The Rising Son

Chapter L Representative Men and Women

In our Sketches of Representative Men and Women, some will be found to have scarcely more than a local reputation; but they are persons who have contributed, of their ability, towards the Freedom of the Race, and should not be forgotten. Others bid fair to become distinguished in the future. We commence with our first hero:—

Crispus Attucks

The principle that taxation and representation were inseparable was in accordance with the theory, the genius, and the precedents of British legislation; and this principle was now, for the first time, intentionally invaded. The American colonies were not represented in Parliament; yet an act was passed by that body, the tendency of which was to invalidate all right and title to their property. This was the “Stamp Act,” of March 23, 1765, which ordained that no sale, bond, note of hand, nor other instrument of writing, should be valid, unless executed on paper bearing the stamp prescribed by the home government. The intelligence of the passage of the stamp act at once roused the indignation of the liberty-loving portion of the people of the colonies, and meetings were held at various points to protest against this high-handed measure.

Massachusetts was the first to take a stand in opposition to the mother country. The merchants and traders of Boston, New York, and Philadelphia entered into non-importation agreements, with a view of obtaining a repeal of the obnoxious law. Under the pressure of public sentiment, the stamp act officers gave in their resignations. The eloquence of William Pitt and the sagacity of Lord Camden brought about a repeal of the stamp act in the British Parliament. A new ministry, in 1767, succeeded in getting through the House of Commons a bill to tax the tea imported into the American colonies, and it received the royal assent. Massachusetts again took the lead in opposing the execution of this last act, and Boston began planning to take the most conspicuous part in the great drama. The agitation in the colonies provoked the home government, and power was given to the governor of Massachusetts to take notice of all persons who might offer any treasonable objections to these oppressive enactments, that the same might be sent home to England to be tried there. Lord North was now at the head of affairs, and no leniency was to be shown to the colonies. The concentration of British troops in large numbers at Boston convinced the people that their liberties were at stake, and they began to rally.

A crowded and enthusiastic meeting, held in Boston, in the latter part of the year 1769, was addressed by the ablest talent that the progressive element could produce. Standing in the back part of the hall, eagerly listening to the speakers, was a dark mulatto man, very tall, rather good-looking, and apparently, about fifty years of age. This was Crispus Attucks. Though taking no part in the meeting, he was nevertheless destined to be conspicuous in the first struggle in throwing off the British yoke. Twenty years previous to this, Attucks was the slave of William Brouno, Esq., of Framingham, Massachusetts; but his was a heart beating for freedom, and not to be kept in the chains of mental or bodily servitude.

From the “Boston Gazette” of Tuesday, November 20, 1750, I copy the following advertisement:—

“Ran away from his master William Brouno Framingham, on the 30th of Sept., last, a Molatto Fellow, about 27 years of Age named Crispus, well set, six feet 2 inches high, short curl’d Hair, knees nearer together than common; had on a light coloured Bearskin Coat, brown Fustian jacket, new Buckskin Breeches, blew yarn Stockins and Checkered Shirt. Whoever shall take up said Runaway, and convey him to his above said Master at Framingham, shall have Ten Pounds, old Tenor Reward and all necessary charges paid.”

The above is a verbatim et literatim advertisement for a runaway slave one hundred and twenty-two years ago. Whether Mr. Brouno succeeded in recapturing Crispus or not, we are left in the dark.

Ill-feeling between the mother country and her colonial subjects had been gaining ground, while British troops were concentrating at Boston. On the 5th of March, 1770, the people were seen early congregating at the corners of the principal streets, at Dock Square, and near the Custom House. Captain Preston, with a body of redcoats, started out for the purpose of keeping order in the disaffected town, and was hissed at by the crowds in nearly every place where he appeared. The day passed off without any outward manifestation of disturbance, but all seemed to feel that something would take place after nightfall. The doubling of the guard in and about the Custom House showed the authorities felt an insecurity that they did not care to express. The lamps in Dock Square threw their light in the angry faces of a large crowd who appeared to be waiting for the crisis, in whatever form it should come. A part of Captain Preston’s company was making its way from the Custom House, when they were met by the crowd from Dock Square, headed by the black man Attucks, who was urging them to meet the redcoats, and drive them from the streets. “These rebels have no business here,” said he; “let’s drive them away.” The people became enthusiastic, their brave leader grew more daring in his language and attitude, while the soldiers under Captain Preston appeared to give way. “Come on! don’t be afraid!” cried Attucks. “They dare not shoot; and, if they dare, let them do it.”

Stones and sticks, with which the populace were armed, were freely used, to the great discomfiture of the English soldiers. “Don’t hesitate! come on! We’ll drive these rebels out of Boston!” were the last words heard from the lips of the colored man, for the sharp crack of muskets silenced his voice, and he fell weltering in his blood. Two balls had pierced his sable breast. Thus died Crispus Attucks, the first martyr to American liberty, and the inaugurator of the revolution that was destined to take from the crown of George the Third its brightest star. An immense concourse of citizens followed the remains of the hero to its last resting-place, and his name was honorably mentioned in the best circles. The last words, the daring, and the death of Attucks gave spirit and enthusiasm to the revolution, and his heroism was imitated by both whites and blacks. His name was a rallying cry for the brave colored men who fought at the battle of Bunker’s Hill. In the gallant defence of Redbank, where four hundred blacks met and defeated fifteen hundred Hessians, headed by Count Donop, the thought of Attucks filled them with ardor. When Colonel Green fell at Groton, surrounded by his black troops who perished with him, they went into the battle feeling proud of the opportunity of imitating the first martyr of the American revolution.

No monument has yet been erected to him. An effort was made in the legislature of Massachusetts a few years since, but without success. Five generations of accumulated prejudice against the negro had excluded from the American mind all inclination to do justice to one of her bravest sons. Now that slavery is abolished, we may hope, in future years, to see a monument raised to commemorate the heroism of Crispus Attucks.

Phillis Wheatley

In the year 1761, when Boston had her slave market, and the descendants of the Pilgrims appeared to be the most pious and God-fearing people in the world, Mrs. John Wheatley went into the market one day, for the purpose of selecting and purchasing a girl for her own use. Among the group of children just imported from the African coast was a delicately-built, rather good-looking child of seven or eight years, apparently suffering from the recent sea-voyage and change of climate. Mrs. Wheatley’s heart was touched at the interesting countenance and humble modesty of this little stranger. The lady bought the child, and she was named Phillis. Struck with the slave’s uncommon brightness, the mistress determined to teach her to read, which she did with no difficulty. The child soon mastered the English language, with which she was totally unacquainted when she landed upon the American shores.

Her school lessons were all perfect, and she drank in the Scriptural teachings as if by intuition. At the age of twelve, she could write letters and keep up a correspondence that would have done honor to one double her years. Mrs. Wheatley, seeing her superior genius, no longer regarded Phillis as a servant, but took her as a companion. It was not surprising that the slave-girl should be an object of attraction, astonishment, and attention with the refined and highly-cultivated society that weekly assembled in the drawing-room of the Wheatleys.

As Phillis grew up to womanhood, her progress and attainments kept pace with the promise of her earlier years. She drew around her the best educated of the white ladies, and attracted the attention and notice of the literary characters of Boston, who supplied her with books, and encouraged the ripening of her intellectual powers. She studied the Latin tongue, and translated one of Ovid’s tales, which was no sooner put in print in America, than it was republished in London, with elegant commendations from the reviews.

In 1773, a small volume of her poems, containing thirty-nine pieces, was published in London, and dedicated to the Countess of Huntingdon. The genuineness of this work was established in the first page of the volume, by a document signed by the governor of Massachusetts, the lieutenant-governor, her master, and fifteen of the most respectable and influential citizens of Boston, who were acquainted with her talents and the circumstances of her life. Her constitution being naturally fragile, she was advised by her physician to take a sea voyage, as the means of restoring her declining health.

Phillis was emancipated by her master at the age of twenty-one years, and sailed for England. On her arrival, she was received and admired in the first circles of London society; and it was at that time that her poems were collected and published in a volume, with a portrait and a memoir of the authoress. Phillis returned to America, and married Dr. Peters, a man of her own color, and of considerable talents. Her health began rapidly to decline, and she died at the age of twenty-six years, in 1780. Fortunately rescued from the fate that awaits the victims of the slave-trade, this injured daughter of Africa had an opportunity of developing the genius that God had given her, and of showing to the world the great wrong done to her race.

Although her writings are not free from imperfections of style and sentiment, her verses are full of philosophy, beauty, and sublimity. It cost her no effort to round a period handsomely, or polish a sentence until it became transparent with splendor. She was easy, forcible, and eloquent in language, and needed but health and a few more years of experience to have made her a poet of greater note.

Benjamin Banneker

The services rendered to science, to liberty, and to the intellectual character of the negro by Banneker, are too great for us to allow his name to sleep, and his genius and merits to remain hidden from the world.

Benjamin Banneker was born in the State of Maryland, in the year 1732, of pure African parentage; their blood never having been corrupted by the introduction of a drop of Anglo-Saxon. His father was a slave, and of course could do nothing towards the education of the child. The mother, however, being free, succeeded in purchasing the freedom of her husband, and they, with their son, settled on a few acres of land, where Benjamin remained during the lifetime of his parents.

His entire schooling was gained from an obscure country school, established for the education of the children of free negroes; and these advantages were poor, for the boy appears to have finished studying before he arrived at his fifteenth year. Although out of school, Banneker was still a student, and read with great care and attention such books as he could get. Mr. George Ellicott, a gentleman of fortune and considerable literary taste, and who resided near to Benjamin, became interested in him, and lent him books from his large library. Among these books were Mayer’s Tables, Fergusson’s Astronomy, and Leadbeater’s Lunar Tables. A few old and imperfect astronomical instruments also found their way into the boy’s hands, all of which he used with great benefit to his own mind.

Banneker took delight in the study of the languages, and soon mastered the Latin, Greek, and German. He was also proficient in the French. The classics were not neglected by him, and the general literary knowledge which he possessed caused Mr. Ellicott to regard him as the most learned man in the town, and he never failed to introduce Banneker to his most distinguished guests.

About this time, Benjamin turned his attention particularly to Astronomy, and determined on making calculations for an almanac, and completed a set for the whole year. Encouraged by this attempt, he entered upon calculations for subsequent years, which, as well as the former, he began and finished without the least assistance from any person or books than those already mentioned; so that whatever merit is attached to his performance is exclusively his own.

He published an almanac in Philadelphia for the years 1792-3-4-5, and which contained his calculations, exhibiting the different aspects of the planets, a table of the motions of the sun and moon, their risings and settings, and the courses of the bodies of the planetary system.

By this time, Banneker’s acquirements had become generally known, and the best scholars in the country opened correspondence with him. Goddard & Angell, the well-known Baltimore publishers, engaged his pen for their establishment, and became the publishers of his almanacs. A copy of his first production was sent to Thomas Jefferson, together with a letter intended to interest the great statesman in the cause of negro emancipation and the elevation of the negro race, in which he says:—

“It is a truth too well attested to need a proof here, that we are a race of beings who have long labored under the abuse and censure of the world; that we have long been looked upon with an eye of contempt, and considered rather as brutish than human, and scarcely capable of mental endowments. I hope I may safely admit, in consequence of the report which has reached me, that you are a man far less inflexible in sentiments of this nature than many others; that you are measurably friendly and well disposed towards us, and that you are willing to lend your aid and assistance for our relief from those many distresses and numerous calamities to which we are reduced.

“If this is founded in truth, I apprehend you will embrace every opportunity to eradicate that train of absurd and false ideas and opinions which so generally prevail with respect to us, and that your sentiments are concurrent with mine,—which are, that one universal Father hath given being to us all; that he hath not only made us all of one flesh, but that he hath also, without partiality, afforded us all the same sensations, and endowed us all with the same faculties; and that, however variable we may be in society or religion, however diversified in situation or in color, we are all of the same family, and stand in the same relation to him. If these are sentiments of which you are fully persuaded, you cannot but acknowledge that it is the indispensable duty of those who maintain the rights of human nature, and who profess the obligations of Christianity, to extend their power and influence to the relief of every part of the human race from whatever burden or oppression they may unjustly labor under; and this, I apprehend a full conviction of the truth and obligation of these principles should lead all to.

“I have long been convinced that if your love for yourselves, and for those inestimable laws which preserved to you the rights of human nature, is founded on sincerity, you cannot help being solicitous that every individual, of whatever rank or distinction, might with you equally enjoy the blessings thereof; neither can you rest satisfied short of the most active effusion of your exertions, in order to effect their promotion from any state of degradation to which the unjustifiable cruelty and barbarism of men may have reduced them.

“I freely and cheerfully acknowledge that I am one of the African race, and in that color which is natural to them, of the deepest dye; and it is under a sense of the most profound gratitude to the Supreme Ruler of the universe, that I now confess to you that I am not under that state of tyrannical thraldom and inhuman captivity to which too many of my brethren are doomed; but that I have abundantly tasted of the fruition of those blessings which proceed from that free and unequalled liberty with which you are favored, and which I hope you will willingly allow you have mercifully received from the immediate hand of that Being from whom proceedeth every good and perfect gift.

“Your knowledge of the situation of my brethren is too extensive to need a recital here; neither shall I presume to prescribe methods by which they may be relieved, otherwise than by recommending to you and to others to wean yourselves from those narrow prejudices which you have imbibed with respect to them, and, as Job proposed to his friends, ‘put your soul in their souls’ stead.’ Thus shall your hearts be enlarged with kindness and benevolence towards them; and thus shall you need neither the direction of myself or others in what manner to proceed herein.... The calculation for this almanac is the production of my arduous study in my advanced stage of life; for having long had unbounded desires to become acquainted with the secrets of nature, I have had to gratify my curiosity herein through my own assiduous application to astronomical study, in which I need not recount to you the many difficulties and disadvantages which I have had to encounter.”

Mr. Jefferson at once replied, and said:—

“I thank you sincerely for your letter and the almanac it contained. Nobody wishes more than I do to see such proofs as you exhibit, that Nature has given to our black brethren talents equal to those of the other colors of men, and that the appearance of the want of them is owing merely to the degraded condition of their existence, both in Africa and America. I can add with truth, that nobody wishes more ardently to see a good system commenced for raising their condition, both of their body and their mind, to what it ought to be, as far as the imbecility of their present existence, and other circumstances, which cannot be neglected, will admit. I have taken the liberty of sending your almanac to Monsieur de Condorcet, secretary of the Academy of Sciences at Paris, and a member of the Philanthropic Society, because I consider it as a document to which your whole color have a right, for their justification against the doubts which have been entertained of them.”

The letter from Banneker, together with the almanac, created in the heart of Mr. Jefferson a fresh feeling of enthusiasm in behalf of freedom, and especially for the negro, which ceased only with his life. The American statesman wrote to Brissot, the celebrated French writer, in which he made enthusiastic mention of the “Negro Philosopher.” At the formation of the “Society of the Friends of the Blacks,” at Paris, by Lafayette, Brissot, Barnave, Condorcet, and Gregoire, the name of Banneker was again and again referred to to prove the equality of the races. Indeed, the genius of the “Negro Philosopher” did much towards giving liberty to the people of St. Domingo. In the British House of Commons, Pitt, Wilberforce, and Buxton often alluded to Banneker by name, as a man fit to fill any position in society. At the setting off of the District of Columbia for the capital of the federal government, Banneker was invited by the Maryland commissioners, and took an honorable part in the settlement of the territory. But, throughout all his intercourse with men of influence, he never lost sight of the condition of his race, and ever urged the emancipation and elevation of the slave. He well knew that everything that was founded upon the admitted inferiority of natural right in the African was calculated to degrade him and bring him nearer to the foot of the oppressor, and he therefore never failed to allude to the equality of the races when with those whites whom he could influence. He always urged self-elevation upon the colored people whom he met. He felt that to deprive the black man of the inspiration of ambition, of hope, of wealth, of standing, among his brethren of the earth, was to take from him all incentives to mental improvement.

What husbandman incurs the toil of seed-time and culture, except with a view to the subsequent enjoyment of a golden harvest? Banneker was endowed by Nature with all those excellent qualifications which are necessary previous to the accomplishment of a great man. His memory was large and tenacious, yet, by a curious felicity, chiefly susceptible of the finest impressions it received from the best authors he read, which he always preserved in their primitive strength and amiable order. He had a quickness of apprehension and a vivacity of understanding which easily took in and surmounted the most subtile and knotty parts of mathematics and metaphysics. He possessed in a large degree that genius which constitutes a man of letters; that equality, without which, judgment is cold, and knowledge is inert; that energy which collects, combines, amplifies, and animates.

He knew every branch of history, both natural and civil; he had read all the original historians of England, France, and Germany, and was a great antiquarian. Criticism, metaphysics, morals, politics, voyages, and travels, were all studied and well digested by him. With such a fund of knowledge, his conversation was equally interesting, instructive, and entertaining. Banneker was so favorably appreciated by the first families in Virginia, that in 1803 he was invited by Mr. Jefferson, then President of the United States, to visit him at Monticello, where the statesman had gone for recreation. But he was too infirm to undertake the journey. He died the following year, aged seventy-two. Like the golden sun that has sunk beneath the western horizon, but still throws upon the world, which he sustained and enlightened in his career, the reflected beams of his departed genius, his name can only perish with his language.

Banneker believed in the divinity of reason, and in the omnipotence of the human understanding, with Liberty for its handmaid. The intellect, impregnated by science, and multiplied by time, it appeared to him, must triumph necessarily over all the resistance of matter. He had faith in liberty, truth, and virtue. His remains still rest in the slave state where he lived and died, with no stone to mark the spot, or tell that it is the grave of Benjamin Banneker. He labored incessantly, lived irreproachably, and died in the literary harness, universally esteemed and regretted.

William P. Quinn

The man who lays aside home comforts, and willingly becomes a missionary to the poorest of the poor, deserves the highest praise that his fellow-men can bestow upon him. After laboring faithfully for the upbuilding of the church in New York, Baltimore, and Philadelphia, William P. Quinn, thirty-five years ago, went to the West, a most undesirable place for a colored man at that time. But he did not count the cost; it was enough for him to know that his services were needed, and he left the consequences with God.

Never, probably, was a man more imbued with the spirit of the Great Teacher, than was Mr. Quinn in his missionary work. Old men and women are still living who delight to dwell on the self-denial, Christian zeal, manly graces, and industry that characterized this good man in the discharge of his duties in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri. His advice was always fatherly; his example inculcated devoted piety.

As a speaker, he was earnest and eloquent, possessing an inward enthusiasm that sent a magnetic current through his entire congregation. Having the fullest confidence of the people with whom he was called to labor, they regarded him as one sent of God, and they hung upon his words as if their future welfare depended upon the counsel they received.

In 1844, Mr. Quinn was made a bishop, a position for which he had every qualification. Tanner, in his “Apology,” says:—

“The demands of the work made it necessary to elect another bishop, and, as if by inspiration, a large majority fixed their eyes on the great missionary as the man most competent to fill the post.”

Bishop Quinn died in February, 1873, at the advanced age of eighty-five years.

David Ruggles

Of those who took part in the anti-slavery work thirty-five years ago, none was more true to his race than David Ruggles. Residing in the city of New York, where slaveholders often brought their body servants, and kept them for weeks, Mr. Ruggles became a thorn in the sides of these Southern sinners. He was ready at all times, in dangers and perils, to wrest his brethren from these hyenas, and so successful was he in getting slaves from their masters, and sending them to Canada, that he became the terror of Southerners visiting northern cities. He was one of the founders of the celebrated underground railroad.

Harassed by the pro-slavery whites, and betrayed and deserted by some of his own color, David Ruggles still labored for his people.

He was deeply interested in the moral, social, and political elevation of the free colored men of the North, and to that end published and edited for several years the “Mirror of Liberty,” a quarterly magazine, devoted to the advocacy of the rights of his race.

As a writer, Mr. Ruggles was keen and witty,—always logical,—sending his arrows directly at his opponent. The first thing we ever read, coming from the pen of a colored man, was “David M. Reese, M. D., used up by David Ruggles, a man of color.” Dr. Reese was a noted colonizationist, and had written a work in which he advocated the expatriation of the blacks from the American continent; and Mr. Ruggles’s work was in reply to it. In this argument the negro proved too much for the Anglo-Saxon, and exhibited in Mr. Ruggles those qualities of keen perception, deep thought, and originality, that mark the critic and man of letters.

