A Usable Past: 08/10/2003

John W. L. Tylee Letterbook, 1865-1873

John W. L. Tylee Letterbook, 1865-1873

Tylee's political sentiments often surfaced in letters to northern correspondents. On 17 April 1867 he wrote, "Gen. Sickles has given general satisfaction to I believe the whole community and seems disposed in the execution of his onerous duties to be mild and gentlemanly to all. I am glad we have such a man with us for instead of trouble and riot as many predicted every thing goes on more quiet and peacible than before and there is much more confidence exhibited than we had any reason to hope for. Gen. Sickles though vested with power has no inclination to use it and has and is making warm friends among our entire people."

A letter of 5 February 1868 comments on the Radical convention that was drawing up the new state constitution-"a greater set of renegades, scoundrels and theives was never convened together yet than is now making laws for gentlemen," while an 18 July 1868 letter suggests that "The Ku Klux Klan...is altogether an imaginary organization, the report being raised by the Radicals themselves for political effect, like a good many other reports of a sinister nature and all equally without any foundation."

In February 1868 Tylee contacted the New York book dealer and bibliographer Joseph Sabin, who had advertised for an original five-volume set of John Marshall's Life of George Washington. Tylee was acting as agent for a Charleston widow who owned the set. "They would not be parted with on account of being a family relic but the pinching time with many of our Southern people has compelled my aged friend to sever like the rest all that was near to her."

Still fuming a week later over the plight of his aged friend, Tylee vented his spleen in a letter to another correspondent-"Nothing prosperous, nothing bright, nothing to cheer us up, but the nigger supreme, takes the lead and almost makes me ashamed to say he is a citizen of the U.S. May God in mercy grant a change soon and put us once more under the constitution our forefathers fought for and won....Oh how my blood boils when I think of the way our Country is going to ruin and the people to want and destitution. While I am one of those who acted in the late struggle I am nor never was one to wish the constitution trampled under foot by any one and I am therefore bitter against those who will attempt it now. I wish the Country as it was in the time of Washington and there is no reason now that it should not be so."

at the South Caroliniana Library of the University of Sout Carolina, University South Caroliniana Society, Manuscripts Collections

David M. Levy, Sandra J. Peart, The Secret History of the Dismal Science: Brotherhood, Trade, and the Negro Question: Library of Economics and Liberty

David M. Levy, Sandra J. Peart, The Secret History of the Dismal Science: Brotherhood, Trade, and the Negro Question: Library of Economics and Liberty

Essay on the Mill - Carlyle debate over "Quashee." Include this as a link? Certainly follow up on primary resources:

Selected Footnotes:

2 [Thomas Carlyle] December 1849. "Occasional Discourse on the Negro Question." Fraser's Magazine for Town and Country 40, p. 675
3 Mill puts forward what modern scholars know as the Afrocentric hypothesis: "It is curious withal, that the earliest known civilization was, we have the strongest reason to believe, a negro civilization. The original Egyptians are inferred, from the evidence of their sculptures, to have been a negro race: it was from negroes, therefore, that the Greeks learnt their first lessons in civilization; and to the records and traditions of these negroes did the Greek philosophers to the very end of their career resort (I do not say with much fruit) as a treasury of mysterious wisdom." Mill p. 30.
4 [John Stuart Mill] January 1850. "The Negro Question." Fraser's Magazine for Town and Country 41, p. 29. For the case relating to the Irish, see our first column.
5 Adam Smith 1976. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, edited by W. B. Todd. Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 30. Online: Cannan edition.
12 To see how Carlyle was used, check out the wonderful Making of America data set, described and linked at: The Carlyle-Mill "Negro Question" Debate, maintained by the New School's History of Economic Thought website.

Emancipation and Freedom

Emancipation and Freedom

John's site and pics

"Education of the Freedmen," North Atlantic Review, Hale?

MOA_ADV

Title: The North American review. / Volume 101, Issue 209
Publisher: University of Northern Iowa Publication Date: October 1865
City: Cedar Falls, Iowa, etc. Pages: 642 page images in vol.
This entire journal issue: http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/moa-cgi?notisid=ABQ7578-0101&byte=92218110

MOA_ADV

MOA_ADV

Alarming Evidence of Demoralization in the Army: pp. 36-37
p. 36
p. 37

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in: Title: The Old Guard / Volume 1, Issue 2
Publisher: C. Chauncey Burr & Co Publication Date: Feb 1863
City: New York Pages: 316 page images in vol.

