The Roots of Resistance in Free Black Communities PDF

308 Major Problems in African-American History The Roots of Resistance in Free Black Communities characte In 1830...

308 Major Problems in African-American History The Roots of Resistance in Free Black Communities characte In 1830 EMMA JONES LAPANSKY lation. 1 In August 1834, a mob of white Philadelphians launched a massive three-day attack total cit on a nearby black community. This riot, the first in a series of such anti-black inci­ tion of dents in Philadelphia, was finally quelled by some 300 special constables and militia. black ai However, before peace was restored, one black church had been destroyed, another in their defaced, and scores of black people had been injured, at least one fatally so. The inci­ Th dent, one of many examples of violence in Jacksonian America, attracted attention, other b both from contemporary reporters and subsequent investigators. While observers progres often cited general unrest to explain such urban violence, modem historians have had the in-i more success in isolating specific community concerns that were potential causes census of racial disturbances. They have subjected the riots to close scrutiny. Who were the about 3 rioters (by age, occupation, social background, etc.)? How were they organized, how the cor mobilized, how viewed by society, how punished? unders Historians who have recently examined patterns of riots and rioters in western tionshi society over the last four centuries have reached some generalizations valid for had nc Philadelphia’s 1830s anti-black riots. First, they have concluded that the terms the po “riot” and “mob” carry connotations that are too suggestive of lack of direction and way, tl purpose—that often so-called “mob” action is actually a violent statement of a quite upwar specific political objective. Second, these historians have agreed that the rioters lished often were not simply representing the ideas of a narrow minority but, in fact, felt peoplt “legitimate” because they reflected concerns held by a wide section of a commu­ and c< nity, including not just the “rabble” but rather the “respectable” and even the well- this e< to-do. Third, the riots of the 1830s and 1840s have been represented as the last and st violent gasp of a western society making a lurching transition from government by Afro­ unbridled human passion to government of laws administered by “professionals.” in the Using these generalizations as a beginning point, other investigators have 1 sought to isolate more specifically the dynamics of certain types of disturbances in many antebellum American cities. Usually these investigators have followed the formula estab set forth by David Grimsted on Jacksonian riots: that they had “obvious roots in ingly both the psychology of... [their] participants and their socioeconomic situation.” comp In the case of anti-black rioting the analyses have sought to identify the character­ Beth< istics which separate those individuals who engaged in anti-black mob action from of the those who did not, and the investigators have generally concluded that certain ele­ white ments of white society felt “threatened” by free blacks. While the thrust of such Afro investigations is not to be disputed, they usually have paid little attention to the subu possibility that unique qualities and actions among the riot victims may give us focu further insight into the dynamics of racial violence.... The Philadelphia black community makes a particularly interesting case study. polit It was not “typical”; but it was atypical in ways that tended to produce a good deal of first measurable evidence of the tension between blacks and whites. The most important blac bort fom blac Emma Jones Lapansky, ‘“Since They Got Those Separate Churches’: Afro-Americans and Racism in Jacksonian Philadelphia,” American Quarterly, 32 (Spring 1980), pp. 54-78. © 1980 The American Johi Studies Association. Reprinted by permission of the John Hopkins University Press. Nev  Free Blacks Confront the "Slave Power" 309 characteristic of the Philadelphia black community is that it was a visible presence. In 1830 its 15,000 members made it America’s largest northern urban black popu­ lation. Moreover, though this community represented less than 10 percent of the attack total city population, it reflected a 30 percent increase over the city’s black popula­ k inci­ tion of 1820. Hence, though the number of blacks in Philadelphia was not large, militia, black and white Philadelphians perceived an ever-increasing number of dark faces mother in their midst. íe inci­ The Philadelphia black community was also visible because, compared to ention, other black communities, it was economically well off. This was due partly to the servers progress of several decades of freedom, partly to Quaker philanthropy, and partly to ave had the in-migration of some exceptionally talented and energetic ex-slaves. An 1838 causes census concluded that the aggregate wealth of the community was $977,500, or /ere the about $270 per household. Even by nineteenth-century standards this did not mean id, how the community was wealthy, but the distribution of that wealth is significant for an understanding of both the internal dynamics of the black community and its rela­ western tionships with the larger community. While a great majority of black households alid for had no real property and only negligible personal property, the wealthiest tenth of e terms the population controlled 70 percent of the community’s wealth. Stated another ion and way, the black community might be seen as some 14,000 poor people juxtaposed to f a quite upwards of 1,000 economically “substantial” black citizens. Indeed, a survey pub­ 5 rioters lished in 1845 listed six Afro-Americans among the city’s several dozen wealthiest ?act, felt people. Moreover, two of these wealthy Afro-Americans had inherited their money, :ommu- and could not be dismissed as self-made nouveau riche. For the black community he well- this economic disparity meant that a noticeable minority stood out, economically the last and socially, from the majority. For the white community it meant the visibility of ment by Afro-Americans who seemed to differ from upper-class or middle-class whites only sionals.” in the incidental aspect of color. >rs have The black community of Philadelphia was spatially stable and had been so for lances in many years. In the 1790s Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church had been formula established at 6th and Lombard Streets. Since then Afro-Americans had increas­ roots in ingly anchored their “turf,” setting up a number of institutions—schools, insurance tuation.” companies, masonic lodges, and several additional churches within a few blocks of haracter- Bethel. As early as 1811, a