American Presidential Parties: Their Relevance to People of African Descent

By C. Nichole

American Presidential Parties: Their Relevance to People of African Descent details what American presidents, starting at George Washington and ending at Donald Trump, did and didn't do for Americans of African descent.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pan African Publishing House
• Release date: Jan 11, 2020
• ISBN: 9781087892252

C. Nichole

C.Nichole is a singer, songwriter, television producer, non-profit founder, creative group and publishing house owner. American Presidential Parties: Their Relevance to People of African Descent is her first book, written as research for Pan African Think Tank. C.Nichole is a graduate of the University of Houston, having received a BA in Marketing and Minors in Journalism and European Studies, which included studying abroad in Europe and Africa. She cites herself as being a citizen of the world with 90+ countries under her belt before 30 years of age, but makes Dallas, Texas, USA her home base. As an advocate for Pan African Think Tank, you can find out more, donate, and shop apparel at www.PanAfricanTT.org.

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1

GEORGE WASHINGTON

UNAFFILIATED

PRESIDENCY: 1789-1797

In 1789, George Washington was the first president of the United States to be inaugurated. It was closing in on two centuries since slavery came to what is now known as America. George Washington was like most prominent men of his day and owned slaves, including before and after his presidency. Ownership of the Mount Vernon Estate in Virginia included over 300 slaves. In 1791, Pennsylvania abolished slavery. At the time, the Presidential House was in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In fear of losing his slaves he took them with him to serve his house during his presidency, he had his secretary, Tobias Lear, look into the new law. If there was any chance that any slave looked into being freed, Washington moved them out of Pennsylvania and back to Mount Vernon.

George Washington signed the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793. The act made it a federal crime to assist an escaping slave, and established the legal system by which escaped slaves would be returned to their masters. One of his slaves ran away in 1795. To keep his image pristine, Washington instructed his overseer to apprehend the slave, But I would not have my name appear in any advertisement, or other measure, leading to it.

Washington opposed the recruitment of people of African descent into the army during the American Revolution. He didn't want slaves having access to guns out of fear of a revolt. During the Haitian Revolution, the French minister Jean Baptiste de Ternant requested money and arms, which Washington promised to provide. Washington wrote to the French minister, I am happy in the opportunity of testifying how well disposed the United States are to render every aid in their power to our good friends and allies, the French, to quell the alarming insurrection of the Negroes in Hispaniola and of the ready disposition to effect it, of the executive authority thereof. While people of African descent in Haiti (then Hispaniola) were fighting for freedom, Washington was sending was sending aid to stop it.

2

JOHN ADAMS

FEDERALIST

PRESIDENCY: 1797-1801

Before John Adams' presidency, he was chosen by the Massachusetts legislature to be one of the state's delegates to the Continental Congress. July 4, 1776, marked the day the Continental Congress declared that the thirteen American colonies were no longer under the rule of Britain. Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness didn't apply to everyone. In 1777, Adams spoke out against a bill to emancipate slaves in Massachusetts. He felt the issue caused too much division, so the legislation should sleep for a time. Because of opposition from Southerners, he was also against the use of soldiers of African descent during the American Revolution.

John Adams never owned or cared to own any slaves. During his time as president, he was critical that America achieved its independence from Britain. Because of that, he felt having the North united with the South was more important than anything; therefore, he steered away from addressing slavery on political stages.

3

THOMAS JEFFERSON

DEMOCRATIC-REPUBLICAN

PRESIDENCY: 1801-1809

Thomas Jefferson frequently spoke about the wickedness of slavery, while gradually working to end it. In 1824, he proposed a national plan to end slavery with the help of the federal government. His plan was to purchase slave children for $12.50 (approximately $290 in 2020), raise and train them with a skill, then send them to the Dominican Republic (then the country of Santo Domingo). The plan was never approved. Even with all of his efforts, Jefferson owned over 600 slaves and only freed seven. He was the first president to move slaves into the White House.

