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 From Timbuktu to Katrina:
Readings in
African American History
U
Volume I

Q U IN T A R D TA YL O R
Scott Dorothy Bullitt Professor of American History
University of Washington

Australia • Brazil • Canada • Mexico • Singapore • Spain • United Kingdom • United States
 From Timbuktu to Katrina: Readings in African American History, Volume I
Quintard Taylor

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 U
Not to know what happened before one was born is to always remain a child.
–Cicero

I am not ashamed of my grandparents for having been slaves. I am only

ashamed for having at one time been ashamed.
–Ralph Ellison

Awful as race prejudice, lawlessness and ignorance are, we can fight time if
we frankly face them and dare name them and tell the truth; but if we
continually dodge and cloud the issue, and say the half truth because the
whole stings and shames; if we do this, we invite catastrophe. Let us then in
all charity but unflinching firmness set our faces against all statesmanship
that looks in such directions.
–W. E. B. DuBois
 U

Contents

PREFACE IX
A B O U T T HE A UT H OR XII

CHAPTER 1 The African Background 1

Ibn Battuta Describes the Sultan of Mali, ca. 1354 2
John Barbot on the Government of Benin, 1682 4
The Slave Trade: A Slaver’s Account 5
The Enslavement of Venture Smith 7
The Middle Passage: A Slave Mutiny, 1704 10
Omar ibn Seid: From Senegal to North Carolina 11

CHAPTER 2 The Evolution of Black Society 13

Isabel de Olvera Arrives in New Mexico 14
A Quaker Resolution Against Slavery, 1652 15
A New Netherlands Petition for Freedom, 1661 15
African vs. Indian Slavery 16
Eighteenth-Century Black Slave Codes 17
Darien, Georgia Protest Against Slavery, 1739 19
The Stono Rebellion, 1739 20
The New York City Slave Plot, 1741:
Statement of a Condemned Man 21

iv
 CONTENTS v

CHAPTER 3 Slavery and Freedom

in the Revolutionary Era 25
A Funeral for Crispus Attucks, Samuel Gray, Samuel
Maverick, and James Caldwell 27
Massachusetts Slaves Petition for Freedom, 1773 28
Caesar Sarter’s Essay on Slavery, August 17, 1774 29
Lord Dunmore’s Proclamation 32
Colonel Tye: Black Loyalist Leader 33
Rhode Island Enlists Slaves in Its Colonial Militia 35
Petition of New Hampshire Slaves, 1779 36
The Founding of Los Angeles 38
The End of Slavery in Massachusetts, 1783 39
A North Carolina Soldier’s Freedom Petition, 1784 41
The Debate over the Black Mind 42
The Poetry of Phillis Wheatley 44
Founding the African Methodist Episcopal Church 45
Benjamin Banneker’s Letter to Thomas Jefferson 46

CHAPTER 4 American Slavery 49

A Northerner’s Description of Slavery 51
An Alabama Lynching, 1827 52
Moses Grandy on Slavery and Social Control 54
A North Carolina Act Prohibiting the Teaching
of Slaves to Read 55
Slavery and Sexual Abuse: The Saga of Louisa Picquet 56
The Letters of Enslaved Women, 1840 to 1859 57
Solomon Northup Describes a Slave Auction, 1841 59
Gabriel Prosser’s Conspiracy 62
Nat Turner’s Revolt: The Impact in the Slave Quarters 64
Slavery and Freedom in Indian Territory 66
Harriet Elgin and Rebecca Jones
on the Underground Railroad 67
vi CONTENTS

Two Fugitive Slaves Respond to Their Former Owners 70

Fanny Perry’s Letter to Her Husband, 1862 72

CHAPTER 5 Free Blacks in a Slave Society 73

Louisiana’s Free People of Color Pledge Loyalty
to the United States, 1804 75
General Andrew Jackson Praises a New Orleans Militia, 1815 76
Grace Douglass Calls for Frugal Living, 1819 78
Two Antebellum Black Women’s Organizations 79
Freedom’s Journal’s First Editorial 81
Black Cincinnati Children Speak of Slavery, 1834 82
Santa Anna and Black Freedom 83
The North Star: The First Editorial 84
The Fugitive Slave Act in Practice:
Rachel Parker’s Kidnapping 85
Harriet Tubman Rescues a Fugitive Slave 86
‘‘A Nation Within a Nation’’ 87
Black Self-Esteem: The Nineteenth-Century Debate 89
Address to the People of California, 1855 90
Philadelphia African Americans Protest
the Dred Scott Decision, 1857 91
Wisconsin African Americans Demand the Vote, 1857 92
Supporting the New Republican Party 93
John A. Copeland Awaits His Execution 94

CHAPTER 6 The Civil War 95

We Are Americans 97
Seeking the Right to Fight, 1861 97
The Victoria Club Ball, 1862 99
Robert Smalls Commandeers the Planter 100
David Hunter Organizes African American Troops
in South Carolina, 1862 102
Charlotte Forten Teaches the Freed People 104
 CONTENTS vii

Susie King Taylor and Black Freedom 105

‘‘Men of Color, To Arms!’’ 107
The New York Draft Riot: Eyewitness Accounts 110
Lewis Douglass’s Letter to His Sweetheart 111
Memphis African Americans Proclaim the Meaning
of Freedom, 1864 112
The Second Kansas Colored Infantry at War 113
Sojourner Truth Meets President Lincoln 116
A Proposal to Enlist Black Soldiers
in the Confederate Army 117
A Black Soldier Describes the Fall of Richmond, 1865 118
Elizabeth Keckley at the White House 120

CHAPTER 7 Reconstruction 123

Felix Haywood Remembers the Day of Jublio 125
The Black Codes in Louisiana 126
The Memphis Riot, 1866 127
‘‘Send Me Some of the Children’s Hair’’ 129
President Johnson and Black Leaders 130
Sharecropping Emerges in the Post-Civil War South 131
Thaddeus Stevens Demands Black Suffrage 134
Black Voting Rights: Two Views from the Far West 135
An Anxious Aunt Writes to Nashville’s Colored
High School 136
The Ordeal of Amanda Redmond 137
Frederick Douglass Describes the ‘‘Composite Nation’’ 138
Helena Citizens Celebrate Their New Rights 139
Black Women and Work in Philadelphia, 1871 140
Reconstruction Amendments, 1865–1870 141
Francis Cardozo Urges the Dissolution
of the Plantation System 142
viii CONTENTS

Senator Hirim Revels Calls for the End

of Segregated Schools 145
Frances Rollin’s Diary 147

CHAPTER 8 Into the Twentieth Century 149

Willianna Hickman: Bound for Nicodemus 151
A Mississippi Teacher Writes to the Governor of Kansas 152
Buffalo Soldiers Rescue a New Mexico Town 153
A Washerwoman’s Strike in Atlanta, 1881 154
Lucy Parsons: ‘‘I Am an Anarchist’’ 156
William Hannibal Thomas on Reparations, 1887 158
‘‘Organized Resistance Is Our Best Remedy’’ 160
Eliza Grier: From Enslaved Woman to Medical Doctor 162
The Afro-American League, 1890 163
Labor and Race: Strikebreaking Black Coal Miners
Defend Their Actions 165
Frederick Douglass & Anna J. Cooper on Gender Equality
in the 1890s 166
The Atlanta Compromise Speech 168
The Conservation of Races 171
The Lynching of a Postmaster, 1898 172
Jack Trice Fights his Attackers 173
The Wilmington Massacre, 1898: An Eyewitness Report 174
The Philadelphia Negro 176
 U

Preface

D ocuments tell a powerful story. They can assist, clarify, and enhance a
narrative account that provides context for events that impact millions of
people over centuries. This compilation of readings is designed with that purpose
in mind. It is a glimpse into the African American community through the
examination of historical documents over five centuries. These documents begin
with the medieval West African city of Timbuktu. They suggest that the West
African savannah and coastal societies from which the vast majority of fifteenth
through nineteenth-century enslaved Africans came were numerous, varied, and
complex, both powerful and weak, and that their own historical narratives reflect
both the triumphs and tragedies that mark all societies. The second volume
concludes with a discussion of the impact of Hurricane Katrina, reminding us
that African American history continues to unfold in myriad ways into this
twenty-first century.
The number of documents available to tell that story far exceeds the capacity
of one or two volumes, of course. Indeed, unlike previous collections of
documents that have focused on what historians considered the most significant
texts—just determining what is significant often sparks intense debate—this
collection includes documents and vignettes spanning the fourteen to twenty-first
centuries, covering politics, culture, gender, social life, religion, racial identity,
education, social class, sports, music, the environment, medicine, immigration,
and even crime. These readings represent an unprecedented attempt to span what
historians now recognize as the enormous breadth and range of documents that
reflect on African American life in the United States. Many of the selections, such
as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail, will be familiar to
students of African American history. However, other documents, such as Lucy
Parson’s 1886 speech “I Am an Anarchist” or African Americans and Environmental
ix
x PREFACE

History: A Manifesto, are included precisely because they rarely gain exposure
beyond the gaze of a handful of experts in a particular subfield of African American
history. In a few rare instances, I have relied on excerpts from secondary sources
that appear as vignettes, such as Slavery and Freedom in Indian Territory in Daniell F.
Littlefield, Jr., and Mary Ann Littlefield, “The Beams Family: Free Blacks in Indian
Territory,” Journal of Negro History (January 1976) or Race and the Suburbanization of
America from Melvin L. Oliver and Thomas M. Shapiro’s 1995 book, Black Wealth/
White Wealth: A New Perspective on Racial Inequality, to provide context for under-
standing an entire era or series of episodes in a way that documents alone cannot
accomplish. These volumes also include cartoons that convey much more than
humor; they tellingly reveal tensions and anxieties in society that may not be
expressed more directly through the texts. Collectively, however, these sources,
primary and secondary, provide, I hope, a broad, rich, diverse, and yet composite
portrait of the African American experience.
The readings are arranged chronologically into eight chapters each in
volumes I and II. Each chapter has a brief historical introduction of the period
and an explanation of the way in which the individual documents help tell the
larger story of the chapter and the era. Each document, in turn, is introduced by a
short description giving its specific historical context.
The documents were selected on the basis of their ability to explain a small
part of the larger narrative of African American history. They are usually printed
in this volume in their entirety. Some documents, including many of the
speeches, are abridged because of publishing space limitations. However, through
an arrangement between the publisher of these volumes, Thomson Wadsworth
and TheBlackPast.org website (http://www.TheBlackPast.org), the entire docu-
ments can be accessed on the Web at the internet address listed in the document’s
introduction.
From Timbuktu to Katrina is the consequence of a number of dedicated
people’s efforts. I want to thank three research assistants, Turkiya Lowe, Susan
Bragg, and especially Karla Kelling Sclater, each of whom spent countless hours
in research libraries or online locating documents. Both Turkiya and Susan
discovered documents that I might have overlooked, while Karla was particularly
diligent and dedicated in the final months of volume preparation; in a real sense, this
work owes a great deal to their efforts. I also express my appreciation to fellow
historians Albert Broussard, Texas A&M University; Ronald Coleman, University of
Utah; Willi Coleman, University of Vermont; Kimberley Phillips College of William and
Mary; Shirley Ann Wilson Moore, California State University, Sacramento; Malik
Simba, Fresno State University; Paul Spickard, University of California, Santa Barbara;
Joe William Trotter, Carnegie Mellon University; Matthew Whitaker, Arizona State
University; and Noralee Frankel of the American Historical Association.
I am grateful to the staff of various libraries and research facilities, including
the Library of Congress; the Bancroft Library at the University of California,
Berkeley; the University of California at San Diego Libraries; the Bowdoin
College Library; the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg Library; the
University of Oregon Libraries; the Kansas Historical Society; the Schomburg
Center for Research in Black Culture at the New York Public Library; and the
 PREFACE xi

