The South Knows Us: An Address Delivered in Baltimore, Maryland, on May 4, 1879
THE SOUTH KNOWS US: AN ADDRESS DELIVERED
IN BALTIMORE, MARYLAND, ON 4 MAY 1879
Baltimore , 5 May 1879, and Baltimore , 5 May 1879.
On the evening of 4 May 1879 Douglass addressed the issue of black emigra-
tion to Kansas at a gathering in Baltimore’s Centennial African Methodist
Episcopal Church. As reported in the New York Times, the “large and mixed
audience” frequently applauded during the course of his three-hour remarks.
Although that newspaper refrained from criticizing Douglass’s speech, other
journals were far from reticent. The Topeka (Kans.) asserted
that Douglass, in condemning the emigration to Kansas, “does not represent
the views of the best thinkers of his race to-day.” The Washington chastised Douglass for his failure to appreciate fully the “real
causes” for the Exodus and reminded him that in 1838 he too made a “manly
effort to be free, and so does his race in the South.” By far the angriest
response to Douglass’s address came from the Virginia : “Men some-
times live just long enough, after winning honor and distinction to commit
some unbecoming act which throws all their former greatness and renown into
the shade.” Washington , 5 May 1879; New York ,
5 May 1879; Topeka (Kans.) , 10 May 1879.
Friends—I regret that I have to begin the few remarks which I shall make
with an apology, but in my haste in leaving home I was so unfortunate as to
leave my satchel which contained the manuscript of my lecture. I was far
from the railroad station when I found out my mistake only too late to
remedy it. I thought, which you may place to my vanity, that it would be
better for me to lecture without my manuscript than not to lecture at all.
The relations existing between the white and colored people of the
country, notwithstanding all that has been said and done respecting them,
are not what I would wish them to be. It is a question for this age and nation
to solve. Thoughtful men of both races are giving more or less attention to
this subject, and very properly so, for we are here in the same country,
under the same government, filling the places of citizens, and yet we are,
as a race, held in question, and our relations are not such as are desirable
and not such as they can continue to be. We shall either rise higher in the
estimation of the community or we shall fall considerably below . . . †Here the Baltimore reads: “But for myself, as an humble watcher, I am happy to assure you that I am in no doubt as to the result. Unless the wheels of civilization roll backwards and Christianity is an empty form; unless the Declaration of Independence, which brought us into a nation, is a lie, we shall rise. And unless it is proven that truth has some peculiar complexion, I shall continue to hope that my race will not always bow its head in oppression."
(There are men among us of both races in doubt which way the scales will
turn, and whether we have in ourselves the elements of high and en-
lightened civilization. As to our destiny on this continent I myself have
been in doubt and have wondered whether the social forces in operation
would extinguish us, or if we would rise, despite of all against us. But as a
humble watchman, looking out from my watch-tower, l have at length rid
myself of all doubt as to the vindication of the principles of justice and
liberty in the case of both white and colored, unless the wheels of civiliza-
tion should go back, Christianity be an empty name with no vitality, truth
cease to be a lever and the Declaration of Independence prove a lie. Unless
you can show the truth has some peculiar complexion, and that the sun
shines only on the white, I believe that oppression will not always reign.)1From Baltimore , 5 May 1879.
THE SOUTHERN EXODUS
A good many [of our race] despair, and many are arising up in darken-
ing trains, leaving their homes, their cabins, their cotton patches and pig
styes, are following the sinuosities of the Mississippi river up further
north.2Douglass refers to the “Exodus,” the migration of thousands of Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Texas blacks to Kansas that began in the spring of 1879. Opposed to the movement, Douglass presented his most complete statement on the movement in a speech prepared for delivery at the annual meeting of the American Social Science Association in Saratoga, New York, on 12 September 1879. Nell Irvin Painter, (New York, 1977), 184-85. Heartless, hopeless, ragged, on their way as from a doomed city,
leaving their country under a burning sun, without civilization, like birds
startled up on the sea coast by a shot from a passing vessel, in the hope of
improving their condition. . . .††Here the Baltimore reads: “The colored race must not measure its condition from the point he wishes to attain, but from what he has been. There have been vast and wonderful changes for the better." (Even in the face of this I dare to be
hopeful. When the colored man despairs it is best for him to turn to the past
and fling his plummet into its depths, not measuring his condition from the
point he wishes to attain, but that from whence he came. He will find in the
past fifty years a constant and wonderful change. I wish sometimes that the
light had dawned on us more gradually, instead of bursting on us with
abnormal effulgence and almost dazzling our poor eyesight. But there is no
ground to despair because of what has happened.)3From Baltimore , 5 May 1879.
