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James Redpath and American Negro Colonization in Haiti, 1860–1862

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Willis D. Boyd
Willis D. Boyd*
Affiliation:
Valparaiso University, Valparaiso, Indiana
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Extract

COLONIZATION of the Negro somewhere beyond the territorial limits of the United States had an irresistible appeal to many nineteenth-century Americans anxious to steer a middle course between abolitionist and pro-slavery extremists. Though united in believing the colored man to be an intruder impossible to assimilate into the predominant Anglo-Saxon culture, colonizationists could never agree on the methods or the agencies of removal, nor on the site for the new Negro homeland. Thomas Jefferson suggested the Louisiana Purchase; others spoke of Florida, Texas, the trans-Mississippi West. As the frontier pressed forward, Canada became a more favored spot, and Mexico, Central America, and the West Indies. The American Colonization Society, a national philanthropic body with auxiliaries north and south, sent some twelve thousand Negroes to their protege state of Liberia on the west coast of Africa.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 12 , Issue 2 , October 1955 , pp. 169 - 182
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1955

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References

1 Dewey, Loring D. (ed.), Correspondence relative to the Emigration to Hayti of the Free People of Colour in the United States together with Instructions to the Agent sent out by President Boyer (New York, 1824), p. 15.Google Scholar Also see Hunt, Benjamin S., Remarks on Hayti as a Place of Settlement for Afric-Americans (Philadelphia, 1860), pp. 10–15.Google Scholar

2 Foner, Philip S., The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass (New York, 1950), II, 252.Google Scholar Also see Gross, Bella, Clarion Call. The History and Development of the Negro Peoples’ Convention Movement in the United States from 1817 to 1840 (New York, 1947) for attitudes toward colonization.Google Scholar

3 Holly, James T., A Vindication of the Capacity of the Negro Race for Self-Government and Civilized Progress (New Haven, 1857).Google Scholar

4 Bonneau, Alexandre, Haiti: ses progres, son avenir (Paris, 1862), p. 105 gives the figure of 1200, but it is only an estimate.Google Scholar

5 Horner, C. F., Life of James Redpath and the Development of the Modern Lyceum (New York, 1926)Google Scholar; the obituary in the New York Times, Feb. 11, 1891; and scattered biographical data in Redpath’s own works.

6 Malin, James C., John Brown and the Legend of Fifty-Six, American Philosophical Society Memoirs, XVII (1942), 294.Google Scholar

7 Redpath, James (ed.), A Guide to Hayti (Boston, 1860), p. 9.Google Scholar

8 Ibid., pp. 93–106.

9 Ibid., pp. 155–160.

10 “James Redpath, Letters and Reports as General Agent of Emigration to Haiti, March 31 to December 27, 1861” (Library of Congress). Hereafter cited as Redpath Papers. See the financial accounts, Redpath to Plésance, June 24, 1861.

11 Redpath, Guide, pp. 110–111 and 120–124. A carreau of land equaled three acres, three and one-third rods.

12 The Pine and Palm (Boston, 1861–1862), June 22, 1861.

13 Ibid., June 2, 1861 and June 22, 1861.

14 Redpath to G. R. Heywood, April 10, 1861, Redpath Papers. See also Redpath, Guide, p. 172.

15 The Pine and Palm, May 25, 1861; Sept. 21, 1861; and Oct. 19, 1861.

16 Redpath to Élie, May 6, 1861, Redpath Papers. See also The Pine and Palm, May 25, 1861.

17 Anglo-African (New York, 1859–1865), April 27, 1861 and Feb. 1, 1862.

18 Ibid., March 29, 1862.

19 Redpath to Plésance, June 8, 1861; Redpath to Geffrard, July 20, 1861; Redpath to Plésance, Sept. 7, 1861; id. to id., Oct. 13, 1861; id. to id., Nov. 20, 1861, Redpath Papers.

