Herespectfullyroseasweapproached,andwasmoving away,whenIbeggedhimtokeephisseat.“Don'tletusdisturbyou,"Isaid."There'splentyofroomforusall.

landcouldbeboughtforameresong

11/30/2017The Goophered Grapevine - The Atlantichttps://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1887/08/the-goophered-grapevine/306656/1/12LikeThe Atlantic? SubscribetoThe Atlantic Daily,ourfreeweekdayemailnewsletter.EmailSIGNUPAbouttenyearsagomywifewasinpoorhealth,andourfamilydoctor,inwhoseskillandhonestyIhadimplicitconfidence,advisedachangeofclimate.

Of violets, and my soul's forgotten gleam.

The thought of violets meant florists' shops,And bows and pins, and perfumed papers fine;And garish lights, and mincing little fopsAnd cabarets and soaps, and deadening wines.

The wild, shy kind that spring beneath your feetIn wistful April days, when lovers mateAnd wander through the fields in raptures sweet.The thought of violets meant florists'

he little useless seam, the idle patch; Why dream I here beneath my homely thatch,

The little useless seam, the idle patch; Why dream I here beneath my homely thatch, When there they lie in sodden mud and rain, Pitifully calling me, the quick ones and the slain? You need me, Christ! It is no roseate dream That beckons me—this pretty futile seam, It stifles me—God, must I sit and sew?

I sit and sew—a useless task it seems, My hands grown tired, my head weighed down with dreams— The panoply of war, the martial tred of men, Grim-faced, stern-eyed, gazing beyond the ken Of lesser souls, whose eyes have not seen Death, Nor learned to hold their lives but as a breath— But—I must sit and sew.

You sang not deeds of heroes or of kings; No chant of bloody war, no exulting pean Of arms-won triumphs; but your humble strings

O black slave singers, gone, forgot, unfamed, You—you alone, of all the long, long line Of those who’ve sung untaught, unknown, unnamed, Have stretched out upward, seeking the divine.

O black and unknown bards of long ago, How came your lips to touch the sacred fire? How, in your darkness, did you come to know The power and beauty of the minstrel’s lyre? Who first from midst his bonds lifted his eyes? Who first from out the still watch, lone and long, Feeling the ancient faith of prophets rise Within his dark-kept soul, burst into song?

host. The holocaust of war, the terrors of the Ku-Klux Klan, the lies of carpet-baggers, the disorganization of industry, and the contradictory advice of friends and foes, left the bewildered serf with no new watchword beyond the old cry for freedom. As the time flew, however, he began to grasp a new idea. The ideal of liberty demanded for its attainment powerful means, and these the Fifteenth Amendment gave him. The ballot, which before he had looked upon as a visible sign of freedom, he now regarded as the chief means of gaining and perfecting the liberty with which war had partially endowed him. And why not? Had not votes made war and emancipated millions? Had not votes enfranchised the freedmen? Was anything impossible to a power that had done all this? A million black men started with renewed zeal to vote themselves into the kingdom. So the decade flew away, the revolution of 1876 came, and left the half-free serf weary, wondering, but still inspired. Slowly but steadily, in the following years, a new vision began gradually to replace the dream of political power,--a powerful movement, the rise of another ideal to guide the unguided, another pillar of fire by night after a clouded day. It was the ideal of "book-learning";

Shout, O children!                         Shout, you're free!                         For God has bought your liberty!"

        The history of the American Negro is the history of this strife,--this longing to attain self-conscious manhood, for merge his double self into a better and truer self. In this merging he wishes neither of the older selves to be lost. He would not Africanize America; for America has too much to teach the world and Africa. He would not bleach his Negro soul in a flood of white Americanism, for he knows that Negro blood has a message for the world

The first excuse given to the civilized world for the murder of unoffending Negroes was the necessity of the white man to repress and stamp out alleged "race riots." For years immediately succeeding the war there was an appalling slaughter of colored people, and the wires usually conveyed to northern people and the world the intelligence, first, that an insurrection was being planned by Negroes, which, a few hours later, would prove to have been vigorously resisted by white men, and controlled with a resulting loss of several killed and wounded. It was always a remarkable feature in these insurrections and riots that only Negroes were killed during the rioting, and that all the white men escaped unharmed.

