Biographical and historical memoirs of Mississippi, embracing an authentic and comprehensive account of the chief events in the history of the state and a record of the lives of many of the most worthy and illustrious families and individuals, Vol. II, Part 14

Author: Goodspeed Brothers
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: Chicago, Goodspeed
Number of Pages: 1314

USA > Mississippi > Biographical and historical memoirs of Mississippi, embracing an authentic and comprehensive account of the chief events in the history of the state and a record of the lives of many of the most worthy and illustrious families and individuals, Vol. II > Part 14

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An act of April 6, 1874, provided for representation in the centennial exhibition, and a later act appropriated $5, 000 for that purpose. A building was built of sixty-eight varieties of the state's timber, and among her exhibits were forms of cotton and woolen stuffs, corn, rice, broomcorn, syrup, tobacco, etc. On July 10, 1876, Gen. A. M. West, president of the board of managers, made an historical address on Mississippi, which gave the state an improved status. Said he: "With these vast fields of enterprise, and inspired by such important coming events, Mississippi can not be idle, but must, of necessity, join the march of enterprise and improvement, which, now, like the waves of the ocean, are moving in every direc- tion, and pouring upon the globe a grand luminous array of the triumphs of mind over matter, as is so forcibly exemplified by this centennial exhibition; and by the rapidity with which the productions of human labor and skill are transported from farm to farm, from factory to factory, from city to city, from ocean to ocean, from county to county, exhibiting, to the amazement of the world, an activity in all the industrial pursuits of life commensurate with man's capabilities. It is a noteworthy fact that, although the late war left more than one-half the population of Mississippi homeless and penniless, and the remainder greatly impoverished, and all without credit, and frenzied by political conflicts and social disturbances, society was rapidly reorgan- ized, domestic and social economy restored, and personal credit reestablished. Their commer- cial obligations, in this and other cities, have been more promptly met the past season, than

BIOGRAPHIICAL AND HISTORICAL

have been the obligations of the people of many of the other states. As these sudden and rapid changes affecting, as they did, society in all its varied, social, domestic and political relations, are unprecedented in the history of communities and nations, impartial judges must conclude that the resources of Mississippi are extraordinarily great, and historians must give to white and colored races credit for marvelous capacity for adaptation to circum- stances, and for unparalleled recuperative powers." A considerable immigration came in up to 1880 from the northern part of the Mississippi valley, and by the close of the decade -1880 -- the population had arisen from eight hundred and twenty seven thousand nine hundred and twenty-two, to the marked total of one million one hundred and thirty-one thousand five hundred and ninety-seven; both races had increased in numbers, but the colored the most, the total blacks being six hundred and fifty thousand two hundred and ninety-one, and the whites four hundred and seventy-nine thousand three hundred and ninety-eight, with the increased showing-one thousand nine hundred and eight- of third and fourth races. These figures tended still more to impress the conviction that still greater efforts should be made to stimulate immigration of Northern whites and north European people.

The decade from 1880 to 1890 witnessed strong efforts. Even Governor Alcorn had recommended efforts of this kind, and a bureau of immigration had been organized before the seventies began, and efforts were still continued during the seventies, but it remained for the reorganization of the eighties to effect the greatest results, under the commissioner- ship of a most able manager, Maj. E. G. Wall, in the first half of the decade. These efforts were systematic and effective, aiming not only to attract agriculturists, but lumber- men, manufacturers, tradesmen, capitalists and all that make for development and internal growth, and the vigor with which it was prosecuted receives abundant testimony in the excellent statistics that work has left, as well as the diffusion of more just ideas regarding the state among people of our own and foreign countries. An exhibit was made at Louisville, too, in 1883, and with little effort to make a strong showing, premiums were taken to the amount of over $3,000. At New Orleans also, in 1884, an excellent effort was made, under the direction of Com. S. A. Jonas, and this gave especial impetus to the lumber interests and manufactures. The railways took up the refrain, and began that systematic advertising of the country along their routes that has developed the entire nation so rapidly. The result has been that while the state has witnessed more growth and development materially in this decade than in others, the population also has increased, and the census of 1890 shows an advance from one million one hundred and thirty-one thousand five hundred and ninety-seven to the total of one million two hundred and eighty. nine thousand six hundred. The race proportions are as follows: the larger part colored, seven hundred and forty- seven thousand seven hundred and twenty; and the whites numbering five hundred and thirty-nine thousand seven hundred and three; with two thousand and fifty-four Indians, one hundred and twenty-two Chinese and one Japanese. Thus it will be seen that while the per cent. of increase was only 4.6 from 1860 to 1870, and 36.7 from 1870 to 1880, the last decade has shown a good one of fourteen per cent.

