THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 1, 1996 TAG: 9602030288
SECTION: THE AFRICAN AMERICAN TODAYPAGE: 29 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Special section
SOURCE: BY GEORGE TUCKER
LENGTH: Long : 180 lines
Hampton Roads African-American history dates back to 12 years after the settlement of Jamestown in 1607. In August 1619, a Dutch man-of-war that had Been operating as a privateer in the West Indies dropped anchor in Hampton Roads.
On board were ``20 and odd Negroes'' whom the captain traded for much-needed supplies. Since most of the captives bore Spanish-given names, it is presumed that they were of Caribbean rather than direct African origin.
Two of them, Antony and Isabell, were taken into the family of Capt. William Tucker, a prominent planter at Kecoughtan, now Hampton. Shortly thereafter, the couple had a baby boy who was baptized William Tucker after the man who had befriended his parents. Interestingly, William Tucker, the first African American child to be born and baptized in Virginia, still has descendants in the Hampton area, thereby making them eligible as members of the First Families of Virginia.
Throughout most of the 17th century, African Americans who were brought to the Norfolk area were classed as ``indentured servants'' and many of them eventually received their freedom after a term of servitude. As tobacco increasingly became the money crop of the colony, however, stringent racially prejudiced laws were passed that eventually resulted in almost all of Virginia's African American population being enslaved for life to work in the tobacco fields.
One exception within the present circulation area of The Virginian-Pilot was Anthony Johnson. After surviving the Indian Massacre of 1622 at a lower James River plantation, Johnson obtained his freedom, married and moved to Northampton County on the Eastern Shore. There he not only received a land grant, but also sired two sons and two daughters. Meanwhile, he also achieved the dubious distinction of being the first African-American slave owner in Virginia's long history.
To return to the Norfolk area, although it has not always been acknowledged, African Americans have played an important role in the city's development since its establishment in 1680. The strength and endurance of black men provided the greatest source of manpower to load and unload the ships that brought prosperity to the growing community on the Elizabeth River. Other members of the race faithfully served private families as cooks, butlers, waiters, housemaid, nurses, washerwomen and coachmen.
One Norfolk African American named James Somerset also played the stellar role in a celebrated British lawsuit that not only resulted in his freedom, but also furthered the cause of anti-slavery in the Mother Country.
Somerset was taken to England before the Revolutionary War by his master, Charles Stewart, a Norfolk-based merchant. Shortly thereafter, Somerset became ill and was turned out into the streets to die. When he recovered, his master tried to sell him to a West Indian slaver. Fortunately, Somerset was rescued by anti-slavery sympathizers. When the case came before the courts, the judge, ruling on the point that no man, regardless of color, could be held as a slave in Great Britain, freed Somerset. When the decision was handed down, itcaused a great deal of talk in the American colonies here anti-slavery protests were becoming increasingly common.
Over the years, local African Americans have also distinguished themselves in times of war. For instance, James Thomas, a Norfolk black man, served with distinction as a boatswain during the Revolution in the Virginia Navy and was described as a ``fellow of daring and, though a man of color, was respected by all the officers who served with him.''
Another African-American patriot was William (``Billy'') Flora of Portsmouth. He fought with distinction beside the man who later became U.S. Chief Justice John Marshall at the Battle of Great Bridge on Dec. 9, 1775. Later, when the War of 1812 loomed on the horizon, he got out his old Revolutionary War musket and volunteered a second time against the British. A livery stablekeeper by trade, Flora died an honored ``free man of color'' in his native Portsmouth where he still has many descendants.
Evidence shows that the existences of many Norfolk area African Americans prior to the Civil War was deplorable. This caused many of them to run away to the Dismal Swamp, the northern boundaries of which abut the present City of Chesapeake. The fate of a man called Dred, one of these refugees, was graphically told by Harriet Beecher Stowe in a novel by that name. Her earlier ``Uncle Tom's Cabin'' had already ignited the fires that finally resulted in the outlawing of slavery in this country. Her gripping story of Dred's harrowing experiences added greatly to the abolitionist movement.
Even with ante-bellum conditions as deplorable as they were, there were any number of Norfolk African Americans who distinguished themselves prior to 1861. Notable among these was Joseph Jenkins Roberts (1809-1876), who greatly assisted in the African recolonization of many Virginia free blacks. For this and his subsequent political career in Africa, he is known as the ``Father of Liberia.''
Even though their names are not known, early 19th-century Norfolk and Portsmouth African American stonecutters played an important role between 1827 and 1834 in the building of the nation's still existing first drydock in the Norfolk Navy Shipyard in Portsmouth. Another pre-Civil War notable African American was a Norfolk hearse driver known as ``Yellow Fever Jack.'' When the city was devastated with the worst yellow fever epidemic in its history, ``Jack'' was always ready, willing and able to give the victims a decent burial regardless of color, a faithfulness that gained him the lasting respect of the community.