Not all nor nearly all of the murders done by white men, during the past thirty years in the South, have come to light, but the statistics as gathered and preserved by white men, and which have not been questioned, show that during these years more than ten thousand Negroes have been killed in cold blood, without the formality of judicial trial and legal execution. And yet, as evidence of the absolute impunity with which the white man dares to kill a Negro, the same record shows that during all these years, and for all these murders only three white men have been tried, convicted, and executed.

But Emancipation came and the vested interests of the white man in the Negro's body were lost. The white man had no right to scourge the emancipated Negro, still less has he a right to kill him. But the Southern white people had been educated so long in that school of practice, in which might makes right, that they disdained to draw strict lines of action in dealing with the Negro. In slave times the Negro was kept subservient and submissive by the frequency and severity of the scourging, but, with freedom, a new system of intimidation came into vogue; the Negro was not only whipped and scourged; he was killed.

        "Yes, Mrs. Lincoln. Will you have much work f

him that since he persisted in dissipation we must separate; that I was going North, and that I should never live with him again, at least until I had good evidence of his reform. He was rapidly debasing himself, and although I was willing to work for him, I was not willing to share his degradation. Poor man; he had his faults, but over these faults death has drawn a veil. My husband is now sleeping in his grave, and in the silent grave I would bury all unpleasant memories of him.

        "Lizzie, I hear that you are going to New York to beg for money to buy your freedom. I have been thinking over the matter, and told Ma it would be a shame to allow you to go North to beg for what we should give you. You have many friends in St. Louis, and I am going to raise the twelve hundred dollars required among them. I have two hundred dollars put away for a present; am indebted to you one hundred dollars; Page 55 mother owes you fifty dollars, and will add another fifty to it; and as I do not want the present, I will make the money a present to you. Don't start for New York now until I see what I can do among your friends."

Mr. Burwell, he who preached the love of Heaven, who glorified the precepts and examples of Christ, who expounded the Holy Scriptures Sabbath after Sabbath from the pulpit, when Mr. Bingham refused to whip me any more, was urged by his wife to punish me himself.

strong and defiant as ever. The following Thursday Mr. Bingham again tried to conquer me, but in vain. We struggled, and he struck me many savage blows. As I stood bleeding before him, nearly exhausted with his efforts, he burst into tears, and declared that it would be a sin to beat me any more. My suffering at last subdued his hard heart; he asked my forgiveness, and afterwards was an altered man

     "No matter," he replied, "I am going to whip you, so take down your dress this instant."         Recollect, I was eighteen years of age, was a woman fully developed, and yet this man coolly bade me take down my dress. I drew myself up proudly, firmly, and said: "No, Mr. Bingham, I shall not take down my dress before you. Moreover, you shall not whip me unless you prove the stronger. Nobody has a right to whip me but my own master, and nobody shall do so if I can prevent it."

While I was with her, she taught me to read and spell; and for this privilege, which so rarely falls to the lot of a slave, I bless her memory.

South Carolina, who, at his death, left her mother and his three children free, with money to go to St. Augustine

They lived together in a comfortable home; and, though we were all slaves, I was so fondly shielded that I never dreamed I was a piece Page 12 of merchandise

 The extensive shops and fancy stores presented the presence behind theircounters as saleswomen in attendance of numerous females, black, white,mulatto and quadroon, politely bowing, curtsying, and rubbing their hands, inaccents of broken English inviting to purchase all who enter the threshold, oreven look in at the door:

I once did believe in religion, but now Ihave no confidence in it. My faith has been wrecked on the stony hearts

“Religion!” replied Henry rebukingly. “That's always the cry with blackpeople. Tell me nothing about religion when the very man who hands you thebread at communion has sold your daughter away from you!

“Don't tell me about religion! What's religion to me? My wife is sold awayfrom me by a man who is one of the leading members of the very church towhich both she and I belong! Put my trust in the Lord! I have done so all mylife nearly, and of what use is it to me? My wife is sold from me just the sameas if I didn't.