After the Haitian Revolution, Toussaint Louverture became governor of Haiti (then the Saint-Domingue part of Hispaniola). In 1801, Jefferson loaned his support in the sum of $300,000 (approximately $4.5 million in 2020) to assist in helping the French take back Haiti from Louverture. The money was for relief of whites on the island. With Southern slave owners fearing a similar rebellion within their territory, Jefferson wanted his actions to deaden their fears. Jefferson even thought about sending free people of African descent and disputative slaves to Haiti as a solution to some of America's problems. He had hopes that Haiti would eventually demonstrate the viability of black self-government and the industriousness of African American work habits, thereby justifying freeing and deporting the slaves to the island. In the same instance, he also expressed that he had never seen people of African descent do well in governing themselves, and thought they would not be able to without the help of whites.

It was found in Thomas Jefferson's Notes on the State of Virginia, that he felt slavery corrupted both masters and slaves alike and supported the colonization of freed slaves. Even so, he promoted the idea that people of African descent were inferior in intelligence, and emancipating large numbers of slaves made slave uprisings more likely. Throughout the years, he also stated that people of African descent lacked forethought, knowledge, tenderness, grief, imagination, and beauty; they had poor taste, smelled terrible, and were incapable of producing artistry or poetry. Jefferson's thoughts about women of African descent must have been different because he fathered six children with one of his slaves, Sally Hemmings, who undoubtedly was of African descent.

4

JAMES MADISON

DEMOCRATIC-REPUBLICAN

PRESIDENCY: 1809-1817

Growing up on a plantation with slave labor instilled in James Madison that slavery was a necessary part of the Southern economy. Madison was the brain behind the beginnings of the Three-Fifths Compromise. He suggested that the apportionment of America's Senate be allocated by the sum of each state's free population and slave population. The compromise was to count three out of every five slaves as a person. That was important because it helped determine the state's total population for legislative representation and taxing purposes. The population also determined the number of seats every state would have in the United States House of Representatives for the next ten years.

In the 1780s, Madison was interested in establishing colonies in Africa for people of African descent within America. Believing that former slavers wouldn't be able to integrate into Southern society successfully, he became the president of the American Colonization Society (ACS). ACS was founded in 1816 by Robert Finely of New Jersey to encourage and support the migration of free-born and freed (not fugitive) slaves of African descent. In 1821-1822, settlements on the Pepper Coast of West Africa were founded, which is now known as Liberia. Leaders of African descent, such as Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth, did not support the colonization movement. They felt it respected slavery instead of abolishing the institution, especially since most of the colonization movement supporters were Southern slave owners, including Madison. Slave owners wanted to rid America of people of African descent who were free because they were a threat to slave owners by assisting in helping slaves escape. In actuality, no one tried to return slaves to the African regions they came from, such as Angola. Liberia was founded where it was because it was closest to America, meaning it was the cheapest African place to reach.

James Madison supported the extension of slavery into the West during the Missouri crisis of 1819-1821. He also never freed any of his slaves while he was alive, or through his will.

5

JAMES MONROE

DEMOCRATIC-REPUBLICAN

PRESIDENCY: 1817-1825

When James Monroe was growing up, his dreams were to have great political power and be the owner of a large plantation. The former was fulfilled as he became the 5th president; Monrovia, capital of Liberia, was even named after him. And the latter was achieved by his ownership of several plantations. He had so many plantations that his overseers moved and separated slave families around the different properties based on the production and maintenance needs of each site.

The Mason-Dixon line was taking on a different shape. Wanting to maintain the balance of power between North and South in the United States Senate, Maine was admitted into America as a free state and Missouri as a slave state. That event was known as the Missouri Compromise and signed by James Monroe.

6

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS

DEMOCRATIC-REPUBLICAN

PRESIDENCY: 1825-1829

John Quincy Adams never owned any slaves just like his father and 2nd president, John Adams. When John Quincy Adams became a congressman in 1831, he used his role as a battleground for the opposition of slavery as he became increasingly vocal about his discernment of the institution.

