Chapter I: the Supremacy of Equal Rights
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The Tarring and Feathering of Thomas Paul Smith: Common Schools, Revolutionary Memory, and the Crisis of Black Citizenship in Antebellum Boston
The Tarring and Feathering of Thomas Paul Smith: Common Schools, Revolutionary Memory, and the Crisis of Black Citizenship in Antebellum Boston hilary j. moss N 7 May 1851, Thomas Paul Smith, a twenty-four-year- O old black Bostonian, closed the door of his used clothing shop and set out for home. His journey took him from the city’s center to its westerly edge, where tightly packed tene- ments pressed against the banks of the Charles River. As Smith strolled along Second Street, “some half-dozen” men grabbed, bound, and gagged him before he could cry out. They “beat and bruised” him and covered his mouth with a “plaster made of tar and other substances.” Before night’s end, Smith would be bat- tered so severely that, according to one witness, his antagonists must have wanted to kill him. Smith apparently reached the same conclusion. As the hands of the clock neared midnight, he broke free of his captors and sprinted down Second Street shouting “murder!”1 The author appreciates the generous insights of Jacqueline Jones, Jane Kamensky, James Brewer Stewart, Benjamin Irvin, Jeffrey Ferguson, David Wills, Jack Dougherty, Elizabeth Bouvier, J. M. Opal, Lindsay Silver, Emily Straus, Mitch Kachun, Robert Gross, Shane White, her colleagues in the departments of History and Black Studies at Amherst College, and the anonymous reviewers and editors of the NEQ. She is also grateful to Amherst College, Brandeis University, the Spencer Foundation, and the Rose and Irving Crown Family for financial support. 1Commonwealth of Massachusetts vs. Julian McCrea, Benjamin F. Roberts, and William J. -
Seeking a Forgotten History
HARVARD AND SLAVERY Seeking a Forgotten History by Sven Beckert, Katherine Stevens and the students of the Harvard and Slavery Research Seminar HARVARD AND SLAVERY Seeking a Forgotten History by Sven Beckert, Katherine Stevens and the students of the Harvard and Slavery Research Seminar About the Authors Sven Beckert is Laird Bell Professor of history Katherine Stevens is a graduate student in at Harvard University and author of the forth- the History of American Civilization Program coming The Empire of Cotton: A Global History. at Harvard studying the history of the spread of slavery and changes to the environment in the antebellum U.S. South. © 2011 Sven Beckert and Katherine Stevens Cover Image: “Memorial Hall” PHOTOGRAPH BY KARTHIK DONDETI, GRADUATE SCHOOL OF DESIGN, HARVARD UNIVERSITY 2 Harvard & Slavery introducTION n the fall of 2007, four Harvard undergradu- surprising: Harvard presidents who brought slaves ate students came together in a seminar room to live with them on campus, significant endow- Ito solve a local but nonetheless significant ments drawn from the exploitation of slave labor, historical mystery: to research the historical con- Harvard’s administration and most of its faculty nections between Harvard University and slavery. favoring the suppression of public debates on Inspired by Ruth Simmon’s path-breaking work slavery. A quest that began with fears of finding at Brown University, the seminar’s goal was nothing ended with a new question —how was it to gain a better understanding of the history of that the university had failed for so long to engage the institution in which we were learning and with this elephantine aspect of its history? teaching, and to bring closer to home one of the The following pages will summarize some of greatest issues of American history: slavery. -
Historical Origins of the One-Drop Racial Rule in the United States
