Obituaries IV – Notable African-Americans

Below is a brief profile on the lives and deaths of 40 African-Americans who joined many others in playing prominent roles in American history in the years leading to the Civil War.

It is followed by a discussion on the roles they played in rising from slavery to freedom and citizenship.

Part A. The Profile

Slavery is permitted in all 13 American colonies and states until around 1800 when it ends across the North except for New York and New Jersey. But each individual’s standing is determined by the “slave or free status” of their mothers at the time of their birth. A “free mother” guarantees a free child.

Among the 40 profiles, slightly over half are free, including nine from designated “Slave States.”

Half are born before 1800, and, as a group, they tend toward longevity, with seventeen living beyond seventy. Four will meet violent deaths.

Obituaries: Notable African-Americans

Part B. Their Stories

While fully capturing the lives of these remarkable figures belongs in a college class on African-American history, what follows is an attempt to identify some themes they have in common.

First and foremost are the racial prejudices, both South and North, they encounter while trying to make their way in white society.

These materialize despite the heroic example of black patriotism displayed by Crispus Attucks (1) who is killed in the 1870 Boston Massacre.

They are formalized at the 1787 Constitutional Convention where slavery is sanctioned, Blacks are defined as “property,” and all are designated as 3/5th of a full human being.

From this beginning it is nothing short of a miracle that this group leads their brethren to eventual freedom, assimilation and citizenship between the start of slavery in 1607 at Jamestown and the 14^th Amendment in 1868.

Early advances involve the founding of black churches within local ghettoes — the most notable being the African Methodist Episcopalian (AME) branch founded in 1794 by Bishop Richard Allen (11). Along with Reverend Absalom Jones (7), Allen also opens the Free African Society for mutual aid in 1795.

Other clergymen weigh in. In 1806, Thomas Paul (12) becomes pastor of Boston’s African Meeting House. Theodore Wright (14), the first black graduate of Princeton’s Theological Seminary, spearheads the First Coloured Presbyterian Church in NYC from 1833 to his death in 1844.

But the churches are only one safe haven for the African community. Another traces to Prince Hall (4) who opens the door in 1775 to Free Masonry for Blacks with his initial Lodge #441 in Boston. Future members will include David Walker (9), Samuel Cornish (19), Thomas Dalton (25), William Wells Brown (27), Martin Delaney (28), Alexander Augustus (30) and Alexander Crummell (35).

The 1833 founding of the American Anti-Slavery Society signals the start of an organized abolitionist movement. While assembled by two white men – Lloyd Garrison and Arthur Tappan – membership will include Wright (14), Cornish (19), Garnet (24), Dalton (25), siblings Charles and Sarah Remond, and Frederick Douglass who joins in 1841 and becomes a leading spokesman.

At roughly this same time, white Quaker abolitionist Levi Coffin initiates an “underground railway” to transport southern slaves to freedom up north. His system involves courageous individual agents or “conductors” who find and transport those enslaved to a series of safe houses called “stations.”

Over the next thirty years, an estimated 100,000 captives ride the railroad to freedom. Escapee Harriet Tubman (40) later becomes the most famous “conductor,” making 13 trips back to her Maryland home to lead 70 souls to safety. She is nicknamed “Moses” and “General” and goes on to befriend Frederick Douglass, meet with John Brown, provide intelligence on hidden routes to the Union Army, serve as a nurse during the war, and then speak publicly on behalf of gender equality.

Efforts to educate Blacks begin early, with Quaker schools in 1731 in North Carolina, followed in 1753 by the Bray School in Williamsburg, Virginia and the African Free School in NYC, founded by John Jay and Alexander Hamilton of the Manumission Society. Its attendees include Theodore Wright (14), Ira Aldridge (20), Henry Highland Garnet (24) and Alexander Crummell (35).

But southern slave owners soon pass laws prohibiting all such efforts, arguing that “education will make them unfit for their bondage.” Heavy fines are imposed on those caught violating the sanction.

