Edith Howes - "Wonderwings and other Fairy Stories"

John Fox - "In Happy Valley"

H. Irving Hancock - "The Grammar School Boys Snowbound"

Henry Sydnor Harrison - "Captivating Mary Carstairs"

Annual Bibliography of Commonwealth Literature 2007
This paper argues that discourses of love in Ghanaian market literature for youth offer a view into complex negotiations of agency and empowerment. Drawing on Deborah Durham's notion of youth as "social `shifters'" and Francis Nyamnjoh's conception of the "interconnectedness" of agency, I take Ghanaian market literature as one specific case of how African literature for youth foregrounds questions of continuity and change as African societies enter into increasingly complex global relations. In this literature for youth, received notions of love, often constructed out of impressions from American pop and hip hop music, carry new notions of agency that compete with existing "domesticated" forms. Authors like Ike Tandoh and Evelyn Tay employ discourses of love to offer youth alternative avenues for empowerment in a context of socio-economic disenfranchizement. In a creative process of "straddling", this writing both reveals and reproduces the contradictions that obtain in youth configurations of agency.

The Journal of Negro History, Volume 2, 1917

V >> Various >> The Journal of Negro History, Volume 2, 1917




One of the earliest movements in which an effort was made to adopt
some particular plan of operation was at Georgetown, District of
Columbia, in March, 1816. The meeting was called by a resident of
Georgetown, then a little village, and several citizens of the
neighboring States were present and took part in the discussion.[255]

Other expressions favorable to the deportation of Negroes were made
about this time. At a meeting in Greene County, Tennessee, composed of
delegates of the Manumission Society, emancipation was recommended
"and if thought best, that a colony be laid off for their reception as
they become free."[256] Dr. Jesse Torrey, Jr., a physician, writing a
few days before the passage of the Virginia resolutions, advocated the
transfer of the Negroes to some distant American Territory. He
thought, since Congress had done nothing toward such a movement,
public subscriptions from beneficent societies and individuals should
be solicited with which to purchase a suitable site for a colony and
meet the expense of transportation.[257] Hezekiah Niles, the great
compiler, said he had thought on colonization from his youth up.[258]
An editorial in a Georgia newspaper dated January 1, 1817, said
deportation was seriously agitated in different parts of the country.
The Georgia editor believed that free blacks were dangerous to the
welfare of society and that the gradual reduction of the number of
slaves was imperative to the public good. "We must choose between our
own destruction and general emancipation," said the Georgian. "If the
government will find means of conveying out of the country such slaves
as may be emancipated and would likewise purchase annually a certain
number, particularly females for transportation, it is believed our
black population would soon become harmless if not extinct. To the
importance of such an object, the expense will bear no comparison; and
a more favorable period than at present for its accomplishment can
scarcely be expected."[259]

The Georgia editor was right. On the very day that his editorial went
to press, a representative body of men were in conference on this
subject at Washington city; and as a result of their deliberation the
American Society for Colonizing the Free People of Color of the United
States (later known as the American Colonization Society) was
organized. The leading advocates of Negro deportation looked to the
city of Washington as the strategic place to advance their cause. The
earliest arrival was Robert Finley, who reached the capital about the
beginning of the month of December, 1816. He had spent the greater
part of the fall maturing plans for bringing the cause before the
people. It is highly probable that he knew nothing about the plans of
other advocates nor of the action of the Virginia Assembly. Upon his
arrival at Washington he immediately began to call on Congressmen, the
Cabinet officials, the President, and, in fact, on any one whom he
could interest.[260]

