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The African-American Experience in Ohio: Selections from the Ohio Historical Society |
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In a hurry? Save or print these Collection Connections as a single file. Go directly to the collection, The African-American Experience in Ohio: Selections from the Ohio Historical Society, in American Memory, or view a Summary of Resources related to the collection. The African-American Experience in Ohio, 1850-1920, contains a number of primary sources reflecting the diversity and complexity of African-American culture from the eve of the Civil War through the early twentieth century. The numerous manuscripts, hundreds of photographs, and thousands of newspaper articles contained in this collection touch on subjects relating to abolitionist tracts, efforts in the military and the Underground Railroad, Reconstruction policies, labor movements, and other matters that affected the daily lives of the African-American community.1. Abolitionists
I would be an abolitionist but I think I can do more for the people of color as I am . . . So it is with all their buts, they are opposed to slavery in any sense of the word; still they are not willing to act with a party that has for its object the abolition of slavery . . . Near sixty years has elapsed since the spirit of liberty has been promulgated among this people, still they are butting at the walls of slavery, and continue to but deceitfully until the two hundred and fifty thousand slave holders have managed to get the government into their own hands.
In addition to trying to change citizens’ minds, abolitionists sought to influence legislatures. The State Convention of Colored Men meeting in Columbus, Ohio on January 16-18, 1856 resulted in a pamphlet that includes an address to the state legislature requesting that the word, "white," be struck from the state constitution in all references to suffrage: We ask you to ponder the danger of circumscribing the great doctrines of human equality . . . to the narrow bounds of races or nations. All men are by nature equal, and have inalienable rights, or none have. We beg you to reflect how insecure your own and the liberties of your posterity would be by the admission of such a rule of construing the rights of men. . . .
2. African-American Soldiers in the Civil War
3. The Underground Railroad
4. Reconstruction PoliciesDuring Reconstruction, the nation struggled with how to assimilate freed slaves into national and local communities while minimizing the resistance from citizens who were not willing to aid African Americans. A search on Reconstruction provides articles discussing various government policies of the era. For example, Charles Sumner’s 1864 Senate speech, "Bridge from Slavery to Freedom" called for the establishment of a Freedmen’s Bureau that would assist recently freed slaves in finding work. In his address, Sumner claimed, "The curse of slavery is still upon them. Somebody must take them by the hand; not to support them but simply to help them to that work which will support them." One discussion of the efforts of the Freedmen’s Bureau is available in The Freedmen's Bureau reports on the condition of the agency in the Southern States from The African-American Pamphlet Collection, 1824-1909. A decade after Sumner’s address, Howard University Professor J.M. Langston discussed the late senator's contributions to the Reconstruction efforts and described the benefits of recent amendments to the Constitution in his speech, "Equality Before the Law." George Henderson also chronicled the development of federal law during Reconstruction in his January 1899 article, "History of Negro Citizenship." Here, Henderson is critical of President Andrew Johnson’s efforts--especially when they are compared to those of Abraham Lincoln: [W]hile President Johnson’s plan was in substantial agreement with his illustrious predecessor’s, the spirit with which it was executed made all the difference in the world . . . Mr. Lincoln hated slavery . . . because of its monstrous injustice and inhumanity. Mr. Johnson hated it mainly because he hated the slaveholders . . . He was not an abolitionist; in fact he probably had less sympathy with the abolition party than with the slaveholders.
5. LynchingA 1919 news article quoted the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (N.A.A.C.P.) statistic that more than 3,000 people were lynched between 1889 and 1918. Since the Reconstruction era, lynching was a common weapon against African Americans seeking to exercise some of the liberties provided by the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution. A search on lynch offers numerous newspaper articles on lynching (including the lynching of a 15-year-old girl in 1892). Other articles discuss the efforts of the Anti-Lynching League and attempts to pass a federal anti-lynching law. S. Laing Williams’ article, "Frederick Douglass at Springfield, Mo." describes the late orator’s remarks on lynching at the close of Chicago’s 1893 Columbian Exposition: [T]he address went straight to the conscience of the audience and disturbed those who would claim a sort of immunity from blame because of their distance from the scenes of lawlessness. How accurately did he prophecy that in a few years lynching in the Northern States would be almost as possible as in Arkansas or Mississippi. How that baleful prophecy has been fulfilled, we can all bear sorrowful testimony. The criticism of the mentality that allowed for lynching in America appears in the political cartoons, "When Will He Admit This?" (1905) and "Against Race Prejudice" (1906) whose caption begins: "Say what you will, there will never be an adjustment of the race situation in America as long as lynchings and riots are tolerated and the door of opportunity remains closed."
6. African Americans and the Republican PartyAfrican Americans finally gained suffrage through the Fifteenth Amendment in 1869. Throughout the nineteenth century, the Aftrican-American vote went to the Republican Party. A search on Republican provides a number of examples of and explanations for this loyalty. In 1892, the African-American press in Ohio supported Republican candidates running for local, state, and national offices. Editorials called on readers to remember that Republicans had championed a number of Reconstruction policies. In his essay, "The Negro in the Present Campaign," Frederick Douglass argued against splitting the African-American vote between the two political parties: In view of the great issues involved and of the dangers impending, it is sad to think that in this campaign any Negro may so act as to endanger the lives and liberties of his brothers in the South, and to also injure in the North the good name of his race. Such would certainly be the case should any support be given by him to the Democratic party--the party which has always endeavored to degrade his race-and should he refuse to support the Republican party--the party which has always endeavored to improve the conditions of his existence. This sentiment is also reflected in William Stewart’s chronicle of the Democratic Party's mistreatment of African Americans in his 1899 "Address to the Afro-Americans of Ohio," and in the Colored American Republican Text Book, which touted the achievements of Republican President William McKinley’s first term in office: Colored men of intelligence and character have been selected from every section of the country to fill positions of trust and profit under the Administration . . . Indeed, while it is a fact of great significance that the President has within nineteen months appointed fully twice as many Negroes as any previous Administration, developments are now being so shaped by him . . . that the number of Negro officeholders will be increased fourfold. Not only this, but the constitutional rights of the Negro will continue to be sacredly regarded and his future in the new possessions will be surrounded by every guarantee calculated. The Colored American Republican Text Book also presents a visual argument in illustrations depicting the distinction between what it’s like for African Americans to vote in Republican and Democratic states.
Similar themes appeared in political cartoons such as the 1904 Cleveland Journal’s "Real Chore," the 1908 Cleveland Journal’s, "Never Swap Horses While Crossing A Stream," and the 1916 Cleveland Advocate’s "This is the "Bread-Line" of Normal Democratic Times."
7. Labor MovementsAlthough slavery ended with the Emancipation Proclamation, a search on peonage yields some news articles about African Americans who remained in servitude against their will. An article from the February 6, 1904 Cleveland Gazette describes six children who were enslaved for six years after their father was killed. Editorials that are critical of other forms of child labor appear in a 1905 Cleveland Journal piece and an essay in the January 1913 edition of the African Methodist Episcopal Church Review, which notes, "This agitation on behalf of the mill and factory children (all white) is bound to react in favor of the black children of the South."
Concerns for child labor were just one facet of the late-nineteenth-century movement toward unionization. The Knights of Labor actively recruited African-American workers. By 1886, approximately 60,000 African Americans had joined the union. A search on Knights of Labor provides some brief newspaper accounts of African-American participation in the union and employers’ concern that this participation would lead to increased expenses.
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| Last updated 09/26/2002 |
