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Freedmen as Civilized Citizens |
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Nineteenth century Americans prided themselves on belonging to a "Christian civilization" built on the home, the school, the workplace, and the church. Advocates of slavery had long represented African-Americans as savages who were inherently incapable of functioning as part of a civilized society, and even proponents of emancipation generally believed that the institution of slavery stunted the moral growth of those raised under its rule.This explains why freedmen's teachers focused so much of their time on encouraging domestic economy, traditional family relationships, and the exercise of a genteel Christianity. In addition, by starting reform groups dedicated to temperance and other causes, teachers encouraged self-restraint and self-help while also recreating in freedmen's camps the kinds of institutions that the teachers had valued in their own Northern communities.
In letters to their friends and supporters, freedmen's teachers often commented on the ways in which the former slaves seemed to fall short of accepted standards of behavior. At the same time, those letters often provided warm testimony about the strong moral character, instinctive warmth, deep family ties, and quick progress of the freedpeople.
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Teaching Freedmen "All the Arts of Civilization"
When Northerners of the Civil War era wrote--as they often did--of the need to "civilize" the freedmen, they were making two important assumptions; first, that education, industry, domesticity, and religion were prerequisites for successful participation in American life; and second, that African-Americans lacked these characteristics.
It is no coincidence that images of churches, schools, homes, and workplaces turn up repeatedly in nineteenth century American pictures related to reform because religion, education, domesticity, and enterprise were considered the foundations of American civilization. These four institutions were seen as providing the foundation for American progress and they offered mutually reinforcing messages about the importance of self-restraint, enterprise, manners, and morals. For example, religion taught the lessons of self-restraint and self-discipline necessary for success in the schoolroom and the workplace, and necessary as well for living within the boundaries of a monogamous marital relationship. Domesticity motivated individuals to succeed in the schoolroom and workplace: both to provide for and earn the respect of loved-ones. At the same time, the importance of industry and religion were taught within the domestic circle, particularly by women.
Freedmen were not seen as part of this system of civilization. On a practical level, during the antebellum period the school, the home, the marketplace, and the church had not played the same role in the lives of slaves as in the lives of other Americans. Slaves typically had been prohibited from learning to read and write, unable to compete in the marketplace for paying jobs, prevented from having legal marriages with their partners and yet expected to produce children, and sold away from their family members and paired with new partners. And those slaves who were permitted to attend church services often found their moral education limited to a lesson on the importance of being obedient to one's master.
However, discussions of the need to "civilize" the former slaves also reflected an acceptance of racial stereotypes of the period, which characterized African-Americans as stupid, lazy, uncultivated, and savage. Even "positive" stereotypes of the "docile," "loyal," and "obedient" negro, representations often found in the writing of reformers, suggested that African-Americans were unequipped to deal with the demands of independent, competitive American life. This explains why freedmen's aid societies included lessons on domesticity, industry, and religion as part of their educational programs.
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Illustration for "Part II. Life as a Freeman," from Frederick Douglass's My Bondage and My Freedom, 1855 |
Details from My Bondage and My Freedom Illustration |
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"The Proclamation of Emancipation," |
Detail from "The Proclamation of Emancipation" |
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"The Tree of Temperance," |
Details from "The Tree of Temperance" |
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Above: "Past, Present and Future of Slavery," Harper's Weekly, April, 1864
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As you read the quotations below taken from reports written by government officials and teachers regarding the freedmen, it may be useful to consider the following questions:
The Question of Civilization |
There was one striking feature in the contrabands which must not be omitted. I did not hear a profane or vulgar word spoken by them during my superintendence, a remark which it will be difficult to make of any sixty-four white men taken together anywhere in our army. Indeed, the greatest discomfort of a soldier, who desires to remain a gentleman in the camp, is the perpetual reiteration of language which no decent lips would utter in a sister's presence. But the negroes, so dogmatically pronounced unfit for freedom, were in this respect models for those who make high boasts of civility of manners and Christian culture. Out of the sixty-four who worked for us, all but half a dozen were members of the Church, generally the Baptist. Although without a pastor, they held religious meetings on the Sundays which we passed in Hampton, which were attended by about sixty colored persons and three hundred soldiers. The devotions were decorously conducted, bating some loud shouting by one or two excitable brethren, which the better sense of the rest could not suppress. Their prayers and exhortations were fervent, and marked by a simplicity which is not infrequently the richest eloquence. The soldiers behaved with entire propriety, and two exhorted them with pious unction, as children of one Father, ransomed by the same Redeemer. In natural tact and the faculty of getting a livelihood the contrabands are inferior to the Yankees, but quite equal to the mass of the Southern population. It is not easy to see why they would be less industrious, if free, than the whites, particularly as they would have the encouragement of wages. There would be transient difficulties at the outset, but no more than a bad system lasting for ages might be expected to leave behind. The first generation might be unfitted for the active duties and responsibilities of citizenship; but this difficulty, under generous provisions for education, would not pass to the next. Even now they are not so much behind the masses of the whites. Of the Virginians who took the oath of allegiance at Hampton, not more than one in fifteen could write his name, and the rolls captured at Hatteras disclose an equally deplorable ignorance. The contrabands might be less addicted than the now dominant race to bowie-knives and duels, think less of the value of bludgeons as forensic arguments, be less inhospitable to innocent sojourners from Free States, and have far inferior skill in robbing forts and arsenals, plundering the Treasury, and betraying the country at whose crib they had fattened; but mankind would forgive them for not acquiring these accomplishments of modern treason. As a race, they may be less vigorous and thrifty than the Saxon, but they are more social, docile, and affectionate, fulfilling the theory which Channing held in relation to them, if advanced to freedom and civilization. If in the progress of the war they should be called to bear arms, there need be no reasonable apprehension that they would exhibit the ferocity of savage races. Unlike such, they have been subordinated to civilized life. They are by nature a religious people. They have received an education in the Christian faith from devout teachers of their own and of the dominant race. Some have been taught (let us believe it) by the precepts of Christian masters, and some by the children of those masters, repeating the lessons of the Sabbath-school. The slaveholders assure us that they have all been well treated. If that be so, they have no wrongs to avenge. Associated with our army, they would conform to the stronger and more disciplined race. There are also on the plantations other laborers, more intelligent than the average, such as the carpenter, the plowman, the religious leader, who may be called a preacher, a watchman or a helper,--the two latter being recognized officers in the churches of these people, and the helpers being aids to the watchman. These persons, having recognized positions among their fellows, either by virtue of superior knowledge or devotion, when properly approached by us, may be expected to have a beneficial influence on the more ignorant, and help to create that public opinion in favor of good conduct which, among the humblest as among the highest, is most useful. I saw many of very low intellectual development, but hardly any too low to be reached by civilizing influences, either coming directly from us or mediately through their brethren. And while I saw some who were sadly degraded, I met also others who were as fine specimens of human nature as one can ever expect to find. In substance, I