Historical Origins of the One-Drop Racial Rule in the United States Winthrop D. Jordan1 Edited by Paul Spickard2 Editor’s Note Winthrop Jordan was one of the most honored US historians of the second half of the twentieth century. His subjects were race, gender, sex, slavery, and religion, and he wrote almost exclusively about the early centuries of American history. One of his first published articles, “American Chiaroscuro: The Status and Definition of Mulattoes in the British Colonies” (1962), may be considered an intellectual forerunner of multiracial studies, as it described the high degree of social and sexual mixing that occurred in the early centuries between Africans and Europeans in what later became the United States, and hinted at the subtle racial positionings of mixed people in those years.3 Jordan’s first book, White over Black: American Attitudes Toward the Negro, 1550–1812, was published in 1968 at the height of the Civil Rights Movement era. The product of years of painstaking archival research, attentive to the nuances of the thousands of documents that are its sources, and written in sparkling prose, White over Black showed as no previous book had done the subtle psycho-social origins of the American racial caste system.4 It won the National Book Award, the Ralph Waldo Emerson Prize, the Bancroft Prize, the Parkman Prize, and other honors. It has never been out of print since, and it remains a staple of the graduate school curriculum for American historians and scholars of ethnic studies. In 2005, the eminent public intellectual Gerald Early, at the request of the African American magazine American Legacy, listed what he believed to be the ten most influential books on African American history. -
Black Citizenship, Black Sovereignty: the Haitian Emigration Movement and Black American Politics, 1804-1865
Black Citizenship, Black Sovereignty: The Haitian Emigration Movement and Black American Politics, 1804-1865 Alexander Campbell History Honors Thesis April 19, 2010 Advisor: Françoise Hamlin 2 Table of Contents Timeline 5 Introduction 7 Chapter I: Race, Nation, and Emigration in the Atlantic World 17 Chapter II: The Beginnings of Black Emigration to Haiti 35 Chapter III: Black Nationalism and Black Abolitionism in Antebellum America 55 Chapter IV: The Return to Emigration and the Prospect of Citizenship 75 Epilogue 97 Bibliography 103 3 4 Timeline 1791 Slave rebellion begins Haitian Revolution 1831 Nat Turner rebellion, Virginia 1804 Independent Republic of Haiti declared, Radical abolitionist paper The Liberator with Jean-Jacques Dessalines as President begins publication 1805 First Constitution of Haiti Written 1836 U.S. Congress passes “gag rule,” blocking petitions against slavery 1806 Dessalines Assassinated; Haiti divided into Kingdom of Haiti in the North, Republic of 1838 Haitian recognition brought to U.S. House Haiti in the South. of Representatives, fails 1808 United States Congress abolishes U.S. 1843 Jean-Pierre Boyer deposed in coup, political Atlantic slave trade chaos follows in Haiti 1811 Paul Cuffe makes first voyage to Africa 1846 Liberia, colony of American Colonization Society, granted independence 1816 American Colonization Society founded 1847 General Faustin Soulouque gains power in 1817 Paul Cuffe dies Haiti, provides stability 1818 Prince Saunders tours U.S. with his 1850 Fugitive Slave Act passes U.S. Congress published book about Haiti Jean-Pierre Boyer becomes President of 1854 Martin Delany holds National Emigration Republic of Haiti Convention Mutiny of the Holkar 1855 James T. -
(Kommontoealtlj of Jhassacfjwsetts
RULES AND ORDERS, TO BE OBSERVED IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE (Kommontoealtlj of jHassacfjwsetts, FOR THE YEAR 1834. PUBLISHED BY ORDER OP THE HOUSE. BOSTON: DUTTON AND WENTWORTH, STATE PRINTERS 1834. , Rules and Orders of the House. CHAPTER I. O f the Duties and Powers of the Speaker. I. T h e Speaker shall take the Chair every day at the hour to which the House shall have adjourned ; shall call the Members to order ; and on the appear ance of a quorum, shall proceed to business. II. H e shall preserve decorum and order ; may speak to points of order in preference to other Members; and shall decide all questions of order, subject to an appeal to the House on motion regularly seconded. III. H e shall declare all votes ; but if any Member rises to doubt a vote, the Speaker shall order a re turn of the number voting in the affirmative, and in the negative, without any further debate upon the question. IV. H e shall rise to put a question, or to address the House, but may read sitting. V. In all cases the Speaker may vote. VI. W h e n the House shall determine to go into a Committee of the whole House, the Speaker shall appoint the Member who shall take the Chair. VII. W h e n any Member shall require a question to be determined by yeas and nays, the Speaker shall take the sense of the House in that manner, provided one third of the members present are in favor of it. -