20 Redpath to Plésance, June 24, 1861; id. to id., July 20, 1861, ibid. Also see Foner, Frederick Douglass, II, 102.

21 Redpath to Plésance, April 7, 1861; id. to id., Aug. 11, 1861; id. to id., Sept. 14, 1861, Redpath Papers.

22 Id. to id., June 24, 1861, ibid.

23 Id. to id., March 31, 1861; id. to id., June 24, 1861; id. to id., Oct. 13, 1861, ibid.

24 Id. to id., March 31, 1861; id. to id., Aug. 11, 1861; id. to id., Aug. 24, 1861; Redpath to Élie, May 6, 1861, ibid.

25 Redpath to G. R. Heywood, April 10, 1861, ibid.

26 Redpath to Plésance, April 7, 1861, ibid.

27 Redpath to Élie, July 15, 1861, ibid. Also see Redpath to Plésance, July 1, 1861, ibid.

28 The Pine and Palm, Oct. 12, Oct. 19, Oct. 26, and Nov. 3, 1861. Also see Redpath to Élie, Oct. 5, 1861, Redpath Papers.

29 Redpath to Plésance, July 1, 1861; id. to id., Aug. 24, 1861; Redpath to Elie, May 6, 1861, ibid. From December 15, 1860 to the end of October, 1861, The Pine and Palm listed the sailing of 1076 in all.

30 Redpath to Plésance, Oct. 13, 1861, ibid.

31 Id. to id., May 25, 1861, ibid.

32 Id. to id., May 16, 1861; id. to id., Aug. 11, 1861; id. to id., Oct. 13, 1861, ibid.

33 Redpath to Elie, Aug. 22, 1861, ibid.

34 Redpath to Plésance, Oct. 21, 1861, ibid.

35 Id. to id., Oct. 13, 1861, ibid.

36 Id. to id., Oct. 21, 1861, ibid.

37 Redpath to Élie, May 16, 1861; see also the Memorandum, Aug. 19, 1861, ibid.

38 Redpath to Plésance, April 16, 1861, ibid. Also see Anglo-African, Sept. 7, 1861.

39 Redpath to Plésance, Aug. 20, 1861; id. to id., Sept. 7, 1861, Redpath Papers.

40 Id. to id., April 29, 1861, ibid.

41 Id. to id., May 27, 1861; id. to id., Oct. 1, 1861, ibid.

42 ld. to id., Oct. 13, 1861, ibid.

43 Id. to id., Nov. 22, 1861, ibid.

44 Id. to id., Oct. 13, 1861, ibid.

45 Anglo-African, Aug. 17, 1861.

46 Ibid., Oct. 19, 1861.

47 Redpath to Plésance, March 31, 1861, Redpath Papers.

48 Id. to id., Nov. 11, 1861, ibid.

49 Id. to id., Nov. 11, 1861, ibid.

50 The Pine and Palm, Dec. 28, 1861.

51 Logan, Rayford W., The Diplomatic Relations of the United States with Haiti, 1776–1891 (Chapel Hill, 1941), pp. 296–304 Google Scholar; Montague, Ludwell L., Haiti and the United States 1714–1938 (Durham, 1940), pp. 83–88.Google Scholar

52 Redpath to Plésance, June 15, 1861; id. to id., June 24, 1861; id. to id., Aug. 13, 1861, Redpath Papers.

53 William McLain to James Hall, July 30, 1862, Letters Sent, vol. 46, American Colonization Society Papers (Library of Congress). Mention is made of 300 Negroes from Fort Monroe taken by Redpath to Haiti. Also see McLain to John Pinney, April 28, 1862, ibid.

54 Garrison, Wendell Phillips, William Lloyd Garrison, 1815-1879. The Story of his Life Told by his Children (New York, 1885–1889), IV, 134, 140, 150 Google Scholar. Also see Simpkins, Francis B. and Woody, Robert H., South Carolina during Reconstruction (Chapel Hill, 1932), p. 427.Google Scholar

55 Allston Wilson to Usher, Oct. 31, 1863, Donohue Correspondence, Slave Trade and Negro Colonization Papers (National Archives).

56 Donohue to Usher, March 26, 1864, Communications relating to the Colonization Project at He A’Vache, Haiti (1862–1869), Slave Trade and Colonization Papers.