He was of unmixed blood, of medium size, genteel address, and interesting in conversation.

Attacked with a disease which resulted in total blindness, Mr. Ruggles visited Northampton, Massachusetts, for the benefit of his health. Here he founded a “Water Cure,” which became famous, and to which a large number of the better classes resorted. In this new field, Mr. Ruggles won honorable distinction as a most successful practitioner, secured the warm regard of the public, and left a name embalmed in the hearts of many who feel that they owe life to his eminent skill and careful practice. Mr. Ruggles was conscientious, upright, and just in all his dealings. He died in 1849, universally respected and esteemed.

Frederick Douglass

The career of this distinguished individual whose name heads this sketch, is more widely known than that of any other living colored man. Born and brought up under the institution of slavery, which denied its victims the right of developing those natural powers that adorn the children of men, and distinguish them from the beasts of the forest,—an institution that gave a premium to ignorance, and made intelligence a crime, when the possessor was a negro,—Frederick Douglass is, indeed, the most wonderful man that America has ever produced, white or black.

His days of servitude were like those of his race who were born at the South, differing but little from the old routine of plantation life. Douglass, however, possessed superior natural gifts, which began to show themselves even when a boy, but his history has become too well known for us to dwell on it here. The narrative of his life, published in 1845, gave a new impetus to the black man’s literature. All other stories of fugitive slaves faded away before the beautifully-written, highly-descriptive, and thrilling memoir of Frederick Douglass. Other narratives had only brought before the public a few heart-rending scenes connected with the person described. But Mr. Douglass, in his book, brought not only his old master’s farm and its occupants before the reader, but the entire country around him, including Baltimore and its shipyard. The manner in which he obtained his education, and especially his learning to write, has been read and re-read by thousands in both hemispheres. His escape from slavery is too well understood to need a recapitulation here.

He took up his residence in New Bedford, where he still continued the assiduous student, mastering the different branches of education which the accursed institution had deprived him of in early life.

His advent as a lecturer was a remarkable one. White men and black men had talked against slavery, but none had ever spoken like Frederick Douglass. Throughout the North the newspapers were filled with the sayings of the “eloquent fugitive.” He often travelled with others, but they were all lost sight of in the eagerness to hear Douglass. His travelling companions would sometimes get angry, and would speak first at the meetings; then they would take the last turn; but it was all the same—the fugitive’s impression was the one left upon the mind. He made more persons angry, and pleased more, than any other man. He was praised, and he was censured. He made them laugh, he made them weep, and he made them swear.

His “Slaveholders’ Sermon” was always a trump card. He awakened an interest in the hearts of thousands who before were dead to the slave and his condition. Many kept away from his lectures, fearing lest they should be converted against their will. Young men and women, in those days of pro-slavery hatred, would return to their fathers’ roofs filled with admiration for the “runaway slave,” and would be rebuked by hearing the old ones grumble out, “You’d better stay at home and study your lessons, and not be running after the nigger meetings.”

In 1841, he was induced to accept an agency as a lecturer for the Anti-slavery Society, and at once became one of the most valuable of its advocates. He visited England in 1845. There he was kindly received and heartily welcomed; and after going through the length and breadth of the land, and addressing public meetings out of number on behalf of his countrymen in chains, with a power of eloquence which captivated his auditors, and brought the cause which he pleaded home to their hearts, he returned home, and commenced the publication of the “North Star,” a weekly newspaper devoted to the advocacy of the cause of freedom.

Mr. Douglass is tall and well made. His vast and fully-developed forehead shows at once that he is a superior man intellectually. He is polished in his language, and gentlemanly in his manners. His voice is full and sonorous. His attitude is dignified, and his gesticulation is full of noble simplicity. He is a man of lofty reason; natural, and without pretension; always master of himself; brilliant in the art of exposing and abstracting. Few persons can handle a subject, with which they are familiar, better than he. There is a kind of eloquence issuing from the depth of the soul as from a spring, rolling along its copious floods, sweeping all before it, overwhelming by its very force, carrying, upsetting, ingulfing its adversaries, and more dazzling and more thundering than the bolt which leaps from crag to crag. This is the eloquence of Frederick Douglass. One of the best mimics of the age, and possessing great dramatic powers; had he taken up the sock and buskin, instead of becoming a lecturer, he would have made as fine a Coriolanus as ever trod the stage.

As a speaker, Frederick Douglass has had more imitators than almost any other American, save, perhaps, Wendell Phillips. Unlike most great speakers, he is a superior writer also. Some of his articles, in point of ability, will rank with anything ever written for the American press. He has taken lessons from the best of teachers, amid the homeliest realities of life; hence the perpetual freshness of his delineations, which are never over-colored, never strained, never aiming at difficult or impossible effects, but which always read like living transcripts of experience.

Mr. Douglass has obtained a position in the front rank as a lyceum lecturer. His later addresses from manuscripts, however, do not, in our opinion, come up to his extemporaneous efforts.

But Frederick Douglass’s abilities as an editor and publisher have done more for the freedom and elevation of his race than all his platform appeals. Previous to the year 1848, the colored people of the United States had no literature. True, the “National Reformer,” the “Mirror of Liberty,” the “Colored American,” “The Mystery,” the “Disfranchised American,” the “Ram’s Horn,” and several others of smaller magnitude, had been in existence, had their run, and ceased to live. All of the above journals had done something towards raising the black man’s standard, but they were merely the ploughs breaking up the ground and getting the soil ready for the seed-time. Newspapers, magazines, and books published in those days by colored men, were received with great allowance by the whites, who had always regarded the negro as an uneducated, inferior race, and who were considered out of their proper sphere when meddling with literature.

The commencement of the publication of the “North Star” was the beginning of a new era in the black man’s literature. Mr. Douglass’s well-earned fame gave his paper at once a place with the first journals in the country; and he drew around him a corps of contributors and correspondents from Europe, as well as all parts of America and the West Indies, that made its columns rich with the current news of the world.

While the “North Star” became a welcome visitor to the homes of whites who had never before read a newspaper edited by a colored man, its proprietor became still more popular as a speaker in every State in the Union where abolitionism was tolerated.

“My Bondage and My Freedom,” a work published by Mr. Douglass a few years ago, besides giving a fresh impulse to anti-slavery literature, showed upon its pages the untiring industry of the ripe scholar.

Some time during the year 1850, we believe, his journal assumed the name of “Frederick Douglass’s Paper.” Its purpose and aim was the same, and it remained the representative of the negro till it closed its career, which was not until the abolition of slavery.

Of all his labors, however, we regard Mr. Douglass’s efforts as publisher and editor as most useful to his race. For sixteen years, against much opposition, single-handed and alone, he demonstrated the fact that the American colored man was equal to the white in conducting a useful and popular journal.

Alexander W. Wayman

Bishop Wayman was born in Maryland, in 1821, and consequently, is fifty-two years of age. He showed an early love of books, and used his time to the best advantage. He began as a preacher in the A. M. E. Church in 1842, being stationed on the Princeton circuit, in New Jersey. From that time forward his labors were herculean. In 1864, he was, by an almost unanimous vote, elected a bishop. Tanner, in his “Apology,” said of him:—

“As a preacher, the bishop appears to advantage. Of dignified mien, easy gestures, and a rolling voice, he is sure to make a favorable impression, while the subject-matter of his discourse is so simple that the most illiterate may fully comprehend it; the wisest, also, are generally edified.”

It is said that Bishop Wayman is scarcely ever seen with any book except the Bible or a hymn-book, and yet he is a man of letters, as will be acknowledged by all who have had the pleasure of listening to his eloquent sermons. He is a student, and is well read in history and the poets, and often surprises his friends by his classical quotations. There is a harmonious blending of the poetical and the practical, a pleasant union of the material with the spiritual, an arm-in-arm connection of the ornamental and useful, a body and soul joined together in his discourses. There is something candid, tangible, solid, nutritious, and enduring in his sermons. He is even at times, profound. He presents his arguments and appeals with an articulation as distinct and as understandable as his gesticulation is impressive.

In person, the bishop is stout, fleshy, and well-proportioned. His round face, smiling countenance, twinkling eye, and merry laugh, indicate health and happiness. He is of unadulterated African origin. Blameless in all the relations of life, a kind and affectionate husband, a true friend, and a good neighbor, Bishop Wayman’s character may safely be said to be above suspicion.

Charles L. Reason

Professor Reason has for a number of years been connected with the educational institutions of New York. In 1849, he was called to the professorship of Mathematics and Belles-Lettres in New York Central College. This position he held during his own pleasure, with honor to himself and benefit to the students. A man of fine education, superior intelligence, gentlemanly in every sense of the term, of excellent discrimination, one of the best of students, Professor Reason holds a power over those under him seldom attained by men of his profession.

Were I a sculptor, and looking for a model of a perfect man in personal appearance, my selection would be Charles L. Reason. As a writer of both prose and poetry, he need not be ashamed of his ability. Extremely diffident, he seldom furnishes anything for the public eye. In a well-written essay on the propriety of establishing an industrial college, and the probable influence of the free colored people upon the emancipated blacks, he says:—

“Whenever emancipation shall take place, immediate though it be, the subjects of it, like many who now make up the so-called free population, will be in what geologists call the ‘transition state.’ The prejudice now felt against them for bearing on their persons the brand of slaves, cannot die out immediately. Severe trials will still be their portion: the curse of a ‘taunted race’ must be expiated by almost miraculous proofs of advancement; and some of these miracles must be antecedent to the great day of jubilee. To fight the battle upon the bare ground of abstract principles will fail to give us complete victory. The subterfuges of pro-slavery selfishness must now be dragged to light, and the last weak argument, that the negro can never contribute anything to advance the national character, ‘nailed to the counter as base coin.’ To the conquering of the difficulties heaped up in the path of his industry, the free colored man of the North has pledged himself. Already he sees, springing into growth, from out his foster work-school, intelligent young laborers, competent to enrich the world with necessary products; industrious citizens, contributing their proportion to aid on the advancing civilization of the country; self-providing artisans, vindicating their people from the never-ceasing charge of fitness for servile positions.”

In the “Autographs for Freedom,” from which the above extract is taken, Professor Reason has a beautiful poem, entitled “Hope and Confidence,” which, in point of originality and nicety of composition, deserves a place among the best productions of Wordsworth.

A poem signifies design, method, harmony, and therefore consistency of parts. A man may be gifted with the most vividly ideal nature; he may shoot from his brain some blazing poetic thought or imagery, which may arouse wonder and admiration, as a comet does; and yet he may have no constructiveness, without which the materials of poetry are only so many glittering fractions. A poem can never be tested by its length or brevity, but by the adaptation of its parts. A complete poem is the architecture of thought and language. It requires artistic skill to chisel rough blocks of marble into as many individual forms of beauty; but not only skill, but genius, is needed to arrange and harmonize those forms into the completeness of a Parthenon. A grave popular error, and one destructive of personal usefulness, and obstructive to literary progress, is the free-and-easy belief that because a man has the faculty of investing common things with uncommon ideas, therefore he can write a poem.

The idea of poetry is to give pleasurable emotions, and the world listens to a poet’s voice as it listens to the singing of a summer bird; that which is the most suggestive of freedom and eloquence being the most admired. Professor Reason has both the genius and the artistic skill. He is highly respected in New York, where he resides, and is doing a good work for the elevation of his race.

William J. Wilson

At the head of our representative men,—especially our men of letters,—stands Professor Wilson. He has, at times, contributed some very able papers to the current literature of the day. In the columns of “Frederick Douglass’s Paper,” the “Anglo-African Magazine,” and the “Weekly Anglo-African,” appeared at times, over the signature of “Ethiop,” some of the raciest and most amusing essays to be found in the public journals of this country. As a sketch writer of historical scenes and historical characters,—choosing his own subjects, suggested by his own taste or sympathies,—few men are capable of greater or more successful efforts than William J. Wilson.

In his imaginary visit to the “Afric-American Picture Gallery,” he exhibits splendid traits of the genius of the true critic. His criticism on the comparative merits of Samuel R. Ward and Frederick Douglass, published in the papers some years ago, together with his essay on Phillis Wheatley, raised Mr. Wilson high in the estimation of men of letters. His “School Room Scene” is both amusing and instructive.

To possess genius, the offspring of which ennobles the sentiments, enlarges the affections, kindles the imagination, and gives to us a view of the past, the present, and the future, is one of the highest gifts that the Creator bestows upon man. With acute powers of conception, a sparkling and lively fancy, and a quaintly-curious felicity of diction, Mr. Wilson wakes us from our torpidity and coldness to a sense of our capabilities.

As a speaker, he is pleasing in style, with the manners of a gentleman. His conversational powers are of the first order, in which he exhibits deep thought. In personal appearance, he is under the middle size; his profile is more striking than his front face; he has a smiling countenance, under which you see the man of wit. The professor is of unmixed race, of which he is not ashamed. He is cashier of the Freedmen’s Savings Bank at Washington, and his good advice to his race with whom he has dealings in money matters proves of much service to them.

Jabez P. Campbell

One of the best of men was born in one of the meanest States in the Union. Jabez P. Campbell is a native of the insignificant and negro-hating State of Delaware, and is in the sixty-eighth year of his age. His father was a Revolutionary soldier, and when he laid aside the knapsack and the musket, he put on the armor of the Lord, and became a preacher of the A. M. E. Church. Like all colored boys in those days, the subject of this sketch found many difficulties in obtaining an education in a part of the country where colored men had “no rights that white men were bound to respect.”

After a few quarters’ schooling, under incompetent teachers, Campbell began a course of self-instruction, ending in the study of theology. In 1839, he commenced as a preacher, laboring in various sections of the country, eventually settling down as General Book Steward of the A. M. E. Church, and editor of the “Christian Recorder.”

In the year 1864, the subject of our sketch was elected a bishop, and since that time he has labored principally in the Indiana, Missouri, Louisiana, and California districts.

The bishop is eminently a man of the people, not conceited in the least, yet dignified and gentlemanly. He is a man of ready wit, keen in discussion, well posted up on all questions of the day, and is not afraid to avow his views. Bishop Campbell has a wonderful gift of language, and uses it to the best advantage. His delivery is easy, and his gestures natural; and, as a preacher, he ranks amongst the first in the denomination. In person, he is of medium size, dark brown skin, finely chiselled features, broad forehead, and a countenance that betokens intelligence.

John M. Langston

John M. Langston is a native of Chillicothe, Ohio, and a graduate of Oberlin College. He studied theology and law, and preferring the latter, was admitted to the bar, practised successfully in the courts of his native state till the breaking out of the Rebellion, when he removed to Washington, where he now resides. During the war, and some time after its close, Mr. Langston was engaged in superintending the Freedmen’s Schools at the South. He now occupies a professorship in Howard University.

The end of all eloquence is to sway men. It is, therefore, bound by no arbitrary rules of diction or style, formed on no specific models, and governed by no edicts of self-elected judges. It is true, there are degrees of eloquence, and equal success does not imply equal excellence. That which is adapted to sway the strongest minds of an enlightened age ought to be esteemed the most perfect, and, doubtless, should be the criterion by which to test the abstract excellence of all oratory. Mr. Langston represents the highest idea of the orator, as exemplified in the power and discourses of Sheridan in the English House of Commons, and Vergniaud in the Assembly of the Girondists. He is not fragmentary in his speeches; but, as a deep, majestic stream, he moves steadily onward, pouring forth his rich and harmonious sentences in strains of impassioned eloquence. His style is bold and energetic; full of spirit. He is profound, without being hollow, and ingenious, without being subtile.

An accomplished scholar and a good student, he displays in his speeches an amount of literary acquirements not often found in the mere business lawyer. When pleading, he speaks like a man under oath, though without any starched formality of expression. The test of his success is the permanent impression which his speeches leave on the memory. They do not pass away with the excitement of the moment, but remain in the mind, with the lively colors and true proportions of the scenes which they represent. Mr. Langston is of medium size, and of good figure; high and well-formed forehead; eyes full, but not prominent; mild and amiable countenance; modest deportment; strong, musical voice; and wears the air of a gentleman. He is highly respected by men of all classes, and especially, by the legal profession. He is a vigorous writer, and, in the political campaigns, contributes both with speech and pen to the liberal cause. Few men in the south-west have held the black man’s standard higher than John Mercer Langston.

As Dean of the Law Department in Howard University, he has won the admiration of all connected with the institution, and, in a recent address, delivered in the State of New York, on law, Mr. Langston has shown that he is well versed in all that pertains to that high profession.

John M. Brown

Among the fine-looking men that have been sent out by the A. M. E. Church, to preach the gospel, none has a more manly frame, intellectual countenance, gentlemanly demeanor, Christian spirit, and love of his race, than John M. Brown. When the Committee on Boundary in the A. M. E. Church recommended in the General Conference of 1864, “that there be set apart a Conference in the State of Louisiana, to be known as the Louisiana Conference, embracing the States of Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Alabama, Texas, and all that part of Florida lying west of Chattanooga River,” Mr. Brown was selected as the man eminently fitted to go to the new field of labor. Money was evidently not a burden to him, for, being a barber, he got on a steamer, and shaved his way to his post of labor.54

He arrived in New Orleans, unfurled his banner, and went to work in a way that showed that he was “terribly in earnest.” He sowed the seed, and, although he was thrown into the calaboose, his work still went on, a church was erected, members were gathered in, and the cause of Christian missions prospered. After laboring faithfully in this field, Mr. Brown was appointed Corresponding Secretary of the A. M. E. Church, with his head-quarters in Baltimore. He now holds the high and honorable position of bishop, a place that no one is better qualified to fill than he.

He is a mulatto, of middle age, with talents of a high order, fluent speaker, terse writer, and popular with all classes. Oberlin College has not turned out a more praiseworthy scholar, nor a better specimen of a Christian gentleman, than Bishop Brown.

John I. Gaines

Mr. Gaines was born at Cincinnati, Ohio, November 6th, 1821. His early education was limited, as was generally the case with colored youth in that section, in those days. Forced into active life at an early age, he yet found time to make himself a fair English scholar, and laid the foundation of that power to be useful, which he afterwards exercised for the benefit of his people.

At the age of sixteen, he was found in attendance upon a convention, held in one of the interior towns of his native state. At that early age, he showed clearly his mental powers, and men, many years his senior listened with respect to the sage counsel which even then he was capable of giving. From that time to the very day of his death he mingled in the councils, and busied himself with the affairs of his people; and it is no derogation to the merits of others to say, that few have counselled more wisely, or acted more successfully than he.

The enterprise with which his name is the most permanently connected, is the movement which has given to Cincinnati her system of public schools for colored youth. When the law of 1849, granting school privileges to colored youth, was passed, the City Council of Cincinnati refused to appropriate the funds placed in the treasury for the support of the schools, alleging that there was no authority to do so. Here was a chance for our deceased friend to exhibit those high qualities which made him a lamp to the feet of his people. Cautious, but firm, determined, but patient, he led in the movement, which resulted in a decision of the Supreme Court of the State, placing the colored public schools upon the same footing as the other public schools of the city, and gave their control to a board of directors selected by the colored people. The contest was prolonged nearly two years, but at last the little black man triumphed over the city of Cincinnati.

His next aim was to have the schools thoroughly organized, and placed in comfortable houses. He cheerfully performed the onerous duties of clerk and general agent to the Board, his only reward being a consciousness that he was useful to his people. His purposes were temporarily interrupted in 1853, by a law taking the control of the schools from the colored people. Not connected officially with the schools, he still maintained a deep interest in their condition, and, in 1856, an opportunity offering, he used his influence and means to have the schools again placed under the control of the colored people. This point gained, he again set on foot measures looking to the erection of school-houses. This he at last accomplished. His first report to the City Council, made in 1851, urges the erection of school-houses, and his last report, made in 1859, announces the completion of two large houses, costing over twenty-four thousand dollars.

If he is a benefactor of his race, who causes two blades of grass to grow where but one grew before, surely, he is worthy of praise, who has let rays of intellectual light fall upon the famished minds of a forlorn race, whom a hard fate has condemned to slavery and ignorance.

He was, from early youth, a firm, though not fanatical adherent of the Temperance cause. He felt that intoxicating drinks had caused many strong men to fall, and, for his brother’s sake, he abstained. Meeting one evening, at a social party, a gentleman from a neighboring State, eminent in the world of politics and philanthropy, a bottle of sparkling Catawba and two glasses were placed on the table before them, the host remarking at the time that “there was no need for two tumblers, for Mr. Gaines would not use his.”

