In Touch With Fatherhood

By Betty Miller Buttram
FWIS Contributing Writer

Prior to being enslaved for their free labor, in many African societies, it was traditional that the boys were often raised to be men who would be the dominant force within the household. These boys to men were African kings, princes, village chiefs, warriors, and medicine men who were looked upon by their families and village communities with respect. Most of them lost all that ancestry after they crossed the ocean and became wealthy property to slave owners. The spirit of their ancestors did not stay on the West Coast of Africa, but traveled with them across the ocean so that whatever crosses they had to bear the memories of their homeland would be kept alive. Oral stories were passed down from generation to generation and some enslaved African men became warriors for justice and freedom.

Denmark Vesey was born into slavery around 1767 in St. Thomas, Danish West Indies and died on July 2, 1822, in Charleston, South Carolina. While in Charleston, Vesey won a lottery and purchased his freedom around the age of 32. He became a free Black man and a community leader. Vesey worked as a carpenter and became active in the Second Presbyterian Church. In 1818, he helped found an independent African Methodist Episcopal (AME) congregation in Charleston which today is known as Mother Emanuel. Vesey was married three times and fathered four sons. In July 1822, Vesey and a group of enslaved people and free Black people planned to liberate the city of Charleston by freeing themselves and sailing to Haiti. The slave revolt plan was disclosed to Charleston’s authorities and Vesey was then convicted of plotting a slave revolt. 67 men were convicted and 35 were hanged including Vesey.

Dred Scott was born into slavery in Southampton County, Virginia around 1799. One of his slave owners, Peter Blow, moved his family, along with Scott and five other slaves, to Huntsville, Alabama in 1818 to run a farm which proved to be unsuccessful. Blow gave up farming and moved his family and slaves to St. Louis, Missouri. Blow died in 1832, and Scott was sold to Dr. John Emerson, an Army Surgeon. Emerson had several Army postings and Scott went with him to each posting. In 1833, Emerson was assigned to Fort Armstrong in the free slave state of Illinois. In 1837, Emmerson was posted to Fort Snelling in the free slave state of Minnesota and the Fort was also part of the free territory of Wisconsin. In Wisconsin, Scott met his wife, Harriet Robinson, also a slave, and they were married in a civil ceremony presided over by Harriet’s owner who happened to be a justice of the peace. Their slave marriage had no legal sanctions. Harriet’s owner then transferred ownership of Harriet to Emerson who treated the Scotts as his slaves. In 1837, Emerson transferred to Fort Jessup in Louisiana and left the Scotts behind in the free slave territory of Wisconsin and Illinois. He leased the Scotts out to other officers at that time. In 1838, Emerson met and married Eliza Jane Sanford and then sent for the Scotts to join them; they did, but Emerson was once again reassigned to Fort Snelling later that year. On a steamboat from Louisiana back north to Illinois, Harriet Scott gave birth to their first child on the Mississippi River, north of Missouri. The Scotts were the parents of two daughters, Eliza and Lizzie. They also had two sons, but both died as infants.

In 1843, Emerson died, and his widow inherited his estate which included the Scotts. Irene, the widow, continued to lease the Scotts out as hired slaves. In 1846, Scott attempted to buy his and his family’s freedom, but Irene Emerson refused the offers. The Scotts filed lawsuits to gain their freedom and that of their daughters. The Scotts claimed that they had lived in Illinois and the Wisconsin Territory for four years where slavery was illegal and laws in those jurisdictions stated that slave holders gave up their rights to slaves if the slaves stayed for an extended period. These series of freedom lawsuits were filed from 1846 to 1857 until on March 6, 1857, Chief Justice Roger B. Taney delivered the majority opinion. There were three major issues to that opinion and the first one was: Any person descended from Africans, whether slave or free, is not a citizen of the United States, according to the U.S. Constitution. This rule inflamed the tensions between pro-slavery in the South and anti-slavery in the North, pushing the country a few years later into the Civil War. The Scotts received manumitted papers on May 26,1857, but Dredd died from tuberculosis in September 1858. Harriet died on June 17, 1876.

Homer Adolph Plessy was born around 1858, 1862 or March 17, 1863, but he died on March 1, 1925. Plessy was born a free person of color in New Orleans, Louisiana. His father and his mother were both mixed-race free people of color. His paternal grandfather, Germain Plessy, was a white Frenchman and together with a free woman of color with French and African ancestry had eight children. Homer’s maternal grandparents were both of African descent and mixed race. A free person of color was primarily a person of mixed African, European, and Native American descent who were not enslaved. Plessy was a married man but had no children. He worked as a shoemaker, carpenter, was a registered voter, and an activist in his community.

In 1890, Louisiana passed the Separate Car Act, which required separate accommodations for Black and white people on railroad cars. Plessy was a member of the Committee of Citizens, who staged an act of disobedience to challenge this segregation act. Because of his mixed race, it is probable that the ticket clerk assumed Plessy was white when on June 7, 1892, Plessy bought a first-class ticket on the East Louisiana Railroad and sat in the white only section. The conductor, who was also involved in the staged act, removed Plessy from the railroad car after Plessy refused to leave. Plessy was arrested and charged before Judge John Howard Ferguson in the Orleans Parish criminal district court on October 28, 1892. Judge Ferguson ruled that Louisiana had the right to regulate railroad companies while they operated within state boundaries. In December 1892, the Louisiana Supreme Court upheld Ferguson’s ruling that the “separate but equal” legal doctrine determined that state-mandated segregation did not violate the 14th amendment if the facilities provided for both black and white people were equal.

On Father's Day, let us remember and honor Denmark Vesey, Dred Scott, and Homer Plessy for their roles as warrior, freedom fighter, and activist.