. It has enlisted new recruits. It has secured a hearing before the public. It has formed an organization through which it may the more effectively express itself. But during the same period the change and readjust- ment of attitude toward the Negro, and the general indorsement of Washington's point of view and plan of operation, have made progress many times more ex- tensive than that of the counter-movement which has been described. One of the most impressive and pro- mising elements of this progress has been the turn- ing to Washington's principles on the part of the great mass of his own race. In Boston, as has already been intimated and as will later be more amply shown, the rank and file of the Negro population is made up of recent immigrants from the South. These Southern Negroes grew up among their people in the "Black Belt," accustomed to regard the color line as a fact rather than a grievance. Their most immediate and vital concern is to earn a living. They instinctively recognize that a plan which will enable them to earn a better living will necessarily promote their general welfare. Except for a small and scattering minority, they have therefore accepted the gospel of salvation through work. This acceptance has not come about so much through a process of conscious reasoning as it has through the promptings of a native common sense. It finds expression not so much in words or declamation as in the ordinary acts of each day's routine. But therein 128 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON is it all the more real and substantial. As it is with the rank and file, so it is with most of those who oc- cupy positions of leadership, a majority of whom also are to-day of Southern birth and rearing. They both share and respond to the feeling of the mass of their race. Especially noticeable is the extent to which the younger leaders, as they arise, are planting their feet squarely upon the solid ground of self-help. More significant still is the fact that a majority of the Negroes who were formerly in the forefront of the equal-rights agitation have substantially modified their views in the light of a fuller understanding of condi- tions. Most of the earlier leaders in that agitation no longer take part in it with their pristine vehemence, and have grown to be at least tolerant of the prevailing at- titude. Some, while not abandoning their belief in the importance of constant activity by the Negro to safe- guard his rights, have become convinced that tactics less precipitate and more conciliatory in character are better adapted to that purpose, and have at the same time openly committed themselves to the substance of Washington's position. These latter are represented most prominently in the Boston community by Wil- liam H. Lewis, to whom reference has already been made in connection with civil rights legislation, and whose opinion should command special respect by reason of the high posts in the public service which, as will at a later point be mentioned specifically, he has occupied. For a time after leaving the Law School I was counted as one of the radicals and agitators [said Mr. Lewis in a state- ment to the writer], but I found so many good people who FORCED ON HIS OWN RESOURCES 129 approved Dr. Washington's course and who were just as sincere in their advocacy of human rights and Negro rights as I myself, that I began to ask myself if they were wholly wrong and myself wholly right. I came to believe that they were more right than I, and so I decided that I should not make the business of my life the pulling down of some other men or slinging mud at a real worker. In an address at Cleveland, Ohio, in August, 1909, he further defined his present attitude : — Northern colored men — in their earnest zeal for better things — should be careful not to hinder, not to retard, not to jeopardize, the progress toward that happy consummation which both races are working out to-day. Mere indiscrimi- nate denunciation, vituperation, recrimination, and abuse on our part, will accomplish nothing. . . . The race in the minority, like the individual in society, who is always in the minority, must advance, if at all, by the same line that the individual advances, by tact, ability, conduct, character, common sense, and diplomacy. . . . Our old-time methods of agitation, denunciation and exposition of our wrongs, to- day fall upon deaf ears and find little sympathy anywhere. . . . The educated colored men have not taken advantage of the human failing which will often grant a request when itwill refuse to yield to a just demand. They have forgotten that, though man's heart may be apparently surcharged with the blackest hate and prejudice, somewhere from his inner con- sciousness flowsthe milk of human kindness. They have failed to realize that under present conditions the field of diplomacy has scarcely been touched in the solution of race problems. Likewise by the vast majority of white people, in Boston as elsewhere, the principles enunciated by Washington have been accepted as the most practi- cable and normal course to be followed with respect to the emancipated race. There is a reason for this ac- ceptance, moreover, which is far broader and deeper than any consideration peculiar to this particular prob- 130 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON lem. It is this : that while the dominant commercial spirit which characterizes the present generation makes less response than the humanitarian spirit of the pre- ceding generation to abstract appeals regarding the Negro's rights, this same commercial spirit responds readily to the proposal to develop the latent productive capacities of the Negro people and thus to enhance their value to the community. This proposal, espe- cially in its advocacy of industrial education, is, fur- thermore, in line with the rapidly evolving new humanitarianism, which places less emphasis upon the immediate relief of human distress and more upon the eliciting of human powers. By a chronological coincidence, which was, to say the least, remarkable, Washington's epochal Atlanta address was delivered in the very year that witnessed the death of Frederick Douglass. The latter, who, as previously remarked, had come to be looked upon as the foremost representative of his race, may be said to have embodied the old order, with uncompromising Abolitionist doctrine as its dominant note.^ In Boston the same year, curiously enough, saw the last amendment which extended the scope of the state's ^ In an address in Rochester, New York, March 13, 1848, Douglass defined his position on equal rights as follows: "I look upon all com- plexion distinctions, such as Negro pews, Negro berths on steam- boats, Negro cars. Sabbath or week-day schools or churches, etc., as direct obstacles to the progress of reform, and as the means of continuing the slave in his chains." W. C. Nell, Colored Patriots of the Revolution, p. 361. After the war, Douglass was not much in Boston. He traveled over the country as a lecturer, but spent most of his time in Wash- ington, D.C., where he held a number of high federal offices. He died in that city. FORCED ON HIS OWN RESOURCES 131 statute of civil rights. That year — 1895 — may, there- fore, very aptly be taken as the dividing point between the old order and the new. This is not to say that the change was then complete. Indeed, it was still for the most part taking place beneath the surface. But it had by that time entered upon the decisive stage. Since then it has been fully consummated. In this new order the central motive is the belief that it is not so much the immediate possession of all political and civil rights and privileges, but rather the underlying equip- ment for the proper exercise of such rights and privi- leges, of which the mass of the Negroes now stand most vitally in need. The conviction has taken root that, if the Negro people are to achieve real and lasting pro- gress, they must be made to depend primarily not upon the bestowal of favor from without, but upon their own independent effort from within. What is most signi- ficant of all, however, is that this fundamentally con- structive principle has emanated from the emancipated race itself, finding its commanding expression through a member of that race who, as the son of a slave woman, himself born into slavery, symbolizes in his own life history the link between the chattel bondage that has been destroyed and the economic independence that must be achieved. Thus it is a fact that, as the Negro may warrantably be held to have insured his own de- liverance from slavery by his crucial part in the Civil War, so now it is he himself who has discovered and entered upon what is generally believed to be the true course, which is to lead him up and out of the servitude that his own present backward conditions inevitably impose upon him. 132 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON Thus has it come about that even in Boston, where the Negro first attained to manhood's free estate, where his freedom throughout the nation had its birth, and where the sentiment in his favor reached its zenith, he has, as elsewhere, been forced back upon his own re- sources. And even in Boston, the historic stronghold of the Negro's agitation for equality, the place of all places where he might expect to accomplish most by adhering to a policy of agitation, he himself has come to recognize that in the last analysis his advance de- pends upon the cultivation of his own resources. Judged now from the point of view of self-achieve- ment, what verdict does the Negro merit? Do the actual facts reveal that, except in so far as he has been fa- vored and bolstered up by the white race, he has either helplessly stood still, or fallen back? Or, on the con- trary, do these facts afford ample proof that by his own powers and exertions he has forced his way upward and ahead? To-day, is he in a state of retrogression, stationariness, or advance? If he is found to be mov- ing forward, then in what measure is this the case? These are the vital questions upon which conclusions as to the Negro's present and future position in the community must depend. To obtain clear and con- vincing answers to these questions is the task which now devolves upon us. CHAPTER V TAKING ROOT First of all, what of the physical basis upon which the well-being of the Negro community necessarily rests? It is sometimes asserted that this element of the population is gradually dying out. Is such in fact the case, so far as the situation in Boston is concerned? If the Negroes are found to be still growing in number, to what extent is this growth due to accessions from without, and from what localities do the newcomers hail? It might be assumed, oflPhand, that the Negro is relegated to the least desirable portions of the city. How far is that assumption correct? Are the members of this race cut oflf and practically isolated, with re- spect to residence at least, from the rest of the com- munity, or are they in substantial measure intermingled and articulated with its other constituent elements? How is the Negro faring in his encounter with present- day urban conditions? Is he getting a firm physical grip and foothold, atid is his situation in this basic re- spect favorable or unfavorable to his general progress? The initial fact which these queries elicit is that a native Boston stock of Negroes has as yet barely begun to get established. From earliest times this race has been subject to a high death rate and a compara- tively low birth rate. In 1860 the City Registrar re- ported that, for the five years preceding, " the number 134 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON of colored births was one less than the number of marriages, and the deaths exceeded the births in the proportion of two to one." For the eleven years from 1900 to 1910, the average Negro birth rate and death rate were exactly the same, 25.4 per thousand persons, as compared with a birth rate of 26.9 and a death rate of 18.7 for the whites.^ Under these conditions, it is clear that, even assuming a complete absence of emigra- tion, the Negro population would on its own base barely maintain each year its numbers of the previous year. This high mortality has been due to the combined effect of a vitality less than that of the whites, the rigor of the Northern climate, and economic and social hard- ships. The Negroes have always been particularly a prey to tuberculosis and other affections of the respira- tory organs. Deficient racial vitality is manifested also in the greatly disproportionate number of deaths of infants. Compared with the climate to which the Negro race has for ages been accustomed in Africa, and that to which the great mass of American Negroes have been used in the South, the Boston climate is of course severe. The peculiar vicissitudes and disturbances which are a part of the Negro's lot add by so much to the physical strain upon him. The Negro birth rate in Boston is not strikingly small when viewed locally and by itself. As has appeared, it i§ only 1.5 per thousand less than that of the entire white population, and it is undoubtedly above that of the native-descended whites and the more highly cul- * These rates for the white population are the average for the period 1900-06, but would be practically the same if brought down to 1910. TAKING ROOT 135 tured element. But it is low as compared with the birth rate of the Negro race in the rural South, and of course very low as set over against its companion death rate in Boston, — the high percentage of deaths not being counter-balanced, as is the case among some of the Southern-European and Asiaticpeoples, by a still higher percentage of births. This shortage of births is not due to a lesser proportion of marriages. The local marriage rate for the Negroes is only slightly under that of the whites; for the years 1900-06, 18.5 as against 19.1 per thousand. But it is a fact that with Negroes of long Northern residence, and particularly with the more educated and refined, the proportion of childless mar- riages is large, and small families are the rule. There is considerable voluntary restriction of births, due some- times to stern economic prohibitions, sometimes to an unwillingness to bring children into the midst of the difficulties which surround this race, and sometimes to merely selfish considerations of convenience. In the case of the upper gradations of the Negro community, and in appreciable degree even with the rank and file, the higher standard of living to which they become ac- customed in Boston is also an important influence in reducing the number of births. But the low birth rate is accounted for in large part by the same factors which produce a high death rate : — inferior vitality, the stern climate, and the nervous-physical wear and tear of eco- nomic and social adversities to which the Northern environment renders the Negroes more sensitive.^ ^ For a comparison of the Negro and white population with re- spect to marital condition and proportion of children, see Appendix, table XI. 136 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON While the excessive mortality and the paucity of births have thus worked for the extinction of Boston's native Negro population, emigration has at the same time tended toward its dispersion. In the early period, there was doubtless little emigration of Negroes from Boston, inasmuch as oppressive "Black Laws" were in force in most of the Northern States.^ The first emigration in large numbers was that of escaped slaves, who were again frightened into flight by the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 and by the subsequent greatly increased activity of slave-hunters. The war made a further drain on the Negro population. Appar- ently more than half the Negro soldiers from Boston who survived the conflict cast their abode in other sec- tions of the country, and especially in the South. Those who were married removed their families, and many drew away relatives and friends. Immediately following the war began a movement of young Negroes of both sexes into the South, to serve as teachers in the schools which were everywhere springing up in that section. This movement is still going on.^ Such de- 1 Indeed, prior to about 1840, refugees from those states consti- tuted the bulk of the Negro immigration to Boston. ^ One of the pioneers of these missionaries of education was Louise de Mortie (sister of Mark de Mortie, mentioned in Appen- dix, p. 454), who was known for her rare beauty and her charm as a public reader. She went to New Orleans to devote herself to the Negro children left orphans by the ravages of war, and there she met her death, in 1867, as a victim of yellow fever. Another was Charlotte L. Forten, who had come to Boston from Philadelphia in 1854, and who wrote for the Atlantic Monthly and other magazines. In later years Miss Forten became the wife of Francis James Grimke, of Washington, D.C., the brother of Archibald H. Grimkc, previously referred to, and himself a minister and author. Richard Theodore Greener, of the class of 1870 of Harvard College, and the first Negro graduate from that institution, became profes- TAKING ROOT 137 partures, however, have constituted only a fractional part of the entire emigration, which has in the main been brought about by the same variety of influences which cause shifting among any element of the popula- tion. There have been two factors, however, of more particular character and greater effect than the rest. One of these is the economic and social stress which, as has appeared, bears such an important relation to Negro births and deaths; and which, especially since the change of attitude toward the Negroes in recent years, has compelled many of them to leave Boston and to seek a livelihood elsewhere. The second is an excessive migratoriness which is inherent in the Negro character. Obstacles in the environment are not opposed by a quality of rootedness, and so, many Negroes are continually leaving Boston, in the futile expectation of finding things easier somewhere else. According to a careful calculation, based on figures from the national census, it appears that in the decade 1890-1900, from 835 to 1025 Massachusetts-born Negroes, and from 2141 to 2632 Negroes altogether, 8or of mental and moral philosophy in the University of South Carolina. Professor Greener was the United States consul at Vladi- vostock, during the recent Russian-Japanese War. About 1905 Georgiana Charleston, a graduate from the Boston Normal School and from a special course at the Institute of Technology, and in 1907 Marjorie Groves, a graduate of the New England Conserva- tory of Music, went as teachers to Livingstone College, South Caro- lina. Among the Negro graduates from local educational institutions in 1910, at least two, Edwin Kenmore, a student of the Massachu- setts Normal Art School, and Esther L. Francis, who took a course at the New England Conservatory of Music, are turning their edu- cation to good account in the Southern field. These, moreover, are but a few instances of the large number of recruits for Southern schools who have gone out from Boston. 138 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON emigrated from the Boston district.^ More went to New York than to any other state, and after New York came, in numerical order, Connecticut, Pennsyl- vania, New Jersey, Virginia, the District of Columbia, Illinois, and Rhode Island. But the diversity of destin- ation is shown by the facts that only four states and territories, at most, did not receive Massachusetts- born Negroes in that decade; and that in all probabil- ity not a single state or territory failed to get Negroes who had been, for a longer or shorter period, residents of Massachusetts. Nor for that matter do the bounds of the United States limit the Negro's ranging afar.^ The tendencies toward both extinction and disper- sion which have been pointed out are strikingly exem- plified in the family histories of the group of Negro leaders who held sway in Boston during the first years after the war, whose names have already been men- tioned. Some of those leaders died childless. Others had children who died in their youth. In the case of others, the children, most of whom have been females, have either not married or have not borne offspring. In still other cases, the children have moved away and scattered. Few, indeed, are the instances in which 1 The figures on which this calculation is based were taken from the federal census of 1900. Similar data from the census of 1910 were not available when the present account was written. For de- tailed emigration figures, see Appendix, table VI. " For instance, Joseph H. Lee, who comes of a Negro family of which more will be said at a later point, is trying his fortunes in Mexico. M. Hamilton Hodges went to Australia with a theatrical company and there won musical success. Walter F. Walker, who a few years ago was a printer's assistant in Boston and a student at Boston University, is now teaching in an industrial school in Liberia, of which country he is coming to be an influential citizen. TAKING ROOT 139 married progeny of those old leaders, with families, are still living in Boston to-day. And as it has gone with them, so it has gone with the rest of their genera- tion and the generations before and after them. Nevertheless, ever since the bringing of the first few slaves to Boston in 1638, the Negro population of this city has constantly increased. Prior to the war, the growth, in this respect, though steady, was slow. Mention has already been made of the figures of the early period. The first count, taken in 1742, — the one hundred and fourth year of the Negro's history in the city, — showed 1374 members of that race. By 1830, it had grown to 1875. In 1865, it was 2348. These figures have reference to Boston proper — that is, to the area included in the municipality of that name — and do not cover the outlying sections which are now comprised in the so-called Metropolitan or Greater Boston district. Not till after the war, as a matter of fact, did the number of Negroes living in these outlying sections become substantial. Subse- quently, however, the whole metropolitan district has been practically a unit as regards the growth and intertexture of this element of the community, whose increase therein has been large and rapid. In 1865, there were 3495 Negroes in Greater Boston. By 1875, the number was 7400; by 1885, 9481; by 1895, 16,307; by 1905, 21,234; and by 1910, 23,115.i With respect to the proportion of Negroes in the total population, a gradual decline before the war has 1 For list of cities and towns included in the Greater Boston dis- trict, and for complete population figures for Boston proper, and Greater Boston, Negroes and whites, see Appendix, tables I to V. 140 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON been followed by a steady rise in the period since. The highest mark was attained in 1752, when the propor- tion of Negro inhabitants of Boston proper stood at 10 per cent. By 1865 this proportion had fallen to 1.2 per cent. Then it began to go up, till by 1895 it had become 2 per cent, at which point it still remains. In the Greater Boston district the ratio of Negroes to the entire number of inliabitants was, in 1865, .8 per cent. It has risen to 1.7 per cent to-day. During the forty- five years from 1865 to 1910 the Negro population of Greater Boston increased by 561 per cent, as against an increase of 225 per cent for the total population during the same period. Moreover, in every five-year period since the war, except that of 1880-85, and the decade 1900-10, the rate of growth of the metropolitan Negro population has outrun that of the population as a whole. This growth of Greater Boston's Negro community has been due entirely, however, to immigration. Nor do these gains of the past four decades and a half, — 3905, 2341, 6466, 4929, and 1981, respectively, or 19,622 in the total — fully measure the influx, which has in fact exceeded these proportions by the number of immigrants who have simply gone to offset the losses sustained through deaths and emigration, and who are, therefore, not accounted for in the net in- crease. A comparison of the nativity of the Negroes in Boston in earlier and later years shows clearly whence the immigrants have come, and how complete a change has taken place in the Negro community's nativity composition. In 1860, of the American-born TAKING ROOT 141 Negroes in Boston proper, nearly 70 per cent were of Northern birth. By 1870 the proportion had declined to 55 per cent, by 1890, to 44 per cent, by 1900, to 39 per cent, and to-day it must be down to about 36 per cent. Of these Northern-born Negroes approximately one quarter are immigrants from other Northern States. About the same percentage of the remainder are immigrants from points in Massachusetts outside the Greater Boston district. This makes the propor- tion of Negroes in Boston proper who were born within the limits of Greater Boston, about 20 per cent of the city's total Negro population. Recurring to the 36 per cent of Negroes of Northern birth, it appears that only one third of those are the offspring of parents who were also born in the North. ^ Of this one third, moreover, less than half are the offspring of parents who were born in Greater Boston. In other words, only about 5 per cent of the American-born Negroes in Boston are of Boston stock even one generation back. On the other hand, the proportion of Negroes of Southern birth in the American-born Negro popula- tion of Boston was, in 1860, 29 per cent. By 1870, this proportion had risen to 43 per cent, by 1890, to 53 per cent, by 1900, to 57 per cent, and to-day it must be about 62 per cent. The great majority of these Negroes come from the upper seacoast districts of the South, chiefly from Virginia and North Carolina, and from the vicinity of the cities of Richmond and Charleston, in that region. It is clear, therefore, that for a Negro population predominantly of Northern 1 That is, fully two thirds are the offspring of parents who were born in the South. 142 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON birth has been substituted, since the war, one pre- dominantly of Southern birth. And inasmuch as each year's quota of newcomers has been gradually reduced by excessive mortality and emigration, it is clear also that Boston's present Negro population is composed for the most part of comparatively recent Southern im- migrants — the majority probably having come in the last fifteen years, approximately — and their offspring. Besides the Negroes born in the United States, Boston has a considerable number who are of foreign birth. In 1860, the proportion of these in the city proper was 14.9 per cent, in 1870, 10.8 per cent, inl890, 14.2 per cent, and in 1900, 10.8 per cent. The two largest groups of foreign immigrants are from the British West Indies and Canada. A few hail from other parts of the world. ^ As to the effects of this constant immigration from the South and elsewhere, — while, on the one hand, it has added to the size of the Negro population, it has meant, on the other hand, that the new material to be absorbed and assimilated by the Negro community has been continually increasing in quantity. At the same time the constant emigration has meant that the local base of assimilation has continually been sub- tracted from, and that thus much of the ground gained has been lost. Together, these incessant inward and outward currents have kept the Negro community in a permanent state of flux and unsettleraent. Under these in so far unfavorable conditions, the Ne- gro has during the recent period been engaged in what 1 For detailed figures applying to both American and foreign- born Negroes, see Appendix, tables VIII to X. TAKING ROOT 143 is generally one of the most bafl3ing of his urban prob- lems, — namely, the location of his home. Notable developments under this motive have been the shifting of the principal Negro center from the West End to the upper South End and Roxbury; the rise of Negro colonies in the suburbs; and the increasing movement of Negroes into white neighborhoods. From about 1830 till about 1892 more Negroes lived in the West End, beyond Joy Street and down along the northwesterly slope of Beacon Hill to several blocks below Cambridge Street, than in any other section of Greater Boston. But after the war and the beginning of the influx from the South, the proportion of the Negro population of the city proper residing in that locality steadily fell, from 80 per cent in 1865 to 36 per cent in 1890. Soon after 1890, and conspicuously after 1895, a movement to the South End and the suburbs began. It was started primarily by the preva- lence of deteriorated housing conditions combined with rents comparatively high. Because the Negroes had lived in the West End quarter since the early days, the dwellings there had not been kept up to the stand- ard for other parts of the city, but were old and run- down. Nevertheless, owing to more or less difficulty which Negroes experienced in locating in other sec- tions, on account of the prevailing disinclination of white residents to have them as neighbors, landlords were still able to exact high rents in the old locality. The Negro residents in these other sections had, how- ever, been increasing in number; thus, on the principle of the entering wedge, making access for newcomers easier. 144 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON The more well-to-do led the emigration from the West End, and many of this class, in the decade 1890- 1900, bought homes in outlying districts. Their de- parture accelerated the general exodus. The increase of an objectionable element of both races in the vicinity made the better grade of Negroes, solicitous for the welfare of their children, the more desirous of getting away. By 1900, the proportion of the Negro population of Boston proper living in the West End had fallen to 22 per cent, and by 1905, to 17 per cent; their numbers meanwhile decreasing from 2935 in 1890 to 2603 in 1900, and to 2000 in 1905. To-day there are not more than 1500 Negroes, at most, in that district, and though they still reach to Joy Street on the east, at other points they are confined to a much more restricted area than formerly; not extending up Beacon Hill farther than Phillips Street to the south, nor beyond Cambridge and West Cedar Streets on the north and west. In the quality of its Negro residents the section is tending to deteriorate. It is true that some of the better type still live there, but this is usually for the reason that they are attached to the homes they have known for many years; and as the old folks die, their heirs will in all likelihood sell the property and move away. The newcomers of the Negro race are predominantly of the illiterate, shift- less, semi-vicious sort. The Jews, who since the late nineties have been coming in rapidly, buying up the old houses and building cheap though showy tene- ments, some of which they rent to Negroes, now form the great majority of the population. The racial change which has thus come about is further evidenced TAKING ROOT 145 by the fact that two former Negro churches have been transformed into Jewish synagogues. During the first part of the decline of the West End Negro colony, that of the lower South End, from Pleasant Street south to Castle Street, and from Washington Street west to Columbus Avenue, rose to first place numerically. As early as 1875 there were about 700 Negroes in this locality, and by 1898 the number had increased fourfold. In the decade 1880- 90, there was no other section where Negroes and whites of good quality were so closely intermingled as next-door neighbors. Then traflSc and small shop trade began to encroach, bringing noise, dirt, and unsightli- ness. A vicious element of blacks and whites in- creased rapidly, and ere long gave the section an un- savory reputation. The better whites and Negroes moved away, the latter chiefly to the suburbs. A dete- rioration, similar to that which has occurred in the West End, has subsequently taken place, and to-day some of the lowest Negro resorts are to be found in this sec- tion. At present there are only about 800 Negroes in the locality, and the number is growing smaller. The dwellings, chiefly tenements and lodging-houses, are now if anything inferior to those of the West End. The white population is Irish, Jewish, and nondescript. Such emigrants from the West End and the lower South End as did not move outside the city, took up their abode in the upper South End and lower Roxbury district. The early nuclei of this colony were North- ampton and Lenox Streets at the north, Kendall Street in the center, and Sussex and Warwick Streets at the south. Between these points a gradual filling-in 146 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON has taken place. A noticeable increase of the Negro residents was evident by 1875, and by the middle nineties the number had grown to over 1000. But the great increase has come since 1895. By 1900, close to 8500, or 30 per cent of the Negroes in the city, lived in this section, as compared with 10 per cent in 1890. At present, between Northampton Street on the north and Ruggles Street on the south, Washington Street on the east and Tremont Street on the west, an area about one and a quarter miles long by a mile wide, are living approximately 5000 Negroes, or 40 per cent of the entire Negro population of Boston proper. If the boundaries be extended a little to the north, north- west, and east, to include several localities where the Negroes are less numerously colonized, the total would be close to 7000. The movement of the Negroes to this district led to the transfer thither of their churches and organization headquarters; which, in turn, espe- cially in the case of the churches, only one of which still remains in the West End section, greatly acceler- ated and in fact gave the final impetus to the migra- tion. To-day this is the principal Negro center of Greater Boston. Within the smaller area, the boundaries of which have been given, the Negroes constitute about a third of the population. The Irish form a somewhat larger proportion. Americans ("Yankees") occupy third place, but are closely pressed for this position by the Jews. There is an appreciable admixture of Swedes, and small scatterings of half a dozen other races. The Negroes and the Jews are the incoming and increasing elements, and in many localities these two TAKING ROOT 147 races, so diverse in their qualities but whose struggles upward have much in common, are both close neigh- bors and close competitors for the dwellings and the small trade. As in the West End the Jews now worship in two former Negro churches, so here the Negroes have returned the compliment by taking over a former synagogue for their own devotions. The distribution of the Negroes over this district is in part compact, in part dispersed. Only a few streets, of which the longest are Windsor, Camden, Kendall, and Sawyer, are almost wholly occupied by Negroes. On the other hand, there are twice as many streets which contain hardly any Negroes at all. A half-dozen streets and sec- tions of streets are preponderantly Negro. For the rest, the two races are intermingled, sometimes one end of a street, or even one side, being white and the other Negro, and sometimes Negroes and whites alter- nating almost evenly. Thus far, therefore, the district is far from being a solid Negro quarter, like that which used to exist in the West End, and like the city's pres- ent Jewish and Italian quarters. Competition for cheap rents, on the part of the Jews and the Irish, and the movement of many of the most well-to-do Negroes to the suburbs, will probably keep this neighborhood a mixed one. It remains to be seen, moreover, whether eventually West End history will repeat itself in the Jews getting control. But to-day the Negro popula- tion is rapidly increasing from without, and promises to be, for some years at least, the largest racial element. Washington Street, the eastern boundary of this section, is a crowded business thoroughfare of stores and tenements, and on Tremont Street, at the west. 148 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON the ground floors are generally occupied by shops. Not many of the Negroes live on these main avenues, however; and elsewhere the locality is for the most part light, open, and airy. As respects housing, Boston has in fact done the Negroes a good turn. Their being forced out of the deteriorated districts in the West End and lower South End, after the manner which has been related, made it possible for them to com- bine and take possession of this new outlying neighbor- hood, which was at that time being built up with an exceptionally good type of tenement house, wide and quiet streets, and considerable free space with trees and grass. The section is not characterized by the con- gestion and general unsightliness which prevail in the Jewish and Italian, and some of the poorer Irish, quarters, to which it is indeed distinctly superior. Probably in no other large city is the chief Negro col- ony so fortunately located. Not only does this mean much from the point of view of the inner standards of living and of life of this element of the population; it means also that the colony is not fringed with that deadly penumbra of the degenerate outcasts of all na- tionalities which usually besets a downtown Negro quarter. Within the city only one other Negro community stands out conspicuously. That is the one about Dart- mouth Street, from the Back Bay Station to Colum- bus Avenue, extending through Buckingham Street to the north, and through Harwich, Truro, Yarmouth, Holyoke, and Carlton Streets to the south. Negroes of the better class took up their residence on Bucking- ham Street soon after that area was taken from the TAKING ROOT 149 water and made into land, in the later sixties. Before very long they got into the adjacent part of Dart- mouth Street. The inclusion of the other streets men- tioned, which were formerly given up to white lodging- houses, is a development of the last six or seven years. The building of the present Back Bay Station in 1897 involved the tearing-down of the buildings on Bucking- ham Street, nearly all of which were owned by Negroes, who in most cases subsequently bought homes in the suburbs. The erection of this station also brought to the locality many Pullman porters and other railway employees. Especially after the opening in 1906 of the only full-fledged Negro hotel in the city,^ this section has been transformed from one of quiet residence into the abode and rendezvous of a nomadic, boisterous, sporting set. It is the Negro "Lower Broadway" of Boston. The rise of Negro communities in the suburbs since the war has been marked. Of the 3495 Negroes in the metropolitan district in 1865, about 67 per cent were inside the present boundaries of Boston proper. In the decade 1865-75, the rates of increase within and without the city limits were nearly the same, but from 1875 to 1895 the rate of suburban growth was twice that for the city proper. Though since 1895 the sub- urban rate has been above 4 per cent less than the urban, the proportion of Negroes living in the sub- urbs is to-day 42 per cent, as compared with 33 per cent in 1865.^ 1 This hotel was closed in 1912 by the Licensing Board, on account of disorderliness. * For detailed figures, see Appendix, tables II and III. 150 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON It is probable that in the earlier period one of the principal considerations which led the Negroes to settle in the suburbs was that, coming direct from the rural districts and small towns of the South, they found suburban conditions somewhat less strange and per- plexing than those of the city. In the last twenty years or so, however, since the marked development of an urban movement of Negroes in the South, most of the Negro immigrants to Boston have, as previously noted, come from the cities; and as shown by the lesser rate of increase of the Negro population in the suburbs, a larger proportion of the newcomers have preferred to take up their abode in Boston proper, where they find larger numbers of their own kind, and greater novelty and excitement. But this tendency has been more than offset by a continuous secondary movement of Negroes away from the in-town sections of Boston into the outlying districts.^ Among the rea- sons for this outward migration have been the preva- lence of lower rents in the suburbs, and, in the case of the more well-to-do class, the opportunity to buy homes at a lower price and in localities of higher grade. A fur- ther potent influence, among the better element, is the desire of the latter to get their children into cleaner, more healthful, and morally safer surroundings. It is also a pertinent fact that, generally speaking, the Ne- groes encounter less antipathy in the suburbs and find the various avenues of self-improvement more access- ible to them. In point of numbers, the growth of these suburban communities did not become conspicuous — except in ' See Appendix, notes to table III. TAKING ROOT 151 the case of Cambridge, the Negro population of which jumped in the first decade after the war from 377 to 1103 — till 1890. Between 1890 and 1895, a number of other good-sized colonies arose. Cambridge still leads, having to-day about 5000 Negro inhabitants. Most of these live in Cambridgeport, between Hampshire Street on the north, and the Charles River, in the vicinity of Howard Street, on the south. Within these points are several major, and a number of minor, groups. There are also some small clusters scattered in other parts of Cambridge. With the exception of a broken-down shanty quarter about Hastings Street, the housing conditions are good. Tenements are uncommon; me- dium-sized, one or two family dwellings are the rule. Some of the streets where the more well-to-do Negroes live are fully up to the standard of streets occupied by the lower middle class of whites. The other principal suburban colonies, with their numbers as reported in the 1910 census, are as follows: Everett, 795; Maiden, 486; Newton, 467; Medford, 431; Woburn, 242; Chel- sea, 242; Brookline, 221; Somerville, 217. The condi- tions in these communities are essentially the same as those in Cambridge. Instances of Negroes living outside of distinctively Negro neighborhoods were exceedingly rare till from twenty to thirty years after the war. Then the num- ber of such cases began gradually to increase, and to- day from 5 per cent to 10 per cent of the Negroes in Greater Boston live in neighborhoods predominantly white. Sometimes a single street or section of a street, or sections of several adjacent streets, are occupied by Negroes, with no others of that race on any of the 152 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON other streets within a wide radius. More frequently a small contingent of Negro families will be interspersed among the white residents in a neighborhood. Both these conditions may be found in Boston proper, through the middle South End from Dover Street south to Massachusetts Avenue and between Columbus Ave- nue and the railroad, and in the Charlestown, East Boston, Roxbury, West Roxbury, Dorchester, and Brighton districts. Such is still more noticeably the case in most of the suburbs. Racial intermixture in the matter of residence has, however, progressed still further. It is by no means uncommon to find two or three Negro families, or even a solitary one, entirely surrounded by white neighbors, with no others of their own race in the lo- cality. In fact, a section half a mile square which does not contain at least one Negro home is exceptional in any but the most select parts of the metropolitan dis- trict. The geographical points of contact between the Negro and white population have thus been multiplied many -fold, and, so far as concerns conditions of resi- dence, the process of racial inter-articulation has reached an advanced stage. In this connection, passing allusion has already been made to the more or less diflBculty which Negroes ex- perience in getting into sections outside their own compact colonies, on account of the unwillingness of the other race to have them as neighbors. Such an atti- tude on the part of the whites is undoubtedly a serious factor against which the Negroes have had to contend. In general the degree of difficulty which they have en- countered has been in proportion to the social grade TAKING ROOT 153 of the locality in view. Frequently the only way in which a Negro family can obtain entry in a given neigh- borhood is by buying a home there, at a price which is usually somewhat above the market value. Even in the case of such purchase, the transaction is often made through second parties, without the seller's knowledge of the buyer's racial identity. Now and then efforts are made to keep Negroes out of given localities by some process of law. Thus far, however, such attempts have been almost wholly unsuccessful, and have turned out rather to the Negro's advantage; as, for example, in the most recent case of this kind, which resulted in a pronouncement by the State Supreme Judicial Court upholding the right of a Negro to acquire property and to make his home wherever he chooses.^ It is true ' This decision was handed down March 5, 1913. The details are covered in the following account taken from the Boston Tran- script of that date : — "That a Negro may purchase a house in a section where expen- sive houses have been built by white people if the owner desires to sell, regardless of whether it annoys the neighbors, is decided by the Supreme Court in an opinion handed down to-day. "The question arose in a bill in equity brought by Wellington Holbrook and others against Mrs. Mamie C. Morrison. The plain- tiffs asked for an injunction restraining Mrs. Morrison from display- ing a large sign on her premises headed ' For Sale,' and concluding with the words, 'Best offer from Colored Family,' all in large letters, and also from advertising in the newspapers that her property was for sale to Negro people. "In the opinion of the court. Judge Morton says: 'There can be no doubt that the respondent had the right to advertise her prop- erty for sale by signs or otherwise in the ordinary way and to sell it if she saw fit to a Negro family, even though the effect may be to impair the business of the complainants; just as, for instance, the owner of land on a hillside may cultivate it in the usual way, even though the effect of the surface drainage may be to fill up his neigh- bors' mill-pond below. If she had put up the sign and had caused advertisements to be inserted without any intention of selling her 154 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON that the coming of Negroes into a white neighborhood of good quality usually has somewhat of a tendency to lower the selling value of property in the immediate vicinity. But this result is not marked unless more than a few families of that race enter the locality, and live near enough together to attract notice to their number. When all is said, the objection to the presence of Negroes in districts predominantly white has come nowhere near amounting to outright prohibition or ostracism. It has, as previously stated, been a serious factor against which they have had to contend. It has forced them to exert themselves in locating their homes. It has often compelled them to try a long time before they have succeeded in establishing their abodes in the locality of their preference, and sometimes it has obliged them to fall back upon their second, third, or fourth choice. It has necessitated considerable resort to strategy on their part. But that is all. On the other hand, the degree to which they have succeeded in over- coming this adverse influence has appeared in the facts which have been given with regard to their increasingly wide and scattered distribution. On the principle of the entering wedge, as has previously been pointed out, property, but solely with the purpose of injuring the business and property of the complainants, then there can be no doubt that such conduct on her part would have been actionable. She has a right to ask for bids from white people or colored people, or both. She is not limited to bidders of any particular race or class or creed. And if one of her purposes in asking for bids from colored families is to injure and annoy the complainants, and she succeeds in doing so, her con- duct is not rendered unlawful so long as her object is to procure a purchaser for and to sell her house and lot.' "The Court ordered the bill of the complainants to be dismissed." TAKING ROOT 155 each Negro who locates his home in a new neighborhood makes entry less difficult for others of his race. Such being the case, the actual detrimental effect of this factor upon the Negro may be expected to diminish rather than to increase. Looking into the future, it appears practically cer- tain that for the next generation, at least, the Negro community will still consist mainly of immigrants from the South and their immediate offspring, working out their destiny in Boston. But that at the same time substantial progress will be made toward the establish- ment of a native Boston stock also appears highly probable. Among the principal influences contributing toward this result will be less emigration, on the one hand, and less immigration, on the other; the former factor working positively, the latter negatively, to in- crease the proportion of the native-descended element. With reference to emigration, though definite figures are not available at this writing for the period since 1900, general report, together with the author's own inquiries and observation, are to the effect that, owing largely to the already noted improvement in the Negro's residential and living conditions in Boston, a consider- able diminution is taking place in the outward move- ment to other localities. In the matter of immigration, the facts are definitely at hand. While from 1890 to 1900 the yearly immigration of Negroes to the Greater Boston district was about 1000, from 1900 to 1910 it declined to about 500.^ This falling off, which is partly a general tendency throughout the North, has been due, on the one hand, to the growth of the "Stick to the ^ For detailed figures of immigration, see Appendix, table VII. 156 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON South" spirit, and, on the other hand, to the realiza- tion, at last, that it is not so easy to get along in the North as has hitherto been supposed. As to the birth rate among the Negroes in Boston, there has been a decided gain since ante-bellum days. Whereas in the period 1855-59, as previously stated, the number of births was one less than the number of marriages, to-day the births exceed the marriages by nearly seven in every thousand of the population. Recently, however, the birth rate has on the whole declined somewhat, and it is reasonable to believe that a rising standard of living will at least work against sub- stantial increase. But, as already remarked, the birth rate of the Negroes is at present only slightly below that of the population as a whole, and is no doubt above that of the native-descended whites, so that, compara- tively speaking at least, the Negro is not on this score very badly off. The crucial factor which has hitherto made it impossible for the Negro population of Boston to grow upon its own native base, has been the extremely high death rate. At this most essential point, however, a great amelioration has taken place during the last twenty-five years. Since 1885, the Negro death rate has undergone a continued and marked decline. For the period 1885-90, it was 36.2 per thousand ; for 1890- 95, 32.1; for 1895-1900, 27.9; for 1900-05, 26.5; and for 1905-10, 24.3.^ Whereas for the years 1855-59 the deaths were double the births in number, to-day the deaths do not exceed the births at all,^ and the ten- 1 For detailed birth and death figures, see Appendix, tables XII and XIII. ^ This is on the basis of the average birth and death rates from 1900 to 1910, previously given. TAKING ROOT 157 dency, as shown by the figures just cited, is distinctly toward further decrease. This reduction in the death rate has been due chiefly to the steady betterment of both exterior residential environment and interior housing and living conditions among the Negroes. The constantly improving sanitation of the community at large, especially as respects preventive hygiene, has of course affected and will continue to affect this race along with other elements of the population. Thus a still further gradual diminution in the death rate among the Negroes, eventually leaving a substantial excess of births, may reasonably be expected. As a net result, therefore, of these several favorable tendencies, operating in conjunction, it appears to be a fact that now at last, after two hundred and seventy- five years, the Negro is taking root amidst the Northern city conditions of Boston. CHAPTER VI SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION AND ETHICAL GROWTH Necessarily prerequisite to an adequate under- standing of the more distinctly religious, political, and economic aspects of the life of the Negro in Boston, is an appreciation of those less definable features which can only be designated as social-ethical in a broad and fundamental sense, but which both overspread and underlie the others. What, then, are the general char- acteristics and conditions of this nature which pertain to this element of the population, and what are the resulting tendencies? It having already appeared that the local Negro colony is in a fair way to become soundly established on a physical basis, is now any simi- lar foundational process discernible in the higher sphere of the social order? Do the Negro people give evidence that they are drawing together, through some centripe- tal impulse, for purposes of closer and more effective or- ganization as a social body? Are they laying a ground- work, along essentially constructive lines, for durable social progress? And — what is of the most central and vital importance — are the ethical motives, concep- tions, and standards, which both arise from and inti- mately react upon social relations, growing constantly stronger, more clearly defined, and of more extensive and practical application and effect, in the well-being of the Negro community? SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION 159 Section 1. Characteristics that Retard In any capacity for such fundamental social coopera- tion as is essential to a strong and closely woven social fabric, the Negroes are, as a matter of fact, conspicu- ously deficient. No other racial group in the city is so much given to petty dissension, and so obviously lack- ing in unity and the spirit of unity. The members of this race are excessively disposed to circulating gossip and slander about one another and generally to depreciating one another's conduct and character. Apparently they cannot help doing this; — at least, not unless they exercise unwonted self-control. A white woman who has very close acquaintance with the Negroes in Boston, who has lived and worked among them a long time, expressed herself thus: "What things they say about each other ! What lies they tell ! Why, if I were to believe half I hear, I should have to conclude that all the Negroes I know are libertines, liars, and thieves." Few, indeed, are the fortunate ones whose characters are not besmirched by some of their fellows. The gossip-mongers let their fancies wander as their tongue wags. Yet one cannot avoid surmising that down underneath so much dirty smoke there must be some smudgy fuel. Likewise, the Negroes are jealous of one another, and prone to weaken one another's hands. Let one of them make a proposal or initiate an enterprise appeal- ing for general support, and immediately detractors arise, to cast aspersions on his motives and to propose something different. There is continual pulling apart, constant discord, a pitiable lack of cooperation. In 160 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON illustration of this failing may be cited a story which is related of an old Negro deacon in the South, who had the reputation of being mighty in prayer, and able to pray longer, louder, and more fervently than any one else in all the region roundabout. On a certain special occasion he was expected to make one of his very best efforts. First he offered up thanks for everything he could think of. Then he prayed for the bestowal of all possible blessings. It seemed as though nothing had been omitted, but that, on the contrary, mention had been made of a great number of items which might possibly, in a general dispensation, have escaped at- tention. But finally, at the end, after the " amen" had been said, the suppliant added a sort of apologetic post- script, to this effect: " Lord, there was one other thing that I was thinking of asking you to do, but. Lord, I concluded that would be seeking too much : — I was going to ask you to make the colored folks stop talking about one another and fighting one another, and get together." This shortcoming is sometimes explained as one of the evil effects of slavery. Slaveowners, to prevent idl- ing and to thwart all attempts at concerted revolt, are said to have fostered suspicions, jealousies, and quarrels, and to have encouraged the slaves to spy and bear tales on one another. Missionaries and others who have lived in Africa, however, testify that the natives there exhibit similar traits. Thus the truth appears to be that slavery helped to perpetuate, and perhaps exaggerated, a natural propensity. But the conditions of slavery must be held in large degree accountable for another characteristic of the SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION 161 Negroes; — namely, their extreme dependence on the whites. Was it not inevitable that two hundred and jBfty years of servitude, during which the members of this race were completely under the direction and provi- dence of the whites, experiencing no necessity for fore- thought, and having no rights, no property, no social organization of their own, should smother in them any quality of self-reliance? This weakness amounts, in its least modified form, to the servility which peculiarly fits Negroes for menial service. Among the more re- fined class, it often shows itself in an obsequiousness which detracts from respect. But the dependence of the Negroes is most of all evident in their hesitancy and frequent inability to take on their own initiative, without seeking the support of the whites, action de- parting from the accustomed routine or involving special responsibility. They are sadly distrustful of their own capacities. Sometimes, however, this quality of servility is ac- companied or replaced by a bumptious over-assert- iveness. These two traits might appear to be mutu- ally contradictory. But in fact the second is in a large degree a result of the first, by a natural enough pro- cess of reaction. In the same way that some extremely diffident persons, from more or less conscious motives of self-protection, assume an opposite bearing, so like- wise many Negroes, as a sort of offset and antidote for their sense of humiliation, put on a lofty air, which, at first affected, tends gradually to become ingrained. More commonly, however, the process is less subtly introspective in character, and is produced by the exterior change from Southern to Northern conditions. 162 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON When a Negro comes from the South, where in nearly every way he has been subjected to discrimination and repression, into the North, where his Hberties are in so many respects equal to those of the whites, what wonder that he is sometimes unable to hold himself in check, and that he frequently becomes no less over- weening than he was formerly submissive ! The more abrupt the break, the more extreme the reaction. Thus in the national capital, where the Negroes of Maryland and Virginia have but to step across the borders of those states to find themselves at once free from South- ern restraint and under the protection of federal laws which forbid discriminatory treatment, considerable complaint is heard that they sometimes crowd white people off the sidewalks, make insolent remarks, and indulge generally in offensive conduct. In Boston, such behavior is not much in evidence, but in less glaring ways the same propensity is shown. It even crops out in a precocious touchiness among children; as in the case of a little tot of six or seven, who, when asked by his teacher if he would please to pick up a handker- chief she had dropped, declined to do so, with the pronunciamento, — "The days of slavery are over." It appears in the proverbial uppishness of Negro do- mestics, and in the patronizing officiousness of such exalted functionaries as, for example, head bell-boys. Pomposity of this kind, while far from being general among the Negro people, is nevertheless sufficiently common to make an unduly adverse impression on the other race, and thereby to arouse antipathy among many who would otherwise be inclined toward a more friendly and helpful attitude. SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION 163 In any genuine and substantial pride of race, on the other hand, as distinguished from mere petty self- inflation, the Negroes are as yet woefully lacking. It is, of course, readily understandable that a people with two and a half centuries of servitude only fifty years in the past, could not yet have developed race pride in any high degree. Furthermore, the peculiarly humiliat- ing conditions to which this element of the population have been subjected since their emancipation, have made the subsequent rise of racial dignity well-nigh impossible. Past influences might, indeed, be calcu- lated to have imbued the Negroes with a conscious- ness of degradation as a people, and to have implanted in them an instinctive desire to get away from the fact of their racial identity. And such is, in truth, the case. The want of race pride appears most plainly in a shrinking from acceptance of the racial name itself — the very word "Negro." Among the rank and file, predominantly of Southern birth or upbringing, such avoidance of this term is less noticeable, and amounts commonly to no more than a negative first impulse, easily overcome. But in the upper gradations of the Negro community, and generally speaking in measure proportioned to the elements of superior education, refinement. Northern rearing, lightness of complexion, and an admixture of white blood, objection to the word becomes deep-seated, positive, and even vehement. Members of the race who are marked by these charac- teristics look upon the designation "Negro" as merely the polite form of "nigger," and see in it mainly the suggestion of contempt. To escape using the word, they either resort to circumlocution or have recourse 164 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON to substitutes. Some effort has been made to introduce the term "Afro- American," but with slight success, as it is too awkward to be convenient. "Colored people " — an expression doubtless tracing its origin from the "free persons of color" of the period preceding general emancipation — is the makeshift generally employed; without regard to the fact that this appellation utterly fails to distinguish the Negroes from the Chinese, the Indians, or, for that matter, from any of the non-Cau- casian peoples. The fact that most white persons when speaking to Negroes likewise refer to members of that race as "colored," out of consideration for their sensi- tiveness regarding this matter, is naturally enough interpreted by the latter as confirming their own ob- jection to the name " Negro" as a stigma of debase- ment. The lack of a real race pride, which is implied in this attempt to disavow what is in fact only a legiti- mate racial designation,^ is still further revealed at prac- tically every point in the life of the Negro community. The foregoing characteristics and deficiencies, both severally and to a still greater degree when operating in conjunction, are in their influence and effect dis- tinctly divisive. They constitute impediments to social progress which are, for the present at least, of a more or less inherent nature; and against which the Negroes must contend in their endeavors toward social cooperation and cohesion. Of all these hindrances, how- ever, the want of a substantial increment of racial dignity is the one which most seriously retards the ad- vance of the Negro people. * " Negro" is the recognized ethnological name of the African race from which most of the American Negroes are descended. SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION 165 Section 2. Nativity Groups and Social Gradations No less pertinent, however, than these innate ele- ments of character, in connection with the social de- velopment of the Negroes, are the conditions from which the members of this race have come, and those under which they are living to-day. An adequate understanding of these conditions will be promoted by some separate consideration first of the diflPerent na- tivity groups which, as has previously appeared, enter into the composition of Boston's Negro population; and then of the several social gradations into which this population may be divided. With regard to circumstances arising from nativity, it must be said that the mass of immigrants from the South, who, as already pointed out, make up the main part of Boston's Negro colony, have always been but pitifully equipped for life's stern encounter. Those who came to the city in the first ten years after the war were for the most part former slaves and children of slaves, and the majority of those who are coming to- day are but the grandchildren of slaves. Nor, in the less than fifty years since bond slavery was declared abolished, has the lot of the great majority of the Negroes in the Southern States ceased to be slavish still. Though it is true that in that section the race is mak- ing remarkable headway in specific respects, and pro- ducing many capable individuals, nevertheless as yet the conditions which there prevail can in general hardly be said to have become such as to develop any consider- able degree of intelligence, ability, and strength of char- acter, in the average Negro. 166 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON During the first thirty years following the war, how- ever, a larger proportion of the Southern immigrants who took up their abode in Boston were possessed of rough native ability than has been the case during the last fifteen to twenty years. Many of those who came in the earlier period did so not primarily because they found it too hard to make a living in the South, but because they hoped to do still better in the North, the great Land of Freedom, and especially in Boston, the Mecca of the Negro people. There were more in those days who had trades or could do work above the com- mon labor grade, and who were therefore in a position to earn better wages and to live better. In recent years, one of the most striking developments in the South itself has been the flocking of Negroes to the large cities, where most of them have been able to get only menial employment, where they have been herded together in the poorest districts, and where disease, a high death rate, crime, and immorality have wrought constant havoc among them. Since 1895 most of the immigrants to Boston have corne directly from these Southern cities, and, furthermore, have been of the poorer classes. The majoritj'^ of those who come to Boston to-day do so no more in the hope of faring better than in the belief that they cannot fare worse. Of the Northern-born Negroes in Boston, those who come from other Northern States and from other points in Massachusetts are generally better edu- cated than the Southern and foreign-born types. But Ut the same time many of them are of the sort who are not deeply rooted anywhere; who if occasion arises can easily pull up stakes and move away; and whose SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION 167 interest in the local community of their race is on the whole of a transient character. The Negroes born and reared in the Greater Boston district have the best education, and, as a class, are indeed generally superior. Their worth is obscured to the general view, however, by the overshadowing pro- portion of Negroes of non-Boston and principally South- ern birth. As has already appeared from the nativity figures previously given, the Boston-born element constitute about twenty per cent of the entire Negro population. Approximately two thirds of this element, however, are still under fifteen years of age, and of the remaining one third the great majority are still under thirty. This means that out of every hundred Negroes in the city, only three or four are at once of Boston birth and of an age at which they may be expected to have obtained a fair start in life. Nevertheless if a com- plete list could be made of the members of the race who occupy good positions, and who have good homes and good characters, it would, in the writer's opinion, piTove conclusively that the Boston-born element has at least double that quota of successful individuals. Such partial evidence as is at hand tends to confirm this belief.^ If such is the fact, it would seem to refute the oft- made assertion that Northern conditions spoil the Negroes. It does disprove it in part, but not entirely. Conditions in Boston are so much more favorable to the Negro than they are in the South, especially with * For example, out of 46 Nefrro clerks and carriers in the post- oflBce of the Boston postal district, 8, or 17 per cent, were bora in Greater Boston, and 17, or 37 per cent, are of Northern birth. 168 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON respect to facilities for education and opportunities for entering superior occupations, that Negroes of Boston birth should produce a percentage of success- ful men and women not only twice but five times as large as their proportion of the total Negro population.^ This, however, is probably not the case. Northern city conditions have their negative side for the Negroes in general by tempting them to sacrifice substance to appearance. Since they may come and go freely in the community, they have naturally taken for themselves the community's general standards. So far as they have tried to live up to these standards in solid achieve- ment and genuine merit, they have thereby been bene- fited. Undoubtedly this spur accounts for many suc- cesses. Many Negroes, however, have been carried away by mere superficialities, particularly dress and display, and have devoted far more attention to such things than to the cultivation of character and effi- ciency. But, when all is said, those who have been spoiled in this way are distinctly in the minority. Within certain limits, — which are, however, not very extensive, — it holds true that the Negroes of Boston descent hold themselves rather apart and aloof from the others, and are in fact somewhat dis- tinguished by special characteristics. In this connec- tion, it must of course be borne in mind that, as al- ready pointed out, the number of those in the Negro community who can go back to more than one genera- tion of Boston ancestry is exceedingly small. But with regard to the few such that there are, the writer has been struck by certain points of comparison and re- * That is, having regard to the factor of age, as above indicated. SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION 169 semblance as between them and many of the present representatives of some of Boston's farthest descended families of the other race. Types of the latter may be seen about the select clubs on Beacon Hill, in the Athenseum Library, or at highly intellectual lectures or gatherings. They are often characterized by spare- ness of body and a thin, pointed, and distinctively mental cast of features. Everything about them sug- gests thought and introspection and a long-sustained process of inward self -consumption. Now some of the Negroes, claiming two or three generations of ances- tors who have lived and died in Boston's intellectually rarified atmosphere, have impressed the writer as pre- senting an appearance similar to this, in kind if not in degree. Whether this likeness would hold good under further examination is a question. The observation is submitted suggestively, rather than scientifically. The nativity group which is made up of Negroes of foreign birth possesses a special interest, in that it is as yet comparatively little known to the general public. The British West Indians, who form somewhat its largest element, differ noticeably from the American Negroes in appearance, usually having higher cheek bones and a firmer cast of features, and their dialect is often so different that at first it cannot readily be understood. They are clannish in their associations. Most of them are not naturalized, the plea of such as are not completely indifferent being that they expect to return to the Islands, as indeed many of them do. The fact that the majority are Roman Catholics and Episcopalians draws something further of a dividing line between them and their predominantly Baptist 170 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON and Methodist cousins. They pride themselves on their longer possession of freedom, which dates practically from the passage of the British Emancipation Act in 1833, Conditions in the West Indies have, besides, been more favorable in many ways to the Negro's development. There the members of this race have formed not so much an ostracized class without any recognized standing, as one of the horizontal layers in the social strata. As a result, the higher avenues of accomplishment have been less difficult of access to them. The immigrants who come to Boston from that quarter appear to hold their heads higher, and to have more independence, stamina, progressiveness, and — better side of their clannish tendency — coop- erativeness, than is the case with those from the South. A large proportion of them are marked by a general sturdiness and worth of character, and their upper ranks include a number of exceptionally capable individuals.^ On the other hand, there is a rowdyish and disorderly contingent, composed for the most part ^ A good example of the middle grade is Peter Burke, of Chelsea. From the Islands he went to England as a sailor, remained there a little while, then, about twenty years ago, came to Boston. For six years thereafter he served in the navy, and since that time, having married, he has worked as a teamster, fireman, and watchman, and has managed to support his family comfortably. He has three child- ren, the eldest a girl of thirteen, and intends to give them as good an education as his means will permit. Among the West Indinns who are well known in the Negro com- munity are George W. Latimer, the lawyer (though, strictly speaking, he is from the Danish island of St. Croix), who came to Boston about 188G, and obtained his legal education at the Y.M.C.A. law school; E. I. Wright, T. E. A. McCurdy, and A. H. Hunt, physi- cians; A. C. Dunning and Don J. Pinheiro, dentists; and the Rev. M. A. N. Shaw, pastor of the Twelfth Baptist Church. SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION 171 of sailors and porters who come and go on the fruit steamers. Withal, the West Indians constitute for the Negroes of the United States the representatively American problem of the assimilation of the foreigner. Among them are several beneficial and relief organizations, as well as a literary society and a cricket club, which, however, do not aim to Americanize their members, but rather to have them retain their British citizenship and their distinct affiliations. Deeper factors are nevertheless working for amalgamation. One of these is the intermarriage of West Indian and American Negroes. Another is the increasing attention which the politicians of the race are giving to the naturalization of this group of potential voters. A majority of the Negro immigrants from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, who rank a close second to the West Indians in number, are the progeny of slaves who during Abolition days escaped into Canada by the Underground Railway. Others are the offspring of West Indian Negroes who migrated to the Provinces. A few are descendants of those of their race whom the English troops carried away when driven out of Boston by the Revolutionists. From another part of Canada, namely, Ontario and Quebec, come a small number of Negroes, most of whom are the issue of refugees who fled thither in the ante-slavery period.^ In education the Canadian immigrants are superior to those from the South, for they have grown up under ^ Not a few of the fugitive slaves who settled in these two pro- vinces married white women, for the natural reason that women of their own race were almost an absent quantity in that region. 172 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON a system of compulsory school attendance. In other respects, they are on approximately the same level. They manifest no special affinity among themselves, and mix readily with their American cousins. Boston's Negro population also includes a hundred or two persons whom the census designates as "Afri- cans." Most of these are natives of the Portuguese Islands of Cape Verde, which lie off the West Coast of Africa. They are of mixed blood, being descended on the one hand from the slaves who were originally taken to these islands, and on the other from the Portuguese colonists who have intermarried with the Negroes since slavery was abolished. In appearance, they range from individuals who at first glance would be set down as Negroes, to such as would at once be taken for Portuguese or Spaniards. The majority are sailors, who tarry only between voyages, but some have taken up their permanent abode in Boston. In religious faith, they are Roman Catholics.^ They keep by themselves and do not affiliate much with the American Negroes, though as a rule they live in Negro districts. The police say that these African- Portuguese give them next to no trouble, and that as a class they are intelligent and self-respecting. Besides this rather ambiguous element, there is among the African immigrants a very small proportion who come from Liberia or other parts of the Dark Continent. ^ ^ Attending the Church of St. John the Baptist, in the North End. ^ The writer has been impressed by the mariced intelhgence and capacity of the several native Africans whom he has met in Boston. It must be borne in mind, of course, that only the most promising or enterprising individuals could make their way from that continent SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION 173 Finally, besides those from the West Indies, Canada and Africa, a few Negroes may be found who hail from still other quarters of the globe. ^ Such, then, is the human material, dififerentiated as respects nativity, of which Boston's Negro commun- ity is composed. This material, it appears, instead of being of a single monotonous character, as those of the other race who are not closely acquainted with the facts are wont to assume, is, on the contrary, by no to America. Most frequently they are sent here to be educated at the expense of churches and missionary societies. One such the writer came upon the day following his arrival; he could not speak a word of English, and bore upon his body the sign of his tribe, which had been branded into the flesh. His way was being paid, in part, by one of the Negro churches in Boston, and he was going to Tuskegee In- stitute, thence to carry back to his people the seeds of industrial progress. Tuskegee and other institutions have in the total a con- siderable number of African students. Recently a native Zulu won high honors in oratory at Columbia University, and subsequently delivered a series of public lectures. One of the most interesting native Africans who has ever appeared in Boston is Dihdwo Twe, a member of the native Kroo tribe of the Liberian hinterland. He is a young man, who came to this city several years ago to attend the Burdett Business College, with the object of returning to Liberia and going into business with his father, who is an exporter of mahogany. That he will make his mark no one who has met him doubts. In appearance he is most pleasing; of a dark brown complexion, features broad but reflned, and expres- sion alert. His voice is soft and musical, his manners irreproach- able, his dress immaculate. Most remarkable of all, however, is his use of the English language, especially in writing, where he is not hampered by the alien accent. His style is so imbued with an understanding of the inner meaning of words as to make it delight- ful to read. In the American Journal of Religious Fsyckology and Education for June, 1907, this young man had an article on African religions, and he has been engaged by the Independent to contribute some further articles on this and related subjects. He returned to his native land in November, 1909. 1 As, for instance, Dr. Cornelius McKane, a Negro physician, re- cently deceased, who was born in British Guiana^ South America. 