Fifty years ago I was landed at Smith’s dock,4Smith's Wharf was located below Pratt Street in Baltimore’s inner harbor, the Basin, west of Fells Point. (Baltimore, 1827), 18-19; Sherry H. Olson, (Baltimore, 1980), 60. in this city, when quite a
boy, and my first occupation was to drive a flock of sheep to Slater’s Hill to
the butchers.5Douglass describes his first job upon arriving in Baltimore in March 1826 in , 55, , 137, and , 84-85. It is fashionable to talk about “the good old times,” but to
me they were bad old times. I was a boy then, and wanted to see the
soldiers, but
BEING A BLACK BOY,
was not allowed to look in peace. I remember the time when the Baltimore
roughs6By the time Douglass returned to Baltimore from Talbot County in 1836, the city was witnessing increased crowd violence brought on by worsening economic conditions and the failure of the Bank of Maryland in 1834. Included in this violence were attacks on free blacks, who, though primarily employed as day laborers, draymen, and servants, had come to dominate such trades as those of barber and caulker. Claiming that free blacks were depriving them of jobs, Baltimore whites unsuccessfully petitioned the Maryland legislature in the 1830s and 1840s to restrict black entry into certain trades. In his autobiographies Douglass elaborates on an attack on him by four white carpenters while he was hired out to Baltimore shipbuilder William Gardner. Douglass, , 127-33; idem, , 313; idem, , 201-07; “The Condition of the Coloured Population of the City of Baltimore," , 4: 174-75 (April 1838); James M. Wright, (New York, 1921), 154-55, 172; Olson. Baltimore, 98-101; Berlin, , 217-49. acted on the Donnybrook Fair motto, “Whenever you see a (nig-
ger) head, hit it.” It wasn’t much matter to them how hard they hit, and if
you dared to strike back, you did so at your peril. When every now and then
there would be a great commotion a negro had struck a white man, and then
the white men would raise the cry of “Down with him; kill the negro,” is
Baltimore that way now? At that time worship was not safe, and for a
colored person to be caught out as late as nine o’clock was to be taken to the
watch house, if the watching had a mind to take him.7An act of 1831 forbade blacks from attending religious meetings unless a white clergyman or his appointee conducted them, although the large black populations of Baltimore and Annapolis could hold their own services by themselves with permission of a licensed white minister. In many local jurisdictions special laws provided for the whipping or temporary imprisonment of free blacks found on the streets after a certain hour-usually 9:00 P.M. in the winter and 10:00 P.M. in the summer. Jeffrey R. Brackett, (Baltimore, 1889), 199-201. Is it so now? I
remember that in the Christian city of Baltimore, which has listened to
some of the greatest statesmen, such as Breckenridge8Robert J. Breckinridge. or Ward,9Probably Beverly Waugh. I re-
member to have seen passing through its streets 30 or 40 of my race chained
together and driven down the block to be shipped to the New Orleans slave
market, while all around were wives weeping for their departing husbands,
children weeping for their parents; all was then dark and dreary. Scarce a
white man in the land dared to open his mouth in behalf of the negro.
The church, the whipping post, the slave auction block were in the
same neighborhood. We were a marketable commodity. Now we rejoice
for our white friends and ourselves. They were the slaves of slavery. It has
been said that no man can put a chain on his brother without finding the
other end around his own neck before long. Our past was dark, and when
the light burst upon us with abnormal refulgence, it threw us poor, unedu-
cated colored people forward with
THE SHOCK OF AN EARTHQUAKE
to fill the positions of citizens of the United States. When slavery was
abolished it was seen by some of us that we should be placed on a level with
our other fellow-creatures, and we are now constitutionally and organically
citizens of the United States. Where under the heavens could we find a
citizenship that is like ours? I know no one like it. Go to Russia, and we
would find ourselves under a despotism. Go to Austria, and we would have
imperialism. All the rest of the old countries of Europe are very much in the
same way.
