Chapter VII

THE NEGRO REPLY, I: REVOLT

We have already seen that on several occasions in colonial times the Negroes in bondage made a bid for freedom, many men risking their all and losing their lives in consequence. In general these early attempts failed completely to realize their aim, organization being feeble and the leadership untrained and exerting only an emotional hold over adherents. In Charleston, S.C., in 1822, however, there was planned an insurrection about whose scope there could be no question. The leader, Denmark Vesey, is interesting as an intellectual insurrectionist just as the more famous Nat Turner is typical of the more fervent sort. It is the purpose of the present chapter to study the attempts for freedom made by these two men, and also those of two daring groups of captives who revolted at sea.

1. Denmark Vesey's Insurrection

Denmark Vesey is first seen as one of the three hundred and ninety slaves on the ship of Captain Vesey, who commanded a vessel trading between St. Thomas and Cape François (Santo Domingo), and who was engaged in supplying the French of the latter place with slaves. At the time, the boy was fourteen years old, and of unusual personal beauty, alertness, and magnetism. He was shown considerable favoritism, and was called Télémaque (afterwards corrupted to Telmak, and then to Denmark). On his arrival at Cape François, Denmark was sold with others of the slaves to a planter who owned a considerable estate. On his next trip, however, Captain Vesey learned that the boy was to be returned to him as unsound and subject to epileptic fits. The laws of the place permitted the return of a slave in such a case, and while it has been thought that Denmark's fits may have been feigned in order that he might have some change of estate, there was quite enough proof in the matter to impress the king's physician. Captain Vesey never had reason to regret having to take the boy back. They made several voyages together, and Denmark served until 1800 as his faithful personal attendant. In this year the young man, now thirty-three years of age and living in Charleston, won $1,500 in an East Bay Street lottery, $600 of which he devoted immediately to the purchase of his freedom. The sum was much less than he was really worth, but Captain Vesey liked him and had no reason to drive a hard bargain with him.

In the early years of his full manhood accordingly Denmark Vesey found himself a free man in his own right and possessed of the means for a little real start in life. He improved his time and proceeded to win greater standing and recognition by regular and industrious work at his trade, that of a carpenter. Over the slaves he came to have unbounded influence. Among them, in accordance with the standards of the day, he had several wives and children (none of whom could he call his own), and he understood perfectly the fervor and faith and superstition of the Negroes with whom he had to deal. To his remarkable personal magnetism moreover he added just the strong passion and the domineering temper that were needed to make his conquest complete.

2. Nat Turner's Insurrection

About noon on Sunday, August 21, 1831, on the plantation of Joseph Travis at Cross Keys, in Southampton County, in Southeastern Virginia, were gathered four Negroes, Henry Porter, Hark Travis, Nelson Williams, and Sam Francis, evidently preparing for a barbecue. They were soon joined by a gigantic and athletic Negro named Will Francis, and by another named Jack Reese. Two hours later came a short, strong-looking man who had a face of great resolution and at whom one would not have needed to glance a second time to know that he was to be the master-spirit of the company. Seeing Will and his companion he raised a question as to their being present, to which Will replied that life was worth no more to him than the others and that liberty was as dear to him. This answer satisfied the latest comer, and Nat Turner now went into conference with his most trusted friends. One can only imagine the purpose, the eagerness, and the firmness on those dark faces throughout that long summer afternoon and evening. When at last in the night the low whispering ceased, the doom of nearly three-score white persons—and it might be added, of twice as many Negroes—was sealed.

Cross Keys was seventy miles from Norfolk, just about as far from Richmond, twenty-five miles from the Dismal Swamp, fifteen miles from Murfreesboro in North Carolina, and also fifteen miles from Jerusalem, the county seat of Southampton County. The community was settled primarily by white people of modest means. Joseph Travis, the owner of Nat Turner, had recently married the widow of one Putnam Moore.

Nat Turner, who originally belonged to one Benjamin Turner, was born October 2, 1800. He was mentally precocious and had marks on his head and breast which were interpreted by the Negroes who knew him as marking him for some high calling. In his mature years he also had on his right arm a knot which was the result of a blow which he had received. He experimented in paper, gunpowder, and pottery, and it is recorded of him that he was never known to swear an oath, to drink a drop of spirits, or to commit a theft. Instead he cultivated fasting and prayer and the reading of the Bible.

