My Face Is Black Is True

by Mary Frances Berry

  4 Voices of the Ex-Slaves

  1. Ledger Book, Boone County Lodge no. 1, Veterans Administration Correspondence and Reports Pertaining to Ex-Slave Pension Movements 1892-1916, Record Group 15, National Archives (hereafter referred to as R.G. 15).

  2. Robert Dick, deposition, R.G. 15; Theda Skocpol, Protecting Soldiers and Mothers: The Political Origins of Social Policy in the United States (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1992), p. 115-117. Senate Committee on Pensions, 58th Congress, 1st Session, Report 75, January 15, 1900, on membership numbers.

  3. Robert Dick, Deposition, R.G. 15.

  4. Suzanna Maria Grenz, “The Black Community in Boone County, Missouri, 1850-1900,” Ph.D. dissertation, University of Missouri, 1979, pp. 1, 222.

  5. Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936—38, American Memory, Library of Congress, http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage. The stories cited below are from this collection.

  6. Harriett Casey and Matilda Pehy Montgomery, “Missouri Slave Narratives,” Born in Slavery.

  7. One ex-slave woman’s strongest memory was the words her mother said to her when she was four. Her mother had been sold and was permitted to say good-bye before the trader took her away. “Ellaine, honey momma’s goin way off and ain’t never goin to see her baby agin.” “An I can see myself holding on to my momma and both of us cryin—and then she was gone and I never seed her since.” The old ex-slave, at ninety-seven, said, “I hopes I goin to see my good mama some day, I do yes.” Ellaine Wright, Born in Slavery.

  “Even a Bellerin Cow Will Forget Her Calf,” “Missouri Slave Narratives,” Born in Slavery.

  Grenz, “The Black Community in Boone County,” pp. 177—179.

  8. Ibid., p. 1.

  9. Ibid., pp. 26, 27,173,185.

  10. James McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988), pp. 291—292, 783—786.

  11. One ex-slave remembered that his master dealt with the guerrilla warfare this way: “When de Rebel Sojers came by our place old master had the table set for them and treat em fine—cause he’s a rebel—den when the Yankee’s come along he give dem the bes he had, and treat em fine ’cuse he’s a Yankee. Therefore, none of the Sojers ever bothered the place.” “Missouri Slave Narratives,” Born in Slavery, p. 227. See also Perry McGee’s story.

  12. Perry McGee and Harriett Casey, “Missouri Slave Narratives,” Born in Slavery.

  13. Grenz, “The Black Community in Boone County,” pp. 27-30.

  14. Ibid.

  15. Matilda Pethy Montgomery said, “The morning we was set free we didn’t have nothing.” Louis Hill believed the government should have made some provision for the aid of the Negroes during the early days after Emancipation. He “was too young to know what to expect from freedom.” His mother “picked up and left the white folks in the night and took the kids with her.” The masters would not let them leave in the day time “very handy.” They did not pay her anything. William Black said his master “didn’t give us nothing but some clothes and five dollars.” He told them they could stay but they was so glad to be free that they left.

  Delicia Patterson said her master told her she was free and he wanted her to stay but she could leave if she pleased but her mistress said no she is still yours you paid $1500 for her. That “made her mad” so she left right away. The rest of her life some of the master’s children would come to visit her but they never gave her anything. She had married before the war and had a three-year-old baby. They took her husband into the army and he died. She “hired” herself out to a family for $3 a week and “living on the place.” She left when the mistress misplaced her silver thimble and accused her of stealing it. She didn’t remember “what the ex-slaves expected,” but she knew “they didn’t get anything.” After the war, ex-slaves “just wandered from place to place, working for food and a place to stay. Now and then we got a little money but very little.”

  Perry McGee said one day the master came out and said not to call him master any more they were free. “Only one colored family left”; the rest stayed. There were about seventy slaves. The master said there was plenty of land and they could all stay and work as they had been. He paid them ten cents a day or three dollars a month and board. McGee did every kind of job. He carried water on his head the water was in a “piggins,” a well bucket with one handle so you could catch it with one hand and set it up on your head.” They were made of wood and could hold eight gallons of water.

  These interviews are in Missouri Slave Narratives “Born in Slavery.”

  16. The material in the following sections until the next note is based on Grenz, “The Black Community in Boone County,” pp. 37—40, 240—245, 265, except for the information on Sanford Estes, a laborer and preacher who joined the Ex-Slave Association lodge, Ledger Book, Boone County Lodge no. 4, 1880, R. G. 15.