174 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON means lacking in variety. The several large natal groups of which mention has been made have their more or less peculiar precedent conditions and distin- guishing characteristics. Thereby is derived, on the one hand, such social invigoration and stimulus as come from diversification and the contact of different elements. Evidently an active process of abrasion and fusion is going on within the Negro community itself, concurrently with the moulding and unifying effect of the exterior environment. On the other hand, there is also manifest within this race, though on a smaller scale and in a narrowed field, the same general problem of assimilation by which the American nation as a whole is confronted. Passing on now to the general social conditions, irre- spective of differences of nativity, under which the Negro inhabitants of Boston are living at present, it becomes necessary to undertake some further analysis of this element of the population, from the point of view, this time, of its social gradations. For while here again most white people think of the Negroes en masse, as a matter of fact there are clearly defined economic- social distinctions of class among them, with each class subject to somewhat different circumstances and having its particular rank and place in the total scheme of the Negro community. At the bottom of the scale is a deposit of those whose coming and going and mode of livelihood are obscure and ofttimes devious. This element is composed of the vicious, the utterly shiftless, and the hopelessly in- capable. It includes a large quota of chronic rovers, many of whom work their way to Boston on the coast- SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION 175 wise steamers. Its proportion of unmarried men and women is far greater than in the case of the Negro population as a whole. The members of this class live generally in questionable lodging-house sections in the downtown parts of the city. They supply most of the loafers in the open squares, about the streets, and in the saloons and so-called clubs. The bad impression which they make upon the public, by reason of their charac- ter and conduct, is out of all correspondence with their actual numbers. As a matter of fact, this contingent does not form, at most, more than ten per cent of the entire body of the city's Negro residents. Next come the rank and file, the common people. They are the men and women who want to advance, and who in the mass are advancing, slowly but surely. Their occupations are mostly those with which Ne- groes are usually associated — hotel and janitor work, domestic service, and rough labor — with some of higher grade. Their earnings ascend from less than the minimum requisite for bare subsistence, in which case resort must be had to the assistance of friends or to charity, to an amount sufficient to provide the com- mon comforts and pleasures. The poorer element among them, mostly young unmarried immigrants of both sexes, are lodgers, usually confined to one small room, picking up their meals here and there, and find- ing it next to impossible to live in a homelike manner. These lodgers are characterized by transiency of resi- dence, lack of responsible neighborhood ties and com- munity interests, and much aimless gadding about. Of the majority of the rank and file, who do not have to live quite in this manner, all but a small percentage 176 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON are struggling tenants. Many, in spite of honest en- deavor, are unable to keep the rent paid promptly. On this account, and still more frequently through the search for employment, coupled with the desire to eliminate street-car fares, they are forced to move every little while, oftentimes to a section far distant from that of their previous abode. This shifting about hinders the growth of both home and neighborhood life. Even those who are able to remain in one place have not the means, even when they have the latent capacity, to furnish their quarters attractively. Neces- sity compels a large proportion of the women, wives and mothers, to go to work, which imposes a further obstacle to home-building. With the parents much away, what wonder that the children take to the streets? This undevelopment of home life among the Negroes, together with their need of relief from the daily round of toil and uncertainty, are factors which account negatively for the incessant visiting, going to parties and joining societies, of which later mention will be made from the point of view of their positive significance. Such social diversions, however, have to be of the most casual sort, as these Negroes in general have little assured leisure in which to cultivate life's amenities and acquire the substantial accomplishments. Their homes, however, are as a rule clean and tidy, and their children neatly clad.^ The Negroes of this class are in their bearing and con- duct at once self-respecting and unobtrusive. They are well aware of the disabilities under which they and ' The tidiness of Negro women is usually traced to their domestic training under slavery. SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION 177 their race labor in the community, but without any involved reasoning they accept these things as facts and go on with their day's work, — industrious, patient, serious of purpose, and withal cheerful in their outlook. The rank and file, thus characterized in a general way, is of course a large class, which emerges from the previously described lowest element at a point whose exact location must of necessity be arbitrary, and then gradually ascends till again, at the top, it shades im- perceptibly into the class above, from which, indeed, it can be divided only by another arbitrary line. It comprises a number of successive gradations within itself, each of which is roughly determined by the economic status of the individuals included. So far as any more specific measure is adducible, it probably consists of the intermittent or regular character of the industry of the men, combined with the degree of pres- sure to go out to work which rests upon the women — matters which will be more fully taken up later in their more immediate connection with other economic conditions. Viewed as a whole, however, this class may be estimated to form approximately seventy per cent of the entire Negro population. Such being the case, and with the hampering conditions which have been described in mind, it is evident that the circum- stances under which the great majority of the Negroes are living in Boston to-day, are such as greatly to re- tard the formation of a strong and healthy Negro com- munity. Whatever social progress the Negro people are making, they are accomplishing in the face of tre- mendous obstacles. 178 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON The most well-to-do of the Negro rank and file pass, as has already been said, into a middle class, which itself gains in distinctness as its own gradations ascend. This middle class forms approximately eight- een per cent of the Negro population. Its lower ranks are made up of waiters, Pullman porters, janitors, and artisans, who, however, by dint of economy and good sense, have advanced to a point where they are assured of a comfortable Hying, and have a little fund laid up against the contingencies of the future. Next come clerical and lesser salaried employees, the smaller busi- ness proprietors, and the minor professional element. At the top, constituting as near an approach to a moneyed constituency as has yet evolved among the Negroes, stand the higher salaried employees, the more important business proprietors, some of the leading professional people, and the larger property owners. A goodly proportion of the members of this middle class own their homes. The number who are acquiring homes in superior outlying residential districts, often- times among white neighbors, is constantly increasing. A special motive which leads them to move into these better localities is the desire to get their children away from the moral dangers of the city streets. They are also influenced, however, by a willingness thus to pub- lish concrete evidence of a rise in the economic-social scale. Residence apart from the mass of their race, com- bined with their own attainment of a position some- what above the general struggle for livelihood, are factors which frequently have the effect of causing Negroes of this class to lose close touch and sympathy SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION 179 with the common run of their fellows. Especially in the case of the second generation, who are usually better educated, there is a tendency to gravitate toward what may be called the Negro upper class. The majority of the middle element, however, still reside in predominantly Negro districts, and will probably for many years continue to do so, as in these districts Negroes may acquire homes more readily and at less cost. These men and women, living in the midst of their race, fully conscious of its trials, its hopes, its achievements, are in fact the mainstay of the Negro community, and slowly but surely are developing sound leadership. Most of them are Southern born and bred, and so have grown up with an inner under- standing of the intrinsic reasons which account for con- ditions affecting their race. In education and refine- ment they are not too far above the majority of their people to make common cause with them and to be accepted by them. Though a great many have an admixture of Caucasian blood, the circumstances of their life have been such as to keep them from being in any appreciable measure deracialized. Their own accomplishment has shown them that, in spite of the Negro's peculiar adversities, success can be won. And their personal experience has freed them, for the most part, from bitterness. They are beginning to see the way ahead, and are commencing to preach, as they have themselves practiced, the gospel of salvation by solid achievement. Finally, there is the Negro upper class. Justice demands, however, that this element be distinguished from a sort of " smart set," which may be described as 180 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON an excrescence growing out of the several classes which have been noted. There are a host of Negroes who labor to create an impression of superiority by dressing far beyond their means and by attempting to assume the ways of culture. The members of this race — so far as they have opportunity — naturally seek to attain polished manners. Such aspirations are entirely in their favor so long as they are kept within appro- priate limits. It is when they are perverted that they become objectionable. Many a Negro, who sports a silk hat and stick on Sunday, " totes" quarters of beef in the market on Monday. Time was when one was amazed at seeing on the street so many Negroes who had all the earmarks of the idle rich. But ere long one discovered that most of these persons were Pullman porters and hotel waiters. Once when the writer was having his shoes polished by a Negro bootblack, a typ- ical representative of the class passed by; indicating him with a jerk of the head, the bootblack remarked : " If I could buy that fellow for what he 's worth and sell him for what he thinks he 's worth, I 'd be able to retire from business." The propensity to display runs all through the Negro society and ascends from loudness of dress and extravagance of manner to an imitation of gentility so clever as to pass for real, till one catches a glimpse below the surface. These finished mimics con- stitute the " smart set" proper. They devote most of their time and money to aping the ways of white " society." They have many clubs with fancy and for- eign names, and give bals masques, tableaux vivants, and tournaments at bridge. Their daughters " study" music, art, or dramatics just long enough to make a SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION 181 show of being "accomplished." Their sons endeavor to look and act like college students or men-about- town. Lightness of complexion is almost indispensable to a place in this set, whose members taboo the word " Negro," always refer to themselves as " colored " " la- dies" and "gentlemen," and talk much of the slights to which they are subjected. So conspicuous do these characteristics make them that they greatly injure their race in the eyes of the public. The real Negro upper class — using this term, of course, in a suggestive sense — is an element little known and even less understood by the average white person, but one whose position is exceedingly interest- ing. It is made up of lawyers, physicians, salaried employees, business proprietors, literary and musical people, and the like, who are distinguished by superior education and refinement. This class comprises the remaining small quota — two per cent — of the Negro population. Not all, but the larger number of its members, are of Northern birth or long Northern resi- dence, have a considerable strain of white blood, and are of light complexion. Their attractive homes bear witness to their genuine good taste. The majority of this class live in superior residential districts, among white neighbors. In the practice of their vocations they not infrequently come into contact with the other race more than they do with Negroes. Further ac- quaintance with white people results from attendance at white churches and from membership in various white organizations. And, indeed, by virtue of their actually superior qualities and usually attractive per- sonalities, these men and women have many substan- 182 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON tial friendships with men and women of the other race. Their natural endowments, education, and conditions of life tend to divide them from the mass of the Ne- groes, and, in fact, most of them have comparatively little close association with the Negro rank and file. They are disposed, furthermore, as will later be shown in more detail, to cast aspersion on most forms of separate union among the Negro people along lines of voluntary racial segregation. They tend to keep within a small social circle of their own kind, while at the same time cultivating affiliation with the whites. Never- theless, they are wont to assume before the public the position of understanding intimately the conditions and needs of the Negro race, and of being its best ac- credited representatives. But the mass of the Negroes are well aware of their attitude of aloofness, and even while recognizing their superior attainments with min- gled feelings of envy and pride, retaliate by accusing them of wanting to deracialize themselves, and also by opposing their attempted leadership. It is among the members of this class that most deep-seated and vehement objection is made to the application of the name "Negro." And as applied to many of them, this term is, strictly speaking, a mis- nomer. Not a few are by blood and appearance more white than Negro. For that matter, between a third and a half of the Negroes in Boston have an admixture of white blood ; but in the case of the upper class now in question, refinement and association with white people combine with their Caucasian strain to make them feel that they are not wholly of the one race. To this element, as their life is lived to-day, the " tragedy of SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION 183 color" is an ever-present one of heart and soul. And a great part, if not indeed the greater part, of the tragedy lies in the fact that this is a class which has not yet found itself. " When you write of the Negroes in Boston," one of them appealed, " tell about us who are neither Negroes nor whites, but an ambiguous something-between; — a people not yet known or named. While our sympathies tend to unite us with the Negroes and their destiny, all our aspirations lead us toward the whites." The intense insistence upon equal rights, and the relentless opposition to Washington's advocacy of giving first place to economic progress, emanate from — though they are not confined to — this class. That such is the case sheds light on the psychology of the agitation for equality, and suggests that it is animated not solely by reasoned conviction as to abstract principles, but also, in many instances, by unreasoned and very personal emotions. The divergence between the so-called upper class and the rest of the Negroes means that the Negro com- munity is subject at once to two tendencies which, at least on the surface, are mutually antagonistic. The one is a conscious and extremely sensitive effort to get away from racial lines, and indeed from the very fact of race. The other is an instinctive and largely uncon- scious adhesion to racial lines, and seeking after race coherence. Here are two points of view which are cer- tainly, to some extent, opposed; two inner impulses which are, in some degree, set over against each other. The Negroes who hold to the non-racial attitude are able, by reason of their superiorities of education and position, to exert an influence out of proportion to their 184 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON meager numbers. Friction, dissidence, and counter- action thereby result. The natural process of social integration is continually interfered with by cross- currents of disintegration. A similar hampering effect, though only in comparatively small measure, is in- volved in the emergence of the other horizontal social lines to which attention has been called. For the very reason that the Negroes are engaged in a severe eco- nomic-social struggle upward, class distinctions have an abnormal importance in their minds. They guard jealously anything which seems to set them even in slight degree above their fellows. They can draw dis- tinctions, moreover, with a nicety that would do credit to the most punctilious arbiter of the most exclusive social circles. Persons of the other race who have at- tempted, for one purpose or another, to assemble or combine the Negroes of a given neighborhood, without knowledge or in disregard of their own inner class differences, have speedily found trouble on their hands. This condition of things detracts, of course, from the solidarity of the Negro community, and in so far retards its advance. Nevertheless, the formation of the foregoing social classes, each of which is constantly increasing in dis- tinctness, is an integral and inevitable part of the proc- ess of differentiation which accompanies, and which indeed is, in itself, an essential element of social prog- ress. Especially does the evolution of the middle and upper classes signalize a growth in material means, education, and refinement, which are assets of indis- pensable advantage to the Negro community as a whole. The Negro society has become more complex, SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION 185 but at the same time more finely inter-constructed and resourceful. Its underlying, as distinguished from its superficial, power of unity has thus in fact not been impaired, but enhanced. Even in the case of the non- conformist position of the upper class, the net and legitimate effect thereof may, in the light of more ample understanding of the situation, prove to be not that of disturbance and disruption, but, on the contrary, that of requisite balance and counterpoise. Section 3. The Actual Advance When now, turning from the examination of the Negro community in its dissected parts, so to speak, account is taken of the positive advances and achieve- ments of this community viewed in its entirety, the social progress which the Negroes are making in spite of all obstacles becomes clearly evident. The free public school system is one of the chief per- manent and fundamental factors in this progress. Ever since the Negroes succeeded in erasing the color line in public education, they have had unrestricted access to the Boston schools, which are among the very best in the country; and they are deriving from them benefits identical in kind with those derived by other elements of the population. Some of the better quality of immigrants from the South come to Boston espe- cially to take advantage of the superior opportunities for the education of their children.^ School attendance ' A typical instance is that of Mr. and Mrs. John T. Jackson. Here is Mr. Jackson's own statement: — "I, John T. Jackson, tailor, of Athens, Georgia, came to Boston, Massachusetts, in the year of 1897, for the purpose of educating my 186 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON between the ages of seven and fourteen is compulsory. Though a large proportion of Negro children are taken out of school to go to work at the minimum legal age, before finishing the grammar course, the great majority of them complete the course. As white children in the proportion of four out of five do not go beyond gram- mar school, the Negroes who grow up in Boston thus have an opportunity of common school training at least equal to that of the rank and file of the whites. On account of the special economic stress under which the Negroes live, the proportion of Negro boys and girls who go through high school is, of course, far smaller than the corresponding proportion of white boys and girls; but nevertheless in the total the former constitute a substantial number. A great many young children. In November, 1899, my wife and six children joined me, and since then there have been four additions to the family. "The oldest, Mabel S. Jackson, was graduated from West Gram- mar School in the class of '01, Maiden High School, '05, and Boston University, College of Liberal Arts (A.B.) '09. Now she is in her third year as teacher in the Academic Department of the State Normal School, Elizabeth City, North Carolina. "John T., Jr., left grammar school after completing eight grades and entered into the business profession in Lowell, Massachusetts. "Ella J. was graduated from Faulkner Grammar School, '05, High School, '09, Maiden Commercial School, '10, and is now a teacher at Durham, North Carolina. "Sallie H. was graduated from Faulkner Grammar School, '06, High School, '10, and is now preparing to enter Pratt University in New York. "Lucy D. was graduated from Faulkner Grammar School, '06, High School, '10, and is now a stenographer at Maiden, Massachu- setts. " Althea I. was graduated from the Maplewood Grammar School, '11. "Louie R., fifth grade Faulkner Grammar School. " Cecile H., third grade Faulkner Grammar School, SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION 187 Negroes, whom the necessity of working prevents from going to school in the daytime, attend the even- ing grammar and high schools. In these evening classes are enrolled, too, many adult Negroes of all ages, even old men and women, all eagerly taking advantage of the instruction offered, from learning to read and write up to mastering higher mathematics, A few Negroes profit by the special opportunities held out by the Young Men's Christian Association,^ the Young Men's Christian Union, the Wells Memorial, the Prospect Union in Cambridge, and other similar institutions. A very few carry their education into colleges, and into normal, technical, and professional schools. Principals and teachers as a rule report that Negro children are not noticeably below the level of the others in alertness, application, deportment, and neatness. Cases of Negro pupils, who in competition with their white school-fellows receive distinguished recognition, are of frequent occurrence. In 1911, a Negro girl was valedictorian of her class at the Brighton High School. ^ By making an average of 95 in her four years' course, she also won a place near the head of the 1291 pupils who received diplomas from the Boston high schools that year. The year before, another girl of the same race stood third in her class in one of the Boston gram- mar schools, won first place in a competition in verse- writing, and was elected class prophet and poet. In a grammar school in Cambridge, two Negro boys ranked * The central Association at Boston has about seventy-five Negro members, and nearly all the suburban branches include some of this race. 2 Miss F. Marion Reed. 188 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON high in scholarship, and one of them was adjudged second in a speaking contest, with a declamation on the character and mission of Charles Sumner, the Abolitionist. In another school of the same grade in Boston, a Negro boy was elected class president and captain of the football, baseball, and relay teams. Such competitive achievements not only give the Negroes themselves confidence in their own capacity, but make upon the white boys and girls, and upon their parents and the community, a lasting impression of the Negro's latent capabilities. The relation of the Negroes to the Boston schools is, moreover, not confined to receiving benefits. They also have a part in the direction of these schools, through a number of teachers and other school offi- cers.^ The fact that all of the Negro teachers are graduates of the Boston Normal School shows strik- ingly how members of the race are repaying the com- munity, with ample interest, for the opportunities it provides. In Cambridge, Miss Maria L. Baldwin, who was born and educated in that suburb, has for twenty-three years been principal of the Agassiz Grammar School, in which she had previously served as a teacher. Her position is the more remarkable in that there are no other teachers of her race, and only a few Negro children, in the school. But by sheer ability, combined with a high degree of tact. Miss Baldwin has not only performed her exacting duties satisfactorily, * The teachers are Misses Harriet L. Smith (daughter of John J. Smith, already mentioned in connection with anti-slavery events and as a leader among his people), Eleanora A. Smith, Blanche V. Smith, Mary E. Smith, Jacqueline Carroll and lola D. Yates, in Bos- ton proper; and Miss Gertrude M. Baker, in Cambridge. SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION 189 but has commanded the respect and ready support of all who know her. Dr. Samuel E. Courtney served on the Boston School Board for several years in the latter nineties, and more recently James A. Lew, a de- scendant of the family of that name which, as previ- ously mentioned, rendered valiant service in the Revolution, was a member of the School Committee of Cambridge. W. Clarence Matthews, of the class of 1905 of Harvard College, and one of the brilliant base- ball stars in the annals of that seat of learning, is an assistant athletic director in the Boston schools. In Boston all public institutions, not only libraries and museums, but hospitals, homes, baths, parks, playgrounds, and the rest, are in law as fully accessible to the Negroes as to any other element of the citizen- ship. Undoubtedly, owing to the prevailing attitude toward this race, which has already been described at * some length, more or less discrimination enters into the actual administration of these institutions. But such prejudice is shown only by individuals, has nowhere received even tacit official sanction, and has not at- tained formidable proportions. And in nearly all the places of whatever sort which are open to the public, Negroes may be found among those who are profiting by the facilities afforded. Not only through the schools, which in the main afl'ect only the rising generation, are the Negroes edu- cating themselves. Young and old, men and women, are also pushing forward earnestly along all the differ- ent avenues of self-development. Almost never has the writer been to the Public Library without seeing at least one Negro — and usually several — intently 190 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON reading or industriously taking notes. In the Art Museum he has seen them studying the paintings, at concerts listening to the music with unfeigned enjoy- ment, and at lectures of all kinds and in all places; — living witnesses to the multiplicity and diversity of the outreachings of the Negro mind. The contribution thus made by such institutions to the progress of the Negro people is very great. Of semi-public institutions not specifically devoted to work for Negroes, such as settlements, clubs and classes of a social service nature, homes supported by private contributions, and the like, there are many which make it a hard-and-fast rule to have nothing to do with this element of the population. The majority avoid accepting Negroes or extending their work among them, so far as they can do this without openly drawing the color line. Nevertheless, not a few Ne- groes slip through the loophole between what the oflBcers of these places would like to do if they dared, and what they feel they have to put up with to escape criticism on account of too overt discrimina- tion. Five institutions, however, to the writer's knowledge, include a considerable number of Negroes in their activities. Cambridge Neighborhood House, which grew out of a day nursery and kindergarten started in 1881 and which is now the principal settlement in the University City, is situated in a locality where the Negro population has increased rapidly in the last decade. Mrs. Quincy A. Shaw, one of Boston's fore- most philanthropists, who supports this settlement, has insisted from the outset that no racial discrimina- SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION 191 tion should be shown, but that all elements of the neighborhood should be received with equal welcome.^ In consequence, the proportion of Negroes enrolled in the various clubs and classes has come to be approxi- mately 10 per cent of a total of about 750 (which in- cludes thirteen other nationalities) and more are con- stantly coming in. In the trade-school department, two thirds of the girls are of the Negro race. No separa- tion whatever is made, but throughout, Negroes and whites, both children and adults, are intermingled. Though there has been occasional friction in the past, thus far, owing to the genuine determination of those in charge not to countenance segregation, and the con- stant exercise of tact, this friction has not resulted in serious trouble. At present the most pleasant relations prevail. The women's club affords a striking example of how amicably and effectively it is possible for Negroes and whites to work together. About a third of its forty-odd members are of the former race. Recently a Negro woman served as president, with general satisfaction. This club has been the means of bringing about some substantial neighborhood asso- ciation between families of the two races. Recently the secretary of the men's society was a Negro. Two of the club leaders are Negroes and one of these has charge of a group of white children. At Emmanuel Memorial Parish House, a settlement connected with the Church of the Ascension, built in ^ Mrs. Shaw is a member by marriage of the same family from which came Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, who, as already related, met his death in the Civil Wax while leading a charge of his Negro troops. 192 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON 1905, and located near the northeast corner of the principal Negro district, there are from 50 to 60 Negroes in an enrollment of 600; — again a percentage of 10 per cent. No separation is made, and pleasant rela- tions have been maintained. Only at the dances does some embarrassment arise, owing to the fact that the whites are averse to taking Negroes as partners. In the Pleasant Street section, in the lower South End, Mor- gan Memorial, a semi-settlement conducted under Methodist auspices, has about 300 Negro boys and girls among its 1000 children. In the children's church and Sunday school, 100 out of a total of 350, and in the evening children's church 125 out of 400, are Negroes. Here, too, the Negroes and their white associates of many races have got on pleasantly. In Hope Chapel, a mission situated near the Morgan Memorial and con- ducted by the Old South Congregational Church, the entire enrollment is around 800, and the number of Negroes about 162. Here, however, Negroes and whites are separated except in the kindergarten. At Parker Memorial, conducted by Hale House, a social settlement, and located near the Dartmouth Street Negro section, there are only a few Negroes in the gen- eral classes, but the use of the rooms has been granted very freely to Negro organizations for lectures, con- certs, conventions, lodge meetings, and dances. Though in the five institutions which have been mentioned, such racial friction as has resulted has not been serious, nevertheless the possibility of more seri- ous trouble, to some extent the suggestion of it, and to a far greater extent the imagination of it, have been present as disquieting elements. A determined out- SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION 193 break of latent racial antipathy in any of these institu- tions, with the possible exception of Neighborhood House, would probably have as an outcome the exclu- sion of the Negroes. The policy of receiving Negroes into the same building with whites, but grouping them separately, as in the case of Hope Chapel just men- tioned, represents a transition stage between inter- mingling Negroes with whites, on the one hand, and completely segregating them in distinct institutions, on the other. The segregation plan, however, is very plainly the one which is gaining favor in Boston, not necessarily to the abandonment of the others, but to their comparative disregard. Some of the most radical equal rights agitators among the Negroes see in this tendency only the desire of the whites to get their race off out of the way. Undeniably this motive enters in. But in the main the policy of segregation is based on the belief that it is more practicable under actual existing conditions, with reference especially to the gen- eral backwardness of the Negroes, and the prevailing disinclination of the whites to be thrown into close association with them. Those who advocate this policy believe also that in the long run it is more likely to yield results satisfactory to the majority of the Negroes themselves, in that, while the dangers of fric- tion are avoided, the coherence and self-dependability of the Negro community are promoted. There is one institution that occupies a position between those in which Negroes form but a minor pro- portion and those which are set aside for that race exclusively. This is the Robert Gould Shaw House, a settlement established in 1908, and situated on Ham- 194 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON mond Street, in the heart of the principal Negro center. It is an outgrowth of work which had been carried on for several years by the South End House. Miss Augusta P. Eaton, who had been in charge of that work, was put at the head of the new settlement, which was founded with the particular moral support of the Episcopal Diocese, though no religious services were held and the financial support was to be derived from general contributions. The managing board includes several leading Negroes.^ There are twenty-six white and twenty-seven Negro workers, most of whom are unpaid. All the opportunities provided are open to children and adults of both races. In the summer-time outdoor classes and picnics, for the little ones, are a considerable number of white children. But the great majority of those who take advantage of the institu- tion are Negroes. The activities carried on are many. There is a kindergarten group of 25 or more. For women, there are classes in cooking, sewing, dressmaking, millinery, embroidery, and basketry, containing altogether about fifty members, and a mother's club of more than that number, which has weekly meetings of a social and civic nature, with lectures on hygiene, the care of children, and similar topics. For girls, there are 3 classes in cooking, 3 in sewing, 2 in embroidery, a group called "Little Housekeepers," and classes in basketry, brass- work, clay modeling, dancing and folk-dancing, with a membership, inclusive, of about IGO. There are also an orchestra and several clubs composed of girls. For ' Among them Miss Baldwin, the school principal previously mentioned. SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION 195 boys, there are classes in brass, bent iron, clay model- ing, wood-burning, chair-caning, rug-weaving, gym- nastics, and singing, with about 100 members; 3 boys' clubs; and a troop of Boy Scouts of about 20 members. Two clubs of young men, numbering from 75 to 100 members, are connected with the house. For a time an employment bureau was conducted by a Negro woman prominent in social service, on an independent business basis, and once a week there were social evenings for girls in domestic service. Over 300 families are regu- larly visited and assisted in various friendly ways. After carrying the settlement through its period of infancy, the original director was compelled by con- siderations of health to resign, and was succeeded in the autumn of 1910 by Miss Isabel Eaton, formerly of the College Settlement, New York, and Hull House, in Chicago, who is the present head worker. The latter defines the position of the Robert Gould Shaw House thus: "It is a neighborhood house located in a section largely settled by colored people, and therefore it con- cerns itself chiefly with the activities desired by the people who are its chief constituents. It stands for justice and equal opportunity for all, irrespective of race, color, or other arbitrary distinctions, for the re- moval of civil, political, and industrial disabilities and the promotion of a just and amicable relation between the white and colored people." Certainly not only is a work of great value to that section and to the whole city being carried on at present, but a broad and strong foundation for further development and greatly en- larged usefulness is being laid. Of the social betterment institutions devoted solely 196 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON to the Negroes, two are homes for the sick and aged. St. Monica's Home, founded in 1888 and occupying a house in the Roxbury district in which Garrison at one time Hved, cares for sixty or seventy sick Negro women and children every year. It is conducted under the auspices of the St. Margaret Sisters, an Episcopalian order, and is fostered particularly by Trinity Church. Two groups of Negro women, the Relief Association and the Sewing Circle, contribute toward its support, as do also Negro churches and societies and not a few individuals of that race. The Home for Aged Colored Women, located on Hancock Street in the West End, has about twenty inmates and gives some assistance outside. Here also the Negro people help somewhat in the institution's maintenance. In November, 1908, the Mission Priests of St, John the Evangelist ^ completed the erection of a large building called St. Augustine's and St. Martin's Mis- sion, which is situated on Lenox Street, in the principal Negro district and which is designed for the double use of a church and a center for social service. Clubs and classes for both sexes, children and adults, includ- ing about 200 persons, are conducted, and a pro- gramme of physical, moral, domestic, and manual training is carried out.^ In connection with this mis- sion there is a farm of 130 acres at Foxboro, not far 1 This is an English Church order which has been carrying on religious proselytizing among the Negroes in Boston for twenty-five years or more, under the direction mainly of the now venerable Father Field. ^ Prior to 1908, social service activities of a character similar to the present ones, but on a smaller scale, had been carried on at the old St. Augustine's Mission in the West End, and in a branch on Bradford Street, in the Lower South End. SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION 197 from Boston, where young Negro girls are taken for a vacation in summer and where a number of them are cared for all the year through, instructed in housekeep- ing, and later assisted in obtaining positions as domestics. Several years ago the Roman Catholics rented a hall, where work for Negroes, of the same general kind as that carried on by the Mission Priests, has been started. All these outside agencies are assisting vitally in the Negro's progress. They represent the good-will and the helping hand of the other race. But even more impor- tant than their activity is the collective endeavor which is going on within the Negro community itself, and which, with the general conditions to which attention has already been called as a background, may now be presented. Note has previously been taken of the deficiency of this race in the ability for social cooperation of the most fundamental sort. But, on the other hand, it must be said that in at least such sociability as makes immediate appeal to the ear and to the eye, and in such spontane- ous association as springs from this outflow of the feel- ing of fellowship, the Negroes easily excel the whites. Any but the most obstinate attack of melancholy would be cured by a saunter through one of the city's Negro districts.^ The people accost one another as they pass with hearty banter. On every side vociferous groups are loitering. Women are exchanging gossip from neighboring windows. The barber-shops and 1 Along Shawmut Avenue above Northampton Street, for in- stance, or through Dartmouth Street and up Columbus Avenue. 198 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON pool-rooms are loafing-places for noisy gatherings of men. Bright-eyed children, of ripe-olive skin, romp and play with charming abandon and absence of self- consciousness. If perchance some have hands and faces besoiled, their complexions happily obscure the fact. Depression and taciturnity, so evident in the Ghetto, for instance, are here found hardly at all. But still rarer are disagreeable hurry and overexertion. The Negroes are instinctively companionable folk, with whom all the ordinary relations of life are free and easy. They are no seekers after solitude. They love laughter and noise. They are warm-hearted, and search their souls for language to convey their emo- tions. Their appearance harmonizes with their nature. Their features are soft, rounded, ample. Often their skins have a bronze richness of hue that might well make a "pale-face" envious. Their eyes and teeth gleam lustrously from their dark setting. Their voices are melodious. Their manners are of the comfortable sort, and they are naturally courteous. Travellers who have penetrated into Africa say that, on emerging from a long sojourn among the natives, they have been shocked by the first returning sight of the sharper, harder features of the white race, and the initial con- tact with their brusquer ways. The American Negroes invite a similar comparison with their Caucasian fel- low-countrymen. They are irresistibly likable. They have, too, an innate drollery of speech, look, and de- meanor, and an infectious humor, which are all their own. They cannot help feeling good, and one cannot help feeling good with them. Their passion for sociability finds expression in no SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION 199 end of visiting. Distance and car-fares cannot keep them apart. They are incessantly going to parties, concerts, dances, and all kinds of jollifications. Ac- counts and announcements of these festive gatherings, which in pretentiousness ascend from small home affairs to full-dress or masquerade balls, crowd the columns of the two Negro newspapers. Nor do such occasional gatherings satisfy the members of this race. They eagerly promote consecutive, continuous asso- ciation. No racial type has a stronger craving to "belong." They have clubs and societies without number and of every description. They eagerly seize upon the slightest warrant for banding together, with a name, officers, and numerous committees. It does not take the observer long to discover that with the majority of these organizations the actual if not the professed object, as well as the chief result accom- plished, is the furtherance of a general good time. Many societies, as, for instance, the "Fleur-de-lis," "Longworth," " Waverley Outing," and "Blue Rib- bon" clubs, make no claim whatever to soberer ends. The innate sociability and associativeness of the Negro people give them a great advantage, at the very start, in the developing of that far deeper and more durable kind of cooperation which is essential to social advance. The various societies of lighter vein have, moreover, an underlying value greater than might at first thought appear. They are primary schools, so to speak, where thousands of Negroes, nearly all of the rising generation, are being educated in the rudiments of combination, which elsewhere they may turn to sterner account. But of more immediate importance 200 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON are a great many organizations of serious purpose, some of them of an artistic and literary nature, and others of a more specifically cooperative and benevolent char- acter, which are already at work. With reference to the former, many people believe that, as the Negroes advance, they are going to con- tribute to the composite life of the nation much of dis- tinct value in music and the various fields of art. There can be no doubt that the Negroes are by nature musical. They love to hear music and to make music, have a strong sense of rhythm and a marked capacity for rudimentary melody. When a large group of them sing in unison, the rhythmical and emotional vehe- mence of their singing is compelling. Generally, too, their voices are soft and pleasant to the ear. But finished musical performances are rare among them, and wretched ones are common. The fundamental explanation of this fact is that the great majority of the race are still deficient in the qualities of fine perception and unflagging application which are essential to musi- cal excellence. In addition, comparatively few have the material means to provide themselves with a sufficiently long and thorough course of instruction in this depart- ment. However, the number of Negroes who are pos- sessed of musical ability of a grade to entitle them to creditable recognition, even when measured by the standards of the community at large, is constantly increasing, and the frequent musical honors won by Negro children in the public schools is evidence that some measure of substantial education along this line i? being acquired.^ 1 In 1910, for example, a Negro girl acted as pianist for the Lynn SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION 201 Of musical organizations, there are many which'are undoubtedly sowing good seed for future harvests, but only a few whose present accomplishments are note- worthy.^ The most ambitious musical undertaking in which the Negroes have engaged has been the pres- entation of grand opera. The initiative, inspiration, and persistence in this undertaking were supplied chiefly by Theodore Drury, who had previously, from 1900 to 1906, presented a series of operas in New York City, with a Negro company which he organized. Then he came to Boston, and working against disheart- ening inertia, he contrived to prepare for the same pur- pose a group of about fifty men and women, few of whom had trained voices, and most of whom had little time to spare from their day's work. In 1907, the opera "Aida" and a scene from "Carmen" were given. The next year "Faust" was presented, and the year after that, "Cavalleria Rusticana," In these presentations, a creditable proportion of the principals carried out their singing parts well, and a few showed dramatic ability. In painting, sculpture, and the decorative arts there are hardly any of this race in Boston who have done High School in her senior year, and composed the music for the class hymn. In a Boston grammar school, a Negro boy was selected to play the graduation march. The same honor fell to another girl in a Cambridge school; and still another was the only soloist out of a class of a hundred in the graduation exercises of a school in Win- chester. ^ These latter are Wolff's, Matthews', White's, and Portuondo's orchestras, and Ransom's Choral Union. This chorus, organized by Mr. John Ransom, a Negro music teacher, and numbering about fifty voices, gives many good concerts in the Negro churches and societies. 202 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON superior work, though a Negro of Boston birth is said to be winning success as a painter in Paris. ^ There is, however, an interesting and worthy organization in this field — the Boston Negro Art Club, formed in 1907, The fact that its ofiicers are waiters and kitchen-workers shows against what odds the Negroes are striving for some of the finer things. This club gave its first exhibition, consisting of one hundred and twenty paintings and drawings, in the autumn of 1907, and has had other exhibitions since. All the work has shown promising endeavor and some has indicated real capacity. With regard to acting, while little local talent has yet attained recognition, there is much which is latent. In an entertainment at the South End House, for instance, two Negro boys of the neighborhood gave an imitation of Chinese laundrymen engaged in an argument. It was altogether their own concoction, and, besides being side-splitting, was amazingly true to life. Not a few Boston Negroes are scattered here and there through- out the country as vaudeville performers or members of troupes. For drolly humorous, and withal intensely human, portrayals, the Negroes undoubtedly display a special faculty, probably because this is for them only slightly modified self-expression.^ In the domain of oratory, the Negroes easily excel ^ Robert Heraings. ^ As a comic actor, no one on the American stage surpasses Bert Williams. Whenever he and liis partner Walker, or Ernest Hogan, or Cole and Johnson, have come to Boston, they have packed the theater with crowds in which the color line has been forgotten in the fellowship of laughter. The recent deaths of Walker, Ilogan, and Cole are a distinct loss to the forces of good cheer. SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION 203 their Caucasian fellow-countrymen. If a hundred Negroes and a hundred whites were to be taken at random, it is safe to say that the former would yield at least twice as many stirring speakers as the latter. The presence of Negroes on school and college debating teams, and among the prize-winners in declamatory contests, is not infrequent.^ When infused with close reasoning and clothed with the impregnable armor of facts, this inborn eloquence of the Negro will prove a powerful instrument to his advantage. Boston abounds with Negro literary societies. The majority are small, the most competent of this class being the Booklovers and the Menticulturists. Half a dozen are larger, and the two that stand out most prom- inently in point of size and importance are the Boston Literary and Historical Society and the St. Mark Musical and Literary Union. The Boston Literary was organized in 1901. It inclines somewhat toward the equal rights point of view.^ It meets alter- nate Monday evenings at one of the Negro churches. The St. Mark Union, which is controlled by a younger element and inclines rather toward the Washington attitude, had its inception in 1902. Its meetings are held every Sunday afternoon in the St. Mark Con- gregational Church. At the sessions of these societies the usual attendance, drawn not only from the imme- ^ Roscoe Conkling Bruce, who was elected orator of the class of 1902, was one of the most eloquent debaters Harvard ever had. For many years there has been no more moving pubUc speaker in Boston than the Rev. Reverdy C. Ransom, recently pastor of the Charles Street African Methodist Church. ^ As is implied by the fact that among its presidents have been Messrs. Grimke, Wilson, and Trotter, to whom previous reference has been made in connection with equal rights agitation. 204 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON diate district, but from the whole Greater Boston area, is from two hundred to two hundred and fifty, but not infrequently the Literary attracts three times that number, and the Union would get as many, provided only it had the necessary seating capacity. The pro- grammes are strong, consisting of addresses by locally well-known men and women of both races. More noteworthy than the prepared talks, however, is the extemporaneous speaking from the floor, in which the Negroes exhibit a mental grasp and ability in debate calculated to surprise uninformed white visitors. In- deed, hardly any more persuasive argument in the Negro's favor can be brought to bear on skeptics than the lasting impression, which they cannot help carrying away from one of these meetings, of the courtesy and cordiality, the tasteful dress, the close and intelligent attentiveness of the audience, and the efficient manage- ment of the programme on the part of the presiding officers. One member of Boston's Negro community has achieved literary distinction of a high rank. This is William Stanley Braithwaite, who is generally reck- oned, since Paul Lawrence Dunbar's death, the lead- ing poet of his race; though, unlike Dunbar, his poetry has practically no direct reference to the life of the Negro people. Braithwaite has also risen to be one of the accredited younger literary men of America to-day. There now stand to his account two volumes of col- lected lyric poems, as well as many still scattered verses, of his own composition, and a scholarly series of four English anthologies. It is as a literary critic, however, distinguished in unusual degree by the quali- SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION 205 ties of sympathetic insight, broad comprehension, and choiceness of style, that he is attracting most notice.^ ^ The following brief biographical statement was supplied by Mr. Braithwaite at the writer's request: — "My paternal grandfather, John Braithwaite, was a man of dis- tinction and influence in Demerara, British Guiana, the proprietor and editor of a newspaper, through which he advocated, and won for the colony, the establishment of a Local Assembly from the Eng- lish Colonial Office. His eldest son, my father, William Smith Braithwaite, was educated at Queen's College, his native place, after- wards studying medicine in London, England. He came to America in the early eighteen -seventies, settling in Boston, where he married Emma De Wolfe, who was born in North Carolina, but whose life has been spent in Boston since she was six years old. My father was a man of remarkable intellectual ability; of a sensitive, haughty, and highly nervous temperament, but who apparently lacked the will to concentrate his energies in a determined purpose to achieve success in some one particular vocation. Consequently his life was one of erratic talent, distilled through a lovable personality which drew men under its influence, directing and shaping their energies, but achieving nothing substantial toward its own development and acquirement. "I was the second child and eldest son of these parents, born at Boston, December 6, 1878. At my father's death in 1886, he left his widow the asset of a brilliant but ineffectual memory, and the Ua- bility of some domestic indebtedness and a family of four children to maintain and rear. I remained at school until the middle of my twelfth year, when an overwhelming sense of duty sent me into the world to assist my mother in her struggle to provide for the family. I have not been back to school since. My effort to earn wages placed me in various occupations such as a competent youth might pursue (also in many against which my pride and competency rebelled), and such as a colored youth had some difficulty in obtaining. At fifteen, like a revelation, there broke out in me a great passion for poetry, an intense love for literature, and a yearning for that ideal life which fosters the creation of things that come out of dreams and visions and symbols. I dedicated my future to literature, though the altar upon which I was to lay my sacrificial life seemed beyond all likelihood of opportunity and strength and equipment to reach, I set about it, however, with a fortitude, hope, and patience, which now seem to me most amazing in one whose chance was one against a thou- 206 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON A promising writer of verse is George Reginald Mar- getson, of Cambridge, who recently had published a volume entitled "Songs of Life." For the most part his compositions, too, contain little of racial character, but occasionally, as in the stanzas entitled "Ethiopia's Flight," he attacks the Negro question with striking boldness and directness.^ sand in surviving the ruthless obstacles which attend even the most favorable literary career, and succeeded in haA'ing recognized the quality of my efforts, which were attained through a sheer deter- mined personal cultivation. I am the more satisfied in all this, since I never made a special appeal either in my work or my person; I neither expressed nor interpreted racial characteristics, but always attempted to speak the universal language of human nature; and if I ever carry any distinction to the grave, it will be in proving that art, and especially art as it has developed and been perfected under the influence of American civilization, with all its peculiar paradoxes, knows no distinction of race. "My first book. Lyrics of Life and Love, was published in 1904. It won for me the immediate recognition of the critics, the personal friendship of eminent literary persons, and introduced me to a market for my other literary wares. Practical difficulties were not banished, but this book gave me the power of, and hope in, battling them, and I am now doing so with increasing success. My other books are: The Book of Elizabethan Verse, 1900; The House of Falling Leaves, 1908; The Book of Georgian Verse, 1908; The Book of Restora- tion Verse, 1909; The Book of Victorian Verse, 1910. I have con- tributed a large number of uncollected critical essays to various publications, and am the literary correspondent of the Los Angeles Times. "My personal experience with color prejudice has been slight, hardly recognizable in my career as a whole; I encountered it once in seeking a dwelling-place. As an author it has never touched my life — certainly not in any concrete or personal experience. And I venture to say that my dealings with publishers and editors have been without a thought of it." ^ It is from Ethiopia's Flight that the lines quoted at the end of the closing chapter of this volume are taken. Those two lines impress the writer as prophetically encompassing the Negro's whole past and future in the American nation. The immediate context, of which they form the conclusion, is as follows : — SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION 207 The Negro organizations which are more specifically concerned with activities of a benevolent and ameliora- tive nature show in a still more direct way the social progress which the Negroes are making. As might be presumed, the advance in this respect has barely begun to take form in institutions of the larger importance implied by possession of a domicile and a generally recognized place in the community scheme. The two nearest approximations thereto are the Young Men's Educational Aid Association and the Harriet Tubman W.C.T.U. Home; the work of both of which, however, is of very modest proportions. But short of such an institutional development there are a good many Negro organizations which have more or less of a social service character. Of these the most important from a numerical point of view are the various lodges of secret and semi-secret fraternities, of national ramification, which have mu- tual aid features. These Negro orders have no official "America, O mighty government! Thou matchless star in Earth's vast firmament! Beneath thy banners in thy heaven-kissed land, Ethiopia stretches forth to thee her hand. "Extend to her the aid her cause requires. Incline her way to where kind Hope inspires. "She seeks no claim but what is hers by right, The same as thou dost give unto the white. "For thy care were both by Nature lent, And both alike should feel thy moral bent. Both formed thy bulwark since thy life began, And both together still must work thy plan." Margetson's method of composition is interesting. He works as a stationary engineer and composes most of his verses in the midst of his daily tasks, often singing them, and seldom committing them to paper till he is fully satisfied with them. 208 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON connection with any of the corresponding ones among the other race. There are six lodges of Odd Fellows in Greater Boston, with a membership of about 600. Two of those in the city proper own, subject to a small mortgage, a hall which has been assessed at $25,000, and several of those in Cambridge hold joint title to a building valued at $7000. The six together have in their treasuries funds amounting to $20,000 or more. The auxiliary women's order has four lodges, with a membership of about 500.^ The Masons also have six lodges, with a membership of approximately 450; which, with the customary higher-degree organizations drawn from them, have on hand savings close to $15,000. The rapidity with which this fund has grown in recent years is shown by the fact that, whereas a decade ago one lodge had next to nothing in its treasury, to-day it has about $4000. ^ The National Grand United Order of Brothers and Sisters of Love and Charity has six lodges, with a membership of about 600. There are seven or eight small lodges of the Inde- pendent Order of St. Luke, with a total membership of about 200. In this order, every cent taken in goes to the national headquarters at Richmond, while all the money dispensed comes from that central source. Whenever a member in any part of the country dies, all the members are taxed half a penny. There are two lodges in Boston, with about 75 members, of the fra- ternity known as the True Reformers, which also has headquarters at Richmond, and which is one of the 1 The Household of Ruth. * The women's auxiliaries of the Masons are the Heroines of Jericho and the Order of the Eastern Star. SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION 209 most successful national organizations among the Negro people. The Improved Benevolent Order of Elks (white Elks please take notice of the word "Im- proved"!) have three lodges, with a membership of about 250. The Knights of Pythias have four societies. The Foresters have a strong association. All these organizations, as well as a few other similar ones of lesser importance, bestow sick relief ascending from $4 to $7 a week for the first six weeks, and from $2.50 to $5 a week thereafter, and death benefits of from $50 to $150. In view of the facts that their collective membership is approximately 3500, and that a ma- jority of the members represent family groups con- sisting of several persons, it is evident that, in their relief of distress caused by sickness and death, they must reach a large percentage of Boston's Negro population.^ Of the societies which have as their chief object social service of broader scope than mutual aid, and extending beyond their own membership, the great majority are composed of women. The work which these local organizations are doing is, moreover, part of a large national movement of Negro women for the betterment of the conditions of their race, of which Boston was the source and is to-day one of the most active centers. In 1892, the Woman's Era Club was founded in Boston by Mrs. Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin, the widow of Judge George L. Ruffin, to whom previous reference ^ There are also many purely local organizations of a combined social and beneficial character, such as the Fraternals, the Unity Club, the Benevolent Fraternity of Coachmen, the Head and Side Waiters' Association, and the Sons of North Carolina. 210 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON has been made as a man of prominence among his people in the period following the war.^ This club, which is still in existence, adopted as its stated purpose the furtherance of the welfare of the Negro race gen- erally and of Negro women in particular. Its meetings have been held twice a month, and its membership is about 60, including nearly all the leading Negro women of Boston and vicinity. Its prestige was recog- nized by its being received into both the state and national federations of women's clubs of the other race. It very soon succeeded in arousing a wide inter- est in practical measures of betterment, and in 1895, a national convention of Negro women was called to assemble in Boston. On August of that year, in the Charles Street African Methodist Church, the National Federation of Afro-American Women was organized, with Mrs. Ruffin as president. In July, 1896, this body united with the Washington National League to form the present National Association of Colored Women. In June, 1896, was launched the New England Federa- tion of Women, which within two months outgrew its New England bounds and became the Northeastern Federation of Women's Clubs, which to-day has a membership of over 2000. The Federation has depart- ments devoted to work among children, mothers' meetings, education, philanthro])y, arts and crafts, temperance, the prevention of lynching, and other similar matters. It publishes the "Northeastern," a quarterly in which the work being carried on in various localities is recorded. The National Association has ^ For reference to Mrs. Ruffin's own part in affairs both before and after the war, see Appendix, Article iii. SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION 211 similar departments, and both bodies are rapidly uniting the Negro women of the country in a correlated programme of amelioration. In the Greater Boston district, there are to-day about twenty women's clubs of a social service nature, with a total membership of about 750. The general character of their activities is indicated by extracts from several typical reports published in the "North- eastern." The Women's Protective League of Maiden writes : — We have been able to place in the bank more money this year than in any of the previous years. Twelve new members have been installed; we have given ten dollars to Rev. Car- rington's church; smaller donations have been given to the sick, and we have aided St. Monica's Home. The young ladies of the league have opened an industrial department. The Cambridge Charity Club reports : — The membership has been increased from twenty-five to fifty. [Three months later an increase of ninety -six was re- corded.l A committee was appointed whose duty it was to locate the needy poor and assist them as far as our means would allow. Thirty dollars has been expended in this man- ner. We have had a flower committee, which has done ex- cellent work. We have donated five dollars toward defraying expenses for defending the soldiers in the Brownsville affair; five dollars toward the ice chest in St. Monica's home, and eight dollars toward the educational fund to be used for the benefit of Miss Davis. Juvenile Circle No. 1, consisting of thirty children, has been organized, and our committee hopes to report great success in this new line of work. The Sojourner Truth Club of Boston makes this statement : — We have conducted a very successful class of boys and girls in sewing, knitting, and millinery. At Christmas-time, we had a very heavily laden tree for our children and dis- 212 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON tributed clothing, material for useful garments, and other things. During Old Home Week we worked with the General Committee in doing honor to this occasion, and distributed two thousand flags and post-cards through the hospitals of the city, and in children's homes. As the funds of these societies are derived from dues, which generally do not exceed twenty-five cents a month, and from occasional entertainments, it is apparent that the work carried on must of necessity be of humble proportions. But the spirit which animates it is the simplest, truest, and best; each club is a center of good influence and an example inviting emulation, and the members are disciples of the gospel of social helpfulness. For several years there has been a move- ment looking toward the ownership of a building, to serve as a common meeting-place for the Negro women's clubs of greater Boston and a center for their philanthropic and educational activity.^ With the Negroes there is a closer approximation to equality between the sexes than is yet the case among those of the other race. That this is so is, in the writer's opinion, due mainly to special economic conditions. In the stern struggle for a foothold in which the Negroes have been engaged since their emancipation, and especially since the recent hardening of public sentiment toward them, the women have perforce become bread-winners to a very large degree. Thus they have made a relatively greater economic contribu- tion within their race than have white women in theirs, ' Among the women at present most actively devoted to this work are Miss Eliza Gardner and Mesdames Hannah C. Smith, Charlotte E. France, Agnes Adams, Olivia Ward Bush, and Minnie T. Wright. SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION 213 and so they have attained to a place of relatively greater importance in the social order of their own com- munity. Negro women manifest a marked independ- ence, coupled with a sober realization of the extent to which the welfare of the race is in their hands. Negro men recognize and respect their position. The women take and are given a very important share in race affairs. More fully than the men, if anything, they exemplify the qualities of patience, hope, and deter- mination. The writer has in fact heard many Negro men declare that to-day it is the women who are lead- ing the race in its struggle for better things. Here is surely fertile soil for cultivation by the equal suffra- gists : — on the one hand, a special need for the leaven- ing and uplifting influence of the suffrage movement; and on the other, the certainty of a ready response. With regard now to the general results to which the various ameliorative factors and activities which have already been described have contributed, one of the most noticeable of these is the marked development of the Negro community in self-support. The substantial progress which has been made in this respect is shown by the small and constantly decreasing extent to which the Negroes fall into the hands of public and private charity. According to the National Census, in the decade 1870-80, while the Negro population of Massa- chusetts increased from 13,947 to 18,697, the Negro paupers in state institutions increased only from 73 to 78; and in the decade 1880-90, while the Negro popu- lation increased to 22,144, the number of Negro paupers in institutions did not increase at all. The Massachusetts Census of 1895 showed that in that 214 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON year, when the Negroes formed 1.1 per cent of the pop- ulation of the state, of the 11,054 paupers in institu- tions or cared for by private families, only 164, or 1.5 per cent, were of this race. In view of the special ad- versities under which the Negroes live, this showing was remarkably favorable. The extent to which the Negroes take care of themselves appears still more clearly in the light of a table compiled by the Associ- ated Charities of Boston in the early nineties, giving causes of poverty, on the basis of 7225 specific indi- vidual cases, with reference to the various racial ele- ments. Of poverty due to personal misconduct, the percentage was lowest in the case of the Negroes; whereas with poverty caused by misfortune, the per- centage was highest among them; and still higher, relatively, as regards the particular misfortunes of sickness or death in the family.^ It is a fact that sel- dom does one find a Negro begging on the streets. The members of this race possess in high degree the quality of human kindness, and are ever ready to help their fellows in time of need. One outward sign of this is had in the numerous socials and entertainments which are constantly being given for the benefit of some household that has sufi^ered affliction. The in- creasing ability of the Negroes to provide for their own needs in ways material, goes to counterbalance, in some measure, their previously noted dependence on the other race, and is, moreover, but one of many evi- dences of their growth in general self-reliance. One of the central elements of the social progress which has already been made, and one of the surest * For the table in full, see Appendix, table xv. SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION 215 guarantees that this progress will continue, is the marked improvement which has been affected in home conditions. As will later appear, a constantly increas- ing number and proportion of Negroes are acquiring the ownership of homes; and a still larger proportion are becoming able, though still tenants, to live in a comfortable and homelike way. Though these facts do not take long in the telling, they signify much. Ownership and permanency of residence are, in fact, developing the qualities of responsibility and stability of character in the individual, and at the same time promoting sound conditions in the neighborhood and the community. All through the social life of the Negro, as overtone and undertone, runs the never-ceasing discussion of the future destiny of the race. Among white people this is one of the questions which arouses much interest; but with the Negroes it is the all-absorbing and all- dominating theme. Even those who profess a desire to minimize and ignore race distinctions, nevertheless, by the vehement assertion of their doctrine on the slight- est provocation, do as much or more than others to keep alive the perpetual query, which will not down. In all the talk "about it and about" there is much uncer- tainty, much discouragement, and some despair. But there is vastly more hope and trust and confidence. The conviction has constantly grown upon the writer that the Negroes themselves understand their own conditions far better, when all is said, than do the whites. Their deepening comprehension of these con- ditions is accompanied by a growing determination and an increasing power successfully to cope with them. 216 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON Every day the will to advance is taking on greater strength. At the same time the Negro people are becoming ever more fully conscious of themselves as a fellowship and of their collective potentialities ; and what is most significant and promising of all, are acquiring a deeper and stronger race consciousness and the rudiments of a genuine race pride. The two Negro newspapers, the "Guardian" in Boston and the "Advocate" in Cam- bridge, are, by their weekly recording of local activities among this element of the population, continually making the Negroes in the Greater Boston district better acquainted with one another and thus binding them more closely together as a single community. At the same time, by their discussion of public affairs which especially concern the race, they, together with over two hundred other Negro newspapers and period- icals published in the United States, are furthering the national unity of the Negro people. The many organ- izations of which examples have been cited, with their membership drawn from diverse parts of the Boston district, are having a similar effect. The most discern- ing of the leaders are instilling the "get together" spirit. A particularly important factor, moreover, which is working to enhance national race conscious- ness, is the celebration of events vitally related to the Negro's history in America. The birth anniversaries of Lincoln, Whittier, and Douglass, the issuing of the Emancipation Proclamation, and many other events of similar significance, are appropriately commemorated. The most important recent celebration was that of the hundredth anniversary of the birth of Garrison, to SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION 217 which two entire days, December 10 and 11, 1905, were devoted. Thus a groundwork for the eliciting and instilling of a real pride of race, which, as has already been emphasized, is one of the most indispensable ele- ments to the Negro's advance, is being laid; and almost unconsciously, such a pride in racial history and attain- ment is beginning to take form. This is all that can as yet be said, but this much is fundamental and preg- nant with possibility. The independent advance of the Negroes is both accompanied and still further evidenced by their increasing participation in the affairs of the com- munity at large. For instance, James H. Wolff, a vet- eran of the war and a man of prominence among his people, was in 1906 elected head of the Massachusetts Commandery of the Grand Army of the Republic, in which all but a slight proportion of the members are white; and in 1910, he was appointed by the mayor to deliver the city's official Fourth of July oration.^ Wil- liam H. Lewis, to whom there have been several earlier allusions, was a charter member of the recently estab- lished City Club, and was one of the speakers at the great memorial mass meeting held at Symphony Hall on the occasion of the death of Julia Ward Howe. Probably the most striking example in this connection, however, is that of the civic prominence of Theodore H. Raymond in Cambridge.^ The latter is one of the directors of the local Y.M.C.A., recently served as • This appointment was conferred by Mayor John F. Fitzgerald, a Democrat. For further reference to Wolff, see Appendix, Arti- cle III. ^ Mr. Raymond is a grandson of the Rev. John T. Raymond of Abolition days, for further reference to whom see Appendix, Article ii. 218 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON chairman of the special committee in charge of the erection of a new building, and also acted as treasurer of the building fund of the Y.W.C.x\. He is treasurer of the Prospect Union, — a sort of people's forum with class and club features, — is a leading member of all the principal civic organizations, and president of the corporation organized last October which publishes the only daily paper in that suburb. In short, he is a living refutation of the complaint that color prejudice is an insuperable obstacle to a Negro's success. He is a flesh-and-blood demonstration of the fact that, at any rate when ability, attractive personality, refinement, and tact are present, the color of a man's skin will not and cannot keep him from rising to his proper level. These, moreover, are but a few of the most striking instances of general influence exercised by persons of the Negro race. Cases which approximate to them could be multiplied indefinitely. The sum of them all, however, is that the Negroes are forging ahead not only among themselves, as a people bound together by ineradicable racial ties, but also as a determining factor, individual and collective, in the whole com- munity. Nothing could be more unquestionable than that the inherent weaknesses, and the adverse past and present conditions, which have retarded the Negroes in their social advance, must have kei)t them back in their ethical progress as well, and have entered with serious directness into their everyday standards of morality. When it is considered that the ancestors of the Ameri- can Negroes of to-day were taken from a state of primi- SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION 219 live savagery, and were then for two and a half cen- turies subjected to a condition of slavery which kept them in ignorance, treated them as mere beasts of burden, disregarded their personal chastity and mari- tal allegiance, fostered bestiality, and utterly deprived them of all opportunity for independent endeavor and achievement; when it is considered also that these con- ditions passed away less than fifty years ago, and that during the period which has since elapsed the great mass of the race have continued in their benighted lot; — when these things are taken duly into account, it would surely be a miracle, contrary to the natural and accustomed workings of the laws of cause and effect, if the Negroes of to-day were not morally back- ward. Close acquaintance with the facts makes it plain beyond a doubt that such a miracle has not taken place. To go into any extended citation of figures to prove that there is a more pronounced tendency to immorality and criminality among the Negroes than among the whites would be superfluous. That such is the case may be, and indeed must be, presumed. According to some recent statistics, 203 out of 6041, or 3.3 per cent, of the convicts in Massachusetts were Negroes, while members of this race formed but 1.1 per cent of the state's inhabitants:^ that is, the proportion of Negro convicts was three times the proportion of Negroes in the population. In view, however, of the past and present forces inimical to the Negro's moral welfare, this record of crime is far less unfavorable than would be expected, and should not in fact be taken as bearing witness to any abnormal criminal propen- * Massachusetts Census, 1895. 220 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON sity. If the Negroes were of an exceptionally criminal bent, such an innate procHvity, combined with the social and economic adversities with which they have had to cope, would make their percentage of convicts much more than three times as large as their per- centage of the population.