More and more Nat gave himself up to a life of the spirit and to communion with the voices that he said he heard. He once ran away for a month, but felt commanded by the spirit to return. About 1825 a consciousness of his great mission came to him, and daily he labored to make himself more worthy. As he worked in the field he saw drops of blood on the corn, and he also saw white spirits and black spirits contending in the skies. While he thus so largely lived in a religious or mystical world and was immersed, he was not a professional Baptist preacher. On May 12, 1828, he was left no longer in doubt. A great voice said unto him that the Serpent was loosed, that Christ had laid down the yoke, that he, Nat, was to take it up again, and that the time was fast approaching when the first should be last and the last should be first. An eclipse of the sun in February, 1831, was interpreted as the sign for him to go forward. Yet he waited a little longer, until he had made sure of his most important associates. It is worthy of note that when he began his work, while he wanted the killing to be as effective and widespread as possible, he commanded that no outrage be committed, and he was obeyed.

As the men neared the home of James Parker, it was suggested that they call there; but Turner objected, as this man had already gone to Jerusalem and he himself wished to reach the county seat as soon as possible. However, he and some of the men remained at the gate while others went to the house half a mile away. This exploit proved to be the turning-point of the events of the day. Uneasy at the delay of those who went to the house, Turner went thither also. On his return he was met by a company of white men who had fired on those Negroes left at the gate and dispersed them. On discovering these men, Turner ordered his own men to halt and form, as now they were beginning to be alarmed. The white men, eighteen in number, approached and fired, but were forced to retreat. Reënforcements for them from Jerusalem were already at hand, however, and now the great pursuit of the Negro insurrectionists began.

Hark's horse was shot under him and five or six of the men were wounded. Turner's force was largely dispersed, but on Monday night he stopped at the home of Major Ridley, and his company again increased to forty. He tried to sleep a little, but a sentinel gave the alarm; all were soon up and the number was again reduced to twenty. Final resistance was offered at the home of Dr. Blunt, but here still more of the men were put to flight and were never again seen by Turner.

A little later, however, the leader found two of his men named Jacob and Nat. These he sent with word to Henry, Hark, Nelson, and Sam to meet him at the place where on Sunday they had taken dinner together. With what thoughts Nat Turner returned alone to this place on Tuesday evening can only be imagined. Throughout the night he remained, but no one joined him and he presumed that his followers had all either been taken or had deserted him. Nor did any one come on Wednesday, or on Thursday. On Thursday night, having supplied himself with provisions from the Travis home, he scratched a hole under a pile of fence-rails, and here he remained for six weeks, leaving only at night to get water. All the while of course he had no means of learning of the fate of his companions or of anything else. Meanwhile not only the vicinity but the whole South was being wrought up to an hysterical state of mind. A reward of $500 for the capture of the man was offered by the Governor, and other rewards were also offered. On September 30 a false account of his capture appeared in the newspapers; on October 7 another; on October 8 still another. By this time Turner had begun to move about a little at night, not speaking to any human being and returning always to his hole before daybreak. Early on October 15 a dog smelt his provisions and led thither two Negroes. Nat appealed to these men for protection, but they at once began to run and excitedly spread the news. Turner fled in another direction and for ten days more hid among the wheat-stacks on the Francis plantation. All the while not less than five hundred men were on the watch for him, and they found the stick that he had notched from day to day. Once he thought of surrendering, and walked within two miles of Jerusalem. Three times he tried to get away, and failed. On October 25 he was discovered by Francis, who discharged at him a load of buckshot, twelve of which passed through his hat, and he was at large for five days more. On October 30 Benjamin Phipps, a member of the patrol, passing a clearing in the woods noticed a motion among the boughs. He paused, and gradually he saw Nat's head emerging from a hole beneath. The fugitive now gave up as he knew that the woods were full of men. He was taken to the nearest house, and the crowd was so great and the excitement so intense that it was with difficulty that he was taken to Jerusalem. For more than two months, from August 25 to October 30, he had eluded his pursuers, remaining all the while in the vicinity of his insurrection.

