Published February 14, 2021
By Heather Bangert
On January 1, 1863, an important
meeting was held at the African Methodist Episcopal (A. M. E.) Church among
Quincyans of African ancestry, including many citizens who had personally known
slavery. The Emancipation Proclamation took effect that day, and although the
Civil War was raging, anti-slavery Americans saw new hope for the nation with
this bold strategy.
According to the January 10, 1863
Daily Whig, the Reverend Newsom called everyone to order, and Edward Fulton was
elected president of the meeting. He stated that the purpose of their meeting
was of great importance to people of color in Quincy and throughout the U.S.
They met to “celebrate the birthday of a nation, the downfall of slavery, and to
give honor and thanks to the great friend of the down-trodden and oppressed.”
Then the meeting president E. A. Fulton
addressed the earnest crowd. They gave gratitude to God and agreed that
Providence caused President Lincoln to issue his Proclamation on September 22,
freeing slaves in rebellious states and parts of states found in rebellion. The
group resolved that Lincoln was the “proper man for the times, as President of
the United States and therefore our thanks are tendered to him for his firmness
of character as chief executor of the nation, to do right, and deal out justice
to the oppressed as well as to traitors.” They decided they wanted to defend
liberty to the last moment and adopted the language of Patrick Henry: “Give me
liberty or give me death.”
The meeting participants
acknowledged that their God-given rights were unjustly taken away, while
approving the restoration of those rights “purchased by our forefather’s
sufferings, blood, and death in the Revolution.” They would defend a government
that would defend their rights and protect them as citizens, and rally if it were
“endangered by rebellious traitors at home or enemies abroad.”
Monroe Clark recorded the meeting
as secretary and his brother Simeon Clark was one of four vice presidents. The
Clark family was once slaves in Kentucky, became free, and later lived in New
Philadelphia, Illinois, a town founded by freed slave Free Frank McWorter,
before moving to Quincy. A sister, Louisa, married McWorter’s son Squire, and
the families knew each other intimately. The Clarks and other former slaves
played a vital role in West-Central Illinois’ secret route to Canada for
fugitives seeking freedom.
Seven years after the Emancipation
Proclamation, the nation had changed dramatically. The Confederacy was
defeated, and the 13th and 14th amendments had passed.
However, President Lincoln was assassinated in 1865, and Reconstruction was a bleak
period to many in our war-torn nation.
The ratification of the 15th
Amendment which prohibited the states and the federal government from denying
the right to vote because of color or race in 1870 was greeted with fanfare in
Quincy and brought even more hope to former slaves and their descendants. The
celebration began at the A.M.E. church with speeches from local citizens. The
April 8th Daily Whig relayed events of the day. Cannon fire at 4
a.m. introduced the celebration, and “every boom seemed to say ‘Freedom’ while
the everlasting limestone bluffs echoed the response ‘Freedom’.” A procession
was formed at the church that meandered through Quincy streets and ended at
Pinkham Hall at 4th and Maine.
Portraits of President Lincoln and
President Ulysses Grant were displayed from windows of public and private homes
on the route. Banners with mottoes acknowledging new freedom were part of the
procession, such as: “We Were Always Loyal During the War,” “Our Votes Cannot
Be Bought For Whiskey or Money,” “We Have, At Last What We Fought For, Right Of
Franchise,” “We Remember the Repeal of the Black Laws of Illinois.”
Rev. Richard Duling of the Jersey Street
Baptist Church spoke, and his words are etched in our history: “When the
framers of the Declaration of Independence first set up this government, they
found slavery already in existence, and they were forced to retain this
monstrosity, conceived as it was in sin and brought forth in iniquity. Not
because it was popular did they retain it, but because it was localized and
could not be banished at the same time that a union of the colonies was to be affected.
Such a union was of paramount importance, and the framers of that instrument
hoped that after the colonies were united slavery would soon die out.”
He continued, “But it did not die;
it grew and waxed strong with the nation’s strength, and spread its shackles in
all directions, until it spared not to risk the nation’s life. Not content with
the bondage of the Negro, it made slaves of white men, and the world saw
preachers of the holy Gospel espousing slavery’s cause instead of preaching
peace and good will toward all men. After corrupting the church, it entered the
legislative hall – this monster made and unmade Presidents, made and unmade
parties; in short, slavery diffused itself throughout every branch of
government, and none had the manliness to resist it or show its deceitful
wickedness.”
Rev. Duling said John Brown and his
followers aroused the public heart and Bleeding Kansas awoke many Americans to
the shame and wickedness of slavery, and that it was not until the war that
many people knew the real wickedness of slavery. He said they were here to commemorate the
death and final burial of slavery, and proclaimed President Lincoln as one who
‘unlocked their dungeon”; and opened the benefits of citizenship at the ballot
box. He said they would cherish and teach their children to honor Lincoln’s
sacred memory.
The day commenced with lively
discussions of the war and the passage of the 15th amendment.
Abolitionists of all backgrounds contributed to this celebration of freedom.
Sources
“A.M.E. Church is One of Pioneer Groups in City.”
Quincy
Herald-Whig,
June 21, 1942.
“Colored Voters. Meeting at the Colored Baptist Church.”
Quincy
Whig,
Nov. 1, 1882.
“Council Proceedings.”
Quincy Daily Whig
, Nov. 13,
1854.
“Grand Celebration of the Ratification of the 15th
Amendment. Our Newborn Citizens in Council.”
Quincy Daily Whig
, April 8,
1870.
“Jersey Street Baptist First Negro Church.”
Quincy Herald
Whig,
June 21, 1942.
“Meeting of Colored Citizens.”
Quincy Daily Whig,
Jan.
10, 1863.
Quincy City Directories: 1865-1876.
Shackel, Paul A. “New Philadelphia: An Archeology of Race in
the Heartland.” University of California Press, 2010.
Walker, Juliet E.K. “Free Frank: A Black Pioneer on the
Antebellum Frontier.” University Press of Kentucky, 1982.
