NOTE. Τ HIS second volume brings the HISTORY OF THE NEGRO RACE IN AMERICA from 1800 down to 1880. It consists of six parts and twenty-nine chapters. Few memories can cover this eventful period of American history. Commencing its career with the Republic, slavery grew with its growth and strengthened with its strength. The dark spectre kept pace and company with liberty until separated by the Beginning with the struggle for restriction or extension of slavery, I have striven to record, in the spirit of honest and impartial historical inquiry, all the events of this period belonging properly to my subject. The development and decay of anti-slavery sentiment at the South; the pious efforts of the good Quakers to ameliorate the condition of the slaves; the service of Negroes as soldiers and sailors; the anti-slavery agitation movement; the insurrections of slaves; the national legislation on the slavery question; the John Brown movement; the war for the Union; the valorous conduct of Negro soldiers; the emancipation proclamations; the reconstruction of the late Confederate States; the errors of reconstruction; the results of emancipation; vital, prison, labor, educational, financial, and social statistics; the exoduscause and effect; and a sober prophecy of the future,―are all faithfully recorded. After seven years I am loath to part with the saddest task ever committed to human hands! I have tracked my bleeding countrymen. through the widely scattered documents of American history; I have listened to their groans, their clanking chains, and melting prayers, until the woes of a race and the agonies of centuries seem to crowd upon my soul as a bitter reality. Many pages of this history have been blistered with my tears; and, although having lived but a little more than a generation, my mind feels as if it were cycles old. The long spectral hand on the clock of American history points to the completion of the second decade since the American slave became an American citizen. How wondrous have been his strides, how marvellous his achievements! Twenty years ago we were in the midst of a great war for the extinction of slavery; in this anniversary week I complete my task, record the results of that struggle. I modestly strive to lift the Negro race to its pedestal in American history. I raise this post to indicate the progress of humanity; to instruct the present, to inform the future. I commit this work to the considerate judgment of my fellow-citizens of every race, "with malice toward none, and charity for all." GEO. W. WILLIAMS. HOFFMAN HOUSE, NEW YORK CITY, Dec. 28, 1882. CONTENTS. Part 4. CONSERVATIVE ERA-NEGROES IN THE ARMY AND NAVY. CHAPTER I. RESTRICTION AND EXTENSION. 1800-1825. Commencement of the Nineteenth Century. - Slave Population of 1800.- Memorial presented - CHAPTER II. NEGRO TROOPS IN THE WAR OF 1812. Employment of Negroes as Soldiers in the War of 1812. - The New York Legislature - CHAPTER III. PAGE 23 NEGROES IN THE NAVY. - No Proscription against Negroes as Sailors. They are carried upon the Rolls in the Navy - V 28 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 ques- - CHAPTER V. ANTI-SLAVERY METHODS. - - The Antiquity of Anti-slavery Sentiment. Benjamin Lundy's Opposition to Slavery in CHAPTER VI. ANTI-SLAVERY EFFORTS OF FREE NEGROES. - Intelligent Interest of Free Negroes in the Agitation Movement. -"First Annual Conven- --- CHAPTER VII. NEGRO INSURRECTIONS. - The The Negro not so Docile as supposed. - The Reason why he was kept in Bondage. - " PAGE 31 37 61 82 |