To view more closely, take the figures for successive decades beginning with the year 1800: Seven thousand six hundred, thirty-one thousand three hundred and six, seventy-five thousand four hundred and forty-eight, one hundred and thirty-six thousand six hundred and twenty-one, three hundred and seventy five thousand six hundred and fifty-one, six hundred and six thousand five hundred and twenty-six, seven hundred and ninety-one thousand three hundred and five, eight hundred and twenty seven thousand nine hundred and twenty-two, one million one hundred and thirty-one thousand five hundred and ninety-seven, and one million two hundred and eighty-nine thousand six hundred.

MEMOIRS OF MISSISSIPPI.

But take the figures of the whites alone, beginning with 1850: Two hundred and ninety- five thousand seven hundred and eighteen, three hundred and fifty-three thousand eight hundred and ninety-nine, three hundred and eighty-two thousand eight hundred and ninety- six, four hundred and seventy-nine thousand three hundred and ninety-eight, and five hun- dred and thirty-nine thousand seven hundred and three. This shows a percentage of increase of 19.67, 8.19, 25.20, and 12.58, or an actual increase of fifty-eight thousand one hundred and eighty one, twenty-eight thousand nine hundred and ninety-seven, ninety six thousand five hundred and two, and sixty thousand three hundred and five.

Compare the figures for the colored population alone during the same period, begin- ning with 1850: Three hundred and ten thousand eight hundred and eight, four hundred and thirty-seven thousand four hundred and four, four hundred and forty-four thousand two hundred and one, six hundred and fifty thousand two hundred and ninety-one, and seven hundred and forty-seven thousand seven hundred and twenty in 1890. This shows succes- sive increase as follows: One hundred and twenty-six thousand five hundred and ninety-six, six thousand seven hundred and ninety-seven; two hundred and six thousand and ninety, and only ninety-seven thousand four hundred and twenty-nine in 1890. Given in per- centages it is: 40.73, 1.55, 46.40, and 14.98 in 1890. So it will be seen that while the whites increased 12.58 per cent. in 1890 the blacks made a gain of 14.98 per cent. ; but this is a far better showing for the white increase than the previous decade, when the per cents. were as 25.2 to 46.4 in favor of the negro.

The fact that Mississippi is 41.85 per cent. white and 57.98 per cent. colored, is the great question of all questions in her social and political life. In this she stands alongside of but two other states-South Carolina and Mississippi-but as Louisiana is so evenly balanced, being only 49.59 per cent. white to 50.32 per cent. colored, South Carolina is practically the only one to compare with her. That state is in a slightly worse condition, being 39.82 per cent. white and 60.16 per cent black. Other states hardly compare at all- Georgia is nearly fifty-three per cent. white, Alabama nearly fifty-five per cent., Florida over fifty-seven per cent., Virginia over sixty-one per cent., North Carolina nearly sixty-five per cent., Arkansas over seventy-two per cent., Tennessee over seventy-five per cent., Texas nearly seventy-eight per cent., and so on up.