Meanwhile, Norfolk as a port with extensive trade to the north became between 1825 and 1860 an important shipping-out place for the Underground Railroad, thereby enabling many oppressed African Americans to escape to Canada and freedom. One of these was Shadrach, a Norfolk black man who managed to get to Boston, where he obtained employment as a waiter in a tavern. When the Fugitive Slave Act was passed in 1850, he was one of the first runaways to be nabbed by the authorities and would have been sent back to Norfolk in chains had an anti-slavery mob not rescued him and sent him on to Canada disguised in a bonnet and hoop-skirt.
Another Norfolk African-American woman, Mrs. Mary Louveste, also acted successfully as a spy for the Union during the Civil War. Mrs. Louveste's most daring exploit - and one that she risked her life to accomplish - was to smuggle a stolen set of plans of the former USS Merrimack (the CSS Virginia) to Secretary of the Navy Gideon Wells in Washington. Mrs. Louveste also revealed that the reconditioned ironclad that eventually fought with the Monitor was by then out of the drydock, and this revelation caused the Navy Department to cancel its plans to destroy the same dock that African-American stonecutters had helped to build earlier.
An African American with a keen sense of humor also helped to relieve the tension in Norfolk when it was under the mailed fist of Union Gen. Benjamin F. Butler during the Civil War. Butler used every possible dodge he could think of to milk an already almost penniless population to line his pockets. One of these was the city's first dog tax that spelled death to any family pet whose owner did not come up with the necessary $2.
One day during the Federal occupation, an old African American saw a soldier leading a frisky mongrel down Main Street with a rope around his neck. Addressing the dog, the old man quipped: ``Lawd Gawd dawg, you bettah git two dollahs quick or Gen'l Butler's gwine take de wag out ob yo tail!''
The only monument in the South of African-American soldiers is located in the West Point Cemetery section of Elmwood Cemetery on Princess Anne Road in Norfolk. The column, which represented a major undertaking for post Civil War Africans, is topped with a lifesized black soldier. Both Civil War and Spanish American War African American veterans are buried around him.
Norfolk also has the distinction of having the most-publicized school for Negro children prior to the Civil War. It was established by Mrs. Margaret Douglas, a white woman from South Carolina, who operated classes in the city from 1853 for free black children. Arrested on the charge that slaves were among her pupils, Mrs. Douglas denied her guilt, but was found guilty and sentenced to one month in the city jail, an episode that received national publicity in a book published in 1854.
Norfolk's first African-American newspaper was published by Joseph T. Wilson, a runaway Norfolk slave, who returned from South America to the United States to enlist in the Union Army at the outbreak of the Civil War. Wilson became the editor of the True Southerner in Norfolk in 1866, which he continued to publish until a white mob smashed his presses, after which he continued his newspaper career in Petersburg.
Norfolk was also the birthplace of Col. Joseph Thomas Wilson (1836- 1891), who compiled a very important book from official state and government records that enables many African Americans of today to trace their lineage to those who fought for their country. The work has a wide scope, embracing soldiers who fought from the Revolutionary War through the Civil War.
The United Order of Tents, J.R.G. and J.U., one of the most important African American women's lodges in the country, was also founded in Norfolk by two slave women, Annetta M. Lane of Norfolk and Harriet R. Taylor of Hampton, with the aid of two abolitionists, Joshua R. Giddings and Joliffe Union, whose initials are incorporated in the lodge title. Set up originally as an underground railroad for slaves, the lodge threw off its secrecy after the Civil War and was officially organized in Norfolk in 1867.
Over the years, the Norfolk area has also numbered many talented African Americans who have contributed notably to the fine arts. Space does not permit the listing of all of these gifted people, but a few should be mentioned. Dorothy Maynor, the talented soprano with a clear crystal voice, was born in Norfolk, studied at Hampton University and later went on to a distinguished career in New York City. Sissieretta Jones, another celebrated singer, better know as the ``Black Patti,'' was a native of Portsmouth.
In the realm of the fine arts, two names are outstanding. The first is Harvey Nathaniel Johnson (1892- 1973), who began his career as an architect but later became a well- known Portsmouth minister and philanthropist. His most notable building was the Attucks Theater on Church Street that is now being considered for restoration as a Norfolk-area African-American Cultural center.
Last but not least was A.B. Jackson, Norfolk's leading 20th century African-American artist until his untimely death. Although he was not from Norfolk, Jackson made his home here for years and was particularly famous for his ``Porch People,'' a series of marvelously evocative delineations of a brave race that had long awaited its well- deserved place in the sun.
ILLUSTRATION: Photo
BETH BERGMAN/The Virginian-Pilot
Monument to African-American soldiers, considered only one of its
kind in the South, is in Norfolk.
KEYWORDS: SPECIAL SECTION SUPPLEMENT AFRICAN-AMERICAN
HISTORY BLACK HISTORY by CNB