ALARMING EVIDENCES OF DEMORALIZATiON IN THE ARMY.

A SOLDIER in Burnside’s army, under
date of Jan. 3d, 1862, writes to a brother
in this city as follows:
“You ought to be here to see how
they treat negroes, and then see how
they treat white men. The negroes
have first rate tents with stoves in them
—get soft bread to eat most of the time,
and don’t have to do’night work. The
white men have no stoves, have to eat
hard tack, and do night work. The dif-
ference is, that here negroes are white
men, and white men negroes. I do not
believe we will have an abolitionist in
our regiment when we go home, although
there were plenty when we came here.
A white man in this army cannot go
anywhere, nor get anything, while a
negro goes where he pleases, and gets
whatever he wants, The negroes are
paid every month, while there are plenty
of regiments here which have not been
paid a cent in six months.”
A second lient. in the army wrote
borne January 13th: “I see that the pa.
pers represent that there is difficulty be.
tween Gen. Buruside and his officers
about another advance; but this is not
true, for the trouble is with the soldiers,
thousands of whom openly swear that
they will not be led into another slaugh.
ter pen for the glory of negroes. The
whole truth is that the President’s eman-
cipation message has driven the con-
viction into a large portion of the amy
that henceforth we are fighting only for
negroes. Unless there is some change
for the better this army is pretty near
done fighting. It is impossible to say
what they would do if they were actually
36
in an engagement, but with the temper
that at this moment prevails it will be
difficultto getthem into one. Thenews-
paper correspondents who write that,
“the army is impatient to advance”
know that they lie like the devil, unless
they mean that it is impatient to advance
home. There is a man of company B in
this regiment now in the lock-up for say.
ing that he wished he could get South
and do a little fighting against the abo-
litionists and negro Cs, for he was tirej
of fighting for them.”
A soldier in Gen. Grant’s division
writes to his sister in Williamsburg that:
“God knows I am sick and ashamed of
this army, if any such a mob of thieving
marauding vagabonds ought to be called
an army. You would blush for human
nature if I could with decency tell you
things which I have seen. I want you
to see and get him to use his in-
fluence with —— to procure me a {ur
lough to go home long enough to recruit
my health, for if I do not I shall die.
If I was a negro I could go wherever
I asked; but I am a white man and must
be left to die without pity. It serves
me right, for a white man has no business
here, stealing, burning houses and fight-
irig for niggers.”
A correspondent of the Daily Times,
writing from the Army of the Potomac,
gives the following bad account:

“General feeling of despondency, re-
sulting from mismanagement and our
want of military success. Soldiers are
severe critics, and are not to be bambooz-
led. You may marshal your array of
victories in glittering editorials—they

31

smile sarcastically at them. You see
men who tell you that they have been in
a dozen battles and were licked and
chased every time—they would like to
chase once to see how it “feels. “ This
begins to tell painfully on them. Their
splendid qualities—their patience, faith,
hope, courage, are gradually oozing out.
Certainly never were a graver, gloom.
ier, more sober, sombre, serious and un-
musical body of men than the Army of
the Potomac at the present time. It is
a saddening contrast with a year ago.~~
The same correspondent tells us that
the “ Administration looks with distrust
on the Army of the Potomac,” and that
the army “looks with distrust on the
Administration.” He affirms that Gen.
Halleck has declared that the army is
“disaffected and dangerous,” and that
“the army of the Potomac has ceased
to exist.” And again: “the animosity
in Washington towards the army is
amply repaid by the bitterness of the
army towards the Cabinet.”
This letter in the Times fully confirms
a remark made by a United States offi-
cer of high grade that, “since the ab-
olition proclamation Washington is quite
as much in danger as Richmond from
our own army.”
Now why do we publish these alarm-
ing evidences of the disgust, discontent,
and demoralization that prevail in the
army? Because it is time we ceased to
delude ourselves with fabricated good
news. It is time to stop lying. It is
time to look the real condition of things
in the face, and confront the stern facts
which, sooner or later, must be met and
dealt with fairly and truly. We do not
deceive the South by our falsehoods, we
only deceive arid delude ourselves. The
South knows our condition better, a
good deal, than we are permitted to
know it ourselves, Mr. Lincoln has de.
moralized the very best portion of the
army with his tender concern for ne-
groes, and his unnatural indifference to
the rights and dignity of white soldiers.

