"The
Plows Are Still in the Fields..."
Celebrations:
1878-1923
by
Charles
Swenson
Brenham Daily Banner, June 9, 1896 p3
Emancipation celebrations played an important role in black community in the late 19th and early 20th century. They not only commemorated the freeing of slaves but was a chance for family and friends from around the state to gather together, socialize and relax for a two day holiday free from their daily labors and full of entertainments. A study of contemporary newspaper accounts drawn from the Portal to Texas History digital archives presents not only a surprisingly broad understanding of how this holiday was celebrated but an insight into the black community in Brenham and Washington County as well. The large number of articles on the subject which exist for the period of 1878 to 1923, as well as the span of time they cover, present a useful tool for investigating local black history during this time period.
Early records of these emancipation celebrations are hard to come across. One of the earliest is from a 1865 Galveston newspaper ad. This “Emancipation Celebration by Colored Persons” was held at 10 AM in the town square “to celebrate the abolition of slavery,” with speeches by Alex Pearce, Howard Cavenaugh and Rev. Donald Gregory. It was advertised as open to “all colored people, and their friends,” with the federal officers “especially desired to be present.”1
Another of the earliest records regarding emancipation celebrations comes from the records of the Freedmen’s Bureau. James Butler, the Bureau agent in Huntsville, wrote to to his superior officer in Galveston regarding a gathering of blacks there “on the 19th of this month to celebrate their emancipation.” They had printed up and posted handbills around town to advertise the event, but “complained that a man by the name of William Bowen went around town tearing down their bills and saying that ‘niggers will not be allowed to have anything of the kind.’” Butler brought him in to question him about it, which led Bowen to “answer me in a contemptible manner, making threats to shoot the party who told me. I informed him that I did not allow any man to make threats in my office. He very insolently answered me that he would say what he pleased, swearing and using very abusive language.” Butler told him that he would fine him $25 for “contempt in my office. Bowen refused to pay, but since “he had a number of other vagabonds waiting to rescue him” Butler, who had no troops to back his arrest up, released him. Butler recommended “the mayor have sufficient police force to arrest and imprison” the “twenty young men here of a disreputable character who have evinced a desire to mar the proceedings and create a riot. According to Butler’s estimation, there would “be at least three or four thousand freedpeople here on the 19th to attend the celebration” and anticipated no problem from them.”2
Records of the Assistant Commissioner for the State of Texas, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, National Archives Microfilm Publication M821, Roll 4, Letters Received (Entered in Register 1), A-C, 1866-67, Image 533-534
The emancipation celebration was always two days long, generally on the 19th and 20th. If one of these days fell on a Sunday, the dates for the festivities were moved either forward or backward to avoid conflicting with church services. One emancipation celebration, however, was held by the Washington County Ex-Slaves Association at Stockbridges on October 1 in 1896, though it is not clear why this date was chosen. It was often commented in the press that whites would have to cook their own meals and work in the fields was halted, as it was expected that during the celebrations blacks were to be free of their daily labors.
“The
plows are still in the fields. Cooks have abandoned the kitchens.
Industries that are handled by colored labor are silent for the two
days, having realized the futility of trying to run, have generously
closed up and granted them the two days holiday.”3
The celebrations in Brenham were well attended by other communities, including Chappell Hill, Hempstead, Navasota, Austin, Independence, William Penn, Gay Hill, Whitman, Kenney, Caldwell, Burton, Carmine, Sommeville, Temple, Bellville, Giddings, Orange, and Houston. The influx of visitors for from distant communities was swelled by reduced railway rates during the days surrounding the celebrations. As early as the 1880s there were crowds of from two to three thousand, and by 1914 the crowd at the celebrations were estimated to be as high as six thousand. The effect of such large crowds was not lost on the white population, with newspaper accounts mentioning not only mentioning the loss of cooks for several days but the economic benefits of such large crowds on the local economy.
Preparations for the celebrations began months beforehand. The nomination and elections of a Goddess of Liberty were an important element of these preparations. Tickets were sold for the various candidates to raise money for the organizing committees. The candidates were not only elected to serve as a feminine figurehead of the liberty recently won, much as the Goddess of Liberty had served as a symbol of freedom since the early days of the Texas Republic, but she was also to deliver speeches at the opening of the emancipation celebrations as well. These elections were often quite lengthy and elaborate affairs themselves, with rivalries between various communities who had nominated candidates.