Porcellian Club Centennial, 1791-1891
nia LIBRARY UNIVERSITY W CALIFORNIA SAN DIEGO NEW CLUB HOUSE PORCELLIAN CLUB CENTENNIAL 17911891 CAMBRIDGE printed at ttjr itttirnsiac press 1891 PREFATORY THE new building which, at the meeting held in Febru- ary, 1890, it was decided to erect has been completed, and is now occupied by the Club. During the period of con- struction, temporary quarters were secured at 414 Harvard Street. The new building stands upon the site of the old building which the Club had occupied since the year 1833. In order to celebrate in an appropriate manner the comple- tion of the work and the Centennial Anniversary of the Founding of the Porcellian Club, a committee, consisting of the Building Committee and the officers of the Club, was chosen. February 21, 1891, was selected as the date, and it was decided to have the Annual Meeting and certain Literary Exercises commemorative of the occasion precede the Dinner. The Committee has prepared this volume con- taining the Literary Exercises, a brief account of the Din- ner, and a catalogue of the members of the Club to date. A full account of the Annual Meeting and the Dinner may be found in the Club records. The thanks of the Committee and of the Club are due to Brothers Honorary Sargent, Isham, and Chapman for their contribution towards the success of the Exercises Literary ; also to Brother Honorary Hazeltine for his interest in pre- PREFATORY paring the plates for the memorial programme; also to Brother Honorary Painter for revising the Club Catalogue. GEO. B. SHATTUCK, '63, F. R. APPLETON, '75, R. -
American Free Blacks and Emigration to Haiti
#33 American Free Blacks and Emigration to Haiti by Julie Winch University of Massachusetts, Boston Paper prepared for the XIth Caribbean Congress, sponsored by the Caribbean Institute and Study Center for Latin America (CISCLA) of Inter American University, the Department of Languages and Literature of the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras, and the International Association of Comparative Literature, held in Río Piedras March 3 and 5, in San Germán March 4, 1988 August 1988 El Centro de Investigaciones Sociales del Caribe y América Latina (CISCLA) de la Universidad Interamericana de Puerto Rico, Recinto de San Germán, fue fundado en 1961. Su objetivo fundamental es contribuir a la discusión y análisis de la problemática caribeña y latinoamericana a través de la realización de conferencias, seminarios, simposios e investigaciones de campo, con particular énfasis en problemas de desarrollo político y económico en el Caribe. La serie de Documentos de Trabajo tiene el propósito de difundir ponencias presentadas en actividades de CISCLA así como otros trabajos sobre temas prioritarios del Centro. Para mayor información sobre la serie y copias de los trabajos, de los cuales existe un número limitado para distribución gratuita, dirigir correspondencia a: Dr. Juan E. Hernández Cruz Director de CISCLA Universidad Interamericana de Puerto Rico Apartado 5100 San Germán, Puerto Rico 00683 The Caribbean Institute and Study Center for Latin America (CISCLA) of Inter American University of Puerto Rico, San Germán Campus, was founded in 1961. Its primary objective is to make a contribution to the discussion and analysis of Caribbean and Latin American issues. The Institute sponsors conferences, seminars, roundtable discussions and field research with a particular emphasis on issues of social, political and economic development in the Caribbean. -
Publishing Blackness: Textual Constructions of Race Since 1850