Finley was in communication with Paul Cuffe, the only practical
colonizationist in America. His expeditions to Africa and England, and
especially the transportation of Negroes to Sierra Leone, in 1815,
were noted in the press as far west as Louisville, Kentucky,[261] and
those interested in further efforts along this line were in touch with
him. Samuel C. Aiken, of Andover, had written him on July 23, 1816,
and Jedekiah Morse four days later.[262] Finley wrote Cuffe, December
5, on the back of the printed memorial to the New Jersey Legislature,
undoubtedly the work of the Princeton meeting of the previous
November, for information about Sierra Leone, information to be used
by him and others interested in the free people of color. He also
asked if Cuffe thought some other part of Africa more desirable for a
settlement than Sierra Leone and stated that "the great desire of
those whose minds are impressed with this subject is to give an
opportunity to the free people of color to rise to their proper level
and at the same time to provide a powerful means of putting an end to
the slave trade and sending civilization and Christianity to
Africa."[263] Cuffe was unable to reply to this letter before January
8. He gave Finley the information he desired and recommended in the
event of a general deportation the Cape of Good Hope as a location for
a settlement.[264]

In a printed pamphlet, "Thoughts on the Colonization of Free
Blacks,"[265] which Finley wrote about this time and which he was
distributing in Washington, is contained the line of argument he was
using. He said: "At present, as if by divine impulse, men of virtue,
piety, and reflection, are turning their thoughts to this subject, and
seem to see the wished-for plan unfolding, in the gradual separation
of the black from the white population, by providing for the former,
some suitable situation, where men may enjoy the advantages to which
they are entitled by nature and their Creator's will." He argued for
the practicability of establishing a colony either in the "Wild Lands"
of America or in Africa, but he thought Africa the more desirable as
this location would prevent conflicts with the remaining slave
population, and avoid foreign intrigues. He held that Africa had the
advantage of being the real home of the Negro, of having the existing
settlements in Sierra Leone formed by English philanthropists and by
Paul Cuffe. On the other hand, requiring explorations, diplomatic
negotiations and great expense, it offered greater obstacles than a
location within America. But Finley was not disheartened, believing,
as he did, in the justice of the cause and in the wisdom of Congress
to devise some means to lighten, perhaps to repay, the cost. He
continued by saying: "Many of the free people of color have property
sufficient to transport, and afterward to establish themselves. The
ships of war might be employed occasionally in this service, while
many Negroes themselves could be induced to procure a passage to the
land of their independence. The crews of the national ships which
might be from time to time at the colony, would furnish at least a
part of that protection which would be necessary for the settlers; and
in a little time the trade which the colony would open with the
interior, would more than compensate for every expense, if the colony
were wisely formed." The Negroes, Finley thought, would gladly go, for
they long after happiness and have the common pride and feelings of
men. Already, he pointed out, an association of free blacks existed in
Philadelphia whose purpose was to correspond with Sierra Leone and
investigate the possibilities of an immigration. Finley held that
colonization would gradually reduce slavery, because provision being
made for the emancipated slaves, masters would manumit them.

Samuel J. Mills, "having been providentially made acquainted"[266]
with this movement, about the close of November left New York, where
he was working among the poor, immediately for Washington. What he, as
well as the other workers, did there, is pretty well indicated by
Congressman Elijah J. Mills of Massachusetts in a letter to his wife,
under date of December 25: "Among the great and important objects to
which our attention is called, a project is lately started for
settling, with free blacks which abound in the South and West, a
colony, either on the coast of Africa, or in some remote region in our
own country. It has excited great interest, and I am inclined to think
that in the course of a few years it will be carried into effect. I
enclose you an address which is in circulation here upon the subject.
Agents are attending from different parts of the United States,
soliciting Congress to take the subject up immediately, and I was this
morning called upon by a Mr. Mills (a young clergyman who was at New
Orleans with Smith), who is very zealously engaged in the work. He is
an intelligent young man, and appears completely devoted to the great
work of diffusing the blessings of Christianity to those who are
ignorant of it."[267]

