Anti-Racism: Definitions and Examples

Black student from Canterbury Female Academy praises William Henry Burleigh (1834)

The Liberator 4:47:186 (November 22, 1834) 

            “The following short essay was written by one of Miss Crandall’s juvenile pupils, in reference to the abandonment of her interesting school.”

 THE SEPARATION

            It was one of the most pleasant sunny mornings of September, when I took leave of my teacher and school-mates. Never, no, never, while memory retains a seat in my breast, shall I forget that trying hour. On the night preceding my departure, while all within was silent as the chamber of death, we were suddenly aroused by a tremendous noise; when, to our surprise, we found that a band of cruel men had rendered our dwelling almost untenantable. The next morning, we were informed by our teacher, that our school would be suspended by the day- that he was going to a neighboring town to see a friend of ours: he accordingly went. In the afternoon, he accordingly returned, accompanied by our friend, who requested that we might be called together. He, with feelings apparently of deep regret, told us we had better go to our homes. With regret, I prepared to leave that pleasant, yet persecuted dwelling, and also my dear school-mates, in whose society I had spent many hours; thankful to my heavenly Parent, that our lot was no worse; yet not without many tears did I return to my distant, solitary home.

            There is something, in parting with those we love, from which nature recoils: and when I thought of the distance that would be between us, and contemplated the uncertainty of things, I could but acknowledge the probability of never meeting again in company with my school-mates.

            I have found among them simple manners and intelligent minds; and there, if any where, love was without dissimulation. My teacher was ever kind: with him I saw religion, not merely adopted as an empty form, but a living, all-pervading principle of action. He lived like those who seek a better country: nor was his family devotion a cold pile of hypocrisy, on which the fire of God never descends. No, it was a place of communion with heaven. There I have heard the lesson of worldly wisdom, which was my boast at times before I was led to confess that I knew little; and would now sit at the feet of Jesus to be taught of Him. Having Christ for our friend, we need not fear amidst the thickest storms, or in the darkest season, or when enemies beset and foes assail. If all were taught to love their neighbor as themselves, to do to others as they would be done unto, there would be no disposition to repeat the crime of him who slew his brother, and men would abhor to imbrue their hands in the blood of men.”

This remarkable testimony confirms what the Burleigh siblings (Mary, Charles and William) were doing at Canterbury, along with Prudence and Almira Crandall, at the Canterbury Female Academy for Black Women in the brief span of April 1833-September 1834 when the school was operational. This student, bereaved at the loss of her educational opportunities and community fellowship with her sister students, singles out William Burleigh (the only male teacher at the school) for the authenticity of his religion as a lived practice. People often comment on how teachers can be role models - here is a cross-gender and cross-racial example of this practice..

Samuel Cornish endorses the editorial acumen of William Burleigh as "food to the soul" (1838)

The Colored American August 25, 1838 from The Christian Witness

This introductory piece was written by Samuel Cornish, the great minister and editor of Black newspapers. His endorsement of William Burleigh speaks volumes, as he was unafraid to call out racism among white Abolitionists when he detected it. Like William Burleigh, he went with the "New Organization" at the time of the schism. Included here is William Burleigh's first full editorial for The Christian Witness

“Brother Burleigh .

The following noble views, make up brother Burleigh' s "inaugural," to the editor-ship of the "Christian Witness," Pittsburgh, Pa.

We sympathize with every sentiment contained in the address. Such views are food to the soul. We have never expected any thing short of a great "moral warfare" with the combined powers of Satan, of slaveholding interests, of wicked prejudice, and of hypocritical professions. Our liberty and our rights would not be worth having were we to obtain them at a cheaper rate. We are willing to fight for the prize, and it is enough for us to know that God is on our side.”

“TO THE READERS OF THE CHRISTIAN WITNESS.

