DBQ5

This question is based on the accompanying documents (1-8). The question is designed to test your ability to work with historical documents. Some of the documents have been edited for the purposes of this question. As you analyze the documents, take into account both the source of each document and any point of view that may be presented in the document.

Historical Context: Massachusetts was the first state in the new nation to abolish slavery. As a result of lawsuits brought by African Americans, in 1783 Massachusetts courts declared that "the idea of slavery is inconsistent with our own conduct and [the Commonwealth's] Constitution."

Task: Using information from the documents and your knowledge of United States history, answer the questions that follow each document in Part A. Your answers to the questions will help you write the essay in Part B, in which you will be asked to:

Describe what life was like for free African-Americans in antebellum Salem.
What generalizations can be made about life in the North for African Americans?

Part A: Short-Answer Questions

Directions: Analyze the documents and answer the short-answer questions that follow each document in the space provided.

Document #1

From 1830 United States Census

Massachusetts
County	Total Free Colored Population	Total Population
Berkshire	991	37,835
Dukes	48	3,517
Essex	522	82,859
Nantucket	279	7,202
Suffolk	1,883	62,163
Massachusetts State Total	7,048	610,408

From 1850 United States Census

Massachusetts
County	Total Free Colored Population	Total Population
Berkshire	1,333	49,591
Dukes	53	4,540
Essex	618	131,300
Nantucket	394	8,452
Suffolk	2,038	144,517
Massachusetts State Total	9,064	994,514

http://fisher.lib.virginia.edu/collections/stats/census/index.html

Compare the 1830 and 1850 census information. What changes do you see?
What do the numbers reveal about life for free African Americans in Massachusetts might have been like?

Document #2
William Bentley, The Diary of William Bentley, D. D., Pastor of the East Church, Salem, Massachusetts: Volume 4: January, 1811-December, 1819 (Gloucester, Mass.: Peter Smith, 1962), 457.
Social life included "going to election" in the last days of May. The tradition had begun during slavery to "alleviate the depressed condition" of slaves by allowing them time to dance, socialize, sing, eat, drink, and parade.

[June 3, 1817] The blowing up of the quarter deck of the Canton Packet in Boston Harbour by the mad resentment of a black man because he was not allowed yesterday to go to election will explain the true spirit of our free blacks & the still bewitching influence of what they call election. A small black girl in our own family whom we reclaimed from extreme ignorance & poverty we were obliged to indulge in going to election as she was too restless at home to be of any use till these days were over. Such as have no excentricities at any other time have them in these. And yet most of them without a penny have no other amusement than in a long walk & absence from home, the most fatiguing dances & the never ceasing sound of the violin, & returned exhausted, dirty, ragged & often hungry & emaciated.

How does Rev. William Bentley view the leisure activities of the free black population in Salem?
How might a free African American view the same event?

Document #3
"A Northern Freeman Enslaved by Northern Hands," Anti-Slavery Almanac (1839).

Describe the contents of the above illustration.
What does the illustration and the illustration's title suggest about life for free African Americans in the North?

Document #4
"Railroad Abuse," The Colored American (19 June 1841).

We see, by the Liberator, that Thomas Jennings, of Boston, has recently been grossly insulted by the conductor, baggage-master, &c., of the Eastern Rail road, when about to take passage from Salem for Boston. After having paid full price for his passage, and received a ticket directing him to a first class car, in which, with others having the same class of tickets, he had taken his seat, he was ordered out, and threatened with violence from the conductor, baggage-master, brakeman, and one ruffian passenger, if he did not leave the car, and which he was compelled to do, from a spirit as diabolical as it must have bee crushing to every feeling of humanity which he possessed.

Why was Thomas Jennings "ordered out" of his first class train seat?

Document #5
Sir Charles Lyell, A Second Visit to the United States of North America (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1849), 103-104.

On our return from Salem to Boston, we found the seats immediately before us in the railway car occupied by two colored men, who were laughing and talking familiarly with two negro women, apparently servant maids. The women left us at the first station, and we then entered into conversation with the men who, perceiving by our accent, that we were foreigners, were curious to know what we thought of their country. Hearing that it was our intention to winter in the south, the elder traveler "hoped we should not be tainted there." My wife, supposing he alluded to the yellow fever, said, "We shall be there in the cool season." He replied, "I was thinking of the moral atmosphere of the southern states." His pronunciation and expression were so entirely those of a well-educated white man, that we were surprised, and, talking freely with him and his companion, learnt that the elder, who was very black, but not quite a full negro, was from Delaware, and had been educated at an "abolition college" in Ohio. The younger, who was still darker, had been a slave in Kentucky, and had run away. They were traveling to collect funds for a school for runaway negroes, near Detroit, and expressed great satisfaction that at Salem they had found "the colored and white children all taught together in the same school, this not being the case in Boston."

What assumptions does Sir Charles Lyell have about African Americans before conversing with the men on the train?
According to the excerpt, what educational opportunities existed for free African Americans in the North?

