The Sergeant, page 31
5. THE THUNDERER
Alexander Menshikov: Guy Arnold, Historical Dictionary of the Crimean War (Landham, MD.: Scarecrow Press Inc., 2002), 77–78, 87–89; David M. Goldfrank, The Origins of the Crimean War (London: Longman Group, 1994), 131–34; Sir Adolphus Slade, Turkey and the Crimean War: A Narrative of Historical Events (London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1867), 77–79. “Coffee is given…”: Ubcini, La Turquie Actuelle, 282. Said at negotiations: Said, Autobiography, 121–24. Rifat v. Reshid: Said’s memory of his time in Turkey is murky, with inconsistencies between his two memoirs. “Bornoo” says he was bought by Youssouf Effendi and then Youssouf Kavass, while Autobiography says his owners were Fuad Pasha and then Reshid Pasha. My theory is the two Youssoufs were his overseers and he paid less attention to details about his actual owners, leading to a case of mistaken identity. In Autobiography, he says he repeatedly met British, French, and Russian diplomats at Reshid’s side, but during most of this time Reshid was not involved in such talks. Rifat Pasha was, as shown in the diaries of Prince Menshikov, held in the Russian Naval Archives in Saint Petersburg, and British ambassador Lord Stratford de Redcliffe. My theory is that Said, looking back, twenty years later, at details he barely paid attention to as a teenager, conflated Rifat and Reshid. “Associated intimately with the Christians…”: Said, Autobiography, 123. “His countenance was extremely prepossessing…” and “took a great fancy to me…”: Said, Autobiography, 124.
Ibrahim of Logone (Abram Petrov Gannibal): Ibrahim’s story is based largely on Hugh Barnes, The Stolen Prince (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2006), including the following quotes: “clever little African slave,” 79; “Peter the Great took a great fancy…,” 97; and “perhaps as soon as I get there…,” 183. “One of the most remarkable…” and “rapacious, perverse and cruel”: Paul Dolgorouky, A Handbook of the Principal Families in Russia (London: James Ridgeway, 1858), 77–79. “It was my fate…”: Said, Autobiography, 123. “Most difficult [language]…”: Said, Autobiography, 128.
Leaving Istanbul: “Bornoo,” 491, says Said took the ship Vladimir through the Adriatic to get to Saint Petersburg, while Autobiography, 130, says he accompanied Menshikov to Odessa and then returned to Istanbul before taking the Egitto through the Adriatic. Neither is correct. Once Menshikov left Istanbul he never returned, meaning the round trip in Said’s account did not happen. My theory is that when Said was writing Autobiography, he found that Menshikov was posted to Odessa after Istanbul, which would have been noted in most books on the Crimean War, and he wrote his text to reflect that fact. On the other hand, Autobiography correctly says he took the Egitto (not the Vladimir). At least one witness saw him onboard and later wrote about it: Rev. George Duffield. Coincidentally, Said and Duffield say Menshikov’s son, named Vladimir, led the Russian diplomatic team on board the Egitto, although I have been unable to confirm this. It’s possible that the editors of “Bornoo”—working without Said’s input—saw a reference to Vladimir and incorrectly thought it was the ship’s name.
George Duffield: Said, Autobiography, 201, and George Duffield, Diary, March 27, 1861, Duffield Family Papers, Burton Historical Collection, Manuscripts Collection, Detroit Public Library (hereafter “Duffield, Diary”). “It was not until…”: George Duffield, “Idolatries and Superstitions Practiced at Jerusalem,” Christian Observer (Philadelphia), June 18, 1853. “No desire…”: George Duffield, “Russia and Turkey,” Christian Observer, August 20, 1853. “One of our great…”: George Duffield, Secession: Its Cause and Cure (Detroit: Free Press, 1861). “Intelligence and quickness”: “Nicholas Said – A Romantic Career,” Courier-Journal, (Louisville, KY), October 5, 1867.
Saint Petersburg. “Sooth to say…” and “a most magnificent structure…”: Said, Autobiography, 139 and 133. Learning Russian: Said, Autobiography, 128–29, says this happened in Odessa rather than St. Petersburg, but that doesn’t fit the facts. Russian serfs vs. American slaves: Frédéric Lacroix, The Mysteries of Russia (Boston: Coolidge & Wiley, 1848), 138–47. “Having never been…”: Said, Autobiography, 134.
Africans in Russia: Simon Sebag Montefiore, The Romanovs: 1613–1918, (New York: Penguin Random House LLC, 2016), 359; George Edward Raum, A Tour Around the World (New York: William S. Gottsberger, 1886), 91; African-Americans in Russia: Charles Frances Adams, ed., Memoir of John Quincy Adams (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1874), II, 255–56, 395; “The Emperor of Russia,” Evening Post (New York), January 16, 1811; Nancy Prince, A Narrative of the Life and Travels of Mrs. Nancy Prince (Boston: self-published, 1853), which includes the quotes “there was no prejudice…,” 31; “stepped forward…,” 17; and “courteous and affable,” 42.
