Herbert Aptheker

Maroons Within the Present Limits of the United States

An ever-present feature of ante-belluni southern life was the existence of camps of runaway Negro slaves, often called maroons, when they all but established themselves independently on the frontier. These were seriously annoying, for they were sources of insubordination. They offered havens for fugitives, served as bases for marauding expeditions against nearby plantations and, at times, supplied the nucleus of leadership for planned uprisings. Some contemporary writers and a few later historians have noticed,1 in a general and meager way, the existence of this feature of American slavery. It merits, however, detailed treatment. It appears that notice of these maroon communities was taken only when they were accidentally uncovered or when their activities became so obnoxious or dangerous to the slavocracy that their destruction was felt to be necessary. Evidence of the existence of at least fifty such communities in various places and at various times, from 1672 to 1864, has been found. The mountainous, forested, or swampy regions of South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Louisiana, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, and Alabama (in order of importance) appear to have been the favorite haunts for these black Robin Hoods. At times a settled life, rather than a pugnacious

The Quakers and Negro Slavery

There is a prevailing general impression that the Quakers represented, as a body, throughout their history a solid phalanx aligned against human enslavement. This is, however, fallacious. One finds upon examination of the facts that the development of antislavery feeling among the Society of Friends was a very slow process indeed, and that the group never, until just before the Civil War, really represented a solid, unified, genuinely articulate opposition to slavery. An attempt is here made to study the development of this feeling, the obstacles it faced, the personalities and ideas it evolved, and the conflicts it precipitated. Much religious ferment preceded the formation in the mid-seventeenth century of the Society of Friends. The continent of Europe, the island of England, and the colonial settlements in the western hemisphere were stirred up during these years by bitter theological disputes which gave birth to numerous sects each with its own outstanding exponents. There were the Collegiants, the Generalists, the Familists, the Antinomians, the Seekers, and many others. Among their philosophic leaders were people like Hans Denck, Valentine Weigel, Jacob Boehme, Giles Randall, and Roger Williams. Each of these personages of the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries differed from all the others on some minor (as it appears now) point but all had certain important ideas in common. All deprecated dogma, authoritarianism, and ceremony. All emphasized the Light, the Spirit, or the Word as the most important source of contact with God. All believed in the possibility of conquering sin. Many drew certain social implications from these ideas, such as a denunciation of religious bigotry or condemnation

Negro Casualties in the Civil War

A widely read dispenser of what poses as history lhas declared: The American negroes are the only people in the history of the world, so far as I lknow, that ever became free without any effort of their own. . .. It [the Civil War] was not their business. They hiad not started the war nor ended it. They twanged banjos around the railroad stations, sang melodious spirituals, and believed that some Yankee would soon come along and give each of themn forty acres of land and a mule. Could one be sure that all readers are wary enouglh to catch Mr. Woodwards qualifying phrase, so far as I know, and informed enough to decide that he most assuredly does not know so far, one might feel that such a travesty upon truth-though widely spread-would have little influence. The facts, however, are otherwise, and it is likely, one must sadly admit, that the quoted passage served to confirm the fallacious stereotypes still generally held by the American reading -public. It is intended, im this paper, to examine one phase of the American Negros efforts to break his chains-namely, tlle blood he expended in the suppression of the slaveholders counter-revolution, and in the cause of national unity and the extermination of chattel slavery. It might well be believed that some eighty years after such a contest the victor would have compiled and preserved precise data concerning its martyrs, but the truth is otherwise. Official statistics exist, of course, but their presentation in the original sources is accompanied by qualifications and warnings which, though often unheeded in secondary works, are of a most serious character. Thus, the War Department, in republishing, in part, the

Additional Data on American Maroons

Some years ago the present writer called attention to the fact that the existence of maroons-organized belligerent fugitive slaves-was not confined to the West Indies and South America, but was also a phenomenon characteristic of American slavery.1 Further evidence2 on this particular type of reaction of the Negro to the status of a slave is herewith presented for the State of South Carolina. Brief note was made, in the paper previously cited,3 of the fact that South Carolina and Georgia were seriously troubled in the 1780s by maroons, some of whom had borne arms for the British in the Revolutionary War. A very early reference to the sources of this behavior appears in a letter written by one William Reynolds, Sr., of Charleston, dated December 12, 1783. This gentleman declared that thirty of his slaves had left his services and had followed the British General Provosts army from this State to Savannah in the State of Georgia and from there, the greatest part of those, with many other Negroes, followed the Creek Indians to the nation.... Further light is thrown on the maroon disturbances themselves of the period in several manuscripts. One John J. Bourquin, Jr., wrote to Joakin Hartston, a State representative from Purrysburgh, on March 14, 1787, telling of the serious depredations of armed fugitive slaves. Very

