Sunland Tribune
Volume 31 Article 5
2006
Seeking David Fagen: The Search for a Black Rebel's Florida Roots
Frank Schubert
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Recommended Citation Schubert, Frank (2006) "Seeking David Fagen: The Search for a Black Rebel's Florida Roots," Sunland Tribune: Vol. 31 , Article 5. Available at: https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/sunlandtribune/vol31/iss1/5
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Frank Schubert Miami, Fernandina, and Jacksonville. Among them were all four regiments of black regu avid Fagen was by far the best lars: three (the 9th Cavalry, and the 24th known of the twenty or so black and 25th Infantry regiments) in Tampa, and soldiers who deserted the U.S. a fourth, the 10th Cavalry, in Lakeland. Re DArmy in the Philippines at the cently the experience of these soldiers in turn of the twentieth century and went the Florida has been the subject of a growing next step and defected to the enemy. I !is number of books, articles, and dissertations.2 story fi lled newspapers great and small , Some Floridians joined regular units, from the New Yori? 11imes to the Crawford, and David Fagen was one of those. lie en Nebraska 11-ibune. The Times called him listed on June 4, 1898, for a term of three "the celebrated Fagen,'' assuming that all years, and began an extraordinary military who read about him would know why. It journey, starting as a private in the 24th was he that the even more celebrated Fred Infantry and ending as a captain in Emilio erick Funston wanted desperately to kill Aguinaldo's Filipino revolutionary army, and then, when he fa iled to do so, made fighting against his former comrades and public excuses to cover his failure. In the the United States. The conflict that started period press, the literature, and the official as part of the war with Spain in 1898 ended records of the war, one name kept popping by throttling the Fil ipino independence up: David Fagen, the teenager from Tampa movement in 1902. who had enli sted in the 24th Infantry in Ilow does one discover the background 1898 for the war against Spain, "celebrat of such a young man? I-le does not appear ed" in the New Yori? Times, leading insur in what might be called "uplift histories," recto soldiers against the Americans, and such as the late Rowena Brady's Things frustrating the great Frederick Funston. Who Remembered,J a book that traces the emer was this soldier, and what was his story? gence of a black professional and entrepre For many years, historical studies of neurial middle class in Tampa. Ile is not in Florida at the turn of the twentieth century Maxine Jones and Kevin McCa rthy's Afri that talked about the war with Spain tend can Americans in Florida,4 with its biogra ed to focus on local volunteer regiments, on phies black Tampa's social pillars, such as civilian patriots trying to make soldiers com educator Blanche Armwood and nurse fortable in camp, and on businesses and Clara Frye. communities experiencing strong economic In fact, in an earlier version of a local surges as a result of Florida becoming the history, D. B. McKay's Pioneer Florida, pub springboard to operations in Cuba. Indeed, lished in 1959 during the waning days of Florida during the 1898 war included all segregation, there is some indication of how that. All of V Corps, the 17 ,000 men who far David Fagen and his family were from went to Cuba, along with those left be being among the pi llars of black Tampa. In hind, were bivouacked in Tampa, Lakeland, a chapter called "The Good Colored People 29
Published by Scholar Commons, 2006 29 Sunland Tribune, Vol. 31 [2006], Art. 5
'l\vo fa nciful views of Fagen that illustrated a 1909 novel, The Little God.~ , hy Rowland Thomas. of Tampa," Sam Fagen, David's father, made believe your lawyer. Case dismissed." ':-> a cameo appearance, illustrating what did The tale shows in stark reli ef the racism of not, in Mc Kay's judgment, constitute the the day, when a black man's word was not "good colored people" of Ta mpa. McKay even good e nough to establish his own guil t. wrote: The story may also show a black man so Sam Fagin [sicjwas a shiftless old Ne shrewd that he knew that a ll he had to do gro who was never known to work, but was admit guilt to be exonerated. had about 20 children. I mention him because I recall a funny story about him. \\That about Sam's son David? What can When the late Clarke Knight had just one find out about this young African graduated from law school he walked in American man from the mean dirt streets of to the police station one morning look the Scrub, Tampa's black urban enclave':> ing for business. He saw old Sam in a What and who might have shaped his li fe , cell and asked why. Sam said he was accused of stealing chickens. Cla rke and - perhaps most importa nt - what might volunteered to represent him.The next have been the sources of his extraordina ry morning when Sam was arraigned before rebellion? Judge Harry Peeples the judge glared at The searc h begins with F'agen's fa mily him and evidently unnerved him. Told and reli es on standa rd sources: census to plead to the charge, Sam whispered, 'Jedge, when you looks at me lak dat it records, insurance