Original poetry by John NEVIN written in Tasmania 1860s-1880s
The U.S. Emancipation Proclamation 1863-1866
John Nevin, parish clerk
"Yes, my brother, many did say you made a foolish step but they do not say so now."Letter from Nevin family, Grey Abbey, Ireland, to John Nevin, Hobart, Tasmania, May 1855.
John Nevin (1808-1887) was born at Grey Abbey, County Down, Ireland to Rebecca (1778-1869) and William Nevin (1770-1824). They lived on the Montgomery estate and were buried in the Greyabbey Church of Ireland graveyard. William Nevin was the parish clerk for 44 years. Had John Nevin stayed in Ireland, he would have inherited the office of parish clerk from his father. Instead, on arrival at Hobart, Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) in July 1852 with his wife Mary Ann (Dickson) Nevin and their four children under 12 years old - Thomas James, Rebecca Jane, Mary Anne and William John - he settled his family on land administered by the Trustees of the Wesleyan Church at Kangaroo Valley (now Lenah Valley) near Hobart. The house he built there for his family was celebrated in his poem "My Cottage in the Wilderness" (1868). The one acre site included a small Wesleyan Chapel and schoolhouse.
John Nevin continued the traditions of parish clerk in Tasmania by administering pastoral care as a teacher of literacy to adult males, and penning verse and epitaphs for the deceased. He wrote at least three laments, and probably more, which he published in the Tasmanian press as "Original Poetry" or as pamphlets.
In these he lamented: -
- the death of his comrade-in-arms in the Royal Scots, James William Chisholm (1863)
- the death of his own daughter Rebecca Jane Nevin (1866), and
- the death of his fellow Wesleyan, lay preacher William Genge (1881).
Along with Inch Abbey, Greyabbey is the best example of Anglo-Norman Cistercian architecture in Ulster and was the daughter house of Holm Cultram (Cumbria). It was founded in 1193 by Affreca, wife of John de Courcy, the Anglo-Norman invader of East Ulster. Poor and decayed in the late Middle Ages, the abbey was dissolved in 1541 but in the early 17th century was granted to Sir Hugh Montgomery and the nave was refurbished for parish worship until the late 18th century. The remains, in the beautiful parkland setting of the nearby grand house of Rosemount, consist of the church with cloister and surrounding buildings to the south.Source: Official tourism website for Northern Ireland
Link: https://discovernorthernireland.com/things-to-do/grey-abbey-p675361
John Nevin and war
This medal commemorating the fall of Sebastopol, 1855 was passed down from John Nevin to Thomas and Elizabeth Rachel Nevin, and is currently held by descent in the © KLW NFC Private Collection.
Photos © KLW NFC 2009 ARR.
Medallion and photos © KLW NFC Imprint & Private Collection 2009 ARR.
The same medallion is held in the following national collections:
Royal Museums Greenwich, London, (UK)
Link: https://www.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/rmgc-object-40318
Description:
Medal commemorating the fall of Sebastopol, 1855
Medal commemorating the fall of Sebastopol, 1855. Obverse: Naval trophy of flags of the victors, behind this are the scales of justice, laurel wreath and rays; in front a plaque of a ship sinking in front of a town. In exergue: a snake cut in two among grasses. Legend: 'FALL OF SEBASTOPOL SEP 18th 1855'. Exergue. 'SINOPE HANGO'. Reverse: Laurel wreath surround, bound with a ribbon bearing the name of the allies - 'ENGLAND' 'SARDINIA' 'FRANCE' 'TURKEY'. Inscription: 'THE ALLIES GIVE PEACE TO EUROPE MARCH 30TH 1856.'
National Army Museum, London (UK)
Link: https://collection.nam.ac.uk/detail.php?acc=1963-07-37-1
Description:
Medal commemorating the Fall of Sebastopol and the Treaty of Paris, 1856
This commemorative medal, made of white metal, bears on the obverse the inscription: 'The Allies give peace to Europe March 30th 1856', within a circular laurel wreath bearing the names of the allied countries, England, Sardinia, Turkey and France. The reverse depicts a view of Sevastopol, superimposed upon a trophy of flags, above which is a pair of scales. Below is depicted a snake cut in two, with the words: 'Sinope' and 'Hango', which allude to naval engagements during the Crimean War (1854-1856).
Sinope was a sea port in northern Turkey and on 30 November 1853 a fleet of Russian battleships annihilated a force of Ottoman Empire frigates there. It is often considered to be the last great battle of the epoch of sailing and the first battle of the Crimean War. At Hango on 5 June 1855, a boat conveying ashore the crews of captured Finnish ships was fired on by the Russians with nearly every man being killed.
NAM Accession Number
NAM. 1963-07-37-1
Acknowledgement
Donated by Major F G B Wetherall.