  17. Grenz, “The Black Community in Boone County,” p. 168.

  18. Ibid., pp. 39—41. The material in the following section before the next note is based on pp. 30—31, 50—51.

  19. Ibid., pp. 240, 245, 248—250, 265.

  20. George Bryant was fifty-five in 1880; if he was alive in 1896, he was then seventy-one; he had a son, George; a wife who was forty-one in 1880, which meant she was fifty-seven in 1896; and two male boarders. San-ford Estes was a laborer in 1880, age twenty-eight. His wife, Elizabeth, was twenty-six, and he had two children. By 1896, he would have been forty-four, his wife forty-two, and the children grown. 1880 United States Census, National Archives Film, No. T9-0676, pp. 92A, 109D, 110A, 118B, 141A, 151B. Twelfth Census of the United States, 1900, vol. 8, Enumeration District 24, sheet six, line 100; Ledger Book, Lodge No. 1, R.G. 15. On April 20,1900, the state chapter filed for incorporation as a benevolent institution for fifty years; charter no. B002308, ExSlave Mutual Relief, Bounty and Pension Association of Missouri, Office of Missouri Secretary of State.

  21. Minutes and ledger book, Lodge no. 1, R.G. 15.

  22. Ibid.

  23. Eric Arnesen, Waterfront Workers of New Orleans: Race, Class and Politics, 1863—1923 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1991,1994), pp. 118, 147—148; J. Morgan Kousser, The Shaping of Southern Politics: Suffrage Restriction and the Establishment of the One Party South, 1880—1910 (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1974), pp. 152—165; John Hope Franklin, From Slavery to Freedom (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1987), pp. 236—238.

  24. Marvin Fletcher, “The Black Volunteers in the Spanish American War,” Military Affairs 38 (April 1974): 48—53.

  25. “Act of Incorporation of the Ex-Slave Mutual Relief, Bounty and Pension Association of Louisiana,” vol. 3, Louis Martinet’s notarial volumes: 1899, Act. no. 20, June 22, 1899, Notarial Archives, New Orleans; Senate Bill no. 4718 known as the “Mason Bill.” The charter noted that the bill was first introduced in the House of Representatives by Congressman W. J. Connell of Nebraska on June 24, 1890, as House Bill no. 1119 and in the Senate on February 6, 1896, as Senate Bill no. 1978 by Senator J. M. Thurston of Nebraska and then reintroduced in 1898 as Senate Bill no. 4718 by Senator Mason of Illinois; Harry Joseph Walker, “Negro Benevolent Societies in New Orleans: A Study of Their Structure, Function, and Membership,” master’s thesis, Fisk University, 1937. Between 1900 and 1930, two to three hundred such mutual-assistance societies operated for short or longer periods of time. Further, the incorporators of the association, based on the names in the military records, did not appear related to any of the participants in the group of Louisiana African Americans who served in Cuba. Thanks to Rebecca Scott for sharing information about the charter.

  26. J. Clay Smith, Emancipation: The Making of the Black Lawyer, 1844—1944 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993), pp. 283—285. Beyond the fact that Martinet notarized and prepared the legal papers for the incorporation of the Ex-Slave Association chapter, no apparent political connection has surfaced between those who organized the pension and self-help mov
ement and the committee organized to end segregation in public transportation.

  27. Diamond, age forty-two, was listed in the New Orleans City Directory as a recorder. He lived with his wife, Matilda, his stepson, Louis, his mother, and an aunt, Susan Campbell, at 705 Delachaise in New Orleans. They were all born in Louisiana. Phillip Burton lived alone at age sixty-five. Marcellin Zephilin, age sixty-three, was recorded in the Census as born in 1836 in Louisiana, but his wife, Martha, was from Virginia. They reported that they had each been married previously to spouses since deceased. They lived on Landon Avenue in New Orleans. Henry Boyd, age sixty-three, was born in Kentucky, and his wife, Lottie, age fifty, was from Virginia. Two twenty-year-old nieces, one born in Louisiana and one in Mississippi, Lillie Belle, lived with them on Prieur Street. The charter members were Diamond, Burton, Jones, Jackson, Green, Zephilin, Lottie Boyd, and Bell. U.S. Census 1900 Soundex; Diamond, roll no. T1048, vol. 39, sheet 11, line 37; Burton, T1048, Zephilin, vol. 27, sheet 12, line 51, Marriage certificates, New Orleans Public Library, Louisiana Division, March 21, 1878, VEC678, p. 85; Death Certificate, Diamond FF420, August 10, 1927, age seventy-five; New Orleans Public Library Louisiana Division. Green’s service on Executive Committee noted in letter from Dick to Reverend A. B. Webb, president of the association, February 27, 1902, Record Group 28, Records of the Postmaster General, Office of the Solicitor, Fraud Order Case Files 1894—1951.

  28. Joseph G. Dawson III, ed., The Louisiana Governors from Iberville to Edwards (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1990), pp. 118—124.

