Letter from Richmond p.2
Dublin Core
Title
Letter from Richmond p.2
Description
"Mr. Editor;—Through your faithful journal I take the opporturnity of informing my friends, including yourself, of my whereabouts, and the progress of my Episcopal career. For the first time I am now in the midst of the place once renowned as the stronghold of the American rebellion—Richmond. To me it is a place of peculiar interest. Its architecture is of the Doric order, showing the retarding influence of slavery. To my astonishment I find a large number of colored people living in the same fashionable style of [ill] people in the Northern cities, indulging in the same gay attire. I am informed that there are forty thousand colored persons in Richmond.
I have been treated with distinguished courtesy and hospitality by the people. I have had the pleasure of an introduction to John Oliver, Esq., a colored Notary Public in Richmond. Mr. Oliver has been to California, and is acquainted with the editor of The Elevator; he has his office in the City Hall, adjoining the Mayor’s office.
The colored people are making considerable progress, intellectually, morally, and socially, cosidering all things; there is great work to do for the[ill -vation] of the masses to their proper [ill -tion]. On the Fourth of July ten thousand were on the streets and about the Capital Square, parading to martial music.
The greatest temporal want of our people here in Virginia is lands, by whom they may be able to secure comfortable and independent livings. The whites having control of the land, very frequently rob them of their hard earnings by fraudulent contracts for labor. The Freedmen’s Bureau is not adequate to protect them from this evil. Had the Government secured the freedmen in lands with titles in them, it would have saved thousands of dollars expended in rations. Land would have given the freedmen a social status that nothing else can secure, in the way of self-support and independence. It is gratifying, however, to know that our people are getting land where ever they have means to do so.
I have been informed by a reliable persons connected with the Bureau, that many thousands of the poor whites get rations which the Bureau receives no credit for, as they are distributed privately to the whites, which is injustice to us, as the total amount expended for the said rations is set down to the colored people’s expenses to the government.
We greatly need such a journal as The Elevator in the State of Virginia to vindicate our cause and secure justice for our people; but we hope for better days.
I hereby tender my kind regards to you, Mr. Editor, and all my friends, wishing you are your good journal great success."
I have been treated with distinguished courtesy and hospitality by the people. I have had the pleasure of an introduction to John Oliver, Esq., a colored Notary Public in Richmond. Mr. Oliver has been to California, and is acquainted with the editor of The Elevator; he has his office in the City Hall, adjoining the Mayor’s office.
The colored people are making considerable progress, intellectually, morally, and socially, cosidering all things; there is great work to do for the[ill -vation] of the masses to their proper [ill -tion]. On the Fourth of July ten thousand were on the streets and about the Capital Square, parading to martial music.
The greatest temporal want of our people here in Virginia is lands, by whom they may be able to secure comfortable and independent livings. The whites having control of the land, very frequently rob them of their hard earnings by fraudulent contracts for labor. The Freedmen’s Bureau is not adequate to protect them from this evil. Had the Government secured the freedmen in lands with titles in them, it would have saved thousands of dollars expended in rations. Land would have given the freedmen a social status that nothing else can secure, in the way of self-support and independence. It is gratifying, however, to know that our people are getting land where ever they have means to do so.
I have been informed by a reliable persons connected with the Bureau, that many thousands of the poor whites get rations which the Bureau receives no credit for, as they are distributed privately to the whites, which is injustice to us, as the total amount expended for the said rations is set down to the colored people’s expenses to the government.
We greatly need such a journal as The Elevator in the State of Virginia to vindicate our cause and secure justice for our people; but we hope for better days.
I hereby tender my kind regards to you, Mr. Editor, and all my friends, wishing you are your good journal great success."
Creator
J.J. Moore
Publisher
San Francisco Elevator
Date
1868-7-31
Collection
Citation
J.J. Moore, “Letter from Richmond p.2,” African American Fourth of July, accessed April 29, 2024, https://africanamerican4th.omeka.net/items/show/286.