BLACK LEADERS OF EMANCIPATION

There's Robert Johnson who put the black into white music which then gave birth to good old rock and roll.

Only he got knifed for shagging somebody's Mrs so he hardly belongs in the Hall of Fame but I thought I would give him a mention.

People such as Nat Turner were very important, although his methodical murder of whites makes it a problem for students of history, who don't wish to delve very deeply into the darker side of the consequences of slavery. In August, 1831, Nat (who used the surname of his original owner, Samuel Turner) lead a group originally consisting of a few trusted friends, and eventually growing to about 50 people. So as not to alert (and therefore alarm) their intended victims, they used knives or blunt instruments, and Turner is reported to have told his followers to "kill all whites." By the time the word was out, and the militia responded, 57 white men, women and children had been killed. It appears (records are contradictory, and unreliable on detail, although agreeing on the main points) that more blacks were executed than the total number who participated.

Turner had learned to read and write at an early age, and was noted to have frequently spent what free time was available to him reading the bible. One of the responses to Turner's "rebellion" was the enacting of laws throughout the South to prohibit the teaching of blacks. Nat in particular is a problem for moder historians of African Americans, because he was literate, and well read in scripture, and claimed to have visions. Absconding in 1824, he returned to his "master" because he said that he had had a vision which instructed him to return to his earthly master.

The impact of the rebellion continued to be felt long afterward. George Henry Thomas was a resident of Southampton County in the Commonwealth of Virginia (Nat spent his entire life there, and it was there that he instigated his uprising). Blacks greatly outnumbered whites in the county, and Thomas had just turned 15 at the time of the uprising. He lived with his mother, a widow, and his sisters, and they were forced to flee to the woods to escape detection (it is alleged, without substantiation, that one of their slaves warned them, as they were considered "good masters"). Thomas became renowned in the American Civil War, and was better known and more highly respected in his own lifetime than he is now. He was arguably the most modern and effective field commander in Federal service during the war. Some of his biographers, early and contemporary, claim that he developed a disgust for slavery during the uprising, and that this was why he remained in Federal service when the war broke out, rather than lending his sword to his native state. This is highly speculative, however, as it is based on conversations alleged to have occurred with Thomas, particularly in Freeman Cleaves biography. Whether or not that is true, Thomas did remain in the Federal service, and saved the Army of the Cumberland from destruction in 1863, winning the sobriquet "the Rock of Chickamauga" (some claim the title was granted retroactively by his partisans, but Ambrose Bierce, who was present at the battle, and who joined Thomas when the division in which he served was routed, referred to him thus--there is now little doubt that he was acclaimed at the time of the battle); and, in December, 1864, he became the only general on either side to completely destroy his opponent, when he routed and completely scattered John Bell Hood's Army of the Tennessee at Nashville, adding the title "the Hammer of Nashville" to his honors (alternately, "the Sledge of Nashville").

Whether or not it were true that Thomas was inspired to remain in Federal service as a result of the Nat Turner rebellion, his attitude toward and treatment of liberated slaves in the theaters in which he held command were strikingly at variance with his fellow officers, who were Northerners. Thomas recruited them (without the permission of the War Department, which he ignored in this matter, as in so many others) to replace white teamsters and railway workers, freeing those men to serve in the line. While long trains of slaves followed in the wake of other armies, notably that of Sherman in Georgia and the Carolinas, but were left to their own devices, Thomas organized assembly areas for them, saw to it that they received rations, and contacted northern empancipist organizations to provide the newly liberated slaves access to housing in the north. Both in replacing white soldiers with black recruits so that the whites could serve in the line, and arranging to send liberated blacks to the North, Thomas incurred the enmity of Northerners, who were less than charmed by the arrangements.

When black regiments were authorized by Congress, Thomas raised more USCT (United States Colored Troops) regiments than any other commander in the field, and assured that they were fully equipped and trained according to his regime (a rigorous training). As was so often the case, his USCT regiments were hurried off to other theaters--he seems to have been loathe himself to put them in the line against Southerners, although as with so much about Thomas, we have no documentary evidence. Whatever one may allege about Thomas (for example, that family slaves warned them of the slave rising, thereby claiming they were well loved; and others claiming the Thomas' owned no slaves), it cannot be denied that the rebellion would have had a profound effect on an adolescent boy.