SERVICE in the WEST INDIES, 1820s-30s
John Nevin witnessed slavery at close quarters in the 1820s during his service with the Royal Scots in the West Indies as the campaign for the abolition of slavery led by William Wilberforce gathered momentum in England. John Nevin began service on 7 October 1825, and embarked at Newry in Ireland in October 1826, disembarking at Barbados and proceeding to St. Lucia. By 1832, he had served on Barbados, Trinidad, and St. Lucia. His service in Canada - see this article - was rewarded with a Good Conduct Badge, conferred on 28th February 1837.
Source:https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C8708867
NOTES from original documents:
Served West Indies from Regiment 1st Foot Private 7 Oct 1825 to 6 Oct 1826 underageService Record for John Nevin for the years 1825-1841 (12 images, served in First, or Royal Regiment of Foot.
ditto 7 Oct 1826 to 31 May 1841 Amount of service 14 years 237 days
Served West Indies from 30 Nov 1827 to 18 Jan 1836
In Canada from 16 June 1838 to discharge at Chatham ex Horse Guards on medical grounds 1841
Source: Find My Past for UK Archives
IRELAND and the CRIMEA, 1855
From the perspective of John Nevin's family in Ireland, they were ever thankful that their only brother with service in battle at the Canadian Rebellion of 1839, had returned home to Ireland and migrated to the Antipodes rather than serve in war again. One of his four sisters still living at Grey Abbey informed him in a letter dated May 1855, of the consequences of war in the Crimea causing soldiers' wives, widows and children of the parish to go hungry and without warm clothing. Her contribution was knitting two comforters:
May God increase your store and do not be extravagant only think what our poor soldiers are suffering at the Crimea before Sebastopol cold hunger and nakedness the people here with Mr Montgomery at there back begging for the widows and orphans not a house Escaping there ... no matter how poor it is ... something was expected and something was given Ladys and Gentlemen Children and Servants all that could knit any get all knitting anything and .... thing they thought useful I knit 2 comforters so some unknown shall wear my work I got in one of your letters 2 beautiful sprigs of some kind of heath thank you kindly for it but how sorry I am that I cannot write a better Letter to you I am very willing but fault is in my head not in my heart now without I get poor mother to say me one word she just begins to weep when I ask her ...
This letter addressed to John NEVIN (1808-1887) is held in a Tasmanian Archives research file in his son's name at the Archives Office of Tasmania.
Name: Nevin, Thomas
Record Type: Tasmanian Archives research file
Record ID: NAME_INDEXES:1807228
https://stors.tas.gov.au/NI/1807228
Across the top of the letter she wrote - "3 years without my Brother" - in pencil, underlined. Two siblings from this family of seven children born to Rebecca and William Nevin migrated to Tasmania: their only brother John Nevin as a pensioner guard on the Fairlie (1852), and their married sister Eliza (Nevin) Hurst, known to the family as "Betty" on board the Flora McDonald (1855), together with their respective children. As Eliza Hurst was a widow before leaving for Tasmania, it appears from this letter that she was living with John Nevin and his family soon after her arrival with her son and servant at the house he built at Kangaroo Valley (now Lenah Valley, Hobart) in 1854 on property administered by the Trustees of the Wesleyan Church.
John Nevin's poem "Hope" 1863
John Nevin published his poem in five stanzas on the injustice of slavery, titled "Hope" in the Weekly Times, Hobart, Tasmania, 12th September 1863, a few months after Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, issued 1st January 1863:
Source: Original Poetry, John Nevin, Kangaroo Valley. HOPE. (1863, September 12). The Weekly Times, p. 3.
Link: https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article233621295
TRANSCRIPT
Original Poetry
HOPE.
Hope, bright ray of heavenly birth,
To toiling mortals given,
To cheer the fainting sons of Earth,
And upwards point to heaven :
It soothes, it checks the rising sigh ;
No creature shares beside,
To man alone the boon is nigh ;
To friends is still denied.
Go ask the fettered galley-slave,
What cheers his manly mind.
To tug and toil through wind and wave,
Yet seems to be resign'd :
He'll tell thee there is still a ray
Of sacred hope, impress'd
(As on he drags from day to day)
Within that aching breast.
Ask him who ploughs the treacherous main,
When wave on wave is hurl'd,
And nought but fearful terrors reign
Upon the watery world;
What nerves his arm amid the gale,
Tho' death his in the blast;
He'll tell thee, he yet hopes to hail
His native home at last.
But what must cheer the Infidel ?
Oh ! where is then his hope ?
Go ask him, but he cannot tell,
What bears his spirits up.
When the pale horse to him appears,
With ghastly rider on ;
To him the awful summons bears,
His earthly race is run.
Then ask the christian where is his ;
He'll point thee to the skies ;
He looks by faith to future bliss,
To which he hopes to rise.
Hope brightens as he nears the tomb,
It whispers soft and sweet;
He looks and longs to be at home,
Where parted friends he'll meet.
