William G. Allen - The American Prejudice Against Color
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William G. Allen >> The American Prejudice Against Color
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6 THE AMERICAN
Prejudice Against Color.
* * * * *
AN AUTHENTIC NARRATIVE,
SHOWING HOW EASILY THE NATION GOT
INTO AN UPROAR.
* * * * *
BY WILLIAM G. ALLEN,
A REFUGEE FROM AMERICAN DESPOTISM.
* * * * *
LONDON:
W. AND F. G. CASH, 5, BISHOPSGATE-STREET-WITHOUT.
EDINBURGH: JOHN MENZIES.
DUBLIN: JAMES MC. GLASHAN AND J. B. GILPIN
* * * * *
1853
PREFACE.
Extract of a letter from Hon. Gerrit Smith, of New York, Member of
Congress, to Joseph Sturge, Esq., of Birmingham, England. (By permission
of Mr. Sturge.)
_"Peterboro', New York, March 23rd_, 1853.
"I take great pleasure in introducing to you my much esteemed friend,
Professor Wm. G. Allen. I know him well, and know him to be a man of
great mental and moral worth. I trust, in his visit to England, he will
be both useful and happy.
"Very truly, your friend and brother,
"GERRIT SMITH."
* * * * *
"Commending Professor Allen to the friends of the colored American
citizens who are denied their rights in their own country, and wishing
him every success in the object before him,
"I am, respectfully,
"_Birmingham, 6mo., 28d._, 1853. "JOSEPH STURGE."
* * * * *
"_Clapham, August 25th_, 1853.
"My dear Sir:--
"Your determination to spend some time in Great Britain, and to employ
yourself, as opportunities occur, in giving lectures and delivering
addresses upon American topics, including the social position of the
free colored population--for which your education and personal
experience eminently fit you--has given me sincere pleasure. I trust you
will meet with ample encouragement from the friends of Abolition
throughout the United Kingdom, to whose sympathy and kindness I would
earnestly recommend you, and still more your heroic and most estimable
lady.
"Believe me, most truly yours,
"Professor W. G. Allen "GEORGE THOMPSON."
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.--Introduction 41
II.--Personalities 42
III.--Nobility and Servility 48
IV.--The Mob 54
V.--Dark Days 63
VI.--Brightening up,--Grand Result 79
VII.--Conclusion 91
A Short Personal Narrative
by William G Allen 95
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION
Many persons having suggested that it would greatly subserve the
Anti-slavery Cause in this country, to present to the public a concise
narrative of my recent narrow escape from death, at the hands of an
armed mob in America, a mob armed with tar, feathers, poles, and an
empty barrel spiked with shingle nails, together with the reasons which
induced that mob, I propose to give it. I cannot promise however, to
write such a book as ought to be written to illustrate fully the
bitterness, malignity, and cruelty, of American prejudice against color,
and to show its terrible power in grinding into the dust of social and
political bondage, the hundreds of thousands of so-called free men and
women of color of the North. This bondage is, in many of its aspects,
far more dreadful than that of the _bona fide_ Southern Slavery, since
its victims--many of them having emerged out of, and some of them never
having been into, the darkness of personal slavery--have acquired a
development of mind, heart, and character, not at all inferior to the
foremost of their oppressors.
The book that ought to be written, _I_ ought not to attempt; but if no
one precedes me, I shall consider myself bound by necessity, and making
the attempt, lay on, with all the strength I can possibly summon, to
American Caste and skin-deep Democracy.
The mob occurred on Sabbath (!) evening, January the 30th, 1853, in the
village of Phillipsville, near Fulton, Oswego County, New York. The
cause,--the intention, on my part, of marrying a white young lady of
Fulton,--at least so the public surmised.
CHAPTER II.
PERSONALITIES.
I am a quadroon, that is, I am of one-fourth African blood, and
three-fourths Anglo-Saxon. I graduated at Oneida Institute, in
Whitesboro', New York, in 1844; subsequently studied Law with Ellis Gray
Loring, Esq., of Boston, Massachusetts; and was thence called to the
Professorship of the Greek and German languages, and of Rhetoric and
Belles-Lettres of New York Central College, situated in Mc. Grawville,
Cortland County,--the only College in America that has ever called a
colored man to a Professorship, and one of the very few that receive
colored and white students on terms of perfect equality, if, indeed,
they receive colored students at all.
