USA > Illinois > Edwards County > History of the English settlement in Edwards County, Illinois : founded in 1817 and 1818, by Morris Birkbeck and George Flower > Part 19
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These, and similar outrages on ourselves, and assaults on the peaceable blacks settled among us, were of frequent occurrence. Seeing no hope of just treatment to the free colored people that lived on my lands, or of relieving my- self from the trouble of defending them, I proposed that they should go to Hayti. When they acceded to my pro- posal, I thought it due to them and myself to acquire more specific information of the island, and of the terms on which they would be received. For this purpose, I em- ployed Mr. Robert Grayham (formerly an English mer- chant), a gentleman who spoke the French language with fluency. He was at the time living with his brother-in- law, Mr. Sorgenfrey, in a prairie west of the Little Wabash. Their former habits not suiting them to prairie life, Mr. Sor- genfrey went to Carmi, and Mr. Grayham took this mission as a first step to a future change. I gave him five hundred dollars to bear his expenses, with a letter to Gen. Boyer, then president of Hayti, representing the case, and asking an asylum for my party of blacks, big and little, about
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ENGLISHI SETTLEMENT IN EDWARDS COUNTY.
thirty in number; also for other free people of color of the United States, if they chose to go there. Mr. Grayham returned in good time. He gave me a very pleasing account of his visit to the island, his interview with Ingi- nac, the secretary, and with Boyer, the president.
When Boyer heard from Mr. Grayham that I had given five hundred dollars to get this information for the poor blacks, he, in the handsomest manner, handed him the amount, requesting him to give it to me, which he did on his return. The document he sent me in reply to my long letter, and many inquiries, was an official one, from the office of the secretary-of-state, stamped with the insignia of the republic, with national mottoes and devices. For propriety and perspicuity of diction, and for the neatness and beauty of its mechanical execution, it will favorably compare with similar documents from any government, whether European or American.
The following spring, the colored emigrants prepared to take their departure. Among them were three brothers, men of extraordinary stature, standing six feet four, and over. This family of Joneses, able-bodied men and good farmers, with two or three other colored families, formerly lived higher up the Wabash, and were mustered into the service of the United States by Gen. Harrison, who formed a colored company to aid in defending the frontier during the war in 1812. Provided with a good flat-boat, stocked with sufficient provisions for their inland navigation and sea voyage, well furnished with axes, hoes, and plows, this party of colored people left the mouth of Bonpas Creek, where Grayville now stands, in March, 1823, under the
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THE COLONISTS ORGANIZED.
guidance and care of Mr. Robert Grayham, the only white man on board.
The testimonials of their freedom were complete; signed by the clerk of the county, the secretary-of-state, and by Governor Coles himself. They floated down the Wabash, and entered the Ohio in safety. As they were floating quietly and peaceably down the stream, when opposite to Shawneetown they were hailed, and invited to land, which Mr. Grayham acceded to, having many acquaint- ances, and being well known in the town. When about to depart, he was compelled to remain, with threats of sinking his boat if he made the attempt to go. He and the peo- ple were forcibly detained for four and twenty hours. They were at length suffered to depart, amid much confu- sion and violent denunciations. Of the peaceable demeanor and lawful objects of the emigrants, there was no question. By a strange inconsistency, the very people who profess to dislike the existence of free blacks among us, were the most bitter opponents to their removal.
At the expense of slight repetition, I will insert a letter addressed by me to the editor of the Shawnectown Gazete, dated Jan. 22, 1824:
"Mr. Editor :- It will be gratifying to the friends of humanity to learn, that the party of colored people that left the Wabash last March, arrived safely in the island of Hayti on the 8th of June. To those good people of Shaw- neetown, and others who have expressed apprehensions that Mr. Flower and Mr. Grayham had sold these poor blacks, it will doubtless be a high source of satisfaction to hear that upon their arrival at Hayti, they were welcomed
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ENGLISH SETTLEMENT IN EDWARDS COUNTY.
