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.