0/-*/&4637&: *ODPMMBCPSBUJPOXJUI6OHMVFJU XFIBWFTFUVQBTVSWFZ POMZUFORVFTUJPOT UP MFBSONPSFBCPVUIPXPQFOBDDFTTFCPPLTBSFEJTDPWFSFEBOEVTFE 8FSFBMMZWBMVFZPVSQBSUJDJQBUJPOQMFBTFUBLFQBSU $-*$,)&3& "OFMFDUSPOJDWFSTJPOPGUIJTCPPLJTGSFFMZBWBJMBCMF UIBOLTUP UIFTVQQPSUPGMJCSBSJFTXPSLJOHXJUI,OPXMFEHF6OMBUDIFE ,6JTBDPMMBCPSBUJWFJOJUJBUJWFEFTJHOFEUPNBLFIJHIRVBMJUZ CPPLT0QFO"DDFTTGPSUIFQVCMJDHPPE publishing blackness publishing blackness Textual Constructions of Race Since 1850 George Hutchinson and John K. Young, editors The University of Michigan Press Ann Arbor Copyright © by the University of Michigan 2013 All rights reserved This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including illustrations, in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press), without written permission from the publisher. Published in the United States of America by The University of Michigan Press Manufactured in the United States of America c Printed on acid- free paper 2016 2015 2014 2013 4 3 2 1 A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data Publishing blackness : textual constructions of race since 1850 / George Hutchinson and John Young, editiors. pages cm — (Editorial theory and literary criticism) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978- 0- 472- 11863- 2 (hardback) — ISBN (invalid) 978- 0- 472- 02892- 4 (e- book) 1. American literature— African American authors— History and criticism— Theory, etc. 2. Criticism, Textual. 3. American literature— African American authors— Publishing— History. 4. Literature publishing— Political aspects— United States— History. 5. African Americans— Intellectual life. 6. African Americans in literature. I. Hutchinson, George, 1953– editor of compilation. II. Young, John K. (John Kevin), 1968– editor of compilation PS153.N5P83 2012 810.9'896073— dc23 2012042607 acknowledgments Publishing Blackness has passed through several potential versions before settling in its current form. -
Lemuel Shaw, Chief Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court Of
This is a reproduction of a library book that was digitized by Google as part of an ongoing effort to preserve the information in books and make it universally accessible. https://books.google.com AT 15' Fl LEMUEL SHAW I EMUEL SHAW CHIFF jl STIC h OF THE SUPREME Jli>I«'RL <.OlRT OF MAS Wlf .SfcTTb i a 30- 1 {'('• o BY FREDERIC HATHAWAY tHASH BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 1 9 1 8 LEMUEL SHAW CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE SUPREME JUDICIAL COURT OF MASSACHUSETTS 1830-1860 BY FREDERIC HATHAWAY CHASE BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY (Sbe Slibttfibe $rrtf Cambribgc 1918 COPYRIGHT, I9lS, BY FREDERIC HATHAWAY CHASE ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Published March iqiS 279304 PREFACE It is doubtful if the country has ever seen a more brilliant group of lawyers than was found in Boston during the first half of the last century. None but a man of grand proportions could have emerged into prominence to stand with them. Webster, Choate, Story, Benjamin R. Curtis, Jeremiah Mason, the Hoars, Dana, Otis, and Caleb Cushing were among them. Of the lives and careers of all of these, full and adequate records have been written. But of him who was first their associate, and later their judge, the greatest legal figure of them all, only meagre accounts survive. It is in the hope of sup plying this deficiency, to some extent, that the following pages are presented. It may be thought that too great space has been given to a description of Shaw's forbears and early surroundings; but it is suggested that much in his character and later life is thus explained. -
The Long American Revolution: Black Abolitionists and Their
Gordon S. Barker. Fugitive Slaves and the Unfinished American Revolution: Eight Cases, 1848-1856. Jefferson: McFarland & Company, 2013. 232 pp. $45.00, paper, ISBN 978-0-7864-6987-1. Reviewed by Emily Margolis Published on H-Law (January, 2014) Commissioned by Craig Scott U.S. historians tend to mark the end of the their Revolution was the war against slavery and American Revolution as George Bancroft did, in their quest was to create a “more perfect union.” the early 1780s when military action with the Therefore, he claims their Revolution ended--at British ceased (upon either the surrender of Corn‐ the very earliest date--with the ratification of the wallis at Yorktown in 1781 or the Treaty of Paris Thirteenth Amendment. in 1783). As Gordon Barker rightly points out, in Using black and white abolitionist lectures, the 1980s, American and Atlantic social historians correspondence, annual reports, newspapers, di‐ began to produce a new body of scholarship