Between Slavery and Freedom (26 page)

[N]o free negro or person of colour, who shall leave this state, shall be suffered to return . . .

[E]very free male negro or person of colour, between the age of fifteen and fifty years, within this state, who may not be a native of said state . . . shall pay a tax of fifty dollars per annum . . .

[I]f any vessel shall come into any port or harbor of this state, from any other state or foreign port, having on board any free negroes or persons of colour as cooks, stewards, mariners, or in any other employment on board of said vessel, such free negroes or persons of colour shall be liable to be seized and confined in jail, until said vessel shall clear out and depart from this state . . . And . . . the captain of said vessel shall be bound to carry away the said free negro or free person of colour, and to pay the expenses of his detention, and in case of his neglect or refusal so to do . . . such free negroes or persons of colour shall be deemed and taken as absolute slaves, and sold. . . .

[E]very free male negro, mulatto or mestizo in this state, above the age of fifteen years, shall be compelled to have a guardian, who shall be a respectable freeholder of the district in which said free negro, mulatto or mestizo shall reside; and it shall be the duty of the said guardian to go before the clerk of the court of the said district . . . and . . . give to the clerk his certificate, that the said negro, mulatto or mestizo . . . is of good character and correct habits . . .

[I]f any person or persons shall counsel, aid, or hire any slave or slaves, free negroes, or persons of colour, to raise a rebellion . . . such person or persons on conviction thereof, shall be adjudged felons, and suffer death.

Source:
Charleston City Gazette
, January 6, 1823

Emigration to Haiti (1824–1825)

In 1817, black Philadelphians had roundly rejected the idea of leaving America for West Africa. Black people elsewhere were equally hostile. However, when the president of Haiti announced his resettlement plan, he found many eager recruits. To thousands of free blacks the idea of emigrating to an independent black re
public
in the Americas was much more appealing than venturing off to a white-run colony in Africa. “Doctor” Belfast Burton (ca. 1775–1849), a skilled healer from
Philadelph
ia, leaped at the chance to go to Haiti. Most of the emigrants soon returned to the United States disappointed and disillusioned, but Burton was full of enthusiasm, as his letter to his old friend Richard Allen shows. (It is worth noting, though, that Burton himself eventually came back to live in Philadelphia.)

I will remark that no man can have any just conception of the country without seeing it, and I had no idea of there being any such place on the globe . . . It is well known there are some people who will not be satisfied in any place nor any situation, but those here generally express the highest satisfaction, and say it surpasses their most sanguine expectations. . . . [T]he government gives them the land as promised, and all, whether mechanics, or of any other occupation, receive the like quantity; and if any choose to rent, they still receive their land . . . they receive their four months provisions, and if that does not prove sufficient, they have assurances from [the] government, to be supported, until they can support themselves. The preparations for schools are making. Their religious freedom is most perfect . . . As to war, by invasion from the French, we have scarcely heard anything about it . . . I could say much more, but time will not admit . . .

belfast burton

Source:
Spectator
(New York), February 25, 1825

The Birth of the Black Press (1827)

In 1827, a group of black community leaders in New York City began publishing
Freedom's Journal.
Their immediate goal was to refute racist attacks upon them in the mainstream press, but their longer-term goal was to ensure that black people had their own newspaper that would reflect their needs and concerns. The man they chose as the paper's editor was John Brown Russwurm, one of the first black men to receive a college degree.
Freedom's Journal
enjoyed an extensive circulation and had agents throughout the North and in the West Indies. The following address “To
Our Patrons” appeared on page 1 of the first edition of the paper and speaks to the bold agenda of its founders.
Freedom's Journal
survived for almost two years before Russwurm's defection to the American Colonization Society, coupled with financial problems, forced its editorial board to suspend publication.

We wish to plead our own cause. Too long have others spoken for us. Too long has the publick been deceived by misrepresentation, in things which concern us dearly . . . We are aware that there are many instances of vice among us, but we avow that it is because no one has taught its subjects to be virtuous; many instances of poverty, because no sufficient efforts accommodated to minds contracted by slavery, and deprived of early education have been made, to teach them how to husband their hard earnings, and to secure to themselves comforts.

