nah's tax on emigrants made travel to Liberia financially impossible for Moss, but he refused to surrender his dream.

On April 24, 1857, Moss informed Gurley that he had received a letter from T. J. Bowen of Washington, Georgia.45 Bowen had served as a missionary in Africa for a number of years, and Gurley had alerted him to Moss's interest in Liberia. Moss said he had purchased a copy of Bowen's book on Central Africa 46 and that it was "a valuable work to all that is interested in the country." The more Moss learned of Africa, the more he was able "to look at the free people in this country to see how foolish they are." 47 Then Moss got to the point: "I have been reading medicine under Dr. William R. Moseley for some time," Moss reported, and "[he thinks] that I shall be able to practice medicine by the time I get ready this fall to go to Liberia." Moss then suggested that Gurley write Dr. Moseley to "see what he says on the subject for he knows best." Then Moss made his pitch: "I had rather go to Boston and graduate and pay you all some money when I start and the rest when I get to Liberia.... But I can tell more about it when I hear from you all again. And when you write to me please write all the particulars. What I am to do and how I shall go about it if I should meet up with the opportunity of going to Boston." 48

Ever loyal to the society and always a man of his word, Moss hastened to add that, even if he went North to study medicine, he would "send [his] folks on [to Liberia] any How." "He had a Brother that [was] ole A nuf to take care of the rest of [his] folks." Apparently Moss had reservations about some of the potential Griffin emigrants, for he added, "that will be some along that I will have nothing to do with." Moss also wrote that he had "received a letter from a friend of mine that is a slave. He had bought his time but he is in debt with some others that he says as soon as he pays up he shall leve for Liberia. His name is

45 Moss to Gurley, Apr. 24, 1857, ibid., vol. 147.

46 Moss had probably read Bowen's article in the Repository. T. J. Bowen, "Africa Opening to Civilization and Christianity," African Repository 33 (Apr. 1857):97-114. Bowen and Gurley were close friends; Bowen published extensively in the African Repository in the late 1850s.

47 Moss to Gurley, Apr. 24, 1857, Letters Received, ser. 1, vol. 147.

48 Ibid. W. R. Moseley was a 27-year-old "Physician," born in Georgia. Federal population schedule, Seventh Census of the United States, 1850, Pike County, Ga., RG 29, NA. In

Harrison Berry of Atlanta." There was "nothing more at present," he concluded, and he was "waiting for a favorable answer." 49

Gurley responded to Moss's letter immediately and promised to read it "to our committee at their next meeting" and to let Moss know the general reaction. He suggested that Moss have Dr. Moseley write a letter of recommendation. Gurley wanted to know more about Moss's qualifications for "medical practice in Liberia" and how long Moss needed to “continue [his] studies in this country. We greatly need good medical men in Liberia," he continued, "& should you become well qualified to practice, I think you will find employment that would afford you support." Gurley suggested that Moss could study with one of the physicians in Liberia if he did not have "the time or the means" to prepare himself for the medical profession before he left the United States. Gurley finished by asking Moss for letters "from your friends in Griffin concerning your character, abilities, and achievements." 50

Moss immediately took Gurley's letter to Dr. W. R. Moseley, and Moseley, who knew Moss well, wrote a strong recommendation for the young black who seemed so eager to learn and so desperate to leave Griffin's repressive atmosphere. Acknowledging the society's indirect request for Moss's "qualifications for the practice of medicine," the doctor replied, "I have to say that I am of the opinion by next fall he will be competent both for admitence into college and for the practice of medicine in Liberia. His habits are good and he is a very moral young man."51

The day after Dr. Moseley wrote his letter of recommendation, Moss wrote Gurley that "if it [the letter] should meet your approbation you can let me know." Eager to improve himself, he carefully explained why he wanted to continue his studies and to practice medicine: "I don't want to be inferior to others that has gone before me. I have no doubt but what I can go through with all the form and treatments that is laid down in the books so far as I have read. But going to a college are better than three years reading at the rate of three

1850 Moseley owned six slaves. Slave schedule, ibid. 49 Ibid.

50 Gurley to Moss, Apr. 28, 1857, Gurley Letter Books, ser. 2, vol. 42.

51 Moseley to Gurley, May 2, 1857, Letters Received, ser. 1, vol. 147.

months at the time." After making some general inquiries about the cost of "3 or 4 months in a college at the north," Moss concluded his letter by announcing that he had written a "compersision" for publication in the African Repository.52