Still several educational initiatives persist. In 1828 Mother Mary Lang starts the Oblate primary school for black children in Providence. White activist Prudence Campbell admits “little misses of color” to her Canterbury School in Connecticut in 1832, and a year later Oberlin College becomes the first higher-ed program to admit blacks. Other pre-war advances include Abiel Smith’s African School for Black Bostonians in 1835 and the selection by Allegheny University in 1856 of Martin Henry Freeman (36) as the first black college president.

Among these educated Blacks is Alexander Crummell (35), considered one of the intellectual giants of the 19^th century. Born free in New York, he attends the African Free School, and joins the Prince Hall Free Masons. He then becomes the first Black admitted to Yale, and is ordained a Presbyterian minister before heading to England. He graduates in 1853 from Cambridge University and lectures on behalf of abolition. He lives in “re-colonized” Liberia off and on from 1854 to 1873 seeking converts to Christianity. Back home in 1862, he meets and “impresses” President Lincoln, and later teaches at Howard University.

Controversy surrounds the movement to send freedmen back to Africa, with Paul Cuffee (6), John Russworm (16), Martin Delaney (28) and Martin Henry Freeman (36) all living there for a time. But in addition to a lack of funding, Black opposition to leaving America grows steadily with the possibility for abolition.

The voice of the black community is gradually amplified in its many newspapers. Among the earliest is Freedom’s Journal (New York 1827-29) co-published by John Russworm (16) and Samuel Cornish (19). The prolific editor, Philip Alexander Bell (29) begins with his Colored American (New York 1837-42) before several west coast offerings, Pacific Appeal (San Francisco 1862-80) and Elevator (SF 1865-98). David Ruggles (15) adds the first quarterly magazine paper Mirror of Liberty (NYC 1838-40).

But the most famous black newspaper belongs to Frederick Douglass (32).

Douglass learns the business working on Lloyd Garrison’s Liberator (Boston 1831-65) before going out on his own with his North Star (NYC 1847-51), co-edited by Martin Delaney (28). This paper then merges with Gerrit Smith’s Liberty Party Paper (NYC 1851-55) before coming back simply as Frederick Douglass’ Paper.

The black experience with slavery is also recorded in a string of biographies. Again the most well know is the 1845 Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. But others include Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northrup in 1853, Austen Steward (29) in 1857 with Twenty-two Years a Slave and Forty Years a Free Man, and Harriet Jacob’s moving 1861 classic, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.

Several other black women turn to writing to capture their insights and feelings. This begins with little Phyllis Wheatley (2) around 1798 who learns Greek and Latin, writes her first verse at fourteen, and eventually publishes over 1700 poems, many protesting bondage. Seventy-five years later, Frances Harper (39), the Unitarian abolitionist, authors her 1872 anthology Sketches of Southern Life” together with several novels.

William Wells Brown (27) becomes the first black novelist in America with his Clotel recounting the lives of two female run-aways. William Cooper Nell (23) also publishes short stories while also contributing abolitionist articles to the Liberator and North Star newspapers.

Alongside these women, two black men are able to achieve international celebrity status in the burgeoning entertainment industry.

Master Juba (17), born William Lane, grows up in the notorious Five Points district of NYC, playing the banjo and tambourine in minstrel shows, and dazzling audiences with his introduction of tap dancing – a blend of folk shuffles and Irish jigs and reels. Juba’s local dance competitions versus Irish Jack Diamond lead on to a European tour and his own dance studio in London before an early death.

Ira Aldridge (20) makes his mark in theater, beginning on stage at age fourteen with the African Company in NYC. Three years later he debuts in England with five plays at the Old Vic Theater. From there he stars in a litany of Shakespearean tragedies, most notably as Othello the Moor, and becomes manager of the Coventry Theater Royal. His talent will be recognized with a bronze statue in Stratford-on-Avon.

The pursuit of science attracts several other notables.

The early naturalist, Benjamin Banneker (3), converts his study of astronomy and mathematics into a series of six “Almanacks” that reside on bookshelves next to the Bible in many colonial homes. These become the gospel when agricultural plans are set for the planting seasons.

