1866 Florida Emigration Meeting in Hampton, VA
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Title
1866 Florida Emigration Meeting in Hampton, VA
Source
Chronicling America
Publisher
Daily Dispatch
Date
1866-03-17
Scripto
Transcription
[PAGE 01]
Important Colored Meeting--Peninsula Peninsula Negroes Reject Florida-- Reject the Advice of Government Officials-- Claim the Peninsula.
Fort Monroe, VA., March 14. -- A large meeting of colored people, having for its object the furtherance of the Florida emigration movement, took place in Hampton, Va., on Tuesday evening. The meeting was regularly organized, and after the usual preliminaries, Mr. William Thornton (colored) was appointed chairman, and Mr. Calhoun (white) was secretary. Mr. J. W. Dungy (white) as secretary. Mr. J. W. Dungy (a runaway slave from Hampton some years ago) arose and addressed the audience, and in a few sensible
[PAGE 02]
remarks demonstrated to the audience that they were living too thickly on the Pepin- Peninsula, between Hampton and Yorktown, and, as the immediate result, they were being sub- subjected to all the evil influences of idleness and vice, and that instances of theft, depredation, and other crimes against each other and the white residents of the country were becoming daily more numerous. He entreated the colored ed people present to lose no time in reflecting upon the subject, which was destined to be eventually one of the greatest importance to themselves and their families. He read ex- extracts from letters of residents of Florida
[PAGE 03]
showing that land could be purchased there for three dollars an acre, which they were paying for rent alone on the land which they now cultivate, and concluded by remarking that the Homestead bill of 1862 guaranteed them one hundred and sixty acres of Government lands. He was followed by Major General Miles, commanding the post; Brigadier-General Brigadier General Armstrong, formerly colonel of the Eighth United States colored troops, lately appointed Superintendent of the Ninth District of the Freedmen's Bureau; ; Colonel James Curry, Post Commissary, and Dr. Joyce, of Illinois. The purport of their speeches was essentially the same: The immense benefits to be reaped by the colored
[PAGE 04]
population of the Peninsula emigrating to the Florida, where thousands of acres of Government lands were to be found, well-watered, fertile, and highly productive, and where even the most indolent could obtain an existence. The colored audience, under the influence of these glowing speeches, in which happy homes, surrounded by every comfort and blessing, were graphically pictured to their imagination, began to exhibit the utmost enthusiasm, and the most perfect harmony would have prevailed had not a disturbing element made its appearance
[PAGE 05]
in the person of a Mr. Calvin Pepper, a lawyer of Norfolk, who, in opposition to the purposes and objects of the Florida emigration movement, has been working hard to counteract, in connection with a few other dissenting adherents, the progress already made in enlisting the sympathies of the poor crowded population of the Peninsula in its behalf. He took the platform erected for the occasion, and notwithstanding the remonstrances of the organizers of the meeting, proceeded at some length to refute the arguments and assertions
[PAGE 06]
made by the previous speakers, and succeeded towards the end of his discourse in enlisting the entire sympathy of the colored people present in his views. He advocated the expediency of the colored residents of the Peninsula remaining where they are, as in a little while the whole country of the Peninsula would be theirs by Congressional legislation. He ridiculed the idea of emigration to Florida as being impracticable, and said it would be fraught with a great deal of evil consequence, and spoke of the uncertainty of protection and assistance being rendered them after they reached there.
[PAGE 07]
Mr. Pepper was followed by a colored Dr. Bane, of Norfolk, whose speech was even more bitter, and even vituperative against the previous speakers. He denounced in strong terms the officers who were engaged in the project, and not only seconded the assertions and opinions advanced by Mr. Pepper, but discanted quite at length upon the Freedmen's Bureau as injurious to the true interests of the black man. He called upon the whole audience then assembled to treat with the utmost contempt and disgust the idea of an emigration to Florida as bettering their condition. The meeting, just at this juncture, assumed a rather turbulent appearance. Loud cheers were given for Messrs. Bane and Pepper, and long and continued hisses for Florida.