maps, and vital statis seems lak you looks right through me. I ti cs. Sam Fagen (c.1840-1899) did not have ai n't gwine li e to you, Jedge - I's guilty.' twenty children. Il e and hi s wife Sylvia Cla rke was on his feet instantly to (c.1853-1883)<> had seven offspring and protest: 'Judge Peeples. You fri ghtened David was the seventh, following four broth this poor old man so badly with your fierce expression that he doesn't know ers and two siste rs. The fa mily also includ what he is saying. I am his lawyer, and I ed Sylvia's son George Douglas, the oldest tell you he is not guilty.' Whereupon the child in the family in 1880, eleven years of honorabl e court delivered himself of this age when David was aged one. gem: 'Sam Fagin, stand up' I'll have you Sam Fagen, head of the family, was a la know that I came from South Ca'lina, and l was taught to always take the word borer and, if not a local legend, he should of a white in preference to the word of a have been . In addition to his acquittal as Negro. You say you a re guilty - your the perpetrator of the great chicken rob lawyer says you are not guilty. I prefer to be ry, one 1878 story in the 30 Sunland T'ri- https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/sunlandtribune/vol31/iss1/5 30 Schubert: Seeking David Fagen: The Search for a Black Rebel's Florida Roots
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}·li · i: t:..: aL..; .. pr1'.' A portion of Fagen's first enlistment paper, showing his "X." (National Archives) bune had him catching an alligator, and an ing house or with no outside employment other in 1881 reported that he had stolen went from 50 to 64 percent. Sometimes, the oats for his horse.7 Sylvia "kept house," as circumstances and opportunities of Recon the census report put it. George was sixteen struction led freedwomen to earn wages, in 1885 and did "general job work," so he but they "created economic niches that may have contributed a bit to the house added earnings without sacrificing care of hold, but the family was big, depended their families or submitting to the super mainly on Sam's earnings as a laborer, and vision of whites." (Thus, the 1880 census probably had trouble making ends meet. notes "laundress" as the occupation of In the context of the hard-pressed Fagen some freedwomen, since such work could family, one must understand Sylvia's role be carried out largely at home while also during her short life and why it was impor caring for children, husbands, and house tant that she "kept house." Kathleen Howe, work. 8) in her article, "Stepping into Freedom: This view of the importance of women African Americans in Ilillsborough County, retaining their status as homemakers was Florida, During the Reconstruction Era," confirmed by Leon Litwack, in his study of notes that whites didn't understand that African Americans in the post-Reconstruc "social circumstances and the legacy of tion South. "In removing themselves from slavery gave labor different meanings for the fields and the white family's house," African Americans. For black women, the Litwack wrote, "black women evinced a de meaning was deeply influenced by their de sire to spend more time tending to the sires to nurture their families and maintain needs of the family and to escape the abuse their own households." During the 1870s that often accompanied close proximity to the percentage of black adult women keep- white men. In removing their wives, daugh- 31 Published by Scholar Commons, 2006 31 Sunland Tribune, Vol. 31 [2006], Art. 5 !~ '' .. J' J• 'd(J ...... ~ , i ~ ·J STA~·:~~~~" '" ~-J~ -~-·'-~in 1 "" ,.... "'g_d~P'·~ - __2_ J-:-: __ _ t:,.l --¥-c-- - ~ .·1 mon th~, nnd by occupntion n -~rt~~~ DO HEREBY;, A!JKNOWLEDGE 1 : to luwe volun:tarily ~nli s ted this ...... ; ...... /------·-·--·-:- d11.y of --~----'J!Y:::.'______:-- ~ 1 ~9 Y 3 SOLDIER in the ARlll' OF THE U : Fagen's second enlistment document shows hi s signature. (National Archives) 32 https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/sunlandtribune/vol31/iss1/5 32 Schubert: Seeking David Fagen: The Search for a Black Rebel's Florida Roots ters, and mothers from domestic and field David Fagen wa lked into the recruiting of work, many bl ack men sought to assert fice, he started leaving clues about himself. their position at the head of the fa mily and The young recruit had to provide two char provide family members with a protecti on acter references, people who knew his fam denied them as slaves."9 ily and lived nearby. I-l e chose carpenter Sylvia Fagen di ed in 1883. The Fagen Samuel Bryant and laborer William Ilicks, family's address before her death is not both of whom were also residents of the kn own, but the 1886 Ta mpa city directory Scrub. William I-licks remains obscure, but locates Sam Fagen and his famil y at the cor Samuel Bryant was well-known and re ner of Nebraska Avenue and Constant spected in the black community. Ilis moth Street, in the Scrub.10 Tampa's Scrub dis er Dorcas Bryant was a prominent earl y trict was typical of most black neighbor entrepreneur who she made her money hoods in the late nineteenth and early the hard way, as a laundress, and, later, a twentieth century South. Litwack has ob landowner. Samuel