Moorland-Spingarn Research Center at Howard University. I am especially

appreciative of the efforts of Robert Fikes, Reference Librarian at San Diego
State University; Patrick Lemelle at the Institute of Texan Cultures at the
University of Texas, San Antonio; Danielle Kovacs, Curator of Manuscripts,
Special Collections, and University Archives at the W. E. B. DuBois Library,
University of Massachusetts; Patricia Rodeman, Suzzallo Circulation, the University
of Washington Libraries; and the supportive staff of the Interlibrary Loan Library
at the University of Washington. Also, I gratefully acknowledge the crucial
assistance of my department head, John Findlay, who always seemed to find
resources to support this project.
I want to thank Ashley Dodge for recognizing this project as a potentially
useful addition to the growing body of literature on African American history.
Additionally, I want to acknowledge my gratitude to Kristen Tatroe for guiding
the manuscripts through the publication process. I also acknowledge the con-
siderable Internet research skills my daughter, Jamila Taylor, brought to this
project.
Finally, I am grateful to the patience, support, and wise counsel of Catherine
Dever Foster. You were a constant source of inspiration, encouragement, and
love throughout this entire project.
 U

About the Author

QUINTARD TAYLOR, the Scott

and Dorothy Bullitt Professor of
American History at the University
of Washington, is the author of The
Forging of a Black Community: Seattle’s
Central District from 1870 through the
Civil Rights Era (Seattle: University
of Washington Press, 1994) and In
Search of the Racial Frontier: African
Americans in the American West,
1528–1990 (New York: W.W. Nor-
ton, 1998). He is the co-editor with
Lawrence B. de Graaf and Kevin
Mulroy of Seeking El Dorado: African
Americans in California (Seattle: Uni-
versity of Washington Press, 2001)
and with Shirley Ann Wilson Moore
of African American Women Confront the West, 1600–2000 (Norman: University of
Oklahoma Press, 2003). Taylor is the author of over forty articles. His work on
African American Western History, African American, African, Afro-Brazilian, and
comparative ethnic history has appeared in the Western Historical Quarterly, Pacific
Historical Review, Oregon Historical Quarterly, The Annals of the American Academy of
Political and Social Science, Journal of Negro History, Arizona and the West, Western
Journal of Black Studies, Polish-American Studies, and the Journal of Ethnic Studies,
among other journals. Taylor has taught at universities in Washington, Oregon,
California, and Nigeria over his thirty-five-year career in higher education.

For additional information, please see the Quintard Taylor website,

http://faculty.washington.edu/qtaylor/
xii
From Timbuktu to Katrina:
Readings in
African American History

U
Volume I
This page intentionally left blank
 1

The African Background

D uring the four centuries of the transatlantic slave trade, people from hundreds
of different ethnic groups with vastly diverse languages and cultures were
brought to the New World from regions of Africa stretching four thousand miles
along the continent’s Atlantic coast. Despite their differences, these Africans, partly
by design, and partly by circumstance, forged an African American culture. In order
to understand that culture fully, however, we must first examine the histories and
cultures of the regions that were the ancestral homes of African Americans. Chapter
One examines that heritage. The vignettes included describe some African societies
at the time of the slave trade, providing a context for understanding the evolution of
African American culture during the first two centuries of the black presence in
British North America.
The first vignette, Ibn Battuta Describes the Sultan of Mali provides a
rare firsthand account of Sudanic civilization in West Africa, while John Barbot
on the Government of Benin, 1682 affords a similar perspective on a non-
Muslim coastal state. The removal of Africans to the New World is outlined in
the table The Slave Trade over Four Centuries, which plots the varying
origins, destinations, and slaving nations involved in the transfer of millions of
Africans to the New World.
The Slave Trade: A Slaver’s Account and The Enslavement of
Venture Smith provide starkly contrasting views of the trade from the
vantage points of trader and traded. The vignette The Middle Passage: A
Slave Mutiny, 1704 describes the desperate attempt of one group of Africans
to seize their liberty on the Atlantic Ocean. Finally, Omar Ibn Seid: From
Senegal to North Carolina provides the perspective of an unfortunate person
who fell victim to the trade and who left a poignant account of his early
captivity.

1
2 CHAPTER 1 THE AFRICAN BACKGROUND

Ibn Battuta Describes the Sultan

of Mali, ca. 1354

The Muslim traveler Ibn Battuta (1304 –1368) traversed much of the known
fourteenth-century world. Born in Tangier, Morocco, he made the first of his four
pilgrimages to Mecca when he was twenty-one and thereafter traveled to East Africa
and most of Asia, including China. He began his return from India in 1345,
visiting Ceylon, Sumatra, Baghdad, and Cairo. He reached Fez in 1349 and in
1352 set out toward the Sudan, crossing the Sahara and traversing the kingdom of
Mali. His description of the ruler of Mali, whom he calls the ‘‘Sultan,’’ is one of the
very few firsthand accounts of the customs practiced in Mali at that time.

Audiences of the Sultan of Mali

Sometimes the sultan [of Mali] holds meetings in the place where he has his
audiences. There is a dais in that place, situated under a tree, with three big steps
called penpi. The dais is covered with silk and embellished with cushions, and
above it is placed a parasol that looks like a silken dome. On the top of the parasol
is a golden bird as big as a sparrow hawk. The sultan goes out by a well-used door
in a corner of the castle. He holds his bow in his hand and wears his quiver on his
back. On his head he wears a gold hat that is held in place by a band, also of gold.
The ends of the hat are tapered like knives longer than a hand’s span. Most often
he is dressed in a red velvet tunic, made of either European cloth called mothanfas
or deep pile cloth.
The singers come out in front of the sultan, and they hold kanakir (instru-
ments whose name in the singular is doubtless konbara, which means lark) of gold
and silver. Behind him are about 300 armed slaves. The sovereign walks
patiently, advancing very slowly. When he arrives at the penpi, he stops and
looks at those who are there. Then he slowly goes up onto the dais as the priest
mounts his pulpit. As soon as the sultan is seated, drums are beaten, a horn is
sounded, and trumpets blare.

What I Found to Be Praiseworthy About the Conduct of the Negroes

in Contrast to What I Found to Be Bad.
Among the good qualities of this people, we must cite the following:
1. The small number of acts of injustice that take place there [in Mali], for of all
people, the Negroes abhor it [injustice] the most. Their sultan never pardons
anyone guilty of injustice.
SOURCE: Ibn Battuta, Voyages d’Ibn Batoutah, trans. Charles François Defrémery (Paris:
Imprimerie Impériale, 1853), 4:405–407, 421–424, 440–442.
 IBN BATTUTA DESCRIBES THE SULTAN OF MALI, CA. 1354 3

2. The general and complete security that is enjoyed in the country. The traveler,
just as the sedentary man, has nothing to fear of brigands, thieves, or plunderers.
3. The blacks do not confiscate the goods of white men who die in their
country, even when these men possess immense treasures. On the contrary,
the blacks deposit the goods with a man respected among the whites, until
the individuals to whom the goods rightfully belong present themselves and
take possession of them.
4. The Negroes say their prayers correctly; they say them assiduously in the
meetings of the faithful and strike their children if they fail these obligations.
On Friday, whoever does not arrive at the mosque early finds no place to pray
because the temple becomes so crowded. The blacks have a habit of sending
their slaves to the mosque to spread out the mats they use during prayers in the
places to which each slave has a right, to wait for their master’s arrival. These
mats are made from a tree that resembles the palm but that bears no fruit.
5. The Negroes wear handsome white clothes every Friday. If, by chance, one
of them possesses only one shirt or a worn-out tunic, he at least washes and
cleans it and wears it to the public prayers.
6. They are very zealous in their attempt to learn the holy Quran by heart. In the
event that their children are negligent in this respect, fetters are placed on the
children’s feet and are left until the children can recite the Quran from
memory. On a holiday I went to see the judge, and seeing his children in
chains, I asked him, ‘‘Aren’t you going to let them go?’’ He answered, ‘‘I won’t
let them go until they know the Quran by heart.’’ Another day I passed a
young Negro with a handsome face who was wearing superb clothes and
carrying a heavy chain around his feet. I asked the person who was with me,
‘‘What did that boy do? Did he murder someone?’’ The young Negro heard
my question and began to laugh. My colleague told me, ‘‘He has been chained
up only to force him to commit the Quran to memory.’’
Some of the blameworthy actions of these people are:
1. The female servants and slaves, as well as little girls, appear before men
completely naked. I observed this practice a great deal during the month of
Ramadan [the ninth month and time of fasting in the Muslim year], for the
usual custom among the Negroes is for the Commanders to break the fast in
the sultan’s palace and for each of them to be served by female slaves who are
entirely nude and who bring the food to the number of twenty or more.
2. All the women who come into the sovereign’s house are nude and wear no
veils over their faces; the sultan’s daughters also go naked. On the twenty-
seventh night of the month of Ramadan, I saw about a hundred female slaves
come out with the food for the sultan’s palace, and they were nude. Two of
the sovereign’s daughters, who had been gifted with very large chests,
accompanied the slaves and had no covering whatsoever.
3. The blacks throw dust and ashes on their heads to show that they are
educated and as a sign of respect.
4 CHAPTER 1 THE AFRICAN BACKGROUND

4. Negroes practice a sort of buffoonery when the poets recite their verses to
the sultan, as described elsewhere.
5. Finally, a good number of the Negroes eat vultures, dogs, and asses.

