CHAPTER XLVI. NEGRO HATRED AT THE NORTH.

The prompt manner in which colored men in the North had enlisted in the army to aid in putting down the Rebellion, and the heroism and loyalty of the slaves of the South in helping to save the Union, so exasperated the disloyal people in the Northern States, that they early began a system of cowardly warfare against the blacks wherever they found them. The mob spirit first manifested itself at a meeting held in Boston, December 3, 1860, to observe the anniversary of the death of John Brown. A combination of North End roughs and Beacon Street aristocrats took possession of the Tremont Temple, the place of holding the meeting, appointed Richard S. Fay as Chairman, and passed a series of resolutions in favor of the slave-holders of the South, and condemnatory of the abolitionists.

This success induced these enemies of free discussion to attempt to break up the meeting of the Twenty-eighth Congregational Society at Music Hall the following Sunday, at which Frederick Douglass was the speaker. Wendell Phillips addressed the same society at the same place, on the 19th following, when the mob spirit seemed even more violent than on any previous occasion. These events were still fresh in the minds of the haters of negro freedom, when, on the 10th of July, 1863, the great mob commenced in the city of New York.

The mob was composed of the lowest and most degraded of the foreign population (mainly Irish), raked from the filthy cellars and dens of the city, steeped in crimes of the deepest dye, and ready for any act, no matter how dark; together with the worst type of our native criminals, whose long service in the prisons of the country, and whose training in the Democratic party, had so demoralized their natures that they were ever on the hunt for some deed of robbery or murder.

This conglomerated mass of human beings were under the leadership of men standing higher than themselves in the estimation of the public, but, if possible, really lower in moral degradation. Cheered on by men holding high political positions, and finding little or no opposition, they went on at a fearful rate.

Never, in the history of mob-violence, was crime carried to such an extent. Murder, arson, robbery, and cruelty reigned triumphant throughout the city, day and night, for more than a week.

Hundreds of the blacks, driven from their homes, and hunted and chased through the streets, presented themselves at the doors of jails, prisons, police-stations, and begged admission. Thus did these fiends prowl about the city, committing crime after crime; indeed, in point of cruelty, the Rebellion was transferred from the South to the North.

The destruction of the colored Orphan Asylum, after first robbing the little black children of their clothing, seemed a most heartless transaction.

Nearly forty colored persons were murdered during this reign of terror. Some were hung at lamp-posts, some thrown off the docks, while others, shot, clubbed, and cut to pieces with knives, were seen lying dead in the streets.

Numbers of men and boys amused themselves by cutting pieces of flesh from the dead body of a black man who was suspended from a lamp-post at the corner of Prince Street.

Hundreds of colored men and women had taken shelter in the buildings reached by passing through the “Arch,” on Thompson Street. The mob made several unsuccessful attempts to gain admission to this alley, where, in one of the buildings, was a room about thirty by forty feet square, in the centre of which stood an old-fashioned cook-stove, the top of which seemed filled with boilers, and all steaming away, completely filling the place with a dense fog. Two lamps, with dingy chimneys, and the light from the fire, which shone brightly through the broken doors of the stove, lighted up the room. Eight athletic black women, looking for all the world as if they had just returned from a Virginia corn-field, weary and hungry, stood around the room.

Each of these Amazons was armed with a tin dipper, apparently new, which had no doubt been purchased for the occasion. A woman of exceedingly large proportions—tall, long-armed, with a deep scar down the side of her face, and with a half grin, half smile—was the commander-in-chief of the “hot room.” This woman stood by the stove, dipper in hand, and occasionally taking the top from the large wash-boiler, which we learned was filled with boiling water, soap, and ashes.

In case of an attack, this boiler was to be the “King of Pain.”

Guided by a friend who had furnished us a disguise, the writer entered the “hot room,” and took a view of its surroundings. As we saw the perspiration streaming down the faces of these women, we ventured a few questions.

“Do you expect an attack?” we asked.

“Dunno, honey; but we’s ready ef dey comes,” was the reply from the aunty near the stove.

“Were you ever in slavery?” we continued.

“Yes; ain’t bin from dar but little while.”

“What State?”

“Bred and born in ole Virginny, down on de Pertomuc.”

“Have you any of your relations in Virginia now?”

“Yes; got six chilens down dar somewhar, an’ two husbuns—all sole to de speclaturs afore I run away.”

“Did you come off alone?”

“No; my las ole man bring me ’way.”

“You don’t mean to be taken back by the slave-catchers, in peace?”

“No; I’ll die fuss.”

“How will you manage if they attempt to come into this room?”

“We’ll all fling hot water on ’em, an’ scall dar very harts out.”

“Can you all throw water without injuring each other?”

“O yes, honey; we’s bin practicin’ all day.” And here the whole company joined in a hearty laugh, which made the old building ring.

The intense heat drove us from the room. As we descended the steps and passed the guards, we remarked to one of them,—

“The women seem to be prepared for battle.”

“Yes,” he replied; “dem wimmens got de debil in ’em to-night, an’ no mistake. Dey’ll make dat a hot hell in dar fur somebody.”

And here the guards broke forth into a hearty laugh, which was caught up and joined in by the women in the house, which showed very clearly that these blacks felt themselves masters of the situation.

As the mob made their last attempt to gain an entrance to the alley, one of their number, a man bloated with strong drink, and heaping oaths upon the “niggers,” succeeded in getting through, and made his way to the “hot room,” where, it is said, he suddenly disappeared. It was whispered that the washerwomen made soap-grease of his carcass.

The inhabitants of the “Arch” were not again disturbed.

CHAPTER XLVII. CASTE AND PROGRESS.

Caste is usually found to exist in communities or countries among majorities, and against minorities. The basis of it is owing to some supposed inferiority or degradation attached to the hated ones. However, nothing is more foolish than this prejudice. But the silliest of all caste is that which is founded on color; for those who entertain it have not a single logical reason to offer in its defence.

The fact is, slavery has been the cause of all the prejudice against the negro. Wherever the blacks are ill-treated on account of their color, it is because of their identity with a race that has long worn the chain of slavery. Is there anything in black that should be hated? If so, why do we see so much black in common use as clothing among all classes? Indeed, black is preferred to either white or colors. How often the young man speaks in ecstasies of the black eyes and black hair of his lady-love! Look at the hundreds of advertised hair-dyes, used for the purpose of changing Nature! See men with their gray beards dyed black; women with those beautiful black locks, which but yesterday were as white as the driven snow! Not only this, but even those with light or red whiskers run to the dye-kettle, steal a color which Nature has refused them, and an hour after curse the negro for a complexion that is not stolen. If black is so hateful, why do not gentlemen have their boots whitewashed? If the slaves of the South had been white, the same prejudice would have existed against them. Look at the “poor white trash,” as the lower class of whites in the Southern States are termed.

The general good conduct of the blacks during the Rebellion, and especially the aid rendered to our Northern men escaping from Southern prisons, has done much to dispel the prejudice so rampant in the free states. The following, from the pen of Junius Henri Browne, the accomplished war correspondent of “The Tribune,” is but a fair sample of what was said for the negro during the great conflict. In his very interesting work, “Four Years in Secessia,” he says:—

“The negro who had guided us to the railway had told us of another of his color to whom we could apply for shelter and food at the terminus of our second stage. We could not find him until nearly dawn; and when we did, he directed us to a large barn filled with corn-husks. Into that we crept with our dripping garments, and lay there for fifteen hours, until we could again venture forth. Floundering about in the husks, we lost our haversacks, pipes, and a hat.

“About nine o’clock we procured a hearty supper from the generous negro, who even gave me his hat,—an appropriate presentation, as one of my companions remarked, by an ‘intelligent contraband’ to the reliable gentleman of ‘The New York Tribune.’ The negro did picket-duty while we hastily ate our meal, and stood by his blazing fire. The old African and voice and moistened eyes, as we parted from them with grateful hearts. ‘God bless negroes!’ say I, with earnest lips. During our entire captivity, and after our escape, they were ever our firm, brave, unflinching friends. We never made an appeal to them they did not answer. They never hesitated to do us a service at the risk even of life; and under the most trying circumstances, revealed a devotion and a spirit of self-sacrifice that were heroic.

“The magic word ‘Yankee’ opened all their hearts, and elicited the loftiest virtues. They were ignorant, oppressed, enslaved; but they always cherished a simple and beautiful faith in the cause of the Union, and its ultimate triumph, and never abandoned or turned aside from a man who sought food or shelter on his way to freedom.”

The month of May, 1864, saw great progress in the treatment of the colored troops by the government of the United States. The circumstances were more favorable for this change than they had hitherto been. Slavery had been abolished in the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Missouri. The heroic assault on Fort Wagner, the unsurpassed bravery exhibited at Port Hudson, the splendid fighting at Olustee and Honey Hill, had raised the colored men in the estimation of the nation. President Lincoln and his advisers had seen their error, and begun to repair the wrong. The year opened with the appointment of Dr. A. T. Augusta, a colored gentleman, as surgeon of colored volunteers, and he was at once assigned to duty, with the rank of major. Following this, was the appointment, by Governor Andrew, of Massachusetts, of Sergeant Stephen A. Swailes, of Company F., Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Regiment, as second lieutenant.

M. R. Delany, M. D., was soon after appointed a major of negro volunteers, and assigned to duty at Charleston, South Carolina. W. P. Powell, Jr., received an appointment as surgeon, about the same time.

The steamer Planter, since being brought out of Charleston by Robert Small, was under the command of a Yankee, who, being ordered to do service where the vessel would be liable to come under the fire of rebel guns, refused to obey; whereupon Lieutenant-Colonel Elwell, without consultation with any higher authority, issued an order, placing Robert Small in command of the “Planter.”

The acknowledgment of the civil rights of the negro had already been granted, in the admission of John S. Rock, a colored man, to practice law in all the counties within the jurisdiction of the United States. John F. Shorter, who was promoted to a lieutenancy in Company D, Fifty-fifth Massachusetts Regiment, was by trade a carpenter, and was residing in Delaware County, Ohio, when the call was made for colored troops. Severely wounded at the battle of Honey Hill, South Carolina, on the 30th of November, 1864, he still remained with his regiment, hoping to be of service.

At the conclusion of the war, he returned home, but never recovered from his wound, and died a few days after his arrival. James Monroe Trotter, promoted for gallantry, was wounded at the battle of Honey Hill. He is a native of Grand Gulf, Mississippi; removed to Cincinnati, Ohio; was educated at the Albany (Ohio) Manual Labor University, where he distinguished himself for his scholarly attainments. He afterwards became a school-teacher, which position he filled with satisfaction to the people of Muskingum and Pike Counties, Ohio, and with honor to himself. Enlisting as a private in the Fifty-fifth Massachusetts Regiment, on its organization, he returned with it to Boston as a lieutenant, an office honorably earned.

William H. Dupree, a native of Petersburg, Virginia, was brought up and educated at Chillicothe, Ohio. He enlisted in the Fifty-fifth Massachusetts Regiment, on its formation, as a private, was soon made orderly-sergeant, and afterwards promoted to a lieutenancy for bravery on the field of battle.

Charles L. Mitchel, promoted to a lieutenancy in the Fifty-fifth Massachusetts Regiment for gallantry at the battle of Honey Hill, where he was severely wounded (losing a limb), is a native of Hartford, Connecticut, and son of William A. Mitchel of that city. Lieutenant Mitchel served an apprenticeship to William H. Burleigh, in the office of the old “Charter Oak,” in Hartford, where he became an excellent printer. For five or six years previous to entering the army, he was employed in different printing-offices in Boston, the last of which was “The Liberator,” edited by William Lloyd Garrison, who never speaks of Lieutenant Mitchel but in words of the highest commendation. General A. S. Hartwell, late colonel of the Fifty-fifth Massachusetts Regiment, makes honorable mention of Lieutenant Mitchel.

In the year 1867, Mr. Mitchel was elected to the Massachusetts Legislature, from Ward Six, in Boston. The appointment of John M. Langston to a position in the Freedman Bureau, showed progress.

However, the selection of E. D. Bassett, as Minister and Consul-General to Hayti, astonished even those who had the most favorable opinion of President Grant, and satisfied the people generally, both colored and white. Since the close of the war, colored men have been appointed to honorable situations in the Custom Houses in the various States, also in the Post Office and Revenue Department.

CHAPTER XLVIII. THE ABOLITIONISTS.

A little more than forty years ago, William Lloyd Garrison hoisted the banner of immediate and unconditional emancipation, as the right of the slave, and the duty of the master. The men and women who gradually rallied around him, fully comprehended the solemn responsibility they were then taking, and seemed prepared to consecrate the best years of their lives to the cause of human freedom. Amid the moral and political darkness which then overshadowed the land, the voice of humanity was at length faintly heard, and soon aroused opposition; for slavery was rooted and engrafted in every fibre of American society. The imprisonment of Mr. Garrison at Baltimore, at once directed public attention to the heinous sin which he was attacking, and called around him some of the purest and best men of the country.

The Boston mob of 1835 gave now impulse to the agitation, and brought fresh aid to the pioneer of the movement. Then came the great battle for freedom of speech and the press; a battle in which the heroism of this small body of proscribed men and women had ample room to show their genius and abilities. The bold and seeming audacity with which they attacked slavery in every corner where the monster had taken refuge, even in the face of lynchings, riots, and murders, carried with it a charm which wrung applause from the sympathizing heart throughout the world, and showed that the American Abolitionists possessed a persistency and a courage which had never found a parallel in the annals of progress and reform.

In the spring of 1859, we attended a meeting of the Executive Committee of the American Anti-slavery Society, as it was then organized, and we shall write of the members as they appeared at that time. The committee was composed of twelve persons besides the chairman, and were seated around a long table. At the head of the table sat William Lloyd Garrison, the Chairman of the Board, and the acknowledged leader of the movement. His high and prominent forehead, piercing eye, pleasant, yet anxious countenance, long nose, and smile upon his lips, point him out at once as a man born to guide and direct.

The deference with which he is treated by his associates shows their appreciation of his abilities and his moral worth. Tender and blameless in his family affections, devoted to his friends, simple and studious, upright, guileless, distinguished, and worthy, like the great men of antiquity, to be immortalized by another Plutarch. As a speaker, he is forcible, clear, and logical; as a writer, he has always been regarded as one of the ablest in our country. How many services, never to be forgotten, has he not rendered to the cause of the slave and the welfare of mankind.

Many of those who started out with him in young manhood, when he left his Newburyport home, were swept away like so much floating wood before the tide.

When the sturdiest characters gave way, when the finest geniuses passed one after another under the yoke of slavery, Garrison stood firm to his convictions, like a rock that stands stirless amid the conflicting agitation of the waves. He is not only the friend and advocate of freedom with his pen and tongue, but to the oppressed of every clime he opens his purse, his house, and his heart. In days past, the fugitive slave, fresh from the prison-house of the South, who was turned off by the politician, and had experienced the cold shoulder of the divine, found a warm bed and breakfast under the hospitable roof of William Lloyd Garrison.

The society whose executive committee is now in session, is one of no inconsiderable influence in the United States. No man has had more bitter enemies or stauncher friends than Mr. Garrison.

There are those among his friends who would stake their all upon his veracity and integrity; and we are sure that the colored people throughout America, in whose cause he has so long labored, will with one accord assign the highest niche in their affections to the champion of universal emancipation. This is not intended as an eulogium, for no words of ours could add the weight of a feather to the world-wide fame of William Lloyd Garrison; but we simply wish to record the acknowledgment of a grateful negro to the most distinguished friend of his race.