It will be of interest to notice what parts of Mississippi are characterized by this excess of blacks over whites. The state has seventy-five counties in all, and thirty-seven have white and thirty-eight black excess of population, almost equally divided. Those with black excess are: Adams, Amite, Bolivar, Carroll, Chickasaw, Claiborne, Clay, Coahoma, Copiah, De Soto, Grenada, Hinds, Holmes, Issaquena, Jefferson, Kemper, Lauderdale, Leflore, Lowndes, Madison, Marshall, Monroe, Noxubee, Oktibbeha, Panola, Pike, Rankin, Sharkey, Sunflower, Tallahatchie, Tate, Tunica, Warren, Washington, Wilkinson, Yalobusha and Yazoo, the greatest excess being in Washington county in the Yazoo delta, with thirty-five thousand seven hundred and three blacks to only four thousand six hundred and sixty-nine whites. It will be noticed that these countries are chiefly either characterized by cities or lowlands, toward both of which the blacks tend to gravitate.

Since this colored element has always been the pivotal point in this state's career, we may trace it by itself. As has been said, the first cargo of black slaves came in in 1720, just one hundred years after their first arrival in this country; and one hundred years later -- 1820-there were thirty-two thousand eight hundred and fourteen black slaves, and four hundred and fifty-eight free blacks in this state. This last item-four hundred and fifty- eight free blacks-indicates the widespread feeling against slavery and the numerous cases

BIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL

of voluntary emancipation by the Christian classes. This feeling was so strong in 1823 that on the presentation and advocacy of the following police measure by Mr. Poindexter, the state's constitution maker, he was defeated because of its passage:

"Section 1. Be it cnacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Mississippi in General Assembly convened, That if any master, overseer or employer shall knowingly permit any slave or slaves, not belonging to him or her, to be and remain in and about his or her house or kitchen, or upon his or her plantation, above four hours at any one time, without leave of the owner, overseer or employer of such slave or slaves, he or she so permitting shall forfeit and pay $10 for every such offense. And every master, etc., who shall, without such leave, permit or suffer more than five negroes, or slaves, other than those in his or her own employment, to be and remain on his or her plantation or quarter, ut any one time, shall forfeit and pay $10 for every such negro or slave, which said several for- feitures shall be to the informer, and recoverable with costs, before any justice of the peace of the county or corporation where such offense is committed. Provided always, that nothing herein contained shall be construed to prohibit negroes or slaves of the same owner, though living at different quarters, from meeting, with their owner's or overseer's leave, upon any plantation belonging to such owner; nor to restrain the meeting of slaves on their master's or overseer's business, at any public place, nor on any other lawful occasion, by license or writing, from their master, employer or overseer.

"Sec. 2. All meetings or assemblies of slaves or free negroes or mulattoes, mixing or associat- ing with such slaves, above the number of five, at any place of public resort, or at any meetinghouse or houses' in the night, or at any school or schools, for teaching them reading or writing, either in the day or night under whatsoever pretext, shall be deemed and considered an unlawful assembly, and any justice of the peace of the county or corporation wherein such assemblage may be, either from his own knowledge or the information of others, of such unlawful assemblage or meeting, may issue his warrant, directed to any sworn officer or officers, authorizing him or them to enter the house or houses where such unlawful assemblages or meetings may be, for the purpose of apprehending or dispersing such slaves, free negroes or mulattoes, and to inflict corporal punishment on the offender or offenders, at the discretion of such justice of the peace, not exceeding thirty-nine lashes, in the manner hereinafter directed.

"Sec. 3. The said officer or officers shall have power to summon any person or persons to aid and assist in the execution of any warrant or warrants directed to him or them, for the purpose aforesaid, who, on refusal, shall be subject to a fine, at the discretion of any such justice of the peace, not exceeding $10; Provided, that nothing herein contained shall be so construed as to prevent the master, employer or overseer of any slave or slaves from giving permission in writing to his, her or their slave or slaves to go to any place or places whatever, for the purpose of religious worship, Pro- vided, that such worship be conducted by a regularly ordained or licensed white minister, or attended by at least two discreet and reputable white persons, appointed by some regular church or religious society."