Bryant owned the Ne served that "To find the bl ack neighborhood braska Avenue Carpenter Shop, was active in almost any town or city, one needed no in the Republican Party during Reconstruc map or signs," since streets were rarely tion, and built Mt. Sinai African Methodist paved and inevitably turned to muck in Epi scopal Zion Church on land donated by rainstorms, and housing was usuall y the his mothe r.J 4 That Fagen would have least desirable in town. For example, sought out such a prominent member of the Litwack cites "the Bottoms" in Knoxville, community as a character witness demon Tennessee, a cluster of ri ckety shacks on strates how important he considered this stilts along a creek, in a neighborhood sur step in his own life. That his family knew rounded by industry - tobacco warehouses, Samuel Bryant well enough to make such a a fo undry, a slaughterhouse, and the locally request suggests that Sam Fagen, David's fa volatile creek, sometimes running within its ther, was something more than just a chick banks and some times at fl ood. Residents in en thief. "the Bottoms" had no political power, re Fagen's enlistment papers also con ceived few or no municipal services, and tained in fo rmation about David's civili an fo und it almost impossible to escape their occupation . Ilis application said only that surroundings. he worked as a laborer fo r Hull's Phosphate Litwack could just as easil y have been Cornpany,15 but that in itself said a lot. This describing the Fagens' neighborhood, Ta m industry, which had its start in the waters pa's Scrub. ll As Tony Pizzo said in a 1980 near Tampa in 1883 during the dredging of article for Tampa Bay History, the Scrub the Ilillsborough Ri ver channel, fo ll owed a was Tampa's first black community. Pizzo's standard pattern, with mines using blacks quotes a 1927 study of the conditions of life for common labor and whites as fo remen in the Scrub: "The rentl al] quarters are and mechanics. Black laborers ea rned .$1 small and close together. They are situated per clay, usually for 10 hours of work. The on unpaved streets and narrow alleys. Bath work was arduous: breaking off phosphate ing faci lities arc scarce: ga rbage is often un rock with crow bars, pi cks, and oyster coll ected. " 12 Pizzo considered the district tongs, while standing in ri vers swarming "a world of its own." Outsiders did not ven with mosquitoes, and tossing the rock into ture there, and "onl y those who li ved there small boats, to be dried and crushed for use frequented the pl ace." When Ybor City was in fe rtilizer, baking powder, matches, and established in 1886 just two miles east of cleaning and water-softening compounds. Tampa, the black community fo und itself 13lacks provided as much as ninety-fi ve per wedged between "the Cracker village of cent of the work force. When there were not Tampa" and a new immigrant town , with enough black laborers, mines used convict both expanding in all directions. In Pizzo's ga ngs on a contract basis at fo rty cents per words, the Scrub became "a lost and fo rgot man per clay. inety percent or more of ten world. " JJ these working prisoners were black as well. The scant history of his fa mily and the Overall , phosphate mining in the 1880s and retrospective studies of hi s neighborhood 1890s was a brutal, demanding grind of long and era give some social and economic hours, hard work, and low pay, "requiring context to David Fagen, but little person strong men with the stamina to perform al in fo rmation. However, the moment that back-breaking work under Florida's burning 33 Published by Scholar Commons, 2006 33 Sunland Tribune, Vol. 31 [2006], Art. 5 sun."16 It takes little imagination to under of the military in uplifting and protecting stand why a young man might leave that for the black community.19 This understanding the Army. fed on what Paul Ortiz called "traditions of It takes no additional imagination to un black self defense" in Florida. The white derstand why the phosphate industry was a owned Florida 11,mes-Union, of Jackson locus of labor radicalism. Like the turpen ville, in fact, warned on 13 July 1890 of a tine and timber camps, phosphate mines new breed of black Floridian that it called were violent places. Black laborers' efforts the "Winchester Negro,'' who feared no white to increase wages and improve conditions man.20 met concerted resistance from the opera The newspaper put its journalistic finger tors. In 1899 black phosphate workers in on a growing regional phenomenon, the Dunnellon formed an "Anti-Lynch and Mob emergence of the black outlaw, the "bad Club,'' in an effort to stop escalating racial nigger,'' to use the term contemporaneous violence. In October of that year members ly and - by African Americans - positively of the club fought a pitched battle with local appli ed.21 In the 1890s, black folklore in law enforcement officers; two club mem creasingly emphasized "the black outlaw bers were killed in the fracas and the orga and desperado, usually a loner who chose to nization was effectively broken. In 1903, a violate all of the moral and legal precepts white phosphate employer in the Bartow of society, who wielded his own brand of vicinity killed a black worker after