In the ordinary social life of the Negro, however, the decade after
Nat Turner's insurrection was one of the most trying in the history of
the race in America. Repressive measures in the Southern states have
just been remarked. In the North the free Negro was beginning to feel
the force of economic ostracism. In Ohio no Negro was allowed to
settle unless he gave bond for his support. When this law and others
of similar import began to be put in force in 1829, serious riots
prevailed in Cincinnati for three days, in the course of which several
Negroes were killed. Mobs in Philadelphia at various times within the
period also murdered Negroes.
Meanwhile migration was strongly urged in some quarters as a solution
of the problem. Says Dr. DuBois: "As early as 1788 a Negro union of
Newport, Rhode Island, had proposed a general exodus to Africa. John
and Paul Cuffe, after petitioning for the right to vote in 1780,
started in 1815 for Africa, organizing an expedition at their own
expense which cost four thousand dollars. Lott Carey organized the
African Mission Society in 1813, and the first Negro college graduate
went to Liberia in 1829 and became superintendent of public
schools.... About two thousand black emigrants eventually settled in
Hayti."
Even after the Civil War migration efforts were renewed, the Baptists
and the Methodists of South Carolina joining hands in 1877 in the
formation of the Liberian Exodus Joint Stock Company. As early as
1833, however, in his pamphlet entitled "Thoughts on African
Colonization," Garrison showed the futility of the whole plan as a
means of solving the problem of the Negro in the United States, and
time has justified his view.
Gradually, in spite of all the discouraging circumstances, hope
appeared on the horizon. England emancipated the slaves in her
colonies in 1833, and more and more conventions of free Negroes showed
an interest in the welfare of the race. A strong foothold began to be
gained in certain occupations, such as those of the barber and
caterer. Sojourner Truth and Frederick Douglass appeared on the public
platform; the poems of Phillis Wheatley ran through three new editions
within four years; Elizabeth Greenfield sang before the royalty of
Europe; and the African Methodist Church began to show what it was
possible for the Negro to do in organization. By 1850, the year of the
Fugitive Slave Law, when things were looking especially dark, the
turning of the tide was much nearer than most people imagined. The
South was still triumphant; but each new victory had to be more
fiercely fought for than the last, and awakened stronger and stronger
elements of opposition.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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