Joseph Avery, Town Founder of Corvallis, Oregon:
Racism At Its Rawest
"That the African was placed on earth for some purpose is a rational conclusion. The great question of the day, at issue is - what position shall he take in the human family, to establish the most to his own welfare, and to the world's economy?"
"The United States will probably settle this question about the year 1870. But, as Oregon is about to become a sovereign state, the subject is on the table for discussion; to divest it of all fanaticism, it would easily be disposed of. Phrenologists feel the head of their pupils to direct aright their genius - it is respectfully suggested that the head of Africa, on an average, be submitted to an examination; the result would be somewhat this: 'sagacity and instinct of an animal creation with a few degrees more of intellect; not capable of self-government without amalgamation,' and to do this would bring on another dark age another 30 years war.
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| The title page of the original Uncle Tom's Cabin (click here), illustrated by the great artist Hammatt Billings (click here). Such publications, whether text or pictures, enraged d all slavers. They were, in fact, cited as reasons for the secession of the slave states (click here). |
Yet in the world's economy he is a useful member; his labor when well directed, is a benefit to himself as well as his master. In Africa, they are barbarous, and cannot be Christianized to any extent; their priests, or Fetiches, will breakfast on the blood of a Methodist missionary with much gusto.
England will probably establish 'apprentice' slavery in China within a score of years, to work the coolies - which will give an ipetus to commerce in the Pacific without parallel. The Pacific States of America will be compelled, by their geographical position, to use this kind of labor to a great extent; and Oregon, if she adopt slavery, in the event of a short supply of labor from the trans-rocky mountain states, can import apprentices. It may be urged that we could have the same priivilege without a slave constitution. The answer would be that the relations of master and slave are the same under both systems, and the same protection is necessary. Oregon is undoubtedly an agricultural country, and recent experiments made in the Rogue River valley, prove beyond a doubt the adaptability of the soil to the growth of Chinese sugar cane, it becomes a question of importance then, whether we can have, without slavery, a permanent supply of labor. White man is very uncertain; can't keep him on a farm at one dollar per day when surrounded by mines. Chinaman no likee - no sabby. Free negro wants five dollars per day. The result it is feared, would be deplorable to sugar interests and farming generally. This is a strong argument in favor of slavery."
The above citation is but one of many such in Avery's newspaper the Occidental Messenger. It is from the front page of the earliest edition available. Copies of the Messenger are available at the OSU library. The newspaper was suppressed during the Civil War by small military officers angry at the series of defeats handed them by the armies fielded by slavers and secessionists (click here). It resurfaced, renamed the Gazette. We have, of course, named the city's largest park and several streets after this man. It is after all no more incongruous than naming a school for the Republican pedophile Warren G. Harding, or a coliseum for the avowed segregationist Slats Gill, but we are no more prepared to accept any of these names as a permanent fixture than we would be prepared to accept a Charley Manson Boulevard.
In the apocryphal nineteenth century Biographies of Oregon Pioneers, in the OSU Library, only Joe Avery, for whom Avery Park is named, is mentioned in a negative note. "He was", says the biographer, " a man of many enemies." Some of his enemies sprang from his advocacy of the Rogue River War (click here), which gave the state a black eye nationally. A number of Avery's enemies sprang from his proslavery views and his racism. The shabby treatment of the former slave, Ruben Shipley (click here), who gave all he had to this community, was traceable to the Avery, the Williams, Ford and Mulkey clans. As the ringleader of the proslavery wing in Corvallis, he was held more accountable.
The protection of slavers in this town, whether the Fords (Polly), the Mulkeys (Aim), the Williams (Cesar) was only possible because of Avery's protection. It was a clear and open violation of the law:
"There shall be neither slavery, nor involuntary servitude in the State, otherwise than as a punishment for crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted." Article I, Section 34 Oregon Constitution of 1859 adopted by the people 7727 to 2645
There were fierce opponents of slavery in the County. Mr. Avery's reference to Methodist missionaries is a barb thrown at the Methodist church (not the pro-slavery Southern Methodists who broke away in the Civil War). Our local Methodists, and Reverend Starr, who eventually settled Monroe - Starr's Point is still extant - opposed slavery. The Hinkle family, the Bennetts, the United Brotherhood (founders of Philomath), A.G. Hovey (after whom is named Hovey Hall at U of O, where he later served) were all vocal and active. The Applegate clan was spread from Dallas, Oregon, southward, and had left Missouri specifically because of Jesse's opposition to slavery. A convention of antislavery activists was based in neighboring Albany, from which town most of our local activists (including the foremost, Abigail Scott Duniway) on women's suffrage issues also sprang. Albany was, in fact, a hotbed of abolitionism, and Oregon's most famous abolitionist, the Reverend Obee, was based there for a time.
Such men and women detested Avery's violent attitudes about African Americans and his protection of a practice widely regarded by religious people as synonymous with wickedness (click here). After the U.S. Supreme Court not only legalized slavery everywhere with the Dred Scott decision (click here), but made it legally compulsive for every citizen to assist slavers as deputies in hunting fugitive slaves (the worst epithet for a human being became "Negro stealer"), Avery was elated.
As the secession crisis developed, Joe Lane, initially appointed military governor of Oregon by a slave president, was chosen by the slavers as their vice-presidential candidate. In the election, the slave party was trounced and Lane came to Oregon in disgrace for his proslavery positions. He was met everywhere by crowds denouncing him, and in Dallas he was hung in effigy. In Corvallis, Avery feted him. The gathering was characterized by the Oregonian as "a little squad of cackling secessionists and escaped Negro stealers". (Oregonian May 11, 1861)
Avery was active, according to one OSU professor, in the precursor of the Ku Klux Klan, the Secret Knights of the Golden Circle, and after the War (we have the account of Haman Lewis, founder of Lewisburg, about the Circle, from an interview by the Writers' Project of the Roosevelt Administration, in 1933.) Avery, later in life, joined the alliance of Nash (click here) and Hogg (click here) which bankrupted the state in a giant railroad scheme, and deprived OSU of needed revenue (click here).
The biographer was right. Avery was a man of many enemies. He earned every one of them.