245 WEST 139TH ST.,
NEW YORK CITY,

August 6, 1920.

DR. CARTER G. WOODSON 1216 You St., N.W., Washington, D. C.

Dear Sir:

In looking over the data published in the January number of The Journal of Negro History relative to the Reconstruction period in South Carolina I find several errors which I would be glad to have you correct in the next number:

Page 81-The christian name of Senator Bird is Israel.

Page 83-The initials of Fraser, representative from Colleton County are W. H.

Page 84-Aaron Logan was from Charleston county and Samuel P. Coker from Barnwell county.

Page 89-Opposite name of Joseph H. Rainey, strike out 46th, 47th and 48th and insert 43rd. See sketch on page 95.

Page 90-F. B. Perry should be B. F. Perry.

Page 97-under Robert C. DeLarge, should be 1868-1870 as a member of the House of Representatives.

Page 98-Under Francis L. Cardozo-four years as State Treasurer instead of two. See page 89.

Pages 103 and 104-A. Q. Jones should be A. O. Jones.

Page 104 countries should be counties.

Page 85-Jervay, Page 107-Jervay and Jarvey-should be Jervey.

Page 100 Under Thomas E. Miller-1866 should be 1886 as member of the S. C. House of Representatives.

Additional members of the Senate:
Jared Warley-Clarendon County
Dublin I Walker-Chester County
J. L. Duncan-Orangeburg County

Additional Members of the House of Representatives:
Abbeville Co.-Everett Cain, H. A. Wideman,

Aiken Co.-Gloster H. Holland, W. B. Jones
Barnwell Co.-B. W. Middleton, E. M. Sumpter

Charleston Co.-R. B. Artson, P. P. Hedges, J. J. Hardy, J. J.

Grant, J. W. Lloyd, C. F North, Lewis Simmons

Chester Co-Ceasar Simmons

Colleton Co.-Sherman Smalls, R. S. Tarlton

Edgefield Co.-David Graham, Augustus Simpkins

Georgetown Co.-Charles H. Sperry

Kershaw Co.-Frank Adamson

Laurens Co.-James Young

Marion Co.--William A. Hayne

Marlboro Co.-Jacob Allman

Newberry Co.-Isham Greenwood

Orangeburg Co.-John Dix, Abram Dannerly, H Reilly

Sumter Co.-W. W. Ramsey, J. C. Wilson

Williamsburg Co.-Fortune Giles, E. H. Gourdin, Thomas

Pressley

Relative to Hon. J. H. Rainey I would state that he was the only Negro Congressman who presided over the U. S. House of Representatives. That courtesy was extended to him by Speaker James G. Blaine.

The following may be interesting in connection with Senator W. B. Nash:

"It is not too much to say that the leading man of the
Republican party in the Senate is Beverly Nash, a man
wholly black. He is apparently consulted more and ap-
pealed to more, in the business of the body, than any man
in it. It is admitted by his white opposition colleagues
that he has more native ability than half the white men in
the State"
The Prostrate State-J. S. Pike.
"Beverley Nash of Columbia is probably the foremost
Negro in the State. He has made many speeches, which,
homely in manner, have, nevertheless, a subsoil of strong
common sense. He has been employed by the Military
authorities from time to time in aiding, by "moral
suasion" to preserve peace; is about 45 years of age; was
formerly a hotel servant in Columbia where he still
resides. Some months ago, on the same platform with
Gen. Wade Hampton and other distinguished citizens he
made a speech to the colored people recommending quali-
fied suffrage; but subsequently was obliged by high-
pressure to recant, and to set himself right has since be-
come intensely radical. His idea now is that the Negro
is entitled to everything the white man enjoys an opinion
which has been encouraged by his appointment as magis-
trate, General Sickles having conferred the office upon
him to punish the citizens of Columbia for an assault

made by two intoxicated young men on a itinerant radical speaker and his traveling companion while in that town" "Q" in New York Times-March 23, 1868. The above would indicate that Senator W. Beverly Nash was the first Negro to exercise judicial power in the United States.