art for votes sake

Full text of HISTORY OF THE ORIGINAL KU

Full text of HISTORY OF THE ORIGINAL KU : "There lives in the capital City of Texas an honorable member of our profession, who has held for many years one of the highest positions within the gift of the state, who organized every 'Den' in the state of Florida. I have his word for it that not one single act of personal violence was committed by any one of these 'Dens.' Their most noteworthy achievement was the destruction of the entire shipment of guns sent from the North to arm the Negro militia of the State. Every telegraph operator, brakeman, engineer and conductor on the road over which these arms entered the State was a Ku Klux; the shipment was watched at every point, and between Lake City and Madison, Florida, the entire two carloads of guns were thrown from the moving train by night by a select band of Ku Klux under the personal command of this gentleman, who had quietly boarded the train at the last stop. The Ku Klux left the train at the next station and destroyed the shipment before it was missed, and this notwithstanding the fact that two coaches filled with United States soldiers, sent to guard the arms, were attached to the same train. I am informed by one who participated in the movement that when the 1500 stand of arms intended for the Negro militia of Arkansas left Memphis on the steamer 'Hesper', it was overtaken by a tug and the entire shipment broken and thrown into the river."

A Boy's Experience in the Civil War, 1860-1865:

: "The war had a very slight effect on the negro's character as a slave in the South, so far as he was capable of comprehending and entertaining any sympathies, most of the slaves had a vague idea that success to the Union Army meant freedom for the slave and hence naturally they felt no ill toward this result, neither did they entertain ill will towards those who had held them in slavery, for contrary to the general impression of the North the negro slaves were treated with the greatest consideration, not harshly, but just the reverse. Any master who omitted to properly clothe and feed his slaves, to assiduously care for them in sickness and old age and to treat them justly and humanely was not only ostracised by his neighbors and acquaintances but his family suffered seriously

Page 47
in social positions so that no slaveholder was to be found who could weather the trials to which an acknowledged brutal master was subjected. This tenderness for the slave was so pronounced that all persons who occupied a dominant position with reference to him, such as the overseer or slave dealer were regarded as occupying an inferior position and were excluded from social relations with the slave holders, not from an imagined superiority of the latter, as sometimes alleged, but purely from the 'offensiveness' of their occupation. And I believe it can be said with the endorsement of all who knew that the negro as a whole was better cared for, and healthier and happier in sla"

Black History Chronology

History of the Reconstruction Klan

Full text of HISTORY OF THE ORIGINAL KU KLUX KLAN

VNY: Draft Riots Day 1

The Riots in New York -- Destruction of the Colored Orphan Asylum

NARA | Research Room | Guide to Records of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands

NARA | ALIC | The Freedman's Savings and Trust Company

OurDocuments.gov - 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Voting Rights

OurDocuments.gov - 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Abolition of Slavery - Transcript

OurDocuments.gov - 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Civil Rights

Featured Document: The D.C. Emancipation Act

Featured Document: The Emancipation Proclamation

NARA | Records of Congress | Guide to House Records: Chapter 14: Freedmen's Affairs

IUPUI Special Collections Exhibit: The Sunday-School Union Books

Important Quotes and What I Need from Pierce Report

From Freedmen of Port Roayal, Official Report, Pierce: (A year later than the one online at MOA/American Memory)

AT least tanscribe:
column 2, page 310, column 2, p. 311,
last 2 par. column 1 and continue through column 2 of page 313 ;
bottom of col 7 and all of 2, page 321 and continue through page 323

“This knowledge can never perish from them”
“This precious knowledge” 323

Also see conclusions of reports

Concerning Emancipation: Before You Watch

Concerning Emancipation: Before You Watch

Butler's letter of May 27, 1861 asking what to do with slaves who hae escaped to the Union camp.