told them that their masters had rebelled against the Government, and we had come to put down the rebellion; that we had now met them, and wanted to see what was best to do for them; that Mr. Lincoln, the President or Great Man at Washington, had the whole matter in charge, and was thinking what he could do for them; that the great trouble about doing anything for them was that their masters had always told us, and had made many people believe, that they were lazy, and would not work unless whipped to it; that Mr. Lincoln had sent us down here to see if it was so; that what they did was reported to him, or to men who would tell him; that where I came from all were free, both white and black; that we did not sell children or separate man and wife, but all had to work; that if they were to be free, they would have to work, and would be shut up or deprived of privileges if they did not; that this was a critical hour with them, and if they did not behave well now and respect our agents and appear willing to work, Mr. Lincoln would give up trying to do anything for them, and they must give up all hope for anything better, and their children and grand-children a hundred years hence would be worse off than they had been. I told them they must stick to their plantations and not run about and get scattered, and assured them that what their masters had told them of our intentions to carry them off to Cuba and sell them was a lie, and their masters knew it to be so, and we wanted them to stay on the plantations and raise cotton, and if they behaved well, they should have wages--small, perhaps, at first; that they should have better food, and not have their wives and children sold off; that their children should be taught to read and write, for which they might be willing to pay something; that by-and-by they would be as well off as the white people, and we would stand by them against their masters ever coming back to take them. The importance of exerting a good influence on each other, particularly on the younger men, who were rather careless and roving, was urged, as all would suffer in good repute from the bad deeds of a few. At Hilton Head, where I spoke to a meeting of two hundred, and there were facts calling for the counsel, the women were urged to keep away from the bad white men, who would ruin them. Remarks of a like character were made familiarly on the plantations to such groups as gathered about. Except on Sundays, these people do not take their meals at a family table, but each one takes his hominy, bread, or potatoes, sitting on the floor or a bench, and at his own time. They say their masters never allowed them any regular time for meals. Whoever, under our new system, is charged with their superintendence, should see that they attend more to the cleanliness of their persons and houses, and that, as in families of white people, they take their meals together at a table--habits to which they will be more disposed when they are provided with another change of clothing, and when better food is furnished and a proper hour assigned for meals. There are now eighteen hundred negroes here; and they continue to arrive. They come almost wholly destitute of clothing, covered with vermin, and extremely ignorant, and incompetent for noble, self-originating action of mind or body, uneducated in principle too as they are they ought to enter freedom through the path of moral restraint. --Lucy Chase, Craney Island, South Carolina, January 15, 1863This Association originated at a meeting held in the hall of the Cooper Institute, on the 20th February. 1862, in response to an appeal from Gen. SHERMAN and Commodore DUPONT, representing in a General Order, dated the 6th of that month, the helpless condition of the blacks within the vast area occupied by the forces under their command, and calling upon the benevolent and philanthropic of the land for aid. At that meeting the following gentlemen . . . were appointed to organize an Association, to make a special appeal to the public, to appoint suitable teachers to instruct the Freedmen in industrial and mechanical arts, in the rudiments of education, the principles of Christianity, their accountability to the laws of God and man, their relation to each other i as social beings, and all that might be necessary to render them competent to sustain themselves as members of a civilized society:— --First Annual Report of the National Freedman's Relief Association, February 19, 1863 Coming, as they do, fresh from slavery; ragged; stripped of everything; many of them sick; few accustomed to any other than agricultural labor; at the mercy of speculators,—the condition of new-comers, especially, is abject and miserable in the extreme. Their dwellings are described as "not so good as good pigsties." Put up at the cost of thirty, twenty, and even ten dollars, they are rented at absurdly enormous prices. Two rooms for a large family are rarities: the majority of these huts or hovels have only one room. No wonder that casual visitors — though the inmates of these dwellings think otherwise — ask, "How much better off are these than they were in slavery?" Some of the children find their way to schools which have been opened under the auspices of different Freedmen's Associations; but the majority are unable to attend. And this brings us to two points which we would earnestly commend to the attention of our readers. Suitable buildings, both for dwellings and schools, are the great urgent want in Washington. Their absence is one of the greatest obstacles now encountered by our Association in their efforts to do their share in elevating and civilizing the colored people of that city. --from "The Freedmen in Washington," The Freedmen's Record, February, 1865 THE thrift, industry, and general prosperity exhibited by the colored freedmen in many-quarters of the South, during the last three or four years, have surprised many. It is beginning to be seen that it is not the poor blacks but the poor whites whose disinclination to labor, whose ignorance and degradation, bid fair to unfit them for universal freedom. Not that the liberated negro does not show, in various ways, the ill effects of his previous condition. He does not prove himself, as yet, the equal of the Northern white man, reared under the influences of our Northern civilization, in energy and enterprise. He does not, as yet, manifest some of the hardier qualities which characterize some of the white races --"The Freed Colored People," The Freedmen's Record, October, 1865 IT is a wise provision of Divine Providence that even the selfishness of man is made to minister to the progress of society. Political economy rests on laws which deal with the relations of capital and labor; yet these in their action produce moral results. The mechanic works for his day's wages, the capitalist builds his factory for a profit; but the result of their efforts is a blessing to others. The desire for wealth is one of the strongest and most powerful in the breast; it often prompts men to do very wicked things in order to get rich; nevertheless, in a broad, historical generalization, we see that this desire is one of the most powerful incentives to civilization. This deep inborn desire gives rise to industries. Out of it spring agriculture, commerce, and manufactures. --"Free Labor as a Missionary," The Freedmen's Record, October, 1865 This is the month of holidays, when every little heart beats light with the hope of the joys which Christmas and New Year will bring. To the slave, Christmas brought a brief interval of amusement, followed by the sad partings of New Year's, when the new contracts for hiring out were made. We hope you will make it again a time of glad remembrance to the children. Last year some of the teachers received Christmas-boxes, and lighted Christmas-trees for their pupils, which gave a great amount of pleasure. Every such influence helps to bind the bonds of fellowship, and to elevate and civilize the negro. In West Roxbury, the Society sent to each of the public schools, asking the children to contribute toys, books, pictures, and clothing to send to the freedmen. One little Irish boy, very poor himself, came to a friend who had helped him in his poverty, asking for a few "little pictures, that he might have something to send to the freedmen; and placed them in his teacher's hand, with a look of proud satisfaction, to be added to the box. Will not that boy have a kindlier feeling to the negro all his life for that act of boyish generosity ? --"To Branch Societies," The Freedmen's Record, December, 1865 The whole school bent forward as I spoke, every face beaming with intense interest. I could not avoid the remark, in closing, that if any had messages to send you I should be most happy to bear them. A silent pause of about half a minute, and a tall boy, in a distant corner, slowly arose, stood a moment in thought, and then said, "Tell General Howard we are all thankful for what he is doing for us. We will endeavor to improve these privileges, and prepare ourselves for usefulness;" a short pause, and he added, "socially, religiously, and politically." I give his exact words as pencilled at the moment, uttered with deliberation and most appropriate emphasis. |
In 1861, Secretary of the Treasury Salmon Chase sent Edward Pierce to the Sea Islands of Georgia to investigate the condition of the contrabands living there. Pierce's reports became the basis for the Union's system for dealing with the freedmen during the war.
