Join genealogist Bernice A. Bennett who will uncover the stories of African American families who became landowners through the Homestead Act of 1862 from her latest book Black Homesteaders of the South. Bennett’s work is a modern story of black genealogists who networked through a Facebook page to trace the footsteps of their ancestors in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana & Mississippi. Find out how these families navigated the application process through the federal government, and what this legacy means for their descendants today. Bernice Alexander Bennett is an award-winning author, genealogist and host of Research at the National Archives & Beyond BlogTalkRadio program. Her genealogical interests focus on Southeast Louisiana and Edgefield and Greenwood Counties, South Carolina. Bennett is an author and contributor to 2 award winning genealogy books including Our Ancestors, Our Stories and Tracing Their Steps: A Memoir. A New Orleans native, Bennett is a volunteer with the Homestead National Historical Park Service identifying descendants of Black homesteaders to share their stories.
This is part two of the blogs about the Great Compromises in September 1850 and 1895 that impacted African Americans.
“To those of my race who depend on bettering their condition in a foreign land, or who underestimate the importance of cultivating friendly relations with the Southern white man, I would say: “Cast down your bucket where you are—cast it down in making friends in every manly way of the people of all races by whom we are surrounded.”
It was one of the hottest days under the Atlanta, Georgia sun when a tall, bony man introduced as “Professor Booker T. Washington” entered the front of the platform and looked out over a packed audience of whites and Blacks who were awaiting the opening of the market exchanges. It was September 18, 1895, in the segregated South. The long-anticipated Cotton States and International Exposition opened for the purpose to showcase Southern agricultural and mechanical products to global countries. Washington was introduced – a man born a slave on a Virginia plantation. He was poised to make history that day as the first African American to speak to an audience of different races in a Southern location. (Today in History – September 18 | Library of Congress (loc.gov)
Washington was described by a correspondent of the New York World as “straight as a Sioux chief, high forehead, heavy jaws … strong, determined … piercing eyes, and a commanding manner…” who captured the spotlight with his speech that is known as the “Atlanta Compromise.”
Transcribed Excerpts from Booker T. Washington’s Atlanta Exposition Speech, September 18, 1895:
“… A ship lost at sea for many days suddenly sighted a friendly vessel. From the mast of the unfortunate vessel was seen a signal: “Water, water; we die of thirst!” The answer from the friendly vessel at once came back: “Cast down your bucket where you are.” A second time the signal, “Water, water; send us water!” ran up from the distressed vessel and was answered: “Cast down your bucket where you are.” And a third and fourth signal for water was answered: “Cast down your bucket where you are.” The captain of the distressed vessel, at last heeding the injunction, cast down his bucket, and it came up full of fresh, sparkling water from the mouth of the Amazon River. To those of my race who depend on bettering their condition in a foreign land, or who underestimate the importance of cultivating friendly relations with the Southern white man, who is their next-door neighbor, I would say: “Cast down your bucket where you are” — cast it down in making friends in every manly way of the people of all races by whom we are surrounded. Cast it down in agriculture, mechanics, in commerce, in domestic service, and in the professions. And in this connection, it is well to bear in mind that whatever other sins the South may be called to bear, when it comes to business, pure and simple, it is in the South that the Negro is given a man’s chance in the commercial world, and in nothing is this Exposition more eloquent than in emphasizing this chance. Our greatest danger is, that in the great leap from slavery to freedom we may overlook the fact that the masses of us are to live by the productions of our hands, and fail to keep in mind that we shall prosper in proportion as we learn to dignify and glorify common labor and put brains and skill into the common occupations of life; shall prosper in proportion as we learn to draw the line between the superficial and the substantial, the ornamental gewgaws of life and the useful,” extorted the founding President of the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute.
When Washington finished, it was reported that loud cheers and applause complimented his remarks.
Washington’s critics viewed the orator and educator’s remarks as controversial since his more than 10-minute speech advised African Americans to accept their unequal positions in society, disengage in political matters, and use their God-given talents and brawn to achieve economic freedom. He was vocal against protesting. He was known to have dined with U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, who sought his advice on race issues along with President William Howard Taft.
Washington was considered the most important Negro of his time, and it was not limited to racial lines. Honorary degrees were bestowed upon him by Dartmouth College and Harvard University. Washington wrote 14 books, including the widely popular, Up From Slavery, and he remained an advocate of industrial education until his death at the age of 59 in 1915. He believed in “separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress.”