“Surely, Mr. Gaines will pledge me, a friend of his race, in a glass of wine made from the grape that grows on his native hills,” said the gentleman.

Mr. Gaines shook his head. “I appreciate the honor,” said he, “but conscience forbids.”

The character of his mind was much to be prized by a people who need prudent counsels. Seldom speaking until he had examined his subject thoroughly, he was generally prepared to speak with a due regard to the effects of his speech.

The subject of this sketch was of pure African descent, small in stature, of genteel figure, countenance beaming with intelligence, eloquent in speech, and able in debate. He died November 27, 1859.

James M’Cune Smith, M. D.

Unable to get justice done him in the educational institutions of his native country, James M’Cune Smith turned his face towards a foreign land. He graduated with distinguished honors at the University of Glasgow, Scotland, where he received his diploma of M. D. For the last twenty-five years he has been a practitioner in the city of New York, where he stands at the head of his profession. On his return from Europe, the doctor was warmly welcomed by his fellow-citizens, who were anxious to pay due deference to his talents; since which time he has justly been esteemed among the leading men of his race on the American continent. When the natural ability of the negro was assailed, some years ago, in New York, Dr. Smith came forward as the representative of the black man, and his essays on the comparative anatomy and physiology of the races, read in the discussion, completely vindicated the character of the negro, and placed the author among the most logical and scientific writers in the country.

The doctor has contributed many valuable papers to the different journals published by colored men during the last quarter of a century. The New York dailies have also received aid from him during the same period. History, antiquity, bibliography, translation, criticism, political economy, statistics,—almost every department of knowledge,—receive emblazon from his able, ready, versatile, and unwearied pen. The emancipation of the slave, and the elevation of the free colored people, has claimed the greatest share of his time as a writer.

The law of labor is equally binding on genius and mediocrity. The mind and body rarely visit this earth of ours so exactly fitted to each other, and so perfectly harmonizing together, as to rise without effort, and command in the affairs of men. It is not in the power of every one to become great. No great approximation, even towards that which is easiest attained, can be accomplished without exercise of much thought and vigor of action; and thus is demonstrated the supremacy of that law which gives excellence only when earned, and assigns labor its unfailing reward.

It is this energy of character, industry, and labor, combined with superior intellectual powers, which gave Dr. Smith so much influence in New York.

As a speaker, he was eloquent, and at times brilliant, but always clear, and to the point. In stature, the doctor was not tall, but thick, and somewhat inclined to corpulency. He had a fine and well-developed head; broad and lofty brow; round, full face; firm mouth; and an eye that dazzled. In blood he stood, apparently, equal between the Anglo-Saxon and the African.

Daniel A. Payne, D. D.

Teacher of a small school at Charleston, South Carolina, in the year 1834, Daniel A. Payne felt the oppressive hand of slavery too severely upon him, and he quitted the Southern Sodom, and came North. After going through a regular course of theological studies, at Gettysburg Seminary, he took up his residence at Baltimore, where he soon distinguished himself as a preacher in the African Methodist denomination. He was several years since elected bishop, and is now located in the State of Ohio.

Bishop Payne is a scholar and a poet; having published, in 1850, a volume of his productions, which created considerable interest for the work, and gave the author a standing among literary men. His writings are characterized by sound reasoning and logical conclusions, and show that he is well read. The bishop is devotedly attached to his down-trodden race, and is constantly urging upon them self-elevation. After President Lincoln’s interview with the committee of colored men at Washington, and the colonization scheme recommended to them, and the appearance of Mr. Pomeroy’s address to the free blacks, Bishop Payne issued, through the columns of the “Weekly Anglo-African,” a word of advice, which had in it the right ring, and showed in its composition considerable literary ability. A deep vein of genuine piety pervades all the productions of Bishop Payne. As a pulpit orator, he stands deservedly high. In stature, he is rather under the middle size, intellectual countenance, and gentlemanly in appearance. He has done much towards building up Wilberforce College in Ohio, an institution that is an honor to the race.

Alexander Crummell, D. D.

Among the many bright examples of the black man which we present, one of the foremost is Alexander Crummell. Blood unadulterated, a tall and manly figure, commanding in appearance, a full and musical voice, fluent in speech, a graduate of Cambridge University, England, a mind stored with the richness of English literature, competently acquainted with the classical authors of Greece and Rome, from the grave Thucydides to the rhapsodical Lycophron, gentlemanly in all his movements, language chaste and refined, Dr. Crummell may well be put forward as one of the best and most favorable representatives of his race. He is a clergyman of the Episcopal denomination, and deeply versed in theology. His sermons are always written, but he reads them as few persons can.

In 1848, Dr. Crummell visited England, and delivered a well-conceived address before the Anti-slavery Society in London, where his eloquence and splendid abilities were at once acknowledged and appreciated. The year before his departure for the Old World, he delivered an “Eulogy on the Life and Character of Thomas Clarkson,” which was a splendid, yet just tribute to the life-long labors of that great man.

Dr. Crummell is one of our ablest speakers. His style is polished, graceful, and even elegant, though never merely ornate or rhetorical. He has the happy faculty of using the expressions best suited to the occasion, and bringing in allusions which give a popular sympathy to the best cultivated style. He is, we think, rather too sensitive, and somewhat punctillious.

Dr. Crummell is a gentleman by nature, and could not be anything else, if he should try. Some ten years since, he wrote a very interesting work on Africa, to which country he emigrated in 1852.

We have had a number of our public men to represent us in Europe within the past twenty-five years; and none have done it more honorably or with better success to the character and cause of the black man, than Alexander Crummell. We met him there again and again, and followed in his track wherever he preached or spoke before public assemblies, and we know whereof we affirm. Devotedly attached to the interest of the colored man, and having the moral, social, and intellectual elevation of the natives of Africa at heart, we do not regret that he considers it his duty to labor in his fatherland. Warmly interested in the Republic, and so capable of filling the highest position that he can be called to, we shall not be surprised, some day, to hear that Alexander Crummell is president of Liberia.

Avery College has just done itself the honor of conferring the degree of Doctor of Divinity upon this able man; and sure we are that a title was never better bestowed than in the present instance.

Since writing the above sketch, we learn that Dr. Crummell has returned, and taken up his residence in the City of New York, where he is now pastor of a church.

Henry Highland Garnett, D. D.

Though born a slave in the State of Maryland, Henry Highland Garnett is the son of an African chief, stolen from the coast of his native land. His father’s family were all held as slaves till 1822, when they escaped to the north. In 1835, he became a member of Canaan Academy, New Hampshire. Three months after entering the school, it was broken up by a mob, who destroyed the building. Dr. Garnett afterwards entered Oneida Institute, New York, under the charge of that noble-hearted friend of man, Beriah Green, where he was treated with equality by the professors and his fellow-students. There he gained the reputation of a courteous and accomplished man, an able and eloquent debater, and a good writer.

His first appearance as a public speaker, was in 1837, in the City of New York, where his speech at once secured for him a standing among first-class orators. Dr. Garnett is in every sense of the term a progressive man. He is a strenuous advocate of freedom, temperance, education, and the religious, moral, and social elevation of his race. He is an acceptable preacher, evangelical in his profession. His discourses, though showing much thought and careful study, are delivered extemporaneously, and with good effect. Having complete command of his voice, he uses it with skill, never failing to fill the largest hall. One of the most noted addresses, ever given by a colored man in this country was delivered by Dr. Garnett at the National Convention of Colored Americans, at Buffalo, New York, in 1843. None but those who heard that speech have the slightest idea of the tremendous influence which he exercised over the assembly.

Dr. Garnett visited England in 1850, where he spent several months, and went thence to the island of Jamaica, spending three years there as a missionary. He has written considerably, and has edited one or two journals at different times, devoted to the elevation of his race. Dr. Garnett was, for two or three years, president of Avery College, where he was considered a man of learning. He also spent some time in Washington, as pastor of the Presbyterian Church in that city. At present, he is located over Shiloh Church, New York City.

For forty years an advocate of the rights of his race, forcible and daring as a speaker, having suffered much, with a good record behind him, Dr. Garnett may be considered as standing in the front rank as a leader of his people.

Charles L. Remond

Born and brought up in Salem, Massachusetts, Mr. Remond had the advantage of early training in the best of schools. In 1838, he took the field as a lecturer, under the auspices of the American Anti-slavery Society, and, in company with the Rev. Ichabod Codding, canvassed the States of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Maine. In 1840, he visited England as a delegate to the first “World’s Anti-slavery Convention,” held in London. He remained abroad two years, lecturing in the various towns in the united kingdom.

Mr. Remond was welcomed on his return home, and again resumed his vocation as a lecturer. In stature, he is small, of spare make, neat, wiry build, and genteel in his personal appearance. He has a good voice, and is considered one of the best declaimers in New England. He has written little or nothing for the press, and his notoriety is confined solely to the platform. Sensitive to a fault, and feeling sorely the prejudice against color which exists throughout the United States, his addresses have been mainly on that subject, on which he is always interesting. Mr. Remond’s abilities have been very much overrated. His speeches, when in print, attracted little or no attention, and he was never able to speak upon any subject except slavery, upon which he was never deep.

Martin R. Delany, M. D.

Dr. Delany has long been before the public. His first appearance, we believe, was in connection with “The Mystery,” a weekly newspaper published at Pittsburg, and of which he was editor. His journal was faithful in its advocacy of the rights of man, and had the reputation of being a well-conducted sheet. The doctor afterwards was associated with Frederick Douglass in the editorial management of his paper at Rochester, New York. From the latter place, he removed to Canada, and resided in Chatham, where he was looked upon as one of its leading citizens.

Dr. Martin R. Delany, though regarded as a man high in his profession, is better and more widely known as a traveller, discoverer, and lecturer. His association with Professor Campbell in the “Niger Valley Exploring Expedition,” has brought the doctor very prominently before the world, and especially that portion of it which takes an interest in the civilization of Africa. The official report of that expedition shows that he did not visit that country with his eyes shut. His observations and suggestions about the climate, soil, diseases, and natural productions of Africa, are interesting, and give evidence that the doctor was in earnest. The published report, of which he is the author, will repay a perusal.

On his return home, Dr. Delany spent some time in England, and lectured in the British metropolis and the provincial cities, with considerable success, on Africa and its resources. As a member of the International Statistical Congress, he acquitted himself with credit to his position and honor to his race. The foolish manner in which the Hon. Mr. Dallas, our minister to the court of St. James, acted on meeting Dr. Delany in that august assembly, and the criticisms of the press of Europe and America, will not soon be forgotten.

He is short, compactly built, has a quick, wiry walk, and is decided and energetic in conversation, unadulterated in race, and proud of his complexion. Though somewhat violent in his gestures, and paying but little regard to the strict rules of oratory, Dr. Delany is, nevertheless, an interesting, eloquent speaker. Devotedly attached to his fatherland, he goes for a “Negro Nationality.” Whatever he undertakes, he executes it with all the powers that God has given him; and what would appear as an obstacle in the way of other men, would be brushed aside by Martin R. Delany.

James W. C. Pennington, D. D.

Dr. Pennington was born a slave on the farm of Colonel Gordon, in the State of Maryland. His early life was not unlike the common lot of the bondmen of the Middle States. He was by trade a blacksmith, which increased his value to his owner. He had no opportunities for learning, and was ignorant of letters when he made his escape to the north. Through intense application to books, he gained, as far as it was possible, what slavery had deprived him of in his younger days. But he always felt the early blight upon his soul.

Dr. Pennington had not been free long ere he turned his attention to theology, and became an efficient preacher in the Presbyterian denomination. He was several years settled over a church at Hartford, Connecticut. He has been in Europe three times, his second visit being the most important, as he remained there three or four years, preaching and lecturing, during which time he attended the Peace Congresses held at Paris, Brussels, and London. While in Germany, the degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred upon him by the University of Heidelberg. On his return to the United States, he received a call, and was settled as pastor over Shiloh Church, New York City.

The doctor was a good student, a ripe scholar, and deeply versed in theology. While at Paris, in 1849, we, with the American and English delegates to the Peace Congress, attended divine service at the Protestant Church, where Dr. Pennington had been invited to preach. His sermon, on that occasion, was an elegant production, made a marked impression on his hearers, and created upon the minds of all a more elevated idea of the negro. In past years, he has labored zealously and successfully for the education, and moral, social, and religious elevation of his race. The doctor was unadulterated in blood, with strongly-marked African features. In stature, he was of the common size, slightly inclined to corpulency, with an athletic frame and a good constitution. The fact that Dr. Pennington was considered a good Greek, Latin, and German scholar, although his early life was spent in slavery, is not more strange than that Henry Diaz, the black commander in Brazil, is extolled in all the histories of that country as one of the most sagacious and talented men and experienced officers of whom they could boast. Dr. Pennington died in 1871, his death being hastened by the excessive use of intoxicating liquors, which had impaired his usefulness in his latter days.

Francis L. Cardozo

The boiling cauldron of the rebellion threw upon its surface in the Southern States a large number of colored men, who are now playing a conspicuous part in the political affairs of their section of the country. Some of these, like their white brethren, are mere adventurers, without ability, native or acquired, and owe their elevated position more to circumstances than to any gifts or virtues of their own. There are, however, another class, some of whom, although uneducated, are men of genius, of principle, and Christian zeal, laboring with all their powers for the welfare of the country and the race. A few of the latter class have had the advantages of the educational institutions of the North and of Europe, as well as at the South, and were fully prepared for the situation when called upon to act. One of the most gifted of these, a man of fine education, honest, upright, just in his dealings with his fellows; one whose good sense and manly qualities never desert him,—is Francis L. Cardozo.

Born in Charleston, South Carolina, his father a white man and a slaveholder, his mother a mulatto, Mr. Cardozo is of a fair complexion. He is above the middle size, robust and full-faced, with a well-developed head, large brain, and a face of fine expression. Educated in Scotland, and having travelled extensively abroad, he presents the exterior of a man of refinement and of high culture, possessing considerable literary taste, and his conversation at once shows him to be a man of learning. Industrious and methodical in his habits, still the ardent student, young in years, comparatively, Mr. Cardozo bids fair to be one of the leading men at the national capital, as he is now in his own State. He studied theology, was ordained as a minister, and preached for a time in Connecticut with great acceptance.

As a speaker, Mr. Cardozo has few equals, colored or white. Without any strained effort, his expressions are filled with integrity, sobriety, benevolence, satire, and true eloquence. Forcible in speech, his audience never get tired under the sound of his musical voice.

During the rebellion, he returned to his native State, where he was of great service to his own people. He took a leading part in the reconstruction convention that brought South Carolina back in the Union, and was elected to the state legislature, where he was considered one of their ablest men. He now fills the high and honorable position of Secretary of State of his own commonwealth. He is held in high estimation by all classes: even the old negro-hating whites of the “palmetto” state acknowledge the ability and many manly virtues of Francis L. Cardozo.

Edmonia Lewis

Miss Lewis, the colored American artist, is of mingled Indian and African descent. Her mother was one of the Chippewa tribe, and her father a full-blooded African. Both her parents died young, leaving the orphan girl and her only brother to be brought up by the Indians. Here, as may well be imagined, her opportunities for education were meagre enough.

Edmonia Lewis is below the medium height; her complexion and features betray her African origin; her hair is more of the Indian type, black, straight, and abundant. Her head is well balanced, exhibiting a large and well-developed brain. Although brought up in the wilderness, she spent some time at Oberlin College, and has a good education.

Her manners are childlike and simple, and most winning and pleasing. She has the proud spirit of her Indian ancestor, and if she has more of the African in her personal appearance, she has more of the Indian in her character. On her first visit to Boston, she saw a statue of Benjamin Franklin. It filled her with amazement and delight. She did not know by what name to call “the stone image,” but she felt within her the stir of new powers.

“I, too, can make a stone man,” she said to herself; and at once she went to visit William Lloyd Garrison, and told him what she knew she could do, and asked him how she should set about doing it.

Struck by her enthusiasm, Garrison gave her a note of introduction to Brackett, the Boston sculptor, and after a little talk with her, Mr. Brackett gave her a piece of clay and a mould of a human foot, as a study.

“Go home and make that,” said he; “if there is anything in you, it will come out.”

Alone in her own room, the young girl toiled over her clay, and when she had done her best, carried the result to her master. He looked at her model, broke it up, and said, “Try again.” She did try again, modelled feet and hands, and at last undertook a medallion of the head of John Brown, which was pronounced excellent.

The next essay was the bust of a young hero, Colonel Shaw, the first man who took the command of a colored regiment, and whose untimely and glorious death, and the epitaph spoken by the South, “Bury him with his niggers,” have made him an immortal name in the history of our civil war.

The family of this young hero heard of the bust which the colored girl was making as a labor of love, and came to see it, and were delighted with the portrait which she had taken from a few poor photographs. Of this bust she sold one hundred copies, and with that money she set out for Europe, full of hope and courage.

Arriving at Rome, Miss Lewis took a studio, and devoted herself to hard study and hard work, and here she made her first statue—a figure of Hagar in her despair in the wilderness. It is a work full of feeling, for, as she says, “I have a strong sympathy for all women who have struggled and suffered. For this reason the Virgin Mary is very dear to me.”

The first copy of Hagar was purchased by a gentleman from Chicago. A fine group of the Madonna with the infant Christ in her arms, and two adoring angels at her feet, attests the sincerity of her admiration for the Jewish maiden. This last group has been purchased by the young Marquis of Bute, Disraeli’s Lothair, for an altar-piece.

Among Miss Lewis’s other works are two small groups, illustrating Longfellow’s poem of Hiawatha. Her first, “Hiawatha’s Wooing,” represents Minnehaha seated, making a pair of moccasins, and Hiawatha by her side, with a world of love-longing in his eyes. In the marriage, they stand side by side with clasped hands. In both, the Indian type of features is carefully preserved, and every detail of dress, etc., is true to nature. The sentiment is equal to the execution. They are charming hits, poetic, simple, and natural; and no happier illustrations of Longfellow’s most original poem were ever made than these by the Indian sculptor.

A fine bust, also, of this same poet, is about to be put in marble, which has been ordered by Harvard College; and in this instance, at least, Harvard has done itself honor. If it will not yet open its doors to women who ask education at its hands, it will admit the work of a woman who has educated herself in her chosen department.

Miss Lewis has a fine medallion portrait of Wendell Phillips, a charming group of sleeping babies, and some other minor works, in her studio. At Rome, she is visited by strangers from all nations, who happen in the great city, and every one admires the genius of the artist.

The highest art is that which rises above the slavish copying of nature, without sinking back again into a more slavish conventionalism. All the forms of such art are intensely simple and natural, but through the natural, the spiritual speaks. The saintly glory shines through the features of its saints, and does not gather in a ring around their heads. It speaks a language all can understand, and has no jargon of its own. It needs no initiation before we can understand its mysteries, excepting that of the pure heart and the awakened mind. It represents nature, but in representing, it interprets her. It shows us nothing but reality, but in the real, it mirrors the invisible ideal.

A statue is a realized emotion, or a thought in stone—not an embodied dream. A picture is a painted poem—not a romance in oil. Working together with nature, such art rises to something higher than nature is, becomes the priestess of her temple, and represents to more prosaic souls that which only the poet sees. The truly poetical mind of Edmonia Lewis shows itself in all her works, and exhibits to the critic the genius of the artist.

Robert Purvis

Robert Purvis was born in Charleston, South Carolina, but had the advantages of a New England collegiate education. He early embraced the principles of freedom as advocated by William Lloyd Garrison, and during the whole course of the agitation of the question of slavery, remained true to his early convictions.

Possessed of a large fortune at the very commencement of life, Mr. Purvis took an active part in aiding slaves to obtain their freedom, by furnishing means to secure for them something like justice before the pro-slavery courts of Pennsylvania, when arrested as fugitives, or when brought into the state voluntarily by their owners.

Mr. Purvis did not stop with merely giving of his abundant means, but made many personal sacrifices, and ran risks of loss of life in doing what he conceived to be an act of duty. Though white enough to pass as one of the dominant race, he never denied his connection with the negro.

In personal appearance, and in manners, Mr. Purvis is every inch the gentleman. Possessing a highly-cultivated mind, a reflective imagination, easy and eloquent in speech, but temper quickly aroused, he is always interesting as a public speaker.