The immediate panic created by the Nat Turner insurrection in Virginia and the other states of the South it would be impossible to exaggerate. When the news of what was happening at Cross Keys spread, two companies, on horse and foot, came from Murfreesboro as quickly as possible. On the Wednesday after the memorable Sunday night there came from Fortress Monroe three companies and a piece of artillery. These commands were reënforced from various sources until not less than eight hundred men were in arms. Many of the Negroes fled to the Dismal Swamp, and the wildest rumors were afloat. One was that Wilmington had been burned, and in Raleigh and Fayetteville the wildest excitement prevailed. In the latter place scores of white women and children fled to the swamps, coming out two days afterwards muddy, chilled, and half-starved. Slaves were imprisoned wholesale. In Wilmington four men were shot without trial and their heads placed on poles at the four corners of the town. In Macon, Ga., a report was circulated that an armed band of Negroes was only five miles away, and within an hour the women and children were assembled in the largest building in the town, with a military force in front for protection.

The effects on legislation were immediate. Throughout the South the slave codes became more harsh; and while it was clear that the uprising had been one of slaves rather than of free Negroes, as usual special disabilities fell upon the free people of color. Delaware, that only recently had limited the franchise to white men, now forbade the use of firearms by free Negroes and would not suffer any more to come within the state. Tennessee also forbade such immigration, while Maryland passed a law to the effect that all free Negroes must leave the state and be colonized in Africa—a monstrous piece of legislation that it was impossible to put into effect and that showed once for all the futility of attempts at forcible emigration as a solution of the problem. In general, however, the insurrection assisted the colonization scheme and also made more certain the carrying out of the policy of the Jackson administration to remove the Indians of the South to the West. It also focussed the attention of the nation upon the status of the Negro, crystallized opinion in the North, and thus helped with the formation of anti-slavery organizations. By it for the time being the Negro lost; in the long run he gained.

3. The "Amistad" and "Creole" Cases

On June 28, 1839, a schooner, the Amistad, sailed from Havana bound for Guanaja in the vicinity of Puerto Principe. She was under the command of her owner, Don Ramon Ferrer, was laden with merchandise, and had on board fifty-three Negroes, forty-nine of whom supposedly belonged to a Spaniard, Don Jose Ruiz, the other four belonging to Don Pedro Montes. During the night of June 30 the slaves, under the lead of one of their number named Cinque, rose upon the crew, killed the captain, a slave of his, and two sailors, and while they permitted most of the crew to escape, they took into close custody the two owners, Ruiz and Montes. Montes, who had some knowledge of nautical affairs, was ordered to steer the vessel back to Africa. So he did by day, when the Negroes would watch him, but at night he tried to make his way to some land nearer at hand. Other vessels passed from time to time, and from these the Negroes bought provisions, but Montes and Ruiz were so closely watched that they could not make known their plight. At length, on August 26, the schooner reached Long Island Sound, where it was detained by the American brig-of-war Washington, in command of Captain Gedney, who secured the Negroes and took them to New London, Conn. It took a year and a half to dispose of the issue thus raised. The case attracted the greatest amount of attention, led to international complications, and was not really disposed of until a former President had exhaustively argued the case for the Negroes before the Supreme Court of the United States.

In a letter of September 6, 1839, to John Forsyth, the American Secretary of State, Calderon, the Spanish minister, formally made four demands: 1. That the Amistad be immediately delivered up to her owner, together with every article on board at the time of her capture; 2. That it be declared that no tribunal in the United States had the right to institute proceedings against, or to impose penalties upon, the subjects of Spain, for crimes committed on board a Spanish vessel, and in the waters of Spanish territory; 3. That the Negroes be conveyed to Havana or otherwise placed at the disposal of the representatives of Spain; and 4. That if, in consequence of the intervention of the authorities in Connecticut, there should be any delay in the desired delivery of the vessel and the slaves, the owners both of the latter and of the former be indemnified for the injury that might accrue to them. In support of his demands Calderon invoked "the law of nations, the stipulations of existing treaties, and those good feelings so necessary in the maintenance of the friendly relations that subsist between the two countries, and are so interesting to both." Forsyth asked for any papers bearing on the question, and Calderon replied that he had none except "the declaration on oath of Montes and Ruiz."

