An Impending Exodus

An Impending Exodus

A report on the 1874 Alabama State Convention of Colored Men held in Montgomery published in the Daily Inter Ocean (December 10, 1874)

From Gale. 19th Century U.S. Newspapers. ©2008 Gale, a part of Cengage Learning, Inc. Reproduced by permission. www.cengage.com/permissions

Daily Inter Ocean

1874-12-10

Newspaper article

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AN IMPENDING EXODUS. The Colored People of Alabama Will No Longer Endure Kuklux Hate and White League Proscription. They Hold a State Convention and Resolve to Emigrate -- Address to the People of the United States. Assistance Wanted from the North to Help on the Movement -- The Georgia Freedmen also Wild with the Emigration Fever. A Recital of the Wrongs of the Negroes -- Shall They be Allowed to Enjoy Their Rights under the Constitution? --A A Condition Worse than Slavery.

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ALABAMA. MONTGOMERY, Ala., Dec. 4, 1874. To the Editor of the Inter-Ocean. - I inclose you a copy of the address of the colored people of the State of Alabama, pursuant to a resolution passed by the convention requesting that it be published in your journal. I also inclose a resolution of thanks to your very valuable paper for the honest and truthful reports of the condition of affairs in Alabama, adopted by a unanimous vote of the convention: Resolved, That we return sincere thanks to the Chicago INTER-OCEAN and the New York Republic for the truthful reports published by them of the affairs in Alabama, especially where the colored people, members of the Republican party, are concerned, and their editorial remarks demanding protection for our suffering people. Very respectfully, PHILIP JOSEPH, President of the Convention.

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ADDRESS OF THE COLORED PEOPLE OF ALABAMA IN CONVENTION ASSEMBLED, TO THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES. The awakening of a just appreciation in our minds to the inevitable boon of freedom granted to 4,000,000 of our race by the valor, fidelity, and high moral convictions of the people of the Northern States, has inspired the colored people of the State of Alabama, in convention assembled, to place before the world their true condition at the present time, and also to invoke your aid to ameliorate it. It is necessary for us to call your attention to the condition of the colored people at the time when, as a "war measure," President Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation, or more properly, our condition two years after its promulgation; for but very few of us in Alabama knew that we had been made free until after the surrender of the rebel armies. At that time we were helpless, wretched slaves, dependent on the will of the masters who owned us, as absolutely as any chattel property could be held. The laws of Alabama and the inclination of the people made it a crime for any person to instruct us how to read and write; and every device that could be thought of by the slaveholder was resorted to, in order that we might be reduced to the condition of brutes, excepting only the leaving to us of the power of speech, for without that our value would have been less on the auction block. Thus, having by hostile laws and immoral owners been brought to as degraded a condition as it was possible for human beings to be lowered to, a sudden edict bid us rise up and become "free men," - as well might the strong man have bid the helpless babe of a few months' life to stand up without support, so helpless were we. More helpless, indeed; for the babe would have all to learn, his limbs would be untrammeled, he would know nothing of the cruelties wrought by capricious owners. Our limbs were fettered, our senses blunted or impaired, the life that we had been trained to at the whipping-post had made a night of despair settle upon our souls. We scarcely believed that we were human beings when the tidings of our freedom were first imparted to us. In our utter helplessness the Government of the United States did in a small degree extend its protecting arm to us, in the shape of the Freedman's Bureau, which was the means of saving many thousands of helpless creatures from disease and death. But the lease of life of that refuge of a safety was too short to have the effect of placing us very far far on the road to become intelligent and useful citizens. Never having seen the rights of man respected by their white masters, excepting when enforced by the rifle and pistol, nor taught to respect any person but a rich slaveholder, the freedmen had to be taught civilization as it was understood in the free States of the North. This was a most difficult task, for want of example combined with precept. [/unclear]