Concerning Associate Justice J. J. Wright I would add that he graduated from the Lancaster, Pa., High School-studied law at Montrose, Pa.,-admitted to the Bar in Susquehanna county, being the first Negro to practice law in Pennsylvania-four years before going to South Carolina.

Dear Mr. Woodson:

Very respectfully,

HENRY A. WALLACE.

WASHINGTON, D. C., May 9, 1920.

The Journal of Negro History is among the most valuable periodicals that it is my privilege to receive. I make it a rule to read all the articles of a purely historical nature.

Your recent effort to gather and print a list of the Negro officeholders of the reconstructive period is highly commendable, and should be aided by all persons possessing accurate or approximate facts on the subjects. There were numerous such holders of small offices, national, state, county and municipal, in the Southern states in that period. As a boy, I knew two such in the town and county in which I lived. Doubtless many other persons of 50 years or less

know of several.

Mr. John W. Cromwell's articles in the April number, "The Aftermath of Nat Turner's Insurrection," is not only scholarly and interesting but a very valuable contribution to history.

There is a vast amount of fact reposing only in the memories of elderly people now living that should be rescued and recorded while they live, lest it is lost forever. Perhaps the record of it will not be history proper but only annals, or a record of events. It is none the less important to secure it. It is of minor importance whether it be written in polished literary form. It will constitute source matter for the future historian. For some time to come we shall be in less need of dissertations that are philosophy of Negro history than of accurate records of events-facts, facts, facts!

I have conversed with a number of elderly colored men and women in this city who have a wonderful fund of recollection of

interesting and valuable historical data never in print. There are such people everywhere. Some cannot write, others will not write. If discriminating chroniclers are encouraged to write down the stories of such people for publication in your Journal, the result should be fruitful.

I congratulate you on the average excellence of the subjects covered by the Journal and the scholarly editing thereof.

DR. CARTER G. WOODSON,

Yours very sincerely,

Editor, Journal of Negro History.

(Signed) R. C. EDMONDSON.

SOME UNDISTINGUISHED NEGROES

FRED FOWLER

Fred Fowler was born about 1832 in Frederick County, Maryland. His first master, Michael Reel, had a farm and a flour mill about four miles from Frederick City. Reel owned sixteen slaves, among whom were Fred's mother and her eight children. Fred's father belonged to a man named Doyle, who had an adjoining farm. Doyle sold the father to a man named Fisher, who subsequently put up the first gas factory in Frederick.

On the death of Michael Reel, in 1847, his estate had to be divided. Some of the slaves were disposed of according to appraisement, others at auction. Fred, then about fifteen years old, was taken at the appraised value of $400 by a son of the deceased Reel. If auctioned off, he thought he might have brought somewhat more.

At this sale his mother and one child were bought for $500 by a man named Todd, who subsequently sold her to Dr. Shipley. Four children were purchased by men supposed to be traders, who presumably took them to Georgia, which, according to the sentiment of "Nellie Gray," was the slave's notion of some far-away place where the speculators found a market. No one of these four was ever seen or heard from after they were put on the train for Baltimore. The other children, two sisters, were taken away by a man named Roach, but that was all that was then known. The almost invariable rule in the inter-state slave-trade was that separation ended all communication with those left behind. In 1887forty years after the sale-these sisters wrote a letter to a colored church in Frederick asking for information about the slaves that belonged to the Reel family. Someone in the church knew that Fred Fowler was living in Washington, D. C. The letter was forwarded to him and from it he learned that these sisters had been taken to Columbia, Tennessee and were still living. A meeting soon followed.

When Fred was twenty years old, young Reel, who was about to move to Springfield, Illinois, sold him privately for $1,000 to Dr. Willis who lived in New Market, Frederick County, Mary