J. NEVIN.
Kangaroo Valley.
Source: HOPE. (1863, September 12). The Weekly Times (Hobart Town, Tas. : 1863), p. 3.
Link: https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article233621295
The Text:
This poem is written in five stanzas. Each stanza has two quatrains, the first separated by a colon, or semi-colon or full-stop from the second. The last word of each line within each quatrain alternates the sounds in the rhyming pattern ABAB; CDCD, eg. in the second stanza, A (slave) B (mind) A (wave) B (resign'd); C (ray) D (impress'd) C (day) D (breast).
John Nevin chose lexis with simple one and two syllable words to compose a rhythm - e.g. da DE da DE da DE da DE (trochaic tetrameter) - that stresses the second syllable in every two syllables per foot, with eight syllables per metre in the first line of the quatrain, and six in the second line of the quatrain - e.g. in the last stanza. The few exceptions are three syllables in the words "heavenly", "treacherous" and "Infidel". His choice of words at the end of line that rhyme - ABAB; CDCD in each stanza - for the most part are clean. Some are "imperfect" or assonant and do not quite rhyme - e.g. "tomb" and "home" in the last stanza, but those differences may not necessarily matter in the dialect spoken by the reader.
The Tenor:
John Nevin was an Irish Wesleyan, a teacher and above all, an optimist. The first stanza of his poem reflects contemporary beliefs in a hierarchy of life on earth, where human beings ranked superior to animals in all capacities of feeling and thought. His assertion and assumption is that "hope" is known only by humans - by "man", not by "creatures." The "friends denied" - who are denied this capacity for hope in the last line of the first stanza must therefore refer to animals - perhaps literally, perhaps not.
The second and third stanzas are devoted to the fear, hardship and injustice of the galley slave far from his native home. His faith is "sacred hope", equal to the "christians" of the last stanza, and ranked above the disbelievers who are without hope in the third stanza. John Nevin poses this as a proposition that is both unreal and yet certain, resolved through the potential of "Hope". These modalities of the subjunctive mood - as in "if you were to ask him this you will hear him tell you that x=y" - signal obligation, prediction, probablity, certainty, and potentiality which he deploys repetitively: the imperative - he tells his addressee "Go ask" each of the three participants - the slave, the Infidel, and the christian - and the prediction - "he'll tell thee/point thee" - to the answer, "Hope" made concrete through personification: it "whispers soft and sweet".
The "Infidel" of the fourth stanza - the metonymic entity signalled by the capital "I" though otherwise not defined by whatever failings John Nevin has in mind - will experience death without hope for future revelation, best understood by his readers through the only metaphor in this poem - the pale horse ridden by the figure of death of apocalypse literature.
The final stanza strongly affirms the christian (not capitalised) belief in an after-life as the home where departed friends await, a state of "future bliss". The christian message is all about optimism: finding and keeping faith in a better future improves one's health, it uplifts one's mood.
The Context:
John Nevin was still a teenager when he was attested into the Royal Scots First of Foot Regiment at Newtonards, the city depot close to his birth place at Grey Abbey, County Down, Ireland. His deployment was to the British West Indies from 1826 to 1835 during the campaign for the abolition of slavery led by William Wilberforce in England. With comrade-in-arms, James William Chisholm, Armorer in the Royal Regiment, he served in the West Indies and at the Canadian Rebellion of 1839. The Slavery Abolition Act came into law on 1st August 1834 when slavery was ostensibly abolished throughout British possessions abroad.
Published in August 1863 just a month prior his poem "Hope", these lines from John Nevin's poem titled "WRITTEN on the much-lamented death of the late JAMES WILLIAM CHISHOLM, of Hobart Town, a native of Edinburgh, aged 61 years" (Weekly Times, 29 August, 1863, p.6), refer to Chisholm's return to the West Indies where by then, there was the "emancipated slave," a sharply contradictory oxymoron.
Again he cross’d the Atlantic’s wave,Read more about this poem by John Nevin in this article here.
To sultry Indies’ feverish soil.
Where the emancipated slave
Beneath the lash no longer toil.
Thomas J. Nevin's portraits of his parents Mary Ann (Dickson) Nevin and John Nevin ca. 1872
Copyright ⓒ KLW NFC Imprint & Private Collection 2007
Manstealing: slavery in the Tasmanian press 1863
Lengthy articles on slavery appeared regularly in the Tasmanian press during 1863. This report on the cajoling, capture and killing of men from the South Pacific Islands of Tahiti, Rapa (French Polynesia), Raratonga and Mangaia (Cook Islands) would pose concern for whaling interests working out of Hobart's harbour. Mrs Phyllis Seal, for example, proprietess of the brig Grecian which was a former slaver and six-gun man-of-war that joined a whaling expedition in 1861, had to deal with the mutiny inspired by its captain Thomas John McGrath. A short time out near the Chatham Islands, he proposed to the crew -
... that they should take the vessel and keep her for themselves, and go on a slaving expedition amongst the South Sea Islands, as he said, that would pay them much better than whaling, and they could dispose of the living freight on the Brazilian coast....See Addenda 3 below for the full report:(Mercury 3 December 1863, page 2).
