The utility of men in their private capacity as citizens, is of no less import than that of any other department of the community in which they live; indeed, the fitness of men for positions in the body politic, can only be justly measured by their qualification as citizens. And we may safely venture the declaration, that in the history of the world there has never been a nation, that among the oppressed class of inhabitants, a class entirely in eligible to any political position of honor, profit or trust, wholly discarded from the recognition of citizen's rights, not even permitted to carry the mail, nor drive a mail coach, there never has, in the history of nations, been any people thus situated, who has made equal progress in attainments with the colored people of the United States. It would be as unnecessary as it is impossible, to particularize all the individuals; we shall therefore be satisfied, with a classification and a few individual cases. Our history in this country is well known, and quite sufficiently treated on in these pages already, without the necessity of repetition here; it is enough to know that by the most cruel acts of injustice and crime, our forefathers were forced by small numbers, and enslaved in the country, the great body now to the number of three millions and a half, still groaning in bondage, that the half million now free, are the descendants of the few who by various means, are fortunate enough to gain liberty from Southern bondage, that no set of general emancipation has ever taken place, and no chance as yet for a general rebellion, we say in view of all these facts, we proceed to give a cursory history of the attainments: the civil, social, business and professional, and literary attainments of colored mena and women, and challenge comparison with the world, according to circumstance, in times past and present.
Though shorn of their strength, disarmed of manhood, and stripped of every right, encouraged by the part performed by their brethren and fathers in the Revolutionary struggle, with no records of their deeds in history, and no means of knowing them save orally, as overheard from the mouths of their oppressors, and tradition as kept up among themselves, that memorable event, and not yet ceased its thrill through the newborn nation, until a glimmer of hope, a ray of light had beamed forth, and enlightened minds thought to be in total darkness. Minds of no ordinary character, but those which embraced business, professions, and literature; minds, which at once grasped the earth, encompassed the seas, soared into the air and mounted the skies.
And it is none the less creditable to the colored people, that among those who have stood the most conspicuous and shone the brightest in the earliest period of our history, there are those of pure and unmixed African blood. A credit, but that which is creditable to the African, cannot disgrace any into whose veins his blood may chance to flow. The elevation of the colored man can only be complemented by the elevation of the pure descendants of Africa; because to deny his equality, is to deny in a like proportion, the equality of all those mixed with the African organization; and to establish his inferiority, will be to degrade every person related to him by consanguinity; therefore, to establish the equality of the African with the European race, establishes the equality of every peson intermediate between the two races. This establishes beyond contradiction, the general equality of men.
Phillis Wheatley
In the year 1773, though held in servitude, and without the advantages or privileges of the schools of the day, accomplishing herself by her own perseverance; Phillis Wheatley appeared in the arena, the brillancy of whose genius, as a poetess, delighted Europe and astonished America, and by a special act of the British Parliament, 1773, her productions were published for the Crown. She was an admirer of President Washington, and addressed to him lines which elicited from the Father of his country, complimentary and courteous reply. In the absence of the poem addressed to General Washington, which was not written until after her work was published, we insert a stanza from one addressed (intended for the students) "To the University of Cambridge."
We may further remark, that the poems were originally written, not with the most distant idea of publication, but simply for the amusement and during the leisure moments of the author:
Improve your privileges while they stay,
Ye pupils, and each hour redeem, that bears
Or good or bad report of you to heav'n.
Let sin, that baneful evil of the soul,
By you be shunn'd, nor once remit your guard;
Suppress the deadly serpent in its egg.
Ye blooming plants of human race divine,
An 'Ethiop' tells you 'tis your greatest foe;
Its transient sweetness turns to engless pain,
And in immense perdition sinks the soul.