John Barbot on the Government

of Benin, 1682

As an employee of English and French trading companies, John Barbot made two
voyages to West Africa between 1678 and 1682. In the last voyage, he wrote his
impressions of the West African coastal kingdom of Benin, which at the time was
one of the most powerful states in the region and the center of the international
slave trade. Part of his account follows.

T he government of Benin is principally vested in the king, and three chief

ministers, call’d great Veadors; that is, intendants, or overseers: besides the
great marshal of the crown, who is intrusted with the affairs relating to war, as the
three others are with the administration of justice, and the management of
revenue; and all four are obliged to take their circuits throughout the several
provinces, from time to time, to inspect into the condition of the country, and
the administration of the governors and justices in each district, that peace and
good order may be kept as much as possible. Those chief ministers of state have
under them each his own particular officers and assistants in the discharge of their
posts and places. They call the first of the three aforemention’d ministers of state,
the Onegwa, the second Ossade, and the third Arribon.
They reside constantly at court, as being the king’s privy council, to advise
him on all emergencies and affairs of the nation; and any person that wants to
apply to the prince, must address himself first to them, and they acquaint the king
with the petitioner’s business, and return his answer accordingly: but commonly,
as in other countries, they will only inform the king with what they please
themselves; and so in his name, act very arbitrarily over the subjects. Whence it
may well be inferr’d, that the government is intirely in their hands; for it is very
seldom they will favour a person so far as to admit him to the king’s presence, to
represent his own affairs to that prince: and every body knowing their great
authority, indeavours on all occasions to gain their favour as much as possible, by
large gratifications and presents, in order to succeed in their affairs at court, for
which reason their offices and posts are of very great profit to them.
SOURCE: John Barbot, An Abstract of a Voyage to Congo River, or the Zair, and to
Cabinde, in the Year 1700, in A Collection of Voyages in Travels, ed. Awnsham and John
Churchill (London: Henry Linton and John Osborn, 1746), 5:367–370.
 THE SLAVE TRADE: A SLAVER’S ACCOUNT 5

Besides these four chief ministers of state, there are two other inferior ranks
about the king: the first is composed of those they call Reis de Ruas, signifying in
Portuguese, kings of streets, some of whom preside over the commonalty, and others
over the slaves; some again over military affairs; others over affairs relating to cattle
and the fruits of the earth, &c. there being supervisors or intendants over every
thing that can be thought of, in order to keep all things in a due regular way.
From among those Reis de Ruas they commonly choose the governors of
provinces and towns; but every one of them is subordinate to, and dependent on
the aforemention’d great Veadors, as being generally put into those imployments,
by their recommendation to the king, who usually presents each of them, when
so promoted to the government of provinces, towns or districts, with a string of
coral, as an ensign or badge of this office; being there equivalent to an order of
knighthood in European courts. . . .
The third rank of publick ministers or officers, is that of the Mercadors, or
merchants; Fulladors, or intercessors; the Veilhos, or elders, imploy’d by the king
in affairs relating to trade: all which are also distinguish’d from the other subjects
not in office or post, by the same badge of a coral-string at their neck, given each
of them by the king, as a mark of honour.
All the said officers from the highest to the lowest, being men that love money, are
easily brib’d: so that a person sentenc’d to death, may purchase his life if he is wealthy in
Boejies, the money of this country; and only poor people are made examples of justice,
as we see is no less practiced in Europe; yet it being the king’s intention, that justice
should be distributed without exception of persons, and malefactors rigidly punish’d
according to the laws of realm, the officers take all possible care to conceal from him,
that they have been brib’d, for preventing the execution of any person condemn’d.

The Slave Trade: A Slaver’s Account

An eighteenth-century English captain provides a detailed description of the work

of ‘‘slaving’’ along the West African coast and in the process reveals much of the
thinking of the slavers.

W e mark’d the slaves we had bought in the breast, or shoulder, with a hot
iron, having the letter of the ship’s name on it, the place being before
anointed with a little palm oil, which caus’d but little pain, the mark being usually
well in four or five days, appearing very plain and white after.
When we had purchas’d to the number of 50 or 60 we would send them aboard,
there being a cappasheir, intitled the captain of the slaves, whose care it was to secure
them to the water-side, and see them all off; and if in carrying to the marine any were
SOURCE: Elizabeth Donnan, ed., Documents Illustrative of the History of the Slave
Trade to America (Washington, D.C.: The Carnegie Institution, 1930), 1:402–403. All
rights reserved. Reproduced per permission of the Carnegie Institution of Washington.
6 CHAPTER 1 THE AFRICAN BACKGROUND

The Slave Trade over Four Centuries

Century Major Slaving Country Major Sources Major Destinations

16th Century: Portugal Upper Guinea Coast Hispaniola

Benin Cuba
Angola The Spanish Main
Portuguese Brazil
Peru
17th Century: Portugal Gold Coast Brazil
Holland Kongo The Spanish Main
Great Britain Angola Jamaica
France Upper Guinea Coast Haiti
Mexico
Virginia/
The Carolinas
Peru
Cuba
18th Century: Great Britain Gold Coast Jamaica
Portugal The Slave Coast Virginia/
The Carolinas
France Dahomey Maryland/Georgia
Holland The Niger Delta Brazil
Angola
Haiti
19th Century: Portugal Niger Delta Brazil
Brazil Angola Brazil
United States Mozambique United States/
(Illegal trade) Cuba

Estimated Number of Slaves Arriving in the New World

16th Century 275,000
17th Century 1,382,000
18th Century 6,250,000
19th Century 1,898,000

Destination of Slaves, 1526–1810:

Brazil 3,647,000
British Caribbean 1,665,000
French Caribbean 1,600,000
Spanish America 1,552,000
Dutch America 500,000
British North America 399,000
Europe 175,000
Danish West Indies 28,000

SOURCE: Robert Fogel and Stanley Engerman, Time on the Cross (Boston, 1974), 15–17; Stephan Thernstrom, A History of the
American People (New York: Harcourt, 1989), 1:73.

lost, he was bound to make them good, to us, the captain of the trunk being oblig’d
to do the like, if any ran away while under his care, for after we buy them we give
him charge of them till the captain of the slaves comes to carry them away. . . .
 THE ENSLAVEMENT OF VENTURE SMITH 7

The negroes are so wilful and loth to leave their own country, that they have
often leap’d out of the canoes, boat and ship, into the sea, and kept under water
till they were drowned, to avoid being taken up and saved by our boats, which
pursued them; they having a more dreadful apprehension of Barbados then we
can have of hell, tho’ in reality they live much better there than in their own
country; but home is home, etc: we have likewise seen divers of them eaten by
the sharks, of which a prodigious number kept about the ships in this place, and
I have been told will follow her hence to Barbados, for the dead negroes that are
thrown over-board in the passage. I am certain in our voyage there we did not
want the sight of some every day, but that they were the same I can’t affirm.
We had about 12 negroes did wilfully drown themselves, and others starv’d
themselves to death; for ’tis their belief that when they die they return home to
their own country and friends again.
I have been inform’d that some commanders have cut off the legs and arms of
the most wilful, to terrify the rest, for they believe if they lose a member, they cannot
return home again: I was advis’d by some of my officers to do the same, but I could
not be persuaded to entertain the least thought of it, much less put in practice such
barbarity and cruelty to poor creatures, who, excepting their want of christianity and
true religion (their misfortune more than fault) are as much the works of God’s
hands, and no doubt as dear to him as ourselves; nor can I imagine why they should
be despis’d for their color, being what they cannot help, and the effect of the climate
it has pleas’d God to appoint them. I can’t think there is any intrinsick value in one
color more than another, nor that white is better than black, only we think so
because we are so, and are prone to judge favorably in our own case, as well as the
blacks, who in odium of the color, say, the devil is white, and so paint him. . . .
The present king often, when ships are in a great strait for slaves, and cannot
be supply’d otherwise, will sell 3 or 400 of his wives to compleat their number,
but we always pay dearer for his slaves than those bought of the cappasheirs.

The Enslavement of Venture Smith

In 1735, Venture Smith was captured and enslaved at the age of six in probably
what is now the nation of Guinea on the West Coast of Africa. He was named
‘‘Venture’’ by ship steward Robertson Mumford who purchased him for four gallons
of rum and a piece of calico. Venture was taken to Rhode Island where he was sold
to Colonel Oliver Smith. Eventually, Venture Smith bought his freedom and then
purchased his wife and children. The family settled in Connecticut where he told the
story of his life. In the following passage, Venture describes his capture in Guinea.
SOURCE: Venture Smith, A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Venture, A Native
of Africa but Resident about Sixty Years in the United States of America (New London:
Holt, 1798), 5–13.
8 CHAPTER 1 THE AFRICAN BACKGROUND

I was born at Dukandarra, in Guinea, about the year 1729. My father’s name was
Saungm Furro, Prince of the Tribe of Dukandarra. My father had three wives.
Polygamy was not uncommon in that country, especially among the rich, as
every man was allowed to keep as many wives as he could maintain. By his first
wife he had three children. The eldest of them was myself, named by my father,
Broteer. The other two were named Cundazo and Soozaduka. My father had
two children by his second wife, and one by his third. I descended from a very
large, tall and stout race of beings, much larger than the generality of people in
other parts of the globe, being commonly considerable above six feet in height,
and every way well proportioned. . . .
. . . . A message was brought by an inhabitant of the place where I lived the
preceding year to my father, that that place had been invaded by a numerous
army, from a nation not far distant . . . and all kinds of arms then in use; that they
were instigated by some white nation who equipped and sent them to subdue
and possess the country. . . . [A few days later] a detachment from the enemy
came to my father and informed him, that the whole army was encamped not far
out of his dominions, and would invade the territory and deprive his people of
their liberties and rights, if he did not comply with the following terms. These
were to pay them a large sum of money, three hundred fat cattle, and a great
number of goats, sheep, asses, &c.
My father told the messenger he would comply rather than that his subjects
should be deprived of their rights and privileges. . . . Upon turning out those
articles, the enemy pledged their faith and honor that they would not attack
him . . . But their pledges of faith and honor proved no better than those of
other unprincipled hostile nations; for a few days after a certain relation of the
king came and informed him, that the enemy who sent terms of accommoda-
tion to him and received tribute to their satisfaction, yet meditated an attack
upon his subjects by surprise, and that probably they would commence their
attack in less than one day, and concluded with advising him, as he was not
prepared for war, to order a speedy retreat of his family and subjects. He
complied with this advice.
The same night which was fixed upon to retreat, my father and his family
set off about break of day. The king and his two younger wives went in
one company, and my mother and her children in another. We left our dwell-
ings in succession, and my father’s company went on first . . . But we presently
found that our retreat was not secure. For having struck up a little fire for the
purpose of cooking victuals, the enemy who happened to be encamped a little
distance off, had sent out a scouting party who discovered us by the smoke of
the fire, just as we were extinguishing it, and about to eat. As soon as we had
finished eating, my father discovered the party, and immediately began to
discharge arrows at them. This was what I first saw, and it alarmed both me
and the women, who being unable to make any resistance, immediately betook
ourselves to the tall thick reeds not far off, and left the old king to fight
alone. For some time I beheld him from the reeds defending himself with
great courage and firmness, till at last he was obliged to surrender himself into
their hands.
 THE ENSLAVEMENT OF VENTURE SMITH 9

