172

19. I. G Ish 175

20. J. P. Green 183

21. P. L. Dunbar 199

22. B. K. Bruce 204

23. T. T. Fortune 210

24. W. A. Pledger 220

25. John C. Dancy 228

26. Abram Grant 253

27. J. E. Bush 263

28. J. P. Robinson 272

29. Martyrs 274

30. Chester W. Keatts 284

31. J. T. Settle 294

32. Justice Harlan 302

33. Charles W. Chestnut 312

34. William McKinley 327

35. James B. Parker 331

36. President Roosevelt 336

37. Secretary Cortelyou 341

38. W. Calvin Chase 367

39. R. H. Terrill 370

CHAPTER I.

In the old family Bible I see it recorded that I was born April 17,
1823, in Philadelphia, Pa., the son of Jonathan C. Gibbs and Maria, his
wife. My father was a minister in the Wesleyan Methodist Church, my
mother a "hard-shell" Baptist. But no difference of religious views
interrupted the even tenor of their domestic life. At seven years of age
I was sent to what was known as the Free School, those schools at that
time invaluable for colored youth, had not graded studies, systematized,
and with such accessories for a fruitful development of the youthful
mind as now exist. The teacher of the school, Mr. Kennedy, was an
Irishman by birth, and herculean in proportions; erudite and severely
positive in enunciation. The motto "Spare the rod and spoil the child"
had no place in his curriculum. Alike with the tutors of the deaf and
the blind, he was earnest in the belief that learning could be
impressively imparted through the sense of feeling. That his manner and
means were impressive you may well believe, when I say that I yet have a
vivid recollection of a bucket with an inch or two of water in it near
his desk. In it stood an assortment of rattan rods, their size when
selected for use ranging in the ratio of the enormity, of the offence
or the age of the offender.

Among the many sterling traits of character possessed by Mr. Kennedy was
economy; the frequent use of the rods as he raised himself