Mississippi : comprising sketches of towns, events, institutions, and persons, arranged in cyclopedic form Vol. II, Part 80

Author: Rowland, Dunbar, 1864-1937, ed
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Atlanta, Southern Historical Publishing Association
Number of Pages: 1032

USA > Mississippi > Mississippi : comprising sketches of towns, events, institutions, and persons, arranged in cyclopedic form Vol. II > Part 80

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use and benefit of the inhabitants of the particular township in which it was reserved." It was one of the inducements for people to adventure to the wild lands and build up new communities. The donation was made in trust for the children of the State, "and was accepted by the State subject to all the responsibilities of a trustee." (Gov. Alcorn, 1871.)

In 1806 it was provided that when the 16th section fell on land previously granted by congress or claimed under a British grant, another section should be located in the same township or one ad- joining. In 1815 congress authorized the Territorial county courts to appoint five agents to lease the 16th sections in each county, the leases to expire January 1 after the admission of the Territory as a State. The first action by the legislature in regard to these lands was the law of 1818, providing that the justices of the county courts should "take charge of the lands given by the United States to the State of Mississippi, in their counties respectively, and pro- vide for the erection of one or more schools, as they may deem right and useful." The justices were authorized to lease the lands, for a term not exceeding three years, and protect them against waste of soil and timber. Under the law of 1824 each township wherein lands were reserved was authorized to elect a board of trustees to "take into consideration the situation of the school sec- tions and how to apply the money arising from the lease or rents of the same," to protect them from waste, and rent them for a term not exceeding five years. It will be observed that the 16th sections were treated as a source of local revenue. The State school fund at this time was the "Literary fund" of 1821 (q. v.) A law of 1829 authorized the trustees of school lands to establish as many schools in each township as they may deem necessary, and apportion the rent according to the school enrollment. The following year (1830) the United States had acquired the title of the Choctaws in the State, by purchase and trade, and all the State was being opened to settlement except the great northern area held by the Chickasaws, which was yielded by them for the regular price of public lands, in 1832. The total area of the 16th sections, was estimated in 1846, by Governor Brown, at 700,000 acres. The Chickasaw school sections were sold at $6.00 an acre and the proceeds ultimately became a public debt, instead of a source of revenue.

The system of short leases was abandoned under the act of leg- islature of February 27, 1833, which provided that when the ma- jority of the resident heads of families in any township requested it, the school land trustees should lease the section for 99 years to the highest bidder, it being permitted to lease in lots of not less than eighty acres. Where the township did not have a sufficient population to have a board of trustees, the county board of police might lease the section. The leases were to be made on a credit of one, two, three and four years the purchaser to give notes pay- able to the trustees, who were required when the notes were paid, to "appropriate the amount so collected to the purchase of stock

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in the Planters' bank of the State of Mississippi," the dividends on which should be used for the purposes of education in the town- ships where the lands were located. This law was admirably adapted to destroy all hope of revenue from the school lands for the period of ninety-nine years. In 1836 authority was given to loan the proceeds to private persons or invest the same in any solvent bank. In 1841 the school section trustees were authorized to sell the depreciated bank paper in their hands at public auction. A law of 1842 authorized the trustees or county judge of probate to com- promise or rescind all leases or other contracts for the sixteenth sections, or purchase for the township under the liens retained. In 1846 Governor Brown said the leasing system had not worked well. A very small fraction of the 1,100 sections were well man- aged. Some were trespassed on and denuded of timber, some were leased and the money not collected; in many instances the proceeds had been collected and squandered, and "in the fewest number of instances have there been free schools kept by the pro- ceeds." Lowndes county is distinguished as one that has main- tained schools on the land fund since 1821. The common school law of 1846 provided that the county treasurers should open an account for each township, entering a credit for the principal and interest arising from the lease of the 16th section, the principal to remain a permanent fund, the interest thereon to be used for town- ship education ; but this requirement was made valueless by a pro- viso that upon protest of a majority of the heads of families, the control of the fund should be left with the township trustees.