What do the proposals below suggest about Pierce's vision of what it means to be civilized, and how does he believe people acquire civilized traits?
Pierce's Plan for the Freedmen |
. . . Appoint superintendents for each large plantation, and one for two or three smaller combined, compensated with a good salary, say $1,000 per year, selected with reference to peculiar qualifications, and as care fully as one would choose a guardian for his children, clothed with an adequate power to enforce a paternal discipline, to require a proper amount of labor, cleanliness, sobriety, and better habits of life, and generally to promote the moral and intellectual culture of the wards, with such other inducements, if there be any, placed before the superintendent as shall inspire him to constant efforts to prepare them for useful and worthy citizenship. To quicken and ensure the fidelity of the superintendents, there should a director-general or governor, who shall visit the plantations, and see that they are discharging these duties, and, if necessary, he should be aided by others in the duty of visitation. This officer should be invested with liberal powers over all persons within his jurisdiction, so as to protect the blacks from each other and from white men, being required in most important cases to confer with the military authorities in punishing offences. His proposed duties indicate that he should be a man of the best ability and character: better if he have already, by virtue of public services, a hold on the public confidence. Such an arrangement is submitted as preferable for the present to any cumbersome territorial government. The laborers themselves, no longer slaves of their former masters, or of the Government, but as yet in large numbers unprepared for the full privileges of citizens, are to be treated with sole reference to such preparation. No effort is to be spared to work upon their better nature and the motives which come from it-the love of wages, of offspring, and family, the desire of happiness, and the obligations of religion. And when these fail,-and fail they will, in some cases,-we must not hesitate to resort, not to the lash, for as from the department of war so also from the department of labor, it must be banished, but to the milder and more effective punishments -of deprivation of privileges, isolation from family and society, the workhouse, or even the prison. The laborers are to be assured at the outset that parental and conjugal relations among them are to be protected and enforced; that children, and all others desiring, are to be taught; that they will receive wages; and that a certain just measure of work, with reference to the ability to perform it, if not willingly rendered, is to be required of all. The work, so far as the case admits, shall be assigned in proper tasks, the standard being what a healthy person of average capacity can do, for which a definite sum is to be paid. The remark may perhaps be pertinent, that, whatever may have been the case with women or partially disabled persons, my observations, not yet sufficient to decide the point, have not impressed me with the conviction that healthy persons, if they had been provided with an adequate amount of food, and that animal in due proportion, could be said to have been overworked heretofore on these islands, the main trouble having been that they have not been so provided, and have not had the motives which smooth labor. Notwithstanding the frequent and severe chastisements which have been employed here in exacting labor, they have failed, and naturally enough, of their intended effects. Human beings are made up of so much more of spirit than of muscle, that compulsory labor, enforced by physical pain, will not exceed or equal, in the long run, voluntary labor with just inspirations; and the same law in less degree may be seen in the difference between the value of a whipped and jaded beast, and one well disciplined and kindly treated. What should be the standard of wages where none have heretofore been paid, is less easy to determine. It should be graduated with reference to the wants of the laborer and the ability of the employer or Government; and this ability being determined by the value of the products of the labor, and the most that should be expected being, that for a year or two the system should not be a burden on the Treasury. Taking into consideration the cost of food and clothing, medical attendance and extras, supposing that the laborer would require rations of pork or beef, meal, coffee, sugar, molasses and tobacco, and that he would work 300 days in the year, he should receive about forty cents a day in order to enable him to lay up $30 a year; and each healthy woman could do about equally well. Three hundred days in a year is, perhaps, too high an estimate of working days, when we consider the chances of sickness and days when, by reason of storms and other causes, there would be no work. It is assumed that the laborer is not to pay rent for the small house tenanted by him.. . . It being important to preserve all former habits which are not objectionable, the laborer should have his patch of ground on which to raise corn or vegetables for consumption or sale. As a part of the plan proposed, missionaries will be needed to address the religious element of a race so emotional in their nature, exhorting to all practical virtues, and inspiring the laborers with a religious zeal for faithful labor, the good nurture of their children, and for clean and healthful habits. The benevolence of the Free States, now being directed hither, will gladly provide these. The Government should, however, provide some teachers specially devoted to teaching reading, writing and arithmetic, say some twenty-five, for the territory now occupied by our forces, and private benevolence might even be relied on for these. The plan proposed is, of course, not presented as an ultimate result: far from it. It contemplates a paternal discipline for the time being, intended for present use only, with the prospect of better things in the future. As fast as the laborers show themselves fitted for all the privileges of citizens, they should be dismissed from the system and allowed to follow any employment they please, and where they please. They should have the power to acquire the fee simple of land, either with the proceeds of their labor or as a reward of special merit; and it would be well to quicken their zeal for good behavior by proper recognitions. |
Visions of Freedmen and Domesticity
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First Annual Report of the National Freedmen's Relief Association, February 19, 1863
The first attempts to organize educational opportunities for the freedmen focused not on academic skills but on religion and domestic economy. In 1862 Mary Peake began running a mission school at Hampton, South Carolina, and in 1862 Edward Pierce, investigating the condition of former slaves at Port Royal on behalf of the federal reported:
The Rev. Mansfield French . . . proposes, with the approval of the authorities here, to secure authority to introduce women of suitable experience and ability, who shall give industrial instruction to those of their own sex among these people, and who, visiting from dwelling to dwelling, shall strive to improve their household life, and give such counsels as women can best communicate to women. All civilizing influences like these should be welcomed here, and it cannot be doubted that many noble hearts among the women of' the land will volunteer for the service.
--E. L. Pierce, The Negroes at Port Royal: Report of E.L. Pierce, Government Agent, to the Hon. Salmon P. Chase, Secretary of the Treasury, 1862
While Pierce's description of instructions in housekeeping as "civilizing influences" may be difficult to understand today, in 19th century America, lessons in what was called "domestic economy" would have been seen as having a moral dimension. One of the most powerful blows against slavery struck during the antebellum period had been the publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin, a novel that had featured descriptions of the tidy cabin of Uncle Tom, the neat kitchen of the Quaker family who aided the runaway Eliza, and the refined apartment of the former slaves George and Eliza as a means of signaling their moral worth. Because the creation of an orderly and refined home were seen in 19th century America as a fundamental part of civilized life, representing African-Americans as practitioners of "domestic economy" was a way of demonstrating that they were civilized.