black neighborhood was identifiable at the southern edge ion from of the city, near Bethel Church, and by 1830, this neighborhood, while not devoid of rtain ele- whites, had become more heavily black and was expanding to the west. Though t of such Afro-Americans and their institutions were to be found in all parts of the city and its on to the suburbs, there was, then, an early, clearly defined intellectual, social, and economic y give us focus for the Negro community at the southern edge of the city. This stability in the black community was enhanced by increasingly cosmo­ ase study, politan contacts after 1820. Beginning in 1827 with Freedom’s Journal, America’s ad deal of first black newspaper, black Philadelphia always had a distribution office for the important black newspapers, as well as for Garrison’s Liberator (usually located in the neigh­ borhood near Bethel). In addition to this formal mechanism of communication, in­ formal connections between prominent black Philadelphians and the world outside black Philadelphia were well established and expanding through the 1820s. Francis d Racism in íe American Johnson, a musician in demand at white “society” parties all over Pennsylvania and New York, was in a position to bring the news and tastes of the outside world home to 310 Major Problems in African-American History his fellow black Philadelphians. Likewise, noted black caterers like Robert Boggle and had some intimacy with such white Philadelphia power figures as Nicholas Biddle. wor) Black abolitionists, carrying out their organizing activities, traveled widely and enat fort met frequently with their wealthy and powerful patrons. Such people.returned to the the black community bursting with the news of their travels and of the support of their thej white friends. Typical was this report by John Bowers of a stopover in a Lancaster, Pennsylvania hotel enroute from an abolitionist meeting in Harrisburg: Oc< whites’... I finished my breakfast... I rose and the [white abolitionist] friends in company was thi (which they certainly were) gave the landlord to understand... that if I could not sit there, they would not... thus proving to the colored men, and to the world, that they there v were not abolitionists in word, but in deed, and determined to carry out those principles Forten which they profess. and to species Such contacts of professional service and social reform with the white upper classes porting brought black Philadelphians comfortable incomes and information about the lives, limits ( values, and tastes of white leaders. These contacts also brought access to powerful Re allies in times of need. On more than one occasion a black individual’s personal, were j< medical, or legal crises were eased by the intervention of a powerful white friend. protec’ Many of the characteristics of the Philadelphia black community were apparent questi« in other urban black communities in some measure and combination. In New York, for example, black leaders could draw on the resources of wealthy white abolition­ dc ists like the Tappan brothers. What made the Philadelphia community unique was th that its size, wealth, stability, and access to resources in the white community were ol older and more pronounced than in other cities, and that it had a number of wealthy st blacks as well as access to wealthy whites. If racial tensions were connected to any of these characteristics, then, these tensions should be evident in Philadelphia. S Hence, Philadelphia becomes a laboratory in which to explore the interaction be­ mixin tween mechanisms within the antebellum black community and the white commu­ focus« nities with which it shared the city. For the white communities in Philadelphia, Bethe black people constituted a presence not easily ignored. nume To black people their spokesmen had double status: they were prominent in in the local black affairs, but they were “national” leaders as well. Numerous enough and haps, informed enough to encompass a range of tastes, the black neighborhood at the riotoi south of the city had, for example, not one but two masonic lodges and a half-dozen in th« different churches to accommodate the diversity within the black community. All of blacl this added up to a highly visible group of upwardly mobile black people, to be emu­ were lated by other blacks, to be carefully and suspiciously watched by groups of whites. upwi White contemporaries perceive the concerns of Philadelphia blacks in terms of the i some of their own primary tensions: the pressing problem of economic competi­ pres: tion, the emotional issues of “amalgamation” (cross-racial mating) and of blacks’ aspirations for upward social mobility, the heightened aggressiveness of blacks in the economic sphere, and the increased belligerence of their social and political style and rhetoric. On the question of economic competition, the white working-class community was vocal. A commission appointed to investigate the causes of the 1834 riot reported: Among the causes which originated the late riots, are two... An opinion prevails, whi especially among white laborers, that certain portions of our community, prefer to broi employ colored people, whenever they can be had, to the employing of white people; in r:  T Free Blacks Confront the "Slave Power" 311 oggle and that, in consequence of this preference, many whites, who are able and willing to iddie. work, are left without employment, while colored people are provided with work, and ly and enabled comfortably to maintain their families; and thus many white laborers, anxious to the for employment, are kept idle and indigent. Whoever mixed in the crowds and groups, at f their the late riots, must so often have heard those complaints, as to convince them, that... they... stimulated many of the most active among the rioters.... master, Occupational competition was certainly at the top of the list of working-class whites’ concerns, but the question of amalgamation was equally important. Nor mpany not sit was this latter a concern only of the working classes. Among upper-class whites, at they there was some annoyance over the rumor that wealthy black sailmaker James nciples Forten “was ambitious... and strove for a respectable platform for [his family]; and to this end it was said of him that he coveted to wed his daughter to a whiter species at some sacrifice to his fortune.” Liberal Quakers themselves, while sup­ classes porting black “progress,” were conservative in their estimate of the appropriate ì lives, limits of social intercourse with blacks. werful Reform[er]s concerned with promoting public morality toward black people rsonal, were joined in their disapproval of racial intermixing by others more interested in friend, protecting the purity of immorality. The publisher of a guide to the city’s