Meanwhile the abolitionists were insisting that protection had not been afforded the African strangers cast on American soil and that in no case did the executive arm of the Government have any authority to interfere with the regular administration of justice. "These Africans," it was said, "are detained in jail, under process of the United States courts, in a free state, after it has been decided by the District Judge, on sufficient proof, that they are recently from Africa, were never the lawful slaves of Ruiz and Montes," and "when it is clear as noonday that there is no law or treaty stipulation that requires the further detention of these Africans or their delivery to Spain or its subjects."

Writing on October 24 to the Spanish representative with reference to the arrest of Ruiz and Montes, Forsyth informed him that the two Spanish subjects had been arrested on process issuing from the superior court of the city of New York upon affidavits of certain men, natives of Africa, "for the purpose of securing their appearance before the proper tribunal, to answer for wrongs alleged to have been inflicted by them upon the persons of said Africans," that, consequently, the occurrence constituted simply a "case of resort by individuals against others to the judicial courts of the country, which are equally open to all without distinction," and that the agency of the Government to obtain the release of Messrs. Ruiz and Montes could not be afforded in the manner requested. Further pressure was brought to bear by the Spanish representative, however, and there was cited the case of Abraham Wendell, captain of the brig Franklin, who was prosecuted at first by Spanish officials for maltreatment of his mate, but with reference to whom documents were afterwards sent from Havana to America. Much more correspondence followed, and Felix Grundy, of Tennessee, Attorney General of the United States, at length muddled everything by the following opinion: "These Negroes deny that they are slaves; if they should be delivered to the claimants, no opportunity may be afforded for the assertion of their right to freedom. For these reasons, it seems to me that a delivery to the Spanish minister is the only safe course for this Government to pursue." The fallacy of all this was shown in a letter dated November 18, 1839, from B.F. Butler, United States District Attorney in New York, to Aaron Vail, acting Secretary of State. Said Butler: "It does not appear to me that any question has yet arisen under the treaty with Spain; because, although it is an admitted principle, that neither the courts of this state, nor those of the United States, can take jurisdiction of criminal offenses committed by foreigners within the territory of a foreign state, yet it is equally settled in this country, that our courts will take cognizance of civil actions between foreigners transiently within our jurisdiction, founded upon contracts or other transactions made or had in a foreign state." Southern influence was strong, however, and a few weeks afterwards an order was given from the Department of State to have a vessel anchor off New Haven, Conn., January 10, 1840, to receive the Negroes from the United States marshal and take them to Cuba; and on January 7 the President, Van Buren, issued the necessary warrant.

The rights of humanity, however, were not to be handled in this summary fashion. The executive order was stayed, and the case went further on its progress to the highest tribunal in the land. Meanwhile the anti-slavery people were teaching the Africans the rudiments of English in order that they might be better able to tell their own story. From the first a committee had been appointed to look out for their interests and while they were awaiting the final decision in their case they cultivated a garden of fifteen acres.

The appearance of John Quincy Adams in behalf of these Negroes before the Supreme Court of the United States February 24 and March 1, 1841, is in every way one of the most beautiful acts in American history. In the fullness of years, with his own administration as President twelve years behind him, the "Old Man Eloquent" came once more to the tribunal that he knew so well to make a last plea for the needy and oppressed. To the task he brought all his talents—his profound knowledge of law, his unrivaled experience, and his impressive personality; and his argument covers 135 octavo pages. He gave an extended analysis of the demand of the Spanish minister, who asked the President to do what he simply had no constitutional right to do. "The President," said Adams, "has no power to arrest either citizens or foreigners. But even that power is almost insignificant compared with that of sending men beyond seas to deliver them up to a foreign government." The Secretary of State had "degraded the country, in the face of the whole civilized world, not only by allowing these demands to remain unanswered, but by proceeding, throughout the whole transaction, as if the Executive were earnestly desirous to comply with every one of the demands." The Spanish minister had naturally insisted in his demands because he had not been properly met at first. The slave-trade was illegal by international agreement, and the only thing to do under the circumstances was to release the Negroes. Adams closed his plea with a magnificent review of his career and of the labors of the distinguished jurists he had known in the court for nearly forty years, and be it recorded wherever the name of Justice is spoken, he won his case.