Shipping pioneer Phyllis Seal, (1807-1877) wife of Charles Seal, who managed the operations of their fleet of whaling ships and oil sales on his sudden death in 1852.
Maritime Museum of Tasmania (b & w copy, tinted)
Photographer: Thomas Nevin, of the firm Nevin & Smith, 140 Elizabeth St. Hobart Tasmania, 1866
This photograph of a bemused Phyllis Seal wearing a fabulous taffeta dress threaded in silver was taken by Thomas J. Nevin at his studio, 140 Elizabeth St. Hobart while in partnership with photographer Robert Smith (1866-1868) operating as the firm Nevin & Smith.
Taking islanders into slavery to work on plantations was called "blackbirding" in Australia. The first article (below) published in April 1863 reported atrocities committed on the islanders from Rapa and how they turned the tables on their captors to seize the brig Cora, taking it back to Papeete:
Extract - TAHITI. (1863, April 23). The Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954), p. 3.
Link: https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article8817170
TRANSCRIPT
TRANSCRIPT
Link: https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article8819995
The U.S. Emancipation Proclamation 1863-1866
https://iowaculture.gov/sites/default/files/history-education-pss-reconstruction-slaverydead-transcription.pdf
Title: (?) Slavery is dead (?) / Th Nast.
Creator(s): Nast, Thomas, 1840-1902, artist
Date Created/Published: 1867.
Medium: 1 print : wood engraving ; page 40 x 27 cm.
Summary: Two illustrations showing: enslaved man being sold as punishment for crime, before Emancipation Proclamation; and an African-American man being whipped as punishment for crime in 1866.
Reproduction Number: LC-DIG-ppmsca-71960 (digital file from original) LC-USZ62-108003 (b&w film copy neg.)
Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on publication.
Call Number: Illus. in AP2.H32 Case Y [P&P]
Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print
Notes: Illus. in: Harper's weekly, 1867 Jan. 12, p. 24.
Title: Emancipation Proclamation / del., lith. and print. by L. Lipman, Milwaukee, Wis.
Creator(s): Lipman, L. (Louis),
Date Created/Published: Madison, Wis. : Published & sold by Martin & Judson, c1864 Feb. 26.
Medium: 1 print : lithograph, color ; sheet 88.7 x 53.2 cm.
Summary: Print shows at center the text of the Emancipation Proclamation with vignettes surrounding it; on the left are scenes related to slavery and on the right are scenes showing the benefits attained through freedom; also shows Justice and Columbia at the top center beneath a bald eagle and a portrait of Abraham Lincoln at bottom center above a scene of former slaves giving thanks.
Reproduction Number: LC-DIG-pga-02040 (digital file from original print)
Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on publication.
Call Number: PGA - Lipman (L.)--Emancipation Proclamation (D size) [P&P]
Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print
https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2003671404/
TRANSCRIPT of the Proclamation
Source: The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration
https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured-documents/emancipation-proclamation
https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured-documents/emancipation-proclamation/transcript.html
Description: President Barack Obama views the Emancipation Proclamation with a small group of African American seniors, their grandchildren and some children from the Washington, D.C. area, in the Oval Office, Jan. 18, 2010. This copy of the Emancipation Proclamation, which is on loan from the Smithsonian Museum of American History, was hung on the wall of the Oval Office today and will be exhibited for six months, before being moved to the Lincoln Bedroom where the original Proclamation was signed by Abraham Lincoln on Jan. 1, 1863.
Date 18 January 2010
Source The Official White House Photostream [1]
Author White House (Pete Souza) / Maison Blanche (Pete Souza)
Source:https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:President_Barack_Obama_views_the_Emancipation_Proclamation_in_the_Oval_Office_2010-01-18.jpg
ADDENDA
1. The slave ship Cora
THE SLAVE-TRADE; The Bark Cora, of New-York, Captured on the African Coast. SEVEN HUNDRED AFRICANS ON BOARD, History of the Vessel and Her Movements List of Her Cargo. New York Times, 8 December, 1860
Link: https://www.nytimes.com/1860/12/08/archives/the-slavetrade-the-bark-cora-of-newyork-captured-on-the-african.html
The sloop Constellation capturing the slaver bark Cora in 1860. Artwork by Arthur L. Disney, Sr.
Courtesy of the Navy Art Collection. NHHC Photograph Collection, NH 55353-KN (Color).