On the right of the chairman sat Wendell Phillips, America’s ablest orator. He is a little above the middle height, well made, and remarkably graceful in person. His golden hair is now growing thin and changing its color, and his youthful look has gone; but he shows no yielding to age, and is in the full maturity of his powers. Descended from one of the oldest and most cultivated stock of New England’s sons; educated at the first university; graduating with all the honors which the college could bestow on him; studying law with Judge Story, and becoming a member of the bar; he has all the accomplishments that these advantages can give to a man of a great mind.

Nature has treated Mr. Phillips as a favorite. His expressive countenance paints and reflects every emotion of his soul. His gestures, like his delivery, are wonderfully graceful. There is a fascination in the soft gaze of his eyes, which none can but admire. Being a close student, and endowed by Nature with a retentive memory, he supplies himself with the most complicated dates and historical events. Nothing can surpass the variety of his matter. He extracts from a subject all that it contains, and does it as none but Wendell Phillips can. His voice is beautifully musical, and it is calculated to attract wherever it is heard. He is a man of calm intrepidity, of a patriotic and warm heart, with temper the most gentle, a rectitude of principle entirely natural, a freedom from ambition, and a modesty quite singular.

His speeches upon every subject upon which he has spoken, will compare favorably with anything ever uttered by Pitt or Sheridan in their palmiest days. No American is so eagerly reported in Europe, in what he says on the platform, as Mr. Phillips. His appeal for Cretan independence was circulated in the language of Demosthenes and Isocrates through Greece and its islands, and reached the ears of the mountaineers of Crete, for whom he spoke.

But it is in the Anti-slavery cause that we love to write of him. As a speaker on that platform, he has never had an equal; and the good he has rendered the slave by his eloquent speeches can never be estimated.

Considering his position in society, his talents and prospects when in youth he entered the ranks of the proscribed and hated Abolitionists, we feel that Mr. Phillips has sacrificed more upon the altar of freedom than any other living man.

On the opposite side of the table from Mr. Phillips, sits Edmund Quincy, the ripe scholar and highly-cultivated gentleman and interesting writer. If he is not so eloquent a speaker as his friend Phillips, he is none the less staunch in his adherence to principle. He is one of the best presiding officers that New England can produce.

A little farther down on the same side is Francis Jackson. His calm Roman face, large features, well-developed head, and robust-looking frame tells you at once that he is a man of courage. He was one of the first to take his stand by the side of Mr. Garrison; and when the mob in 1835 broke up the anti-slavery meeting held by the ladies, Mr. Jackson, with a moral courage scarcely ever equalled, came forward and offered his private dwelling to them to hold their meeting in.

Still farther down on the same side sits Maria Weston Chapman, the well-read and accomplished lady, the head and heart of the Anti-slavery Bazaar. Many an influential woman has been induced to take part in the Bazaar and Subscription Festival, solely on account of the earnest eloquence and polished magnetism of Mrs. Chapman. By her side sits her gifted little sister, Anne Warren Weston. On the opposite side of the table is Samuel May, Jr., the able and efficient general agent of the Society. To his perseverance, industry, gentlemanly manners, and good sense, the Society owes much of its success. In the earlier days of the movement, Mr. May left the pulpit and a lucrative salary, that he might devote his time to the cause in which his heart had long been engaged. Mr. May is an earnest speaker, and never takes the platform unless he has something to say. He is simple, plain, and one of the best of friends. It was the good fortune of the writer to be associated with him for a number of years; and he never looks back to those days but with the best feeling and most profound respect for the moral character and Christian worth of Samuel May, Jr.

Not far from Mr. May sat Charles F. Hovey, the princely Summer Street merchant, the plain, honest, outspoken man whose heart felt the wrongs of the oppressed as keenly as if he himself had been one of the race. Gathered since to his heavenly rest, he bequeathed a large sum of money to carry on the battle for the negro’s freedom. Farther down the table was Eliza Lee Follen, whose poems in favor of liberty have so often been sung in our anti-slavery conventions. Sydney Howard Gay, the polished writer, the editor of the Society’s organ, occupied a seat next to Mrs. Follen. With small frame, finely-cut features, and pleasant voice, he is ever listened to with marked attention. Mr. Gay is a gentleman in every sense of the term.

Near the end of the table is William I. Bowditch, the able scholar, the ripe lawyer, the devoted friend of freedom. Lastly, there is Charles K. Whipple, the “C. K. W.,” of “The Liberator,” and the “North,” of the “Anti-slavery Standard.” A stronger executive board for a great moral object probably never existed. They were men and women in whom the public had the utmost confidence, individually, for rectitude of character.

There were also present on this occasion five persons who were not members of the board, but whose long and arduous labors entitled them to a seat around the table. These were Samuel J. May, Lydia Maria Child, James and Lucretia Mott, and Thomas Garrett; and of these we shall now make mention.

Born in Boston, educated in her unsurpassed schools, a graduate of Harvard University, and deeply imbued with the spirit and teachings of the great leader of our salvation, and a philanthropist by nature, Samuel J. May was drawn to the side of Mr. Garrison by the force of sympathy. He was a member of the Philadelphia Convention in 1833, at the formation of the American Anti-slavery Society, and his name is appended to the immortal “Declaration of Sentiments,” penned by Garrison, his life-long friend. When Prudence Crandall was imprisoned at Canterbury, Connecticut, for the crime of teaching colored girls to read, her most attached friend was Samuel J. May. He defended the persecuted woman, and stood by her till she was liberated. Although closely confined to his duties as preacher of the Gospel, Mr. May gave much of his time to the slaves’ cause. As a speaker, he was always interesting; for his sweet spirit and loving nature won to him the affectionate regard of all with whom he came in contact. As an Abolitionist, none were more true, more fearless. His house was long the home of the fugitive slaves passing through Syracuse, New York, and his church was always open to the anti-slavery lecturer when others were shut against him.

Lydia Maria Child early embraced the cause of the enslaved negro. Her sketches of some of the intellectual characters of the race appeared more than thirty years ago, and created considerable sensation from the boldness with which she advocated the black man’s equality.

James and Lucretia Mott were amongst the first in Pennsylvania to take the stand by the side of Mr. Garrison in defence of negro freedom. They were Abolitionists in every sense of the term, even to their clothing and food, for they were amongst the earliest to encourage the introduction of free-labor goods as a means of breaking up slavery, by reducing the value of the products of the slave’s toil. As a speaker, Mrs. Mott was doubtless the most eloquent woman that America ever produced. A highly-cultivated and reflective mind, thoroughly conversant with the negro’s suffering, hating everything that savored of oppression, whether religiously or politically, and possessing the brain and the courage, Mrs. Mott’s speeches were always listened to with the closest attention and the greatest interest.

Mr. Mott took little or no part in public gatherings; but his suggestions on committees, and his advice generally, were reliable. He gave of his means liberally, and seconded every movement of his noble wife.

Thomas Garrett was an Abolitionist from his youth up; and though the grand old cause numbered among its supporters, poets, sages, and statesmen, it had no more faithful worker in its ranks than Thomas Garrett. The work of this good man lay in Delaware, one of the meanest states in the Union, and the services which he rendered the free colored people of that State in their efforts to rise above the prejudice exhibited against their race can never be estimated.

But it was as a friend of the bondman escaping from his oppressor that Mr. Garrett was most widely known. For more than forty years he devoted himself to aiding the runaway slave in getting his freedom.

We have written of the executive officers of the most radical wing of the Anti-slavery movement, yet there was still another band whose labors were, if possible, more arduous, and deserve as much praise as any of whom we have made mention.

These were the lecturing agents, the men and women who performed the field service, the most difficult part of all the work. They went from city to city, and from town to town, urging the claims of the slave to his freedom; uttering truths that the people were not prepared for, and receiving in return, rotten eggs, sticks, stones, and the condemnation of the public generally. Many of these laborers neither asked nor received any compensation; some gave their time and paid their own expenses, satisfied with having an opportunity to work for humanity.

In the front rank of this heroic and fearless band, stood Abby Kelly Foster, the Joan of Arc, of the anti-slavery movement. Born, we believe, in the Society of Friends, and retaining to a great extent the seriousness of early training, convinced of the heinousness of slavery, she threw comfort, ease, and everything aside, and gave herself, in the bloom of young womanhood, to the advocacy of the right of the negro to his freedom. We first met Mrs. Foster (then Miss Kelly), about thirty years ago, at Buffalo, in the State of New York, and for the first time listened to a lecture against the hated system from which we had so recently escaped.

Somewhat above the common height, slim, but well-proportioned, finely-developed forehead and a pleasing countenance, eyes bright, voice clear, gestures a little nervous, and dressed in a plain manner, Mrs. Foster’s appearance on that occasion made a deep and lasting impression upon her audience. The life-like pictures which she drew of the helpless condition of her sisters in chains brought tears to many eyes, and when she demanded that those chains should be broken they responded with wild applause.

As a speaker, Mrs. Foster is logical, forcible; leaping from irony to grave argument. Her illustrations, anecdotes, and figures are always to the point. She is sharp and quick at repartee. In the earlier days of the movement, she was considered very able in discussion. At Buffalo, where we first heard her, she basted one of our ablest lawyers until he acknowledged the fact, amid loud applause. Mrs. Foster was at times harsh, but not harsher than truth. She is uncompromising, and always reliable in a public meeting where discussion on reformatory questions is under consideration. This lady gave the best years of her useful life to the redemption of the negro from slavery.

We may well give Stephen S. Foster a place by the side of his noble wife. He, too, embraced the cause of the slave at the dawn of the agitation of the subject, and at once became one of its ablest advocates. In downright field-work, as a lecturer, he did more than any other man. Mr. Foster was the most unpopular of all the anti-slavery agents; and simply because he “hewed to the line and the plummet,” not caring in whose face the chips flew. He was always at home in a discussion, and woe betide the person who fell into his hands. His announcement of his subject often startled his hearers, and even his best friends and associates would sometimes feel that he had overstated the question. But he always more than proved what he had said in the outset. In private life he is almost faultless; proverbially honest, trustworthy, and faithful in all his dealings, possessing in the estimation of his neighbors a high moral character.

Parker Pillsbury entered the field as an advocate of freedom about the same time as did Mr. Foster, and battled nobly for the oppressed.

Charles L. Remond was, we believe, the first man of color to take the platform as a regular lecturer in the anti-slavery cause, and was, no doubt, the ablest representative that the race had till the appearance of Frederick Douglass, in 1842. Mr. Remond prided himself more as the representative of the educated free man of color, and often alluded to the fact that “not a drop of slave blood” coursed through his veins. Mr. Remond has little or no originality, but his studied elocutionary powers, and fine flow of language, together with his being a colored man, always gained for him an attentive hearing. But the genius and originality of Frederick Douglass, and his unadorned eloquence, overshadowed and threw Remond in the shade. This so soured the latter that he never recovered from it, and even at the present time speaks disparagingly of his early friend and associate. However, both of these gentlemen did much to bring about the abolition of American Slavery.

Conspicuous among the advocates of freedom, almost from its earliest dawn to its close, was Charles C. Burleigh, the devoted friend of humanity. Nature has been profuse in showering her gifts upon Mr. Burleigh, but all have been bestowed upon his head and heart. There is a kind of eloquence which weaves its thread around the hearer, and gradually draws him into its web, fascinating him with its gaze, entangling him as the spider does the fly, until he is fast. Such is the eloquence of Charles C. Burleigh. As a debater, he is unquestionably the ablest who took sides with the slave. If he did not speak so fast, he would equal Wendell Phillips; if he did not reason his subject out of existence, he would surpass him. Cyrus M. Burleigh also did good service in the anti-slavery cause, both as a lecturer and editor of “The Pennsylvania Freeman.”

If Lucy Stone did not come into the field as early as some of whom we have made mention, she brought with her when she did an earnestness and enthusiasm that gave her an attentive audience wherever she spoke. Under the middle size, hair generally cut short, round face, eyes sparkling, not handsome, yet good to look upon, always plainly dressed, not a single dollar for diamonds, but a heart gushing for humanity, Lucy Stone at once became one of the most popular of the anti-slavery speakers. Her arguments are forcible, her appeals pathetic, her language plain, and at times classical. She is ready in debate, fertile in illustration, eloquent in enunciation, and moves a congregation as few can.

For real, earnest labor, as a leader of a corps of agents in a reformatory movement, Susan B. Anthony has few equals. As a speaker, she is full of facts and illustrations, and at times truly eloquent. Susan is always reliable; and if any of her travelling companions are colored, her hawk-eye is ever on the watch to see that their rights are not invaded on the score of their complexion. The writer’s dark skin thoroughly tested Miss Anthony’s grit some years ago at Cleveland, Ohio; but when weighed, she was not found wanting. On that occasion she found an efficient backer in our able and eloquent friend, Aaron M. Powell. These two, backed by the strong voice and earnest words of Andrew T. Foss, brought the hotelkeeper to his senses; and the writer was allowed to go to the dinner-table, and eat with white folks. Mr. Powell has for some years been the sole editor of the “Anti-Slavery Standard,” and as editor and speaker has rendered a lasting service to the cause of negro freedom. Andrew T. Foss left his pulpit some twenty years ago, to devote his entire time to the discussion of the principles of liberty, where his labors were highly appreciated.

Sallie Hollie filled an important niche on the anti-slavery platform. Her Orthodox antecedents, her scriptural knowledge, her prayerful and eloquent appeals obtained for her admission into churches when many others were refused; yet she was as uncompromising as truth.

Oliver Johnson gave his young manhood to the negro’s cause when to be an Abolitionist cost more than words. He was, in the earlier days of the movement, one of the hardest workers; both as a lecturer and writer, that the cause had. Mr. Johnson is a cogent reasoner, a deep thinker, a ready debater, an accomplished writer, and an eloquent speaker. He has at times edited the “Herald of Freedom,” “Anti-Slavery Standard,” and “Anti-Slavery Bugle;” and has at all times been one of the most uncompromising and reliable of the “Old Guard.”

Henry C. Wright was also among the early adherents to the doctrine of universal and immediate emancipation, and gave the cause the best years of his life.

Giles B. Stebbins, a ripe scholar, an acute thinker, earnest and able as a speaker, devoted to what he conceives to be right, was for years one of the most untiring of freedom’s advocates.

Of those who occasionally volunteered their services without money and without price, few struck harder blows at the old Bastile of slavery than James N. Buffum, a man of the people, whose abilities have been appreciated and acknowledged by his election as mayor of his own city of Lynn.

James Miller McKim was one of the signers of the Declaration of Sentiments, at Philadelphia, in 1833, and ever after gave his heart and his labors to the slave’s cause. For many years the leading man in the Anti-slavery Society in Pennsylvania, Mr. McKim’s labors were arduous, yet he never swerved from duty. He is a scholar, well read, and is a good speaker, only a little nervous. His round face indicates perseverance that will not falter, and integrity that will not disappoint. He always enjoyed the confidence of the Abolitionists throughout the country, and is regarded as a man of high moral character. Of the underground railroad through Pennsylvania, Mr. McKim knows more than any man except William Still.

Mary Grew, for her earnest labors, untiring activity, and truly eloquent speeches, was listened to with great interest and attention wherever she spoke. A more zealous and able friend the slave never had in Pennsylvania.

Lucretia Mott, the most eloquent woman that America ever produced, was a life-long Abolitionist, of the straightest kind. For years her clothing, food, and even the paper that she wrote her letters on, were the products of free labor. Thirty years ago we saw Mrs. Mott take from her pocket a little paper bag filled with sugar, and sweeten her tea. We then learned that it was her practice so to do when travelling, to be sure of having free sugar.

A phrenologist would pronounce her head faultless. She has a thoughtful countenance, eyes beaming with intelligence, and a voice of much compass. Mrs. Mott speaks hesitatingly at times, when she begins her remarks, and then words flow easily, and every word has a thought. She was always a favorite with the Abolitionists, and a welcome speaker at their anniversary meetings.