^ As regards crimes against the person, in general, the Negro's inborn good nature acts as a preventive ^ Most discussions of this subject leave out of account altogether the peculiar conditions to which the Negroes have been subject and those under which they are living to-day. Many simply enlarge on the extent of immorality and criminality among the Negroes without making any comparison whatever with the extent of the same evils among the whites. Some are nothing more than lurid recitations of particular acts of immorality and crime, lacking even the suggestion of general proportion. It is very easy by the narration of such par- ticular acts or crimes, especially if uncommonly brutal ones are selected, to make upon the hearer's imagination an utterly false impression. Not only in the case of the Negroes, but in the case of any element of the population, would this be an easy thing to accom- plish. Indeed, a Negro need only clip from the newspapers, for a week or two, the accounts of atrocious crimes committed by indi- viduals of the white race, to be able to go among his ignorant brethren in the Southern black belt and make them believe the whites to be fiends incarnate. When particular acts of immorality and crime committed by Negroes are exploited, each one should properly be balanced by the citation of similar acts committed by members of the white race. When what purport to be general figures of the extent of immorality and crime among Negroes are given, these figures should be carefully compared with corresponding figures for the whites. It will usually prove that the proportion is much less excessive among the Negroes than might at first sight seem to be the case. And finally, after such a comparison has been made, the con- ditions which have retarded the ethical development of the Negroes should be given due weight. It will then become evident, as in the case of the Massachusetts figures already referred to, that the pro- portionate extent of immorality and criminality among the Negroes is far less than might be presumed. In other words, the out- come of the comparison will be rather to the Negro's credit than to his discredit. SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION £21 influence. His lesser degree of the trait of economic acquisitiveness operates to reduce his temptation to theft. Neither of these characteristics, however, is such as to have any appreciable restraining effect with reference to illicit sexual relations, but, on the con- trary, especially in the case of the former, tends if anything to make such relations easier. And the Negro's shortcoming in point of morality in fact shows itself most flagrantly in proneness to extreme sexual laxity. This is inherently a matter concerning which it would be next to impossible to gather statistical data at once trustworthy and of any value for purposes of comparing conditions among the Negroes with those among the whites. But it is a matter with respect to which common report, though considerably exagger- ated, is nevertheless confirmed in substance by scrupu- lous observation. The laxity in question, however, does not appear so much in the form of any outright sexual viciousness or confirmed depravity, as it does simply in that of an innate weakness or failing. The impression made upon the observer is not that the Negroes, proceeding with at least ordinary apprecia- tion of what is right and what is wrong in this respect, nevertheless willfully and pervertedly do the wrong; but, on the contrary, that with very inchoate and un- defined conceptions of sexual rectitude, and mostly as the result of ignorance coupled with a deficient power of resistance, they simply follow their animal-human instincts. This view of the matter is borne out, on the one hand, by the rarity among the Negroes of houses of prostitution; and on the other, by the comparative yieldingness of the common bars to intimacy between 222 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON the sexes, which in itself constitutes a lesser motive for the maintenance of such resorts. This lax condition of things applies not alone to the unmarried element. There is also a want of rigidity within the marital state. It is a fact that a considerable number of Negro men and women are living together, as husband and wife, without legal sanction. In a large proportion of such cases, however, the relationship is practically equiva- lent to marriage, so far as its permanence and assump- tion of family responsibilities are concerned, and the individuals are only in minor degree conscious of seri- ous transgression on their part. Thus it is not out-and-out immorality, but rather the want of any positive morality, which characterizes the Negro. This lack, showing itself most flagrantly in connection with relations between the sexes, where the term "moral" has come to be more narrowly ap- plied, amounts in its broader manifestation to a gen- eral ethical undevelopment. Though after the present survey of the Negro's situation on all sides has been completed, more will be said with regard to the deep- reaching significance of this deficiency, enough has already been said to make plain its inter-relation with all the Negro's past and present social conditions. Out of the social the ethical naturally rises. The whole ethical code consists in fact of a definition of the mutual relations and common standards which are indispensable to a sound social order. If, then, as pre- viously stated, the factors which have been adverse to the Negro's social well-being have at the same time retarded his ethical development, it is, on the other hand, equally true that the Negro's social progress SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION 223 implies, and must indeed involve, his ethical advance. So close is this inter-relation that many of the gains which have been described as social might no less properly be set down as ethical. Such is particularly the case with the inner strengthening of the Negro home, the work of neighborhood amelioration under- taken by some of the Negro societies, and all efforts toward the subordination of personal and factional in- terests to organized collective endeavor for the com- mon good. Furthermore, in view of what has already been stated concerning the betterment which is being accomplished in these vital respects, it almost goes without saying that the laxity in moral conduct to which allusion has been made does not apply indis- criminately to the entire Negro population. On the contrary, just as gradations have been distinguished with reference to economic-social conditions, so like- wise may be perceived roughly corresponding ethical layers. And in proportion as the whole Negro com- munity builds itself up in the one regard, so it must surely rise to a higher level in the other. A double, and still inherently single, process of social construction and ethical growth is now under way. CHAPTER VII THE UPWARD STRUGGLE OF THE NEGRO CHURCH Some of the other humiliated peoples find both a source and bulwark of racial coherence and dignity in their religion. Such is the case with certain of the foreign groups who take up their abode in America. The Polish immigrants, for instance, seeking escape from oppression in their native land at the hands of alien governments, make their immemorial church of the Roman Catholic faith the starting-point and center of their life in the new world. The almost indispen- sable nucleus of every Polish colony in this country consists of a priest and a meeting-place for religious devotion. Clustering about the church edifice the set- tlement gradually extends, till ere long there is need for other churches, which in their turn bring still further growth. In the course of years there stretches out a close-packed, monotonous expanse of humble wooden cottages; from among which, however, stand forth great stone church-temples, with towers high rising toward the heavens, as though indeed to symbolize the aspiration and potentialities of the people from whose individual mites, collectively amassed, these splendid structures are erected. The preeminent example of religious unity is, of course, that of the Jews. In their synagogues the descendants of Israel find solace for their tribulations, strength for their daily encounters, and hope and inspiration for the future. THE NEGRO CHURCH 225 What might such religious solidarity do for the Negro; and in what measure is it, in fact, manifest? Is the religious life of the Negro people subject to such cross-currents and undertows as those which, it has appeared, retard his social progress? If such be the case, is a similar centripetal forward movement never- theless discernible? Beyond this, and more specifically, how far are religious forces and activities being organ- ized in practical ways and for practical ends, with ref- erence to their strengthening effect in the Negro's concrete problems? Turning now to these inquiries, it appears that the religious life of the Negroes has three avenues of ex- pression. The first is through attendance at white churches. The second is through missions established and supervised by whites, but set aside exclusively for Negroes. The third is through their own separate churches. As has already been noted, the Negroes in Boston attended white churches for a long time before they had any of their own. In the earliest days, while slavery was still in existence, they were restricted to a gallery, like the one which may still be seen in the Old North Church. After slavery died out, this restriction also passed away, and the Negroes sat among the whites, generally as servants in the family pews; but to some extent, particularly in the case of those following independent callings, on a basis of apparent equality.^ Then, after one hundred and sixty-eight years, the first independent Negro church was founded. Its estab- ' Phillis Wheatly, for instance, to whom earlier reference has been made, was a member of the Old South Meeting-House. 226 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON lishment was due not primarily to any positive move- ment toward a policy of exclusion on the part of the whites, but rather to the increase in the number of the city's Negro inhabitants and the gradual rise of a community of interest among them. Since that time, the great majority of this element of the population, partly of their own accord and partly because of the prevailing attitude of the other race, — of which more will presently be said, — have gone to these separate churches of their own. Nevertheless a considerable minority, for one of several reasons, or a combination of them all, attend white churches instead. Among these, the group which stands out with chief distinctness is composed of some of the most uncompromising of those members of the race who insist on the importance of equal privi- lege, and who profess to be opposed to all racial segre- gation. This group has its historical origin in the Abolitionist propaganda. Garrison himself advised the Negroes against forming separate churches, and Frederick Douglass exhorted his people to intermingle with the other race in religious activity.^ To-day, most ^ In 1874, Garrison deprecated the attempt of the Negroes in a town near Boston to start a church of their own, as estabhshing "a precedent which logically ends in indorsing the old pro-slavery doc- trine that there should be no fraternization between the two races on account of color." William Lloyd Garrison, vol. iv, p. 239. In the same address at Rochester, New York, in 1848, from which previous quotation has been made (see chapter iv), Douglass said: "I am well aware of the anti-Christian prejudices which have excluded many colored persons from white churches, and the conse- quent necessity for erecting their own places of worship. This evil I would charge upon its originators, and not upon the colored people. But such necessity does not exist to the extent of former years. There are societies where color is not regarded as a test of membership. THE NEGRO CHURCH 227 of the Negroes who adhere to this doctrine in practice are members of what has already been designated as the upper class, who are generally characterized by a considerable strain of Caucasian blood and by lightness of complexion. Probably a majority of this class, indeed, attend white churches, so far as they go to church at all. They contend that in religious worship, surely, racial prejudice should not be tolerated, and maintain that drawing the color line here has the effect, identical with that of the emphasis of color difference at other points, of encouraging general segregation and per- petuating race hostility. Negroes who desire to con- tribute to the solution of the "problem " should, in their opinion, regard it as a matter of duty to attend white churches. Many go so far as to advocate doing away altogether with the separate Negro churches. An addi- tional argument which they advance is that individuals of whatever race must seek and find their proper intel- lectual level — which they themselves cannot do among their own people. It should be noted, however, that this group is considerably overlapped by another, made up of members of the "smart set" to which reference has been made in an earlier context, and who, notwithstanding any professed loyalty to principle, as a matter of fact frequent white churches chiefly be- cause of the higher position which they think to gain thereby in — "society." Many Negroes become connected with white churches themselves, but to a larger extent send their children to them, on account of the actual superior And such places I deem more appropriate for colored persons than exclusive or isolated organizations." 228 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON advantages which they believe white churches afford, in the cultivation of good manners, intelligence, and character. Still others go to white churches either because they have a particular admiration for the pastor, or especially friendly relations with some of the members, or because they live in neighborhoods where there are few or none of their own race, or, at any rate, no Negro church in the vicinity. Finally, a certain number of Negroes are obliged to resort to white churches for the simple and sufficient reason that the religious creeds which they profess are not represented by separate Negro churches. The more recent and less common denominations, such as Christian Science, Swedenborgianism, Spiritualism, and the various brands of New Thought, fall in this category. Because such religious fellowships are still in the zealous propa- gandist stage, they are more disposed to accept con- version to their tenets as the essential thing, and to pay less regard to race or color distinctions. The Negroes who enter these faiths are as a rule received on a cordial and substantial basis. Most of the white churches in Boston are attended, at least occasionally, by a few Negroes belonging to one or another of these groups which have been de- scribed; but the number in which the regular Negro attendance amounts to more than a slight percentage is very small. Usually a congregation of ordinary size includes only two or three of this race. In not more than a score of churches in the entire metropolitan dis- trict may a dozen Negroes be counted regularly. There are only five or six in which the regular Negro attend- ance attains really considerable proportions. Among THE NEGRO CHURCH 229 these few exceptional cases, the Roman Catholic Cathedral and two Episcopal churches stand out most prominently. It is a fact not generally known that the Roman Catholics lay claim to about one thousand members of the Negro race in Greater Boston. The majority of these are immigrants or children of immigrants from the West Indies; others became of this faith through receiving their education in Catholic schools; still others are descendants of slaves of Catholic masters ; and the remainder are converts in the ordinary course. Till recently, all the Negro Catholics have attended the same services as the whites, without distinction, and the largest single group of them have gone to the Cathedral in the lower South End. In 1903, at the request of many of the Negroes themselves, the ex- periment was begun of holding at the Cathedral some separate masses. In 1907, this plan was given up, chiefly because the attendance at the separate masses remained small. Late in the following year another departure, which has proved more successful, and of which more will subsequently be said, was undertaken. It consisted in holding certain separate masses in a church set aside for the use of the Negroes. The latter still have unqualified access, however, to the general services elsewhere, which most of them continue to attend, at least occasionally. No serious friction has de- veloped, though in several churches, in addition to the Cathedral, the Negro attendance is of considerable size. It is, of course, natural that less difficulty should arise in churches of the Roman Catholic faith. The priests stand in a position of greater authority and influence 230 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON over the lay members than do the ministers of Prot- estant denominations, and are thereby able more effectually to curb any expression of prejudice. The Negroes on their side appreciate the more equitable treatment thus received. Moreover, the Catholic doc- trine, in its strongly personal embodiment of religion and its definite and tangible dogmas; the direct chal- lenge of the confessional; and the impressive church buildings and rituals, — all make a powerful appeal to the Negro's emotional and out-flowing nature. In Boston, as throughout the country, the number of Negro Catholics is increasing. That further accessions from this source are desired is shown by the fact that in the autumn of 1908 the Roman Catholic Church in the United States organized a special department to deal with the extension of work among the Negro people. Emmanuel (Episcopal) Church is situated in the heart of the aristocratic Back Bay, and has one of the largest and richest congregations in the city. Of late years Negroes have been attending in increasing num- bers. There are two distinct church organizations, one for members of the parish and the other for the public at large. The Sunday services are open to the general public, but at these the Negro attendance has some- how not become large enough to be conspicuous. Two Sunday-school groups are maintained, however, and for all week-day services the parish and public organi- zations meet separately. In the parish organizations, only a scattering few Negroes are found. But in the public organizations about one third of the adults are Negroes, as are also nearly two thirds of the children THE NEGRO CHURCH 231 in the public Sunday school. The whites with whom they are intermingled are members of the lower middle class; and thus far they have raised no serious objec- tion to the presence of the Negroes. Doubtless the fact that these white people are not members and sup- porters of the church, but are themselves, like the Negroes, beneficiaries of it, tends to restrain them from expressing any antipathy which they may feel. The Negroes, who come from far and wide, not only from all sections of the city but from the suburbs, are, furthermore, very well dressed and good mannered, and are thus less likely to cause objection than others of lower grade would be. The Church of the Ascension, a mission of Emman- uel, whose social service activities have already been mentioned, was established in 1886 in the Pleasant Street locality, but in 1890 moved to its present loca- tion at the corner of Washington and Newcomb Streets in the upper South End, near the northeast corner of what is now the principal Negro district. At that time this particular neighborhood was almost entirely white. But soon Negroes from the West End and else- where started to come into the vicinity, and it was not long before some of them began to attend this church. To-day, of about five hundred and fifty communicants, approximately fifty are of the Negro race. The pro- portionate attendance of Negroes at the services is sometimes greater than this, sometimes less. Occa- sionally, when the Negroes have been more conspicu- ous than usual on account of sitting together in clusters, or at times when the proportion of this element has appeared to be increasing, murmurings have arisen 232 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON among the whites, but on the whole there has been little trouble. In the Sunday school, a quarter of the children are Negroes. Those in charge say the number would have been much larger, and that friction would have resulted, had not a rule been made that children whose parents are connected with other churches should not be admitted. There is probably a larger number of Episcopal churches which have some Negroes on their rolls than is the case with any other denomination. The Episco- palians, in fact, report nearly fifteen hundred Negro adherents, — of which, however, about half belong to the Mission of the Society of St. John the Evange- list, previously mentioned in connection with social service, and to whose religious work separate refer- ence will presently be made. A great many, though not the majority, have antecedents in the Church of England, being from the West Indies and Canada; others have come under influences similar to those mentioned in the case of Negro Roman Catholics; while a large proportion go to Episcopal churches for the same non-religious reason that many whites do, — because they think it savors of distinction. By 1904 the Negro attendance at Episcopal churches had increased to such an extent that complaints began to be made by the whites, and in certain churches serious friction threatened. In May of that year the Convention of the Diocese of Massachusetts appointed a commission to investigate the desirability of instituting separate missions for the Negroes. The most important parts of that commission's report, made in May, 1905, are as follows: — THE NEGRO CHURCH 233 The commission finds that there are over thirty churches in the Diocese having colored people on their list of com- municants. In most cases the numbers are small, but several report from fifty to one hundred and fifty in attendance. Bearing in mind that God hath made of one blood all na- tions of men to dwell on the face of the whole earth, and that the Christian Church stands for universal brotherhood in Jesus Christ, the commission believes that the Church should extend its already effective work among the colored people of this Diocese. It is unanimously of the opinion that, though they are sometimes peculiarly isolated because of surviving racial prejudices, they should be reached through the same moral and spiritual agencies as other people. It recommends that the clergy and laity of all parishes and missions in the Diocese make special efforts to reach their colored neighbors. The Convention showed its agreement with the com- mission by adopting the following Resolutions : — That the clergy and laity of all parishes and missions in the Diocese should make special efforts to reach their colored neighbors. That both clergy and laity should make a firm and aggressive stand for the principle of a fair chance for every individual. This remains the oflScial Episcopal attitude. But though it is true that as a rule churches of this de- nomination accord the Negro better treatment than do those of other Protestant creeds, the writer is, how- ever, aware of no Episcopal church, with the possible exceptions of Emmanuel and Ascension, already men- tioned, the members of which actually "make special efforts to reach their colored neighbors," and to bring them in on the same basis with the whites. Episcopal rectors do not hold the same position of immediate authority over the lay members of the church as do Catholic priests, and so, in the matter of the attitude 234 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON toward Negroes, prejudice on the part of the whites has less difficulty in asserting itself. As a matter of fact, this prejudice is asserting itself, and in a number of churches serious embarrassment has arisen. In the case of one of the latter, St. Peter's in Cam- bridge, affairs reached a crisis. Since 1900, the increase of Negroes in this church had been rapid. As there is only the single parish organization, the Negroes had to be accorded privileges in common with the whites. In the Sunday school there were no separate classes, and some of the mixed classes had Negro teachers. In 1906, some of the white parents began to object to this con- dition of things. As a result, a new rector who came in at that time separated the Negro and white children in most of the classes, putting each under teachers of their own race. This action offended the Negroes, who raised the cry of "Jim-crowism," and refused to be conciliated by the assurance that they still enjoyed benefits identical in kind with those of the whites, and that, besides, there were still a few mixed classes. Soon afterwards a Negro boy was expelled from the church for mischief-making. The Negroes took this as an affront, and manifested their indignation by remaining away from the services. A meeting of the church, in- cluding the Negro members, was then called to discuss what action should be taken. At this meeting the assistant rector — inadvertently, it is said — made the remark that he thought the white church members would be glad if the Negroes should withdraw alto- gether and form a separate church of their own. This gave still further offense. Though the vote of the meeting was to continue as before, every one expected THE NEGRO CHURCH 235 that "something would happen " soon. What did hap- pen a few months later was a request from the Negro contingent that they might have a church by them- selves. No objection being made by the whites, St. Bartholomew's Church, previously a mission, was turned over to them. This was in 1908. Only a few Negroes still continue to be members of the parent body. This case has been related in some detail because, in a representative sense, it is significant of a general tendency toward the effectual, if not the open and avowed, exclusion of this race from white churches. White ministers say that the objection to the presence of Negroes comes from the laymen. It does, in fact, usually originate with the latter, but the clergymen appear to give at least tacit sanction. It is, indeed, a fact, that Negro ministers make far more effort to preserve and inculcate in their people a Christian atti- tude toward the white man, than white ministers do to inspire a like attitude toward the Negro. Pastors of the Negro race could make themselves most dangerous in- cendiaries, were they so minded; but nearly all of them choose instead to preach endless patience and un- bounded charity. On the other hand, it is seldom that a white minister refers from the pulpit to the question of the Negro's welfare, and when one does it is usually to some far-off phase of the "problem," rather than to the immediately pertinent consideration of how the white people in Boston should conduct themselves toward the Negro people who are right in their midst. In this city, as elsewhere, the church is making com- paratively little effort to contribute to the bringing 236 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON about of better relations between the two races. The people who make up the churches are, of course, mem- bers of the general community and subject to its short- comings. It therefore follows that, as a prejudice against the Negroes exists in the community at large, the same prejudice enters into the churches, and affects even the pastors — the assumed leaders in holding up the ideals of church brotherhood. It is interesting, in this connection, to set in contrast the treatment accorded white visitors in the Negro churches, and that which is meted out to Negroes in most white churches. In the one case, as soon as the white visitor enters the door of the Negro church, several ushers hurry up to him with a pleasant welcome and conduct him to one of the best seats. The faces all about him are friendly and smiling. At the close of the service many cordial nods are given him; the leaders come up to tell him that they are glad he dropped in, and that they hope he will do so again. The chances are the minister will shake hands with him and repeat the invitation. Such complaisance may, of course, run over into obsequiousness. But, withal, the visitor must surely be thick-skinned if he does not feel the glow of human fellowship. Perhaps he may reflect that these people could readily enough find justification for treat- ing him otherwise. And he may be led to conclude that this race affords rather good material for genuine Christianity, a Christianity of the heart as well as the head. When, however, the tables are turned, what usu- ally happens? A Negro, as soon as he steps inside the door of a white church, must be impervious if he does not become aware of a decided chilliness in the atmos- THE NEGRO CHURCH 237 phere, dim-eyed if he does not see glances far from friendly turned upon him, and dull-eared if he does not detect in any words which may be addressed to him the notes of perfunctoriness and displeasure. He is given a seat in the least conspicuous place. Then he is still embarrassed by having people pass by the pew where he has been put, and he finds himself left with abundance of elbow room unless the church is closely packed. As he goes out after the services, members of the congregation do not greet him cordially and shake hands with him. He is not asked to stay to any after- meeting, or to come again. Because of this prevailingly inhospitable attitude toward the Negroes, on the one hand, and on the other, the fact, of which more will subsequently be said, that the independent Negro churches are gradually getting a stronger hold on the race, the general tendency at present is toward a distinct decrease in Negro attend- ance at white churches. A contributory element in this result, however, is the further fact that compara- tively few of the Negroes who have been going to white churches have made any decided effort to become active, helpful members, and to contribute to the ad- vancement of church work according to their ability. Most of them have taken a merely passive part. They have, therefore, laid themselves open to the criticism of being of no effect from the point of view of practical religious endeavor. This rebuke has been the more justifiable in that a large proportion — probably the majority, indeed — of the Negroes who have dropped out of white churches have not then become connected with churches among their own people, but simply have not gone to church at all. 238 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON Underneath this main tendency, however, is a sub- current, which, though of very minor volume, is nevertheless too real and important to be left out of account. There are a considerable number of Negroes, each one constituting an exception to the general rule, who after what may be considered a period of probation are received into white churches cordially. Such indi- viduals come to be liked and respected, and, on their side, manifest an earnest desire to be of use, and do in fact render valuable service in aiding to conduct the va- rious church activities and in contributing generously from their usually slender means. Those of whom this is true may be considered as constituting the really substantial and durable element in the connection of Negroes with churches of the other race. Their num- ber, though still comparatively slight, is slowly but surely increasing. Occupying a position midway between resort of Negroes to white churches, on the one hand, and main- tenance of their own independent churches, on the other, stand missions established and directed by the whites, but set aside exclusively for the Negro race. Reference has already been made to the action of the Roman Catholics, in 1908, in instituting separate masses for Negroes. These are held in a church for- merly vacant, St. Patrick's on Northampton Street, at the northern boundary of the principal Negro district. A white priest is in charge.^ Inasmuch as thus far only ' There are at present only two or three Negro Catholic priests in the United States, but a small number are now in training. In Africa, where many successive generations of the race have grown up under the Roman Catholic Church, native priests are gradually being installed as subordinates. THE NEGRO CHURCH 239 certain services are observed in this separate meeting- place, it can as yet hardly be called a full-fledged mission church for Negro Catholics, but it will prob- ably become such provided the latter give evidence of their ability to maintain it. This they have already done to the extent of undertaking to acquire ownership of the land and edifice. The most fully developed Negro missions, however, are those conducted by the Episcopalians. The estab- lishment of St. Augustine's Mission in the West End in 1885 by the previously mentioned Order of St. John the Evangelist, more commonly known as the Cowley Fathers, marked the beginning in Boston of such reli- gious work among the Negro population on the part of the other race. Following the migration of the Negroes to the South End, in the latter nineties, two additional missions were established; — St. Michael's in the lower South End, and St. Martin's on Lenox Street in the upper South End, in the principal Negro district. St. Michael's was abandoned in 1907, and in 1909, St. Augustine's and St. Martin's were united in the present large building erected on the latter site. About eight hundred Negroes are connected with this institution. The teaching is intense and stringent, and the attitude of the Fathers toward the Negro people is one of paternal character. The work is supported mainly by local contributions, the Negroes themselves contrib- uting a large if not a major part. Though the mission is independent of the jurisdiction of the Diocese, the Cowley Fathers have close relations with the Diocese and take part in its conventions. The commission appointed by the Diocesan Convention in 1904 to look 240 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON into the question of establishing Negro missions, from whose report earlier quotation has been made, recom- mended also " that generous moral and material support be given the missions under the Society of St. John the Evangelist by the churchmen of the Diocese," and the Convention itself adopted an identical resolution. An arrangement has been made whereby the Diocese has agreed to institute no other Negro missions within a wide radius of St. Augustine's and of St. Martin's. That agreement gives the Cowley Fathers a right of way which will materially help them in the extension of their own work; but, considering the location of the chief Negro quarter, it is a distinct obstacle to the pro- motion of other similar work by the Diocese. St. Bartholomew's, the offshoot of St. Peter's in Cambridge whose origin has already been related, stands on the border-line between a Negro mission and an independent Negro church. Strictly speaking, it is an autonomous mission ultimately subject to the con- trol of the Diocese. The use of the church building and the parish house is contributed by the Diocese, and a part of the rector's salary is paid by the Arch- deaconry. But as respects immediate control and assumption of the greater part of its running expenses, St. Bartholomew's is essentially a Negro church. Its enrolled membership has grown to several hundred, and the average attendance reaches two hundred or more. The majority of members are of the better ele- ment of the Negroes and appear to be earnest in their desire to build up a strong church. The present rector is a young Negro of good education, who has had some previous experience with missions among his people.^ 1 The Rev. Walter D. McClane. THE NEGRO CHURCH Ml If St. Bartholomew's proves a permanent success, as it now bids fair to do, it will no doubt be referred to by the other race, and in some measure by the Negroes themselves, as an argument in favor of the establish- ment of similar churches for Negroes by other denom- inations, as well as by the Episcopalians.^ Coming now to the principal, and by far the most important, avenue of religious expression which the Negroes have, we find the separate and independent churches which they themselves maintain. The first Negro church in Boston was founded in 1805, as has been related, under the name originally of the African Meeting-House, and was of the Baptist confession. Not many years afterwards, a Methodist church was established. The fact that the latter was included within the general (i.e., the white) Methodist organization, perhaps furnished the occasion for the elder church to take the name of the First Independent Baptist; while in the course of time it became popu- larly known as the old Joy Street Church, and later still its name was changed to that of St. Paul's Baptist, which is its present form. During the Abolition period, an African Methodist Zion church was founded by Ne- groes who withdrew from the Methodist body, an Afri- can Methodist church was set up by another group of secessionists, and a schism in the old Joy Street congre- gation resulted in the formation of the Twelfth Baptist ^ A step in this direction has in fact been taken in the recent opening of a Negro Unitarian society under the fostering care of the general Unitarian organization. The meeting-place is Parker Memorial, and a Negro minister, the Rev. Powhattan Bagnali, has been installed. This undertaking is still, however, in a very experimental stage. 242 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON Church.^ Since the war, owing to the growth of the Negro population, the moving of Negroes into new locaUties, and the rise of suburban communities, many other independent churches have been created. At present there are twenty-five in the Greater Boston district, of which eleven are in Boston proper, five in Cambridge, two in West Newton, two in Maiden, and the others in Woburn, West Medford, Winchester, Everett, and Chelsea. Of these twenty-five, seventeen are Baptist, three African Methodist, one African Methodist Zion, one Methodist, one Congregational- ist, one Seventh Day Adventist, and one of a sect which styles itself the Church of God.^ The local order of precedence of these denominations may be said to correspond with that in the country at large; the Baptists almost equaling in number the combined total of all the others. The proportion of Negroes of Southern birth is at its highest in this con- fession. The Baptists and Congregationalists, like their white confreres, have complete local self-government, the ministers being elected and dismissed by the church members. The several divisions of Methodists have limited self-government, to the extent that their min- ^ For exact dates of the founding of these churches, and references to their early ministers, see Appendix, Article ii. ^ The names of these churches are as follows: In Boston proper: — Calvary, Morning Star, and Ebenczer (Baptist) ; St. Mark's (Con- gregational) ; Seventh Day Adventist; and Church of God. In Cam- bridge: — Union, Mt. Olive, and St. Stephen's (Baptist); Hush, and St. Paul (African Methodist Episcopal). In West Newton: — Mt. Zion, and Myrtle Avenue (Baptist). In Maiden: — Union, and Eben- ezer (Baptist). In Woburn: — St. John's (Baptist). In West Med- ford: — Shiloh (Baptist). And Baptist churches in Everett, Chelsea, and Winchester. THE NEGRO CHURCH 243 isters, whose regular term of service is but two years, are appointed and removed by a district conference of the denomination. The African Methodists and the African Methodists Zion are, as has been noted, off- shoots of the Methodists, but are entirely discon- nected from the latter, as well as from each other, in their organization. The Methodists among the Negro people, though having their separate congregation, are, as has been said, a part of the general Methodist body, and so have no independent organization. As to the balance pro and con with respect to the Negro Church, the factors on the debit side consist partly of certain inherent elements of weakness in the Negro character, and partly of certain phases of the conditions from which the Negroes have come and those under which they are living in Boston to-day. With reference to the innate characteristics in ques- tion, the one of most distinctive influence, and in fact the only one to which previous reference has not been made in connection with more broadly social ten- dencies, is a propensity toward uncontrolled emotional- ism. The other traits whose effect in religious activity is most obvious, are the already noted general ethical undevelopment of this race, and its deficiencies in point of self-reliance and the ability for organized social cooperation. Regarding the conditions involved, it ap- pears that the proportion of Negroes who have come to Boston from the South is even larger within the churches than it is in the city's Negro population as a whole, amounting to nearly four-fifths of the church membership. These Southern immigrants are, there- fore, mainly responsible for church management and 2U THE NEGRO IN BOSTON support. They are, however, as has previously been stated, poorly equipped in education, and generally backward. Their earnings are usually not much above the amount needed for subsistence, and their work consumes the greater part of their time and energy. They are almost entirely lacking in business experience; though a church, on the material side, is virtually a busi- ness enterprise. All these adverse factors, it is clear, must severely limit the progress which the Negro churches are able to make. Specific reference to the local situation will show in what ways and to what ex- tent such is actually the case. In most of the Negro churches in Boston, the pro- pensity to emotionalism appears only in a form much modified by the Northern environment, but there is one in which it has free rein. This is the congregation of the "Church of God, Saints of Christ," which meets on the corner of Shawmut Avenue and Wood- bury Street, in the principal Negro district. It is one of a score or more in the United States belonging to the same sect, all founded by a self-announced Negro "prophet," by the name of William Crowdy. " Prophet " Crowdy, who died a few years ago of paraly- sis, had been a cook; but, according to his own testi- mony, he had revealed unto him his special divine mission, and thereupon proclaimed that he had come to save the world, beginning with the Negroes. His followers refer to a passage purporting to be from the Scriptures, and predicting that when the true prophet appeared, he would come "out of the pots." Crowdy, by virtue of his previous culinary occupation, therefore fulfilled the requirements. The writer had the honor THE NEGRO CHURCH 245 of meeting the prophet, who proved to be a very black Negro, with white hair and mustache, something wrong with one eye, and corpulent. He estabhshed the Bos- ton church about ten years ago. "Elder" Plummer, a gaunt, tall Negro, known in the faith as "Father Abraham," is in charge. The congregation is composed of about fifty individuals who are drawn from the most ignorant class and who lead a sort of communistic life. Services of one sort or another are going on at the church — which is a room over a grocery store — most of the time, but especially on Saturday, the "seventh day," and Sunday. The writer has attended several services. The procedure of one Sunday morning may be given as typical. As soon as four or five of the mem- bers had arrived they fell to singing, without books, their peculiar, long-drawn-out, monotonous hymns. These are most rudimentary in phraseology and ideas, the stanzas often differing only in a single line, and an identical refrain usually recurring at regular inter- vals. One of these refrains, so far as it was possible to catch the words, was as follows: — "God was a man, God was a man, God was a man, And the Lord God was his name." Another appeared to run thus : — "Teach all the nations Thy commands. Teach all the nations Thy commands. Teach all the nations Thy commands. For the coming of the Judgment Day." Each newcomer at once joined in the singing. The songs were started in moderate tones ; after a time would rise, sometimes by degrees and at other times with 246 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON startling suddenness, to a full shout, and then, toward the end, — an indeterminate point finally arrived at when every one was fully satisfied, — would subside to a hum or a hoarse whisper. When one song was finished, another would immediately be started, with- out any prearrangement, by some one of the congre- gation. The singing continually grew in volume and intensity. Soon the singers were marking the beat by the clapping of hands. Then feet as well as hands were brought into action. The rhythm became almost irre- sistible, even to an outsider. Ere long the members be- gan, one by one, to stand up, in order to secure greater freedom of motion. At length all were on their feet, beating their hands, stamping, turning, and twisting, and going through all sorts of fancy movements, each according to his preference and capacity. Off in one corner, a row of little tots, their heads scarcely rising above the seats, were bobbing up and down in perfect time. One old fellow, the most powerful-throated of the company, kept yelling, "Sing it! Sing it!" At length a young woman, good-looking and well-dressed, emerged from the others and began a violent dance, bending her knees, throwing up her arms, and bringing one foot down with great force at alternate beats in the singing. She continued this until completely ex- hausted. Then the singing gradually ceased. Next came "testifying," by the members. As each one got up he would say something like this, to the accompaniment of a sympathetic running comment from the others: "Members er der Church er God and Saints er Christ — I wants ter say I 's glad to be here on dis first day er der week. Bless der Lawd, befo' I THE NEGRO CHURCH 247 beared der Prophet's voice I didn' know dis was der first day er der week — I done thought it was der las' day. Doncher know, I's sho now dat I's saved. Der Prophet done tol' us so — Bless der Lawd"; and so on. After the giving of testimony was completed, "Father Abraham" arose to preach. At first he was hesitating, dull, even cold, but soon he began to speak faster and louder, and to stamp about on the platform, till by the time he was well under way he left nothing to be de- sired in point of vehemence. His discourse was en- tirely without any semblance of reasoned order, being a hodge-podge of laudation of the prophet and exposition of his teachings. Every other sentence contained a quotation from the Bible, located with extraordinary accuracy by chapter and verse. The apostles were referred to familiarly as "Ole John," "Ole Peter." Incidentally, the preacher demonstrated by scriptural quotations that Christ was a Negro. After he finished, the singing started up once more, and when the writer finally left, a little before one o'clock, the end was still in the distance. This is an extreme example — for Boston — of the Negro's exhibition of uncontrolled religious emotion- alism. Yet even in this case, the underlying religious energy is accomplishing some good results. The ma- terial progress of this particular church has been rather remarkable, considering the fact that all of its members are by occupation odd-jobbers with meager earnings. The church owns, subject to a mortgage, a large frame building which is used as a home for widows and orphans, and in rented quarters profitably conducts a grocery store, a dry goods shop, and a restaurant. 248 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON Apart, moreover, from what may be their own pecu- liar mode of hfe and moral standards, as among themselves, the members of this sect in Boston have the reputation of being law-abiding, industrious, and honest in their relations with the rest of the com- munity. The second element which has been mentioned as handicapping the Negro in his practical religious endeavors, namely, his moral and ethical undevelop- ment, rises up to face him in the personal character of the men who occupy the pulpits of his churches. A considerable proportion of these Negro ministers — at least one quarter of them — are patently lax in their morals, and the good name of the majority is not free from more or less suspicion. The most unsavory recent case in point was that of the pastor of a suburban group of Baptists, who was proved to have had illicit rela- tions wholesale with women, especially young girls, both within and without his congregation. This man was brought to justice and sentenced to the House of Correction. There are others like him, whose evil- doing is equally well known, but who have thus far escaped the penalty. Most of them are ignorant and in- competent floaters and hangers-on, hailing from parts none too certain with credentials none too reassuring, and getting along prosperously with so little visible means of support as to warrant grave question as to their mode of living — which, according to report, consists largely in exploiting the pocketbooks of weak "sisters." Many of these fellows start so-called " missions." Some of them find a chance to preach in regular Negro churches now and then, and sometimes THE NEGRO CHURCH 249 they succeed in imposing themselves upon such a con- gregation permanently. Other culprits, of a higher grade so far as intelligence and outwardly respectable standing are concerned, combine with their corrup- tion, as weapons of offense and defense, education, ability, and suavity of speech, and are intrenched behind the pulpits of some of the larger churches. One of this sort — a fat, sleek individual, at present connected with one of the leading Negro congrega- tions in the city — makes a special practice of ap- proaching white candidates for office and oflfering, in return for a substantial consideration, to deliver over Negro votes. Far more serious, however, than the immorality of these pulpit reprobates themselves is the tolerance of it and of them by the members of their churches. "Like priest, like people," is the obvious implication, and while the facts are not quite so bad as that, it is at least a case of living in glass houses. The ethical unde- velopment of the race shows itself nowhere more obviously than at this point. Their moral perception is dull; they do not fully realize the obliquity of hav- ing a minister of easy morals as their accredited leader. This is especially the case if the man in question be a stirring preacher, and popular. And when they do realize, they still lack the moral backbone to come out openly against the offender. One suave individual whose gross immorality was a matter of common knowledge, nevertheless kept himself for many years in one of the large city churches. It would have re- quired only some courage to convict him before the public. Now and then half-hearted and cautious pro- 250 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON tests were made, but there was no determined effort to dislodge liim. This man has now passed to his reward. Two other ministers brought upon themselves charges which, though not entirely proved, were so damaging that the good name of the churches involved should have made their resignation imperative. Both these men, however, continue to occupy two of the most important pulpits among their people. The members of these congregations murmured, it is true, but they did not rebel. Neither have the better Negro ministers nor the better element of the Negro community risen in revolt against this state of affairs. The further hampering characteristics of lack of self-reliance and incapacity in social organization, operating in conjunction with the comparative ab- sence of business experience, to which also reference has been made, are reflected in the financial condition of the Negro churches. Only one of them is entirely free from debt. Several are not seriously encumbered. But the majority are beset by debts which, in propor- tion to the material means of the church body, are simply enormous. In most instances this indebted- ness was incurred within the last fifteen years, when the present church edifices were bought. Previously, most of the churches in the city proper occupied land and buildings in the West End, which they had pur- chased in the early days at small cost; but when these congregations moved to the South End, they either sold their former buildings or turned them over in part payment for the new ones. Whether they sold or traded, however, they were usually worsted. For the new buildings they paid much more than their value THE NEGRO CHURCH 251 in the open market — sometimes twice as much. In addition they bound themselves to pay interest far in excess of the prevailing rate. These damaging trans- actions were, in a few cases, due partly to a conspiracy for personal profit; between the minister or some of the members, or both together, on the one side, and the white sellers and mortgagees, on the other. In recent years, there have been several exposures of such diver- sion of church funds to private use by ministers and church officers, and undoubtedly much further dis- honesty has escaped detection. But for the most part, the great financial difficulty which the Negro churches have experienced, even in meeting interest payments, has been due simply to business incapacity on the part of both the church members and the ministers. Want of business initiative and aggressiveness has kept the Negroes from obtaining, to the extent which otherwise they might have, a reduction in the exorbitant interest rate, while lack of foresight and of a carefully worked- out application of available funds has proved a terrible obstacle to the cutting-down of the debt. The keeping of systematic records of receipts and expenditures is exceptional, and in consequence a considerable leakage of church moneys is more than possible. One of the Negro pastors who worked hardest, while he was in Boston, to improve the financial situation of his church, acknowledged to the writer that at the outset the meetings of his business committee well-nigh took all the heart out of him, they were so unbusinesslike. As a result of all these adverse elements combined, no Negro minister or Negro church has in recent years won in the community at large a commanding posi- 252 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON tion of respect and influence for good. While such a position would be harder to attain to-day than it would have been prior to the change of attitude toward the Negro race, yet the essential reason why it has not been attained is that the requisite merit has not made itself manifest. A recent pastor of one of the larger Negro churches was on the way to acquiring such a standing, when he left the city under somewhat of a cloud. With eloquence, this man united rare charm of personality, education, and intellectual ability. He was invited to speak at important meetings in the community, and was consulted by the whites on mat- ters affecting his people. So much for the debit side of the account. Passing now to the credit column of the balance-sheet, it is a fact that notwithstanding the weaknesses which have been pointed out, and which are so glaring as to ob- scure the more favorable features, the Negro church has already attained many fundamental elements of strength, and is at present making still further under- lying progress. To begin with, the Negro's propensity to emotion- alism has another and deeper side, which is altogether in his favor. This was forcibly expressed by one of the speakers at a recent convention of the American Missionary Association, himself of African descent, who declared that "the Negro has religiousness enough to save America." ^ Doubtless the tropical African habitat bred in the Negro race a warmth of religious feeling. The natives of that continent, how- ^ This statement was made by Professor William Pickens, a graduate of Yale, now teaching in the South. THE NEGRO CHURCH 253 ever, do not stand out so conspicuously in this re- spect, as compared with other primitive peoples, as do the members of this race in America, when com- pared with other elements of our country's population. The high degree of development of this quality in the American Negro is largely an outgrowth of the condi- tions which prevailed under slavery. Rigidly limited in all other directions, the slaves found full self-expres- sion only in their religion. Their bondage, their igno- rance, and their superstition, on the one hand, com- bined with their hope of freedom and their sturdy sense of innate manhood, on the other, united in impelling them to seek fulfillment in the religious outlet. At night, when they were supposed to be in bed, they used to slip away to some secluded rendezvous, and there pray and sing and give themselves over without re- straint to their pent-up feelings. In such secret con- gregation they found solace for their sufferings, com- fort in their sorrows, hope for deliverance, and patience for endless endurance. During the period of slavery, at least, religion was the Negro's "mighty fortress." The religious experience which the slaves underwent was, in spirit and in kind, like that undergone centuries ago by the early Christians in the Roman Empire. To-day religious fervor, of which such uncontrolled emotionalism as that exhibited by the "Church of God" is but the ignorant outpouring, still remains one of the most impressive characteristics of the Negro people. This fervor, rightly directed, cannot but prove an asset of the greatest strength to the race. It is itself, indeed, the central motive power of religious endeavor and achievement. 254 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON That the aberrant display of emotion is in fact held well in check in nearly all the Negro churches in Boston has already been remarked. The advance which has been made in this respect is especially pro- nounced. At present Negro congregations are in the main noticeably self -restrained. In former years, what may be termed the dress-parade collection was re- garded as an indispensable feature. This was a pro- cedure in which, to the accompaniment of lusty music from the choir, the members, as the spirit moved them, went forward and deposited their offering on a table placed before the pulpit. This gave the fem- inine portion of the congregation an excellent oppor- tunity to display new gowns. It was also effectual in swelling the size of the collection. In a majority of the Negro churches, nevertheless, this custom is now being abolished. Paralleling the ascendancy of higher forms of reli- gious expression among the church members, thus indicated, is a decided improvement in point of educa- tion and intellectual standards on the part of Negro ministers. To-day there is comparatively little of the "shouting" and "exhorting" of days gone by; on the contrary, there is a far larger measure of intelligent appeal to reason and common sense. There are more and better Negro theological schools than there were fifteen or twenty years ago. Moat of the ministers of this race in Boston have received their education either at such schools or, in some cases, at white institutions of recognized standing. The progress which is most difficult to discern in the Negro churches is that pertaining to standards of THE NEGRO CHURCH 255 morality. The scandals to which reference has been made have a very discouraging effect, not only upon white people who want to help the Negroes, but still more noticeably upon the Negro people themselves. A minister whose character is above reproach remarked to the writer, "Why! I almost feel ashamed to appear on the streets in my clerical garb and to be recognized as a Negro clergyman." The very fact, however, that the Negroes are conscious of the disgrace thus brought upon them is one of the most hopeful elements in the situation. In spite of the recent unsavory record in this respect, moreover, it is a fact that the Negro com- munity is to-day more sensitive to moral delinquency on the part of its ministers than it has been in the past, and that in general the moral standards which it applies to the churches are higher. Though it is true that most of the delinquent pastors have continued to hold their pulpits, it is also true that to-day there is more open discussion of this bad state of affairs, more protest against it, and more determination to remedy it, than there has ever been before. A fact the significance of which does not appear on the surface is that the scandals have occurred chiefly in Baptist churches. Now it must be taken into consideration that, as stated at an earlier point, each Baptist church is completely independent and subject to no control from without. For this reason, it is sometimes ex- tremely difficult for the members to dislodge a bad minister, even when a majority of them genuinely desire to do so. In various ways the culprit, with a few trusty allies to lend assistance, is able to obstruct measures aimed against him, while at the same time 256 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON gathering in new members pledged to his support. This is, indeed, the method that has usually been fol- lowed. In one church, the opposition to the pastor became so strong that finally a vote was passed calling upon him to resign. But by cunning manipulation he and his adherents actually obtained a subsequent vote declining to accept his resignation. There have been two recent cases, however, in which guilty ministers have actually been forced out. One of these was that of the suburban Baptist church, previously men- tioned, where the commitment of the offender to the House of Correction was the final result of charges lodged against him by members of his own race. The other case occurred in a Zion African Methodist church, protest on the part of the better element among the members being carried into effect by the denomina- tional district conference. These two instances of effective protest against pulpit corruption afford hope for a more general demonstration to the same end on the part of the better element of the Negro people. It is unfortunate in this connection that the average white person's impression of Negro ministers is formed from occasional contact with, or, still more commonly, rumors and newspaper reports about, those of the worst sort. A white clergyman once said to the writer, with reference to one of the Negro pastors of the better type, "It is a pity that white people do not come into contact with Negroes like him. He is one for whom I have as deep a respect as for any white man — a fine, clean, intelligent Christian gentleman." At least a quarter of the Negro ministers merit equal commenda- tion. These men are pastors in the original simple THE NEGRO CHURCH 257 sense of that term. They live in the midst of the "common people" of their race. Their salaries have not yet reached a point which permits them to view the struggle for existence impersonally and compla- cently. Not only their sympathies, but the facts of their own daily life, render them keenly alive to the hardships of their fellows. Their churches are not so large, prosperous, and well organized as to allow them to dispense funds and give orders from a comfortable desk chair. They verily do their work and earn their bread in the sweat of their brows. As the needs of their people are simple but real, the help which they give is homely but true. One Sunday morning the writer chanced to attend the church of a minister of this sturdy mould. A deacon was speaking from the pul- pit, bewailing the "terrible conditions " of the Negroes, calling them "a people without a home, a race without a country," and urging colonization in Africa. When he had concluded, the pastor himself rose and thus quietly expressed his own attitude: "Our brother's heart is full this morning. He has given us much to think about. But I do not agree with all he has said. I think the United States is the home of the Negro. He has been here nearly three hundred years, and is no longer a foreigner. He has become a taxpayer and a voter. He is in the professions and in business thou- sands strong. His situation is, indeed, bad in many ways, but it is far better than it might be, and it is improving every day. I did not intend this morning to speak about our conditions, but I cannot let you leave this service without giving you a hopeful view of the future. For many years I have watched the prog- 258 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON ress of my people, and I want you to know I am optimistic." Negro ministers of the stamp of this man are receiving increasing support from the better class of the Negro community, and are being held up as examples with growing respect. They are coming to be accorded a position of relatively greater influence among their people than used to be the case in the past, when the minister's personal character was in fact given far less thought than his capacity to exhort, and on occasion to quote Latin or some other language which the congregation could not comprehend. All of which surely bears witness to the development of higher religious-moral standards. Viewing the situation on the more material side, the mere increase in the number of Negro churches in Bos- ton, from five at the close of the war to twenty-five to-day, - — the simple fact that these churches have been organized and maintained, — is in itself signifi- cant of religious progress in the rough. The Negroes have held to their churches with remarkable tenacity. Though there have been instances of churches going unused for a time on account of internal dissension, financial inabilities, or other causes, there have been but few cases of ])ermanent abandonment. In addi- tion, the church buildings are to-day larger, more attractive, and more comfortably furnished than ever before. In most of the churches the membership has been steadily growing. ;^The Charles Street African Methodist, for example, added, in the three years 1908-10, 369 new members, which, allowing for those who dropped out, meant a net gain of about 250. In approximately the same period, the Sunday school THE NEGRO CHURCH 259 grew from 162 to 548. As this is next to the largest Negro church in point of membership, its recent gains are somewhat above the average. That similar growth is general, however, is shown by the record of the Cal- vary Baptist Church, one of the smaller ones, which in 1903 had only 95 members, while in 1910 it had over 300. Though, as has been said, the majority of the churches are still heavily in debt, it is at the same time true that a majority are making progress in reducing their debts. The Zion African Methodist Church, for instance, assumed a debt of $59,500 in 1903 when it purchased its present edifice. Since then it has paid off $28,500 of this debt, which as a result stands to-day at $31,000. What a highly creditable achievement this has been appears when the material means of the church members, on the one hand, and, on the other, the regular yearly expenses of merely keeping the church going, are taken into account. This congrega- tion includes about 635 members, of whom more than ninety per cent are of the laboring class, and not far from two thirds women. The present annual expenses, exclusive of any payments on the principal of the debt but including interest, amount to about $6000. This has meant an average contribution of at least $9.40 from each member. When allowance is also made for frequent extra collections taken up in behalf of South- ern schools, for money expended in the relief of dis- tress, and for disbursements in other directions, as well as for miscellaneous individual contributions for special cases of which no stated account is kept, the yearly expenditure per capita must be set at well 260 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON above $10. That the members, in spite of the meager- ness of their earnings, give this much on the average each year to their church, is a performance which merits high praise in itself — not to mention paying $28,500 in eight years on the accumulated debt besides. The pastor states that there have, indeed, been occasions when each man and woman has had to sacrifice the wages of an entire week. Nor is this particular church exceptional in this regard; in most of the others equal sacrifices are being made and similar results are being accomplished. The members of Negro churches undoubtedly contribute several times more money, in proportion to their means, than church members of the other race. So long as the Negro churches continue to be debt- ridden, it is hardly to be expected that charitable and social betterment work, of the character to which white churches are devoting such marked attention and for which there is the utmost need in the Negro com- munity, will exceed very modest proportions. For the most part the church activities do not extend beyond the narrower religious limits. Yet the progress which is being made in the new direction is substantial. The church which is doing most along these lines, and whose example may be cited as indicating what an increasing proportion of the others are in lesser degree attempting, is the Charles Street African Methodist, already referred to in another connection. The fact that its debt amounts only to $7000 at five per cent interest puts this church in a favorable position to extend its usefulness. There are senior and junior boards of stewardesses, and also a board of deaconesses, which THE NEGRO CHURCH 261 have as their special function assistance of the poor and needy. The collections of the first Sunday in each month are turned over to the senior stewardesses, who expend about $500 a year in relief and help. The junior stewardesses, besides paying all the interest on the debt, make charitable use of over $200 a year, and the deaconesses of about $300. In this church are also a number of well-to-do individuals who assist gener- ously in cases of need which cannot be met with the collective funds. Still more important than the money expenditure, however, is the genuine, earnest personal thought and service which are devoted to these hope- ful out-reachings in directions of community uplift. The sociability and associativeness which are in- herent in the Negro nature are fundamental assets for organized religious progress. White ministers find themselves obliged to keep up an unremitting effort to popularize their churches, and those who succeed are regarded as having accomplished something remark- able. Negro ministers are generally free from this burden, for with this race going to church is popular beyond any possible doubt. The majority of the Ne- gro people, kept hard at work through the week, find the church the best place at which to meet their friends and exchange the latest news. The Negroes, too, even as others, like on Sunday to show their best clothes and to inspect those of their neighbors. Moreover, the music, especially the congregational singing, together with all the emotional stimulation connected with the services, appeals strongly to their responsive natures. While these various attractions help to swell church 262 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON attendance, a deeper element of strength consists in the traditional place of primacy which the Negro church has occupied in the life of this race since its emancipation. The churches were the Negro's first, and in the South for many years their only, institu- tions. They were the centers of organization, not only for religious objects, but for all purposes. To-day they still retain the major part of this unique significance. Previous remark has been made of the fact that in Boston the social progress of the Negroes has not yet reached the point of producing full-fledged institutions, with domiciles of their own. This statement should, however, be amended by the qualifying clause, "out- side of the churches"; for the latter constitute a most important exception to the rule. They provide the largest, most comfortable, and best equipped gather- ing-places of their own which the Negroes have. Meetings of many different kinds are held in them. Consequently they fulfill relatively a far larger general function in the Negro community than do white churches in the white community. This explains why, as previously noted, the Negro churches both fol- lowed and furthered the migration of this race from the old West End colony to the South End. So far as concerns a certain unquestioning acceptance of spirit- ual authority, the attitude of the mass of Negroes toward their ministers approximates, moreover, to that of the mass of Roman Catholics toward their priests. The substance of the whole situation was compressed in a remark which one of the Negro pastors made to the writer: "Take their churches away from the Negro people," said he, "and you pull down the mainstay of their social order." THE NEGRO CHURCH 263 That there is a distinct and well-grounded move- ment among the Negroes toward a deeper realization of the central and vital importance of the Negro church, not only in its religious but also in its social and ethical value, is the fact which holds out fullest promise for the future. Though some small gradual increase may be expected in what has been called the substantial and exceptional part of Negro attendance at white churches, the unsubstantial major part of that attendance will in all likelihood continue to diminish, for the reason, principally, that these Negroes themselves will come to see that their posi- tion in white churches is lacking in dignity and prac- tical effectiveness, and that they are not deriving therefrom a sufficient increment of solid satisfaction. Missions for Negroes, under the direction of the other race, will doubtless hold their own and may consider- ably increase their following. These serve a useful in- termediary function between the white church, on the one hand, and the Negro church, on the other; at once relieving the former of possible embarrassment and friction, while exerting an influence along educational, disciplinary, and generally preparatory lines, among certain elements of the Negro race not yet arrived at a point qualifying them for independent organization. But when all is said, the fact that such missions inher- ently suggest racial dependence will limit their accept- ability to the Negroes in general. The independent Negro church, in spite of all its present shortcomings, is nevertheless the natural and logical medium of reli- gious expression for the Negro people. And the Negroes are in fact rallying around their church. As yet this 264 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON movement is most clearly observable among the sturdy rank and file, as should and indeed must be the case if the church is to get its essential grip on the mass of the race. At the same time it is also true that, to a very appreciable extent, the middle and upper classes are either being aroused from hitherto complete indiffer- ence to religious forces, and brought into active connec- tion with the churches of their own people; or, in the case of others, converted from their previous futile efforts to gain standing in white churches. The Negroes of these higher gradations in the economic- social scale are bringing to the service of the Negro church not only the increased material means and some degree of the practical business experience which are almost indispensable factors in its progress, but also superior education and refinement, and generally more advanced standards. They are the element who should be the natural church leaders, and they are now in fact entering upon the exercise of such leadership. They are helping to put the churches on a sounder financial basis, are strengthening their moral tone, and gradu- ally are building up a more efficient religious organiza- tion. When, then, full account is taken of these innate elements of strength and this underlying progress, it is evident that an affirmative and favorable answer must be given to the broadly fundamental questions which were proposed at the outset, with reference to the religious factors in the life of the Negro people. It appears that the Negroes are, indeed, applying their religious resources in more practical ways and to bet- ter purpose; and that, furthermore, a fundamental THE NEGRO CHURCH 265 tendency toward religious coherence and solidarity, in and about the Negro church, is clearly manifest among them. The Negro community is, in short, bringing religion more effectually to bear in the betterment of its conditions and in the solution of its problems. CHAPTER VIII THE LEVERAGE OF THE BALLOT The Negro's most direct means of safeguarding and promoting his well-being, so far as these ends can be accomplished through law and public action, is had in his possession of the ballot, with its accompanying privileges and powers. In the use which he makes of the ballot, moreover, is to be found the most immedi- ate and specific test of his interest in the welfare of the community at large, and of the character and tendency of his own contribution thereto. Such being the case, certain general inquiries suggest themselves as having pertinence and importance in this connection. First, from the broader point of view of the whole community: Does the Negro take advantage of the right to vote, and does he manifest an active concern in political affairs? In other words, is he of merely negative, or of positive, political effect? If positive, then does his influence count on the side of ignorance or of intelligence, venality or honesty, degraded poli- tics or good government? Is there any marked tend- ency, either downward or upward, in these respects? Secondly, from the point of view of the more or less dis- tinct interests of the Negro himself: Have the Negroes turned the ballot to good account in their own behalf? Have they come to have a fuller and more intelligent appreciation of its potential value as a practical means for achieving desired ends? Have they profited by THE LEVERAGE OF THE BALLOT 267 their numbers to combine and organize for political purposes? Have they manifested any measure of political self-reliance and independence as a racial group? Have they, finally, as a total result, succeeded in obtaining a substantial political footing in the com- munity, and in making themselves a recognized factor in the affairs of the body politic? Previous note has been made, in connection with the general narrative, of the outstanding features of the Negro's political history, from early days down to the time of the recent change of front toward this race on the part of the whites, the crucial stage of which was roughly marked by the year 1895. Before proceeding to take account of the subsequent period, however, it will be serviceable, as affording historical background and perspective, briefly to review the salient points of the preceding political development. The right to vote has apparently been possessed by the Negro in Boston ever since the test case of the Cuffes which arose in 1764; and, at any rate, has clearly been his since the adoption of the Body of Liberties of 1790. But prior to the Abolitionist agitation, the pro- portion of Negroes who exercised this right was prac- tically negligible. That campaign of propaganda, how- ever, maintained for over thirty years, awakened the majority of the Negroes to a realizing sense of their citizenship ; while in the endeavor to put strong anti- slavery men in office they found a sufficient inducement to make their votes count. Yet before the war the Negro's participation in political affairs went no fur- ther than voting or petitioning. With a single excep- tion, to which reference has previously been made, 268 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON they held no public positions, either elective or ap- pointive; for the reason, mainly, that nine tenths of their race in the country at large being still held as slaves, friendly sentiment had not, even in Boston, reached the point of elevating them to office.^ Through the conventions and committees of Aboli- tion days, however, the Negroes gained considerable experience in methods akin to those of politics, which subsequently gave them greater confidence in advanc- ing their claims. After the war they of course expected to be of more political consequence. But whatever effort they exerted on their own behalf was of second- ary importance and effect, for they were immediately made the proteges of white friends and enthusiasts, at whose hands they forthwith became recipients of bountiful patronage. During a period of twenty years at least, the outflowing favor of the other race was the potent factor in the appointment of Negroes to many respectable posts and in their election to the City Council and the State Legislature. Not till about 1885 did they themselves reach the point where, by virtue of having become so numerous in the West End as to comprise over half the voters in the Republican ma- jority of old Ward 9, they were in a position effectu- ally to demand representation. But though thereafter their numbers constituted the most apparent reason for their political prosperity, the continued though diminishing favor of the whites was still its underlying cause. In 1895, as has also been previously stated, the city * The single exception referred to was that of Lewis Haj'den's messengership in the office of the Massachusetts secretary of state. THE LEVERAGE OF THE BALLOT 269 underwent a political redistricting.^ Ward lines were altered to the form which they have to-day. As a result the Negro colony in the West End was split in two. A small portion of it was put into the present Ward 8, the rest into the present Ward 11. In Ward 8, which from the beginning has been controlled by the Democrats, the Negroes became, politically speaking, a negligible quantity. Though in Ward 11, which was even more strongly Republican than former Ward 9, they formed a large and, for a few years, increasing element, their proportion among the voters of that party was reduced from the fifty per cent or more of former Ward 9, to less than fifteen per cent. Thus was undermined whatever political strength they had ac- quired or were on the way to acquiring through mere \ force of numbers in that section. This mischance was coincident, in point of time, with the decisive formation of the new attitude toward the Negro, one of the principal elements of which has been the withdrawal from this race of that special favor and indulgence which prevailed during the earlier post-bellum period. Though in political affairs this reaction of public opin- ion with respect to the Negro did not at once become fully manifest, it was by that time, nevertheless, pre- determined and under way. As, therefore, the year 1895 marked a general realignment of conditions, by which the Negro has been forced back upon his own resources, it ushered in an order under which he has been compelled to look out for himself in a political way. Thus it is from that year, and not before, * Such redistrictings are made from time to time on account of increase and shifting of population, and annexation of new territory. 270 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON that the political record of the Negro, on his own feet and in his own right, really dates. What has that record been, and what are the ele- ments which have entered into and determined it? The most obvious index to the political standing of any particular group in the community consists of the number and importance of elective offices obtained by members of that group. In the absence of special sentiment, election to office implies either public approval on a basis of substantial merit, effective political organization, or, as usually holds true, a com- bination of both these elements. The application of this test to the case of the Negroes will, therefore, afford some introductory evidence, at least, as to how the latter have fared, on the political side, during the recent period. Immediately preceding the redistricting to which reference has been made, and in line with the previous long-standing policy, a Negro, William L. Reed, had been elected as a representative in the Legislature from old Ward 9, for the year 1896. He was reelected from the present Ward 1 1 for the year following, out of regard for the custom of allowing each man to serve two terms. But the next year both the representatives from that ward were white. Reed was the last of his race to be elected to the Legislature from Boston proper, terminating the long line which had begun in 1866. In the case of the Common Council the Negro vote was still reckoned of sufficient importance to let the Negroes continue to have one of the ward's three members of that body.