The constitution of 1869 made the proceeds of the school lands, and "the funds arising from the consolidation of the Congressional township funds and the lands belonging thereto," part of the Com- inon School Fund of the State, to be invested in United States bonds and remain a perpetual fund, etc. This pleasing anticipa- tion was never realized. Governor Alcorn, in 1870, urged that "the new order of things shall mark its condemnation of the old by declaring that the lands left by half a century of political cor- ruption, at the service of education, an inalienable heritage as such, for the children of the people." The school law of 1870 pro- vided for the handling of the school sections in a way that Gover- nor Alcorn said was "but a rehearsal of a past legislation which has made the educational interests of the children of the State a subject of most outrageous spoliation." The lands should be leased, he said, for a term not exceeding twenty years, the rents payable annually in advance, on pain of eviction, and bond required for pro- tection of timber, etc. But his recommendations were not fol- lowed.

Superintendent Preston wrote in 1890: "The leasing of 16th sections under the statutes of the State has been neither uniform nor judicious. It has been entrusted to boards of police, to county school directors, to county school commissioners, and to boards of supervisors. Various shifts and devices were enacted from time to time for the purpose of either saving or destroying the children's

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heritage. The only uniformity discernible at this distance is that manifested in the fact that the lands went and no revenue came in return." The reports of the State board of education 1871-80 throw but little light upon the obscurity that surrounded the fate of this great educational endowment. Under the Alcorn administration investigations were made in the counties to determine the condi- tion of the school sections. From Lowndes county it was reported that six of the school sections were missing, that is, it was impos- sible to tell where they had been located. The records were gone, as was the case in a good many counties. In other counties the school sections were held by persons who claimed title in fee. Superintendent J. A. Smith continued the inquiry, but his efforts resulted only in the information: "Leased for 99 years, notes and revenues all lost or squandered." A few counties required the county treasurer to have charge of the fund. In Warren county a complete and satisfactory report was made by Treasurer Cameron. Practically the only sections remaining unleased were in the Yazoo delta, but they were in process of disappearance, as formerly. "Within the past few years the 16th sections of some townships have been parcelled out and leased for 99 years by the owners of adjacent lands, the sum paid being from $2 to $4 per acre." Super- intendent Preston estimated in 1890 that a section, two-thirds cleared, properly rented, would in twenty years create a fund of $40,000, which would yield $2.000 annual interest. Consequently, if the original grant of 661,000 acres had been then available, it would have made in the same period, a permanent fund of over $40,000,000, yielding an annual revenue of $2,000,000, to say nothing of the future rent, after twenty years. It was this that was thrown away, and, in some degree, there was similar waste in all the western country. In the words of Edward Mayes, "The year 1935, or thereabouts, will set the matter right, if that be any con- solation ; provided it do not happen again."

The constitution of 1890 provides that the legislature shall enact laws to ascertain the true condition of the title to the 16th sections, and provide that they shall be reserved for the support of township schools, shall not be sold, nor leased for a longer term than twenty- five years for a ground rental payable annually. (Also see Chick- asaw School Fund and School System.) In 1892 Superintendent . Preston reported that by persistent efforts complete reports of the Sixteenth section fund had been obtained from most of the coun- ties outside of the Chickasaw cession. "The funds reported aggre- gate $162,839; and the interest on these funds added to the rentals of Sixteenth sections amounts to $32,973 per annum; this last sum being the total amount accruing for annual use from the once magnificent bequest of 661,000 acres set apart by the general gov- ernment for the education of children of the Choctaw counties [also for the Natchez district]. The receipts are less than 5 cents · per acre-less than five per cent. of a fund which might have been created by selling the land at $1 per acre. This lamentable squan- dering of the children's heritage is a lasting shame to our State."

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The State land commissioner reported in 1891 that the school indemnity lands confirmed to the State that year by the United States, in lieu of Sixteenth section lands previously granted, to which, for various legal reasons, the State had failed to acquire title, had been located, to the extent of 30,829 acres in Hancock county. Governor McLaurin recommended their sale in 1896, not- withstanding the constitutional prohibition, which he construed, did not "prohibit their sale as it does the Sixteenth section lands."

Skene, a postoffice of Bolivar county, and a station on the Boyle & Sunflower branch of the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R., 4 miles southwest of Cleveland.