This was the radical wing of the Abolitionists,—men and women who believed mainly in moral suasion. Outside of these were many others who were equally sincere, and were laboring with all their powers to bring about emancipation, and to some of them I shall now call attention.

Some thirty years ago we met for the first time a gentleman of noble personal appearance, being about six feet in height, well-proportioned; forehead high and broad; large dark eyes, full of expression; hair brown, and a little tinged with gray. The fascination of his smiling gaze, and the hearty shake of his large, soft hand, made us feel at home when we were introduced to Gerrit Smith. His comprehensive and well-cultivated mind, his dignified and deliberate manner and musical voice fit him for what he is,—one of Nature’s noblest orators. Speaking is not the finest trait in the character of Mr. Smith, but his great, large heart, every pulsation of which beats for humanity. He brought to the negro’s cause wealth and position, and laid it all upon the altar of his redemption. In the year 1846 he gave three thousand farms to the same number of colored men; and three years later he gave a farm each to one thousand white men, with ten thousand dollars to be divided amongst them.

Mr. Smith has spent in various ways many hundred thousand dollars for the liberation and elevation of the blacks of this country. Next to Mr. Smith, in the State of New York, is Beriah Greene, whose long devotion to the cause of freedom is known throughout our land. Many of the colored men whose career have done honor to the race, owe their education to Mr. Greene. He is the most radical churchman we know of, always right on the question of slavery. He did much in the early days of the agitation, and his speeches were considered amongst the finest productions on the anti-slavery platform.

The old Abolitionists of thirty years ago still remember with pleasure the smiling face and intellectual countenance of Nathaniel P. Rogers, editor of the “Herald of Freedom,” a weekly newspaper that found a welcome wherever it went. Mr. Rogers was a man of rare gifts, of a philosophical and penetrating mind, high literary cultivation, quick perception, and of a most genial nature. He dealt hard blows at the peculiar institution with both his tongue and his pen. As a speaker, he was more argumentative than eloquent, but was always good in a discussion. As an ardent friend of Mr. Garrison, and a co-worker with him, Mr. Rogers should have been named with the moral suasionists.

William Goodell, a prolific writer, a deep thinker, a man of great industry, and whose large eyes indicate immense language, has labored long and faithfully for justice and humanity.

John P. Hale was the first man to make a successful stand in Congress, and he did his work nobly. His free-and-easy manner, his Falstaffian fun, and Cromwellian courage, were always too much for Foote and his Southern associates in the Senate, and in every contest for freedom the New Hampshire Senator came off victorious. Mr. Hale is a large, fat, social man, fine head, pleasing countenance, possessing much pungent wit, irony, and sarcasm; able and eloquent in debate, and has always been a true friend of negro freedom and elevation.

Charles Sumner had made his mark in favor of humanity, and especially in behalf of the colored race, long before the doors of the United States Senate opened to admit him as a member. In the year 1846, he refused to lecture before a New Bedford lyceum, because colored citizens were not allowed to occupy seats in common with the whites. His lectures and speeches all had the ring of the right metal. His career in Congress has been one of unsurpassed brilliancy. His oratorical efforts in the capital of the nation equal anything ever reported from the forums of Rome or Athens. Whatever is designed to promote the welfare and happiness of the human race, Mr. Sumner has the courage to advocate and defend to the last.

In firmness, he may be said to be without a rival on the floor of the Senate, and has at times appeared a little dogged. However, his foresight and sagacity show that he is generally in the right. Mr. Sumner’s efforts in favor of reform have been ably seconded in Congress by his colleague and friend, Henry Wilson, a man of the people, and from the people. Without great educational attainments, modest in his manners, never assuming aristocratic airs, plain, blunt, yet gentlemanly, Mr. Wilson has always carried with him a tremendous influence; and his speeches exhibit great research and much practical common sense. He is a hard worker, and in that kind of industry which is needed on committees, he is doubtless unequalled. As an old-time Whig, a Free-soiler, and a Republican, Mr. Wilson has always been an Abolitionist of the most radical stripe; and in Congress, has done as much for negro emancipation, and the elevation of the blacks, as any living man.

Foremost in his own State, as well as in Congress, for many years, was that good old man, Thaddeus Stevens, an earnest friend of the poor man, whether white or black. Strong in the consciousness of being right, he never shrank from any encounter, and nobody said more in fewer words, or gave to language a sharper bite, than he. On the question of slavery, Mr. Stevens was uncompromisingly the negro’s friend and faithful advocate.

Joshua R. Giddings, next to John Quincy Adams, was the first man, we believe, that really stirred up the House of Representatives in behalf of the slave. Mr. Giddings was a man without fear, entirely devoted to the welfare of mankind; not an orator, in the accepted sense of the term, but an able debater; ready in facts and illustrations, and always to be relied upon when the Southerners attempted to encroach upon freedom. Mr. Giddings never denied, even in the earlier days of the agitation, that he was an Abolitionist.

George W. Julian, of Indiana, entered the halls of Congress as an enemy of negro slavery, and, up to the present time, stands firm to his early convictions.

Thomas Russell began life as a friend of negro emancipation, and wherever his eloquent voice was heard, it gave no uncertain sound on the subject of freedom. The Judge is a special favorite of the colored men of Boston, and richly deserves it; for, as a Collector of Customs, he has given employment to a large number of the proscribed class.

Charles W. Slack, the talented editor of “The Commonwealth,”—the outspoken friend of liberty, whose gentlemanly deportment, polished manners, and sympathetic heart extend to the negro the same cordial welcome in his office that he gives to the white man,—is an old-time Abolitionist. The colored clerk in his Revenue department is prima facie evidence that he has no prejudice against the negro. Both as a speaker and a writer, Mr. Slack did the cause of the slave great service, when it cost something to be a friend to the race.

CHAPTER XLIX. THE NEW ERA.

The close of the Rebellion opened to the negro a new era in his history. The chains of slavery had been severed; and although he had not been clothed with all the powers of the citizen, the black man was, nevertheless, sure of all his rights being granted, for revolutions seldom go backward. With the beginning of the work of reconstruction, the right of the negro to the ballot came legitimately before the country, and brought with it all the virus of negro hate that could be thought of. President Andrew Johnson threw the weight of his official influence into the scales against the newly-liberated people, which for a time cast a dark shadow over the cause of justice and freedom. Congress, however, by its Constitutional amendments, settled the question, and clothed the blacks with the powers of citizenship; and with their white fellow-citizens they entered the reconstruction conventions, and commenced the work of bringing their states back into the Union. This was a trying position for the recently enfranchised blacks; for slavery had bequeathed to them nothing but poverty, ignorance, and dependence upon their former owners for employment and the means of sustaining themselves and their families. The transition through which they passed during the war, had imparted to some a smattering of education; and this, with the natural aptitude of the negro for acquiring, made the colored men appear to advantage in whatever position they were called to take part.

The speeches delivered by some of these men in the conventions and state legislatures exhibit a depth of thought, flights of eloquence, and civilized statesmanship, that throw their former masters far in the background.

In the work of reconstruction, the colored men had the advantage of being honest and sincere in what they undertook, and labored industriously for the good of the country.

The riots in various Southern states, following the enfranchising of the men of color, attest the deep-rooted prejudice existing with the men who once so misruled the rebellious states. In Georgia, Tennessee, and Louisiana, these outbursts of ill feeling caused the loss of many lives, and the destruction of much property. No true Union man, white or black, was safe. The Constitutional amendment, which gave the ballot to the black men of the North in common with their brethren of the South, aroused the old pro-slavery feeling in the free states, which made it scarcely safe for the newly enfranchised to venture to the polls on the day of election in some of the Northern cities. The cry that this was a “white man’s government,” was raised from one end of the country to the other by the Democratic press, and the Taney theory that “black men had no rights that white men were bound to respect,” was revived, with all its negro hate.

Military occupation of the South was all that saved the freedmen from destruction. Under it, they were able to take part in the various Constitutional and Legislative elections, and to hold seats in those bodies. As South Carolina had been the most conspicuous in the Rebellion, so she was the first to return to the Union, and to recognize the political equality of the race whom in former days she had bought and sold. Her Senate hall, designed to echo the eloquence of the Calhouns, the McDuffies, the Hammonds, the Hamptons, and the Rhetts, has since resounded with the speeches of men who were once her bond slaves. Ransier, the negro, now fills the chair of President of the Senate, where once sat the proud and haughty Calhoun; while Nash, the tall, gaunt, full-blooded negro, speaks in the plantation dialect from the desk in which Wade Hampton in former days stood. The State is represented in Congress by Elliott, Rainey, and De Large. South Carolina submitted quietly to her destiny.

Not so, however, with Georgia. At the election in November, 1867, for members to the State Convention, thirty thousand white and eighty thousand colored votes were polled, and a number of colored delegates elected. A Constitution was framed and ratified, and a Legislature elected under it was convened. After all this, supposing they had passed beyond Congressional control, the Rebel element in the Legislature asserted itself; and many of those whose disabilities had been removed by the State Convention, which comprised a number of colored members, joined in the declaration which was made by that Legislature, that a man having more than one-eighth of African blood in his veins was ineligible to office.

These very men to whom the Republican party extended all the rights and privileges of citizenship, of which they had deprived themselves, denied political equality to a large majority of their fellow-citizens. Twenty-eight members were expelled on December 22, 1869; an Act of Congress was passed requiring the re-assembling of the persons declared elected by the military commander, the restoration of the expelled members, and the rejection of others, who were disqualified.

The expulsion of the ex-rebels from the Georgia Legislature, and the admission of the loyal colored men, whose seats had been forcibly taken from them, had a good effect upon all the Southern States, for it showed that the national administration was determined that justice should be done.

The prompt admission of Hiram R. Revels to a seat in the United States Senate from Mississippi, showed that progress was the watch-word of the Republican party. The appointments of E. D. Bassett as Minister to Hayti, and J. Milton Turner as Consul-General to Liberia, set at rest all doubt with regard to the views of President Grant, and the negro’s political equality.

In 1869, colored men, for the first time in the history of the District of Columbia, were drawn as jurors, and served with white men. This was the crowning event of that glorious emancipation which began at the capital, and radiated throughout the length and breadth of the nation. Since then, one by one, distinguishing lines have been erased, and now the black man is deemed worthy to participate in all the privileges of an American citizen.

The election of Oscar J. Dunn as Lieutenant-Governor of Louisiana, was a triumph which gladdened the hearts of his race from Maine to California. Alabama sent B. S. Turner to Congress; Florida, J. T. Walls, while colored men entered the Legislative halls of several states not named in this connection.

The National Republican Convention, held at Philadelphia in June, 1872, received as delegates a number of colored men, and for the first time in the history of Presidential conventions, the negro’s voice was heard and applauded.

Education is what we now need, and education we must have, at all hazards. Wilberforce and Avery Colleges, and Lincoln University, have all done good service. Howard University, Lincoln Institute, Hampton Manual Labor School, and Fisk University, are harbingers of light to our people. But we need an educated ministry; and until we have it, the masses will grope in darkness. The cause of Temperance, that John the Baptist of reforms, must be introduced into every community, and every other method resorted to by the whites for their elevation should be used by the colored men.

Our young men must be encouraged to enter the various professions, and to become mechanics, and thereby lay the foundation for future usefulness.

An ignorant man will trust to luck for success; an educated man will make success. God helps those who help themselves.

CHAPTER L. REPRESENTATIVE MEN AND WOMEN.

In our Sketches of Representative Men and Women, some will be found to have scarcely more than a local reputation; but they are persons who have contributed, of their ability, towards the Freedom of the Race, and should not be forgotten. Others bid fair to become distinguished in the future. We commence with our first hero:—

CRISPUS ATTUCKS.

The principle that taxation and representation were inseparable was in accordance with the theory, the genius, and the precedents of British legislation; and this principle was now, for the first time, intentionally invaded. The American colonies were not represented in Parliament; yet an act was passed by that body, the tendency of which was to invalidate all right and title to their property. This was the “Stamp Act,” of March 23, 1765, which ordained that no sale, bond, note of hand, nor other instrument of writing, should be valid, unless executed on paper bearing the stamp prescribed by the home government. The intelligence of the passage of the stamp act at once roused the indignation of the liberty-loving portion of the people of the colonies, and meetings were held at various points to protest against this high-handed measure.

Massachusetts was the first to take a stand in opposition to the mother country. The merchants and traders of Boston, New York, and Philadelphia entered into non-importation agreements, with a view of obtaining a repeal of the obnoxious law. Under the pressure of public sentiment, the stamp act officers gave in their resignations. The eloquence of William Pitt and the sagacity of Lord Camden brought about a repeal of the stamp act in the British Parliament. A new ministry, in 1767, succeeded in getting through the House of Commons a bill to tax the tea imported into the American colonies, and it received the royal assent. Massachusetts again took the lead in opposing the execution of this last act, and Boston began planning to take the most conspicuous part in the great drama. The agitation in the colonies provoked the home government, and power was given to the governor of Massachusetts to take notice of all persons who might offer any treasonable objections to these oppressive enactments, that the same might be sent home to England to be tried there. Lord North was now at the head of affairs, and no leniency was to be shown to the colonies. The concentration of British troops in large numbers at Boston convinced the people that their liberties were at stake, and they began to rally.

A crowded and enthusiastic meeting, held in Boston, in the latter part of the year 1769, was addressed by the ablest talent that the progressive element could produce. Standing in the back part of the hall, eagerly listening to the speakers, was a dark mulatto man, very tall, rather good-looking, and apparently, about fifty years of age. This was Crispus Attucks. Though taking no part in the meeting, he was nevertheless destined to be conspicuous in the first struggle in throwing off the British yoke. Twenty years previous to this, Attucks was the slave of William Brouno, Esq., of Framingham, Massachusetts; but his was a heart beating for freedom, and not to be kept in the chains of mental or bodily servitude.

From the “Boston Gazette” of Tuesday, November 20, 1750, I copy the following advertisement:—

“Ran away from his master William Brouno Framingham, on the 30th of Sept., last, a Molatto Fellow, about 27 years of Age named Crispus, well set, six feet 2 inches high, short curl’d Hair, knees nearer together than common; had on a light coloured Bearskin Coat, brown Fustian jacket, new Buckskin Breeches, blew yarn Stockins and Checkered Shirt. Whoever shall take up said Runaway, and convey him to his above said Master at Framingham, shall have Ten Pounds, old Tenor Reward and all necessary charges paid.”

The above is a verbatim et literatim advertisement for a runaway slave one hundred and twenty-two years ago. Whether Mr. Brouno succeeded in recapturing Crispus or not, we are left in the dark.

Ill-feeling between the mother country and her colonial subjects had been gaining ground, while British troops were concentrating at Boston. On the 5th of March, 1770, the people were seen early congregating at the corners of the principal streets, at Dock Square, and near the Custom House. Captain Preston, with a body of redcoats, started out for the purpose of keeping order in the disaffected town, and was hissed at by the crowds in nearly every place where he appeared. The day passed off without any outward manifestation of disturbance, but all seemed to feel that something would take place after nightfall. The doubling of the guard in and about the Custom House showed the authorities felt an insecurity that they did not care to express. The lamps in Dock Square threw their light in the angry faces of a large crowd who appeared to be waiting for the crisis, in whatever form it should come. A part of Captain Preston’s company was making its way from the Custom House, when they were met by the crowd from Dock Square, headed by the black man Attucks, who was urging them to meet the redcoats, and drive them from the streets. “These rebels have no business here,” said he; “let’s drive them away.” The people became enthusiastic, their brave leader grew more daring in his language and attitude, while the soldiers under Captain Preston appeared to give way. “Come on! don’t be afraid!” cried Attucks. “They dare not shoot; and, if they dare, let them do it.”