The first general conference that the colonization workers had in
Washington was in the nature of a "prayer meeting"[268] held in the
home of Elias B. Caldwell, a brother-in-law of Finley, clerk of the
United States Supreme Court, and afterward secretary of the American
Colonization Society. This meeting, which both Mills and Finley
attended, was "for the purpose of imploring the divine direction, on
the evening of the following day, when the expediency of forming a
Colonization Society was to be publicly discussed."[269] The
enthusiasm of Finley at this time was almost boundless; he would give
five hundred dollars of his own scanty means to insure its success;
when some, thinking the project foolhardy, laughed at it, he declared,
"I know the scheme is from God."[270] The efficacy of prayer bore the
traditional fruit, for whereas persons "were brought there from
curiosity, or by the solicitation of their friends, viewing the scheme
as too chimerical for any national being to undertake [nevertheless] a
great change"[271] was produced on them.

According to their plans, Congressman Charles Marsh, of Vermont,
having made the necessary arrangements,[272] the colonizationists held
on the next evening, December 21, 1816, in the Davis Hotel, a public
meeting, attended by citizens of Washington, Georgetown, Alexandria,
and other parts of the country. Among the men of note present, not
heretofore mentioned, were Henry Clay, Francis S. Key, Bishop William
Meade, John Randolph, and Judge Bushrod Washington.[273] Niles reports
the attendance "numerous and respectable, and its proceedings fraught
with interest."[274] The avowed object of the meeting was for the
"purpose of considering the expediency and practicability of
ameliorating the condition of the Free People of Color now in the
United States, by providing a Colonial Retreat, either on this
continent or that of Africa."[275]

Henry Clay, the chairman of the meeting, pointed out in his remarks
that no attempt was being made "to touch or agitate in the slightest
degree, a delicate question, connected with another portion of the
colored population of this country. It was not proposed to deliberate
upon or consider at all, any question of emancipation, or that which
was connected with the abolition of slavery. It was upon that
condition alone he was sure, that many gentlemen from the South and
West, whom he saw present, had attended, or could be expected to
cooperate. It was upon that condition only that he himself had
attended."[276]

The principal address was delivered by Elias B. Caldwell, the
Princeton schoolmate of Charles Fenton Mercer. He argued for the
expediency and practicability of African colonization. It was
expedient because the free blacks have a demoralizing influence on our
civil institutions; they can never enjoy equality among the whites in
America; only in a district by themselves will they ever be happy. To
colonize them in America would invite the possibility of their making
common cause with the Indians and border nations, and furnish an
asylum for fugitives and runaway slaves. Africa seemed the best place
to send them: there was a settlement already in Sierra Leone, the
climate was agreeable to the colored man's constitution, they could
live cheaply there, and above all other reasons, they could carry
civilization and Christianity to the Africans. While the expense would
be greater than that connected with a settlement on the American
Continent yet, in order to make atonement for the wrongs done Africa,
America should contribute to this object both from the treasury of the
national government and from the purse of private individuals. With
the promise of equality, a homestead, and a free passage, no black
would refuse to go. In concluding his speech he said: "It is for us to
make the experiment and the offers; we shall then, and not till then,
have discharged our duty. It is a plan in which all interests, all
classes, and descriptions of people may unite, in which all discordant
feelings may be lost in those of humanity, in promoting 'peace on
earth and good will to man.'"[277]

Robert Wright of Maryland, having pointed out some difficulties, gave
colonization his approbation with the hope that there would arise for
gradual emancipation some plan in which slaves would be prepared for
freedom, and slaveholders would be remunerated out of the funds of the
nation.[278]

It appeared to John Randolph of Roanoke that "it had not been
sufficiently insisted on with a view to obtain the cooperation of all
the citizens of the United States, not only that this meeting does not
in any wise affect the question of Negro Slavery, but, as far as it
goes, must materially tend to secure the property of every master in
the United States over his slaves." He considered the free black "a
great evil," "a nuisance," and "a bug-bear to every man who feels an
inclination to emancipate his slaves." "If a place could be provided
for their reception," said Randolph, "and a mode of sending them
hence, there were [sic] hundreds, nay thousands of citizens" who would
manumit their slaves.[279] Randolph's characterization of the free
black was generally approved by the leaders in this movement. Caldwell
used "degraded" and "ignorant" in describing this class of people.
Mills said: "It will transfer to the coast of Africa the blessings of
religion and civilization; and Ethiopia will soon stretch out her
hands to God."[280]