National Museum of the US Navy
Link: https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/museums/nmusn/explore/prior-exhibits/2020/anti-slave-trade-patrols.html
2. Penrhyn and the Callao slavers
Penrhyn atoll,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penrhyn_atoll
3. The "Grecian" and Mrs Seal
Link: https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article8822887
RELATED POSTS main weblog
Photographer: Thomas Nevin, of the firm Nevin & Smith, 140 Elizabeth St. Hobart Tasmania, 1866
This photograph of a bemused Phyllis Seal wearing a fabulous taffeta dress threaded in silver was taken by Thomas J. Nevin at his studio, 140 Elizabeth St. Hobart while in partnership with photographer Robert Smith (1866-1868) operating as the firm Nevin & Smith.
Taking islanders into slavery to work on plantations was called "blackbirding" in Australia. The first article (below) published in April 1863 reported atrocities committed on the islanders from Rapa and how they turned the tables on their captors to seize the brig Cora, taking it back to Papeete:
Extract - TAHITI. (1863, April 23). The Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954), p. 3.
Link: https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article8817170
TRANSCRIPT
TAHITIThe above account was published in the Mercury on 23 April 1863. Four months later, this response (below) concerning the Peruvian slavers came from a missionary stationed at Mangaia (Mercury,17 August 1863, page 3).
PIRACY AND MANSTEALING: FRIGHTFUL ATROCITIES
(From the Messager de Tahiti, Feb. 28.)
It would appear upon it that an expedition for manstealing has lately been fitted out from the port of Callao, Peru, ostensibly for the purpose of colonization, virtually for the purposes of slavery. Of this fleet, one brig and one schooner are now in Papeiti Harbour, one captured by the French steamer Latouche Treville, and the other by the natives of Rapa; and a barque which innocently walked into the net by coming in for water. So much of these reports,&c, as are necessary to give some idea of the atrocities that have been enacted are here translated.
The Imperial Commissioner commanding in Society Islands and their dependencies, considers that the greater publicity ought to be given to the intelligence that comes to him from all quarters relative to certain hitherto unheard-of events for which no parallel has been found since the repression and dispersion of the Mediterranean corsaires. It is in consequence of the orders of the commissioner that the following documents are published:
[The documents which follow contain the reports of statements and depositions made by various persons persons of a most extraordinary character for which we cannot find space in our present issue. The nature of the infamous transactions now revealed will be learnt from the subjoined brief official report.]
Report on an enquiry made before the Court of the Procureur Imperial of the Tribunals of the Protectorate of the Society Islands, on the subject of the motives that induced the natives of the Isle of Rapa to seize the Peruvian brig Cora, and conduct her to Papeete.
Papeite, Feb. 21.
" To the Chief of the Judicial Service,
"Sirs - I have concluded the enquiry relative to the Peruvian brig Cora, and I have the honor to report as follows. This enquiry has led to the discovery of the following facts. The Cora sailed from Callao on the 4th December, 1862, with the object of recruiting colonists in Oceanica. Arrived at Easter Island on December 19th. She there met seven other ships of the same nation, all bound upon the same cruise. The captains of these vessels fearing that they would not be able to obtain a sufficient number of natives by persuasion, determined to carry them off by three and on the 23rd December a band of twentyfour of those ruffians, amongst whom were seven or eight men of the Cora, landed armed, under the command of the captain of the Rosa Carmen. The greater part of them concealed themselves in the vicinity, whilst several of those left behind endeavored to attract the natives by showing them articles calculated to excite their cupidity. When the natives had assembled to the number of about 500, the chief of the pirates gave the concerted signal, which was a pistol-shot. To this signal the men replied by a general discharge, and about ten Indians fell, never to rise again. The others, frightened, tried to fly in every direction, some throwing themselves into the sea, others scaling the rocks ; but about 200 were seized, and carefully secured. One witness assured the Court that the Captain of the Cora, Aquire, having discovered two Indians endeavoring to conceal themselves in a crevice of the rocks, and not being able to induce them to come out to him, had the atrocious cruelty to deliberately kill them both. The two hundred Indians carried off were shared between the different vessels, which set sail a few days afterwards. Whilst other atrocities that this inquiry has brought to light were being committed on board the other vessels, the Cora repaired to Rapa, in the hope of committing new acts of plunder and piracy. But the natives of this island took possession in time of the ship and crew, and forwarded them under careful watch to Tahiti. Thus French justice has put her hand upon a band of malefactors of the worst kind, who have violated every right of humanity and nationality, and who cannot fail to meet the just chastisement of their misdeeds.
SAVIGERIE
TRANSCRIPT
PERUVIAN SLAVERS.PERUVIAN SLAVERS. (1863, August 17). The Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954), p. 3.