They then came to us in the reeds, and the very first salute I had from them
was a violent blow on the head with the fore part of a gun, and at the same time a
grasp round the neck. I then had a rope put about my neck, as had all the women
in the thicket with me, and were immediately led to my father, who was likewise
pinioned and haltered for leading. In this condition we were all led to the camp.
The women and myself being pretty submissive, had tolerable treatment from the
enemy, while my father was closely interrogated respecting his money which
they knew he must have. But as he gave them no account of it, he was instantly
cut and pounded on his body with great inhumanity. . . . He thus died without
informing his enemies of the place where his money lay. I saw him while he was
thus tortured to death . . . He was a man of remarkable stature. I should judge as
much as six feet and six or seven inches high, two feet across his shoulders, and
every way well proportioned. He was a man of remarkable strength and resolu-
tion, affable, kind and gentle, ruling with equity and moderation.
The army of the enemy was large, I should suppose consisting of about six
thousand men. Their leader was called Baukurre. After destroying the old
prince, they decamped and immediately marched towards the sea, lying to
the west, taking with them myself and the women prisoners. . . . The enemy
had remarkable success in destroying the country wherever they went. For as far
as they had penetrated, they laid the habitations waste and captured the people.
The distance they had now brought me was about four hundred miles. Along
the march I had very hard tasks imposed on me, which I must perform on pain
of punishment. I was obliged to carry on my head a large flat stone used for
grinding our corn, weighing as I should suppose, as much as 25 pounds; besides
victuals, mat and cooking utensils. Though I was pretty large and stout of my
age . . . these burthens were very grievous to me, being only about six years and
an half old . . .
The invaders . . . pinioned the prisoners of all ages and sexes indiscrimi-
nately, took their flocks and all their effects, and moved on their way towards
the sea. On the march the prisoners were treated with clemency, on account of
their being submissive and humble. Having come to the next tribe, the enemy
laid siege and immediately took men, women, children, flocks, and all their
valuable effects. They then went on to the next district which was contiguous
to the sea, called in Africa, Anamaboo. The enemies provisions were then
almost spent, as well as their strength. The inhabitants knowing . . . what were
their intentions . . . attacked them, and took enemy, prisoners; flocks and all
their effects. I was then taken a second time. All of us were then put into the
castle, and kept for market. I and other prisoners were put on board a canoe,
under our master, and rowed away to a vessel belonging to Rhode Island,
commanded by capt. Collingwood, and the mate Thomas Mumford. While we
were going to the vessel, our master told us all to appear to the best possible
advantage for sale. I was bought on board by one Robertson Mumford, steward
of said vessel, for four gallons of rum, and a piece of calico, and called
VENTURE, on account of his having purchased me with his own private
venture. Thus I came by my name. All the slaves that were bought for that
vessel’s cargo, were two hundred and sixty.
10 CHAPTER 1 THE AFRICAN BACKGROUND

The Middle Passage: A Slave Mutiny, 1704

William Snelgrave, an English slave trader on the Guinea Coast, provided a

firsthand description of an unsuccessful slave mutiny in 1704. Part of his
description follows.

T he first Mutiny I saw among the Negroes, happened during my first Voyage, in
the Year 1704. It was on board the Eagle Galley of London, commanded by
my Father, with whom I was Purser. We had bought our Negroes in the River of
Old Callabar in the Bay of Guinea. At the time of their mutinying we were in that
River, having four hundred of them on board, and not above ten white Men who
were able to do Service: For several of our Ship’s Company were dead, and many
more sick; besides, two of our Boats were just then gone with twelve People on
Shore to fetch Wood, which lay in sight of the Ship. All these Circumstances put
the Negroes on consulting how to mutiny, which they did at four a clock in the
Afternoon, just as they went to Supper. But as we had always carefully examined
the Mens Irons, both Morning and Evening, none had got them off, which in a
great measure contributed to our Preservation. Three white Men stood on the
Watch with Cutlaces in their Hands. One of them who was on the Forecastle, a
stout fellow, seeing some of the Men Negroes take hold of the Chief Mate, in
order to throw him over board, he laid on them so heartily with the flat side of his
Cutlace, that they soon quitted the Mate, who escaped from them, and run on the
Quarter Deck to get Arms. I was then sick with an Ague [malaria], and lying on a
Couch in the great Cabbin, the Fit being just come on. However, I no sooner
heard the Outcry, That the Slaves were mutinying, but I took two Pistols, and run
on the Deck with them; where meeting with my Father and the chief Mate, I
delivered a Pistol to each of them. Whereupon they went forward on the Booms,
calling to the Negroe Men that were on the Forecastle; but they did not regard
their Threats, being busy with the Centry (who had disengaged the chief Mate) and
they would have certainly killed him with his own Cutlace, could they have got it
from him; but they could not break the Line wherewith the Handle was fastened to
his Wrist. And so, tho’ they had seized him, yet they could not make use of his
Cutlace. Being thus disappointed, they endeavoured to throw him overboard, but
he held so fast by one of them that they could not do it. My Father seeing this stout
Man in so much Danger, ventured amongst the Negroes to save him; and fired his
Pistol over their Heads, thinking to frighten them. But a lusty Slave struck him
with a Billet [a round wooden bar] so hard, that he was almost stunned. The Slave
was going to repeat his Blow, when a young Lad about seventeen years old, whom
we had been kind to, interposed his Arm, and received the Blow, by which his
Arm-bone was fractured. At the same instant the Mate fired his Pistol, and shot

SOURCE: William Snelgrave, A New Account of Some Parts of Guinea and the Slave
Trade, in Elizabeth Donnan, ed., Documents Illustrative of the History of the Slave Trade
in America (Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Institution, 1930), 2:353–361. All rights reserved.
Reproduced by permission of the Carnegie Institution of Washington.
 OMAR IBN SEID: FROM SENEGAL TO NORTH CAROLINA 11

the Negroe that had struck my Father. At the sight of this the Mutiny ceased, and
all the Men-Negroes on the Forecastle threw themselves flat on their Faces, crying
out for Mercy.

Omar ibn Seid: From Senegal

to North Carolina

The autobiography of Omar ibn Seid, a North Carolina slave in 1831,

undermines the slaveholders’ often repeated argument that African slaves had no
knowledge of civilization before being brought to the New World. ibn Seid, a
member of the Fula nation in what is now Senegal, was born in 1770 and raised
as a Muslim. After being educated in Arabic and mathematics by his uncle, he
became a merchant dealing primarily in cotton cloth. Captured and sold into
slavery in South Carolina, he escaped and was later arrested in Fayetteville,
North Carolina, in 1831. While in jail, he began writing on the walls of his cell
in Arabic, which brought him to the attention of General James Owen who
purchased him. Unlike Equiano, ibn Seid never gained his freedom and even-
tually converted to Christianity. But before his conversion, he wrote his auto-
biography in Arabic. The following reprints parts of it.

I n the name of God, the merciful, the gracious. – God grant his blessing upon our
Prophet Mohammed. Blessed be He in whose hands is the kingdom and who is
Almighty; who created death and life that he might test you; for he is exalted; he
is the forgiver (of sins), who created seven heavens one above the other. . . . You
asked me to write my life. I am not able to do this because I have much forgotten
my own, as well as the Arabic language. Neither can I write very grammatically
or according to the true idiom. And so, my brother, I beg you, in God’s name,
not to blame me, for I am a man of weak eyes, and of a weak body.
My name is Omar ibn Seid. My birthplace was Fut Tur, between the two
rivers. I sought knowledge under the instruction of a Sheikh called Mohammed
Seid, my own brother, and Sheikh Soleiman Kembeh, and Sheikh Gabriel Abdal.
I continued my studies twenty-five years, and then returned to my home where I
remained six years. Then there came to our place a large army, who killed many
men, and took me, and brought me to the great sea, and sold me into the hands
of the Christians, who bound me and sent me on board a great ship and we sailed
upon the great sea a month and a half, where we came to a place called
Charleston in the Christian language. There they sold me to a small, weak, and

SOURCE: ‘‘Autobiography of Omar ibn Seid, Slave in North Carolina, 1831,’’ American
Historical Review 30 (July 1925): 791–795.
12 CHAPTER 1 THE AFRICAN BACKGROUND

wicked man, called Johnson, a complete infidel, who had not fear of God at all.
Now I am a small man, and unable to do hard work so I fled from the hand of
Johnson and after a month came to a place called Fayd-il [Fayetteville]. There I
saw some great houses (churches). On the new moon I went into a church to
pray. A lad saw me and rode off to the place of his father and informed him that
he had seen a black man in the church. A man named Handah (Hunter?) and
another man with him on horseback, came attended by a troop of dogs. They
took me and made me go with them twelve miles to a place called Fayd-il, where
they put me into a great house from which I could not go out. I continued in the
great house (which in the Christian language, they called jail) sixteen days and
nights. One Friday the jailor came and opened the door of the house and I saw a
great many men, all Christians, some of whom called out to me, ‘‘What is your
name? Is it Omar or Seid?’’ I did not understand their Christian language. A man
called Bob Mumford took me and led me out of the jail, and I was very well
pleased to go with them to their place. I stayed at Mumford’s four days and
nights, and then a man named Jim Owen, son-in-law of Mumford . . . asked me
if I was willing to go to a place called Bladen. I said, Yes, I was willing. We went
with them and have remained in the place of Jim Owen until now. . . .
Before I came to the Christian country, my religion was the religion of
‘‘Mohammed, the Apostle of God – may God have mercy upon him and give
him peace.’’ I walked to the mosque before day-break, washed my face and head
and hands and feet. I prayed at noon, prayed in the afternoon, prayed at sunset,
prayed in the evening. I gave alms every year, gold, silver, seeds, cattle, sheep,
goats, rice, wheat, and barley. I gave tithes of all the above-named things. I went
every year to the holy war against the infidels. I went on pilgrimage to Mecca, as
all did who were able. My father had six sons and five daughters, and my mother
had three sons and one daughter. When I left my country I was thirty-seven years
old; I have been in the country of the Christians twenty-four years.
 2

The Evolution of Black Society

A lmost from their very arrival in the New World, Africans were confronted
with the reality of a different culture, one with which they were completely
unfamiliar and could not possibly control. They also faced the daunting task of
forging common cultural bonds from their varied backgrounds of origin. These
two challenges, accepting relevant and crucial segments of the ‘‘dominant’’
culture and integrating their own cultural traditions, became the basis for the
fashioning of African American society.
The vignette, Isabel de Olvera Arrives in New Mexico reminds us of the
presence of Spanish-speaking blacks in North America long before the first
Africans arrived in the English colony of Virginia. A Quaker Resolution
Against Slavery, 1652 and A New Netherlands Petition for Freedom,
1661, signals two of the first known challenges of the enslavement of African
people.
The pattern of race-inspired legislation that began in seventeenth-century
Virginia reflects the declining legal and social status of all blacks, slave and free.
That pattern is seen in the vignette Eighteenth-Century Black Slave Codes,
which describes the evolving pattern of discrimination against blacks, slave and
free. The vignette African vs. Indian Slavery provides an explanation of the
varied ‘‘advantages’’ of enslavement of black rather than red people. The vignette
Darien, Georgia Protest Against Slavery, 1739 reflects the growth of anti-
slavery sentiment in the southernmost English colony, while the last two vign-
ettes, The Stono Rebellion, 1739 and The New York City Slave Plot,
1741: Statement of a Condemned Man, reflect both growing black dissatis-
faction over their enslavement and growing white fear about their ability to
challenge it violently.