The Repository never carried Moss's essay "W. H. Moss on Free People," and it was not mentioned again in the soon-to-end correspondence. Perhaps publication of his article would have been viewed as too "pro-Negro" by many white Southern supporters of colonization. Perhaps Gurley and McLain simply could not decipher the awkward essay. Moss's penmanship and constrained literacy make the two-page work almost unintelligible. Basically, it was a strong defense of the "sacred trust” that fell upon Georgia's free black population to travel to that "eartheley paradise," Liberia. 53 Two weeks passed and Moss became anxious when he received no reply to his previous letter. On May 19, 1857, he wrote again to remind Gurley of his interest in studying medicine. Moss also commented on a Georgia emigrant to Liberia, Jeff Waters, who had returned to Georgia with reports of horrible conditions in Liberia.54 Newspapers throughout the South picked up this report from an Atlanta newspaper and used it to "encourage" Southern blacks to stay at home and be satisfied with their circumstances. 55 "I think that you all ought to apply to it if you want any

52 Moss to Gurley, May 3, 1857, ibid. 53 W. H. Moss on Free People," ibid. 54 Moss to Gurley, May 19, 1857, ibid.

55 "An Arrival From Liberia," Atlanta Examiner, May 4, 1857. The full story of Jefferson Waters's "escape" from Liberia illustrates growing Southern opposition to the ACS in the late 1850s. Waters was "none of your stupid fellows, but an intelligent mulatto." Conditions in Liberia were so bad "that ninety-nine out of every hundred... would... gladly return to servitude upon the plantation." All Waters "wanted or desired was to reach the plantation of his young master, Mr. T. J. Waters, of Gwinnett [County], so as to be permitted for the balance of his life either to handle the plow or to take up the shovel and hoe." While in Liberia, Waters had been forced to subsist on a diet that didn't "suit a Georgia nigger.” Part of the trouble was that Liberia was run by "northern niggers." It was "time for the people in the South to legislate upon the subject of the emancipation of slaves and to pass wholesome restrictions thereon!" A. R. Smith of Rome, Ga., forwarded a copy of this article to McLain because he wanted "the real facts surrounding Waters' former slaves." He reported that "Southerners are losing confidence in the Society and disbelieve all favorable reports of Liberia and... most of the Southern States will enact laws prohibiting emancipation." A. R. Smith to McLain, May 9, 1857, Letters Received,

more emigrants," Moss warned Gurley. "It has made a great impression on the people of this city." Moss again expressed his hope that the governing committee of the American Colonization Society would see fit to underwrite his medical studies.56 Gurley's evasive, noncommital response must have been discouraging to him.57

Sensing another rejection, Moss quickly wrote again to say that he was "progressing very fast" in his medical studies. Refusing to recognize the fact that he would probably never see Liberia or a medical college, Moss optimistically reported that "by the first of November" he hoped to be "able to emigrate with [his] little force to that wonderful little Republic.... Believe me dear friends it makes my very heart within me swell when I think of the joyes of that wonderful country. And friends if the colored population of this country was of the same mind that I am and loved freedom as well as I do[,] the whole union would empty of their heads by the last of 1857." Promising to "take the rounds" and check the opinions of other Georgia blacks, Moss concluded by asking how the society's executive committee had reacted to his "medical sensation."58

Gurley, like McLain, seemed to grow more suspicious of William Moss as their correspondence continued. Noting that Moss had started spelling his name "Morse," Gurley did not seem completely satisfied with Moss's explanation that the change in spelling was to avoid confusion with "another man who writes his name W H Moss." Then Gurley broke the bad news: "If you are a free man and desire to go as a Physician to Liberia, you must do what you can to obtain the aid of your friends in Griffin, to enable you to complete your studies, & defray your expenses to Africa." Gurley recommended that, if possible, Moss go to Boston or Pittsfield, Massachusetts, to study medicine, but he made it clear that the society's executive committee was "not prepared to adopt any measures" to assist the young Georgian. The committee's decision

ser. 1, vol. 147. Newspapers throughout the South picked up the story.