“The
colored people closed the polls for the election of a goddess of
liberty for their emancipation celebration at 11 o’clock on
Saturday night at the Mount Rose Baptist church. Miss Esther Johnson,
daughter of Rev. Moses Johnson, was declared elected,
after which 300 guests, headed by Randle’s brass band went to Henry
McAdoo’s residence to partake of refreshments prepared by the
committee. They then went to the residence of the goddess of liberty
about 12:30 a.m., and tendered her a serenade. An address was
delivered by J.H. Clinton, which was responded to.”4
Then came the floats, which were ranged from the mundane to quite elaborate. Aside from Felix Whittakers working blacksmith shop, these covered a wide range of themes and topics. These included “a children’s float decorated in the National colors, with swings suspended from the canopy, in which little children were swinging,” “a choir singing sacred songs,” various community groups, “a representation of Ransom’s tonsorial parlor,” “a juvenile fire company with a boat on a truck,” and “an ox wagon load of imitation cotton.” In 1897 there was even a float representing raccoon hunting, on which “a good sized tree had been transplanted, and amid its spreading branches a festive coon disported in apparent satisfaction, despite the fact that he had been shackled in freedom’s name. At the root of the tree a veteran coon dog bayed deeped mouthed defiance to the treed coon and a lot of small boys with sticks and horns and other implements of noisy warfare added their full quota to the din.” The parades, stretching on for up to 200 yards, would also be accompanied on the way to the grounds where the celebrations were to be held by a colored militia unit, the Brenham Blues, Camptown’s own fire department, the Hook and Ladder Company No.2, local uniformed baseball teams such as the Famous Nine, bicyclists, men, women and children on horseback and various other hangers on.
The local colored lodges and societies were also well represented. These included the Camptown Mutual Aid Benevolent Society, the Masons, the Lady’s General Missionary Society, Ladies Aid Society, Missionary Building society, the Draymen’s Club No. 1, the Band of Progress, the Grand United Order of Odd Fellows, the order of the Seven Stars of Consolidation, the Sons and Daughters of Zion and the Peculiar Sevens. Many of these social groups also played an important role in organizing the celebrations as well as participating in the parades.
After the parade’s arrival at the fair grounds, the celebrations were opened by speeches, sometimes with responses by that years Goddess of Liberty. The speeches were sometimes given by white politicians as well as black community leaders, with the more accomplished black speakers becoming in demand at other emancipation ceremonies. Although there is no record of the content of these speeches, there does exist portions of a speech delivered by J.D. Bushell, the orator of the day at the 1917 emancipation celebration at Chauncey Williamson’s park. Bushell, who was not only the principal of the Brenham Normal and Industrial college but a veteran of the Spanish American War and had charged up San Juan Hill with the Rough Riders. Delivered at Williamson's park two months earlier, just as the United States was just entering into the Great War, parts of that speech also touched upon Emancipation. Here are some quotes from that speech, as found in the Brenham Daily Banner-Press of April 16, 1917.
“...These
ties are ties of blood, and may be seen upon battlefields, on
southern plantations, in the home and in the forest. We made the
crops, tilled the fields, felled the forests and did the primary, the
fundamental, the strenuous labor for a period of more than two
hundred years.
“Our
hands have not grown weary. The same arms of iron, and fingers of
steel that tilled the fields when we were not citizens, are doubly
ready to do now that we are part and parcel of this great nation.
The man who walks behind the plow, who sits upon the reaper, who
begins at early dawn and labors till the purple twilight deepens into
night, is as much a soldier as the man who stands by his guns. While
our brethren are in the field, be they white or be they black, let
the rest of us be making it possible for them to stay in the field
until they shall have wrested from the crown of autocracy the incubus
of human authority.
“There
was never a war in the United States to free slaves. The North has
never had any more love for negroes than the South. Slavery was not a
Southern institution, but an American institution. The Emancipation
Proclamation was not issued to free the slaves, but it was issued as
a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing rebellion, and was
used as a military necessity. Mr. Lincoln clearly and distinctly
stated in his first inaugural address delivered March 4, 1861, “I
have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the
institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I
have no lawful right to do so, and have no inclination to do so.”