  29. Soldier’s Certificate no. 883907, Veteran Marcellin Zephilin, Can no. 18128, bundle 38, Veterans Pensions Records, National Archives.

  30. Elizabeth Ann Regosin, “Slave Custom and White Law: Ex-Slave Families and the Civil War Pension System, 1865—1900,” Ph.D. dissertation, University of California at Irvine, 1995, pp. 26, 50, 56—70, describes the operations of the pension agents and their racial perspectives.

  5 The Movement Fights Back

  1. “Convicted Dickerson, Ex-Slave Pension Fraud Gets a Year or $100 Fine,” Nashville Banner, March 6, 1901.

  2. Callie House to Acting Assistant Attorney General Harrison Barrett, September 29, 1899, Record Group 28, Records of the Postmaster General, Office of the Solicitor, Fraud Order Case Files 1894—1951 (hereafter referred to as R.G. 28). The letters to and from federal officials are all in these files unless noted otherwise.

  3. Ibid.

  4. Wills served as postmaster from 1890 to 1914; see http://politicalgrave-yard.com/parties/R/1900/index.html; Who’s Who in Tennessee, 1911 (Memphis: Paul & Douglass Co., 1911); United States Census, 1880, National Archives Film, T9-1249, p. 129D; 1885 Nashville City Directory, Wills Andrew W. Atty & Claims Agent; 1888 Nashville City Directory, Wills, Andrew W., President, National Manufacturing Co. (cotton yarn manufacturers) Attorney and Claims Agent.

  5. Wills to Barrett, October 2, 1899.

  6. House to Barrett, September 29, 1899.

  7. Dickerson to Willis, November 9, 1899.

  8. House to Harrison J. Barrett, November 23, 1899.

  9. Dickerson to Wills, November 9, 1899; House to Barrett, November 1899.

  10. See chapter four on the Boone County and New Orleans chapters.

  11. Barrett to Lawson, December 9, 1899.

  12. House to Barrett, December 18, 1899.

  13. Ibid.

  14. “Fraud upon Negroes,” The Washington Post, December 12, 1899.

  15. January 16, 1900, 58th Congress, 1st Session, report 75; “Ex-Slaves Are Defrauded: Pension Swindle Is Now Reaching Great Proportions,” The New York Times, January 23, 1900. William C. Basil, Post Office Inspector, to Paul E. Williams, Inspector in Charge, September 7, 1899; he found no evidence that Vaughan or P. H. Hill were engaged in organizing or any other pension work.

  16. In 1900, Reverend Richard Henry Boyd warned the black ministers of Tennessee that unless they aggressively guarded the interests of African Americans, white politicians would “turn the hand backward on the political dial of a century.” Boyd referred to the hardening of racial lines and the beginning of the long reign of segregation. Bobby L. Lovett, ed., From Winter to Winter: The Afro-American History of Nashville, Tennessee, 1870—1930 (Nashville: Department of History and Geography, Tennessee State University, 1981), p. 136.

  17. “No Pensions for Ex-Slaves,” The Colored American (Washington, D.C.), April 21, 1900.

  18. House to Barrett, April 5, 1900; David Rutherford, Bench and Bar (Nashville: Davidson County, 1981), p. 66.

  19. H. P. Stephens to Barrett, April 30, 1900.

  20. Tyner to H. P. Stephens, May 3, 1900; Stephens to John W. Griggs, attorney general, March 15, 1901; Administrative Procedure Act, 60 Stat. 237 5 U.S.C.A.

  21. From the assistant attorney general to Congressman Livingstone and others; Wilson, postmaster, to superintendent Nashville, February 26, 1901.

  22. J. B. Mullins to Charles Emory Smith, March 5, 1901; letter sent to McNairy returned stamped “Found in bed dead,” May 1, 1900.

  23. J. B. Mullins to Charles Emory Smith, March 5,1901.

  24. J. B. Mullins to William McKinley, March 15,1901.

  25. A. W. Wills to George C. Christiancy, March 30,1901.

  26. Ibid.

  27. The lower court opinion was by Judge Calhoun; “Limit of Law Is Insufficient in This Case—Judge Calhoun,” Atlanta Constitution, March 6, 1901, clippings forwarded on March 7, 1901. “Convicted, Dickinson, Ex-Slave Pension Fraud Gets a Year or $1,000 Fine,” Nashville Banner, March 6, 1901; Commissioner Evans to secretary of interior, March 13, 1901.

  28. Wills to acting assistant attorney general, August 6, 1901, enclosing news clipping; Dickerson v. State, 39 SE 426 (1901).

