Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-8bljj Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-24T18:43:14.308Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Black Senator from Mississippi: Blanche K. Bruce (1841–1898)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2009

Samuel Shapiro
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Although born a slave and held in bondage until past his twenty-first birthday, Blanche K. Bruce escaped the worst cruelties of the Peculiar Institutions. He was born in a slave cabin near Farmville, the county seat of Prince Edward County, Virginia, on 1 March 1841. Youngest of eleven children born to his slave mother Polly, Bruce was an octoroon or quadroon, with light skin and Caucasian features; his father's name and race, however, are apparently unknown.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Review of Politics , Volume 44 , Issue 1 , January 1982 , pp. 83 - 109
Copyright
Copyright © University of Notre Dame 1982

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 St. Clair, Sadie Daniel, “The National Career of Blanche Kelso Bruce” (Ph.D. diss., New York University, 1947), p. 10Google Scholar.

2 Bruce, Henry K., The New Man. Twenty-nine Years a Slave, Twenty-nine Years a Free Man, 2nd ed. (New York, 1969), p. 14Google Scholar.

3 Bruce, , New Man, pp. iii, 14–15Google Scholar.

4 St. Clair, , “Bruce,” pp. 11–14Google Scholar; Bruce, , New Man, pp. 15–17Google Scholar.

5 Bruce, , New Man, pp. 60–63Google Scholar; St. Clair, , “Bruce,” pp. 15–16Google Scholar.

6 Bruce, , New Man, pp. 65–71Google Scholar.

7 Ibid., pp. 84–85.

8 Ibid., pp. 99–100.

9 Kansas City Times, 17 October 1886, quoted in St. Clair, , “Bruce,” p. 20Google Scholar.

10 Ibid.

11 Urofsky, Melvin I., “Blanche K. Bruce: United States Senator, 1875–1881,” Journal of Mississippi History, 29 (1967), 120Google Scholar.

12 St. Clair, , “Bruce,” p. 54Google Scholar.

13 The 1860 census reported 9,226 slaves out of a total population of 10,471, leaving only 1,254 nonblacks, some of whom were Indian. In 1890, there were 29,980 Negroes in the county, and only 3,230 whites. Sillers, F. W., History of Bolivar County, Mississippi (Jackson, Mississippi, 1948), p. 9Google Scholar.

14 Wharton, V. L., The Negro in Mississippi, 1865–1890 (New York, 1965), p. 169Google Scholar.

15 Bruce's, letter to the Editor, Kansas City Times, 17 10 1886Google Scholar, quoted in Urofsky, , “Bruce: U.S. Senator,” p. 121Google Scholar.

16 Sillers, , Bolivar County, p. 590Google Scholar.

17 St. Clair, , “Bruce,” p. 54Google Scholar.

18 Ibid., p. 60.

19 Ibid., pp. 214–15.

20 Urofsky, , “Bruce: U.S. Senator,” p. 123Google Scholar.

21 Wharton, , Negro in Mississippi, p. 164Google Scholar; Lynch, John R., Reminiscences of an Active Life (Chicago, 1970), pp. 113–18Google Scholar.

22 Wharton, , Negro in Mississippi, p. 176Google Scholar.

23 St. Clair, , “Bruce,” pp. 70–73Google Scholar.

24 Journal of the Senate of the State of Mississippi … 1874 (Jackson, Mississippi, 1874), pp. 96–103Google Scholar.

25 The Natchez Daily Democrat and Courier, 15 July 1874, gleefully reported the ejection of Congressman John R. Lynch from a Holly Springs restaurant. It is filled with accounts of violence, murder, and lynching of Negroes, e.g., July 22, August 2, September 4, September 30, November 23, 29, December 9, 10, 1874.

26 Smith, Samuel D., The Negro in Congress, 1870–1901 (Chapel Hill, 1940), p. 62Google Scholar.

27 Hirshon, Stanley P., Farewell to the Bloody Shirt: Northern Republicans and the Southern Negro, 1877–1893 (Chicago, 1968), p. 10Google Scholar.