While the North and the South were engaged in a war between
themselves, making determined efforts for good government the gates
flew open and the negro slave walked out and he has been walking ever
since. It is in the South where he was held as a slave that the
negro is given a man’s chance in the commercial world. The South
has never desired to re-enslave the negro, but it has helped, like
the North, to Christianize and educate him.
“Our
emancipation was not an accident, but a result. It was the
culmination of the working out by the mighty forces of faith and
prayer through two hundred and fifty years of the proposition that
“All men are created equal, and are of right and ought to be free.”
It was not the triumph of a system, nor of the North over the South.
When freedom tore the azure robe of night and set the stars in glory
over the camps of four million slaves, it was the result of the
well-defined and determined efforts of men and women North and South,
many of whom were the descendants of Puritans and Huguenots, who,
themselves had felt the fires of persecution and were wedded to
liberty.
“Negro
blood forms a part of the red in every stripe in “Old Glory.” We
have rendered valuable services in the nineteen wars of the United
States, from the Revolution in 1775 to Carrizal where negro troopers
went singing to their death. If anywhere their bravery and valor are
questioned, when they have been called upon to defend their country,
go to San Juan Hill. Ask the bleeding earth that drank their
blood! And if the rocks could find a tongue, they would tell
you that negro troopers saved the day for American, by marching to
the old Block House midst shot and shell, “while horse and hero
fell.” They routed the Spaniards with victory perched upon
their banners and while the band played, “There’ll be a Hot Time
in the Old Town Tonight,” negro soldiers seized the artillery,
turned it upon the fleeing Spaniards, and through their brave and
heroic deeds, wrote their names in blood upon the records of military
triumphs and scored a decisive victory for America.
“Every
member of the race stands ready now to serve the country’s needs.
Let it be remembered that the man with the hoe is as much a
factor in this contest as the man with the sword. Every one is
not fitted for service at the front. Let everyone serve where
he is best fitted, and in this we serve not only our country, but we
serve humanity and God.
“This
is no time for quibbling or shuffling. The constitution of the
United States is the expression, the highest expression of the
organic law of our land. That law gave us the elective
franchise and we are citizens.”
Baseball was a big event during the celebrations. Local teams, such as the Lee, the Famous, the Strikers of Camptown and the Lone Star of Watrousville played matches not only with each other, but with teams from Navasota, Hempstead, Beaumont, Galveston, Bryan, Bellville, and Austin.
Concessions were sold at stands that had been sold to the highest bidder prior to the celebrations, for categories such as saloon, chile, tamales, ice cream, confectionary, restaurant, shooting gallery, bootblack, barbecue pit, weinerwurst, lemonade, milk shake, “blue rock,” dancing, “cane stand and doll baby,” and hobby horses. Barbecue dinners were common at some of the smaller celebrations, where they were usually provided free. Alcohol was generally present, especially at the larger gatherings,
Music played a large part in the celebrations, starting with the parades all the way through the Grand Balls given at night. There were usually one or more local bands, such as Prof. Foss’ Brass Band, Emmanuel Taylor’s Lone Star Band (which earned $90 for the celebrations in 1900), Jerry Randle’s Cottonpatch Band, the Zobo Band (directed by Mrs. Estella Lindsey), the Twentieth Century Quartette and Gus Hopkin’s Band. The Brenham Brass Band, under the leadership of Prof. C.P. Hicks, even composed special music for the occasion, such as the “Emancipation Quadrille” and “Out of Bondage Waltz.” Out of town bands included the Seaport Band of Galveston and the W.H. Hawkins Band of San Antonio, with Sid C. Isles’ Ragtime Band from Houston being especially favored in later years, with music playing until the early morning hours. An account of a musical contest between the Hawkins and Isles bands is found in a 1938 copy of Down Beat Magazine...
“Here’s
an invitation to a carving contest that took place ‘way back in the
‘teens on the 19th of June in Brenham, Tex. The occasion was
the yearly celebration of the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed
the slaves, and every mother’s son was really ready to hear a
battle of the music between the two best Colored bands in Texas (A
vote of thanks to Ray R. Hone, Jr., the well-known record
collector, for digging this dope.)
The
line-up was as follows: W.H. Hawkin’s Brass Band, the pride of San
Antonio, was bucking Sid Isles’ Ragtime Band from Houston. And
this man Sid Isles blew a hot horn that had echoed all over Texas.