It is well known that efforts had been made long before to prevent importation of slaves, and in 1828 Governor Brandon urged this upon the legislature: "The Southern states generally, having passed laws to prevent the importation of slaves for the purposes of traffic, has left Mississippi almost the only receptacle for the surplus black population of the middle states, where their labor is not found so productive as in the South; the vast number annually imported into our state has excited uneasiness in the minds of many of our fellow-citizens, and caused them to feel much solicitude that we should adopt the policy of our neighboring states. Slavery is an evil at best, and has invariably operated oppress- ively on the poorer class of every community into which it has been introduced, by destroy- ing that mutual dependence which would otherwise exist between the rich and the poor, and excludes from the state, in proportion to the number of slaves, a free white population, through the means of which alone can we expect to take rank with our sister states. With these reflections I submit it to the wisdom of the general assembly to say whether the period has not arrived when Mississippi, in her own defense, should, as far as practicable, prevent the further introduction of slaves for sale."

It has been said, a little caustically, that " the French first introduced yellow fever and

MEMOIRS OF MISSISSIPPI.

slaves, on the seacoast of Mississippi. The British afterward prosecuted the trade. And then our Northern brethren embarked in it, and by their superior energy soon monopolized the business of kidnaping Africans to sell to the Southern planter. And they received in payment indigo, tobacco, rice, sugar and cotton produced by the kidnaped slaves." Another however has spoken more truly, and truly because more fully: "They were kidnaped on their native shores by the North for money, sold to the South for money; the South bought them to make money, and kept them for money." But Mississippi aided the American Colonization society, and manumission became so frequent as to be a source of pos- sible disorder, due no doubt to the sight of the free by the bondsmen, so that the legislature forbade it, and in 1831 free negroes and mulattoes were ordered to leave the state unless special permission was granted to remain. In 1837, when there were one hundred and sixty-four thousand three hundred and ninety-three slaves in the state, about twenty thousand more than the whites, the importation of slaves into the state was forbidden.

It was at this time that such events as the following not unfrequently occurred. Isaac Ross, of Jefferson county, died in 1836, and among numerous similar provisions in his will a few may serve to illustrate.

"First, To his granddaughter Adelaide Wade, he gave his cook, a woman named Grace, and all ber children living at the time of his demise, unless the said Grace should elect of her own free will to go to Africa, in which case she and her children were to be transported there with his other slaves as hereinafter provided for. And then the said Adelaide, in lieu thereof, was to have an additional $2,000 besides her other bequests.

"Second, His aforesaid granddaughter shall take charge of and maintain comfortably during their natural lives, testator's negro man Hannibal, and his three sisters, and he gave Hannibal $100, annually, for life, and to each of his sisters $50, annually. But should they elect to go to Africa, they shall be permitted to go with and on the same footing with the other slaves; and should he so elect he shall be paid when he embarks $500, in silver, in lieu of the aforesaid legacy.

"Third, Enoch, wife and children were to be conveyed free of expense, in twelve months, to the free state they might prefer, there to be manumitted and receive $500, in coin, or to Africa if they chose, on the same footing with the others, and receive $500.

"Fourth, Excepting Tom, William, Joe, Aleck and Henrietta and Jeffers (who are to be sold as hereinafter provided), all the slaves aged twenty-one and upward, within ten days after the growing crop shall be gathered, shall be called together by the executors and the provisions of the will be fully explained. Those electing to go shall be sent to Africa under the authority of the American Colonization society. And the remainder of his estate, real, personal and mixed (excepting always the negroes whose names are mentioned above), be offered for sale at public auction, one-half the purchase money to be paid in cash and the balance in twelve months. The proceeds of sale, and any money on hand or due, after deducting enough for the aforesaid legacies, to be paid over to the American Colonization Society, provided it will consent to appropriate it as follows, to-wit: First, To pay the expense of transporting to Africa to such of my slaves as may elect to go. Second, To expend the remainder for their support and maintenance while here.