Although he spent a large amount in philanthropic causes, Mr. Purvis is still a man of wealth, and owns a princely residence at Bybury, some fifteen miles from Philadelphia. With character unblemished, blameless in his domestic life, an ardent friend, and a dangerous foe, Robert Purvis stands to-day an honor to both races.

James M. Whitfield

James M. Whitfield was a native of Massachusetts, and removed in early life to Buffalo, New York, where he followed the humble occupation of a barber. However, even in this position, he became noted for his scholarly attainments and gentlemanly deportment. Men of polish and refinement were attracted to his saloon, and while being shaved, would take pleasure in conversing with him; and all who knew him felt that he was intended by Nature for a more elevated station in life.

He wrote some fine verses, and published a volume of poems in 1846, which well stood the test of criticism. His poem, “How long, O God, how long!” is a splendid production, and will take a place in American literature.

Mr. Whitfield removed to California some years since, where he took a forward stand with the progressive men of his race.

Phillip A. Bell

Although we have but a meagre historical record, as producers of books, magazines, and newspapers, it must still be admitted that some noble efforts have been made, and not a little time and money spent by colored men in literary enterprises during the last forty years. The oldest, and one of the ablest of American journalists, is Phillip A. Bell.

This gentleman started the “Colored American” in the year 1837, as co-editor with the late Rev. Samuel E. Cornish, and subsequently, with the late Dr. James M’Cune Smith. The paper was a weekly, and published in the city of New York. The “Colored American” was well conducted, had the confidence of the public, distinguished for the ability shown in its editorials, as well as its correspondents.

Mr. Bell retired from the management of the paper, in 1840. All, however, who remember as far back as thirty-five years, will bear testimony to the efficient work done by the “Colored American,” and the honor that is due to its noble founder. Some ten years ago, Mr. Bell removed to California, where he, in company with Mr. Peter Anderson, flung to the breeze the “Pacific Appeal,” a weekly newspaper, devoted to the interest of the colored man, and which has accomplished great good for humanity. In 1865, Mr. Bell launched the “Elevator,” a spicy weekly, the columns of which attest its ability. Science, philosophy, and the classics are treated in a masterly manner.

Mr. Bell is an original and subtile writer, has fine powers of analysis, and often flings the sparkling rays of a vivid imagination over the productions of his pen.

His articles are usually of a practical nature, always trying to remove evils, working for the moral, social, and political elevation of his race.

In person, Mr. Bell is of medium size, of dark complexion, pleasing countenance, gentlemanly in his manners, a man of much energy, strong determination, unbending endurance, and transparent honesty of purpose.

Of good education and a highly-cultivated mind, Mr. Bell attracts to him the most refined of his color, who regard him as the Napoleon of the colored press. Our subject was not intended by Nature for the platform, and has the good sense not to aspire to oratorical fame. In conversation, however, he is always interesting, drawing from a rich and varied experience, full of dry humor.

Mr. Bell has a host of friends in New York, where he is always spoken of in the highest manner, and is regarded as the prince of good fellows.

Charles B. Ray, D. D.

Dr. Ray is a clergyman of the Presbyterian order, and has resided in the city of New York for the last half century. In the year 1840, he became the editor of the “Colored American,” a journal which he conducted with signal ability, always true to the cause of the Southern slave, and the elevation of the black man everywhere. Dr. Ray is well educated, a man of liberal and reformatory views, a terse and vigorous writer, an able and eloquent speaker, well informed upon all subjects of the day.

He has long been identified with every good work in New York, and enjoys the confidence and respect of a large circle of friends.

In person, Dr. Ray is of small stature, neat and wiry build, in race standing about half-way between the African and the Anglo-Saxon. He is polished in his manners, and gentlemanly in his personal appearance. As a writer, a preacher, and a platform-speaker, he has done much to elevate the standard of the colored man in the Empire State.

In the multitude of national and state conventions held thirty years ago and thereabouts, the assembly was scarcely considered complete without the presence of Charles B. Ray, D. D.

In the religious conventions of his own denomination, he was always regarded with respect, and his sermons delivered to white congregations never failed to leave a good impression for the race to which the preacher belonged. Blameless in his family relations, guided by the highest moral rectitude, a true friend to everything that tends to better the moral, social, religious, and political condition of man, Dr. Ray may be looked upon as one of the foremost of the leading men of his race.

John J. Zuille

Thirty-five years ago, it was not an easy thing to convince an American community that a colored man was fit for any position save that of a servant. A few men, however, one after another, came upon the surface, and demonstrated beyond a doubt that genius was not confined to race or color. Standing foremost amongst these, was John J. Zuille of New York, who, by his industry, sobriety, and fair dealing, did much to create for the black man a character for business tact in the great metropolis. Mr. Zuille is, by trade, a practical printer, and in company with Bell, Cornish, and others, started the “Colored American” in 1837. As printer of that journal, he showed mechanical skill that placed him at once amongst the ablest of the craft.

Mr. Zuille has also taken a prominent part in all matters pertaining to the welfare of his race in the Empire State. For the past ten years he has been cashier of the Freedmen’s Bank in the city of New York, a position for which his ability as a business man eminently qualifies him.

Mr. Zuille seems to be but little adulterated in race, short, thick-set, pleasant countenance, energetic and gentlemanly in his movements.

His reputation stands without blot or blemish, and he is surrounded by a large circle of friends, whose entire confidence he enjoys.

George T. Downing

The tall, fine figure, manly walk, striking profile, and piercing eye of George T. Downing would attract attention in any community, even where he is unknown. Possessing remarkable talents, finely educated, a keen observer, and devoted to the freedom and elevation of his race, he has long been looked upon as a representative man. A good debater, quick to take advantage of the weak points of an opponent, forcible in speech, and a natural orator, Mr. Downing is always acceptable as a speaker.

He is a native of New York, but resides at the national capital, where he exerts considerable influence in political affairs, especially those pertaining to the welfare of the negro race.

A diplomatist by nature, Mr. Downing can “buttonhole” a congressman with as good effect as almost any man. Daring and aspiring, anxiously catching at the advantage of political elevation, he is always a leading man in conventions. Upright in his dealings, uncompromising, and strongly attached to the principles of justice. Mr. Downing enjoys the confidence and respect of both white and colored. As he is well qualified to fill any position, we would be glad to see him appointed to represent our government at some foreign court.

Charlotte L. Forten

Miss Forten is a native of Philadelphia; came to Massachusetts in 1854, entered the Higginson Grammar School at Salem, where she soon earned the reputation of an attentive and progressive student. She graduated from that institution with high honor, having received a premium for “A Parting Hymn,” sung at the last examination. In this composition Miss Forten gave unmistakable evidence of genius of a high order. She became a correspondent of the “National Anti-slavery Standard,” and wrote some very spicy letters, extracts from which were given in other journals.

In a poem entitled “The Angel’s Visit,” she makes a touching allusion to her departed mother, which for style and true poetical diction, is not surpassed by anything in the English language. In blood, Miss Forten stands between the Anglo-Saxon and the African, with finely-chiselled features, well-developed forehead, countenance beaming with intelligence, and a mind richly stored with recollections of the best authors. Highly cultivated, and sensitive to the prejudice existing against her color, Miss Forten’s lot is not an easy one in this world of ours. She still continues to write for the press, giving most of her articles in the “Atlantic Monthly.”

During the war, and since its close, she has spent much time in teaching in the Southern States, where her labors are highly appreciated.

George B. Vashon

The subject of this sketch was born in Pittsburg, through the schools of which he passed, then studied at Oberlin College, graduating with the degree of Master of Arts. After reading law with Hon. Walter Forward, he was admitted to the bar in 1847. Mr. Vashon soon after visited Hayti, where he remained three years, returning home in 1850. Called to a professorship in New York Central College, Mr. Vashon discharged the duties of the office with signal ability. A gentleman—a graduate of that institution, now a captain in the federal army—told the writer that he and several of his companions, who had to recite to Professor Vashon, made it a practice for some length of time to search Greek, Latin, and Hebrew for phrases and historical incidents, and would then question the professor, with the hope of “running him on a snag.”

“But,” said he, “we never caught him once, and we came to the conclusion that he was the best read man in the college.”

Literature has a history, and few histories can compare with it in importance, significance, and moral grandeur. There is, therefore, a great price to pay for literary attainments, which will have an inspiring and liberalizing influence—a price not in silver and gold, but in thorough mental training. This training will give breadth of view, develop strength of character, and a comprehensive spirit, by which the ever-living expressions of truth and principle in the past, may be connected with those of a like character in the present.

Mr. Vashon seems to have taken this view of what constitutes the thorough scholar, and has put his theory into practice. All of the productions of his pen show the student and man of literature. But he is not indebted alone to culture, for he possesses genius of no mean order—poetic genius, far superior to many who have written and published volumes. As Dryden said of Shakspeare, “He needed not the spectacles of books to read Nature; he looked inward, and found her there.” The same excellence appertains to his poetical description of the beautiful scenery and climate of Hayti, in his “Vincent Oge.” His allusion to Columbus’ first visit to the Island is full of solemn grandeur.

Mr. Vashon is of mixed blood; in stature, of medium size, rather round face, with a somewhat solemn countenance, a man of few words,—needs to be drawn out to be appreciated. While visiting a distinguished colored gentleman at Rochester, New York, some years ago, the host, who happened to be a wit as well as an orator, invited in “Professor T——,” a man ignorant of education, but filled with big talk and high-sounding words, without understanding their meaning,—to entertain Mr. Vashon, intending it as a joke. “Professor T——” used all the language that he was master of, but to no purpose. The man of letters sat still, listened, gazed at the former, but did not dispute any point raised. The uneducated professor, feeling that he had been imposed upon, called Mr. D—— one side, and in a whisper, said:—

“Are you sure that this is an educated man? I fear that he is an impostor; for I tried, but could not call him out.”

Mr. Vashon has long been engaged in imparting education to his down-trodden race, and in this path of duty has contributed much for the elevation of his people. We are somewhat surprised that none of the liberal colleges have done themselves the honor to confer upon Mr. Vashon the title of LL. D.

William H. Simpson

It is a compliment to a picture to say that it produces the impression of the actual scene. Taste has, frequently, for its object, works of art. Nature, many suppose, may be studied with propriety; but art, they reject as entirely superficial. But what is the fact? In the highest sense, art is the child of Nature; and is most admired when it preserves the likeness of its parent. In Venice, the paintings of Titian, and of the Venetian artists generally, exact from the traveller a yet higher tribute, for the hues and forms around him constantly remind him of their works.

Many of the citizens of Boston, New York, Washington, Philadelphia, and other cities of our country, are often called to mention the names of their absent or departed friends, by looking upon their features, as transferred to canvas by the pencil and brush of William H. Simpson, the young colored artist. He has evidently taken Titian, Murillo, and Raphael for his masters. The Venetian painters were diligent students of the nature that was around them. The subject of our sketch seems to have imbibed their energy, as well as learned to copy the noble example they left behind. The history of painters, as well as poets, is written in their works. The best life of Goldsmith is to be found in his poem of “The Traveller,” and his novel of “The Vicar of Wakefield.” No one views the beautiful portrait of J. P. Kemble, in the National Gallery in London, in the character of Hamlet, without thinking of Sir Thomas Lawrence, who executed it.

The organ of color is prominent in the cranium of Mr. Simpson, and it is well developed. His portraits are admired for their life-like appearance, as well as for the fine delineation which characterizes them all. It is very easy to transcribe the emotions which paintings awaken, but it is no easy matter to say why a picture is so painted as that it must awaken certain emotions. Many persons feel art; some understand it; but few both feel and understand it. Mr. Simpson is rich in depth of feeling and spiritual beauty. His portrait of John T. Hilton, which was presented to the Masonic Lodge a few months since, is a splendid piece of art. The longer you look on the features, the more the picture looks like real life.

The taste displayed in the coloring of the regalia, and the admirable perspective of each badge of honor, show great skill. No higher praise is needed than to say that a gentleman of Boston, distinguished for his good judgment in the picture gallery, wishing to secure a likeness of Hon. Charles Sumner, induced the senator to sit to Mr. Simpson for the portrait; and in this instance the artist has been signally successful.

His likenesses have been so correct, that he has often been employed to paint whole families, where only one had been bargained for in the commencement. He is considered unapproachable in taking juvenile faces. Mr. Simpson does not aspire to anything in his art beyond portrait-painting. Nevertheless, a beautiful fancy sketch, hanging in his studio, representing summer, exhibits marked ability and consummate genius. The wreath upon the head, with different kinds of grain interwoven, and the nicety of coloring in each particular kind, causes those who view it to regard him as master of his profession. Portraits of his execution are scattered over most of the Northern States and the Canadas. Some have gone to Liberia, Hayti, and California.

Mr. Simpson is a native of Buffalo, New York, where he received a liberal education. But even in school, his early inclination to draw likenesses materially interfered with his studies. The propensity to use his slate and pencil in scratching down his schoolmates, instead of doing his sums in arithmetic, often gained him severe punishment. After leaving school, he was employed as errand boy by Matthew Wilson, Esq., the distinguished artist, who soon discovered young Simpson’s genius, and took him as an apprentice. In 1854, they removed to Boston, where Mr. Simpson labored diligently to acquire a thorough knowledge of the profession. Mr. Wilson stated to the writer, that he never had a man who was more attentive or more trustworthy than William H. Simpson.

Of unmixed negro blood, small in stature, a rather mild and womanly countenance, firm and resolute eye, gentlemanly in appearance, and intelligent in conversation, Mr. Simpson will be respected for his many good qualities. He died in 1872.

Sir Edward Jordan

Edward Jordan was born in Kingston, Jamaica, in the year 1798. After quitting school, he entered a clothing store, as a clerk; but his deep hatred to slavery, and the political and social outrages committed upon the free colored men, preyed upon his mind to such an extent that, in 1826, he associated himself with Robert Osborn, in the publication of “The Watchman,” a weekly newspaper devoted to the freedom and enfranchisement of the people of color.

His journal was conducted with marked ability, and Mr. Jordan soon began to wield a tremendous influence against the slave power. While absent from his editorial duties, in 1830, an article appeared in “The Watchman,” upon which its editor was indicted for constructive treason. He was at once arrested, placed in the dock, and arraigned for trial. He pleaded “Not guilty,” and asked for time to prepare for his defence. The plea was allowed, and the case was traversed to the next court. The trial came on at the appointed time; the jury was packed, for the pro-slavery element had determined on the conviction of the distinguished advocate of liberty. The whole city appeared to be lost to everything but the proceedings of the assize. It was feared that, if convicted, a riot would be the result, and the authorities prepared for this.

A vessel of war was brought up abreast of the city, the guns of which were pointed up one of the principal streets, and at almost every avenue leading to the sea, a merchant vessel was moored, armed with at least one great gun, pointing in a similar direction, to rake the streets from bottom to top. A detachment of soldiers was kept under arms, with orders to be ready for action at a moment’s warning. The officers of the court, including the judge, entered upon their duties, armed with pistols; and the sheriff was instructed to shoot the prisoner in the dock if a rescue was attempted. If convicted, Mr. Jordan’s punishment was to be death. Happily for all, the verdict was “Not guilty.” The acquittal of the editor of “The Watchman” carried disappointment and dismay into the ranks of the slave oligarchy, while it gave a new impetus to the anti-slavery cause, both in Jamaica and in Great Britain, and which culminated in the abolition of slavery on the 1st of August, 1834. The following year, Mr. Jordan was elected member of the Assembly for the city of Kingston, which he still represents. About this time, “The Watchman” was converted into a daily paper, under the title of “The Morning Journal,” still in existence, and owned by Jordan and Osborn. In 1853, Mr. Jordan was elected mayor of his native city without opposition, which office he still holds. He was recently chosen premier of the Island, and president of the privy council.

No man is more respected in the Assembly than Mr. Jordan, and reform measures offered by him are often carried through the house, owing to the respect the members have for the introducer. In the year 1860, the honorable gentleman was elevated to the dignity of knighthood by the Queen.

Sir Edward Jordan has ever been regarded as an honest, upright, and temperate man. In a literary point of view, he is considered one of the first men in Jamaica.

It is indeed a cheering sign for the negro to look at one of his race who a few years ago was tried for his life in a city in which he has since been mayor, and has held other offices of honor.

Mr. Jordan has died since the above sketch was written, and no man in Jamaica ever received greater honors at his funeral than he.

Edwin M. Bannister

Edwin M. Bannister was born in the town of St. Andrew, New Brunswick, and lost his father when only six years old. He attended the Grammar School in his native place, and received a better education than persons generally in his position. From early childhood he seems to have had a fancy for painting, which showed itself in the school-room and at home. He often drew portraits of his school-fellows, and the master not unfrequently found himself upon the slate, where Edwin’s success was so manifest that the likeness would call forth merriment from the boys, and create laughter at the expense of the teacher.

At the death of his mother, when still in his minority, he was put out to live with the Hon. Harris Hatch, a wealthy lawyer, the proprietor of a fine farm some little distance in the country. In his new home Edwin did not lose sight of his drawing propensities, and though the family had nothing in the way of models except two faded portraits, kept more as relics than for their intrinsic value, he nevertheless practised upon them, and often made the copy look more lifelike than the original. On the barn doors, fences, and every place where drawings could be made, the two ancient faces were to be seen pictured.

When the family were away on the Sabbath at church, the young artist would take possession of the old Bible, and copy its crude engravings, then replace it upon the dusty shelf, feeling an inward gratification, that, instead of satisfying the inclination, only gave him fresh zeal to hunt for new models. By the great variety of drawings which he had made on paper, and the correct sketches taken, young Bannister gained considerable reputation in the lawyer’s family, as well as in the neighborhood. Often, after the household had retired at night, the dim glimmer from the lean tallow candle was seen through the attic chamber window. It was there that the genius of the embryo artist was struggling for development.

There is a great diversity of opinion with regard to genius, many mistaking talent for genius. Talent is strength and subtilty of mind: genius is mental inspiration and delicacy of feeling. Talent possesses vigor and acuteness of penetration, but is surpassed by the vivid intellectual conceptions of genius. The former is skilful and bold, the latter aspiring and gentle. But talent excels in practical sagacity; and hence those striking contrasts so often witnessed in the world,—the triumphs of talent through its adroit and active energies, and the adversities of genius in the midst of its boundless, but unattainable aspirations. Mr. Bannister is a lover of poetry and the classics, and is always hunting up some new model for his gifted pencil and brush.

He has a beautiful scene representing “Cleopatra waiting to receive Marc Antony,” which I regret that I did not see. I am informed, however, that it is a beautifully-executed picture.

Mr. Bannister is of mixed blood, of spare make, slim, with an interesting cast of countenance, quick in his motions, easy in his manners, and respected by all.

William C. Nell

Mr. Nell is a native of Boston, and from the beginning of the anti-slavery agitation was identified with the movement. He labored long and arduously for equal school-rights for the colored children of his native city, where he performed a good work.

Mr. Nell is the author of the “Colored Patriots of the American Revolution,” a book filled with interesting incidents connected with the history of the blacks of this country, past and present. He has also written several smaller works, all of which are humanitarian in their character.

Deeply interested in the intellectual development and cultivation of his race, he has given much toil without compensation.

Mr. Nell is of medium height, slim, genteel figure, quick step, elastic movement, a thoughtful yet pleasant brow, thin face, and chaste in his conversation.

A student, and a lover of literature, he has a cultivated understanding, and has collected together more facts on the race with which he is identified than any other man of our acquaintance.

Mr. Nell is of unimpeachable character, and highly respected by his fellow-citizens.

Ira Aldridge

On looking over the columns of “The Times,” one morning, I saw it announced under the head of “Amusements,” that “Ira Aldridge, the African Roscius,” was to appear in the character of Othello, in Shakspeare’s celebrated tragedy of that name, and having long wished to see my sable countryman, I resolved at once to attend. Though the doors had been open but a short time when I reached the Royal Haymarket, the theatre where the performance was to take place, the house was well filled, and among the audience I recognized the faces of several distinguished persons of the nobility, the most noted of whom was Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, the renowned novelist—his figure neat, trim, hair done up in the latest fashion—looking as if he had just come out of a band-box. He is a great lover of the drama, and has a private theatre at one of his country seats, to which he often invites his friends, and presses them into the different characters.

