James George Barbadoes

James George Barbadoes ( 1796–June 22, 1841) was an African-American, community leader, and abolitionist in Boston, Massachusetts in the early 19th century. Dedicated to improving the lives of African-American people at the local level, as well as the national level.

Family History

Grandparents

James G. Barbadoes' grandfather, Quawk Abel Barbadoes (xxxx-1757), perhaps from Barbados, was enslaved by John Simonds (1729–1812) Lexington, Massachusetts. Abel and Kate were "received into the church" on April 19, 1754, in Lexington, Massachusetts. Quawk died three years later. They had three children: Isaac Barbadoes (1755–1777), who died in service to his country at the Battle of Saratoga, 15th Massachusetts Regiment, Mercy Barbadoes (1755-xxxx), and Abel Barbadoes (1756–1817).

Wives and Children

James G. Barbadoes married his first wife, Almira Long, on May 28, 1818, in Boston, Massachusetts.

Prominent African Lodge #459 Members:

Isaac Barbadoes, Tailor James G. Barbadoes, Hairdresser Thomas Dalton, Bootblack, husband of Lucy Lew, son-in-law of Barzillai Lew Aaron Gaul, Sawyer John T. Hilton, Hairdresser Peter Lew, son of Barzillai Lew Walker Lewis, Hairdresser David Walker, Clothing Dealer

Massachusetts General Colored Association

In 1826, several members of the African Lodge #459 Prince Hall Freemasonry in Boston, Massachusetts, including James G. Barbadoes, met and established the Massachusetts General Colored Association "to promote the welfare of the race by working for the destruction of slavery." The Association was an early supporter of William Lloyd Garrison. Association members were also active in organizations to further their objectives, such as the African Society, the Abiel Smith School, and the African Meeting House.

The organization was especially concerned with the following Issues:

Thomas Dalton, President William G. Nell, Vice President James G. Barbadoes, Secretary

Other Founding Members included:

Frederick Brimley; Thomas Cole; Hosea Easton; Joshua Easton; John T. Hilton; Walker Lewis; Coffin Pitts, husband of Clarissa Ann Barbadoes, brother-in-law of James G. Barbadoes; John E. Scarlett; David Walker.

The Liberator

One month before the first edition of The Liberator, December 10, 1830, William Lloyd Garrison spoke to a gathering of "colored citizens" in Boston, Massachusetts; among those present was James Barbadoes, who writes to Garrison in a February 12, 1831 edition of the paper. The Editor is addressed as "Esteemed Friend", and his speech is commended. Barbadoes says, "...nothing was ever uttered more important and beneficial to our color...full of virtue and consolation, perfect in explanation, and it furnished a rule to live by and to die by."

First Annual Convention of Free People of Color

In 1831, the following African Americans represented Massachusetts as delegates to the First National Convention of Free People of Color, held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - James G. Barbadoes, a hairdresser, Reverend Hosea Easton, Henry H. Moody, Robert Roberts, a printer, and Reverend Samuel Snowden. Barbadoes was appointed vice president.

American Colonization Society

On February 15, 1831, pursuant to public notice, a meeting was held by the colored citizens of Boston, Massachusetts, at their schoolhouse, for the purpose of expressing their sentiments in a remonstrance against the doings of the State Colonization Society, a chapter of the American Colonization Society. It was called to order by James G. Barbadoes. Mr. Robert Roberts was elected president, and James G. Barbadoes, secretary.

New England Anti-Slavery Society

In 1831, the New England Anti-Slavery Society (1831–1835) was organized by William Lloyd Garrison, editor of The Liberator. Based in Boston, Massachusetts, members of the New England Anti-Slavery Society supported immediate abolition and viewed slavery as immoral and non-Christian. It was particularly opposed to the American Colonization Society, which proposed sending African Americans to Africa.

The Society sponsored lecturers or "agents" who traveled throughout New England and New York, speaking in local churches or halls, and also selling abolitionist tracts or "The Liberator." Whenever possible, the Society's agents would encourage the formation of local anti-slavery societies. By 1833, there were 47 local societies in ten northern states, 33 of them in New England. The Society also sponsored mass mobilizations such as yearly anti-slavery conventions.