brothels îparent questioned the limit of decorum in racial taboos: v York, Aition­... There is a brothel occupied by a swarm of yellow girls, who promenade up and ne was down Chestnut Street... and strange to say, they meet with more custom [jzc] than ty were their fairer skinned rivals.... There is no accounting for taste, however, and we have no objection to a white man hugging a negro wench to his bosom, providing his stomach is vealthy strong enough.... I to any lelphia. Statements ranging from curiosity to annoyance at the possibilities of “race ion be- mixing” were frequent among Philadelphia whites, and one riot, that of 1849, ommu- focused on the destruction of a prosperous little tavern, in the neighborhood near ielphia, Bethel Church, which was owned by a mulatto man and his wife. However, since numerous less prominent but no less interracial bars, gambling houses, and brothels inent in in the neighborhood were left untouched, it is worth speculating that it was, per­ ugh and haps, intermarriage for the purpose of upward mobility that was abhorred by the d at the riotous whites, and not necessarily amalgamation per se. In any case, “race mixing” f-dozen in the nineteenth-century city, and its meanings for different groups of whites and y. All of blacks, is a subject that bears further inquiry. Job competition and amalgamation be emu- were but portions of a larger issue, that of blacks’ rising aspirations and designs for ? whites, upward mobility that threatened to jostle the established social order. Even before terms of the significant anti-black riots of the 1830s, a white Philadelphia historian ex­.ompeti- pressed the widespread resentment against blacks’ new values and aspirations: ’ blacks’ In the olden time, dressy blacks and dandy coloured beaux and belles, as we now see them )lacks in issuing from their proper churches, were quite unknown. Their aspirings and little vanities political have been growing since they got those separate churches. Once they submitted to the appellation of servants, blacks, or negroes, but now they require to be called coloured mmunity people, and among themselves, their common call of salutation is—gentlemen and ladies. reported: Ironically, “those separate churches,” symbolizing black arrogance to many i prevails, whites, were the result of whites’ own unchristian attitudes toward their black prefer to brothers. In the 1790s, Philadelphia blacks had rebelled against segregated seating te people; in racially mixed churches, and withdrew to their own institutions. 312 Major Problems in African-American History With the exception of their masonic lodges (the leadership of which was fre­ gather, i quently drawn from the leaders of the church), the black community had developed Similar no other major public arena by 1830. Whereas in the white community church assaulte leadership was frequently drawn from among people who were leaders in other attacked spheres, in the black community the separate church had become and remained the hensiblc arena for developing leadership skills. for the ( Furthermore, to fill a vacuum, the churches had expanded their jurisdiction to of Geoi include political and social, as well as religious concerns. The absence of alterna­ erty wf tive networks through which leadership might emerge (political, professional, or prime t: commercial) meant that this church leadership and its values became synonymous It i with the values of the entire black community. The church, then, served as both the city, pa training ground and the operating base for religious leaders such as Bethel’s pastor, end wh Richard Allen, who in turn were seen by many whites and blacks as the black com­ ganizai munity’s secular leaders as well. For white rioters to attack the black church was to that bl strike at the seat of the black community’s organizational strength, while simulta­ blacks neously aiming at one of the symbols of black arrogance. Tt While this issue of symbols was not as immediate as job competition, it was no whites less important, and many aspects of the tangible issues cannot be fully understood iconog without also comprehending the importance of such symbols. For example, recent type ol analysis has shown that many anti-black rioters were not in direct economic compe­ a serie tition with black workers, that the occupations for which they were trained were activit ones in which blacks did not participate. Clearly, something more was at work here man h than simply a matter of white workers being replaced at their jobs by black workers. by far Some insight into the hidden agenda in the labor controversy may be drawn on the from the newspaper passage quoted earlier that describes white frustration that and oi “colored people are... enabled comfortably to maintain their families.” At issue ciated was not so much specific jobs as the fact that whites were jobless while blacks lived tion o comfortably—that, in fact, sometimes blacks’ comfort was had from the income of the ar poorer whites. Thus, it is not surprising that one of the targets of the 1834 rioters, in carie« the early stages of the riot when choice of targets appears to have been most selec­ were tive, was the son of wealthy black Philadelphian James Forten, owner of a country copie estate and a carriage—and several rental properties occupied by less well-off whites. ( Available evidence of the Philadelphia riots does not provide conclusive proof Phila that the more well-to-do blacks and their property were preferred targets. Never­ blad theless, certain patterns that emerged lend weight to the argument that this was so. pectí For example, in the 1834 riot many victims were robbed of their valuables—silver, class watches, etc.—items which the poor would have been less likely to possess (or to histc convince authorities that they possessed). An additional indication that the better- off blacks made more appealing targets is to be found in the fact that of the more than three dozen houses destroyed in the second night of this rioting, many were “substantial brick ones,” from which fine furniture was thrown into the streets and destroyed, while many more easily destroyed frame houses, owned by blacks in the Typ same streets, were left untouched. These choices of targets suggest resentment of the “have nots” specifically against the “haves.” So too does the casualty of the third night of this rioting. A group of whites, claiming to have been fired upon from a house near the black masonic lodge, destroyed the lodge building, citing it as a place where blacks would  Free Blacks Confront the "Slave Power" 313 as fre- gather, rather than attacking the house from which the alleged shots originated. eloped Similar insight may be drawn from the descriptions of the kinds of people who were church assaulted in the 1834 riot. Contemporaries