Three blacks in particular are drawn to the practice of medicine.

After Martin Delany’s (28) admission to Harvard Medical School is revoked by white protests, he continues his learning with help from several abolitionist doctors. He practices as a physician within the black communities of Pittsburgh, notably in helping to stem the tide of an 1854 outbreak of cholera.

Alexander Augusta (30) path mirrors that of Delany. His application to the U Pennsylvania Medical College is denied on racial grounds, and he travels in 1850 to Toronto to enroll at Trinity College, earning a Bachelor of Medicine degree and opening a practice in the city. He remains there until 1863 when he offers his medical skills to President Lincoln. Despite protests over his commission as Major, he becomes the first black physician in the U.S. Army and its highest ranking member. He performs surgery on black soldiers during the war, and afterwards heads the Freedman’s Hospital in D.C.

An even more improbable journey into medicine belongs to Rebecca Crumpler (33). In 1852 she begins as a nurse assisting doctors in Boston and continues until 1860 when she is admitted, at 29, to the prestigious New England Female Medical College. Four years later she becomes the first African-American MD in America. As a black female physician she is forced to overcome prejudice throughout her career. She practices in Boston until 1880, then focuses on publishing A Book on Medical Practices before her death.

Business acumen leads to prosperity and influence for two entrepreneurs, both shaped by their early experiences at sea.

Quaker Paul Cuffee (6) begins as a crewman on a whaler before partnering with his brother-in-law to build ships of their own. Between 1789 and 1814 his Massachusetts shipyard flourishes, and his successes as an international merchant make him the wealthiest black man in America.

Lessons learned on the oceans also shape the business career of James Forten (13). He actually serves in the Revolutionary War in 1781 at age 14 aboard an American merchant ship before coming home to Philadelphia. There he apprentices in a sail loft and takes it over in 1798 when the owner retires. Sales boom after he invents a breakthrough new hoisting rig that enables ships to tack faster while maintaining their speed.

While Forten and Cuffee become wealthy, both remain committed to abolishing slavery. Over time, this cause triggers violent uprisings by enslaved Blacks who seek to overthrow their owners. Three incidents in particular stand out.

Enslaved Gabriel Prosser (5) is literate, married and a skilled bricklayer in 1800 when his plan to lead a band of rebels to Richmond is foiled by leaks. He is hanged along with 25 other possible conspirators.

This same fate follows Denmark Vesey (8) in 1822. He is a carpenter in Charleston who wins a lottery and buys his freedom before helping to found and begin preaching at a local AME Church. Possibly inspired by the Book of Exodus and Toussaint’s successful black revolution in Haiti, Vesey plans to assemble a black army to assault the city on Bastille Day. But authorities become aware in advance and Vesey is hanged along with 34 others who are tried and found guilty.

However it is the 1831 rampage led by Nat Turner (10) in Virginia that reveals slavery’s full potential for violence. Like Vesey, Turner is a literate carpenter and preacher, called The Prophet, and known to experience visions from God. On August 21, 1831 he personally murders his owner’s entire family and then assembles perhaps 100 followers who kill 55 white men, women and children on their way to Richmond. After four days, the rebellion is put down and Turner is captured. In court he refuses to show contrition for his actions before being hanged, with his corpse mutilated by avengers. Well over 100 other blacks are killed in retribution and harsh measures are imposed on those enslaved across the South.

In parallel with Turner’s actual violence comes increasing bursts of threatening rhetoric from black abolitionist leaders.

In 1829 David Walker (9), a self-taught free black in Boston publishes a 76 page pamphlet titled An Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World with support from his Prince Hall Masonry. His words ring out about suffering and issue a call to freedom and active resistance.

We colored people are the most degraded, wretched, and abject set of beings

      that ever lived.. Whites tell us that we are an inferior race of beings! Incapable 

      of self government!! We would be injurious to society and ourselves, if tyrants  

      should lose their unjust hold on us!!! 