The fear of slave rebellion is, of course, never far from the minds of slave-owners. After Nat Turner's rebellion, however, there are mountains of documentary evidence that Southerners became obsessed by the prospect. One of the most haunting passages in Mary Chestnut's diary was that in which she admitted that people in the "back country" of South Carolina lived in constant fear of a slave rising. Her husband, James Chestnut, was the senior Senator from South Carolina in 1860, and he lead the South Carolina delegation out of the Congress at the time that his state seceded from the Union. As an aide to Jefferson Davis, Chestnut was in the "cockpit" of power in Richmond, and Mary Chestnut's diary is a key work for students of the war.

There was a alleged slave rebellion plot in Virginia in 1663, in which it was claimed that black slaves and white indentured servants planned to rise against and murder their masters. Several alleged conspirators were beheaded. A slave rebellion took place in New York City in 1712, and it was claimed that nine whites were murdered--18 alleged participants were executed. A slave named Cato lead an uprising in South Carolina in 1739, he and his followers attempting to march to Florida (still in Spanish hands, it would mean sanctuary, as slavery was, at least technically, illegal in Spanish possessions). The slaves were confronted by militia, and in the ensuing battle, more than 40 slaves and more than 20 whites were killed. A plot for an uprising in New York in 1741 lead to the execution of more than 30 people (several of them white), although it is uncertain if there actually were a rebellion plot, or if it were only paranoia. Prosser's rebellion in Virginia in 1800 was alleged to have involved more than a thousand slaves, but the rebels advance on Richmond was broken up by a storm that washed out the roads, and Prosser and his brother and a few followers were rounded up by the militia and hanged. A slave rebellion in Louisiana in 1811 was said to have involved 500 slaves--more than 100 were killed. In 1816, run-away slaves and Seminole Indians battled the United States Army in Florida.

The most important attempt prior to Nat Turner's rebellion took place in South Carolina in 1822. Denmark Vesey, a free black man, planned an uprising in Charleston, and he had very cleverly organized the would-be rebels in to cells, so that the discovery of any one cell would not compromise the rest. However, one of his trusted companions revealed the plot, and Vesey and the other leaders known to that man were hung--however, the cell system which he had initiated protected most of those who were alleged to have been in the plot. Whether or not that attempt can be said to have inspired Nat Turner i don't believe can ever be known. Turner spoke at length with his defense attorney while in prison awaiting trial, and after his execution, what he was alleged to have told the man was published as The Confessions of Nat Turner. Some of it has versimilitude--much of it can be dismissed as lurid passages designed to play on the fears of other Southern slave-owners, of which his attorney, Thomas Gray, was one.

As can be seen, slave revolts took place in America well before the most famous slave revolt in history, barring perhaps, the Spartacus incident. Slaves on the island of Hispaniola (which is today two nations, Haiti and the Dominican Republic) had run away literally for centuries to hide in the forests and mountains, which had never been colonized by either the Spanish or the French. In the 1750s, one absconded slave became the leader of attacks which it is alleged claimed 6000 lives. When the French Revolution took place in 1789, many of the slaves in Haiti (many of whom were literate) took this as a sign that they would be manumitted. When this did not occur soon enough to satisfy them (and, truth be told, the National Assembly had no known plans to free the slaves of Haiti), they finally rose in 1791. Previously, in 1790, the National Assembly had ordered the authorities in Haiti to grant voting rights to any blacks who owned land or paid taxes on the production of their trades. The colonists in their Colonial Assembly, who had historically carried it with a high hand toward both slaves and free blacks against royal edicts, ignored the orders from Paris, but failed to suppress the news of it. There was an abortive uprising, but the white militia was able to suppress it with the aid of free blacks, who either didn't know that they were the principle victims of the cupidity of the Assembly, or didn't care.

But in 1791, several of the more canny black leaders turned to organizing the slaves, and ignoring the free blacks in the towns. There were several effective leaders, and as had been the case often in the past, many of them were renowned as practitioners of Vodoun (what we call voodoo). Toussaint Louverture became the most well-known of the leaders of the revolt, which occurred so rapidly that no effective white resistance could, at first, be mounted. It was said that at the outset, the blacks killed every white they encountered. It is estimated that more than a thousand properties were put to the torch. Conservative estimates put the number of blacks dead at 10,000, and 2000 whites. The blacks suffered heavily at the hands of the white militia, who slaughtered so many with their superior fire power. Once again, both free blacks and slaves were successfully recruited to fight alongside the white militias, and the whites of Haiti became royalist in response to the unacceptable decrees of the National assembly. Some few (very few) whites fought for the liberation of Haitia, and black and mulatto royalists fought both white supporting the Revolution, as well as blacks and mulattoes involved in the uprising. The situation deteriorated so quickly and completely, that both the Spanish and the English intervened.