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AN IMPENDING EXODUS. The Colored People of Alabama Will No Longer Endure Kuklux Hate and White League Proscription. They Hold a State Convention and Resolve to Emigrate--Address to the People of the United States. Assistance Wanted from the North to Help on the Movement--The Georgia Freedmen also Wild with the Emigration Fever. A Recital of the Wrongs of the Negroes--Shall They be Allowed to Enjoy Their Rights under the Constitution?--A Condition Worse than Slavery. ALABAMA. MONTGOMERY, Ala., Dec. 4, 1874. To the Editor of the Inter-Ocean.[unclear][/unclear] I enclose you a copy of the address of the colored people of the State of Alabama, pursuant to a resolution passed by the convention requesting that it be published in your journal. I also inclose a resolution of thanks to your very valuable paper for the honest and truthful reports of the condition of affairs in Alabama, adopted by a unanimous vote of the convention: Resolved, That we return sincere thanks to the Chicago INTER-OCEAN and the New York Republic for the truthful reports published by them of affairs in Alabama, especially where the colored people, members of the Republican party, are concerned, and their editorial remarks demanding protection for our suffering people. Very respectfully, PHILIP JOSEPH, President of the Convention. ADDRESS OF THE COLORED PEOPLE OF ALABAMA IN CONVENTION ASSEMBLED, TO THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES. The awakening of a just appreciation in our minds to the inevitable boon of freedom granted to 4,000,000 of our race by the valor, fidelity, and high moral convictions of the people of the Northern States, has inspired the colored people of the State of Alabama, in convention assembled, to place before the world their true condition at the present time, and also to invoke your aid to ameliorate it. It is necessary for us to call your attention to the condition of the colored people at the time when, as a "war measure," President Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation, or more properly, our condition two years after its promulgation; for but very few of us in Alabama knew that we had been made free until after the surrender of the rebel armies. At that time we were helpless, wretched slaves, dependent on the will of the masters who owned us, as absolutely as any chattel property could be held. The laws of Alabama and the inclination of the people made it a crime for any person to instruct us how to read and write; and every device that could be thought of by the slaveholder was resorted to, in order that we might be reduced to the condition of brutes excepting only the leaving to us of the power of speech, for without that our value would have been less on the auction block. Thus, having by hostile laws and immoral owners been brought to as degraded a condition as it was possible for human beings to be lowered to, a sudden edict bid us rise up and become " free men,"--as well might the strong man have bid the helpless babe of a few months' life to stand up without support, so helpless were we. More helpless, indeed; for the babe would have all to learn, his limbs wound be untrammeled, he would know nothing of the cruelties wrought by capricious owners. Our limbs were fettered, our senses blunted or impaired, the life that we had been trained to at the whipping-post had made a [unclear]might[/unclear] of despair settle upon our souls. We scarcely believed that we were human beings when the tidings of our freedom were first imparted to us. In our utter helplessness the Government of the United States did in a small degree extend its protecting arm to us, in the shape of the Freedman's Bureau, which was the means of saving many thousands of helpless creatures from disease and death. But the lease of life of that refuge of safety was too short to have the effect of placing us very far on the road to become intelligent and useful citizens. Never having seen the rights of man respected by their white masters, excepting when enforced by the rifle and pistol, nor taught to respect any person but a rich slaveholder, the freedmen had to be taught civilization as it was understood in the free States of the North. This was a most difficult talk, for want of example combined with precept. Immediately after the slave States had accepted, nominally, the Thirteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States, the Legislature of Alabama passed various acts, which became laws, that in every respect, excepting the right of sale of our persons, reduced us to practical slavery. These laws, known by various names, were of such a character as proclaimed to the world that the ex-slaveholders' belief was still "the negro had no rights which a white man was bound to respect." The ex-slaveholder believed then, and does believe to this day, and has taught his children to believe that we were his property, his chattels, stolen from him by a powerful enemy, who had invaded his country; and that to deprive us of everything we earn and possess is a matter of right, and that it is it his duty to treat as an alien enemy every white man and intelligent colored man who may attempt to improve us. To remedy this evil, if we understand it correctly, the nation gave us the ballot; and by the advice of many of our race who had learned something, and the officers of the Freedman's Bureau, we exercised, at the peril of our lives, the right that the Fifteenth amendment to the Constitution had given to us, and by our votes placed in office those men whom we considered were most friendly to the elevation of our race and all mankind. Some of the men whom we had chosen were inexperienced and, unfortunately, fell into the traps prepared for them by the wily lover of slavery, who had sworn to make both emancipation and reconstruction utter failures. Murderous leagues were formed by the ex-slaveholders, sworn to prevent not only the negro and "radical" from voting, but also to prevent the instruction of the colored people. Leagues sworn to deny their own existence; to hold no oath made before a civil tribunal sacred; to break open any jail in the State where one of their number should be confined, and by all the ties that a common cause (love for the accursed institution of slavery) could suggest, to accomplish their fell purpose. The ex-slaveholders owned the land, supported the public press, and held, even after reconstruction, the majority of the judicial and administrative offices in Alabama, all the powers of which were directed against the colored people of the State. Yet in despite of all these drawbacks the colored people have worked hard continually since the close of the war both in the cotton and corn fields, as the amount produced of each of these staples has not fallen off (except when eaten up by the cotton worm), and the only labor to be had in the cotton belt of Alabama was the much abused colored men, who had formerly been slaves. Notwithstanding this faithful work, not more than two per cent. of the colored people outside of the large towns and cities have had either clothes enough to wear or food that a Northern laborer would eat. The forced ignorance of our people rendered them easy victims of the fraudulently inclined cotton planter. The laws books of Alabama are filled with laws that are not enforced when the colored man is in the question. The constitution of Alabama provides for equal rights, immunities and privileges for all classes of citizens, abundant funds for educational purposes, but all these guarantees are mere words set upon paper, to be scoffed at by the tyrannical ex-slave-holders, now calling themselves the democratic and conservative party of Alabama. During the past two years, a cry of down with the negro, commonly known as the "Race Issue," has been taken up by almost every class of ex-slaveholders in Alabama, and through the excitement produced by this race appeal, hundreds of our people have been murdered, thousands have been driven from the farms upon which they had lived, and which they had rented and cultivated, without being permitted to take a pound of cotton with them, which they had raised, or the provisions which they had stored. The local civil authorities have been in league with the law breakers, and the sentiment of the communities have applauded the acts. Those of our own race and white loyal men whom we have chosen to represent us have either been driven away or brutally and cowardly assassinated by the Ku-klux or White Leage organization, and the so-called best men in the State, the finest legal talent have volunteered to defend the few men who have been arrested by the United States authorities, charged with committing these terrible crimes. Correspondents of some of the New York newspapers who have been sent to Alabama to report the condition of affairs, have been the guests of our spoiliators and their sympathizers, and have reiterated through their influential journals all the falsehoods that had been coined and retailed by the Democratic press of Alabama. The only exceptions to this rule of one-sided reports so far, as we are informed, have been the reports of the correspondents of the Chicago INTER-OCEAN and the New York Republic. It is to prevent a false idea of the lamentable situation of the greater number of colored people living in agricultural districts of Alabama from being entertained by our Northern friends, and to ask aid from them in a plan that we would risk to adopt to benefit the colored people and give them a fair chance, untrammeled by the hostility of those who look with

