CHAPTER III.

NEGROES IN THE NAVY.

NO PROSCRIPTION AGAINST NEGROES AS SAILORS. THEY ARE CARRIED UPON THE ROLLS IN THE NAVY WITHOUT REGARD TO THEIR NATIONALITY. - THEIR TREATMENT AS SAILORS. COMMODORE PERRY'S LETTER TO COMMODORE CHAUNCEY IN REGARD TO THE MEN SENT HIM.— COMMODORE CHAUNCEY'S SPIRITED REPLY. -THE HEROISM of the Negro set forth in the PICTURE OF PERRY'S VICTORY ON LAKE ERIE. EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM NATHANIEL SHALER, COMMANDER OF A PRIVATE VESSEL. HE CITES SEVERAL INSTAnces of the HEROIC CONDUCT OF NEGRO SAILORS.

IT

1

T is rather a remarkable fact of history that Negroes were carried upon the rolls of the navy without reference to their nationality. About one tenth of the crews of the fleet that sailed to the Upper Lakes to co-operate with Col. Croghan at Mackinac, in 1814, were Negroes. Dr. Parsons says:

"In 1816, I was surgeon of the 'Java,' under Commodore Perry. The white and colored seamen messed together. About one in six or eight were colored.

"In 1819, I was surgeon of the 'Guerrière,' under Commodore Macdonough; and the proportion of blacks was about the same in her

There seemed to be an entire absence of prejudice against the blacks as messmates among the crew. What I have said applies to the crews of the other ships that sailed in squadrons."

This ample and reliable testimony as to the treatment of Negroes as sailors, puts to rest all doubts as to their status in the United States navy.

In the summer of 1813, Captain (afterwards Commodore) Perry wrote a letter to Commodore Chauncey in which he complained that an indifferent lot of men had been sent him. The following is the letter that he wrote.

"SIR-I have this moment received, by express, the enclosed letter from General Harrison. If I had officers and men-and I have no

'Livermore, pp. 159, 160.

doubt you will send them-I could fight the enemy, and proceed up the lake; but, having no one to command the 'Niagara,' and only one commissioned lieutenant and two acting lieutenants, whatever my wishes may be, going out is out of the question. The men that came by Mr. Champlin are a motley set-blacks, soldiers, and boys. I cannot think you saw them after they were selected. I am, however, pleased to see any thing in the shape of a man."1

Commodore Chauncey replied in the following sharp letter, in which he gave Captain Perry to understand that the color of the skin had nothing to do with a man's qualifications for the navy:

"SIR-I have been duly honored with your letters of the twentythird and twenty-sixth ultimo, and notice your anxiety for men and officers. I am equally anxious to furnish you; and no time shall be lost in sending officers and men to you as soon as the public service will allow me to send them from this lake. I regret that you are not pleased with the men sent you by Messrs. Champlin and Forrest; for, to my knowledge, a part of them are not surpassed by any seamen we have in the fleet; and I have yet to learn that the color of the skin, or the cut and trimmings of the coat, can affect a man's qualifications or usefulness. I have nearly fifty blacks on board of this ship, and many of them are among my best men; and those people you call soldiers have been to sea from two to seventeen years; and I presume that you will find them as good and useful as any men on board of your vessel; at least, if I can judge by comparison; for those which we have on board of this ship are attentive and obedient, and, as far as I can judge, many of them excellent seamen at any rate, the men sent to Lake Erie have been selected with a view of sending a fair proportion of petty officers and seamen; and, I presume, upon examination it will be found that they are equal to those upon this lake.""

Perry was not long in discovering that the Negroes whom Commodore Chauncey had sent him were competent, faithful, and brave; and his former prejudice did not prevent him from. speaking their praise.

"Perry speaks highly of the bravery and good conduct of the negroes, who formed a considerable part of his crew. They seemed to be absolutely insensible to danger. When Captain Barclay came on board the Niagara,' and beheld the sickly and party-colored beings

'Mackenzie's Life of Perry, vol. i. pp. 165, 166.

around him, an expression of chagrin escaped him at having been conquered by such men. The fresh-water service had very much impaired the health of the sailors, and crowded the sick-list with patients."

These brave Negro sailors served faithfully through all the battles on the Lakes, and in the battle of Lake Erie rendered most effective service. Once more the artist has rescued from oblivion the heroism of the Negroes; for in the East Senate stairway of the Capitol at Washington, and in the rotunda of the Capitol at Columbus, in the celebrated picture of Perry's Victory on Lake Erie, a Negro sailor has a place among the immortalized crew.

The following testimony to the bravery of Colored sailors is of the highest character.

"EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM NATHANIEL 'SHALER, COMMANDER OF THE PRIVATE-ARMED SCHOONER 'Gov. TOMPKINS,' TO HIS AGENT IN NEW YORK, DATED—

"AT SEA, Jan. 1, 1813.

Her first

My officers

"Before I could get our light sails in, and almost before I could turn round, I was under the guns, not of a transport, but of a large frigate! and not more than a quarter of a mile from her. broadside killed two men, and wounded six others. conducted themselves in a way that would have done honor to a more permanent service. . . The name of one of my poor fellows who was killed ought to be registered in the book of fame, and remembered with reverence as long as bravery is considered a virtue. He was a black man, by the name of John Johnson. A twenty-four-pound shot struck him in the hip, and took away all the lower part of his body. In this state, the poor brave fellow lay on the deck, and several times exclaimed to his shipmates: Fire away, my boys; no haul a color down?' The other was also a black man, by the name of John Davis, and was struck in much the same way. He fell near me, and several times requested to be thrown overboard, saying he was only in the way of others.

"When America has such tars, she has little to fear from the tyrants of the ocean."

992

After praise of such a nature and from such a source, eulogy is superfluous.

Part 5.

ANTI-SLAVERY AGITATION.

CHAPTER IV.

RETROSPECTION AND REFLECTION.

1825-1850.

THE SECURITY OF THE INSTITUTION OF SLAVERY AT THE SOUTH.

THE RIGHT TO HOLD SLAVES QUESTIONED. RAPID INCREASE OF THE SLAVE POPULATION. - ANTI-SLAVERY SPEECHES IN THE LEGISLATURE OF VIRGINIA. -THE QUAKERS OF MARYLAND AND DELAWARE EMANCIPATE THEIR SLAVES. THE EVIL EFFECT OF SLAVERY UPON SOCIETY. -THE CONSCIENCE AND HEART OF THE SOUTH DID NOT RESPOND TO THE VOICE OF REASON OR DICTATES OF HUMANITY.

A

N awful silence succeeded the stormy struggle that ended in the violation of the ordinance of 1787. It was now time for reflection. The Southern statesmen had proven themselves the masters of the situation. The institution of slavery was secured to them, with many collateral political advantages. And, in addition to this, they had secured the inoculation of the free territory beyond the Mississippi and Ohio rivers with the virus of Negro-slavery.

If the mother-country had forced slavery upon her colonial dependencies in North America, and if it were difficult and inconvenient to part with slave-labor, who were now responsible for the extension of the slave area? Southern men, of course. What principle or human law was strong enough to support an institution of such cruel proportions? The old law of European pagans born of bloody and destroying wars? No; for it was now the nineteenth century. Abstract law? Certainly not; for law is the perfection of reason-it always tends to conform thereto and that which is not reason is not law. Well did Justinian write: "Live honestly, hurt nobody, and render to every

one his just dues." The law of nations? Verily not; for it is a system of rules deducible from reason and natural justice, and established by universal consent, to regulate the conduct and mutual intercourse between independent States. The Declaration of Independence? Far from it; because the prologue of that incomparable instrument recites: "We hold these truths to be self-evident-that all MEN are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." And the peerless George Bancroft has added: "The heart of Jefferson in writing the Declaration, and of Congress in adopting it, beat for all humanity; the assertion of right was made for all mankind and all coming generations, without any exception whatever; for the proposition which admits of exceptions can never be selfevident." There was but one authority for slavery left, and that was the Bible.

Many slave-holders thought deeply on the question of their right to hold slaves. A disturbed conscience cried aloud for a "Thus saith the Lord," and the pulpit was charged with the task of quieting the general disquietude. The divine origin of slavery was heard from a thousand pulpits. God, who never writes a poor hand, had written upon the brow of every Negro, the word "Slave"; slavery was their normal condition, and the white man was God's agent in the United States to carry out the prophecy of Noah respecting the descendants of Ham; while St. Paul had sent Onesimus back to his owner, and had written, "Servants, obey your masters."

But apologetic preaching did not seem to silence the gnawing of a guilty conscience. Upon the battle-fields of two great wars; in the army and in the navy, the Negroes had demonstrated their worth and manhood. They had stood with the undrilled minute-men along the dusty roads leading from Lexington and Concord to Boston, against the skilled redcoats of boastful Britain. They were among the faithful little band that held Bunker Hill against overwhelming odds; at Long Island, Newport, and Monmouth, they had held their ground against the stubborn columns of the Ministerial army. They had journeyed with the Pilgrim Fathers through eight years of despair and hope, of defeat and victory; had shared their suf