56 Moss to Gurley, May 19, 1857, ibid.

57 Gurley to Moss, May 28, 1857, Gurley Letter Books, ser. 2, vol. 42.

58 Moss to Gurley, June 6, 1857, Letters Received, ser 1, vol. 147.

was "partly... because of the little knowledge" it had of Moss's "character and acquirements." Gurley made it plain that Moss would have to rely on other sources to support his medical studies, but he encouraged him to persevere. The society did pay "several coloured physicians in Liberia. If you are a free man, out of debt, and [possessed of] great courage and Resolution, you will succeed in your purpose." Gurley tried to take a little of the sting and finality out of the letter by concluding, "If you think best to send to me a testimonial, in regard to your character, attainments, and wishes signed by some of your leading friends in Griffin I will lay this testimonial before our committee.' "59 It was the society's last letter to William Moss.

On the same day, Gurley wrote a letter of inquiry about Moss to H. L. Deane of Waynesville, Georgia. Deane's hasty response was that Gurley may "have been imposed upon." He knew "of no coloured man in Griffin, or its vicinity, named W. H. Moss or Morse." He added, however, that he had been "absent from Griffin nearly the whole of the past year" and suggested that Gurley write to "the Rev. James C. Patterson [,] D. D. [,] Griffin," who could be trusted to give "reliable information." 60 Gurley immediately penned a very formal note of inquiry to Patterson. He briefly described his correspondence with Moss and detailed a few of the facts of Moss's life, as he knew them.61

Patterson gave a very negative appraisal of William Moss. He reported that Moss's young mother was a Mrs. Chubb. Moss was a "free blackman-a shoemaker by trade . . in the employment of Mr. Banks with whom he served his apprenticeship... at the same time reading medicine, getting his books & perhaps receiving some instruction from Dr. Moseley." "As to moral character," Patterson continued, "I am very sorry to say that he does not rate very high." Mr. Banks had described Moss "as fickle & notional and not much to be depended on," though he did not think Moss

59 Gurley to Moss, June 12, 1857, Gurley Letter Books, ser. 2, vol. 42.

60 H. L. Deane to Gurley, June 22, 1857, Letters Received, ser. 1, vol. 147. Deane had, at one time, lived near Griffin. He is listed as the owner of a 52-year-old black female slave in the 1850 Pike County slave census. Slave schedule, Seventh Census of the United States, 1850, Pike County, Ga., RG 29, NA.

61 Gurley to James C. Patterson, June 27, 1857, Gurley

"would steal." Others he questioned, Patterson continued, did not give "very good" reports of Moss, but neither did they allege "any particular immorality against him."'62

Patterson then interviewed Dr. Moseley and, apparently unaware of the glowing recommendation that Moseley had already written on Moss's behalf, he wrote that Moseley thought Moss had the capacity to learn, provided he would apply himself. "His proficiency in medicine," Patterson continued, was "small." Moss was also known to be "something of a musician" and reportedly knew how "to conduct a dance." "The citizens here," Patterson concluded, apparently including himself in the forefront, "would be right glad he were in Liberia; But I have not heard of any that are disposed to aid him in getting away.

Gurley thanked Patterson for this lengthy appraisal of Moss and apparently agreed with some of Patterson's conclusions. Still, Gurley expressed hope that Moss would "prepare himself for usefulness in Africa, and then go there to do good to others, as well as to himself." Liberia needed "thousands of informed & pious men of colour to build up civilization & the church." He was "not without hope that Morse [would] yet engage heartily as a christian man with this great enterprise."64

Two months had passed since Moss had heard from Gurley and more than a month had passed since Patterson wrote his critical evaluation, which he related in detail to the luckless William Moss. In frustration and despair Moss wrote Gurley: "you can trus me and Ansco as soon as you get this And if not you need not write to me.' "'65 The William Moss-American Colonization Society correspondence ended there.

After this letter, Moss completely disappeared from the society's records. A careful examination of the African Repository and the American Colonization Society's manuscript

Letter Books, ser. 2, vol. 42.

62 Patterson to Gurley, July 9, 1857, Letters Received, ser. 1, vol. 148. In 1860 James C. Patterson, 56, a “teacher and minister" born in South Carolina, owned $3,500 worth of real estate and $3,500 worth of personal property. Federal population schedule, Eighth Census of the United States, 1860, Spalding County, Ga., RG 29, NA.

63 Ibid.

64 Gurley to Patterson, July 15, 1857, Gurley Letter Books, ser. 2, vol. 42.

65 Moss to Gurley, Aug. 10, 1857, Letters Received, ser. 1, vol. 148.

records indicates conclusively that Moss never went to Liberia. An equally fruitless search of the 1860 manuscript census for Spalding and surrounding counties revealed no William Moss. However, Moss's mother, Mrs. Permelia Chubb, and two of her children were listed in the 1860 Spalding County census.