Women of that period were expected to create orderly and refined homes and encourage the development of neat, mannerly, and moral children (and husbands), and this was the way in which they were regarded as contributing to society as a whole. Here is how Catherine Beecher, sister of Harriet Beecher Stowe, explained the system in her 1842 book, A Treatise on Domestic Economy for Young Women and Girls:
The success of democratic institutions, as is conceded by all, depends upon the intellectual and moral character of the mass of the people. If they are intelligent and virtuous, democracy is a blessing; but if they are ignorant and wicked, it is only a curse, and as much much more dreadful than any other form of civil government, as a thousand tyrants are more to be dreaded than one. It is equally conceded, that the formation of the moral and intellectual character of the young is committed mainly to the female hand. The mother forms the character of the future man; the sister bends the fibres that are hereafter to be the forest tree; the wife sways the heart, whose energies may turn for good or for evil the destinies of a nation. Let the women of a country be made virtuous and intelligent, and the men will certainly be the same. The proper education of a man decides the welfare of an individual; but educate a woman, and the interests of a whole family are secured.
If this be so, as none will deny, then to American women, more than to any others on earth, is committed the exalted privilege of extending over the world those blessed influences, which are to renovate degraded man, and "clothe all climes with beauty."
Thus, lessons of domestic economy were considered an important part of freedmen's education. In the classrooms, teachers established rules intended to encourage habits of neatness and hygiene, and in their visits to the homes of freedmen teachers reinforced these messages through conversation and direct instruction. The teachers were also expected to model through their dress, deportment, and mode of living the habits and behaviors expected of "civilized" Americans. In their reports to their sponsors, teachers frequently comment on their efforts to encourage neatness.
Encouraging habits of order in the former slaves were also part of the government agenda, and the sites used by the government to construct homes for freedmen were often laid out on neat grids that emphasized the importance of neatness and regularity, as can be seen in the pictures below. Indeed, the illustrations suggest a striking similarity between the military order of Camp Saxton, home of the African-American 1st Carolina Volunteers, and the orderly arrangement of Mitchellville, the first freedmen's village.
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A Teacher Describes Freedmen's Villages |
Out of my window, at my right, long streets of negro-cabins stretch over the table-land--a complete city. Fifty cabins--Low, pigmy door-ways, open into their narrow, dimly-lighted single halls. Absolute neatnesss surrounds the cabins, which are unfortunately crowded, and are in many instances without garden patches. This neat little log house, with the schoolhouse on one hand, and the store on the other, stands on a little slope overlooking the village. Looking itself symbolic of the beneficence which emanates from it. --Lucy Chase, Yorktown, May 19, 1846Yorktown would be a fine point for a Northern tourist to visit. There one may see what the Negro can do with small opportunities, and may learn how surely the effort of his white patron meets with a speedy reward. A mile from the fort is Sabletown, a village of 500 negro cabins; while a half mile beyond it, is Acretown, a neat, negro village built by Genl. Wistar. Each cabin is enclosed with its acre, by a curiously interlaced slab-fence (the universal cabin enclosure in these parts). The acre [sic] are contiguous in their rear, so air and space are meted out in double measures. The cabins are built of an uniform pattern and absolute neatness is enforced upon the premises, by military authority. There the friends have built a school-house which, like the one at Sable-town, is occupied as a church on Sundays. A large Sunday-school is also kept, in each place. Uniform neatness, taste, and cleanliness characterize the dress worn on Sundays. The combination of colors, known at the North as “niggerfied,” are seldom, if ever, seen here (in the South). |
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First Annual Report of the National Freedmen's Relief Association, February 19, 1863
Freedmen's Teachers Report on Their |
I was very much interested in hearing the Dr commission the “squad-men” to tell their people of his agricultural plans. He has been lecturing them seriously, lately; insisting upon their compelling their charges to keep their quarters clean, to chop their wood in their back-yards!! to hang their clothes there, and to do other seemly things. One old man, alluding to the life before his men, said, “It makes me feel proud. I think we can talk to them stronger now.” The Dr said to them all, “You ‘r improving, but there’s a great deal that ant as I want it, yet.” “Yaas, suh,” was murmured by many. “But we cant do it all at once,” said one man. --Lucy Chase, Craney Island, South Carolina, January 29, 1863 We made daily visits to the “quarters,” which were a few rods from the house. The negro-houses, on this as on most of the other plantations, were miserable little huts, with nothing comfortable or home-like about them, consisting generally of but two very small rooms, —the only way of lighting them, no matter what the state of the weather, being to leave the doors and windows open. The windows, of course, have no glass in them. In such a place, a father and mother with a large family of children are often obliged to live. It is almost impossible to teach them habits of neatness and order, when they are so crowded. We look forward anxiously to the day when better houses shall increase their comfort and pride of appearance. --Charlotte Forten, "Life on the Sea Islands" The Atlantic Monthly, May and June, 1864 Children of the poorest and most distracted mothers seem to pick up certain general all-pervading ideas of neatness. In all my schools a general cry would be raised if a child should return an undrained dipper to the water-bucket. And until taught economy by the teachers few children would pass a schoolmate a dipper of water to which he had put his own lips. Anything like an oath sets a whole schoolroom on fire, and if it is heard at recess, the children rush to their teacher with Oh’s! and Ab’s! and staring eyeballs. I have often told you how rare it is to find a dirty colored-house. A curiosity-hunter from the North might think the neat-houses the rare ones; but to one unfamiliar with the homes of the poor, simple barreness and poverty express filth. --Lucy Chase to Anna Lowell, Richmond, Va., June 1868[From a description of a Christmas party for the Freedmen] The tea setts and hdkfs won universal favor. The prettiest, most refined, and most cultivated girl in Lake City, and one of our best scholars, has Prangs Two Sisters (I thank you, very much, for sending Prangs beautiful pictures. I shall rejoice in knowing that they will be in homes that need them.) One of the birds we gave to a colored teacher, a gentle, delicate natured person, whose school is somewhat connected with ours. Two of the pictures will cheer two of the noblest families here. --Lucy Chase to Anna Lowell, Lake City, Florida, January 14, 1869 |
Compare the excerpts below from Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin with the excerpts from a letter by Storrow Higginson published in the Freedmen's Record describing his visit to a school and the home of its African-American teacher.
- How do the descriptions of the settings of the homes and the domestic interiors contribute to the characterization of the individuals being described? What do these writers seem to suggest about the relationship between "domestic economy" and morality, and how do they accomplish that?
- Are there any differences between the depictions of the homes of "Uncle Tom" and "Uncle Charles" and the other homes described by Stowe? Do these differences of class or culture affect our evaluation of their owners, morally or otherwise?