Skinner, a postoffice of Perry county.

Skipper, a postoffice of Kemper county, 8 miles north of Dekalb, the county seat. It has a saw mill, a church and a school.

Slago, a postoffice of Simpson county, 7 miles southwest of Men- denhall.

Slate Spring, an incorporated post-town in the southern part of Calhoun county, about 25 miles east of Grenada, the nearest rail- road and banking town. The old boundary line between the Choc- taw and Chickasaw cessions ran about three miles northeast of the town. It has a college, two churches, a saw mill, a flour mill, and a money order postoffice. Population in 1900, 189.

Slavery. Slavery was revived in Christendom by the wars with the Mohammedans. The explorations of the west African coast by the Portuguese preceded the discovery of America by Colum- bus, and when it was found impracticable to enslave the native Americans, the opportunity of buying slaves of African coast war- riors was taken to solve the problem of labor in exploiting the new world. Slavery was regarded by the jurists from the time of Jus- tinian as contrary to the law of nature and justifiable only as a pun- ishment for debt or crime, or a mitigation of the right of a victor to kill his vanquished enemy in battle. In law, the slavery of negroes in America was based upon the alleged status of war among African tribes. Practically it was regarded as an industrial necessity in a warm climate. But its necessity and propriety were both denied at all times by many. As an incident of the European struggles for supremacy, England obtained from Spain the right to carry on the slave trade, not the government of England directly, but in behalf of a corporation. The institution of slavery in the colonies was in disregard of the admonitions of the Pope, the supreme lawgiver of the Spanish, and English law treated it as a colonial condition not pertaining to the settled civilization of the home country.

The mainland of North America was first visited by the Spanish in search of Indian slaves, but Ponce de Leon was charged with the duty of preventing such raids. Cabeza, the first white man to enter the interior, 1528-36, was accompanied by a negro in his wanderings through the Southwest, Estevanico (Little Steve). Menendez, the founder of St. Augustine, 1565, was authorized by the king of Spain to import 500 negro slaves. The English, foun-

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ding Charleston a century later, also introduced negro slaves. Within a few years, the question of fugitive slaves caused war be- tween Florida and Carolina, and there were frightful scenes of car- nage. Caravans of captive Florida Indians were carried away into slavery by the Carolinians about 1702. These wars involved, to some extent, the Indian nations that inhabited the present bounds of Mississippi, and a few negro fugitives or captured slaves were held at the beginning of the 18th century by the Indians. When the king of France made the grant of the Mississippi region to Crozat, there were about twenty African slaves held by the French. There were some at Fort Louis, says Hamilton (Colonial Mobile, 65). "Chateaugay had a negro named Francois Jacemin, who the same year was declared to be the father of Anthoine, born October 26, of Bienville's negro woman, Marie. This is the first recorded birth of a negro on the gulf coast, although these other children may have been born there." Indian slaves were more numerous. among the French then. The letters patent issued to Crozat con- tained this provision: "If for the cultures and plantations which the said Sieur Crozat is minded to make, he finds it proper to have blacks in the said country of the Louisiana, he may send a ship every year to trade for them directly upon the coast of Guinea, taking permission from the Guinea Company so to do; he may sell those blacks to the inhabitants of the colony of Louisiana, and we forbid all other companies and persons whatsoever, under any pre- tense whatsoever, to introduce blacks or traffic for them in the said country, nor shall the said Sieur Crozat carry any blacks else- where." It does not appear that he availed himself of the above privilege. One of the stipulations in the grant to the Western Company in 1717, provided that during the life of the charter (twenty-five years), not less than 3,000 negroes be carried over to the colony. The first large importation was made under the au- spices of the Western Company in June, 1719, when Le Grand Duc de Maine and L'Aurore arrived at Dauphin Island with 500 negroes from the coast of Guinea. "In March, 1821, arrived 120 negroes from Guinea in the Africaine, a warship, and also 338 in the Maire, and 138 more in the Neride. The mortality on these slave ships was great. Three hundred and fifty negroes had sailed in the frigate Charles from Angola. This vessel was burned at sea, many of the crew and human cargo perishing." (Hamilton, Colonial Mobile, 87.) During the existence of the company and for several years afterwards, their agents continued to supply the demand at the rate of three to five hundred annually. The com- mon price for a good negro man was about $150; and for a woman, about $120. (His. Coll. of La., vol. iii, p. 64). When the company surrendered its charter in 1732, the black population had increased from 20 to upwards of 2,000.