the justice." This outlaw, the "bad nigger," was worker got into an argument with the own celebrated for "cunning, boldness, coolness, er's bookkeeper. "At times,'' Paul Ortiz has and wit, often in the face of overwhelming written, "the state's phosphate and turpen odds, and for the uncanny ability and imag tine regions resembled armed camps as inative powers he displayed in outwitting workers battled woods riders (turpentine his enemies."22 One such man, Alabama foremen) and bosses over wages and com turpentine worker Morris Slater, known as pany store debts."17 Ortiz's work supports "Railroad Bi ll ,'' shot and killed a police offi Litwack's general observation that "the cer, escaped, and roamed southwestern Al economics of repression produced a black abama, robbing trains, and stealing from all, workforce mostly dependent on whites black, w hite, rich, and poor. In March 1896 for their daily sustenance. But it did not bounty hunters in Atmore, Alabama, blew necessarily produce the docile, contented, his head off, but legend had it that he had easily controll ed workforce whites had transformed himself and still watched his envisioned. "18 pursuers with amusement.23 Florida's equi Apart from wish ing to evade labor vio va lent was llarmon Murray, a young man lence or the back-breaking conditions of whose life of crime as leader of the North the phosphate industry, there may have Florida Gang centered on Alachua County been other reasons for the Army to appeal and who "achieved Statewide notoriety" to a young African American man from before seventeen-year-old Elbert Hardy, Tampa. After all , it was the United States another black Floridian, killed him in Army that had brought the end of slavery to Gainesville in September 1891.24 the Confederate states and made it stick. Jn On top of that mythic history and tradi the years after the Civil War, the presence tion, there was the formidable presence in of the Army at Fort Brooke, in the words May 1898 of the black regulars who could of Katherine Howe, '1proved critical for be seen all over Tampa. They were proud, African Americans seeking to exercise their tough, confident men, and the very sight of freedom .... Federal troops in Tampa mediat them in and near the Tampa I !eights camp ed disagreements and prevented wide that was close to Central Avenue and the spread racial violence agai nst blacks." The Scrub could easily have impressed a young black citizens of Tampa appreciated the im black man like David Fagen.2s The Tampa portance of the military and in 1870 they Morning Tribune wrote on 5 May 1898 that successfully petitioned the Governor for "The colored infantrymen stationed in Ta m an African American militia company. It pa and vicinity have made themselves very never did much beyond train, march in offensive to the people of the city. The men parades, and protect the polls during Re insist upon being treated the same as white construction. However, the very existence men are treated, and the citizens will not of the unit showed an awareness of the role make any distinction between the colored 34 https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/sunlandtribune/vol31/iss1/5 34 Schubert: Seeking David Fagen: The Search for a Black Rebel's Florida Roots troops and the colored civili ans." This may have been offensive to whites, but it wa s ~ l t surely a revelation to some blacks to see such bl ack men, refu sing to be denied ser vice in bars, carrying weapons in broad day W• , ' light, upright and powerful in their bearing. In any case, David Fagen did not have '11 : 11· many viabl e alternatives to army service. 1 As his enlistment paper shows, he could not sign his name. There were schools in The I Ir Scrub, of course. lla rlem Academy was first mentioned by name in the minutes of the Hillsborough County School Board ih 1889; there are indicati ons of a colored school in Tampa in the minutes of the Board as earl y as 1876. Rowena Brady fo und evid ence of a freedmen's school on Harrison between Mo rga n and Ma rion, permanently establish ed by 18 70, "one room without partitions and few windows ," that served the commu nity until Ilarlem Academy was established. But fo r Fagen, if he went to school at all , he did not stay very long and whatever school ing he had was negligible. 26 Fagen's lack of in vestment in schooling was characteri sti c of the era and of the Jim Crow conditions under which he lived. As a disillusioned bl ack schoolteacher from Mi ssissippi said: "You educate your children - then whatcha Anthony Ma rrow (seated center) witnessed gonna do? You got any jobs fo r 'em ? You got Fagen's first enli stment. He is shown with any business fo r 'em to go into?"27 Sergeant William Chambers (to Marrow's right) and Commissary Se Statements in an enlistment document rgeant Da lbe rt Green, in the Philippines, 1899. (From John II. Na nkiv were not necessarily accurate. When he ell , History of the Twenty -fifth hlfantry, 1926.) signed up, Fagen said he was over twenty two yea rs old , although the census report of Fagen got out, came home to Ta mpa, and 1880 put him at the age of one, so he would took a look around. Il e learned that his fa have been nineteen in 1898. Moreover, the ther had di