The Works of James M. Whitfield: America and Other Writings by a Nineteenth-Century African American Poet

PART III. Poems from California

205 PART III Poems from California In a letter published in the 25 November 1853 issue of Frederick Douglass ’ Paper, and then reprinted in Arguments, Pro and Con, on the Call for a National Emigration Convention, Whitfield states that the first essay he had ever written for publication, back in the winter of 1838–39, was “on the subject of emigration, recommending a concentration upon the borders of the United States, having particular reference to California.”¹ As Whitfield elaborates in the letter, he wanted African Americans to emigrate to California before “white men have gone in and possessed the soil, and made laws to degrade the negro below the level of the brute.” The fact that Whitfield chose to move there with his family in late 1861 or early 1862 suggests that he believed there were still opportunities for African Americans in the state. If he had traveled South of the U.S. border sometime between 1859 and 1861, he now wanted to lay claim to his rights as a U.S. citizen. Whitfield quickly found a place in San Francisco’s African American community as a political leader, Prince Hall Mason and eventual Grand Master, barber, and poet. He did not publish many poems during this period, but he was called upon at key moments to offer commemorative verse on public occasions. All of Whitfield’s California poetry appeared in either the Pacific Appeal or the Elevator, two of the most prominent African American newspapers in northern California. Subtitled “A Weekly Journal, devoted to the Interests of the People of Color,” the Pacific Appeal was published by Peter Anderson in San Francisco, with Philip A. Bell acting as editor.² “A Weekly Paper,” wrote Bell, “is needed in California 206 Poems from California as much as in the Atlantic States: one which will be the exponent of our views and principles, our defense against calumny and oppression, and our representative among one of the recognized institutions of Civilization.” The Pacific Appeal was dedicated to advocating equality before the law for African Americans and, in particular, repealing the laws that prohibited blacks from testifying in court cases in which a white person was a party. In the 5 April 1862 inaugural issue of the newspaper, Bell appealed to California’s black population: “There are said to be six thousand Colored people in California, sufficient, if only one tenth subscribe, to support our paper; that proportion, say six hundred, we must have within six months, for the remaining four hundred, we must depend on our neighbors on the northern coast.”³ If we take the paper’s sales agents as indicative of demographics, the Pacific Appeal points to the growing presence of African Americans throughout the West. The paper had agents in a number of towns between San Francisco and the eastern border of California in its early months, and by 1864 it had agents as far north as Victoria, British Columbia , and as far south as Panama. A four-page weekly, the Pacific Appeal would have been an ideal venue for Whitfield, since it regularly featured poetry in a dedicated column. In the issue of 9 August 1862, which published Whitfield’s letter on the need for the Union to recruit black troops, the editors announced “with pride and pleasure” that Whitfield had agreed to become a contributing editor. And yet he failed to publish there on a regular basis, perhaps because of a recurring health problem. As Whitfield remarked in a letter of 22 October 1862 to the newspaper: “I have had a kind of inflammation in the eyes which has prevented me from contributing to the columns of the APPEAL. I will try and make a commencement in a few days, and endeavor to be more prompt in the future.” Whitfield ultimately published just two poems and two letters in the newspaper, or at least in the extant issues of the paper. The editors no doubt hoped for more from Whitfield, for in the issue of 14 March 1863 there was yet another announcement that “J. M. Whitfield ” had been added to the roster of “Our Contributors.”⁴ Poems from California 207 Whitfield’s first poem for the Pacific Appeal, “Elegy on T. T. Tatum, Esq.,” appeared in November 1862, in the midst of the Civil War, and lamented the death of Thomas T. Tatum, an African American abolitionist whom Whitfield knew during the early 1840s in Buffalo. Making...