that aries, and memoirs, as well as Northern and challenged this periodization as they found ordi‐ Southern newspapers, fugitive slave trials, and nary men, women, and African Americans em‐ lawyers’ papers, Barker employs a sociopolitical ploying the principles of the Declaration of Inde‐ approach to illustrate African Americans’ contin‐ pendence in their battle to gain freedom from dif‐ ued battle against the tyranny of slavery. To show ferent types of tyranny long after the end of the their continued Revolution, he centers his book eighteenth century. In fact, some argue that the on the late 1840s and 1850s and chronicles eight battle, for these groups, continues today. -
The University of Chicago Law Review
The University of Chicago Law Review Volume 85 June 2018 Number 4 © 2018 by The University of Chicago ARTICLES Citizens of the State Maeve Glass† According to conventional wisdom, state citizenship emerged out of the local- ism of early America and gave way to national citizenship with the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment. This Article offers a different account of state citizen- ship and, with it, new resources for analyzing the Constitution. It argues that far from a primordial category that receded into irrelevance, state citizenship provided a crucial strategic tool in America’s antislavery movement, as abolitionist lawyers used the label of state citizenship to build a coalition with white elites by reframing the issue of slavery from the rights of a black person to the sovereignty of a state. In particular, beginning in the mid-1830s, abolitionist lawyers in Boston who confronted the limits of inherited arguments based on national citizenship turned to the Constitution’s clause guaranteeing the privileges and immunities of state citi- zenship. By pairing this Article IV clause with the then-prevailing norm of a state’s sovereign duty to protect its citizens, these lawyers argued that failure on the part of Massachusetts to intervene in the police laws of the southern coastal states targeting free blacks would imperil the state’s beleaguered standing. These arguments in turn became the basis for the country’s first challenge to the laws of the southern states † Associate Professor of Law, Columbia Law School. For helpful comments on earlier drafts, many thanks to Tomiko Brown-Nagin, Jessica Bulman-Pozen, Christine Desan, Einer Elhauge, Elizabeth F. -
But One Race: the Life of Robert Purvis. by MARGARET HOPE BACON. (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2007. Xi, 279 Pp
2008 BOOK REVIEWS 103 But One Race: The Life of Robert Purvis. By MARGARET HOPE BACON. (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2007. xi, 279 pp. Ancestral chart, notes, bibliography, index. $35.) With emancipation scholars looking north (New York) and south (Haiti) of abolitionist Pennsylvania, Margaret Hope Bacon’s wonderful biography of Robert Purvis is most welcome. One of the leading, though underrated, reformers of the nineteenth-century, Purvis (1810–98) dedicated his long life to achieving black equality. Though born free in South Carolina to an English father and a mixed-race mother, he remained in Pennsylvania for nearly seven decades after moving there as a teenager in the 1820s. Despite the fact that the Quaker state’s gradual abolition law had existed nearly as long as American independence, the meaning of emancipation remained a hotly debated issue. As Bacon shows in a fast-paced and enjoyable narrative, Purvis was a consistent voice of black freedom, assuming the mantle of protest established by the postrevolutionary generation of African American leaders that included his father-in-law, the famed sailmaker James Forten. In short, this is no mere biography of a neglected reformer but a study of northern postemancipation society leading up to the Civil War era. It should not be overlooked. Although Purvis was light-skinned, educated, and wealthy—easily able to “pass” in white society—he always identified himself as “black.” And black Pennsylvanians were increasingly marginalized in antebellum culture, no matter their elite status. Long before southern society created segregated schools and streetcars, free blacks faced such discrimination in the Quaker state.