One finds it difficult to explain how the colonizationists could argue
that one of their objects was to remove a dangerous element from our
population and at the same time take civilization and Christianity to
Africa. No doubt it was expected that the Negroes who attended the
schools, established principally by Mills, would become efficient
leaders of their fellows. It is highly probable also that the
arguments were designed for different sections of the country and
different classes of people--to remove the dangerous element would
make a strong appeal to the slaveholder and the South, for it was
believed that the free black contaminated and ruined the slave; to
civilize and Christianize Africa would appeal to churchmen and
religious bodies, and this argument could be used in the North. To
return to Africa people who could contribute to her betterment;
indeed, to return to Africa the descendants of her enslaved sons and
daughters improved by contact with the civilization of the whites
would be a recompense to that continent for the wrongs perpetrated,
during a period of two hundred years, on her population. It was only
America's moral obligation, said the colonizationists, to return the
black population to Africa.

Another object the deportationists had in mind was to stop the slave
trade. They believed that the existence of a settlement in Africa
would deter the slaveholder from securing his cargo in human beings.
It would also furnish the opportunity needed to develop a commerce in
legitimate articles of trade between Africa and America and other
parts of the world. It was also hoped by the leaders of this
deportation movement to remove the great obstacle to the abolition of
slavery. Now that provision was made for the freedmen the slaveholder
felt at liberty to manumit his slaves. To quote Mills again: "It is
confidently believed by many of our best and wisest men, that, if the
plan proposed succeeds, it will ultimately be the means of
exterminating slavery in our country."[281]

The charge was made later, especially by the Abolitionists, that the
movement was a deeply laid device for making slavery more secure than
ever. They took great delight in referring to Randolph's remark, made
at the first public meeting of the deportationists, that colonization
would tend "to secure the property of every master in the United
States over his slaves." Subsequently the management of the Society
itself recognized the force of this remark as a quotation from the
eighty-second report will show: "It was this ill-omened utterance of a
solitary member of the Society, who appears to have taken very little
if any part in its subsequent proceedings, that afterward gave the
impracticable abolitionists a text for the most vituperative and
persistent assaults upon the Society and its purpose."[282] Randolph's
remark is not only qualified by the fact that he took "very little if
any part in its subsequent proceedings" but also by his prediction
that thousands of slaveholders, when assured of a place to send the
Negroes, would emancipate their slaves because they would then be
relieved from their care. With all this, however, Randolph claimed the
colonization movement had nothing to do with abolition.

And it must also be remembered that the eccentric Randolph was only
one man among a large group of men who were interested in the
deportation movement. In this large group two, Mills and Finley,
religious patriots, stand head and shoulders above all the others,
both of whom, Mills, particularly, hoped to provide a method for the
abolition of slavery. Moreover, the Abolitionists should have observed
that the name of Daniel Webster appeared among the signers of the
constitution as well as the name of Ferdinando Fairfax[283] and
especially that of William Thorton.[284] Fairfax and Thorton were
excellent representatives of deportation schemes, proposed in the
eighteenth century and deliberately designed to remove from our
country all Negroes both free and slave. It seems, therefore, safe to
conclude that the colonization movement of 1816-17 was at that time
sincere in its purpose and straightforward in its aims.