Domestic Economy in Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin (1850) |
The Refined Home of the Harris Family |
The cabin of Uncle Tom was a small log building, close adjoining to "the house," as the negro par excellence designates his master's dwelling. In front it had a neat garden-patch, where, every summer, strawberries, raspberries, and a variety of fruits and vegetables, flourished under careful tending. The whole front of it was covered by a large scarlet bignnia and a native multiflora rose, which, entwisting and interlacing, left scarce a vestige of the rough logs to be seen. Here, also, in summer, various brilliant annuals, such as marigolds, petunias, four-o'clocks, found an indulgent corner in which to unfold their splendors, and were the delight and pride of Aunt Chloe's heart. Let us enter the dwelling. The evening meal at the house is over, and Aunt Chloe, who presided over its preparation as head cook, has left to inferior officers in the kitchen the business of clearing away and washing dishes, and come out into her own snug territories, to "get her ole man's supper"; therefore, doubt not that it is her you see by the fire, presiding with anxious interest over certain frizzling items in a stew-pan, and anon with grave consideration lifting the cover of a bake-kettle, from whence steam forth indubitable intimations of "something good." A round, black, shining face is hers, so glossy as to suggest the idea that she might have been washed over with white of eggs, like one of her own tea rusks. Her whole plump countenance beams with satisfaction and contentment from under her well-starched checked turban, bearing on it, however, if we must confess it, a little of that tinge of self-consciousness which becomes the first cook of the neighborhood, as Aunt Chloe was universally held and acknowledged to be. A cook she certainly was, in the very bone and centre of her soul. Not a chicken or turkey or duck in the bam-yard but looked grave when they saw her approaching, and seemed evidently to be reflecting on their latter end; and certain it was that she was always meditating on trussing, stuffing and roasting, to a degree that was calculated to inspire terror in any reflecting fowl living. Her corn-cake, in all its varieties of hoe-cake, dodgers, muffins, and other species too numerous to mention, was a sublime mystery to all less practised compounders; and she would shake her fat sides with honest pride and merriment, as she would narrate the fruitless efforts that one and another of her compeers had made to attain to her elevation. The arrival of company at the house, the arranging of dinners and suppers "in style," awoke all the energies of her soul; and no sight was more welcome to her than a pile of travelling trunks launched on the verandah, for then she foresaw fresh efforts and fresh triumphs. Just at present, however, Aunt Chloe is looking into the bake-pan; in which congenial operation we shall leave her till we finish our picture of the cottage. In one corner of it stood a bed, covered neatly with a snowy spread; and by the side of it was a piece of carpeting, of some considerable size. On this piece of carpeting Aunt Chloe took her stand, as being decidedly in the upper walks of life; and it and the bed by which it lay, and the whole corner, in fact, were treated with distinguished consideration, and made, so far as possible, sacred from the marauding inroads and desecrations of little folks. In fact, that corner was the drawing-room of the establishment. In the other corner was a bed of much humbler pretensions, and evidently designed for use. The wall over the fireplace was adorned with some very brilliant scriptural prints, and a portrait of General Washington, drawn and colored in a manner which would certainly have astonished that hero, if ever he happened to meet with its like. On a rough bench in the corner, a couple of woolly-headed boys, with glistening black eyes and fat shining cheeks, were busy in superintending the first walking operations of the baby, which, as is usually the case, consisted in getting up on its feet, balancing a moment, and then tumbling down, -- each successive failure being violently cheered, as something decidedly clever. A table, somewhat rheumatic in its limbs, was drawn out in front of the fire, and covered with a cloth, displaying cups and saucers of a decidedly brilliant pattern, with other symptoms of an approaching meal. --from "Chapter Four: An Evening in Uncle Tom's Cabin"A quiet scene now rises before us. A large, roomy, neatly-painted kitchen, its yellow floor glossy and smooth, and without a particle of dust; a neat, well-blacked cooking-stove; rows of shining tin, suggestive of unmentionable good things to the appetite; glossy green wood chairs, old and firm; a small flag-bottomed rocking-chair, with a patch-work cushion in it, neatly contrived out of small pieces of different colored woollen goods, and a larger sized one, motherly and old, whose wide arms breathed hospitable invitation, seconded by the solicitation of its feather cushions, -- a real comfortable, persuasive old chair, and worth, in the way of honest, homely enjoyment, a dozen of your plush or brochetelle drawing-room gentry; and in the chair, gently swaying back and forward, her eyes bent on some fine sewing, sat our fine old friend Eliza. . . . By her side sat a woman with a bright tin pan in her lap, into which she was carefully sorting some dried peaches. She might be fifty-five or sixty; but hers was one of those faces that time seems to touch only to brighten and adorn. The snowy fisse crape cap, made after the strait Quaker pattern, -- the plain white muslin handkerchief, lying in placid folds across her bosom, -- the drab shawl and dress, -- showed at once the community to which she belonged. Her face was round and rosy, with a healthful downy softness, suggestive of a ripe peach. Her hair, partially silvered by age, was parted smoothly back from a high placid forehead, on which time had written no inscription, except peace on earth, good will to men, and beneath shone a large pair of clear, honest, loving brown eyes; you only needed to look straight into them, to feel that you saw to the bottom of a heart as good and true as ever throbbed in woman's bosom. So much has been said and sung of beautiful young girls, why don't somebody wake up to the beauty of old women? If any want to get up an inspiration under this head, we refer them to our good friend Rachel Halliday, just as she sits there in her little rocking-chair. --from "Chapter Thirteen: The Quaker Settlement"George and Eliza had now been five years free. George had found constant occupation in the shop of a worthy machinist, where he had been earning a competent support for his familv, which, in the mean time, had been increased by the addition of another daughter. Little Harry -- a fine bright boy -- had been put to a good school, and was making rapid proficiency in knowledge. . . . The scene now changes to a small, neat tenement, in the outskirts of Montreal; the time, evening. A cheerful fire blazes on the hearth; a tea-table, covered with a snowy cloth, stands prepared for the evening meal. In one corner of the room was a table covered with a green cloth, where was an open writing-desk, pens, paper, and over it a shelf of well-selected books. This was George's study. The same zeal for self-improvement, which led him to steal the much coveted arts of reading and writing, amid all the toil and discouragements of his early life, still led him to devote all his leisure time to self-cultivation. At this present time, he is seated at the table, making notes from a volume of the family library he has been reading. "Come, George," says Eliza, "you've been gone all day. Do put down that book, and let's talk, while I'm getting tea, -- do." And little Eliza seconds the effort, by toddling up to her father, and trying to pull the book out of his hand, and install herself on his knee as a substitute. "O, you little witch!" says George, yielding, as, in such circumstances, man always must. "That's right," says Eliza, as she begins to cut a loaf of bread. A little older she looks; her form a little fuller; her air more matronly than of yore; but evidently contented and happy as woman need be. "Harry, my boy, how did you come on in that sum, to-day?" says George, as he laid his land on his son's head. Harry has lost his long curls; but he can never lose those eyes and eyelashes, and that fine, bold brow, that flushes with triumph, as he answers, "I did it, every bit of it, myself, father; and nobody helped me!" --from "Chapter Forty-Three: Results" |
A Freedmen's Teacher's Description of a Visit to the Home of an African-American Teacher |
I must write you something of the little school for colored children which I found in Salisbury Maryland (the terminus of the Del., Newcastle, &c. R.R.), all was so encouraging. Having many letters from our men, to deliver in this town, I immediately inquired for Charles Pollitt, the colored preacher, of whom the soldiers have always spoken with love and reverence. Turning into a little lane, I passed between neat fences and pretty gardens, until I came to "Uncle's" house, standing amid hyacinths and narcissuses, the pebbly walk bordered with aldies-delligths and pure primroses, and all fresh and tidy, as thought he gentleness of these poor people had found expression in the flowers they cherish so lovingly. I found Charles's wife at home; a noble stately woman with that proud melancholy in her eyes I have often observed among these people. She received me with quiet courtesy and I saw at once that I must produce my credentials before receiving the confidence I desired. Opening my budget of letters, I soon assured her of my sincerity; and, as she gradually became aware that I was really her friend, it was beautiful to see the joy that lighted the worn features. "How I loves you, coz I knows you's a fren to me!" she said, as she turned to go for Uncle Charles. During her absence I took occasion to study the room. It would have charmed you to see the neatness of every thing in this tiny parlor.