28 St. Clair, , “Bruce,” p. 140Google Scholar.

29 Congressional Record, 44 Cong., spec, sess., 1.

30 Cromwell, John W., The Negro in American History (Washington: The American Negro Academy, 1914), pp. 28–29CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

31 St. Clair, , “Bruce,” pp. 100–101Google Scholar.

32 Ibid., p. 94.

33 Congressional Record, 44 Cong., 1 sess., 1444; 45 Cong., 1 sess., 797.

34 St. Clair, , “Bruce,” p. 163Google Scholar.

35 Ibid., p. 110; Congressional Record, 46 Cong., 1 sess., 2243.

36 St. Clair, , “Bruce,” p. 123Google Scholar.

37 Cate, W. A., Lucius Q. C. Lamar (Chapel Hill, 1955), p. 319Google Scholar.

38 St. Clair, , “Bruce,” p. 138Google Scholar.

39 Congressional Record, 45 Cong., 3 sess, 1314.

40 Wharton, , Negro in Mississippi, pp. 97–99Google Scholar.

41 Congressional Record, 44 Cong., 1 sess., 1444–1445.

42 Congressional Record, 44 Cong., 2 sess., 2441.

43 Urofsky, , “Bruce: U.S. Senator,” p. 136; Congressional Record, 46 Cong., 2 sess., 2249; 45 Cong., 2 sess., 2289Google Scholar.

44 Congressional Record, 46 Cong., 2 sess., 1041; 46 Cong., 3 sess., 477.

45 St. Clair, , “Bruce,” p. 98Google Scholar; Congressional Record, 44 Cong., 1 sess., 815, 849, 885.

46 St. Clair, , “Bruce,” pp. 147–49, 284–96Google Scholar; Urofsky, , “Bruce: U.S. Senator,” pp. 135–36Google Scholar.

47 Sillers, , Bolivar County, pp. 28–33Google Scholar.

48 Lynch, , Reminiscences, pp. 324–26Google Scholar.

49 John R. Lynch to Benjamin Harrison, 2 July 1888, Harrison Papers, Library of Congress.

50 St. Clair, , “Bruce,” p. 200Google Scholar.

51 Telegram, BKB to Benjamin Harrison, 7 November 1888, Harrison Papers.

52 New Orleans Times, 17 February 1876, quoted in St. Clair, , “Bruce,” pp. 96–97Google Scholar.

53 St. Clair, , “Bruce,” p. 160Google Scholar; Lynch, , Reminiscences, p. 212Google Scholar.

54 St. Clair, , “Bruce,” p. 174Google Scholar.

55 Autobiography of Hiram R. Revels, in Carter G. Woodson Collection, Library of Congress, quoted in St. Clair, , “Bruce,” p. 173Google Scholar.

56 Ibid., pp. 177–78.

57 Ibid., p. 184

58 Bruce, , New Man, pp. 157, 160Google Scholar.

59 St. Clair, , “Bruce,” p. 182Google Scholar.

60 Ibid., p. 190.

61 Ibid., p. 188.

62 Lynch, , Reminiscences, p. 285Google Scholar.

63 New York Times, 23 November 1884.

64 Quoted by Oliver P. Morton, Congressional Record, 44 Cong., 1 sess., 889.

65 Sillers, , Bolivar County, pp. 162–63Google Scholar.

66 New York Freeman, 10 January 1885, quoting Boston Commonwealth, quoted in St. Clair, , “Bruce,” p. 188Google Scholar.

67 Logan, Rayford W., The Betrayal of the Negro (New York, 1967), p. 60Google Scholar.

68 Lynch, , Reminiscences, p. 311Google Scholar.

69 L. Q. C. Lamar to BKB, 18 October 1879, Bruce Papers, Howard University Library, quoted in Urofsky, , “Bruce: U.S. Senator,” p. 135Google Scholar.