"Fifth, Should the slaves refuse to go there, they (except those that have been specially named) are to be sold, and the proceeds paid over to the American Colonization society, to be invested at six per cent., the interest to be employed for one hundred years in maintain- ing an institution of learning in Liberia, in Africa. If there shall be no government in Liberia, the said fund to be transferred to the state of Mississippi for a similar institution.'

BIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL

This will was contested under the anti-manumission laws of the state, but failed. Judge James Green, of Adams county, emancipated one hundred and fifty negroes and provided for their colonization at Greenland, Africa. A letter from a Presbyterian minister, also a slave-owner, to General Quitman, in 1831, may illustrate another feature by a short extract:

" Honored and Dear Sir: I doubt not that you will excuse me for trespassing upon your attention for a few moments-especially when you learn the occasion. The church of Pine Ridge, within whose bounds you have a plantation, is now making an effort to give the gospel to every rational being under its care-the young as well as the old-the bond as well as the free.

" In order to do this effectually, it is necessary to adopt the system of plantation preaching, which is now acknowledged to possess more advantages than any other. It requires, however, a greater number of preachers, than where all can be assembled in one place.

"One minister can take charge of about nine plantations, giving them instructions, preaching and catechising every second or third Sabbath; preaching during the week when desired, celebrating mar- riages, visiting the sick and burying the dead.

"There are already two assistants employed in my parish, and thus far the plan has succeeded admirably.

"Nearly all the planters here feel their responsibility for their servants so deeply, that they have united to provide regular and frequent religious instruction for them by good and competent teachers. In this way the servants are made accountable for themselves, and the master is relieved from his most solemn responsibility in this respect.

" Nearly every plantation has adopted the plan, and by uniting, the expense is very trifling, about $1 per head, for all over four years of age. The services of an educated man (and none others are so well suited to the work), can not be obtained for a salary less than $500 or $600."

In 1840 there were one hundred and ninety-six thousand five hundred and seventy- seven blacks and mulattoes, of whom over two thousand were free. The danger of rapid manumission as a menace to order was felt long before this, and with the forcing of the extremists North and South, a resistance to it arose, based on the old right of non-interfer- ence, and in 1846 the prohibition of slave importation was repealed. The rest is well known; the colored population at once arose in 1850 to three hundred and ten thousand eight hundred and eight, and in 1860 to four hundred and thirty-seven thousand four hundred and four.

In 1866 there were three hundred and eighty one thousand two hundred and fifty-eight, a falling off elsewhere explained. Beginning with 1870, the figures by decades are: Four hundred and forty-four thousand two hundred and one, six hundred and fifty thousand three hundred and ninety-one, and seven hundred and forty-seven thousand seven hundred and twenty in 1890, when in all the United States there were but six million five hundred and eighty thousand seven hundred and ninety-three.

Slavery, as a labor institution, has never yet been treated fully as it deserves, and the limits of such an article as this forbid more than an indication of a few of the features connected with its change to free labor. It will have been noted by this time that no effort has been made to show up the abuses of slavery; this has been intentional, for the abuses have received plenty of public emphases in the last half century, while so very little has been said on the other side that a work in that line recently issued from a Tennessee press has been hailed with surprise. It is the conscience side of a question that always wins, and an effort has here been made to show that side.