ed, perhaps di scovered that his Army assumed he was single. It did not en wife had found someone else (i n 1899 she list married men, and Fagen claimed that li ved under the same name she had used he had no dependents. l lowever, according when she married him, at 813 Harrison to Hillsborough County records as exam Street in the Scrub) and re-enlisted. This ined by Julius Gordon, he had married Mag time, instead of using an "X," he signed his gie Washington on 23 October 1897.28 If he own name. The signature was wobbly and was still married in June 1898, Fagen kept crooked, but it was his. That is not all the that in fo rmati on to himself. (Preva ri cations young soldier learned in eight months of on enlistment documents were preval ent service. In 1898, he had stated that he did among enlistees, white or black.) Lieuten not drink "intoxi cating liquors." The next ant Charl es Tayman, the white recruiting year, he reported "moderate" use of spirits. offi cer, indicated that Fagen spoke, read, The enlistment papers also tell us about and wrote the Engli sh language "satisfa c where Fagen was bound, both geographi toril y." Fagen verified this by signing the cally and ideologically. The first time the document with an "X." lie could not write young bl ack man enlisted , Anthony Ma rrow his name. and John Calloway witnessed his "X." Mar Fagen had little education , but still row was a schoolteacher from North Caroli wanted to learn. Six months after the war na. He was just nearing the end of his first in Cuba ended , the Army offered opportu enlistment in II Company of the 24th, the nities fo r discharges, and he accepted one. same company to which Fagen was as- 35 Published by Scholar Commons, 2006 35 Sunland Tribune, Vol. 31 [2006], Art. 5 Men of the 24th Infantry at Fort D.A. Hussell , Wyoming, 1898-1899. (National Archives) signed, and rose to be regimental sergeant at Fort D.A. Russell , near Cheyenne, Wyo major of the 25th Infantry, the top enlisted ming. Fagen got out, came home, and then grade. Calloway was a printer from Rich went back in the Army. Ile spent part of mond who rose quickly to the rank of bat 1899 with detachments assigned to patrol talion sergeant major. I le was articulate, the redwood forests just west of Sequoia sensitive, and deeply conflicted about his Na ti onal Park, and sailed from California to role in suppressing the Filipino revolution. 29 the Philippines in the summer. By then he \Ve do not know what Fagen learned from had seen far more of the world than likely these two professional soldiers, whether he seemed possible during his provincial Tam saw either one as a role model, whether pa childhood. they communicated their world views or In the Philippine Islands, Fagen's story di the importance of learning, but in the Scrub verged from that of most of his comrades.J l he probably saw few men who combined an As with most aspects of his apparently short impressive physical presence with worldly life, there is more circumstantial evidence awareness. than hard data about his later, controver Fagen went to Cuba, a veteran of less sial, actions. The young soldier disputed than one month when he boarded ship with with his supe ri ors and had seven court mar a group of replacements headed for the is tial convictions for minor transgressions. land. I le did not serve with his regiment - Late in November, 1899, while his company the 24th Infantry - in the battle at San Juan was in San Isidro (the chief town of Nueva llill, where the black regulars shared star Ecija province in Central Luzon), Fagen billing with Theodore Roosevelt and the 1st deserted and went over to the enemy. Il e U.S. Volunteer Cavalry (Rough Riders) - apparently had help. A report from his reg but he did work among the yellow fever pa iment said that an insurrecto officer was tients at the hospital near Siboney, Cuba, waiting for him with a horse. Without any and came down with the fever himself. Ile evidence to indicate why, Fagen took the was still ill when he reached Montauk Point, biggest risk a soldier could, turning his back New York, with the 24th.JO on his country and his comrades, his fami Il e came back and shared the 24th's ly, and his home. hero's welcome, went west to serve at Fort Ile became an officer in the revolution Douglas, outside Salt Lake City, Utah, and ary army and led troops against the Ameri- 36 https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/sunlandtribune/vol31/iss1/5 36 Schubert: Seeking David Fagen: The Search for a Black Rebel's Florida Roots cans in the Phillipine insurrection . Fagen c ious capture of revolutionary leader Emilio displayed talent at his newfound vocation. Aguinaldo, came out of the war as a popul ar In the e ight months following July 1900, hero.34 Ilis failure to acid Fagen to his tro there are records of nine skirmishes that phies must have rankled. At the Funston inc luded Fagen between U.S. troops and fa mily Christmas dinner in Kansas, just gue rilla fo rces. All of them took pl ace in the three weeks after the lack of ammunition sparse ly populated and densely overgrown deprived him of his intended kill, Funston's regions of Nueva Eci_i a. Generall y, Fagen did sister-in-law Magdalena Blanka rt chided him not seem to move far from Sa n Isidro, on in absentia with a little versification: the Rio Grande de la Pampagna near Mo unt Arayat, the dominant terrain feature in the By Jiminy Christmas Freel province. What's this I see? In .July, Fagen a mbushed troops of his Poor old Fagen old regiment, leading to a fierce firefight Hanged to a tree? with General Funston's scouts. It was the rainy season in Luzon, and American oper Ilow did it happen ations had slowed because of the difficulty This is queer in moving troops a nd supplies. According to Tell us about it Jack Ganzhorn, an Ari zona gunslinger who We're dying to hear.