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The law books of Alabama are filled with laws that are not enforced when the colored man is in the question. The constitution of Alabama provides for equal rights, immunities and privileges for all classes of citizens, abundant funds for educational purposes, but all these guarantees are mere words set upon paper, to be scoffed at by the tyrannical ex-slave-holders, now calling themselves the democratic and conservative party of Alabama. During the past two years, a cry of down with the negro, commonly known as the "Race Issue," has been taken up by almost every class of ex-slaveholders in Alabama, and through the excitement produced by this race appeal, hundreds of our people have been murdered, thousands have been driven from the farms upon which they had lived, and which they had rented and cultivated without being permitted to take a pound of cotton with them, which they had raised, , or the provisions which they had stored. The local civil authorities have been in league with the law breakers, and the sentiment of the communities have applauded the acts. Those of our own race and white loyal men whom we have chosen to represent us have either been driven away or brutally and cowardly been assassinated by the Ku-klux or White League organization, and the so-called best men in the State, the finest legal talent have volunteered to defend the few men who have been arrested by the United States authorities, charged with committing these terrible crimes. Correspondents of some of the New York newspapers who have been sent to Alabama to report the condition of affairs, have been the guests of our spoiliators and their sympathizers, and have reiterated through their influential journals all the falsehoods that had been coined and retailed by the Democratic press of Alabama. The only exceptions to this rule of one-sided reports so far, as we are informed, have been the reports of the correspondents of the Chicago INTER-OCEAN and the New York Republic. It is to prevent a false idea of the lamentable situation of the greater number of colored people living in the agricultural districts of Alabama from being entertained by our Northern friends; and to ask aid from them in a plan that we would risk to adopt to benefit the colored people and to give them a fair chance, untrammeled by the hostility of those who look with

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hatred or contempt upon all efforts to better his condition, made by the colored man, that we address the people of the United States favorable to the real emancipation of the negro from practical slavery. We have therefore organized an Emigration Association and given to them authority to take such steps as will best effect the early settlement of a colony of colored families in the far West; which, in case of success, may be a nucleus around which many thousands of the hard-working colored families of Alabama may build up for themselves happy homes. The continued spoilation of the colored people of their earnings have rendered them unable to pay for the transportation of their families to the localities where they desire to go; and we therefore ask the assistance of all lovers of freedom and enemies to human slavery, to carry us to a portion of the country where we may have an equal chance in the struggle for life and fortune. To carry out the foregoing object we have appointed commissioners to visit Northern cities and solicit aid and lecture upon the true condition of the colored people of Alabama at the present time. The foregoing address was adopted by the unanimous vote of the convention, forty counties of Alabama being represented at the time of its adoption, by regularly elected delegates. A resolution was then passed asking Republican and Independent papers favorable to the amelioration of the condition of the colored people of Alabama to publish this addres. PHILIP JOSEPH, President of the Convention.

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1874.AL-12.01.MONT