by the people and kindly received by the president, who put them on a good plantation, about twenty miles from the capital. To remove erroneous impressions arising from false reports concerning this party of blacks, I will give a brief history of their emigration. A few families of colored people, living on my land as tenants, wished to go to some country where their liberty and property would be better secured to them than in this. Some of them made application to the African Colonization Society; but, re- ceiving no encouragement or assistance, gave up the plan. I recommended St. Domingo as a country better suited to them, and one to which they could transport themselves with ease. Particular information being wanted, I sent Mr. Robert Grayham to Hayti, to learn the expense and difficulties of the voyage, the state of the country, and what encouragement would be given to black emigrants from the United States. He returned in October, 1822, with the requisite information. The answer of the gov- ernment of Hayti to my inquiries was published in your paper. In March, 1823, a party of colored people, about thirty in number, left the Wabash in a boat of their own, with some freight put on board by myself and others, under the care of Mr. Robert Grayham, who was to conduct the boat to New Orleans, and see the people on board a vessel for Port au Prince. The boat stopped at Shawnee- town for a few hours. Mr. Grayham, having dispatched his business there, was in the act of departing, when a mob assembled on the shore and ordered him to come-to again, accompanied by a threat of sinking the boat, in case of noncompliance. The boat was again brought to shore. On
OUTRAGES ON COLONISTS AT NEW ORLEANS. 269
Mr. Grayham's inquiring what they wanted, these officious people were somewhat at a loss. They wanted him to sleep on shore! To this unreasonable request he complied, on condition that a friend should sleep on board for the protection of property. The next day he departed. Upon his arrival at New Orleans, Mr. Grayham, as a matter of courtesy, waited upon the mayor, and informed him that his boat was manned by free colored people from Illinois and Indiana, who were going, with their families to Hayti. This official immediately replied that he would send them all to jail; and, if they were not sent out of the city in eight days, he would sell them all for slaves. The remon- strances of Mr. Grayham against such violent aggression upon the persons of free inhabitants of the United States, passing to a foreign country, was to no effect. The men were thrown into prison. But at the intercession of a humane friend, Mr. Gilbert, the women and children were permitted to remain on board their own boat; also two men, for whose appearance and good behavior this friend gave a bond. Mr. Grayham, placed in this unpleasant situ- ation, hastily took a passage in a vessel about to sail in three days for St. Domingo. The poor men, deprived of the means of earning anything on the wharves, and more than all they had demanded of them for jail-fees, etc., were unable to pay their passage money, and would actually have been sold as slaves by the mayor of New Orleans, had not Mr. Grayham promptly drawn on me for the neces- sary funds-three hundred and sixty dollars-to carry them out of the country. Thus were the free inhabitants of the United States, while peaceably pursuing their way to a
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neighboring country, without fault or crime imputed or alleged against them, threatened with the doom of slavery, if they did not submit to the extortion of their money under the title of jail-fees, by the chief-magistrate of a city of this Republic, boasting the inalienable and inherent rights of man, and vaunting itself as the most enlightened nation of the earth.
"With what indignation will all those good people view the conduct of the mayor of New Orleans, who could not help expressing their apprehensions lest Mr. Flower and Mr. Grayham should have sold these blacks.
"ALBION, Jan. 22, 1824. GEORGE FLOWER."
The mayor of New Orleans was a refugee from Hayti, which accounts, in some degree, for the unusual violence he displayed on the occasion. But anxieties were not yet at an end. The brig, often becalmed, was long on its passage.
In the meantime, many sinister reports began to be spread about, and afterward more openly circulated, that Mr. Grayham and myself had enveigled the black men, and, under pretence of sending them to a land of liberty, had sold them all for slaves in the South. The return of Mr. Grayham, some months afterward, with a stock of goods to open a store, in the eyes of many confirmed the report. It was several months (and I confess to some anxiety during the time) before I could confute these slan- ders by the publication of any letters, either from Mr. Grayham or the colored emigrants. They came, at last, from both sources-from the poor people, rejoicing in their
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THE COLONISTS SETTLED IN HAYTI.
change of country, and thanking me for my assistance in getting them there.
A lie once widely spread is seldom entirely eradicated. There are probably now living, those who believe that George Flower sold the free colored people, and pocketed the money; but only, I am happy to say, among that class who would have no scruple in doing it themselves.