^ Meanwhile, however, the * For list of Negro common councilmen down to 1895, see chapter lu. Just before the redistricting of that year, Stanley L. Ruffia THE LEVERAGE OF THE BALLOT 271 emigration of the Negroes away from the West End had been going on rapidly, with the result of still further reducing their proportion of the voters in that section. That decided the matter. Thereafter, it was only the influence of long custom, and the good-will of the white Republicans of the ward, which kept a Negro in the Council; and in 1908, the representation previously accorded this race was finally discontinued. When the Negro colony in the West End was begin- ning to diminish, the colony in the lower South End, about Pleasant Street and in the adjoining district, included in present Ward 10, was, as previously noted, in the ascendant. That ward, too, has always been preponderantly Republican. By 1898, the Negroes formed over fifteen per cent of the Republican voters. Five years earlier, as already mentioned, they had first been given one of the councilmen. From that time, with brief lapses, this representation was con- tinued.^ About 1900, the proprietor of a so-called had been reelected for a third term from former Ward 9, and thus served through 1896. A lapse of a year intervened; then from the present Ward 11, Edward H. Armistead was elected, and served for the three years 1898-1900. He was succeeded by S. William Simms, who served for the four years 1901-04. The latter, a janitor by occu- pation, was an interesting character and a favorite among his white colleagues. He was of a pious turn of mind, and used to take it upon himself to rebuke any of his fellow-members who indulged in profane or irreverent language. When the meetings were opened with prayer, he was frequently called upon. He was followed by Dr. Isaac L. Roberts, one of the leading Negro physicians, who served for the four years 1905-08. ^ The pioneer, as mentioned at an earlier point (cf. chapter in), was Charles H. Hall, who served for the four years 1893-96. His successors were: 1898, David R. Robinson; 1900-01, Osborn A. Newton; 1903-06, Charles W. M. Williams; 1908-09, J. Henderson Allston. 272 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON "club," which holds a license to sell liquor, became the Negro "boss" in the ward, being recognized as such by the white "boss." Whatever this man's alleged shortcomings in other respects may be, he must at least be given credit for much more political sagacity and ability than most of the Negro aspirants for leadership. Largely through his exertions the Negro voters in the ward were so well organized, and made to contribute so substantially to Republican intrench- ment in that quarter, that there appeared to be a prospect of having a member of the race elected to the Legislature. A semi-agreement was formed with the local white politicians that the Negro councilman from the ward, whose fourth consecutive term expired in 1906, and who had shown marked capacity, should be selected for this promotion. But for various reasons, among them the lack of sufficient insistence on the part of the Negroes, this result was not brought about at that time; while the previously mentioned tend- ency toward a decline in the Negro population of that section has forestalled its subsequent realization. In 1909, the Common Council was abolished by the adoption of the present city charter. It so happened that Ward lO's Negro representative in the Coun- cil that year, J. Henderson AUston, was the senior member of that body, by virtue of his former election from old Ward 9 in 1894. In that capacity it fell to him to preside at the opening session. This was the first time that a Negro had performed that function. AUston's brief remarks to his colleagues were the sub- ject of favorable comment. "Allow me to felicitate you," he said, "upon your election to a seat in the THE LEVERAGE OF THE BALLOT 273 Common Council in the great city of Boston. It is, indeed, a very high privilege to be entrusted thus in part with the preservation and destiny of a city so rich in the traditions of all that mankind loves to honor and revere. And need I add that it is my sincere desire that this year shall prove to each and all of us a period of boundless happiness and prosperity.'* That we shall honorably demean ourselves here, so as to show our gratitude and to merit the approval of those whom we have the honor to serve, will be only in keeping with the exalted traditions of our predecessors in these seats. And surely the most earnest hope of every member-elect must be one in this, that 'as God was with our fa- thers, so may He be with us.'" These were creditable words to be spoken by the last Negro member of Bos- ton's Common Council in the last year of its existence. Deferring, for the present, reference to the political, situation in Boston's principal Negro colony in the upper South End and lower Roxbury section, and pass- ing outward to the suburbs included in the metropoli- tan district, chief interest attaches to Cambridge. There the Negroes form a large element of the voters in three wards, and in one of these they poll approxi- mately fifty per cent of the Republican strength.^ Political conditions in Cambridge, as they particu- larly affect the Negroes, have differed from those of Boston proper in two important respects. There has been more departure in municipal elections from na- tional party lines, — that is, more division upon strictly municipal issues. This state of affairs has, on * The wards referred to are 6, 7, and 4, the latter being the one with the largest Negro population. 274 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON the one hand, worked against the fostering of the Negroes by the RepubHcans for purposes of city politics, to the extent that they are so cultivated in Boston, and in so far has tended to keep them from getting as many offices as they otherwise might. In the ward where the Negroes are most numerous, indeed, a Negro has never been elected to office. But, on the other hand, the members of this race in Cambridge have gained a special increment of political importance from the very fact that their vote has been more largely sought by both sides, in divisions on municipal matters irrespective of party. Furthermore, the change of attitude on the part of the whites toward this ele- ment of the population has not gone quite so far in suburban Cambridge as it has in Boston proper, and politically as well as otherwise the Negroes are there ranked somewhat higher in the community. Those who have been put in public positions in Cambridge have usually been chosen with more regard to their individual merits. Such has been the case with the only two Negroes who have held elective offices in that suburb during the recent period. Clement G. Morgan was elected to the local Common Council from a ward where the proportion of Negro voters is slight, and served in that body for the two years 1895- 96. He was then elected alderman, which place he filled for the two years following. In 1899 and again in 1900, he was one of the ward's Republican nominees for the Legislature, but failed of election. For a long time he has been chairman of his party's ward committee, notwithstanding that he is its only Negro member.^ 1 For mention of Morgan in connection with the equal rights agitation, see Appendix, article ni. THE LEVERAGE OF THE BALLOT 273 W, H. Lewis, to whom several important references have already been made, was chosen as a councilman from another ward where the Negro vote is small, and served in that capacity for the three years 1899- 01. He was then elected a representative in the Legis- lature, which position he filled during the year 1902. He holds the double distinction of having been the last Negro member of the Common Council of Cambridge, and the last Negro member of the Legislature of the State of Massachusetts. In only two other suburbs have Negroes held elec- tive offices. In Chelsea a member of this race, who has taken a considerable part in local civic affairs, was elected, entirely on his individual worth, to the posi- tion of alderman, and served in that role five years. ^ Not long ago there was a Negro member on the Com- mon Council of Everett. So far, therefore, as election to public office is indi- cative of the Negro's political standing, two facts become evident. The first is that this race has received a measure of recognition of this kind in the body poli- tic which is altogether substantial, especially when viewed in the light of the Negro's small proportion of the population.^ Set over against this fact, however, is another, which relates to the tendency involved. It appears that since 1897, with the exception of the single year 1902, there have been no Negroes in the Legislature; that since 1901 there have been no ^ William J. Williams, the lawyer, who is also captain of the Negro company (Company L) of the State Militia. His term as alderman was 1902-06. 2 As previously stated, only 1.7 per cent in the Greater Boston district. 276 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON Negroes in either branch of the Cambridge City Coun- cil; and that when the Common Council of Boston proper was abolished in 1909, there was but one Negro member in that body, as compared with three for the earlier years 1894-95. In other words, the Negroes have in this respect suffered a gradual subsidence, till the number of elective offices held by them has at last declined to zero. In part, this falling-off has been due to causes for which the Negroes themselves were not in any way to blame. The redistricting of the city, and the abolition of the Common Council, were general events over which they had no control. Likewise the migration of this race, away from the West End colony and more recently from that in the lower South End, which has had the effect of terminating its politi- cal representation in the former section and of pre- venting the election of one of its members to the Legislature from the latter, is a movement which can- not be held to the Negro's political discredit. Down below these fortuitous and transient elements, how- ever, are others which must be charged in part against the Negro himself, and in part against his past and present conditions. Of these, which are more deter- minate and continuous in their operation, and which have tended to produce, and in fact have entered very largely into, the final outcome in the matter of elective offices, account may now appropriately be taken. Among the Negro's inherent characteristics, two especially, to both of which attention has already been called in other connections, count seriously to his dis- advantage in the political field. These are, — first, the lack of self-reliance; and second, the deficiency in THE LEVERAGE OF THE BALLOT 277 the capacity for social cooperation. The former short- coming tends to perpetuate the political dependence of the Negroes upon the whites, and to keep them from displaying initiative and generally asserting them- selves. The latter shows itself in an inability to sub- ordinate personal and minor differences to an inclusive and effective organization and a general fixed policy. The propensities of the Negroes to "backbite" one an- other, to be jealous and envious of each other's suc- cess, to quarrel and to split into continually changing factions, crop out conspicuously and damagingly in their political conduct. As to the conditions from which the great mass of the Negroes in Boston have come and those under which they are living at present, it can hardly be questioned that these have been and are still, in the main, adverse to political progress. The great majority of immigrants from the South, no less because of their own ignorance and lack of interest in political affairs than because of their previous exclusion from politics by the Southern whites, have acquired next to no po- litical experience and understanding. Even after tak- ing up their abode in Boston they tend, through their own inertia, to remain in a benighted state. A large proportion of the newcomers from other parts of the North are, as has been said, of the migratory sort, here one day and gone the next. A great many of them are not sufficiently interested in the local situation to take the trouble of registering as voters. Most of the immi- grants from Canada and the West Indies are not even naturalized, the former merely through indifference, the latter because they expect to return to the Islands. 278 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON In Boston, the great mass of the Negroes are immersed in the ever-present problem of earning their daily bread, and are, besides, peculiarly subject to many irreg- ularities of working conditions, so that they have but little time to inform themselves with respect to politi- cal questions or to attend to political duties. Many of those who work as porters and waiters on the cars and boats, or who are employed at summer hotels, are often away from Boston on voting days. By 1895, moreover, as has previously been noted, the Negroes had lost, either through death or retire- ment from activity, nearly all of the capable leaders to whom they owed a great part of their political good fortune up to that time. These men had gained the attention and the respect of the whites, and com- manded the following of their own race. Neither the junior recruits who have been mentioned as reinforcing the Old Guard in its fight for equal rights, nor those of the race whose election to office in recent years has implied some degree of influence, have been able to take the place of the leaders who passed away. This has not been owing to inferior ability on the part of these younger men, for in education and mentality most of them are on a higher level. It has been due to a number of concurrent conditions. The fact that the Negroes of the upper class have in large part assumed a position aloof from the mass of the race has disqual- ified the majority of this element for political director- ship. The division which has arisen between the agitators for equality, on the one hand, and the sup- porters of Washington's economic policy, on the other, has worked against harmony of effort; many of those THE LEVERAGE OF THE BALLOT 279 who might otherwise take command being so at vari- ance among themselves that they cannot act as a group, and are continually blocking one another's efforts. The quarrels of the aspirants for control have set a bad example to the rank and file, with endless squabblings as a result. The increasing stress upon material success and the growth of the commercial spirit, which are characteristic of the present day and which affect the Negroes along with the rest of the community, have worked against close interest and active participation in political affairs on the part of the more substantial element of this race, and have tended especially to keep Negroes of such standing from assuming the responsibilities and making the sacrifices incumbent upon worthy political leadership. Finally, the prevailing tendency on the side of the other race, with relation to the political claims of the Negro, has been, as already suggested, toward a replacement of the generous sentiment which formerly held sway by considerations of a more dispassionate character. The general disposition has been to accord the Negro no more recognition, in the way of positions, than that for which he could render back at least the full equiva- lent, usually in the form of votes, of value received. It is true that the Republicans have shown themselves desirous of retaining the Negro's allegiance, and that at the same time the Democrats have extended him a welcoming hand. But in harmony with present-day methods in American cities, "practical" politicians of both parties have shown themselves less generous in the bestowment of offices and more liberal in the use of funds. Thus the political appeal made to the Negro, 280 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON and the inducements held out to him, have tended to fall to the lowest plane. Such are the obstacles, as they arise from certain in- capacitating elements of character and certain phases of the previous and present conditions of the Negroes themselves, on the one hand, and from the attitude of the whites toward the Negroes, on the other, against which the people of this race have had to con- tend in the political field. The manner and, more roughly, the measure, in which these obstacles have actually hampered and retarded the Negroes in a political way throughout the Greater Boston district, may be judged by concrete example taken from the principal Negro center, in the upper South End and lower Roxbury section. The major part of this colony is included within the limits of Ward 18. There, in what should be to-day the Negro's political strong- hold, may be seen the sorry workings, in combination, of the various adverse factors which have now been pointed out. Till within a few years, at least, there has never been in Ward 18 any Negro who has succeeded, even mea- surably, in making himself a capable political leader, with the interests of his race clearly at heart. On the contrary, the proprietors of a couple of liquor-selling and gambling "clubs," which are situated just out- side the ward, have exercised much influence in local politics. With them, white politicians who have been desirous of getting the Negro vote have negotiated. Because there has been no able, disinterested leader, there has never been among the Negroes in this sec- tion any general movement toward political organiza- THE LEVERAGE OF THE BALLOT 281 tion. As newcomers, for the most part immigrants from the South, the West Indies and Canada, have swarmed into the district, no systematic steps have been taken to inform them and interest them as to political affairs and to get them naturalized and regis- tered as voters. With regard to the attitude of the other race, the Irish, who, as earlier noted, hold first place among the racial elements in this locality, are solidly Democratic in their political alignment, and have always had such an easy time in carrying the ward as to feel no special inducement for attempting to pro- mote Negro support. The white Republican politi- cians have confined their attention chiefly to feather- ing their own individual nests. They are well aware that the Negro Republicans greatly outnumber the white ones, and that if the full potential Negro vote could be got out, it would easily dominate the ward's party organization. Though four of the nine members of the Republican ward committee have usually been Negroes, they have obediently taken their orders from the white boss and have probably done more to injure their race in a political way than to help it. The Negroes have failed dismally in this ward to realize their political opportunities. By 1905, the Negro males of voting age formed over 25 per cent, and to-day they form close to 35 per cent, of all the males of voting age in the ward. The white Republi- can males of voting age constitute a proportion of about 20 per cent of the total. By enterprising regis- tration of their own and the white Republican vote, and by taking advantage of factional quarrels among the Democrats, the Negroes could probably have 2S2 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON obtained control of the ward and have elected members of their race to the Common Council and to the Legislature.^ But whenever the better element have nominated a ward committee, as a first step in this di- rection, the Negro members of the regular "machine" committee have forthwith sown seeds of dissension, while a certain irrepressible member of the race has usually insisted on putting a committee with himself as chairman in the field, thereby causing still further division, — with the result that the "machine" has always won. Any one who has wanted to give himself the appearance of some consequence has run for the Republican nomination for the Common Council ; and as the white Republican politicians have exercised slight supervision over the candidates, some of them have necessarily been nominated. With few excep- tions, these Negro nominees have been so completely lacking in qualification that they have not obtained even the more intelligent Negro vote, let alone that of the white element. Likewise most of the Negroes nominated for the Legislature have been egregiously unfitted for such public trust. Nor has enough effort been made to unite the white and the Negro Repub- lican voters by selecting one of the two legislative nominees from each race. As regards the election of an alderman, prior to the recent adoption of the present city charter Ward 18 was combined with Ward 21 as the 10th aldermanic district, and the elec- tions were always very closely contested. It would not ' This and the following reference to the Common Council of course apply to the period prior to 1909, the year in which that body was abolished by the adoption of the new charter. THE LEVERAGE OF THE BALLOT 283 have been impossible for the Negroes to have secured the balance of power in this district and thus to have forced either the selection of one of their own number or some compensating political recognition. In 1890, prior to the city's redistricting and while this section was mostly included in former Ward 20, it happened that a stray individual of the Negro race was given a place in the Common Council by the Democrats.^ In 1896, another Negro was chosen to the Governor's Council, but only through a misunder- standing which had its elements of humor. Many voters, not aware of this candidate's racial identity and seeing in his name, Isaac B. Allen, that of some good old Yankee family, complimented him with their ballots, — with an outcome mutually surprising, and on one side highly pleasurable. Except for these two windfalls, however, the Negroes have as yet failed to elect any of their race to public positions from this district where they are to-day most numerous. So much for the political count against the Negro people. What now of the evidence in their favor.? First of all, the Negro has an inborn predilection for politics. Its boundless opportunity for talking and speechifying gratifies his volubility and provides an outlet which vies with the religious for his emotional eloquence. Its schemings, concealments, reckonings with chances, and suggestion of deep-laid plot, stir his imaginative nature. Its air of consequence in- flates him, and is to some extent a solace for his humiliated position in the community. Its numberless 1 This man was Paul C. Brooks, to whom previous footnote leference was made in chapter in. 284 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON conferences, committees, and conventions, appeal to his sociable instincts. This quality of sociability, more- over, combined with the Negro's disposition toward lasting forms of association, affords a good basis for political development. The spontaneous social sense, with which the Negro appears to be endowed in high potential degree, is in fact the most potent animating force of political endeavor and achievement. With this sense cultivated and educated, the race will find itself possessed of a powerful asset in the promotion of its welfare by political means. With respect now to such actual progress as has al- ready been accomplished, the most obvious political gain the Negroes have registered, and one which is by all means of primary and fundamental importance, is that of their mere increase in numbers. In Boston proper, as has already been stated, the growth has been from 2348 in 1865 to 12,500 to-day; while in the Greater Boston district, during the same period, it has been from 3495 to 23,000. Concurrently, the number of Negro males of voting age has increased in Boston from approximately 900 to 4750; and in the metro- politan district from 1500 to 8750. As to the propor- tion of those who actually go to the polls and vote, it may be said that this appears to be not far below the corresponding proportion in the case of the white population, and that in a similar way it varies greatly from time to time and in accordance with the occasion. Though the proportion of Negroes in the total popula- tion is now only slightly larger than was the case in 1865, it nevertheless holds true that the great increase in the actual number of Negro inhabitants and poten- THE LEVERAGE OF THE BALLOT 285 tial Negro voters has been of much political advantage to this race. Their numbers have caused them to stand out conspicuously as a distinct group in the commun- ity, which must be reckoned with politically, as well as otherwise. Thotigh in the past, as has been previously emphasized, this leverage has not in any large measure been brought to bear directly, it is nevertheless true that indirectly the Negroes have had the outstanding fact of their numbers to thank for the major part of such political recognition as they have received. In other words, had it not been for the substantial size of Boston's Negro colony, very few members of this ele- ment of the community would have been given public positions, no matter how friendly the attitude of the other race. Mere numbers may thus be considered a foundation for the future effectiveness of the Negro people as a distinct political group. Qualitative gain has accompanied quantitative. The second basic element of the advance which the Negroes have made has been that pertaining to their compe- tency for performing the functions of citizenship and for taking part in political matters. Though as has been said, the majority of the Negro immigrants to Boston during recent years have been of an inferior grade in many respects, yet so far as relates to educa- tion they have been better equipped than those who came before. With this better education they have developed, through the Boston environment in gen- eral, but more particularly through the medium of the many local organizations among their own people, a higher degree of what may be called practical or ap- plied intelligence. The rising generation has had the 286 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON further advantage of Boston's public schools. As the boys grow to voting age, they are far better qualified to vote competently, and with an appreciation of the best interests of both their own race and the commu- nity at large, than has been the case with preceding generations of Southern birth and rearing. The mani- fold opportunities which Boston affords have stim- ulated natural capacity and developed an increasing number of capable individuals among the Negro people. This has meant, in the present context, a deeply grounded movement toward two essential and closely interrelated results: on the one hand, the ability of the Negroes to appreciate, and in political ways to further, their own special interests, has been constantly growing; at the same time their qualifica- tion for acquitting themselves creditably of their civic duties and their political responsibility toward the community at large, has been continually enhanced. A specific part of the improvement which has taken place in the latter respect is the decrease of political venality. Reference has already been made to the recourse politicians of the other race have had to the money appeal in enlisting Negro support. Thus has been held out the temptation. When the ignorance of the great mass of Negroes, their poverty, and the lowly place to which they are relegated in the community are taken into account, is it to be wondered at that to some extent this temptation may have been invited, and that to a much greater extent it should have been yielded to.'^ The willingness of large numbers of Negroes to part with their vote for a substantial con- sideration has in fact become proverbial. But there is THE LEVERAGE OF THE BALLOT 287 little doubt, first, that in the matter of this short- coming the Negro has been made the butt of much semi-humorous exaggeration, and second, that with improving education, growing intelligence, and gen- eral progress, the prevalence of such venality has greatly diminished. To-day, in Boston, Negro voters are probably on the whole no more mercenary than the lower gradations of white voters, — with whom only, of course, as in a measure approximating the eco- nomic and general conditions of life of the Negro peo- ple, a comparison of any fairness is possible. This is by no means giving the Negroes an entirely clean bill of character, but it is relieving them from an unde- served excess of stigma. A well-known and highly respected political leader of the other race, who for many years has had an exceptional opportunity to observe the Negro on the political side, puts the situa- tion thus: — I do not think that the Negro vote is any more purchas- able than any other kind of vote of the same degree of intelH- gence. We have in Cambridge many very respectable colored people who vote at every election just as intelligently and conscientiously as any o^ our voters; — on the other hand, we do have colored men who are in politics for what money they can get out of it, — just as we have men of other races, in- cluding many of the Anglo-Saxon origin, who are in politics for the same mercenary purpose. My experience has been that many of the more ignorant colored people are apt to view with suspicion a man of their own race, like my dear friend, Mr. , for instance, who is a college graduate and of the very highest character and integrity. Instead of taking such men for leaders they are apt to give their confidence and support to men of less education and very much less re- liability. It is easy to see how these inferior leaders, who themselves are actuated solely by mercenary motives, give 288 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON the impression to the casual observer that the whole Negro vote is purchasable. The same hasty judgment might be passed upon many other classes of our voters. If the individ- ual Negro voter, like the average member of our trade unions, would only do a little more thinking for himself and look to men of ability and character as leaders, he would soon rid himself of the unenviable reputation which he now bears. With higher standards of political honesty are com- ing also fuller understanding of, and more active inter- est in, the principles and measures of good government. Particularly striking evidence that such is the case was afforded in the autumn of 1909, when the campaign for a new city charter was being waged. Many of the leading Negroes were at that time invited to attend a special meeting for the discussion and furtherance of the so-called Plan 2, which, in intention at least, was the reform plan, as opposed to Plan 1, which was regarded as that of the self-interested politicians. Both schemes involved the abolition of the Common Council, thereby incidentally putting an end to the representation which the Negroes had long enjoyed on that body. Plan 1, however, proposed that the majority of the members of a single chamber city council should be chosen by wards. This held out to the Negroes the possibility that sooner or later they might elect one of their own number as a councilman from Ward 18, where their proportion of the voters is, as already stated, steadily increasing; and the prob- ability that in several wards they could barter their support for appointments and jobs. Plan 2, on the contrary, by proposing a small council of nine members only, chosen by the city at large, made it highly improb- able that any Negro candidate, unless he should be a THE LEVERAGE OF THE BALLOT 289 man of very remarkable ability combined with promi- nence, could be elected thereto; while at the same time it reduced to a minimum the possible gain open to the Negroes by trading their votes. At the meeting re- ferred to, the Negro leaders were nevertheless urged to support the latter plan, on the ground that it would tend to do away with the regime of dubious ward poli- tics, in which the Negroes were at the mercy of politi- cians and got the least in return for what they gave, and to substitute a new order of things under which, with the better element of citizens in control, the members of this race would be able to ally themselves with the forces of clean government and would stand a better chance of having their actual deserts recog- nized, by appointments and otherwise. Before the meeting came to an end, those present, both Demo- crats and Republicans, had almost unanimously in- dorsed this view of the situation; and when, not long afterwards, the two plans were submitted to the city electorate for decision, more than a third of the Negro voters appear to have supported Plan 2, which was adopted by the narrow majority of 3894. Surely this was a practical demonstration of the fact that the Negro is disposed to help in pushing forward the in- trenchments of civic righteousness, and is coming to realize that in the long run his own higher interests are thereby best promoted. Beyond and largely in consequence of the Negro people's increase in number and their improvement in point of citizenship, there is also discernible among them some progress along lines of political organiza- tion and leadership. The headway in this direction 290 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON has not yet become marked, being still of a rather rudi- mentary and preliminary character. But nevertheless it is real. Though it is true that for immediate purposes the Negroes appear to have been more effectively mar- shaled in old Ward 9 in the West End, and for a time in present Ward 11 in the same section, than they are to-day in any part of the Greater Boston district, it is also a fact that now a much larger number and propor- tion of the race have had some personal contact with political organization than was the case in the earlier period. The participation in party activity of the Negro rank and file, as compared with the dictation of the old group of leaders who in former days largely managed the affairs of their people, is increasing, and this means wider political experience and a more intel- ligent conception of civic matters. There are four Negroes, for example, on the Republican committee of Ward 18, two on the committees of Wards 10 and 11, one on that of Ward 12, half a dozen on similar com- mittees in Cambridge, and a few more in Chelsea, Everett, and other suburbs. Inasmuch as these vari- ous ward groups compose the inclusive city committee of the party, the Negroes are thus appreciably repre- sented in the direction of Republican city politics. Till very recently one of their number was messenger and general factotum at the headquarters of the Republi- can State Committee, in which capacity he exercised considerable discretion as to the minor affairs of that body.^ Almost always there are Negro delegates at Republican city, county, and state conventions, and, * Julius Goddard. He now occupies a position at the State House. THE LEVERAGE OF THE BALLOT 291 among the spectators, men of that race are much in evidence. The many and various Negro societies are inci- dentally providing a training in methods of organiza- tion which later will surely be turned to political account. There are, besides, six or eight specifically political clubs among the members of this race in Greater Boston, which, though with one exception they have not as yet accomplished a great deal in imme- diate results, are tending still further to develop the ability to combine for political ends. One — the excep- tion referred to — has in addition already succeeded in making itself an important factor in the politics of its locality. This is the Young Men's Republican Club of Ward 10, which has maintained its existence for nearly twenty years, with a retention of the same officers and a continuity of purpose which are, for the Negroes, rather remarkable. The present secretary, for instance, has occupied that position for thirteen years or more, while the president has been reelected for seven or eight consecutive terms. This club has organized and united the Negro vote in that ward to a larger extent than has been accomplished in any other section. The petty factionalism, which as already described has been so flagrantly in evidence in Ward 18, has in Ward 10 been reduced to a minimum. The Negro candidates whom the club used to recommend for the Common Council were usually indorsed by the white Republican politicians. Previous allusion has been made to the rise of a sagacious Negro "boss" in this ward. The results obtained have been due largely to the exertions of this man and several of his lieuten- 292 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON ants. Without reference to personalities, this fact may be pointed to as showing what some degree of leader- ship among the Negroes can bring about. Even in Ward 18 signs of improvement with respect to both leadership and organization have begun to appear in the last few years. The principal candidate for open and accredited recognition as the political leader of his people in that quarter is a young man who, besides having a pleasant personality, good education, leVel-headedness, and marked capacity for concilia- tion, also gives evidence of having a genuine interest in the welfare of his race. He belongs to all the leading Negro organizations and takes a prominent part in the affairs of the Negro community. He has of late done a good deal in the way of registering and solidifying the Negro vote in that locality. Because he has stood out for clean politics, he has usually encountered the hos- tility of the "machine's" ward committee, together with that of a club which this committee fosters. The fact that, notwithstanding the opposition from these sources, he has several times been nominated for the Legislature, is testimony not only to his own personal hold upon the members of his race, but also to the will- ingness of the latter to rally around a leader of the better type.* One of the most striking and important elements in the Negro's political advance is a manifest growth of that self-reliant attitude as a racial group, to the * The candidate for leadership here referred to is Joshua A. Craw- ford. His earnestness and natural ability are shown by the fact that he recently applied himself to a law course at the Y.M.C.A. Evening School, and subsequently passed the state examination for admis- sion to practice as a lawyer. THE LEVERAGE OF THE BALLOT 293 fundamental need for which attention has already been called. Historically, the rise of the spirit of inde- pendence, as previously related, dates from the pro- test against the Republican party's withdrawal from its programme of Southern Reconstruction and its failure to uphold the Negro's constitutional rights in the former slave states. In recent years, not only in Boston but throughout the country, the expression of this spirit has reached its maximum strength in the censure of certain acts and policies of the Roosevelt and Taft administrations. The discharge by President Roosevelt in 1904, on evidence that is still subject to question, of part of the 25th United States Infantry,^ a Negro regiment, for the alleged " shooting- up " of the town of Brownsville, Texas, was the event which brought on this ill feeling. Taft, who as Secretary of War carried out the obnoxious Brownsville order, was blamed along with his chief. Roosevelt was con- demned also on account of his alleged policy of sacri- ficing the interests of the Negroes in the South for the sake of conciliating the Southern whites. In Boston, the protest against Roosevelt's acts was started by Editor Trotter in the "Guardian," and in other parts of the country it was initiated by Negroes who hold the same general attitude that he does on race matters. But the attack was soon joined in by members of the race not usually allied with the agitators. The hostile sentiment aroused by this affair has in fact penetrated, and in greater or lesser degree affected, the Negro population of the entire country. ^ Specifically, Companies B, C, and D, forming a battalion of the regiment. 294 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON In the spring of 1908 this hostility focused itself in op- position to Taf t's nomination for the Presidency, on the ground that he was Roosevelt's candidate and would carry out the latter's policies. A mass meeting held at Faneuil Hall adopted condemnatory resolutions, which in their catalogue of grievances quoted Taft's alleged remark that the Negro people were "political children, not having the mental stature of manhood." The atti- tude of the Negroes in Massachusetts proved in some localities a considerable factor in the election to the State Republican Convention of delegates unpledged to any particular presidential candidate. At this con- vention, the Negro contingent made a strong effort to elect as an alternate delegate to the party's national convention one of their own number who had been emphatic in his criticism of Roosevelt. This candidate actually received 340 votes, as against 35 for the pro- Taft nominee of the same race; but with the Negroes thus divided, neither of the two was successful. When the national convention assembled, a large proportion of the Negro delegates who presented themselves were opposed to Taft's nomination, but most of these were shut out by "steam-roller" methods and contesting pro-Taft delegates admitted in their stead. After the latter's nomination. Trotter and many of the agitators in other parts of the country went to the extreme of advising the Negroes to vote for Bryan, the Democratic nominee. To the great mass of the Negroes, however, this, of course, appeared like jumping from the frying- pan into the fire; and even in Ohio, which, on account of the championship of the discharged Negro soldiers by Senator Foraker, was the storm center of the oppo- THE LEVERAGE OF THE BALLOT 295 sition to Taft, all but a small minority of the Negroes nevertheless voted for him. After he became President his alleged failure to make full restitution for the Brownsville "outrage," and his carrying even further than Roosevelt the policy of Southern conciliation, — as shown particularly by his announced purpose not to appoint Negroes to office in localities where whites objected, — were bitterly assailed.^ So strong is the influence of tradition in the Negro's party allegiance, however, and so unpromising any alternative political alignment which has thus far presented itself, that the actual proportion of this race in Boston who in national elections vote otherwise than as Republicans, is slight, while the proportion of those who regularly vote otherwise, even in local and state contests, is not large. But the percentage of those who on occasion vote for independent and Democratic can- didates in city, county, and state elections, has steadily increased to formidable size. A substantial Negro vote was given to the "People's" candidate for mayor in 1905,^ while fully half this element of the population east its ballots for the man who was elected district attorney on a "citizen's" label in 1905, and as a "non- partisan" and "Independence League" nominee in 1907.^ The first steps to organize a dependable Negro Democratic vote in Boston city politics were taken in 1895, with the formation of a Ward 11 Democratic 1 This in spite of his high appointment of W. H. Lewis (to be mentioned), and his bestowal of a number of other ofBces upon Negroes in the North. The objectors rejoined that they could not be silenced by these "sops." ^ Henry S. Dewey. » John B. Moran. 296 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON Club. In 1901, a similar club was formed among the Negroes in Ward 18, and a transient proselytizing cam- paign undertaken in the interest of the Democratic nominee for the mayoralty.^ In 1905, a goodly number of Negro votes went to the same party's candidate for the same place, largely because of a speech com- mendatory of the race which he had made in Con- gress.^ The latter after his election made several Negro appointments, which went far to secure him still further favor among this element when he repeated his candidature in 1907. But that year the great majority of the Negroes were working hard for the Republican nominee,^ and did what they had never done before by raising among themselves a contribution for the local Republican campaign fund. The subsequent failure, however, of the oflScial whom they thus helped to put into office, to reward them with appointments or in any other substantial way, led to much disaffection among them, not only with the mayor himself but with the Republican city organization. Consequently, in 1909 a large Negro vote contributed to the election of the present incumbent of the mayoralty — the same man whom they had supported in 1905 — when he again entered the arena and defeated the candidate nominated by the reform element,^ in one of the hard- est fought contests of many years. In state issues, the largest Negro vote cast for a Democratic candidate was that of the autumn of 1910, when from a fourth to ^ Patrick A. Collins. 2 Reference is had here to John F. Fitzgerald, who occupies the mayor's chair at the present time. ' The late George A. Hibbard. * The reform nominee was James J. Storrow. THE LEVERAGE OF THE BALLOT 297 a third of the Negroes of Boston voted for the present governor,^ the reason given for their action being their desire to register effective protest, particularly against the alleged unfriendly influence of Roosevelt and Senator Lodge in Massachusetts politics, and in a more general way against recent Republican lukewarmness toward the Negro race. In the foregoing instances the Negro Democratic vote, though it counted substantially in the results, was not decisive. There has been one case, however, where the vote of this element did play a crucial part. In 1908, the Republican who was appointed district attorney to fill an unexpired term removed a Negro from a clerkship in that department.^ Somewhat later, in trying a case, he inadvertently made a remark which was interpreted as reflecting discreditably upon the character of the Negro people. These two acts aroused widespread hostility to him among the Negroes, and when the following year he became a candidate for election to the same office, a majority of the Negro voters supported his Democratic opponent, who was successful.^ As the latter's majority, however, was only 3211, it is probable that if the Negroes had not voted for him the Republican incumbent would have been returned. No doubt a secondary motive which has influenced many of the Negroes to support Democratic or other non-Republican candidates or measures, and one ^ Eugene N. Foss. 2 The official who made this removal was Arthur D. Hill; the Negro clerk James G. Wolff, to whose appointment later reference is made. ^ Joseph C. Pelletier. 298 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON which by reason of its practical character tends to become constantly more potent, is to be found in the bid, in the appealing form of appointments, which the Democrats and various temporary political aggrega- tions have made for the Negro's vote, conjoined with the understandable willingness on the part of the Negroes themselves to partake of such substantial favors. As a matter of fact, most of the appointments of Negroes to city positions of late have been made by the Democrats, who thus appear to be resorting to this method of persuasion in somewhat larger measure than the Republicans. But after all is said, whenever any considerable percentage of the Negro rank and file have turned their ballots against that party to vhich they are indebted for the franchise itself, they have been impelled to this radical action by what they take to be some form of recreancy with regard to their fundamental rights and their higher interests. And as has appeared, they have in fact succeeded in making increasingly effective use of this means of protest and self -protection.^ ^ The most recent development in this general connection has been that growing out of the advent of the Progressive party. On the one hand, the already mentioned hostility to Roosevelt, and more immediately the action of the Progressives in excluding from their convention at Chicago two Negro delegations from South- ern States, together with this party's announced purpose of keep- ing the Southern Negro in a distinctly subordinate place in their ranks, — these elements have disposed the great majority of the Negro people adversely. On the other hand, the declared intention of the Progressives not to discriminate against the Negro in the North has brought some accessions from this race in the Northern States. In Boston a State Progressive Club has been organized among the Negroes. It is too early as yet, however, to predict whether any large gains will be made by this movement. THE LEVERAGE OF THE BALLOT 299 Probably the most concrete and convincing evidence of the better political standing to which, as a joint result of the foregoing advantageous factors, the Ne- groes are to-day attaining, is afforded by the marked increase of appointive positions held by members of this race. In the case of election to office, where, as has appeared, the Negroes have lost ground, the responsibility for the successful candidate's satisfac- tory performance of his duties rests in an indeterminate way upon the entire electorate involved, and the result- ing tendency is to exercise less care as to a candidate's individual qualifications. Thus the election of a given Negro might signify, and in fact sometimes has signi- fied, nothing more than personal popularity, effective backing, or mere luck. In the case of appointments, however, the responsibility for the appointee's record narrows down to a particular body, or still oftener to a single official. On this account, the individual's actual suitability for the place in view is somewhat more likely to receive proper attention. In the case of Negro appointments, at any rate, the peculiar necessity which has existed in recent years for their justification in the eyes of a more or less antipathetic public, argues special motive why the requisite merit should be present; while the fact that, even when the ability has been there, these Negro appointments should be made, bears witness that this race has come to be regarded as an element to be reckoned with in the body politic. The city positions which have been conferred upon Negroes, during the period since 1895, include, in Boston proper, one as deputy health commissioner, 300 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON three as deputy tax collectors, two as deputy sealers of weights and measures, one clerkship, and a number of lesser places, such as those of messengers, janitors, ele- vator attendants, and workmen. In Cambridge, the range of Negro appointees has comprised a member of the Highway Commission, a member of the Board of Licenses, an assistant sealer of weights and measures, an inspector in the health department, a district physi- cian, a clerk, and a scattering of smaller positions. The other suburbs furnish a few similar cases. ^ Among state appointments recently awarded to members of this race, one of the most important has been that of Charles W. M. Williams, who in 1906 was made clerk of the juvenile court established in that year. This appointee who, as already incidentally mentioned, had previously served on the Common ^ Details of the foregoing appointments are as follows : In Boston proper, William L. Reed was in 1900 appointed deputy tax collector, and filled this position for two years. Napoleon Bonaparte Marshall succeeded him, and served for four years, till he resigned to take up the practice of law in Washington, D.C. Julius B. Goddard and Joseph Hendricks were deputy sealers of weights and measures in 1900 and 1901. Edward Everett Brown was deputy health com- missioner in 1907, and is now a deputy tax collector. Stewart Hoyt was appointed a clerk in the tax collector's office in 1906, and still retains this position, being regarded as one of the most efficient employees in that department. In Cambridge the most important appointments have been those of Clement G. Morgan as a member of the Highway Commission; the Rev. Henry Duckery as a member of the Board of Public Li- censes; Emery Morris as assistant sealer of weights and measures, which position he still occupies; Dr. W. C. Lane as district city physician and as inspector of milk and vinegar; and Arthur Jewell as a clerk in the Wire and Lamps Department, where he has made an exceptional record of good service. In Melrose, a Negro dentist is one of the teeth examiners in con- nection with the public schools. THE LEVERAGE OF THE BALLOT 301 Council, has performed his duties with exceptional fidelity; and in obligingness, politeness, and good cheer, sets an example which many public oflScials of the other race might with advantage follow. The state positions also include, beside minor places, those of a clerk in the district attorney's office, a public administrator, a member of the Board of Veterinary Physicians, and seven messengers and clerks in various departments of the State House, Of the latter, the so-called messen- gers perform duties which as a matter of fact entitle them practically to the rank of clerks. William L. Reed, to whose earlier service in the Legislature refer- ence has been made, stands out especially by reason of his ability as messenger in the office of the governor and Council, which position he has filled since 1902. The holder of this post must have exceptional tact. He must receive courteously all persons who call to see the governor, lieutenant-governor, and members of the Council, and must frequently reconcile some of them, politely and without offense, to going away with their errand unsatisfied. In point of courtesy which is alto- gether free from obsequiousness, the present incumbent leaves nothing to be desired. He is well educated and endowed with attractive personality, natural refine- ment, and a high degree of the moral qualities of de- pendability, accuracy, and constancy of purpose, in which generally the Negroes are lacking. His quali- fications fit him for public service of a responsible order. ^ * With reference to the other state appointments beside those of Williams and Reed, names and dates are as follows: James G.Wolff, a son of James H. Wolff to whose noteworthy part in affairs there has 302 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON Outside the field of the civil service, only two federal appointments have come to the Negroes since 1895, but these two have been very important. Both of them have been conferred upon the same man, William H. Lewis, previous references to whom will be recalled. In 1907, Lewis was made Assistant United States Dis- trict Attorney, at Boston, and in that capacity was placed at the head of the Naturalization Bureau for New England. The fact that one of this race should thus be put in charge of the naturalization of aliens is surely suggestive of considerable progress on the part of the Negro people in the way of becoming an inner element of the community. In 1911, he was appointed an Assistant United States Attorney-General at Wash- ington; which was the highest political position ever bestowed upon a member of his race,^ This appoint- been previous allusion, was inl907madeaclerk in the ofBce of the dis- trict attorney. The resentment aroused over his removal by the suc- ceeding incumbent of that office has been mentioned. William J.Wil- liams, already alluded to in a footnote as having been elected an alderman in Chelsea, is one of five public administrators in Boston proper, where he has his law office. Dr. Henry Lewis, of Chelsea, was made a member of the Board of Veterinary Physicians in 1903. Alexander Robinson was appointed messenger in the attorney- general's office at the State House in 1895; John W. Schenck, messen- ger in the treasurer's office in 1898; Clarence J. Smith, clerk in the office of the clerk of the House of Representatives in 1900; Julian Stubbs, messenger in the office of the secretary of state (the position held by Lewis Hayden and later by Sergeant Carney) in 1908. Two women appointees during recent years are Miss Eva Lewis, as clerk in the office of the secretary of state, and Miss Ruth Woods, as clerk in the Bureau of Labor. * This appointment aroused much protest from Southern and anti-Negro sources, but the President and Attorney-General stood firmly by it. By virtue of his position, Mr. Lewis took precedence at formjii functions over many high officials of the other race. An epi- sode was the unsuccessful attempt to exclude him from the national THE LEVERAGE OF THE BALLOT 303 ment was thus not only a remarkable tribute to the appointee's individual ability, but from a representa- tive and therefore far more significant point of view, it was a signal recognition of the standing to which the Negro people have risen in the political life of the nation. The most conclusive proof of all of the Negro's growing qualification for efiicient public service is found in the automatic, race-regardless operation of the civil service. The number of Negroes holding ap- pointments in this field has steadily increased. To-day there are 2 official stenographers at the court-house; 2 clerks, an assistant weigher and 3 laborers in the cus- tom house; a superintendent of a sub-station, 48 clerks, 7 letter-carriers, and 10 laborers in the post- ofiice of the Boston postal district : — making a total of 72 Negro occupants of civil-service posts. ^ These individuals won their places in equal competition with members of the other race, and to retain them they must, day in and day out, do work at least equal in quality to that of their white associates. Not a few of them have done better work, and have gained promo- tion or special recognition by reason of superior ability at their tasks. In the Boston post-office, for instance, the postmaster's personal clerk, whose duties call for exceptional trustworthiness and efficiency, is a young Negro, Joseph W. Houston, who was born in that city and educated in its schools. In the custom-house, lawyers' association. With the incoming of the present Democratic administration, Mr. Lewis's occupancy of this position came to an end. * Some of these appointments were made prior to the civil service regime, but all are now under its regulations. SOi THE NEGRO IN BOSTON William H. Batum, another young man of the same race and of Boston rearing, is one of eight entry clerks who have the special responsibility of seeing that all papers are made out in correct form, and that the immense amount of detail involved in the recording of merchandise is accurately carried out.^ Many other similar individual examples could be cited. But the essential and promising point is that the Negroes, when given an opportunity to be judged solely on their actual merits and upon an even plane with members of the other race, should have succeeded, in such substantial and constantly increasing numbers, in winning these creditable positions in the service of the Government. In the light of the facts which have now been set forth, it is possible to reach conclusions with regard to the essential features of the Negro's political situation at the present time. In the first place, it cannot be 2 The case of Mr. Batum well illustrates the way in which many a young Negro succeeds, in spite of obstacles, in working his way upward. He was born in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1876, but hia parents came to Boston when he was two years old. He graduated from a high school in Boston in three years, and took a fourth year at the Cambridge High School, 6nishing with the rank of twelfth in his class and with special honors in certain subjects. Notwith- standing some manifestations of prejudice,he then completed a course at a business school, as a result of which he obtained a position as stenographer and oflBce assistant with a wholesale house, which he retained till the 6rm dissolved. For a year thereafter he was unable to secure steady employment, and had to do such odd jobs as came along. Eventually he obtained a place as messenger at the Museum of Fine Arts, which he kept for four years. Realizing by that time that this position offered slight chance for advancement, he prepared for the civil-service examination, and passed with a percentage of 90.4, only 1.8 per cent below the leader. He received his present appointment in 1903. In 1909, he was enabled to buy a comfortable home. THE LEVERAGE OF THE BALLOT 305 denied that, since the withdrawal of special favor from the Negro after the critical year 1895, this element of the population has in some ways lost political ground. It was inevitable that such should be the case, when a group of people which had previously stood in a pro- tege relation to the other race was thrown upon its own resources. The most conspicuous political respect in which the Negroes have suffered appears to have been in a falling-off as regards the holding of elective posi- tions. But this loss was in large part due, as has been already pointed out, to the redistricting of the city, the abolition of the Common Council, and the shifting of the Negro population to new localities; — all factors which can in no way be set down to the Negro's dis- credit. Furthermore, though on its face the fact that the Negro people to-day hold no elective offices sug- gests a reversal of their political fortunes since the period of public favor which followed the war; yet, after all, this is only one, and by no means the most vital, index to their political standing. The losses in point of such political leadership and close coherence as used to exist in the West End, before that old stronghold was broken up, have really been more serious, in that they strike deeper, and are in themselves not only effects, but causes tending toward further detriment. But even in the case of these underlying losses, it cannot be denied that they were in large measure necessarily incidental to the transition from the old order of things affecting this race. The passing away of the old group of Negro leaders, the sudden and continued influx of raw immigrants from the South, the move- ment of the Negro population to new districts, where 306 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON it has required time to become adjusted and estab- lished, — these things especially, which have for the time operated to the Negro's political disadvantage, were essential elements in the general change which has taken place. In this light, their effects on the political side appear rather as set-backs, of a contin- gent and temporary nature only, than as essentially political losses of a permanent character. That such is in truth the case appears more clearly when account is taken of the fundamental and durable gains that are being made to-day, under the new conditions which have come into existence and which must serve as the basis of all substantial progress on the Negro's part. Judged from the point of view, first, of the requirements of the community at large, the great majority of Negro voters are to-day better educated, more intelligent regarding political matters, more sen- sitive to the higher standards of political honesty, and more interested in and disposed to uphold the principles of good government, than was the case in years past. The Negro's asset value as a citizen and as a political unit has, in short, been much enhanced. At the same time, the Negro people are making good strides forward from the point of view of their own more or less dis- tinct interests. In their mere quantitative increase, with which their political strength must of necessity be roughly commensurate, they have become possessed of a solid substructure upon which they can build. Growing numbers have been accompanied by fuller understanding of their own interests, and wider experi- ence in the political field. On this triple basis, the promising beginnings of organization and leadership, THE LEVERAGE OF THE BALLOT 307 adapted to the situation as it stands to-day, are now being reared. As contrasted with their former political dependence on the whites, and their rather slavish fol- lowing of the Republican party, the Negroes are at pres- ent drawing together among themselves as a self-reliant racial group, and have already in considerable measure brought their independent political leverage to bear in the protection and advancement of their own collec- tive welfare. As the combined result of their progress in these several respects, they have succeeded in mak- ing themselves a reckonable factor in the body politic, and in obtaining substantial political recognition in the form of an increasing number of appointments to pub- lic positions of trust and credit. And finally, in the field of the civil service, they have convincingly demon- strated that they no longer stand in need of special indulgence, but are able to hold their own on a strictly competitive basis. CHAPTER IX ECONOMIC achievement; the solid FOUNDATION The physical, social, ethical, religious, and political aspects of the life of the Negro in Boston have now been considered. The one other large phase of his condi- tions of which account still remains to be taken is the economic. That his situation in this regard is of funda- mental import cannot be gainsaid. Next, at least, to the question of the mere physical survival of the race, certainly this one, which has to do with the obtaining of an independent livelihood, bears most vitally of all upon the welfare of the Negro people. The case may, indeed, be put still more strongly. Upon the Negro's capacity to earn his daily bread depends, in the long run, the very perpetuation of his racial stock; while unless his ability proves equal to providing somewhat more than enough to meet the minimum needs of bare subsistence, all hope of any real and permanent prog- ress on his part, in other respects, must be abandoned. In the absence of an economic surplus, no strong social order can be built up, nor can the social amenities and ameliorations be cultivated in any substantial measure; for neither the necessary respite from incessant toil nor the requisite material means will be present. Under such circumstances, also, the bitterness of the struggle for economic self-preservation would prevent the rise of altruistic ethical standards and ideals. With respect ECONOMIC ACHIEVEMENT 309 to religion, though each individual's most essential altar may be contained solely within himself, never- theless collective religious activity, if it is to have prac- tical effect, must needs be materially supported. On the political side, finally, any element of the popula- tion, which is compelled to expend its entire energy in the dire necessity of maintaining life, is hardly in a position either to acquire an adequate understanding of political affairs or to use the ballot and its accom- panying privileges to intelligent and advantageous purpose. In last analysis, therefore, the Negro's prog- ress at every point must hinge upon his economic well-being; and as he cannot move forward in other directions except upon a sound economic basis, so, reversely, it follows that with such a foundation he stands in the way of advancing all along the line. Such being the case, it is of the utmost importance that this aspect of the Negro's situation be subjected to the most careful scrutiny and interrogation. First, what is the present general industrial and economic level of the Negro, as compared with that of the white race.'' In the event that the Negro is found to be occu- pying a lower plane than the other race, what are the essential factors which account therefor; and in what measure do these factors consist of inherent deficiencies in the Negro himself, on the one hand, and of adverse influences from without, on the other.?* More specifi- cally, — is it true that, as is usually taken for granted, the great mass of the Negroes are engaged in the menial or lowest forms of labor.? If such be the fact, are there at the same time, however, any circumstances, arising out of the peculiar position of this race, which some- 310 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON what qualify this fact's signification? Passing on to work of intermediate grade, what is the situation in the Negro's case; is he to any considerable extent forcing his way upward into the substantial middle class of occupations, which must constitute the industrial bul- wark of any element in the community? In general, is the tendency toward a contraction or an expansion of his industrial opportunities, as respects the number, grade, and variety of callings in which he is able to find employment? Ascending a stage higher still, to the professions and business proprietorships, does it appear that here, too, at the top of the industrial scale, where the qualities of initiative, independence, and responsi- bility come most fully into operation, the Negro is making any promising headway? With regard to the Negro population as a whole, how far are the members of this race taking advantage of the most important avenues of industrial and economic betterment which — though perhaps not in equal degree — lie open to them, as well as to other classes in the community at large? Are they, in particular, deriving whatever bene- fits accrue from participation in the labor-union move- ment? Are they increasing their own efficiency and earning power through the medium of industrial edu- cation? Are they establishing themselves on the solid rock-bottom of property ownership, thus throwing up powerful intrenchments against the future? Finally, are the Negroes displaying any capacity for, and in any promising degree actually putting into practice, busi- ness combination and cooperation, of a sort calculated to promote race coherence, and to apply to their own economic problem the axiom that in union there is strength? ECONOMIC ACHIEVEMENT 311 Section 1. Unfitness and Discrimination The Negro's present economic standing, relatively to that of the white man, appears most plainly when a comparison is drawn between the proportion of the members of each race who are found to be engaged in work of the lowest grade. For purposes of such a com- parison, certain occupations, of a character, chiefly, to which the term "menial" is commonly applied, may be regarded as at the bottom of the industrial scale. ^ Now while the latest available census returns showed, on the one hand, that only 13 per cent of the white males and 30 per cent of the white females at work in Boston proper were employed in these specific occupations; they revealed, on the other hand, that 61 per cent of the Negro males and 76 per cent of the Negro females at work were employed in identically the same occu- pations.^ In other words, the proportion of Negro males engaged in work of the lowest grade was five times larger, and that of Negro females two and a half times larger, than the proportion of white males and females, ^ In the case of men and boys, the occupations here referred to are those of bootblacks (except those having stands of their own) ; serv- ants and waiters; porters and helpers in stores; and laborers not attached to any particular industry. In the case of women and girls, the corresponding occupations are those of servants, laundresses (except those having laundries of their own) ; and others classifiable only as laborers of nondescript type. 2 Inasmuch as the State Census of 1905 did not tabulate its find- ings according to color, and as the tabulations of the 1910 Federal Census, as respects occupation by color for Boston, are not as yet available, the Federal Census of 1900, therefore, contains the most recent authoritative figures upon which a detailed comparison of the situation of the Negroes in this regard with that of the whites may be based. It is from this census that the foregoing and also subse- quent computations are made. 312 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON respectively, engaged in similar work. It thus becomes strikingly and authoritatively evident that the great mass of the Negroes are to-day on an industrial level far below that of the mass of the other race. This is the first outstanding and significant fact which pertains to the economic situation of the Negro people. Still further testimony to this condition of economic depression is afforded by a second comparison, this time as between the total proportions of each race reported as being, to use the technical phrase, "gain- fully employed," — or, in plain terms, at work for pay. In the case of the white population this proportion was 65 per cent for men and boys, and 24 per cent for women and girls; while among the Negroes the corre- sponding proportions were respectively 76 per cent and 40 per cent. That is, the proportion of men and boys at work was greater by 11 per cent, and that of women and girls by 16 per cent, in the Negro's case. This means simply that the degree of economic pressure to which the Negro people are subjected is much more severe than that which affects the other race. The high employment rate for Negro males is no doubt accounted for in some measure by the more urgent necessity for putting the boys to work as soon as they have completed the legal requirements of school attendance. The more significant figure is that pertain- ing to the employment of women and girls, which is even higher among the Negroes than among the city's foreign immigrants.