In April, 1851, I was invited to Fulton, to deliver a course of
Lectures. I gladly accepted the invitation, and none the less that
Fulton had always maintained a high reputation for its love of impartial
freedom, and that its citizens were highly respected for their professed
devotion to the teachings of Christianity.
I am glad to say, that on this occasion I was well received, and at the
close of my first lecture was invited to spend the evening at the house
of the Rev. Lyndon King. This gentleman having long been known as a
devoted abolitionist,--a fervid preacher of the doctrine, that character
is above color,--and as one of the ablest advocates of the social,
political, and religious rights of the colored man, I, of course, had a
pleasant visit with the family; and, remaining with them several days,
conceived a deep interest in one of the Elder's daughters,--Miss Mary E.
King, who was then preparing to enter the College in Mc. Grawville. I
accompanied Miss King to Mc. Grawville, where she remained in college, a
year and a half.
Boarding in tenements quite opposite each other, we frequently met in
other than college halls, and as freely conversed,--Miss K. being of
full age, and legally, as well as intellectually and morally, competent
to discuss the subjects in which, it is generally supposed, young men
and women feel an absorbing interest.
It is of no consequence what we said; and if it were, the reader,
judging in the light of the results, will perhaps as correctly imagine
that, as I can possibly describe it. I pass on at once, therefore,
simply stating that at the close of the year and a half, my interest in
the young lady had become fully reciprocated, and we occupied a relation
to each other much more significant than that of teacher and pupil.
Miss King returned to her father's house in October, 1852. I visited the
family in December following. Then and there we discussed the subject of
marriage more fully between ourselves; and deeming it a duty obligatory
upon us, by an intelligent regard for our future happiness, to survey,
before consummating an engagement even, the whole field of difficulties,
embarrassments, trials, insults and persecutions, which we should have
to enter on account of our diversity of complexion, and to satisfy
ourselves fully as to our ability to endure what we might expect to
encounter; we concluded to separate unengaged, and, in due season, each
to write to the other what might be the results of more mature
deliberation. This may seem unromantic to the reader; nevertheless, it
was prudent on our part.
After remaining in Fulton a week, I left for Boston. Several letters
then passed between us, and in January last, our engagement was fixed. I
will not speak of myself, but on the part of Miss King, this was
certainly a bold step. It displayed a moral heroism which no one can
comprehend who has not been in America, and who does not understand the
diabolical workings of prejudice against color. Whatever a man may be in
his own person,--though he should have the eloquence, talents, and
character of Paul and Apollos, and the Angel Gabriel combined,--though
he should be as wealthy as Croesus,--and though, in personal
appearance, he should be as fair as the fairest Anglo-Saxon, yet, if he
have but one drop of the blood of the African flowing in his veins, no
white young lady can ally herself to him in matrimony, without bringing
upon her the anathemas of the community, with scarcely an exception,
and rendering herself an almost total outcast, not only from the society
in which she formerly moved, but from society in general.
Such is American Caste,--the most cruel under the sun. And such it is,
notwithstanding the claims set up by the American people, that they are
Heaven's Vicegerents, to teach to men, and to nations as well, the
legitimate ideas of Christian Democracy.
To digress a moment. This Caste-spirit of America sometimes illustrates
itself in rather ridiculous ways.
A beautiful young lady--a friend of mine--attended, about two years
since, one of the most aristocratic Schools of one of the most
aristocratic Villages of New York. She was warmly welcomed in the
highest circles, and so amiable in temper was she, as well as agreeable
in mind and person, that she soon became not only a favorite, but _the_
favorite of the circle in which she moved. The _young gentlemen_ of the
village were especially interested in her, and what matrimonial offer
might eventually have been made her, it is not for me to say. At the
close of the second term, however, she left the school and the village;
and then, for the first time, the fact became known (previously known
only to her own room-mate) that she was slightly of African blood.