The boys from Houston were sold on Sid, and packed the
excursion train to the roof on the trip to Brenham. Excursion
trains were puffing in everywhere, but they calculated that there
were over over a thousand Sid Isles fans from Houston alone. The
Hawkins Brass Band was unafraid. They played strictly legit
usually, the regulation stuff, for clubs, lodges, and city functions.
Besides Hawkins himself had composed that “March Tanforn.”
But they did have a solid cornetist, who could get off if he
had the chance, named George Washington Smith.
Well,
the final decision was one of those things. The newspaper men
had organized the battle, and they voted for the Hawkins Brass Band,
because they played a legit overture. But the crowd went the
other way. And the most disappointed cat was George Washington
Smith, not because he wasn’t allowed to get off, but because he
wished he was playing with the Sid Isles band, that didn’t “pay
no mind” to music reading. George knew the real thing when he
heard it and lost no time starting a real band of his own.”5
The local newspaper accounts compiled below are limited in their temporal scope by what is readily available at the Portal to Texas History site hosted by the University of North Texas. As such do not give much of a clue as to what eventually happened to the emancipation celebrations in Brenham after 1923, although it seems to have gone the way of so much of black history in Brenham. It would be easy to guess that ominous racial prejudices and animosity might be at play, especially given the some of the openly derogatory comments made in the newspaper accounts, though the large number of supportive reports should also be taken into consideration.
However there is one ironic note about Emancipation Day that had deeper historic echoes in the historic record. It was on June 19, 1891 that the Texas separate coach law of was go into effect, a seemingly odd choice for any law to come into effect, but especially this one.
“Today
is the last day our colored friends can claim the social privilege of
occupying the same coach or even the same seat with their white
friends on the railway lines of Texas. The separate coach law
goes into effect tomorrow, and as the colored people are rushing
about to the most accessible points to celebrate the 26th anniversary
of their emancipation the change will be particularly noticeable and
as the Banner has previously remarked will seem like the irony of
fate that it should have gone into effect on this particular day. But
this is best, and while there may be some recalcitrant colored
individuals who oppose the law and will perhaps not accept it with
good grace, it will be enforced. The colored people will be
furnished equal accommodation with the whites but they will ride in
the same coach no more.” (Brenham Weekly Banner, June 18,
1891, p8)
The
colored people almost throughout the state are preparing for a grand
emancipation celebration. The Brenham colored people have done
nothing so far, and if they don’t hurry up will have on that day to
enter the ‘seperate coach’ and go elsewhere to celebrate.
(Brenham Daily Banner, May 26,
1891, p2)
“It
is a coincidence worth of note that on the day when the colored
people of Texas will all be celebrating the anniversary of their
emancipation, going on excursions and etc., they will be quietly
ordered out of the coach with with white people into coaches prepared
for them, for the separate coach law goes into effect on that day.
There is no doubt that this law was one of the best for all the
people of Texas that was enacted by the last Legislature.”
(Brenham Daily Banner, May 26, 1891, p2)
This was one of the many separate coach laws that were proliferating throughout the country at the time, leading ultimately to the U.S. Supreme Court “separate but equal” ruling in the Plessy v. Ferguson decision of 1896. This was one of the legal precedents that helped solidify Jim Crow laws throughout the next 60 years, which certainly were separate if not quite so equal. As surely as the directive issued by General Gordon Granger in Galveston on June 19 in 1865, this separate coach law issued by the Texas Legislature and taking effect on June 19 in 1891 was to have a long lasting effect on black citizens in Brenham, Washington County and throughout Texas for many years to come.
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This bibliography is far from complete, but those interested in the complete series of articles used in compiling this article can refer to the March 30, 2017 post.
1Flakes
Daily Bulletin, December 31, 1865, p4
2Records
of the Assitant Commissioner for the State of Texas, Bureau of
Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, National Archives Microfilm
Publication M821, Roll 4, Letters Received (Entered in Register 1),
A-C, 1866-67, Image 533
3Brenham
Evening Press, June 19, 1908, p1
4Brenham
Daily Banner, June 12, 1889, p3
5M.W.
Stearns, "George Washington Smith Rocks Cradle of Jazz, Two
years Older Than Jelly-Roll HeCarve Regulation Cats in Texas,' Down
Beat, April 1938, Vol. 5, No 4, Colmns 1-4, found at
http://www.doctorjazz.co.uk/page10bc.html
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