13
14 CHAPTER 2 THE EVOLUTION OF BLACK SOCIETY

Isabel de Olvera Arrives in New Mexico

The sixteenth and seventeenth-century historical records of the U.S. Southwest

are replete with examples of persons of African ancestry who accompanied
Spanish explorers and colonizers. The Juan de Oñate party that established a
colony along the upper Rio Grande near Santa Fe, in 1598, included at least
five blacks and mulattoes, two of whom were soldiers. Most of those explorers
and settlers were men. However in 1600, one black woman, Isabel de Olvera
of Queretaro, the daughter of a black father and Indian mother, accompanied
the Juan Guerra de Resa relief expedition to Santa Fe to strengthen the
Spanish claim on the region. Her arrival predates by nineteen years the first
known landing at Jamestown, Virginia, of twenty persons of African ancestry
in British North America. de Olvera, who was a servant for one of the
Spanish women, was apparently concerned about her safety and status in the
frontier region and gave the following deposition to the alcalde mayor (chief
judge) of Queretaro. To buttress her claim, de Olvera presented three witnesses:
Mateo Laines, a free black man living in Queretaro; Anna Verdugo,
a mestiza who lived near the city; and Santa Maria, a black slave of the
alcalde mayor.

I n the town of Queretaro in New Spain, January 8, 1600, there appeared before
Don Pedro Lorenzo de Castilla, his majesty’s alcalde mayor in this town, a
mulatto woman named Isabel, who presented herself before his grace in the
appropriate legal manner and declared:
As I am going on the expedition to New Mexico and have reason to fear
that I may be annoyed by some individual since I am a mulatto, and as it
is proper to protect my rights in such an eventuality by an affidavit
showing that I am a free women, unmarried, and the legitimate daughter
of Hernando, a negro and an Indian named Magdalena, I therefore
request your grace to accept this affidavit, which shows that I am free
and not bound by marriage or slavery. I request that a properly certified
and signed copy be given to me in order to protect my rights, and that it
carry full legal authority. I demand justice.
The alcalde mayor instructed her to present the affidavits which she thought
could be used and ordered that they be examined in accordance with this petition
and that she be given the original. He so ordered and signed. DON PEDRO
LORENZO DE CASTILLA. Before me, BALTASAR MARTINEZ, royal
notary.

SOURCE: George P. Hammond and Agapito Rey, eds, Don Juan de Oñate: Colonizer of
New Mexico, 1595-1628 (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1953),
560–562. Reprinted with permission by University of New Mexico Press.
 A NEW NETHERLANDS PETITION FOR FREEDOM, 1661 15

A Quaker Resolution Against

Slavery, 1652

The Quakers were one of the first religious groups to challenge slavery. In a
petition before a Pennsylvania court in 1652, they requested a limit be placed on
the bondage of local black slaves. The petition is reprinted here.

A t a General Court held in Warwick the 18th of May, 1652 Whereas there is a
common course practiced among Englishmen, to buy negroes to that end
that they may have for service or as slaves forever; for the preventing of such
practices among us, let it be ordered, that no black mankind or white being shall
be forced, by covenant, bond, or other wise, to serve any man or his assignees
longer than ten years, or until they come to be twenty four years of age, if they be
taken in under fourteen, from the time of their coming within the liberties of this
Colony at the end or term of ten years, to set them free as the manner is with the
English servants.
And that man that will not let them go free, or shall sell them away else-
where, to that end they may be enslaved to others for a longer time, he or they
shall forfeit to the colony forty pounds.

Text not available due to copyright restrictions

SOURCE: The Friend 46 (Philadelphia: John Richardson, 1831), 363.