As the time approached for the curtain to rise, it was evident that the house was to be “jammed.” Stuart, the best Iago since the days of Young, in company with Roderigo, came upon the stage as soon as the green curtain went up. Iago looked the villain, and acted it to the highest conception of the character. The scene is changed, all eyes are turned to the right door, and thunders of applause greet the appearance of Othello.

Mr. Aldridge is of the middle size, and appeared to be about three-quarters African; has a voice deep and powerful; and it was very evident that Edmund Kean, once his master, was also the model which he carefully followed in the part. There were the same deliberate, over-distinct enunciations, the same prolonged pauses and gradually performed gestures, in imitation of Kean’s manner. As Iago began to work upon his feelings, the Moor’s eyes flashed fire, and, further on in the play, he looked the very demon of despair. When he seized the deceiver by the throat, and exclaimed,—

“Villain, be sure thou prove my love false!
Be sure of it; give me the ocular proof;
Or, by the worth of mine eternal soul,
Thou hadst been better have been born a dog,
Than answer my waked wrath,”

the audience, with one impulse, rose to their feet amid the wildest enthusiasm. At the end of the third act, Othello was called before the curtain, and received the applause of the delighted multitude. I watched the countenance and every motion of Bulwer Lytton with almost as much interest as I did that of the Moor of Venice, and saw that none appeared to be better pleased than he. The following evening I went to witness his Hamlet, and was surprised to find him as perfect in that as he had been in Othello; for I had been led to believe that the latter was his greatest character.

The whole court of Denmark was before us; but till the words,

“’Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother,”—

fell from the lips of Mr. Aldridge, was the general ear charmed, or the general tongue arrested. The voice was so low, and sad, and sweet, the modulation so tender, the dignity so natural, the grace so consummate, that all yielded themselves silently to the delicious enchantment. When Horatio told him that he had come to see his father’s funeral, the deep melancholy that took possession of his face showed the great dramatic power of Mr. Aldridge.

“I pray thee, do not mock me, fellow-student!”

seemed to come from his inmost soul.

Ira Aldridge was a native of Africa, born soon after his father’s arrival in Senegal, came to the United States on the father’s return, remained here for a time, and was then sent to Scotland, where he received a liberal education. During his latter years, Mr. Aldridge travelled extensively on the Continent of Europe, visiting among other places St. Petersburg, where the Russians became wild and enthusiastic over his dramatic representations. He died in London, in 1868, leaving a widow, a Swedish lady, with whom he had lived happily, and in magnificent style, near London, for several years.

Oscar James Dunn

Oscar J. Dunn was a native of Louisiana, and by trade a plasterer, at which he worked during his early life. His education was limited, but what he lacked in book learning was made up in good common sense. In color, he was a brown skin, of commanding appearance, dignified in manners, and calculated to make a favorable impression upon all who had the good fortune to make his acquaintance. Although born a slave, he was, nevertheless, one of Nature’s noblest men.

Called into public life at a time when the condition of his race was in a critical transition state, he exhibited powers of intellect, honesty of purpose, and private virtues seldom equalled. General Sheridan, while in command at New Orleans, early discovered the rare gifts of Mr. Dunn, and appointed him a member of the city council. He served the city and state in various ways until he was elected to the position of lieutenant-governor of the state. Intelligent upon all subjects, and remarkable for sound judgment, his opinion and counsel upon questions of state were sought by men of all parties. As a presiding officer in the Louisiana Senate, Mr. Dunn exhibited parliamentary talent that at once commanded the respect and challenged the admiration of the most fastidious; and for dispatch of business in his official chair, few men in the country have been his equal.

But the greatest characteristic of this man was his downright honesty. In this he stood almost alone, for while the legislature of Louisiana was charged with being a stock-jobbing concern, and its members, one after another, rolling in their new-gained wealth, Oscar J. Dunn was not only above suspicion, but actually died a poor man.

He was a calm, vigilant sentry for Louisiana when she dreamed it least. Firmly resisting temptations to sin, which too often beset official station, he could never be made an accomplice with others against her. His inflexible integrity was in itself a mighty protest against the shams of the state administration, and commanded such candid respect even from the Democrats, that of late the authors of those shams, in their recourse to Democrats for the fresh lease of power denied them by Republicans, were constrained to revive a prejudice for a pretext, and to charge him with instigating a black man’s party. There existed not a fact to justify the charge; but a lie was a fit auxiliary to new projects of fraud, and unhappily, there were “itching palms” to subscribe it per order.

His views were most catholic on the question of class. He wanted amity, not jealousy, between the colors, for he recognized all in the political society as brethren, not as rivals. He felt that injustice to any one citizen, white or black, was, if unredressed, a menace to all; that our interests were in common; our ballots, honestly counted, our common consent; and our influence for good, our common basis of endeavor for Louisiana. His aims for his race were too sincere to embarrass its progress by provoking anew the old sectional spleen against it—and he tacitly compelled in his own case a recognition, which any citizen might envy. Standing in a high official trust, and yet in a dark skin, he rebuked with quiet, inoffensive emphasis, the miserable heresy that a man is more or less a worthy citizen because of his color.

As a speaker, Mr. Dunn was not what the world would call “eloquent,” but what he said was always listened to with the greatest interest and respect. All classes held him in high esteem, and with his own color his power was unlimited. Attacked by a sudden and sure malady, death swept him away while in the zenith of his influence, on the twenty-first of November, 1871.

John R. Lynch

The late rebellion has not produced a more remarkable instance of a self-made man than is seen in the career of John R. Lynch, Speaker of the House of Representatives of Mississippi. He was born in Louisiana, just opposite Natchez, in the year 1847, of a slave mother, then the property of a Mr. Lapiche, and is now in his twenty-fifth year. His father, being a man of wealth and character, made the necessary arrangements when Mr. Lynch was yet a child, to have him and his mother set free, but by his sudden and unexpected death, and treachery on the part of those who had entered into the agreement with him, the plan was not carried out, and both remained slaves until emancipated by the result of the war.

During his time of servitude, and while he was yet a boy, Mr. Lynch had a deep, irrepressible desire to rise above the hopeless lot to which destiny seemed to have assigned him, and went forward with the energy which has characterized him since that time, to the acquirement of as much education as was within his reach. He learned to read and write while a slave, but no more. After his mother became the property of Mr. Alfred Davis, she was taken to Natchez with her children, and has lived there ever since. In 1864, and while the Federal troops were in possession of that city, Mr. Lynch enjoyed the opportunity of attending night school, for four months only, and that closed all the educational advantages of which he has been possessed. Since that time he has been entirely dependent on his own efforts and resources, and his innate desire to obtain knowledge, for the advancement he has made.

That his career has been most remarkable thus far, cannot be denied by any one. This will appear most evident by a comparison of his humble origin and the many disadvantages under which he has labored, with the honorable position he now holds, and the high qualifications he brings with him to sustain him in that place. In point of education, he is amply fitted; in natural ability that is well-defined, cultivated, and ready, he certainly has no superior in the House. His knowledge of parliamentary law and usages has been tested in many heated contests with the best tacticians of the legislature, and proved to be inferior to none, however able. Nor do all these high qualifications, so amply possessed by Mr. Lynch, contain all the good things we have to say of him. He has the still higher virtue of unimpeached honesty and veracity. During all the two years of tempting trials that he has witnessed, it never once was intimated that he was even open to suspicion. The record he made during all that time is as pure and untarnished as the driven snow. No one ever questioned his integrity, or clouded his fair name with the intimation that he deviated from the path of rectitude and right. If he sometimes departed from the course marked out by a majority of his party, he did so, as he believed, in the discharge of a solemn duty, and with no other desire than to do what he conceived to be right.

He was appointed justice of the peace by General Ames in 1868, for the city of Natchez, took a prominent part in the constitutional convention of the State, was a member of the last legislature, and now fills the Speaker’s chair. Mr. Lynch is fluent in speech, eloquent in his addresses, chaste in his language, and gentlemanly in all his intercourse with others. Medium in size, genteel in figure, brown in complexion, with piercing eyes, amiable countenance, manly and upright walk, Mr. Lynch makes a dignified appearance in the speaker’s chair, and handles the gavel according to Cushing. He has been elected to a seat in Congress from his state.

William Whipper

The subject of this sketch is one of the deepest thinkers of which the black man can boast in our broad land. In early life, he was engaged in the lumber trade in Columbia, Pennsylvania, in which he secured a competency. Even while battling with the world for filthy lucre, Mr. Whipper gave much of his time to the advocacy of the freedom of the slave, and the elevation of the colored men of the North. In his business relations with the whites he always left a good impression of the negro’s capability, honesty, and gentlemanly deportment.

In 1833, he took charge of the editorial department of the “National Reformer,” a monthly magazine, published by the American Moral Reform Society. Mr. Whipper’s editorials were couched in chaste and plain language, but bold and outspoken in the advocacy of truth. He said:—

“We believe that Education, Temperance, Economy, and Universal Liberty, if properly carried out, will prove a powerful auxiliary in producing this necessary reformation, on which rests the Christian’s hope. They are now producing wonders in our country, under distinct and specific organizations. They are adhesive virtues, and as capable of uniting with each other as a like number of seas are of commingling their waters, and forming one great ocean. If this mighty current of philanthropy could become united in one living stream, it would soon sweep from our country every vestige of misery and oppression. And is it not as necessary that it should be so, as that a single mind should embrace these principles alone? Our country is rich with the means of resuscitating her from moral degeneracy. She possesses all the elements for her redemption; she has but to will it, and she is free.”

Mr. Whipper is a mulatto of fine personal appearance, above the middle size, stoops a little,—that bend of the shoulders that marks the student. He is remarkably well read, able to cite authority from the ancients, and posted in all the current literature of the day. He is social and genial, and very interesting and entertaining in conversation. Mr. Whipper resides in Philadelphia, where he is highly respected by all classes, and loved and looked up to by his own race.

T. W. Cardozo

Mr. Cardozo is a native of Charleston, South Carolina; is a mulatto, with a slight preponderance of Anglo-Saxon blood. He is thirty-five years old, and therefore, is in the prime of life. He was born free, and had advantages of northern schools, and finished his education at the Newburg Collegiate Institute. From 1861 to 1866, he was a school-teacher. In 1868, he went to North Carolina as a pioneer in the cause of education among the freedmen, and to establish a normal school in the eighteenth congressional district, and to use his influence in procuring state aid in organizing a system of common schools. His success in this enterprise was all that the most sanguine devotee could have expected. He remained there until the schools were firmly fixed upon a substantial basis.

In 1870, Mr. Cardozo removed to Vicksburg, Mississippi. He did not apply for any office, although it is well known that all the offices in the State were in that year filled by appointment of the governor,—but he went to work, and organized a large school in the city, which soon took rank among the first in the State. In 1871, at the earnest solicitation of the members of the Republican party, he became a candidate for, and was elected to, the office of Circuit Clerk of Warren County. For the manner in which he has discharged the intricate duties of that very responsible office, he elicited the highest compliments from the judge as well as the members of the bar.

Mr. Cardozo has recently been nominated for State Superintendent of Education, a position which he is in every way well qualified to fill. He will bring to the office a practical knowledge which will be of great service to the State, and a lasting benefit to the race with whom he is identified.

Modest and reserved, dignified and gentlemanly, Mr. Cardozo is calculated to gain the esteem and confidence of all with whom he may come in contact.

Louise de Mortie

Although born free, in Norfolk, Virginia, Mrs. De Mortie’s education was limited. This, however, she strove to improve by studying when the time for her school days had passed. She came to Boston in 1853, we believe, and made it her home. In the autumn of 1862, Mrs. De Mortie began as a public reader in Boston, and her rare ability, eloquent rendering of the poets, pleasing manner, and good sense, gained for her a host of admiring friends, among whom were some of the leading men and women of the country, and a successful public career seemed to be before her. But hearing of the distress and want amongst the colored children of New Orleans, left orphans by the war, she resolved to go there, and devote herself to their welfare. Although urged by her relatives and friends at the North to leave New Orleans until the yellow fever had ceased, she refused to desert her post, saying that her duty was with her helpless race.

In 1867, Mrs. De Mortie undertook to raise the means to build an Orphan Home, and succeeded in obtaining the amount required for the erection of the building. But her useful career was cut short by the yellow fever. She died on the tenth of October, 1867, in the thirty-fourth year of her age. She bore her illness with Christian fortitude, and in her last moments said, with a childlike simplicity, “I belong to God, our Father.”

The announcement of her death was received with regret by her large circle of friends at the North, while the newspapers of New Orleans, her adopted home, spoke of her in the most eulogistic terms.

Mrs. De Mortie was a remarkably gifted and brilliant woman. In personal appearance, she was somewhat taller than the middle height, with a Grecian cast of countenance, eyes dark and sparkling, lips swelling, forehead high, refined manners, and possessing energy which always brings success. In fact, it may be truthfully said, that Louise De Mortie was one of the most beautiful of her sex.

Ebenezer D. Bassett

Mr. Bassett is a self-made man, and may safely be put forward as one of the best representatives of his race. Born at Litchfield, Connecticut, in 1833, Mr. Bassett graduated, the foremost scholar of his class, at the Birmingham Academy, when quite young, and afterwards graduated at the Connecticut State Normal School, with high honor, in 1853. He immediately thereafter removed to New Haven, took charge of a public grammar school in that city, and eagerly availed himself of the facilities afforded by Yale College, to prosecute the study of the classics, mathematical science, and general literature. In 1855, he was called by the Orthodox Society of Friends to the charge of the Philadelphia Colored High School, which, under his management, became very widely known as the foremost institution of the kind in the country. The honorary degree of Master of Arts was conferred upon him by the Lincoln University at Oxford, Pennsylvania.

On the elevation of General Grant to the presidency, Mr. Bassett became a candidate for the Haytian Mission, and so well satisfied were the people generally, that he received the unsolicited endorsement of the ablest men, colored and white, of all parties.

He is a mulatto of medium size, prominent features, nearly straight black hair, neat figure, gentlemanly in personal appearance, intelligent and chaste in conversation, and possesses a high moral character. He is a ripe scholar, well versed in the classics, and has much literary taste.

As a representative of the United States to another government, Mr. Bassett has more than fulfilled the most sanguine expectations of his friends, while the country generally regard him as one of the ablest of our diplomatic agents. His correspondence with the Home Government has shown him to be a man of decided ability. Indeed, Mr. Bassett’s manly deportment, and dignified and high-toned character, have raised the Haytian mission to a more elevated position than it has ever before enjoyed.

William Howard Day

As a student at Oberlin College, William Howard Day stood well, and graduated with honors. He resided some years at Cleveland, Ohio, where, for a time, he published a weekly newspaper, which rendered timely and efficient service to the cause of freedom, and the elevation of the colored people of that State. In 1856 or 1857, he visited England, where he was much admired for his scholarly attainments, and truly genuine eloquence. On his return home, Mr. Day became associate editor of the “Zion’s Standard and Weekly Review.” He now resides at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where he publishes “Our National Progress,” a paper devoted to the cause of reform, and the elevation of man.

As a speaker, Mr. Day may be regarded as one of the most effective of the present time; has great self-possession, and gaiety of imagination; is rich in the selection of his illustrations, well versed in history, literature, science, and philosophy, and can draw on his finely-stored memory at will. As a writer, Mr. Day is far above newspaper editors generally, exhibiting much care and thought in many of his articles. As a speaker and writer, he has done a good work for his race.

He is a mulatto of ordinary size, has a large and well-balanced head, high forehead, bright eyes, intellectual and pleasing countenance, genteel figure, and is what the ladies would call “a handsome man.” Mr. Day, besides his editorial duties, holds a responsible and lucrative office in the State Department of Pennsylvania, which he fills with honor to himself, and profit to the State.

Hiram R. Revels, D. D.

Dr. Revels is a native of North Carolina, where, at Fayetteville, Cumberland County, he was born, a freeman, on the first of September, A. D., 1822. Passing his boyhood and youth, until about twenty-one years of age, in North Carolina, he went to northern Indiana, the laws of his native state forbidding colored schools. The parents of the lad had been permitted to prepare him somewhat for an education, and he had been studying, off and on, some years previous to leaving for the North. He passed two years in Indiana, attending a Quaker school, and then removed to Dark County, Ohio, where he remained for some time, and subsequently graduated at Knox College, at Galesburg, Illinois; and after that, entered the ministry as a preacher of the gospel under the auspices of the Methodist Church. At this time he was twenty-five years of age. His first charge was in Indiana. From entering the service of the church to the present time he has steadily persevered as a preacher, and is well known as a practical Christian and a zealous and eloquent expounder of the word.

After some years in Indiana, he filled important posts in Missouri, Maryland, Kentucky, and Kansas, in the cause of the African M. E. Church. He was in Maryland in 1861, at the breaking out of the war, and materially aided in forming in that State the first Maryland colored regiment. He was also able to assist in Missouri in raising the first colored regiment in that State, and returned to Mississippi in 1864, settling in Vicksburg, where he had charge of a church congregation, and assisted in organizing other churches, and in forming and putting into operation the school system, visiting various portions of the State on his own responsibility, and among other places, preaching in Jackson. His health failing, Dr. Revels went to the North once more, after the close of hostilities, where he remained eighteen months. Returning, he located at Natchez, where he preached regularly to a large congregation, and where General Ames, then military governor, appointed him to the position of alderman. In 1869, he was duly elected to the State Senate.

In January, 1870, Dr. Revels was selected to represent Mississippi in the United States Senate, the announcement of which took the country by surprise, and as the time drew near for the colored senator to appear in his place in Congress, the interest became intense. Many who had heard reconstruction discussed in its length and breadth,—by men of prophetic power and eloquent utterance, by men of merely logical and judicial minds, by men narrow and selfish, as well as those sophistical and prejudiced,—and who had no particular interest in the debates, still came day after day, hoping to see qualified for his seat in the senate the first colored man presenting himself for so high an office, the first to be in eminent civil service in the general government.

At last, on Friday, February 25, 1870, a day never to be forgotten, at about five o’clock, in the presence of the chamber and galleries crowded with expectant and eager spectators, the oath was administered to Hiram R. Revels, by the vice-president. Senator Wilson accompanied him to the chair, and he was at once waited upon to his seat by the sergeant-at-arms.

Saulsbury had done his best to turn backward the wheels of progress; Davis fought in vain, declaring he would “resist at every step” this unconstitutional measure, giving illustrations, dissertations, execrations, and recommendations of and for the “Negro” and his Republican friends; Stockton, in the interest of law and precedent, begged that the subject should go to the judiciary committee, but the party of freedom moved on in solid phalanx of unanimity to the historic result. Mr. Sumner, who had not taken part in the debate, raised his voice with impressiveness and power, comprehending the whole question in a short speech just before the vote.

Thus was accomplished the last important step in the National Legislature for those once enslaved, and the crowning rebuke to the Rebellion, especially as the Mississippi senator took the seat made vacant by Jefferson Davis when his treason became known to the North and to the government. After the close of his senatorial course, he was appointed President of Alcorn University, with a salary of two thousand five hundred dollars per annum, which place and its emoluments he left,—at the desire of Governor Powers, and as he thought it his duty,—to serve as Secretary of State, at the longest possible time, for less than one year. He had four years still remaining of his office as President of the University; hence, financially considered, he sacrificed something in reaching the higher official honors. It is due to him to say that the appointment was bestowed unsolicited by himself, through the governor’s belief in his fitness for the position.

Dr. Revels is a mulatto, of good address, of medium size, hair curly, features somewhat prominent, with something of the ministerial air.

Robert B. Elliott

Mr. Elliott has the honor of representing in Congress the South Carolina District, once filled by John C. Calhoun, the most distinguished man of the olden time from the Palmetto State. We have not been able to inform ourselves as to Mr. Elliott’s birth-place and educational advantages; but we understand, however, that he studied and adopted the law as a profession, in which he stands high. He commenced his political career at the South, and was a member of the State Constitutional Convention of South Carolina in 1868; was a member of the House of Representatives of South Carolina from July 6, 1868, to October 23, 1870; was appointed, on the 25th of March, 1869, Assistant Adjutant-General, which position he held until he was elected to the Forty-second Congress as a Republican.