In 1841, John Quincy Adams joined the United States v. the Amistad case. The case made it to the United States Supreme Court, and he fought on behalf of African slaves who had revolted and seized the Spanish ship, Amistad. After Adams spoke for 4 hours, the Court agreed with him and ruled in favor of the Africans. They were then declared free and returned to their homes. The facts behind the case were the schooner La Amistad was carrying the Mende people of Sierra Leone who had been kidnapped, illegally sold into slavery and shipped to Cuba to be resold. While on the schooner, the captives escaped their shackles and took over the ship by killing the captain and cook, as two other crew members escaped in lifeboats. The Mende commanded two Spanish navigators to return them to Africa. The navigators bamboozled them and sailed north during the night. La Amistad was later apprehended and taken into custody by the U.S. Coast Guard (then the United States Cutter Service) near Long Island, New York. The Amistad case not only addressed international issues, but it also helped the abolitionist anti-slavery movement that John Quincy Adams took part in.

7

ANDREW JACKSON

DEMOCRATIC

PRESIDENCY: 1829-1837

Andrew Jackson was a proud slaveholder who had no problems with humans being property. Even though that was the case, he willingly recruited free and enslaved people of African descent to fight for the slaveholding republic of America during the War of 1812 against Britain.

Jackson's wealth came from owning slaves, and he was very protective of his assets. He felt healthy and well-treated slaves usually worked hard and were less likely to run away or revolt. So when a slave ran away from Jackson's Hermitage Plantation in Tennessee, the punishment was severe. Ten dollars extra (approximately $170 in 2020), for every hundred lashes any person will give him, to the amount of three hundred (approximately $5,100 in 2020), if the slave was returned. Those were Andrew Jackson's words from an advertisement he put in the Tennessee Gazette. If found, the slave certainly would have died by the whip. In another case, Jackson demanded a full account of your guardianship with the loss of my property, from an overseer accused of causing one of his slave's deaths. Jackson was always concerned about his financial loss, never a slave's life.

8

MARTIN VAN BUREN

DEMOCRATIC

PRESIDENCY: 1837-1841

Martin Van Buren was 100% against abolishing slavery. He refused to interfere with slavery in the states where it existed. Van Buren assured himself that abolitionists were a threat to America's unity.

By 1790, freedmen of African descent were voting in New York. In 1821, there was a convention in New York to create a new constitution proposing to end those rights. Van Buren approved a compromise that would allow them to continue to vote, only if they possessed $250 (approximately $4,750 in 2020) worth of property. In the 1820s, one acre of land could be purchased for $2 (approximately $38 in 2020), while the average wage was $6 a month (approximately $110 in 2020).

9

WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON

WHIG

PRESIDENCY: 1841

William Henry Harrison came from a wealthy family of slaveholders. He was so pro-slavery that as governor, he tried several times to introduce slavery into the Indiana Territory. His plans failed because of the anti-slavery movement happening within the territory. Harrison found another way to finagle the system. He signed the act that allowed slave owners to convert illegal slaves to indentured servants.

Harrison was only in favor of emancipation if slaves were sent back to Africa.

10

JOHN TYLER

WHIG/UNAFFILIATED

PRESIDENCY: 1841-1845

John Tyler was a slave owner who supported the existing system. As a congressman, he always voted against bills that wouldn't allow slavery in the territories. Tyler deemed slavery a states' right; therefore the federal government lacked the authority to put an end to it.

Tyler once stated, [God] works most inscrutably to the understandings of men. The Negro is torn from Africa, a barbarian, ignorant and idolatrous; he is restored, civilized, enlightened, and a Christian.

11

JAMES K. POLK

DEMOCRATIC

PRESIDENCY: 1845-1849

James K. Polk spent his adult life as a slaveholder. In 1831, he sent slaves to clear plantation land in Tennessee that was left to him by his father. A few years later, Polk sold it. He and his brother-in-law then bought a 920-acre cotton plantation in Mississippi. All of Polk's Tennessee slaves were transferred to the new plantation, taking great care to hide from them that they were being sent south. The land was richer, more fertile than the former plantation, and Polk wanted to increase his income. He didn't plan on returning to his life as a lawyer after his presidency and knew that being a plantation owner would be his route to generational wealth.

