Martin R. Delany to Frederick Douglass, July 24, 1848
Cleveland, July 24, 1848.
Dear Douglass:—Having left Detroit on the 19th inst., I have thus far arrived, en route for Rochester, where I shall meet you on or before the glorious first of August—that day which, in a trice, struck the shackles from the limbs of eight hundred thousand chattelized beings in human form, who instantly, in the majesty of manhood, stood erect in the image of their God.
I held, among the colored citizens, during my stay, a series of meetings in Detroit, which were as well attended as reasonably could be expected under the circumstances.—One I held for the citizens generally, in the "Presbyterian Session Room," a notice of which, through the papers, having been neglected, there were comparatively few in attendance, at which time I took the opportunity of answering some positions taken that day in the U.S. Supreme Court, by Mr. Pratt, one of the counsel for plaintiff, in his pro-slavery Bible argument.
In general, the colored people in Detroit are doing tolerably well—some quite well. As I have at other times and elsewhere noticed, there are some good mechanics here, and their number has, during the last four or five years, been on the increase. There are some twenty or more carpenters, actively and industriously engaged, one of whom carries on the business quite extensively; several plasterers, doing well at their trades; a number of boot and shoemakers; also blacksmiths.—One gentleman is proprietor of a large clothing establishment on Jefferson Avenue, the principal trading and business thoroughfare in the city, and if numbers who crowd the store be a test, does the principal business of the kind in the place. Neither are the females left entirely behind, as many of them have trades, and resort to the needle as a means of support, as milliners, mantuamakers, and tailoresses.
There is a good feature about this place.—There is little or no encouragement for persons who resort to menial occupations for a livelihood. Tradesmen and farmers find ready and constant employment, and hold a respectable rank generally in society. There are few of our young men who still resort to hotels and steamboats as a business, all of whom, we learn, intend, at the earliest opportunity possible, to quit their present vocations, and commence shopkeeping and tilling the soil for themselves.
One colored gentleman keeps a fine livery stable of good horses and vehicles. A great many own good real estate in this county, and a number own and work good farms.
There are two schools in Detroit, one kept in common for both sexes, by Elder Davis, spoken of in the letter of Gerrit Smith, Esq., and one by Mrs. Susanna Gordon, a white lady, exclusively for girls. both are public schools, supported by the State.
They have here two churches—Methodist and Baptist, the latter of which, Elder Davis, (an amiable and intelligent gentleman,) is pastor; and a third, for which efforts are now being made, an Episcopal, to be erected by Rev. W. C. Monroe, also an excellent gentleman. There are evidently not sufficient people in this city for the support of such a church, where the greater part incline to the Methodist and Baptist persuasion, and these, too, a people just emerged from the gloom of slavery.
The people here have been much imposed upon by a wretch who calls himself Israel T. Davis, having very much the appearance of an Indian, a large person, walks erect, with head drooping. This man, under the pretence of being a preacher, secured an appointment as agent, and collected large sums from time to time, and eventually ran off with from seven to nine hundred dollars of money collected for the Methodist Church, and has never since been heard of. I saw the miscreant once in Pittsburgh, endeavoring to collect money, at which time I forewarned the people against him, which gave some offence, as he was a member of the church.
The Methodist Church here is evidently the most influential, embracing by far the largest number of citizens, and once did embrace nearly all the most influential and business people, a great many of whom have been driven off by ignorance and intolerance.
At much expense, the people have erected a substantial and handsome brick church, neatly, plainly, and well finished, adorned, by the efforts of the ladies, with an elegant and tasty pulpit. This is the first colored Methodist Church I ever saw with closed pews; hung doors, regularly numbered, so that, like other churches, ladies and gentlemen sit together, in the same pews, promiscuously.—This arrangement I highly approve of, since a man going to church with his wife, or any other lady, is not under the necessity of standing half an hour in the crowded pass way of the vestibule, or out of doors, looking in everybody's face for the one he escorted, standing merely a chance of meeting her.—In my opinion, the arrangement of different places for the sexes, in many of the churches, especially the Methodist, is very inconvenient and awkward.