The March of Progress

The March of Progress

or see also:
The March of Progress at the eserver

Life in Richmond

For a secessionist's viewpoint of life in Richmond before, during, and after the war, see Life Gleanings at Documenting the American South:

E-Text of Mary S. Peake

American Memory Catalogue record for Mary S. Peake: Colored Teacher at Fortress Monroe For the full text go to: http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/svy:@field(DOCID+@lit(maryT000))

From MOA, Michigan

Use Appendices of Peake book to lay out set of concerns? Compare/contrast with Pierce report,circulars?, and a Chase letter?

For example, here is an excerpt of a book that mentions Peake's work, Hampton and its Students. By Two of its Teachers, Mrs. M. F. Armstrong and Helen W. Ludlow. With Fifty Cabin and Plantation Songs, Arranged by Thomas P. Fenner: Electronic Edition. Armstrong, M. F. (Mary Frances), d.1903, Helen W. Ludlow (Helen Wilhelmina), d. 1924 and Thomas P. Fenner (Documenting the American South):
"This work was initiated by the officers of the American Missionary Association, who, in August, 1861, sent down as missionary to the freedmen, the Rev. C. L. Lockwood, his way having been opened for him by an official correspondence and interviews with the Assistant Secretary of War and Generals Butler and Wool, all of whom heartily approved of the enterprise and offered him cordial coöperation. He found the "contrabands" quartered in deserted houses, in cabins and tents, destitute and desolate, but in the main willing to help themselves as far as possible, and of at least average intelligence and honesty. There was, of course, little regular employment to offer them, and they subsisted upon government rations, increased by the little they could earn in one way and another. Mr. Lockwood's first work was the establishment of Sunday-schools and church societies, and his own words show the spirit in which the assistance he was able to give was offered and received. He says, in one of his first letters to the American Missionary Association, "I shall mingle largely with my religious instruction the inculcation of industrious habits, order, and good conduct in every respect. I tell them that they are a spectacle before God and man, and that if they would further the cause of liberty, it behooves them to be impressed with their own responsibility. I am happy to find that they realize this to a great extent already."

This was certainly encouraging, and he goes on to report that he finds little intemperance, and a hunger for books among those who can read, which is most gratifying. He appeals at once for primers, and for two or three female teachers to open week-day schools; and recommends that, in view of the imperativeness of the need, the subject should be brought before the public through the daily press and by means of public

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Page 16
meetings. At the same time, he describes the opening of the first Sunday-school in the deserted mansion of ex-President Tyler, in Hampton, and, from his personal observation, declares that many of the colored people are kept away from the schools by want of clothing, a want which he looks to the North to supply. A little later in the year, he writes that, on November 17th, the first day-school was opened with twenty scholars and a colored teacher, Mrs. Peake, who, before the war, being free herself, had privately instructed many of her people who were still enslaved, although such work was not without its dangers.

From this time, schools were established as rapidly as suitable teachers could be found and proper books provided; but it must be noted that these teachers were working almost without compensation, their sole motive being a desire for the elevation of the race. As a proof of the quick awakening of the ex-slaves to a sense of the duties of freedom, Mr. Lockwood mentions that marriages were becoming very frequent, and that although the fugitives lived in constant fear of being remanded to slavery, they did not remit their efforts to obtain education and to raise themselves from the degradation of their past."

A Note on Mary S. Peake from "RootsWeb"

"AFRICANAMER-GEN-L Archives

From: "Douglas/Ungaro"
Subject: Virginia 1861-- Miss Mary PEAKE and Hampton Institute
Date: Mon, 18 Sep 2000 09:51:35 +0200

Hampton Institute was founded for American Indians
as well as Blacks. Can other listers share that history?

Where did the name "Fortress Monroe" come from?
------------------

September 17,1861, in Fortress Monroe, Virginia

"The first day-school for ex-slaves is opened in Fortress Monroe,
Virginia under the tutelage of an African American schoolteacher,
MARY S. PEAKE.