The black code of Louisiana was drafted by Bienville under the orders of the Western Company in 1724, and was kept in force with few alterations until 1803. It required religious training and pro- hibited amalgamation. When France resumed control of the col-

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ony after 1732, she continued to supply the province with negroes for the plantations, and many blacks were also imported by both England and Spain. After the Natchez massacre, the slaves there attached themselves to the Indians, but many were killed or retaken by the French.

The region of Mississippi was embraced, at the same time, within the alleged western extension of the English Colony of Carolina, in which slavery was protected. In 1732 General Oglethorpe was granted the southern part of Carolina Claim for a colony that should be the refuge of the unfortunate or oppressed, and negro labor was prohibited in Georgia. If the Georgia title in the west were then a reality, negro slavery was illegal in part of the region of Mississippi for a few years about that time. But the powerful influence of South Carolina soon compelled the introduction of slavery in Georgia, over the earnest protests of some of the colo- nists. After 1763 the Natchez district was settled by immigrants from the American colonies, including New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New England, as a slave labor colony. The Lyman colony (q. v.) brought a few slaves. Others, coming as did William Dun- bar (q. v.) imported slaves from the West Indies. (See Natchez District and West Florida.). There was no change, of course, dur- ing the Spanish occupation, during which the immigration was re- vived.

Meanwhile, there was a tendency to abolish slavery, in the At- lantic colonies, which finally was effective north of Maryland. It was strong in Virginia, but confined to a few like Henry Laurens, in the Carolinas. Thomas Jefferson endeavored, in 1784, to pro- hibit slavery west of the Chattahoochee river. (See Ordinances of 1784 and 1787). In his opinion "nothing is more certainly writ- ten in the book of fate than that these people are to be free, nor is it less certain that the two races, equally free, cannot live in the same government." There was an effort to restrict slavery to the region where it then prevailed but the South Atlantic States, with assistance from the slave trading interests in New England, secured a constitutional pledge regarding the recovery of fugitive slaves, the postponement of the abolition of the African slave trade until 1808, and the omission of the clause prohibiting slavery when the Ordinance of 1787 was extended to the Southwest. Though slavery was not prohibited in the Southwest, as it had been in the Northwest, the importation of slaves from foreign lands was pro- hibited. This excluded the slaves of prospective immigrants in the Baton Rouge district, Mobile, and the coast in general. During the discussion by congress of grievances of a portion of the Missis- sippi inhabitants, in the close of the administration of John Adams (1800), a bill was introduced to permit the bringing in of slaves by their owners, without limitation, for the period of one year, it being specified that these slaves were owned at the time when the American government was extended over the Territory. The bill passed the house, but the senate refused to concur. The house was then Republican and the senate Federalist.

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Governor Sargent (Federalist) in an address urging better or- ganization of the militia, in January, 1801, said: "Almost every day adds to the number of our slaves, and, reasoning from the finer feelings of man, to the number of our most inveterate ene- mies also. 'Tis more than probable, that in the lapse of another year, there will be more blacks than whites within the Mississippi Territory. That we deprive them of the sacred boon of liberty is a crime they can never forgive-mild and humane treatment may for a time continue them quiet, but can never fully reconcile them to their situation-and calculating from the experience of some amongst us, in a war with any European, or even Indian power, they might be irresistably stimulated to vengeance."