Education being an object of the highest importance . . . we shall . . . urge upon our brethren the necessity and expediency of training their children, while young, in habits of industry, and thus forming them for becoming useful members of society . . .

The civil rights of a people being of the greatest value, it shall ever be our duty to vindicate our brethren, when oppressed, and to lay the case before the publick. We shall also urge upon our brethren, who are qualified by the laws of the different states, the expediency of using their elective franchise . . .

We trust also, that through the columns of the
freedom's journal
, many practical pieces, having for their bases, the improvement of our brethren, will be presented to them . . . Useful knowledge of every kind, and every thing that relates to Africa, shall find a ready admission into our columns; and as that vast continent becomes daily more known, we trust that many things will come to light, proving that the natives of it are neither so ignorant nor stupid as they have generally been supposed to be. And while these important subjects shall occupy the columns of the
freedom's journal
, we would not be unmindful of our brethren who are still in the iron fetters of bondage. They are our kindred by all the ties of nature; and though but little can be effected by us, let our sympathies be poured forth, and our prayers in their behalf, ascend to Him who is able to succour them . . .

In the spirit of candor and humility, we intend by a simple representation of facts to lay our case before the publick, with a view to arrest the progress of prejudice, and to shield ourselves against the consequent evils. We wish to conciliate all and to irritate none, yet we must be firm and unwavering in our principles, and persevering in our efforts . . .

In conclusion, whatever concerns us as a people, will ever find a ready admission into the
freedom's journal . . .
And while every thing in our
power shall be performed to support the character of our Journal, we would respectfully invite our numerous friends to assist by their communications, and our coloured brethren to strengthen our hands by their subscriptions, as our labour is one of common cause, and worthy of their consideration and support.

the editors

Source:
Freedom's Journal
, March 16, 1827

David Walker on the Nature of Black Freedom (1829)

Originally from Wilmington, North Carolina, David Walker (ca. 1796–1830) was free because his mother was free, although his father was probably a slave. As a young man, Walker lived for a time in Charleston, South Carolina before moving to Boston around 1825, where he married, opened a used-clothing store, and soon established himself as a member of the city's activist black elite. Among other things, he was the local agent for the pioneering black newspaper
Freedom's Journal
, and a founding member of the
Massachusetts General Colored
Association
. He is best remembered as the author of
An Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World
(1829). The
Appeal
, with its forthright condemnation of slavery and racism, enraged white Southerners. Walker used his contacts in the seafaring community to smuggle copies of his pamphlet into the South, where he hoped they would get into the hands of both the slaves and the free blacks. When Walker died from tuberculosis the year after the
Appeal
was published, rumors swirled that he had in fact been murdered for daring to speak out.

Men of colour, who are also of sense, for you particularly is my
appeal
designed. Our more ignorant brethren are not able to penetrate its value. I call upon you therefore to cast your eyes upon the wretchedness of your brethren, and to do your utmost to enlighten them . . . Do any of you say that you and your family are free and happy, and what have you to do with the wretched slaves and other people? So can I say, for I enjoy as much freedom as any of you, if I am not quite as well off as the best of you. Look into our freedom and happiness, and see of what kind they are composed! They are of the very lowest kind—they are the very
dregs
!—they are the most servile and abject kind, that ever a people was in possession of! If any of you wish to know how
free
you are, let one of you start and go through the southern and western States of this country, and unless you travel as a slave to a white man
(a servant is a
slave
to the man he serves) or have your free papers, (which if you are not careful they will get from you) if they do not take you up and put you in jail, and if you cannot give good evidence of your freedom, sell you into eternal slavery, I am not a living man . . . And yet some of you have the hardihood to say that you are free and happy! May God have mercy on your freedom and happiness!!

Source: Peter P. Hinks, ed.,
David Walker's “Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World”
(University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2000), 30–31.