Look to de Laud, my chile! Him ony able to bring yeh out mo' nahconkeh!” was the prayerful advice of the woe-stricken old mother. Both,hastening into the kitchen, falling upon their knees, invoked aloud the God ofthe oppressed

The Colonel and the Judge! If any such understanding exist, it is withoutmy knowledge and consent, and ——”

“heaven grant that I may go too! from——”

But the most astonishing as well as the most interesting thing to me was the condition of the colored people, a great many of whom, like myself, had escaped thither as a refuge from the hunters of men. I found many, who had not been seven years out of their chains, living in finer houses, and evidently enjoying more of the comforts of life, than the average of slaveholders in Maryland.

discipline tamed me. Mr. Covey succeeded in breaking me

at me with the fierceness of a tiger, tore off my clothes, and lashed me till he had worn out his switches, cutting me so savagely as to leave the marks visible for a long time after. This whipping was the first of a number just like it, and for similar offences.

A great many times have we poor creatures been nearly perishing with hunger, when food in abundance lay mouldering in the safe and smoke-house, and our pious mistress was aware of the fact; and yet that mistress and her husband would kneel every morning, and pray that God would bless them in basket and store!

there are many exceptions. Master Thomas gave us enough of neither coarse nor fine food. There were four slaves of us in the kitchen--my sister Eliza, my aunt Priscilla, Henny, and myself; and we were allowed less than a half of a bushel of corn-meal per week, and very little else, either in the shape of meat or vegetables. It was not enough for us to subsist upon.

They were well matched, being equally mean and cruel. I was now, for the first time during a space of more than seven years, made to feel the painful gnawings of hunger-- a something which I had not experienced before since I left Colonel Lloyd's plantation. It went hard enough with me then, when I could look back to no period at which I had enjoyed a sufficiency. It was tenfold harder after living in Master Hugh's family, where I had always had enough to eat, and of that which was good. I have said Master Thomas was a mean man. He was so. Not to give a slave enough to eat, is regarded as the most aggravated development of meanness even among slaveholders. The rule is, no matter how coarse the food, only let there be enough of it. This is the theory; and in the part of Maryland from which I came, it is the general practice,--though

She is ever disposed to find fault with them; they can seldom do any thing to please her; she is never better pleased than when she sees them under the lash, especially when she suspects her husband of showing to his mulatto children favors which he withholds from his black slaves. The master is frequently compelled to sell this class of his slaves, out of deference to the feelings of his white wife; and, cruel as the deed may strike any one to be, for a man to sell his own children to human flesh-mongers, it is often the dictate of humanity for him to do so; for, unless he does this, he must not only whip them himself, but must stand by and see one white son tie up his brother, of but few shades darker complexion than himself, and ply the gory lash to his naked back; and if he lisp one word of disapproval, it is set down to his parental partiality, and only makes a bad matter worse, both for himself and the slave whom he would protect and defend.

My father was a white man. He was admitted to be such by all I ever heard speak of my parentage. The opinion was also whispered that my master was my father; but of the correctness of this opinion, I know nothing; the means of knowing was withheld from me. My mother and I were separated when I was but an infant--before I knew her as my mother. It is a common custom, in the part of Maryland from which I ran away, to part children from their mothers at a very early age. Frequently, before the child has reached its twelfth month, its mother is taken from it, and hired out on some farm a considerable distance off, and the child is placed under the care of an old woman, too old for field labor. For what this separation is done, I do not know, unless it be to hinder the development of the child's affection toward its mother, and to blunt and destroy the natural affection of the mother for the child. This is the inevitable result.

In gloom, and doubt, and hate, and fear; And manhood, too. with soul of fire, And arm of strength, and smothered ire, Stands pondering with brow of gloom, Upon his <lark unhappy doom,

Upon the \\·ell-contested fi~ld.-_ Turned back the fierce opposing tide. And made the proud inrnder yield-\\ ht·n. wounded. side bv side chey lay. And heard with joy the proud hurrah From their victorious comrades say That they had waged successful war. The thought ne'er entered in their brains That they endured those toils and pains. To forge fresh fetters, hea\'ier chains For their own children. in whose veins Should flow that patriotic blood. So freely shed on field and flood. Oh no: they fought. as thev believed, For the inherent rights ~f man: But mark, how they ha\·e been deceived By slan·ry's accursed plan. They ~ewr th?ught. when thus they shed Their hearts best blood. in freedo· , , Th h . ms cause. at t e1r O~\·n sons would live in dread, Under unJust. oppressi,·e laws:

America, it is to thee. Thou hoasted land of lihnty,-h is to thee I raise my song, Thou lund of blood, and crime, and wrong.

