"AT SEA, Jan. 1, 1813.

"My officers conducted themselves in a way that would have done honor to a more permanent service. The name of one of my poor fellows who was killed ought to be registered in the book of fame, and remembered with reverence as long as bravery is a virtue, He was a black man, by the name of John Johnson. A twenty-four pound shot struck him in the hip and took away all the lower part of his body. In this state the poor, brave fellow lay on the deck, and several times exclaimed to his shipmates, Fire away, my boys; no haul a color down!' The other was a black man by the name of John Davis, and was struck in much the same way. He fell near me, and several times requested to be thrown overboard, saying he was only in the way of others. While America has such tars, she has little to fear from the tyrants of the ocean."

Captain Perry had command of the American fleet on Lake Erie. He objected to recruits sent him, and described them in a letter to Commodore Chauncey,as "a motley set-blacks, soldiers and boys." Commodore Chauncey replied: "I regret that you are not pleased with the men sent you.

I have yet to learn that the color of the skin, or the cut and trimmings of the coat, can affect a man's qualifications or usefulness. I have

fifty blacks on board this ship, and many of them are among my best men."

Usher Parsons, Surgeon of the "Java," under Commodore Perry, wrote that the whites and blacks of his ship messed together, and there seemed to be no prejudice.

The End of the War of 1812 meant victory for America, and the Negro had scored a telling point in behalf of his recognition as an American citizen. But still many were in slavery

Major Jeffreys, a "regular," during the engagement of Major-General Andrew Jackson at Mobile, mounted a horse and rallied the retreating troops to victory against the British, when the white commanders were forced to retire and defeat seemed certain. Gen. Jackson gave him the title of Major, which he bore till his death in Nashville, Tenn, He was much respected by all classes. On one occasion a white ruffian insulted him. Words ensued, and Major Jeffreys was forced to strike the white man in self-defence. For this, at the age of seventy years, this veteran, who had won a victory for his country on the battle-field, was ordered to be given

nine and thirty lashes with a raw hide." He did not recover from the effects of this treatment, and soon died of a broken heart.

Jordon Noble was among the colored veterans of the War of 1812. For a long time after the war

he lived in New Orleans, where he was brought out on every great occasion to give enthusiasm. Jordon Noble's name appearing in connection with any great occasion was sufficient guarantee of a tremendous crowd. He was drummer to the First Regiment Louisiana Volunteers in the Mexican War of 1846, and led the attack against the British in the Battle of New Orleans under Jackson in 1814. He was known as the "matchless drummer."

CHAPTER XIV.

EFFORTS FOR FREEDOM.

The War of 1812 was now over.

America remained at peace with other nations about thirtytwo years, when the Mexican war broke out in 1846. During this interval a war of words between Americans themselves was waged; and there were heroes in this contest, many of them Negroes and former slaves, and some of them women, who merit equal rank with the brave heroes of former battles.

The Abolitionists who were opposed to slavery, furnished many brave hearts and strong minds from their ranks. Their work began very early in the history of the colonies; it continued with slow growth for awhile, but nevertheless certain and effectual. The Quakers of Pennsylvania were foremost in the work of abolition. They set nearly all their slaves free. Anti-slavery societies were formed in nearly all the Northern States.

Benjamin Lundy is mentioned as the earliest leader of the Abolitionists. He published a paper called The Genius of Universal Emancipation. He visited nineteen States of the Union, travelled up

wards of five thousand miles on foot, and more than twenty thousand in other ways, and held more than two hundred public meetings. Lundy's paper was not regarded as very dangerous to the institution of slavery; but the Journal of the Times, published first at Bennington, Vermont, in support of J. Q. Adams for the presidency, became the inveterate foe to slavery under the editorship of William Lloyd Garrison, who was mobbed in the streets of Boston, and imprisoned for libel in the city of Baltimore for denouncing the crew of the ship "Francis Todd," on board of which were many ill-treated slaves bound for the slave marts of New Orleans. Garrison and Lundy united in getting out The Genius of Universal Emancipation at Baltimore.

Arthur Tappan, before this, paid Garrison's fine, and the enemy to slavery commenced his war with more vigor and zeal than before. In 1831 The Liberator was first published by Garrison, and, as was his desire, it continued till "every slave in America was free."

A "Colored Man," James Forten, sent $50 among the first twenty-five subscriptions that came to The Liberator. Garrison thought it his duty to obey God rather than man, and he denounced the Constitution of the United States as being a "Covenant with death and an agreement with hell," because he held that it supported slavery.