[PAGE 08]
Deeming it useless to remain longer, and as all efforts to quiet the two colored orators were of no avail, Major-General Miles suggested to the delegation which accompanied him the propriety of departing, which they did forthwith, headed by Mr. Dungy, the first speaker of the meeting. Thus terminates for the present of the efforts of the military authorities and others interested in the movement to induce the immense population scattered all over the Peninsula, between Old Point and Yorktown, to seek some other more favorable and less thickly thickly-settled region. It is estimated that about twenty-five thousand negroes are inhabiting the country mentioned, and to whom are monthly distributed nearly sixty
[PAGE 09]
thousand rations by the Commissary Department at this post. They are principally in charge of the Freedmen's Bureau, but a good proportion of them have small lots of ground, on which they raise enough vegetables, &c., to provide subsistence for themselves and families. The larger proportion of them, however, roam at will over the country, almost entirely destitute of employment, and
[PAGE 10]
dependent on Government rations issued them for the means wherewith with to sustain life. The alarming state which their condition has of late assumed has been the principal reason which has stirred up the Freedmen's Bureau and other Government officers to start the Florida emigration movement among the negroes of this section of the State. But, so far, all these efforts to induce them to emigrate ave proved nearly useless. The result of the
[PAGE 11]
Haytien emigration from this place several years ago has, no doubt, done much to prejudice the blacks against the very idea of the an emigration to another country of which they are entirely ignorant.
Immediately after General Miles and the deputation of gentlemen who accompanied him had left the meeting in disgust at the turn which affairs had taken, the two before before-mentioned colored speakers from Norfolk organized a meeting of their own, and detailed to their colored brethren their own peculiar views in
[PAGE 12]
regard to establishing colonies on the lands near the city of Norfolk, on the Peninsula, and in other portions of the State. Their remarks were warmly applauded, and just before the meeting finally broke up, a collection of fifty cents, in support of their colonization scheme, was levied upon each member of the audience, which was heartily responded to.
Important Colored Meeting--Peninsula Peninsula Negroes Reject Florida-- Reject the Advice of Government Officials-- Claim the Peninsula.
Fort Monroe, VA., March 14. -- A large meeting of colored people, having for its object the furtherance of the Florida emigration movement, took place in Hampton, Va., on Tuesday evening. The meeting was regularly organized, and after the usual preliminaries, Mr. William Thornton (colored) was appointed chairman, and Mr. Calhoun (white) was secretary. Mr. J. W. Dungy (white) as secretary. Mr. J. W. Dungy (a runaway slave from Hampton some years ago) arose and addressed the audience, and in a few sensible
[PAGE 02]
remarks demonstrated to the audience that they were living too thickly on the Pepin- Peninsula, between Hampton and Yorktown, and, as the immediate result, they were being sub- subjected to all the evil influences of idleness and vice, and that instances of theft, depredation, and other crimes against each other and the white residents of the country were becoming daily more numerous. He entreated the colored ed people present to lose no time in reflecting upon the subject, which was destined to be eventually one of the greatest importance to themselves and their families. He read ex- extracts from letters of residents of Florida
[PAGE 03]
showing that land could be purchased there for three dollars an acre, which they were paying for rent alone on the land which they now cultivate, and concluded by remarking that the Homestead bill of 1862 guaranteed them one hundred and sixty acres of Government lands. He was followed by Major General Miles, commanding the post; Brigadier-General Brigadier General Armstrong, formerly colonel of the Eighth United States colored troops, lately appointed Superintendent of the Ninth District of the Freedmen's Bureau; ; Colonel James Curry, Post Commissary, and Dr. Joyce, of Illinois. The purport of their speeches was essentially the same: The immense benefits to be reaped by the colored
[PAGE 04]
population of the Peninsula emigrating to the Florida, where thousands of acres of Government lands were to be found, well-watered, fertile, and highly productive, and where even the most indolent could obtain an existence. The colored audience, under the influence of these glowing speeches, in which happy homes, surrounded by every comfort and blessing, were graphically pictured to their imagination, began to exhibit the utmost enthusiasm, and the most perfect harmony would have prevailed had not a disturbing element made its appearance
[PAGE 05]
in the person of a Mr. Calvin Pepper, a lawyer of Norfolk, who, in opposition to the purposes and objects of the Florida emigration movement, has been working hard to counteract, in connection with a few other dissenting adherents, the progress already made in enlisting the sympathies of the poor crowded population of the Peninsula in its behalf. He took the platform erected for the occasion, and notwithstanding the remonstrances of the organizers of the meeting, proceeded at some length to refute the arguments and assertions
[PAGE 06]
made by the previous speakers, and succeeded towards the end of his discourse in enlisting the entire sympathy of the colored people present in his views. He advocated the expediency of the colored residents of the Peninsula remaining where they are, as in a little while the whole country of the Peninsula would be theirs by Congressional legislation. He ridiculed the idea of emigration to Florida as being impracticable, and said it would be fraught with a great deal of evil consequence, and spoke of the uncertainty of protection and assistance being rendered them after they reached there.