Stones and sticks, with which the populace were armed, were freely used, to the great discomfiture of the English soldiers. “Don’t hesitate! come on! We’ll drive these rebels out of Boston!” were the last words heard from the lips of the colored man, for the sharp crack of muskets silenced his voice, and he fell weltering in his blood. Two balls had pierced his sable breast. Thus died Crispus Attucks, the first martyr to American liberty, and the inaugurator of the revolution that was destined to take from the crown of George the Third its brightest star. An immense concourse of citizens followed the remains of the hero to its last resting-place, and his name was honorably mentioned in the best circles. The last words, the daring, and the death of Attucks gave spirit and enthusiasm to the revolution, and his heroism was imitated by both whites and blacks. His name was a rallying cry for the brave colored men who fought at the battle of Bunker’s Hill. In the gallant defence of Redbank, where four hundred blacks met and defeated fifteen hundred Hessians, headed by Count Donop, the thought of Attucks filled them with ardor. When Colonel Green fell at Groton, surrounded by his black troops who perished with him, they went into the battle feeling proud of the opportunity of imitating the first martyr of the American revolution.

No monument has yet been erected to him. An effort was made in the legislature of Massachusetts a few years since, but without success. Five generations of accumulated prejudice against the negro had excluded from the American mind all inclination to do justice to one of her bravest sons. Now that slavery is abolished, we may hope, in future years, to see a monument raised to commemorate the heroism of Crispus Attucks.

PHILLIS WHEATLEY.

In the year 1761, when Boston had her slave market, and the descendants of the Pilgrims appeared to be the most pious and God-fearing people in the world, Mrs. John Wheatley went into the market one day, for the purpose of selecting and purchasing a girl for her own use. Among the group of children just imported from the African coast was a delicately-built, rather good-looking child of seven or eight years, apparently suffering from the recent sea-voyage and change of climate. Mrs. Wheatley’s heart was touched at the interesting countenance and humble modesty of this little stranger. The lady bought the child, and she was named Phillis. Struck with the slave’s uncommon brightness, the mistress determined to teach her to read, which she did with no difficulty. The child soon mastered the English language, with which she was totally unacquainted when she landed upon the American shores.

Her school lessons were all perfect, and she drank in the Scriptural teachings as if by intuition. At the age of twelve, she could write letters and keep up a correspondence that would have done honor to one double her years. Mrs. Wheatley, seeing her superior genius, no longer regarded Phillis as a servant, but took her as a companion. It was not surprising that the slave-girl should be an object of attraction, astonishment, and attention with the refined and highly-cultivated society that weekly assembled in the drawing-room of the Wheatleys.

As Phillis grew up to womanhood, her progress and attainments kept pace with the promise of her earlier years. She drew around her the best educated of the white ladies, and attracted the attention and notice of the literary characters of Boston, who supplied her with books, and encouraged the ripening of her intellectual powers. She studied the Latin tongue, and translated one of Ovid’s tales, which was no sooner put in print in America, than it was republished in London, with elegant commendations from the reviews.

In 1773, a small volume of her poems, containing thirty-nine pieces, was published in London, and dedicated to the Countess of Huntingdon. The genuineness of this work was established in the first page of the volume, by a document signed by the governor of Massachusetts, the lieutenant-governor, her master, and fifteen of the most respectable and influential citizens of Boston, who were acquainted with her talents and the circumstances of her life. Her constitution being naturally fragile, she was advised by her physician to take a sea voyage, as the means of restoring her declining health.

Phillis was emancipated by her master at the age of twenty-one years, and sailed for England. On her arrival, she was received and admired in the first circles of London society; and it was at that time that her poems were collected and published in a volume, with a portrait and a memoir of the authoress. Phillis returned to America, and married Dr. Peters, a man of her own color, and of considerable talents. Her health began rapidly to decline, and she died at the age of twenty-six years, in 1780. Fortunately rescued from the fate that awaits the victims of the slave-trade, this injured daughter of Africa had an opportunity of developing the genius that God had given her, and of showing to the world the great wrong done to her race.

Although her writings are not free from imperfections of style and sentiment, her verses are full of philosophy, beauty, and sublimity. It cost her no effort to round a period handsomely, or polish a sentence until it became transparent with splendor. She was easy, forcible, and eloquent in language, and needed but health and a few more years of experience to have made her a poet of greater note.

BENJAMIN BANNEKER.

The services rendered to science, to liberty, and to the intellectual character of the negro by Banneker, are too great for us to allow his name to sleep, and his genius and merits to remain hidden from the world.

Benjamin Banneker was born in the State of Maryland, in the year 1732, of pure African parentage; their blood never having been corrupted by the introduction of a drop of Anglo-Saxon. His father was a slave, and of course could do nothing towards the education of the child. The mother, however, being free, succeeded in purchasing the freedom of her husband, and they, with their son, settled on a few acres of land, where Benjamin remained during the lifetime of his parents.

His entire schooling was gained from an obscure country school, established for the education of the children of free negroes; and these advantages were poor, for the boy appears to have finished studying before he arrived at his fifteenth year. Although out of school, Banneker was still a student, and read with great care and attention such books as he could get. Mr. George Ellicott, a gentleman of fortune and considerable literary taste, and who resided near to Benjamin, became interested in him, and lent him books from his large library. Among these books were Mayer’s Tables, Fergusson’s Astronomy, and Leadbeater’s Lunar Tables. A few old and imperfect astronomical instruments also found their way into the boy’s hands, all of which he used with great benefit to his own mind.

Banneker took delight in the study of the languages, and soon mastered the Latin, Greek, and German. He was also proficient in the French. The classics were not neglected by him, and the general literary knowledge which he possessed caused Mr. Ellicott to regard him as the most learned man in the town, and he never failed to introduce Banneker to his most distinguished guests.

About this time, Benjamin turned his attention particularly to Astronomy, and determined on making calculations for an almanac, and completed a set for the whole year. Encouraged by this attempt, he entered upon calculations for subsequent years, which, as well as the former, he began and finished without the least assistance from any person or books than those already mentioned; so that whatever merit is attached to his performance is exclusively his own.

He published an almanac in Philadelphia for the years 1792-3-4-5, and which contained his calculations, exhibiting the different aspects of the planets, a table of the motions of the sun and moon, their risings and settings, and the courses of the bodies of the planetary system.

By this time, Banneker’s acquirements had become generally known, and the best scholars in the country opened correspondence with him. Goddard & Angell, the well-known Baltimore publishers, engaged his pen for their establishment, and became the publishers of his almanacs. A copy of his first production was sent to Thomas Jefferson, together with a letter intended to interest the great statesman in the cause of negro emancipation and the elevation of the negro race, in which he says:—

“It is a truth too well attested to need a proof here, that we are a race of beings who have long labored under the abuse and censure of the world; that we have long been looked upon with an eye of contempt, and considered rather as brutish than human, and scarcely capable of mental endowments. I hope I may safely admit, in consequence of the report which has reached me, that you are a man far less inflexible in sentiments of this nature than many others; that you are measurably friendly and well disposed towards us, and that you are willing to lend your aid and assistance for our relief from those many distresses and numerous calamities to which we are reduced.

“If this is founded in truth, I apprehend you will embrace every opportunity to eradicate that train of absurd and false ideas and opinions which so generally prevail with respect to us, and that your sentiments are concurrent with mine,—which are, that one universal Father hath given being to us all; that he hath not only made us all of one flesh, but that he hath also, without partiality, afforded us all the same sensations, and endowed us all with the same faculties; and that, however variable we may be in society or religion, however diversified in situation or in color, we are all of the same family, and stand in the same relation to him. If these are sentiments of which you are fully persuaded, you cannot but acknowledge that it is the indispensable duty of those who maintain the rights of human nature, and who profess the obligations of Christianity, to extend their power and influence to the relief of every part of the human race from whatever burden or oppression they may unjustly labor under; and this, I apprehend a full conviction of the truth and obligation of these principles should lead all to.

“I have long been convinced that if your love for yourselves, and for those inestimable laws which preserved to you the rights of human nature, is founded on sincerity, you cannot help being solicitous that every individual, of whatever rank or distinction, might with you equally enjoy the blessings thereof; neither can you rest satisfied short of the most active effusion of your exertions, in order to effect their promotion from any state of degradation to which the unjustifiable cruelty and barbarism of men may have reduced them.

“I freely and cheerfully acknowledge that I am one of the African race, and in that color which is natural to them, of the deepest dye; and it is under a sense of the most profound gratitude to the Supreme Ruler of the universe, that I now confess to you that I am not under that state of tyrannical thraldom and inhuman captivity to which too many of my brethren are doomed; but that I have abundantly tasted of the fruition of those blessings which proceed from that free and unequalled liberty with which you are favored, and which I hope you will willingly allow you have mercifully received from the immediate hand of that Being from whom proceedeth every good and perfect gift.

“Your knowledge of the situation of my brethren is too extensive to need a recital here; neither shall I presume to prescribe methods by which they may be relieved, otherwise than by recommending to you and to others to wean yourselves from those narrow prejudices which you have imbibed with respect to them, and, as Job proposed to his friends, ‘put your soul in their souls’ stead.’ Thus shall your hearts be enlarged with kindness and benevolence towards them; and thus shall you need neither the direction of myself or others in what manner to proceed herein.... The calculation for this almanac is the production of my arduous study in my advanced stage of life; for having long had unbounded desires to become acquainted with the secrets of nature, I have had to gratify my curiosity herein through my own assiduous application to astronomical study, in which I need not recount to you the many difficulties and disadvantages which I have had to encounter.”

Mr. Jefferson at once replied, and said:—

“I thank you sincerely for your letter and the almanac it contained. Nobody wishes more than I do to see such proofs as you exhibit, that Nature has given to our black brethren talents equal to those of the other colors of men, and that the appearance of the want of them is owing merely to the degraded condition of their existence, both in Africa and America. I can add with truth, that nobody wishes more ardently to see a good system commenced for raising their condition, both of their body and their mind, to what it ought to be, as far as the imbecility of their present existence, and other circumstances, which cannot be neglected, will admit. I have taken the liberty of sending your almanac to Monsieur de Condorcet, secretary of the Academy of Sciences at Paris, and a member of the Philanthropic Society, because I consider it as a document to which your whole color have a right, for their justification against the doubts which have been entertained of them.”

The letter from Banneker, together with the almanac, created in the heart of Mr. Jefferson a fresh feeling of enthusiasm in behalf of freedom, and especially for the negro, which ceased only with his life. The American statesman wrote to Brissot, the celebrated French writer, in which he made enthusiastic mention of the “Negro Philosopher.” At the formation of the “Society of the Friends of the Blacks,” at Paris, by Lafayette, Brissot, Barnave, Condorcet, and Gregoire, the name of Banneker was again and again referred to to prove the equality of the races. Indeed, the genius of the “Negro Philosopher” did much towards giving liberty to the people of St. Domingo. In the British House of Commons, Pitt, Wilberforce, and Buxton often alluded to Banneker by name, as a man fit to fill any position in society. At the setting off of the District of Columbia for the capital of the federal government, Banneker was invited by the Maryland commissioners, and took an honorable part in the settlement of the territory. But, throughout all his intercourse with men of influence, he never lost sight of the condition of his race, and ever urged the emancipation and elevation of the slave. He well knew that everything that was founded upon the admitted inferiority of natural right in the African was calculated to degrade him and bring him nearer to the foot of the oppressor, and he therefore never failed to allude to the equality of the races when with those whites whom he could influence. He always urged self-elevation upon the colored people whom he met. He felt that to deprive the black man of the inspiration of ambition, of hope, of wealth, of standing, among his brethren of the earth, was to take from him all incentives to mental improvement.

What husbandman incurs the toil of seed-time and culture, except with a view to the subsequent enjoyment of a golden harvest? Banneker was endowed by Nature with all those excellent qualifications which are necessary previous to the accomplishment of a great man. His memory was large and tenacious, yet, by a curious felicity, chiefly susceptible of the finest impressions it received from the best authors he read, which he always preserved in their primitive strength and amiable order. He had a quickness of apprehension and a vivacity of understanding which easily took in and surmounted the most subtile and knotty parts of mathematics and metaphysics. He possessed in a large degree that genius which constitutes a man of letters; that equality, without which, judgment is cold, and knowledge is inert; that energy which collects, combines, amplifies, and animates.

He knew every branch of history, both natural and civil; he had read all the original historians of England, France, and Germany, and was a great antiquarian. Criticism, metaphysics, morals, politics, voyages, and travels, were all studied and well digested by him. With such a fund of knowledge, his conversation was equally interesting, instructive, and entertaining. Banneker was so favorably appreciated by the first families in Virginia, that in 1803 he was invited by Mr. Jefferson, then President of the United States, to visit him at Monticello, where the statesman had gone for recreation. But he was too infirm to undertake the journey. He died the following year, aged seventy-two. Like the golden sun that has sunk beneath the western horizon, but still throws upon the world, which he sustained and enlightened in his career, the reflected beams of his departed genius, his name can only perish with his language.

Banneker believed in the divinity of reason, and in the omnipotence of the human understanding, with Liberty for its handmaid. The intellect, impregnated by science, and multiplied by time, it appeared to him, must triumph necessarily over all the resistance of matter. He had faith in liberty, truth, and virtue. His remains still rest in the slave state where he lived and died, with no stone to mark the spot, or tell that it is the grave of Benjamin Banneker. He labored incessantly, lived irreproachably, and died in the literary harness, universally esteemed and regretted.

WILLIAM P. QUINN.

The man who lays aside home comforts, and willingly becomes a missionary to the poorest of the poor, deserves the highest praise that his fellow-men can bestow upon him. After laboring faithfully for the upbuilding of the church in New York, Baltimore, and Philadelphia, William P. Quinn, thirty-five years ago, went to the West, a most undesirable place for a colored man at that time. But he did not count the cost; it was enough for him to know that his services were needed, and he left the consequences with God.

Never, probably, was a man more imbued with the spirit of the Great Teacher, than was Mr. Quinn in his missionary work. Old men and women are still living who delight to dwell on the self-denial, Christian zeal, manly graces, and industry that characterized this good man in the discharge of his duties in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri. His advice was always fatherly; his example inculcated devoted piety.

As a speaker, he was earnest and eloquent, possessing an inward enthusiasm that sent a magnetic current through his entire congregation. Having the fullest confidence of the people with whom he was called to labor, they regarded him as one sent of God, and they hung upon his words as if their future welfare depended upon the counsel they received.

In 1844, Mr. Quinn was made a bishop, a position for which he had every qualification. Tanner, in his “Apology,” says:—

“The demands of the work made it necessary to elect another bishop, and, as if by inspiration, a large majority fixed their eyes on the great missionary as the man most competent to fill the post.”

Bishop Quinn died in February, 1873, at the advanced age of eighty-five years.

DAVID RUGGLES.

Of those who took part in the anti-slavery work thirty-five years ago, none was more true to his race than David Ruggles. Residing in the city of New York, where slaveholders often brought their body servants, and kept them for weeks, Mr. Ruggles became a thorn in the sides of these Southern sinners. He was ready at all times, in dangers and perils, to wrest his brethren from these hyenas, and so successful was he in getting slaves from their masters, and sending them to Canada, that he became the terror of Southerners visiting northern cities. He was one of the founders of the celebrated underground railroad.

Harassed by the pro-slavery whites, and betrayed and deserted by some of his own color, David Ruggles still labored for his people.

He was deeply interested in the moral, social, and political elevation of the free colored men of the North, and to that end published and edited for several years the “Mirror of Liberty,” a quarterly magazine, devoted to the advocacy of the rights of his race.