We once had more colored men in Congress than we have now,10By May 1879 sixteen blacks had held seats in the U.S. Congress. Of those sixteen, fourteen served in the House and two in the Senate. Although P. B. S. Pinchback was elected to both houses, neither permitted him a seat. At the time Douglass spoke, Senator Blanche K. Bruce of Mississippi was the only black member of Congress. [Congressional Quarterly, Inc.], , 6; Christopher, , 104, 107-12. and in
the abnormal condition of things, it seems some of us were tossed up by the
earthquake to positions for which some of us were qualified and some were
not; consequently they settled down and finally disappeared. I am not
disposed to despair on account of the disappearance of those heads. They
came prematurely and went down naturally; came in an earthquake and
went out in a whirlwind. Are we to have no more representatives? 1 think
not at present. Slavery was a poor school in which to prepare statesmen, but
a race which has gone through what we have cannot be blotted out nor kept
down. Fifty years ago a colored man that could read and write was a
curiosity, as schools were forbidden, and it was against the law for colored
people to learn the letters that spell the name of God. If he did he was
speedily sent South and put to work on the cotton plantation. I am looking
now over the millions of our race in the South for heads to rise up able to
take part in the government of this country in common with other men.
Even Southern men will now be instruments in this work. The colored men
can’t expect to be leaders. The Moses of our own race will probably be a
white man. . . . †††Here the Baltimore reads: “We have been
DEPRIVED OF OUR ELECTIVE FRANCHISE
in the South by violence. We could not number amongst us any of the ‘old master’ class. They were organized in the party, and I am glad of it. They will find they have more cats than mice in their party. They can‘t always hold together. They will apprehend that the plank must bind to the ship, and not the ship to the plank, as the United States ship is stronger than the plank they will be forced to espouse the cause of truth and justice. Present appearances indicate that the present exclusion of colored rights in
the South is only temporary. l have been asked if I am in favor of the colored people
LEAVING THE SOUTH
and going North."
(By violence we were deprived of the elective franchise in some places
because among our leaders there were none of the old master class. They
are now all of one party, but after a time they will find more cats than mice
in the party; some of them will want to go to Congress; rival ambitions will
spring up; they will apprehend that this is a nation, not a league of States,
that great as may be a State the United States is greater; that it is idle, wrong
and mischievous to disregard the constitution, and apprehending this they
will say “if the colored people want to uphold this standard we will help
them or die in the track.” I say nothing as to social rights, for they will take
care of themselves, and are neither matters for legislation nor for the
application of any principle. If I am black I do not want to introduce a white
man into my house unless he is of the right stripe or hungry, and then I will
feed him.
I have been asked if I am in favor of my people leaving the South and
going North)11From Baltimore , 5 May 1879. I should be glad to relieve their distress, but I don’t believe
in their leaving their homes. I think there has been more harm done our
business and enterprise by schemes of emigration than from any other
cause. Fifty years ago it was to Hayti, a new land of Canaan, where grapes
were large, and bananas larger, and those who went were glad to get back.
Then came along another paradise for the negro—Jamaica—he was asked
to emancipate and go, and many of them actually sold their homes and
made their way to the promised land. What became of them? Most of them
died from starvation. That was 35 years ago. During the war there was a cry
in Washington for the colored population to go to Nicaragua. It would have
been a Nigger-ague.12Douglass alludes to just a few of the projects during the nineteenth century that promoted voluntary emigration of free blacks from the United States. In 1824 Haitian president Jean Pierre Boyer ofered emigrating blacks land for homesteads in his country. At least several hundred blacks went but soon gave up the homesteads either to return to the United States or to move to Haitian cities. The Haitian government abandoned the program in April 1825. The colonial assembly of Jamaica dispatched William Wemyss Anderson to the United States and Canada in 1851 to recruit potential black emigrants to that Caribbean nation. Douglass encountered Anderson at a Liberty party convention in Buffalo in 1852 and spoke out against his project. Abraham Lincoln, who believed that colonization was the only workable solution to the race problem, persuaded Congress to appropriate $600,000 to finance the voluntary emigration of blacks freed by the District of Columbia Emancipation Act and the second Confiscation Act. Lincoln was certain that Chiriqui, later the northern part of Panama, was ideal for his purposes, but the project failed because of Costa Rica’s opposition to the settlement of blacks in the region. Thwarted in Central America, Lincoln negotiated with the Haitian government for the transport of five hundred blacks to Vache Island. Because of insufficient preparations for these emigrants, many soon died and the U.S. Navy helped the survivors return home. In July 1864 Congress repealed all colonization legislation and reappropriated the funds that it had allocated for such purposes. , 2 October 1852; Floyd J. Miller, (Urbana, Ill., 1975), 74-82, 111-12; Paul J. Scheips, “Lincoln and the Chiriqui Colonization Project,” , 37: 418-53 (October 1952) ; Charles H. Wesley, “Lincoln’s Plan for Colonizing the Emancipated Negroes," , 4: 7-21 (January 1919). (Laughter) . . †††† Here the Baltimore reads: “Possession is nine points of the law. We have possession of land down South. And then there is a power in being to the manor born. It was colored muscle that tilled the soil, felled the lumber and drained the marshes, and they have just men all over the country sympathizing with them. There is no use in coming North when they will be confronted by Germans, Irishmen, and Chinamen. Stay at home, demand fair wages from the ‘old master class.' Capital, both at the North and South, tries to get labor at the lowest possible price. Emptying 40,000 people, without money, in rags, up North will enable our enemies to say ‘These are the people they wish to raise over the heads of the Southem people. We are handing around the hat to help them on, and in less than a year we will be handing around the hat to help them back.’