The Negro in the Union Navy

So far as this writer has been able to ascertain, no study of the role of the Negro in the United States Navy during the Civil War exists. Occasionally, available literature will yield a line or two indicating some awareness of the fact that Negroes served in the Union Navy, but that is all. This void is explicable not only on the basis of the gerieral and notorious neglect of the Negro that has marked the great body of American historiography until the past generation, but also on the basis of some quite practical considerations. Among these is to be noted the fact that the primary source for a study of any phase of the Ihistory of the Union fleet, namely the Official Records of the Union, and Confederate Navies,2 must be read page by page by any one interested in the Negro, for that subject is not indexed within the individual thirty volumes. Again, the State which provided the greatest number of men for the Union fleet, Massachusetts, has published, in one and a half volumes, the names of each of her Civil War

Some Comments on W. E. B. Du Bois and on Slave Revolts

In the Monthly Review, December, 1993, I wrote: The opinion has arisen that Du Bois move to Africa in 1961 was indicative of giving up the struggle for AfricanAmerican liberation. I then cited several works in which this assertion appeared: Roy Wilkins Autobiography, the biography of Horace Mann Bond by W. J. Urban, and John Hope Franklins The Color Line. In the latter book, for example, Professor Franklin wrote that Du Bois in his last years, felt the problem of African-American oppression was intractable, that he had given up on it and that this explains his move to Ghana. The bulk of my 1993 essay demonstrated that the idea that Du Bois had given up was false, and contrary to the spirit of the man. Now, again, a significant volume conveys the same false notion: I refer to John Egertons Speak Now Against the Day: The Generation Before the Civil Rights Movement in the South, published in 1994 by Knopf. There it is asserted (p. 529) that Du Bois, having been hounded by the government, was driven into exile. There was nothing new for Du Bois in being hounded by the government; indeed that government had recently tried, unsuccessfully, to put Dr. Du Bois in prison as being an unregistered foreign agent. This was by way of acknowledging his leadership in the struggle to liquidate the Cold War. That the same government now places his visage on a postage stamp no doubt evokes a wry smile from the Doctor up there among the Immortals. What are the facts concerning the move by Dr. and Mrs. Du Bois to Ghana in 1961? Early in the twentieth century Du Bois projected the idea of an Encyclopedia Africana. By 1909 Du Bois a Board of Editors, consisting of distinguished black and white scholars throughout the world. At the time, the idea could not be implemented, but in the 1930s Du Bois returned to the concept. This eventuated in 1945 in the publication of a volume outlining the suggested contents of such an encyclopedia. The

South Carolina Negro Conventions, 1865

Dr. DuBois has stated, The meetings and petitions of Southern Negroes [during and immediately after the Civil War] were significant and cannot be discounted. This, of course, is true for these conventions and the resolutions, memorials, and petitions resulting therefrom offer excellent evidence of the desires and political level of the native southern Negro as expressed by himself in his own gatherings. Nevertheless, it is a fact that no detailed study of these events is available. This paper attempts to contribute towards the correction of this neglect by presenting data concerning political activities among South Carolina Negroes in 1865.2 In that year Presidential reconstruction was instituted in that State. In June President Johnson appointed Benjamin F. Perry, a strongly pro-slavery preCivil War Unionist, who had served in the Confederate legislature, as Provisional Governor of South Carolina. One of Governor Perrys first acts was to reinstate in public office those who had held such positions prior to May, 1865. He then conferred the suffrage upon loyal citizens who had been legal voters prior to secession, and called for the election by these people of delegates to a Constitutional Convention to be held in September, 1865. The composition of this Convention, which met in Columbia on September 13, was what might be expected from such an electorate. That is to say, among the delegates were J. L. Orr, a former Confederate Senator, F. W. Pickens, the first South Carolina Confederate Governor, several Generals and other high officers of the now defunct 1W. E. B. DuBois, Black Beconstruction (N. Y., 1935), p. 230. 2 Notice of meetings among Negroes in Louisiana, Tennessee, the Carolinas, Alabama, Georgia, and the District of Columbia may be found in ibid., pp. 155, 230-32, 285. See also J. S. Allens Reconstruction (N. Y., 1937). The Columbia, S. C., Daily Phoenix, October 1, 1865, refers to political meetings of Negroes in Virginia. Paper available in library of the University of South Carolina.

South Carolina Poll Tax, 1737-1895

It is a somewhat surprising phenomenon that with the great interest in the poll tax which has prevailed in this country, particularly during the past decade, there exists a notable void in that devices early history. What historical writing has appeared generally confines itself to an account of the tax since the post-Reconstruction period, and even lhere there is a striking scarcity of material. A comprehensive history of the American poll tax requires, and merits, a volume. This paper will attempt to call attention to the neglect, and to make some contribution to its remedy by collating available data for the one area of South Carolina. Historically, of course, thle head, capitation, or poll tax is one of the nmost ancient and widespread of all revenue producing instruments. And, from its beginnings, this levy has not been merely revenue producing, but has been associated, deliberately and clearly, with maintaining caste and class systems. Thus it was frequently established in ancient days by conquerors as an indication of their victims