Ex-Governor Alcorn will be admitted by all to be as fair a judge of the transition period as can be found, and his being governor in the midst of it might warrant his being called the transition governor, as Governor Pettus was called the war governor. Said he to the mixed legislature of 1871: " When it is remembered that you came together at the bidding of a

MEMOIRS OF MISSISSIPPI.

revolution, that several of you had but just been inducted into freedom when you were called on to legislate; that very many of you, though free from birth, had had no experience in the affairs of government, and that but comparatively few of you had ever before sat in a deliber- ative assembly, you showed in the work of last session a moderation and wisdom highly creditable." In his treatment of comparative statistics of 1860 and 1870 in six representa- tive counties he says: "A new feature in the census of 1870 is that of wages. An outcrop amongst us of the new order of things, this head of national stock-taking is one of peculiar interest. According to the forgoing table wages amounted, in six counties producing forty two thousand eight hundred and eighty bales of cotton, to a total of $1,355,203. This, be it understood, includes the value of board also. Now the aggregate value of farm products in those counties amounts to $6,262,144, and if this value is supposed to be the result of the wages paid for labor-be the falling off in the amount of our production what it may; be the crippling of our powers of production, for want of capital, what it may-we can congratu- late ourselves on a very early restoration of these shortcomings, in presence of the fact of an income on the farming of six counties in 1869-70 to an amount approaching $5,000,000." Again he says: "I was a slave owner. Apprehensive that the restraints of reason would have been insufficient in the case of a people who had been held under lifelong restraints of force, I did not accept the facts of reconstruction without some lingering doubts," and he goes on to show hopeful proofs of growth, with all the trials of the situation: Marriage licenses among the colored people were issued in thirty-one counties from 1865 to 1870 as follows in percentages of total colored population: . 23, 1.53, 1.47, 1.17, 1.49, 1.43. prov- ing "conclusively that the colored people are striving to rise to the moral level of their new standing before the law, to the extent of a strict adherence to, at all events, the formularies of sexual propriety." "But the marriage contracts of the negroes are not mere formularies," and he shows evidence of it. "Slavery is forever dead; though flowers may not be strewn upon its tomb, as they were on the tomb of Nero, freedom can well afford to bend over it to pay its memory a tribute of justice. The peculiar institution was in truth a tender nurse! Explain this by self-interest, as you will, the fact still remains. And that nursing care with- drawn by the proclamation of freedom, I feared, in my more despondent moments, that there was something in the bad prophecies which foretold of negro annihilation." He then shows the case of children to be hopeful even in their poverty, a fact in great contrast to results in Jamaica after freedom. Colored churches in six counties numbered from 1865 for a half- decade of years: One hundred and five, one hundred and twenty-five, one hundred and sixty- five, two hundred and one, two hundred and thirty-five and two hundred and eighty-three, while in twenty-two counties the report of colored preachers employed during these years were: seventy three, one hundred and two, one hundred and thirty-four, one hundred and seventy-seven, one hundred and ninety-four, and two hundred and sixty-two; and schools, opened in twenty counties, ran: nineteen, fifty-three, eighty one, ninety-two, one hundred and twenty-six, one hundred and forty-eight, with teachers in eighteen counties: eighteen, forty-seven, eighty-seven, one hundred and seven, one hundred and twenty-five, one hundred and seventy. The number of colored stores ran: Seven, twenty seven, forty-three, thirty- four, sixty, sixty; of this he says: "The upward tendency of the colored people is still put in proof in the above table, and put in proof with some force when it is remembered that they enter into competition with the whites as traders, at a starting point which found them incapable of owning capital. But the number of stores other than whisky-shops is especially significant in the fact of their increase in five years of one hundred per cent. amongst the whites, for this increase points to the breaking down of the spirit of monopoly, over which

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Biographical and historical memoirs of Mississippi, embracing an authentic and comprehensive account of the chief events in the history of the state and a record of the lives of many of the most worthy and illustrious families and individuals, Vol. II, Part 14

Author: Goodspeed Brothers Publication date: 1891 Publisher: Chicago, Goodspeed Number of Pages: 1314

Author: Goodspeed Brothers
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: Chicago, Goodspeed
Number of Pages: 1314