Reader,--the consternation and horror which succeeded this "new
development," are, without exaggeration, perfectly indescribable. The
people drew long breaths, as though they had escaped from the fangs of a
boa constrictor; the old ladies charged their daughters, that should
Miss ---- be seen in that village again, by no means to permit
themselves to be seen in the street with her; and many other charges
were delivered by said mothers, equally absurd, and equally foolish. And
yet this same young lady, according to their own previous showing, was
not only one of the most beautiful in person and manners who had ever
graced their circle, but was also of fine education; and in complexion
as white as the whitest in the village. Truly, this, our human nature,
is extremely strange and vastly inconsistent!
Confessedly, as a class, the quadroon women of New Orleans are the most
beautiful in America. Their personal attractions are not only
irresistible, but they have, in general, the best blood of America in
their veins. They are mostly white in complexion, and are, many of them,
highly educated and accomplished; and yet, by the law of Louisiana, no
man may marry a quadroon woman, unless he can prove that he, too, has
African blood in his veins. A law involving a greater outrage on
propriety, a more blasphemous trifling with the heart's affections, and
evincing a more contemptible tyranny, those who will look at the matter
from the beginning to the end, will agree with me, could not possibly
have been enacted.
Colonel Fuller, of the "_New York Mirror_," writing from New Orleans,
gives some melancholy descriptions--and some amusing ones too--of the
operations of this most barbarous law.
One I especially remember. A planter, it seems, had fallen deeply in
love with a charming quadroon girl. He desired to marry her; but the law
forbade. What was he to do? To tarnish her honour was out of the
question; he had too much himself to seek to tarnish hers. Here was a
dilemma. But he was not to be foiled. What true heart will be, if there
be any virtue in expedients?
"----In love,
His thoughts came down like a rushing stream."
At last he got it. A capital thought, which could have crept out of no
one's brain, save that of a most desperate lover. He hit upon the
expedient of extracting a little African blood from the veins of one of
his slaves, and injecting it into his own. The deed done, the letter of
the law was answered. He made proposals, was accepted, and they were
married,--he being willing to risk his caste in obedience to a love
higher and holier than any conventionalism which men have ever contrived
to establish.
O, Cupid, thou art a singular God! and a most amazing philosopher! Thou
goest shooting about with thy electrically charged arrows, bringing to
one common level human hearts, however diverse in clime, caste, or
color.
Let not the reader suppose, however, that the white people of America
are in the habit of exercising such honor towards the people of color,
as is here ascribed to this planter. Far from it. The laws of the
Southern States, on the one hand, (I allude not now to any particular
law of Louisiana, but to the laws of the Slave States in general), have
deliberately, and in cold blood, withheld their protection from every
woman within their borders, in whose veins may flow but half a drop of
African blood; while the prejudice against color of the Northern States,
on the other hand, is so cruel and contemptuous of the rights and
feelings of colored people, that no white man would lose his caste in
debauching the best educated, most accomplished, virtuous and wealthy
colored woman in the community, but would be mobbed from Maine to
Delaware, should he with that same woman attempt honorable marriage.
Henry Ward Beecher, (brother of Mrs. Stowe) in reference to prejudice
against color, has truly said of the Northern people--and the truth in
this case in startling and melancholy--that, "with them it is less
sinful to break the whole decalogue towards the colored people, than to
keep a single commandment in their favour."
But to return to the narrative. Miss King, previously to the
consummation of our engagement, consulted her father, who at once gave
his consent. Her sister not only consented, but, thanks to her kind
heart, warmly approved the match. Her brothers, of whom there were many,
were bitterly opposed. Mrs. King--a step-mother only--was not only also
bitterly opposed, but inveterately so. Bright fancies and
love-bewildering conceptions were what, in her estimation, we ought not
to be allowed to indulge.
In passing, it is proper to say, that this lady, though not lacking a
certain benevolence,--especially that sort which can pity the fugitive,
give him food and raiment, or permit him at her table even,--is,
nevertheless, extremely aristocratic of heart and patronizing of temper.
This statement is made upon quite a familiar acquaintance with Mrs.
King, and out of no asperity of feeling. I cherish none, but only pity
for those who nurture a prejudice, which, while it convicts them of the
most ridiculous vanity, at the same time shrivels their own hearts and
narrows their own souls.