Therefore with humanitarian aims the colonizationists at their first
public meeting, December 21, 1816, passed resolutions favorable to the
formation of an association for the purpose of deporting the free
blacks to Africa or elsewhere, and appointed a committee to draw up
and present a memorial to Congress requesting measures for securing a
suitable territory for a settlement, and another committee to prepare
a constitution and rules to govern the association when formed.[285]
Having taken this action, they decided to adjourn until the following
Saturday, December 28, at six o'clock.

According to this arrangement "citizens of Washington, Georgetown, and
Alexandria, and many others" met in the Hall of the House of
Representatives of the United States and adopted a Constitution.[286]
By provision of the Constitution the Association was "The American
Society for Colonizing the Free People of Color of the United States"
and its exclusive object "to promote and execute a plan for colonizing
(with their consent) the Free People of Color residing in our Country,
in Africa, or such other place as Congress shall deem most
expedient." Every citizen of the United States was eligible to
membership upon the payment of one dollar, the annual dues, or as
amended a few days later, thirty dollars for life membership.
Provision was made for the usual officers and for the formation of
auxiliary societies to this parent organization.[287] The first annual
meeting was fixed for Wednesday, January 1, 1817.

On this date the colonizationists met in Davis's Hotel, Henry Clay
again presiding. Bushrod Washington was elected President of the
Society, equally noted men were chosen for the other officers,[288]
and on motion of the Honorable John C. Herbert of Maryland, Reverend
Robert Finley was "requested to close the meeting with an address to
the Throne of Grace"[289] which he did, it being "his last public act
in the last public meeting"[290] for the organization and success of
the American Colonization Society.

HENRY NOBLE SHERWOOD, PH.D.

STATE NORMAL SCHOOL,
LA CROSSE, WIS.


FOOTNOTES:

[234] For an extended account of the plans proposed before 1816, for
removing the colored population, see H. N. Sherwood, "Early Negro
Deportation Projects," in the _Mississippi Valley Historical Review_,
II, 485 ff.

[235] _Niles' Register_, XVII, 30. Some of the slaves of James Smith,
a Methodist preacher of Virginia, had accompanied their quondam master
to Ohio in 1798. Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society,
Publications, XVI, 348-352.

[236] Documentary History of American Industrial Society, II, 161,
162.

[237] This story has been told by the writer, "Paul Cuffe and his
Contribution to the American Colonization Society," in Mississippi
Valley Historical Society, _Proceedings_, VI, 370-402.

[238] Thomas Jefferson, Writings (Ford ed., New York, 1892-1899).

[239] American Colonization Society, First Annual Report (Washington,
1817), 6, 7.

[240] "The Life of Benjamin Lundy" (Philadelphia, 1847), 16. The
manuscript record is in the archives of the Ohio Historical and
Philosophical Society.

[241] American State Papers, Miscellaneous, II, 278, 279. The Petition
reached Congress January 18, 1816. It was referred to the Committee on
the Public Lands and reported on adversely. Annals of Congress, 14th
Cong., 1st session, 691.

[242] These resolutions are printed in American State Papers,
Miscellaneous, I, 464.

[243] Archibald Alexander, "A History of Colonization on the West
Coast of Africa" (Philadelphia, 1846), 75-76; _Niles' Register_, XI,
275, 296; James Mercer Garnett, "Biographical Sketch of Charles Fenton
Mercer" (Richmond, Va., 1911), 15.

[244] Mercer's resolutions were passed by the House of Delegates,
December 14, 1816, passed with amendment by the Senate, December 20,
and concurred in by the House, December 21. Annals of Congress, 15th
Congress, 1st session, II, 1774. Indiana, Georgia and Tennessee, all a
little later, passed similar resolutions. _American Quarterly_, IV,
397.

[245] American Colonization Society, First Annual Report, 8.

[246] Isaac V. Brown, "Biography of the Reverend Robert Finley, of
Basking Ridge, N. J." (Philadelphia, 1857), 60.

[247] Printed in Brown, _Finley_, 60, 61. See also _African
Repository_, II, 2, 3, and Matthew Carey, "Letters on Colonization and
its Probable Results addressed to C. F. Mercer," Philadelphia, 1834,
7.