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Visions of Freedmen as Family Members
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In a letter to her family and supporters in the North, freedmen's teacher Lucy Chase wrote concerning the supervisor of freedmen in her area, Dr. Orlando Brown: "The Negro marriage question continues to trouble the Dr." |
The problem had been caused by former masters who had repeatedly sold slaves and then paired their bereft spouses with new mates for the purposes of breeding. As a result, many of the people the freedmen's teachers worked with had never been formally married but had multiple spouses. And yet, concerned that this state of affairs reflected promiscuity on the part of African-Americans rather than the realities of slavery, government agents sent to assess the situation of the freedmen sometimes included questions about sexual activity in their interviews. Freedmen's organizations responded by organizing mass weddings and preaching the importance of loyalty to a single spouse.
And yet, while they sometimes offered critical or amused comments on the complicated marital relationships between former slaves, freedmen's teachers more frequently remarked on the tender relationships between husbands and wives, parents and children, many of whom had suffered painful separations. By recounting stories of loving couples who had been torn apart by cruel owners, freedmen's teachers were sometimes able to use their letters to the North to remind their readers of the true source of "the negro marriage problem" and the broken homes of the freedmen. Teachers also tried to reunite families by writing letters on behalf of freedmen seeking out missing spouses or children.
July 1, 1864 Letter from Freedmen's Teacher Lucy Chase
Repeating a Story Told to Her by a Freedwoman
African-American Family Relations Under Slavery |
My brother and myself were in the habit of carrying grain to the mill a few times in the year, which was the means of furnishing us with some information respecting other slaves, otherwise we would have known nothing whatever of what was going on anywhere in the world, excepting on our master's plantation. The mill was situated at a distance of about 20 miles from our residence, and belonged to one Colonol Ambler, in Yansinville county. On these occasions we used to aquire some little knowledge of what was going on aronnd us, and we neglected no opportunity of making ourselves acquainted with the condition of other slaves. On one occasion, while waiting for grain, we entered a house in the neighbourhood, and while resting ourselves there, we saw a number of forlorn looking beings pass the door, and as they passed we noticed they gazed earnestly upon us; afterwards about fifty did the very same, and we heard some of them remarking that we had shoes, vests, and hats. We felt a desire to talk with them, and, accordingly after receiving some bread and meat from the mistress of the house we followed those abject beings to their quarters, and such a sight we had never witnessed before, as we had always lived on our masters plantation, and this was the first of our journeys to the mill. These Slaves were dressed in shirts made of coarse bagging such as coffee sacks are made from, and some kind of light substance for pantaloons, and this was all their clothing! They had no shoes, hats, vests, or coats, and when my brother spoke of their poor clothing they said they had never before seen colored persons dressed as we were; they looked very hungry, and we devided our bread and meat among them. They said they never had any meat given them by their master. My brother put various questions to them, such as if they had wives? did they go to church? &c., they said they had wives, but were obliged to marry persons who worked on the same plantation, as the master would not allow them to take wives from other plantations, consequently they were all related to each other, and the master obliged them to marry their relatives or to remain single. My brother asked one of them to show him his sisters:--he said he could not distinguish them from the rest, as they were all his sisters. Although the slaves themselves entertain considerable respect for the law of marriage as a moral principle, and are exceedingly well pleased when they can obtain the services of a minister in the performance of the ceremony, yet the law recognizes no right in slaves to marry at all. The relation of husband and wife, parent and child, only exists by the toleration of their master, who may insult the slave's wife, or violate her person at any moment, and there is no law to punish him for what he has done. Now this not only may be as I have said, but it actualy is the case to an alarming extent; and it is my candid opinion, that one of the strongest motives which operate upon the slaveholders in inducing them to mantain their iron grasp upon the unfortunate slaves, is because it gives them such unlimited control over the person of their female slaves. The greater part of slaveholders are licentious men, and the most respectable and kind masters keep some of these slaves as mistresses. It is for their pecuniary inerrest to do so, as their progeny is equal to so many dollars and cents in their pockets, instead of being a source of expense to them, as would be the case, if their slaves were free. It is a horrible idea, but it is no less true, that no slave husband has any certainty whatever of being able to retain his wife a single hour; neither has any wife any more certainty of her husband: their fondest affection may be utterly disregarded, and their devoted attachment cruelly ignored at any moment a brutal slave-holder may think fit. --Henry Box Brown, Narrative of the Life of Henry Box Brown, 1851The disintegration of the family relation is one of the most striking and most melancholy indications of this progress of barbarism. The slave was not permitted to own a family name; instances occurred in which he was flogged for presuming to use one. He did not eat with his children or with their mother; "there was no time for that." In portions of this State, at least, a family breakfast or dinner table was a thing so little known among these people that ever since their enfranchisement it has been very difficult to break them of the life-long habit that each should clutch the dish containing his portion and skulk off into a corner, there to devour it in solitude. The entire day, until after sunset, was spent in the field; the night in huts of a single room, where all ages and both sexes herded promiscuously. Young girls of fifteen, some of an earlier age, became mothers, not only without marriage, but often without any pretense of fidelity to which even a slave could give that name. The church, it is true, interposed her protest; but the master, save in exceptional cases, did not sustain it, tacitly sanctioning a state of morality under which ties of habitual affection could not assume a form dangerous or inconvenient to despotic rule. The men, indeed, frequently asked from their masters the privilege of appropriating to themselves those of the other sex. Sometimes it was granted, sometimes--when the arrangement was deemed unprofitable-it was refused. Some cases there were in which a slaveholder, prompted by his own sense of morality or religion or urged thereto by a pious wife, suffered these connections of his slaves to have the sanction of religious ceremony. But it is evident that to connect even with such a quasi-marriage the idea of sacredness or religious duty was inconsistent with that legal policy of the slave States which forbade to render indissoluble among slaves a relation which to-morrow it might be for the interest of their owners to break up. The maternal relation was often as little respected as the marital. On many plantations, where the system was most thoroughly carried out, pregnancy neither exempted from corporal punishment nor procured a diminution of the daily task; and it was a matter of occasional occurrence that the woman was overtaken by the pains of labor in the field, and the child born between the cotton rows. Humane masters, however, were wont to diminish the task as pregnancy advanced, and commonly gave three, occasionally four, weeks' exemption from labor after child birth. The mother was usually permitted to suckle her child during three months only; and the cases were rare in which relaxation from labor was allowed during that brief period. On the other hand, instances have occurred in which the more severe drove the negress into the field within forty-eight hours after she became a mother, there to toil until the day of the next birth. |