expressed some outrage that the mob i other attacked “old, confiding and unoffending” blacks. Yet this outrage is more compre­ led the hensible if one substitutes the words “middle-aged, respectable, and hardworking” for the description of these victims, one of whom was reportedly a one-time servant :tion to of George Washington. It then begins to appear that individuals, groups, and prop­ iltema- erty which represented economic and social “success” and “respectability” were >nal, or prime targets for rioters’ resentments. lymous It seems also significant that some of the attackers had actually crossed the )oth the city, passing other concentrations of Afro-Americans, in order to reach the south pastor, end where the greatest concentration, not just of black people, but also of their or­ :k com- ganizations, was to be found. Equally informative were the continuing complaints i was to that blacks could find work when whites could not, and the repeated reports of dmulta- blacks being assaulted at their work. The visibility of affluent Negroes, and the resentment of them by struggling : was no whites, was apparent not only in the printed sources of the day, but also in stage and lerstood iconographie caricature in which the Philadelphia Negro was portrayed as the proto­ i, recent type of the “uppity nigger.” In the late 1820s, a caricaturist, Edward Clay, introduced compe- a series of cartoons entitled “Life in Philadelphia,” many of which poked fun at the ed were activities and aspirations of upwardly mobile blacks in the city. Clay, a professional ork here man himself, ignored the doings of the lower-class and working-class blacks, who workers, by far outnumbered the tiny elite which he chose to ridicule. Instead, he concentrated e drawn on the attempts of the black upper classes to set themselves apart from the masses, tion that and on their conspicuous consumption of the material goods and social values asso­ At issue ciated with upper-class whites. He ridiculed their strivings by pointing to their adop­ cks lived tion of values of family heritage, their cultivation of music, romance languages, and icome of the arts, and to their tendency to adopt the latest style in dress and furnishings. These ioters, in caricatures, capturing as they did the essence of black “society” in Philadelphia, ist selec- were immensely popular both in Philadelphia and in England where they were 1 country copied and augmented by other cartoonists over the next several decades. ff whites, Conspicuous consumption and other elements of the lifestyle of the class of ive proof Philadelphia Afro-Americans represented was a topic of general discussion for both s. Never- blacks and whites of the day. Whites’ comments indeed suggested the reactions ex­ is was so. pected of a class “threatened” from below: annoyance at the audacity of the lower s—silver, classes in stepping out of their “places.” Typical was this comment from the same ess (or to historian quoted earlier on the subject of “dressy blacks and dandy coloured beaux”: he better- As a whole, they show an overwhelming fondness for display and vainglory in the more processions... and in the pomp and pageantry of Masonic... societies... With the lany were kindest feelings for their race, judicious men wish then wiser conduct.... treets and icks in the Typical also is this satire of black social life, published in the Pennsylvania Gazette: A joke of no ordinary magnitude was enacted last night, by getting up a Coloured pecifically Fancy Ball, at the Assembly-Room.... Carriages arrived, with ladies and gentlemen of rioting. A colour, dressed in “character” in the most grotesque style.... the black It is worthy of remark, that many of the coaches containing these sable divinities icks would were attended by white coachmen and white footmen. It is indeed high time that some  314 Major Problems in African-American History serious attention was paid to the conduct and pursuits of the class of persons alluded to,... tl and it may be well to inquire if matters progress at this rate how long it will be before rhetor masters and servants change places. of am men ' Settled securely in the city of 1830, what were the concerns of black leaders? devot How did they interpret the dynamics of the racist attacks? What did they see as the and r most effective response to the rising frequency and virulence of such attacks after their 1830? Did they passively accept this as the reality of their world? Did they seek their simply to escape? Did they launch or consider counterattacks? And, ultimately, bed( how effective were their strategies in reducing the hostility against them; in pro­ As £ tecting them from its ravages; and in helping them to progress toward the place of curric they sought in society? quently ] Commentary by contemporary Afro-Americans on the subject of lifestyles this “so< shed some light on goals and values as seen from within the black community. Con­ Joseph ' cerned with acceptability to the larger white society, black leaders admonished their life. Wil constituents to make life choices that would convince whites of their suitability for “the hig responsible citizenship. To this end, one of the early Philadelphia meetings of the nished ' national Convention of Free People of Color—a group established in the early piano f( 1830s to address the problems of free blacks and, in later years, the problems of en­ instrum slaved brothers as well—adopted a resolution advocating that the designation other. 1 “African” be dropped from the titles of black organizations. Instead, the fact that and lib black people were colored Americans should be stressed. To this end also, they women gravitated toward value.s which they felt would establish them as “respectable” in topics < wider American society. An 1837 statement of goals written by a Philadelphia black cine, b leader bears the unmistakable mark of liberal Quaker influence: White,... We shall advocate the cause of peace, believing that whatever tends to the destruc­ War, v tion of human life is at variance with the precepts of the Gospel.... We shall endeavor were ti to promote education with sound morality, not that we shall become “learned and it brou mighty,” but “great and good.”