      I tell you Americans! That unless you speedily alter your course, you and your  

     Country are gone!!!!!! We must and shall be free I say, in spite of you. 

     We have to prove to the Americans and the world, that we are MEN, and not 

     brutes. If we can only get courage into the blacks, I do declare it, that one good   

     black man can put to death six white men; and I give it as a fact, let twelve 

     black men get well armed for battle, and they will kill and put to flight fifty 

     whites. The reason is, the blacks, once you get them started, they glory in 

     death.

     If any wish to plunge me into the wretched incapacity of a slave, or murder me

     for the truth, know ye, that I am in the hand of God, and at your disposal. I   

     count my life not dear unto me, but I am ready to be offered at any moment. 

     For what is the use of living, when in fact I am dead.

Unfortunately David Walker passes suddenly of tuberculous in 1831 at age thirty-three.

His cry, however, is echoed in 1843 by two other former slaves.

The first is born in New York as Isabella Baumfree. She becomes a Christian in 1827 and meets both Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglass while working in Massachusetts. In 1843 an epiphany finds her changing her name to Sojourner Truth (26) and heading out to speak on behalf of freedom and equality for blacks.

Her words at an Ohio Women’s Rights convention in 1851 become famous.

Ain’t I a woman? But what’s all this here talking ’bout? Dat man ober dar say dat woman needs to be helped into carriages, and lifted ober ditches, and to have de best place eberywhar. Nobody eber helps me into carriages, or ober mud-puddles, or gives me any best place — “and ain’t I a woman?

Look at me. Look at my arm, I have plowed and planted and gathered into barns, and no man could head me–and ain’t I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man (when I could get it) and bear de lash as well–and ain’t I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen ’em mos’ all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with a mother’s grief, none but Jesus heard–and ain’t I a woman?

Den dey talks ’bout dis ting in de head. What dis dey call it, Intellect? Dat’s it, honey. What’s dat got to do with woman’s rights or [negroes’] rights? If my cup won’t hold but a pint, and yourn holds a quart, wouldn’t ye be mean not to let me have my little halfmeasure full?

Bleeged to ye for hearin’ on me, and now ole Sojourner ha’n’t got nothing more to say.

Sojourner Truth funds her speaking tours by offering photos of herself labeled “I sell the shadow to support the substance.” She lives to eighty-six years old and Fred Douglass gives the eulogy at her funeral.

A second voice of protest belongs to Henry Highland Garnet (24) who escapes from slavery in Maryland on the Underground Railroad and becomes a Presbyterian minister in 1842 after graduating from the Oneida Institute. He becomes a familiar speaker for the American Anti-Slavery Society, and in 1843 delivers his alarming “Call to Rebellion” speech at the National Convention of Colored Citizens.”

He opens by declaring that prior attempts to end slavery have been in vain.

Brethren and Fellow Citizens:—We have been accustomed to meet together in National Conventions, to sympathize with each other, and to weep over your unhappy condition. …But, we have hoped in vain. Years have rolled on, and tens of thousands have been borne on streams of blood and tears, to the shores of eternity.
In particular the Christian Churches have stood idly by and watched. The priests prophesied falsely, and the people loved to have it so.
The colonists tried to blame slavery on Britain, but then embraced it on their
own.

From there he launches on his call for resistance.

The time has come to recognize that God views it as sinful to continue submitting to this oppression.  

        …TO SUCH DEGREDATION IT IS SINFUL IN THE EXTREME FOR YOU TO  

        MAKE VOLUNTARY SUBMISSION….. Your condition does not absolve you

        from your moral obligation. The diabolical injustice by which your liberties 

        are cloven down, NEITHER GOD, NOR ANGELS, OR JUST MEN, COMMAND   

        YOU TO SUFFER FOR A SINGLE MOMENT. THEREFORE IT IS YOUR SOLEMN  

        AND IMPERATIVE DUTY TO USE EVERY MEANS, BOTH MORAL, INTELLECTUAL,     

        AND PHYSICAL THAT PROMISES SUCCESS.  