-'" was in the 34th Vo lunteer lnfa ntry and served as one of the scouts, Fagen and his In 1901, the Filipino revolution col me n surprised a two-wagon convoy of the lapsed around Fagen, with one leade r afte r 24th near Manacling, killed one man a nd anothe r surrende ring in the spring and sum wounded two othe rs, burned the wagons, mer. Fagen's immedi ate superiors, Generals and waited. Then, when the scouts came Jose Alejandrina and Urbano Lacuna, sur up, Fagen struck again, repeating the a m rendered and tried to cut a deal fo r Fagen. bush and pinning the scouts with their Funston's response was predictable. "This backs to the ri ver, this running high and man ," Funston said , "could not be received wild from the rains. According to Ganzhorn, as a prisoner of war, and if he surrendered it as Fagen crept c loser, he taunted the Amer would be with the understanding that he icans. "Capta in Fagan's done got yuh white would be tried by a court-martial - in which boys now. Less'n you a ll surrender, my little event his execution would be a practical cer gugus is gonna c hop on yuh with thei r meat tainty." Soon, posters offering a $600 reward cutte rs. " An Ame ri can li eutenant fo und the fo r "Fagen , dead or ali ve" in both Spani sh heckling unne rving and leaped to his feet, and Tagalog, went up in to'vvns all over Nu but was pulled back by his me n before he eva Ecij a _.16 could get hurt. lle shouted in response, "Go The apparent encl to the queer drama to hell , you bl ack scum' A million of you came in Dece mber 1901. A na ti ve hunte r yell ow-bellied rats couldn't whip Funston's named Anastacio Bartolome walked into an Scouts 1" lt was a near thing for the Scouts. American outpost with a cloth sack, pulled By the time re info rcements a rrived, the out the "slightly decomposed head of a Ne pinned-down me n were out of rifl e a mmuni gro," and said it was Fagen's. Ile also pro tion and had the ir pistol cartridges in the ir duced weapons and clothing, fi eld gla sses, hats next to them, wa iting for the end. One Fagen's commission in the Filipino army, Ameri can lay dead, and Fagen had va n and the West Point class ring of Lieutenant ished, leaving his own dead where they Frederick Alstaetter, one of Fagen's forme r fcll .J2 captives. Ba rtolome said he and five com In December, Fagen clashed with the panions had been fishing on the east coast great Funston himself, east of San Isidro. of Lu zon when Fagen arri ved with his wife "In this fight," the red-headed volunteer and two armed Negrito companions. After brigadier general later la mented, "I got a spending a night togethe r and cooking fairly good look at the notori ous Fagan a t a breakfast, Ba rtolome and his fri ends at distance of a hundred yards, but unfortu tacked the newcomers with bolos and killed nately had already emptied my carbine."JJ Fagen , whose wife leaped into and ocean Bad luck for Funston; good luck fo r Fagen, and drowned while the egritos fl ed. Ba r who slipped away again . tolome severed the head, tossed it into his f;'unston, who masterminded the auda- sack, a nd returned with the trophy. 37 Published by Scholar Commons, 2006 37 Sunland Tribune, Vol. 31 [2006], Art. 5 Bartolome's story and evidence were the ultimate sense, not only a deserter but a persuasive, but not conclusive. The Army successful defector, who became a preoccu announced Fagan's death, but officers on pati on and an embarrassment to U.S. mili the scene had doubts about whose head had tary offi cialdom . 131 ack troopers Edmond been delivered and started asking for pre Du Bose and Lewi s Russell of the 9th Caval cise descriptions of Fagen fr om members of ry were the only U.S. defectors of the era his former company. No definitive evidence hanged fo r their crime, while all of the white was ever amassed. The offi cial fil e on the soldiers who did the same thing (a nd were incident is titled "the supposed killing of later caught) received prison terms. Bl ack David Fagen," and there is no record of the defection troubled mili ta ry offi cials fo r wide reward being paid . Additionall y, an uncor spread social reasons, and added to Freder roborated document, published in a study of ick Funston's preoccupation with Fagen as the Filipino constabulary, purports to deal well as adding generalized significance to with the pursuit of Fagen ten months after l<'agen's defecti on. his alleged death. The wa r in the Philippines represented a At least two other scenarios are consis peculiar moral challenge fo r black Am e ri can tent with the exi sting evidence. First, Ba r soldiers. This conflict pitted them