The emigration of this small colony of blacks from Illi- nois produced movements of greater importance than were involved in their own personal destinies. So well pleased were the rulers of Hayti with the efficient farming, sober habits, and general industry of the Illinois emigrants, that they conceived the idea of encouraging the free blacks of the Unites States to emigrate on a much larger scale. For this purpose, the Haytian Government sent their citi- zen Granville, a well-informed and well-educated man, on a mission to encourage the emigration of free people-of- color, and offered fourteen dollars a head as passage money to Hayti.
His mission was successful so far as numbers were con- cerned. Five thousand or more went, chiefly from the cities of New York and Baltimore. The influential citi- zens of Philadelphia took a different view of the emigration of their frec-colored population to Hayti, and decidedly gave it discouragement. As the question may again arise in this State, the reasons that influenced the Philadelphians should be duly appreciated. I therefore give the following letter which I received at the time :
"Dear Sir :- You will have learned by the public prints that Citizen Granville arrived some weeks since from
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ENGLISH SETTLEMENT IN EDWARDS COUNTY.
Hayti, for the purpose of encouraging emigration of free people-of -color to that country. He was accompanied from New York by Professor Griscom, who was very san- guine that a society for promoting this object would be desirable here, as well as at New York. A meeting was held a few days since with ten or a dozen of our influential characters, and a full development of the subject was discussed; the result of which was unanimously against promoting the views of Granville. Among other objec- tions, he admitted, that the government was a military despotism; that the land proposed to be allotted to emi- grants was to each one fifteen acres; that these lands are still claimed by the Spanish authorities, and may still be a source of much contention; that the prevalent religion is the Roman Catholic; and that with industry a laborer would not earn more than two dollars a week. The citi- zens of Philadelphia are by no means likely to promote the emigration to Hayti while those of New York are engaged in the object, and now about dispatching a vessel with passengers.
Very respectfully, "JEREMIAH WARDEN. "August 18th, 1824."
But these city-bred Africans were not farmers, like the Illinois men. Barbers, waiters, and a large portion of them found in the lower strata of city life, afforded poor materials for any beneficial purpose, and the removal of most of them was a disappointment to themselves and to the Haytian Government.
This event, well known at the time, occurred in 1824 or 1825, and is doubtless recollected by many persons now
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DISCOVERERS AND FIRST-FOUNDERS.
living. As the convention question, and the contests about the rights of the free blacks, formed two prominent points in our early history, I have dwelt more fully upon these details. Thus ends the black chapter of our history. But ill-feelings engendered during the contest manifested them- selves in other forms, and for some time continued to disturb and distract us.
There are certain classes of men who appear destined to receive sometime in their life, and oftentimes during their whole career, a large share of opposition, detraction, and misrepresentation. The inventors of new machines, whose labor-saving power benefits' the whole family of man, receive cruel opposition in their first attempts to perfect their inventions and bring them to the notice of the pub- lic. Scorn, contempt, and ridicule are poured upon them during their lives, and after dying in their fruitless strug- gles, some one steps in and reaps the reward of their labor, and disingenuously claims the honor of the invention. Fitch and Fulton, of the steam-boat, and Whitney, inven- tor of the cotton-gin, are familiar instances of this class in America. Discoverers of new countries, whose penetra- tion and perseverance have carried their attempts to a successful issue, and whose toils have changed and in- proved the condition of the world, are subject to the same fate. Witness Columbus pursuing his great idea, with slender and apparently inadequate means, through scorn, neglect, and opposition, to a successful issue, after short cclat, in a dungeon and in chains. The first-founders of settlements in new or uninhabited countries, seldom fail of receiving a large share of opposition, detraction, and pecu-
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274 ENGLISH SETTLEMENT IN EDWARDS COUNTY.
niary loss. The most remarkable instance of this kind is to be witnessed in the life and fortunes of the founder of the great State of Pennsylvania, William Penn. Under ill-luck and miscarriage the world seldom fails to visit on the leaders of any great enterprise, reproach and condem- nation. But in the settlement of Pennsylvania a combina- tion of happy circumstances led to complete success. The munificence of the grant! The whole province of Penn -. sylvania given in fee-simple to its founder; its advantageous situation on the sea-board; the peculiar state of the mother country, sending forth emigrants in number, and many of worth and character; the talent and integrity of its founder; his ample fortune and life-long devotion to the interests of the province; a combination of fortunate circumstances rarely, if ever, witnessed in any other similar enterprise, did not save the illustrious founder from the fate of men in his position. Pursued during his whole life by falsehood and defamation, we find him at its close in debt, compelled to mortgage the whole province for five thousand pounds, himself confined to the limits of the Fleet prison, and in that humiliating situation would have died, without one friendly voice or helping-hand from the great province he had successfully established, but for the assistance of some individuals of his own religious persuasion in England.