As a free man, William Moss may have joined his old friend, Felix Reynolds, in Chicago. Reynolds had led a group of Georgia freemen there in the early months of 1857.67 Although Moss was still in Griffin as late as August of that year, he might have joined his friends. But this is unlikely. Even after Reynolds settled in Chicago, he continued to correspond with William McLain on the possibility of emigration to Liberia. McLain did not take Reynolds's post-Georgia correspondence

66 Permelia Chubb, a 40-year-old black female, owned real estate worth $500. She was born in Georgia and took in laundry for a living. Two of her children were living with her in 1860. Her son Allen Chubb, 18, was a "laborer," and her daughter Mary Lou Chubb was 5. Federal population schedule, Eighth Census of the United States, 1860, Spalding County, Ga., RG 29, NA.

67 "Felix Reynolds, late of this place [Atlanta] has settled

seriously, and he made that brutally clear to him.68 Significantly, there is no mention of Moss in their letters. Perhaps the talented, ambitious young Georgian died during the smallpox epidemic that swept through his hometown of Griffin in 1857.69

In retrospect, Moss emerges in heroic terms. He courageously attempted to rise in a world dominated by whites, but, like the majority of blacks in bondage, he fought the good fightand lost. His story is a tribute to thousands like him who struggled against overwhelming odds in their attempt to gain freedom and greater human dignity. C

and I understand bought property in Chicago, Illinois. His relatives are with him." L. Windsor Smith to McLain, Apr. 29, 1857, Letters Received, ser. 1, vol. 147.

68 For example, McLain replied to Reynolds's letter of Feb 27, 1857, "But I have no idea you are going to Liberia! You are the same person that used to write me from Atlanta, Geo? What are you doing way off there? Where are those fifty persons in and around Atlanta who you said in 1854 were going with you to Liberia?" McLain to Felix Reynolds, Mar. 5, 1857, McLain Letter Books, ser. 2, vol. 14.

69 Moss reported "8 cases of the smallpox in Griffin at this time" and "one death with it." Moss to Gurley, Apr. 24, 1857, Letters Received, ser. 1, vol. 147.

FRANCIS A. COGHLAN

One

ne constant factor in Anglo-American relations during much of the nineteenth century was their antipathy for one another, rather stronger on the side of the United States than Great Britain. "Twisting the lion's tail" was a favorite American political pastime, vestiges of which were still discernible in the twentieth century. But the achievement of great-power status following the Spanish-American War established a new American identity and sense of security, which was reflected in the moderating of American government positions vis-àvis Britain. On the British side, a cabinet memorandum had existed since the 1840s to the effect that war with the United States was unlikely, and a succession of able foreign ministers, including Lords Aberdeen and Clarendon, had successfully resolved the abrasive issues of their day, such as the Canadian boundary questions in Oregon, Minnesota, and Maine and the spoliation claims arising out of the American Civil War.1 Even the Venezuela

1 See Wilbur Jones, Lord Aberdeen and the Americas, (Athens, Georgia, 1958); Algernon Cecil, British Foreign Secretaries, 1807-1916, (London, 1927); Richard W. Van Alstyne, "Anglo-American Relations, 1853-1857," American Historical Review, 42 (April 1937):491-500; H. C. Allen, Conflict and Concord: Anglo-American Relationships Since 1783 (New York, 1960).

boundary dispute in 1895 did not impede the growth of understanding between the two old rivals. Nevertheless the threat to use force on that occasion, though treated lightly by Lord Salisbury's government, was a warning of the United States's new sense of power and its determination to use it. Following Britain's diplomatic support of the American position in the quarrel with Spain, which preceded the war of 1898, and the United States's pro-British policy of neutrality during the Boer War, 19001902, important elements in the ruling elites of both countries made serious efforts to achieve a final rapprochement between their peoples.

Yet in a chauvinistic and jingoistic era abrasive incidents could still jeopardize a warm relation between the two nations. Such an event as the American threat to use troops in the Alaska boundary dispute of 1903 is one example of a crisis that less cool heads might have turned into war. Another, though now forgotten, incident, with serious implications for Anglo-American friendship, took place following the great Jamaica earthquake in which the United States Navy played a major role.

The earthquake struck Kingston and the surrounding countryside on January 14, 1907, at 3:40 P.M. The shock and the fires that followed it destroyed thousands of houses and took