[PAGE 07]
Mr. Pepper was followed by a colored Dr. Bane, of Norfolk, whose speech was even more bitter, and even vituperative against the previous speakers. He denounced in strong terms the officers who were engaged in the project, and not only seconded the assertions and opinions advanced by Mr. Pepper, but discanted quite at length upon the Freedmen's Bureau as injurious to the true interests of the black man. He called upon the whole audience then assembled to treat with the utmost contempt and disgust the idea of an emigration to Florida as bettering their condition. The meeting, just at this juncture, assumed a rather turbulent appearance. Loud cheers were given for Messrs. Bane and Pepper, and long and continued hisses for Florida.
[PAGE 08]
Deeming it useless to remain longer, and as all efforts to quiet the two colored orators were of no avail, Major-General Miles suggested to the delegation which accompanied him the propriety of departing, which they did forthwith, headed by Mr. Dungy, the first speaker of the meeting. Thus terminates for the present of the efforts of the military authorities and others interested in the movement to induce the immense population scattered all over the Peninsula, between Old Point and Yorktown, to seek some other more favorable and less thickly thickly-settled region. It is estimated that about twenty-five thousand negroes are inhabiting the country mentioned, and to whom are monthly distributed nearly sixty
[PAGE 09]
thousand rations by the Commissary Department at this post. They are principally in charge of the Freedmen's Bureau, but a good proportion of them have small lots of ground, on which they raise enough vegetables, &c., to provide subsistence for themselves and families. The larger proportion of them, however, roam at will over the country, almost entirely destitute of employment, and
[PAGE 10]
dependent on Government rations issued them for the means wherewith with to sustain life. The alarming state which their condition has of late assumed has been the principal reason which has stirred up the Freedmen's Bureau and other Government officers to start the Florida emigration movement among the negroes of this section of the State. But, so far, all these efforts to induce them to emigrate ave proved nearly useless. The result of the
[PAGE 11]
Haytien emigration from this place several years ago has, no doubt, done much to prejudice the blacks against the very idea of the an emigration to another country of which they are entirely ignorant.
Immediately after General Miles and the deputation of gentlemen who accompanied him had left the meeting in disgust at the turn which affairs had taken, the two before before-mentioned colored speakers from Norfolk organized a meeting of their own, and detailed to their colored brethren their own peculiar views in
[PAGE 12]
regard to establishing colonies on the lands near the city of Norfolk, on the Peninsula, and in other portions of the State. Their remarks were warmly applauded, and just before the meeting finally broke up, a collection of fifty cents, in support of their colonization scheme, was levied upon each member of the audience, which was heartily responded to.
Convention Minutes Item Type Metadata
Convention Type
State Convention
City
Hampton
State
VA
Country
USA
Start Date
1866-03-14
End Date
1866-03-17
Provenance
Library of Congress
Event ID
1866.VA-03.14.HAMP
Citation
“1866 Florida Emigration Meeting in Hampton, VA,” Colored Conventions Project Digital Records, accessed October 22, 2026, https://omeka.coloredconventions.org/items/show/1907.