Some additional news of the Peruvian pirates is furnished by a letter from one of the missionaries at Mangaia, to his brother, Mr. Gill, of Malmesbury, Victoria. The Rev. Mr. Gill thus describes what took place on his return to Mangaia, after a short absence :-
"We were greatly distressed at finding that the King's favorite son and intended successor and four others, had been stolen away into slavery of the worst kind. Three Callao [Peru] slavers have been here this year, but two of them got nobody here. But we know that other islands have been depopulated. From the Penrhyn [Cook Islands] upwards of 250 have been carried off and sold in Peru at £20 per head, and yet, as far as I know, no British man-of-war is cruising after these nefarious wretches. Five native evangelists have been trapped, and have doubtless been sold into slavery. Two of the five teachers are natives of Mangaia, and have been laboring with success on a neighboring island for several years. The other three are natives of Raratonga. My blood boils when I think of these things. Within twenty yards of the room where I write lives a pious woman, the mother of a large family. Alas ! for her husband; for he was one of the five stolen away. ' I trust that the British Government will insist upon the restoration of the captives to their respective homes. As we voyaged in the John Williams [missionary ship wrecked Cook Islands May 1864] we traced out upwards of 500 who have been thus carried away into, hopeless captivity. How many hundreds more have been taken away from other islands, it is of course hard to conjecture. And is all this to be allowed by England? I have written to England on the subject, also to H.B.M.'s Consul at Tahiti."
Link: https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article8819995
The U.S. Emancipation Proclamation 1863-1866
Thomas Nast’s "(?) Slavery is Dead (?)" appeared in the January 12, 1867, edition of Harper’s Weekly. Created five years after the Emancipation Proclamation, a year and two months after the ratification of the 13th Amendment and nine months after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1866, the image depicts the failure of each to fully protect African Americans. Two images, one depicting an African American being sold into slavery as punishment for a crime and a second depicting an African American being whipped as a punishment for a crime, draw attention to the ability of state governments to work around those three legal acts.TRANSCRIPTION:
https://iowaculture.gov/sites/default/files/history-education-pss-reconstruction-slaverydead-transcription.pdf
Title: (?) Slavery is dead (?) / Th Nast.
Creator(s): Nast, Thomas, 1840-1902, artist
Date Created/Published: 1867.
Medium: 1 print : wood engraving ; page 40 x 27 cm.
Summary: Two illustrations showing: enslaved man being sold as punishment for crime, before Emancipation Proclamation; and an African-American man being whipped as punishment for crime in 1866.
Reproduction Number: LC-DIG-ppmsca-71960 (digital file from original) LC-USZ62-108003 (b&w film copy neg.)
Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on publication.
Call Number: Illus. in AP2.H32 Case Y [P&P]
Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print
Notes: Illus. in: Harper's weekly, 1867 Jan. 12, p. 24.
Title: Emancipation Proclamation / del., lith. and print. by L. Lipman, Milwaukee, Wis.
Creator(s): Lipman, L. (Louis),
Date Created/Published: Madison, Wis. : Published & sold by Martin & Judson, c1864 Feb. 26.
Medium: 1 print : lithograph, color ; sheet 88.7 x 53.2 cm.
Summary: Print shows at center the text of the Emancipation Proclamation with vignettes surrounding it; on the left are scenes related to slavery and on the right are scenes showing the benefits attained through freedom; also shows Justice and Columbia at the top center beneath a bald eagle and a portrait of Abraham Lincoln at bottom center above a scene of former slaves giving thanks.
Reproduction Number: LC-DIG-pga-02040 (digital file from original print)
Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on publication.
Call Number: PGA - Lipman (L.)--Emancipation Proclamation (D size) [P&P]
Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print
https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2003671404/
TRANSCRIPT of the Proclamation
Source: The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration
https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured-documents/emancipation-proclamation
https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured-documents/emancipation-proclamation/transcript.html
January 1, 1863
A Transcription
By the President of the United States of America:
A Proclamation.
Whereas, on the twenty-second day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, a proclamation was issued by the President of the United States, containing, among other things, the following, to wit:
"That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.
"That the Executive will, on the first day of January aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the States and parts of States, if any, in which the people thereof, respectively, shall then be in rebellion against the United States; and the fact that any State, or the people thereof, shall on that day be, in good faith, represented in the Congress of the United States by members chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such State shall have participated, shall, in the absence of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such State, and the people thereof, are not then in rebellion against the United States."
Now, therefore I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested as Commander-in-Chief, of the Army and Navy of the United States in time of actual armed rebellion against the authority and government of the United States, and as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion, do, on this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and in accordance with my purpose so to do publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hundred days, from the day first above mentioned, order and designate as the States and parts of States wherein the people thereof respectively, are this day in rebellion against the United States, the following, to wit:
Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, (except the Parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James Ascension, Assumption, Terrebonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the City of New Orleans) Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia, (except the forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Ann, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth[)], and which excepted parts, are for the present, left precisely as if this proclamation were not issued.
And by virtue of the power, and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free; and that the Executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons.
And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defence; and I recommend to them that, in all cases when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages.
And I further declare and make known, that such persons of suitable condition, will be received into the armed service of the United States to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service.