Mr. Elliott is black, of unmixed blood, strongly-marked negro features, close curly hair, bright and penetrating eyes, genteel in his personal appearance, somewhat English in his accent, a good speaker, and dignified in his manners. His speeches in Congress, and his public addresses before his constituents, show him to be a man of high cultivation. With his own race, Mr. Elliott stands deservedly well, and commands the respect of the whites everywhere. In Congress, he is looked upon as an able debater, and is listened to with marked attention.

J. Madison Bell

The negro’s ability to master language, his vivid imagination, his great delight in rhetorical exercise, his inward enthusiasm, his seeming power to transport himself into the scene which he describes, or the emotion he has summoned, has long puzzled the brain of our deepest and most acute thinkers. The best test of true eloquence is the effect it produces upon the listener. The finest illustration of the self-made orator may be found in J. Madison Bell, whose poetic genius, classic mind, and highly-cultivated understanding has never been appreciated by our people.

In the winter of 1867, it was our good fortune to make the acquaintance of this gentleman, then giving a series of poetical readings at Washington. His evening’s entertainment was made up entirely of his own writings, and they were all of a superior character. Mr. Bell is a rare instance of the combination of the highest excellence of the poet with the best style of the orator. The oratory of some men is not easily described; so it is with Mr. Bell. His masterly argument, acute reasoning, and the soul-stirring appeals to the highest feelings of our nature soon carry away the listener in an enthusiasm of admiration. His descriptive powers, both in his writings and his extemporaneous addresses, are of the highest order.

Mr. Bell has spent some years in California, where he did much for the elevation of his race. He now resides in Ohio, and exerts a good influence in behalf of the cause of universal freedom. He is a mulatto, of fine physical appearance, high, broad forehead, countenance beaming with intelligence, handsome, like most of his race who have a mixture of Anglo-Saxon. Mr. Bell was born in Gallipolis, in 1827, and was in early life a plasterer by trade, but ere long he laid aside the trowel for the pen.

J. Milton Turner

The subject of this sketch was born a slave, and resided in Missouri. He received his education at Oberlin College, where he gained the reputation of possessing remarkable oratorical ability. Whether he graduated at that institution or not, we have been unable to learn. It is said, however, that he has a classical education, and is refined in his manners. In the last presidential election, Mr. Turner was the leader of the colored citizens in St. Louis, where it is asserted that he was the most eloquent man on the stump.

After the inauguration of President Grant, Mr. Turner received the appointment of Consul General to Liberia, the government of which received him with distinguished honors. At his reception, Mr. Turner said: “In the true spirit of progress, you have planted upon these shores the germ of a republic that is destined not only to develop a civilization worthy of the respect and admiration of unborn generations, but by means of the Christian religion to debarbarize and benefit for almost immediate usefulness thousands of human beings whose intellects are to-day debased by the destructive potency of heathenish superstition.”

Henry M. Turner, D. D., Ll. D.

Of our many gifted, enthusiastic, and eloquent men, few have been more favored by nature than Henry M. Turner. A native of South Carolina, he seems to have the genius and fire of the Calhouns and McDuffies, without possessing a drop of their blood. Mr. Turner is a good-sized, fine-looking, brown-skinned man, of forty years of age, with a splendid voice, fluent in speech, pleasing in gestures, and powerful in his delivery. It is said that at the tender age of twelve, he had a dream in which he saw multitudes of men coming to him to be taught.55 That dream made an impression that followed him to the present time, and no doubt had much influence in shaping his course of life. He was licensed to preach before he had reached his twenty-first year. He joined the A. M. E. Church in 1857. During the rebellion, President Lincoln appointed him chaplain of the 1st Regiment, U. S. C. T., and the first, too, of all the colored chaplains. He resigned his pastoral relations with his church, and followed his brother-men to the battle-field, and remained in service till the close of the war.

In his “Apology,” Tanner says of Dr. Turner: “He is a remarkable man; and though at times the paraphernalia of the kitchen seems to be in the parlor, and, vice versa, there is always enough of him to demand the respect of the most learned and the admiration of the masses. More earnest than polite, a man who thinks for himself, speaks as he feels, and who fears only God, his memory will not cease with his life—a man who may truly say with Themistocles, ‘’Tis true I never learned how to tune a harp, or play upon a lute; but I know how to raise a small and inconsiderable city to glory and greatness.’”

In a sermon preached on the death of the Rev. Milton Tillinghast, pastor of the First Baptist Church, Macon, Georgia, Dr. Turner shows himself to be an able theologian, and a man of the finest sensibilities. His “Negro in all Ages” is a production of rare merit, and exhibits great research.

Joseph H. Rainey

Mr. Rainey is a native of South Carolina, and was born at Georgetown. His parents purchased their freedom, and gave the son a good education, although it was against the law to do such an act. His father was a barber, and he followed that occupation at Charleston till 1862, when, having been forced to work on the fortifications of the Confederates, he escaped to the West Indies, where he remained until the close of the war, when he returned to his native town. He was elected a delegate to the State Constitutional Convention of 1868, and was a member of the State Senate of South Carolina in 1870, resigning when elected to the Forty-first Congress as a Republican to fill the vacancy caused by the non-reception of B. F. Whittemore, and was re-elected to the Forty-second Congress as a Republican.

Mr. Rainey is below the medium size, of a dark olive complexion, straight, black hair, finely chiseled features, modest in manners, and dignified in his deportment. Although not what the world would call an orator, he is, nevertheless, an able debater, and in his reply to “Sunset” Cox, in the House of Representatives, showed talents superior to the New Yorker.

Fanny M. Jackson

Miss Jackson was born, we believe, in the District of Columbia, about the year 1837, and was left an orphan while yet a child. She was brought up by her aunt, Mrs. Sarah Clark. She had but limited opportunities for education in Washington, in those days. In charge of Mrs. Orr, she removed to New Bedford when in her sixteenth year. After remaining here a while, she took up her residence in the family of Mayor Caldwell, at Newport, Rhode Island. It was at this time that Miss Jackson evinced those high attributes of mind which have since culminated in the ripe scholar.

Her rare genius attracted the attention of Mr. Caldwell, and by his aid, in connection with Mrs. Clark, she was able to enter school at Bristol, Rhode Island, and begin the studies of the higher branches. After due preparation here, Miss Jackson went to Oberlin College, where she soon took rank with the most industrious and progressive students. To enable her to assist in paying her increased expenses, she taught music in families in the village, and thereby aided others while she was helping herself. Her intellectual aspirations and moral endowments gained the undivided respect and sympathy of her Oberlin teachers.

Graduating with honors, Miss Jackson at once took a position as teacher in the high school for colored youths in Philadelphia, where she is at present the principal. Her ability in governing an institution of learning has given her more than a local fame. She believes in progress, and is still the student. She has written some good articles for the press, which evince culture of no mean order. As a writer, she is a cogent reasoner, a deep thinker, taking hold of live issues, and dealing with them in a masterly manner.

Miss Jackson has appeared on the platform, and with telling effect. In her addresses, which are always written, she is more fluent than eloquent, more solid than brilliant, more inclined to labored arguments than to rounded periods and polished sentences, and yet no period or sentence lacks finish. Wit, humor, pathos, irony,—flow from her lips as freely as water from an unfailing fountain.

Looking back at her struggles for education and the high position she has attained as a teacher and a lady of letters, Miss Jackson is altogether one of the most remarkable women of our time.

In person, she is of medium size; in complexion, a mulatto; features, well-defined, with an intelligent cast of countenance. The organ of benevolence is prominently developed, as are the organs of causality, comparison, ideality, and sublimity. This accounts for the elegance of her diction, the dazzle of her rhetoric, and the native grace of her fascinating powers. Irreproachable in her reputation, with her rare gifts and moral aspirations, Miss Jackson cannot fail to be of untold benefit to her race.

Alonzo J. Ransier

Mr. Ransier is, in every respect, a self-made man. Born in Charleston, South Carolina, and, although his parents were free, they had to contend with poverty on the one hand and slavery on the other, and the son’s opportunities for education were poor. It is said that he never had any regular schooling. Yet he so far advanced in a common business education that at the age of sixteen years he was engaged in shipping cotton, rice, and other produce for some of the leading commercial houses in Charleston. Throughout all his business relations, Mr. Ransier gained the respect and confidence of those with whom he had dealings.

Immediately after the war, he contributed much towards the first Republican Convention held in his State, 1866, and was chosen by it to convey a memorial from that body to the Congress of the United States, setting forth the grievances of the loyal people, and asking the protection and aid of the government in their behalf. He remained in Washington nearly one month, as a member of what was known as the “Outside Congress,” which was composed of the leading colored men from all parts of the country. He was chairman of the executive committee of that body.

He was a member of the constitutional convention, and presidential elector on the Grant and Colfax ticket in 1868. He conducted that campaign, as chairman of the Republican State Executive Committee, with great judgment and ability. He was auditor of Charleston County, and resigned it on accepting the nomination as a candidate for lieutenant-governor. Being elected by a large majority to the latter position, he became, ex-officio, presiding officer of the senate, and, as such, was very popular among the members, because of his just rulings and courteous manners.

He is known to be favorable to general amnesty, and somewhat conservative upon many questions of public policy, but no one has ever assailed his private reputation. He may be regarded as one of the most reliable and influential men in the South.

Mr. Ransier is a mulatto, under forty years of age, of good address, energetic, and at times enthusiastic, full of activity, genial, good-natured, genteel in his personal appearance, and has all the bearing of a well-bred gentleman. He has been elected to a seat in Congress, where he will no doubt ably represent his race, and prove a valuable addition to the cause of Republicanism. As a speaker, Mr. Ransier stands well, being a good debater, always using refined language and—what is better than all,—good sense in his arguments.

Isaiah C. Wears

To be a good debater is one of the noblest gifts of God to a public speaker. There are thousands of men in and out of the pulpit, who can deliver sermons and addresses, original or selected, and do it in the most approved style of oratory, and yet cannot debate a simple question with a child. This may seem extravagant to those who have not been behind the curtain with public men. A proficient and reliable debater must have brains, a well-stored mind, with ability to draw upon the resources at will; then the gift of gab, a temper entirely under his control, and must possess a common degree of politeness. Give such a man a fair cause, and you have a first-class debater. We listened to the ablest men in and out of the British Parliament twenty years ago, when Brougham, Derby, Thompson, Disraeli, Cobden, and a host of English orators, were in their prime, and we sat with delight in the gallery of the French Assembly when the opposition was led by Lamartine. We spent twenty-five years with the abolitionists of our own country, and in whose meetings more eloquence was heard than with any other body of men and women that ever appeared upon the world’s platform. And after all, we have come to the conclusion that the most logical, ready, reliable, and eloquent debater we have ever heard is a black man, and that black man, the gentleman whose name heads this sketch.

Isaiah C. Wears is a resident of Philadelphia, but a native of Baltimore, Maryland, and is about fifty years of age. For more than a quarter of a century he has been a leading man in his city, and especially in the organization and support of literary societies. The “Platonian Institute,” “Garrisonian Institute,” “The Philadelphia Library Company,” and some smaller associations, owe their existence to the energy, untiring zeal, and good judgment of Mr. Wears. Fidelity to the freedom and elevation of his own race kept him always on the alert, watching for the enemy. The Colonization Society found in him a bitter and relentless foe; and the negro, an able and eloquent advocate.

He has long stood at the head of “The Banneker Institute,” one of the finest and most useful associations in our country, and where we have listened to as good speeches as ever were made in the halls of Congress. Mr. Wears is not confined in his labors to the literary and the political, but is one of the foremost men in the church, and, had he felt himself called upon to preach, he would now be an ornament to the pulpit.

In person, he is small, of neat figure, pure in his African origin, intelligent countenance, and an eye that looks right through you. Mr. Wears has a good education, is gentlemanly in appearance, well read, with a character unimpeachable, and is a citizen honored and respected by all.

Josiah T. Walls

Josiah T. Walls was born at Winchester, Virginia, December 30, 1842; received a common-school education; is a planter; was elected a member of the State Constitutional Convention in 1868; was elected a member of the House of Representatives of the State Legislature in 1868; after serving one year, was elected to the State Senate for four years in 1869, and was elected to the Forty-second Congress as a Republican, from the State of Florida.

In stature, Mr. Walls is slim and thin; in complexion, a mulatto; close, curly hair; genteel in dress; polite in manners; and well esteemed by those who know him best.

He sometimes reads his speeches, which makes him appear dull; but, in reality, he is a man of force and character, and has done a good work in his adopted State.

Mr. Walls is deeply interested in agriculture, and takes pride in inculcating his well-informed views in the freedmen, whose welfare he has at heart. As a farmer, he ranks amongst the foremost in his locality, and his stock is improved far above that of his neighbors.

John Patterson Sampson

James D. Sampson, of North Carolina, the father of the subject of this notice, by his wealth and enterprise as a house carpenter, gave the Sampson family distinction in that State many years ago. They were free people, of Scottish and African lineage, who valued education highly, and boasted somewhat of their revolutionary ancestry. He educated his children at Northern schools, and (by special legislation) before the war, was allowed certain privileges for his family. It was a question, however, with the authorities, after he had erected several fine buildings, whether he should be allowed to live in the one intended for his family, although the street in the neighborhood of his property took his name.

John, Benjamin, and Joseph were inclined to literary professions. Benjamin, probably the best scholar, graduated at Oberlin College; was professor of the classics at the Avery Institute, in Pennsylvania, and is now filling a similar position with credit, at Wilberforce, Ohio. John P. Sampson, the most active in public life, was born in Wilmington, North Carolina, 1838. At an early age, he was sent to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he acquired a common-school education; then among the first colored youth entering the white schools of Boston, he graduated from Comer’s College through a course in book-keeping, navigation, and civil engineering, but began life as a teacher in the public schools of New York, until inspired by a speech from William Watkins, when he gave up the school, and engaged to canvass New York under Horace Greeley and James M’Cune Smith, in behalf of Negro Suffrage, continuing for several years in the lecturing field through the West.

He published the “Colored Citizen” several years at Cincinnati, the only colored war-policy paper published during the war, and was aided by the Christian Commission, which circulated thousands among the colored soldiers. The paper was generally quoted as the soldiers’ organ. At the same time, he edited through the mail a paper published by a company of colored men in Louisville, Kentucky. He studied theology at the Western Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania, and was ordained elder over a prosperous congregation in Alleghany, Pennsylvania; was principal of the Phonetic Academy, at Bowling Green, Kentucky, assisted by Professor Murray and other able teachers. He accepted an engagement in the work of reconstruction; was commissioned by General Howard to look after schools in the Third District of North Carolina; elected treasurer and assessor of Wilmington; nominated for the Legislature, and soon became a prominent candidate for Congress; and might have succeeded, were it not for some perversion of his father’s connection with the purchase of slaves before the war, in order to assist them in obtaining their freedom.

Becoming interested in the profession of the law, he gave up his prospects in the South, stood a clerical examination at Washington, was appointed to a clerkship in the Treasury, read law at the National Law University, graduated, and was admitted to practice in the District Supreme Court. He soon became prominent in district politics, published a spirited campaign paper, was engaged by the general committee to speak in the Republican canvass of 1872, and has since been commissioned by Governor Cook as one of the justices for the district, in connection with his present position at the Treasury.

Mr. Sampson is an able writer, an eloquent and interesting speaker, polished and gentlemanly in his manners, and highly respected. In person, he is tall and slim, with a genteel figure, well-balanced head, bright eye, and a countenance beaming with intelligence.

Benjamin S. Turner

Mr. Turner is a man of large size, full chest, and broad shoulders, flat nose, curly hair, and has the appearance of having experienced plantation life.

He was born in Halifax County, North Carolina, March 17, 1825; was raised as a slave, and received no early education, because the laws of that State made it criminal to educate slaves; removed to Alabama in 1830, and, by clandestine study, obtained a fair education; is now a dealer in general merchandise; was elected tax collector of Dallas County, in 1867, and councilman of the city of Selma, in 1869; and was elected to the Forty-second Congress as a Republican from the State of Alabama. Mr. Turner, though always in his seat during the sitting of the House, is very quiet; is seldom seen conversing; votes, but never speaks; has a reputation for good sense and political business sagacity. He has the unbounded confidence of his constituents, and is looked up to as a leader amongst his people.

P. B. S. Pinchback

Struggling upward from the colored man’s starting-point in the South, and at last reaching a seat in the United States Senate, Mr. Pinchback has placed himself in the front rank of the race which his color represents. His position as Lieutenant-Governor of the State of Louisiana, at a time when true courage, manly vigor, great prudence, and good judgment were needed, showed him to be in possession of some of the best qualities of a statesman.

The wily Warmoth found more than his match in his attempts to make a tool of the colored man. Becoming acting Governor of the State, he surprised even his most intimate friends in the ability he exhibited.

For the victory over Warmoth, and the great benefit that will accrue from it to the State, the people of Louisiana owe much to Acting-Governor Pinchback. Had he accepted the tendered bribe of Warmoth, and acted as his accomplice, the outrages upon the treasury of the State, the installation of persons as State officials against the expressed wish of the people, would have been carried out without any means of redress being left in the hands of the people. By the patriotic action of Governor Pinchback, the calamities that would have followed the continuance of the power of Warmoth were averted, and a greater feeling of security at once sprang up amongst the masses.

The colored population of Louisiana have reason to be proud that one of their race was so conspicuously instrumental in seizing the opportunity for opening the way to rid the State of that power which had retarded its progress.

The statesmanlike conduct of Oscar J. Dunn and Mr. Pinchback reflects great credit upon the intelligence of the colored citizens of that commonwealth.

Mr. Pinchback is a man of energy, eloquent in speech, gentlemanly in manners, kind and hospitable, and is said to be a man of wealth.

James Lynch

Mr. Lynch was born in the city of Baltimore, Maryland, about the year 1840. His father, who followed a mercantile pursuit, was a freedman, and his mother had been a slave, but had her liberty purchased by her husband. While quite young, James was employed in caring for his father’s interests, and there are those living who remember him as a remarkably smart and fine appearing lad, driving the delivery team which hauled goods to his father’s patrons in the city. As soon as old enough, he was sent to Hanover, New Hampshire, to enter Kimball University, from which institution, in due time, he graduated with usual honors.

After completing his education, Mr. Lynch went to Indiana, where he was a preacher of the Gospel for some years. He then went to Galena, Illinois, where he married. We next hear of him in Philadelphia, pursuing the honorable calling of editor of the “Recorder,” a popular Methodist publication. He was known everywhere as an eloquent speaker and able and fluent writer, and he moved in as good society as perhaps any of his compeers enjoyed.

In the year 1867, Mr. Lynch removed to the State of Mississippi, and filled the pulpit in one of the Methodist churches in Jackson. He there became editor of a religious journal.

Lynch’s articles were always carefully prepared, thoughtful, argumentative, and convincing, and undoubtedly performed a good work wherever read.

He first became politically prominent in Mississippi in what is denominated as the “Dent-Alcorn” campaign of 1869, when he was nominated for the office of Secretary of State by the Republicans, made the canvass with the best speakers in the State, and was duly elected and qualified, and up to the time of his decease had ably and efficiently filled all the requirements of that important and responsible position.

Mr. Lynch was of a brown, or coffee color, a little below the medium size, good features, gentlemanly and kind-hearted, a genial companion, and well beloved by all who knew him. He died on the 18th of December, 1872.

William Still

The subject of this sketch is a native of the State of New Jersey, and was born in Burlington County, on the 7th of October, 1821. He was brought up on a farm owned by his father and mother, Levin and Charity Still. The immediate neighborhood of his birth-place afforded but little advantage for the education of the poorer class of whites, much less for colored children, who had to meet the negro-hating prejudice of those times; yet William’s thirst for knowledge and love of books created in his favor a good impression with the teacher of the common school, which obtained for the lad a quarter’s schooling, and some additional aid on rainy days.

The colored boy’s companions were all white, nevertheless his good behavior, earnest zeal, and rapid advancement gained him the friendship of both teacher and scholars, and did much to break down the prejudice against the colored race in that vicinity.

By assiduous study and outside aid he became proficient in reading, writing, and arithmetic, and, as age advanced, paid considerable attention to the classics.

The harsh prejudice of race which William Still was called upon to meet in his business intercourse with the whites, early made him deeply interested in the cause of freedom, then being advocated by the Abolitionists, and he became a subscriber to one of their weekly journals. At this time he was the only colored man in the town that took such a paper, and it was hard work, with his small wages, to meet its subscription and postage demands.