For facts so conspicuous the reasons seem rather obscure. Is it some great law of compensation that runs through all things, balancing advantage with disadvantage? pleasure with pain ? As the old poet has it,
"Every white must have its black And every sweet its sour."
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LOCAL HOSTILITY TO MR. FLOWER.
Or is it to be found in the universal but unextinguishable propensity in every human breast; the love of giving pain; ethics, morals, and religion notwithstanding?
There is a mysterious antagonism in the order of nature, running through all life, vegetable and animal. Every plant as well as animal has its own peculiar enemy, perse- cutor, and destroyer. But man is the chief enemy of man. Let no man think to pass through this life without his share of annoyances, and as in duty bound I had mine. If he belongs to either of the classes I have mentioned, he is an imperfect calculator, who does not sum up a con- siderable share to his own account. It was about this time that hostile feelings seemed to culminate against me. I was assailed by legal proceedings, as well as other annoy- ances, in every way that malice and ingenuity could invent. But the whole of this hostility was local, confined to our Settlement, and from a portion of my own country peo- ple. With American gentlemen and their families, far and near, from my first entrance into the State up to the present day, my intercourse has been one of unbroken kindness and courtesy. It is true, I neglected somewhat that shield of popularity which men of any standing in our new western country might not at that day with impu-
nity neglect. I rode into our little town most days to attend to any business, or speak with those to whom I had anything to say. I did not linger much, or enter grog- shops, for I used neither whisky nor tobacco, their chief articles of sale. I did not sympathise in these matters with the population around me, and this position an enemy could turn to my disadvantage at any time. A man to be
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ENGLISH SETTLEMENT IN EDWARDS COUNTY.
popular in our new western towns and with the country people around, should be acquainted with everybody, shake hands with everybody, and wear an old coat, with at least one good hole in it. A little whisky and a few squirts of tobacco-juice are indispensable. From much of the former you may be excused if you treat liberally to others. If there is one fool bigger than another, defer to him, make much of him. If there is one fellow a little more greasy and dirty than another, be sure to hug him. Do all this and you have done much toward being a popular man. At least you could scarcely have a jury-case carried against you. I did not do all this and was therefore at a disad- vantage against active enemies who did, and who were leagued against me to drive me and my family from the Settlement. This period was the only exception to an unusual happy life of thirty years duration. And thirty years is a large slice of a man's life.
CHAPTER XII.
Murder of Richard Flower, son of George Flower-Murderer Ac- quitted-Large Outlays for Food-Relations between New Har- mony and the English Settlement-Robert Owen Buys Out the Harmonites-New Harmony under Robert Owen-Men Eminent in Literature, Science, and Art Flocked Around him-His Doc- trines Promulgated Spread far and wide-Mr. Owen's Ability as a Conversationist and His Equanimity of Temper-His Address to the People of Albion-Rapp's Society at New Harmony.
ABOUT this time, a melancholy event occurred in my family. Myself and father were at Pittsburgh, returning from the Eastern cities, when the news of the death of my eldest son was communicated to us by Frederick Rapp. It was occasioned by violence, and occurred in the following manner: My eldest son, Richard, then a prom- ising lad, was living at Park House with his grandmother, during my own and his grandfather's journey to the East. Late in the evening, some backwoodsmen of the lowest description, as they came from Albion, probably full of whisky, rode by the house, uttered several whoops and yells, as if in defiance, as they sometimes would do. The noise they made, induced the dogs to rush out barking. My son Richard ran out to call off the dogs, which he did. As he turned round, to walk into the house, one of the fellows dismounted, and, picking up a large bone, threw it at the poor lad. It struck him with violence on the back of his head. He was assisted to bed, from which he
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never arose. The scull was crushed and the brain injured. Notwithstanding all medical assistance and care that was given him, he died in a few hours. A court was called; the man tried, and, of course, acquitted.