And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution, upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty God.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington, this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty three, and of the Independence of the United States of America the eighty-seventh.
By the President: ABRAHAM LINCOLN
WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.
Description: President Barack Obama views the Emancipation Proclamation with a small group of African American seniors, their grandchildren and some children from the Washington, D.C. area, in the Oval Office, Jan. 18, 2010. This copy of the Emancipation Proclamation, which is on loan from the Smithsonian Museum of American History, was hung on the wall of the Oval Office today and will be exhibited for six months, before being moved to the Lincoln Bedroom where the original Proclamation was signed by Abraham Lincoln on Jan. 1, 1863.
Date 18 January 2010
Source The Official White House Photostream [1]
Author White House (Pete Souza) / Maison Blanche (Pete Souza)
Source:https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:President_Barack_Obama_views_the_Emancipation_Proclamation_in_the_Oval_Office_2010-01-18.jpg
ADDENDA
1. The slave ship Cora
THE SLAVE-TRADE; The Bark Cora, of New-York, Captured on the African Coast. SEVEN HUNDRED AFRICANS ON BOARD, History of the Vessel and Her Movements List of Her Cargo. New York Times, 8 December, 1860
Link: https://www.nytimes.com/1860/12/08/archives/the-slavetrade-the-bark-cora-of-newyork-captured-on-the-african.html
Within the last six weeks 2,221 recaptured Africans have been sent to Monrovia, having been captured on board the following vessels by our present African squadron, viz.: The ship Erie, of New-York, captured by the steamer Mohican, Commander S.W. GODON, on the 8th of August, with 997 slaves on board. The brig Storm King also captured on the 8th of August, by the steamer San Jacinto, Capt. T.A. DORNING, and having on board 619 slaves; and the bark Cora, captured by the flagship Consultation, Capt. JOHN S. NICHOLAS, in the vicinity of Manque Grande, with 705. The last-named was amply fitted out for a long voyage, and in her cabin was found every luxury suitable for a tropical climate, consisting of the choicest wines, preserved meats, fruits. &c., &c. Previous to taking her departure for Monrovia, a boatload of these stores was transferred to the Constellation, for the use of the 'ward-room officers,' which is in direct violation of an article of an act for the better government of the Navy. For an offence somewhat similar, five of the crew of the Constellation were tried by a summary court-martial in December, 1859, and their pay taken from them and otherwise punished.Wilburn Hall's long autobiographical piece, "Capture of the Slave-ship Cora" which appeared in the periodical Century, Vol. 48, 1894, pp 115-129, is a comprehensive account of the chase by the US ship Constellation, engravings included. Available for download at Victorian Voices.
The bark Cora, as already stated, hailed from New-York. She was a fine vessel, of 431 tons register, built in Baltimore in 1851, from which port she was engaged in the South American trade. She was afterwards purchased by E.D. MORGAN & Co., who finally sold her to JOHN LATHAM for $14,000, and on the 4th of May, 1860, a register was issued to him from the New-York Custom house as master and owner. The Cora was immediately taken to Pier No. 52 East River, where important changes were made in her rig, with the evident design of increasing her spead as a sailer. Her hold was stowed with a large number of casks, which were filled with fresh water; and provisions, lumber and other articles in large quantities, such as usually constitute a slaver's cargo, were put on board. These suspicious circumstances were reported to Mr. ROOSAVELT, the United States District-Attorney, and on the 19th of May she was arrested and examined upon a charge of being about to engage in the slave-trade. The proceedings were in the United States District Court, by which appraisers were appointed, who estimated, the value of the vessel at $9,000, and the cargo at $13,128 23 -- total, $22,128 23, and she was accordingly bonded for that amount, ROBERT GRIFFITH and CHARLES NEWMANN becoming joint sureties for the vessel.
On the 27th of May the Cora was recleared at the Custom-house and proceeded on her "trading voyage." The next intelligence we have of the Cora she is overhauled by the United States ship Constellation, on the 25th of September, when eighty miles off the Congo River, having 705 Africans on board, a person giving his name as LORETTO RINTZ, but who is really supposed to be the identical JOHN LATHAM, being in command. The officers who captured the Cora represent her as a very fast sailer, which scarcely any vessel except the Constellation could have outsailed.
The sloop Constellation capturing the slaver bark Cora in 1860. Artwork by Arthur L. Disney, Sr.
Courtesy of the Navy Art Collection. NHHC Photograph Collection, NH 55353-KN (Color).