against tolome could have come upon Fagen's camp a nonwhite population fo r which some of while he was gone, taken the documents, them fe lt a genuine sympathy. The histori clothing, and other obj ects, and later ob cal confli cts with Native Ame ri cans, fo ught tained a head with which to "prove" his kill. against semi-nomadi c hunter-warriors whose Admittedly, that would not have been hard cultures, religions, and languages were be but not impossibl e to accomplish. One U.S. yond comprehension fo r most troops, offi cer had earlier remarked on Fagen's evoked onl y the ra rest expressions of sym small head. Fagen's egrito companions pathy from bl ack soldi ers.J7 But the Philip were of a racial group known fo r their small pine war wa s different. The Indian wa rs stature, and a small head would have been took place before the solidification of segre ava il able. gationist practice, but the Phillipine conflict Collusion between Bartolome, an admit started at the time that Jim Crow was hard ted fo rmer insurrecto, and Fagen is also ening. Black soldiers may have seen substan possible. Fagen may have turned over his tial similarities with the Filipino underclass, personal effects to the hunter to ga in reli ef many of whom were litera te Christian city from pursuit. I-l e could then have hidden dwellers and fa rmers. Al so, white soldiers among the natives of northern Luzon, while brought to Ma nila the same racial epithets Ba rtolome turned in a head and claimed the and the same Jim Crow segrega ti on that had reward. been at work on mainland America, and this At this point, it is unlikely that the gaps must have given many troopers pause. in the record can be definitively fill ed , and When Sergeant John Call oway wrote to the conflicting accounts reconciled. Howev his hometown paper that he and his com er, it is not unreasonabl e to conclude that rades were "between the devil and the deep Fagen might have survived in some fas hion sea" on the wa r,38 this was the issue that and spent the remainder of his life among troubled him: he was an Am erican soldier the Negritos. lie might have lived to a ripe who owed his loyalty to his country impos old age in the dense, overgrown back coun ing a social system that oppressed him on a try of Nueva Ecij a, where his past could not population with which he empathized. As find him. indicated by their letters home, many pub What happened to David Fagen the man li shed in newspapers and reprinted in is not the question of first importance now. Will ard Gatewood's Smohecl Yanhees , most What can and should be asked is: Why is Fa black soldiers understood this dilemma and gen's rebellion important? Where do we find li ved with it as long as they were in the is his significance, and how can he be placed lands.39 David Fagen was among the very in hi storical context? Fagen's revolutionary fe w who resolved it in dramatic fas hion: by act came at the time of the formalizing of severing all of his ti es with home, fa mil y, racial segrega tion into an institutional sys comrades, and country. tem, a system that defi ed the hope that the David Fagen's expe ri ence in the Army results of the Civil War might include equal would have represented an importa nt but ity fo r bl ack citizens. Fagen was a rebel in imperfect avenue of escape. Histori an Le- 38 https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/sunlandtribune/vol31/iss1/5 38 Schubert: Seeking David Fagen: The Search for a Black Rebel's Florida Roots ronc Benne tt, noting just how imperfect StrttgglejiJr Empire: Letters.from Negro Soldiers this option was, ca lled milita ry service one .7 898-1902 (B loomington : Unive rsity of Indiana Press, 1971). of the mo re subtle dead-ends in a period 3. Ro we na Fe rre ll Brn d~r, Things Remembered: An overwhelmingly ma rked by dead-ends fo r Albu m qf African Americans in Tampa (Ta mpa: Afri can-Ame ri cans. Milita ry service carried Uni versity of Tampa Press, 1997). 4. Maxine D. Jones a nd Kevin M. McCarthy, African the traditional hope that it would lead to Am ericans in Florida (Sarasota: Pineapple Press, bette r treatme nt for blacks in civilian 1993). li fe. Pulled by this theory and pushed 5. D. B. Mc Kay, Pioneer Florida, l (Ta mpa: The South by the fact that it was difficult to find e rn Publi shing Compa ny, 1959), p. 238. For si m e mployme nt e lsewhe re, thousands of ila r stori es, sec Ra nda ll Ke nnedy, Nigger: the bl acks found themselves involved in the Strange Career <~fa Troublesome Wo rd (New Yo rk : dirty wo rk o Pa ntheon Books, 2002), p. 64; Leon F. Li twack, f subjugating and policing 1 the American Indians and brown people 7rnuble in Mind: Blach Southerners in the Age 1!f" in the Philippines and the Caribbean. "-1 0 Jim Crow (New York: Knopf, 1998), pp. 343. In the trial that fo ll owed the robbe ry of a mili tary paymaster in Ari zona during 1889, the eyewitness Kee ping this in mind as well as George testimony of seven black soldie rs proved insuffi Rawi ck's injunction that men do not make cient to convic t the whites who had been indic ted revolution "for light and transie nt reasons," fo r the c rime. Sec La rry D. Ba ll , Ambush at Bloody Run: The Wham Paymaster Robbery o.f 1889 (Tuc history still offe rs little conc rete evidence of son : Ari zona llisto ri cal Society, 2000). Fagcn's moti ves.