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The "Marriage Problem" |
Separations of families had been frequent. Of this I obtained definite knowledge. When I was registering the number of dependants, preparatory to the requisition for rations, the answer occasionally was, "Yes, I have a wife, but she is not here." "Where is she?" "She was sold off two years ago, and I have not heard of her since." The husband of the woman who took care of the quarters of General Pierce had been sold away from her some years before. Such separations are regarded as death, and the slaves re-marry. In some cases the bereft one--so an intelligent negro assured me--pines under his bereavement and loses his value; but so elastic is human nature that this did not appear to be generally the case. The same answer was given about children,--that they had been sold away. This, in a slave-breeding country, is done when they are about eight years old. Can that be a mild system of servitude which permits such enforced separations? Providence may, indeed, sunder forever those dearest to each other, and the stricken soul accepts the blow as the righteous discipline of a Higher Power; but when the bereavement is the arbitrary dictate of human will, there are no such consolations to sanctify grief and assuage agony. --Edward L. Pierce, "The Contrabands at Fortress Monroe," Atlantic Monthly, November 1861 Notwithstanding their religious professions, in some cases more emotional than practical, the marriage relation, or what answers for it, is not, in many instances, held very sacred by them. The men, it is said, sometimes leave one wife and take another,-something likely to happen in any society where it is permitted or not forbidden by a stern public opinion, and far more likely to happen under laws which do not recognize marriage, and dissolve what answers for it by forced separations, dictated by the mere pecuniary interest of others. The women, it is said, are easily persuaded by white men,-a facility readily accounted for by the power of the master over them, whose solicitation was equivalent to a command, and against which the husband or father was powerless to protect, and increased also by the degraded condition in which they have been placed, where they have been apt to regard what ought to be a disgrace as a compliment, when they were approached by a paramour of superior condition and race. Yet often the dishonor is felt, and the woman, on whose several children her master's features are impressed, and through whose veins his blood flows, has sadly confessed it with an instinctive blush. The grounds of this charge, so far as they may exist, will be removed, as much as in communities of our own race, by a system which shall recognize and enforce the marriage relation among them, protect them against the solicitations of white men as much as law can, still more by putting them in relations were they will be inspired with self-respect and a consciousness of their rights, and taught by a pure and plainspoken Christianity. --E. L. Pierce, The Negroes at Port Royal: Report of E.L. Pierce, Government Agent, to the Hon. Salmon P. Chase, Secretary of the Treasury, 1862MARRIAGE. A very large portion, probably, at least, more than half of the "married" freed people, had been married only in slave fashion, by "taking up together," or living together by mutual agreement. without any marriage ceremony. The missionary proposed to such that they should be married agreeably to the usages in the free states. The leaders of the colored people were conversed with, and they, with-out exception, agreed as to the propriety of the measure. One, now advanced in life, said, that when he proposed to his companion to go to a minister and be lawfully married, she replied, "Oh, what use will it be ? Master can separate us to-morrow." But he coincided folly in the propriety of the proposed course. Mr. Lockwood, after preaching on the sanctity of the marriage relation, proceeded to unite in wedlock several couples, among whom were some who had lived together for years. He gave each of the parties a certificate, in handsome form, which they seemed to prize very highly. It appeared to have a most beneficial effect upon the parties themselves, and the whole population. --"Appendix," from Mary S. Peake, the Colored Teacher at Fortress Monroe, by Rev. Lewis C. Lockwood, (American Tract Society: 1862), 53-64As to the false ideas touching chastity above referred to, the Commission believe that these can be in a great measure corrected by bringing practically to the notice of the refugees as soon as they come under the care of the superintendent the obligations of the married state in civilized life. Debarred as slaves from any legal union, often from any permanent connection, unable to contract a marriage that is not liable to be broken up at the will of the master, they usually regard it as a privilege appertaining to emancipation to be married "as white folks are." The Commission think that while compulsion in regard to this matter should be avoided, a judicious superintendent will, as a general rule, find no difficulty in inducing refugees when bringing with them those whom they acknowledge to be their wives and children, to consent to a ceremony which, while it legitimizes these relations, imposes upon the husband and father the legal obligation to support his family. This obligation and the duties connected with the family relation of civilized life should be carefully explained to these people, and while they remain under our care should be strictly maintained among them. The evidence before the Commission proves that with few exceptions they show themselves prompt to acknowledge and ready to fulfill such obligations. If, however, cases should occur in which a refugee proves refractory and refuses to acknowledge as his wife, or to marry, the woman with whom he has been living and who is the mother of his children, he should no longer be allowed to cohabit with her or to live with the children; but if the proof of his previous relationship to them be sufficient, he should be compelled to contribute to their support from his wages in the same manner as if they were his family by legal marriage. *** As to reform in the matter of chastity and marriage, it requires time and patience to bring it about. Much more than half the cases of personal difficulty requiring intervention among the emancipated negroes in South Carolina have arisen out of infractions of the marital relation. In this respect there is a marked difference between South Carolina and North Carolina. Yet, even in the former State the old habits are speedily yielding to better teaching. General Saxton deposed:
It is here to be remarked that in the cities there appears to have been a nearer approach to recognized marriage and to conjugal fidelity than in the country, and that there the church succeeded better in repressing juvenile incontinence. The negro marriage-question puzzles the Dr. A negro man here wishes to retain, for his wife, a woman with whom he has lived happily for a year or more; but another woman upon the Island claims him for her husband, and does not give her consent to a separation; while he declares that his first wife is very ill-tempered and that it is impossible to live with her. The Dr. intends to invite some clergyman to visit the Island to marry all who wish to be married, and to make legal the relation between those who have already married themselves. He wishes to impress the Negroes with the sacredness of the relation. A few nights ago, we had a wedding in our dining-room; perhaps not a "sure enough" wedding. Indeed, the Dr doubting its legality, pronounced them man and wife "By virtue of the authority assumed by me." --Lucy Chase to Her Family, Craney Island January 29, 1863A letter from a woman to her “Dear husband” (who is not here) has been opened, and the woman is discovered to have told her husband that if he does not come to join her, she shall be obliged to get another “Bough”—Boy, I supposed she meant, but the Dr says “No, Beau.” --Lucy Chase to Her Family, Craney Island January 29, 1863 After the service, there were six couples married. Some of the dresses were unique. One was particularly fine, — doubtless a cast-off dress of the bride’s former mistress. The silk and lace, ribbons, feathers and flowers, were in a rather faded and decayed condition. But, comical as the costumes were, we were not disposed to laugh at them. We were too glad to see the poor creatures trying to lead right and virtuous lives. The legal ceremony, which was formerly scarcely known among them, is now everywhere consecrated. The