“Mr. Douglass, after speaking at some length on the fact that the Jews were worse despised at one time than the negroes, at the same time remarking that he had been refused admittance to the same halls where he is now paid $100 to lecture, closed by again apologizing for not having his manuscript, and thanking the audience for the interest with which they had listened to him."
(I am against this going. The moral and social power, strong though
invisible, is being to the manner born.13, act 1, sc. 4, line 15. The men who made Rome worth
going to see were the men who staid there.14Douglass paraphrases a comment in Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay “Boston.” , 12: 184-85. If we could stay in the South in
slavery, we can stay now. We have advantages there which we could have
nowhere else. Our people in the South have a monopoly of the labor
market. They are the arm, the muscle and the hand, with the vantage
ground of the constitution behind them, men sympathizing with them in
every State, and the power to say, “Give us fair wages or your fields will go
untilled.” In the North and West they will have no such advantage. They
will be confronted by Irishmen, Germans and Chinese, who can do all
kinds of labor, even to handling the wood saw and the whitewash brush. If
the negro has not wit and wisdom enough to combine for higher wages in
the South, where will his sagacity be when he goes North? Capital is not
divested of its central attribute there—that of getting labor as cheaply as it
can. If you go North you will have to take yourselves with you—your
qualities, your efficiencies and deficiencies. Sympathy may be yours for a
time, but it will soon change into contempt, scorn and detestation, unless
you become self-supporting and self-sustaining.
I dread the influence that will come by emptying thousands of unin-
structed people, covered with rags, in a Northern community, thus making
our enemies say these are the men who radical rule would place over the
Southern white men. The South knows us. It does not shrink from our rags,
because it used to keep us in them. There is not much fear, however, that
the movement will continue, and I do not wish to see amongst us the
creation of that detestable class from whom we are now so free, tramps.15In the aftermath of both the Civil War and the Panic of 1873 large numbers of economically displaced men-overwhelmingly white-wandered the country, often traveling clandestinely on the railroads. By the mid-1870s an estimated three million men were leading a vagrant existence. Among themselves, men who moved from one odd job to another were called “hobos” and those who moved about without seeking jobs were called “tramps,” although outsiders generally ignored such distinctions and used the latter term to designate both classes. As the number of migrants increased, public opinion toward them became more negative. The “tramp problem"—the homeless as a social problem, a moral blot, and a political menace—continued to be a topic of debate in the early decades of the twentieth century. Kenneth Allsop, (New York, 1967), 49, 89, 101, 105; Roger A. Bruns, (New York, 1980), 7-10.
We will never change our relations to the white people until we become
more economical, stick to our employment and live within our means. If
you do people will respect you. Other races, notably the Jews and the
Quakers, worse situated than you are, have fought their way up. The
question is, will the colored man be as good a servant to himself as he was
to his master? We must be truthful and honest. We are religious and want to
shun the wrath to come, but what we need is absolute truthfulness of
character. A lie is only intended to deceive, and when it ceases to fulfill its
purpose it is of no value to the liar. Slavery taught us to steal, but we know it
is wrong and destroys the motive of those around to acquire anything. The
pulpit must not keep us on the high wave of Apocalyptic vision, but on the
rock of practical righteousness. I want when I lay down my life to say that I
have seen my people, once ignorant, now intelligent; once degraded, now
elevated; once despised, now honored. I see the elements at work for us,
and in every bar of iron, every ship and locomotive, the electric wire and
the telephone, there are certain signs of the ultimate success of our race in
this mighty nation.)16From Baltimore , 5 May 1879.