^ That such is the fact bears wit- ness not only to a larger contingent of unmarried working- women, but also to the excessive proportion ^ Forty per cent as compared with twenty-nine per cent. ECONOMIC ACHIEVEMENT 313 of wives, mothers, and daughters in Negro homes who, by the rigor of the demand for family support, are forced into labor beyond their own domestic responsi- bilities. In the case of the white population, the great majority of the men who are not at work are either living on their incomes, or tiding along on savings until employment is again obtained. But with the Negroes the voluntary or enforced idleness of the men has to be offset by the labor of the women. The mass of this race, in short, are at present on an economic plane so low that the struggle for livelihood must be kept up incessantly. The two principal factors by which the foregoing conditions are accounted for are: — first, the industrial unfitness of the Negroes themselves; and second, the discrimination against the latter on the part of the other race. Of these elements, both separately and in their combination, it will now be profitable to take further note. Both the conditions out of which the great mass of Negroes in Boston have come, and those to which they are still subject in this city, have been adverse to the development of industrial efficiency. Under slavery, the great majority of the Negroes in the South were agricultural laborers, while the remainder were either artisans or domestic servants. Nearly all were special- ized and in greater or less degree skilled in their vari- ous occupations. But as a result of the breaking-down of this old order of things, consequent upon the aboli- tion of slavery and the ravages of war, a large number of the race were thrown out of their customary em- ployment. These Negroes soon began to betake them- 314 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON selves to the Southern towns and cities. The cityward movement has gone on at a constantly increasing rate, and has conspicuously gained momentum in the last fifteen years. A majority of these Negroes who have gone to the cities have been forced to make their living as they could, and have formed a class dependent upon odds and ends of occupations, and leading a pre- carious hand-to-mouth existence. It is from this class that a major part of the Southern immigrants to Bos- ton have always come; while in recent years, since the more intelligent of the race have realized that the North is not all it was supposed to be, the proportion drawn from this element has been even larger than before. Increasingly, Southern Negroes possessed of some degree of specialized skill have chosen to remain in the South. Most of those who have come to Boston have been ignorant, deficient in practical ability, and almost entirely lacking in any training which would fit them for work above the level of the least responsible unskilled labor and menial service. The number of those capable of taking their place in the intermediate industrial ranks, as artisans and skilled workmen, has been small. Only a very few have had the experience or understanding to qualify them for commercial em- ployment or for any sort of independent professional or business initiative. With reference to industrial education, through the medium of which the members of this race might qualify themselves for work of higher grade, more will be said at a later point. Here it is suf- ficient to observe that in Boston there is no special provision for the Negroes in this regard; and that while most of the facilities along this line are open to them ECONOMIC ACHIEVEMENT 315 along with other elements of the community, nearly all of such facilities call for some capacity, at least a completed grammar-school course, and sufficient free- dom from the immediate necessity of earning a liveli- hood to be able to apply one's self for a substantial period to the instruction offered. The very industrial and educational unpreparedness of the Negroes, how- ever, combined with the constant economic pressure to which they are peculiarly subject, puts them at a se- vere disadvantage in availing themselves of such gen- eral opportunities for vocational betterment. But the industrial unfitness of the Negroes goes deeper than lack of training. Owing in part to the effects of the conditions from which they have come, and in part to their own inherent traits of nature, the mass of the race are deficient in some of the qualities which are essential to the satisfactory filling of even a common-labor position ; and in nearly all of the quali- ties which are indispensable for advancement into the higher grades. That such is the fact will appear more clearly in the light of further specification. The majority of Negroes are characterized by an easy-going manner of life which borders closely on indolence. This is not to say that out-and-out laziness and idleness are typical Negro failings ; — the common belief to this effect being, in the writer's opinion, erro- neous. That such is the case is at least the suggestion, if not the necessary implication, of the fact, already noted, that the proportion of Negroes at work is much above that of the white population. Notwithstanding the dire necessity for labor on the part of the former, this necessity could to some extent be escaped by 316 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON resort to charity; whereas such dependence or pauper- ism, as has also been remarked, is not excessively in evidence. Confirmed Negro loafers, on the street corners, about saloons, or in the Common, appear to be rare. Usually, Negroes who seem to be merely loafing in loquacious groups, prove on inquiry to be waiters, or other employees of irregular hours, off duty. The easy- goingness of the members of this race is rather a dis- taste for monotonous and long-continued labor and a preference for varied and intermittent employment. It is a common thing for Negroes to give up good posi- tions because they find the hours too exacting or the routine too dull to suit them. They are also prone to quit working when they have earned enough money to tide them along a little while, and to return to work only when their money is gone. Odd-jobbing, maybe requiring strenuous exertion for the time being but with frequent intervals of leisure, is much more to their liking than tasks that go on without relaxation. While the intermittent laborer is somewhat above the merely casual one, he is of course on a lower character plane than the workman of regular and steady application. To a considerable extent the notion is prevalent among the Negroes that hard manual labor, and especially such as is dirty also, savors of servility and degradation. This misconception is a natural product of the reaction from the old order, when hard and begriming work was the lot of the slave, while ease and good clothes pertained to the privileged freeman. So it results that to-day, even though the wages and prospects of advancement may be better in occupations which necessitate rough labor, a great many Negroes ECONOMIC ACHIEVEMENT 317 nevertheless prefer employment which, though really inferior, enables them to put on an appearance of gen- tility and circumstance. This is in fact one of the rea- sons why comparatively few of this race are found among the common laborers who perform the heavy, dirty tasks in manufacturing, and why, on the other hand, so many are counted in the ranks of waiters, bell-boys, Pullman porters, and other brass-buttoned and impressive functionaries. Such highly ornamental positions as that of a handsome black giant, till recently stationed in front of one of Boston's leading confectionery shops, and who, helmeted and furred, looked the Emperor of all the Africas, while performing the unimperial duty of opening and closing carriage doors for patrons, are after the very heart of many of this race. Closely related to the easy-going quality of the ma- jority of Negroes and their aversion for steady work, are their traits of irresponsibility, instability, and un- trustworthiness. The propensity which they show to leave a position whenever they feel like it illustrates all three of these shortcomings. The chances are against a Negro's continuing to be satisfied long in any given place. Lack of permanency of purpose with respect to occupation is accompanied by failure to realize and assume the responsibilities of punctual- ity, regularity, and conscientious performance of duties; — a failure which practically amounts to un- trustworthiness. The Negroes are unreliable, further- more, in that dependence cannot be placed upon their statements. Though not addicted to outright and pre- meditated lying, they do not appreciate the vital 318 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON importance of sticking closely to the actual facts and of abiding strictly by their word. The fertile imagina- tion which is part of their nature often gets the better of them. The mass of this race are wanting also in point of thoroughness, pertinacity, and providence. They are inclined to rest content with doing just well enough to meet superficial and immediate require- ments. The painstakingness and exactness, which will not permit a good workman to rest content till .he has done the work before him as well as it can be done, are much rarer among the Negroes than they are among the whites, even in comparable industrial strata. The Negroes also become discouraged more easily when they encounter obstacles in their work, or when it does not bring them higher wages and advancement as quickly as they wish. They are lacking in the strength of purpose which would enable them to stick to their tasks till they accomplished the desired results by sheer determination. Improvidence is a characteristic which may be inferred from these others. As a rule the Negroes do not take the future sufiiciently into account, and so constantly exhaust their resources and fail to provide a surplus to assist them in bettering their economic conditions. There are other deficiencies in the Negro make-up whose hampering effect is more marked in connection with employment of higher grade and with independ- ent industrial enterprise. The lack of independence and initiative, first of all, shows itself in the failure of the great majority of Negroes to seek occupation outside and above the beaten path. Because of the fact that the mass of the race have alwaj^s been in menial and ECONOMIC ACHIEVEMENT 319 low-grade labor, most Negroes are wont to assume that they can obtain only employment of that character. At their tasks, moreover, they seldom display the quality of originality, rare among any class, but sure wherever found to carry its possessor forward. These incapacities also keep the Negro people from striking out more largely for themselves along professional and business lines, while their deficient ability for coopera- tion is an additional obstacle to the organizing of com- panies, and to the undertaking of any other kind of industrial or commercial combination. The foregoing statements regarding these adverse elements in the Negro character are based neither upon a priori reasoning as to what ought logically to be so, nor upon common report; but are the expression of convictions gradually forced in upon the writer as a joint result of his own personal experience in trying to find employment for Negroes, his inquiry among em- ployers, and his general observation. Among the con- siderable number of Negroes who have sought his assistance in obtaining work, there have been few, indeed, — not more than one in ten, — who were qualified for any form of industry above the grade of menial service or the commonest sort of labor. A large proportion of those for whom work was secured kept their positions but a short time, either because they did not fill them satisfactorily or because they them- selves became discontented. Some even failed to pre- sent themselves at the places where employment had been promised, while the great majority were ex- tremely remiss in keeping appointments. Few dis- played initiative, resourcefulness, and persistence. The 320 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON testimony of most employers who have had experience with Negroes is to the same effect. While admitting that there are many individuals of this race who have exceptional qualifications, they declare that as a class they are unreliable and incompetent. Though the bad traits which have been indicated are most glaringly exhibited by Negroes in the lower industrial grades, they are also clearly in evidence at points further up in the economic scale. Moreover, while these failings are all too common in the inferior industrial strata of the other race, especially among domestic servants, they are prevalent to an appreciably larger extent and degree in the case of the Negroes. Besides the industrial unfitness of the Negroes themselves, the second general factor which accounts for their economic backwardness is, as previously stated, the discrimination against them on the part of the whites. To make a statement at once comprehen- sive and accurate, respecting the manner and degree in which this discrimination affects the Negroes industri- ally, is very difficult. It cannot be said that there is a point in the industrial scale above which Negroes are barred; for, as will presently appear, members of this race are found in every industrial gradation from com- mon labor to substantial business and professional proprietorship. Nor can it even be said that those occupations of the various grades which are accessible to Negroes are but a few in number; for, as will also appear, Negroes are likewise to be found in the great majority of all the occupations which the census enumerates. Nevertheless, the discrimination in question is very ECONOMIC ACHIEVEMENT 321 real, and its effects are very plain. It shows itself first in a prejudice against Negro applicants for employ- ment. Except in the case of the menial occupations in which Negroes are most numerously engaged, it is much harder for a Negro to get employment than it is for a white person. Even in the case of these menial occupations, moreover, it is difficult for a Negro to obtain work if the particular employer to whom he applies has not been accustomed to employing Ne- groes. As a rule this prejudice increases in strength as the grade of work ascends. Speaking very broadly, one may say that in low-grade work a Negro finds it twice as hard to obtain employment; in work of inter- mediary grade, such as the trades and lesser clerical lines, from ten to fifty times harder; and in work of high grade, such as that of bank clerks, salaried officials of business houses, and the like, a hundred times harder than is the case with applicants of the other race; and that furthermore there are some occupations from which Negroes are practically shut out. With respect, secondly, to advancement after employment is once secured, the Negro is likewise, though in lesser degree, the object of prejudice. In order to gain promotion he must as a rule do work which is not only equal in quality to that of white employees of the same sort, but better. Even so, his promotion is at best slow and uncertain. The prospects of advancement diminish as the grade of work ascends, and after a certain point they sink to zero. Examples of how the discrimination in question operates may be had in the case of several forms of employment from which Negroes are practically 322 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON excluded. The occupations of salesmen and sales- women in department stores, conductors and motor- men on street-cars, and trainmen, conductors, firemen, and engineers on railway trains, fall within this cate- gory. In smaller stores and shops in Boston there are a few Negro salesmen and saleswomen, while there is at least one case of a Negro in the superior position of buyer in a large establishment. The reason given for the non-employment of members of this race in depart- ment stores is that both the white employees and the white patrons would object. But as against this asser- tion it may be submitted that, in the first place, the white employees are not organized in unions, through which they could voice any such collective protest effec- tively; that in the absence of union organization, and in view of the abundant outside supply of labor of this sort upon which the stores may draw, they would not be likely to carry their resistance so far as to lose their positions; and finally, that in the smaller stores above mentioned neither the white employees nor the patrons have registered any objections of pronounced charac- ter. It would appear, therefore, that in this case the eventual and real responsibility must rest upon the em- ployers, even though the latter may in good faith hold an opinion to the contrary. In the case of railway train employees, immediate responsibility rests chiefly upon the labor unions, which in practice, if not in their public utterances, bar Negroes. But as respects con- ductors, at least, the public enters in as a potential factor, in that it is very questionable whether white passengers and Negro conductors would get on satis- factorily. In the case of conductors on street-cars. ECONOMIC ACHIEVEMENT 323 inasmuch as there have been no unions till very recently, the probable attitude of white passengers is the decisive element. When account is taken of the frequent squabbles between passengers and conductors over fares, transfers, stops, and what-not, as well as the occasions which arise for conductors to eject passen- gers because of disorder or intoxication, it is easy to foresee that serious trouble might ensue if Negro con- ductors were employed. This would not be true, how- ever, with regard to motormen, and as they, too, were not unionized till within a short time, the employers again appear to have been mainly accountable for the non-employment of Negroes in this capacity. The three parties to the industrial prejudice against the Negro are thus seen to be employers, white em- ployees, — especially some of those who are organized in unions, — and the public. But wherever the imme- diate responsibility may rest, it is, of course, in every case the employers who are ultimately and in the most tangible way accountable. This very discrimination to which the Negro is sub- ject, however, is in major part the product not of any inherent hostility to him on the part of the other race, but of the actual industrial unfitness of the Negro himself. When a Negro applies for a position, he labors under a heavy burden to prove his ability to fill that position satisfactorily; or, in other words, to show that he is an exception to the general rule applying to his race. Either the particular employer's own previous experience with Negroes, or his knowledge of the experience of other employers, causes him to assume, in the absence of the strongest evidence to the con- S24 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON trary, that any given Negro applicant is in all likeli- hood incompetent. The employer, therefore, sees no sufficient reason for going into the qualifications of each individual. He simply adopts as the safest general policy that of refusing employment to all Negroes. On the surface this appears to be a drawing of the color line. But, in fact, it is primarily a rough-and-ready application of the competency test. The situation is similar with respect to the advancement of Negroes after they are employed. Though the prejudice becomes less pronounced, for the reason that each Negro has more of a chance to demonstrate his own personal ability, the burden of proof is still against him and he must fight his way against great odds. In recent years the Negroes have lost ground in some of the menial occupations where their hold has sup- posedly been strongest. In this respect they have suf- fered especially from competition on the part of some of the immigrant groups from southern Europe and elsewhere. Many hotels and restaurants, for instance, have replaced Negro waiters by white ones of various nationalities. Negro barbers with a white patronage have practically disappeared, having been displaced largely by Italians. Negro coachmen are not nearly so much in evidence as they were twenty-five years ago. Even Negro bootblacks have declined markedly in number, ousted by the enterprising Greeks. Several years ago Japanese bell-boys were substituted for Negro bell-boys at the American House. The manager of this hotel stated that he had found the Negro boys unreliable, given to petty thievery, lazy, and deficient in personal cleanliness; and that this was why he was ECONOMIC ACHIEVEMENT 325 making the change. In domestic service, also, Negro girls are usually a second choice to those of Swedish, German, and other nationalities. The majority of the Negroes themselves say that it is the increase of pre- judice which is blamable for these losses. But the underlying explanation is that even in such menial occupations Negroes have been found wanting when weighed in the scale with other races. If by some miracle the present industrial prejudice against the Negroes could be made to disappear over- night, no doubt the immediate effect would be that the latter would suddenly rise many degrees in the indus- trial scale. But they would not retain their higher position long. As their actual industrial unfitness made itself evident anew, discrimination based on this unfit- ness would again come into being, would operate as it operates to-day, and soon the mass of this race would drop back, — not, it is true, to the same point as pre- viously, for the temporary absence of prejudice would have enabled many to demonstrate individual ability* while fuller opportunity would have enhanced the ca- pacity of many more, — but certainly to a point not so very far above that which they had occupied before- That is to say, the present industrial standing of the Negro people is roughly commensurate with their present actual industrial worth. But while thus, on the one hand, the Negro's unfit- ness is the underlying reason for the discrimination against him, it is also true, on the other hand, that this very discrimination itself operates to perpetuate his unfitness, by limiting his industrial opportunities. If he is practically barred from certain occupations, con- 326 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON fronted with great difficulty in entering others, and in general relegated to those of inferior grade, the result must inevitably be that his prospects for eliciting and cultivating any latent industrial capacity he may possess are minimized. He is thus caught within an entangling mesh of cause and effect: finding himself through his own shortcomings, in last analysis, brought hard up against an adverse discriminatory force from without; which in turn tends to keep him from rising above his present inferior place in the industrial scale, or to push him still further down. Such is the crux of the economic problem with which the Negro is to-day face to face. Section 2. Getting a Foothold When now one turns from the negative to the posi- tive aspect of this situation, and seeks to find whether the problem which has been pointed out is in process of solution, by any distinct economic advance on the Negro's part, what are the facts which here align them- selves? A comparison of the conditions of to-day with those of the past, as the latter have already been indicated, will show whether, on the whole, the general move- ment which has taken place in this regard has been of a backward or forward trend. In the beginning, the Negroes in Boston were slaves, and as such had no in- dependent industrial status whatever. Gradually, and owing largely to the endeavor and industry of the Negroes themselves, slavery was undermined and by 1780 eradicated. Its abolition marked the starting- point of the semi-independent economic history of this ECONOMIC ACHIEVEMENT 327 element of the population. The status of slave was succeeded, however, by that of traditional servant, which in the case of the great majority of the Negroes in the Boston community lasted until after the general emancipation of the race. Then the full economic liberty and responsibility of the Negro people began. Though even before that a few Negroes had entered the professions and become business proprietors in a small way, yet, as between this handful at the top and the rank and file still engaged in menial labor at the bottom, the proportion who had made their way into the manual and clerical intermediate occupations re- mained slight for fifteen or twenty years following the war. The change which has subsequently come about, however, is shown by the fact that to-day approxi- mately thirty-five per cent, or more than a third of the city's Negro inhabitants, are found to be in occu- pations above the lowest or menial plane, and mostly in those belonging to the intermediate gradation.^ Thus it becomes manifest that a great improvement has taken place; and one which, moreover, does not have to do only with a small minority composed of exceptional individuals, but with a very large propor- tion of the entire Negro population. The progress in this respect which has been accom- plished during the recent period, appears when the latest available census findings are compared with those of ten years previous. In order to appreciate the real significance of the figures involved in this com- ^ This figure is simply the complement of that given at the begin- ning of the chapter with reference to the proportion of the Negroes employed in occupations of lowest grade. 328 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON parison, however, it is necessary to take account of the fact that during the decade in question, that of 1890- 1900, the Negro colony of Boston proper grew from 8125 to 11,591, — an increase of 3466, or over 42 per cent. Inasmuch, too, as the deaths during the decade exceeded the births, and as there was much emigration, the total immigration of Negroes must have been con- siderably in excess of the net gain in numbers; and in fact probably amounted to at least 50 per cent of the Negro population at the beginning of the decade. The great mass of the individuals who made up this immi- grant tide were unfitted for anything above common and menial labor. Under these conditions it might reasonably have been expected that, while the abso- lute number of Negroes in occupations of higher grade would have increased somewhat by the decade's close, the ratio of such to the total of Negroes at work would have decreased in no small measure. Indeed, it might have been regarded as not unlikely that this influx of ignorant blacks would have intensified the industrial pre- judice to such a degree, that the proportion of the Ne- groes in occupations of higher grade would have declined by as much as the Negro population had increased. But here is what actually took place: In 1890, the proportion of Negro males in Boston proper engaged in occupations above those of servants, waiters, porters, helpers, and nondescript laborers was 43 per cent, and the proportion of Negro females in occupations above the grade of servants and laundresses was 21 per cent. In 1900, the corresponding proportions were 40 per cent and 25 per cent. In the case of men there had been only a slight decline of 3 per cent, and in the case ECONOMIC ACHIEVEMENT 329 of women there had been a net gain of 4 per cent. Viewed in the light of the foregoing analysis of the situation, these figures show that in the course of the decade the Negroes made enough headway in moving up the industrial scale to offset fully the depressing effect of the flood of raw immigrants from the South. The actual advance which was accomplished stands out still more clearly when expressed in terms of num- bers instead of in percentages. Whereas, in 1890, the number of Negroes of both sexes in occupations above the level of those cited as the lowest was 1674, in 1900 it was 2326, — an increase of 652. This means that by the end of the decade the Negro people had suc- ceeded in establishing that many more individual advance guards — or, perhaps better said, scouts — to assist in pushing its industrial intrenchments still further forward. A second form of evidence of the Negro's economic progress is afforded by the increase in the number and variety of occupations in which members of this race are found. In the latest census to which reference has been made, not only were substantial numbers of Ne- groes listed in each of the five general industrial classi- fications, — agriculture, the professions, domestic and personal service, trade and transportation, manufac- turing and mechanical pursuits, — but also, in the case of the 123 secondary classifications into which the en- tire working male population of Boston was distrib- uted, Negroes were reported in 96; while of the 57 similar classifications for women, members of this race were reported in 34.^ Though it is impossible to enter * The occupations of males in which no Negroes were reported 330 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON into an item-by-item comparison of these findings with those of preceding censuses, for the reason that, pre- viously, occupation statistics by color were not given in such detail for Boston, it is nevertheless practically certain, in the light of general information and observa- tion, that the industrial distribution of the Negroes is wider and more varied to-day than it ever has been before.^ Still another index to the improvement in the Negro's economic conditions is had in the decrease of were: farmers, planters, agricultural overseers; nurses; street rail- way employees; broom- and brush-makers; cabinet-makers; car- pet-factory operatives; clock- and watch-makers and repairers; copper- workers; dressmakers; electroplaters; engravers; furniture- manufactory employees; gas-works employees; glass-workers; hat- and cap-makers; model- and pattern-makers; paper- and pulp-mill operatives; rope- and cordage-manufactory employees; rubber-factory employees; sail-, awning-, and tent-makers; steam- boiler-makers; sugar-makers; textile-mill operatives; tool- and cutlery-makers; trunk- and leather-case manufactory employees; woolen-mill operatives. The occupations of females from which Negroes were absent were: agriculture; hucksters and peddlers; packers and shippers; bakers; broom- and brush-makers; button-makers; carpet-factory opera- tives; confectioners; cotton-mill operatives; glove-makers; hosiery- and knitting-mill operatives; iron- and steel-workers; lace- and embroidery-workers; manufacturers and officials, photographers, rope- and cordage-manufactory operatives, rubber-factory opera- tives; sewing-machine operatives; shirt-, collar-, and cuff-makers; textile-mill operatives; tobacco- and cigar-factory operatives; upholsterers. It will be seen that in many cases these occupations are so slightly different from those in which Negroes were found, and are withal of such a wide variety, as in general to carry little suggestion of the exclusion of members of this race on account of prejudice. In other words, the list appears to be on the whole of a merely casual nature, and at another time might be very differently made up. 1 Further discussion of this point is deferred till later in the present chapter. ECONOMIC ACHIEVEMENT 331 the percentage of Negro women at work. While the proportion of men employed remained at the same point — 76 per cent — during the decade 1890-1900, that of women declined from 40 per cent to 36 per cent. This reduction in the proportion of wives, mothers, and girls who are compelled to labor outside the home implies a lessened economic stress upon Negro families, owing largely, no doubt, to more fruit- ful industry on the part of the men. In positive terms, this means a better economic situation. Conclusive as are the foregoing evidences of indus- trial advance, however, they are still of a rather general character and significance. The progress to which they bear witness will be much more fully and vividly un- derstood when the particular kinds and grades of work in which the Negroes are engaged are taken up specifi- cally, and the concrete facts thus scrutinized at close range. To this end, while aiming so far as possible to summon one's first-hand observation of the more humanly interesting features, and to avoid forbidding statistics, it will at the same time prove advisable to have recourse again to the findings of the census, in order to insure the desirable and essential element of comprehensiveness. But inasmuch as the most important consideration in the present inquiry is that of the rise of Negroes into superior occupations, the purpose in view will not be met by the census returns as they stand tabulated in the Government volumes; the five general classifications there given, and most of the secondary ones, including not only employees of differ- ent grades, but proprietors as well. In the light of one's own acquaintance with the facts, however, it is possible 332 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON to estimate with approximate accuracy the number of proprietors in most of the cases, — as, for instance, that of "barbers," — where they are comprised under the same heading with employees, and thus to sepa- rate the proprietors from the rest. Even with this separation effected, however, the further question arises as to how to classify the various employees. Grouping them merely according to variety or charac- ter of occupation gives no idea of their rank. A possi- ble basis for grading would be the prevailing wage or salary of each occupation. But even if the practical impossibility of obtaining this information in accurate form and on a sufficiently extensive scale could be over- come, it would still remain true that stipend is not by any means always commensurate with an occupation's grade. The amount of special preparation or ability required in the case of any given work, and the degree of intelligence combined with skill or expertness for which its performance calls, constitute together an- other test which strikes somewhat nearer the mark. But probably the best criterion of all is that of the gen- eral esteem in the community at large, which attaches to the various occupations in question. This is a standard which, besides taking account in a composite way of the factors that have been suggested, includes also the additional psychological element, which, though of somewhat intangible character and effect, is none the less real. For purposes of the present in- quiry, at any rate, which is economic-social in a broad sense rather than narrowly and strictly industrial, the test of public esteem appears to be the most satisfac- tory one in determining the rank of different kinds of ECONOMIC ACHIEVEMENT 333 work. On this basis it is possible to arrange the occu- pations in which Negroes are found, as these are reported by the census, into three general gradation groups; consisting, respectively, of those which are lowest in the industrial scale, those which occupy an intermediate position, and those which take rank at the top. The first group, thus made up, includes the em- ployees of those occupations to which specific reference has already been made as the least esteemed, and of a few others which are on substantially the same plane in this respect. The composition of this group, in 1900, was as follows : ^ — FIRST GENERAL INDUSTRIAL GROUP Menial and Common Labor Occupations — Employees Boston Proper MEN Bootblacks (employees) 27 Newsboys 4 Errand and office boys, and messengers ... 48 Hostlers 61 Agricultural laborers 11 Steam-railway employees 34 Laborers (not attached to any particular industry) . 665 Porters and helpers in stores, etc 404 Servants and waiters 1676 Total 2930 65 per cent of all men at work. * It should, of course, be borne in mind that as the above figures are from the Census of 1900, the number of Negroes in the majority of the occupations given would be appreciably larger to-day; and that it is only as Indicating relative proportions, in an approximate way, that these figures, which as previously stated are in this partic- iilar connection the most recent ones available, are to be understood. 334 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON WOMEN Laborers (not attached to any particular industry) . 25 Laundresses (employees) 492 Servants 1222 Total 1739 76 per cent of all women at work. Most of the Negroes employed as bootblacks are boys who are getting a start in this way, and who later go into other occupations, or, in the case of a small pro- portion, become proprietors of bootblacking stands. The same is true of the newsboys, who are a common sight on streets situated in or near Negro districts. The errand and oflSce boys and messengers occupy a somewhat higher position, from the point of view of possibilities of advancement. Not infrequently these boys gradually work their way up into semi-clerical and clerical positions, and a few eventually become business proprietors or enter the professions. Some of the messengers are full-grown men, who, while get- ting more in wages than the boys, tend, on the other hand, to remain permanently in positions of this sort. A small number of messengers of higher grade, con- nected with Government offices and banks, are in- cluded in the next industrial group. A little above the foregoing occupations, in point of earnings, come those of hostlers, and agricultural and railway laborers. Of the hostlers, the majority are to be found in private stables. The agricultural laborers are employed by nurseries, truck farms, or large es- tates. The railway employees are mostly coal shovel- ers, polishers, and the like, in the shops, or common laborers on the tracks. The subdivision made up of ECONOMIC ACHIEVEMENT 335 laborers not attached to any particular industry com- prises a wide variety of more or less nondescript occu- pations. A great many, though probably not the majority, of those who fall under this heading, can be described by no more definite term than "odd- job- bers" or "men-of -any -work." Mainly from inability to obtain permanent employment, but partly also from preference for intermittent exertion, they make shift with whatever they can get to do — washing windows, cutting lawns, shoveling snow, helping unload coal, or what-not. A corresponding class is, of course, to be found among the other race, but the fact that it is not nearly so large as in the case of the Negroes further witnesses to the lower economic status of the latter. Because of the uncertainty in the occurrence and duration of their employment, the earnings of these odd-jobbers are likewise extremely uncertain and variable. Another contingent in this subdivision consists of elevator tenders. A large num- ber of Negro men and boys are employed in running elevators in business buildings, apartment houses, and hotels. Their earnings are increased by tips, especially in the holiday season. Still another quota is made up of street and construction laborers, of whom there are several score on the rolls of the city and those of private contractors. The members of this subdivision who earn the most are the longshoremen, who load and unload cargoes of all sorts along the water front. Some of them do not have assured steady work, but are taken on intermittently at certain docks where no regular force is kept, or elsewhere as extra hands. By circulating about, however, these men usually keep 336 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON busy most of the time. The majority of those who are regularly employed receive $12 a week. For overtime work they get 30 cents and for Sunday work 45 cents an hour. Thus many of them manage to bring their weekly earnings up to $15 or $20. The subdivision "porters and helpers" also comprises many more particular occupations. It takes in all sorts of attendants and factotums in stores and other busi- ness places. Though there is little dignity attaching to such employment, — except when decorated with brass buttons ! — and though the wages which it yields are low, still not a few of these humble lend-a- hands come gradually to occupy positions of trust and good pay, thus rising into the industrial group next higher up. In this subdivision are also included the porters about the railway depots and the elevated railway stations, and the meat-carriers in the markets. These meat-carriers earn as much or more than the longshoremen. Their usual wage is $12 a week, but after regular hours many of them work at loading and unloading cars, and because special skill is required in the handling of meat, the pay per hour is higher than that of miscellaneous dock labor. Occasionally a very rapid worker makes as much as $5 in a single night, while earnings of $20 a week are not rare. By far the largest subdivision in this first industrial group is that of servants and waiters. Between twenty- five and thirty hotels, restaurants, clubs, and apartment houses, in Boston proper, employ Negroes as waiters. This is the case in nine leading hotels, while several of the same grade have Negro waiters in some of their dining-rooms, and white waiters in the others. The ECONOMIC ACHIEVEMENT 337 wages paid range from $22.50 to $33 a month, that of most usual occurrence being $25, plus meals in working hours. Captains and head waiters receive more, the former from $30 to $40 and the latter usually about $75. In addition to the regular wages, however, there are the tips. In nineteen hotels and restaurants which the writer investigated, the lowest reported monthly income from tips was $12, while the majority of waiters took in about $25 a month, thus bringing their gross earnings up to $50 a month, or approximately $11.50 a week. Frequently the yield from tips is much larger. One waiter reported $185 during a lucky month. This is very exceptional, but cases of $50 a month are not uncommon, especially in so-called bohemian cafes. The gross earnings of captains is usually about the same as that of ordinary waiters, the higher wage being offset by a smaller amount in tips, owing to the less direct contact with patrons. For the same reason head waiters are not tipped to any large extent, except in one or two of the best hotels and several resorts of the sporting element. In these places the amount thus received depends mainly on the head waiter's popu- larity, but on the average is about $50 a month, making the gross earnings $125 a month, or close to $29 a week. An especially coveted position under the heading of servants is that of Pullman porter. The usual wage is $25 a month. The income from tips, though very variable, and ranging from next to nothing on poor "runs" to $100 a month and even more on the best ones, averages about $50. Thus the combined income is $75 a month, or something over $17 a week. Of the women included in the first industrial group 338 . THE NEGRO IN BOSTON now under consideration, the majority of those set down as laborers are scrubwomen and the like. The servants consist for the most part of general house- work girls, nursemaids, ladies' maids, and cooks. The cooks get the best pay, sometimes making as much as $10 a week. Also included among the servants are a considerable number of helpers and attendants in manicure and hairdressing parlors, and millinery, dressmaking, and other similar establishments. These positions are often especially attractive because they have more or less of an appearance of smartness or gen- tility. Of the laundresses, the majority go out to work by the day. The usual day's wage is $1.50, plus car- fare. This means $4.50 a week if a woman has only three days taken, $7.50 or $9, if she works five or six days, as many do, the demand being far in excess of the supply. A smaller proportion of the laundresses take in work at their homes. These women might well be considered as belonging to the proprietor class, and a few who have home or shop laundries open to public patronage will be so graded. The laundresses who take in work, as a rule make more than those who go out by the day. By way of general characterization and summary applying to this first large industrial group, the ex- amination of which in detail has now been completed, it should be noted that in the case of both sexes the specific occupations comprised are of two kinds: common labor, such as that of longshoremen; and menial work, such as that of servants and waiters. In the case of common labor, the suggestion of inferiority is less, and attaches rather to the labor alone than to ECONOMIC ACHIEVEMENT 339 the laborer also. The menial occupations, however, in which a much larger number of Negroes are found, are customarily looked upon as not only inferior in themselves, but as stamping the persons employed in them with inferiority. The underlying explanation of this fact is doubtless to be had in the intimately physi- cal nature of the service rendered, such as serving food and blacking boots. The way of referring to the em- ployees in such kinds of work as "boys," and of ad- dressing them by their first names, suggests their lack of dignity. A particular reason which partly accounts for the low esteem in which some of these occupations are held is that they are subject to the practice of "tipping." Whenever a tip is offered and taken, not only the giver's respect for the taker, but also the taker's respect for himself, are impaired, and the in- feriority of the latter's position is not only implied, but, in tendency at least, produced. The better ele- ment of the Negroes are conscious of the deteriorating influence to which so many of their race are thus con- tinually subjected. Tipping is not the sole element, however, in the disregard which attaches to labor of this sort, as is shown by the fact that domestic ser- vants, who usually are not tipped at all, are neverthe- less the most distinctly menial of all. The conditions which surround most forms of menial employment are, furthermore, not such as to bring out the best traits of character. Waiters and bell-boys, especially, are con- stant witnesses to over-display, extravagance, vul- garity, heavy drinking, and immorality; — with more or less lowering of their own standards as an almost inevitable result. In so far, therefore, as the foregoing 340 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON unfavorable features are concerned, the fact that so large a proportion of the Negroes are employed at menial labor is undoubtedly one of the most serious obstacles in the way of general progress by this race. But, on the other hand, it would be a mistake to attach any necessary stigma to work of this kind. Any task done honestly and well is creditable, and the worthiness of one's employment really depends upon the character of one's own fulfillment of it. Some of the better educated and more sensitive Negroes are begin- ning to urge their people to keep out of menial service. That is well enough, provided employment of higher grade is procurable. But if the choice rests between menial occupation, and enforced idleness or dependence, which is often the case, the former is certainly to be preferred. So long as large numbers of the race must earn their livelihood in this field, they should strive to enhance the dignity of their employment by self- respecting and efficient performance of their duties. Under actual existing conditions, moreover, the case is far from being one-sidedly against work of this char- acter. There are some very substantial considerations, in fact, which must be set down to its credit. The first is, that the earnings in some of these occupations, as has already appeared, reach a point far above those of common labor, and for that matter considerably above those of some of the semi-skilled manual and clerical lines of employment which are usually regarded as superior. Positions as Pullman porters and as head waiters, which not infrequently yield an income of $125 a month, are by no means to be despised. In point of skill required, moreover, the work of a good hotel ECONOMIC ACHIEVEMENT 341 waiter is something of an accomplishment; and an efficient head waiter, who sees to it that his men are properly drilled, marshaled, and kept at attention to their duties, is veritably — to borrow a term from the economists — a "captain of industry." Earnings above those of common labor imply better living conditions, better education for the children, and enhanced social worth. As will be shown when owner- ship of property is considered, many of the Negroes in menial positions in Boston have by thrift and saving set aside enough to buy a home, and provide their fami- lies with the comforts and some of the luxuries of life. Some have invested in additional property, and a few have accumulated snug little fortunes. The majority of these men and women are respected and serviceable members of the community. Any handicapped group, of course, as, for example, some of the foreign immigrants to whom reference has been made as displacing the Negroes in certain occu- pations, have to resort to menial employment more or less, at least while they are getting a foothold. In the case of the white population, however, it holds true that the great majority of persons engaged in work of tfiis grade are of a generally humbler standing. But with the Negroes this is not the case to nearly such a degree. On account of the difficulties experienced by members of this race in obtaining work of higher grade, it results that Negroes of every degree of ability, education, and standing among their own people, are found in menial occupations. For some this is simply their first employment, through which they hope to get a start that will enable them to move higher. And 342 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON many do move higher. It is safe to estimate that two thirds of the Negroes who occupy the best positions to-day have at some time in their life worked as waiters or as menials of some other sort. A second contingent, while remaining in menial occupations permanently, nevertheless rise, through saving and the purchase of property, to an economic level equal to that of workers in superior lines. Others, students especially, take this readiest way of supporting them- selves till they can enter upon their chosen work. Still others, who have through various exigencies lost better positions or whose abilities are of a sort — as literary or artistic — which is not sufficiently remuner- ative, take up menial work as either a temporary or permanent mode of making both ends meet. An aspir- ing verse-writer known to the writer earned his daily bread for a time by working as an elevator boy. The minister of a suburban church is employed during the week as a porter in a city store. These instances are typical of many more which could be cited, and which, as already suggested, are far more common among the Negro people than they are among any other element of the population. It is evident, therefore, in the light of the foregoing concrete facts, that there is much in connection with the occupations in this first industrial group which bears witness not to industrial inferiority, but to very substantial economic progress. These occupations cannot justly be dismissed as "lowest," except in a purely comparative and underogative sense. An unmodified comparison, moreover, between the per- centage of the Negroes engaged in work of this sort ECONOMIC ACHIEVEMENT 343 with the percentage of the whites in work of the same kind, does not constitute a true and adequate measure- ment of the relative economic levels of the two races; the reason being that in the case of the Negroes the pro- portion who in their living conditions have risen above their employment is so much larger than it is among the other race. In short, the Negro people, in consider- able degree making a virtue of their necessity, have turned occupations reckoned as lowly into the means of substantial economic intrenchment. The second industrial group is made up of employees in two general kinds of occupations, the one higher grade manual, the other clerical, which from the point of view of their esteem in the community belong in approximately the same intermediate gradation. This group was in 1900 constituted as follows: — SECOND GENERAL INDUSTRIAL GROUP Higher Grade Manual and Clerical Work — Employees Boston Proper MEN Barbers 81 Bartenders 16 Stewards 29 Janitors and sextons 319 Watchmen and policemen 24 Boatmen, fishermen, and sailors 22 Soldiers, sailors, and marines (U.S.) 16 Teamsters 150 Packers and shippers 27 Iron and steel, wire, brass, tin, brick, and leather workers ; quarry men ; meat-packing, electric-light, and brewery employees; telegraph and telephone linemen 36 Marble- and stonecutters 8 344 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON Blacksmiths and wheelwrights 9 Machinists 7 Boot- and shoemakers and harness-makers ... 2 Carpenters, coopers, painters, paperhangers, plasterers, and roofers 75 Plumbers, gas- and steamfitters 9 Upholsterers 9 Tobacco-workers 6 Piano-makers 3 Masons 30 Butchers 6 Bakers 5 Tailors 11 Photographers 2 Gold- and silver-workers 3 Engineers and firemen (stationary) 53 Engineers and surveyors 2 Electricians 4 Bookbinders 2 Printers 19 Foremen 3 Stenographers and typewriters 7 Messengers (high grade) 16 Clerks and copyists 83 Bookkeepers and accountants 4 Architects and draughtsmen 3 Agents and commercial travelers 26 Salesmen 23 OflBcials of companies 3 Total 1153 25.5 per cent of all men at work. WOMEN Hairdressers 5 Stewardesses 88 Janitors and sextons 34 Nurses and midwives 30 Box-makers 1 ECONOMIC ACHIEVEMENT 345 Boot- and shoemakers 7 Seamstresses 38 Shirtmakers 1 Tailoresses 9 Dressmakers 114 Milliners 4 Bookbinders 1 Printers 1 Telephone operators 1 Stenographers 8 Clerks and copyists 9 Bookkeepers 4 Agents 5 Saleswomen 7 Total 367 16 per cent of all women at work. This group includes a much more extensive grada- tion of occupations than the first one, with respect to skill, earnings, and public regard. Though, as above set down, these occupations have been arranged roughly in an ascending scale according to their esti- mation in the community, no hard-and-fast arrange- ment, on this or any other basis, is possible. While it will not be necessary to consider each occupation separately, still, before generalizing, some observation of a more specific character will prove profitable. At the beginning of the group, forming the transi- tion from the one preceding, come the semi-menial occupations of barbers, stewards, bartenders, janitors, and sextons. The barbers are employed in places pa- tronized exclusively by this race. There is to-day only one Negro shop which has a white patronage — this one being in the State House, where it remains as a sort of inheritance from earlier years. Some of the bar- 346 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON tenders are in the Negro "clubs" to which previous reference has been made, while the remainder are in white cafes and hotels. Most of the stewards are to be found in white clubs; a few in hotels and restaurants. The janitors, who are employed mainly in apartment houses, business blocks, and public buildings, are as a class characterized by thrift and sturdy moral quali- ties. The position of janitor is, of course, one which calls for trustworthiness, industry, and practical ability, while the consciousness of being placed in such a situation of responsibility tends further to develop the better elements of character. Having to take care of property gives rise to an understanding of the value of property and an ambition for ownership. Probably the Negro janitors include a larger proportion of property owners than is the case with any other single occupation. Several of the men whose real-estate holdings are most substantial have this as their present or past vocation. Negro teamsters are much in evidence. Most of them are employed by coal companies, who testify that in general they are as satisfactory for such work as any other race, while being more desirable in point of good humor and humane treatment of their horses. Negro drivers of delivery wagons for many kinds of business are also a common sight. In this context, note may appropriately be made of an occupation in which no Negroes at all were reported by the Census of 1900, but in which to-day there must be at least a hundred in Greater Boston. The occupation to which reference is had is that of chauffeur. The rapid in- crease of Negroes in this calling within the last few ECONOMIC ACHIEVEMENT 347 years reflects considerable credit on the members of this race, in that the work requires not only special preparation, but exceptional qualifications, including accuracy of observation, cool-headedness, quick-wit- tedness, mechanical skill and ingenuity, and trust- worthiness of character. If Negroes are not found] wanting at such work after a fair competitive trial, their fitness for employment as motormen, railway trainmen, firemen, engineers, and the like, may war-/ rantably be taken for granted. From teamsters to foremen, this second group is composed of what may be broadly termed skilled manual occupations, including the trades in the nar- rower sense. These may be considered collectively, inasmuch as the conditions pertaining to them are similar. The multiplicity and diversity of occupations of this character in which Negroes are found is what first impresses the observer, while the considerable number of members of this race in certain vocations, especially those of carpenters and allied branches, and masons, stationary engineers, and printers, is particu- larly striking. With respect to the Negroes reported in the building trades, it may be said that they are as a rule employed among the white workmen, with whom they appear to be approximately on a level in point of efficiency. A goodly proportion of the Negroes in the trades are not wholly in the employee class, strictly speaking, but are at least semi-proprietors, owning their implements and working more or less as their own masters. Such is the case especially with many of the carpenters, roofers, plasterers, and paperhangers. The skilled manual occupations are the ones of 348 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON chief strategic importance for the Negroes to-day, as constituting the most practical avenue of industrial advance for the rank and file of the race. They are mostly occupations for which the necessary training may be acquired not only through a school course of industrial education, — though, to be sure, such special preparation is a great advantage, — but also, as is usually the case, by working one's way up through lower grades of related work. They are also occupations in which the demand for satisfactory workmen is generally in excess of the supply, and with regard to which, therefore, possession of the requisite skill is almost certainly a passport to em- ployment, whatever may be the color of the appli- cant's skin. They command good wages. What is still more important, they compel recognition of and respect for practical ability. The conditions sur- rounding such work are furthermore conducive to the development of the qualities of responsibility, thrift, and definiteness of purpose, which are themselves both the prerequisites and the guarantees of sub- stantial industrial progress. The remaining occupations in this group, from sten- ographers to the end of the list, are of a clerical or semi-clerical character. Some of the Negroes in these lines of work are employed by Negro establishments, but such are distinctly in the minority. Besides two court stenographers, to whom previous reference has been made in connection with the civil service, there are several others who have won exceptional recogni- tion in this calling; among them a young man holding a position in a well-known public stenographic office, ECONOMIC ACHIEVEMENT 349 with white associates, who has the reputation of being one of the best of this vocation in the city. The mes- sengers listed at this point consist of those in the State House, post-office and custom-house, who, as previously stated, really perform the functions of clerks; and of a few others of the same grade in banks and business places. Several of these bank messengers would be promoted to full clerkships were it not for the alleged objection that their white associates would make.^ A considerable proportion of the Negro clerks are also to be found in city, state, and federal offices. The rest are scattered about here and there in business establishments of various sorts, which is likewise true of the bookkeepers, salesmen, and architects. In clerical employment, the proportion of Northern- born, or at least Northern-reared, Negroes is at its highest. Among this element especially, but also among the rest of the Negro population, work of this nature is at a premium. This, of course, holds true not only in the case of the Negroes, but also in that of the whites, with whom likewise clerical occupations are generally held in higher social esteem than manual ones, even though the latter be of skilled grade; the reason being, apparently, that clerical employment carries more of a suggestion of gentility. It is well and good that Negroes should enter these clerical occupa- tions to an extent warranted by the real benefits thereby derived. These benefits are chiefly the gain in self-respect resulting from the consciousness of being ^ There are only two full-fledged Negro bank clerks in Boston: — Louis Pasco, at the National Shawmut Bank, and Leigh Carter, with N. W. Harris & Co. 350 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON in work which is commonly regarded as superior, and the winning of enhanced respect from the whites through demonstration of assumedly superior capaci- ties. For a small minority of exceptionally qualified Negroes, moreover, clerical work affords opportunity for exceptional advancement and earnings. But for the great majority of the race the clerical field is of much less practical and certain value than that of skilled manual work. In the first place, the supply of labor for clerical employment, much of which — as, for instance, that of ordinary store clerks — requires no special training beyond a common-school education, is far in excess of the demand. This means that .the Negro must encounter more severe competition in obtaining such employment, and that in all except its upper grades the wages are much lower than in the case of manual work which calls for special skill. Of a piece with the superficial gentility of clerical employment, the prejudice against the Negro is more pronounced in it and the opportunity for advancement much less favorable. The nature and conditions of such work are as a rule not so likely to develop the more rugged and fundamental qualities of character. There is more temptation to squander earnings on dress, empty accomplishments, and the aping of "society." Unfor- tunately, many Negroes succumb to these tempta- tions. Considering together the higher grade manual and the clerical occupations now under discussion, what has been said regarding the men in their ranks applies also, in general, to the women. But there are several points of difference. The percentage of Negroes em- ECONOMIC ACHIEVEMENT 351 ployed by members of their own race is larger in the ease of the women; as is also the proportion of those who are semi-proprietors, as, for instance, many of the hairdressers, seamstresses, dressmakers, and milliners. The number of occupations of intermediate grade in which Negro women are found is much smaller than in the case of Negro men, owing largely to the fact that racial prejudice is more pronounced on the part of white women employees, thus making it more difficult for Negro women to gain an entrance. With respect to this intermediate industrial group as a whole, men and women combined, there are certain important observations to be made. The first of these is, that whereas the great majority of the Negroes com- prised in the first or lowest group, previously con- sidered, carry on their work either in segregated gangs, as in the case of hotel waiters, or under conditions where their contact with the other race is as between inferiors and superiors, a majority of those in this second group work side by side with white employees of the same kind, under circumstances of at least industrial equality. This fact has vital consequences. These individual Negroes are living arguments — the most convincing ones possible — against the injustice of an undiscriminating prejudice. Their presence and example are the most persuasive appeal which could be made for mutual amity and respect between the two races. Every Negro who is performing work of this grade is thus an asset of the utmost strategic value to his people. The general public sees or hears little of the Negroes who occupy such superior positions. Most of these 352 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON Negroes are not making a noise over their good for- tune. On the contrary, they are keeping quiet, mini- mizing the fact of their racial identity, and in all ways trying to avoid attracting to themselves an attention which they fear might arouse prejudice and endanger their employment. But the observer who goes about with his eyes open comes upon these individuals in unexpected places and in surprising numbers. The head milliner in one of the most fashionable of Boston's millinery establishments, for instance, is a Negro man, who not only carries on his work among white em- ployees, but has charge of them. One of the salesmen in a well-known furniture store is a Negro, who has been with this particular establishment for many years, having gradually worked up from humble employ- ment, in the beginning, to his present place, in which he is reckoned among the firm's most valuable men. There is nothing in the relations between his white fellow-salesmen and himself, or in the attitude of patrons, which intrudes the color line. Incidentally, this man attracts a considerable trade from members of his own race.^ Another Negro is one of the buyers in a leading department store, and ranks among the fore- most in this capacity. An especially noteworthy case is that of a member of this race who, starting as a bottle- washer, is now in charge of the laboratory of the com- pany that manufactures the well-known Cuticura remedies.^ Several score examples as striking as these ^ The case referred to is that of William C. Lovett, in Eldridge & Peabody's. * Reference is had to Philip J. Allston, who at the writer's request has contributed the following brief autobiographical sketch: — "I was born in Edenton, North Carolina, August 12, over forty ECONOMIC ACHIEVEMENT 353 could be given, as well as many more which approxi- mate to them, but the ones which have been cited will serve as representative. Though it is true, as previously noted, that a Negro encounters much more difficulty in getting work than does a white man, yet the writer, in his own range of years ago, of slave parentage, my mother being the product of a Caucasian man. My father the result of like association from an- other plantation. "I was left in the care of my mother when only a few years old, my father hastily leaving for the North, and I did not see him for eight years. I came to Boston, July, 1871, where my mother joined my father. "Large opportunities for her children, and a desire to see her husband again, caused Mrs. Emily AUston, my mother, to leave her own home for Boston. "She had instructed the children in the first steps of learning. As a seamstress she was considered above the average slave. She engaged a private tutor to advance the children. I attended the primary and grammar schools, but left the latter before reaching the graduating class that I might aid in the support of the home. With an intense desire for educational advancement, being forced to make a livelihood at an early age, I immediately, upon leaving day school, joined the Evening English High School, which I attended for eight years, and the Starr King Drawing School, where I re- mained for five years. "My first position was as a helper to a janitor (a white man) of the National Shawmut Bank. Finding no chance here to advance on account of my color, I left after the first six months, to work at the Weeks & Potter Company, wholesale and retail druggists. Here as bottle-washer I remained until promoted to the laboratory of this concern. " Mr. Warren B. Potter, one of the partners of this establishment, took a great interest in me, and offered me the position of foreman in their laboratory in their new quarters on Columbus Avenue some thirty years ago, with the privilege of attending the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy. I was the only student of the colored race at that time. " The entire force of workers in the laboratory are of my race. A few years ago Mr. George R.White, the sole owner of the business, honored me by sending me to inspect the soap works which he had 354 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON experience, has encountered very few cases of Negroes, who were fitted for work of the superior grade now under consideration, who have not been able, at least through diligent effort, to obtain such work. He grants that he has come upon many instances of persons of this race who appeared at first to be the victims solely of racial prejudice. Nearly always, however, these individuals have proved in fact to be lacking either in the requisite skill or in some essential quality of char- acter. Though the attitude of the majority of em- ployers, as has already been stated, is that of assuming all Negroes to be incompetent, there is a substantial purchased in Maiden, and I offered suggestions and drew recommen- dations for many improvements. The works cost one million dollars. "The products of the Potter Drug & Chemical Corporation are found in every country of the world, Cuticura being the chief labora- tory product. " I have found prejudice one of the best elements to my advance- ment, as I realized the great mistake made in the lack of good judg- ment in freeing the slaves in such an unbusinesslike and unreasonable way. The so-called problem to my mind is mainly with the Negro himself and depends on his knowing how to handle opposition and to grasp opportunities. One of the first duties of the Negro is to give this prejudice question a sane and Christianlike consideration. "For centuries the white man of the South despised labor for himself and family. Habit is a tremendous force to upset; in land the betterment is only the result of years of toil and cultivation. So it is the duty of the Negro to educate the Caucasian race to a better Christian cultivation and to a nobler humanitarianism. "If the Negro desires help from the Caucasian race, we must show them that we believe in their improvability in this practical way. The fact that the Negro has demonstrated his capacity to broaden in education and advance in the moral and social scale, together with his commercial achievements, no one knows better than the white friends of the Negro of the South; that Ephraim is not joined to his idol of ignorance, sensuality, and selfishness. "Then Christian character is the great force wanted by both races. "My personal property is assessed for $7500." ECONOMIC ACHIEVEMENT 355 minority of whom this does not hold true. Officials of a number of concerns have said to the writer: "It makes no difference to me whether an employee be black or white. The man that I want, and that is worth most to me, is the man who can do the best work." Though still relatively small, the proportion of employers who take this view, and who, instead of following the policy of refusing employment to all Negroes indiscrimi- nately, make it a rule to judge applicants on their actual merits as workmen, irrespective of race or color, is at the same time steadily increasing. The most con- vincing proofs of this, as well as the most impressive demonstration of the extent to which the Negro on his own side is forcing his way upward, are had in the fact that the number of Negroes employed in these occupa- tions of higher rank is constantly growing. As has already been pointed out, an increase of six hundred and fifty-two individuals of this race took place during the decade 1890-1900, in work above the menial and common grade. For the most part, this gain was regis- tered in the ranks of the specific occupations now under discussion, while it is in this quarter also that the greater variety of employment in which Negroes are found to-day, and of which previous note has been made, chiefly obtains. Not only the community at large, but the Negro people themselves, are far from realizing the actual progress which the latter are making in climbing up the industrial ladder. Among both races, one hears considerable talk about the alleged narrowing of the Negro's industrial opportunities during the recent period. But in the light of the facts now before the 3S6 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON reader, the belief that such a narrowing has taken place does not appear to be borne out by the concrete evi- dence which is available. On the whole, indeed, the opposite has occurred. It is true, as already men- tioned, that in certain kinds of lower-grade employ- ment, such as that of waiters and domestic servants, the Negroes have lost ground, owing especially to the invasion of these fields by various foreign nationalities. But the very fact that the Negroes have to some extent been pushed out of such inferior work has prac- tically forced them to exert themselves more success- fully in getting into occupations of higher rank. As to the net effect of foreign immigration in this respect, it is a matter of common observation — to digress for the moment — that frequently the latest group of new- comers, being as a rule the most heavily handicapped by ignorance of the English language and otherwise, has to take the poorest work at the lowest wages, thus displacing the group just preceding; which forthwith, both under the spur of necessity and also with the advantage of its longer x\merican experience, moves up a peg in the industrial scale. Now there is good rea- son to believe that the lower ranks of the immigrant legions are rendering the Negroes a similar service in disguise; in that, while immediately ousting the latter from some of the less desirable forms of employment in which they have been most numerous, mediately, on the other hand, they are actually helping to boost the members of this race into work of better grade, where till recently they have been comparatively few in number. Certain it is, at any rate, that on this higher level the Negroes have experienced not a narrowing, ECONOMIC ACHIEVEMENT 357 but a widening, of their opportunities. Here lies their present chief field of industrial conquest. These man- ual occupations demanding a degree of skill, and these lines of clerical employment calling for a substantial measure of education and intelligence, constitute together, as between menial and common labor below, and the professions and independent business above, the great middle industrial group, which holds out most practical and ample promise to the Negro rank and file. The group next in order — the third and last — consists, as has just been indicated, of Negroes in the professions and semi-professions, and those who are engaged in business on their own account. Though of course this group includes occupations of different standing, and individuals of various degrees of ability, in the large it represents the height of the Negroes' industrial achievement; — namely, their rise into posi- tions of more or less complete proprietorship. The composition of this group in 1900 was as follows: — THIRD GENERAL INDUSTRIAL GROUP Professions and Business Proprietorships Boston Proper MEN Actors and showmen 29 Artists and teachers of art 3 Musicians and teachers of music 31 Literary and scientific men 5 Teachers in schools 4 Clergymen 13 Dentists 10 358 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON Physicians and surgeons 12 Lawyers » . 12 Bootblacks 9 Barbers 25 Hucksters 8 Boot- and shoemakers .... o ... 15 Teamsters 17 Laundry proprietors 4 Restaurant, saloon, boarding- and lodging-house and hotel keepers 47 Livery -stable keepers 3 Bakery proprietors 3 Confectioners 2 Bottlers and preservers 3 Butchers 6 Photographers 2 Tailors 15 Printers 4 Undertakers 2 Real-estate agents 6 Newspaper proprietors 2 Manufacturers and officials 7 Bankers 1 Merchants, retail 50 Merchants, wholesale 3 Total 353 7.8 per cent of all men at work. WOMEN Actresses 18 Artists and teachers of art 1 Musicians and teachers of music 15 Teachers in schools 9 Literary and scientific women 2 Ministers 1 Physicians 1 Hairdressers 5 Laundry proprietors 12 Milliners 2 ECONOMIC ACmEVEMENT 359 Dressmakers 12 Restaurant-keepers 1 Boarding- and lodging-house keepers 55 Merchants 2 Total 136 5.9 per cent of all women at work. Comment on these occupations may for the most part be made without separate mention for each sex. Actors and showmen are on the border-line between this and the preceding group. They are mostly vaudeville per- formers or members of Negro troupes. The number of Negro music teachers is constantly increasing, to keep pace with the increasing demand for musical instruc- tion among this race. At least one of the women teachers has sung in a white church for many years, and has had some white pupils. She is also the in- ventor of the phoneterion, a device to assist persons whose purity of tone is impaired because they cannot keep the tongue in place while singing.^ Among the literary men and women are included a small number of newspaper reporters, most of whom are employed by local or outside publications of their own race, but two of whom are on white newspapers of the city.^ The Negro men listed as teachers in schools, though having their home in Boston or happening to be there when the census was taken, are, with one exception, connected with institutions in the South. The single exception ^ Reference is had to Mrs. Nellie Brown Mitchell, widow of the late Charles L. Mitchell, who will be recalled as one of the prominent 6gures in the local history of his people since the war. ^ Robert Teamoh, on the Globe, is well known among the report- orial coterie. His special field is educational news, and only to a small extent does his work fall among his own race. 860 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON referred to is that of the head and proprietor of a local school of pharmacy, in which all but a few of the pupils are white. ^ Mention has already been made in another context of the Negro women who are teaching in the public schools of Boston, Of the Negro dentists, one who recently died had the most noteworthy record.^ At one time this man was a member of the faculty of the Dental School of Har- vard University. He made a reputation by exceptional skill in bridge work, and his patronage included a sub- stantial proportion of white people. Among the phy- sicians, of whom there are now about twenty, several have a considerable white practice.^ One has rendered a special service to his race and to the community by establishing a hospital, managed on a semi-cooperative plan participated in by Negro churches and organiza- tions, and providing better opportunity than has hitherto existed for clinical work by Negro physicians, and for the training of Negro nurses.^ At this hospital some white patients have been treated. The lawyers, who now number close to twenty-five, show a larger proportion of men of ability than is the case in any other single occupation. Reference has already been made, in other connections, to some of the most promi- nent of these Negro attorneys; — William H. Lewis, Archibald H. Grimke, Butler R. Wilson, Clement G. Morgan, James H. Wolff, William J. Williams, and 1 Dr. Thomas W. Patrick. 2 Dr. George F. Grant. ' This is notably the case with Dr. S. E. Courtney, whose election to the former School Committee of Boston has been previously mentioned. * Dr. C. N. Garland. ECONOMIC ACHIEVEMENT 361 Edgar P. Benjamin.^ All these men, by virtue of their part in affairs not only within but outside their own race, must be accounted influential members of the ^ Though others are more active in public affairs, purely on the basis of professional success Benjamin ranks among the first. The following autobiographical statement, which he consented to write, is representative of the conditions from which a majority of Negro professional and business men have risen: — " Within sight of Fort Sumter out in the bay and with a fragment of a Yankee shell still embedded in the eaves were the conditions under which I first saw the light, December 22, 1871, at Charleston, South Carolina. "The youngest of five children, I, the child of a Negro mother and a Hebrew father, formed a link between the old and the newest acquisition to civilization. With self-complacency the dominant race claims the credit for any good qualities that a mulatto might develop and a disclaimer of any and all bad ones. Without attempt- ing to point out the fallacies of such a view, I am convinced that the teachings and training of 'the best mother that ever lived' is the foundation stone upon which has been built all that may redound to my credit in a comparatively uneventful career. "There is reason to believe that on the paternal side a near rela- tionship might be shown to Judah P. Benjamin, the one-time Secre- tary of the Southern Confederacy and afterwards the foremost jurist of England and leading authority in the branch of the law called Sales; but tracing the branches of the genealogical tree must bide a time before it becomes an alluring avocation for the American Negro. "My sojourn in the Southland, however, was not even a memory, as in 1872 the little mother with her brood of five started for what was already the Mecca of the Negro — Boston. And such a brave little mother it was, single-handed and alone to fight climate and privation so that her children might ' get a good schooling.' This was her chief thought and she well knew the value, for her own educa- tion was very nearly the equal of a Boston grammar-school graduate. "We arrived just before the great fire, and with the exception of eighteen months spent in Charleston in 1882, after an attack of sickness, my adopted city has found me a constant worshiper. "Attendance at the primary, grammar, then the English High School, and an advanced course there, entering Boston University and graduating from the Law school in 1894 was my preparation for my chosen calling, the practice of the law. Originally intending to do this in the West, the chance taking of the bar examination before ,36^ THE NEGRO IN BOSTON community, while as many more are close seconds to them in this respect. The majority of the Negro lawyers have some white clients, and in the case of half a dozen the larger part of their practice, at least in completing my course, and passing it successfully, determined me upon staying in Boston. " My desire was to enter the office of some first-class law firm for a year or two, but I found that the supply for such positions far ex- ceeded the demand, and further that such openings were entirely without compensation. Both of these conditions compelled me to strike out for and by myself, and, though I felt it a misfortune at the time, I have since realized it to have been of the greatest value to me, as there being no short cuts in solving knotty points the laborious learning involved and the self-reliancy developed have often proven their worth. "With the loan of twenty dollars, and a desk and a couple of chairs as an office equipment, I started out, and have remained in the same building but in larger quarters to the present time. "Perhaps others of the newly fledged have had the same experi- ence, but much to my surprise I found that the many friends and acquaintances from whom I had mentally calculated I might get a stray bill or two to collect were apparently well satisfied with their own attorneys, and that my clients, if they came at all, must come from the ranks of strangers. One resolution, however, I made and have proudly kept, — never to solicit any man's work or patronage, but that it must come unsought on my part. Another was to give to each man my best work and my best judgment even if the latter meant turning him aside from his desire to litigate. These, with loyalty to clients and the ethics of my profession, are the only secrets to my success. My practice is general and includes both civil and criminal. The latter, of course, is always more conspicuous to the general public, but is nevertheless but a very small part of my practice. About one third in number of my clients are colored, and of course the pecuniary value of their work is much smaller. I am sole counsel for many large firms and corporations and business associations, many of which are white, and perhaps do work for the larger portion of the piano concerns of the city. It might be of interest to note that a large part of my business has come to me through a Southern white man residing in Boston and whose friend- ship has been invaluable. " Color prejudice undoubtedly exists and exists strongly in Boston, as it does everywhere else in the United States; and as I observed on ECONOMIC ACHIEVEMENT 363 terms of money value, is with members of the other race. Several share offices with white men. Most of the younger lawyers are graduates of schools of good standing. The percentage of the Negroes of both sexes engaged in these semi-professional and professional occupa- tions, though of course slight, is nevertheless gradu- ally increasing and will continue to increase, in pace with the advance in education and intellectual ambi- tion. The professions doubtless hold out to Negroes of exceptional ability the fullest opportunity for the exercise of their powers on a plane above racial lines, so far as this is possible. Individual achievement in this field has probably done more to break down the mis- conception that all Negroes are incompetent, and to compel respect for the potentialities of this race, than has any other single factor. Passing on now to business proprietorships, it may be remarked that the typical Negro establishment, of which the others are to a large extent modifications or two diflFerent visits to Europe there are a few signs of it in England. This, I presume, is because of the close intercourse with Americans, but which the difference in language prevents on the Continent. "There is absolutely no 'Negro Problem,' so-called, in Boston, and which to my mind is only another name for the 'Problem of safely doing injustice to the Negro.' The Negro asks, insists, and only wants his Manhood Rights. He is content to have the same reward and the same punishment meted out to him as to a white man. This he substantially gets in Boston. True, there is prejudice, and he is debarred from most all employments, and yet is expected to be as law-abiding as a white man. The difficulties in meeting this requirement are great, but still the Boston Negro is making a credit- able showing, is increasing and prospering. He has been purchasing real estate at an amazing rate for the past six or seven years, and in but few instances has made a bad investment." 364 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON outgrowths, is a grocery-fuel-dry-goods-hardware- china-stationery-tobacco-and-candy shop, and fre- quently a restaurant, real-estate agency, and moving- dray, all in one — and looking like the proverbial country store transplanted to the city. According as sometimes one feature predominates, sometimes an- other, the census enumerator lists these pot-pourris now under one term, and again under some other; but he would be sorely put to it to classify the majority did he not have the inclusive category "merchants" upon which to fall back. The undifferentiated character of these places aflFords further evidence of the rudi- mentary stage of the Negro people's economic devel- opment. Inasmuch as the Negro community has not yet produced many specialized business concerns which can compete with similar concerns under white management, Negro proprietors ofiPer for sale a range of wares so wide as to enable them to pick up the petty trade of the vicinity, and thus to piece together a livelihood, — oftentimes a tolerably comfortable one. The bootblacks included in this group are those having their own stands or shops; of which, however, none are large ones, like those so successfully oper- ated by Greek immigrants. Among the barber shops are about a dozen of good size, having an average of three or more chairs. The hucksters usually have wagons, from which they peddle vegetables, fruit, fuel, or ice. The draymen, or proprietors of moving- wagons of various sorts, are rapidly increasing in num- ber. In addition to the teams whose owners confine themselves to this business, there are an equal or larger number which, as already suggested, are run in con- ECONOMIC ACHIEVEMENT 365 nection with miscellaneous shops. The majority of Negro teams compare very favorably with those of white owners, as respects the appearance of both horses and wagons. These draymen do a thriving business among both races, and some of the most suc- cessful have two or three outfits. There are also several Negro cabmen. Little lunch-rooms and restaurants abound. There are no separately conducted Negro saloons, but there is one connected with a large grocery and liquor store, and four or five with the so-called "clubs " to which pre- vious reference has been made.^ The only pretentious Negro hotel was the Upton, the recent closing of which, on account of disorderliness, has already been noted. Report has it that for a while one of the Upton's pro- prietors was of the white race, but that later the place passed entirely under Negro management. At one time the bartender was a white man. Apart from its bad character and judged purely as a business enter- prise, this hotel appears to have proved successful. There are several smaller establishments which style themselves hotels, but which are really more like lodging-houses. The proprietor and manager of one of the city's well-spoken-of apartment hotels, however, the patronage of which is entirely white, is a Negro. ^ There are two good-sized livery-stables, one connected with a large undertaking business in the principal * The fewness of Negro saloons is mainly accounted for by the fact that the Licensing Board makes it a general rule not to issue licenses for them. ^ Probably the fact of the proprietor's race is known to few of the patrons, with whom his direct contact is slight, though he is in charge on the premises. 