National Museum of the US Navy
Link: https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/museums/nmusn/explore/prior-exhibits/2020/anti-slave-trade-patrols.html
2. Penrhyn and the Callao slavers
In the early 1860s, Penrhyn was almost completely depopulated by Peruvian blackbirding expeditions. In 1862 the ship Adelante took hundreds of Tongarevans aboard, ostensibly to transport them to a nearby island as agricultural workers.[6] The Tongarevans went willingly: coconut blight had led to famine, while the local missionaries saw work overseas as a way of bring money to the atoll to pay for larger churches. Once on board, they were shackled in the hold and guarded day and night.[7] 253 survived the voyage to reach Callao in Peru, where they were sold for between $100 and $200 each.[8] Further slaving expeditions followed, and in total 472 Tongarevans were sold in Peru.Source: Wikipedia
Penrhyn atoll,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penrhyn_atoll
3. The "Grecian" and Mrs Seal
A SLAVER IN THE SOUTH SEAS. About two years ago, the brig Grecian, of about 210 tons burthen, commanded by Thos John M'Grath, sailed from Hobart Town on a whaling expedition. The vessel had a crew of 21 sailors on board, and everything in capital order for a successful voyage When the brig was out about a week she called at Botany Bay for a "lady friend" of the captain's and then commenced her cruise, which lasted about fifteen months. During this period about six and a-half tons of oil were collected. The vessel then put into Wellington, the oil was sold, and the crew partly changed for a set of Maories, Portugese, and Swedish seamen.Source: A SLAVER IN THE SOUTH SEAS. (1863, December 3). The Mercury (Hobart) p. 2.
She was then fitted out in a very suspicious manner, but no notice was taken of the circumstance by the authorities, as they considered that the captain was well known as an experienced whaler. The vessel being originally a six gun man-of-war brig, very little was required to make her a very dangerous craft, and after a few weeks had elapsed she sailed away from the coast of New Zealand, and made for the Chatham Isles, which she reached in February last. A man named John Turner joined the brig at this place and signed articles for about four months, with the understanding that the captain should land him at New Zealand or in the Australian colonies. The vessel then sailed, and shortly after being out of sight of land, M'Grath called up the crew and proposed that they should take the vessel and keep her for themselves, and go on a slaving expedition amongst the South Sea Islands, as he said, that would pay them much better than whaling, and they could dispose of the living freight on the Brazilian coast. Turner and eight others refused to join in this barbarous enterprise and demanded as their right that they should be landed at some port where a British Consul officiated.
M'Grath then sailed for Nieu or Savage Island lying to the eastward of the Tongan Group. Here he landed Turner and his seven companions. They had only set foot on the desolate shore when a white missionary informed them that the natives would only allow them five minutes to get away from the island, or they would forfeit their lives. The second mate of the brig, named Travis, who had charge of the boat, brought the unfortunate men back to the vessel, and was heartily abused by M'Grath, who told him that he ought to have left the men on the rocks, without paying any attention to what the natives had said. Turner then again, on behalf of himself and his companions asked M'Grath to land then at any port where there was a British consul.
The brig now made for Samoa, or the Navigators' Island and touched at one of the group called Tutuilla, where the natives were killing and eating each other daily. Turner, together with his men, were landed on the north-east side of this savage coast, where they remainedd seventeen days, and had to give the natives all they possessed in money and clothes amounting to about fourteen dollars, for which consideration they were taken to the other side of the Island, where the British consular agent, Mr.Unkin, resided.
This gentleman treated them very kindly, but could do next to nothing for them as he had only at his command an open boat, in which they started for Upola (another of the Navigator group), a distance of seventy miles, which place they succeeded in reaching in two days without food or water, - having nothing to keep them alive but a few cocoa nuts. This was about the middle of last June. On arriving at Upolu, Mr. McFarlane the British consul, took: them under his protection. While they were there, a man named Bryan, who was a seaman on board of the "Grecian," arrived from the Fijis in a ship belonging to an oil merchant named Hanslem, residing at Upolu. This person had formerly been in the 65th Regiment, and had joined the brig at Wellington, New Zealand. Bryan stated that after Turner and his party had left the ship, the brig went to the Friendly Islands and put into Tongataboo. After offering to trade with the natives - one hundred and thirty of whom, including women and children, came on board to dine at McGrath's invitation, the hatches were then battened down, and the Grecian" was got under weigh. But Bryan refused to stop on board any longer and he was allowed to go ashore at Ovalo, one of the Fiji Islands, distant about three hundred miles from Tongataboo.
The brig then sailed for Lima, Peru, in order that M'Grath might dispose of his human cargo. Bryan obtained a passage to Upolu in the vessel before mentioned. Five of Turner's party then left Upolu, on a cruise in an American whaling ship, called the Desdemona, and the remainder waited until they were sent up to Sydney, where they arrived about six weeks ago. From Sydney they made their way to Hobart Town, where they had an interview with Mrs Seal, the proprietress of the Grecian; but this lady said she could do nothing for the unfortunate man, and it would be too expensive to send a vessel after M'Grath, which she could otherwise do, as his articles had expired last May. Turner then got a situation as cook and steward on board of the Urania, now lying at the Australian wharf, which trades between this port and Hobart Town.
Herald, Nov 28th.
Link: https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article8822887
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