Seeing the bad effects of the use of intoxicating liquors in the community, Mr. Still early adopted the principles of temperance, to which he tenaciously clings to the present day.

Well-grounded in moral, religious, and temperance views, William Still, at the age of twenty-three years, went to the city of Philadelphia to reside.

Although the temptations of the great Babel were laid before him, his early convictions kept him from yielding.

The long connection of William Still with the anti-slavery office in Philadelphia, his intimate relationship with the Pennsylvania Abolitionists, a body of men and women of whom too much cannot be said in their praise, and the deep interest he felt in the fleeing bondmen passing through that city to Canada, has brought him very prominently before the American people.

Mr. Still is well educated, has good talents, and has cultivated them. He is an interesting and forcible writer, and some of the stories of escaped slaves, which he has recently put forth in his valuable work, “The Underground Railroad,” point him out as one of the best benefactors of his race. After the beginning of the war of the slaveholders had made it certain that slavery would be abolished, and the close of the anti-slavery office in Philadelphia, Mr. Still went into the coal trade, by which he has become independent.

Upright and honest in all his dealings, a faithful friend, blameless in his family relations, an affectionate husband and father, we have always taken pride in putting forth William Still as a model man.

The subject of this sketch is of medium size, unadulterated in race, prominent and regular features, always a smile upon his countenance, affable, humorous, neat in his person, gentlemanly in his deportment, and interesting in his conversation. With all classes of good men and women who know him, both colored and white, no man stands higher, or is regarded with more confidence, than William Still.

Peter H. Clark

As an acute thinker, an eloquent and splendid speaker, possessing rare intellectual gifts, fine education with large culture, a moral nature full of sympathy and benevolence for all mankind, Peter H. Clark justly stands in the foremost rank of the noted men of his race. Although not an old man, Mr. Clark has, for the past quarter of a century, taken a prominent part in all of the great conventions called to consider the condition, and the best means for the moral, social, and political elevation of the colored population of the United States. Mr. Clark was associated with Frederick Douglass in the editorial management of the “North Star” twenty years ago, and his articles were always fresh, vigorous, and telling.

In the various political contests in the State of Ohio for the last ten years, he has taken a foremost position, and his appearance at public meetings in Hamilton County has done much towards annihilating the prejudice so rampant in that section.

His argumentative speeches, scholastic attainments, and gentlemanly bearing, have been of untold benefit to his race throughout Ohio.

During the Rebellion, when the colored citizens of Cincinnati were sorely and cruelly abused, Peter H. Clark stepped forward as their representative man, and nobly did he do his duty.

The history of “The Black Brigade,” written at that time, did him great credit, and was of immense value to the black man.

Mr. Clark is a resident of Cincinnati, and is the principal of the Gaines High School in that city. To him, probably more than to any other man, are the colored people there indebted for the inculcation of the creditable desire for education and advancement true of them.

He is somewhat below the middle size, thin, sharp features, bright eye, rather of a dyspeptic appearance, hospitable and kind, upright and gentlemanly in all the relations of life, with a host of admirers wherever he is known. No man has been truer to his oppressed people than Peter H. Clark, and none are more deserving of their unlimited confidence than he.

To the pen of Mr. Clark we are indebted for the sketch of John I. Gaines, in this work.

Frances Ellen Harper

Mrs. Harper is a native of Maryland, and was born in Baltimore, in 1825, of free parents. What she was deprived of in her younger days in an educational point of view, she made up in after years, and is now considered one of the most scholarly and well-read women of the day. Her poetic genius was early developed, and some of her poems, together with a few prose articles, with the title of “Forest Leaves,” were published, and attracted considerable attention, even before she became known to the public through her able platform orations.

An article on “Christianity,” by Mrs. Harper, will stand a comparison with any paper of the kind in the English language.

Feeling deeply the injury inflicted upon her race, she labored most effectually by both pen and speech for the overthrow of slavery, and for ten years before the commencement of the Rebellion, the press throughout the free states recorded her efforts as amongst the ablest made in the country.

Few of our American poets have written verses more pointed against existing evils, than Frances Ellen Harper. Her eloquent poem, “To the Union Savers of Cleveland,” on the return of a fugitive slave to her master at the South, will always be read with a feeling of indignation against the people of the North who could suffer such things to be done.

“The Slave Mother” will stand alongside of Whittier’s best poems on the “Peculiar Institution.” The poems on “The Proclamation,” and the “Fifteenth Amendment,” will be read by her race with delight in after ages.

All of Mrs. Harper’s writings are characterized by chaste language, much thought, and a soul-stirring ring that are refreshing to the reader.

As a speaker, she ranks deservedly high; her arguments are forcible, her appeals pathetic, her logic fervent, her imagination fervid, and her delivery original and easy. Mrs. Harper is dignified both in public and in private, yet witty and sociable. She is the ablest colored lady who has ever appeared in public in our country, and is an honor to the race she represents.

In person, Mrs. Harper is tall, and of neat figure; mulatto in color, bright eyes, smiling countenance, and intelligent in conversation.

William F. Butler

Mr. Butler is a native of Halifax, Nova Scotia, and came to the States in 1853. Three years later, he was ordained by Rev. William H. Bishop, and began as a preacher of the Zion M. E. Church. He is now pastor of St. Mark’s Church, New York. For the past three or four years, Mr. Butler has taken an active part in the politics of the Empire State, and was sent as a delegate to the National Republican Convention that nominated General Grant for his second term, and in which assembly he exercised considerable influence with the colored delegates from the South.

Mr. Butler is a man of good education, well read, of retentive memory, able in debate, quick to take advantage of an opponent, an eloquent, extemporaneous speaker, and popular with the masses.

He is considered “headstrong” by the older preachers of “Zion,” and came out from that connection a few years since, and has built up the church over which he now presides. He has great energy and force of character, and will generally be found in the front rank, rather than as a follower. In stature, Mr. Butler is below the medium, of neat figure, genteel in appearance, of mixed blood, sharp, bright eyes, pleasing countenance, easy in manners, and interesting in conversation. He is about thirty years of age. In all emergencies, he has been considered true to his race, and may be regarded as a representative man.

T. Morris Chester

Mr. Chester is a native of Pennsylvania, and is by profession, a lawyer. He spent some years in Liberia, returned home, and took an honorable part in the war of the Rebellion. He has travelled extensively in Europe, making a good impression wherever he appeared. In 1867, Hon. C. M. Clay, Minister to Russia, in a correspondence with the State Department at Washington, said of Mr. Chester’s visit to St. Petersburg:—

“Sir:—Captain T. Morris Chester, late of the United States Volunteer Army, being in St. Petersburg, coming well recommended by distinguished citizens of the United States, and being also well educated, and of good address, I called upon the minister of foreign affairs, and told him that I would not apply in the usual way, by note, to have Captain Chester, a colored American citizen, presented to his Imperial Majesty, as there was no precedent, and I did not know how his Imperial Majesty would be disposed to act; but I desired that he would approach his Imperial Majesty in an informal way, and ascertain his wishes in this regard. The assistant minister of foreign affairs, Mr. De Westmann, acquiesced in the proposal, and, in a few days, wrote me that the Emperor had given orders to have Captain Chester’s name put upon the list of persons for the first presentation.

“To-day being the occasion of a grand review of the imperial guard, the Emperor sent an invitation to Captain Chester to assist in the review, which he did, riding around with his Imperial Majesty’s staff, and taking lunch at the winter palace with the staff officers and a portion of the Imperial family, who accompanied the Emperor at the lunch.

“I have made these facts known to you, as I regard the affair of some importance. We have four millions of colored citizens; they are with us, and of us, for good as well as evil.

“I think that it is the duty of all good citizens to try and elevate the African race in America, and inspire them with all possible self-respect, and prepare them for that ultimate influence which they must sooner or later have, upon the political and economical interests of the United States. These are the views which have influenced my action in this case, which, not partisan in their character, I should hope would be satisfactory to all patriotic Americans.”

Mr. Chester is of pure African origin, a splendid looking man, with manners highly cultivated.

Joseph J. Clinton, D. D.

Joseph J. Clinton is a native of Philadelphia, born October 3, 1823, possesses a good, common-school education, studied at the Alleghany Institute, but did not graduate. He was apprenticed to Francis Chew, a hair-worker, and learned that trade. At the age of fifteen, he experienced religion, joined the Zion Methodist denomination, and became an ardent advocate of the cause of Christ. He began as a lay preacher, at the early age of seventeen. At eighteen, he went into business for himself in the hair work, yet continued dispensing the Gospel to those who would hear.

In 1843, Bishop Clinton was ordained an elder, and in 1856, was made bishop. During the civil war, he spent almost his entire time at the South. As chaplain of the First United States Colored Regiment, Colonel Holman, Mr. Clinton did a good work amongst his race. He did not confine himself to mere camp duties, but performed a mission work which had its influence amongst the slaves, far and wide. Seeing that the spread of the Gospel was of greater importance than remaining with a regiment, Bishop Clinton gave himself entirely up to gospel missionary work. He organized ten conferences, ordained and licensed seven hundred ministers, admitted two hundred thousand members in the denomination, brought one hundred thousand children into the Sabbath School, and travelled in all of the Southern States. In 1869, he visited California, and organized a conference in San Francisco.

In person, Bishop Clinton is stout, fleshy, and well-proportioned. He has a full face, which indicates the best of health and happy contentment; countenance mild, benignant and thoughtful, with an expression of integrity, denoting his inability to do a mean thing. The bishop is a good declaimer, and the outbursting and overwhelming effusions of his natural eloquence, the striking originality of his conceptions, the irresistible power of his captivating voice, the vivid and copious display of illustration, thrill and charm the hearer. He is justly popular with the public, as well as with his own denomination. He presides in the conferences with great dignity and impartiality, deciding questions according to Cushing and justice, and without fear or favor. Bishop Clinton resides in the city of Philadelphia, surrounded by a loving family and a host of admiring friends.

Benjamin T. Tanner, D. D.

Dr. Tanner is the editor of the “Christian Recorder,” the organ of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (Bethel). He is a mulatto of medium size, modest and genteel, social and pleasant in conversation, and has a classical education. Tanner’s “Apology for African Methodism,” is the ablest written work yet produced upon that subject. In it, he employs facts and statistics, but they have the varied beauty of the rainbow, and the golden glow of the sunlight, when viewed through the prism of his rich imagination. There are but few men who can excel him in description; indeed, he wields a masterly pen in that department of literature, every idea being full of thought. As editor of “The Recorder,” he has written many witty, pithy, and brilliant sentiments. There is a tinge of opulent fancy running through his editorials which always refreshes one. As a speaker, Dr. Tanner ranks well, being fluent, ready, easy in his manner, and reliable in his statements.

The wide reputation of his journal, outside of his own denomination, is probably the best test of his ability as a newspaper conductor. He has done much to build up Methodism among our people, and to inculcate the feeling for a better educated ministry, which is everywhere needed. Dr. Tanner’s efforts towards the elevation of his race have been of lasting good, and, as he is still a young man, we look forward to his accomplishing more in the large field before him. As a citizen of Philadelphia, he is enterprising, energetic, and works for the public good. He is highly respected by all classes, and justly holds the position of a representative man, whose title was gained by merit, and not by favor.

Singleton T. Jones, D. D.

Singleton T. Jones is a native of Pennsylvania, and is about fifty years of age. He is tall, and of a fine figure, pleasing countenance, bright eye, and unadulterated in race and color. He commenced travelling as a preacher of the Zion Methodist denomination in the year 1847, and was ordained a bishop in 1868. He is a man of surpassing power and eloquence. His sermons are brilliant with unmeasured poetry, and abound in wit, invective, glowing rhetoric, and logic.

The bishop often surprises his attentive listeners with his historical knowledge. When in the pulpit, he throws light on the subject by the coruscations of his wit, drives home a truth by solid argument, and clinches it by a quotation from Scripture, and a thrilling and pointed appeal which moves his audience like a shock from an electric battery. No one sleeps under the preaching of Bishop Jones, for he has long been considered the most eloquent man in his denomination. His character is without a blemish, and he is blest with a large circle of friends, and the happiest family relations.

Jermin W. Loguen

Born a slave at the South, and escaping to the free states some thirty years ago, Jermin W. Loguen passed through the fiery ordeal that awaited every fugitive lecturer or preacher in those days. He was among the earliest of those to take stock in the underground railroad, and most nobly did he do his work. For more than twenty years Bishop Loguen labored in season and out of season, in western New York, as an efficient conductor on the road, helping the fugitive on his way to Canada. As a lecturer, his varied experience, eloquent and effective speeches, did much to change public opinion in behalf of liberty.

As a preacher, he was very popular with the Zion Methodist denomination, with whom he acted. His education was limited, yet he used good language, both in his sermons and addresses. He was made a bishop some time about 1868, and discharged his duties with credit to himself, and satisfaction to his people.

But Bishop Loguen will be remembered longer for his humanitarian work. If to have been true and faithful to the cause of his people in the day of their sorrow and destitution, when friends were few, and enemies were many; if to have been eyes to the blind, legs to the lame, bread to the hungry, and shelter to the outcast of our afflicted and hunted people when it was the fashion in America to hunt men; if to have devoted a whole life to works of humanity and justice, entitles a man to the respect and esteem of his fellow-men, and especially, of the class benefited, Jermin W. Loguen has well earned such respect and esteem.

In person, he was of large frame, of mixed blood, strong, manly voice, fine countenance, genteel in his manners, and interesting in conversation. He died in 1871.

Rufus L. Perry

“The National Monitor” is a wide-awake journal, edited by Rufus L. Perry, a live man, in every sense of the term. As corresponding secretary of “The Consolidated American Educational Association,” Mr. Perry has been of great benefit to the cause of education at the South amongst the freedmen who so much need such efforts. His society is mainly engaged in sending into the field approved missionary preachers and teachers; organizing schools and missions on a self-sustaining basis, in the more interior portions of the South; looking up, and having on hand, qualified colored teachers, to send out as they may be called for.

The association is under the auspices of the Baptist denomination, and the “National Monitor,” of which Mr. Perry is editor, may be termed an organ of that sect. The columns of the paper show well the versatile character of the gentleman whose brain furnishes the mental food for its readers, and the cause of its wide-spread popularity.

Mr. Perry is a self-made man, well educated, possessing splendid natural abilities, an able and eloquent speaker, popular with other religious bodies as well as his own, and makes himself generally useful wherever he may happen to be. He is devotedly attached to his race, and never leaves a stone unturned to better their moral, social, religious, and political condition.

As a resident of Brooklyn, New York, his influence is felt in building up and maintaining the character of the colored people. Mr. Perry is considered one of the most efficient of the Baptist clergymen of the “City of Churches.”

Leonard A. Grimes

A native of Loudon County, Virginia, born in Leesburg, in 1815, of free parents, Leonard A. Grimes was subjected to all the disabilities that his race had to endure in the South, except being a bound slave. While yet a boy, young Grimes went to Washington, where he was employed in a butcher’s shop, and afterwards in an apothecary’s establishment. He subsequently hired himself out to a slaveholder, whose confidence he soon gained. Accompanying his employer in some of his travels in the remote South, he had an opportunity of seeing the different phases of slave life; and its cruelty created in his mind an early hatred to the institution, which lasted him during his long and eventful career.

On his return to Washington, the subject of this sketch began to take an interest in the underground railroad, and to him many escaped slaves were indebted for their freedom. A free colored man with a slave wife and seven children appealed to Mr. Grimes to aid them to escape, for the wife and children were to be carried to the far South. Through the kindness of this good man the family succeeded in reaching Canada, where they were free. Search was made for the family, suspicion fell upon Grimes as the author of their escape, he was tried, found guilty, and sent to the state prison at Richmond for two years.

At the expiration of his imprisonment, Mr. Grimes returned to Washington, and soon removed to New Bedford, Massachusetts, where he resided two years, and then came to Boston. A small Baptist congregation was worshipping in a hall at this time, and they called Mr. Grimes to be their pastor. In this new field of labor he soon began to show the great executive ability which was to be a blessing to his race in Boston. The Twelfth Baptist Church, of which he was the head for a quarter of a century, and the congregation, consisting of some of the better class of the colored citizens of the metropolis, is a monument that no one need be ashamed of. Mr. Grimes was an ardent anti-slavery man, when many of his clerical brethren were on the other side of the question.

Mr. Grimes was a man of great amiability of character, with always a cheering word and a smile for those with whom he came in contact. As a preacher, he was a man of power, though he was not an easy speaker. He was a mulatto of fine appearance, good manners, dignified, and courteous. No man was more beloved by his friends or respected by the community. At his funeral, which occurred in March, 1873, more than fifty carriages were among the long cortege that followed his remains. It is not often that a man leaves the world with fewer enemies or more substantial friends than Leonard A. Grimes.

John Sella Martin

John Sella Martin is a native of the State of North Carolina, and was born at Charlotte, in 1832. He was the slave of his master, who sold him while he was yet a child. Part of his life was passed in Georgia and Louisiana, from the latter of which States he escaped in 1856. Mr. Martin resided some time at Chicago, studied for the ministry at Detroit, and was first settled over a church at Buffalo. He came to Boston in 1859, and was introduced to the public at Tremont Temple, by Rev. Mr. Kalloch, for whom he preached several weeks, during that gentleman’s vacation. The impression which Mr. Martin made while at the Temple was very favorable; and after supplying a pulpit for some time at Lawrence, he was settled over the Joy Street Baptist Church in Boston. He has since preached in New York and Washington, but is now engaged in politics, having renounced the ministry three or four years since.

Mr. Martin has visited England three times, and is well informed upon matters pertaining to that country, as well as this. He is an easy speaker, fluent and ready, and gives the impression of a man well informed on the subject upon which he talks. He was, for a time, editor of the “National Era,” and then corresponding editor of the same paper. However, he lacks stability of purpose. In his newspaper articles, Mr. Martin evinces considerable literary ability. In person, he is of mixed blood, gentlemanly in his appearance, and refined in his manners.

“Moses.”

For eight or ten years previous to the breaking out of the Rebellion, all who frequented anti-slavery conventions, lectures, picnics, and fairs, could not fail to have seen a black woman of medium size, upper front teeth gone, smiling countenance, attired in coarse, but neat apparel, with an old-fashioned reticule, or bag, suspended by her side, and who, on taking her seat, would at once drop off into a sound sleep. This woman was Harriet Tubman, better known as “Moses.”

She first came to Boston in 1854, and was soon a welcome visitor to the homes of the leading Abolitionists, who were always attentive listeners to her strange and eventful stories. Her plantation life, where she was born a slave at the South, was cruelly interesting. Her back and shoulders, marked with the biting lash, told how inhuman was the institution from which she had fled. A blow upon the head had caused partial deafness, and inflicted an injury which made her fall asleep the moment she was seated. Moses had no education, yet the most refined person would listen for hours while she related the intensely interesting incidents of her life, told in the simplest manner, but always seasoned with good sense.

During her sojourn in Boston, Moses made several visits to the South, and it was these that gave her the cognomen of “Moses.” Men from Canada, who had made their escape years before, and whose families were still in the prison-house of slavery, would seek out Moses, and get her to go and bring their dear ones away. How strange! This woman,—one of the most ordinary looking of her race; unlettered; no idea of geography; asleep half of the time,—would penetrate the interior slave states, hide in the woods during the day, feed on the bondsman’s homely fare at night, bring off whole families of slaves, and pilot them to Canada, after running the gauntlet of the most difficult parts of the Southern country. No fugitive was ever captured who had Moses for a leader.

While in Canada, in 1860, we met several whom this woman had brought from the land of bondage, and they all believed that she had supernatural power. Of one man we inquired, “Were you not afraid of being caught?”

“O, no,” said he, “Moses is got de charm.”

“What do you mean?” we asked.

He replied, “De whites can’t catch Moses, kase you see she’s born wid de charm. De Lord has given Moses de power.”

Yes, and the woman herself felt that she had the charm, and this feeling, no doubt, nerved her up, gave her courage, and made all who followed her feel safe in her hands.

When the war broke out, instinct called Moses into active service, and she at once left for the South. Long before Butler’s “Contraband of War” doctrine was recognized by the government, Moses was hanging upon the outskirts of the Union army, and doing good service for those of her race who sought protection in our lines. When the Negro put on the “blue,” Moses was in her glory, and travelled from camp to camp, being always treated in the most respectful manner. These black men would have died for this woman, for they believed that she had a charmed life.