366 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON Negro section, and the other situated in the select Fenway district and having mostly a white trade, A downtown photographic studio owned by a Negro is also largely frequented by white people. There are an increasing number of Negro tailors with small but busy shops, one of the most enterprising of whom shares quarters with a white man, among which race he is working up a considerable custom. The majority of the Negro merchants are pro- prietors of those little-of-everything shops, with groceries predominating, to which reference has already been made. One out of every half-dozen of these concerns, however, is of substantial proportions. There are a smaller number of business places of more distinct character. One man has built up a good-sized trade in new and second-hand furniture. Another car- ries on a rather unique business in imported books. Of the dozen or more stationery and news shops, the longest established and probably best-paying one is located on Howard Street in the West End, in the midst of what has become Boston's nearest approach to the Bowery; and enjoys a patronage drawn for the most part from the bohemian white inhabitants of the neighborhood. The proprietor says he has often thought of writing a book giving his observations, experiences, and reflections in connection with the varied life of this section. His story would doubtless be interesting, and might perhaps put an interrogation point after the pretensions to superior morality on the part of the white race. Another prosperous business is that of Boston's only Negro cigar manufacturer. The nearest approach to a banking business among the ECONOMIC ACHIEVEMENT 367 Negro people is that conducted under the name of the Eureka Banking Company, but which is practically a real-estate investment enterprise. Of the women proprietors, the great majority are boarding- and lodging-house keepers. Note has already been made of the large proportion of lodgers among this element in the population; although most of these find rooms in private homes, there are enough others to create a demand for a considerable number of regular lodging- or rooming-houses. The proprietor of one of the largest Negro restaurants is a woman. Several of the laundries which are operated by women, and of which previous mention has been made, have developed to the point where they maintain collection and delivery teams. Among the many dressmakers are at least two who have a large trade that includes fashionable white patrons. The roll of medium-sized Negro business concerns could be much prolonged. But present purposes will be served by considering as representative those which have already been mentioned, and by taking account now in somewhat more detail of a few establishments which are important enough to stand out in the com- munity at large, and which have proved successful in general competition with business enterprises of the same kind conducted by members of the other race. Occupying such a position higher up in the scale, are three high-grade tailors. One of these, J. H. Lewis, should not, strictly speaking, be included, inasmuch as he recently went out of business, but the story of his rise is too interesting to be omitted. Twenty-five years ago, while still eking out a livelihood in a little 368 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON back-street room, he suddenly gained a reputation in the making of the "bell" trousers then in vogue. With reputation came increased profits, and with increased profits removal to larger quarters on Washington Street, where he gradually built up an extensive trade, of which a minor part only was drawn from his own race. Most of his employees also were white. Following his retirement one of his sons has opened a shop and is emulating the father's example. The other two tailors to whom reference is made above, have select locations and command select prices. They are Ulysses S. Ridley, on Park Street, and W. S. Sparrow, on Tremont Street. Probably few of their patrons, most of whom are white, and still fewer of the general public, are aware of their racial identity. The late Joseph Lee built up a large catering business in Boston, and also established at Squantum, on the South Shore of Massachusetts, an inn which won a name for its excellent fish dinners. Since his death several years ago, his widow and children have carried on the inn, and have also conducted a successful res- taurant in the downtown business section of the city. At both places, both the patrons and the majority of employees are white. The largest wig manufactory in New England is that of Gilbert C. Harris, on Wash- ington Street. Harris came to Boston from Virginia in 1892, and found employment in the hair- working shop of a man whose surname, Gilbert, he later adopted as a prefix to his own. After his employer died, he took over the business himself. He now supplies all the wigs for the Castle Square and Bowdoin Square theatrical stock companies, and a large proportion of ECONOMIC ACHIEVEMENT 369 those used by the well-known producer, Henry W. Savage. He also has a large mail-order trade. He owns his home and several other pieces of property, con- tributes generously to the Negro church which he at- tends, and is a man of sterling character. The Negro newspaper, the "Guardian," with the general printing-shop run as an adjunct to it, merits leading mention purely as a business enterprise. It has been going now for twelve years, which is much beyond the average length of life of the papers which spring up among this race. It is published regularly every week, has eight pages, is well set up and il- lustrated, and is lively and readable. More preten- tious numbers, commemorating special events, are issued frequently. A good stock of advertisements, including white as well as Negro concerns, has been built up, and year by year the circulation has been extended, a considerable number of white people hav- ing been interested suflBciently to become subscribers. Independently of the question of his equal rights pro- paganda, which has previously been considered, the editor, William Munroe Trotter, is entitled to sub- stantial credit for having made his paper a business success. The retail and wholesale grocery and provision store of Goode, Dunson & Henry, situated on Shawmut Avenue near the center of the principal Negro colony, is a concern which has grown up to its present size gradually from small beginnings. It is an example of a specialized business, conducted by members of this race, which has attained proportions that enable it successfully to compete with white concerns of the 370 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON same kind, not only for the Negro trade, but also for that of the white residents of that district. Through its wholesale department it supplies many of the smaller Negro grocery stores. Probably the most noteworthy example, everything considered, of a Negro business which has been built up almost entirely within racial lines, is that of Basil F. Hutchins, the undertaker. The latter's main estab- lishment is located in the midst of the principal Negro colony, while in addition he has a branch in Cam- bridge and agents in other sections. He has come nearer than any one else to acquiring a monopoly among his own people. He is also the proprietor of one of the livery-stables already mentioned, and is one of the leading Negro property owners. The most remarkable record of all, however, but ex- actly the opposite of that just described, in having been achieved almost wholly outside of race bounds, is that of Theodore Raymond, in Cambridge, to whom previous reference has been made as respects his civic prominence in that suburb. Raymond has the largest real-estate business in the University City, having dis- tanced all white competitors. His own property hold- ings are said to be worth upwards of $200,000. Com- paratively little of his business is with Negroes, and his employees are white. A great many of those who en- gage him as agent know nothing of his racial identity. So high is his standing in the community that the fact of his race has been a negligible factor, at least so far as any adverse effect is concerned. This, indeed, is the most notable feature of the case. The number of Negro business places is rapidly in- ECONOMIC ACHIEVEMENT 371 creasing. In the chief Negro district, where ten years ago there were not more than twenty-five of them, there are to-day, exclusive of lodging-houses, close to one hundred. In the lesser Negro sections of the city are approximately as many more, while tucked in here and there in predominately white neighborhoods are still others, probably half a hundred. The total for Boston proper is thus about two hundred and fifty. In Cambridge are at least fifty more, and in the other suburbs, combined, an equal number; which brings the entire number for Greater Boston up to three hundred and fifty or above. Though, as has been said, most of these concerns are still of humble proportions, it is also true that most of them are in process of growth; and the small number which have already attained considerable stature indicate the future toward which many of the others are developing. Even in the case of the humblest, however, the elements of ownership, management, and responsibility are present, as vital factors in instilling the Negroes with confidence in their self-reliant economic ability. Though probably these business places get only a small fraction of the entire trade of the Negro people as measured in terms of money, inasmuch as the members of this race appear to buy where they can obtain what they want, making no special effort to patronize their own concerns, they do secure most of the petty day-by-day purchases of the Negro rank and file, for the simple reason that they are nearest at hand. This trade within the race is surely tending to draw the Negroes more closely together, especially along economic lines. Every time a Negro makes a purchase in a Negro store, his respect 372 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON for his race and for himself is enhanced. These Negro business places when taken together, moreover, pro- vide work for from five hundred to a thousand Negro employees. For the proprietors, this means develop- ment of the sense of being responsible employers of labor, and as such contributing to the economic up- building of the Negro community; while for the em- ployees, it means increased respect for and loyalty to their race, and the consciousness of having through their daily work a part in the Negro people's economic advance. Also, as has been mentioned, many of these Negro establishments receive a considerable measure of patronage from among the members of the other race. Every time a Negro proprietor sells goods to a white customer, his confidence in himself and his peo- ple is increased. Every time a white customer buys goods from a Negro merchant, his respect for the Ne- gro rises. Furthermore, the total of white employees in Negro business places is much above what might be supposed, — probably between one and two hundred in Greater Boston. When a Negro becomes able to em- ploy a white man, he naturally feels somewhat more hopeful regarding the future of his race. When a white man finds himself working for a Negro proprietor, he speedily gets rid of the notion that all Negroes are menials. The survey of the three broad industrial groups or gradations, into which the Negroes at work in Boston have for present purposes been distributed, has now been completed. The special conditions which apply to each group, and to the specific occupations of which ECONOMIC ACHIEVEMENT 373 each is composed, have been taken up in sufficient concrete detail to give the reader at least a cursory acquaintance with the facts. It has appeared that in the case of all three groups there is a distinct trend upward toward industrial and economic betterment. This survey may now be supplemented by considera- tion of certain factors whose application is not limited to any particular occupation or to any one group, but which are of more general bearing, and which also involve in somewhat larger measure the connections which exist between the economic situation of the Negro people and certain forces operative in the com- munity at large. The Negro's relation to the labor unions, the degree to which he is taking advantage of the opportunities for education along industrial lines, the extent of his ownership of property, and the mani- festation of any movement on his part in the direc- tion of combination and cooperation for the purpose of furthering his own economic welfare; — these are the principal factors of such wider scope to which ref- erence is here intended. With respect to the labor unions, it is a fact that the number of Negroes found in their ranks is not large. Probably not more than one union in twenty has any Negro members at all, and of those which have, prob- ably not over one in ten counts half a dozen or more of this race on its rolls. The chief reason for this is not far to seek. As has been pointed out, the proportion of Negroes engaged in menial and common labor is far larger than the proportion of whites employed in similar labor; — in the case of men, 76 per cent as com- pared with 13 per cent. In work of this lowest grade, 374 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON the supply of laborers is ordinarily much in excess of the demand for them. Unions, however, depend for their effectiveness on a shortage in the labor supply which enables them to enforce their demands upon employers. The unions are, therefore, fewest in num- ber and weakest in strength in the field of menial and common occupations. This means that for the great mass of Negro laborers there are either no unions at all to join, or none that are much worth joining. At the same time, the number of Negroes engaged in work of higher grade, where unions are more numerous and stronger, is so small, as compared with the number of whites, that, even if the percentage of such Negro work- men belonging to unions should equal the percentage of unionized white workmen of the same grade, the former would still form but a very slight contingent of the union membership. Beyond this, however, there are two further, though minor, reasons why the number of Negroes enrolled in the unions is smaller than otherwise it might be. One of these consists of a lack of understanding and to some extent a mistrust of unions on the part of the Negro people. A majority of those who by the nature of their work are qualified for union membership do not appreciate the union's purposes and functions. Individuals whom the writer has questioned have said to him that they see clearly enough the certainty of paying out hard-earned money in dues and special assessments, together with the danger of losing good positions through strikes ; but not much in the way of sure and substantial benefits. The number of Negroes who hold this view, and who make no effort whatever ECONOMIC ACHIEVEMENT 375 to get into unions, is undoubtedly far larger than the number of those who do make such an effort but find themselves barred. At the same time it is true that the attitude of some of the unions is unfavorable to the Negro, and that this is the remaining reason which accounts for the latter's limited enrollment in the ranks of organized labor. The effect of this element in the situation, however, is usually much exaggerated. On the basis of evidence at hand, in fact, the writer would be unable to point to more than half a dozen organized trades in which he feels sure the unions are opposed in any positive way to admitting members of the Negro race. Even in these cases, it would still be doubtful whether the non-admis- sion of Negroes was a hard-and-fast rule applying to all local unions in the trade without exception; while the chances would favor finding in some quarter at least a few individuals whose personal popularity, excep- tional skill, or other special circumstance had gained them entry. Even in some of the cases where Negroes are completely absent from the union membership, there would yet be a question as to whether the prin- cipal reason therefor does not lie in the fact that practically no Negroes are engaged in this kind of work, or at least none who have ever applied for ad- mission to the union. Under such conditions any al- leged opposition to the Negro within the unions is of rather an abstract character which has never been put to a concrete trial, and which if subjected to such a specific test might give way. But after making all such allowances, it nevertheless remains true that a considerable number of the unions are averse to admit- 376 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON ting members of the Negro race. The Negroes them- selves complain that such is the case, and the ab- sence of persons of this race from the membership of the great majority of the unions may fairly be taken as implying a hostile attitude on the part of some of them. Furthermore, though the constitutions of most unions expressly forbid discrimination on the grounds of religion, race, or color, and though very few unions would openly and officially admit that they pursued an opposite policy, the writer has nevertheless heard representative individual members of various unions grant that it would be next to impossible for a Negro to get into those unions. What proportion of the unions are opposed to Negroes is a question to which only a broad answer can be given; but in all probability they are distinctly in the minority. To say that even a mi- nority are thus prejudiced is going further than the re- port of a special inquiry into this matter conducted by the State Bureau of Statistics of Labor, which stated its conclusions on this point very briefly, as follows : "There appears to be no discrimination shown by the trades unions in regard to membership of the Negro. . . . Ap- plication was made to trades unions in the state as to their attitude, and the generally expressed opinion was that no discrimination was made." ^ But while the majority of unions are not positively hostile to the Negro, and while some of them, as will appear im- mediately, have a contingent of Negro members, it is at the same time a patent fact that few, if any, have shown any interest in the Negro's industrial welfare. * Annual Report of the Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor, p. 285. ECONOMIC ACHIEVEMENT 377 The unions have not yet undertaken any educational campaign among this element of the industrial com- munity to provide it with a better understanding of their objects. They have made no special effort to enlist the Negroes in their ranks. In short, they have for the most part kept to a passive and neutral position. The part which the Negroes have in the local labor- union movement to-day is by no means so small, how- ever, that it may be left out of account. There is one separate Negro organization, the Boston Colored Waiters' Alliance, or Local 183 of the American Federation of Labor, which, however, appears to be more of an employment station and social club than a union in the full sense. It is composed mainly of so- called "public waiters," who are not regularly em- ployed anywhere, but who work intermittently on catering jobs and as extra men. They hold their charter from the white waiters' alliance (Local 80) to which the Negroes used to belong, but from which they withdrew of their own desire to form a semi-in- dependent group, this step apparently being taken because of the more or less distinct demand for Negro waiters and the more sociable time the members of this race could have by themselves. They are still closely affiliated with the white union, a joint committee conducting joint business, and there being an agree- ment that white and Negro waiters shall not attempt to compete with each other. Though this organiza- tion sometimes intercedes in difficulties with employers, strikes have never been resorted to and probably would accomplish little, on account of the plentiful supply of non-union waiters who may easily be had. 378 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON There used to be a union among the meat-loaders about the docks which included both Negroes and whites, but it was disrupted as a result of attempting strike tactics. At present there are several longshore- men's unions which have Negro members, but for the same reason of the excess of supply of such labor, these amount to little. A few Negroes belong to the freight handlers' unions, which are in a little better po- sition in that they have an agreement with the railway companies regarding conditions of employment. Of the Negroes engaged in work of better grade, a small number are scattered here and there through unions of the various vocations, while in one group, namely, that which is made up of the different kinds of team- sters and teamsters' helpers, they contribute a con- siderable quota, being reported to have several hun- dred union members. They are especially numerous among the coal drivers' unions, in at least one of which they constitute a majority. Negroes hold places on the executive committees of at least half a dozen of the separate unions of teamsters, and there are four mem- bers of this race on the joint council which repre- sents all these unions together. It is interesting to note in this connection that at the time of the general teamsters' strike in 1902, all but two or three of the Negro unionists remained loyal to the organization. Summarizing the facts which have been set forth in this matter, the conclusions which the concrete evi- dence appears to warrant are, then, as follows: First, that the unions have not as yet been a factor of much importance, either pro or con, in the Negro's industrial welfare; second, that only in the case of a small minor- ECONOMIC ACHIEVEMENT 379 ity of unions, however, has there been any positive op- position to receiving Negroes into membership; and, third, that in the total a considerable number of Negroes do actually belong to unions, and are sharing in whatever benefits they may bestow. Passing now to the question of whether any ameliora- tion of the Negro's condition is being effected through the medium of industrial education, it may be stated that a substantial number of Negro young men and young women are in fact equipping themselves thus to do better work and to earn a better living. The 1909 Report of the Boston Trade School for Girls showed that during the then ended five-year period following the school's establishment, there had been 86 Negro girls in a total enrollment of 961. This was a propor- tion of 9 per cent, or more than four times the propor- tion of Negroes in the population of Boston. In a table giving the records of a representative number of girls who had attended the school six months or more, it appeared that out of 1 1 Negro girls who had attended the dressmaking department from six to nineteen months, only 2 showed no marked progress by the time of leaving, while 2 advanced from "poor" to "good," 4 from "fair" to "good," and 3 from "good" to "very good" and "excellent"; that all subsequently ob- tained positions in the dressmaking trade, and at the end of from six months to four years, all but one showed wage increases averaging $2.15 a week, and in several cases running as high as $4 a week. The presence of the Negro girls at this school gave rise to no friction. Some of the Negro girls who have attended this institution carry their practical education still further in the 380 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON dressmaking, millinery, and handwork classes at the Women's Educational and Industrial Union. These girls are reported as doing well, as causing no embar- rassment, and as being able to obtain good positions without much difficulty. Negroes are found among the students enrolled in the special industrial classes of the Y.M.C.A., Wells Memorial, Franklin Union, and other similar institu- tions, and at private trade schools run on a commercial basis. The Y.M.C.A. had about forty members of this race last year, and Wells Memorial about a dozen. The great majority of these were in the classes for chauffeurs and automobile workers. Most of the private automobile schools also reported a few Negro pupils, the generally expressed opinion regarding whom was that they were substantially on a level with the whites in point of aptitude. The reference which has already been made to the rapid increase of Negro chauf- feurs in the last few years suggests that the members of this race are turning the opportunities for educa- tion in this calling to very practical and immediate account. The recently established Franklin Union is limited to advanced technical instruction for men al- ready engaged in the respective trades, but who are am- bitious to better themselves. On account of this re- striction, the number of Negroes in attendance would necessarily be slight. There were about half a dozen last year and also the year before. The instructors say that while the Negro pupils do not take hold quite so quickly and earnestly as the white ones, when they are once started they do fairly well, get on amiably enough with the others, and in most cases are enabled ECONOMIC ACHIEVEMENT 381 by the instruction given to obtain better positions. As regards the Negro boys and girls in such of the pub- lic schools as provide industrial and commercial courses, specific figures are not available, for the reason that no statistics by color are kept or given out by the school authorities. But unofficial information is to the effect that a substantial number of Negro youth are going to these schools, the proportion apparently being largest in the courses in stenography and bookkeeping. Many of the rising generation of this race are taking up simi- lar subjects in the private business schools, a particu- lar attraction in the case of the latter being the com- paratively brief period of application that is required. All in all, it is evident that the Negro people are com- ing to have a better understanding of the practical value of industrial training. They are talking about it more and more in their society meetings. Each Negro boy or girl who enters an industrial school brings in others by the influence of example. The most potent element of all, doubtless, in furthering this movement, is observation on the Negro's part of the fact that boys and girls who are equipped in this way do actually get more satisfactory positions and better pay. As a joint result of these factors, the number of Negroes who are thus preparing themselves to mount to a higher rung in the industrial ladder is year by year becoming larger. Such is the prevailing testimony. At the Trade School, for instance, to which reference has already been made, there were seven Negro girls the first year of the school's existence, and twenty-eight the fifth year. This particular rate of increase may be accepted as roughly representing the general rate at 382 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON which the members of the race are moving to avail themselves of the opportunities in this direction. It is when the test of ownership of property is ap- plied, however, that the basic economic progress the Negroes are making becomes most strikingly manifest. Several references in general terms have previously been made to this matter, but some concrete figures may now be adduced. These figures have been gath- ered at no small pains and through the cooperation of many persons. The desired information could not be obtained from the land records alone, since these rec- ords contain no specifications as to race or color of owners, and since Negro owners could not be distin- guished by characteristic name forms as would be the case with Polish or Italian immigrants. The only prac- ticable method, and the one which has been followed, has been to ascertain the facts from individual Negroes who, by reason of being in the real-estate business or through other circumstances, have become accurately informed as to property ownership among their peo- ple, and who have also undertaken to verify and sup- plement their knowledge by consultation of the official records. In the case of the suburbs, where, with the exception chiefly of Cambridge, the number of Negroes is comparatively small, the facts could be more easily known or discovered, and substantially complete in- formation has been procured. In Cambridge, where the Negro contingent is large and somewhat scattered, several persons were called upon for the desired facts pertaining to the several districts concerned, and in this way an approximation to completeness was ob- tained. In Boston proper, where this element of the ECONOMIC ACHIEVEMENT 383 population is still larger and still more widely distrib- uted, about a dozen persons supplied information, but even so the approximation to the facts was necessarily less close. As for the values given, these are in part the assessed valuation, and in part the estimated selling price; on the average they may be accepted as fair market values. The actual figures obtained, for Boston proper, Cambridge, and 15 of the 27 other suburbs, but cover- ing only ownership by individuals, were as follows: In 15 suburbs, real property to the value of $693,085; in Cambridge, to that of $869,000; and in Boston proper, to that of $1,143,500; making the total for Greater Boston, $2,705,585. These, however, are minimum amounts. In the case of the suburbs, for which as previously stated the returns were substan- tially complete so far as they went, there were, never- theless, 12, including one (Lynn) with a good-sized Negro population, for which no returns were made. In the case of Cambridge, and to a still greater degree in that of Boston proper, it was apparent that the re- turns were considerably below the facts, inasmuch as each new informant was able to add appreciably to the count. Nor do the above figures include property owned by real estate companies, churches, and societies. In- telligent supplementary estimate, made on the basis of collateral evidence at hand and general acquaint- ance with conditions among the Negro people, must therefore be brought to bear to round out these figures. Considerations no less important than the matter of value, moreover, are the number and occupation of property owners, and the number and character of the 384 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON properties owned. Though occupations were given for a quota sufficient to be regarded as representative, the number of owners reported (641) must be added to by estimate, while similar calculation must enter even more largely into the number of pieces of property owned, this information having been lacking in about twenty-five per cent of the returns. The question of what constitutes a "piece" of property is also open to difference. For example, there are many cases of two adjacent lots containing a so-called double house. It might be said that if a single lot and house is counted as one "piece," two lots and a double house should be counted as two "pieces." But for the reason that the most important element involved in this connection is probably the enterprise and responsibility contin- gent upon ownership of properties which require separate management, the writer has reckoned such double houses and also a few tracts of unimproved lots or gardening land, which are units so far as manage- ment is concerned, as single "pieces." The figures finally arrived at, on this basis, and which may warrantably be regarded as near, and if any- thing below rather than above, the facts, are as fol- lows:^ — PROPERTY (REAL) OWNED BY NEGROES Individual Ownership. Number Number Value of owners of pieces Suburbs (all except Cambridge) , 365 407 $ 900,000 Cambridge 200 300 950,000 Boston proper 215 265 1.250,000 Total, Greater Boston . , 780 972 $3,100,000 ' For fuller details, see Appendix, table xvi. ECONOMIC ACHIEVEMENT 385 Corporate ownership Owned by real-estate companies .... $150,000 Owned by churches and societies .... 250,000 Total, corporate ownership .... $400,000 Summary Owned by individuals $3,100,000 Corporate ownership 400,000 Grand total $3,500,000 Individuals owning more than one piece 87 individuals own 2 pieces 11 3 9 4 1 5 1 6 3 7 1 10 1 25 pieces or upwards. Total 114 2 or more pieces. Occupations 346 owners distributed through 80 specific occupations, and grouped as follows : — Laborers, waiters, Pullman porters, and janitors . 148 Skilled workmen in various trades .... 62 Clerks, professional men, and business proprie- tors 136 Total ' . 346 In the foregoing calculation the word "own" is used in a moral rather than a strict property sense. Probably not over ten per cent or fifteen per cent of this property is fully paid for and free of mortgage, and probably not over twenty per cent is more than half paid for. But in the case of all of it, purchase has been 386 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON begun and full ownership is gradually being acquired. The responsibility for payment and management has been assumed. In a moral sense, these Negroes must be regarded as owners. And the first thing which the figures prove is that the Negro people own many times as much property as, in view of their industrial disabil- ities, would generally be presumed. Nearly all this property consists of homes, business holdings forming a very small item. The great major- ity of these homes, probably eighty-five per cent, are occupied by the owners. At this stage of the Negroes' development, when the strengthening of their social and moral order is essential, the ownership of homes is far more important and holds out far more promise of substantial progress, than would be the case with ownership of business property on a basis of invest- ment or speculation. It further appears that both the number and proportion of home-owners is larger in suburban Cambridge than in Boston proper, and still larger in the smaller suburbs. This means that the Negroes are acquiring homes under the best conditions, — that is, not principally in the more or less con- gested, noisy, and dirty sections of the city, but in the more open, quiet, and cleanly outlying districts. It also means a tendency toward the wider distribution of the Negroes and toward residence in white neigh- borhoods, which in turn implies progress toward inter- racial understanding and amity. The number of real-estate holders shows that a sur- prisingly large proportion of the entire Negro popula- tion belong to the property-owning class. It is fair to assume that, on the average, each owner represents a ECONOMIC ACHIEVEMENT 387 family group of at least four, — husband, wife and children, widow or widower with children or relatives, brothers and sisters, or other combinations, — and that the total of 780 owners, therefore, represent at least 3120 people, or about one eighth of the entire Negro population. In other words, approximately one Negro out of every eight is either a property owner himself or an immediate member of a property-owning family group. A people with so substantial an experi- ence as this in the possession of land and home may look into the future with no small degree of justifiable confidence. The information respecting occupations of owners is significant in several ways. It fully confirms the state- ment made at an earlier point that a goodly pro- portion of those Negroes who must nominally be set down as belonging to the lowest industrial group, have in fact acquired property and thus become entitled to a higher ranking in the economic scale. It shows at the same time, however, that the members of this race who are engaged in what may be regarded as skilled manual occupations have possessed themselves of property to a still larger extent, in proportion to their numbers; while the clerical, professional, and business class have done better still. The number of persons owning two or more pieces of property evidences the evolution of a landlord and investor class, and the accumulation of a surplus capital fund. The writer knows personally of a dozen people who hold from four to ten pieces of property each.^ One of these, who, starting with innate ' The largest owner of all is Theodore Raymond, of Cambridge, to whose holdings previous reference has been made. He is credited 388 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON common sense and an appreciation of what thrift can do as almost his sole assets, has been most successful in increasing his holdings, is Robert F. Coursey; all of whose time is now required in giving proper atten- tion to his responsibilities of ownership.^ It is sig- in the Cambridge tax records with real property to the assessed value of $190,000. This total is said to be made up of twenty-five or more pieces of real estate which he has gradually acquired in the course of his business career. No doubt he owns additional property in other suburbs and in Boston proper. His particular case, however, is in all respects very exceptional. 1 The following little autobiography shows how Coursey 's suc- cess has been attained, and is typical of the way in which many others of the race are accomplishing similar results: — " In offering to the public this brief sketch of my life, I dare not hope that it will make the strong and lasting impression that I would wish, but I trust that it will be productive of some partial benefit. I hope it will give inspiration to build character, also to strengthen ambition, and generally to assist in encouraging those who have decided to make their mark in life. They should remember that diligence is the mother of all good luck and that God gives all things to industry. " I was born May 19, 1861, on a farm in Canada, my father having escaped from slavery to Canada in the early forties. My mother was a Canadian by birth; her father was also a fugitive slave, having escaped from servitude when a lad of about sixteen years of age. By industry and frugality, he accumulated sufficient means to purchase a farm of two hundred acres, but lost it all, and all that he possessed, by indorsing notes for farmers of the Anglo-Saxon race. "When I was a boy, I attended the country school until about sixteen years old. I then worked on a farm for a year or so longer and then determined to try for a fortune in the city. At the age of seventeen, I went to Toronto, a distance of about twenty miles, and remained there about a year, after which I went to Cincinnati, Ohio, and from the latter place came to Boston. I readily found employment in the hotels there, and two years later went to Mont- real, Canada, where I was employed in the Pullman Car service. This work Uiked very much, as it offered me an excellent oppor- tunity of seeing the different large cities throughout the United States and Canada. My headquarters being in Montreal, I ran to Quebec, Halifax, Toronto, Detroit, and Chicago, and at the end of ECONOMIC ACHIEVEMENT 389 nificant that as a rule Negro landlords give preference to Negro tenants. Thus, while making it easier for their own people to find suitable homes, they are at the same time encouraging and furthering racial co- hesion and mutual help. every trip I invariably deposited the entire proceeds of my trip in the Molson Bank in Montreal, minus fifty cents that I kept in my pocket to begin my next run. It was not long before I had accumu- lated the neat little sum of $420; but alas, the tide changed. Misfor- tune overtook me. I found myself in the middle of winter, out of employment. I was bewildered. Here I was in a French-Canadian city, out of employment, with $420 capital. What was I to do? I drew my cash from the bank, packed my personal belongings, and hastily left for Toronto, a distance of three hundred miles, where I invested a portion of it in a marriage certificate. After all the little details were arranged and the ceremony performed, I returned to Boston, and when I found myself fairly comfortably settled in three rooms, I counted up my cash and found to my surprise that I could only strike a balance of $50. " I soon obtained employment with a drug firm and for my service received $8 per week. From this I paid rent and provided for my wife and self. A year or so later I took up janitor work, and when about thirty years of age, I again went over my accounts and found that I had a balance to my credit in the bank of $1250. This was Capital No. 2. Capital No. 1 having escaped from me so easily, I determined to put this where it would be more secure. I decided to invest it in real estate. I was somewhat timid in venturing alone. I looked around for company and found a friend whose capital was about the size of my own. He, like myself, was also a little afraid, so we decided to make the leap together, purchasing the property on Irving Street, giving us an equity of $2500. About a year later, I had saved sufficient to purchase my friend's share, and from then I began on my own account. I had contracted the real-estate fever. I longed for capital to carry on the business on a large scale. Through the purchase of my first property I became acquainted with a gentleman who was going to be absent from the country for eighteen months and who had some property here which he wanted some one to care for. I persuaded him to lease me three houses in the West End. These I sublet and made a fair profit, working during the day and collecting my rents at night. I would be at my work in the morning as early as four o'clock, often not returning at night until eight. I 390 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON The fact of perhaps greatest import of all, in this connection, is that the bulk of the property owned by Negroes, probably two thirds of it, has been acquired during the last ten years. Testimony is unanimous on this point. The implication is that within the past decade the Negroes have at last got far enough ahead of the daily necessities to be able to lay something aside for the purchase of homes for themselves; and, soon found myself with capital sufficient to purchase another house which, after keeping about a year, I sold at a fair profit. A few years later I drifted into politics, joining the ranks of the Democracy, and in 1895 organized the Ward 11 Democratic Club, a local organiza- tion composed of colored voters of the ward. Two years later, when Mayor Quincy was nominated for a second term, we went to the Democratic caucus with 220 men. I was secretary of the organiza- tion, and was appointed by the mayor custodian of the Historical Building and Old Probate Court. I received a fair compensation and from it saved all that was possible. The incoming adminis- tration being Republican, did not approve of my Democratic prin- ciples; therefore removed me in 1899 for the good of the service. "Again I stopped, went over my accounts, and found that, in- cluding the Irving Street property, I had a balance to my credit of $11,000. I then bought my second house, and a few months later mortgaged them both and purchased the third. This one I made into flats which paid a fair percentage on the investment. I now began to realize that my capital was growing rapidly. During all this time 1 still continued part of my janitor work, four years later buy- ing my fourth house. This I also converted into flats, and two years later invested in my fifth house valued at $8000. A year and a half later I made my sixth purchase, consisting of two four-story apart- ment houses assessed for $13,000. Very recently I made my seventh investment, valued at $8000. " I rarely purchase property that I am not desirous of keeping, and of the property that I have purchased for investment, I have dis- posed of but two pieces, so that to-day when I stop and take account of stock, I find that I am paying taxes on nearly $50,000. Yes, — " Pluck wins — The average is sure; He wins the fight who can the most endure, Who faces issues — who never shirks, Who waits and watches, and who always works.' " ECONOMIC ACHIEVEMENT 391 in the case of some, for the purchase of other homes to be rented to their fellows not quite so far along, but on the way. The practical wisdom of putting savings into property is an ever-present theme among the Negro people. They manifest a veritable land hunger. Real- estate agents abound, and their shingles confront one at every turn — even in such unexpected places as barber shops. The Negroes are learning the lesson of property well, and are turning it to good account. As a result, the property-acquiring movement appears to be advancing at a constantly accelerating pace. This subject leads naturally into the next one before- mentioned for consideration, — namely, that of coop- eration among the Negroes for the purpose of promot- ing their economic welfare. For as yet such combina- tion is confined almost wholly to the field of land investment. Allusion has already been made to the Negro's deficiency in the capacity for cooperation in general. Now cooperation in the field of industrial and business matters, to be successful, must be thoroughly definite, dependable, and permanent. As might be presumed, therefore, organization along these lines is even less developed among the Negroes than is cooper- ation on their part in any other respect. Nevertheless such organization is beginning to take shape. The use of funds and ownership of property by churches and societies partake of the character of business combina- tion. All but a few of the twenty-five Negro churches hold property, though in nearly every case, as previ- ously pointed out, this property is heavily mortgaged. The constant effort to make both ends meet, and at least to keep the interest paid, calls for the same sort of 392 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON joint planning and individual yielding and helping that is necessary in collective business undertakings. That the Negroes have somehow kept their churches intact in spite of the heavy financial burden is really a sub- stantial business achievement. In the societies, espec- ially the more prosperous fraternal lodges, the cooper- ative business element enters still more largely into operation. Some years ago one lodge undertook to run a grocery store with its funds. This venture proved a failure. But most of the lodges have a surplus in the bank, the care and disbursement of which call for mutual discussion and management. As previously mentioned, two of the lodges of Odd Fellows in Boston proper own jointly a hall in the West End, part of which is rented out; while in Cambridge, several lodges of the same order own a similar hall in common. The only examples of strictly business combination, however, consist of several small groups of persons who have formed real-estate partnerships and companies. Several concerns which solicit funds in Boston have their headquarters and their somewhat uncertain investments elsewhere, while in this city itself, the fact that self-styled companies spring up from time to time and soon pass out of existence, makes it difficult to know just how many genuine ones there really are and what they amount to. But it is safe to say that half a dozen not only make pretensions, but actually hold property which totals, as has already been estimated, to approximately $150,000 in value. Among these, the largest and most important is the organization known as the Goode Trust Company, or Jesse Goode Asso- ciates. This company, which in 1910 held about a ECONOMIC ACHIEVEMENT 393 dozen pieces of property assessed for $73,000, and which has subsequently made other acquisitions, has an interesting history. It is composed of some twenty- odd men, most of whom are waiters. Its president, Jesse Goode, who is also at the head of the large retail and wholesale grocery firm of Goode, Dunson & Henry, to which earlier reference has been made, used to be a waiter himself. He conceived the idea of taking the small weekly savings of his fellows and investing them in real estate, and on this basis the present company was gradually built up. Here, indeed, is a practical lesson by which the Negro people may greatly profit, as indicating how, by combination, individual savings petty in themselves may be massed to acquire prop- erty holdings which not only yield a good return to the individuals immediately concerned, but which also reflect credit upon, and afford substantial encourage- ment to, the whole Negro community. This particular organization bids fair eventually to develop into something more ambitious — perhaps a real bank or a department store — and thus to become Boston's first instance of business cooperation by Negroes on a large and successful scale. There is promise of a further degree of economic solidarity among the Negroes in the Negro Business League. It is an interesting fact that the national organization of this body, of which Booker T. Wash- ington is the founder and president, was launched in Boston, in the year 1900.^ Since then it has grown to such an extent that at present it comprises more than a dozen state branches, and close to two hundred and 1 At Parker Memorial, August 23-24. 394 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON fifty local ones.^ Annual conventions have been held, at which the Negro's agricultural, industrial and com- mercial problems are gone over and discussed, signal instances of success described, and practical measures of improvement recommended. The Boston branch was the first one to be formed, and is regarded as one of the strongest in the country.^ There is another branch in Cambridge. Locally, what this organization has accomplished thus far, in the main, has been sim- ply to bring a substantial proportion of the Negro busi- ness men together from time to time, for the considera- tion of their common interests; and thus to promote some consciousness of unity among them, and some understanding of the means by which more effective cooperation may be worked out. This is good seed, which must be sown; and though time will be required for the fruition, a future crop, in the form of tangible business progress, is certain. The most essential features of the Negro's economic situation are now before the reader. Looking back over the facts, stage by stage, as they have been presented, what is the gist of the conclusions to be drawn from them, and what their final and net significance? ^ For a full list of these branches, see the Negro Year Bool; edited by Monroe N. Work, of the Research and Record Department of Tuskegee Institute, Tuskegee, Alabama. This publication, of about the size of the Worlds Almanac and of which the price is 25 cents (postage five cents additional) is a mine of up-to-date informa- tion regarding the Negro's conditions in the United States and else- where. ^ Branch No. 1, organized August 27, 1900, at the office of Gilbert C. Harris. Its present officers are: President, Philip J. AUston; vice-president, J. H. Madison; treasurer, W.C. Lovell; secretary, W. Alexaoder Cox. ECONOMIC ACHIEVEMENT 395 First, the Negro is, undoubtedly, still on an indus- trial plane many degrees below that of the white man; the great mass of the Negro people being confined to menial or common labor. That such is the case has been shown to be due, at bottom, to the industrial un- fitness of the Negro himself, arising not only from the peculiar conditions to which he is subjected, but also from certain of his own inherent shortcomings in quali- ties indispensable to industrial eflSciency and success. A secondary factor accounting for his industrial disa- bility consists of the pronounced discrimination against him on the part of the other race. While, on the one hand, this very prejudice is based upon the Negro's actual and amply demonstrated unfitness; on the other hand, it tends to perpetuate that unfitness by rendering all the higher avenues of industry compara- tively inaccessible to the members of this race, and thereby limiting their industrial opportunities. Such is the interaction of adverse elements, which hampers and retards the Negro's economic advance. Nevertheless, he is forging ahead. Even in connec- tion with those kinds of labor at the foot of the indus- trial scale in which the bulk of his race are employed, allowance must be made for the fact that he is still relegated to such labor by tradition and the prevailing prejudice in his disfavor, without regard to any higher potentialities he may possess; and that, turning this necessity to as good account as may be, he is to a large extent deriving from these occupations very substan- tial earnings, with which he is becoming enabled in many cases to possess himself of a home, — or at least to provide his family with the common comforts, to edu- 396 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON cate his children, and thus altogether to rise measur- ably above his apparent and enforced industrial status. Better still, however, he is, in constantly increasing numbers and proportion, mounting into the ranks of those manual and clerical occupations which constitute the broad middle group of industry. Whatever of con- traction has taken place in his range of employment has applied mainly to the lower forms of labor, where during recent years he has been subjected to severe competition on the part of certain nationalities of foreign immigrants; while on the higher level a steady widening of his opportunities appears to be taking place. In this intermediate field, which is of the greatest strategic importance to the rank and file of his people, the Negro is constantly becoming more strongly established. At the top also, in the sphere of the professions and business proprietorships, a substan- tial and continually growing number of this race are found; and here the qualities of initiative, independ- ence, and responsibility are most fully developed, as vital assets for the further economic advance of the whole Negro community. Likewise along the more gen- eral lines of economic betterment, this race is making good strides forward. In appreciable numbers its mem- bers are taking part and benefiting in the trade-union movement. By means of practical industrial educa- tion, they are beginning to equip themselves to take a higher place in industry. As marking past achieve- ment and definitely insuring future progress, they have contrived to acquire a rather surprising amount of property in homes. Real-estate investments are not so uncommon as would be supposed. Forms of eco- ECONOMIC ACHIEVEMENT 397 nomic combination which may introduce a new stage of collective capacity, are in a few instances beginning to take shape. The Negroes in Boston are thus not only laying an economic foundation, but are accumu- lating a surplus with which to rear the structure of a better family and community life. CHAPTER X THE FUTURE OF THE NEGRO PEOPLE The past and present of the Negro in Boston have now been marshaled in detailed review. But no doubt the query which is uppermost in the mind of the reader, and certainly the one which leads in interest before the public, is that having to do with the Negro's future. On the basis of the evidence contained in the foregoing account, is it possible, therefore, to forecast in some measure the destiny of the Negro people, and to pre- dict the position which this race will probably come to occupy in the community.'* This question resolves itself into two parts. First: — What is the real crux of this much discussed but seldom clearly expressed "Negro Problem"? Second: — Does this problem, thus defined, show signs of being in process either of aggravation, on the one hand, or of mitigation and solution, on the other.? In undertaking to answer these inquiries, which apply not to any one period or phase of the Negro's condition, but to his situation as a whole, the facts that have already been set forth must now be interpreted in a comprehensive way. In place of the historical and topical order, which has previously been followed, must be substituted that of synthesis and generaliza- tion. Nor will any mere restatement or summary fulfill the present purpose. It is the total and net significance THE FUTURE OF THE NEGRO PEOPLE 399 of the facts at hand, in their relation to the Negro's road ahead, that is now required. Section 1. The Problem In all discussion regarding the Negro, two opinions, which at least on their face are widely at variance, may be distinguished. The one looks upon . . The Two Views the colored man as inherently different from and on a plane beneath the white man, and holds that its members should be kept more or less apart from the rest of the community, and definitely "in their place." The other opinion sees the Negro solely or mainly as the victim of an unreasonable and unfair race or color prejudice, and demands as a matter of justice that he be raised to a place of parity with other elements of the population, — at least in such respects as may be brought within the control of public or semi- public regulation. Many shades of opinion fall in be- tween these points, but these are the two extremes. How far do the concrete facts which are available go to confirm either of these views as against the other, to indicate that both are in error, or to show that the truth lies in their conjunction? It is of course undeniable that the precedent condi- tions from out of which the Negro popu- conditions of lation of Boston is derived, have, from O"^'" ^^^^""-^ the earliest period down to the present, been of a pecu- liarly inferior kind. The first members of this race to appear in that city were brought, by way of the Bahamas, from their native African jungle, where from time immemorial their ancestors had lived in a state of primitive savag- 400 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON ery. They were savages themselves, utterly ignorant of civilization, having no religion above a fear-born superstition, and lacking all conception of reasoned morality. As to the Negroes who have taken up their abode in Boston in the long period since the landing of the first shiploads of black chattels, their origin also has been of a terribly adverse character. The great mass of them have been either former slaves, or the offspring of slaves, from the South; where for two centuries and a half their race was held in a subjection even more degraded than the savage state of their ancestors, so far as concerned its prohibition of all independence and independent progress, and its dis- regard of any germs of personal chastity and marital loyalty. Nor in the brief span of years since slavery was abolished in law, has the Negro's lot in the South- ern States, whence Boston's quota of this race is still chiefly drawn, been other than a slavish one in fact. With regard, next, to the collective attainment of Inferior Place in this racc in the Bostou commuuity itself; the Community — jjgj.g Hkewisc the Ncgro appears al- ways to have occupied an inferior place. At first he was held as a slave. Then, from the time slavery died out in the State until the national emanci- pation of his race, he rose only a few degrees, to the rank of a servant class, still lacking many of the man- hood privileges possessed by the city's other inhabi- tants. Since the war, though endowed with political and civil rights equal to those of white citizens, the Negro people have nevertheless remained the most backward group in the community. In point of mere physical replacement and increase of their stock, which is surely THE FUTURE OF THE NEGRO PEOPLE 401 the indispensable basis for any permanent collective progress on their part, they have not till very recently begun to hold their own; their depletion by deaths hav- ing previously exceeded their replenishment through births. Their social order and organization are still the most rudimentary. Their churches are the weak- est. Their part in political affairs is the least. As con- cerns their industrial rank, the great majority are found at the bottom, in menial or common labor. And with reference, finally, to the inculcation among its mem- bers of any positive code of morality and any general ethical standards, this race is farthest in the rear. This inferior attainment of the Negroes as a racial group apparently implies a corresponding and under- lying inferiority on the part of the indi- ^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^^^^ viduals comprising this group : — so far, luferionty of the at least, as respects their past and present abilities. Leaving out of account at this juncture the minority, made up of those who are exceptions to the general rule, and confining attention to the common mass of the Negro people, what are the facts with re- gard to the degree in which the average Negro meas- ures up to the average white man? Certain respects in which the Negro is found below par have already been specified, at appropriate points in the present account. These may now, however, be recalled and assembled together, so that their full significance may be the better understood. Starting with the lowest plane, the physical, the Negro has been shown to evince a lesser reproductive power, and also a lesser resistance, not only to disease, but to the general wear and tear of present-day urban 402 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON conditions. The propensity of the members of this race to rove about more or less futilely from place to place is symptomatic of a lack of stability. In the broadly social field, the Negro exhibits a glaring in- capacity for cooperation of the underlying and per- manently sustained kind, as distinguished from simple sociability and gregariousness, which is so frequently fickle and ephemeral. Here also, in the Negro's hesi- tancy to take responsible action on his own account, and in his constant falling back upon the other race for guidance and support, is disclosed a want of initia- tive and self-reliance. These same deficiencies, which thus appear in their bearing upon social organization, are evidenced still further in political affairs, where they show themselves in the Negro's failure to take fuller advantage than he now does of his potential voting strength; and also in religious activity, where these identical failings largely underlie the difficulties that beset the Negro churches on the side of manage- ment and financial maintenance. In the obliquity of many of the Negro ministers, as well as in the tolera- tion of such culprits by their congregations, is revealed a serious defectiveness of moral vision; while a short- age in the power of restraint and self-control are indi- cated by the Negro's proneness to an excess of re- ligious emotionalism. In connection with industrial and economic conditions, obvious shortcomings in the basic qualities of trustworthiness, responsibility, accuracy, and thoroughness, largely account for the relegation of the bulk of this race to menial and other low-grade labor; while want of persistence and of fixed purpose, together with lack of initiative and of the THE FUTURE OF THE NEGRO PEOPLE 403 ability for combination, are further inherent obstacles in the way of the Negro's rise into higher callings and of his advance along independent and cooperative commercial lines. With reference, lastly, to the prac- tical standards of rectitude of this race, the Negro's disproportionate commission of crime and his flagrant sexual laxity are but two of the most obvious out- croppings of a generally discernible moral and etljical undevelopment, by which he is characterized. Thus it appears that the ordinary run of Negroes are lacking in many of the chief elements which go to make up actual competitive worth and accomplishment. The definite value of this conclusion will be enhanced, however, if the elements here involved turn out, on further scrutiny, to be not disconnected from one an- other, but so closely inter-related that they may per- haps be reduced to a common denominator. To the end of determining whether such is indeed the case, the qualities in which the Negro has been shown to be deficient may now be set down more con- cisely, and with some approximation to their natural sequence. They are as follows: reproductive power; resistance to disease and to general wear and tear; stability; self-control; trustworthiness; responsibility; accuracy; thoroughness; persistence; constancy of pur- pose; initiative; self-reliance; positive morality and defined ethical standards. When these qualities are thus lined up side by side, does it not become evident that each and all of them are characteristics the Negro's falling short in which clearly signifies an intrinsic weakness or flabbiness at the very root and core of his make-up? Let the reader 404 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON go through this list of failings item by item, and he will find that every one of them bears out this interpreta- tion. What the Negro lacks, in short, is that some- what indefinite but nevertheless sufiiciently well under- stood and absolutely fundamental attribute, called stamina. This is his central and underlying deficiency, in which all the others that have been enumerated have theic common source, and of which they are, in truth, only the more or less differentiated manifestations. With respect to reproductive power and resistance to disease, it is more specifically with relation to physical and nervous stamina that the Negro exhibits a short- age. But even here the lack goes deeper — or higher — than the merely physical. The Negro reveals a want of that vital something which enables one to resist and overcome even physical exhaustion, with sheer force of will; and which renders one capable of standing up to his responsibilities and putting his best endeavor into the tasks before him. The element here involved is in its nature essentially moral, — not in the narrower or more conventional application of this term, but in its broadest and most basic sense. The final diag- nosis of the Negro's case must be, then, that when weighed in the scale he is found wanting, in point of fundamental moral stamina. To the previous question, therefore, as to whether any actual inferiority on the part of the individual Negro is found to underlie the backwardness of this race as a group in the community, an affirmative answer must be given. So far as pertains to the past and to the present, the average Negro — using this unscientific term for lack of a better — has always THE FUTURE OF THE NEGRO PEOPLE 405 been, and still is, inferior to the average white man. Nor does this inferiority show itself in respects which are only of superficial or minor importance. It is as deep-seated as possible, and extends throughout the whole range of the Negro's character and conduct. In the light of this conclusion, it will now be pos- sible to take account more understandingly of the second projecting feature of the present „ r> ^ ^ tr J ^ I. Negro Regarded problem, — namely, the fact that from a°d Treated aa the very beginning the Negro in Boston has been looked upon and treated as an inferior by the city's other inhabitants. Far back in colonial days, the plaint that he was the object of contempt and ill-usage was raised by the Negro himself, and ever since then it has kept recur- ring, a pathetic and monotonous refrain. "Some view our sable race with scornful eye," lamented Phillis Wheatley, her people's first poetess and prophetess. A prayer for strength to bear up under the "troubles" and "daily insults" which the members of this race had to endure, was sent up by Prince Hall, sturdy Negro leader in the years of the nation's birth. "The most degraded, wretched, and abject set of beings that ever lived since the world began," was the woe-begone characterization of this people wrung from the heart of David Walker, Negro forerunner of the Abolition struggle. On the part of the other race, during the same early period, an attempt was made to drive the Negroes out of the city, by a law which classed them in with "rogues, vagabonds, common beggars, and other idle, disorderly, and lewd persons;" while some years afterwards, this attempt having failed to accom- 406 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON plish its purpose, serious alarm was expressed at "the increase of a species of population which threatens to become both injurious and burdensome." After the Negro's emancipation and his admirable record as a soldier in the Civil War, and for twenty- five to thirty years following, it is true that, speak- ing comparatively, with reference to the preceding period, the Negro was considerably fostered and in- dulged. When all is said, however, such positive favor as was extended to him was confined to a small minor- ity of the white population; while in the case of the great mass of the other race, the aversion toward him was only somewhat softened or held in check. The particular instances of exclusion of Negroes from hotels, barber shops, and various places of entertain- ment, that have previously been cited, were but rep- resentative examples of much discrimination of that sort, which was in fact suflSciently pronounced to force the Negro people and their white champions into the fight for a protective statute of civil rights. Meanwhile, moreover, an undercurrent of opinion adverse to the Negro had been setting in. It had its source partly in the disillusionment, with regard to any expectation of the Negro's immediate transcend- ence of his conditions, resulting from the sorry spect- acle this race presented in the South during the notori- ous Reconstruction period of misgovernment. A second influence, working in the same direction, was the grad- ual inclination of the North to the Southern view of the Negro, as being a race on a lower plane of develop- ment, and therefore demanding a policy different from that followed with respect to other elements of the THE FUTURE OF THE NEGRO PEOPLE 407 population. What struck closest home in Boston, however, was the cumulative influx into that city of great numbers of raw and uncouth Negro immigrants from the Southern Black Belt. Continued contact and experience with these unlovely newcomers, effectually modified the previously somewhat ideal sentiment of many white Bostonians toward the Negro in the ab- stract. These several causes gradually produced a reaction of feeling, and about the signal year 1895, antipathy toward the Negro, which, as already suggested, had been more or less quiescent since the war, began to reassert itself. During recent years this antipathy has apparently been on the increase — so far as the atti- tude of the bulk of the white population is concerned. To show that such has been the case, not only as some- thing rather intangibly felt or believed, but as a mat- ter of concrete and demonstrable fact, is, however, not an entirely easy matter. Yet what would seem to be specific evidence to this effect is afforded, in the broadly social field, by the tendency to bar Negroes from semi- public institutions, especially churches; on the politi- cal side, by the decrease to zero, in recent years, of elective offices held by Negroes; and with respect to industrial conditions, by the increase of the degree of resistance which a Negro has to overcome, particularly in occupations of better grade, in obtaining employ- ment. In general, this recent change of front toward the Negro has manifested itself in a noticeable, though as yet by no means far advanced, movement away from the Abolitionist propaganda of unrestricted inter-asso- ciation between the two races, and in the direction of the Negro's segregation to some extent. 408 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON What, now, is the fundamental reason why in Bos- Prejudice Based ton the NegFO has always been looked upouiuferiority ^p^^^ ^^^ treated as an inferior ? Is it not obviously to be found in the fact, already estab- lished, of the actual past and present inferiority of the Negro himself? The other possible explanations of the unfavorable attitude in question are that it is either racial antago- nism or color aversion — or a combination of the two. As for race hostility, however, its exhibition generally accompanies and is roughly commensurate with ex- treme racial differences. But it is a very interesting fact, of which even the bare truth is seldom consciously realized, and of which the full significance in the pres- ent connection would require extended comment, that, except for color and certain other physical char- acteristics, the American Negro is very closely like the native white American. First of all, he speaks the same language. This means that he and his fellow-country- men of the other race are able to talk to and under- stand each other; and are thus free from those barriers of difference of speech, which so often lead to mutual misconception and distrust. In the second place, the Negro has the same religion as the white people round about him. Thus is one of the most unhappily pro- lific causes of contention among mankind absent from the relations of the Negro with his neighbors. And finally, most important of all, the Negro's national traditions and allegiance are identical wath those of his white compatriots. He has been in this country from the beginning, and is neither an adopted new- comer with a diverse past, nor an alien, intent or bound, THE FUTURE OF THE NEGRO PEOPLE 409 should need arise, to serve some other flag. Instead, therefore, of there being ground for racial antago- nism between the Negro and the white members of the community, this oneness, at three of the most vital points of possible race difference, should certainly tend to reduce such antagonism to a minimum. The one element of striking dissimilarity between the two races is, as already suggested, that of the Negro's color and certain other physical character- istics, — more particularly a strong natural odor, kinky hair, and coarseness of features. Were these characteristics accompanied, however, by intellectual and moral qualities equaling or excelling those of the white man, is it not reasonable to presume that aver- sion to them would either not arise at all, or would at any rate be more than offset by respect and admira- tion .