... We shall advocate temperance in all things, and total R abstinence from all alcoholic liquors. We shall advocate a system of economy, not only cem f because luxury is injurious to individuals, but because its practice exercises an influence bal ant on society, which in its very nature is sinful. black Frugality, temperance, religion, and education, they argued, would be the keys that ablac would result in the respectability that would open the doors of American society to aging black people. Among this list of goals of the elites in the black community, perhaps the most f important was education. But why? In a society where few people were formally educated, and in which the highly educated Negro was frequently frustrated by lack of opportunities to exercise his talents, how would education help them become “great and good”? For the leaders of this community the purpose of education seemed to be two-fold. For one thing, it would keep black youths off the streets, The where their presence and idleness would reinforce whites’ perception that Negroes “fev were aimless, undisciplined, and untrainable. Hence the statement by one black ridic leader that education inspired ambition, “the cornerstone of all human greatness... without which we become nothing—nay, we become awful nuisances to society.” cipli Equally important, educational institutions would provide the medium for L’O socializing black youth and ex-slaves into the temperate, “orderly” lifestyle that the: leaders felt was so essential to their acceptance in the larger society: sobi  Free Blacks Confront the "Slave Power" 315 ded to,... the age in which we live is fastidious in its taste. It demands eloquence, figure, before rhetoric, and pathos; plain, honest, common sense is no longer attracting.... the means of ameliorating our condition... is by a strict attention to education. We find that those men who have ever been instrumental in raising a community into respectability, have iders? devoted their best and happiest years to this important object, have lived laborious days as the and restléss nights; made a sacrifice of ease, health, and social joys and terminated s after their useful career in poverty, with the only consoling hope that they had done justice to y seek their fellow men, and should in their last hours of triumphant prospect lie down on the lately, bed of fame and live to future ages.... n pro- As an accompaniment to practical education, black elites enjoyed a wide range place of curricular “extras,” designed to add an “eloquence” to their lives that was fre­ quently publicized by white and black alike. Edward Clay and his followers satirized estyles this “society,” but an anonymous writer—probably a black Philadelphian named 7. Con- Joseph Willson—produced a more serious document on upper-class black social ;d their life. Willson in 1841 published a book describing the lifestyles of what he termed lity for “the higher classes of colored society,” mentioning “parlors... carpeted and fur­ of the nished with sofas, sideboards, cardtables, mirrors,...and in many instances,... a e early piano forte,” where, in prearranged formal visits, black women trained in “painting, > of en- instrumental music, singing... and... ornamental needlework” visited with each ’nation other. Their men—home from concerts, lectures, or meetings of literacy, debating, act that and library association gatherings at their meeting halls—sometimes joined their o, they women, bringing news of the lectures and debates they had heard or engaged in. The ible” in topics of these meetings ranged from treatises on ancient Rome to studies of medi­ a black cine, but the most frequent subjects related to the plight of blacks in America. Jacob White, destined to become a public school administrator in the years after the Civil destruc- War, was one young member of this social circle whose debating skills, at one point, mdeavor were turned to a defense—before a black audience—of slavery as beneficial because ned and it brought Africans in touch with civilization. and total Rivaling the commitment to education was the Philadelphia black leaders’ con­ not only cern for frugality and temperance—a concern which sometimes led to a delicate nfluence balancing act against the desire for “eloquence... and rhetoric.” An article in the black newspaper Freedom’s Journal denounced the Pennsylvania Gazette ’s satire of :eys that a black “fancy ball” in Philadelphia, and cautioned Afro-Americans about the dam­ )ciety to aging image of such balls: The obloquy and contempt which have heretofore been heaped upon us, as a body, ¿he most for our much and continual dancing, will, we hope, cause many who are persons of formally reflection, to think some upon the propriety of spending so many valuable hours in this 1 by lack amusement. While we are no advocates of dancing, we do not consider it criminal to become indulge in it, occasionally, once or twice a year. ducation s streets, The writer went on to distinguish the “we [who] don’t believe in balls” from the Negroes “few who do” and expressed the concern that these latter “should not be cause to ne black ridicule a whole society.” tness... Black newspapers frequently carried articles exhorting their readers to live dis­ society.” ciplined, frugal lives and set before them numerous biographies—from Toussaint lium for L’Overture to Paul Cuffe—of black leaders who had contributed to the progress of ;tyle that the race by so doing. In their statements black leaders expressed this commitment to sober consumption but in actuality they seemed to live well, making up in “style”  316 Major Problems in African-American History and “culture” what they denied themselves in frivolity. Abolitionists who visited temperan black Philadelphians’ homes commented—some with disapproval—on the sumptu­ 1832, poi ousness they found there. And Joseph Willson described the homes of Philadel­ none of tl phia’s black elite as “presenting] an air of neatness and [having] the evidences of the respe comfort... quite astonishing when compared with their limited advantages for Thes securing them... But Willson goes on to make the point that people do not seem side thei to be living beyond their means:.. unlike fashionable people of other commu­ then wer nities, they live mostly within their incomes... and hence... they manage to main­ the supp tain even appearances.” support < Such “even appearances” in the lives of black elites must have been particularly A si annoying to whites in less stable positions: the displaced skilled laborers who ception < participated in the riots. Though it was not black competition, but rather new tech­ living, v nology and new work routines that actually caused skilled whites’job displacement, our degl “upper-class” blacks were an acceptable target for frustration, whereas upper-class As whites were not. ing its r Bruce Laurie, in this study of antebellum Philadelphia working-class whites’ direct c lifestyles and values, has suggested that among certain segments of society (the “causes same segments that would have been involved in the riots) there was a strong resis­ tance to temperance and punctuality—what Laurie terms the “new morality” or pec “new respectability”—that was necessary for the coming regimentation of the in­ Oft' dustrial work day. Such an interpretation adds the potential for yet another dimen­ the sion to anti-black