In a general militia order, October 4, 1799, Governor Sargent declared that "the law for regulating slaves within the Territory is most shamefully violated, particularly upon Sundays, and the nights of that and the preceding day, and in a very notorious manner at and in the vicinity of Natchez, where slaves are said to assemble in con- siderable numbers from distant plantations, committing great exces- ses, and carrying on an illicit traffic with the aid and connivance of the ill-disposed." The militia commanders of the two countries were directed to order the necessary patrols to be careful in the ex- amination of passports and permits, which slaves were required to have when out of quarters. (See Patrol.) In November, 1800, Governor Sargent circulated a hundred printed copies of his ad- dress announcing the famous plot for an insurrection of slaves in Virginia, and the suppression of the same, and urging the utmost vigilance toward the negroes of the district. Violent assaults had been made upon the overseers of the Lintot and Moore plantations, which, the governor suggested, could be assigned for a reason for strict enforcement of the laws against the carrying of weapons by slaves, the attempted insurrection to be kept secret.

Governor Claiborne (Jeffersonian Republican) wrote to the sec- retary of state, James Madison, in January, 1802: "A law to pro- hibit the importation into this Territory [from the States] of male slaves, above the age of sixteen, passed the house of repre- sentatives [of Mississippi], but was rejected in the council. This kind of property is becoming alarming, and will in all probability (sooner or later) prove a source of much distress. The culture of cotton is so lucrative, and personal labor consequently so valuable, that common negro fellows will generally command six hundred dollars per head, and if such encouragement should long be af- forded to the sellers of negroes this Territory must soon be over- run by the most abandoned of the unfortunate race."

The recovery of fugitive slaves was a factor in the troubles all along the Florida line, as it had been for a century. A suggestion of the problems that arose may be found in the fact that June 21, 1806, Governor Grand Pré asked the delivery of William Vousdan Keary, of the neighborhood of Pinckneyville, who had recovered a negro of his property from the jail at Baton Rouge and there- upon murdered the negro by a "tedious and cruel death." Secre-

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tary Meade communicated the request to Secretary Madison, who directed an answer that the two governments had no compact for the mutual surrender of criminals.

In his message of December 4, 1807, Governor Williams said : "I cannot, gentlemen, consistent with my own sense of public duty, and the interest we must all feel for the future prosperity and hap- piness of our country, omit drawing your attention to a subject which I am aware may be equally delicate as important on the score of legislation. I allude to the introduction of a certain spec- ies of population amongst us. That individuals should incline to pursue their particular and immediate interest, regardless of future consequences, and in opposition to that of the community of which they are members, is not uncommon, though it be regretted; hence the necessity of interposing the will of such community to check and abridge the enjoyment or exercise of their individual rights and privileges when opposed to the public good. Slavery being already in our country, we have only to guard against too great an accumulation of the evil and its consequences ; perhaps this can- not be consistently done, but by regulating and limiting the mode and manner of introducing slaves into our Territory. I submit, therefore, whether it may not be proper to prevent their introduc- tion among us for the purpose of traffic and trade; by those, too, whose motives and sole objects are pecuniary ; and who have no immediate or particular interest here, or concern for our political happiness. Were they introduced by those intending to reside among us, by which a relative proportion in our population might be kept up, the conclusions would be different from those the facts now warrant. But they are rummaged from the jails and criminal cells of the Atlantic States, being mostly the dregs of this degraded class of human beings who are brought and let loose amongst us in this way by a lot of mercenary characters, many of whom have no residence here or elsewhere, and of course feel no responsibility or concern, as regards policy or humanity. Was there a probabil- ity of this evil becoming stationary, we might better risk the conse- quences; but the reverse will be the fact. The productiveness of our soil, the proceeds of labor, and withal the favorableness of our climate for these people, will continue to encourage their intro- duction and increase their population in a ratio heretofore un- known in any country. We are justified in this conclusion from the last twelve months experience. Policy, gentlemen, dictates that the consequences to be dreaded and guarded against should be mentioned and acted on with as much prudence and reserve as possible." In 1808 the importation of slaves from the United States or Territories was regulated, preventing the introduction of criminals, and a tax of $5 was laid on each individual import.

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Mississippi : comprising sketches of towns, events, institutions, and persons, arranged in cyclopedic form Vol. II, Part 80

Author: Rowland, Dunbar, 1864-1937, ed Publication date: 1907 Publisher: Atlanta, Southern Historical Publishing Association Number of Pages: 1032

Author: Rowland, Dunbar, 1864-1937, ed
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Atlanta, Southern Historical Publishing Association
Number of Pages: 1032