G. Washington
"Cambridge, February 28, 1776
"Miss Phillis:
"Your favor of the 26th of October, did not reach my hands till the middle of December. Time enough, you will say, to have given an answer ere this. Granted. But a variety of important occurrences, continually interposing to divert the mind and withdraw the attention, I hope will apologize for the delay, and plead my excuse for the seeming, but not real neglect. I thank you most sincerely for your polite notice of me, in the elegant lines you enclosed; and however undeserving I may be of such encomium and pangyric; the style and manner exhibit a striking proof of your poetic talents; in honor of which and as a tribute justly due to you, I would have published the poem, had I not been apprehensive, that, while I only meant to give the world this new instance of your genius, I might have incurred the imputation of vanity. This, and nothing else, determined me not to give it place in the public prints.
"If you should ever come to Cambridge, or near headquarters, I shall be happy to see a person so favored by the Muses, and to whom nature has been so liberal and beneficent in her dispensations.
"I am, with great respect, your obediant servant,
George Washington
Miss Phillis Wheatley
The tenor, style, and manner of President Washington's letter to Miss Wheatley, the publication of her works, together with an accompanying likeness of the author, and her inscription and dedication of the volume to the "Right and Honorable the Countess of Huntington," show, that she, though young, was a person of no ordinary mind, no common attainments; but at the time, one of the brightest ornaments among the American literati.
She also was well versed in Latin, in which language she composed several pieces. Miss Wheatley died in 1780, at the age of 26 years, being seven years of age when brought to this country in 1761.
Doctor Peter, who married Miss Wheatley, 1775, was a man of business, tact, and talents, being first a grocer and afterwards studied law, which he practiced with great success, becoming quite wealthy by defending the cause of the oppressed before the different tribunals of the country. And who shone brighter in his day, than Benjamin Bannaker, of Baltimore County, Maryland, who by industry and force of character, became a distinguished mathematician and astronomer, "for many years," says Davenport's Biographical Dictionary, "calculated and published the Maryland Ephemerides." He was a correspondent of the Honorable Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of State of the United States, taking the earliest opportunity of his acquaintanceship, to call his attention to the evils of American slavery, and doubtless his acquaintance with the apostle of American Democracy, had much to do with his reflections on that most pernicious evil in this country. Mr. Bannaker was also a naturalist, and wrote a treatise on locusts. He was invited by the Commission of United States Civil Engineers, to assist in the survey of the Ten Mile Square, for the District of Columbia. He assisted the Board, who, it is thought, could not have have succeeded without him. He had no family, and resided in a house alone, but principally made his home with the Elliott family. He was upright, honorable, and virtuous; entertaining religious scruples similar to the Friends. He died in 1807, near Baltimore. Honorable John H. B. Latrobe, Esq. of Baltimore, is his biographer.
In 1812, Captain Paul Cuffy was an extensive trader and mariner, sailing out of Boston, to the West Indies and Europe, by which enterprise, he amassed an immense fortune. He was known to the commercial world of his day, and, if not so wealthy, stood quite as fair, and as much respected, as Captain George Laws, or Commodore Vanderbilt, the Cunards of America. Captain Cuffy went to Africa, where he died in a few years.
James Durham, originally of Philadelphia, in 1778, at the early age of twenty one, was the most learned physician in New Orleans. He spoke English, French, and Spanish, learnedly, and the great Dr. Rush said of him: "I conversed with him on medicine, and found him very learned. I thought I could give him information concerning the treatment of diseases; but I learned from him more than he could expect from me." And it must be admitted, he must have been learned in his profession, to have elicited such an encomium from Dr. Rush, who stood then at the head of his profession in the country.
We have designed nothing here, but merely to give an individual case of the various developments of talents and acquirements in the several departments of respectability, discarding generalization, and naming none but the Africo American of unmixed extraction, who rose into note subsequent to the American Revolution. In the persons of note and distinction hereafter to be given we shall not confine ourselves to any such narrow selections, but shall name persons, male and female, regardless of their extraction, so that they are colored persons, which is quite enough for our purpose.
And our only excuse for the policy in the above course, is, that we desire to disarm the vilifiers of our race, who disparage us, giving themselves credit for whatever is commendable that may emanate from is, if there be the least opportunity of claiming it by "blood." We shall now proceed to review the attainments of colored men and women of the present day.