Ar'n't I a Woman? · Speech to the Women's Rights Convention in Akr~n, Ohio, 185

publish the Narrative of Sojourner Truth, a contribution to both the slave narrative and female spiritual autobiography traditions of African American literature. In 1875 with the aid of a white friend, Frances Titus, Truth reprinted her Narrative

Sojourner Truth never leurncd to read or write. "I cannot read a book, but_ I can read the people,

Unless the image of God be obliterated from the soul, all men cher-ish the love of Liberty.

The voice of Freedom cried, “Emancipate your slaves.” Humanity supplicated with tears for the deliverance of the children of Africa. Wisdom urged her solemn plea. The bleeding captive pleaded his innocence, and pointed to Christianity who stood weeping at the cross. Jehovah frowned upon the nefarious institu-tion, and thunderbolts, red with vengeance, struggled to leap forth to blast the guilty wretches who maintained it. But all was vain. Slavery had stretched its dark wings of death over the land, the Church stood silently by—the priests prophesied falsely, and the people loved to have it so. Its throne is established, and now it reigns triumphant.

We have been contented in sitting still and mourning over your sorrows, earnestly hoping that before this day your sacred liberties would have been restored. But, we have hoped in vain. Years have rolled on, and tens of thousands have been borne on streams of blood and tears, to the shores of eternity. While you have been oppressed, we have also been partak-ers with you; nor can we be free while you are enslaved. We, there-fore, write to you as being bound with you.

And as the inhuman system of slavery, is the source from which most of our miseries proceed, I shall begin with that curse to nations, which has spread terror and devastation through so many nations of antiquity, and which is raging to such a pitch at the present day in Spain and in Portugal. It had one tug in England, in France, and in the United States of America; yet the inhabitants thereof, do not learn wisdom, and erase it entirely from their dwellings and from all with whom they have to do

All persons who are acquainted with history, and particularly the Bible, who are not blinded by the God of this world, and are not actuated solely by avarice--who are able to lay aside prejudice long enough to view candidly and impartially, things as they were, are, and probably will be--who are willing to admit that God made man to serve Him alone, and that man should have no other Lord or Lords but Himself--that God Almighty is the sole proprietor or master of the WHOLE human family,

 I will not here speak of the destructions which the Lord brought upon Egypt, in consequence of the oppression and consequent groans of the oppressed--of the hundreds and thousands of Egyptians whom God hurled into the Red Sea for afflicting his people in their land--

"'Expensive?' replied the auctioneer, with an air of surprise. 'But surely you see how pretty she is; how clear her skin is, how firm her flesh is. She's eigh-teen years old at the most .... ' Even as he spoke, he ran his shameless hands all over the ample and half-naked form of the beautiful African. "'Is she guaranteed?' asked !\lfred, after a moment of reflection. "'As pure as the morning ck·v,,/ the auctioneer responded. But, for that matter, you yourself can. . , /

30). Certainly the hymns in his collection have vivid imagery and highly personalized texts-the kind that would have attraction for the newly converted ex-slaves who comp

HE FIRST HYMNAL compiled expressly for the use of a black congregation, entitled A Collection of Spiritual Songs and Hymns, Selectedfrom Various Authors, was published in 1801 by Richard Allen, who is identified on the title page as "African Minis- ter." Now Richard Allen is justly celebrated as one of the founders of the world's first black Christian denomination, the African Methodist Episcopal Church (hereafter AME), which he served as the first bishop, and for his civil-rights activities in Philadelphia, but little attention has been given to his pioneering role in laying the foundation for black-American hymno

The implications of the hymnbook for establishing an independent black church were spelled out explicitly in another Methodist book some twenty years later.