violence, for the recipe of frugality, temperance, religion, and the education—seasoned with “eloquence”—advocated by black leaders must have given added spice to the taste of anti-black hatred in the mouths of white rioters. W Hence, the virulent attack of the black temperance parade, which triggered the bellige race riot of 1842, emerges as something more than simple racial violence. If black­ might ness was injury, black temperance added insult to it. Before the riot was over, a these ( black meeting hall, erected by and named for Stephen Smith, a wealthy black mer­ ity” hi chant, was destroyed. Nor was this destruction the result of random violence, for the the IL local authorities, pinpointing the hall as a potential target, had set up a guard around from 1 the building. Nevertheless, it and a neighboring black church were destroyed by the a pres crowd, and a third building, a brick structure erected as a temperance, meeting hall lowed by the black community, was ordered destroyed by municipal authorities lest its proteo presence incite more unrest. cized Few participants in anti-black riots were every prosecuted, and this fact was comn not lost on black leaders. An article in the Colored American newspaper spelled out black one Afro-American’s perception that the black upper classes presented a target aboui partly because the white upper classes were unavailable: tions moni Abolition is a mere pretext for these outbreakings. The same class of vagabonds who blad mob abolitionists, would as readily mob... the aristocracy could they do it with the same impunity. Though these leaders understood that they were the scapegoats of American society, still they continued to pursue the only strategy they could conceive: to con­ vince that society of the Afro-American’s respectability. They were proud of their restraint and their independence. They were quick to take offense to any disparage­ effoi ment of their character, and they responded with lengthy protestations of their ent i  Free Blacks Confront the "Slave Power" 317 visited temperance and industry. One such refutation, published in a white newspaper in imptu- 1832, pointed to the large number of colored benevolent societies and the fact that liladel- none of the societies’ members had ever been convicted in the court as evidences of ices of the respectable nature of the black community. ges for These groups, pleased with their capacity to care for blacks both inside and out­ )t seem side their membership, noted how few black people were in the almshouses and ommu- then went on to point out that “in Philadelphia, far from burdening the whites with ) main- the support of... [black] paupers,... [black people’s] taxes, over and above the support of their own poor, furnish funds for the support of white paupers.”.cularly A significant segment of the black elite was, then, concerned with whites’ per­ rs who ception of the Negro. This group was committed to education and frugal, temperate w tech­ living, with the intent of “rendering harmless, false and exaggerated accounts of cement, our degraded condition by living consistent, orderly and moral lives.” er-class A small minority of Philadelphia blacks, however, grew frustrated with shap­ ing its rhetoric and its policies to suit the tastes of a white public. Some resorted to whites’ direct confrontations with local authorities—a fact which was noted as one of the ety (the “causes” of the 1834 riots: ig resis- The other cause... [of rioting] is the conduct of certain portions of the colored.lity” or people, when any of their members are arrested as fugitives from justice. It has too : the in- often happened, that... the colored people have not relied on the wisdom and justice of dimen- the judiciary,... or on the active and untiring exertions of benevolent citizens.... but ,on, and they have... forcibly attempted the rescue of prisoners.... ist have )ters. While some took to physical force, others confined their anger to a growing ered the belligerence in their public statements. Though forced to recognize that white allies [f black- might desert their cause if the black community exhibited too much radical spirit, ; over, a these dissenters had come to understand that the elite’s stride toward “respectabil­ ick mer- ity” had been, at best, minimally effective in bringing about significant change in ï, for the the lives of most black people. As the national black organizations inched away d around from total commitment to pacifism and lost some of their zeal for temperance as id by the a pressing issue for Afro-Americans, a few Philadelphia leaders reluctantly fol­ ring hall lowed, with blistering statements against white slaveholders, and even some mild s lest its protest of the hypocrisy of some abolitionists. A few blacks as well as whites criti­ cized the bold ones who indulged in such “measures denunciatory” of the white fact was community, claiming such measures were ineffectual and self-defeating. Yet some elled out black leaders, disgruntled at the slowness of progress, became increasingly verbal a target about their exasperation as mid-century approached. Scattered among the exhorta­ tions to black Americans to improve themselves there began to creep a note of ad­ monition toward the white world as well. Typical was this statement, made by one onds who black leader: t with the On the one hand we see arrayed against us unblushing impiety, unholy pride, grovelling sinful prejudice, and a short-sighted worldly policy... the unholy alliance \merican must capitulate.... e: to con- d of their If one response of Afro-Americans to increased racism was the redoubling of isparage- efforts to prove themselves respectable, and another was the increase in the belliger­ s of their ent tone of rhetoric, yet a third expression of disillusionment, frustration, and fear 318 Major Problems in African-American History was to flee Philadelphia altogether—a response that contemporary observers felt to each of t be part of the design of the rioters: resulted of these It is notorious indeed, a fact not to be concealed or disputed, that the “object” of leaders’ the most active among the rioters, was a destruction of the property, and injury to the brick ho persons, of the colored people, with intent, as it would seem to induce or compel them burned i to remove from this district... tempera It was possible, of course, that one individual might do all three: step up efforts yet anol to be “respectable,” increase the amount of anger expressed in public statements, aminatii and leave the city. Those who left went to places as close as New Jersey and as far to the < away as West Africa. But one of the more interesting developments in the black along s community through the 1830s and 1840s was the number of people who chose the prostitu first two