amples of the love and loyalty of a southern gentleman, for his children and their mother of color, that we can find in the history of that dark day. It reminds us of a number of like cases, as we have found them at the present time in many parts of the South. We regret to say that this country is just as much in the dark thraldom of slavery for the colored woman who has found her affinity in a white man, as it was in the days gone by, as far as a legal union is concerned, and her rights before the law as a legal wife. Colonel Robert Harlan, born in Mecklenburg county, Virginia, December 12, 1816. His father was a white man and his mother three parts white. He was a shrewd, persevering business man, a legislator and public-spirited man. He resided in England a number of years. Samuel Jefferson Davis, successful business man, a millionaire. Born on the Davis plantation in Mississippi, in 1840. When Jefferson Davis was chosen to the highest office in the Confederacy his slave, Sam, went to Milledgeville, the first capital, with him. At the close of the war, Jefferson Davis gave him $500.00 and told him to move to the North to live his new life as a free man. Sam obeyed and is now one of the richest Negroes in the country. Rev. Bartlett Taylor, a financier and one of the great pioneer Christian workers in the Negro race. He was born in Henderson county, Kentucky, February 14, 1815. His mother be longed to Jonathan Taylor, who was her master and his father. Bishop James Varick, the founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, was born about 1750. It has been difficult to tell to what nationality he belonged. It is certain, however, that he was of Dutch extraction. His father was born in Hackensack, New Jersey, but moved to New York with his parents when a child. It is certain that through the veins of Bishop Varick flowed the blood of the Negro, the Dutchman and the Indian. The great dome of his cranium shows him to have been the possessor of a remarkable mind. In him seemed to have centered the characteristics of three races, in that early day. Rev. B. F. Wheeler, D.D., who is the author of a book on the "Varick Family," has this to say of James Varick's genealogy: "In the history of New York city the rich and distinguished Varick family has figured most conspicuously in its social, political and commercial life for the last two centuries. One of the members of this cultured Varick family was mayor of New York city. The Varick Bank of New York city is named in honor of, and controlled by this same strong and influential family. Varick street, on which I have walked many times, which runs from Clarkson street to Canal, is also named after this distinguished family. It is possible that Varick's mother at one time was a slave in the family." This same biographer of the bishop states that the hair of this man was straight and his beard curly. Among the leading colored Caucasian women we would mention Mrs. Mary Church Terrell, Mrs. Josephine St. P. Ruffin, Olivia D. Washington, Fannie Barrier Williams, and a host of others, equally noted. THE FULL-BLOODED NEGRO HAS TALENT. In this chapter we have perhaps made the impression that we do not give any credit to the ability of the full-blood African who has exhibited wonderful mental capacity and natural capability in many instances in this country. We wish to say that we give full credit to the pure-blood Negro, for all that he has done in the way of exhibiting his ability to obtain a full grasp, in many instances, of the learning of the Caucasian. He has by no means been entirely exempt from becoming a "smart nigger." In each succeeding generation he climbs higher and comes nearer the recognized standard of the Caucasian mind. Extraordinary ability is rare in any race, and it is not confined to any one race, but is about equally divided. It may be latent in the fullblood Negro in America, to a large extent, but it is by no means absent-no, not even in the wildest African savage. Many African slaves brought to this country had the high intellectual forehead of "Uncle Tom" in Uncle Tom's Cabin, and these "niggers" were always considered dangerous by the slave dealers. Before they set their |