During the last five years a number of valuable facts have come to the office of the editor in various communications from persons interested in the work which the Association has been promoting. While these communications do not as a whole bear upon any particular phase of Negro history, they will certainly be valuable to one making researches in the general field. Some of these follow.

A Suggestion

Washington, D. C., Dec. 23, 1916.

Carter G. Woodson,

My Dear Sir: I notice by the press your Connection with the "Douglass" celebration. It might interest you to receive the enclosed from a rank abolitionist of the John Brown School. After service in Kansas with the Brown element, then in open rebellion against the United States, as typified in men like Judge Taney, who decided that the black man had no rights the white man was bound to respect, I entered the Union army and served in it as a private in the 5th Wis. Infy and as Adjt. of the 7th Eastern Shore Md. Infy—3 years and 6 mos.... I wish some of your influential men would start a movement to erect a monument here for old John Brown, who gave his life to free the country from the great curse of slavery.

Cordially,

(Signed)John E. Rastall.

Some Interesting Facts

Marion, Alabama
July 7th 1916

Dr. C. G. Woodson

Dear Sir:

Absence from home has prevented my replying to your request sooner.

The majority of masters in this section of the country were kind to their slaves. They gave them plenty of good wholesome food, good clothes, (warm ones in winter) comfortable homes and attention from Doctors when sick. There were churches on nearly every plantation and ministers provided to preach to them. The only very cruel masters were Northern men who treated their slaves like beasts. For many years it was against the law to teach negroes to read or write because some of them would read things from the North that made them dissatisfied but our family owned such good negroes, who had principle like white people we did not think it could hurt them, and we taught them to read and write. There has always been a kind feeling between the whites and slaves in this country. The young ones were our playmates in childhood. The older ones our nurses and cooks who petted us and loved us as their own color. They were faithful during the War when our protectors were in the Army, and now altho' it is fifty years since they were freed, many of them are our best friends.—I do not know of anything else you wanted to know or I would gladly write you. In some sections of the South there may have been cruel treatment but it was generally from the overseers who were ignorant men and took advantage of their position to give license to their cruel natures.

James Childs and all of his family and many of his relatives belonged to my mother, and there still exists a kind feeling between us that will only be severed by Death. I would like to hear from him. I am nearly 75 years old and cannot be here much longer but want to do all the good I can before I am called.

Respectfully

(Signed) Mrs. Jas. A. Smith,
Marion
Alabama

23 Dryads Green,
Nov. 7, 1916.

My dear Mr. Woodson:

Your letter in the interest of The Journal of Negro History is welcome. I will try to send you a subscriber or two.

Allow me to suggest a point. It may have been well covered already without my knowing of it. In Louisiana and, I think, in some other states, in Reconstruction days, the lieutenant-governorship was conceded by the Republican party, regularly, to a man of color. These men were sometimes, to say no more, of high character and ability. Such a one in Louisiana was Oscar J. Dunn, the first of them. He was of unmixt African origin. His signal ability and high integrity were acknowledged by his political enemies in the most rancorous days of his career, and his funeral was attended by Confederate generals.

I wish your enterprise the fullest measure of success.

Yours truly,

(Signed) Geo. W. Cable.

Washington, D.C.
1443 R St., N. W.,
Nov. 1 —17.

Mr. Carter G. Woodson,
1216 You St., N.W.,
Washington, D. C.

Dear Sir:

I recently received from you a letter followed soon by a volume of The Journal of Negro History edited by yourself which I have scanned and am much impressed with its merits and consider a valuable contribution to our historical literature.

It is somewhat unusual to find colored men in America of American birth who are individually conversant with all of the West Indies a part of South America and the western part of Europe.

My advent in life began at an epoch in the early history of Baltimore when incidents occurred that seem to have escaped the notice of the numerous writers of the history of our race which I shall briefly relate.

Owing to the rapid decadence of the sugar industries of the British West Indies on the Abolition of Slavery and the gravity anent the threatened ruin of the peasantry, some philanthropists and business men from England were sent to Baltimore to try to get free colored people to go to Trinidad. They spoke in many colored churches and succeeded in interesting them so that several shiploads were sent. My father and mother and three children were of the number. I was an infant in arms.

I received an education there and after I grew up was variously employed as bookkeeper, clerking in dry goods stores, in the City Hall, overseer on sugar estate, coach and sign painter, was afterwards sent for by my father who was at the gold mines of Caratal in Venezuela and on my return to Trinidad visited several other islands of the West Indies.

I next returned to America my natal home the second year of Andrew Johnson's term.

I have not since led an idle life. For nearly 25 years I have been engaged as an itinerant private tutor teaching adult folks and I flatter myself that I was very successful among the hundreds of my pupils.

I found on my arrival in America that education was at a very low ebb amongst the members of my race perhaps not more than 15% of adult folks one would encounter in the streets could read and write.

When the Amendments were passed by Congress conferring citizenship upon colored people I threw myself into the political current and was the first vice president of the 11th ward of Baltimore city which a few years subsequently chose a colored councilman, Harry Cummins.

I became a merchant meanwhile experimenting in groceries, but after a year relinquished this for dry goods for which my early acquaintance therewith amply fitted me. I kept a dry goods store in Baltimore for seven years then went to Jacksonville, Fla. where I successfully continued the business for eighteen years.

While I was in Baltimore I twice passed the Civil Service examination with a handsome percentage this I did simply from curiosity. I kept strictly to merchandise and have never earned a dollar of Uncle Sam's money.