alternatives, but rejected—in fact, reversed—the third; that is, the number “unoffe of vocal and militant abolitionists who moved from outside the black neighborhood Th or outside of Philadelphia into the area that was experiencing the riots. spectak While we cannot discount the external pressure (from the city’s white communi­ tionshi ties) to “ghettoize” the black community, it is worth noticing that by 1850, a number Some i of black leaders with substantial economic power had left other neighborhoods— différé neighborhoods untouched by riots—and bought residences in the area in which Sometí resided black churches, newspapers, etc. Since in 1850, all the neighborhoods of the tions. ( city still had some black residents, including some black homeowners, it would may b seem unlikely that those black owners who moved from other neighborhoods into reflect the riot area did so solely because of force—or at least unlikely that they were driven cañiza out of the old neighborhood simply because they were black. teasin¡ By 1850, leading families of Cassey, Ayres, Forten, and Parrot were joined in petitie the neighborhood near Bethel by the Gloucester, Bustill, Stephen Smith, Florin, him./ and White families, each with taxable property worth from $500 to $12,000. These comfe families were typically composed of two working parents—e.g., a tailor or baker style ; father and a teacher or seamstress mother—who had one or more children in the the bl local black schools. Seven of the thirteen black schools were located in this neigh­ least < borhood, and none of the other schools were grouped so closely together. These ( people’s names appeared frequently as organizers of local meetings, signers of 1830 petitions, or representatives on boards of black organizations. the p From this group and this neighborhood came a disproportionately large num­ quali ber of the public statements of the black community in the years 1834-1850 when frust anti-black rioting was at its peak in Philadelphia. The concerns they voiced for cem< action within the black community were handed down to the next generation of able’ leaders, many of whom were their biological as well as their spiritual children, for Phil; Bustills, Fortens, Whites, Stills, and many other black leaders through the Civil phys War and late nineteenth century were second, if not third generation organizers in mea the black community. achi The strategy of respectability, adopted in the 1830s by the majority of the in­ wea fluential black leaders, was the strategy carried on by the younger group of leaders inte that drew together in the Bethel neighborhood in the wake of the riots. The full guil import of the fact that the white community seemed to grow more hostile in pro­ Phil portion to the success of these goals seems to have been lost on these leaders. Yet non  Free Blacks Confront the "Slave Power 319 s felt to each of the five major riots against the black community between 1834 and 1849 resulted not only in generalized mayhem, but also in the destruction of at least one bject” of of these symbols of group “success”: churches, meeting halls, outstanding black ry to the leaders’ property. In 1834 it was a masonic hall and a church: several substantial pel them brick houses in 1835: in 1838—in addition to Pennsylvania Hall itself—rioters burned the Quaker Shelter for Colored Orphans and another black church: the temperance parade in 1842 occasioned the destruction of two meeting halls and ) efforts yet another church: and in 1849 an interracial tavern went up in smoke. An ex­ ements, amination of other inhabitants who shared the neighborhood adds further weight id as far to the argument that the rioters chose their targets with some purpose, for all íe black along small streets that rippled the area, rioters bypassed seats of gambling and lose the prostitution—some of them interracial—to reach homes and meeting places of number “unoffending” blacks. lorhood The differences of style and opinion between the respectable and the unre­ spectable within the black community are of use in gaining insight into the rela­ mmuni- tionship of the total black community to the equally varied white community. number Some progress has recently been made in describing objective characteristics that loods— differentiated various levels of material progress among antebellum urban blacks. i which Sometimes these intrablack dynamics had a dramatic effect on black-white rela­ Is of the tions. One example of what might be called a “domino” effect of intrablack tensions t would may be seen in the riot that occurred in the summer of 1835. A group of blacks, ods into reflecting the widespread acceptance of the black community’s adoption of “Ameri­ e driven canization” values, ridiculed the manners and clothing of a West Indian servant, teasing him for his “African” ways and unstylish clothing. The servant, much upset, oined in petitioned his master for better clothing. When the master refused, the servant beat , Florin, him. A race riot ensured, which, like the one before it, was aimed at the property of 3. These comfortable black people. Presenting the image of colored Americans as separate in or baker style and dress from Africans was a highly emotional issue within some segments of m in the the black community—important enough to inspire public ridicule and destroy at s neigh- least one servant’s social restraint. r. These Out of an examination of the black community then, the anti-black riots of the *ners of 1830s and 1840s are given another dimension—a dimension born not only out of the peculiarities of Philadelphia’s white communities but also out of the unique ge num- qualities of the black community. While the white mobs were expressing their 50 when frustration at their own social immobility, black people, for their part, were con­ iced for cerned with publicly exhibiting the proof of their progress toward the “respect­ ation of able” life. This set of dynamics proved mutually antagonistic. Within this setting, iren, for Philadelphia’s black leaders continued to focus on three goals: economic security, he Civil physical safety, and social status. With respect to the first goal, they achieved some nizers in measure of success by 1830, accentuated by the fact that a few Afro-Americans achieved some economic power, and that in times of crisis both black and white f the in- wealth could be called in for support. After 1830, when changes in the geographic f leaders integration of the city, heightened competition for work, and the rise of trade The full guilds that excluded blacks eroded the gains made in the early years of the century, 5 in pro- Philadelphia’s black leaders still had no choice but to continue agitation for eco­ ders. Yet nomic opportunities.  