As a writer, Mr. Ruggles was keen and witty,—always logical,—sending his arrows directly at his opponent. The first thing we ever read, coming from the pen of a colored man, was “David M. Reese, M. D., used up by David Ruggles, a man of color.” Dr. Reese was a noted colonizationist, and had written a work in which he advocated the expatriation of the blacks from the American continent; and Mr. Ruggles’s work was in reply to it. In this argument the negro proved too much for the Anglo-Saxon, and exhibited in Mr. Ruggles those qualities of keen perception, deep thought, and originality, that mark the critic and man of letters.

He was of unmixed blood, of medium size, genteel address, and interesting in conversation.

Attacked with a disease which resulted in total blindness, Mr. Ruggles visited Northampton, Massachusetts, for the benefit of his health. Here he founded a “Water Cure,” which became famous, and to which a large number of the better classes resorted. In this new field, Mr. Ruggles won honorable distinction as a most successful practitioner, secured the warm regard of the public, and left a name embalmed in the hearts of many who feel that they owe life to his eminent skill and careful practice. Mr. Ruggles was conscientious, upright, and just in all his dealings. He died in 1849, universally respected and esteemed.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS.

The career of this distinguished individual whose name heads this sketch, is more widely known than that of any other living colored man. Born and brought up under the institution of slavery, which denied its victims the right of developing those natural powers that adorn the children of men, and distinguish them from the beasts of the forest,—an institution that gave a premium to ignorance, and made intelligence a crime, when the possessor was a negro,—Frederick Douglass is, indeed, the most wonderful man that America has ever produced, white or black.

His days of servitude were like those of his race who were born at the South, differing but little from the old routine of plantation life. Douglass, however, possessed superior natural gifts, which began to show themselves even when a boy, but his history has become too well known for us to dwell on it here. The narrative of his life, published in 1845, gave a new impetus to the black man’s literature. All other stories of fugitive slaves faded away before the beautifully-written, highly-descriptive, and thrilling memoir of Frederick Douglass. Other narratives had only brought before the public a few heart-rending scenes connected with the person described. But Mr. Douglass, in his book, brought not only his old master’s farm and its occupants before the reader, but the entire country around him, including Baltimore and its shipyard. The manner in which he obtained his education, and especially his learning to write, has been read and re-read by thousands in both hemispheres. His escape from slavery is too well understood to need a recapitulation here.

He took up his residence in New Bedford, where he still continued the assiduous student, mastering the different branches of education which the accursed institution had deprived him of in early life.

His advent as a lecturer was a remarkable one. White men and black men had talked against slavery, but none had ever spoken like Frederick Douglass. Throughout the North the newspapers were filled with the sayings of the “eloquent fugitive.” He often travelled with others, but they were all lost sight of in the eagerness to hear Douglass. His travelling companions would sometimes get angry, and would speak first at the meetings; then they would take the last turn; but it was all the same—the fugitive’s impression was the one left upon the mind. He made more persons angry, and pleased more, than any other man. He was praised, and he was censured. He made them laugh, he made them weep, and he made them swear.

His “Slaveholders’ Sermon” was always a trump card. He awakened an interest in the hearts of thousands who before were dead to the slave and his condition. Many kept away from his lectures, fearing lest they should be converted against their will. Young men and women, in those days of pro-slavery hatred, would return to their fathers’ roofs filled with admiration for the “runaway slave,” and would be rebuked by hearing the old ones grumble out, “You’d better stay at home and study your lessons, and not be running after the nigger meetings.”

In 1841, he was induced to accept an agency as a lecturer for the Anti-slavery Society, and at once became one of the most valuable of its advocates. He visited England in 1845. There he was kindly received and heartily welcomed; and after going through the length and breadth of the land, and addressing public meetings out of number on behalf of his countrymen in chains, with a power of eloquence which captivated his auditors, and brought the cause which he pleaded home to their hearts, he returned home, and commenced the publication of the “North Star,” a weekly newspaper devoted to the advocacy of the cause of freedom.

Mr. Douglass is tall and well made. His vast and fully-developed forehead shows at once that he is a superior man intellectually. He is polished in his language, and gentlemanly in his manners. His voice is full and sonorous. His attitude is dignified, and his gesticulation is full of noble simplicity. He is a man of lofty reason; natural, and without pretension; always master of himself; brilliant in the art of exposing and abstracting. Few persons can handle a subject, with which they are familiar, better than he. There is a kind of eloquence issuing from the depth of the soul as from a spring, rolling along its copious floods, sweeping all before it, overwhelming by its very force, carrying, upsetting, ingulfing its adversaries, and more dazzling and more thundering than the bolt which leaps from crag to crag. This is the eloquence of Frederick Douglass. One of the best mimics of the age, and possessing great dramatic powers; had he taken up the sock and buskin, instead of becoming a lecturer, he would have made as fine a Coriolanus as ever trod the stage.

As a speaker, Frederick Douglass has had more imitators than almost any other American, save, perhaps, Wendell Phillips. Unlike most great speakers, he is a superior writer also. Some of his articles, in point of ability, will rank with anything ever written for the American press. He has taken lessons from the best of teachers, amid the homeliest realities of life; hence the perpetual freshness of his delineations, which are never over-colored, never strained, never aiming at difficult or impossible effects, but which always read like living transcripts of experience.

Mr. Douglass has obtained a position in the front rank as a lyceum lecturer. His later addresses from manuscripts, however, do not, in our opinion, come up to his extemporaneous efforts.

But Frederick Douglass’s abilities as an editor and publisher have done more for the freedom and elevation of his race than all his platform appeals. Previous to the year 1848, the colored people of the United States had no literature. True, the “National Reformer,” the “Mirror of Liberty,” the “Colored American,” “The Mystery,” the “Disfranchised American,” the “Ram’s Horn,” and several others of smaller magnitude, had been in existence, had their run, and ceased to live. All of the above journals had done something towards raising the black man’s standard, but they were merely the ploughs breaking up the ground and getting the soil ready for the seed-time. Newspapers, magazines, and books published in those days by colored men, were received with great allowance by the whites, who had always regarded the negro as an uneducated, inferior race, and who were considered out of their proper sphere when meddling with literature.

The commencement of the publication of the “North Star” was the beginning of a new era in the black man’s literature. Mr. Douglass’s well-earned fame gave his paper at once a place with the first journals in the country; and he drew around him a corps of contributors and correspondents from Europe, as well as all parts of America and the West Indies, that made its columns rich with the current news of the world.

While the “North Star” became a welcome visitor to the homes of whites who had never before read a newspaper edited by a colored man, its proprietor became still more popular as a speaker in every State in the Union where abolitionism was tolerated.

“My Bondage and My Freedom,” a work published by Mr. Douglass a few years ago, besides giving a fresh impulse to anti-slavery literature, showed upon its pages the untiring industry of the ripe scholar.

Some time during the year 1850, we believe, his journal assumed the name of “Frederick Douglass’s Paper.” Its purpose and aim was the same, and it remained the representative of the negro till it closed its career, which was not until the abolition of slavery.

Of all his labors, however, we regard Mr. Douglass’s efforts as publisher and editor as most useful to his race. For sixteen years, against much opposition, single-handed and alone, he demonstrated the fact that the American colored man was equal to the white in conducting a useful and popular journal.

ALEXANDER W. WAYMAN.

Bishop Wayman was born in Maryland, in 1821, and consequently, is fifty-two years of age. He showed an early love of books, and used his time to the best advantage. He began as a preacher in the A. M. E. Church in 1842, being stationed on the Princeton circuit, in New Jersey. From that time forward his labors were herculean. In 1864, he was, by an almost unanimous vote, elected a bishop. Tanner, in his “Apology,” said of him:—

“As a preacher, the bishop appears to advantage. Of dignified mien, easy gestures, and a rolling voice, he is sure to make a favorable impression, while the subject-matter of his discourse is so simple that the most illiterate may fully comprehend it; the wisest, also, are generally edified.”

It is said that Bishop Wayman is scarcely ever seen with any book except the Bible or a hymn-book, and yet he is a man of letters, as will be acknowledged by all who have had the pleasure of listening to his eloquent sermons. He is a student, and is well read in history and the poets, and often surprises his friends by his classical quotations. There is a harmonious blending of the poetical and the practical, a pleasant union of the material with the spiritual, an arm-in-arm connection of the ornamental and useful, a body and soul joined together in his discourses. There is something candid, tangible, solid, nutritious, and enduring in his sermons. He is even at times, profound. He presents his arguments and appeals with an articulation as distinct and as understandable as his gesticulation is impressive.

In person, the bishop is stout, fleshy, and well-proportioned. His round face, smiling countenance, twinkling eye, and merry laugh, indicate health and happiness. He is of unadulterated African origin. Blameless in all the relations of life, a kind and affectionate husband, a true friend, and a good neighbor, Bishop Wayman’s character may safely be said to be above suspicion.

CHARLES L. REASON.

Professor Reason has for a number of years been connected with the educational institutions of New York. In 1849, he was called to the professorship of Mathematics and Belles-Lettres in New York Central College. This position he held during his own pleasure, with honor to himself and benefit to the students. A man of fine education, superior intelligence, gentlemanly in every sense of the term, of excellent discrimination, one of the best of students, Professor Reason holds a power over those under him seldom attained by men of his profession.

Were I a sculptor, and looking for a model of a perfect man in personal appearance, my selection would be Charles L. Reason. As a writer of both prose and poetry, he need not be ashamed of his ability. Extremely diffident, he seldom furnishes anything for the public eye. In a well-written essay on the propriety of establishing an industrial college, and the probable influence of the free colored people upon the emancipated blacks, he says:—

“Whenever emancipation shall take place, immediate though it be, the subjects of it, like many who now make up the so-called free population, will be in what geologists call the ‘transition state.’ The prejudice now felt against them for bearing on their persons the brand of slaves, cannot die out immediately. Severe trials will still be their portion: the curse of a ‘taunted race’ must be expiated by almost miraculous proofs of advancement; and some of these miracles must be antecedent to the great day of jubilee. To fight the battle upon the bare ground of abstract principles will fail to give us complete victory. The subterfuges of pro-slavery selfishness must now be dragged to light, and the last weak argument, that the negro can never contribute anything to advance the national character, ‘nailed to the counter as base coin.’ To the conquering of the difficulties heaped up in the path of his industry, the free colored man of the North has pledged himself. Already he sees, springing into growth, from out his foster work-school, intelligent young laborers, competent to enrich the world with necessary products; industrious citizens, contributing their proportion to aid on the advancing civilization of the country; self-providing artisans, vindicating their people from the never-ceasing charge of fitness for servile positions.”

In the “Autographs for Freedom,” from which the above extract is taken, Professor Reason has a beautiful poem, entitled “Hope and Confidence,” which, in point of originality and nicety of composition, deserves a place among the best productions of Wordsworth.

A poem signifies design, method, harmony, and therefore consistency of parts. A man may be gifted with the most vividly ideal nature; he may shoot from his brain some blazing poetic thought or imagery, which may arouse wonder and admiration, as a comet does; and yet he may have no constructiveness, without which the materials of poetry are only so many glittering fractions. A poem can never be tested by its length or brevity, but by the adaptation of its parts. A complete poem is the architecture of thought and language. It requires artistic skill to chisel rough blocks of marble into as many individual forms of beauty; but not only skill, but genius, is needed to arrange and harmonize those forms into the completeness of a Parthenon. A grave popular error, and one destructive of personal usefulness, and obstructive to literary progress, is the free-and-easy belief that because a man has the faculty of investing common things with uncommon ideas, therefore he can write a poem.

The idea of poetry is to give pleasurable emotions, and the world listens to a poet’s voice as it listens to the singing of a summer bird; that which is the most suggestive of freedom and eloquence being the most admired. Professor Reason has both the genius and the artistic skill. He is highly respected in New York, where he resides, and is doing a good work for the elevation of his race.

WILLIAM J. WILSON.

At the head of our representative men,—especially our men of letters,—stands Professor Wilson. He has, at times, contributed some very able papers to the current literature of the day. In the columns of “Frederick Douglass’s Paper,” the “Anglo-African Magazine,” and the “Weekly Anglo-African,” appeared at times, over the signature of “Ethiop,” some of the raciest and most amusing essays to be found in the public journals of this country. As a sketch writer of historical scenes and historical characters,—choosing his own subjects, suggested by his own taste or sympathies,—few men are capable of greater or more successful efforts than William J. Wilson.

In his imaginary visit to the “Afric-American Picture Gallery,” he exhibits splendid traits of the genius of the true critic. His criticism on the comparative merits of Samuel R. Ward and Frederick Douglass, published in the papers some years ago, together with his essay on Phillis Wheatley, raised Mr. Wilson high in the estimation of men of letters. His “School Room Scene” is both amusing and instructive.

To possess genius, the offspring of which ennobles the sentiments, enlarges the affections, kindles the imagination, and gives to us a view of the past, the present, and the future, is one of the highest gifts that the Creator bestows upon man. With acute powers of conception, a sparkling and lively fancy, and a quaintly-curious felicity of diction, Mr. Wilson wakes us from our torpidity and coldness to a sense of our capabilities.

As a speaker, he is pleasing in style, with the manners of a gentleman. His conversational powers are of the first order, in which he exhibits deep thought. In personal appearance, he is under the middle size; his profile is more striking than his front face; he has a smiling countenance, under which you see the man of wit. The professor is of unmixed race, of which he is not ashamed. He is cashier of the Freedmen’s Savings Bank at Washington, and his good advice to his race with whom he has dealings in money matters proves of much service to them.

JABEZ P. CAMPBELL.

One of the best of men was born in one of the meanest States in the Union. Jabez P. Campbell is a native of the insignificant and negro-hating State of Delaware, and is in the sixty-eighth year of his age. His father was a Revolutionary soldier, and when he laid aside the knapsack and the musket, he put on the armor of the Lord, and became a preacher of the A. M. E. Church. Like all colored boys in those days, the subject of this sketch found many difficulties in obtaining an education in a part of the country where colored men had “no rights that white men were bound to respect.”

After a few quarters’ schooling, under incompetent teachers, Campbell began a course of self-instruction, ending in the study of theology. In 1839, he commenced as a preacher, laboring in various sections of the country, eventually settling down as General Book Steward of the A. M. E. Church, and editor of the “Christian Recorder.”

In the year 1864, the subject of our sketch was elected a bishop, and since that time he has labored principally in the Indiana, Missouri, Louisiana, and California districts.

The bishop is eminently a man of the people, not conceited in the least, yet dignified and gentlemanly. He is a man of ready wit, keen in discussion, well posted up on all questions of the day, and is not afraid to avow his views. Bishop Campbell has a wonderful gift of language, and uses it to the best advantage. His delivery is easy, and his gestures natural; and, as a preacher, he ranks amongst the first in the denomination. In person, he is of medium size, dark brown skin, finely chiselled features, broad forehead, and a countenance that betokens intelligence.

JOHN M. LANGSTON.

John M. Langston is a native of Chillicothe, Ohio, and a graduate of Oberlin College. He studied theology and law, and preferring the latter, was admitted to the bar, practised successfully in the courts of his native state till the breaking out of the Rebellion, when he removed to Washington, where he now resides. During the war, and some time after its close, Mr. Langston was engaged in superintending the Freedmen’s Schools at the South. He now occupies a professorship in Howard University.

The end of all eloquence is to sway men. It is, therefore, bound by no arbitrary rules of diction or style, formed on no specific models, and governed by no edicts of self-elected judges. It is true, there are degrees of eloquence, and equal success does not imply equal excellence. That which is adapted to sway the strongest minds of an enlightened age ought to be esteemed the most perfect, and, doubtless, should be the criterion by which to test the abstract excellence of all oratory. Mr. Langston represents the highest idea of the orator, as exemplified in the power and discourses of Sheridan in the English House of Commons, and Vergniaud in the Assembly of the Girondists. He is not fragmentary in his speeches; but, as a deep, majestic stream, he moves steadily onward, pouring forth his rich and harmonious sentences in strains of impassioned eloquence. His style is bold and energetic; full of spirit. He is profound, without being hollow, and ingenious, without being subtile.

