The Washington bee., 1901-09-28

Soiumes, (Putnams, '82.) bv the Hon
George w. Williams, the first coIored
member of the Ohio Legislature, ana
late Judge Advocate Of the Grand
army OF the Republic of Ohio, Judge
Williams IS also the author of "A His.
tory OF the Negro Troops in the War
OF the Rebellion. With these works
perhaps ahead of them in literary
quality, IS From the Via ginia Planta-
tlon 10 the National Capital" by the
late Hon. John Mercer Langston, the
hTst negro Representative in Con-
grsss from the Old Dominion, after
ward United States Minister to Haiti.
ana rated by many of his own people
as the greatest negro author not ex
eeptlng Booker 7. Washington or
Frederick Douglass.
Like them Langston was not of
pure African blood, probably few of
the American negro authors, educa
Gators, and Legislators are; nor YES
ms popular influence at all compar =
able with theirs. No doubt the most
effective as we'll as the earliest book in
this class was Douglass Narratives
of My Experience in Slavery" follow
ed In I845 by my Bondage and My
Freedom. No other books of negro
authorship in the abolition period are
shown here, although several negro
writer's were busy then M the period
cal press. Here is shown the first Is
sue of the first paper published in
America for negroes, Freedoms
! Journal, March so, 1927, printed in
New York by Cornish & RusSwurm.
! This copy is loaned TO the Exposition
/ k,-s -
Another ante-bellum print, not long
| lived, was The Anglo African Maga
/ zine, started in New York in January,
| 1859, There are now published in the
| United States 23O papers, mostly
weekly, devoted to the Am :gican ne
gro, most Of them eAited by negroes.
One of the race, Garland Penn. q
school teacher ofLVnChburg, Va, has
published a volume. The Afro-Ameri
lcan Press and It's Editors"
among historical works of sterling
worth are THE Suppression Of the
| African Slave trade to the United
/ States, by w. E. Burghardt Dubois,
/ Fh. d., professor in WilberforCe Uni
versity. Harvard Historical Studies,
and Progress of a Race; or, The Re
markablo Advancement of the Afro
American Negro, by H. +. KletzinK
and n. H. Crogman, A. NJ, of Clark
University. For this work, which in
cludes a chapter on the negro in the
Spanish-AmeTiCan war, an lntrOduCto
~ chapter was written by Booker 7.
| Washington, whose own books need
/. no Characterization here. He is our
foremost living negro author.
As may be supposed the collection
is rich in what may be called literary
Curios. One of chem, Behind the
! Scenes" by Elizabeth KeCley, form
erly a slave, but more recently
modists and friend to Mrs. Abraham
Lincoln, " had considerable vogue IN
It's daY (I668) because of its singular
revelations. Another is "a COlOTed
Mans "reminiscences of President
| Madison" The autbCr, Paul Jennings,
was son Of one of President MadisOn's
slaves, his father being an Englishman.
/ Paul became body SerVaut 10 Madison,
! serving until the Presidents death.
In 1865, at the sale of the effects of
NEGRO man who had been for years a
messenger of the House Of Represen
tatives, there was found an autograph
| of Daniel Webster, which now appears
!
"reminiscences of Jennings. 1t
reads:
Washington, March I9, IS47.
| have paid SI2o for the freedom OF
Paul jennings. He agrees 10 work out
the same at IS month, TO be found
with board, closhes and washing, TO
begin when we return South. His
freedom papers give him. They are
recorded in this District.
DANIEL WEBSTER.
The life of slavery days has been
depicted in many narratives which be
long TO the class of Gcilol founded on
fact. Some of these books are =
curious combination OF feeble inysn
ton and of strong pictures drawn
from tbs writer's own experiences.
There has often been lacking the liter
ary discernment which should have
led the author TO tell what he knew as
simply as possible, and not dilute it
with trash in vain effort to achieve
4 great novel Two of the wortheir
works of this class are "Contending
Forces" by Phuline E. Hopkins, and
ga Charleston Love Story" by I.
@. Stewart.
These are both comparatively recent
publications and illustrates two things:
First, that books Of negro authorship
are sometimes put on the market with
out that fact being indicated, which
suggests the query: Would a book
sell better or worse if the general
public" knew il was by a negro? Sec
ond, negro authorship has greatly in
creased in the last decade; many
books printed by negroes since 1890
bear the imprint of well-knOWn pub
fishers: whereas in earlier years their
books for the most part were WretChed-
ly printed by ill-equipped printers in
towns not knows as publishing cen
tres. Books taken ar random from
these shelves were published al Nenia,
Ohio; Dayton, Ohio, Nashville, Tenn ,
San Francisco, Louisville, Cleveland,
Buffalo, York, Pa; Wheeling. and
Harrisburg. These imprints translat-
ed mean that the authors were too
poor to gCt their work into the hands
Of the leading publishers, too un
known to tempt the 'suTe thing pub
fishers to assume any risk with their
dubious wares.
1 Negroes have written much and
Ill e ,La yDartiCiDat{Oa pf their avn