Mrs. King was at first mild in her opposition, but finally resorted to
such violence of speech and act, as to indicate a state of feeling
really deplorable, and a spirit diametrically opposed to all the
teachings of the Christian religion--a religion which she loudly
professed, and which assures us that "God is no respecter of persons."
I judge not mortal man or woman, but leave Mrs. King, and all those who
thought it no harm because of my complexion, to abuse the most sacred
feelings of my heart, to their conscience and their God.
CHAPTER III.
NOBILITY AND SERVILITY.
The reader will doubtless and also correctly imagine that situated as
Miss King has now been shown to be, she could not have experienced many
very pleasant hours either of night or day,--pleasant so far as the
sympathy of her numerous relatives and friends could serve to make them
such. Fortunately, however she was not of that class whose happiness
depends upon the smiles or the approbation of others earned at any
cost--but upon a steady obedience to what in her inmost soul, she
regarded as demanded by the laws of rectitude and justice.
That a young lady could break away without a struggle from the
counsellors, friends and companions of her youth, is not to be expected.
Miss King had her struggles; and the letter written to me by her on the
consummation of our engagement evinced their character, and also her
grandeur and nobility of soul:--
"I have endeavoured to solve, honorably, conscientiously and
judiciously, the greatest problem of human life; and God and the holy
angels have assisted me in thus solving. Friends may forsake me, and the
world prove false, but the sweet assurance that I have your most devoted
love, and that that love will strengthen and increase in proportion as
the regard of others may diminish, is the only return I ask."
What vows I uttered in the secret chambers of my heart as I read the
above and similar passages of that letter, let the reader imagine who
may be disposed to credit me with the least aptitude of appreciating
whatsoever in human nature is grand and noble, or in the human spirit,
which is lovely, and true, and beautiful, and of good report.
Throughout the letter there was also a tone of gentle sadness--not that
of regret for the course in contemplation,--but that which holily
lingers around a loving heart, which, while it gives itself away, may
not even lightly inflict the slightest pang upon other hearts to which
it has long been bound by dearly-cherished ties.
But family opposition was not the only opposition which Miss King
expected to, or did indeed encounter. Whoever sought to marry yet, and
did the deed unblessed or uncursed of public praise or wrath? And aside
from extraordinary circumstances, it is so pleasant to dip one's finger
into a pie matrimonial.
The following paragraph of a letter written to me by Miss King a few
days after I left her in December, amused me much,--it may possibly
amuse the reader:--
"Professor,--You would smile if you only knew what an excitement your
visit here caused among the good people of Fulton. Some would have it
that we were married, and others said if we were not already married,
they were sure that we would be; for they knew that you would not have
spent a whole week with us if there had been no love existing between
you and myself. Some of the villagers came to see me the day after you
left, and begged of me, if _I were determined to marry you, to do so at
once, and not to keep the public in so much suspense_."
Friend, have you ever heard or read of anything which came nearer to
clapping the climax of the ridiculous than this most singular appeal
couched in the last clause of this quotation, to the benevolence of Miss
King? Certainly, if anything could have come nearer, it would have been
the act of a certain lady who, having heard during this selfsame visit
that we were to be married on the morrow, actually had her sleigh drawn
up to the door, and would have driven off to the Elder's to "_stop the
wedding_" had not her husband remonstrated. It is true, this lady
opposed the marriage, not on the ground of an immorality, but of its
inexpediency considering the existent state of American sentiment; but
then it is curious to think of what amazing powers she must have
imagined herself possessed.
Public opposition however, soon began to assume a more decided form.
Neighbours far and near, began to visit the house of Elder King, and to
adopt such remonstrance and expostulation as, in their view the state of
the case demanded. Some thought our marriage would be dreadful, a most
inconceivably horrid outrage. Some declared it would be vulgar, and had
rather see every child of theirs dead and buried, than take the course
which, they were shocked to find, Miss King seemed bent to do. Some
sillier than all the rest, avowed that should the marriage be permitted
to take place, it would be a sin against Almighty God; and it may be,
they thought it would call down thunder-bolts from the chamber of
heaven's wrath, to smite us from the earth.