The Methodist Church is a branch of "Old Mother Bethel," and might be a means of great good among the people. But unfortunately there is a good and efficient minister at present wanted. The preacher who holds the charge is an illiberal person, speaking against every manner of moral improvement. Everything that does not yield to clerical dictum, is necessarily bad, and therefore of the devil. He is certainly a two-faced, double-tongued, subtle person—pretending one thing when he intends another; in whatever he does, always having some concealed object in view—possessing, though a colored man, like him of Ashland, a face for the North and one for the South, so that in reality he is a most fearfully untrustworthy man. Why, in the name of our race, religion, God, and humanity, does the Conference place such men over people whose whole dependence for a knowledge of the light of truth, the gospel, men and things, is upon them, I cannot conceive. I ask the ministers who compose that Conference, with many of whom I am intimately acquainted, whether or not they are determined, instead of improvement, to promote ignorance and degradation among our
hopeless and disconsolate race. In God's holy name, I beseech, them in future, stay this most unwise procedure. Not only does it engender ignorance and superstition, but most deleterious are its effects upon that whole church, by driving from it all the intelligent and best of our people, as the Conference now may be assured that those who are intelligent will not, at this age of progress, submit to ignorance and superstition; and if the Methodist Church encourage and foster such curses as these, however Methodistically inclined the people may be, they will go elsewhere, as they should do, rather than submit to such debasement—the legitimate child and recent offspring of slavery.
There are some excellent families and much intelligence here, which requires concentration and encouragement to bring it to useful maturity. There are two Sabbath schools here, in which, I am sorry to say, there are but two or three colored teachers engaged; but, as usual, depending upon our white fellow-citizens. Will—O! in the name of self-respect—will ever we rise above this miserable life of depending upon others to do for us that which we should for ourselves? I would that we could be inspired with a proper sense of duty in this respect.
Our friends and brethren, Henry Bibb, the eloquent anti-slavery lecturer, and Lewis Hayden and wife, for whom Delia Webster was falsely accused, and Rev. Mr. Fairbanks imprisoned, for "stealing," self-made freemen, reside here. Mr. Bibb's most excellent wife, is quite an acquisition to society.—Hayden and wife, after the extraordinary position and opinion of Judge McLean in the late slave case, as well they might, became alarmed and left for Boston.
Detroit is advantageously located sixteen miles above its junction with Lake Erie, and two miles below Lake St. Clair, on the Detroit, a large and beautiful river, and mariners say, having the best harbor on this continent, as during the greatest storms and hurricanes, hundreds of vessels may lie with the utmost safety.
Frequently has it been a subject of inquiry, which, until now, I have been unable to answer, why, with all its manifold advantages, the progress in growth of this beautiful, promising little city, compared with all others, is so slow.
In a great district of country, including Detroit, which was originally a French settlement, the lands were laid off into farms, two acres wide. This arrangement was established for the purpose of giving each family of settlers equal fishing privileges in the Detroit. Since then, the city has been built, but the original owners, instead of selling out into building lots, hold those farms, leasing the lots for a term of years, or themselves building on an avenue or street, the length of a square, which is two acres wide, four or five houses, with great waste spaces round about them, where there should be dozens of fine business places. Hence, it is only when the demise of one of these old landholders occurs, that building lots can be at all purchased, by which the growth of the city has progressed at a slow rate. But for this, Detroit must be second to no city bordering on the lakes.—The trade on these lakes and rivers is immense, and this city, but for the selfishness of the old landholders, must have become a metropolis. At the death of an old settler, or landholder, it is said, there is always great rejoicing—their own children not unfrequently numbering with the joyful. Though cruel it may seem under such circumstances they are almost justifiable.
There are, notwithstanding, many important and valuable public improvements and works erected. The Hydraulic, or city Water Works, for the supply of water to the inhabitants, is among the most useful in the place. Since the transfer, by the State, of the Railroad to the Boston or Massachusetts Company, great impulse has thereby been given to business in all parts of Michigan. I believe there is not an hour in the day, (Sundays excepted,) that there is not one or more train of cars arriving or departing. Grain and produce of every description is conveyed to all parts of this beautiful, level, fertile State, with swallow-like velocity, borne upon the freight trains; so that the most distant farmer in the State has the satisfaction of knowing that; within five or six hours from the time of shipping, his commodities safely arrive in the cash depositories of the metropolis of his own State.