Exploring the Variety of Random
Documents with Different Content
Company applied to Parliament for permission to take the water of
the Little Don River at Langsett, but the opposition of Sheffield and
Messrs. Samuel Eox & Co., of Stocksbridge Works, was too strong for
them. The Penistone and Thurlstone Local Boards of that time took
prompt measures to secure a supply for their respective districts,
and got most liberal and satisfactory clauses inserted in the Bills of
both Companies at very little cost. THE "OLD BLUE CLUB." On the
3rd of August, i88y, another old institution of the District, viz., the "
Penistone & Midhope Operative Conservative Benefit Association,"
commonly called the "Old Blue Club," celebrated its jubilee by a
great gathering at Midhope. It was established on the 12th of
January, 1839, on those principles on which (as the Declaration to
be made by members states) depend " the continuance of social
order, the security of property, the maintenance of religion, and the
real liberties of the people." In connection with the Association is a
Sick Club with ample funds and a large number of members.
 70 HISTORY OF PENISTONE, The Conservatives of the
district must see that it does not fall from the objects of its
foundation and sink into a sick club only, as at present seems likely
to be the case. If leading Conservatives would only become honorary
members and get the Association to join with other Conservative
Associations in having great teas and meetings, say at Penistone on
Primrose Day and at Stocksbridge in the autumn, it would help the
cause. In 1379, we read, there was no inn within ten miles of
Barnsley, though there were several in the town. A Register of Births
and Baptisms in connection with the old Wesleyan Chapel at
Thurlstone, including the years 1796 to 1836, and also the Register
of Thurlstone Baptist Chapel from 1820 to 1S37, may be seen at
Somerset House. ROMAN TROOPS AT PENISTONE. William the
Conqueror, after putting various districts of Yorkshire to the edge of
the sword and scattering ruin broadcast, found it necessary to lead
his troops in the depth of winter over the Pennine Range into
Cheshire. An ancient Roman vicinal road is said to have entered the
district near Hemsworth and passed by ])arnsley, Silkstone,
Hoylandswaine, and Penistone, so that this would be the most
accessible route. The journey over this wild country was taken in the
midst of snow and sleet, and William's followers were almost in a
state of mutiny. It will be remembered that there was a Roman
encampment at Oxspring, near Penistone. " The Roman, too, once
made tliese wilds his home, Bringing his legions from the distant
South, From the world's capital, imperial Rome, Thirsting for
conquest with unquenched drouth. The hardy Briton struggled with
his foe. Dared him to battle on the neighboring height ; The dusky
streamlets reddened with the flow, From heroes dying for their
country's right." OPENING OF RAILWAYS. I can just recollect the
opening of the Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire Railway on
July 15th, 1S45, and riding to Dunford Bridge in a carriage
somewhat similar to an uncovered cattle truck. The first sod of the
Huddersfield Line was cut by Lord Wharncliffe at this end of
Wellhouse Cutting on the 29th of August following, and below is a
copy of the bill for the lunch of the Directors and their friends at the
Rose & Crown Inn, Penistone, on that £ s. d. 80 gents' lunch at 5/20
0 0 44 bottles of champagne at 10/22 0 0 41 bottles of port at 5/6
... II 5 6 39 bottles of sherry at 5/6 10 H 6 3 bottles of soda water at
6d 0 I 6 13 bottles of soda water for band at 6d. 0 6 6 6 quarts of
ale and porter at 6d. 0 3 0 39 quarts ale and porter for ringers at 6d.
Meat, &c., Mr. Miller's men 0 19 6 7 0 0 Broken Glass 0 4 0
Doorkeeper 0 3 0 By Cheque to settle ^70. £7^ 17 6 The line was
opened July ist, 1850.
 THE PINFOLD. 71 PROPOSED CANAL AT PENIS'lONE, In
1S25 the question of constructing a canal between ShelBeld and
Manchester via Penistone, Woodhead, and the Longdendale Valley
was engaging the attention of those places. Mr. Thomas Telford, the
eminent engineer, had reported this the best route. PAROCHIAL
CONSTABLES. Hunter tells us that among the families who became
seated in England at the time of the Conquest none obtained more
extensive possessions or attained to higher dignities than the Lacis.
The first settler was an Ilbert de Laci. The account of his lands in
Yorkshire fill seven pages of Domesday Book, and he had other
lands in other counties. His Yorkshire lands form what in later times
has been called the honour of Pontefract. Penistone is included in
the wapentake of Staincross, which ^\ as parcel o!" the honour of
Pontefract, parcel of Her Majesty's duchy of Lancaster, and up to
about 1873 summons were issued yearly " to the Constable of
Penistone and his deputy " requiring them " to give strict warning
and summons to all whom it may concern, that the Court Leet with
the view of frank-pledge, and also the Great Court 11\ron of our
Sovereign Lady Queen Mctoria with the turn " would be held
at'Darton, &c. The following is a copy of one of the constable's
accounts for attending the Court : Penistone, Feb. loth, 1873. The
Penistone Local Board. To Richd. Lawton. £ s. d. 1872. Expenses to
Darton Court ... ... ... 060 Court Fees o 4 10 Pinder's Wage , o 10 o
1873, 1^6^- 12th. Settled Richard Lawton. £1 o 10 The bill of John
Scholey, the constable in 1837, was as follo^^•s : " Oct. 13, Journey
to Darton Court 9/-, Court Fees 4/10, Paid to Pinder 5/-." At the
Town Hall, January nth, 1871, Mr. vStanhope intimated that th(^.
magistrates had decided to issue no precepts for the election of
parochial constables that year. THE PINFOLD. The old Pinfold stood
in part of the garden to the late Mr. Saml. Coward's house; and
when he acquired it he made another Pinfold in exchange near to
the Brewery, Penistone. It is referred to as far back as 1630 in the
description of the following property belonging formerly to the
Grammar School but now to Mr. Joseph Birks' representatives and
Mr. Thomas Hawley and the Bank in High Street. " One Messuage or
Tenement containing three Bays of slated Building and one Croft and
Garden containing by estimation three roods and now in the tenure
of Ralph Roads, abutting upon the Town Green towards the south-
east and the Lands of the said Shaw^ called Great Croft and upon
the Common Pound towards the north-east, and upon the lands of
the said Parsonage called Basing-yard towards the south-west, And
is worth by year Xs. And now demised for the yearly rent of VHJs."
The Parsonage land called Basing-yard abuts on High Street and lies
opposite to the property between Ward Street and Unwin Street. It
now belongs to the Trustees of Shrewsbury Hospital. 1 Would " the
said Shaw " be the Rev. John Shaw who purchased Shepherds Castle
Estate from Nicholas Wordsworth, and was Vicar of Rotherham ?
 72 HISTORY OF PENlSrONE. The Pinfold is now never used,
indeed there is no Pinder. Old George Peace, I believe, was the last,
and when I first recollect it was often occupied. THE ROSE cSc
CROWN IiNN. As elsewhere stated, Mr. William Dagley was in the
early coaching days one of the landlords of the Rose & Crown Inn at
Penistone, and for many years and until the coaches were
superseded by railways, his son William, a dapper and obliging little
man, was head waiter there. He was one of the celebrities of the
place, and known to travellers far and w ide — a pattern of neatness
in his attire consisting of knee breeches, white silk stockings, the
regulation dress coat and black bow, with high polished and spotless
clean slippers with large silver buckles — he made one of those
worthies who were in those days part and parcel of the old coaching
hostelries but who now, like the old coachmen, are only recollected,
by those who remain of the old generation. Another character
belonging to the establishment was Johnson, the boots, who at the
election of 1841, when Wortley and Denison defeated Milton and
Morpeth, mounted Rumbo's stubborn jackass and paraded the main
thoroughfares gorgeously arrayed in the Tory colours at the expense
of Mr. Joseph Parkin Hague, the then master of Penistone Harriers,
and throughout his triumphant ride distributed pills specially
prepared for the occasion of powder blue and soap as an antidote,
he said, to the Radical germ then appearing in the district. Still
another celebrity of the Old Inn was Nannie Bramall, the cook, who
distinguished herself by attending no less than twice at the
churchgates to be married to the universal lover of the village,
Johnnie Milnes, only to experience bitter disappointment. Johnnie
was, however, entrapped at last ; in his Goth year he married Martha
Hampshire after a tedious courtship, as recorded by the Rev. Samuel
Sunderland, of 36 years. Many other interesting matters and tales in
connection with the old hostelry " Where village statesmen talked
with looks profound, And news much older than their ale went
round," which I personally know or have heard I have not space to
record. The Pancake Bell is still rung from the Parish Church at
Penistone on Shrove Tuesday, and well within my recollection the
Curfew Bell was rung regularly. '* And every man and maid do take
their turn And toss their pancakes up for feare they burne, And all
the kitchen doth with laughter sound To see the pancakes fall upon
the ground." WOODHEAD TUNNEL. The making of Woodhead Tunnel
under the Pennine Range some five railes to the west of Penistone
was a gigantic undertaking. It occupied some six years in making,
and an average of 800 men were employed on the works, which we
are told were carried on unremittingly day and night. Sunday,
instead of being a day of rest for the workmen, generally turned out
the busiest in the week ; indeed, being quite in the moors and with
few houses for miles around, there was nothing for the navvies to
take much interest in. Here is a description of their condition as
given by Mr. Joseph Devey in his Life of Joseph^ Locke. " The men
were paid every two months to preclude their indulgence in
hebdomadal excesses. The difficulties of getting provisions to the
place proved ■
 THE ''BLACK DEATHS 73 almost as great as victualling
Balaklava. There was no town of any description for ten miles off,
and provisions having to be dragged up a steep acclivity could not
be sold for any price which the navvies could afford to pay. The
contractors had to open shops of their own and pay their men partly
in food. There were also no lodgings to be had in the farm-houses
near, and the men were obliged to bivouac in huts run up with loose
stones and mud and thatched with ling from the moors, and sleep
upon truckle beds in groups of twenty together. They were visited by
dissenting ministers, who preached to them in rainy weather under
tarpauling canvas, and who appeared more zealous in proportion as
their eyes were opened to the utter hopelessness of their mission.
The men organised sick clubs and had a surgeon to attend them,
whose services were far more in request than those of his clerical
colleagues ; for in addition to private diseases, the number of
casualities were something so alarming as to lead to a parliamentary
inquiry. Twenty-eight men were killed. There were two hundred
severe accidents absolutely maiming their victims for life, and four
hundred and fifty accidents of a minor character." The first train that
went through the tunnel left Sheffield at 10.5 a.m. on Dec. 22nd,
1845, and arrived at Manchester at 12.15 p.m. It was loj- minutes in
passing through the tunnel. During the time when the second (or up
line) Woodhead Tunnel was being made in 1849, the cholera
suddenly made its appearance among the workmen living in the huts
at the Woodhead end. Twenty-eight deaths took place in a short
time, the disease generally carrying off its victims in a few hours.
The arrival of a number of coffins created a panic among the men,
and most of them left the place. A navvy's widow known by the
name of " Peg-Leg," having unfortunately had her natural limb
replaced by a wooden one, volunteered her services as nurse. One
morning she was seen leaving the roadside inn, and it was soon
reported that Peg-Leg had taken the cholera. The report proved too
true ; the unfortunate woman died the same day. THE LUDDITES. ■
The Luddites were workmen who banded themselves together for
the destruction of machinery in Derby, Leicester, Lancashire, and
Yorkshire. The first outbreak took place at Nottingham in November,
181 1, and the foolish and criminal outrages were continued until
1818. In that year, and in 1813, several men were tried and
executed. Perhaps the best account of the Luddites is that embodied
in Mrs. Linnaeus Banks' novel entitled Bond Slaves, the minute
historical accuracy of which, the result of assiduous research and
personal knowledge, is indisputable. THE "BLACK DEATH." In the
year 1346 the country was drenched by the most terrible rains ever
known. The whole valley of the Trent was submerged, crops were
destroyed, and men and cattle drowned. Coupled with the war with
France shortly before, and severe famine, the destroying angel had
full swing for his unsheathed sword, and in the " Great Black Death "
it is computed that three out of every five Englishmen perished. Of
labourers few were left. On the occasion of this plague was the first
great National Humiliation known in England. The last recorded case
of the Black Death at this visitation was in September, A.D. 1349.
 74 HISTORY OF PENISTONE, GUNTHWAITE OLD OAK. "