Memoir of William Cooper Nell

"The colored race have been generally considered by their enemies, and sometimes even by their friends, as deficient in energy and courage. Their virtues have been supposed to be principally negative ones. This little collection of interesting incidents, made by a colored man, will redeem the character of the race from this misconception, and show how much injustice there may often be in a generally admitted idea."

Affidavit of James G, Barbadoes

In 1833, James G. Barbadoes, Boston, a member of the New England Anti-Slavery Society Convention, states that among five cases of kidnapping within his knowledge, one was of his own brother.

American Anti-Slavery Society

On his way to the 1833 National Anti-Slavery Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, "James G. Barbadoes was compelled (though in feeble state of health) to remain on the deck of a Providence, Rhode Island steamboat all night, without shelter, in the wintery month of December: in consequences of which exposure, he was prostrated with sickness for many weeks, and perhaps never fully recovered from the effects of it to the day of his death. So brutal, so murderous, is the spirit of prejudice in this country toward our colored population."

Perhaps recalling the service of his Uncle Isaac Barbadoes during the Revolutionary War to his country, it is reported that while on this miserable passage to Philadelphia, James G. Barbadoes warned: "that in the revolutionary struggle for Britain, our fathers were called upon to fight for liberty, and promptly did they obey the summons--gallantly contenting, shoulder to shoulder, with those who then made no distinction as to the color of a man's skin, that they might secure to themselves and their children the rights and privileges of freemen."

In December 1833, James G. Barbadoes, Massachusetts, was one of sixty-two delegates from eleven States who met in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to establish demanding immediate emancipation. This organization would become one of the most important American abolition groups, the American Anti-Slavery Society. Delegates represented a cross-section of those who were to lead the abolition movement over the next three decades. Barbadoes was elected to the American Antislavery Society's Board of Managers.

Signers of the American Anti-Slavery Society's "Declaration of Sentiments" included white Abolitionists: William Lloyd Garrison, Samuel J. May, Arthur Tappan, Lewis Tappan, John G. Whittier, Elizur Wright, and three African Americans: James George Barbadoes, Boston, James McCrummill, Philadelphia, a barber and dentist, and Robert Purvis, Philadelphia, handsome and urbane, who, despite his light complexion, proudly identified himself as an African American.

The Split in the Antislavery Movement

When William Lloyd Garrison reported in 1836 that the American Anti-Slavery Society's "impetus is increasing," he could not foretell that in four years the society would be rent asunder by the defection of the anti-Garrisonian abolitionists. There were strong personality issues in the split. Various charges were brought against Garrison personally. He was charged with having a "deliberate and well-matured design to make the anti-slavery organization subservient to the promotion of personal and sectarian views on the subjects of Women's Rights … Civil Government, the Church, the Ministry, and the Sabbath." Basically, however, the split was the result of genuine ideological differences.

African American abolitionists also split on the same issues that divided white antislavery men and women. James G. Barbadoes, William Cooper Nell, Charles Remond, and William P. Powell supported William Lloyd Garrison and continued to work inside the American Anti-Slavery Society, while Samuel Cornish, Christopher Rush (founder and second bishop of the African Episcopal Zion church), and Charles B. Ray, then an editor of the Colored American, became members of the first executive committee of the new American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society. Henry Highland Garnet, too, was one of the founders of the new organization and a speaker for the Liberty Party.

A resolution published in The Liberator concluded:

On the other side, Charles B. Ray wrote an interesting letter to Henry Stanton and James Birney, suggesting that people of color might be feeling somewhat "less warmth of feeling" for Garrison because there were now so many efficient antislavery workers in addition to the editor of The Liberator and also because there was something left to be desired in the "spirit with which Brother Garrison has conducted his own paper since the controversy commenced."

Although Garrison was able to maintain his hold over Boston's black population, most African Americans elsewhere were not so firm in their support. The rivalry between those who supported Garrison and those who opposed him was to become a major feature in the North during the two decades before the Civil War.