An accomplished scholar and a good student, he displays in his speeches an amount of literary acquirements not often found in the mere business lawyer. When pleading, he speaks like a man under oath, though without any starched formality of expression. The test of his success is the permanent impression which his speeches leave on the memory. They do not pass away with the excitement of the moment, but remain in the mind, with the lively colors and true proportions of the scenes which they represent. Mr. Langston is of medium size, and of good figure; high and well-formed forehead; eyes full, but not prominent; mild and amiable countenance; modest deportment; strong, musical voice; and wears the air of a gentleman. He is highly respected by men of all classes, and especially, by the legal profession. He is a vigorous writer, and, in the political campaigns, contributes both with speech and pen to the liberal cause. Few men in the south-west have held the black man’s standard higher than John Mercer Langston.

As Dean of the Law Department in Howard University, he has won the admiration of all connected with the institution, and, in a recent address, delivered in the State of New York, on law, Mr. Langston has shown that he is well versed in all that pertains to that high profession.

JOHN M. BROWN.

Among the fine-looking men that have been sent out by the A. M. E. Church, to preach the gospel, none has a more manly frame, intellectual countenance, gentlemanly demeanor, Christian spirit, and love of his race, than John M. Brown. When the Committee on Boundary in the A. M. E. Church recommended in the General Conference of 1864, “that there be set apart a Conference in the State of Louisiana, to be known as the Louisiana Conference, embracing the States of Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Alabama, Texas, and all that part of Florida lying west of Chattanooga River,” Mr. Brown was selected as the man eminently fitted to go to the new field of labor. Money was evidently not a burden to him, for, being a barber, he got on a steamer, and shaved his way to his post of labor.[54]

He arrived in New Orleans, unfurled his banner, and went to work in a way that showed that he was “terribly in earnest.” He sowed the seed, and, although he was thrown into the calaboose, his work still went on, a church was erected, members were gathered in, and the cause of Christian missions prospered. After laboring faithfully in this field, Mr. Brown was appointed Corresponding Secretary of the A. M. E. Church, with his head-quarters in Baltimore. He now holds the high and honorable position of bishop, a place that no one is better qualified to fill than he.

He is a mulatto, of middle age, with talents of a high order, fluent speaker, terse writer, and popular with all classes. Oberlin College has not turned out a more praiseworthy scholar, nor a better specimen of a Christian gentleman, than Bishop Brown.

JOHN I. GAINES.

Mr. Gaines was born at Cincinnati, Ohio, November 6th, 1821. His early education was limited, as was generally the case with colored youth in that section, in those days. Forced into active life at an early age, he yet found time to make himself a fair English scholar, and laid the foundation of that power to be useful, which he afterwards exercised for the benefit of his people.

At the age of sixteen, he was found in attendance upon a convention, held in one of the interior towns of his native state. At that early age, he showed clearly his mental powers, and men, many years his senior listened with respect to the sage counsel which even then he was capable of giving. From that time to the very day of his death he mingled in the councils, and busied himself with the affairs of his people; and it is no derogation to the merits of others to say, that few have counselled more wisely, or acted more successfully than he.

The enterprise with which his name is the most permanently connected, is the movement which has given to Cincinnati her system of public schools for colored youth. When the law of 1849, granting school privileges to colored youth, was passed, the City Council of Cincinnati refused to appropriate the funds placed in the treasury for the support of the schools, alleging that there was no authority to do so. Here was a chance for our deceased friend to exhibit those high qualities which made him a lamp to the feet of his people. Cautious, but firm, determined, but patient, he led in the movement, which resulted in a decision of the Supreme Court of the State, placing the colored public schools upon the same footing as the other public schools of the city, and gave their control to a board of directors selected by the colored people. The contest was prolonged nearly two years, but at last the little black man triumphed over the city of Cincinnati.

His next aim was to have the schools thoroughly organized, and placed in comfortable houses. He cheerfully performed the onerous duties of clerk and general agent to the Board, his only reward being a consciousness that he was useful to his people. His purposes were temporarily interrupted in 1853, by a law taking the control of the schools from the colored people. Not connected officially with the schools, he still maintained a deep interest in their condition, and, in 1856, an opportunity offering, he used his influence and means to have the schools again placed under the control of the colored people. This point gained, he again set on foot measures looking to the erection of school-houses. This he at last accomplished. His first report to the City Council, made in 1851, urges the erection of school-houses, and his last report, made in 1859, announces the completion of two large houses, costing over twenty-four thousand dollars.

If he is a benefactor of his race, who causes two blades of grass to grow where but one grew before, surely, he is worthy of praise, who has let rays of intellectual light fall upon the famished minds of a forlorn race, whom a hard fate has condemned to slavery and ignorance.

He was, from early youth, a firm, though not fanatical adherent of the Temperance cause. He felt that intoxicating drinks had caused many strong men to fall, and, for his brother’s sake, he abstained. Meeting one evening, at a social party, a gentleman from a neighboring State, eminent in the world of politics and philanthropy, a bottle of sparkling Catawba and two glasses were placed on the table before them, the host remarking at the time that “there was no need for two tumblers, for Mr. Gaines would not use his.”

“Surely, Mr. Gaines will pledge me, a friend of his race, in a glass of wine made from the grape that grows on his native hills,” said the gentleman.

Mr. Gaines shook his head. “I appreciate the honor,” said he, “but conscience forbids.”

The character of his mind was much to be prized by a people who need prudent counsels. Seldom speaking until he had examined his subject thoroughly, he was generally prepared to speak with a due regard to the effects of his speech.

The subject of this sketch was of pure African descent, small in stature, of genteel figure, countenance beaming with intelligence, eloquent in speech, and able in debate. He died November 27, 1859.

JAMES M’CUNE SMITH, M. D.

Unable to get justice done him in the educational institutions of his native country, James M’Cune Smith turned his face towards a foreign land. He graduated with distinguished honors at the University of Glasgow, Scotland, where he received his diploma of M. D. For the last twenty-five years he has been a practitioner in the city of New York, where he stands at the head of his profession. On his return from Europe, the doctor was warmly welcomed by his fellow-citizens, who were anxious to pay due deference to his talents; since which time he has justly been esteemed among the leading men of his race on the American continent. When the natural ability of the negro was assailed, some years ago, in New York, Dr. Smith came forward as the representative of the black man, and his essays on the comparative anatomy and physiology of the races, read in the discussion, completely vindicated the character of the negro, and placed the author among the most logical and scientific writers in the country.

The doctor has contributed many valuable papers to the different journals published by colored men during the last quarter of a century. The New York dailies have also received aid from him during the same period. History, antiquity, bibliography, translation, criticism, political economy, statistics,—almost every department of knowledge,—receive emblazon from his able, ready, versatile, and unwearied pen. The emancipation of the slave, and the elevation of the free colored people, has claimed the greatest share of his time as a writer.

The law of labor is equally binding on genius and mediocrity. The mind and body rarely visit this earth of ours so exactly fitted to each other, and so perfectly harmonizing together, as to rise without effort, and command in the affairs of men. It is not in the power of every one to become great. No great approximation, even towards that which is easiest attained, can be accomplished without exercise of much thought and vigor of action; and thus is demonstrated the supremacy of that law which gives excellence only when earned, and assigns labor its unfailing reward.

It is this energy of character, industry, and labor, combined with superior intellectual powers, which gave Dr. Smith so much influence in New York.

As a speaker, he was eloquent, and at times brilliant, but always clear, and to the point. In stature, the doctor was not tall, but thick, and somewhat inclined to corpulency. He had a fine and well-developed head; broad and lofty brow; round, full face; firm mouth; and an eye that dazzled. In blood he stood, apparently, equal between the Anglo-Saxon and the African.

DANIEL A. PAYNE, D. D.

Teacher of a small school at Charleston, South Carolina, in the year 1834, Daniel A. Payne felt the oppressive hand of slavery too severely upon him, and he quitted the Southern Sodom, and came North. After going through a regular course of theological studies, at Gettysburg Seminary, he took up his residence at Baltimore, where he soon distinguished himself as a preacher in the African Methodist denomination. He was several years since elected bishop, and is now located in the State of Ohio.

Bishop Payne is a scholar and a poet; having published, in 1850, a volume of his productions, which created considerable interest for the work, and gave the author a standing among literary men. His writings are characterized by sound reasoning and logical conclusions, and show that he is well read. The bishop is devotedly attached to his down-trodden race, and is constantly urging upon them self-elevation. After President Lincoln’s interview with the committee of colored men at Washington, and the colonization scheme recommended to them, and the appearance of Mr. Pomeroy’s address to the free blacks, Bishop Payne issued, through the columns of the “Weekly Anglo-African,” a word of advice, which had in it the right ring, and showed in its composition considerable literary ability. A deep vein of genuine piety pervades all the productions of Bishop Payne. As a pulpit orator, he stands deservedly high. In stature, he is rather under the middle size, intellectual countenance, and gentlemanly in appearance. He has done much towards building up Wilberforce College in Ohio, an institution that is an honor to the race.

ALEXANDER CRUMMELL, D. D.

Among the many bright examples of the black man which we present, one of the foremost is Alexander Crummell. Blood unadulterated, a tall and manly figure, commanding in appearance, a full and musical voice, fluent in speech, a graduate of Cambridge University, England, a mind stored with the richness of English literature, competently acquainted with the classical authors of Greece and Rome, from the grave Thucydides to the rhapsodical Lycophron, gentlemanly in all his movements, language chaste and refined, Dr. Crummell may well be put forward as one of the best and most favorable representatives of his race. He is a clergyman of the Episcopal denomination, and deeply versed in theology. His sermons are always written, but he reads them as few persons can.

In 1848, Dr. Crummell visited England, and delivered a well-conceived address before the Anti-slavery Society in London, where his eloquence and splendid abilities were at once acknowledged and appreciated. The year before his departure for the Old World, he delivered an “Eulogy on the Life and Character of Thomas Clarkson,” which was a splendid, yet just tribute to the life-long labors of that great man.

Dr. Crummell is one of our ablest speakers. His style is polished, graceful, and even elegant, though never merely ornate or rhetorical. He has the happy faculty of using the expressions best suited to the occasion, and bringing in allusions which give a popular sympathy to the best cultivated style. He is, we think, rather too sensitive, and somewhat punctillious.

Dr. Crummell is a gentleman by nature, and could not be anything else, if he should try. Some ten years since, he wrote a very interesting work on Africa, to which country he emigrated in 1852.

We have had a number of our public men to represent us in Europe within the past twenty-five years; and none have done it more honorably or with better success to the character and cause of the black man, than Alexander Crummell. We met him there again and again, and followed in his track wherever he preached or spoke before public assemblies, and we know whereof we affirm. Devotedly attached to the interest of the colored man, and having the moral, social, and intellectual elevation of the natives of Africa at heart, we do not regret that he considers it his duty to labor in his fatherland. Warmly interested in the Republic, and so capable of filling the highest position that he can be called to, we shall not be surprised, some day, to hear that Alexander Crummell is president of Liberia.

Avery College has just done itself the honor of conferring the degree of Doctor of Divinity upon this able man; and sure we are that a title was never better bestowed than in the present instance.

Since writing the above sketch, we learn that Dr. Crummell has returned, and taken up his residence in the City of New York, where he is now pastor of a church.

HENRY HIGHLAND GARNETT, D. D.

Though born a slave in the State of Maryland, Henry Highland Garnett is the son of an African chief, stolen from the coast of his native land. His father’s family were all held as slaves till 1822, when they escaped to the north. In 1835, he became a member of Canaan Academy, New Hampshire. Three months after entering the school, it was broken up by a mob, who destroyed the building. Dr. Garnett afterwards entered Oneida Institute, New York, under the charge of that noble-hearted friend of man, Beriah Green, where he was treated with equality by the professors and his fellow-students. There he gained the reputation of a courteous and accomplished man, an able and eloquent debater, and a good writer.

His first appearance as a public speaker, was in 1837, in the City of New York, where his speech at once secured for him a standing among first-class orators. Dr. Garnett is in every sense of the term a progressive man. He is a strenuous advocate of freedom, temperance, education, and the religious, moral, and social elevation of his race. He is an acceptable preacher, evangelical in his profession. His discourses, though showing much thought and careful study, are delivered extemporaneously, and with good effect. Having complete command of his voice, he uses it with skill, never failing to fill the largest hall. One of the most noted addresses, ever given by a colored man in this country was delivered by Dr. Garnett at the National Convention of Colored Americans, at Buffalo, New York, in 1843. None but those who heard that speech have the slightest idea of the tremendous influence which he exercised over the assembly.

Dr. Garnett visited England in 1850, where he spent several months, and went thence to the island of Jamaica, spending three years there as a missionary. He has written considerably, and has edited one or two journals at different times, devoted to the elevation of his race. Dr. Garnett was, for two or three years, president of Avery College, where he was considered a man of learning. He also spent some time in Washington, as pastor of the Presbyterian Church in that city. At present, he is located over Shiloh Church, New York City.

For forty years an advocate of the rights of his race, forcible and daring as a speaker, having suffered much, with a good record behind him, Dr. Garnett may be considered as standing in the front rank as a leader of his people.

CHARLES L. REMOND.

Born and brought up in Salem, Massachusetts, Mr. Remond had the advantage of early training in the best of schools. In 1838, he took the field as a lecturer, under the auspices of the American Anti-slavery Society, and, in company with the Rev. Ichabod Codding, canvassed the States of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Maine. In 1840, he visited England as a delegate to the first “World’s Anti-slavery Convention,” held in London. He remained abroad two years, lecturing in the various towns in the united kingdom.

Mr. Remond was welcomed on his return home, and again resumed his vocation as a lecturer. In stature, he is small, of spare make, neat, wiry build, and genteel in his personal appearance. He has a good voice, and is considered one of the best declaimers in New England. He has written little or nothing for the press, and his notoriety is confined solely to the platform. Sensitive to a fault, and feeling sorely the prejudice against color which exists throughout the United States, his addresses have been mainly on that subject, on which he is always interesting. Mr. Remond’s abilities have been very much overrated. His speeches, when in print, attracted little or no attention, and he was never able to speak upon any subject except slavery, upon which he was never deep.

MARTIN R. DELANY, M. D.

Dr. Delany has long been before the public. His first appearance, we believe, was in connection with “The Mystery,” a weekly newspaper published at Pittsburg, and of which he was editor. His journal was faithful in its advocacy of the rights of man, and had the reputation of being a well-conducted sheet. The doctor afterwards was associated with Frederick Douglass in the editorial management of his paper at Rochester, New York. From the latter place, he removed to Canada, and resided in Chatham, where he was looked upon as one of its leading citizens.

Dr. Martin R. Delany, though regarded as a man high in his profession, is better and more widely known as a traveller, discoverer, and lecturer. His association with Professor Campbell in the “Niger Valley Exploring Expedition,” has brought the doctor very prominently before the world, and especially that portion of it which takes an interest in the civilization of Africa. The official report of that expedition shows that he did not visit that country with his eyes shut. His observations and suggestions about the climate, soil, diseases, and natural productions of Africa, are interesting, and give evidence that the doctor was in earnest. The published report, of which he is the author, will repay a perusal.