Said meets the tsar: Said, Autobiography, 140, which translates “malodetz” (молодец) as “smart boy,’ ” although “well done” is the standard translation. Menshikov’s serfs: Said, Autobiography, 133–35. “Became so intolerable…,” Said, Autobiography, 135.
6. NEW NAME, NEW RELIGION
Nicholas Trubetzkoy: Said, Autobiography, 136–38; “Bornoo,” 491–92. Valets de chambre: Fiona Macdonald, Victorian Servants (Luton, England: Andrews UK Ltd., 2012), 30–53; Lady Violet Grenville, “Men-Servants in England,” National Review (London), February 1892, 816–17. “I quitted [him] no more…”: Louis Constant Wary, trans. by Elizabeth Gilbert Martin, Memoirs of Constant: First Valet de Chambre of the Emperor (New York: The Century Co., 1907), I, 6. “A nobleman…:” Said, Autobiography, 136.
Said’s “conversion”: Said, Autobiography, 143–46; “Bornoo,” 492. “And rolling my eyes…”: Said, Autobiography, 143. “Inner conviction”: Nicholas Said, letter to New Jerusalem Messenger, Boston, September 25, 1867. “Going through…”: Said, Autobiography, 144. Said’s baptism: Latvian State Historical Archives, Birth, Baptism, Marriage and Death Registries, Orthodox Churches, Riga, 1853, 216, says Said was baptized in 1853, but he wrote in “Bornoo” and Autobiography that it was 1855, an easy mistake based on Russian penmanship of the time. “I cannot help…”: Said, “Bornoo,” 492. “As the marble…”: Said, Autobiography, 145–46.
Learning French: Orlando Figes, Natasha’s Dance: A Cultural History of Russia (London: Allen Lane, 2002), 55–56, describes Russians’ use of French. “Sonorous and flowing,” “for a long time…” and “he succeeded…”: Said, Autobiography, 129, 142–43.
Travels in Russia. “I was much struck…” and “a large and magnificent…”: Said, Autobiography, 148–49; “I was the prince’s…” and “I had here…”: Said, “Bornoo,” 492. Friction with the tsar: Said, Autobiography, 140–42, 149–50. “In his character…”: Said, Autobiography, 141. “Czar Nicholas…”: Said, “Bornoo,” 492. “This disease…”: Autobiography, 149–50. Sergei Trubetzkoy: Although some sources accused Sergei of impregnating nineteen-year-old Catherine Mussin-Pushkin, most viewed her daughter Sophie as “the natural daughter of the Emperor Nicholas,” in the words of British statesman James Howard Harris, Memoirs of an Ex-Minister (London: Spottiswoode & Co., 1884), II, 55. In fact, Sophie’s husband, France’s Duc de Morny, described himself as the “son-in-law of an emperor” (Anna L. Bicknell, “Life in the Tuileries Under the Second Empire,” The Century Illustrated Magazine, October 1895, 915). “The iron Nicholas…”: Said, Autobiography, 142. “It is better to abolish…”: Howard Percy Kennard, The Russian Peasant (London: T. Werner Laurie, 1907), 9.
7. THE GRAND TOUR
Touring Europe. “Very kind…”: Said, Autobiography, 155. “They had never…”: Said, “Bornoo,” 492. “The excellent Bavarian beer,” “Nothing became of it…,” “His excellency was…,” and “Nature has denied…”: Said, Autobiography, 158, 159, 161, and 165. Paris celebrations: “The Peace,” London Times, April 1, 1856; and “The Baptism of the Imperial Prince,” London Times, June 16. 1856. “A fraction only…” and “I never had…”: Said, “Bornoo,” 493 and 485. Baden-Baden: James W. Alexander, “Notes on Two or Three Mineral Springs,” New York Observer, January, 14, 1858. Stuttgart: “The Imperial Meeting at Stuttgart,” London Times, September 28 and 30, 1857. “Splendid dinner”: Said, “Bornoo,” 493. Thirty thalers: Edward Young, Labor in Europe and America (Philadelphia: S. A. George & Co., 1875), 545.
English high society. “No great lady…” and “never suffered…”: Sidney Lee, ed., “Waldegrave, Frances Elizabeth Anne,” Dictionary of National Biography (London: Smith, Elder, & Co., 1899), LIX, 14–15. “Of all the people…,” “disgraced myself…,” and “hitherto pleasant…”: Said, Autobiography, 184. “Fond of pleasure…” and “began to feel…”: Duffield, Diary, March 29, 1861. Parisian wedding. “She had an exquisite…”: Frédéric Loliée, Le Duc de Morny (New York: Brentano’s, 1910), 237, 239. “Undoubtedly being afraid”: Said, “Bornoo,” 494.