The Boston Company is quite a monopolist, and for the better purpose of securing the trade of the State, have erected an immense depository and commission warehouse, 1200 feet long by 100 wide, said to be the largest in the United States, or equal to twenty-four of the largest warehouses in Detroit. The depot proper, where the passenger trains arrive, stands beside this great depository. Subjacent to these buildings, are the engine-works and machine-shops, for manufacturing and repairing locomotives, adjoining which is erected a depository for the locomotives. Being circular in form, one hundred feet in diameter and the same in altitude, when going up the river, approaching the city, the appearance is novel and attracting.
In my last, I should have observed, concerning the slave-catcher Troutman, Att'y at law, and agent for Francis Giltner, of Carroll county, Ky., that for good moral character, his counsel, in his boisterous plea, asserted that he came "clothed and backed by recommendations from U.S. Senator Davis, Senator Jesse Bright, of Indiana, and Henry Clay, of Kentucky.
You can readily perceive the anxiety of this arch slave-monger to rid Kentucky of the curse of slavery, when his every act is, and up to this time, the last of his life, has been directed to the promotion and increase of slavery in the State. There is no doubt in my mind but this young slave-catcher was prompted and encouraged to return to the North, in the pursuit of manstealing, by the knavish old one, who craftily lurked at home, watching among the "negro quarters" at Ashland. Can there be anything great about a being like this? a miserable old man, saged for his schemes of human depravity, and veteran for his pre-eminence in contributing to the sufferings of outraged humanity. Let idle declamation say, and false patriotism contribute as it may, I cannot and will not admit true greatness to be in any manner the characteristic of a person such as the above.
The Judge, as in my former I should have stated, also took this position, as extraordinary as it is overbearing and despotic, that an attempt—throwing one's self between the fugitive and slave-catcher—raising the hand, or even speaking to the claimant, is not necessary to the hinderance and obstruction in the eye of the law; but the bare presence of one, even after the escape, smiling approbation, is criminal. Hence, Pratt, the counsel for plaintiff, contended that Planter Moss, one of the colored defendants, was accessary to the escape of the slaves, because he laughed!!
I came by Oberlin, where I found many excellent spirits and good people. I did not find as many young colored men and women at this Institute as I could have wished.—There are but three young men in College, and I believe two young women, one of whom is one of the Amistad captives, preparing to act as a missionary in her own dear native land, among her benighted brethren. May success attend her every effort! I had some conversation with her. She was one of the three little girls whom Cinque took to his arms and embraced when seized by the "brave" and ever-to-be-remembered, Lieut. Meades, of the U.S. Squadron. Those in College are said to be quite promising. There are a number in preparatory schools.
I was most agreeably disappointed in the arrangement of things at Oberlin Institute.—Instead of that distant coldness with which the Professors are said to treat the students, the contrary is the fact—kindness and friendship being the traits most prominent—and in many instances the most familiar sociability existing among them. One thing I discovered—the students love the Professors; and I desire no greater evidence of the character of the Institute. I visited several of the Professors' families, and found them all that could be desired.
I also visited several of the recitations, and instead of confused awkwardness, as is usually the case among students, I found them ready and cheerful, full of life, with kind and smiling professors and tutors. I greatly admire the regulation and management of Oberlin Institute.
Several colored families reside here, some of whom appear to be well doing. One man is a blacksmith, doing good business. I met here Mr. R. Cushman, Missionary, recently from Haiti, from whom I received much valuable information. He married a young lady who just finished her education here, and intends returning immediately. Mr. C. has seen our correspondent there, and also Mr. Spencer, whom, he informs me, was more alarmed than there was cause for. Hereafter, I shall have much to say about Haiti, as well as Oberlin.
Cleveland is a handsome and pleasant place, as you know; but not yet having seen the people, I cannot say much about them. Last night there was an anti-slavery address. Tonight, Mr. Fitzgerald holds an emigration meeting among his colored brethren. I shall be there; and tomorrow leave for Rochester.
Yours for God and humanity,
M. R. D.