The mission of this book is to make clear this evolution, giving the historical facts with as much detail as possible, and setting forth finally the portrait of this new soldier.  That this is a prodigious task is too evident to need assertion—­a task worthy the most lofty talents; and in essaying it I humbly confess to a sense of unfitness; yet the work lies before me and duty orders me to enter upon it.  A Major General writes:  “I wish you every success in producing a work important both historically and for the credit of a race far more deserving than the world has acknowledged.”  A Brigadier General who commanded a colored regiment in Cuba says to me most encouragingly:  “You must allow me—­for our intimate associations justify it—­to write frankly.  Your education, habits of thought, fairness of judgment and comprehension of the work you are to undertake, better fit you for writing such a history than any person within my acquaintance.  Those noble men made the history at El Caney and San Juan; I believe you are the man to record it.  May God help you to so set forth the deeds of that memorable first of July in front of Santiago that the world may see in its true light what those brave, intelligent colored men did.”

Both these men fought through the Civil War and won distinction on fields of blood.  To the devout prayer offered by one of them I heartily echo an Amen, and can only wish that in it all my friends might join, and that God would answer it in granting me power to do the work in such a way as to bring great good to the race and reflect some glory to Himself, in whose name the work is undertaken.

CHAPTER I.

Sketch of social history.

     The Importation of the Africans—­Character of the Colored
     Population in 1860—­Colored Population in British West
     Indian Possessions—­Free Colored People of the South—­Free
     Colored People of the North—­Notes.

Professor DuBois, in his exhaustive work upon the “Suppression of the African Slave-Trade,” has brought within comparatively narrow limits the great mass of facts bearing upon his subject, and in synopses and indices has presented all of the more important literature it has induced.  In his Monograph, published as Volume II of the Harvard Historical Series, he has traced the rise of this nefarious traffic, especially with reference to the American colonies, exhibited the proportions to which it expanded, and the tenacity with which it held on to its purpose until it met its death in the fate of the ill-starred Southern Confederacy.  Every step in his narrative is supported by references to unimpeachable authorities; and the scholarly Monograph bears high testimony to the author’s earnest labor, painstaking research and unswerving fidelity.  Should the present work stimulate inquiry beyond the scope herein set before the reader, he is most confidently referred to Professor Du Bois’ book as containing a complete exposition of the development and overthrow of that awful crime.