        Hear the cries of your poor children! Remember the stripes your fathers bore.   

        Think of the torture and disgrace of your noble mothers. Think of your 

        wretched sisters, loving virtue and purity, as they are driven into concubinage 

        and are exposed to the unbridled lusts of incarnate devils.  

        It is better to “die freemen than live to be slaves.” 

       Brethren, arise, arise! Strike for your lives and liberties. Now is the day and 

       the hour. Let every slave throughout the land do this, and the days of slavery   

       are numbered. You cannot be more oppressed than you have been¬—you 

       cannot suffer greater cruelties than you have already. Rather die free¬men 

       than live to be slaves. Remember that you are FOUR MILLIONS!

Henry Highland Garnet will live to participate in the abolition of slavery. He will join the Liberty Party in 1848 and help recruit black soldiers during the war. After the 1865 passage of the 13^th Amendment, he becomes the first black minister to address the U.S. House. He dies in Liberia in 1882 at age sixty-six.

But of course it is Frederick Douglass (32) whose words on slavery have the greatest impact on the public, within the halls of Congress, and directly on Abraham Lincoln. One speech in particular captures the perspective on America shared by the captive blacks. It is sponsored by the “Ladies of the Rochester Anti-Slavery Sewing Society” and delivered on July 5, 1852 at the Corinthian Hall before a crowd of five hundred.

It opens with a simple question and answer:

What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July?
I answer; a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year,
the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim.

It then lays out the full indictment:

Behold the practical operation of this internal slave-trade, the American 

     slave-trade,  sustained by American politics and American religion. Here 

     you will see men and women  reared like swine for the market. My soul 

     sickens at the sight.

    By an act of the American Congress, not yet two years old, slavery has 

    been nationalized in its most horrible and revolting form. 

    I take this law to be one of the grossest infringements of Christian Liberty, 

    and, if the churches and ministers of our country were nor stupidly blind, 

    or most wickedly indifferent, they, too, would so regard it.

   Oh! be warned! be warned! a horrible reptile is coiled up in your nation’s 

   bosom; the venomous creature is nursing at the tender breast of your

   youthful republic; for the love of God, tear away, and fling from you the hideous   

  monster, and let the weight of twenty  millions crush and destroy it forever!

  The existence of slavery in this country brands your republicanism as a sham,   

  your humanity as a base pretense, and your Christianity as a lie. It destroys

  your moral power abroad: it corrupts your politicians at home. It saps the   

  foundation of religion; it makes your name a hissing and a bye-word to a

  mocking earth. 

  But I have detained my audience entirely too long already… Allow me to say, in   

  conclusion, notwithstanding the dark picture I have this day presented, of the  

  state of the nation, I do not despair of this country. The fiat of the Almighty, “Let  

  there be Light,” has not yet spent its force.

  God speed the year of jubilee, The wide world o’er!
  When from their galling chains set free,   Th’ oppress’d shall vilely bend the knee,  
  And wear the yoke of tyranny, Like brutes no more.

Thus saith Frederick Douglass who will also live to see that glorious day.

Still the final downfall of slavery in America will wait on events beyond the control of the black community. In 1859, John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry becomes the South’s worst nightmare: a white abolitionist leading a black uprising to destroy their plantations. The Republican Party declaring its opposition to extending slavery in the west, instead vowing to preserve the land for Free White Men and Free Labor. The election of Lincoln in 1860 with only 39% of the popular vote, all up North. The massive loss of wealth in the South when its supply of “excess bred slaves” from back east will no longer be auctioned in the west. The resulting creation of the Confederate States of America before Lincoln can even be inaugurated. The opening bombardment of the Civil War at Ft. Sumter.

From there the fate of the nation and of the black population plays out over four years, culminating with Lincoln’s 1863 Emancipation Proclamation and passage of the 13^th Amendment officially ending slavery.

After some 250 years, the descendants of those “twenty or so” enslaved human beings dropped off at Jamestown are free. In no small degree owing to the amazing talents and will power of the 40 African-Americans in our profile.