Universl^ Micfxxilms Internationcil

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Universl^ Micfxxilms Internationcil 300 N ZEEB ROAD, ANN ARBOR, Ml 48106 18 BEDFORD ROW, LONDON WC1 R 4EJ, ENGLAND 7907556 KREMER, GARY R. A b i o g r a p h y o f JAMES MILTON TURNER. THE AMERICAN university, PH.D., 1978 Uni\«rsiW Micrcxilms International 300 n zeebhoau . ann arbor , mi âsiœ © 1978 GARY R. KREMER ALL RIGHTS RESERVED A BIOGRAPHY OF JAMES MILTON TURNER by Gary R. Kremer Submitted to the Faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences of The American University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History Signatures of: Committee;Committee: ^ ^ Chairman: Date: / I /r J t 1978 The American University Washington, D.C, THE IMEBlCiK UNIVEHSITY LIBEiSY ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I want to thank all of the people who have assisted me in any way over the past four years in the preparation of this manuscript, I am grateful to Lorenzo J, Greene who introduced me to the historical figure J, Milton Tur ner in a way that prompted me to pursue and to finish this study. My colleague Antonio F, Holland has read parts of this manuscript and has continuously offered helpful sug gestions. William E, Parrish, whose books on post-Civil War Missouri provided me with a starting point for studying Turner's life, has given me hours of his valuable time, and has, in the process, become something more to me than a helpful scholar: he has become a good friend. Other historians have also shared their research with me, par ticularly Lawrence 0, Christensen, Joe M, Richardson, and Elizabeth Caldwell Beatty, Numerous librarians and archivists have tolerated my persistent questions and, more often than not, been able to help me find answers, I especially want to thank the following libraries: the Library of Congress, the Na tional Archives, the State Historical Society of Missouri, the Kansas City Public Library, the Missouri Historical Society, the University of Missouri, Lincoln University, the American U niversity, the U niversity of Oklahoma, the i i Oklahoma Historical Society, the Moorland-Spingam Research Center, and the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons of Mis souri. I particularly want to thank Mrs. Mary Moran of the Oklahoma Historical Society, Ms. Esme Bahn of the Moorland- Spingarn Collection, and Dr. William Allen and Mr. Wilbur K irkpatrick of the Masons. Two of my Lincoln University colleagues have been especially helpful in the preparation of this study. Tho mas E. Gage and Kathleen Wojciehowski have read the entire manuscript and have been two of my most constant, and help fu l, c r itic s . Both have done more for me than anyone has a right to expect of people in their respective positions; that is because they are more than an historian and a lib ra ria n : they, too, are good friends. There are also a number of people at the American University whom I wish to thank. A dissertation fellow ship from the university for 1977-1978 greatly facilita ted the completion of this study. Likewise, I was assist ed by the comments made by a number of my fellow gradu ate students who sat through seminars with me during the early stages of this study. In retrospect, their patience and tolerance toward me were remarkable. In particular, I want to mention Betsy G riffith , Lonnie Bunch, John Vaughn, Tom Jarvis, and Ed Smith. Just as importantly, Allan J. Lichtman, who directed one of those seminars, has been of great help to me. I l l My committee has made the writing of this dissertation a rewarding experience. No one who has not sa t in on one of Roger H. Brown's classes can appreciate the contagious thirst for knowledge that he exudes. I am most grateful to have had the opportunity to work with him, Alan M, Kraut has probably done more than anyone to force me to re fine and c la rify ray in te rp re ta tio n of T urner's lif e and for that too I am grateful, Robert L, Beisner is the sin gle most important reason that this research project be came a reality. When others were trying to discourage my inquiry into Turner's life because of a lack of sources. Professor Beisner encouraged me to continue and to dig a little deeper. If his confidence in me ever waned, he never let on, and for that I am extremely grateful. Finally, I wish to thank Linda Epstein who typed the entire manuscript and my wife Marcy and our two children, Randall and Sharon, for their patience with my single- minded obsession with the life of J. Milton Turner during the past four years. Deficiencies that remain in the study stand more as a testimony to my own intransigence than to the quality of the help that I have received. IV CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS..................................................................................................i i i INTRODUCTION. THE BLACK LEADER AS ASPIRING BOURGEOIS......................................................................... 1 CHAPTER I. EDUCATION TO UPLIFT THE RACE................................ 25 CHAPTER II. THE POLITICS OF MUTUAL BENEFIT ...................... 63 CHAPTER I I I . THE PRESIDENT'S MAN IN A SAVAGE LAND. 105 CHAPTER IV. THE PRESERVATION OF A NOBLE EXPERIMENT . 143 CHAPTER V. IN SEARCH OF POWER BACK HOME..................................... 185 CHAPTER VI. DOING WELL BY DOING GOOD.................................................227 CHAPTER VII. A PYRRHIC VICTORY ..................................................... 269 CHAPTER VIII. A FINAL EFFORT FAILS ............................................ 313 CONCLUSION. THE BLACK LEADER AS TRAGIC FIGURE.................354 SOURCES CONSULTED ....................................................................................... 367 V INTRODUCTION THE BLACK LEADER AS ASPIRING BOURGEOIS The focus of th is study is the lif e of James Milton Turner, a nineteenth century black Missourian who was con sidered by many of his contemporaries to be the most im portant leader of his race in that state. He flirted with national prominence in the 1870's when he served as the Minister Resident and Consul General to Liberia and again, less successfully, when he tried to organize black Demo crats and Independents in a protest movement against the neglectful policies of the Republican party during the eighties and nineties. Turner was an intelligent and gifted man who, despite his talents, was generally a failure as a leader of blacks. This study chronicles that failure and seeks to explain it. To do that is to shed light on an even more funda mental historical problem; the question of the impact that the Civil War and Reconstruction had on black life in Amer ica. Those two events thrust blacks into a fundamentally new social, political, and economic position in American society. Innumerable obstacles presented themselves as the freedmen sought to adjust to an altered status for which slavery had i l l prepared them. Without money, property, or education, they tried to move into the mainstream of a highly-competitive, literate, capitalistic society. The effects of that transformation upon the freedmen were severe. As Peter Kolchin has written: the greatest significance of the story of black Recon struction . , . lies in its revealing the revolutionary nature of the period . , , , In almost all areas of life their [blacks'] social relationships--both with whites and with each other--underwent dramatic and rapid change. The changes were not so much narrowly economic , , , as social, political, legal, and psychological,! The specifics of that transformation have yet to be 2 told adequately. Crucial to the whole process was the role of the local black leaders who tried to guide the freedmen through the labyrinth. While a study such as this one cannot reveal all of the effects of the Civil War and Reconstruction upon blacks, it can provide insight into one aspect of the more general question of adaptation to free dom: the effectiveness of black leadership. Was Turner a typical black leader? Historians have only recently addressed themselves to the problem of devel oping a model of postwar black leadership, David C, Rankin's essay on "The Origins of Black Leadership in New Orleans During Reconstruction" is a seminal effort in that Peter Kolchin, F irs t Freedom: The Response of Ala bama's Blacks to Emancipation and keconstrue:t'lon (.Vfestport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, l972j, pp, lUj-lyS, 2 Richard 0.

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