There can be no doubt that the supposed "success" of the slave revolt in Haiti (although the situation there rapidly decayed into chaos, blacks in the United States continued to believe that the Haitian rebellion had been an unqualified success) inspired many slaves in the United States to dream of freedom, and freedom achieved through a successful rebellion. After Nat Turner, however, whites in the South became sufficiently paranoid and vigilant that no major incidents took place thereafter, until John Brown attempted to seize the Federal arsenal at Harper's Ferry in 1859. That failed attempt to inspire a slave rebellion, and by a man already despised and feared in the South, helped to raise the rhetoric of slave-owner and abolitionist to the boiling point on the eve of the American Civil War.

Nat Turner is not a popular figure among historians of African Americans, except for the more radically militant. His impact, however, should not be doubted.

Frederick Douglas whose answer to the rhetorical question, "What shall we do with the negro?" was a simple "Leave him alone." I think most of us are aware of the implications.

A question for Setanta. Was the book, Confessions of Nat Turner dramatized or based on true events?

There are two such books. One, the first, was published by Nat's attorney, Thomas Gray. It was based in part on rumors and stories which circulated in the months while Nat was on the run after the rebellion and before being caught. In part, it was based on conversations which Gray had with him while he was in prison awaiting trial, and then awaiting execution. There were particularly lurid passages, such as one in which Gray alleges that Nat told him that they "could not find other whites on whom we could slake our lust for blood." Passages like that are doubtful. Other passages, especially those which were "biographical" in nature, are probably more accurate. Gray wanted to sell a lot of books, and he was in sympathy with white slave-owners (some sources allege that he was a slave-owner himself, others that he was not, and others are mute on the subject).

There is another book, The Confessions of Nat Turner, which was written by William Styron, and published in 1967, which won the Pulitzer Prize. However, many black historians since its publication have condemned it as an essentially racist work, and have stated that it is no more accurate or reliable than Mr. Gray's book. I've not read it, and can't comment.

Excellent stuff there set. Spendi, theres much more on Johnson that you can cobble, but its your own journey I fear.

One of the first blacks associated with emancipation was a Senegaleze girl bought by a tailor, John Wheatley. she was named and given the Wheatley family name. Phyllis WHeatley was a scholar and mastered the classics , several languages , and became a poetess whose work, written in the1760's through 1780's was widely accepted in England and the newly created nation of America.
Antislavery societies published and sold her Memoirs and Poems of Phyllis Wheatley as feedstock to demonstrate the accomplishments of blacks, and (therefore, it was assumed) that blacks should be given their place as equals .
Wheatley celebrated Washingtons appointment as Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army by writing a poem (similar in style to Robert Frosts work celebrating Kennedy"s swearing-in 200 years later). Washington replied and invited Wheatley to address his staff in verse.

Wheatley's personal life, as a free black, was an uunfortunate spuiral downward . She died destitute in 1784 but her reputation was kept alive by the antislavery movement of succeeding decades. She, through no real efforts of her own , just through the display of her intellect and talents , stood as a poster child of emancipation

farmer, forgive my interruption, if you will, but I do want to ask one more question. The book by Styron was the one to which I referred as I recall that Nat Turner only killed one person, and that was the white girl who was kind to him. The reason was a simple one. She ignored the fact that he was a man.

Spendius is right about one thing. There never was a color barrier among the jazz boys and I know that to be true.

Yes, farmer. Phyllis Wheatley or any oppressed woman who broke the barrier through creativity.

Letty, perhaps the story of Ray Charles would change your mind. The black musicians, into the 1960's while being invited to entertain mass audiences of white college kids, werent allowed to use public restrooms while on their bus rides betwen cities.

Cab Calloway had many stories to tell about the color barrier he experienced during the 40's. and Miles, angry at everything, was possibly beaten by whites after a recording session in NY while he was recording "Blue Note". He never pressed charges and the story was just another black being "put in his place".
We arent out of the woods even today.

BAck to the topic. The NAACP published a work of "Negro Heroes of Emancipation" in the 1964. It was foreworded by Roy Wilkins and was a volume produced in observance of the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation . Ive never seen the volume , so I dont know its author, just the foreword .