70 Lynch, , Reminiscences, p. 313Google Scholar.

71 St. Clair, , “Bruce,” p. 196Google Scholar.

72 Ibid., p. 199.

73 Washington Bee, 2 January 1886.

74 The Cleveland Gazette, 13 July 1889, enclosed in J. M. Townsend to E. J. Halford, 31 July 1889, Harrison Papers.

75 St. Clair, , “Bruce,” p. 206Google Scholar.

76 Lynch, , Reminiscences, p. 331Google Scholar.

77 New York Daily Tribune, 22 April 1889, quoted in St. Clair, , “Bruce,” p. 201Google Scholar.

78 New York Age, 16 November 1889, quoted in St. Clair, , “Bruce,” p. 203Google Scholar.

79 Hirshon, , Bloody Shirt, pp. 169–73Google Scholar.

80 New York Age, 6 July 1889, quoted in St. Clair, , “Bruce,” p. 204Google Scholar.

81 New York Age, 12 October 1889, quoted in St. Clair, , “Bruce,” p. 203Google Scholar.

82 Lynch, , Reminiscences, p. 352Google Scholar.

83 Lynch, , Reminiscences, pp. 330, 331, 352Google Scholar.

84 Lynch, , Reminiscences, p. 331Google Scholar; St. Clair, , “Bruce,” pp. 207–208Google Scholar.

85 The Freeman, 1 February 1890, quoted in St. Clair, , “Bruce,” p. 208Google Scholar.

86 Lynch, , Reminiscences, p. 352Google Scholar.

87 Clipping enclosed in A. J. Chambers to Benjamin Harrison, 11 June 1890, Harrison Papers.

88 The Washington Bee, August 2, 9, September 13, 20, December 20, 1890.

89 A. J. Chambers to Benjamin Harrison, 11 June 1890, Harrison Papers.

90 Hirshon, , Bloody Shirt, p. 232Google Scholar.

91 Logan, , Betrayal, pp. 80–82Google Scholar.

92 Crofts, Daniel W., “The Black Response to the Blair Education Bill,” Journal of Southern History, 37 (1971), 61–62Google Scholar.

93 Washington Bee, September 12, 19, October 10, 1891.

94 Washington Bee, 8 August 1891.

95 Washington Bee, 11 April 1891.

96 Endorsements to letter from BKB and John R. Lynch to E. W. Halford, 28 July 1891, Harrison Papers.

97 BKB to Harrison, 15 August 1891, Harrison Papers.

98 Washington Bee, 20 May 1893.

99 St. Clair, , “Bruce,” p. 222Google Scholar.

100 Ibid., pp. 215–18.

101 Ibid., p. 219.

102 New York Daily Tribune, 30 April 1896, quoted in St. Clair, , “Bruce,” p. 223Google Scholar.

103 The Freeman, 19 December 1896, quoted in St. Clair, , “Bruce,” p. 225Google Scholar.

104 Lynch, , Reminiscences, p. 374Google Scholar.

105 DrHenderson, J. S., letter to The Freeman, 2 01 1897Google Scholar, quoted in St. Clair, , “Bruce,” p. 227Google Scholar.

106 BKB to Booker T. Washington, 7 December 1897, Washington Papers, Library of Congress, quoted in St. Clair, , “Bruce,” p. 234Google Scholar.

107 St. Clair, , “Bruce,” pp. 230–31Google Scholar.

108 BKB to Marcus A. Hanna, 10 February 1897, in Bruce; Personnel Folder, Treasury Department, quoted in St. Clair, , “Bruce,” p. 229Google Scholar; BKB to William McKinley, ibid., quoted in St. Clair, “Bruce,” p. 311.

109 William McKinley to J. J. Gage, 2 December 1897, in Bruce Personnel Folder, quoted in St. Clair, , “Bruce,” p. 233Google Scholar.

110 BKB to L. J. Gage, 4 January 1898, Treasury Records, National Archives, quoted in St. Clair, , “Bruce,” p. 235Google Scholar.

111 Lynch, , Reminiscences, p. 402Google Scholar.

112 Lynch, , Reminiscences, pp. 404–405Google Scholar.

113 John A. Porter to BKB, 29 July 1897; John R. Lynch and others to BKB, 17 January 1898; BKB to William McKinley, 10 February 1898; John R. Lynch to McKinley, 15 April 1898, McKinley Papers.

114 Lynch, , Reminiscences, pp. 399–401Google Scholar.

115 Logan, Betrayal, chap. 5.

116 BKB to McKinley, 10 February 1898, McKinley Papers.

117 The phrase is from the famous farewell speech of Congressman George H. White of North Carolina on 29 January 1901, quoted in Smith, , Negro in Congress, p. 128Google Scholar.

118 St. Clair, , “Bruce,” pp. 238–39Google Scholar.

119 Green, J. P. “The Last Public Act,” The Freeman, 26 03 1898Google Scholar, quoted in St. Clair, , “Bruce,” p. 238Google Scholar.

120 Quoted in St. Clair, , “Bruce,” p. 253Google Scholar.

121 Letter to the Editor, Cincinnati Commercial, 19 February 1878, quoted in St. Clair, , “Bruce,” p. 275Google Scholar.