12

ZACHARY TAYLOR

WHIG

PRESIDENCY: 1849-1850

Even though Zachary Taylor was a slave owner, he didn't feel the need to expand slavery to the west. He only came to that decision because neither cotton nor sugar could easily be grown there through a plantation economy (agricultural mass production). Taylor was for protecting the Union at all costs and knew America was divided over the question of whether or not to extend slavery to the new western territories. He wanted the people of the California and New Mexico territories to decide for themselves whether or not they wanted to be a slaveholding state, by writing constitutions and swiftly applying for statehood. By doing it that way, Taylor would dodge the sectional debate over the congressional prohibition of slavery in any territorial governments organized in the area. Those in the South worried about the imbalance of the North and South Senate if two free states were admitted into America. When Taylor got word of a secession convention being called on by some Southern Democrats, he said he would hang anyone who tried to disrupt the Union by force or by conspiracy.

13

MILLARD FILLMORE

WHIG

PRESIDENCY: 1850-1853

Millard Fillmore didn't own slaves and disliked the institution, but saw no reason for it to be a political issue. In a widely published letter to an Alabamian, he said that slavery was evil, but the federal government had no authority over it.

The Fugitive Slave Act was a part of the Compromise of 1850 that Fillmore signed into law. The Compromise of 1850 was supposed to lessen the conflict between the North and South by admitting California as a free state, creating Utah and New Mexico territories by allowing slavery to be determined by the people within those states, settling a Texas-Mexico boundary dispute, ending the slave trade in Washington, D.C. and making it easier for Southerners to reclaim fugitive slaves via the Fugitive Slave Act. Runaway slaves apprehended anywhere in America had to be returned to their masters if federally appointed commissioners decided that they were fugitive slaves. That restricted due process and allowed authorities to arrest people of African descent that they suspected and returned them to slave territory, regardless of if the person was really a slave or not. It empowered federal marshals to enforce the law and specified severe penalties for noncompliance. The Fugitive Slave Act made officials pay a fine of $1,000 (approximately $30,000 in 2020) if they did not arrest an alleged runaway slave. Law enforcement could arrest any suspect based on something as little as a claimant's sworn testimony of ownership, seeing that the suspected slave couldn't ask for a jury or even testify. Providing food or shelter to a runaway slave had a punishment of six months imprisonment and a $1,000 fine (approximately $30,000 in 2020). To entice law enforcement even more to enforce the act, promotions and bonuses were given to officers who captured fugitive slaves. Kidnapping and drafting free people of African descent into slavery was the result of the Fugitive Slave Act.

God knows that I detest slavery, but it is an existing evil, for which we are not responsible, and we must endure it, and give it such protection as is guaranteed by the constitution, till we can get rid of it without destroying the last hope of free government in the world. That warning came from Fillmore as he informed the people that he would use federal troops to enforce the Fugitive Slave Act. He knew the law was endangering the liberty of those who [were] free, it should be so modified as to secure the free blacks from such an abuse, but he never revised the law. Fillmore responded that the law should not be modified until time and experience shall demonstrate the necessity of further legislation to guard against evasion or abuse. His only solution was to free the slaves and send them back to Africa. If emigration could take place at the rate of 100,000 per annum, that would not only prevent the increase of the slave population, but constantly diminish it, and at last…wipe it out entirely, making Asian immigrants admittable to replace America's slave labor.

14

FRANKLIN PIERCE

DEMOCRATIC

PRESIDENCY: 1853-1857

Franklin Pierce was the enforcer of the Fugitive Slave Act and signer of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Even though he didn't own any slaves, he saw the abolitionist movement as a threat to the unity of America. The Kansas-Nebraska Act repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820 by allowing people, not the government, to decide if slavery would be permitted within the territories of Kansas and Nebraska. The Missouri Compromise prohibited slavery north of latitude 36°30 (Oklahoma), which Kansas