constant and earnest advice of the minister and teachers has not been given in vain; nearly every Sunday there are several couples married in church. Some of them are people who have grown old together. Charlotte Forten, "Life on the Sea Islands," The Atlantic Monthly, May, 1864 The positive influence for good that emanates from the zealous friends who have made their home in Sabletown is marked in its results upon the reverential, receptive people. It seems like a well-regulated realm there. Forty couples, over whom “The Matrimonial” had never “been read,” because no state law could make it binding, were married in the church, while we were there, and were feasted at the Mission-house with huge slices of rich, frosted wedding cake, and lemonade without stint. The Superintendent of Contrabands united with one of the energetic teachers in compelling all living as man and wife to take the choice of separation or marriage. Many unwillingly assented to marriage, while others indicate a full appreciation of the necessity, propriety, and dignity of the ceremony. It was a strangely picturesque and impressive sight to see, in the twilight, the neatly dressed couples, moving from their various quarters and drawing near our doorway. Old men and women, hand in hand, coming up to their “bridal.” “Take her by the hand,” one old man said as he led his wife forward. Everyone had an air of serious modest reserve. Some were young enough to blush, and all seemed to say, “This is our marriage day.” After the ceremonies in the church, the newly married were invited to the house, where the great cakes were cut for them and the air was sweetened by the magnolias and brilliantly illuminated by the kerosene. Our good friends anticipate immediate and wholesome results from the occasion. The colored people easily assume the responsibilities, proprieties, and graces of civilized life. --Letter from Lucy Chase, Richmond, VA., July 1, 1864A good old Craney Island friend of ours, wise and faithful in her home relations, and conscientious and loving in her business relations with the whites on the Isd. found her first husband, a few weeks ago, in a crowd of supposed strangers at the Rope-walk. “Twas like a stroke of death to me,” she said, “We threw ourselves into each others arms and cried. His wife looked on and was jealous, but she needn’t have been. My husband is so kind, I shouldn’t leave him if he hadn’t bad another wife, and of course I shouldn’t now. Yes, my husband’s very kind, but I ain’t happy. No. He hasn’t any enemy but himself as I knows on and perhaps I ought ‘nt to worry about him, but I do.” Thinking again of her first husband from whom she was early parted, she said, with keenest feeling, “White folk’s got a heap to answer for the way they’ve done to colored folks! So much they wont never pray it away!” --Letter from Lucy Chase, Richmond, VA., July 1, 1864The domestic relations of the freedmen, if indeed they can be said to have any, are, to use one of their own expressions, “the most twisted-up affairs conceivable.” This, however, is one of the legitimate fruits of slavery, and it will take many generations of freedom to bring them out of their present condition of chaos. What most surprises one in this connection is, that families having no legal bond hang together as well as they do. “My husband and I have lived together fifteen years,” says the mother of a large family of children, “and we wants to be married over again now.” “I have lived with my husband twenty-one years,” says another. “He has always been good to me, and my ways have pleased him, and so we are both satisfied.” “She is my fifth wife,” says an old man, of the present incumbent of his bed and board, “and I believe I could live with her anywhere.” “They kept my husband away from me three years,” says Judy, “and tried to make me marry another man, but I wouldn’t do it. They couldn’t make me love anybody but Sam; of course they couldn’t, and I wouldn’t marry anybody else. But if my master found him on his grounds, he’d whip him; and if his aster knew of his being away fro home, he’d whip him; and then they sold him away, and I couldn’t hear where he was. After he had been gone three years, I was sick and master sent me to the doctor’s to be cured. One night I heard some one knocking at my doe, and I called out, ‘Who’s thar?’ ‘Sam!’ ‘Sam who?’ ‘You wouldn’t know any better than you does now if I tol’ you. I want to find the way to Dr. T’s.’ ‘You is at Dr. t’s now, but who is you.’ ‘My name is Sam, but they call me Sam Beverly.’ (They did call him Sam Beverly, because he ‘longed to Miss Harrit Beverly.) Then I got out of bed, and crawled to the doe, and opened it, and I says, ‘Sam, is this you?’ and he caught me in his arms, and says, ‘Judy is this you?’ and I was so glad, and after that I couldn’t get well fast enough. He had been sold back into that part of the country, and had got leave to come up to the doctor’s to see his wife. Then he coaxed his master to buy me, and we have lived together ever since, and that was eleven years ago. My owner said he wouldn’t sell me if I was well, but he thought I was going to die and sole me off his hands, so as not to lose me entirely.” --"Domestic Relations of the Freedmen," The National Freedman. A Monthly Journal Devoted to the Promotion of Freedom, Industry, Education, and Christian Morality in the South. May, 1866, 143-145That the negro is capable of the truest and most devoted affection, and that his heart, in absence is afflicted with the same longing for kindred as the heart which throbs under a white skin, is attested by abundant proof. Witness the anxiety of mothers peering into every strange face, to see if they can discern some trace of the long-lost child, their agonized expressions, when attempting to relate the horrible tale of separation, old men begging to have letters written to the place where their boys were last heard from, children undertaking long and tiresome journeys because they can not repress the yearning to see once more the face of the old father or mother if peradventure they be yet alive. --"Domestic Relations of the Freedmen," The National Freedman. A Monthly Journal Devoted to the Promotion of Freedom, Industry, Education, and Christian Morality in the South. May, 1866, 143-145I don't know whether I have told you Laura Spicers story. She was sold from her husband some years ago, and he, hearing she was dead, married again. He has had a wavering inclination to again unite his fortunes with hers; and she has been persistent in urging him to do so. A few days ago she received a letter from him in which he said, "I read your letters over and over again. I keep them always in my pocket. If you are married I don't ever want to see you again." And yet, in some of his letters, he says, "I would much rather you would get married to some good man, for every time I gits a letter from you it tears me all to pieces. The reason why I have not written you before, in a long time, is because your letters disturbed me so very much. You know I love my children. I treats them good as a Father can treat his children; and I do a good deal of it for you. I was very sorry to hear that Lewellyn, my poor little son, have had such bad health. I would come and see you but I know you could not bear it. I want to see you and I don't want to see you. I love you just as well as I did the last day I saw you, and it will not do for you and I to meet. I am married, and my wife have two children, and if you and I meets it would make a very dissatisfied family.'' Some of the children are with the mother, and the father writes, "Send me some of the children's hair in a separate paper with their names on the paper. Will you please git married, as long as I am married. My dear, you know the Lord know both of our hearts. You know it never was our wishes to be separated from each other, and it never was our fault. Oh, I can see you so plain, at any-time, I had rather anything to had happened to me most that ever have been parted from you and the children. As I am, I do not know which I love best, you or Anna. If I was to die, today or tomorrow, I do not think I would die satisfied till you tell me you will try and marry some good, smart man that will take good care of you and the children; and do it because you love me; and not because I think more of the wife I have got than I do of you. The woman is not born that feels as near to me as you do. You feel this day like myself. Tell them they must remember they have a good father and one that cares for them and one that thinks about them every day. My very heart did ache when reading your very kind and interesting letter. |