^^ Should a company of Martians — to employ a fanciful illustration — land upon our planet earth, and prove to be jet black, but at the same time unques- tionably our superiors, in knowledge and attainment, it is hardly probable that these visitors would be ostra- cized on the score of their color. If in this hypotheti- cal case any hostility should arise, it would have its origin in envy, and not in disdain. But it is not neces- sary to go so far afield for illustration and example. For were darkness of complexion, in and of itself, a sufficient cause of pronounced aversion toward races thus Nature-tinted, then surely such aversion should be exhibited toward the American Indians, the Chi- nese and Japanese, and even the swarthy-skinned southern Europeans. While it is true that more or less prejudice toward these races does exist, yet this does 410 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON not appear to have arisen, except incidentally, on account of their complexion. Rather is it due to those other differences, to which attention had already been called as lacking in the Negro's case, or to the belief that these people — at least the strata of them com- monly found in America — are on a lower plane of advancement, and thereby threaten our own higher standards. That both racial antagonism and color aversion may figure as appreciable factors in the antipathy toward the Negro, the writer does not intend to gainsay. But to hold that, either singly or in combination, these are the essential elements which account for that antipathy, is a contention which, as has now been in- dicated, cannot be adequately substantiated. In the main and in last analysis, the aversion in question is based upon recognition of the Negro's past and present inferiority. It is not race-feeling. It is not color-feel- ing. It is inferiority-feeling. Differences of race and color, however, have the effect of making this as yet inferior group stand out conspicuously; whence it easily results that these features, which are in fact only incidental accompaniments of the real cause of the antipathy in question, are confused with that real cause itself. The actual situation may be well expressed in terms of one's own everyday experience. Just as any indi- vidual, finding himself brought into association with another individual whom he perceives to be of dis- tinctly inferior mould, naturally and almost uncon- sciously adapts his attitude and conduct toward that individual to conform with this fact; so, in the same THE FUTURE OF THE NEGRO PEOPLE 411 way, the white race, realizing that the Negro is still at an inferior stage of development, feels and acts toward him accordingly. But to dismiss the prevailing attitude toward the Negro, thus fundamentally explained, as something wholly in the nature of an effect, and prejudice a Second having no separate existence in itself as ^^^^°^ a cause, of adverse reactive influence upon the Ne- gro's life, would be to fall far short of recognizing the full truth. For though this antipathy is ultimately and at bottom a product of real and legitimate discrimination as between different degrees of actual racial worth, yet immediately and on the surface, it is, to a large extent, patently undiscriminating and unreasonable. It manifests itself in a sweeping way toward the Negro people in the mass and as a racial group. But only in comparatively slight measure does it make distinction as between individuals of different degrees of ability, or gradations of different levels of attainment, within this group. And thus it becomes, in the strict meaning of the term, an out-and-out pre- judice; — or, in other words, an adverse prepossession of mind against the Negro in general, without regard to specific evidence of exceptional merit in connection with any particular case or class. Now at length have we reached the point where we can pass judgment with reference to the two extreme views of the Negro problem which were The Crux of the set in antithesis at the beginning of this ^'■*>''^®™ inquiry : — the one holding the Negro's inferiority to be the sole cause and justification of all his disabili- ties; the other assigning these same disabilities to an 412 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON utterly unjust prejudice against the Negro, on ac- count of his race or color. It has appeared that each of these views is partly right and partly wrong. The former is correct in so far as it makes the Negro's own inferiority the root of his difficulties; but it errs in failing to take account, as a secondary factor to the same effect, of the prejudice which this very inferiority has produced. The second of these two views is, in its turn, accurate to the extent of asserting the exist- ence and potency of a prejudice against the Negro; but mistaken in tracing this prejudice mainly to differences of race or color, rather than to the Negro's own de- ficiencies; and also in advancing it as the only cause of the trials which this people is compelled to suffer. In the qualification and conjuncture of these views, therefore, is the full truth to be found. This is, — that the two vital factors here involved are, first, the past and present inferiority of the Negro him- self; and, second, the resulting prejudice against him. These two factors, moreover, constantly react upon each other. The Negro's inferiority tends, on the one hand, to perpetuate the prejudice to which he is there- by subject. This very prejudice, on the other hand, possessing a semi-independent entity and influence on its own account, has the effect of perpetuating not only the prevailing assumption of the Negro's infe- riority, but also the fact itself, by grievously handi- capping this race in its efforts to obtain a fair fighting chance. Such is the vicious circle which lies at the heart of the Negro problem. THE FUTURE OF THE NEGRO PEOPLE 413 Section 2. The Solution With the nature of the problem thus clearly deter- mined, the question relating to the future of the Negro people which still demands answer becomes, as already indicated : — Is this problem in process of aggrava- tion, or, on the contrary, in that of measurable solu- tion? As there were found to be two factors in the prob- lem itself, so now there are two corresponding lines of interrogation which need to be taken up. First, — Is there any convincing evidence that the Negro's past and present inferiority, as respects both his status and attainment as a racial group, and also his capacity as an individual, is in some degree being reduced ? Or positively expressed, — Does this race appear to be progressing? If such is the case, then of course any as- sumption that the Negro's inferiority is irreducible, or even necessarily permanent within certain limits, is unjustified, and the whole situation pertaining to this race takes on a different aspect. Second, — Does the prevailing prejudice against the Negro, which, hav- ing already been seen to have its root in his actual in- feriority, might be expected to diminish as that in- feriority itself diminishes, disclose possibly, down below the surface, any hopeful tendency toward such mitigation and decrease? If so, then the barriers which this race encounters, as regards the securing of an equal opportunity to demonstrate whatever measure of capacity it may possess, are becoming less severe. Turning now to the former of the two queries here proposed, — that, namely, which has to do with the Ne- 414 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON gro's progress, — account must betaken, at the very Th winnin of outsct, of au Outstanding historical fact Freedom and which bcars witness not merely to a Equal Rights -j 1,1 I, i. x • j considerable but to an immense advance on the part of this race, as respects its status in Boston. For whereas in the beginning the Negro was held as a slave, to-day he is a free citizen, endowed with all those political and civil rights and privileges which it is within statutory power to guarantee. In this trans- formation of his lot, moreover, he himself has from first to last had a vital, if not when all is said a de- cisive, part. Certainly this is not the record of a class of the population without spirit or ambition, who have been content to remain always in an inferior place. It is that of a people who, by dint of aspiration, will, and native capacity, have forced their way steadily upward, from a position of nonentity, to their present rank of full equality with their white fellow-citizens, before the law. This achievement constitutes the first great element in the Negro's progress, and also the initial evidence of his progressiveness. Dependence solely or mainly upon the bestowment of rights and privileges, however, could not but prove, A Philosophy of i^ the vcry nature of things, a far from Self-reliance sufficient foundation upon which this race, just out of slavery, and so comparatively brief a period away from primitive savagery, might succeed in rearing for itself any competent and independent future. However important such legislative protec- tion and assistance from without may be, still more THE FUTURE OF THE NEGRO PEOPLE 415 essential is it that the Negro should ehcit and de- velop, from within, any potentialities and abilities which he himself possesses. And if there was need that he should do this before, that need has become imperative since the recent reaction and hardening of attitude toward him on the part of the other race. For the tendency now is to show the Negro no more favor than his actual merits warrant; and to subject him, besides, to an adverse prejudice which discounts even such worth as he may actually have. Under these conditions, either he must get ahead through his own exertions, or not at all. It is significant that the Negro himself was the first to perceive this. Instinctively, the Negro people have acted upon the basic law of self-endeavor ever since their attainment of freedom. The fundamental task to which the Negro addressed himself, following his emancipation, was that of earning his daily bread, providing himself with the common decencies and com- forts, obtaining an education, and, in general, gradu- ally bettering his conditions of life. Without going through any involved course of reasoning, the great mass of this race have simply felt, intuitively, that such was the surest way by which they could improve their fortunes, and rise to a higher place in the community; and compared to which the agitation for equal rights was of secondary moment. When, therefore, this gospel of salvation through achievement first received commanding utterance, from the lips of Booker T. Washington, its enunciation virtually amounted to raising the common sense of the Negro masses up to the plane and power of a con- 416 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON sciously realized principle. That such was the case does not lessen, but on the contrary greatly magnifies, the mission which Washington has performed. For viewed in this light, his memorable Atlanta address appears not alone as the deliverance of a single indi- vidual, but also as that of an entire people; among whom, though till then for the most part silently and invisibly, the ideas which were by him thus definitely expressed had meanwhile been taking root and growing toward fruition. Washington's entrance into the des- tiny of his race, summoning it, at this time of crisis when the helping hand of the white man seemed to be failing it, to hew its own way upward with its own resources, is thus brought within the realm of those great super-events which seem to come providentially at rare intervals in the world's history, when the need is dire and the hour is ripe. That the Negro people has evolved from within it- self this deep-reaching philosophy of self-reliance, is a fact which is pregnant wnth promise for the future. For the Negro has shown therein that he has a fundamental grasp of his own problem. And this means that his battle is already half won. The final and most decisive test of the Negro's abil- independent ity, howevcr, is found not merely in his Progress recognition of the necessity for self -effort, but in the actual extent to which he is advancing by means of his own powers. That the Negro people are in truth making marked progress along all the most essential lines must surely have become manifest from the account which has here been given. The initial fact that this race has at THE FUTURE OF THE NEGRO PEOPLE 417 length become physically rooted in Boston, and with an average gain, however slight as yet, of births over deaths, has begun to establish a native, self-generating Boston stock, is suggestively representative of the fundamental foothold which the Negro is obtaining at every point. His principal living districts are not only of much better quality to-day than has been the case in former years, but are in fact considerably su- perior to some of those at present occupied by other elements or strata of the city's population. At the same time this distribution, in respect to residence, is con- tinually becoming wider and more scattered, tending to prevent the formation of a single segregated and congested Negro colony. The evolution of a general social order among this people stands out clearly, while organization for broadly social ends is gradually becoming more effi- cient and more effective. What chiefly bears witness to the betterment which is thus being wrought, and what also affords assurance that this improvement will continue, is the evident invigoration and health- ening of the Negro home and family, and of the neighborhood and community life of this portion of the population. With regard, likewise, to religious forces, this race is seen to be strengthening and rais- ing the standards of its own independent church; and distinctly, though as yet slowly, rallying to its support, as an institution which has always held a unique place in the life of the Negro, and which may now be made one of the chief bulwarks of his racial solidarity. On the political side, the Negro has demon- strated his competency by obtaining and creditably 418 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON fulfilling many positions of public trust and respon- sibility. Here, too, he is consciously moving, already with an appreciable degree of success, toward the effec- tual use of the leverage resident in numbers and co- hesion, as a means of forcing due recognition of his political claims and of bringing about the adoption of measures aimed to promote his interests. With ref- erence, lastly, to his industrial and economic condi- tions, upon which the whole structure of his material well-being depends, the Negro is, little by little, but in measure, withal, which neither the other race nor he himself as yet generally realizes, making his way upward into occupations of better grade, where his range of opportunity for satisfactory employment is steadily broadening. The development of initiative and of responsible management is shown by the in- crease of the professional element, and still more clearly by the growth of business proprietorship. The acquisition of what is, in the total, an astonishing amount of property, chiefly in the form of homes, has provided the Negro community with an economic buttress of great resisting and supporting power; while the rise of a class of Negro landlords, renting mostly to Negro tenants, together with the formation of several real-estate companies, constitutes a small but promising start in the direction of racial combina- tion and cooperation for purposes of economic better- ment. This independent progress which the Negro is ac- complishing is not ordinarily discerned in anywhere near its full proportions, for the reason that the Negro's present point of advancement is usually compared THE FUTURE OF THE NEGRO PEOPLE 419 with that of the other race. But such a comparison is obviously neither fair nor intelHgent. Both justice and accuracy demand that the situation of the Negro to-day be compared, not with that of the white man to-day, but with his own condition in the past. It is not necessary, however, to go back to the African jungle, nor even to the Southern slave plantation, but only to the time of emancipation and the beginning of the Negro's freedom, less than fifty years ago. Then this race was cast practically naked upon the world, without possessions, without organization of any kind, and utterly ignorant. The Negro's present plane of attainment, measured against this background, im- plies an advance which is, at the very least, remarkable. The assertion sometimes heard, indeed, that history affords no other example of a race which has made equal headway in its first half-century of independent existence, is probably within the truth. The funda- mental task in which the Negro is now engaged — and this is the comprehensive fact which summarizes and incloses all the others — is that of laying a foundation upon which to build his future. In this undertaking, it must be acknowledged, he is notably succeeding. Certain underlying elements of deficiency in the individual Negro, resolve themselves, in the last ana- lysis, into a lack of moral stamina in Negro Acquiring the broadest and deepest sense of the ^°^''^ stamina term. The progress of this racial group signifies that the Negro is to some extent reducing his individual shortcomings, and is in some measure acquiring the central and basic stamina of which he stands most vitally in need. 420 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON This quality is one of the last and most difficult products of the stern and exacting discipline of centu- ries of civilization. That the Negro should have be- come possessed of it in any high degree, as yet, would be contrary to natural law. But that he must have got a further and substantial increment of this innate ruggedness of character, is unquestionable. If such were not the case, the Negro people could not possibly have accomplished what they have. They have stood on their own feet and fought their own way forward. This they could not have done, had they not as indi- viduals developed something of the spinal force which is essential to all achievement. Evidently the members of this race have grown tougher and stronger in the core and fiber of their make-up, and so have become better fitted to hold their own and to get ahead, on a competitive basis. The first of the two questions at issue in the solution of the Negro problem may now, therefore, be answered. Negro's Inferiority This qucstiou is that which coucems the Being Reduced extcut of the Ncgro's inferiority. The answer to it constitutes the most vital conclusion bear- ing upon the whole subject now under consideration. It is this : — that manifestly, in view of both the col- lective and the individual advance which this race has made, the Negro's inferiority can only be held to extend to his past and present development. Certainly it cannot be said to be an inferiority which is incap- able of any diminution, — for already it has been re- duced greatly. Nor can it even be presumed that, within certain limits of possible attainment, this in- feriority is necessarily permanent and insurmount- THE FUTURE OF THE NEGRO PEOPLE 421 able. For when account is taken both of the general progress which the Negro people as a group have accomplished and are still accomplishing, and also of such high attainments by individuals of this race as some of those to which reference has been made in the preceding account, the presumption must be in favor of continued progress; to which, on the basis of any evidence now at hand, no definite bounds can at present be set. While, on the one hand, it cannot as yet be predicted with certainty that the Negro will eventually reach a state of complete inherent equality with the white man; neither can it be maintained, on the other hand, that this is outside the range of possi- bility. All we know is, that, though the Negro is still backward, he is steadily moving forward; and that, though he is still below the other race in point of ability, he is gradually coming up. His present inca- pacities, therefore, appear to be not those of the lower orders of creation as compared with man, but rather those of the growing child as compared with the ma- ture adult. As the Negro's inferiority was found to be at the bottom of the Negro problem, and as this inferiority is now seen to be not only reducible, but also actually being reduced, the conclusion is inevitable that the problem itself is in process of measurable solution, as regards its most fundamental element. The other element in this problem, which still re- mains to be considered, is that of the prevailing preju- dice against the Negro. As this also was prejudice Being shown to have its root in the Negro's in- Undermined feriority, it would logically be expected to show some 422 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON mitigation as that inferiority is lessened. But on the surface at least, as previously stated, this prejudice appears to have increased in recent years. In view of the sketch which has already been given of the course of development of the attitude toward the Negro, on the part of the other race, from the earliest period down to the present, it must be obvious that the antipathy which exists to-day is to some extent a survival and outgrowth of that which has existed in former years. As accounting both for the perpetuation of prejudice in this way, and also for its further in- crease, several sets of influences may be perceived. The first of these consists of facts, reports, or mem- ories, having to do with conditions of inferiority among this race in the past. The attitude of a great many people toward the Negro is without doubt determined wholly or mainly by such impressions from days gone by, with little or no regard to the present. In the case of some persons, the distant fact that this race was originally brought from a state of savagery in Africa is sufficient to stigmatize it beyond hope of redemption. Others look down upon the Negroes because they used to be slaves. With a much larger number, however, the aversion displayed is traceable to no specific source, but to a vague combination of things read, or heard, or remembered from their own experience, about the Negro at an earlier time. On the part of some of the older residents of Boston, who were living in the city in the first two or three decades following the war, when uncouth blacks were swarming in from the South, the disagreeable impressions then received stick obstinately. THE FUTURE OF THE NEGRO PEOPLE 423 A second factor working in this same direction, is that of accounts and hearsay concerning conditions among the Negroes in the Southern States. There are many white people of Boston who know practically nothing about the Negro in their own city, but who nevertheless become violently prejudiced against him, as the result of glaring newspaper reports of brutal crimes, superstitious orgies, and the like, said to have taken place somewhere in the Black Belt. Another contingent are adversely influenced by things which they hear from white Southerners, regarding the al- leged ignorance, shiftlessness, and depravity of the Negroes in that part of the country. Still others, who happen for one reason or another to visit the South, return with an unfavorable verdict respecting the Negro in Boston, which is based entirely on snap-shot glimpses of the conditions of this race in, say, Ala- bama or Mississippi. The third element in continuing and furthering preju- dice, consists of superficial observation of the Negro in the Boston community itself. Only a slight fraction of the city's white inhabitants have even a cursory knowledge of the actual facts pertaining to its Negro population. The great majority of the former know the latter only from seeing them in the hotels, as menials, dealing with them in their homes, as serv- ants, making an occasional curious excursion to a Negro church, or passing now and then through a Negro district; — and almost always, it must be said, with their eyes and ears open for something to make fun of, or to censure. Judgment arrived at in this hap- hazard fashion — and in such an attitude of mind 424 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON — can hardly be considered as either just or depend- able. These prejudicial influences, operating to exaggerate and distort the Negro's actual points of past and pres- ent inferiority, have largely produced both a survival, and to some extent an increase, of that antipathy toward the Negro which had its rise in former years, when the conditions among this race were far different from, and far below, those which at present hold true. Leaving this side of the situation, for the moment, note may be taken of certain other influences, of a different character, which are working in exactly the opposite direction from those that have just been mentioned. The first of these is to be found in the increase both of individual Negroes of marked ability and worth of character, and of white people who are brought into contact with such individuals. Under these circumstances, as a rule, any previously existing prejudice on the part of these particular white persons is appreciably reduced, so far as regards its exhibition with reference to these particular Negroes. Mention of many individual Negroes of this grade has been made in the foregoing account, and brief autobiographical sketches have been given of a few whose records are typical. In the case of the latter, the reader must have been struck by the fact that next to no complaint was made of any sufferings on account of prejudice; but that, on the contrary, the unanimous testimony of these individuals was to the effect that, in their own experience, they had for the most part succeeded, by dint of tact and the demonstration of capacity, in over- THE FUTURE OF THE NEGRO PEOPLE 425 coming such antipathy. White people who come to know Negroes of this kind usually find that they do not feel toward them as they do toward the Negro in the mass, or in the abstract, "He is different from the rest," is the way they put it. But in the total, these Negroes who are " different" constitute a very substantial and constantly growing number; while the members of the other race who are thrown into more or less association with them form a total still larger and still more rapidly increasing. Thus, it is evident, a considerable leavening influence is at work. And thereby arises the second factor of similar but broader effect. Individual Negroes, of the character which has been described, not only overcome antip- athy in their own cases, but also, by their example, blaze the way for others of the race to follow in their steps, while at the same time they help to lessen any prejudice which these others may encounter. For it is improbable that white people can feel little or no aversion toward particular Negroes, without eventu- ally coming to feel somewhat less aversion toward the Negroes as a race. These particular white peo- ple, moreover, can hardly fail, by force of word and act, to influence others in the same direction. After this manner, the number of white people whose atti- tude toward the Negro becomes favorably modified, is still further increased. The third factor in reducing prejudice grows out of the two already remarked, but is of a more general nature. When white people are once brought to recog- nize ability and accomplishment on the part of par- ticular Negroes, they are more likely to reflect that 426 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON such individual attainment really bears witness to the latent capacity of the Negro in general; and they are also more disposed to look for and discover the progress which the Negro people as a whole are mak- ing. So marked has this progress become at many points, indeed, that it is beginning of itself to compel recognition, even on the part of an increasing number of persons whose eyes have not been opened by indi- vidual examples. In proportion as people become aware of the Negro's advance, their attitude toward him cannot fail to become more favorable. It appears, therefore, that as regards the prejudice against the Negro, there have in recent years been two The Two opposite tendencies. The more apparent Tendeucies ^^£ thcsc has bccu au incrcasc of prejudice against the mass of the Negroes, on the part of the mass of the other race. The attitude thus exhibited is based upon distant rather than close acquaintance with the facts, is impulsive or impressionistic rather than deliberately reasoned, and is undiscriminating as between individuals. It puts all Negroes in the same category. The counter-tendency consists of a decrease of prejudice, as respects both the constantly growing number of Negroes of demonstrated ability and also the Negroes as a race in proportion to their general progress, on the part of the likewise constantly growing numl^er of white people who have an oppor- tunity to observe such individual Negroes, and of those who are becoming aware of the collective ad- vance the Negroes are making. The decrease of preju- dice in this way is based upon close acquaintance with the facts, deliberate judgment, and intelligent THE FUTURE OF THE NEGRO PEOPLE 427 discrimination as between individuals of different de- grees of ability. In view of these characteristics, the first of these two tendencies must be regarded as the more superficial; the second as the more fundamental. Inasmuch as the superficial tendency rests largely upon the assumption of the Negro's continuing inferiority, while the funda- mental one grows out of recognition of the Negro's proved capacity and of his actual progress, the latter, though as yet of comparatively minor proportions, must necessarily be the one which is making the more substantial headway, and which is gradually overtak- ing the other. In spite, then, of the fact that prejudice against the Negro may still be somewhat on the in- crease so far as surface indications go, it is neverthe- less evident that, at bottom, this prejudice is slowly but surely being undermined. With regard, therefore, not only to the primary and most basic element, — the past and present inferiority of the Negro himself, — but also to that The Problem in of the resulting prejudice in the Negro's P'oceBs of Solution disfavor, which constitutes a secondary factor, the Negro problem is manifestly in process not of aggra- vation, but of measurable solution. This is, of course, very far from saying that as yet this problem is fully solved, or in fact anywhere near being fully solved. As to whether, even eventually, a complete and alto- gether satisfactory solution will be achieved, there is still, it must be acknowledged, room for question; while the period required for such a result to be worked out, granting its possibility, cannot with any definiteness whatever be predicted. But this much is 428 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON certain : — that instead of growing harder, this prob- lem is day by day becoming somewhat less difficult. The problem's two elements indicate the double road which the Negro will have to travel in his ad- The Negro's vaucc iuto the f uturc. On the one hand. Double Road y^Q must coutinuc to make independent strides on his own account; while on the other, he must continue also to insist upon his rights and priv- ileges as a citizen, and thus more directly to combat the prejudice against him. Though not as a rule fully realized, the measure in which the possession of equal political and civil rights by the Negro in Boston conduces to his substantial progress through his own resources, is sufficiently ob- vious when once pointed out. Such equality not only instills this race with a degree of self-respect which it could not have as a class inferior before the law, but also results in enlarging, at practically every point, the Negro's opportunities for self-improvement. First and foremost, the effective right to vote, without restriction either in law or in fact, is of inesti- mable value to the Negro. It gives him a conscious- ness of having some responsible part in the affairs of the community, which otherwise he would not feel, and which cannot but act upon him as a general spur and incentive. More immediately, the franchise en- ables him to make concrete protest against aspirants for leadership who are unfriendly to his race, and policies which are inimical to his welfare, as well as making it possible for him, from a more positive and constructive point of view, to promote measures cal- culated to assist him. The ballot furthermore puts him THE FUTURE OF THE NEGRO PEOPLE 429 in a position to demand just political recognition, in the form of competent public offices ; while the holding of such offices, and the creditable performance of the duties involved, not only give rise among the Negroes themselves to a justified confidence in their own po- tential abilities, but also have the effect of obtaining fuller recognition of their capacity on the part of the other race. Likewise the right to attend the same public schools and other educational institutions as those attended by the whites, renders accessible to the Negro advantages in securing an education which are un- doubtedly far superior to any separate provision likely to be made for him, if a policy of segregation were fol- lowed. The freedom of this race to reside in any local- ity means that a considerable proportion of its members are able to live and to rear their children in much more healthful, morally salutary, and otherwise desirable surroundings, than would be the case if the Negroes were confined within such congested and evilly en- vironed colonies as those which exist in many cities of the South. The further right to purchase real estate in any section supplies the Negroes with a stronger motive to become owners of homes, and results in their acquiring more and better property, than would be true if their holdings were restricted, as in some Southern cities, to certain inferior districts. In addition to these rather specific considerations, there are two whose bearing is more general. The first of these is, that inasmuch as the other race is still in a much more advanced stage of development than the Negro, the present extent of the latter 's contact with white people must be reckoned a factor of the utmost 430 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON value in his own progress. For thus, instead of being forced back wholly upon himself and his own limitations, he is constantly enabled to derive encouragement and stimulus from the experience and example of the other race. At the same time — and this is the companion factor — such inter-racial association has the result of acquainting the other race with the Negro in a closer and more discriminating way, and of giving it a more sympathetic understanding both of the difficulties with which the Negro has to contend, and of the degree to which these difficulties are being conquered by him. But while thus equality of public privilege greatly quickens the Negro's rate of progress, the ways in which, as already suggested, this very self-achieve- ment qualifies him to gain and to hold such privilege, are likewise obvious. The Negro's marked adv^ance in point of education and refinement, to begin with, secures for many members of this race an amount of helpful association with the other race which they could not possibly obtain if ignorant and uncouth. The good appearance, as regards dress and demeanor, which all but the poorest element of the Negroes in Boston usually present, obtains them admittance, and thus establishes a precedent for their admittance, in many places of semi-public character, such as theaters, churches, settlements, educational and other institu- tions, from which, were they a class of ragamuffins and rowdies, they would be effectually shut out. It is the economic progress that the Negro is making, however, which is proving the surest instrument in maintaining and extending his liberties. In Boston, as is the case in most American communities, affairs THE FUTURE OF THE NEGRO PEOPLE 431 regulate themselves very largely on a simple business basis of sale and purchase, with material means, rather than race or color, as the determining element. The fact that the Negro is steadily becoming better able to pay for privileges is his best guarantee of possessing these privileges. Restaurants and theaters, for in- stance, find that a Negro's money goes as far as a white man's toward profits. A cab driver deems it wiser to pick up a fare from a Negro than to let his vehicle stand idle. Shops of all kinds, even the most select, see no good reason for declining to sell their wares to members of this race. Banks draw no color line in accepting deposits. In the matter of residence in superior white neighborhoods, very frequently it is only by pur- chasing property in the locality, at a liberal figure, that the first few Negroes gain an entrance and thus make entry easier for others. Negro professional and business men could not operate among white competi- tors, and bid for white patronage, were they not able to pay the substantial rents which prevail in such dis- tricts. And just as white people are willing to sell to Negroes if there is profit in so doing, likewise they are willing to buy from them if they can be sure of obtain- ing equally good or better commodities. The under- lying reason why constantly increasing numbers of Ne- groes are obtaining higher grade employment, among white workmen, is because in a market where the supply of satisfactory workmen is generally less than the de- mand, these particular Negroes are able to do this par- ticular work satisfactorily. It is here that the immense strategic value of industrial education comes in. Such education provides the Negroes with a commodity. 432 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON industrial skill, which as a rule they can readily mar- ket at a good price. In general, moreover, the indus- trial advance of this race necessarily underlies its welfare in every other respect, including that of the safeguarding and extension of its rights and privi- leges. For without the material resources thus pro- vided, the Negro would manifestly be put at a severe disadvantage, in any efforts to protect and to assert himself. If independent headway through his own effort is thus to be in the future, as it has been in the past, the Racial Cohesion most fundamental factor in the Negro's and Race Pride ad vaucc, it clcarly follows that the Negro people must obtain a position of self-reliant strength as a racial group. As individuals, each one dependent solely on himself and working for himself alone, they cannot adequately cope with their peculiar problem. More than any other people in the world to-day, the Negroes stand in need of the mutual support and co- operation which comes from numbers and cohesion. They are not yet prepared to be received fully, or even in major degree, within the general fabric and organization of the white community. They must, therefore, at least for the present, evolve a fabric and an organization of their own. Instead of attempt- ing to belittle or get away from the fact of their race, they must, on the contrary, make as much of this fact as possible, using it as a rallying-call for a centripetal movement toward racial solidarity. The individual Negro will never gain the full respect of the other race until he first comes fully to respect himself. This he cannot do until his own race has THE FUTURE OP THE NEGRO PEOPLE 433 reached the point where he will not be ashamed, but will be proud, to own himself a Negro. Other racial stocks — as, for example, the Slavs, Celts, or Teu- tons — feel no aspersion, but only the pride of histor- ical achievement, in these corresponding designations. The Negro affords the one solitary case of which the opposite is true. And the reason for this is, that as yet the Negro has comparatively little history which war- rants pride. Therefore, he must set to work to make a history for himself. He must have a creditable past upon which to build a creditable future. That the Negro is already moving very distinctly in the direction of cohesion as a race is the most promis- ing feature of his progress. The very reason why the gospel of self-achievement, as preached by Booker T. Washington, has taken such a deep and permanent hold upon the Negro people, is because it appeals to this call of race. The ways in which, impelled by this mo- tive, the Negroes are beginning to draw together and to pull together, in the social, the religious, the politi- cal, and the economic fields, have already been suflS- ciently indicated.^ At length, moreover, as the com- 1 At the present time a committee, which has grown out of certain activities of the Robert Gould Shaw House, previously mentioned, and which contains representatives of both races, is considering and undertaking to promote a specific scheme of industrial betterment which calls this element of racial cohesion into play. The plan in view is to try to get a substantial number of the Negroes to with- hold their patronage from such places, and especially department stores, as absolutely refuse to employ Negroes in positions above the menial grade, and particularly as salesgirls and salesmen; and at the same time to give their patronage to places which will consent to employ Negroes, if only to a very limited extent, in such positions. The expectation is that even if, at the outset, only a few members of this race are thus employed, gradually both the employers and the 434 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON bined result of the growing sense of community among themselves, the recognition of their actual past and jjre- sent accomplishment as a people, and the recalling and celebration of events related to their history, the Negroes are commencing to show the germs of a gen- uine pride of race, and to give some evidence that they are coming to look upon the name "Negro" as not altogether a term of reproach. The development of the Negro people as a distinct racial group, with traditions, leaders, and ideals of Articulation into their owu, will ruu not counter, but the Community parallel to the considerably slower pro- cess of the Negro's articulation into the common life of the community. Though it may appear paradoxical to say that the surest way in which the Negro will suc- ceed in overcoming the prevailing attitude in his dis- favor will be by becoming more and not less a Negro than he is to-day, this is nevertheless the truth. For as the Negro, in proportion to his own independent progress, compels increased respect for his capacity, the other race will gradually and naturally become more willing to receive him into closer association. This articulating process has already, indeed, reached a noticeably advanced stage. The fact that, in point of residence, the Negroes are being distributed among the city's white inhabitants to a constantly widening extent, cannot fail to promote mutual better acquaintance and to give rise to common interests. Likewise, in the ranks of industry, the interspersion public will cease to regard their employment in such capacities as impossible, and will eventually become willing to install a larger number. THE FUTURE OF THE NEGRO PEOPLE 435 of Negro workmen among white workmen, in both manual and clerical occupations, is steadily increasing. The proportion of the Negro professional and business class who are venturing to go outside those districts colonized by their own people, and to try their for- tunes among white competitors, though of course still small, is continually growing. Cases of office- sharing and even of partnership between persons of the two races are less of a rarity now than in former years, while instances of Negro proprietors or of re- sponsible employees having white workmen in their charge are oftener to be found. General trade con- tact between these two elements of the population is gradually extending, while through the use of banks, the ownership of property, and the paying of taxes, the Negro is being linked, more and more substantially, to the economic interests of the community. Citizens of both races vote together at the same vot- ing places and on an equal basis. Through represen- tation on the various party committees, the Negroes have some part in the management of party affairs, and at all political conventions Negro delegates are to be seen. Especially under the civil service, an increas- ing quota of Negroes are serving in public positions side by side with officials of the other race. With regard to religious activity, though on the whole the attend- ance of Negroes at white churches is diminishing, yet as previously noted there are some churches which are marked exceptions to this rule; and, on a broader scale, cases of white churches, especially in the sub- urbs, which contain a few earnest and well-regarded Negro members, are coming to constitute a significant 436 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON total. The Negro churches are admitted into the gen- eral denominational organizations, Negro delegates participate in the general meetings, and no color line is drawn on the various ministers' societies. In the public schools white and Negro children work and play together in apparent innocence of any barrier. These memories and impressions of childhood are not easily blotted out. White youth of high-school and college age find Negro youth often their equals and sometimes their superiors, both in scholarship and ath- letic prowess. A Negro principal, half a dozen teachers, and several school officials, represent the Negro on the side of substantial contribution to the city's educa- tional advance. Perhaps it may be said, however, that all such con- tact as this between the two races ends simply with itself, and neither signifies nor leads to social inter- course of such unconditioned character as that which takes place between the various elements of the white population. In other words, it may be held that though the Negro is in the community, and closely related to it, he is not by any means an integral part of it. This distinction is, without doubt, a real and vital one. But it is at the same time so subtle, in many respects, as to render the question raised by it extremely difficult, if not at this stage practically im- possible, to answer with finality. Viewed against the background of the prevailing prejudice against the Negro people and the still outstanding fact of their separateness in the main, whatever association there is between the Negro and the white portion of the pop- ulation tends easily and plausibly, of course, to appear THE FUTURE OF THE NEGRO PEOPLE 437 as something of an altogether f)eculiar and rigidly limited nature. But, on the other hand, may it not be that these perfectly obvious elements of prejudice and separateness loom so large and so near as to bias and distort the observer's vision, and to render him in- capable of perceiving, in their true light and at their full value, any facts of an opposite significance? The writer feels confident, out of years of experience, that, as regards all except possibly the most intimate personal relations, no such necessarily fixed barrier between the Negro and the white man, as that which has just been suggested, actually exists; that there is to-day a substantial measure of genuine, man-to-man association between members of these two races; and that in the future such association, based upon a fellow- feeling of human brotherhood which strikes deeper than any sense of difference, will continue to increase, tending eventually to make the Negro people an inner and component part of the general community. As over against his present deficiencies, which, as already indicated, are gradually being reduced, the Negro will bring as his contribution to The Negro's the community and to the American contribution complex, certain qualities of great value, of which, at least in latent form, he is either peculiarly or in supe- rior degree endowed. The inborn love of music, the tropically fertile imagination, and the natural eloquence of this race are gifts which are rich in promise. Already the Negro is adjudged to have given this country, in the old plantation melodies, its most distinctive folk-songs. In the future he may be expected to express himself 438 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON notably in all the higher realms of musical composi- tion and rendition. Nor is prophetic vision required to predict that some of America's poets and most powerful orators will emerge from this people. The deep religious fervor of the Negro, when raised to a plane above that of untaught emotionalism, will no doubt yield great preachers and religious leaders, and perhaps in time produce a Negro church which will set an example of heartfelt Christianity to its sister churches of pale-face hue. The Negro's capacity for taking things easily, his innate cheerfulness, and that drolly irresistible humor which is all his own, are reinforcements that will stand in good stead a nation which, from over-intensity of application and insuf- ficiency of relaxation, is in some danger of falling vic- tim to nerves. The spontaneous sociability and gre- gariousness which characterize the Negro people in such high degree are, finally, attributes which may qualify this race for an important role in an era of the world's progress when the individualistic and competi- tive motives are clearly being replaced by others of a more social and humanitarian aspect. These suggested probabilities may, of course, strike some people as only the most distant and visionary speculations; — for the reason that, in Africa and Amer- ica together, the Negro has had a long time in which to develop any inherent potentialities, and yet is still so far in the rear. It is at least within the limits of pos- sibility, however, that — according to a well-recog- nized principle in biology — the eventual development and attainment of this race will be proportionate to the amplitude of its period of infancy. THE FUTURE OF THE NEGRO PEOPLE 439 There is now doubtless a final query in the reader's mind. It is this: — Are the foregoing conclusions and predictions, with regard to the Negro The Negro problem and its solution, confined strictly '° *^® ^*'^''"* to the conditions which obtain in Boston ; or, if not, to what extent are they capable of general application, with reference to the country as a whole? In reply to this query, the writer will say that, While the specific task before him has been the analysis of the Negro's situation in Boston, he has at the same time kept constantly in view the purpose of getting at the subject in a suflSciently broad and fundamental way to make the chief conclusions representative. While holding himself accountable only with respect to Bos- ton, so far as any pretension to actual and detailed proof is concerned, he nevertheless ventures to sub- mit, suggestively, that the problem of the Negro is essentially the same elsewhere, not only in the North but in the South as well ; and that the conclusions which have here been drawn may, therefore, be extended to apply, in substance, to the position of the Negro people throughout the nation. Certainly in all other localities it will be found that, as in Boston, the two vital elements in this problem are the Negro's backwardness or inferiority of develop- ment, and the prevailing prejudice against him. As to the problem's solution, it would appear that elsewhere also this is being worked out by the same double pro- cess : — the progress of the Negro himself, on the one hand, and the modification of the prevailing attitude toward him, on the other. In Boston, and to a lesser degree in other parts of the North, it is the Negro's 440 THE NEGRO IN BOSTON advance along lines of education, refinement, and in- tellectual accomplishment, together with the excep- tional attainment of individuals, which stands out most clearly. In the South, on the contrary, the agri- cultural and industrial headway of the Negro people, and their general forward movement in the mass, are most strikingly in evidence. With regard to present signs of any undermining of the prejudice in the Negro's disfavor, while, of course, such a tendency is much farther advanced in the North than it is in the South, its beginnings are nevertheless plainly discernible in the latter section. The majority of persons who are studying Southern conditions at first hand, testify to the fact that the proportion of Southern white people who are seeking to cultivate relations of mutual help- fulness and amity between the two races, though com- paratively small as yet, is constantly increasing. It is true, furthermore, that while the various common interests which are operating to bind the two races to- gether are more apparent in the North, they are in fact even more substantial in the South. For there the Negroes, by reason of their very numbers, the major share of the labor of the community which they perform, and their extensive ownership of farms, are relatively a much more essential factor in the com- munity's life and well-being. Because the great mass of this race have always been and still are resident in the Southern States, and be- cause the influences drawing and forcing them to- gether are there much more powerful, it is probable that the Negroes will develop in the South, sooner than in the North, strength of organization as a dis- THE FUTURE OF THE NEGRO PEOPLE 441 tinct and self-reliant group; while, for the same rea- sons, it will probably take them much longer in the South to become satisfactorily articulated with the other elements of the population. But South and North the final outcome will be the same. A people grown up, from a forlorn and help- less band of slaves brought hither from the African jungle, into ten millions of free citizens, constituting a tenth part of the total inhabitants of the United States to-day; a people which has been in this coun- try from the beginning, and has had an honorable and, indeed, a vital part, both in its establishment and preservation by ways of war, and in its manifold upbuilding by ways of peace : — this people will event- ually attain the position at once of self-respect and worthy recognition. In new and fuller ways the two contrasted races, which chiefly go to make the Ameri- can nation, must and will find common cause. "Both formed thy bulwark since thy life began, And both together still must work thy plan." THE END APPENDIX ARTICLE I GARRISON AND THE LIBERATOR William Lloyd Garrison was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, not far from Boston, in 1805. He was of humble parentage. At the age of nine, with next to no regu- lar schooHng, he was apprenticed to a shoemaker, and later to a cabinetmaker. When he was thirteen, he obtained employment as an apprenticed printer on the Newburyport Herald. This marked the beginning of the remarkable self- education, especially in the mastery of language, which he eventually achieved. In 1826, shortly after the expiration of his apprenticeship on the Herald, he became the editor and publisher of the Newburyport Free Press, exhibited marked independence in this capacity, and incidentally printed the first verses of the poet and future Abolitionist, John Greenleaf Whittier. Later in the same year, he left Newburyport and went to Boston, where, while supporting himself at his trade of printing, he displayed his fighting spirit by making a youth- ful but not ineffective insurgent speech, at a political con- vention, and by engaging later in some consequent news- paper polemics. In 1828 he became editor of the National Philanthropist, of Boston, a paper devoted to the cause of temperance and other reforms. His early connection with this publication doubtless developed in Garrison the inherent impulse toward reforming which soon became the most distinguishing ele- ment of his character. His first expression of interest in slavery conditions appears to have been in the form of a comment, in the second number of the Philanthropist under his editorship, upon the futility of the attempts of the South to prevent teaching the slaves even simple reading and writ- ing. The budding antipathy toward slavery, thus indicated. 444 APPENDIX was greatly furthered by his meeting that same year with the Quaker, Benjamin Lundy, who was ahnost the only militant anti-slavery worker of that period, and who had established a paper called the Genius of Universal Emancipation, for the advocacy of gradual abolition. Garrison's association with and assistance of Lundy, during the latter's two visits to Boston to arouse public sentiment, resulted in his engage- ment, in the spring of 1829 (following a brief but highly creditable term of service as editor of the Journal of the Times, at Bennington, Vermont, during which his progress anti-slaveryward was evidenced by constant advocacy of gradual abolition), as associate editor of the Genius, then published at Baltimore. On the way to his new post, Garrison delivered a stirring anti-slavery address, on Independence Day, at the Park Street Church in Boston. In that address, however, he still went only so far as to urge gradual abolition. But by the time he arrived at Baltimore, several weeks later, he had definitely reached the conclusion that to rest content with gradual abolition would allow slavery to drag on intermin- ably, and that to demand immediate and total abolition was the only sure way of bringing the evil to a certain and early end. Lundy not being ready to take such an extreme stand, it was agreed that each editor should express his own views over his own signature; with the result that in the very first number Garrison declared his attitude. His uncompromis- ingness on this point and his radicalism on other reforms led forthwith to a steady falling-off in the Genius' subscription list. At the end of six months the paper was practically bankrupt, and the partnership was dissolved. Garrison had meanwhile published an article, exposing complicity in the domestic slave trade on the part of a shipowner of his native town of Newburyport, which was adjudged libelous by the court, and for the authorship of which, on his inability to pay the fine imposed, he was cast into jail. After a durance of forty-nine days, he was liberated through the payment of his fine by a wealthy philanthropist * of New York City, who had been moved to this action by reading an account of his trial and imprisonment. > Arthur Tappan, who later became a leading Abolitionist. APPENDIX 445 Following his release, some effort was made by friends of Lundy and himself to have the Genius reestablished on the former basis, but without result. Garrison then determined upon the publication of an anti-slavery and general reform paper of his own, and publicly announced that at an early date he would begin to issue such a paper from Washington, He left Baltimore for the North, and after delivering several anti-slavery lectures on the way, arrived in Boston, October 1, 1830. The Boston Transcript of the following day had a brief editorial referring to his coming and acknowledging his pioneer service in a cause which, however, it went on to predict, "he could never hope to see perfected." In Boston, Garrison at once tried to find a hall for an anti- slavery meeting. The fact that he was unsuccessful in his quest till he advertised in the newspapers, and that then he was able to secure only a hall used by a group of avowed infidels, showed the unwillingness which at that time pre- vailed in Boston, as elsewhere in the North, to have the slavery question agitated, — an unwillingness to which even the churches, except for a scattering few, were parties. A meeting was held on the evening of October 15. The follow- ing extracts from an account by a member of the small audi- ence convey some impression of Garrison's personality and convincing power of speech, and of the degree to which he was absorbed by his cause: ^ "Presently the young man ^ arose, modestly, but with an air of calm determination, and delivered such a lecture as he only, I believe, at that time, could have written; for he only had had his eyes so anointed that he could see that outrages perpetrated upon Africans were wrongs done to our com- mon humanity. . . . Never before was I so affected by the speech of man. When he had ceased speaking I said to those around me: 'That is a providential man; he is a prophet; he will shake our nation to its centre, but he will shake slavery out of it.' " The antipathy or, at the least, apathy toward the anti- slavery propaganda, which Garrison had encountered in 1 The Reverend Samuel J. May, who became one of Garrison's most loyal sup- porters. > He was then only twenty-four years of age. 446 APPENDIX Boston, convinced him that the North must be aroused before there could be any hope of converting the South. The first and the several succeeding meetings held in that city gained him a few daring followers. He therefore decided to publish his paper not from Washington but from Boston. Though utterly without funds himself, he was enabled to carry out his purpose by the formation of a timely partnership with an old associate of the printing bench. ^ Dismissing counsels of moderation, he gave his paper the plain and unequivocal title of The Liberator.'^ ARTICLE II THE NEGRO'S PROGRESS IN THE ABOLITION PERIOD General Advance est Boston, 1830-65 » The awakening of the Negroes in Boston, which the Abolition Movement effected, was evidenced in a number of ways and by a number of events concurrent with and related to that Movement, and yet distinct from it. One of the earliest and most important of these develop- ments was the demand that Negro children be admitted into the general public schools. In addition to the separate pri- mary school opened by the city in 1820 in response to a peti- tion from the Negroes themselves, another school, apparently of grammar grade, had been established in the North End in 1831, but had been discontinued in 1835 on account of meager attendance, owing to the facts that by that time only comparatively few Negroes were left in that quarter, and that those few were of inferior quality. In the latter year the Smith School was erected in a court off Joy Street.^ The * Isaac Knapp. * The foregoing facts have been taken from William Lloyd Garrison, The Story oj nil Life, Told by His Children, vol. i, chaps, i-viii. That book, in four volumes, is not only the best biography of Garrison, but also the fullest history of the Abolition Movement. » This more detailed account supplements the brief statement made at the begin- ning of chapter III. * Report of Primary School Committee, June 15, 1846. The old building still stands, and is to-day used as headquarters by a Negro G.A.R. Company (Robert A. Bell Post, 134). APPENDIX 447 school took its name from a white man, Abrel Smith, who left to the city a legacy the income from which, amounting to $200 yearly, was to go toward the support of a school for Negroes. The parents of the children were held to pay 12| cents a week for each child. In 1843, a primary school, which replaced the one previously used, was started in the North End.^ In 1840, however, a petition signed by Garri- son, Phillips, Francis Jackson, Henry W. Williams, and a number of Negroes led by the journalist and author, William C. Nell, son of William G. Nell, the tailor, was sent to the School Committee, asking that the public schools be thrown open to Negro children. In 1846, a similar petition was sub- mitted by George Putnam, a Negro, and eighty-five others. The Primary School Committee, in reporting adversely on this petition, made a statement that brought out a division of opinion, on the matter of segregation, which since that time has assumed far larger proportions and more general importance. "Our inquiries into the origin and history of separate schools," they said, " have also convinced us that the leading motive for their establishment was precisely the opposite of a design to degrade the colored people, as has been so frequently charged upon them. The colored children in Boston possessed equal rights with others as every one knows, yet very few, indeed, often not more than two or three in all, attended the public schools. It was next to impossible to bring them in. Benevolent individuals under- took, therefore, to sustain special separate schools for them. And it was with great difficulty for a long time that they could be brought even into these schools. The labor of get- ting them in was found to be far greater than teaching them when once brought in. It was by the exertion of benevolent white persons, in connection with the most intelligent of the colored people, that this class of children were brought under school instruction in any considerable numbers — an object which it was found impossible to accomplish but by means of separate schools. The question arises by what means the views and feelings of the colored people in reference to these special schools for their benefit have been so mysteriously changed." ^ > Report of Primary School Committee, June 15, 1846. ' Report oj Primary School Committee, June 15, 1846. 448 APPENDIX In 1849, Jonas Clark and 227 others renewed the attack. A Negro-School-Abolition party, consisting of both Negroes and whites, was formed and set itself three tasks.* The first of these was to break up the existing Smith School. The agitators even went so far as to surround the school, at its opening that fall, and to make use of every means, short of actual physical violence, to prevent the children from going in. As a second expedient, they started an opposition school, open to white as well as Negro children, and taught at first by the Reverend Daniel Foster, a Negro preacher. But their principal effort was to get the Supreme Court of the State to declare separate schools unconstitutional. To this end, Benjamin F. Roberts, in behalf of his five-year-old daughter Sarah, brought suit against the city for damages on account of the refusal to receive her in the general public schools. The case was argued December 4, 1849, with Charles Sumner as first counsel for the plaintiff, and Robert Morris, the Negro lawyer, as assistant counsel. ^ Though the decision of the court was adverse, the airing which the question received was a long step toward ultimate victory. Five years later, a white lawyer, George F. Williams, made an able report to the city in favor of doing away with separate schools. This report, and a petition signed by nearly one thousand five hundred persons, Negro and white, from all parts of the State, paved the way for action by the Legislature, and a law abolishing separate schools was adopted April 28, 1855.^ The text of the law was as follows : — "Section 1. In determining the qualifications of scholars to be admitted into any public school or any district school in this Commonwealth, no distinction shall be made on account of the race, color, or religious opinions, of the applicant or scholar. "Section 2. Any child who, on account of his race, color, or religious opinions, shall be excluded from any public or district school in this Commonwealth, for admission to which he may be otherwise qualified, shall recover damages therefor in an action for tort," etc., etc. ^ An address before the colored citizens of Boston in opposition to the abolition of colored schools, by Thomas B. Smith, December 24, 1849. > Sarah C. Roberts vs. City of Boston, December 4, 1849. 8 Laws uf Massachusetts, 1855, chap. 256. APPENDIX 449 A celebratory meeting of Negroes and whites, presided over by John T. Hilton, a leading Negro AboHtionist, was held in December, 1855, especially in honor of William C. Nell, as the Negro to whom chief credit was due for the final result of this campaign. Mr. Nell told how, as a boy, while attending the Smith School, and having been one of the Ne- gro children to receive rewards of merit, — which were not Franklin medals, as in the case of the white children, but orders for small copies of Franklin's Autobiography, — he had contrived to get in as a waiter's assistant at the meet- ing where the prizes were being given to the white children. The principal of the schools, Samuel T. Armstrong, had whispered to him, — "You ought to be here with the other boys." "The impression made on my mind by this day's experience deepened into a solemn vow that, God helping me, I would do my best to hasten the day when the color of the skin would be no barrier to equal school rights." Besides Mr. Nell, the speakers were Garrison, Phillips, and Charles W. Slack. Mr. Slack stated that, since the new regime had gone into effect, the teachers in the schools where colored children were most numerous testified that they were as neatly dressed, and as gifted in application and understanding, as the white children.^ Another sign of the awakening of the Negroes was the petition sent to the Legislature in 1851, signed among others by Nell, Remond, Hayden and Joshua B. Smith, who had come to Boston as a fugitive from North Carolina in 1847, asking for the erection of a monument in memory of Crispus Attucks.2 That request was complied with thirty-seven years later. As a further development in the direction of budding independence, the Adelphic Union Library Association was formed about 1845, and maintained for approximately ten years. The Negroes were shy about going to public insti- tutions and meetings. As their children were excluded from the schools, so they themselves did not feel free to take ad- vantage of such opportunities as were afforded by libraries and open lecture courses, and indeed their presence in such 1 Proceedings of meeting held in Boston, December, 1855, to celebrate Abolition of Colored Schools. » W. C. Nell, Colored Patriots of the Revolution. 450 APPENDIX places and on such occasions was obviously not welcome. This library association of their own served both to accustom them to make use of self-educational facilities and also to demonstrate to the whites their sincere desire for such oppor- tunities. A number of young white men of high standing lent their assistance to the enterprise. Withal, an appreciable change of public sentiment was effected, and by the end of that decade the presence of Negroes at public lectures, theaters, and the like, excited comparatively little adverse comment. In addition to the writings of William Wells Brown and Frederick Douglass,^ there appeared, in 1852, William C. Nell's Services of Colored Americans in the Wars of 1776 and 1812, and in 1855 his larger and more complete book, Colored Patriots of the Revolution. The volume of Miscel- laneous Poems, by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, one of the most prominent Negro women Abolitionists, who was much of her time in Boston, was published in 1854. Simultaneously with the advent of these Negro writers came the admission to the Bar and to the Medical Associa- tion of Negro lawyers and physicians. The first Negro lawyer to be admitted to the Bar in the United States ap- pears to have been Macon B. Allen, who passed the examina- tions at Worcester, Massachusetts, May 3, 1845, and who had been allowed to practice in Maine two years before that. But so far as the records show, Allen did not distinguish him- self. The first Negro to make an impression as a lawyer was Robert Morris, a remarkable man with a remarkable history. His grandfather, Cumono, a native African, was carried to Ipswich, not far from Boston, as a boy. There he won the esteem of the citizens, and one of the byways of the town was called, after him, Cumono Lane. Robert's father, York Morris, moved at an early age to Salem, and there Robert was born, in June, 1823. He worked as a table-boy in the home of a family named King, whom the family of Ellis Gray Loring, one of the leading lawyers in Boston at that time, were accustomed to visit. Mr. Loring was attracted by the boy, and took him into his household as a servant. Several years later, he gave him a chance to show what he ' Referred to in chapters ii and in. APPENDIX 451 could do as oflBce-boy, and so satisfactorily did Robert per- form his new duties that his employer, seeing that the young man possessed unusual ability, helped him in the study of law. His progress accorded with his promise, and in Febru- ary, 1847, he was admitted to the Bar. He has himself described his first case in court: "There was something in the courtroom that morning that made me feel like a giant. The courtroom was filled with colored people, and I could see, expressed on the faces of every one of them, a wish that I might win the first case that had ever been tried before a jury by a colored attorney in this country. At last my case was called; I went to the work and tried it for all it was worth; and until the evidence was all in, the argument on both sides made, the judge's charge concluded, and the case given to the jury, I spared no pains to win. The jury after being out a short time returned, and when the foreman in reply to the clerk answered that the jury had found for the plaintiff, my heart bounded up and my people in the courtroom acted as if they would shout for joy." The other Negro lawyers admitted to the Bar in Boston before 1865 were William J. Watkins, John S. Rock, and Edward Garrison Walker, David Walker's son. The first Negro physician to be taken into the Massachusetts Medical Association was J. V. De Grasse, in 1854. John S. Rock, born in New Jersey in 18'25, was admitted soon afterwards. He was a man of recognized exceptional scholarship and literary ability, and on a number of occasions was invited to speak before distinguished white audiences, — twice before the State Legislature. Ill health compelled him to give up the practice of medicine, and he studied law and was admitted to practice — as above noted — in 1861. A Negro, Edward M. Bannister, had forced an entrance also into the domain of art, and had won more than local distinction as a portrait painter.^ The growth of the Negro population during this period, ^ coming at the same time with the general awakening which has been noted, was one of the chief causes of the increase in ' Mr. Bannister subsequently became the principal founder of the Providence Art Club, which is to-day the leading art organization in Providence, Rhode Island, and whose membership, mostly if not wholly white, includes many of the leading citizens of the city and State. * See chapter iii for figures. 452 APPENDIX the number of Negro churches, from two in 1830 to five by 1850. The Reverend John T. Raymond was pastor of the old Joy Street Church, succeeding the Reverend Thomas Paul about 1840 and continuing till a few years before the war. He was a man of high character, and an active worker for anti-slavery and many of the principal reforms of the day. His successor was the brilliant John Sella Martin, who came to Boston in 1859, being introduced by the pastor of Tremont Temple, whose pulpit he filled several weeks as a vacation substitute. The first pastor of the A.M.E. Zion Church, founded in 1838, was the Reverend Jehial C. Beman, born in Connecticut, and whose father is said to have taken the name "Be-Man" after escaping from slavery. The Negro minister most active in the Abolition cause was the Reverend Leonard A. Grimes,of the Twelfth Baptist Church. He was born in Leesburg, Virginia, of free parents, in 1815, worked at many occupations in various parts of the South, and as a young man became an active helper for the Under- ground Railway. He was concerned in nearly all the stirring events affecting the Negro from the time of his coming to Boston, in 1848, till his death. With the founding of new churches came the formation of a number of Negro societies and organizations. Between 1844 and 1848 three additional Masonic lodges, the Union, Rising Sun, and Celestial, were established, the original African lodge having become in 1808 the Prince Hall Grand Lodge. The first lodge of Negro Odd Fellows in Boston had its beginning in 1846. The first women's beneficial society in Boston, either white or Negro, was :hat of the United Daughters of Zion, organized November 6, 1845, and still extant. The Female Benevolent Firm, which also has maintained itself to the present day, was formed in 1850; and the National Grand Order of Brothers and Sisters of Love and Charity, of which there are now six lodges in Greater Boston, in 1863.^ Though the mass of the Negroes were still employed in menial service, there had, nevertheless, been a decided eco- nomic advance. Thomas B. Dalton, who appeared in the * Thirty-fourth Annual Report of the Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor, pp. 282, 283. APPENDIX 453 1829 directory as a bootblack, subsequently became the proprietor of a prosperous clothing-shop on Brattle Street, and accumulated property, as the provisions of his will later showed, to the value of nearly $50,000. With reference to the material progress made by the Negroes, William C. Nell wrote in 1855: "Boston compares favorably, in this respect, with larger cities in the United States. Several causes have combined to retard the progress of colored mechanics, but these are being removed, and, in a few years, the results will be manifest. Business and professional men are continually increasing. . . . The most popular gymna- sium galleries are in the proprietorship of J. B. Bailey ^ and Peyton Stewart; the prince of caterers is J. B. Smith; a den- tist highly recommended is J. S. Rock; a young artist in crayon portraits is fast winning his way to excellence and reputation; 2 and other equally meritorious aspirants — women included — are soaring to those heights that chal- lenge the ambition of earth's gifted citizens. Real-estate to the value of, at least, $200,000 is in the hands of our colored citizens." ^ The Negroes, in fact, owned a large proportion of the property in the West End district. ARTICLE III NEGRO LEADERS AFTER THE WAR When, with the war's close, the period of the Negro's freedom began, nearly all the Abolitionist leaders of that race in Boston were still alive, and the majority were in their prime. Charles Lenox Remond, born in 1810, and one of the pioneers, was the eldest of this strong group, and one of the most eloquent, having won the sobriquet of "The Colored Wendell Phillips." The leader, however, was Lewis Hayden. He had been born a slave, in 1815, and had come to Boston at the age of twenty-nine as a runaway; but his native intel- lectual ability and the exceptionally good education which he ' Mr. Bailey was for a time boxing-master at Harvard University. ' Edward M. Bannister, previously mentioned. 3 W. C. Nell, Colored Patriots oj the Revolution. 454 APPENDIX somehow managed to acquire are suflBciently evidenced by his writings on Negro Masonry.^ Hayden was a man of compelling qualities and of a nature which would not brook opposition. With the Negroes he held a position almost of dictator, and with the whites he was the accepted represent- ative of his people. His home remained a common meeting- place for councils affecting his race.'^ Joshua B. Smith, who, before he became a caterer, worked in the Sliaw household, was one of the prime movers in initiating, in the autumn of 1865, the movement for the collection of private subscrip- tions for a monument to Robert Gould Shaw and the Fifty- fourth; — which resulted, in 1897, when $'23,000 had been secured, in the erection of the present Memorial. George L. Ruffin, born in Richmond in 1838 of free parents, had come to Boston ia 1853, and after earning his livelihood for some years as a barber, took a course at the Harvard Law School, and subsequently entered the law office of Harvey Jewell. Mark de Mortie, a tailor and shoe-dealer, who had come to Boston from Virginia in 1853, and George T. Downing, who, though he did not live in Boston, frequently went there,' were others of the "Old Guard," — the majority of whom, as well as some of those mentioned here, have already been named in other connections. In addition to this group of men, a number of women continued to take an active part in affairs. Previous refer- ence has been made to Eliza Gardner, who when the war ended was still a young woman of thirty-four, but in the forefront of good endeavor for her people's welfare. A co- worker was Mrs. Arianna C. Sparrow, who had come to Boston in 1852 with her mother, the latter one of the women after whom the character of Eliza, in Uncle Tom's Cabin, was modeled. Another zealous member of this company was Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin, wife of George L. Ruffin. Mrs. Ruffin, of mingled French, English, American, Indian, and ' Caste among Masonn; Address before Prince Hall Grand Lodge. Grand Lodge Jurisdictional Claim. Masonrt/ among Colored Men in Massachusetts. ' In the house at 66 Phillips Street, the room in which those frequent councils were held is still kept with everything as it used to be, and is proudly shown to visitors by the present tenant. ' Downing hud a remarkable history. See the biography by his daughter, Mrs. S. I. N. Washington, printed in 1010 by the Milne Printers, Newport, Uhode Island. APPENDIX 455 African descent, was born in Boston in 1842, and was mar- ried in 1858. During the war, as a girl, she assisted in the sending of sanitary supplies to the soldiers; and immediately after the war she organized the Kansas Relief Association, which sent clothing and money to the Negro refugees who were colonizing parts of Kansas. The ranks of the foregoing leaders, and of the others who had taken up their abode in Boston before, during, or imme- diately after the war, were reinforced by a number of later recruits from without. Reference will be made only to those who identified themselves closely with the propaganda for equal rights. Among such, who came in the first decade following the return of peace, were James Still, from New Jersey; W. C. Lane, from North Carolina; H. Gordon Street, from the West Indies; William H. Plummer, from Virginia; Julius B. Chappelle, from Florida; James H. Wolff and Archibald H. Grimke. Still and Lane were physicians. Street a journalist, Chappelle a barber, Plummer, Wolff, and Grimke lawyers. Wolff was born at Holderness, New Hampshire, in 1847, acquired his academic education at Kimball Union Academy and the New Hampshire State College, and studied law in the office of Hon. D. W. Gooch and at the Harvard Law School. He was admitted to the Bar in 1875. Archibald H. Grimke and his brother, Francis James Grimke, were the children, by a Negro mother, of one of the sons of Judge John F. Grimke, of the Supreme Court of South Carolina. Their father's sisters, Angelina and Sarah Grimke, were famous Abolitionists and reformers before the war, and were often heard on Boston platforms. When these sisters discovered the facts concerning the parentage of the two boys, who were then in Lincoln University, Pennsyl- vania, where by heroic saving their mother had contrived to send them, they forthwith acknowledged them as nephews; Angelina Grimke, who had married Theodore D. Weld, of Hyde Park, taking Archibald into her family, and Sarah assisting him in completing his education and entering the profession of law. In the decade following, from 1875 to 1885, the principal newcomers were Edward Everett Brown, Clement G. Mor- gan, and Butler R. Wilson, all lawyers. Brown was a native 456 APPENDIX of New Hampshire, born in 1858. He studied law in the offices of Hon. John H. White, Judge of the Probate Court in New Hampshire, and of Hon. William A. Gaston, of Boston, as well as at the Boston University Law School, and was admitted to the Bar in 1884. Morgan was born in Georgia, graduated from Atlanta University in that State and from the Harvard Law School, and was admitted to practice in Boston in 1882. Wilson, also born in Georgia, in 1860, and a fellow-student with Morgan, at Atlanta, studied law at Boston University, and began practice in 1884. Two younger men who grew up in Boston, and who entered into active service about this time, were Emery Morris, a nephew of Robert Morris, born in 1851; and Wil- liam A. Hazel, born about 1850, who became a successful draftsman and architect. In the next decade, from 1885 to 1895, the chief reinforce- ments were George Washington Forbes, from Mississippi, who, as noted elsewhere, has since 1895 been an assistant librarian in the West End branch of the Boston Public Library; and William H. Lewis, to whom a number of pre- vious references have been made. Lewis was born in Virginia, in 1868, graduated from Amherst College, studied law at the Harvard Law School, and was admitted to the Bar in 1895. STATISTICAL TABLES Table I NEGRO POPULATION AND TOTAL POPULATION OF BOSTON PROPER 1742-1865 Numbers and Percentages Year Negro population Increase Per cent increase Total population Per cent Negroes ] in total 1742 1374 15,008 9. 1752 1541 167 12. 3 14,190 10. 1754 9891 -552 -55. 1765 848 -141 -14. 15,520 6. 1790 766 - 82 - 9. 18,320 4. 1800 1174 408 53. 24,937 4.7 1810 1468 294 25. 33,787 4.3 1820 1690 222 15. 43,298 3.9 1830 1875 185 10.9 61,392 3. 1840 2427 552 29. 93,383 2.5 1850 1999 -428 -17. 136,881 1.4 1855 2160 161 8. 158,793 1.3 1860 >• 2284 124 5.7 177,840 1.2 1865 2348 64 2.8 192,318 1.2 In the above figures, the population as given for each year has reference to Boston as geographically constituted in that year. Additions through such annexations as were made from time to time are of practically negligible effect, so far as the comparisons from period to period are concerned. This table shows that the percentage of Negroes in the total population was at its maximum at the time when the second count was taken, in 1752, and that from then down to the time of the war it steadily declined. It also appears that the rate of increase of the Negro population underwent a decline after 1800. • The figure of 989, for the year 1754, appears to have comprised only the slaves. 458 STATISTICAL TABLES Table II NEGRO POPULATION AND TOTAL POPULATION OF BOSTON PROPER AND GREATER BOSTON 1865-1910 Numbers and Percentages BOSTON PROPER GREATER BOSTON o be o "« ts £ 1 o Year Negro Total a s 1 u a Negro Total a " s a 1865 2,348 192,318 1.2 3,495 421,936 .8 1870 3,496 250,526 1.3 48.8 30.2 6,648 506,999 1.1 61.6 19.8 1875 4,969 341,919 1.4 42.1 36.4 7,400 698,334 1.2 81. 17.8 1880 6,873 362,839 1.6 18.1 6.1 9,381 620,178 1.5 26.7 8.3 1885 6,058 390,393 1.5 3.1 7.5 9,481 726,832 1.3 4.8 17.3 1890 8,125 448,470 1.8 32.4 14.8 12,832 849,967 1.5 30.3 16.8 1895 9,472 496,920 1.9 16.5 10.8 16,307 1,001,474 1.6 27. 17.a 1900 11,591 560,892 2. 22.3 12.8 20, .306 1,121,667 1.8 24.5 11.8 1905 11,948 595,380 2. 3.1 6.2 21,234 1,243,808 1.7 4.5 11. 1910 13,564 670,585 2. 13.5 12.6 23.115 1,373,409 1.7 8.8 12.3 The percentage of Negroes in the entire population is so small that, for purposes of this table and some others, the white population may be regarded as practically identical with the total. These figures show that the percentage of Negroes in the total population increased from 1865 to 1900, and that it has subsequently remained stationary, at a point slightly higher in the case of Boston proper than in the case of Greater Boston. The figures also show that, with the exception of the five- year periods 1880-85, 1900-05, and, in the case of Greater Boston, I'905-IO, the rate of increase of the Negro popula- tion has been in excess of that of the white population; but that this excess has at the same time tended to diminish. STATISTICAL TABLES 459 Table III URBAN AND SUBURBAN DISTRIBUTION —NEGRO POPULATION AND TOTAL POPULATION OF GREATER BOSTON 1865-1910 Percentages (Numbers supplied in Table II) 0/ V Per cent Per cent Per cent Per cent Year Negro pop. total pop. Negro pop. total pop. •Sol ■ill in B.P.i inB.P. in suburbs' in suburbs O J2 a V '" 03 Z .2 Pi 2 .3 1865 67. 45. 33. 55. 1870 62. 49. 38. 51. 87. 11. 1875 67. 57. 33. 43. 12. 0. 1880 62. 58. 38. 42. 44. .3 1885 63. 53. 37. 47. - 5. 30. 1890 63. 52. 37. 48. 37. 19. 1895 58. 49. 42. 51. 45. 25. 1900 57. 50. 43. 50. 27. 11. 1905 56. 47. 44. 53. 6. 15. 1910 58. 48. 42. 52. 2. 8. These figures show that, though the percentage of the total population of Greater Boston living in the suburbs is larger than the percentage of the Negro population living in the suburbs, this suburban percentage has in the case of the total population decreased, since 1865, from 55 to 52; while, in the case of the Negroes, it has increased from 33 to 42. Likewise, from 1865 to 1900, with the single exception of the period 1880-85, the rate of increase of the Negro suburban population greatly exceeded that of the suburban population as a whole. What this signifies is that, so far as increasing residence in the more open and healthful outlying districts is concerned, * The abbreviation " B.P." stands for " Boston proper," or the territory included within the civic municipality of Boston. By the term "Suburbs " is meant all terri- tory outside the limits of Boston proper, but still within the limits of Greater Boston. 