320 Major Problems in African-American History Age On the second goal, physical security, the tactic adopted by the black commu­ century : nity was even less successful. Since the upper-class whites whom black leaders without : saw as their national allies were themselves hated by working-class whites, black ination c leaders’ choices of allies had the effect of reinforcing their position of being attrac­ complex tive targets for anti-upper class, as well as anti-black, attack. It is interesting that no major black leader conceived of a cross-racial political union among the working classes. Until well into the 1840s, black leaders steered clear of political organization completely, and their huddling together helped in forming the ghetto that made it unnecessary to attack anymore; now they could simply be isolated. In his a If the effectiveness of the first two strategies was limited, in the third, the pur­ breaker suit of status, blacks found their goals even more thwarted. For here black leaders from C found that they were alone. White working people hated the idea of upward mo­ certain bility in an economic way, white elites supported it only as long as it stayed and the within certain limits—as long as it avoided measures “denunciatory” of them­ Frederi selves, or attempts at intermarriage. The 1838 decision of the state legislature to tance c rescind black suffrage suggests that the rioters were indeed “legitimized” by the turning approval of the larger white community, as it is “respectable” citizens and not was ns criminals who are most likely to exercise this kind of political power. The 1830s power, and 1840s were a critical time for Afro-Americans in a northern city. All-black or­ in nine ganizations, only a generation or so old found themselves working out policies A and goals under the tremendous pressure of generally tumultuous urban situations varier in which they were under physical and psychological attack. It was too soon in the and a< development of Afro-American organizational life for the group to move toward eleme recognizing that its own sets of values differed from those of the major society it in An sought to enter. It was too soon to have accumulated the experience that might ideals later tell them that inclusion in American society required fundamental change— Achie not just within the black community, but in the entire political and class structure socia of American society. the rr Black leaders, then, adjusted their tactics and goals to the realities of their city muni as it moved into the Civil War. They gave up physical competition for city space dyna and retreated to the safety of their own neighborhood, with its supportive institu­ and t tions and services. Likewise, they gave up their commitment to some of the causes style of white liberals, such as temperance. A few expatriated, foregoing hope of accep­ of cc tance in America at all. Most, however, continued their use of their “separate churches” and lodges to cultivate and promote their leaders and their pursuits of threj respectability and acceptability. And on the issue of “amalgamation” they were hear silent. Continued resentment against the abolitionists and against blacks as the valu “cause” of the disruption of Civil War far outweighed the gains possible through grox the old strategies of preparing for full inclusion in American society by living thee “respectably.” And though riots and rioters gradually disappeared from American tian cities as legitimate extralegal tools of public discipline, rioting against blacks re­ assi mained acceptable. But the black churches and masonic lodges remained under the leadership of the children of leaders steeped in the values of frugality, temperance, respectability, and “Americanization.” As they moved into the twentieth century, “Vk such leaders found themselves more and more out of touch with a constituency that Lois could no longer see the use of such values. Hor  Free Blacks Confront the "Slave Power" 321 nmu- A generalized racism in the context of the riot atmosphere of the mid-nineteenth laders century might well have been sufficient to engender both the riots and the rioters black without any “provocation” from within the black community. Nevertheless, an exam­ ittrac- ination of inner dynamics may help to keep us aware that interracial tensions are a complex phenomenon. litical teered ped in Manhood and Womanhood in a Slave Society / could < JAMES OLIVER HORTON AND LOIS E. HORTON / In njs autobiography, Frederick Douglass recalled his confrontation with the slave íe pur- breaker Covey as the first step on his escape to freedom. After regular beatings eaders from Ćo\ey, to whom he had been hired, he had run away, and then returned to face rd mo- certain anX severe punishment. This time, though, the adolescentySlave resisted, stayed and the two became locked in a two-hour struggle that left both exhausted. Young them- Frederick was^pot subdued, and Covey never beat him again. This successful resis­ iture to tance changed th\slave: “My dear reader this battle with M/ Covey... was the by the turning point in mỳdife as a slave... I was nothing befon/ I was a man now.” It ind not was natural for Douglass to express his new-found powevTn terms of manhood, as 5 1830s power, independence?und freedom were often thought m as traits reserved for men ack or- in nineteenth-century America. To be a man was to be/free and powerful. Dolicies Although the American man in the nineteenth^ century could choose from a nations variety of gender ideals, virtually all the combinations of characteristics, values, n in the and actions constituting eachXdeal included self-assertion and aggression as key toward elements. Aggression, and sometimes sanctioned violence, was a common thread )ciety it in American ideals of manhood, yharles Rosenberg believes that two masculine it might ideals exemplified the choices open to Zineteenth-century men, the Masculine lange— Achiever and Christian Gentleman. iWMasculine Achiever ideal was closely as­ tructure sociated with the rapid economic growlh of the nineteenth century. As the rise of the market economy disrupted locar relationships and tied formerly isolated com­ heir city munities to distant economic affiliations, this ideal provided American men with a ty space dynamic model of behavior. The man of action was unencumbered by sentiment i institu­ and totally focused on advancement, the quintessential individualist and the self- te causes styled ruthless competitor. JHe was the rugged individual succeeding in the world if accep- of commercial capitalism/ \ ‘separate The Christian Gentleman ideal arose in reaction tb the Masculine Achiever and irsuits of threats to traditional values and relationships. Eschewing self-seeking behavior and ley were heartless competition in the commercial world, this gentleKideal stressed communal