[248] _Niles' Register_, XI, 260. Colonel Ercuries Beatty president at
the meeting. The committee appointed to secure signatures to the
memorial consisted of the following names: Elisha Clark, John G.
Schenck, Dr. E. Stockton, Dr. J. Van Cleve, and Robert Voorhees. Byron
Sunderland in his "Liberian Colonization," _Liberian Bulletin_, No.
16, 18, says this meeting was virtually a failure. The memorial may be
found in the Cuffe manuscripts. It was sent to Paul Cuffe by Robert
Finley when the latter was in Washington seeking to bring about some
general deportation movement.

[249] Gardiner Spring, "Memoir of Samuel John Mills" (Boston and New
York, 1829), 10.

[250] Sunderland, "Liberian Colonization," _Liberian Bulletin_, No.
16, 18.

[251] Massachusetts Historical Society, Collections, Second Series,
II, 1.

[252] Report of a missionary tour through that part of the United
States which lies west of the Allegheny Mountains (Andover, 1815).

[253] Thomas C. Richards, "Samuel J. Mills, Missionary, Pathfinder,
Pioneer and Promoter" (Boston, 1906), 190, 191; Spring, "Memoir of
Mills," 129.

[254] Spring, "Memoir of Mills," 125, 126; _African Repository_, I,
276. A school based on these principles was established in New York
also, in October, 1816. While the above quotation was written by Mills
in July, 1817, it is a fair representation of his idea for several
years previous.

[255] An editorial in the _North American Review_, XXXV, 126.

[256] _Niles' Register_, XIV, 321. Thomas Doan, Aaron Coppock, James
Boyd, Joseph Coin, and Elihu Embree signed such a statement.

[257] Jesse Torrey, Jr., "A Portraiture of Domestic Slavery, in the
United States: with Reflections on the Practicability of Restoring the
Moral Rights of the Slave, without Impairing the Legal Privileges of
the Possessor; and a Project of a Colonial Asylum for Free Persons of
Colour: including Memoirs of Facts on the Interior Traffic in Slaves,
and on Kidnapping" (Philadelphia, 1817), 27-30.

[258] _Niles' Register_, XIII, 180.

[259] "Documentary History of American Industrial Society," II, 157,
158.

[260] _African Repository_, I, 23.

[261] See the Western Courier (Louisville, Kentucky), for October 26,
1815.

[262] Paul Cuffe manuscripts in the Public Library, New Bedford, Mass.
Paul Cuffe to Samuel C. Aiken, August 7, 1816; Paul Cuffe to Jedekiah
Morse, August 10, 1816.

[263] _Ibid._, Robert Finley to Paul Cuffe, December 5, 1816, Finley
asked that the reply if mailed to him at Washington be sent in care of
his brother-in-law, Elias B. Caldwell.

[264] _Ibid._, Paul Cuffe to Robert Finley, January 8, 1817.

[265] Printed in Brown, _Finley_, 66 ff. The pamphlet was written
before he came to Washington.

[266] Spring, "Memoir of Mills," 131.

[267] Massachusetts Historical Society, _Proceedings_, First Series,
XIX, 20.

[268] _African Repository_, I, 2, 3. Referring to Caldwell in an
address at an annual meeting of the Society, January 20, 1827, Clay
said: "It is now a little upwards of ten years since a religious,
amiable and benevolent resident of this city, first conceived the idea
of planting a colony, from the United States, of free people of color,
on the western shores of Africa. He is no more, and the noblest eulogy
that could be pronounced on him would be to inscribe upon his tomb,
the merited epitaph, 'Here lies the projector of the American
Colonization Society.'" Clay was historically mistaken. Similar things
were said of Mills and Finley. This speech may be found in pamphlet
form in the Library of the Ohio Historical and Philosophical Society.

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