i II it i.it
cont inuou- proun: 1111.1td d.
J w: nt to try to , 11 \\ cr thi qu tion,
in p: rt , t I ., t, n t )'. b tr: . rgum nt,
but by t Ilin th tory of < lf-gov rn-
in community 0 c lor '<I pl .
The roup f n \\ ho tory I
\ ant to t 11 r id 'ounty, Iich-
th ettler: of th t
v ral u ker
r home in th
n: t approve of
slav ry. In. lichi Tan a, I ev her th e
Quaker oon I t it b known the t not
only were they opp , d to th in titution
of human lavery, and that runa way I. ve
would r c .iv a In ndly wclcom among
them, but that they "( uld • I r ccive
phy ical prot c tion if nee ... ary. J n ( ddi
non t c min an a ylum or c. ping
slave , this community of uak r oon
became a station on the" nclerground
Railroad. "
The town hip in Ca County in " hich
the Quaker for the mo t part ettl d
were narn d alvin and Porter. It a
about the y.iar 1840 that a few colored
people. mo tly from K n ucky, be an to
find th ir way into the sc town hip, Every
year after that thc number of e:caped
lave grcw larg r, until in the year 1 47
a deterrnin d effort ,\ as made on the part
ome lnv h I r to r capture their
ru way negroe I Quite a nnmber of
�la\''' vner pT their repre cntntive ap
peared I alvin township in th: t year,
coming in onc band, mounted and well
arm d, • nd made bold and determined
dlort to regain po s ion of their prop
trty and return it to Kentucky. The
ort at c p ur • ucc full re ist
bj-t Qu ,t e color d people, n
her: r idents of the community.
While a few of the colored people, as a
result of thi raid, became unea y and
Sed to Canad , the ultimate re ult .was
to advertise '" ounty, Michigan, a
being a part of the country where ncgroc
could enjoy a rea on able frcedom from
the con tant feu of bing snatched up
and, returned to their former masters.
After the II raid ta still larger number of
colored people beg. n to go into he two
townships named, and they covered a
much wider territory than the first settlers.
In addition to those vho came directly
to Michigan, not a few escaped slaves
left Ohio, where they had first located
themselves, in order to settle in Cass
County, where the good Quakers had 0
effectually proved their courage and loy-
�� ,
It was not, however, until the year 1849
that one of the e tov n hip, Calvin, began
to assume the character which invests it
with special interest at present. In 1847
a large slaveholder by the name, of, S�U!l
der ,who lived in abell County, Virginia
-now a part of We t Virginia-died.
When his will was opened, it was found
that provision had been made to the effect
that all his slaves must be made free.
The will further provided a generous
amount of money which was to be used
in removing all of the testator's slaves
into a free State. In addition, the slave
owner made arrangements for the pur
cha e of a tract of land in some free State
to be divided' among these people, an4
the building of a hous for each of his
former slave families, the will also pro
viding the money to do all this.
The Saunders ex-slaves, forty-one in
number, at last were mrted northward.
One who was entitled to accompany them
refused to go into a land of freedom,
even with all the added advantages of this
opportunity, because hi wife was a slave
andcould not go with him. After a long
journey, which was attended by many
hardships, the members of the party
finally reached their Michigan home a few
day before Christmas. A large tract of
'land which was a complete wilderness
had been purchased by the executor .
HI GTO
BY BOO ER T.
'tth Photo rap !I b· C, ,Chaadlcr
b in ccur d by other shrewd colored
m n who h. d ttled in C. lvin town hip.
I think I mak a corr ct statement in
yin th t " hen I vi ited the town hip a
f \V eek go I found only one of th
original launder settler ho at the
pre ent time owns any of the land bought
by the executor of the Saunders estate.
The bare mention of" Saunder family"
would quite likely cau e a quiet smile to
ere p over th face of one of the old
inhabitant \ ho did not b long to that
gr up. he e p opl not only had not
h ld th ir own materially, but I found
that, a few year alter the newcomers
began to g t planted in their free home,
not a, few of the young men b gan develop-
:"
_'
SAMUEL HAWKES, THE LARGEST T.AXI'A VEil IS CALVIS
His tax for I 1 wu ,1506
�lpon these people in rather a discourag
Ing manner before many months in their
new home had pas ed, It soon became
evident that there were some things that
the mere gift of freedom and the gift of
lands and money could not, do. Free
dom, lands, and money could not give
one experience in self-direction and self
dependence. In the words of another,
" Freedom is a conquest, not a bequest."
For several years the Saunders families
were in a majority in the township, and
they prospered in a reasonable degree.
But, as time pa sed, many of them began
to let their wants increase faster than
their ability to supply these increased
wants. ,In their extravagant ideas and
practices they began to demon trate the
truth of the old saying that. a man values
only what he has had experience in accu
mulating, Besides this, while these new,
settlers were in the possession of land
and houses, they were without education.
Some of them began to give mortgages on
their land, and while their good Quaker
neighbors would protect them in their
freedom, and help them to get an educa
tion, they were not averse at any time to
driving a shrewd and safe business bar
gain. Not many years passed before n
good part of the land once owned by the
Saunders families began to fall into the
hands of the Friend.