460 STATISTICAL TABLES the Negroes have in the main fared better than the rest of the population. Since 1900, however, the suburban rate of increase for Negroes has markedly diminished, and has fallen con- siderably below that of the whites. This probably indicates a decrease — whether temporary or not remains to be seen — in the movement of Negroes from Boston proper to the suburbs. But it probably does not indicate any recent tendency toward Negro congestion in the inner sections of the city; for the reason that even within the municipality the Negroes are moving in growing, though of course still minor numbers into the more removed residential districts, which are practically the same as the suburbs in general character. STATISTICAL TABLES 461 Table IV NEGRO POPULATION OF GREATER BOSTON 1865-1910 In Detail, by Cities and Towns of the Metro- politan District ^ Place Boston Arlington. . . . Belmont Brookline. . . . Cambridge. . . Chelsea Dedham Everett Hyde Park... Lexington... . Lynn ' Maiden Medford Melrose Milton Nahant Newton Quincy Revere Saugus Somerville. . . Stoneham.. . . Swampscott.. Wakefield.... Waltham . . . . Watertown.. . Winchester. . . Winthrop. . . . Woburn 1865 1875 1883 1890 1895 1900 1905 25722 4969 6058 8125 9472 11591 11948 23 28 48 61 55 62 4 8 1' 8 4 8 5 13 17 42 184 161 194 377 1103 1689 1988 2849 3888 4290 150 311 513 668 693 731 566 31 75 48 72 65 53 22 24 72 455 634 801 78 104 98 108 116 111 10 12 17 14 17 13 22 229 430 624 715 767 784 772 23 30 61 107 326 446 525 8 18 21 55 169 244 248 2 11 37 48 105 130 96 5 32 36 47 53 64 67 11 1 1 2 3 14 130 190 342 354 505 522 6 7 14 16 6 27 22 14 24 67 43 30 1 18 14 35 27 28 16 36 87 65 72 140 229 6 27 27 35 27 21 32 1 1 15 16 16 44 28 9 18 12 17 25 31 7 13 15 16 36 51 43 6 19 54 25 56 53 41 2 3 34 45 107 140 186 3 1 28 34 43 36 6 19 75 100 218 261 240 1910 13564 67 15 221 4707 242 54 795 87 25 700 486 431 110 44 4 467 45 33 55 217 25 14 31 62 44 281 47 242 1 The "Metropolitan District," as defined in connection with the work of certain metropolitan bodies like the Park Commission, and as comprising the towns and cities named above, is practically coincident with the unified and centralized social community commonly referred to as Greater Boston. ' This figure is in excess of that given for Boston proper in the preceding tables, in that here it includes the Negro population in the following outlying districts, which were annexed to Boston during the ensuing decade: namely, Brighton, Charlestown, Dorchester, Roxbury, and West Roxbury. ' In general, in this volume, Lynn is not counted a part of Greater Boston, be- cause of its considerable population and largely independent industrial life. 462 STATISTICAL TABLES Table V POPULATION OF GREATER BOSTON, BY COLOR 1910 In Detail, by Cities and Towns of the Metro- politan District Place Metropolitan District Boston Arlington Belmont Brookline Cambridge Chelsea Dedham Everett Hyde Park Lexington Lynn Maiden Medford Melrose Milton Nahant Newton Quincy Revere Saugus Somerville Stoneham Swampscott WakeBeld Waltham Watertown Winchester Winthrop Woburn Total population 1,373,409 670,585 11,187 5,542 27,792 104,839 32,452 9,284 33,484 15,507 4,918 89,336 44,404 23,150 15,715 7,924 1,184 39,806 32,642 18,219 8,047 77,236 7,090 6,204 11,404 27,834 12,875 9,309 10,132 15,308 White 1,348,424 655,736 11,115 5,524 27,547 100,024 32,177 9,227 32,672 15,404 4,891 88,518 43,897 22,704 15,592 7,873 1,179 39,303 32,568 18,173 7,990 76,956 7,064 6,183 11,371 27,743 12,826 9,026 10,080 15,061 Negro 23,115 13,564 67 15 221 4,707 242 54 795 87 25 700 486 431 110 44 4 467 45 33 55 217 25 14 31 62 44 281 47 242 All others (Chinese, Jap- anese and In- dians) 1,870 1,285 5 3 24 108 33 3 17 16 2 118 21 15 13 7 1 36 29 13 2 63 1 7 2 29 5 2 5 5 STATISTICAL TABLES 463 Table VI EMIGRATION OF NEGROES FROM MASSACHU- SETTS, BOSTON PROPER, AND GREATER BOSTON, 1890-1900 The base upon which the following table is built up con- sists of the figures, in the federal censuses of 1890 and 1900, showing the number of Massachusetts-born Negroes who were resident in other States in those years. A simple comparison of the 1900 figures in this regard with those of 1890, for each State, is not, of course, suffi- cient to show the total accessions — if any — to that State, from the ranks of Massachusetts-born Negroes, during the decade. It is necessary also to allow for the deaths during the decade among those Massachusetts-born Negroes resi- dent in the given State in 1890; and also for the deaths of immigrants to that State during the decade, which have occurred before the decade's close. For this purpose, assumption has been made of a death rate of 2.5 per cent (25 deaths per 1000 persons), this being a point between the prevailing Negro death rates North and South. As there are no figures which indicate the number of Massachusetts-born immigrants entering a given State each year, the deaths among such immigrants are calculated roughly by taking one half the increase in the number of immigrants during the decade (this being a mean between the number arriving in the year 1891 and the larger number arrived by 1900) as a numerator; to which the death rate of 2.5 per cent is applied. In many cases the numbers involved are so small that the deaths are practically negligible in quantity, and are therefore not taken account of. Further emigration of Massachusetts-born Negroes, out of any given State into others, is another factor involved; but as the interstate total of such migration remains the same, this element need not be included in the calculation. 464 STATISTICAL TABLES Negroes of Massachusetts Birth Emigrating FROM Massachusetts as a Whole o •c H o s & % S o a OS §2 2 ;^ a o i o S2 o o a> -a v 6. £2 Minimum immigra- tion Mass.-born Negroes 1890-1900 gas a.a-S §2 .2 -° °> 3 si h22 Ala. 20 19 - 1 4 3 - 3 Alas. 8 + 8 8 - 8 Ark. 33 14 -19 7 -12 - - Ariz 3 31 +28 28 3 31 Cal. 91 68 -26 21 - 5 - - Col. 43 41 - 2 10 8 - - Conn. 395 454 +59 88 147 16 163 Del. 6 12 + 6 1 7 - 7 DC. 99 132 +33 22 55 6 61 Fla. 3-i 39 + 7 7 14 1 15 Ga. ii 65 +23 9 32 3 35 Ha. 1 + 1 1 - 1 Id. 1 1 1 - 1 111. 76 117 +41 17 58 6 64 Ind. 18 30 + 12 4 16 2 18 I.T. 3 + 3 3 - 3 Iowa 9 10 + 1 2 3 - 3 Kas. 13 10 - 3 3 - - Ky. 11 17 + 6 2 8 - 8 La. 55 38 -17 12 - 5 - - Me. 24 56 +32 6 37 4 41 Md. 69 85 + 16 15 31 3 34 Mich. 33 32 - 1 7 6 - 6 Minn. 19 16 - 3 4 1 - 1 Miss. 19 17 - 2 4 2 - 2 Mo. 34 37 + 3 7 10 1 11 Mont. 5 5 1 1 - 1 Neb. 15 14 - 1 3 2 - 2 Nev. 1 1 1 - 1 N.H. 46 44 - 2 10 8 - 8 N.J. 101 156 +55 22 77 8 85 N.M. 3 3 - - N.Y. 462 606 +144 104 '248 27 276 N.C. 21 24 + 3 5 8 - 11 N. &S. Dak. 7 2 - 5 1 - 4 - - Ohio 143 64 -79 32 -47 - - Ok. 1 3 2 2 - 2 Or. 11 12 1 2 3 - 3 Pa. 197 294 +97 44 141 15 156 R.L 320 406 +86 71 157 17 174 S.C. 19 16 - 3 4 1 - 1 Tenn. 21 22 - 2 5 3 - 3 Tex. 38 51 + 13 8 21 2 23 Utah 1 1 - - Vt. 65 67 + 2 14 16 2 18 Va. 58 114 +56 13 69 7 76 Wash. 16 12 - 4 3 - 1 - - W.Va. 6 10 + 4 1 5 - 5 Wis. 5 12 + 7 1 8 1 9 Wy. 1 - 1 - 1 Total 1369 STATISTICAL TABLES 465 Summary Total emigration of Massachusetts-born Negroes from Massachusetts. 1890-1900 1869 Average yearly emigration, 1890-1900 136.9 B. Entire Emigration of Negroes; both Massachu- setts-Born AND Others 1. Emigration from Massachusetts as a Whole The emigration from Massachusetts of Negroes of Massa- chusetts birth having been ascertained, it is now possible to estimate the entire Negro emigration from the State, on the basis of the ratio between that part of the State's Negro population which is native, and the total. The mean native-born Negro population of the State for the decade 1890-1900 may be reckoned roughly as one half the sum of that of 1890 and that of 1900: — i.e., 94554-11,747 _ _, — , or 10,601. 2 In the same way, the mean total Negro population of the , , 1 , , , , 22,144-^31,974 State, for the decade, may be reckoned as r , or 27,064. The native Negro population of Massachusetts, therefore, stands in relation to the entire Negro population of the State as 10,601 to 27,064; forming a proportion of 39 per cent. Assuming now that the emigration from Massachusetts of the Negroes who are native to the State corresponds roughly in rate with that of the non-native element; the former, 1369 for the decade 1890-1900, may be reckoned as 39 per cent of the total for that decade, — which would thus amount to 1369 X 100. or 3510. 39 Summary Total emigration of Negroes from Massachusetts, 1890-1900 8510 Average yearly emigration, 1890-1900 351 2. Emigration from Boston Proper The entire Negro emigration from Boston proper may now be calculated in the same way, on the basis of the ratio be- 466 STATISTICAL TABLES tween the Negro population of Boston and that of the State as a whole. The mean Negro population of Boston for the decade 8,125 + 11,591 1690-1900, was — , or 9858: which stood in rela- 2 tion to the mean Negro population of the State as 9858 to 27,06-1; forming a proportion of 36 per cent. The total emigration of Negroes from Massachusetts for the decade being 3510, the emigration from Boston proper would then be reckoned, on a strict percentage basis, as 36 per cent of 3510; — X 100, or 1263. As a matter of fact, 36 however, Boston, on account of its more intensive city con- ditions and its position as a metropolis, is undoubtedly sub- ject to a shifting or emigration of its Negro population which is considerably larger in extent than its proportion of the Negro population of the State; and which must amount, at a reasonable estimate, to 50 per cent of the State's entire emigration, — or, for the decade concerned, to 1755. Summary Total Negro emigration from Boston proper, 1890-1900. . . 1755 Average yearly emigration, 1890-1900 175.5 3. Emigration from Greater Boston The mean Negro population of the Greater Boston dis- 12,832+20,306 trict, for the decade 1890-1900, was ~ , or 2 16,569. This stood in relation to the mean Negro population of the State as 16,569 to 27,064; forming a proportion of 61 per cent. The emigration from Greater Boston for the decade would, therefore, on a strict reckoning, be 61 per cent of 3510, or 2141. But, for the same reasons that hold true in the case of Boston proper, the emigration from the urban district of Greater Boston is relatively larger than for the rest of the State; amounting, doubtless, to not less than 75 per cent of the whole, — or 2632. Summary Total emigration of Negroes from Greater Boston, 1890-1900 2632 Average yearly emigration, 1890-1900 263 STATISTICAL TABLES 467 Table VII IMMIGRATION OF NEGROES TO BOSTON PROPER AND GREATER BOSTON To calculate the extent of Negro immigration, it is neces- sary to add to the net increase of the local Negro population, during the given period, the estimated local emigration of Negroes during the same period; inasmuch as immigration, besides yielding a net increase, has also filled the space left by emigration. Strictness of procedure would require furthermore that any excess of deaths over births, for the period, should be taken into account; since depletion from this cause also has to be made up for by accessions from without, before any net gain is shown. But as the births nearly, if not entirely, offset the deaths, for the two decades in question, this factor may for practical purposes be omitted from the present calculation. A. Boston Proper, 1890-1900 Increase of Negro population of Boston, 1890-1900 3466 Estimated Negro emigration from Boston, 1890-1900 (Table VI, B, 2) 1755 Total Negro immigration to Boston, 1890-1900 6221 Average per year, Boston, 1890-1900 522 B. Boston Proper, 1900-10 Increase in Negro population of Boston, 1900-10 1973 Estimated Negro emigration from Boston, 1900-10 1317 ^ Total Negro immigration to Boston, 1900-10 3290 Average per year, Boston, 1900-10 329 C. Greater Boston, 1890-1900 Increase in Negro population of Greater Boston, 1890-1900 7474 Estimated Negro emigration from Greater Boston, 1890- 1900 (Table VI, B, 3) 2632 Total Negro immigration, Greater Boston, 1890-1900.. . 10,106 Average per year 1010 * This figure is estimated, rather than calculated, on the assumption, borne out by observation and report, that the emigration of Negroes from Boston.in the decade 1900-10, was probably at least 25 per cent less than that (as above given) of the decade preceding. 468 STATISTICAL TABLES D. Greater Boston, 1900-10 Increase in Negro population of Greater Boston, 1900-10... 2809 Estimated Negro emigration from Greater Boston, 1900- 1910 1974 ^ Total Negro immigration. Greater Boston, 1900-10 4783 Average per year 478 * This figure is estimated on the same assumption as in the case of section B, above; — i.e., that the Negro emigration from Greater Boston, in the decade 1900- 10, was at least i5 per cent less than in the decade preceding. Table VIII STATE NATIVITY OF NEGROES IN BOSTON PROPER AND MASSACHUSETTS In Percentages, from 1900 back to 1860 The numbers put before the percentages show the nu- merical rank of each State, for each year given, as respects the quantitative contribution of that State to the nativity of the local Negro population. For States contributing less than 100 individuals, no per- centages are indicated. The figures for Massachusetts as a whole are given for 1880, as no figures for Boston alone are obtainable in the case of that particular census year. Boston Boston Mass. Boston Boston 1900 1890 1880 1870 1860 Massachusetts 128.2 132.9 154.9 141.1 146.6 Virginia 2 27.6 2 29.9 2 19.1 2 24.8 2 15.3 North Carolina 3 11.5 3 7.4 * 3.4 9 3.4 Maryland * 4.7 * 4.5 » 4.1 3 7.7 » 8.4 Georgia 6 3.8 8 2.5 District of Columbia. . 6 2.9 6 2.7 9 1.4 New York 7 2.9 8 2.8 s 2.8 ^ 2.6 6 3.4 8 1.7 * 4.5 * 6.4 South Carolina Pennsylvania 9 2.5 9 2.5 ' 1.9 6 3.9 s 5.4 Connecticut 1" 1.1 " .9 8 2.2 New Jersey Maine >2 .9 •» 1.5 Rhode Island 10 1.2 STATISTICAL TABLES Table IX 469 NATIVITY BY SECTIONS OF THE COUNTRY NEGROES OF BOSTON PROPER AND MASSACHUSETTS In Percentages, from 1900 back to 1860 This table, of course, applies only to Negroes of American birth. Boston Mass. Boston Mass. Mass. Boston Mass. Boston 1900 1900 1890 1890 18801 1870 1870 1860 North 39 50.3 44. 59.5 67.8 55.6 66.3 69.8 South 59 45.2 54. 38.4 31.4 43.2 33.7 29.1 Central and Western States 2 4.5 2. 2.1 .8 1.2 1.1 * No figures for Boston alone are obtainable tor the year 1880. Table X NEGROES OF FOREIGN BIRTH AND FOREIGN PARENTAGE — BOSTON PROPER AND MASSACHUSETTS In Percentages, from 1900 back to 1860 For years in which no figures are given for Boston, such figures are not available. Figures of foreign birth are lacking prior to 1890. Boston 1900 Boston 1890 Mass. 1880 Boston 1870 Boston 1860 Mass. 1860 Foreign born Foreign parentage. . . 10.2 16.8 14.2 18.8 6.41 10.8 14.9 6.3 1 The percentage for Boston in 1880 was probably (estimated) about 13.6. 470 STATISTICAL TABLES Table XI MARRIAGE RATE— NEGRO AND WHITE POPULATION BOSTON PROPER, 1900-06 The following figures apply to the number of marriages per one thousand of population. Year Negro Rate White Rate 1900 18.3 18.7 1901 17.8 18.1 1902 16.6 17.7 1903 19.5 18.2 1904 18.1 18.2 1905 17.7 18.5 1906 21.5 24.3 Average, 1900-06 18.5 19.1 The proportion of Negroes in the total being practically negligible, the figures quoted for the white population in the above table are those reported for the total population by the Municipal Registry Department, for each year; on the basis, for non-census years, of the estimated population. In the case of the Negro population, however, where such yearly estimates are less dependable, the population for each non-census year has been calculated, for the table above, by adding to the population of the last census year, preceding, one, two, three or four fifths, respectively, of the increase recorded by the following census, taken at the close of the given five-year period. STATISTICAL TABLES Table XII 471 BIRTH AND DEATH RATES — NEGRO AND WHITE POPULATION BOSTON PROPER 1900-10 The figures below apply to number of births and deaths per one thousand of population. Negro birth rate Negro death rate White birth rate White death rate 1900.... 27.7 28.4 29.1 20.8 1901.... 24.4 27.4 27.1 19.6 1902. . . . 26.6 28.3 26.3 18.6 1903.... 25.1 25.4 26. 17.6 1904,. . . . 23.4 23.2 25. 17.4 1905.... 23. 23. 26. 18.4 1906.... 26.9 27.6 28.2 18.8 1907.... 26.9 25.5 1908. . . . 27.5 26.9 1909.... 25.8 20. 1910.... 22.8 23.7 Average 25.4+ 25.4+ 26.9+ 18.7+ The Negro birth and death rates are calculated on the same basis as that followed in the case of the Negro marriage rate (Table XI). The rates given for the white population are those reported for the total population by the Municipal Registry Department. Though the latter figures, as here cited, come down only through the year 1906, it may safely be assumed that the average would remain substantially the same if the figures were brought down to 1900. 472 STATISTICAL TABLES Table XIII NEGRO BIRTH AND DEATH RATES BOSTON PROPER 1865-1910 Averages for Five-Year Periods The purpose of the following table is to afford a more stable basis for the study of the trend of the local Negro birth and death rates, than is possible when recourse is had only to rates for single years. Owing either to inaccuracies in the estimates of ^the size of the Negro population for non- census years, or possible under- or over-counts in the yearly recording of births and deaths, rate figures for single years are almost sure to be somewhat uncertain, and therefore more or less unreliable. When the average rates for five-year periods are taken, however, a more substantial set of figures is provided, making possible more reliable conclusions as to tendencies extending over a term of years. In order to eliminate from the figures given below the ele- ment of doubt arising from estimates of population for non- census years, one half the sum of the Negro population at the beginning of the five-year period and of that at its close, is regarded as the mean population for the period. The sum of the Negro births and deaths for the period are divided by the number of years (six, including both beginning and ending year), in order to get the yearly average. On the basis of this mean population, and this yearly average, the average rates for the period are reckoned. Five-year period Birth rate Death rate 1865-70 26. 35.2 1870-75 30.9 41.3 1875-80 29.5 30.4 1880-85 34.9 39. 1885-90 29. 36.2 1890-95 26.4 32.1 1895-00 22. 27.9 1900-05 25.4 26.5 1905-10 25.8 24.3 STATISTICAL TABLES 473 These figures show a decline, in the Negro death rate, which has been uninterrupted since 1880, and also a small increase in the birth rate since 1895; as the joint result of which factors — though chiefly of the former — the death rate has finally, in the decade 1905-10, declined to a point which leaves an excess of births. 474 STATISTICAL TABLES Table XIV A COMPARISON OF THE \\THITE AND NEGRO POPULATION OF BOSTON PROPER As RESPECTS Sex, Marital Condition, Proportion of Children, and Age Groups — In Percentages, for the Year 1895 The year 1895 is selected for this comparison because the Massachusetts census for that year supplies the requisite information in fullest detail. It may safely be assumed that a similar comparison for any subsequent year would show substantially the same results. As the Negroes form such a small fraction of the whole population, the latter is considered, for comparative pur- poses, as virtually identical with the white population. A. Sex Negro population; — men exceed women by about 1 per cent of the whole. White population; — women exceed men by about 4 per cent of the whole. B. Marital Condition 1. Women Single Per cent Native-born Negroes 49 Native-born Whites 67 Foreign -born Negroes 36 Foreign-born Whites 36 Combined native- and foreign-born Negroes 47 + Combined native- and foreign-born Whites 55 Married Negroes 38 + Whites 34 Widowed Negroes 13.6 Whites 9.9 Divorced Negroes 29 Whites 19 STATISTICAL TABLES 475 2. Men Single P„ cent Negroes 5Q Whites 56 Married Negroes 38 Whites 36 Widowed Negroes 3.8 Whites 3.4 Divorced Negroes 14 Whites 07 C. Proportion op Children Children, age 1-U Pe, cent Negroes 18 Average number children per married woman. . . .72 Whites 25 Average number children per married woman. . . 1.12 Infants under one year Negroes. 1.7 I Whites 1.9 D. Older Age Groups Persons 15-49 Pe, cent Negroes 71 ^ Whites 60 Persons 50 and above Negroes 9.7 Whites 13.6 Persons 60 and above Negroes 3.8 Whites 6. 476 STATISTICAL TABLES Table XV CAUSES OF POVERTY AMONG DIFFERENT RACES Based upon a Tabulation of 7,225 Specific Cases Reported to the Associated Charities of Boston AND certain other CiTIES ^ Classification 1. Indicating misconduct . . . Drink Immorality ShiftlessnesB and ineffi- ciency Crime and dishonesty . . Roving disposition .... 3. Indicating misfortune . . . A. Lack of normal support Imprisonment of bread- winner Orphans and abandoned children Neglected by relatives . No male support . . . B. Matters of employment . Lack of employment Insufficient employ- ment Poorly paid employ- ment Unhealthy and danger- ous employment . . C. Matters of personal in- capacity Ignorance of English . Accident Sickness or death in family Physical defects . . . Insanity Old age 3. Miscellaneous Large family Nature of abode Other, or unknown .... Fekcentaqes 27.35 15.1K 0.63 9.19 0.74 1.63 69. S8 e.oi 0.67 0.,'!7 0.H9 4.11 33.i0 24.57 6.64 2.08 0.11 SO.li 20.31 3.41 0.93 Negro 13.76 6.24 0.92 S.69 0.73 0.18 8331 i.96 0.37 0.37 1.28 2.94 27.15 17.43 8.62 0.92 0.18 51.20 1.47 4.59 2.93 0..5.5 0.18 2.20 Ger- man 16.67 7.75 0.12 7.39 0.47 CM 78.64 5.17 0.12 0.82 4.23 3S.73 28.40 7.51 3i-7i 22.65 4.70 0.70 30.43 23.62 0.27 5.78 0.38 0.38 67.65 7.0i 1.20 0.38 0.38 5.08 26.1i 18.88 6.38 31.37 0.06 311 19.80 3.49 0.SI3 6.9S 2.02 0.87 0.06 1.09 28.01 16.93 0.32 7.12 1.11 2.53 69.46 6.33 1.27 0.63 1.27 3.16 30.S5 24.68 4.75 1.27 3.64 263 0.79 0.47 1.27 All Other 18.64 8.27 0.30 7.52 1.05 1.50 7911 8.12 0.60 0.30 1.96 5.26 34-59 25.87 5.11 36.0 3.76 3.46 21.66 4.51 0.90 2.11 2.20 0.75 0.15 1.35 2S.11 15.28 0.44 7.52 0.68 1.19 72.03 6-.32 0.76 0.35 0.91 4.30 31.60 23.17 6.53 3L11 0.42 2.86 22.27 8.70 0.86 4.00 2.86 0.73 0.13 2.01 The above classification is arranged in three main divi- sions, sections 1, 2, and 3 totalizing to one hundred, and the subdivisions thereunder adding to the percentage line of each section. The first section indicates poverty caused by mis- conduct, and has details of five causes which resulted in the poverty of the persons considered; the second indicates mis- » Warner's American Charitiei, 1894 ed., Table VIII. The date of these cases is not stated, but it was presumably about the time of the date of publication of Mr. Warner's book, — i.e., not long prior to 1894. STATISTICAL TABLES 477 fortune, with three main causes, each being subdivided into direct causes which could be classified under each head; and third, miscellaneous, or causes which were of a nature not readily classifiable under either misconduct or misfortune. Examination of the foregoing figures shows that in the case of the Negroes the percentage of poverty due to miscon- duct was lower than in the case of any other race; while, on the other hand, the percentage of poverty due to misfortune in some form or other was highest among the Negroes. Analyzing these statistics still further, it appears that the Negroes exhibit the lowest extent of poverty due to drink. "This low percentage has been corroborated by the investi- gation of John Koren,^ whose conclusions are: that com- paratively few Negroes are habitual drunkards; that intem- perance is only accountable for a small part of the Negro's poverty; and that only in exceptional cases are drinking habits a barrier to steady employment." ^ "Those who know the colored people only casually or by hearsay may be surprised to find the misconduct causes running so low among them, while sickness as a cause is of greater relative importance than in any other nationality. But to one who has worked in Baltimore or Washington it seems a natural result, and indeed a confirmation of the relia- bility of the statistics. The colored people are weak physi- cally, become sick easily, and often are without visible resis- tance to disease. At the same time, they have a dread of being assisted, especially when they think an institution will be recommended; and this, together with a certain apathy, will often induce them to endure great privation rather than ask for help. Besides this, there are many associations among them for mutual help, and the criminal and semi-criminal have a brutal way of making their women support them. That the percentage for 'lack of work,' 17.43, is the lowest, and that for 'insufficient employment,' 8.62, is the highest, under these two heads, perhaps reflects their hand-to-mouth way of working at odd jobs rather than taking steady work." ' ' Koren (Committee of Fifty), Economic Aspects, etc., p. 176. » Warner's American Charities, 1908 ed., p. 59. • Warner's American Charities, 1908 ed., pp. 69-60. 478 STATISTICAL TABLES Table XVI OWNERSHIP OF PROPERTY BY NEGROES OF BOSTON PROPER, THE SUBURBS, AND GREATER BOSTON, FOR THE YEAR 1910 (The following figures are supplementary to those given in chapter IX, pp. 384-5.) A. Property Actually Reported. Area Owners Pieces Value Boston Cambridge Other suburbs (15) 183 175 283 241 275 310 $1,143,500 869,000 693,000 Total 641 826 $2,705,585 B. All Property — Additions Estimated. Area Owners Pieces Value Boston Cambridge Other suburbs (15) 215 200 365 265 300 407 $1,250,000 950,000 900,000 Total 780 972 $3,100,000 Total private ownership. Greater Boston $3,100,000 Total corporate ownership, " " 400,000 Grand total, individual and corporate ownership, Greater Boston $3,500,000 STATISTICAL TABLES 479 C. Actually Reported — Fifteen Suburbs Area Owners Pieces Value Winchester Chelsea Woburn Everett Dedham Melrose Maiden Somerville Medford Hyde Park Milton Stoneham Wakefield Newton Waltham 21 28 30 71 6 3 25 13 37 11 3 3 1 30 1 24 39 30 76 7 3 25 14 37 12 3 3 1 35 1 $48,400 82,950 45,285 191.100 11.350 6.000 59.800 51,800 68,000 34,150 4,500 6,850 4,500 74,400 4,000 Total 283 310 $693,085 INDEX Abolition Movement, the Boston Ne- groes' specific share in, 30; as fore- runners of, 36-38; as participating in formation of New England Anti- Slavery Society, 42-43; in response to Garrison's appeal, and use of the "Liberator" as a medium of expres- sion, 46; indistinct organization at first, 46; as regards Boston commit- tee appointed by free Negroes, 46 in formation of separate societies 46; as received into white societies. 47-48; as elected to board of New England Anti-Slavery Society, 47. Charles Lenox Remond, first Negro Abolitionist platform speaker, 47 increasing participation of Negroes in Movement, 48; Remond in Brit- ish Isles, and his return with Ad- dress from Irish People, 53-54; en- trance of Frederick Douglass into Movement, 54-56; activity of Wil- liam Wells Brown, 56; assistance given runaway slaves, 57-64; coun- cil meetings, 57-58; prayers for slavery's destruction, 69; Negroes' part in celebration of the Proclama- tion, 70-71; as forerunners, further reference, 405; women, 450; minis- ters, 452. Abolition Movement, Boston source and center of, 30-71; enthusiasm of Abolitionists for Negro, following the war, 81; effect of Movement in arousing the Negro, 82-84, 446; re- sults in broadening Negro's rights, 94; passing away of Abolitionists, 112-13; effect on Negro's sense of citizenship, 267-68; propaganda of racial inter-association, 407. Acting, 202, 359. Adams, Mrs. Agnes, leader in organ- ization of Negro women, 212/. Adams, John, w., 8, 11. Adams, Samuel, w., 11. Addams, Jane, w., 126. Advocate, the, Negro newspaper, 103 /., 216. Africa, 1, If., 45, 160, 172, 173, 198, 238, 257, 317, 422, 438. African, 1, 164/., 172, 173/., 252, 399, 450. 455. 1 To avoid frequent use of racial designations, the abbreviation "w." is put after all names of white persons. Names not so marked may be assumed to be those of Negroes. African Abolition Free-Hold Society, 46/. African Female Anti-Slavery Society, 46/. African Meeting House, the, estab- lishment of, 21-22; Negro private school located in, 23; organization of New England Anti-Slavery Soci- ety in, 43; Negro "Cradle of Lib- erty," 43; Rev. Thomas Paul, pas- tor in early Abolition period, 46 /. ; become known as old Joy Street Church, 61; meeting to recruit Ne- gro volunteers for war, 73; evolu- tion of name, 241 ; in Abolition period, 452. African Society, 21. "Afro-American," the term, 164. Agitation. (See Discrimination and Rights.) Alabama, 108/, 423. Aldermen, Negro, 274, 275, 282, 283. Allen, Isaac B., on Governor's Coun- cil, 283. Allen, Macon B., earliest lawyer, 450. AUston, J. Henderson, on Common Council, 102/., 271 /.; address as presiding officer, 272-73; last Negro member of, 273. AUston, Philip J., autobiographical sketch, 352 /. ; officer Negro Busi- ness League, 394 /. Amendments to Constitution, pro- posal of, following the war, 86; passage of Thirteenth, 87; of Four- teenth, 91; of Fifteenth, 93; Negro's disaffection with Republican party on account of non-enforcement of, 120. American Anti -Slavery Society, 48, 88. American House, 324. American Journal of Religious Psy- chology and Education, 173 f. Amherst College, 456. Andrew, John A., w., " War Gov- ernor" of Massachusetts, 72-74. Anglo-Saxon, 287, 388. Anti-Negro riots, during Civil War, 74. Anti-Slavery, early movement, 36 /. (See Abolition, and Slavery.) Anti-Slavery Harp, The, 56. Anti-Washington agitation, by Ne- groes, 122-25. Antipathy. (»S'ee Discrimination.) Aristocracy, the Negro, 179, 181-183. Arkansas, 33 /., 34 /, 51, 108 /. Arming of Negroes, decided upon by Federal Government, 72. 482 INDEX Annistead, Edward H., on Common Council, 271/. Armstrong, Samuel T., w., 449. Armstrong, William O., court officer, 101 ; in Legislature, 101 /. Art Club, the Boston Negro, 202. Art Club, Providence, 451. Art Museum, 190, 304/. Artistic progress of Negro, 82. 201- 02, 359, 437-38, 451. Asiatic, 135. Associated Charities, Boston, 214. Athenaeum Library, 169. Atkinson, Edward, w., 70/. Atlanta, Ga., 110, 115, 116. Atlanta Address. {See Washington, Booker T.) Atlanta Constitution, 110, 117. Atlanta University, 456. Atlantic Monthly, 138 /. Attucks, Crispus, chief hero of Boston Massacre, 9-10; petition of Negroes for memorial to, 83, 449. Australia, 138/. Authors, Negro, 19-21, 26, 56, 82, 104, 204-07, 450. Awakening, of Negroes in Boston, 82- 84, 446. Baker, Gertrude M., school teacher, 188/. Bagnall, Rev. Powhattan, 241 /. Bahamas, 1, 399. Bailey, J. B., early gymnasium mas- ter, 453. Baldwin, Louis E., on Cambridge Common Council, 102 /. ; editor 103/. Baldwin, Maria L., principal of public school, 188, 194 /. Ballot. (See Vote.) Banking Company, the Eureka, 367. Banks, Walden, on Common Council, 102/. Bannister, Edward M., pioneer art- ist, 451. Baptists, 169, 241, 242, 243, 248, 250, 259, 452. Barbadoes, James G., member Gen- eral Colored Association, 36 /. ; early Abolitionist, 46 /.; delegate to Anti-Slavery Convention, 48/. Batum, William H., biographical sketch, 304 /. Beacon Hill, 143, 144, 169. Begging, 214. Beman, Rev. Jehial C, 452. Benjamin, Edgar P., autobiographi- cal sketch, 361 / Benjamin, Judah P., w., 361 /. Bible, Negro quotation of, 247. Biddulph, Canada, 61 /. Birth rate, 13.3-39, 156. (See Statisti- cal Tables.) Black Belt, 127, 220/., 407, 423. *' Black Laws," 136. Black Man, The, 104. Body of Liberties. (See Liberties.) Book of Elizabethan Verse, The; o/ Georgian Verse; of Restoration Verse; of Victorian Verse: — anthologies by Braithwaite, Negro poet, 206 /. Booklovers, literary society, 203. " Boss," Negro, 272, 291-292. BuMon Hymn, The, by Ralph Waldo Emerson, 69 /. Boston Massacre, events following, 10-11; national significance and consequences of , 11. (See Attucks.) Boston Normal School, 137 /., 188. Boston Theatre, 94. Bowdoin Square Stock Company, 368. Bowery, 366. Boy Scouts, 195. Boston University, 138/., 361 /., 456. Bradstreet, Governor, w., 5. Braithwaite, William Stanley, poet, anthologist, and critic, 204-05; autobiographical sketch, 205-06. Brigham's Restaurant, 94 /. Brimley, Fred, member General Col- ored Association, 36 /. Briti.sh possessions, 11, 45, 52, 173/., 205/ Brookline, 151. Brooks, Paul C, on Common Council, 283/. Brown, Edward Everett, office holder, 300 /.; leader in recent period, 456. Brown, J. C, founder of Negro Col- ony at Biddulph, Canada, 61. Brown, William Wells, Abolitionist, 56; recruiting agent in Civil War, 73; later writings, 104; exceptional character of, 114; further reference to. 450. Brownsville, Tex., 211, 293-95. Bruce, Roscoe Conkling, debater, 203/. Bryan, William Jennings, w., 294. Brvant, W. W., political appointee, 103. "Bucks of America," Negro company from Massachusetts in Revolution, 13-14. Bunker Hill. (See Revolution.) Burdett Business College, 173. Burke, Peter, typical immigrant from West Indies, 170/. Burns, Anthony, famous fugitive slave, 63-64. Burr, Seymour, soldier in Revolution, 14. Bush, Mrs. Olivia Ward, leader in or- ganization of Negro women, 212 /. Business League, the Negro, in con- nection with equal rights agitation, 122; organization and history of, 393-94. Business proprietorship, of Negro, in early days, 18; development of dur- ing Abolition period, 82; at present, 347, 351, 357, 363-72. INDEX 483 Butler, Governor Benjamin F., w., 101, 120. California, 60. Calvary Baptist, Negro Church, 242 /., 259. Cambridge, 6, 12, 13, 61 /, 95, 101, 102, 151, 187, 188, 188/., 189, 190, 201 /., 208, 211, 216, 217-218, 234, 240, 242, 273, 274, 287, 290, 300, 300 /., 304 /., 370, 371, 382, 383, 386, 388, 392, 394. Cambridge Neighborhood House, 190, 193 Canada, 38, 56/., 57, 61, 62, 63, 142, 171, 173, 232, 277, 281. 388, /. Canadian, 171, 388. Canaries, 4. Cape Verde, Islands of, 172. Carney, Serg't. Wm. H., heroism at FortWagner, 77; messenger to Mass. Secretary of State, 77 /., 302 /. "Carpet Baggers," 92. Carrington, Rev., 211. Carroll, Jacqueline, school teacher, 188/. Carter, Leigh, bank clerk, 349 /. Castle Square Stock Company, 368. Caucasian, 1, 93, 164, 179, 182, 198, 203, 227, 353/., 354/. Celts, 433. Census, first national, 8. Chappellc, Julius B., in legislature, 101 /.; connection with Crispus At- tucks Monument, 103/.; leader fol- lowing the war, 455. Characteristics of Negro, in early days, 24, 26; as commented on by Garrison, 43-44; as exhibited in Reconstruction period, 108-09; as represented by the South, 111-13, 115; as displayed by Southern im- migrants, 113-14; reference to in Booker T. Washington's Atlanta address, 116-17; as related to Washington's policy, 127-28; in physical respects, 133-37; in social respects, 159-04; as connected with nativity, 165-73; with social grada- tions, 174-85; with Negro's social nature, 198-99; with his cultural and artistic capacity, 200-06; with reference to women, 212-13; in con- nection with self-support, 213-14; ethically, 218-23; in religious ex- pression, 243-65; in political con- duct, 276-77, 278-279, 283-84; in- dustrially and economically, 31.5- 20, 323-324, 391-92; final analysis of, 401-05, 419-21, 437-38. Charge to the African Lodge, 26. Charity Club, Cambridge, Negro wo- men's organization, 211. Charles Street African Methodi-st Church, 203/., 210; founding of, 241; recent growth, 258-59; social work, 260-61. Charleston, Georgiana, teacher,' 137/. Charleston, S.C, 61/., 141, 361/. Charlestown, 15, 17, 100/., 101. Charter, of Boston, 272, 288-89. Chelsea, 151, 170/., 242, 275, 290, 302/. Chicago, 298/., 388/. Chinese, 164, 202, 409. Christian, 233, 235, 236, 253, 256, 354/. Christian Science, 228. Church of the Ascension, 191-92, 231, 233. Church of England, 196, 232. Church, the Negro, first organization of, 21; influence on shifting of Negro population, 22; establish- ment of Methodist congregation in Boston, 46/.; anti-slavery prayer meetings, 69; celebration of Emanci- pation Proclamation in, 71; growth during Abohtion period, 83, 452; transference of, to South End in recent years, 146; help given native Africans in America, 173/.; meet- ing-place of Negro literary societies, 203; reasons for establishment of first church, 225-26; historical de- velopment of churches in Boston, 241-42; present list of, 242 /. ; weak- nesses of, 241-52; progress of, 252- 65. Church attendance, of Negroes at white churches, earliest days, 21; at present, 225-38, 263. Church of God, Negro sect, 242; characteristics of, 244-47, 248. "Citizens' " ticket, 295. Citizenship. {See Rights.) Civil rights. (See Rights.) Civil service, Negroes in, 303-04. Civil War, causal relation of Abolition Movement to, 30; first predictions of, 35; foreseen by Garrison, 41; relation of Fugitive Slave Law to, 61 ; breaking out of, 67; military sit- uation at time of Emancipation Proclamation, 72; Negro's part in, 72-80; significance of, to the Ne- groes, 84 ; movement to secure fruits of, for Negroes, 85-87; effect of, on Negro population, 136; Negro's fortune following, 406. Clansman, The, 125. Clark, Jonas, 448. Clark, J. Milton, on Cambridge Com- mon Council, 102/. Clay, Henry, w., 62/. Cleveland, President, w., 99, 119. Clotel, 57 /. Coachmen, Benevolent Fraternity of, 209/. Cole, comedian, 202 /. Cole, Thomas, member General Col- ored Association, 36/. College Settlement, New York, 195. 484 INDEX Collins, Mayor Patrick A., w., 296. Colonizing of Negroes. (See "Libe- rian" plan.) Color aversion, analysis of in Negro's case, 408, 409-10. Colorado, 33/., 89. Colored National League, equal rights organization, 121. Colored Patriots of the Revolution, 450. "Colored people," the term, 164, 181. Columbia University, 173. Common, the Boston, monument to Crispus Attucks erected upon, 11; Robert Gould Shaw Memorial upon, 79; military salute from, following passage Thirteenth Amendment, 87; Negro loafers in, 316. Common Council, Boston, Negro mem- bers of, 102, 268, 270, 271. 272-73, 291, 300-01, 305; aboUtion of, 272, 276, 282, 283, 288, 305. Common Council, Cambridge, 274-76. Common Council, Everett, 275. Community, sense of, among Negroes, following the war, 85; present growth of, 216-17; necessity for, 432-34. Compromise of 1850, 60. Congregational, 192,242. Congress, 31, 51, 64, 68, 86, 87, 91, 92, 93. Connecticut, 89, 99, 138, 452. Consciousness of kind. (See Com- munity.) Constitutional Convention of 1780, Massachusetts, 8. Constitutional rights. (See Rights.) Constructive policy, in Negro prob- lem, first enunciation of, 115-118. Consuls, U.S., Negro, 99, 137/. Continental Congress, 13. Contradictions, in regard to Negro. (See Inconsistency.) "Copperhead " element, 74. Copps Hill Burying Ground, section reserved for Negro slaves and freed- men, 17/.; grave and monument of Prince Hall, 21. Cotton gin, effect on slavery situation, 32-33. Countess of Huntington, 19. Courant, Negro newspaper, 103/. Counsey, Robert F., property owner and landlord, autobiographical sketch, 388. Courtney, Dr. Samuel E., on School Board, 189; as a physician, 360/. Cowley Fathers, 239-40. (See Mis- sion Priests.) Cox, W. Alexander, officer Negro Busine.ss League, 394 /. Craft, Ellen and William, famous fugitive slaves, 61. Craft, Henry K., grandson of Ellen and William Craft, 61 /. Crawford, Joshua A., political leader, 292. Cricket clubs, 171. Criminality, in early years, 26-28; in Southern cities, 166; in recent years 219-21; in general, 403. Crowdy, William, "Prophet," 244-45, 247. Crum, W. D., collector of customs, and Minister to Liberia, 61 /. Cuffe, Paul and John, defendants in first test case on the right to vote, 23-24, 267. Cultural progress, pioneer Phillia Wheatley, the poetess, 19-21; dur- ing Abolition period, 83; following the war, 103-04; at present, 197- 203, 437-38. Custom House, 99, 303. Cuticura, 352, 354 /. Dalton, Thomas, member General Colored Association, 36 /. ; pioneer Negro business man, 452-53. Dana, Richard H., Jr., w., 62/. Danish colonies, 45, 170/. Dartmoor Prison, 16/. Dartmouth, 24. Death rate, 133-39; gradual decrease of, 156-57; in Southern cities, 166. (See Statistical Tables.) Debt, of Negro churches, 250-51 ; reduction of, 259-60. Declaration of Independence, 8, 11, 29, 39. Declaration of rights, Massachusetts, 8. Decorative arts, 201-02. De Grasse, J. V., early physician, 451. de Mortie, Louise, educator, 136 /. de Mortie, Mark, Abolitionist, 136/. 454. Democrats, of North, one of elements forming Republican party, 65; of South, displaced, 66; inviting atti- tude toward Negroes, following the war, 97-98; first city appointment of Negro, 103; significance of appoint- ment of James M. Trotter, 119-20; Edwin &. Walker's affiliation with, 120/.; in Ward 8, 269; advances to Negro, 279; in Ward 18, 281, 283; Negro Democrats and the new city charter, 289; recent gains from Negroes, 295-98; present Adminis- tration's attitude, 303. Delaware, 46/. De.siro, the, trading vessel which brought first Negroes to Boston, 1. Dewey, Henry S., w., 295/. Dickinson, Anna E., w., 70/. Discrimination, forbidden in school attendance, 84; extent of after the war, 94; movement to prohibit, 94- 96; in location of homes, 152-55; in public institutions, 189-90; refuta- tion of, in case of Theodore H. Ray- mond, 217-18; in church attend- ance, 233-38; in industry, 320-26, INDEX 485 351-57; in labor unions, 375-79; final analysis of, 399, 405-13; reduc- tion of, 421-27. Disease, early prevalence of, 26; in recent years, 133-34; in Southern cities, 164. District of Columbia, 3 1 , 40, 57, 99, 138. Disunion. (See Secession.) Douglass, Frederick, foremost Negro Abolitionist, 54-56; part of, in mass meeting to celebrate Emancipation Proclamation, 70; recruiting agent in Civil War, 73; attitude on disso- lution of anti-slavery societies, 88; general attitude of, later career, and death, 130; celebration of birth an- niversary by Negroes, 216; disap- proval of separate Negro churches, 226; writings of, 450. Downing, George T., Abolitionist, 454. Dred Scott decision, 66/. Drury, Theodore, opera producer, 210. DuBois, W. E. B., Negro leader of equal right agitation, and execu- tive officer of National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, 126-27. Duckery, Rev. Henry, office-holder in Cambridge, 300 /. Dunbar, Paul Lawrence, Negro poet, 204. Dunning, A. C, dentist, 170/. Dupree, William, federal appointee following the war, 99. Dutch, 4. Easton, Hosea, member General Colored Association, 36/. ; early Abo- litionist, 46/. Easton, Joshua, member General Colored Association, 36/. Eaton, Augusta P., w., 194. Eaton, Isabel, w., 195. Ebenezer Baptist, Negro church, 242/. Ebenezer Baptist (Maiden), Negro church, 242/. Eldridge and Peabody's, 352. Eliot, Dr. Charles W., w., 79. Elks, Order of, among Negroes, 209. Emancipation, in Massachusetts, 8; in Northern states, 9, 31; in area not covered by Proclamation, 86; Negro's fortune following, 406. Emancipation Act, British, 170. Emancipation Proclamation, in rela- tion to Abolition Movement, 41; preliminary announcement of, 69; _ celebration over issuing of, in Bos- * ton, 69-71; military situation when issued, 72; measure of military necessity, 72; significance of, to Negroes, 84; movement to secure fruits of, for Negroes, 85-87; hmi- tations of, 85-86; celebration of anniversary of, by Negroes, 216. Emancipator, the, 48 /. Emerson, Ralph Waldo, w., 69. Emigration, of Negroes from Boston, 136-39; future relation to Negro population of Boston, 155. (See Statistical Tables.) Emmanuel Church, 191, 230, 233. Emmanuel Memorial Parish House, 191-92. England, 7, 19, 21, 31, 32, 45, 52, 53. 56, 61/., 170/, 205/., 361/., 363/. English, 171, 205/., 4.54. English High School, 353, 361 /. Enlistment, of Negroes. (See Sol- diers.) Episcopalians, 169, 196, 229, 231, 233, 239, 241. Equal rights. (See Rights.) Escape, The, 57 f. Ethical standards, 218-23; of minis- ters and churches, 248-50, 255-56; in general, 401, 402, 403, 404, 419- 20. Ethiopia's Flight, 206-07. Europe, 52, 56, 135, 324, 363 /. Everett, 151, 242, 275, 290. Everett, Edward, w., 15. Expulsion of Negroes, attempted, 27-29. Extinction, tendency toward among Boston Negroes, 138. Faneuil Hall, 43, 49, 58-59, 61/., 64, 294. Federal Government, 8, 32, 34, 40, 66, 68, 69, 86, 98, 109, 334. Female Benevolent Firm, pioneer Negro organization, 452. Field, Father, w., 196/. Fifth of March, anniversary of Boston Massacre, 11. Fifth Massachusetts Cavalry, Negro regiment, 74, 76. Fifty-Fifth Massachusetts, Negro reg- iment, 74, 75, 76, 99. Fifty-fourth Massachusetts, most important Negro regiment in Civil War, organization of, 72-73 ; depart- ure from Boston, 73-74; refusal to accept pay as "laborers," 75; in assault upon Fort Wagner, 76-78; reception of on return to Boston, 78; memorial to, 79, 454. First Independent Baptist Church. (See African Meeting House.) First Kansas Colored Regiment, 72/. First Negroes brought to Boston, 1 ; to the Colonies, 4. First South Carolina, Negro regiment, 72/. Fitzgerald, John F., w., 296/. Florida, 108/., 455. Foraker, Senator, w., 294. Forbes, George W., editor of the Courant, 103 /. ; joint founder of the Guardian and attacker of Booker T. Washington, with W. M. Trotter, 122-25; leader in recent period, 456. 486 INDEX Force bills, 92-93. Foreign born Negroes. (See Immigra- tion.) Foresters, Order of, among Negroes, 209. Fort Sumter, 41, 67, 361 /. Fort Wagner, assault upon by Fifty- fourth Massactiusetts, Negro regi- ment, 76-79. Forten, Charlotte L., writer and educator, 136/. Foss, Governor Eugene N., w., 297/. Foster, Rev. Daniel, early school teacher, 448. Fourth of July, 11. Foxboro, 196. Framingham, 9/., 14. France, Mrs. Charlotte E., leader in organization of Negro women, 212/ Franchise. (See Vote.) Francis, Esther L., teacher in South, 137/ Franklin, Benjamin, w., 449. Fraternals, Negro organization, 209 /. Free Negroes, in early years, 7; in Revolution, 11-13; proportion of Negro population, 16-17; early immigration to Boston, 17; attitude of Garrison toward, 44-45; first annual convention of, 45/.; ap- pointment of Boston committee, 46; recipients of political offices fol- lowing the war, 98; Boston's earlier acquaintance with Negro limited to, 114. " Free persons of color," origin of term, 164. Free-Soilers, 65. " Freedom's Birthplace," Boston's initial right to this title, 9; con- firmed by results of Abolition Move- ment and Civil War, 80. Freedom's Journal, first Negro news- paper in United States, 36. Freeman's Bank, 15. French and Indian Wars, 16/. French Canadian, 389. French Colonies, 45. French Revolution, 45. Fugitives, The, in Europe, 67 /. Fugitive slaves, in Boston, 7, 57-65, 114, 136. Fugitive Slave Law, provisions and effect of, 60-61; virtual nullification of by Massachusetts, 65; relation to immigration of Negroes during Abolition period, 136. " Gag rule," 51. Gambling, 280. Gardner, Ehza, father's house used as shelter for runaway slaves, 57 /. ; part in organization of Negro wo- men, 212/.; activity since the war, 454. Garland, Dr. C. N., physician, 3G0/. Garrison, Francis Jackson, w., 71 /. Garrison, George T., w., 74. Garrison, William Lloyd, w., early career, 39; publication of the Liberator and launching of the Abolition Movement, 39-41; rela- tion to division in Abolitionist ranks, 41; advice to free Negroes, 44-45; connection with First Annual Convention of Free Colored People, 45/., 46; support from Negro's loyalty and devotion, 48; initiative in organizing the .American Anti- Slavery Society, 48; erection of gal- lows before hou.se by anti-Aboli- tionists, 49; in Boston " Mob," 50; at World's Anti-Slavery Conven- tion, 52-53; attitude on woman suffrage, 53; meeting and relation with Frederick Douglass, 54-56; at- tack upon Lincoln's attitude toward slavery after outbreak of Civil War, 68-69; cheered at meeting to cele- brate issuing of Emancipation Proc- lamation, 70; at presentation of colors to Fifty-fourth Massachu- setts, 73; his son in Civil War, 74; statement regarding Thirteenth Amendment, 87; attitude on disso- lution of anti-slavery societies, and later life, 88-89; attitude on giving Negro the franchise, 89-90; biogra- phy of, by Grimk6, 104; death of, 112; former residence used as Negro Home, 196; celebration of birth anniversary by Negroes, 216-17; disapproval of separate Negro churches, 226; sketch of Garrison's career preceding Abolition move- ment, 443-46 (details not indexed) ; petition for abolition of separate schools, 447; speaker at celebratory meeting, 449. Garrison, William Lloyd, The Story of his Life, Told by His Children, 446/. Gaskins, Nelson, on Common Council, 102/., Gaston, Hon. William A., w., 456. Gazette, the Boston, 9. General Colored Association of Massachusetts, 36, 47. Georgia, 38, 61, 108/., 110, 115, 116, 456. German, 325. Globe, the Boston, 359 /. Globe Theater, 94 /. Goddard, Julius, Republican office- holder, 290 /., 300 /. Gooch, Hon. D. W., w., 455. Goode, Jesse, business man, 393. Goode, Dunson and Henry, grocery firm, 369-70, 393. Goode Trust Company, or Jesse Goode Associates, business concern, 392— 93. Governor's Council, 283, 301. INDEX 487 Grady, Henry W., w., Southern ora- tor and editor, 110-11, 115, 117. G.A.R., Negro Post, 446 /. Grant, Dr. George F., dentist, 360/. Greater Boston, boundaries of, 139. Greeks, 324, 364. Greener, Richard Theodore, educator and consular officer, 136 /. Grimes, Rev. Leonard A., Abolition- ist, and post-bellum leader, 64 /., 452. Grinik6, Angelina and Sarah, w. 455. Grimk6, Archibald H., attorney in civil rights litigation, 95; appointed consul at Santo Domingo, 99; edi- tor of Negro newspaper, 103 /. ; author of biographies of Garrison and Sumner, 104; reference to brother, 136 /.; president Boston Literary and Historical Society, 203 /.; lawyer, 360; early history, 455. Grimk6, Francis James, minister and author, 136 /., 455. Grimk^, Judge John F., w., 455. Groves, Marjorie, teacher, 137 /. Guardian, the, Negro newspaper de- voted to equal rights agitation, es- tablishment of, 122; review of Zion Church affair in, 124-25; as factor in Negro community, 216; anti- Roosevelt-and-Taft agitation, 293; as a business enterprise, 369. Guinea coast, 4. Haiti, 45. Hale House, 192. Halifax, 388 /. Hall, Charles H., on Common Coun- cil, 102 /., 271 /. Hall, Primus, in Revolution, 14. Hall, Prince, founder of first Negro Masonic lodge, and early leader, 21; "Charge to the African Lodge," 26; further mention, 405. Hallowell, Col., w., 74. Hampton Institute, 115/. Harlow, Thomas, w., 62 /. Harper, Frances Ellen Watkins, Abo- litionist and author, 104, 450. Harriet Tubman W.C.T.U. Home, Negro institution, 207. Harris, Charles E., in Legislature, 101/.; on Common Council, 102/.; connection with civil rights statute, 103/ Harris, Gilbert C, wig manufacturer, 368; in Negro Business League, 394/ Harris, N. W. & Co., 349/. Harvard University, 122 /, 136 /, 189, 360, 453, 454, 455, 556. Hayden, Lewis, runaway slave and Abolitionist, house a favorite ren- dezvous, 57-58; part in rescue of Shadrach, 62/.; recruiting agent in Civil War, 73; almost only Negro office-holder before the war, 97; elected to Legislature, 101 ; death, 113; further mention, 268/.; 302/; petitioner for memorial to Attucks, 449; leadership, 453-54. Hayes, President, w., 109, 119. Hazel, William A., leader in recent period, 456. Heramings, Robert, artist, 202 /. Hendricks, Joseph, office-holder, 300/. Hibbard, George A., w., 296 /. Highway Commission, Cambridge, 300. Hill, Arthur D., w., 297 / Hilton, John T., soldier in Revolution, 14. Hilton, John T., member General Co- lored Association, 36 /. ; Abolition- ist, 449. Historical Building, 390/ History, of Negro in America, cele- bration of, 216-17; necessity for building up of, 432-33. Hodges, M. Hamilton, singer, in Aus- tralia, 138/. Hogan, Ernest, comedian, 202 /. Holbruok, Wellington, w., 153 /. Home, The Negro. {See Living condi- tions.) Home for Aged Colored Women, 196. Hope Chapel, 192, 193. Hotels, Negro, 149, 365. House of Correction, 248. House of Falling Leaves, The, 206 /. Housing. (See Living conditions.) Houston, Joseph W., clerk in post- office, 303. Hoyt, Stewart, office-holder, 300 /. Howard, Peter, Negro barber whose shop was an Abolitionist rendez- vous, 57. Howe, Julia Ward, w., 217. Howell, Clark, w., 117. Hub, the, Negro n wspaper, 103 /. Hull House, 195. Hunt, A. H., physician, 170/ Hutchins, Basil F., undertaker, 370. Hyde Park, 455. Illinois, 31 /, 138. Immigrants, European, displacement of Negroes in lower occupations, 324-25; forcing of Negroes into higher occupations, 356. Immigration, Negro, to Boston, in early days, 17; early objection to, 26-27; relation to reaction of senti- ment toward Negro, 113-14; refu- gees from "Black Laws," 136 /.; since the war, 140-42; urban and suburban distribution, 150-51 ; future relation to Boston's Negro population, 155; immigrants from South, 165-66; from West Indies, 169-71; from Canada, 171-72; from Africa, 172-73; problem of assimila- 488 INDEX tion, 174; Roman Catholics, 229; Episcopalians, 232; immigrants in Negro churches, 243-44; in relation to political conditions, 277-78, 281, 285, 292-93; in industry, 313-14, 328-29; in relation to Negro prob- lem, 407. (.See Statistical Tables.) Immorality. (.See Ethical standards.) Indiana, 31 /. Indians, 2-3, 3-4, 164, 409, 454. Independence League, 295. Independent, the, 173 /. Inconsistency, between Puritan ideals and Negro slavery, 2; between War for Independence and enlistment of Negroes as soldiers, 11-12; between principles of freedom and persecu- tion of Negroes, 29: between Dec- laration of Independence and post- ponement of Negro's emancipation, 39-40; between Northern with- drawal from Reconstruction, and Negro's constitutional rights. 111. Industrial and economic conditions, in early days, 18; beginnings of pro- gress, 18-19; advance during Abo- lition period, 82-83; development of resources urged by Booker T. Washington, 116-18; hardships of, 133; basic nature of, 308-10; Ne- gro's present backwardness, 311- 20; historical review, 326-27; recent and present advance, 327-31 ; anal- ysis of census classifications, 331- 33; lowest industrial group, 333-43; intermediate group, 343-57 ; highest group, 357-72; general progress, 372-97. Industrial education, contemplated by Abolitionists, 43; implicit advo- cacy of in Booker T. Washington's Atlanta address, 118; general in- dorsement of, 130; in Liberia, 138/.; in Boston,314-15, 379-82; underly- ing significance of, 431-32. Infant deaths, 133. Inferior development of Negro, 399- 412; progress in relation to, 413-21. Institute of Technology, 137 /. Institutions, Negro, virtual absence of in Boston, 207. Institutions, public, accessibility to Negroes, 189. Intermarriage, of Negroes and Indi- ans, 3-4; of American and West Indian Negroes, 171; of fugitive slaves and Canadian women, 171 /. Intermixture, of Negro and Caucas- ian strains, 179, 182-83. Inter-residence, of Negroes and whites, 151-.55, 178-79, 181, 386, 434. Iowa, 33 /. Ipswich, 4.50. Irish, 145, 146, 148, 281. Iriih People, Address from the, 53-54. Israel 224 Italians, 147, 148, 324, 382. Jackson, Francis, w., 447._ Jackson, John T., and family, as exem- plifying Negro's use of public schools, 185 /. James, slave plaintiff in early suit for manumission, 6. Jamestown, Va., 4 /. Japanese, 324, 410. Jeremiah, Book of, 69. Jesus Christ, 233, 247. Jewell, Harvey, w., 454. Jewell, Arthur, office-holder in Cam- bridge, 300 /. Jews, 144-45, 146-47, 148, 224, 361 /. " Jim-Crowism," 234. Johnson, comedian, 202 /. Johnson, President, w., 91-92. Joy Street Church. (See African Mee ting-House.) Kansas, 33 /., 64, 455. Kansas-Nebraska Act, 64. Kansas Relief Association, 455. Kenmore, Edwin, teacher, 137 /. Kentucky, 56 /., 58. Kimball Union Academy, 455. Knights of Pythias, among Negroes, 209. Kroo tribe, 173 /. "Ku-Klux Clan," 92-93, 108. Labor, American Federation of, 377. Labor, Bureau of Statistics of, 302 /., 375. Labor unions, as regards Negroes, 322, 323, 373-79. Lake Erie, 56 /. Lane, W. C, office-holder in Cam- bridge, 102 /., 300/.; leader in re- cent period, 455. Latimer, George, famous fugitive slave, 58-59. Latimer, George, lawyer, 170 /. Leader, the Boston, Negro newspaper, 103 /. Leaders, Negro, during Abolition pe- riod and after the war, 84 ; ex- tinction or dispersion of families of "Old Guard," 138-39; among the middle class, 179; among upper class, 182; present advocacy of coop- eration, 216; in the Negro Church, 264; passing of older group, 278; disabilities of later aspirant.s, 278- 79; in Ward 18, 280-83, 292; in Ward 10, 291-92; in politics gener- ally, 306-307; in relation to racial progress, 434. Leattimore, Andrew B., in legislature, 101 /; on Common Council, 102 /. Lee, Joseph, innkeeper, 368. Lee, Joseph H., in Mexico, 138/. Legislature, Negroes in, etc., 99-101, 26S, 270, 272, 274, 275, 276, 282, 292, 301, 302/., 448, 451. Lenox, John M., office-holder follow- ing the war, 99. INDEX 489 Lew family, the, in Revolution, 14; in French and Indian Wars, 16 /. Lew, James A., on Cambridge School Committee, 189. Lewis, Eva, clerk in State House, 302 /. Lewis, Dr. Henry, on State Veterinary Board, 302 /. Lewis, J. H., tailor, 267-68. Lewis, Walker, member General Col- ored Association, 36 /. Lewis, William H., in civil rights leg- islation, 95; in legislature, 101 /., 275; attitude on Negro question, 128-29; prominence in community affairs, 217; on Cambridge Com- mon Council, 275; last Negro in Legislature, 275; high appoint- ments by President Taft, 295 /. ; Asst. U.S. District Attorney, 302; Asst. U.S. Attorney-General, 302- 03; lawyer, 360; early life, 456. Liberator, the. Abolitionist paper, first number of, 39; last number, 88. {^See Abolition, and Garrison.) Liberia, 37, 61/., 138/., 172, 173/. "Liberian," or colonizing plan, con- demnation of by David Walker, 37; by Garrison, 45; discussed in Negro church, 257. Liberties, Massachusetts Body of, 5-6, 24, 267. Library Association, the Adelphic, mixed organization, 83, 449-50. Library, the Pubhc, 189-90, 456. Licenses, Board of, Cambridge, 300; Boston, 365 /. Lincoln, President, w., his Emancipa- tion Proclamation as related to .abo- lition Movement, 41; his call for troops, 67; efforts to stop the war, 67-68 ; slavery attitude attacked by Abolitionists, 68-69; preliminary announcement of Proclamation, 69; cheered at celebratory meeting, 70; name in text of Proclamation, 70; attitude toward re-admitting Louisiana, 89; celebration of birth anniversary, by Negroes, 216. Lincoln University, 455. Liquor selling, 272, 280. Literary societies, 171, 203-04. Literary and Historical Society, The Boston, Negro organization, 203-04. Living conditions and districts, of Negroes in Boston, in earliest days, 17; .shifting from North End to West End, 17, 22; influx to latter section after the war, 85, 102; shift- ing to South End and Roxbury in recent years, 143-49; gradual im- provement of conditions, 157; in re- lation to social gradations, 174-85; with reference to Negroes' general progress, 417. Livingstone College, Negro institu- tion, 137/ Lodge, Senator, w., 297. Lodges and beneficial societies, Negro, first in Boston, 21; increase during Abolition period, 83; present extent and work of, 207-09; property owned by, 392; historical develop- ment of, 452. London, 19, 52, 205 /. Loring, Ellis Gray, w., 450. Los Angeles Times, 206 /. Louisiana, 33 /, 34 /, 89, 90 /., 108 /, 136/ Louisiana Native Guards, Negro regi- ment, 72/, 120. Louisiana Purchase, 33-35. Love and Charity, Negro order of, 208, 452. Lovett, William C, salesman, 352/.; officer of Negro Business League, 394. Lowell, w., poem "To W. L. Garris- son," 42. "Lower Broadway," the Negro, 149. Lowther, George W., in Legislature, 101/ Lyman, Theodore, w., 28-29, 49, 50. Lynn, 201 /, 383. Lyrics of Life and Love, 206 /. Madagascar, 4, 5. Madeiras, The, 4. Madison, J. H., officer Negro Busi- ness League, 394 /. Maine, 450. Maiden, 151, 211, 242, 354 / Manumission. (See Emancipation.) Margetson, George Reginald, poet, 206-07. Marriage rate, 135. (See Statistical Tables.) Marshall, Napoleon Bonaparte, office- holder, 300 / Masons, Negro, first lodge, 21 ; Prince Hall's "Charge," 23; Lewis Hay- den's writings, 454. (See Lodges.) Martin, Rev. John Sella, at Tremont Temple, 452. Maryland, 31, 46/, 54, 86, 162. Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, 88. Massachusetts Mercury, 27. Matthews, W. Clarence, athletic di- rector in public schools, 189. McClane, Rev. Walter D., 240. McCurdy, T. E. A., physician, 170/. McKane, Cornelius, physician, 173. McKim, Charles F., w., 79. McKinley, President, w., 121. Mecca, of Negroes, 166, 361 /. Medford, 151, 242. Melrose, 300 / Menial service. (See Servants.) ilenticulturists, Negro literary soci- ety, 203. Merchants Association, of Boston, 110-11. Methodist, 46 /, 170, 192, 241, 242, 243, 256, 452. 490 INDEX Metropolitan district, boundaries of, 139. Mexico, 51, 60/., 138/. Michigan, 31 /, 3SS /. iVIigratorineas, of Negro, 137. Militia, Negro company, 275 /. Ministers. (See Church.) Minnesota, 31 /., 33 /. Mission Priests of St. John the Evan- gehst, 196-97, 232, 239-iO. Missions, among Negroes, 196, 225, 238-41, 248, 263. Mississippi, 72, 107, 108 /., 423, 456. Missouri, 33, 34-36, 49, 86. Missouri Compromise, 34-36, 38. Mitchell, Charles L., federal appoint- ment, 97; in Legislature, 100; fur- ther mention, 359 /. Mitchell, Mrs. Nellie Brown, music teacher, 359 /. Martians, hypothetical visit of, 409. "Mob," the Boston, 49-50. Montana, 33 /. Montgomery Advertiser, 124. Montreal, 388 /., 389. Monumental Bank, of Charlestown, 15. Morality. (See Ethical standards.) Moran, John B., w., 295 /. Morgan, Clement G., elected to ofEce in Cambridge, 274-75, 300 /. ; law- yer, 360; early history, 456. Morgan Memorial, 192. Morning Star Baptist, Negro church, 242/. Morris, Emery, office-holder in Cam- bridge, 300 /. ; leader in recent period, 456. Morris, Robert, part in rescue of Shadrach, 61-62; counsel in school case, 448; pioneer Negro attorney. 450-51; reference to nephew, 456. Morrison, Mrs. Minnie C, w., 153 /. Mortality. (See Death rate.) Morton, Judge, w., 153/. Mosefi, a Story of the Nile, 104. Mt. Olive Baptist, Negro church, 242. Mt. Zion Baptist, Negro Church, 242/. Music, 104, 359, 437-38. Music and Some Highly Musical People, 104. Music Hall, the old, 69. My Southern Home, 104. Myrtle Avenue Baptist, Negro church, 242 /. Names, of Negroes, as indicating sta- tu.s in early days, 25; as showing derivation, 25 /. Nantucket, 54. Narrative of my Experience in Slavery, by Frederick Douglass, 56. Narrative of W. W. Brown, a Fugitive Sl.irr. 5(). National Association for the Adv.ance- nient of Colored People, 126-27. National Association of Colored Wo- men, 210-11. National Federation of Afro-Ameri- can Women, 210. National Independent Political League, Negro equal rights organi- zation, 126. National Shawmut Bank, 349 /., 353 /. Nativity, 'of Negroes in Boston, 14()- 42; conditions accon'panying, 165— 74. (See Statistical Tables.) Naturalization Bureau, 302. Navy, Ncgroesin.duringCivilWar, 75. Nebraska, 33/, 64. "Negro," the term, Negro's shrinking from, 163-64; tabooed by "Smart Set," 181; objected to by upper class, 182; necessity for pride in, 434. Negro, the, in the American Rebellion, 104. Negro problem, or question. (See Problem.) Negro-school abolition party, 448. Negro Year-Book, 394 /. Nell, William C, part in abolition of separate schools, 447, 449; peti- tioner for memorial to Attucks, 449; writings, 450; reference to property ownership, 453. Nell, William G., member General Colored Association, 36 /. ; tailor, and father of William C. Nell, 447. New Brunswick, 171. New Bedford, 54. New England Anti-Slavery Society, 42-43, 47, 71. New England Conservatory of Music, 137/. New England Federation of Women, Negro organization, 210. New England Suffrage League, Negro equal rights organization, 126. "New Guinea," early name for Negro section, 17. New Hampshire, 455, 456. New Hampshire State College, 455. New Jersey, i98, 451, 455. New Thought, 228. New Year's Day, 1863, in Boston, 69- 71. New York City, 36 /., 48 /., 210. New York State, 4, 46 /., 138. New York Evening Post, 71 /. New York Herald, 117 f. New York Tribune, 78 /. Newspapers, Negro, Freedom's Jour- nal, the earliest, .'56; after the war, 103-04; as reflecting Negro life, 199; as furthering sense of commun- ity, 216; number in U.S., 216. Newspaper reporters, Negro, 359. Newton, 151, 242. Newton, Osborn A., on Common Council, 271 /. Niagara Movement, Negro equal rights agitation, 126. INDEX 491 Noddle's Island, 1 /. Normal Art School, 137 /. North Carolina, 38, 108/., 141, 205/., 209/, 352/, -149, 455. North Carolina, Sons of, Negro organ- ization, 209 / North Dakota, 33 /. Northeastern, the, publication of Ne- gro women, 210, 211. Northeastern Federation of Women's Clubs, Negro organization, 210-11. North End, 17, 172, 446, 447. Northwest Ordinance, 31. Northwest Territory, 31, 34. Nova Scotia, 171. Occupations. (See Industrial condi- tions.) Odd Fellows, Negro, 208, 392, 452. Office, public. (See Politics.) Ohio, 31 /, 99, 129, 294. 388/. Oklahoma, 33 /, 34 / Old Home Week, 212. Old North Church, 21, 225. Old South Church, the New, 192. Old South Meeting-House, 20, 225. Old State House, 50. Ontario, 171. Opera, presented by Negroes, 201. Oratory, 202-03, 438. Organization, among Negroes, begin- nings of, 21-24; for anti-slavery agitation, 36, 46-47; general devel- opment during Abolition period, 82-83; transfer of headquarters to South End in recent years, 146; in present social advance, 197-223; in the church, 282-64; in politics, 278-83; 289-307; in business, 391- 94; generally, in racial progress, 432-34, 440-41. Otis, Mayor Harrison Gray, w., 42. Painting, 201-02. Paris, 202. Parker, Theodore, w., 62 /. Parker Memorial, 192, 393 / Pasco, Louis, bank clerk, 349 /. Patrick, Dr. Thomas W., pharmacist, 360/ Paul, Rev. Thomas, early Abolition- ist, 46/, 452. Paupers. (See Poverty.) Pelletier, Jo.seph C, w., 297/. Pennsvlvania, 46 /., 138. "People's" ticket, 29.5, Personal Uberty acts, 59-60, 65. Peters, "Dr.," husband of Phillis Wheatley, 19. Pharmacy, Massachusetts College of, Philadelphia, 45/, 46, 48, 61 /, 136/. Phi Beta Kappa, 122/. Phillips, Wendell, the Abolitionist, letter describing conditions, 62-63; leading orator, 68; at presentation of colors to Fifty-fourth, 73; oppo- sition to Garrison's position, and subsequent leadership, S8-89; death, 112; petitioner for abohtion of sep- arate schools, 447; speaker at cele- bratory meeting, 449. Physical conditions, among Negroes, 133-57. Pickens, Prof. WilUam, educator, 252. Pillsbury, Parker, w., 55. Pinheiro, Don T., dentist, 170 /. Pitcairn, Major, 14, 15. Pitts, Coffin, member General Co- lored Association, 36 /. Plummer, "Elder," preacher, 245, 247. Plummer, William H., leader follow- ing the war, 455. Poems, 104. Poems, Miscellaneous, 450. Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, by PhilUs Wheatley, 19. Poetry, 19, 104, 204-07, 342, 438, 450. Pohsh people, 45, 224, 282. Political rights. (See Rights.) PoUtics, Negro in, before the war, 97; following the war, 97-108; recently and at present, 266-307; relation to his general progress, 417-18, 428- 29, 435-36. Poor whites, 86 /. Pope, James W., on Common Council, 102/ Population, Negro, increase of, in early years, 16-17; during Abolition period and war, 85; since the war, 139-40. (See Statistical Tables.) Portuguese, 172. Portuguese Colonies, 45, 170/ Postoffice, Negroes in, 99, 167/., 303. Potter, Warren B., w., 353 /. Potter Drug and Chemical Corpora- tion, 354 /. Poverty, in early years, 26-28 ; at pres- ent, 213-14. (See Statistical Tables.) Prescott, General, w., 15. Pride. (See Race pride.) Priests, 2.30, 233, 238. Prince Hall Grand Lodge, Negro Masons, 21, 24, 452. Probate Court Building, 390 /. Problem , the Negro, in early days, 24— 29; as affected by Abolition Move- ment, 30; in relation to slavery, 30-36; as expressed in Walker's Appeal, 36-38; in connection with "free persons of color," 44-45; in anti-slavery societies, 47^8; imme- diately following the war, 81-82; as respects equal rights in nation, 85- 93; with regard to civil rights in Massachusetts, 93-96; as affected by the reaction of recent years, 106- 32; as to racial perpetuation, 133, 155-57; as to residence among whites, 143, 152-55; as expre.ssed in Ethiopia's Flight, 206-07 ; as perme- ating Negro's life, 215-16; in social 492 INDEX organization and ethical advance, 158-85, 218-23; in association with whites, 189, 190, 192-93; 217-18; in religious organization, 224-25, 263-05; in attendance at white churches, 226-38; in the poUtical field, 266-67, 276-84, 304-07; in industry, 308-26, 351, 353-57, 373- 97; final analysis of, 398-441. Progress of Negro, general summary of , 414-21 ; inter-relation with equal rights, 428-32; in nation, 439-41. Progressive Party, 298 /. Property ownersliip, in early days, 19, 83, 453; at present, 341, 354 /., 369, 382-91. Prospect Union, 187, 218. Protestant, 233. Providence, Bahamas, 1. Provinces, the, 171. Provincial Congress, 12. Pullman porters, 149, 317, 337, 340, 388/. Puritans, 2, 39-40. Putnam, George, petition for aboli- tion of separate schools, 447. Putnam, General, w., 15. Quakers, 30-31, 35-36, 56 /. Quebec, 171, 388. Quincy, Mayor, 390/. Race pride, earliest manifestation of, 83; Negro's lack of, 163; present signs and beginnings of, 217; neces- sity for, 432-34. Racial hostiUty, 408-09, 410. Ransom, Rev. Reverdy C., as an ora- tor, 203 /. Raymond, Rev. John T., minister of Abolition days, 452. Raymond, Theodore H., civic promi- nence in Cambridge, 217-18; re- markable business record, 370; ownership of property, 387 /. Reaction, in attitude of whites toward Negro, 106-32. Real estate. (See Property.) Readville, 73, 74. Reconstruction, passage and effect of Acts, 91-92, 106-09; Northern with- drawal from, 111-12; relation to Negro's disaffection with Repub- lican party, 293; Negro's conduct under, 406. Redistricting of Boston, effect on Negro's political fortunes, 269-70, 276, 283. Reed, Miss F. Marion, valedictorian of class, 187 /. Reed, William L., in Legislature, 101/., 270; deputy tax collector, 300/.; messenger to Governor and Coun- cil, 301. Regiments, Negro. (See Soldiers.) Religious conditions. (See Church.) Remond, Charlea Lenox, first Negro Abolitionist to take lecture plat- form, 47; in British Isles, 53; bearer of Address from the Irish People, 53-54; in Latimer case, 58; recruit- ing agent in Civil War, 73 ; attitude on dissolution of anti-slavery socie- ties, 88; political appointments, 99; death, 113 ; petitioner for Attucks memorial, 449; activity following the war, 453. Repression, political, of Negro in South, 108. Republican party, in relation to Ne- gro, 65-66, 86, 91, 97-98, 102, 109, 119-21, 269, 271-72, 273-74, 279, 281, 289, 290-91, 293-98, 307. Revolution, as giving death-blow to slavery in IVIassachusetts, 9, 31; Negro's share in events preceding, 9-11; his part in the war, 11-16; as compared with his share in Civil War, 80. Rhode Island, 138, 304 /., 451 /., 454. Richmond, Va., 57, 141, 208, 454. Ridley, Ulysses S., tailor, 368. Rights of man, 9, 31. Rights and privileges, of Negro, in • early days, as to school attendance and franchise, 22-24 ; of free Negroes before the war, 45 ; enactment of constitutional rights after the war, in nation, 85-93; civil rights in Massachusetts, 93-96; Northern reaction concerning, 109-15; atti- tude of Booker T. Washington con- cerning, 115-18; counter-agitation among Negroes, 118-32; division among Negroes regarding, 203, 278; protest against Republican deser- tion of, 293; historical review, 414; relation to Negro's general pro- gress, 428-30. Rising Son, The, 104. Robert Gould Shaw House, 193-95, 433/. Robert Gould Shaw Memorial, 79, 454. Roberts, Benjamin F., plaintiff in separate school case, 448. Roberts, Dr. Isaac L., on Common Council, 271 /. Roberts, Robert, early Abolitionist, 46 /. Roberts, Sarah, minor concerned in separate school case, 448. Robinson, Alexander, office-holder, 302/. Robinson, David R., on Common Council, 271 /. Rochester, N.Y., 130/., 226. Rock, John S., Abolitionist, speaker at celebration of Emancipation Procla- mation, 70; recruiting agent in Civil War, 73; lawyer and physician, 451 ; dentist, 453. Roman CathoHcs, 169, 172, 197, 224. 229, 230, 232, 233, 238, 239, 262. Roman Empire, 253. INDEX 493 Roosevelt, President, w., 61 /., 293- 95, 297, 298 /. Roxbury, 15, 145, 196, 273, 280. RufBn, George L., lawyer, in Legis- lature, 100-01; appointed a judge, 101; onCommonCouncil, 102/.; fur- ther mention, 120/.; 209-10, 454. RufEn, Mrs. George L., editor, 103 /. ; leader in organization of Negro women, 209-10; activity following the war, 454-55. Ruffin, Stanley, on Common Council, 270/, 402/. Runaway slaves. (See Fugitive slaves.) Rush A. M. E., Negro Church, 242 /. Russian-Japanese War, 137 /. St. Augustine's Mission, 196, 196 /., 239. St. Bartholomew's, Negro Episcopal Church, 235, 240-41. St. Domingo, 99. St. Domingo, by William Wells Brown, 57. Saint-Gaudens, w., 79. St. John's Baptist, Negro church, 242/. St. John the Evangelist, Church of, 172. St. Luke, Negro order of, 208. St. Margaret Sisters, 196. St. Mark Congregational Church (Negro), 203, 241/ St. Mark Musical and Literary Union, Negro organization, 203-04. St. Martin's Mission, 196, 239. St. Michael's Misson, 239. St. Monica's Home, 196, 211. St. Patrick's Negro Catholic Mission, 238-39 St. PaulA. M. E., Negro Church, 242/. St. Paul's Baptist, Negro Church, 241. (See African Meeting House.) St. Peter's Church, 234-35. St. Stephen's Baptist, Negro church, 242/. Salem, 450. Salem, Peter, heroism at Bunker Hill, 14-15. Savage, Henry W., w., 369. Scarlett, John E., member General Colored Association, 36 /. Schenck, John W., office-holder, 302/ School attendance, of Negroes, at first in general public schools, 22; Negro private school, 21-22; separate city schools, 23; abolition of separate schools, 83-84: present school at- tendance, 185-90; Negro teachers and officials, 188-89; in relation to Negro's political status, 28.5-86; general mention, 360; as factor in Negro's progress, 429; history of final admission of Negroes to public schools, 446-49; text of present law, 448. Scotland, 53. Sculpture. 201-02. Seavers, Richard, in War of 1812, 16 /. Secession and disunion, 35, 49, 65-66. Segregation, of Negro, in semi-public institutions, 193; present tendency toward, 407. (See Discrimination.) Self-reliance, Negro's philosophy of, 414-16. Selling of Joseph, The, 6. Sentiment, Northern, for Negro fol- lowing Civil War, 81-82; reaction in, 106-32. Servants, Negroes as, first mention of, 1 / ; early use of term servant, 5; effect of abolition of slavery in Massachusetts, 18; Negro regarded as ordained serving-man, 25; men- ial characteristics, 161; large pro- portion of Negroes in menial serv- ice, 311-12; 313, 317; Negro's loss of ground in, 324-25; progress through, 327-29; conditions sur- rounding, 336-43; in relation to labor unions, 373-74. Shadrach, famous fugitive slave, 61- 62. Shaw, Chief Justice, w., 8. Shaw, Francis G., w., 72-73. Shaw, Rev. M. A. N., from West Indies, 170/. Shaw, Mrs. Quincy A., w., 190-91. Shaw, Col. Robert Gould, appoint- ment to command Fifty-fourth Massachusetts, Negro regiment, 72; heroism at Fort Wagner, and death, 76-78; memorial to, 79, 454. Shiloh Baptist, Negro church, 242 /. Services of Colored Americans, 450. Sexual laxity, 221-22, 248-50, 255- 56, 403. Seventh Day Adventist, Negro church, 242. Sewall, Judge Samuel, w., 6. Simms, S. William, on Common Coun- cil, 271 /. Skilled workmen, Negro, in early days, 19; in Abolition period, 82; at present, 347-48; in relation to labor unions, 373-74; property ownership among, 387; as factor in Negro's general progress, 432. Slack, Charles W., w., 70/., 449. Slave galleries, 21, 225. Slave ship, first one fitted out in colo- nies, 4. Slave trade, rise and decline in Mass- achusetts, 4-5; abolition of, 8, 27. Slavery, of first Negroes in Boston, 1; in contradiction of Puritan ideals, 2; of Indians, before Negroes, 2-3; humane treatment of slaves in Massachusetts, 5; rise of anti-slav- ery sentiment, 6-7; slavery's eradi- cation in Massachusetts, 7-9; effect of slavery on Negro's character, 160-61; on hia religious life, 253; his 494 INDEX degradation under, 400; prejudicial heritage of, 422. Slavs. 433. Smalls, Gen. Robert, in discrimina- tion case, 95 S- "Smart Set." the Negro, 179-80, 227. Smith, Abrel, w., 447. Smith, Blanche V., school teacher, 188/. Smith, Clarence J., office-holder, 302/. Smith, Eleanora A., school teacher, 188/. Smith, Mrs. Hannah C, leader in organization of Negro women, 212/. Smith, Harriet L., school teacher, 188 /. Smith, John J., Negro whose barber shop was an Abolitionist rendez- vous, 57; in Legislature, 100; on Common Council, 102 /.; further mention, 188 /. Smith, Joshua B., abolitionist, in Leg- islature, 101; petitioner for Attucks' memorial, 449; caterer, 453; activ- ity following the war, 454. Smith, Mary E., school teacher, 188/ Smith School, for Negroes, erection of, 446; attempt to break up, 448; reminiscence of, 449. Snowden, Rev. Samuel, early Aboli- tionist, 46 /. Social gradations, 174-85. Social service, 209-12; 260-61. Sojourner Truth Club, Negro women's organization, 211-12 Soldiers, Negroes as, in the Revolu- tion, 12-16; in French and Indian Wars, and War of 1812, 16 /; first Negro regiments in Civil War, 72 /. ; Negro's vital part in the war, 71-80; emigration of soldiers from Boston, 136; in militia, 275/.; tin "Browns- ville affair," 293-95. Somersett case, 6-7, 8. Somerville, 151. Sonysi of Life, 206. South America, 173 /. South Carohna, 66, 95/, 137/., 455. South Dakota, 33 /. South End, 99 /, 145-48, 192, 196 /., 229, 231, 250, 262, 271, 273, 276, 280. South End House, 194, 202. South Shore, 368. Southern Europeans, 409. Spaniards, 172. Sparrow, Mrs. Arianna C, leader after the war, 454. Sparrow, W. S., tailor, 368. Spiritualism, 228. S(iuantum, 368. Stamina, Negro's lack of, 404-05; progress in acquiring, 419-20. Standard of living, 135. (See Living condition.s.) Stars and Stripes, the, 67. State House, 301, 345, 349. Stevenson, William, on Cambridge Common Council, 102 /. Still, James, leader following the war, 455. Storey, Moorfield, w., 126. Storrow, James J., w., 296/. Street, H. Gordon, editor, 103 /.; leader following the war, 455. Stubbs, Julian, office-holder, 302 /. Suburbs, increase of Negroes in, 149- 51; distribution of latter among whites, 152; Negro churches in, 242; poUtical conditions, 273-75; Negro business places, 371. (See also par- ticular suburbs.) Sumner, Charles, w.. Senator and Abohtionist, friendsliip for John J. Smith, 57; in rescue of Shadrach, 162 /. ; biography by Archibald H. Grimk6, 104; subject of declama- tion by Negro schoolboy, 188; attor- ney in separate school case, 448. Sunday School, 230-31, 232, 234, 258-59. Supreme Court, 94, 153 /., 448. Synagogues, Negro churches made into, 145; made into Negro churches, 147. Swedenborgianism, 228. Swedes, 146, 325. Taft, President, w., 293-95. Taxation Act, 10. Teachers, Negro, going from Boston to South, 136-37; in Boston schoola 188-89; in general, 359-60. Teamoh, Robert T., in Legislature, 101 /. ; connection with civil rights statute, 103/.; newspaper reporter, 359/. Tennessee, 108 /. Teutons, 433. Texas, 51, 108/. Theaters, 94. Thirteenth Amendment, passage of, 87; relation to dissolution of anti- slavery societies, 88. Thompson, George, w., 49, 50. Three Years in Europe, 56 /. Trade School for Girls, the Boston, 379 381 "Tragedy of color," the, 182-83. Transcri/it, the Boston, 153 /., 445. Tremont Temple, 67, 09-71, 452. Trinity Church, 196. Trotter, James M., political ap- pointee following the war, 99; au- thor, 103; withdrawal from Repub- lican party, 119; appointment by President Cleveland, 119. Trotter, William Munroe, son of James M. Trotter, founding of the Guardian and launching of attack upon Booker T. Washington by, 122-25; leader in equal rights agita- tion, 125-26; president of Boston Literary and Historical Society, INDEX 495 [ 203 /.; part in anti-Roosevelt-and- Taft agitation, 293-95; business man, 369. True Reformers, Negro organization, 208. Trumbull, Colonel, w., 15. Twe, Dihdwo, native Liberian stu- dent, in Boston, 173 /. Twelfth Baptist Church (Negro), ministers, 64 /., 170/.; founding of, 241; in Abolition days, 452. Twentieth Century Club, 124. Twenty-fifth U.S. Infantry, Negro regiment in "Brownsville aflfair," 293. Tuberculosis, Negro's susceptibility to, 134. Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, reference to, 62 /. ; found- ing of, by Booker T. Washington, 115-16; type of education repre- sented by, 118; native Africans attending, 173 /. ; research and re- cord department, 394 /. Uncle Tom's Cabin, 454. Underground Railway, 57, 171, 452. Union, the, 30, 40, 49, 66-67, 68, 71, 72, 80, 84, 85-87. Union Baptist, Negro church, 242 /. Union Baptist (Maiden), Negro church, 242 /. Unions. {See Labor unions.) Unitarians, Negro church, 241. United Daughters of Zion, pioneer Negro women's organization, 4.52. Unity Club, Negro organization, 209 /. University of South Carolina, 137 /. Upton, the, Negro Hotel, 365. Venality, of Negro voters, 286-88. Veterans, Negro, 84. Veterinary Physicians, Board of, 301. Virginia, 4 /., 31, 38, 46 /., 58, 108 /., 115,116/., 120, 138, 141,162,368, 452, 454, 455, 456. Vitality, Negro's deficiency in, 133. Vladivostok, 137 /. Vote, Negro's first establishment of right to, 23-24; free Negroes urged by Garrison to use, 45; bestow- ment upon Negro following the war, 86-93 ; general queries concern- ing, 266-67; interference of Negro's occupations with, 278; increase and enhanced qualifications of Negro voters, 284-86; venaUty, 286-88; effect of new city charter, 288-89; in ward 18, 281-83, 292; recent in- dependence of Negro voters, 295- 98; their increased strength, 306- 07 ; vital relation of vote to Negro's progress, 428-29. Waiters' Alliance, Boston Colored, 377. Waiters' Association, 209 /. Wales. 53. Walker, comedian, 202 /. Walker, David, forerunner of Aboli- tion Movement, address on anti- slavery, 36; his "Appeal," 36-38; death, 38; previous history, 38 /. ; further mention, 405-51. Walker, Edwin G., son of David Walker, in Legislature, 100; consid- ered for judgeship, 120 /. ; admis- sion to bar, 451. Walker, Walter F., in Liberia, 138/. Walker's Appeal, publication and effect of, 36-38; factor in national organization of free Negroes, 46; further mention, 100. War of 1812, Negro's part in, 16 /. Warren, Gen. Joseph, w., 15. Washington, D.C., 68, 70 /., 136/., 130 /, 162, 302. Washington, Booker T., early career, 115 /.; Atlanta address, 115-18; attacked by equal rights agitators, 121-25; general endorsement of his policies, 127-32; division among Negroes concerning, 203, 278; founding of Bu.sines3 League, 393; voicing of philosophy of self-reli- ancy, 415-16, 4.33. Washington, George, attitude toward enlisting Negroes in Revolution, 12-15 ; Primus Hall incident, 14; honor conferred upon Peter Salem, 15. Washington, Mrs. S. I. N., daughter of Negro AboUtionist, 454. Washington National League, organ- ization of Negro women, 210. Washington Post, 124. Watkins, William J., early lawyer, 451. Webster, Daniel, w., 11. Weeks and Potter Co., 353 /. Weld, Theodore D., w., 455. Wells Memorial, 187, 380. Wendell Phillips Club, equal rights organization of both races, 121. West End, 17, 22, 57, 58 /., 85, 102, 143-45, 196, 196 /., 231, 239, 2.50, ^62, 268, 269, 271, 273, 276, 290, 305, 366, 389/., 392, 453, 456. West Indians, 169-71. West Indies, 4, 90 /., 142, 170, 173, 229, 232, 277, 281, 455. Wheatley, Phillis, early Negro poetess, 19-21 ; member of Old South congre- gation, 225; voicing of Negro's trib- ulations, 405. Whigs, 65. White, George R., w., 353 /. White, Hon. John H., w., 456. Whitney, Eli, w., inventor of cotton gin, 32-33. Whittier, w., celebration of birth an- niversary by Negroes, 216; first publication of poems by Garrison, 443. 496 INDEX Williams, Bert, comedian, 202 /. Williams, Charles W. M., on Com- mon Council, 2/1 /. ; clerk of Juven- nile Court, 300-01. Williams, George F., w., 448. Williams, Henry H., w., 447. Williams, William J., alderman in Chelsea, 275 /., 302 /.; public ad- ministrator, 302 /. ; lawyer, 360. Wilson, Butler R., attorney in civil rights legislation, 95; editor, 103 /.; president Boston Literary and His- torical Society, 203 /.; lawyer, 360; early life, 456. Winchester, 242. Wisconsin, 31 /. Woburn, 151, 242. Wolff, James G., clerk in office of dis- trict attorney, 297, 301 /. Wolff, James H., elected head of Mass. G.A.R., and appointed Fourth of July orator by municipality, 217; lawyer, 360; early life, 455; further mention, 301 /. Woman Suffrage Movement, origin of, at World's Anti-Slavery Con- vention, 53; present opportunity for, among Negroes, 213. Women's Educational and Industrial Union, 380. Women's Era Club, Negro organiza- tion, 209-10. Women's organizationa, among Ne- groes, 209-13, 452. Women's Protective League, Maiden; Negro organization, 211. Woods, Ruth, clerk in State House, 302/. Worcester, 64, 450. Work, Monroe W., editor Negro Year- Book, 394 /. World's Anti-Slavery Convention, 52- 53. Wright, E. I., physician, 170/. Wright, Mrs. Minnie T., leader in or- ganization of Negro women, 212 /. Wyoming, 33 /. Yates, lola D., school teacher, 188 /. Young Men's Christian Association, 170, 187, 292/., 380. Young Men's Christian Union, 187, 218. Young Men's Educational Aid Asso- ciation, Negro organization, 207. Young Men's Republican Club, Ne- gro organization, 291. Young Women's Christian Associa- tion, 187, 218. Zion African Methodist, Negro church, ( connection with equal rights agita- tion, 122; founding, 241; reduction of debt, 259-60; in Abolition days, 452. "Zion Church Affair," the, equal rights incident, 124-25. Zulu, 173 /. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS DDDmD3SD3S