The school will later become Hampton Institute (now University) in
1868."
=============
from "Today in Black History" - Munirah Chronicle
Edited by Brother Mosi Hoj
Archives: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/Munirah.html"

Race & Place website: Newspapers

"The newspapers section includes selected, transcribed articles from two major African-American owned newspapers--the Charlottesville Reflector and the Richmond Planet. Thomas J. Sellers edited and owned the Reflector, and we have only one surviving short run of it (a year and a half). Sellers writes about the local black community, the pain of segregation, and the success of black businesses, churches, and fraternal institutions. Sellers' perspective ranges across many national events, including the Scotsboro cases, the depression, and the New Deal. We selected a range of newspaper articles from the Reflector for inclusion in this collection--editorials, social announcements, letters, and reprinted pieces.

The Planet was edited by John Mitchell and was one of the largest and most widely read black papers in Virginia. The Planet had a "Charlottesville correspondent" who reported on news from the African-American community that was of interest to Richmond readers. We selected articles from or about Charlottesville or Albemarle for inclusion in this collection. While we have compiled over 1,000 articles in this collection, we have not finished this project and the collection should not be considered complete."

To see home page for the project -- which also includes images, personal papers, etc. go to: Race & Place: An African American Community in the Jim Crow South (Charlottesville?)

Mary S. Peake at American Experience, "The Time of the Lincolns"

Mary S. Peake
"Among the many Northern women who followed Union armies to educate freed men and women was a significant number of African Americans. One of the first was Mary S. Peake, an African American woman born free and educated in Virginia. By September 1861, she had already opened her own school in Hampton, Virginia, a town that had recently been evacuated by the Confederacy. There she taught to all ages. Her effectiveness attracted the attention of the American Missionary Association, which lent her school financial support as well as material supplies. In 1862 she fell ill with tuberculosis, and yet still managed to continue teaching from her bedside. In February, the illness killed her, at the age of 39. At that time, her school was educating 53 students during the day and 20 at night."

Lucretia Mott to Josephine S. Griffing, 17 May 1870: Sample of simple format for text pages

Lucretia Mott to Josephine S. Griffing, 17 May 1870

I like the simplicity of this format--especially since it would allow us to use the whole screen without working in tables. I also like the simplicity and efficienc of these nav. bars. If we could use this kind of approach for text pages of the digitized collections, could we use a similar approach for the images or would a whole other approach be neceesary.

See the index page for this project for an example of how they set up their document index and the materials they include in addition to the letters/documents themselves.

Their Links page also has a nice structure--it seems more useful than the usual unanottated list.

Samuel J. May Anti-Slavery Collection -- example of a mss. page

Samuel J. May Anti-Slavery Collection

Samuel J. May Anti-Slavery Collection: Resources &A Possible Model for Our Work

Samuel J. May Anti-Slavery Collection

Go there to find copies of:

Crisis of emancipation in America : being a review of the history of emancipation, from the beginning of the American war to the assassination of President Lincoln, The

Creator: Seebohm, Frederic, 1833-1912.

Creator: Central Committee of the Society of Friends in Great Britain and Ireland for the Relief of the Emancipated Slaves of North America.

Date: 1865
[ from May Anti-Slavery Pamphlets]
On the condition of the free people of color in the United States.

Date: 1839
[ from May Anti-Slavery Pamphlets]
Present crisis in America, The

Creator: Trimble, Robert.

Date: 1865
[ from May Anti-Slavery Pamphlets]
Report of the proceedings of a meeting held at Concert Hall, Philadelphia : on Tuesday evening, November 3, 1863 : to take into consideration the condition of the freed people of the South.

Creator: Pennsylvania Freedmen's Relief Association.

Creator: M'Kim, J. Miller (James Miller), 1810-1874.

Creator: May, Samuel, 1810-1899.

Date: 1863
[ from May Anti-Slavery Pamphlets]
Results of emancipation in the United States of America, The

Creator: American Freedman's Union Commission.

Creator: Chase, Salmon P. (Salmon Portland), 1808-1873.

Date: 1867

Ref to Lucy in Samuel J. May Pamphlet

Hierarchy: "Report of the proceedings of a meeting held at Concert Hall, Philadelphia : on Tuesday evening, November 3, 1863 : to take into consideration the condition of the freed people of the South. [ Container ]
Page 019, from Report of the proceedings of a meeting held at Concert Hall, Philadelphia... " in the Samuel J. May Anti-Slavery Collection at Cornell Short quote from a Lucy letter used in pamphlet to document a need for aid.

A Usable Past

Friday, August 15, 2003