": .. I had always been anxious to' see
just what progress in
self-government any large number
of people of my race could make
when left absolutely to themselves ... "
Ington
Thi tract was divided into parcels
eighteen acres for each individual-men,
omen, and even infants-the youngest
baby getting as much as the oldest man.
A small log house of such style as was
1 will not recite in more detail the tory
of the aunders community, except to say
that most of the property owned by these
people gradually pas ed out of their hands
in one way and another, some part of it
ing habit of Idleness, not a few became
criminal, while till others made them-
, elves offensive to the whites and sensible
blacks by becoming " uppish" and in
other ways disagreeable All these things
resulted in giving the community some
thing of a bad name for several years.
From the foregoing some may draw the
conclusion at once that the whole effort
was a failure. Not by any means. What
I have stated simply emphasizes the fact
that human nature is very much the same,
no matter under wh color of skin it is
found. What I have related of the' his
tory of the Saunders community illustrates
what I have often tried to say in relation
to my race in general in this country
that the first one or two generations of
freed people would naturally in many
cases mistake freedom {or license and
would be overcome, in a large measure,
by the first temptations of their new life;
but that the second or third generations
would begin to settle down to hard, sober
business. If anyone wants to get direct
and specific proof of the truth of this
statement, he should spend one or two
day , as I have done, in making 'a first
hand investigation of the present condi
tion of the negroes in Calvin to nship,
My vi it of inspection, however, before
I had been in the township two hours,
taught me that the weak points exhibited
by the people of the earlier generations
had wrought a most beneficial work. It
I often said that a thing that is bad has
to get wor e before it get better. This
I found to be true of Calvin township.
At about the time when matters had gone
down to their lowest ebb, industrially and
morally, the more level-headed of the col
ored people began to realize the ituation
and to re olve that by trong and earnest
effort they ould bring about a reform.
At about this time there began comin
into the township a different clas of
people. These came mainly from Ohio,
North Carolina, and Virginia. As a rule,
they or their parents represented a class
of people ho had been set free-the
cia swhich in North Carolina w re termed
"free niggers," a designation which,
strange to ay, �a. u ed as a term of con
tempt by negro slaves a 'ell as by their
master. The main point that I want to
bring out here, though, is that these later
ettler , either in Ohio or in orne of the
Southern State , had got over the fir t
flush of freedom, and so were ready to
e t1edowq R'1l '1) '1 c d
Calvin to nship.· The money and the
experience that these peopl brought ith
them to Calvin had been dearly earned
by themselves. This ne � element joined
itself with the better repre entatives of
the earlier settlers, and very soon Calvin
township began to acquire a new atmos
phere. The real solid growth of the
township began from this time.
My attention was first attracted to this
settlement some years ago when I was in
South Bend, Indiana, the site of the Stude
baker wagon factories. I noticed that the
colored people of South Bend seemed to
be an unusually prosperous and solid lot of
people, far above the average of those gen
erally found in large cities, or anywhere
in the North. I asked one of the Stude
bakers the reason for this difference, and
he said that he thought it grew out of the
fact that from the first the Studebaker
firm had never permitted any color line to
be dra -n in any department of their
works=--that a negro was not made to feel
that on account of his race he was a signed
to a certain minor place in the factory,
and could not hope to rise above that
place, no matter how wen he did his work.
Mr. Studebaker said -that they had held
out to their negro workmen the same hope
of reward in the way of promotion or
increas of pay that the white workmen
had held before them. There i a lesson
in this treatment of the negro workmen
by the Studebakers that has in it a solu
tion for many of the problems connected
with the negro. Take away from all)'
race or individual the hope of reward, and
you help destroy the race or individual.
From this discussion of the condition
of the colored people in South Bend, Mr.
Studebaker called my attention to the
large community of colored people in
Calvin township, Michigan, which is not
very far from South Bend, since Cass
Count in which Calvin i situated, is oa
tile QU bern ooundary 0 ichipn.
I a ked r, Studebaker about these peo
he said in ub tance that for. number 01
years his firm had sold them wagons and
other farm machinery, and had often solei
on credit; _ and that in all their bu iness
relations of recent years they had proved
themselves just as reliable and prompt as
the white people in the same county, or
anywhere in the' State. This statement
so interested me that I resolved to see
this community for myself at the very
first po sible opportunity, because I had
always been anxious to see just what
progress in self-government any large
number of people of my race could make
when left absolutely to themselve and
given the advantage of the climate and
location that the average white man in
America possesses.
In connection with what I am going to
say it should be kept in mind that the
unit of government in Michigan, as in
Massachusetts, is the township-that is,
each township has practically complete
'self-government. Besides this it is entitled
to at least one representative on the Board
of County Commissioners which controls
the affairs of the county..
When I visited Calvin townshiprecentiy
,I found that it contained a population of
7 S9 negroes and S 12 whites. In addi
tion to the e, a large negro population had
overflowed into the adjoining township of.
Porter, and to some extent into all but
two of the towns in the county. The
county seat of Cass County i Cassopolis.
The neare t boundary line of Calvin
township is about six miles from Cas
opolis.
TO BE CONTINUED
" I';"�"",. '" ,�.
. ,
" ..... �:' ... - ..... � .....
'".- .. f"-..
THE nAlt�YARI) 0 nn.i, ALLF.:\'S FARM