Several scholars have identified this book as among the first to include a type of folk hymn known as “re-vival songs” or “gospel hymns.”

Richard Allen, born a slave, freed by his own savings, and one of the leading black citizens of early national Philadelphia, produced the first known hymnbook compiled by an African-American in 1801.2

The French in this combat with the Revolutionists, suffered much, both from the extreme sultriness of the day, and the courage of those with whom they contended; disappointed and harrassed by the Islanders; they thought it a principle of policy, to resort to acts of cruelty; and to intimidate them, resolved, that none of them should be spared; but that the sword should annihilate, or compel them to submit to their wonted degradations;

St. Nicholas was the unfortunate village, first to be devoted to the resentful rage of the cruel enemy. All the natives were doomed to suffer; the mother and the infant that reposed on her bosom, fell by the same sword, while groans of the sick served only as the guides which discovered them to the inhumanity of the inexorable, at whose hands they met a miserable death.

This I desire not for their Hurt, but to convince them of the strange Absurdity of their Conduct whose Words and Actions are so diametrically, opposite. How well the Cry for Liberty, and the reverse Disposition for the exercise of oppressive Power over others agree,

Chaos which has reign'd so long, is converting into beautiful Order, and [r]eveals more and more clearly, the glorious Dispensation of civil and religious Liberty, which are so inseparably Limited, that there is little or no Enjoyment of one Without the other

natural Rights: Those that invade them cannot be insensible that the divine Light is chasing away the thick Darkness which broods over the Land of Africa;

Proceed, great chief, with virtue on thy side, Thy ev’ry action let the Goddess guide. A crown, a mansion, and a throne that shine, With gold unfading, WASHINGTON! Be thine.

See mother earth her offspring’s fate bemoan, And nations gaze at scenes before unknown! See the bright beams of heaven’s revolving light Involved in sorrows and the veil of night!

dreadful in refulgent arms. See mother earth her offspring’s fate bemoan, And nations gaze at scenes before unknown! See the bright beams of heaven’s revolving light Involved in sorrows and the veil of night!

Eunice Allen see the Indians coming, And hopes to save herself by running, And had not her petticoats stopped her, The awful creatures had not catched her,

Samuel Allen like a hero fout, And though he was so brave and bold, His face no more shalt we behold

And now, That in the Providence of that GOD, who delivered his Servant David out of the Paw of the Lion and out of the Paw of the Bear, I am freed from a long and dreadful Captivity, among worse Savages than they; And am return'd to my own Native Land, to Shew how Great Things the Lord hoth done for Me; I would call upon all Men, and Say, O Magnifie the Lord with Me, and let us Exalt his Name together!--O that Men would Praise the Lord for His Goodness, and for his Wonderful Works to the Children of Men

ut the Providence of God order'd it otherways, for He appeared for my Help, in this Mount of Difficulty, and they were better to me then my Fears, and soon unbound me, but set a Guard over me every Night

They kept me with them about five Weeks, during which Time they us'd me pretty well, and gave me boil'd Corn, which was what they often eat themselves.

ear to my father, that that place had been invaded by a numerous army, from a nation not far distant, furnished with musical instruments, and all kinds of arms then in use; that they were instigated by some white nation who equipped and sent them to subdue and possess the country; that his nation had made no preparation for war, having been for a long time in profound peace that they could not defend themselves against such a formidable train of invaders, and must therefore necessarily evacuate their lands to the fierce enemy, and fly to the protection of some chief; and that if he would permit them they should come under his rule and protection when they had to retreat from their own possessions. He was a kind and merciful prince, and therefore consented to these proposals.

I still look back with pleasure on the first scenes of my life, though that pleasure has been for the most part mingled with sorrow.

Might it not naturally be ascribed to their situation? When they come among Europeans, they are ignorant of their Page 43 language, religion, manners, and customs. Are any pains taken to teach them these? Are they treated as men? Does not slavery itself depress the mind, and extinguish all its fire and every noble sentiment?

I was named Olaudah, which, in our language, signifies vicissitude or fortune also, one favoured, and having a loud voice and well spoken.