-11 We can guess that life in 6. Sylvia Fagen died o n 2 May 1883 a nd was buried Ta mpa before the turn of the twe ntieth cen in Oakl awn Ceme te ry (Ta mpa), Secti on 4. h ttp:// tury - the Scrub, the death of Fagen's moth www. ta m pagov. n e t/dept_Pa rks/cc me te ry/E ngi n c. a sp (Apr 2002). e r and fathe r, limited educatio n, the fa ilure 7. Julius J . Gordon, Index, Sunland Trilnm e, a weeh of his ma rriage, the brutal environment of ly newspaper, Tampa, Florida, 1877- .7 883 (Ta m the phosphate industry, the memory of the pa, FL: Julius J. Gordon, 1992), n.p. military's role in e nding sl avery, the en 8. Kathleen S. I !owe, "Steppi ng in to Freedom : Afr ican trenchme nt of Jim Crow a nd the desire to Ame ri cans in I lillsborough County, Florida, During the Reconstruc ti on Era ," Tampa Bay 1-liswry, 20 resist it - all contributed in some way to (Fall/Winter 1998), pp. 11-12. David Fagen's ma keup and to the decisions 9. Leon F. Li twack, 71mub1e in Mind: Blach Souther that led him to reject home, country, and n ers in the Age of Jim Crow (New Yo rk: Kn opf, com rades, on the battle fi eld . 1998), p. 124. Edito r George Kn ox's comme nt in the 10. Tony Pizzo, "To ny Pi zza's Ybor City," Tmnpa Bay /-/ist01)', 2 (Spring/Summe r 1980), p. 51. pages of the India napolis Freem an, with 11 . Litwack. 336-337. which Mike Robinson and this author end 12. Arthur Rape r, J . 11. McG rew, and B. E. Mays, A ed our 1975 a rtic le on Fagen, still serves as S w cly u.f Negro Life in Tampa (Typescri pt, 1927), a fittingly ambiva lent obitua ry to a black p. 27. rebe l about who m we do not know enough . 13. Pi zzo, 51. 14. Brady,. 11 . 15. In 1899 Joseph llull, preside nt of the Peace R Fagen was a traito r, and died a tr ive r aitor's Phospha te Compa ny, sold his business to th death, but he was a e ma n, no doubt, Ame ri can Agri cultural Che mical Corporation. I le prompted by honest moti ves to help a then sta rted a new com pan y no rtheast of Mul ber weaker side, a nd one to which he felt ry, whic h by 1909 was the la rgest producer in alli ed by ti es that bind. Fagen, perhaps, Florida, with a bout half of the la nd pebble produc did not appreciate the magnitude of the ti on. Arc h Fredric Bla key, The Florida Phosphate crime of a iding the enemy to shoot cl own ln clustry: A f-l istory of the Development and Use his fl ag. Ile saw, it may be, the weak, the of a Vital Mineral. (Cambri dge: 1l a rva rd Un iversi strong; he c hose, and the world knows ty Press, 1973), p. 56. 42 the rest. 16. Bla key, Florida Phospha te lndustl)', p. 40, 51, 53; Wo rks Progress Administratio n, National Re EN DNOTES search Project on Reemployment Opportunities and Recent Cha nges in lndw;trial Techniqttes, I. Over the vea rs, nume ro us people helped with the "Techno logy, Employme nt, a nd O utput Pe r Ma n in resea rc h fo r this pa pe r a nd provided useful com Phosphate-Rocks Mining, 1880-1937," Report No. ments on various d rafts. I would like to tha nk David E-7, 1938, p. 1.; Ka rl II. G ri smer, Tampa: A llisw- A. Armstrong, Pa ul I~ . Camp, Ja mes M. De nha m, 1)' qf che City <~l Tampa and the Tampa Bay Region .Julius .I . Gordo n, .J oe I lipp, Pe rry D. Ja mieson, qf Florida (St. Pete rs burg, FL: St. Pete rsburg Print Gordon L. O lson, Irene t>c hubcrt, .J ames Taylo r, ing Compa ny, 1950), p. 221. a nd Brent R. We isma n. 17. Pa ul O rtiz, "'Like Water Covered The Sea': The 2. Sec Will ard B. Gatewood , .I r. , "Negro Troops in Afri can Ame rican Freedom Struggle in Flo rida , Florida , 1898," Flo rida lliswrical Q ttarterly, 49 1877-1920," (Unpublished Ph.D. dissertati on, Duke (.l uly 1970), pp. 1- 15, a nd Gatcwood's othe r wri t Unive rsity, 2000), p. 119-121, 124, 126-127. ings, pa rti cularly his "Smohed Yanlwes" and the 18. Litwack, 165. 39 Published by Scholar Commons, 2006 39 Sunland Tribune, Vol. 31 [2006], Art. 5 19. llowe,14-16, 19. 30. Fagen enli sted on June 4. Four cla ys later, the 24th 20. Ortiz, 118-119. In fantry boarded ship fo r Cuba, although the regi ot actuall y sail until June J 4. New re 21. See Al-Tony Gilmore, Bad Nigger! the National ment did n followed as part of a Impact ql .Jach Johnson (Associated Faculty cruits and other replacements op June 30 and ar Press, 1975), fo r the use of this phrase to describe six-ship convoy that left Tampa There is no clear evi the ultimate defiant African Ameri can , the first ri ved in Cuba on July 10. con black heavyweight boxing champion, who scandal dence tying Fagen either to the replacement ing that, it is ized white America with hi s white lovers and hi s voy or to the original departure. Lack a recruit with four days heavyweight c rown. reasonable to assume that of service would not be sent into combat with his 22. Litwack. 437, 438. regiment. Adjutant General's Office, U.S. Army, 23. Litwack, 438-439. Correspondence !?elating w the War w ith Spain, on Mu rray: Black 24. Bi ll y Jaynes Chandler, "llarm including the Insurrection in the Philippines and -Century Florida," Desperado in Late Nineteenth the China Ueli" https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/sunlandtribune/vol31/iss1/5 40