Large outlays were required for food during the first three years; and these expenditures fell almost exclusively upon the heads of the Settlement. These were drawn, some from Shawneetown and some from Harmony, the former sixty, the latter twenty-five miles distant. Between Albion and Shawneetown, for several years, John Morgan's horse-team and William Harris' ox-team constantly trav- eled; these brought us groceries and other commodities from those quarters. But the chief supply of flour, meal, whisky, woollen and cotton cloths, all the manufacture of . the Harmonites came from Harmony. My first bill with the Harmonites amounted to eleven thousand dollars, and I afterward paid them many large sums. It is said that, between the years 1818 and 1824, the Harmonites received from our Settlement, one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, in hard cash.
The first herd of thirty head of large cattle were pur- chased by me for sixteen dollars a-head. The following spring, my father sent, from Lexington, Ky., sixty fine steers and a noble bull, of English breed, a large and hardy animal, that imparted the first improvement to the neat stock of the country. In this way, the Settlement was at first supported, until it raised enough to live upon, and a surplus to spare. The low price of all produce, for some years, although advantageous to incomers from the old country, was discouraging to the farmers. With corn
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SALE OF NEW HARMONY.
at ten and twelve cents a bushel; pork, two cents; beef, one and a-half cents a pound; hiring labor would not pay; and the farmer who worked for himself, could not feel any adequate money-remuneration.
In 1824, my father was requested, by, Mr. Frederick and Mr. George Rapp, to act as agent and endeavor to sell, in ยท England, all the possessions of the Harmonites, on the Great Wabash, on which between four and five hundred Germans, of both sexes, had labored and built for the last nine years, with all the perseverance and method of that singular and interesting community.
My father undertook the business, and almost immedi- ately proceeded to England, accompanied by his youngest son, Edward Fordham Flower, my junior by twenty years, then a slender stripling youth. My father left him in England; and there he is now, a wealthy proprietor of one of the largest breweries in the kingdom, at Stratford- on-Avon, Warwickshire.
The description and the advertising of the Harmony property in England, attracted the attention of Mr. Robert Owen of Lanark, Scotland, who came over, viewed the property, and became the owner, by purchase, of all the possessions of the Harmonites, on the Wabash. The quantity of land sold by Rapp to Owen was thirty-two thousand acres, and a large portion of it of the best quality, between two and three thousand acres under fence and good cultivation. The town of Harmony was included in the purchase; and this was no ordinary little western town. It consisted of several brick and frame two-story houses, for the use of small families, all built
280 ENGLISH SETTLEMENT IN EDWARDS COUNTY.
after one model, and with ample gardens, well fenced in, and neatly cultivated; and a vast number of log-cabins, then inhabited and neatly kept. There were also five or six very large brick-buildings, three stories high, which contained the community families, of sixty to eighty indi- viduals each; Rapp's large brick-mansion; a very large building called the granary, built of the most solid masonry; and a very large brick-church, itself a curi- osity, the plan, it was said, being given to Father George Rapp in a dream. There were four entrances to the church, each entrance closed by lofty folding-doors; the doors are opposite, and one hundred and twenty feet from each other. The upper story is supported by twenty - eight pillars of walnut, cherry, and sassafras. The walnut were six feet in circumference and twenty- five feet high; the others were twenty-one feet high, with proportionate circumference; a surprisingly large building for this new country. There was a very large water-mill at the cut-off, about a mile from town, complete and in full operation; an oil-mill; the shops of the various trades -as blacksmiths', wheelwrights', coopers', carpenters', tan- nery, shoemakers, etc .- all included; with two magnifi- cent orchards of grafted fruit in full bearing, and two extensive vineyards. The whole land and town for one hundred and thirty-two thousand dollars. There was an after purchase-such as the stocks and tools of various trades, and a considerable amount of live-stock, altogether amounting to fifty thousand dollars. Thus did the whole possessions of the German Harmonites change hands; and what was the property of Rapp and his associates, became the property of Robert Owen.
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