"There is no peace," saith my God, "to the wicked."--And surely, clearer
exemplifications of this saying of Holy Writ were never had, than in the
brain-teasings, mind-torturings and heart-rackings of these precious
people, out of deference to our welfare. May they be mercifully
remembered and gloriously rewarded.
It is proper to introduce to the reader at this point, our cherished
friends,--Mr. and Mrs. Porter,--and to say at once, that words are not
expressive enough to describe the gratitude we owe them, nor in what
remembrance we hold them in the deepest depths of our hearts. They stood
by us throughout that season of intended bloody persecution, turning
neither to the right nor the left, nor counting their own interests or
lives as aught in comparison to the friendship they bore us, or to their
love of the principles of truth, justice and humanity. Amid the raging
billows, they stood as a rock to which to cling.
We had known these friends for months, nay, for years. They had also
been students in Mc. Grawville, but had subsequently married, and at the
time of my December visit to Fulton were teachers of a School in
Phillipsville,--where, it may be proper here to say, was located the
depot of the Fulton trains of cars.
Not only belonging to that class of persons, (rare in America, even
among those who claim to be Abolitionists and Christians), persons who
do not _profess_ to believe merely, but really _do_ believe in the
doctrine of the "unity, equality, and brotherhood of the human race;"
and who are willing to accord to others the exercise of rights which
they claim for themselves; but, having also great purity of heart and
purpose, Mr. and Mrs. Porter did not, as they could not, sympathise
with those whose ideas of marriage, as evinced in their conversation
respecting Miss King and myself, never ascended beyond the region of the
material into that of the high, the holy and the spiritual. Of all the
families of Fulton and Phillipsville, this was the only one which
_publicly_ spoke approval of our course. So that, therefore it will be
expected, that while those true hearts were friendly to us, they were
equally with ourselves targets at which our enemies might shoot.
I have introduced Mr. and Mrs. Porter at this point, because, at this
point, their services to us commenced. But for these faithful friends,
Miss King would not have known whither to have fled when she found as
she did, her own home becoming any other than a desirable habitation,
owing to the growing opposition and bitter revilings of her step-mother,
and the impertinent intermeddlings of others.
Thus far the opposition which Miss King had experienced, though
disagreeable, had not become too much for the "utmost limit of human
patience." Soon, however, a crisis occurred, in the arrival in Fulton,
of the Rev. John B. King. This gentleman's visit was unexpected, and it
is due to him to say, that he did not come on any errand connected with
this subject; for until he arrived in Fulton, he did not know of the
correspondence which had existed between his sister and myself. Though
unexpected, his visit as already intimated, was fraught with results,
which in their immediate influence, were extremely sad and woeful.
Mr. King was a Reform preacher, and had even come from Washington,
District of Columbia, where he had been residing for the last two years,
to collect money to build a church which should exclude from membership
those who held their fellow-men in bondage, and who would not admit the
doctrines of the human brotherhood. Just the man to assist us, one would
have thought. But it is easy to preach and to talk. Who cannot do that?
It is easier still to _feel_--this is humanity's instinct--for the
wrongs and outrages inflicted upon our kind. But to plant one's feet
rough-shod upon the neck and heels of a corrupt and controlling public
sentiment, to cherish living faith in God, and, above all to crush the
demon in one's own soul,--ah! this it is which only the _great_ can do,
who, only of men, can help the world onward up to heaven.
Mr. King had scarcely entered the house, and been told the story of our
engagement, when he manifested the most unworthy and unchristian
opposition. Unworthy and unchristian, since he frankly averred, that had
I the remaining fourth Anglo-Saxon blood, he would be proud of me as a
brother. He was bitter, not as wormwood only, but as wormwood and gall
combined. He would not tolerate me as a visitor at his house, in company
with his sister, unless I came in the capacity of driver or servant. A
precious brother this, and a most glorious Christian teacher.
I have said that the arrival of this gentleman marked a crisis in the
history of our troubles; and it did so in the fact that by the powerful
influence which he exerted over his father, adverse to our marriage, and
by the aid, strength and comfort which he gave to his step-mother; the
Elder was at last brought to a reconsideration of his views, and to
abandon the ground which he had hitherto maintained with so much heroism
and valour.
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