In 1909 and again in 1912 myself and wife, both of us having a knowledge of French and Spanish and I a little Italian made a tour of Western Europe viz, Gibralter Italy Switzerland France Germany Holland Belgium and England plodding on foot amongst the common people studying sociological conditions and comparing with our own people. I find the contrast of the humbler class of Europe also the colored races of the West Indies and South America with less opportunities possessed of more enterprise and ambition than the colored people of America.

It is a lamentable fact that the principal attraction of those who should be our strong men and leaders in enterprise those of high school and college training consists of Uncle Sam's bounty and in the absence of this to cling to some white man in private life.

I have for many years been an ardent advocate of business amongst our people and to this end I have written contributions to the Commonwealth of Baltimore a paper once edited by John E. Bruce (Bruce Grit) the Colored American of Washington, and to other papers edited by our race.

My attitude towards other enterprises is that we are sufficiently and disproportionately represented in other branches, especially teaching preaching politics governmental patronage &c. which require no financial responsibility; consequently the results place us in the attitude of a Castillian gentleman who is facetiously described thus—Caballero sin caballo, Mucho piojo, poco dinero, that is, a knight without a horse, Plenty of lice, little money.

As a race we are the poorest numerically of any race in America. We have so little ambition and so envious and void of race pride. We don't mind a white man climbing over our heads but a colored man never and if you doubt me keep a store.

I have grown weary of the struggle and am leaving the fight to the younger men who I hope may prove vigorous champions.

I have done my part, I am

Yours very truly

(Signed) Stansbury Boyce.

London, Ont. October 25/1918

Dr. Carter G. Woodson,
Journal of Negro History,
Washington, D. C.

Dear Dr. Woodson,

I have been reading your "Century of Negro Migration" with interest. On page 36 you speak of a change of attitude on the part of Canadians towards the refugees. I do not know to what this refers. The attitude of the Canadian government never changed—it granted asylum and protection right up to the Civil War and afterwards. From the very earliest days there was an occasional show of prejudice but I doubt if this was greater in 1855 than in 1845 or 1835. The laws were administered fairly, the Negro exercised his vote, could get land cheaply if he desired to farm. The chief prejudice was shown in the schools though this only in some places, this city for instance. But this was only occasional, not general, and you are quite correct in saying that "these British Americans never made the life of the Negro there so intolerable as was the case in some of the free States."

On the same page there is a slight error in the use of the word "towns" in connection with the settlements of refugees in Southern Ontario.

"Dawn" was not a town but a farming community, "The Dawn Settlement" "Colchester" was the same, it is the name now given to a township in Essex county.

"Elgin" was not the name of a Settlement but of the association which managed the settlement. Buxton was the settlement founded by the Elgin association.

"Bush", i.e. "The Bush" is the term applied to a great tract of country north of Toronto, bushland, in which there were some Negro farmers.

"Wilberforce" was also a tract of land divided into farms and termed the Wilberforce settlement. It is in Middlesex county, near London.

"Riley" should be "Raleigh," it is the township in which the Elgin association's settlement was located. It is in Kent County.

"Anderton" is also the name of a township in Essex county.

"Gonfield" should be "Gosfield." It is also a township in Essex county.

These are only minor matters but you might desire to make the change in another edition.

I think I shall write something dealing with the Canadian end of your subject, from the economic standpoint. The Journal is a publication of which as Editor you can be proud. It maintains a high standard. I intend to have it added to the Western University's list of periodicals this year.

Sincerely yours,

(Signed) Fred Landon.

Bird-in-Hand, Pa., Aug. 21, 1918.
Carter G. Woodson, Esq.,

Dear Mr. Woodson:

I have read most of the articles in the Journal with deep interest and think it a valuable periodical. One or two mistakes I noticed; one writer says that President Lincoln thought that "the war should be over in ninety days." It was Seward, not Lincoln that cherished this almost insane idea.—Please do not set me down as a carping critic when I say that I am very sorry that the long article on "Slavery in Kentucky" was printed without comment or correction. To speak of Henry Clay as an anti-slavery man seems absurd to people like myself, born into real anti-slavery families and familiar almost from infancy with the anti-slavery struggle. The interview with Mr. Mendenhall, a Friend (Quaker) is told somewhat differently from what I heard it in my childhood. I always understood that a delegation of Friends called upon him and he told them to go home, that his "Negroes were sleek and fat." The comparison between Friends and his negroes, as given in Mr. McDougle's article is even more insulting than is anything in the story as I heard it. One of my earliest recollections is seeing in my grandmother's kitchen in Phila., "Clary" a little octoroon woman, who was, I was told, either once the mistress or else the daughter of Henry Clay. From this you may judge what his moral reputation must have been.

Very truly yours,

(Signed) (Mrs.) Marianna G. Brubaker.

Some Corrections

Bird-in-Hand, Pa., April 21, 1920.

Mr. Carter G. Woodson,

My dear Mr. Woodson:

On the next page will be found a correction of the article "The Negro Migration to Canada after 1850," which you may print or not, as you choose. In a historical periodical, accuracy is important, is it not?

Very truly yours,

Signed (Mrs.) Marianna G. Brubaker.

On page 30 of the Journal of Negro History for January reference is made to the famous Christiana Riot of Sept. 11, 1851. Christiana is about nineteen—not two—miles from Lancaster. Parker, the hero of this event, was a wonderful man. He returned to Christiana in the summer of 1872, spoke at a political meeting there and spent some time visiting friends, by whom he was greatly admired and respected. The exact distance from Lancaster is important because of the very different character of the two communities.

(Signed) Marianna G. Brubaker.

Bird-in-Hand, Pa., April 21.