Lewis Tappan now accompanied the Africans on a tour through the states to raise money for their passage home. The first meeting was in Boston. Several members of the company interested the audience by their readings from the New Testament or by their descriptions of their own country and of the horrors of the voyage. Cinque gave the impression of great dignity and of extraordinary ability; and Kali, a boy only eleven years of age, also attracted unusual attention. Near the close of 1841, accompanied by five missionaries and teachers, the Africans set sail from New York, to make their way first to Sierra Leone and then to their own homes as well as they could.

While this whole incident of the Amistad was still engaging the interest of the public, there occurred another that also occasioned international friction and even more prolonged debate between the slavery and anti-slavery forces. On October 25, 1841, the brig Creole, Captain Ensor, of Richmond, Va., sailed from Richmond and on October 27 from Hampton Roads, with a cargo of tobacco and one hundred and thirty slaves bound for New Orleans. On the vessel also, aside from the crew, were the captain's wife and child, and three or four passengers, who were chiefly in charge of the slaves, one man, John R. Hewell, being directly in charge of those belonging to an owner named McCargo. About 9.30 on the night of Sunday, November 7, while out at sea, nineteen of the slaves rose, cowed the others, wounded the captain, and generally took command of the vessel. Madison Washington began the uprising by an attack on Gifford, the first mate, and Ben Blacksmith, one of the most aggressive of his assistants, killed Hewell. The insurgents seized the arms of the vessel, permitted no conversation between members of the crew except in their hearing, demanded and obtained the manifests of slaves, and threatened that if they were not taken to Abaco or some other British port they would throw the officers and crew overboard. The Creole reached Nassau, New Providence, on Tuesday, November 9, and the arrival of the vessel at once occasioned intense excitement. Gifford went ashore and reported the matter, and the American consul, John F. Bacon, contended to the English authorities that the slaves on board the brig were as much a part of the cargo as the tobacco and entitled to the same protection from loss to the owners. The governor, Sir Francis Cockburn, however, was uncertain whether to interfere in the business at all. He liberated those slaves who were not concerned in the uprising, spoke of all of the slaves as "passengers," and guaranteed to the nineteen who were shown by an investigation to have been connected with the uprising all the rights of prisoners called before an English court. He told them further that the British Government would be communicated with before their case was finally passed upon, that if they wished copies of the informations these would be furnished them, and that they were privileged to have witnesses examined in refutation of the charges against them. From time to time Negroes who were natives of the island crowded about the brig in small boats and intimidated the American crew, but when on the morning of November 12 the Attorney General questioned them as to their intentions they replied with transparent good humor that they intended no violence and had assembled only for the purpose of conveying to shore such of the persons on the Creole as might be permitted to leave and might need their assistance. The Attorney General required, however, that they throw overboard a dozen stout cudgels that they had. Here the whole case really rested. Daniel Webster as Secretary of State aroused the anti-slavery element by making a strong demand for the return of the slaves, basing his argument on the sacredness of vessels flying the American flag; but the English authorities at Nassau never returned any of them. On March 21, 1842, Joshua R. Giddings, untiring defender of the rights of the Negro, offered in the House of Representatives resolutions to the effect that slavery could exist only by positive law of the different states; that the states had delegated no control over slavery to the Federal Government, which alone had jurisdiction on the high seas, and that, therefore, slaves on the high seas became free and the coastwise trade was unconstitutional. The House, strongly pro-Southern, replied with a vote of censure and Giddings resigned, but he was immediately reëlected by his Ohio constituency.

Joseph Travis, wife and three children 5

Mrs. Elizabeth Turner, Hartwell Peebles, and Sarah Newsum 3

Mrs. Piety Reese and son, William 2

Trajan Doyal 1

Henry Briant, wife and child, and wife's mother 4

Mrs. Catherine Whitehead, her son Richard, four daughters and a grandchild 7

Salathael Francis 1

Nathaniel Francis's overseer and two children 3

John T. Barrow and George Vaughan 2

Mrs. Levi Waller and ten children 11

Mr. William Williams, wife and two boys 4

Mrs. Caswell Worrell and child 2

Mrs. Rebacca Vaughan, Ann Eliza Vaughan, and son Arthur 3

Mrs. Jacob Williams and three children and Edwin Drewry 5

—

55