Washington’s words spoken during the Cotton States Exposition were remembered mainly as a concession to the tensions at a fever pitch between Whites and Blacks in the Southern states.
The Uncompromised DuBois response
The man who was the first African American to receive a doctorate from Harvard University, W.E.B. DuBois, was the so-called black elite who vehemently opposed Washington’s views. He rejected the segregated Jim Crow-era beliefs such as African Americans’ focus on social and political rights would be achieved by being quiet and not causing any public protests.
DuBois passionately challenged Washington’s beliefs and words. DuBois espoused immediate political and intellectual empowerment. In 1905, DuBois organized an “anti-Bookerite” movement. Four years later, DuBois’ and his followers joined White liberals and formed the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The NAACP battled racial injustice through the legal system. He says it lowers expectations for African Americans.
In the next Good Genes Genealogy Services’ September 2021 e-book, read the combined Parts One and Two about the great “Compromises” impacting African Americans. Both occurred in September.
Your assignment: How do you view today’s differences among leaders within the same political parties, ethnic groups, and other organizations? What are the pros and cons raised in the continuing great debate between DuBois and Washington?
On September 18 and 20, 1850, history recorded two distinct “compromises” that impacted African American lives. Part One, we will look at what life became in the area now known as Washington, D.C., once Congress came together and compromised on legislation.
The ‘give and take” of 1850
The 20th of September marked the signing of a bill that affected an area now known as the District of Columbia: It abolished the slave trade. It was part of the U.S. package known as the Compromise of 1850. It was fashioned by Sen. Henry Clay, a 70+ legislator dubbed the “Great Pacificator” by his colleagues. His aim was to get Congressional members to ‘give and take’ in five different compromises, with one resulting in the freeing of slaves in the nation’s capital. Meanwhile, the fugitive slave law was strengthened nationwide.
There were numerous congressional bills introduced in Congress in January 1850. By September, it was narrowed to five separate bills. Each bill was separately voted upon by Congress. Elimination of the slave trade in D.C. also included the welcoming of California as a free state in the U.S. and settling the border dispute between Mexico and Texas. It also gave the law enforcement authorities the right to capture slaves and suffer economic penalties if the slaves escaped while under the marshals and sheriffs’ jurisdictions. Eventually, this bill’s purpose would fall apart.
The United States Congress abolished the slave trade in the District of Columbia on September 20, 1850, as part of the legislative package called the Compromise of 1850. Since the founding of the District of Columbia in 1800, enslaved people had lived and worked in the nation’s capital. By the mid-nineteenth century, laws regulating slavery in the district were considerably more lenient than slave codes in the South. Still, slavery continued to exist in Washington until April 16, 1862. President Lincoln signed legislation freeing the 3,000 African Americans bound by the District’s slave code on that day. (The Slavery Code of the District of Columbia… Washington: L. Towers, 1862. Slaves and the Courts, 1740 to 1860. Law Library)
While Antebellum Washington was a thriving community for free Blacks, whereby 1860, they outnumbered the enslaved Blacks by four to one. The former slaves who could migrate to the District of Columbia did so. Meanwhile, former slaves who were granted their freedom by plantation owners were not given the flexibility to live their lives outside of the states approving the new status. It was home to a thriving community of free blacks.
Harriet Bolling is an example of a Mulatto woman who was granted her freedom in Virginia by James Bolling. Yet, her freedom restricted her movements to the Commonwealth of Virginia, where she remained in Petersburg.
“Free Southern blacks continued to live under the shadow of slavery, unable to travel or assemble as freely as those in the North. It was also more difficult for them to organize and sustain churches, schools, or fraternal orders such as the Masons,” according to the Library of Congress.
Part Two: African American man is “first” to Compromise in the South
The following blog will review another September “Compromise about noted educator Booker T. Washington’s classic address at an Atlanta convention in September 1895.
In the next Good Genes Genealogy Services’ September 2021 e-book, read the combined Parts One and Two about the great “Compromises” impacting African Americans. Both occurred in September.
Your assignment: The global community has been required to adhere to certain restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic. How did you react when your everyday travel was restricted and asked to wear masks in public? How do you imagine the African American slaves responded to their lifetime restrictions?