The monarch oak, the patriarch of trees, Shoots rising up, and
spreads by slow degrees, 'J hreo centuries he grows, and three he
stays Supreme in state, and in three more decays."" 'Ihe venerable
old oak near Guntliwaite Hall, which Hunter refers to and says, " it is
no unwarrantable conjecture to suppose, may have been planted by
one of the early Gunnoldthwaites," is still flourishing, and one might
ask with respect to it what Mr. P^ord, of Silkstone, did of the old
yew tree which stood at Woolley Manor House, and was snapped in
two by the storm in the autumn of 1863. It was supposed this yew
tree would be in its prime about the time of William the Conqueror,
1066. Mr. Ford, referring to the event, says : " When didst tiiou In^l
lochold the blush of morn ? ^^'h^^(' wast thou once a tender
sapling hom ? A seed by the wind wafted far o'er the land ? (Jr wast
thou planted 1)y a human hand In mcm'ry of some long-forgot e\
ent ? How many ages, say, hast thou here s])ent ? Speak ! if thy
knotted trunk has got a t(.)ngue, And tell us how things looked
when thou wast young." And he might have added, tell us about
William and his army when they passed through the district, and of
their doings. THh: PROTESTAN'J' SUCCESSION. It is not generally
known that the succession to the throne of England of the
Hanoverian line was carried by a casting vote of the House of
Commons. Towards the end of Queen Anne's reign the question of
her successor was urgently debated, the Queen being childless. The
nearest heirs to the throne were James, commonly called the
Pretender, the son of James the Second ; and the Duke of
Brunswick, whose other title was Elector of Hanover, who was a
great-grandson of James the First in the female line. The Pretender
by birthright was much nearer to the throne than the German Duke ;
but in almost the last act of his life King William the Third had cut off
the last branch of the House of Stuart from the inheritance, his
intention being to secure the Protestant succession to the throne.
The act of King William was not accepted by the Tory Government of
the day, who were, curiously enough, supported by Queen Anne,
and a motion was made that the Pretender, called by his supporters
Prince James and the Prince of Wales, should be invited to assume
the crown on the death of his sister Queen Anne. When the House
was about to divide it was seen that there would be 117 votes in
favour of the Pretender and only 116 against. There was then
hurrying to and fro about the lobbies and side rooms to beat up
Protestant Successionists, which resulted in the discovery of two
Welsh members conversing leisurely about their private affairs. One
of them. Sir Arthur Owen, relates : " When I heard that the
Protestant Succession Bill was in danger, I rushed into the House
and gave my vote making the numbers equal, for the Tories could
poll no more, and was immediately followed by Mr. Griffith Rice, who
had the honour of giving the casting vote in favour, the final
numbers being : For the Protestant succession 118 For the Pretender
117 Majority ;
 QUEEN VICTORIA. 75 The Elector of Hanover subsequently
became George the First, and in his first proclamation to the people
on the dissolution of Parliament he urged them to "choose only such
persons as had shown the greatest firmness to the Protestant
succession when it was in danger." Who can imagine what might
have been the history of these islands if the exiled son of James the
Second had succeeded to the throne, and the ignoble race of the
Stuarts restored ? The mind fails to conjecture the consequences to
the nation and the Empire if the votes of those two Welsh members
who were almost shut out from the division had been omitted.
QUEEN VICTORIA. The sixtieth anniversary of the Queen's accession
to the throne was duly celebrated in the Parish, and on the 22nd of
June, 1897, there was a procession at Penistone and Thurlstone, and
afterwards a free tea to the inhabitants and a presentation of jubilee
mugs to the children under thirteen years of age. Her Majesty loved
her subjects and was beloved by them, even the most lowly. SHE
XODDIT TO ME. I'm but an auld body Livin' up in Deeside, In a twa-
roomed bit hoosie W'l a toofa beside ; Wi' my coo an' my grumphy
I'm as happy "s a bee, But I'm far prooder noo Since she noddit to
me ! I'm nae sae far past wit, I'm gey trig an' hale, Can plant twa-
three tawties, An' look aifter my kale ; An' when oor Queen passes I
rin out to see, Gin by luck she micht notice An' nod oot to me ! But
I've aye been unlucky, An' the blinds were aye doon. Till last week
the time O' her veesit cam' roon ; I waved my bit apron As brisk 's I
could dee, An' the Queen lauched fu' kindly An' noddit to me ! My
son sleeps in Egypt, It 's nae ease to freit, An' yet when I think o't
I'm sair like to greet ; She may feel for my sorrow, She's a mither, ye
see ; An' maybe she kent o't When she noddit to me ! The Queen in
1897 sent the following kind message to her people : Windsor
Castle, July i6th, 1897. I have frequently expressed my personal
feelings to my people, and though on this memorable occasion there
have been many ofBcial expressions of my deep sense of the
unbounded loyalty evinced, I cannot rest satisfied without personally
giving utterance to these sentiments.
 76 HISTORY OF PENISTONE. It is difficult for me on this
occasion to say how truly touched and grateful 1 am for the
spontaneous and universal outburst of loyal attachment and real
affection which 1 have experienced on the completion of the 6oth
year of my reign. During my progress through London on the 22nd
of June this great enthusiasm was shown in the most striking
manner and can never be effaced from my heart. It is, indeed,
deeply gratifying, after so many years of labour and anxiety for the
good of my beloved country, to find that my exertions have been
appreciated throughout my vast Empire. In weal and woe I have
ever had the true sympathy of all my people, which has been
warmly reciprocated by myself. It has given me unbounded pleasure
to see so many of my subjects from all parts of the world assembled
here, and to find them joining in the acclamations of loyal devotion
to myself, and I would wish to thank them all from the depth of my
grateful heart. I shall ever pray God to bless them, and to enable me
still to discharge my duties for their welfare as long as life lasts.
Victoria, R.I. " Our father's land ! Our iiiolher's lioine ! By freedom
glorified, Her conquering sons the w ide world roam And plant her
Hag in pride ; For England's fame, for thy loved name, IIa\ e bled,
lia\c won, have died. ^^ictoria ! Victoria ! Long live our Nation's
Queen. X'^ictoria ! Victoria ! God bless old England's Oueen." Alfred
Raleigh Goldsinitli. Daniel O'Connell, the Irish patriot and leader, in
the course of a speech delivered at Bandon on the eve of Her
Majesty's wedding day, said : " We must be — we are — loyal to our
young and lovely Oueen. . . . We must be — we are — attached to
the Throne, and to the lovely being by whom it is filled. She is going
to be married. I wish she may have as many children as my
grandmother had — twenty-two. I am a father and a grandfather,
and in the face of Heaven I pray with as much honesty and fervour
for Queen Victoria as I do for any of my own progeny. . . . Oh, if I be
not greatly mistaken I'd get in one day 500,000 brave Irishmen to
defend the life, the honour, and the person of the beloved young
lady by whom England's Throne is now filled. Let every man in the
vast and multitudinous assembly stretched out before me who is
loyal to the Oueen, and would defend her to the last, lift up the right
hand." And we are told that every man did. There is no doubt the
South African War was a great strain upon her powers, and told
upon Her Majesty's nervous system. She, however, until Tuesday the
15th of January, 1901, went about and was much as usual. On that
day she took her last drive at Osborne House in the Isle of Wight,
where she was staying, and on the ensuing Saturday the following
bulletin was issued : Osborne, Noon, January 19th. The Oueen is
suffering from great prostation, accompanied by symptoms that
cause anxiety. (Signed) R. Douglas Powell, M.D. James Reid, ^LD.
After this Her Majesty rapidly grew weaker, and died on January
22nd, 1901, at half-past six in the evening, to the great regret and
sorrow of her' subjects and many nations of the world. - -- j .
 LOCAL NEWSPAPERS. 77 Was there ever such a midnight in
the history of the world as that which closed January 22nd, 1901,
when the sad news was- as by myriad lightning flashes made to
encompass the whole earth ? Her beloved Consort, Prince Albert,
died December 14th, 1861. "Allured to brighter worlds, and led the
way " says the inscription on their statue in Windsor Castle. The
earliest record of a royal burial in this country, it is said, is contained
in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Chronicle. It tells that " Belyn, some time
king of this land, builded a haven with a gate over the same within
the city of Troynevant or London, wdiich place is now called
Belingsgate in the toppe whereof was sett a vessell of brasse in the
which were putt the ashes of his bodye." GREAT INDUSTRIAL
EXHIBITION, 1S51. Soon after steam began to be made use of as a
propelling power and railways had superseded coaches, the Great
Exhibition of 1851 was decided upon. My father received the
following letter in reference thereto : Great Exhibition of the Works
of Industry OF ALL Nations, 1851. President: HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS
PRINCE ALBERT, K.G. &c., &c., &c. Queen's Hotel, Manchester, Office
for the Executive Committee. i. Old Palace Yard, Westminster, 1850.
Sir, Being commissioned to organize this district for the Great
Industrial Exhibition, I am of course anxious to obtain all the local
information which may be useful to that end. I am instructed to
apply to you for the names of a few of the most influential
gentlemen in your locahty who are likely to co-operate with His
Royal Highness in the matter — especially the name of the Chief
Official in the district, to whom a formal communication should be
addressed. Her Majesty's Commissioners will also feel obliged by
your giving the movement the benefit of your own influence and
support. Your most obedient servant, Hepworth Dixon. The names of
the following persons appear to have been sent up : The Rev.
Samuel Sunderland, vicar. The Rev. Jas. McAllister, curate. Mr.
George Miller. Mr. Thos. Worsley. Mr. Wm. Bingley. Messrs. John and
Henry Rolling. Mr. John C. Milner. Messrs. Henry and Wm. Bray. Mr.
Thos. Tomasson. Mr. Herbert C. Dickenson. The Exhibition was
opened May ist, 1851, by Her Majesty the Queen. LOCAL
NEWSPAPERS. In May, 1858, a little paper of eight pages styled The
Penistone Journal, Commercial Advertiser, and Monthly Miscellany,
was issued. It was " printed for and published by Thomas Dale, of
Pitt Street, Barnsley, in the West Riding of the County of York, by
George Moxon at his office No. 22, Market Hill,
 78 HISTORY OF PENISTONE. Barnsley, in the County of
York aforesaid." I believe it never got beyond the first issue, of
which I have a copy. In 1 89 1 I had some thoughts of starting a
paper and got the following circular printed. However, I did not issue
many of them, various causes preventing me proceeding further.
IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT. A Newspaper for Penistone and
District. Within a radius of about five miles of the ancient Market
Town of Penistone there is a population of upwards of 30,000.
Thurlstone, Denby Dale, Silkstone, and Stocksbridge are all large
and populous and important places within such radius. PENISTONE,
which was a noted Town in the old Coaching days and is now well
known throughout the Kingdom, lies in the centre of the other four,
and has splendid Railway communication with London, Manchester,
Liverpool, Sheffield, Barnsley, Doncaster, Hull, Huddersfield,
Bradford, Leeds, aud many other large Towns. The benefits that may
also accrue to Penistone by reason of the Manchester Ship Canal
making it so much more accessible to and from the Sea must not be
lost sight of. It contains a grand old Parish Church and a fine
Wesleyan Chapel. Is governed by a Local Board. Is lighted with gas,
and has a capital water supply. Has two postal deliveries and three
despatches daily^ Gives its name to a large Common Law Parish,
comprising the Townships of Penistone, Thurlstone, Oxspring,
Hunshelfj Langsett, Denby, Gunthwaite, and Ingbirchworth. Gives its
name to a much larger Poor Law Union, comprising, in addition to
the above Townships, the Townships of Clayton West, High Hoyland,
Kexbro', Cawthorne, Hoylandswaine, Silkstone, and Thurgoland ;
with its Workhouse at Penistone. Gives its name to the Burial Board
for the Ecclesiastical Parish of Penistone, comprising the Townships
of Penistone, Thurlstone, Oxspring, Hunshelf, and Langsett, with its
Cemetery at Penistone. Has a flourishing Grammar School, founded
A.D. 1392, as well as other Schools. Is the Election Town for the
Parliamentary Division. Has Conservative and Liberal Clubs. Has a
Bank. Also Building and Land Societies. It has a noted Market,
especially for Milch Cows, which are sent from the District to all parts
of the Kingdom. The Cattle and General Markets are held every
Thursday, and are frequented by Cattle Dealers, Dairymen, Farmers
and others from long distances and a wide area. There are also
Saturday Afternoon and Evening Markets. Has an Agricultural