We need but a brief introduction. We have no time to waste in compliments, nor in promises. Our course, as the future editor of the Witness, must testify for or against us. We bring to our task what talent God has given us, and an entire devotedness to the great cause whose interests we shall labor to advance. Years ago we buckled on the abolition harness, not unmindful of the toil, and persecution, and contumely, and scorn, and peril, which all who would be faithful to the cause of perishing humanity, must be called to endure. - The "great wrath" of the Evil Spirit of Slavery has neither surprised nor intimidated us. The whirlwind of popular violence - the breaking up of the great deep of pro-slavery wrath - the tempest of opprobrium which has beat upon the heads of abolitionists - the agitations and commotions which, like an earthquake, have shaken the land from centre to circumference, have not taken us by surprise. We looked for them all. We look for them yet - and, God strengthening us, we shall be prepared to meet them. The Demon of oppression will struggle desperately ere he surrender his prey. Firmness, and zeal, and self-sacrifice, and gospel prudence, and devotion, and faithfulness unto death, should therefore characterize the friends of holy liberty - the soldiers in this moral warfare. Already has passed upon our cause a baptism of fire and blood. Not vainly hath that blood sent up to Heaven its voice of accusation against our guilty land, nor has the Temple of Freedom, that last great sacrifice upon the alter of slavery, blazed in vain! Every persecution we encounter, every outrage we endure, but renders the cause of humanity dearer to our hearts. Such opposition kindles our zeal, quickens our faith, increases our devotion, and stimulates us to renewed action. Never for a single moment, even in the darkest hour of persecution, have we doubted the issue of this conflict. We are as certain of victory as if it were already ours. We believe that every attribute of Jehovah is pledged to our success. It will most assuredly come. How much of malignity, and wrath, and evil speaking, and insane violence, on the part of our opponents; and toil, and anguish of heart, and despondency, and suffering, on our own, lie between us an ultimate triumph, we cannot tell. Whether any who are now laboring for the redemption of the captive, will live to join in the song of jubilee that shall greet his deliverance from bondage, we know not. Nor need we know, - "Duties are ours - events belong to God." His promises are sure, and His grace is sufficient to sustain us. - As our day is so shall our strength be.

In assuming the editorial charge of the Christian Witness, we feel deeply the responsibilities that rest upon us. The sympathy and cooperation of the friends of the Anti-Slavery cause we have a right to expect. With these faithfully and promptly given, and with the blessing of the Friend of the oppressed upon our labors, this little sheet shall continue to be a "WITNESS" for God and man, against the oppression, and cruelty, and avarice, and meanness of American Slavery.”

Robert Purvis names his son after Charles Calistus Burleigh (1842)

Philadelphia Black activist Robert Purvis named his son, Charles Burleigh Purvis (1842-1909), after Charles Calistus Burleigh. He went on to considerable fame as a medical doctor, founder of the medical school at Howard University, and one of the attending physicians on President Garfield after the assassination attempt to which he eventually succumbed.

Title Page of pamphlet "The Negro Pew"

This famous pamphlet was an anti-racist act by its author, Harvey Newcomb (1803-1863). Its arguments formed part of William Burleigh's ;ater work presented here. 

William Henry Burleigh eviscerates the hypocrisy of the "Negro Pew" (1846)

Charter Oak New Series 1:4:2, January 29, 1846

NEGRO PEWS

(likely William H. Burleigh)

 We recognize no Church as a Church of Christ, in the full and beautiful signification of that term, which shuts a portion of its members into some out-of-the-way corner, because of the color of their skin. We cannot so wrong the Founder of our Religion. The spirit and letter of the Gospel are alike contemned by such odious distinctions. No colored man, who properly respects himself, can submit to this public proscription on account of the complexion which he=is Maker gave him, without a deep sense of injury, if not of indignation. We have known instances, where the religious principle was not a controlling element in the character, in which this invidious distinction has driven colored people from the Church; and the only wonder is that is does not always  have such an effect. We once heard the Rev. T. S. Wright, of New York, remark, that colorphobia in the Churches, had driven many of the colored people into infidelity. This, beyond all controversy, is its tendency. A religion that justifies such distinctions in the house of God, will not be likely to commend itself to those who suffer by them. We should be sorry if it did—for it is not the religion of Christ. It may resemble it in some of its features —but the grand element of love is wanting. Love does not impose odious distinctions upon its object. Christian love, especially, does not insult the Most High by contemptuous treatment of his children.—Let no man be deceived, God is not mocked. He who despises men, because of the color God gave them, loves not the Universal Father. He may be in the Church—his prayers may be long and loud—his zeal, in “contending for the faith once delivered to the Saints,” may be excessive—but, in his contempt of Christ’s little ones, he rejects Christ. He may be very religious, but he is not a Christian.—For to be a Christian, is to have the spirit of Christ. Can any one conceive of Christ as sending a portion of his auditors to a remote part of the temple—excluding them from all possible contact with the rest—because of any physical peculiarity which might mark them? Even the verist negro=hater in the land would reject such an idea as derogatory to Christ.—Yet whole Churches give their sanction to the continuance of the Negro Pew, and still claim that they have the spirit of Christ, and are his? Do they not greatly misapprehend his spirit, or their own? We ask them to reconsider the matter. If they are right in their treatment of their colored brethren—if their conduct towards them is sanctioned by Christianity—then should we be glad to know in what respect the religion of Christ is better than that of Mahomet.