On his return home, Dr. Delany spent some time in England, and lectured in the British metropolis and the provincial cities, with considerable success, on Africa and its resources. As a member of the International Statistical Congress, he acquitted himself with credit to his position and honor to his race. The foolish manner in which the Hon. Mr. Dallas, our minister to the court of St. James, acted on meeting Dr. Delany in that august assembly, and the criticisms of the press of Europe and America, will not soon be forgotten.

He is short, compactly built, has a quick, wiry walk, and is decided and energetic in conversation, unadulterated in race, and proud of his complexion. Though somewhat violent in his gestures, and paying but little regard to the strict rules of oratory, Dr. Delany is, nevertheless, an interesting, eloquent speaker. Devotedly attached to his fatherland, he goes for a “Negro Nationality.” Whatever he undertakes, he executes it with all the powers that God has given him; and what would appear as an obstacle in the way of other men, would be brushed aside by Martin R. Delany.

JAMES W. C. PENNINGTON, D. D.

Dr. Pennington was born a slave on the farm of Colonel Gordon, in the State of Maryland. His early life was not unlike the common lot of the bondmen of the Middle States. He was by trade a blacksmith, which increased his value to his owner. He had no opportunities for learning, and was ignorant of letters when he made his escape to the north. Through intense application to books, he gained, as far as it was possible, what slavery had deprived him of in his younger days. But he always felt the early blight upon his soul.

Dr. Pennington had not been free long ere he turned his attention to theology, and became an efficient preacher in the Presbyterian denomination. He was several years settled over a church at Hartford, Connecticut. He has been in Europe three times, his second visit being the most important, as he remained there three or four years, preaching and lecturing, during which time he attended the Peace Congresses held at Paris, Brussels, and London. While in Germany, the degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred upon him by the University of Heidelberg. On his return to the United States, he received a call, and was settled as pastor over Shiloh Church, New York City.

The doctor was a good student, a ripe scholar, and deeply versed in theology. While at Paris, in 1849, we, with the American and English delegates to the Peace Congress, attended divine service at the Protestant Church, where Dr. Pennington had been invited to preach. His sermon, on that occasion, was an elegant production, made a marked impression on his hearers, and created upon the minds of all a more elevated idea of the negro. In past years, he has labored zealously and successfully for the education, and moral, social, and religious elevation of his race. The doctor was unadulterated in blood, with strongly-marked African features. In stature, he was of the common size, slightly inclined to corpulency, with an athletic frame and a good constitution. The fact that Dr. Pennington was considered a good Greek, Latin, and German scholar, although his early life was spent in slavery, is not more strange than that Henry Diaz, the black commander in Brazil, is extolled in all the histories of that country as one of the most sagacious and talented men and experienced officers of whom they could boast. Dr. Pennington died in 1871, his death being hastened by the excessive use of intoxicating liquors, which had impaired his usefulness in his latter days.

FRANCIS L. CARDOZO.

The boiling cauldron of the rebellion threw upon its surface in the Southern States a large number of colored men, who are now playing a conspicuous part in the political affairs of their section of the country. Some of these, like their white brethren, are mere adventurers, without ability, native or acquired, and owe their elevated position more to circumstances than to any gifts or virtues of their own. There are, however, another class, some of whom, although uneducated, are men of genius, of principle, and Christian zeal, laboring with all their powers for the welfare of the country and the race. A few of the latter class have had the advantages of the educational institutions of the North and of Europe, as well as at the South, and were fully prepared for the situation when called upon to act. One of the most gifted of these, a man of fine education, honest, upright, just in his dealings with his fellows; one whose good sense and manly qualities never desert him,—is Francis L. Cardozo.

Born in Charleston, South Carolina, his father a white man and a slaveholder, his mother a mulatto, Mr. Cardozo is of a fair complexion. He is above the middle size, robust and full-faced, with a well-developed head, large brain, and a face of fine expression. Educated in Scotland, and having travelled extensively abroad, he presents the exterior of a man of refinement and of high culture, possessing considerable literary taste, and his conversation at once shows him to be a man of learning. Industrious and methodical in his habits, still the ardent student, young in years, comparatively, Mr. Cardozo bids fair to be one of the leading men at the national capital, as he is now in his own State. He studied theology, was ordained as a minister, and preached for a time in Connecticut with great acceptance.

As a speaker, Mr. Cardozo has few equals, colored or white. Without any strained effort, his expressions are filled with integrity, sobriety, benevolence, satire, and true eloquence. Forcible in speech, his audience never get tired under the sound of his musical voice.

During the rebellion, he returned to his native State, where he was of great service to his own people. He took a leading part in the reconstruction convention that brought South Carolina back in the Union, and was elected to the state legislature, where he was considered one of their ablest men. He now fills the high and honorable position of Secretary of State of his own commonwealth. He is held in high estimation by all classes: even the old negro-hating whites of the “palmetto” state acknowledge the ability and many manly virtues of Francis L. Cardozo.

EDMONIA LEWIS.

Miss Lewis, the colored American artist, is of mingled Indian and African descent. Her mother was one of the Chippewa tribe, and her father a full-blooded African. Both her parents died young, leaving the orphan girl and her only brother to be brought up by the Indians. Here, as may well be imagined, her opportunities for education were meagre enough.

Edmonia Lewis is below the medium height; her complexion and features betray her African origin; her hair is more of the Indian type, black, straight, and abundant. Her head is well balanced, exhibiting a large and well-developed brain. Although brought up in the wilderness, she spent some time at Oberlin College, and has a good education.

Her manners are childlike and simple, and most winning and pleasing. She has the proud spirit of her Indian ancestor, and if she has more of the African in her personal appearance, she has more of the Indian in her character. On her first visit to Boston, she saw a statue of Benjamin Franklin. It filled her with amazement and delight. She did not know by what name to call “the stone image,” but she felt within her the stir of new powers.

“I, too, can make a stone man,” she said to herself; and at once she went to visit William Lloyd Garrison, and told him what she knew she could do, and asked him how she should set about doing it.

Struck by her enthusiasm, Garrison gave her a note of introduction to Brackett, the Boston sculptor, and after a little talk with her, Mr. Brackett gave her a piece of clay and a mould of a human foot, as a study.

“Go home and make that,” said he; “if there is anything in you, it will come out.”

Alone in her own room, the young girl toiled over her clay, and when she had done her best, carried the result to her master. He looked at her model, broke it up, and said, “Try again.” She did try again, modelled feet and hands, and at last undertook a medallion of the head of John Brown, which was pronounced excellent.

The next essay was the bust of a young hero, Colonel Shaw, the first man who took the command of a colored regiment, and whose untimely and glorious death, and the epitaph spoken by the South, “Bury him with his niggers,” have made him an immortal name in the history of our civil war.

The family of this young hero heard of the bust which the colored girl was making as a labor of love, and came to see it, and were delighted with the portrait which she had taken from a few poor photographs. Of this bust she sold one hundred copies, and with that money she set out for Europe, full of hope and courage.

Arriving at Rome, Miss Lewis took a studio, and devoted herself to hard study and hard work, and here she made her first statue—a figure of Hagar in her despair in the wilderness. It is a work full of feeling, for, as she says, “I have a strong sympathy for all women who have struggled and suffered. For this reason the Virgin Mary is very dear to me.”

The first copy of Hagar was purchased by a gentleman from Chicago. A fine group of the Madonna with the infant Christ in her arms, and two adoring angels at her feet, attests the sincerity of her admiration for the Jewish maiden. This last group has been purchased by the young Marquis of Bute, Disraeli’s Lothair, for an altar-piece.

Among Miss Lewis’s other works are two small groups, illustrating Longfellow’s poem of Hiawatha. Her first, “Hiawatha’s Wooing,” represents Minnehaha seated, making a pair of moccasins, and Hiawatha by her side, with a world of love-longing in his eyes. In the marriage, they stand side by side with clasped hands. In both, the Indian type of features is carefully preserved, and every detail of dress, etc., is true to nature. The sentiment is equal to the execution. They are charming hits, poetic, simple, and natural; and no happier illustrations of Longfellow’s most original poem were ever made than these by the Indian sculptor.

A fine bust, also, of this same poet, is about to be put in marble, which has been ordered by Harvard College; and in this instance, at least, Harvard has done itself honor. If it will not yet open its doors to women who ask education at its hands, it will admit the work of a woman who has educated herself in her chosen department.

Miss Lewis has a fine medallion portrait of Wendell Phillips, a charming group of sleeping babies, and some other minor works, in her studio. At Rome, she is visited by strangers from all nations, who happen in the great city, and every one admires the genius of the artist.

The highest art is that which rises above the slavish copying of nature, without sinking back again into a more slavish conventionalism. All the forms of such art are intensely simple and natural, but through the natural, the spiritual speaks. The saintly glory shines through the features of its saints, and does not gather in a ring around their heads. It speaks a language all can understand, and has no jargon of its own. It needs no initiation before we can understand its mysteries, excepting that of the pure heart and the awakened mind. It represents nature, but in representing, it interprets her. It shows us nothing but reality, but in the real, it mirrors the invisible ideal.

A statue is a realized emotion, or a thought in stone—not an embodied dream. A picture is a painted poem—not a romance in oil. Working together with nature, such art rises to something higher than nature is, becomes the priestess of her temple, and represents to more prosaic souls that which only the poet sees. The truly poetical mind of Edmonia Lewis shows itself in all her works, and exhibits to the critic the genius of the artist.

ROBERT PURVIS.

Robert Purvis was born in Charleston, South Carolina, but had the advantages of a New England collegiate education. He early embraced the principles of freedom as advocated by William Lloyd Garrison, and during the whole course of the agitation of the question of slavery, remained true to his early convictions.

Possessed of a large fortune at the very commencement of life, Mr. Purvis took an active part in aiding slaves to obtain their freedom, by furnishing means to secure for them something like justice before the pro-slavery courts of Pennsylvania, when arrested as fugitives, or when brought into the state voluntarily by their owners.

Mr. Purvis did not stop with merely giving of his abundant means, but made many personal sacrifices, and ran risks of loss of life in doing what he conceived to be an act of duty. Though white enough to pass as one of the dominant race, he never denied his connection with the negro.

In personal appearance, and in manners, Mr. Purvis is every inch the gentleman. Possessing a highly-cultivated mind, a reflective imagination, easy and eloquent in speech, but temper quickly aroused, he is always interesting as a public speaker.

Although he spent a large amount in philanthropic causes, Mr. Purvis is still a man of wealth, and owns a princely residence at Bybury, some fifteen miles from Philadelphia. With character unblemished, blameless in his domestic life, an ardent friend, and a dangerous foe, Robert Purvis stands to-day an honor to both races.

JAMES M. WHITFIELD.

James M. Whitfield was a native of Massachusetts, and removed in early life to Buffalo, New York, where he followed the humble occupation of a barber. However, even in this position, he became noted for his scholarly attainments and gentlemanly deportment. Men of polish and refinement were attracted to his saloon, and while being shaved, would take pleasure in conversing with him; and all who knew him felt that he was intended by Nature for a more elevated station in life.

He wrote some fine verses, and published a volume of poems in 1846, which well stood the test of criticism. His poem, “How long, O God, how long!” is a splendid production, and will take a place in American literature.

Mr. Whitfield removed to California some years since, where he took a forward stand with the progressive men of his race.

PHILLIP A. BELL.

Although we have but a meagre historical record, as producers of books, magazines, and newspapers, it must still be admitted that some noble efforts have been made, and not a little time and money spent by colored men in literary enterprises during the last forty years. The oldest, and one of the ablest of American journalists, is Phillip A. Bell.

This gentleman started the “Colored American” in the year 1837, as co-editor with the late Rev. Samuel E. Cornish, and subsequently, with the late Dr. James M’Cune Smith. The paper was a weekly, and published in the city of New York. The “Colored American” was well conducted, had the confidence of the public, distinguished for the ability shown in its editorials, as well as its correspondents.

Mr. Bell retired from the management of the paper, in 1840. All, however, who remember as far back as thirty-five years, will bear testimony to the efficient work done by the “Colored American,” and the honor that is due to its noble founder. Some ten years ago, Mr. Bell removed to California, where he, in company with Mr. Peter Anderson, flung to the breeze the “Pacific Appeal,” a weekly newspaper, devoted to the interest of the colored man, and which has accomplished great good for humanity. In 1865, Mr. Bell launched the “Elevator,” a spicy weekly, the columns of which attest its ability. Science, philosophy, and the classics are treated in a masterly manner.

Mr. Bell is an original and subtile writer, has fine powers of analysis, and often flings the sparkling rays of a vivid imagination over the productions of his pen.

His articles are usually of a practical nature, always trying to remove evils, working for the moral, social, and political elevation of his race.

In person, Mr. Bell is of medium size, of dark complexion, pleasing countenance, gentlemanly in his manners, a man of much energy, strong determination, unbending endurance, and transparent honesty of purpose.

Of good education and a highly-cultivated mind, Mr. Bell attracts to him the most refined of his color, who regard him as the Napoleon of the colored press. Our subject was not intended by Nature for the platform, and has the good sense not to aspire to oratorical fame. In conversation, however, he is always interesting, drawing from a rich and varied experience, full of dry humor.

Mr. Bell has a host of friends in New York, where he is always spoken of in the highest manner, and is regarded as the prince of good fellows.

CHARLES B. RAY, D. D.

Dr. Ray is a clergyman of the Presbyterian order, and has resided in the city of New York for the last half century. In the year 1840, he became the editor of the “Colored American,” a journal which he conducted with signal ability, always true to the cause of the Southern slave, and the elevation of the black man everywhere. Dr. Ray is well educated, a man of liberal and reformatory views, a terse and vigorous writer, an able and eloquent speaker, well informed upon all subjects of the day.

He has long been identified with every good work in New York, and enjoys the confidence and respect of a large circle of friends.

In person, Dr. Ray is of small stature, neat and wiry build, in race standing about half-way between the African and the Anglo-Saxon. He is polished in his manners, and gentlemanly in his personal appearance. As a writer, a preacher, and a platform-speaker, he has done much to elevate the standard of the colored man in the Empire State.

In the multitude of national and state conventions held thirty years ago and thereabouts, the assembly was scarcely considered complete without the presence of Charles B. Ray, D. D.

In the religious conventions of his own denomination, he was always regarded with respect, and his sermons delivered to white congregations never failed to leave a good impression for the race to which the preacher belonged. Blameless in his family relations, guided by the highest moral rectitude, a true friend to everything that tends to better the moral, social, religious, and political condition of man, Dr. Ray may be looked upon as one of the foremost of the leading men of his race.

JOHN J. ZUILLE.

Thirty-five years ago, it was not an easy thing to convince an American community that a colored man was fit for any position save that of a servant. A few men, however, one after another, came upon the surface, and demonstrated beyond a doubt that genius was not confined to race or color. Standing foremost amongst these, was John J. Zuille of New York, who, by his industry, sobriety, and fair dealing, did much to create for the black man a character for business tact in the great metropolis. Mr. Zuille is, by trade, a practical printer, and in company with Bell, Cornish, and others, started the “Colored American” in 1837. As printer of that journal, he showed mechanical skill that placed him at once amongst the ablest of the craft.

Mr. Zuille has also taken a prominent part in all matters pertaining to the welfare of his race in the Empire State. For the past ten years he has been cashier of the Freedmen’s Bank in the city of New York, a position for which his ability as a business man eminently qualifies him.

Mr. Zuille seems to be but little adulterated in race, short, thick-set, pleasant countenance, energetic and gentlemanly in his movements.

His reputation stands without blot or blemish, and he is surrounded by a large circle of friends, whose entire confidence he enjoys.

GEORGE T. DOWNING.

The tall, fine figure, manly walk, striking profile, and piercing eye of George T. Downing would attract attention in any community, even where he is unknown. Possessing remarkable talents, finely educated, a keen observer, and devoted to the freedom and elevation of his race, he has long been looked upon as a representative man. A good debater, quick to take advantage of the weak points of an opponent, forcible in speech, and a natural orator, Mr. Downing is always acceptable as a speaker.