“Inferior race”: Examples include “The Fins and Laps,” Coleraine Chronicle, April 13, 1856; “The Corn Countries of the Continent,” London Times, October 3, 1856; “Canada,” Shrewsbury Chronicle, January 30, 1857; and “Italy,” Illustrated London News, July 2, 1859. “More than once…”: Said, Autobiography, 122.
Royal Yacht Regatta: Coverage in The Isle of Wight Observer, Ryde, England, August 13, 1859, includes “Russian Invasion” (“The streets of Ryde…”) and “Festivities at St. Claire” (“We understand…”). Coloured Opera Troupe: “Coloured Opera Troupe,” Isle of Wight Observer, July 30, 1859. “Refined Negro music”: “Public Amusements,” The Court Journal and Fashionable Gazette (London), November 6, 1858. “The laughter-loving…”: “Wandering Negro Minstrels,” Leisure Hour (London), September 23, 1871; “With white faces…”: “The Coloured Opera Troupe,” Illustrated London News, November 13, 1858. “The ‘nigger’ dandy…”: Michael Pickering, Blackface Minstrelsy in Britain (London: Routledge, 2008), 20.
Leaving Trubetzkoy: Said, Autobiography, 185–86, and “Bornoo” 493, edited to be more conversational. Autobiography says the severance pay was £300, but “Bornoo,” says £100. The modern valuation uses an 1859 exchange rate of $4.96 per £1, with the dollar amount updated via the Westegg Inflation Calculator.
8. LAND OF THE PURITANS
Said’s London brawls: The description of the brawls, including dialogue, is based on several London news stories, including “A Cannibal,” Morning Post, August 23, 1859; “Extraordinary Conduct of an African,” The Globe, October 20, 1859; “A Dangerous Black and His History,” Morning Post, October 21, 1859.
Isaac Rochussen: His description is based largely on “A Great and Good Man on His Travels,” Minneapolis Star Tribune, August 19, 1875; and Jacobus Toes, Wanklanken Rond een Wingewest (Hoorn, Netherlands: BV Drukkerij Noordholland, 1992), a history of slavery in Surinam, which devotes a large portion of its text to Rochussen. His family history is described in Johannes Postma, The Dutch in the Atlantic Slave Trade: 1600–1815 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), 133, 171. “I will take good care…”: Said, Autobiography, 187, edited to be conversational. “I had read much…”: Said, “Bornoo,” 494.
Katharine Drake: Her description is based on “Romantic Career,” Courier-Journal. The first three volumes of her aunt Caroline Davies’s The History of Holland and the Dutch Nation (London: G. Willis, 1841–43), were published under the name C. M. Davies, disguising her gender. “There is no attempt…”: “Somerset County Asylum,” Bristol Mercury, February 2, 1850. Wedding: “Marriages,” Wells Journal (England), December 17, 1859.
New York. “An immense and magnificent building…”: James Miller, ed., Miller’s New York As It Is (New York: James Miller, 1863), 59–60. Entertainment: Ads in the New York Tribune, January 6, 1860; John A. Degen, “How to End ‘The Octoroon,’ ” Educational Theatre Journal, May 1975, 170–78. “The people love…”: George B. Cheever, God Against Slavery, and the Freedom and Duty of the Pulpit to Rebuke it, as a Sin Against God (Cincinnati: American Reform Tract and Book Society, 1857), iv. “The noble stand…”: “The London Emancipation Committee,” The Anti-Slavery Reporter (London), July 1, 1859. “Is that seat reserved?” and following dialogue: I. J. Rochussen, “The Negro Pew in the Rev. Dr. Cheever’s Church,” The Anti-Slavery Reporter, February 1, 1860, 45–46, and C.E.H., “Sham Philanthropy,” New York Times, January 12, 1860, edited to be conversational. “The audacity…”: C.E.H., “Sham Philanthropy.” “Stupid blunder”: “Mih-Lord’s Apology,” The (New York) Independent, March 15, 1860. “Lord Rochussen’s mock-turtle…”: “A Lord Rochussen,” Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper (New York), March 3, 1860. “A noble…”: “A Stranger Insulted in a Christian Church in New York,” Weekly Anglo-African (New York), January 21, 1860
9. ISLANDS OF THE FALLEN
Frankin Pierce. “From the time…”: Franklin Pierce to John McNeil, January 21, 1860, The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, Papers and Images of the American Civil War, No. GLC03660. “Federal republic…,” “subject race,” “extravagant social change” and “surrendered themselves…”: Franklin Pierce, Third Annual Address to Congress, December 31, 1855. Pierce as president: Michael F. Holt, Franklin Pierce (New York: Henry Holt & Co., 2010), 41–44, 59–65, 107–13; Larry Gara, The Presidency of Franklin Pierce (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1991), 34, 43–4. “Dear friend” and “our people are looking…”: Franklin Pierce to Jefferson Davis, January 6, 1860, Franklin Pierce Papers: Series 2, General Correspondence, Images 657–8, Library of Congress.