This editorial piece is unsigned and uncredited, which in the practice of nineteenth-century journalism usually indicates that it was authored by the paper’s editor. The reference to hearing T. S. Wright – one of the Black clergymen who endorsed Prudence Crandall’s school – confirms, along with stylistic features, that this is almost certainly the work of William H. Burleigh. It is strong until its gratuitous anti-Muslim sentiment in the final line, but this was also standard for the time, prior to any fully-rounded understanding of each major religious tradition. Instead, all-out polemical disdain for religious systems other than Christianity (and many forms of Christianity) ruled the day.

The important thing for this project is the evidence of William Burleigh’s continued anti-racism. Citing Rev. Wright, proclaiming the spiritual and therefore social equality of Blacks as a Christian principle, and throwing the gauntlet down to those who maintain the “Negro Pew” are all strong signals that The Charter Oak’s African-American readership would have understood.

It is also important to note that Rev. Wright gave one of his strongest speeches to condemn the back-sliding of white Abolitionists on issues of anti-racism, back in 1837. The likelihood that Burleigh had read and digested the message from this paper is confirmed by the warm regard given him by the New York Black ministers in the late 1830s and early 1840s.

Frederick Douglass's appreciation of Charles C. Burleigh (1848)

The speech of this advocate of Human Rights, at the Court House on Tuesday evening, was one of his ablest efforts. For two hours he enchained by his invincible logic and thrilling eloquence, a large and delighted audience. The burden of his speech, was a most complete exposure of the exorbitant demands of the South, and the unmanly and mean subserviency of the North to the slave power,—a theme peculiarly interesting at this crisis.—The meeting closed by a unanimous vote of thanks to Mr. Burleigh, and a pressing invitation to him to remain in Monroe county and lecture for some weeks. Mr. Burleigh stated that his engagements were such as to make it out of his power to remain in Monroe county, his appointments being already made east of Albany.—F.D. (Frederick Douglass)

F. D. "C. C. Burleigh." North Star, 15 Sept. 1848. Slavery and Anti-Slavery: A Transnational Archive, link.gale.com/apps/doc/GT3013080775/

SAS?u=csusj&sid=bookmark-SAS. Accessed 20 June 2024.

Frederick Douglass

Cyrus Moses Burleigh accompanies a self-liberated woman to safety (ca. 1852)

  There was at this time a colored woman named Maria living at C. C. Hood's, who one day, when a slave, heard her master selling her to a slave-trader to go South. Horrified at the prospective change, she lost no time making her escape, and through agencies on the Underground Railroad got to WIlliam Howard's, thence to C. C. Hood's, where she had been living but a week when the Christiana riot occurred. She was the mother of nine children, eight of whom she left in slavery. One, a son, had preceded her, and was living with Moses Whitson. In the following winter he went to Massachusetts. Obtaining employment there by which he could support his mother, he wrote for her to come. Cyrus Burleigh was at that time at Hood's, and proposed, that if she would remain a few weeks until he was ready to return to Massachusetts, near to where her son was living, he would see her safely to the place. She assented, and at the appointed time she met him on Philadelphia, and was taken care of to the end of her journey."

Robert Clemens Smedley. History of the Underground Railroad In Chester And the Neighboring Counties of Pennsylvania. New York: Negro Universities Press, 1968. Reprint of 1883 edition, Lancaster Pa; Offices of the Journal, p. 82-83.

 

Frederick Douglass's further appreciation of Charles C. Burleigh (1854)

CHARLES C. BURLEIGH. This renowed anti-slavery orator, and indefatigable laborer in the cause of humanity, has been invited to address the literary societies of Oberlin College an honor of which he is well worthy. For among all the advocates of liberty in the United States, we know of none who bring to the advocacy of this cause, a deeper conviction, a more constant zeal, more untiring industry, or a more thrilling eloquence than he. Differing from him vitally, as we do, on some points, we, nevertheless, esteem him and his labors most highly. We doubt not our readers in Rochester, and vicinity, will give his views on the present aspect of the anti-slavery cause, in Corinthian Hall, on Monday evening next. Let Charles Burleigh be greeted by a crowded assemblage, on Monday night. A dozen miles ride from the country, is but a small tax for a moral and intellectual treat so grand as that which may be expected from Mr. Burleigh in Corinthian Hall, on the evening above mentioned.

Frederick Douglass' Paper August 18, 1854 - presumably written by Frederick Douglass (unsigned), concerning a talk scheduled for August 21, 1854 in Rochester, New York.

 

The incident near Lockport with Stephen Gloucester

Does he understand Gloucester's subjective experience

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