Document #6
"Passports for Colored Men," The National Era (22 April 1858): 62.

General Cass has a very poor memory, or is reckless when he makes statements of alleged facts to the public. We publish in another column a letter of the honorable Secretary of State to Senator Wilson, refusing a passport for a colored applicant, and stating that the refusal was not based upon the Dred Scott decision, but that it had been the uniform practice of the Department to refuse them to colored men. This seems to be untrue. ...

In 1854, a passport was granted to John Remond, a colored citizen of Salem, Massachusetts, by William L. Marcy, Secretary of State under President Franklin Pierce; Mr. Remond has this passport in his possession.?

Are we then to believe that the new practice is a personal matter with Mr. Cass, in obedience, perhaps, to his prejudice against the colored race, or is it, what he denies, in accordance with and the direct result of the Dred Scott decision? It is very certain that this Administration has established a new rule. Preceding ones - even that of Mr. Pierce - granted passports to colored people, but this refuses, and refuses on principle.

It is bad enough, mean enough, to deny the fair demand of a citizen of a sovereign State, because of his color, but still worse, still meaner, to justify the act by a misstatement of facts.

The above excerpt suggests that the Dred Scott decision changed how African Americans were treated. How did the treatment of African Americans change?

Document #7
Di Vernon, "The Policeman's Mistake," Harper's Weekly (28 July 1860), 470.

"Last Rose of Summer"

'Twas the last hour of daylight --
The twilight had come --
When a weary policeman
Was thinking of home;
But he still lingered kindly
On Broadway's wide pave,
For his aid to the ladies
He cheerfully gave.

'Twas the last hour of daylight --
Night's shadows drew nigh --
When close at his elbow
He heard a soft sigh.
At his side stood a lady,
Young, graceful, and small,
In the tip-top of fashion --
Hoops, flounces, and all.

Only one thing displeased him
(Just like all the men!) --
A thick vail o'er her bonnet
Was fastened just then.
That her fair face was hidden,
Provoking it was!

But he whispered, "Dear madam,
Are you wishing to cross?"

And she bowed, but was silent,
As round her he threw
His brave arm to protect her,
And tenderly drew
The sweet demoiselle closer
And closer, till they
Had successfully threaded
The maze of Broadway.

When her foot touched the curb-stone
She threw back her vail,
And -- oh! oh! consternation!
Policeman grew pale!
Then out spoke the fair lady,
"Dar, now! lem me go!
Golly! massa perleese, you
Stop a-huggin' me so!"

'Twas a capital tableau,
Rich, racy, and rare!
How he stood, blank -- confounded --
His eyes all a-stare,
Thus to find he'd been hugging
A darkey -- oh yes!
How he started and put, then,
I leave you to guess.

What does this song suggest about how African-American women were viewed by white society?

Document #8
Sarah Parker Remond, "A Colored Lady Lecturer," English Woman's Journal, 7 (June, 1861).

After three years of anti-slavery lecturing in the U.S., Sarah Remond traveled to Great Britain in 1859 to help raise money for abolition. The following excerpt is taken from her short autobiography, entitled "A Colored Lady Lecturer," which was published in an English women's magazine.

I was born at Salem, Massachusetts, the youngest but one of ten children of John and Nancy Remond. We were all trained to habits of industry. We were taught to knit and sew, and to cook every article of food placed upon the table. The most trifling affair was obliged to be well done. My mother's aim seemed to be to strengthen her children, not only for the trials and duties of life, but also to enable them to meet the terrible pressure which prejudice against color would force upon them. Her discipline taught us that to be black was no crime, but an accident of birth. Our home discipline was what we needed, but it did not - could not - fit us for the scorn and contempt which met us on every hand when face to face with the world, where we met a community who hated all who were identified with an enslaved race. My strongest desire through life has been to be educated. We had from time to time been taught to read and write a little, but had received no regular instruction. Again and again my mother would endeavor tohave us placed in some private school, but being colored we were refused.

Why did Nancy Remond want to encourage discipline and strength in her children?
According to Sarah Remond, what educational opportunities existed for African Americans in Salem?

Part B: Essay

Directions: Write a well-organized essay that includes an introduction, several paragraphs, and a conclusion. Use evidence from at least five documents in the body of the essay. Support your response with relevant facts, examples, and details. Include additional outside information.

Task: Using information from the documents and your knowledge of United States history, write an essay in which you:

Describe what life was like for free African-Americans in antebellum Salem.
What generalizations can be made about life in the North for African Americans?

Guidelines: In your essay, be sure to:

Address all aspects of the Task by accurately analyzing and interpreting at least five documents.
Incorporate information from the documents in the body of the essay.
Incorporate relevant outside information.
Support the theme with relevant facts, examples, and details.
Use a logical and clear plan of organization.
Introduce the theme by establishing a framework that is beyond a simple restatement of the Task or Historical Context and conclude with a summation of the theme.