He is a native of New York, but resides at the national capital, where he exerts considerable influence in political affairs, especially those pertaining to the welfare of the negro race.

A diplomatist by nature, Mr. Downing can “buttonhole” a congressman with as good effect as almost any man. Daring and aspiring, anxiously catching at the advantage of political elevation, he is always a leading man in conventions. Upright in his dealings, uncompromising, and strongly attached to the principles of justice. Mr. Downing enjoys the confidence and respect of both white and colored. As he is well qualified to fill any position, we would be glad to see him appointed to represent our government at some foreign court.

CHARLOTTE L. FORTEN.

Miss Forten is a native of Philadelphia; came to Massachusetts in 1854, entered the Higginson Grammar School at Salem, where she soon earned the reputation of an attentive and progressive student. She graduated from that institution with high honor, having received a premium for “A Parting Hymn,” sung at the last examination. In this composition Miss Forten gave unmistakable evidence of genius of a high order. She became a correspondent of the “National Anti-slavery Standard,” and wrote some very spicy letters, extracts from which were given in other journals.

In a poem entitled “The Angel’s Visit,” she makes a touching allusion to her departed mother, which for style and true poetical diction, is not surpassed by anything in the English language. In blood, Miss Forten stands between the Anglo-Saxon and the African, with finely-chiselled features, well-developed forehead, countenance beaming with intelligence, and a mind richly stored with recollections of the best authors. Highly cultivated, and sensitive to the prejudice existing against her color, Miss Forten’s lot is not an easy one in this world of ours. She still continues to write for the press, giving most of her articles in the “Atlantic Monthly.”

During the war, and since its close, she has spent much time in teaching in the Southern States, where her labors are highly appreciated.

GEORGE B. VASHON.

The subject of this sketch was born in Pittsburg, through the schools of which he passed, then studied at Oberlin College, graduating with the degree of Master of Arts. After reading law with Hon. Walter Forward, he was admitted to the bar in 1847. Mr. Vashon soon after visited Hayti, where he remained three years, returning home in 1850. Called to a professorship in New York Central College, Mr. Vashon discharged the duties of the office with signal ability. A gentleman—a graduate of that institution, now a captain in the federal army—told the writer that he and several of his companions, who had to recite to Professor Vashon, made it a practice for some length of time to search Greek, Latin, and Hebrew for phrases and historical incidents, and would then question the professor, with the hope of “running him on a snag.”

“But,” said he, “we never caught him once, and we came to the conclusion that he was the best read man in the college.”

Literature has a history, and few histories can compare with it in importance, significance, and moral grandeur. There is, therefore, a great price to pay for literary attainments, which will have an inspiring and liberalizing influence—a price not in silver and gold, but in thorough mental training. This training will give breadth of view, develop strength of character, and a comprehensive spirit, by which the ever-living expressions of truth and principle in the past, may be connected with those of a like character in the present.

Mr. Vashon seems to have taken this view of what constitutes the thorough scholar, and has put his theory into practice. All of the productions of his pen show the student and man of literature. But he is not indebted alone to culture, for he possesses genius of no mean order—poetic genius, far superior to many who have written and published volumes. As Dryden said of Shakspeare, “He needed not the spectacles of books to read Nature; he looked inward, and found her there.” The same excellence appertains to his poetical description of the beautiful scenery and climate of Hayti, in his “Vincent Oge.” His allusion to Columbus’ first visit to the Island is full of solemn grandeur.

Mr. Vashon is of mixed blood; in stature, of medium size, rather round face, with a somewhat solemn countenance, a man of few words,—needs to be drawn out to be appreciated. While visiting a distinguished colored gentleman at Rochester, New York, some years ago, the host, who happened to be a wit as well as an orator, invited in “Professor T——,” a man ignorant of education, but filled with big talk and high-sounding words, without understanding their meaning,—to entertain Mr. Vashon, intending it as a joke. “Professor T——” used all the language that he was master of, but to no purpose. The man of letters sat still, listened, gazed at the former, but did not dispute any point raised. The uneducated professor, feeling that he had been imposed upon, called Mr. D—— one side, and in a whisper, said:—

“Are you sure that this is an educated man? I fear that he is an impostor; for I tried, but could not call him out.”

Mr. Vashon has long been engaged in imparting education to his down-trodden race, and in this path of duty has contributed much for the elevation of his people. We are somewhat surprised that none of the liberal colleges have done themselves the honor to confer upon Mr. Vashon the title of LL. D.

WILLIAM H. SIMPSON.

It is a compliment to a picture to say that it produces the impression of the actual scene. Taste has, frequently, for its object, works of art. Nature, many suppose, may be studied with propriety; but art, they reject as entirely superficial. But what is the fact? In the highest sense, art is the child of Nature; and is most admired when it preserves the likeness of its parent. In Venice, the paintings of Titian, and of the Venetian artists generally, exact from the traveller a yet higher tribute, for the hues and forms around him constantly remind him of their works.

Many of the citizens of Boston, New York, Washington, Philadelphia, and other cities of our country, are often called to mention the names of their absent or departed friends, by looking upon their features, as transferred to canvas by the pencil and brush of William H. Simpson, the young colored artist. He has evidently taken Titian, Murillo, and Raphael for his masters. The Venetian painters were diligent students of the nature that was around them. The subject of our sketch seems to have imbibed their energy, as well as learned to copy the noble example they left behind. The history of painters, as well as poets, is written in their works. The best life of Goldsmith is to be found in his poem of “The Traveller,” and his novel of “The Vicar of Wakefield.” No one views the beautiful portrait of J. P. Kemble, in the National Gallery in London, in the character of Hamlet, without thinking of Sir Thomas Lawrence, who executed it.

The organ of color is prominent in the cranium of Mr. Simpson, and it is well developed. His portraits are admired for their life-like appearance, as well as for the fine delineation which characterizes them all. It is very easy to transcribe the emotions which paintings awaken, but it is no easy matter to say why a picture is so painted as that it must awaken certain emotions. Many persons feel art; some understand it; but few both feel and understand it. Mr. Simpson is rich in depth of feeling and spiritual beauty. His portrait of John T. Hilton, which was presented to the Masonic Lodge a few months since, is a splendid piece of art. The longer you look on the features, the more the picture looks like real life.

The taste displayed in the coloring of the regalia, and the admirable perspective of each badge of honor, show great skill. No higher praise is needed than to say that a gentleman of Boston, distinguished for his good judgment in the picture gallery, wishing to secure a likeness of Hon. Charles Sumner, induced the senator to sit to Mr. Simpson for the portrait; and in this instance the artist has been signally successful.

His likenesses have been so correct, that he has often been employed to paint whole families, where only one had been bargained for in the commencement. He is considered unapproachable in taking juvenile faces. Mr. Simpson does not aspire to anything in his art beyond portrait-painting. Nevertheless, a beautiful fancy sketch, hanging in his studio, representing summer, exhibits marked ability and consummate genius. The wreath upon the head, with different kinds of grain interwoven, and the nicety of coloring in each particular kind, causes those who view it to regard him as master of his profession. Portraits of his execution are scattered over most of the Northern States and the Canadas. Some have gone to Liberia, Hayti, and California.

Mr. Simpson is a native of Buffalo, New York, where he received a liberal education. But even in school, his early inclination to draw likenesses materially interfered with his studies. The propensity to use his slate and pencil in scratching down his schoolmates, instead of doing his sums in arithmetic, often gained him severe punishment. After leaving school, he was employed as errand boy by Matthew Wilson, Esq., the distinguished artist, who soon discovered young Simpson’s genius, and took him as an apprentice. In 1854, they removed to Boston, where Mr. Simpson labored diligently to acquire a thorough knowledge of the profession. Mr. Wilson stated to the writer, that he never had a man who was more attentive or more trustworthy than William H. Simpson.

Of unmixed negro blood, small in stature, a rather mild and womanly countenance, firm and resolute eye, gentlemanly in appearance, and intelligent in conversation, Mr. Simpson will be respected for his many good qualities. He died in 1872.

SIR EDWARD JORDAN.

Edward Jordan was born in Kingston, Jamaica, in the year 1798. After quitting school, he entered a clothing store, as a clerk; but his deep hatred to slavery, and the political and social outrages committed upon the free colored men, preyed upon his mind to such an extent that, in 1826, he associated himself with Robert Osborn, in the publication of “The Watchman,” a weekly newspaper devoted to the freedom and enfranchisement of the people of color.

His journal was conducted with marked ability, and Mr. Jordan soon began to wield a tremendous influence against the slave power. While absent from his editorial duties, in 1830, an article appeared in “The Watchman,” upon which its editor was indicted for constructive treason. He was at once arrested, placed in the dock, and arraigned for trial. He pleaded “Not guilty,” and asked for time to prepare for his defence. The plea was allowed, and the case was traversed to the next court. The trial came on at the appointed time; the jury was packed, for the pro-slavery element had determined on the conviction of the distinguished advocate of liberty. The whole city appeared to be lost to everything but the proceedings of the assize. It was feared that, if convicted, a riot would be the result, and the authorities prepared for this.

A vessel of war was brought up abreast of the city, the guns of which were pointed up one of the principal streets, and at almost every avenue leading to the sea, a merchant vessel was moored, armed with at least one great gun, pointing in a similar direction, to rake the streets from bottom to top. A detachment of soldiers was kept under arms, with orders to be ready for action at a moment’s warning. The officers of the court, including the judge, entered upon their duties, armed with pistols; and the sheriff was instructed to shoot the prisoner in the dock if a rescue was attempted. If convicted, Mr. Jordan’s punishment was to be death. Happily for all, the verdict was “Not guilty.” The acquittal of the editor of “The Watchman” carried disappointment and dismay into the ranks of the slave oligarchy, while it gave a new impetus to the anti-slavery cause, both in Jamaica and in Great Britain, and which culminated in the abolition of slavery on the 1st of August, 1834. The following year, Mr. Jordan was elected member of the Assembly for the city of Kingston, which he still represents. About this time, “The Watchman” was converted into a daily paper, under the title of “The Morning Journal,” still in existence, and owned by Jordan and Osborn. In 1853, Mr. Jordan was elected mayor of his native city without opposition, which office he still holds. He was recently chosen premier of the Island, and president of the privy council.

No man is more respected in the Assembly than Mr. Jordan, and reform measures offered by him are often carried through the house, owing to the respect the members have for the introducer. In the year 1860, the honorable gentleman was elevated to the dignity of knighthood by the Queen.

Sir Edward Jordan has ever been regarded as an honest, upright, and temperate man. In a literary point of view, he is considered one of the first men in Jamaica.

It is indeed a cheering sign for the negro to look at one of his race who a few years ago was tried for his life in a city in which he has since been mayor, and has held other offices of honor.

Mr. Jordan has died since the above sketch was written, and no man in Jamaica ever received greater honors at his funeral than he.

EDWIN M. BANNISTER.

Edwin M. Bannister was born in the town of St. Andrew, New Brunswick, and lost his father when only six years old. He attended the Grammar School in his native place, and received a better education than persons generally in his position. From early childhood he seems to have had a fancy for painting, which showed itself in the school-room and at home. He often drew portraits of his school-fellows, and the master not unfrequently found himself upon the slate, where Edwin’s success was so manifest that the likeness would call forth merriment from the boys, and create laughter at the expense of the teacher.

At the death of his mother, when still in his minority, he was put out to live with the Hon. Harris Hatch, a wealthy lawyer, the proprietor of a fine farm some little distance in the country. In his new home Edwin did not lose sight of his drawing propensities, and though the family had nothing in the way of models except two faded portraits, kept more as relics than for their intrinsic value, he nevertheless practised upon them, and often made the copy look more lifelike than the original. On the barn doors, fences, and every place where drawings could be made, the two ancient faces were to be seen pictured.

When the family were away on the Sabbath at church, the young artist would take possession of the old Bible, and copy its crude engravings, then replace it upon the dusty shelf, feeling an inward gratification, that, instead of satisfying the inclination, only gave him fresh zeal to hunt for new models. By the great variety of drawings which he had made on paper, and the correct sketches taken, young Bannister gained considerable reputation in the lawyer’s family, as well as in the neighborhood. Often, after the household had retired at night, the dim glimmer from the lean tallow candle was seen through the attic chamber window. It was there that the genius of the embryo artist was struggling for development.

There is a great diversity of opinion with regard to genius, many mistaking talent for genius. Talent is strength and subtilty of mind: genius is mental inspiration and delicacy of feeling. Talent possesses vigor and acuteness of penetration, but is surpassed by the vivid intellectual conceptions of genius. The former is skilful and bold, the latter aspiring and gentle. But talent excels in practical sagacity; and hence those striking contrasts so often witnessed in the world,—the triumphs of talent through its adroit and active energies, and the adversities of genius in the midst of its boundless, but unattainable aspirations. Mr. Bannister is a lover of poetry and the classics, and is always hunting up some new model for his gifted pencil and brush.

He has a beautiful scene representing “Cleopatra waiting to receive Marc Antony,” which I regret that I did not see. I am informed, however, that it is a beautifully-executed picture.

Mr. Bannister is of mixed blood, of spare make, slim, with an interesting cast of countenance, quick in his motions, easy in his manners, and respected by all.

WILLIAM C. NELL.

Mr. Nell is a native of Boston, and from the beginning of the anti-slavery agitation was identified with the movement. He labored long and arduously for equal school-rights for the colored children of his native city, where he performed a good work.

Mr. Nell is the author of the “Colored Patriots of the American Revolution,” a book filled with interesting incidents connected with the history of the blacks of this country, past and present. He has also written several smaller works, all of which are humanitarian in their character.

Deeply interested in the intellectual development and cultivation of his race, he has given much toil without compensation.

Mr. Nell is of medium height, slim, genteel figure, quick step, elastic movement, a thoughtful yet pleasant brow, thin face, and chaste in his conversation.

A student, and a lover of literature, he has a cultivated understanding, and has collected together more facts on the race with which he is identified than any other man of our acquaintance.

Mr. Nell is of unimpeachable character, and highly respected by his fellow-citizens.

IRA ALDRIDGE.

On looking over the columns of “The Times,” one morning, I saw it announced under the head of “Amusements,” that “Ira Aldridge, the African Roscius,” was to appear in the character of Othello, in Shakspeare’s celebrated tragedy of that name, and having long wished to see my sable countryman, I resolved at once to attend. Though the doors had been open but a short time when I reached the Royal Haymarket, the theatre where the performance was to take place, the house was well filled, and among the audience I recognized the faces of several distinguished persons of the nobility, the most noted of whom was Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, the renowned novelist—his figure neat, trim, hair done up in the latest fashion—looking as if he had just come out of a band-box. He is a great lover of the drama, and has a private theatre at one of his country seats, to which he often invites his friends, and presses them into the different characters.

As the time approached for the curtain to rise, it was evident that the house was to be “jammed.” Stuart, the best Iago since the days of Young, in company with Roderigo, came upon the stage as soon as the green curtain went up. Iago looked the villain, and acted it to the highest conception of the character. The scene is changed, all eyes are turned to the right door, and thunders of applause greet the appearance of Othello.

Mr. Aldridge is of the middle size, and appeared to be about three-quarters African; has a voice deep and powerful; and it was very evident that Edmund Kean, once his master, was also the model which he carefully followed in the part. There were the same deliberate, over-distinct enunciations, the same prolonged pauses and gradually performed gestures, in imitation of Kean’s manner. As Iago began to work upon his feelings, the Moor’s eyes flashed fire, and, further on in the play, he looked the very demon of despair. When he seized the deceiver by the throat, and exclaimed,—