Letty, perhaps the story of Ray Charles would change your mind. The black musicians, into the 1960's while being invited to entertain mass audiences of white college kids, werent allowed to use public restrooms while on their bus rides betwen cities.

Cab Calloway had many stories to tell about the color barrier he experienced during the 40's. and Miles, angry at everything, was possibly beaten by whites after a recording session in NY while he was recording "Blue Note". He never pressed charges and the story was just another black being "put in his place".
We arent out of the woods even today.

BAck to the topic. The NAACP published a work of "Negro Heroes of Emancipation" in the 1964. It was foreworded by Roy Wilkins and was a volume produced in observance of the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation . Ive never seen the volume , so I dont know its author, just the foreword .

This is a great topic. I will read all of it later. Thanks for starting it.

fm wrote-



You haven't an artistic bone in your body fm.

Anybody impregnating white music with black jungle-beats is going to get discriminated against. Virgins often shriek.

and you are a dinoflagellate spendi. Just riding the tide and infecting whatever you can.




Bite me.

Somebody look up JAMES FORTEN

What the hell is wrong with you, spendius? Are you really a crazy drunk, like people keep saying about you?

farmer, I'm not much on cut and paste, but I had to do so, because I knew nothing about the man.


James Forten was born in 1766 as a free Black man in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Over the course of his lifetime, he would make an impact upon the fortunes of industries and the lives of his fellow man.
Forten was the son of Thomas and Sarah Forten and the grandson of slaves. He was raised in Philadelphia and educated in Anthony Benezet's Quaker school for colored children. At age eight, James began working for Robert Bridges sail loft, and worked alongside his father. A year later his father died in a boating accident and James was forced to take on additional work to provide for his family.
When he turned 14 he worked as a powder boy during the Revolutionary War on the Royal Lewis sailing ship. After being captured by the British, he was released and returned home to again begin working in Mr. Bridges loft. Pleased with his work and ambition, Mr. Bridges eventually appointed him to the foreman's position in the loft. In 1798 Bridges decided to retire and wanted Forten to remain in charge of the loft. He loaned enough money to Forten to purchase the loft and soon James owned the business, employing 38 people.
Around this time, Forten began experimenting with different types of sails for ships and finally invented one that he found was better suited for maneuvering and maintaining greater speeds. Although he did not patent the sail, he was able to benefit financially, as his sailing loft became one of the most successful and prosperous ones in Philadelphia.
The fortune he soon made was enormous for any man, Black or White. Forten spent his money and lived a luxurious life, but he also made good use of his resources on people other than his self. More than half of his considerable fortune was devoted towards abolitionist causes. He often purchased slaves freedom, helped to finance and bring in funding for William Garrison's newspaper, the Libertarian, opened his home on Lombard Street as an Underground Railroad depot and opened a school for Black children.
James Forten died in 1842 after living an incredible life. His early years were devoted to providing for his mother, his middle years towards building his fortune and supporting his family and his later years to uplifting his fellow man.

Also, JAmes Forten , along with Absalom Jones, raised a force of several thousand black men to serve as a home guard in Philadelphia to protect the city from the British (this was in 1813).
He bought The Libratorand kept if financially whole for William Lloyd Garrison as an abolitionist newspaper, (it was also was a voice for temperance, womens rights, and peace). In 1831 , through the AFrican MEthodist Episcopal Church Forten organized a society of Blacks , which became the root of the NAACP. Historians credit Forten with the conversion of several influential whites to support emancipation and equal rights.

I met one of the original Tuskegee Airmen when he came to speak at the school where I taught.

BENJAMIN BANNECKER

DAVID WALKER

I'm afraid the two photographs have not copied. One is of the house where he died and the other of his tomb which is covered with flowers and pebbles painted by local schoolchildren.

Matthew Henson



Matthew Henson (1866- 1955)
Henson was an American explorer who may have been the first to reach the Geographic North Pole with Robert Peary in 1909. However, some have estimated that Peary's party missed the pole by up to 30 km. Due to his being black and his status as Peary's employee, he never reached the same fame as Peary in an America where racist views were still common.
He wrote a book himself about his arctic exploration (A Negro Explorer at the North Pole) in 1912 and later in collaboration with Bradley Robinson his biography Dark Companion in 1947.
During their expeditions he and Peary fathered children with Inuit women two of whom were discovered by S. Allen Counter in a Greenland expedition when they were in their eighties.
On April 6, 1988 Henson was reinterred in Arlington National Cemetery near Peary's monument.