  29. Dickerson v. State, 39 SE 426 (1901); Judge Andrew Cobb routinely construed statutes narrowly in criminal cases. On his background, see “In Memoriam,” Supreme Court of Georgia, May 17, 1926. See in general Mary Frances Berry, The Pig Farmer’s Daughter and Other Tales of American Justice: Episodes of Racism and Sexism in the Courts, 1865 to the Present (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1999) on the behavior of State Supreme Court justices in cases involving African Americans. Wills to acting assistant attorney general, August 6, 1901, enclosing news clippings.

  30. Hitchcock to the postmaster general, March 18, 1901, enclosing letter from Commissioner Evans to Hitchcock. J. I. Bristow to Tyner, March 21, 1901.

  31. Wills to Christiancy, March 30,1901.

  32. A. W. Washington to Delphia House, September 25, 1910; Postmaster Arcola J. Gankstone to the Nashville postmaster, September 25, 1901.

  33. Gerald Cullinan, The Post Office Department (New York: F. A. Praeger, 1968), pp. 116-117; Tyner v. United States Barrett v. United States 23 App. D.C. 324, 1904 WL 15862 App. D. C. April 5, 1904. Barrett’s initial fee was a $1,000 retainer and $100 a month. See also Report of the Postmaster-General in the Matter of the Investigation of the Post-Office Department (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1903). Barrett and Tyner were indicted three times, but the state did not include the punishment of federal officials.

  34. Ibid.

  6 Avoiding Destruction

  1. Mary Frances Berry, Black Resistance/White Law: A History of Constitutional Racism in America (New York: Penguin, 1994), pp. 97—98.

  2. The conclusion about the press coverage is based on reading the newspapers in the black newspaper file at the Library of Congress and local white newspapers in Nashville, Chicago, Washington, and Atlanta for this period and the Tuskegee Institute news clippings file [microfilm], Division of Behavioral Science Research, Carver Research Foundation, Tuskegee Institute (Sanford, N.C.: Microfilming Corporation of America, 1976); “Says Negro Held Her Prisoner for Five Years,” Chicago Tribune, October 8, 1917, p. I; “What the Negro Is Doing: Matters of Interest Among the Colored People,” Atlanta Constitution, January 6,1901.

  3. Bobby L. Lovett, ed., From Winter to Winter: The Afro-American History of Nashville, Ten
nessee, 1870—1930 (Nashville: Department of History and Geography, Tennessee State University, 1981), chapter 4.

  4. Berry, Black Resistance/White Law, p. 97.

  5. Dick and Dickerson, depositions, Record Group 15, Veterans Administration Correspondence and Reports Pertaining to Ex-Slave Pension Movements 1892-1916, National Archives (hereafter referred to as R.G. 15).

  6. Interrogatories responded to by Robert Dick sometime between November 1901 and February 1902, R.G. 15.

  7. Campbell Gibson and Kay Jung, “Historical Census Statistics on Population Totals by Race, 1790 to 1990, and by Hispanic Origin, 1970 to 1990, for the United States, Regions, Divisions, and States,” Population Division Working Paper no. 56, U.S. Census Bureau, Washington, D.C. (September 2002), Tables 1, 57, A-12, A-13-18.

  8. H.R. 11404, 57th Congress, 1st Session, February 17, 1902.

  9. Dick to Reverend A. B. Webb, vice president, National Ex-Slave Mutual Relief, Bounty and Pension Association of the United States, February 27,1902, R.G. 15; “Ex-Slaves Organize,” The Washington Post, February 7, 1902.

  10. Commissioner of pensions to Eliakam (Ell.) Torrance, Commander in Chief, Grand Army of the Republic, February 7,1902, R.G. 15; History of the Ninth Pennsylvania Reserve Corps, www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu.

  11. Dick to Hadley Boyd, March 21, 1902, R.G. 15; “Vaughan’s Justice Party,” Washington Post, April 20, 1902.

  12. Dick to Reverend A. B. Webb, vice president, National Ex-Slave Mutual Relief, Bounty and Pension Association of the United States, February 27,1902, R.G. 15.

  13. Dickerson, deposition, R.G. 15. In response to a line of questions, Dickerson described himself as forty-four years old, and told them that as a small boy he had been called Isaiah Murphy rather than Dickerson in his birthplace, Rutherford County, Tennessee. He had married but had last seen his wife in Union City, Tennessee, where they had separated. He attested to his role in organizing the Ex-Slave Association, formerly housed at 708 Gay Street in Nashville, in 1897. They had white attorneys or advisers, but the members were all “colored people.” W H. Wills of 312 Indiana Avenue published their trade paper in Washington, D.C., called the National Capital. They asked him about his conviction in Georgia for “swindling,” whereupon he reminded them that it had been reversed by the State Supreme Court.