FAILURE OF THE SCHEME FOR THE COLONIZATION OF NEGROES IN MEXICO

(African American) FAILURE OF THE SCHEME FOR THE COLONIZATION OF NEGROES IN MEXICO. MESSAGE OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, RELATING TO THE FAILURE OF THE SCHEME FOR THE COLONIZATION OF NEGROES IN MEXICO AND THE NECESSITY OF RETURNING THEM TO THEIR HOMES IN ALABAMA. 54th Congress, 1st Session. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. Document No. 169. January 27, 1896. Referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs and ordered to be printed. 66 pgs. dbd, lists of colonists’ names.

This report was sent to the President by Secretary of State Richard Olney on January 25, 1896, in response to the President’s message to Congress where he spoke about “the failure of a scheme for the colonization in Mexico of certain American Negroes, to the destitution and suffering which overtook the emigrants in their efforts to return to this country, and to the relief furnished them in emergency to the Government.” Olney submits in this published report copies of the correspondence giving a history of the colony and the itemized statements of the expenses that he is requesting Congress to appropriate funds to cover the cost of transportation of the Negroes to their homes. He writes “In the absence of any fund available for payment of their transportation, assurance was given through the counsel at Piedras Negras to certain railway companies that Congress would be urged to make an appropriate to cover the cost of transportation” to bring the colonists back to the southern states.

The report contains a list of the names of all the African American colonists (including where they were from and their age) who arrived in Mexico during the month of February, 1895, accounts of the Tiahaulilo Company, the Mexican Colonization Company, the early history of the colony, the plight of the emigrants, diseases, records of deaths and personal accounts of “cruel and inhuman treatment” of the colonists in Mexico by the entrepreneur W.H. Ellis (the Negro emigration agent who himself was a son of former black slaves) and the colony overseers. Within a few months after their arrival, most of the African American colonists were ready to return to the States. In October 14, 1895, Olney wrote to the State Department after receiving a telegram from Jesse W. Sparks, U.S. Consul at Piedras Negras, “It ought to be said, perhaps, in explanation, that the telegram relates to a large number of negroes who were induced to go to Mexico, for the purpose of forming a colony there, by promises and inducements which proved to be illusory, who, having arrived there, found themselves in utter destitution and unable to get away, and after awhile became the victims of smallpox, among other diseases. The President, actuated by motives of humanity, undertook to relieve the colonists, partly by furnishing rations through the War Department and partly by arranging for the transportation of the negroes back to their homes through the State Department.”

The above account represents an important chapter in African American history and the list of colonists’ names is an invaluable source for researchers.

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