Society, first established in 1804. Also a Ploughing Association. Has
the oldest Pack of Harriers, or Old English Hounds, in the Kingdom.
Their first known Master, Sir Elias de Midhope, A.D. 12G0. Messrs.
Chas. Cammell & Co., Limited, have large Steel and Iron Works here,
employing about 1,000 hands. There are also the large Box and
Case Works of Messrs. Jabez Nail & Co., Limited, and Steam Saw
Mills and Builders' and Contractors' Works. Being so noted for its
Milch Cows, and with such excellent railway communication with so
many large towns, Penistone offers a splendid site
 LOCAL NEWSPAPERS. 79 for a Dairy or Butter Factory. In
the locality are also most eligible sites for Manufactories or Works
both near the Railway and otherwise. At Livery Stables and Hotels
Cabs and other Conveyances are kept, so, taking altogether, it will
be observed that Penistone, besides its railway facilities, has present
and prospective advantages and conveniences not possessed by
many much larger Towns. THURLSTONE contains fme
Congregational and Wesleyan Churches, and several Chapels and
Schools. Is a Local Board District. Also a School Board District. Is
lighted with Gas. Here are the Woollen Mills of Messrs. Thomas
Tomasson & Son, long noted as the manufacturers of the well known
" Livery Drabs," which may probably be the Cloths called the "
Penistones or Forest Whites," referred to in Acts of Parliament as far
back as the 5th and 6th of Ed. VI., 39 Eliz , and 4 James I. There are
also Gannister, Sanitary Pipe, and Fire Brick Works, Wire and
Umbrella Frame Works, Collieries, &c., in the District. DENBY DALE.
In or near are the Church, several Chapels, a Friends' Meeting
House, and several Schools. It is in the Local Board Districts of
Denby and Cumberworth. Is lighted with Gas. In the vicinity are the
large Fancy Woollen Mills of Messrs. Norton Brothers & Co., Limited,
and others. Rope and Twine, Woollen and Woollen Yarn, Coating and
Vesting, Worsted, Dye, Brick and Tile, and other Manufactories and
Works. The Rockwood Harriers are also kept here. Mr. Walter Norton
is the Master. At Gunthwaite, near here, is a noted " Spa," and being
situate in a beautiful valley, and amidst splendid scenery, it offers a
most attractive site for a Hydropathic Establishment. SILKSTONE has
a fine old Church, and several Chapels and Schools. Is noted for its
Coal. In the vicinity are Clarke's Old Silkstone, the Silkstone and
Dodworth, the Stanhope Silkstone, the New Sovereign, and other
large Collieries, employing a great number of men. STOCKSBRIDGE
contains a Church and several handsome Chapels and Schools. It is
a Local Board District. Here are the large and important Steel, Wire,
Umbrella, Rail, and Iron Works of Messrs. Samuel Fox & Co., Limited
; and at Deepcar adjacent the large Gannister and Silica Brick Works
of Messrs. J. G. Lowood and Co., Limited, and others. The following
other places within the radius aforesaid of Penistone have also
Churches and Schools, and some of them Chapels as well, viz. : —
Shepley, Cumberworth, Scissett, Clayton West, Cawthorne,
Hoylandswaine, Thurgoland, Wortley, Deepcar, Bolsterstone,
Midhope, Langsett. and Carlecotes. Clayton West, Cumberworth,
Hoylandswaine, and Shepley are Local Board Districts. The Seats or
Residences of the Earl of Wharnclifife, T. F. C. Vernon Went worth.
Esq., Col. Spencer Stanhope, C.B., R. H. R. Wilson, Esq., J.P., Mrs. de
Wend, J. C. Milner, Esq., J.P., John Kaye, Esq., J.P., Walter Norton,
Esq., J.P., Thomas Norton, Esq., J.P., Mrs. Firth, Mrs. Clarke, John
Dyson, Esq., J.P., Col. Neville, J.P., Charles Chapman, Esq., J.P.,
Captain Ormsby, J. P., and other Gentry, are in the District, The
country around Penistone is a delightful and interesting one for
Tourists, comprising hills and dales, woods, moors, and fine scenery,
and is rich in its historical and antiquarian associations.
 8o HISTORY OF PENISTONE. The late Lord Houghton,
speaking at a dinner of the Penlstone Agricultural Society, said, In
looking upon the different portions of this great Yorkshire of ours,
there is perhaps no part more interesting to the young antiquarian
than this District." The nearest Towns to Penistone are Huddersfield
to the North and Sheffield to the South, each 13 miles distant, and
Barnsley to the East 8 miles, and Glossop to the West 16 miles. Now
although it is the only Town in such a wide area, and is situate in the
midst of such a large Agricultural, Manufacturing, and Mining
population, there is no Newspaper published at Penistone, nor
nearer than Barnsley, 8 miles distant, and there only weekly Papers.
With a view to remedy this state of things and supply what the
District has long merited, it is contemplated to publish a weekly
Paper at Penistone, and when it is observed that such places as
Castleford, Driffield, Glossop, Horbury, Hoyland, Malton, Mexbro',
Ossett, Pateley Bridge, Selby, Skipton, Thorne. Wethcrby, and
Wombwell can each uphold a Newspaper, indeed, most of them have
several Papers, it must be admitted, considering the privileges and
advantages the District possesses, that the time has arrived for one
to be established at Penistone, to watch over and advance the
interests of the old Town, and the important Places around, to which
reference has been heretofore made. It is proposed to name the
Paper the Thurlstone, PENISTONE Silkstone, and Denby Dale,
HERALD. Stocksbridge, It will be conducted on non-political lines,
and, although giving Local and Public News, will be mainly devoted
to advance the best interests of the District in every respect. Nothing
with a tendency to do harm instead of good, will knowingly be
admitted into its columns. The above Particulars will show the value
it is likely to be, both as an adv-ertising medium and otherwise,
without anything further being stated. The support of all desirous of
seeing such a paper as beforementioned established in the District is
earnestly solicited. Any further information, required by intending
Advertisers and others, can be obtained on ' JOHN N. DRANSFIELD,
Penistone, Author of the Histories of Penistone Gi'ammar School,
Penistone Market, and Penistone 2nd Nov., 1891. Penistone Harriers
; also of a Guide to Penistone and District. On Friday, February nth,
1898, a newspaper of eight large pages styled the Penistone,
Stocksbrid'ge, Hoyland, Ecclesfield, and Chapeltown Express, and
Wadsley, Oughtibvidge, Deepcar, and Thurlstone Advertiser, sent
forth its first issue, and is still the only local paper. THE
YORKSHIREMAN'S COAT OF ARMS, which has for its superscription "
Tak hod an' sup, lad," and is the sign of " The Black Swan " at York,
is thus explained by Mr. A. W. Pope to the Spectator : ^ ^le^^ a Fly,
a Magpie, an' Bacon Flitch Is t' Yorksherman's coit-of-arms ; An' t'
reason they've choszn these things so rich Is becoss they hev all
speshal charms. A flea will bite whoivver it can, — An' soa, my lads,
will a Yorksherman. A fly will sup with Dick, Tom, or Dan, — An' soa,
by Gow ! will a Yorksherman. A magpie can talk for a terrible span,
— An' soa an' all, can a Yorksherman. A flitch is no gooid whol it's
hung, ye'U agree, — No more is a Yorksherman, don't ye see ? "
ANTIQUITIES OF THE LITTLE DON VALLEY. My friend, Mr. Joseph
Kenworthy, in one of his very interesting articles in the Penistone
Express on " The Antiquities of the Little Don Valley," says Langsett
means the "long hill-side," and Hunshelf means " Hun's portion" or
the portion of the Huns or strangers.
 SABBATH NON-OBSERVANCE. 8i The valley of Deepcar,
where the waters of the Little Don join those of the larger Don, he
states, doubtless presented a very marshy and boggy appearance in
ancient times, a condition indicated by the name Deepcar, which
means a " dee " hollow or deep pool and marshy place, and that
until the early part of last century, when the commons were
enclosed, Hunshelf and Deepcar must have been moorland with very
few " royds " or cultivated clearings. Also that the woollen trade was
not the only industry in the upper part of this valley, as the heaps of
scoria found from time to time on various sites show that the
ironstone has been smelted in bloomeries in some remote period,
and that there was a flourishing trade in common earthenware until
such was superseded by the more refined wares of Staffordshire. At
a place still known as Glasshouse there was a good business done in
table-glass such as candlesticks, flower vases, etc., which were
highly esteemed, selling freely in London and the provinces. Further,
that agricultural implements were very rude, as iron was scarce.
Harrows had teeth of oak carefully dried and hardened at the fire,
and the carts were generally supplied with solid wheels bored out of
the tree-trunk, for iron was too dear for tyres in the i6th, 17th, and
i8th centuries. A bullock cart was to be seen at Watson House in
1830, and it will not be out of place to show that some of our field
names tell us of the way in which our ancestors used to manage
their farming. Each man used to keep one or more oxen for the
village plough until they made the team into eight ; then they
ploughed the land in strips of an acre or half an acre each (Thistle
Acre, Lower Acre, and Upper Acre at Lane Farm, Deepcar) divided by
a bit of unploughed turf called a " balk " ; each strip was a furlong,
which is really a "furrow-long," i.e., the length of the drive of a
plough before it is turned. This was forty rods or poles, and four of
these furrows made up the acre. These pieces of land were called "
shots " (Near Cockshot and Far Cockshot at Bolsterstone) and there
were headlands or common field ways to each shot and " gored
acres," which were corners of a field that could not be cut up into
strips, and odds and ends of unused land which were called " No
Man's Land " or " Jack's Land," Jack House in the Ewden Valley
evidently being built upon a piece of land of this description.
SABBATH NON-OBSERVANCE. I have referred elsewhere to the non-
observance of the Sabbath by the higher classes, but are our
Churches doing their duty ? Did not our Saviour give a command to "
Go out into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in
that My house may be full " ? Do not many Churches, however, in
these days treat this command as a dead letter, and rest satisfied
with nearly empty Places of Worship ? What is the reason ? The Rev.
Richard Bulkeley, vicar of St. John's, Dukinfield, to grapple with this
state of things and carry out the above command, in the seventies
issued a leaflet, from which I give a few extracts. He said : "No one
can walk through our streets and lanes on Sunday without being
made painfully aware that the larger number of adults attend no
place of worship on the Lord's Day. No one in the position which I
hold as vicar of this large parish could be contented that things
should remain in this condition without an effort being made to alter
them, and indeed I may say none who believe that they have souls
to save, who love the Lord Jesus Christ and wish others to love Him
also. " I have therefore, after serious thought and earnest prayer,
determined to make an effort, and that effort shall be to follow our
Lord's command, ' Go out F
 82 HISTORY OF PENISTONE. into the highways and hedges
and compel them to come in that My house may be full.' " He then
stated the arrangements made for open-air services and says, " The
presence of a band of singers will contribute largely to the success
of the Mission." Is not a Church without a Mission Band for open-air
work like an army without cavalry or artillery ? It did not appear as if
Christ intended his disciples to do only garrison duty as He gave
them a wide commission before leaving them (St. Mark xvi. 15.) The
following article from The Central Baptisi is worthy of serious
consideration at the present time. " One of the great evils of the
Church to-day is that the pastor's time is so constantly occupied in
caring for his flock that he has little time or strength to go out after
sinners. Instead of this his time should be devoted to saving men,
and his church — all of it — should be his helpers. " To the pastor
his Church is not merely a field to work in, but a force to work with.
If a pastor circumscribes his labours entirely to the membership of
his own Church, and gives himself exclusively to the work of keeping
them in line, he will be a failure. " A pastor must be a leader of a
band of Christian soldiers who are constantly struggling to rescue
souls from the power of the great enemy the devil." " Whate'er may
die and be forgot, Work done for God it dieth not." The World for
Christ. " The Lord does not say He will go and preach the Gospel to
every creature : He says you are to go and do it." The late Mrs.
General Booth, in the course of her last public address, which, by
the courtesy of the late Dr. Parker, was delivered in the City Temple
on June 21st, 1888, said: "A little thought will make us agreed, I am
sure, that if greater progress in the effort to save the world is to be
accomplished, there must be a more efficient force to make it. God
has arranged to save men by human instrumentality, and if we have
not succeeded in the past we are not to throw the blame on Him, as
too many Christians do. A man who was sitting in his easy chair, with
his feet on an ottoman, said to me only the other day, ' But the Lord
will come presently and put all things right.' I replied, ' I am afraid
you are expecting the Lord to do what He has called us to do.' The
Lord does not say He will go and preach the Gospel to every
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