It is said that General Burnside, on one occasion, sent Moses into the enemy’s camp, and that she returned in due time, with most valuable information. During the last year of the Rebellion, she had in her possession a paper, the presentation of which always gained for her a prompt passage through any part of the Union lines.

Moses followed Sherman in his march “From Atlanta to the Sea,” and witnessed the attack on Petersburg. The great deference shown her by the Union officers, who never failed to tip their caps when meeting her, and the strange stories told of her pioneer adventures, and the substantial aid given by her to her own race, has left with them a lasting impression that Moses still holds “the charm.”

Mary Shadd Carey

Mary Ann Shadd Carey is a native of Delaware, and has resided for several years in Canada. She is tall and slim, with a fine head, which she carries in a peculiar manner. She has good features, intellectual countenance, bright, sharp eyes, that look right through you. She holds a legitimate place with the strong-minded women of the country.

Mrs. Carey received a far better education than usually fell to the lot of the free colored people of her native State, and which she greatly improved. She early took a lively interest in all measures tending to the elevation of her race, and has, at various times, filled the honorable positions of school teacher, school superintendent, newspaper publisher and editor, lecturer, and travelling agent. As a speaker, she ranks deservedly high; as a debater, she is quick to take advantage of the weak points of her opponent, forcible in her illustrations, biting in her sarcasm, and withering in her rebukes.

Mrs. Carey is resolute and determined, and you might as well attempt to remove a stone wall with your little finger, as to check her in what she conceives to be right and her duty. Although she has mingled much in the society of men, attended many conventions composed almost exclusively of males, and trodden paths where women usually shrink to go, no one ever hinted aught against her reputation, and she stands with a record without blot or blemish. Had she been a man, she would probably have been with John Brown at Harper’s Ferry.

When the government determined to put colored men in the field to aid in suppressing the Rebellion, Mrs. Carey raised recruits at the West, and brought them on to Boston, with as much skill, tact, and order as any of the recruiting officers under the government. Her men were always considered the best lot brought to head-quarters. Indeed, the examining surgeon never failed to speak of Mrs. Carey’s recruits as faultless. This proves the truth of the old adage, that “It takes a woman to pick out a good man.” Few persons have done more real service for the moral, social, and political elevation of the colored race than Mrs. Carey. She is a widow, and still in the full-orbed womanhood of life, working on, feeling, as she says, “It is better to wear out, than to rust out.”

George L. Ruffin

One of the most damaging influences that the institution of slavery had on the colored population of the country, was to instill in the mind of its victim the belief that he could never rise above the position of a servant. The highest aspiration of most colored men, thirty years ago, was to be a gentleman’s body servant, a steward of a steam-boat, head-waiter at a first-class hotel, a boss barber, or a boot-black with good patronage, and four or five boys under him to do the work. Even at this day, although slavery has been abolished ten years, its spirit still clings to the colored man, and, more especially, at the North. To wait at parties, attend weddings and dinners, and above all, to be a caterer, seems to be the highest aim of our Northern young men, when, to be a good mechanic, would be far more honorable, and have greater tendency towards the elevation of the race. A few exceptions to what I have penned above are to be found occasionally, and one of these is the gentleman whose name heads this sketch.

George L. Ruffin was born in Richmond, Virginia, of free parents, and of course had limited educational opportunities. He came to Boston some twenty years ago, and followed the calling of a hairdresser up to about five years since, when he began the study of the law with Honorable Harvey Jewell. In due time, he was admitted to the bar, and is now in the enjoyment of a good practice in his profession. One of the most praiseworthy acts connected with Mr. Ruffin’s elevation, is that he studied law while he was at his barber’s chair, and dependent upon it for a living.

As a member of the Massachusetts Legislature, Mr. Ruffin exhibited scholarly attainments in his speeches that placed him at once amongst the foremost men of that body. As a speaker, he is interesting, for his addresses show that he gives his subjects a thorough canvassing before he delivers them. Mr. Ruffin is a good student, and is destined, we think, to rise still higher in his profession.

He takes a deep interest in the elevation and welfare of his race, is prominent in all public meetings, has a happy faculty in discharging the duties of presiding officer, or chairman of a committee, and writes resolutions that are readable, as well as to the purpose for which they are intended. Mr. Ruffin is highly respected in the community, and has done much in his dealings with prominent citizens to lift upward the standard of the colored man. He is of mixed blood, short, stout, with a rather pleasing cast of countenance, and features good to look upon. In speaking to our young men, we have often mentioned the career of Mr. Ruffin as worthy of imitation.

Richard T. Greener

Richard T. Greener is a graduate of Harvard University, which, under ordinary circumstances, is considered a passport to future usefulness and preferment. Soon after leaving college, he was invited to become a teacher in the institute for colored youth, at Philadelphia. Here his labors were highly appreciated, and many regrets were manifested on his leaving to take charge of another institution of learning at Washington, where he now resides.

Mr. Greener takes a deep interest in everything tending towards the development of the genius of the race, and has written some very readable articles on education for the “New National Era.” His writings exhibit considerable research, a mind well stored from English literature, and show that he is a man of industry and progress. Long before leaving college, Mr. Greener gave evidence of possessing talents for the platform, and recent speeches and addresses place him in the advanced ground in the art of oratory.

Mr. Greener is a mulatto, and, in personal appearance, is of medium size, good figure, well-balanced head, intellectual face, interesting conversationalist, and eager for distinction. Mr. Greener is not more than twenty-eight or thirty years of age, and has before him a brilliant future. He is a good representative of our rising young men, and is well calculated to inspire the youth of the country with noble feelings for self-elevation. His motto is “the young men to the front.” But he should remember that while the young men may take a legitimate place at the front, the old men must not be asked to take a back seat. The race cannot afford, yet a while, to dispense with the services of the “Old Guard.”

Lewis H. Douglass

The senior editor of the “New National Era” is the eldest son of Frederick Douglass, and inherits a large share of the father’s abilities. He was born in Massachusetts, has a liberal education, is a practical printer, received excellent training in the office of “The North Star,” at Rochester, New York, and is well calculated to conduct a newspaper. Mr. Douglass distinguished himself at the attack on Fort Wagner, where the lamented Colonel Robert G. Shaw fell. His being the first to ascend the defences surrounding the fort, and his exclamation of “Come, boys, we’ll fight for God and Governor Andrew,” was at the time commented upon by the press of Europe as well as of our own country.

Mr. Douglass is an active, energetic man, deeply alive to every interest of his race, uncompromising in his adherence to principle, and is a valuable citizen in any community. He has held several important positions in Washington, where his influence is great. He is a good writer, well informed, and interesting in conversation. In asserting his rights against the proscriptive combinations of the printers of Washington, Mr. Douglass was more than a match for his would-be superiors. As a citizen, he is highly respected, and is regarded as one of the leading men of the district. He is of medium size, a little darker in complexion than the father, has a manly walk, gentlemanly in his manners, intellectual countenance, and reliable in his business dealings. His paper, the “New National Era,” is well conducted, and should receive the patronage of our people throughout the country.

Richard H. Cain

Mr. Cain is well known as a Methodist preacher of some note, having been a leading man in that denomination for many years. During the Rebellion he took up his residence in South Carolina, where his good judgment, industry, and executive ability gave him considerable influence with his race. In the Constitutional and Reconstruction Conventions Mr. Cain took an active part, and in the State Legislature, gave unmistakable evidence of a knowledge of state affairs. He has been called to fill several positions of honor and trust, and discharged his duties with signal ability.

The moral, social, religious, and political elevation of his people has long claimed a large share of Mr. Cain’s time and attention.

As an editor, he exhibited much literary tact and talent in conducting his paper, urging in its columns education, character, and wealth, as a basis for man’s elevation. In 1872, he was elected to Congress, representing the city of Charleston. As a politician, Mr. Cain stands high in his State, being considered one of their ablest stump-speakers, and stump-speaking is regarded at the South as the best quality of an orator. Mr. Cain is nearly pure in blood, rather under the medium size, bright eye, intelligent countenance, strong, loud voice, energetic in his actions, throwing some dramatic fervor into his elocutionary powers, and may be termed an enthusiastic speaker. Gentlemanly in his manners, blameless in his family relations, staunch in his friendship, honest in his dealings with his fellow-men, Mr. Cain may be regarded as a representative man, and an able one, too.

Stephen Smith

In no state in the Union have the colored people had greater obstacles thrown in the way of their moral, social, and political elevation, than in Pennsylvania. Surrounded by a population made up of the odd ends of all countries, the German element predominating, with a large sprinkling of poor whites from the Southern States, holding prejudice against the race, the blacks of Pennsylvania have had a hard struggle. Fortunately, however, for them, there were scattered over the State a few representative men, who, by their industry, honesty, and moral courage did much to raise the character and standard of the colored man.

Foremost among these was Stephen Smith, who, while a young man began life as a lumberman in Columbia, where, for twenty-five years, he was one of the principal dealers in that business. By upright and patient labor, Mr. Smith amassed a fortune, removed to the city of Philadelphia, where he has since resided, and where he has long been one of the pillars of society.

For many years, the subject of this sketch has been an acceptable preacher in the Methodist denomination, to which sect he has given liberally of his vast means. Several years ago, Mr. Smith built a church at his own expense, and gave it to his people. More recently, he has erected and endowed an asylum for the poor of his race.

Mr. Smith is a mulatto, of medium size, strongly built, fascinating countenance, yet plain looking, with indelibly marked features. He is now in the sunset of life, and his head is thickly sprinkled with gray hairs. Although he is in the autumn of his years, he is still vigorous, attending to his own business, preaching occasionally, and looking after the interest of “our people.”

Always interested in the elevation of man, few have done more for his race than Stephen Smith. He is highly respected, and has the entire confidence of the people of his own city, as well as all who enjoy his acquaintance.

Lewis Hayden

Thirty years ago, the underground railroad was in full operation, and many daring attempts were made by Northern men to aid slaves in their escape to a land of freedom. In some instances, both the fugitives and their friends were captured, taken back, tortured, and imprisoned. The death of the Rev. Charles T. Torrey, in the Maryland Penitentiary, for helping away a family of slaves; the branding of Jonathan Walker for the same offence; the capture of Captain Daniel Drayton for bringing off a number of bondmen in his vessel, the “Pearl;” and the long and cruel imprisonment of the Rev. Calvin Fairbanks, are historical facts well known to the old Abolitionists.

The subject of this sketch was born in Lexington, Kentucky, where he spent his early days in slavery. Lewis Hayden and his family made their escape from the State of Kentucky in the year 1846; by the assistance of the Rev. Calvin Fairbanks and Miss Delia A. Webster. Both of the above persons suffered cruelly, for their kindness to the fugitives. Miss Webster, after several months’ imprisonment, was liberated, but Mr. Fairbanks remained in the State Prison at Frankfort, Kentucky, more than ten years, during which time everything was done by officials of the prison to make his confinement as painful as possible.

To the great credit of Mr. Hayden, he labored faithfully to secure the release of his friend, and was, we believe, the means of shortening his sufferings.

With his family, Mr. Hayden took up his residence in Boston, where he has since remained, and where he now enjoys the respect and confidence of a large circle of friends.

Daring the reign of terror, caused by the attempt to enforce the Fugitive Slave Law, in the return of escaped bondmen, Mr. Hayden became conspicuous as one of the most faithful friends of his race, daring everything for freedom, never shrinking from any duty, and never counting the cost.

For the past dozen years, he has held a situation at the State House, and, last winter, served in the Legislature, where his speeches and his votes were given for reform.

While he does not attempt to be an orator, Mr. Hayden is, nevertheless, a very effective speaker. He is a man of common size, with little or no Anglo-Saxon blood, genteel in his manners, intelligent in conversation, and correct in all the relations of life.

Henry Garland Murray

To be able to tell a story, and tell it well, is a gift, and not an acquirement; a gift that one may well be proud of. The gentleman whose name heads this sketch, left his sunny home in the Island of Jamaica, last autumn, and paid a flying visit to our country. We had heard of Mr. Murray as the able editor of the leading newspaper in Kingston, and, therefore, he was not an entire stranger to us.

But his great powers as a lecturer, we were ignorant of. With a number of friends, we went one evening to listen to a lecture on “Life among the Lowly in Jamaica.” The speaker for the occasion was Henry G. Murray, who soon began his subject. He was a man of fine personal appearance, a little inclined to corpulency, large, electric eyes, smiling countenance beaming with intelligence, and wearing the air of a well-bred gentleman.

He commenced in a calm, cool, moderate manner, and did not depart from it during the evening. Mr. Murray’s style is true to nature, and the stories which he gave with matchless skill, convulsed every one with laughter. He evinced talent for both tragic and comic representation, rarely combined. His ludicrous stories, graphically told, kept every face on a grin from the commencement to the end. For pathos, genius, inimitable humor, and pungent wit, we have never seen his equal. He possesses the true vivida vis of eloquence. Mr. Murray is a man of learning, accomplishment, and taste, and will be warmly welcomed whenever he visits us again.

Sampson Dunbar Talbot

Bishop Talbot is a native of Massachusetts, and was born in the town of Stoughton. He received a good, common-school education at West Bridgewater, went to the West, and studied theology, and began to preach, at the age of twenty-five years. Returning East, he preached in Boston for two years, where he made many friends. He was ordained a bishop of the A. M. E. Zion Church, about nine years ago, and now resides in Washington, D. C.

Bishop Talbot is about fifty-five years of age, of common size and stature, a dark mulatto, fine head, and thoughtful face, with but little of the negro cast of countenance. He is a good student, well read, and better informed than the clergy generally.

As a speaker, he is sound, clear, thorough, and though not brilliant, is a very interesting preacher. His dignified, calm utterance has great power. He is much admired in the pulpit, and never lacks hearers.

The absence of fire and brimstone in his sermons gives the bishop a gentlemanly air in the pulpit that strongly contrasts with his brethren of the cloth. He is a good presiding officer, and rules according to Cushing. Living a blameless life, having an unblemished reputation, and taking a deep interest in everything pertaining to the moral, social, and political condition of the race, Bishop Talbot is highly respected by all.

Charles Burleigh Purvis, M. D.

Dr. Purvis is a son of Robert Purvis, the well-known philanthropist, and co-worker with William Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips, and Lucretia Mott. When a boy, “Burleigh” often met us at the steamer or the cars, a number of miles away, took us to the homestead at Bybery, listened to our lecture in the “old hall,” and then returned us to the train or boat the next morning, and always did it cheerfully, and with a smile.

The subject of our sketch was born in Philadelphia, in 1841, received a collegiate education, graduating A. M.; studied at the Cleveland Medical College, where, in 1864, he received the degree of M. D. He entered the army as acting-assistant surgeon during the summer of the same year.

Dr. Purvis now resides at Washington, and holds the honorable position of Professor of Materia Medica and Jurisprudence in Howard University. The doctor takes a lively interest in the education and elevation of his race, and exercises considerable influence in the affairs of the District.

He inherits much of his father’s enthusiasm and oratorical powers, and has spoken eloquently and successfully in public meetings and conventions.

By close attention to his profession, Dr. Purvis has taken a high rank as a physician. In complexion, he stands about half-way between the Anglo-Saxon and the negro, probably throwing in a little mite of Indian. Like his father, the doctor is of fine personal appearance, dignified and gentlemanly in his manners, and respected by every one.

John J. Freeman

That spicy and spirited weekly, “The Progressive American,” is edited by the gentleman whose name heads this sketch. By his native genius, untiring industry, and scholarly attainments, he has created and kept alive a newspaper that is a welcome guest in New York, and the country around. As an editor, Mr. Freeman has been eminently successful, and his journal now ranks amongst the very best of our papers. His editorials exhibit more than ordinary tact and talent, and are always on the side of right, morality, and the elevation of man. He has long taken a leading part in state affairs, and has held prominent places in conventions and public meetings.

As a speaker, he is interesting, and knows what he talks about.

His speeches consist of strong arguments and spirited appeals. Personally, Mr. Freeman is sociable and affable in his manners, and hearty and pleasant in his address. In complexion, he is of a brown skin, with well-defined features, intellectual forehead, slim and straight, with a walk something akin to the Indian. He is gentlemanly, upright, and correct in his intercourse with mankind, and highly respected as a man of advanced ideas.

Elijah W. Smith

The subject of this sketch is a grandson of the late Rev. Thomas Paul, whose eloquence as a preacher is vividly remembered by Bostonians of forty years ago, as one of the most entertaining of divines. Born in Boston, Elijah W. Smith is well known as one of her most respected citizens. He is by trade a printer, which he learned in the office of “The Liberator,” with Wm. Lloyd Garrison, who always speaks of “Elijah” with the utmost respect. No one can read Mr. Smith’s poems without a regret that he has written so little, and yet he has given us more poetry than any other colored American. Few living poets understand, better than he, the elements of true poetry.

The evenness of his numbers, the polish of his diction, the rich melody of his musically-embodied thoughts, and the variety of his information, show that Nature has not been sparing in showering her gifts upon him.

In his poetry Mr. Smith seeks to make mankind, and things around him, in harmony with a better state of moral existence.

His contributions to literature will ever tend to delight and instruct the lovers of liberty and pure and refined society. Most of his articles have appeared in “The Boston Daily Traveller,” and “The Saturday Evening Express.” The longest poem contains thirty verses.

“Keep off the Grass,” and “Welcome to Spring,” shows the author’s leaning towards Nature. “Crushed At Sedan,” “Vive La France,” and “A Plea for the Recognition of Cuba,” are the promptings of a sympathetic heart. “Peter and Joseph’s Trip to Vermont” is full of humor, and shows that our author is at home in comic poetry. Mr. Smith’s finer feelings find vent in those beautiful poems the “Winter Song of the Poor,” and “Merry Christmas,” either of which is enough to give a writer everlasting fame.

The Republican Party owes our author a debt of gratitude for the lyrics he has contributed to its aid in this section. The following lines are from the beautiful and soul-stirring poem entitled “Freedom’s Jubilee,” read at a Ratification Meeting of the Fifteenth Amendment:

“Glory to God! for the struggle is ended,
 Glory to God! for the victory won,
Honor to those who the Right have defended,
 Through the long years since the conflict begun.

“O, may the prayers of those ready to perish
 Guard them from harm like a girdle of fire!
Deep in our hearts their good deeds we will cherish,
 And to deserve them we’ll ever aspire.

“God! at Thine altar, in thanksgiving bending,
 Grant that our eyes Thy great goodness may see;
O, may Thy light, while the temple’s veil rending,
 Show, through its portals, the path of the Free.”

“Our Lost Leader,” written on the death of Charles Sumner, is one of Mr. Smith’s best productions. “The Boston Daily Traveller” says: “This is a beautiful poem written by Elijah W. Smith, who is a true poet, and who has produced some of the best poetry called forth by the death of Mr. Sumner.”

We can only give the last verse:

“Give us the faith to kneel around
 Our Country’s shrine, and swear
To keep alive the sacred flame
 That Sumner kindled there!”

The “Song of The Liberators” has in it the snap and fire that shows the author’s sound appreciation of the workers for liberty. We give a few of those spirited verses, and regret that want of space prevents our placing the entire poem before the reader:

“The battle-cry is sounding
 From every hill and vale,
From rock to rock resounding,
 Now shall the tyrants quail.
No more with chain and fetter,
 No more with prison cell,
Shall despots punish heroes
 In the land they love so well.

“And thou, O Isle of Beauty,
 Thy plaintive cry is heard;
Throughout our wide dominions,
 The souls of men are stirred;
And rising in their manhood,
 They shout from sea to sea,
‘Destruction to the tyrants!
 Fair Cuba shall be free!’”

In person Mr. Smith is short, and inclined to be stout, with complexion of a light brown.

His head is large and well developed; the expression of his features are mild and good, his eyes are lively, and the turn of his face is graceful and full of sensibility, and delicately susceptible of every impression.

Still on the sunny side of fifty, and being of studious habits and an impassioned lover of Nature, we may yet look for valuable contributions from his versatile pen.

We hope, ere long, to see his poems given to the reading public in a collected form, for we are sure that they would be a prized accession to the current literature of the day, besides the valuable work they would do for the elevation of his own race.

Mr. Smith has written more than sixty poems, one of which will be found in the fore-part of this volume.

Footnotes54

“An Apology for Methodism.” B. T. Tanner, p. 388.

55 Tanner’s “Apology,” p. 415.