Caribbean: “Bahamas,” Hunt’s Merchants’ Magazine and Commercial Review (New York), January 1861, 45–57, including “the great mass…” 56. “Perfectly beside…,” “remarkable precision,” and “very much admired”: Said, Autobiography, 189–90. “This city…” and “we must overthrow…”: Pierce to McNeil, January 21, 1860. Haiti: Said, Autobiography, 191–97, including “nothing can excel…,” 192, and “I was exceedingly…” 190. “I was born a slave…”: Charles Forsdick and Christian Høgsbjerg, Toussaint L’Ouverture: A Black Jacobin in the Age of Revolutions (London: Pluto Press, 2017), 14. “In overthrowing…”: Robert Debs Heinl and Nancy Gordon Heinl, Written in Blood: The Story of the Haitian People, 1492–1995 (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1996), 103. “Notwithstanding…”: Said, Autobiography, 192–93. Haitian economy: Joslyn Barnes, “Haiti: The Pearl of the Antilles,” The Nation, January 19, 2010. “The government of Hayti,” “Should an angel…” and “West Indian mulatto…”: Said, Autobiography, 193, 195, 194. Haitian prejudices: Michel-Rolph Truillot, “Culture, Color and Politics in Haiti,” in Race, ed. Steven Gregory and Roger Sanjek (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1996), 154.
Canada. “Travelers will find….”: John Lovell, The Canada Directory for 1857–58 (Montreal: John Lovell, 1858), 43. “Had a strange…”: Said, Autobiography, 199. “First-class fraud” and “unmitigated dead-beat”: the sarcastically headlined “A Great and Good Man,” Minneapolis Star Tribune. “Deceived and duped…”: Toes, Wanklanken, 271. Rochussen’s thesis: Rochussen’s Opmerkingen over Staatsregt (Utrecht: Kemink & Zoon, 1854), which held that “obedience is commanded to the government as established by God,” was mocked at the time for its political opportunism. Problems in Surinam: Toes, Wanklanken, 90; R. A. J. Lier, Frontier Society: A Social Analysis of the History of Surinam (Berlin: Springer Science & Business Media, 2013), 177–78. “Ably represented…”: “The British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society,” Illustrated London News, June 4, 1859. The Drakes: The Drake Family Papers, Devon Archive and Local Studies Service, Southwest Heritage Trust, Exeter, England, contain numerous references to Francis Drake’s “mental malady” and marital problems, including a letter from Rochussen regarding the “adulterine” circumstances of Katharine’s birth. (See chapter 10). “While the question of slavery…”: I. J. Rochussen, “The Rev. Dr. Cheever and Ourselves,” Anti-Slavery Reporter, October 1, 1860, 257. “I lost all my clothing…,” “where there were…,” and “My will was good…”: Said, Autobiography, 199–201.
10. CALL OF THE MISSIONS
Detroit. Boarding house: Duffield, Diary, March 27, 1861; Johnston’s Detroit City Directory and Advertising Gazetteer of Michigan (Detroit: H. Barns & Co., 1861); and 1860 Census, Detroit, Ward 3, 164. “Under no circumstances…”: I. J. Rochussen to Drake family lawyer William Foster, August 30, 1861, Drake Family Papers. “Disappointed as she was…”: “Romantic Career,” Courier-Journal.
African Civilization Society. “To instruct the natives…” and “if Africa is ever…”: “African Civilization,” New York Times, March 8, 1860. Sending students to Europe: Said, “Bornoo,” 494. “Against my feelings…”: Said to New Jerusalem. “Spread the gospel…”: Duffield, Diary, March 27, 1861, quoting from Said’s letter to Constantine. Alfred Constantine: “Revival of African Missions,” New York Times, March 20, 1861; “Rev. A. A. Constantine,” The Phrenological Journal and Science of Health, October 1902, 317–18.
George Duffield. The rest of this chapter is largely based on Duffield, Diary, March 27 and 29, 1861, including his interview with Said, which is quoted verbatim. Said in church: Duffield, Diary, March 30, 1861. Learning Greek: “Romantic Career,” Courier-Journal. “So addicted to the habit…” and “a ruse to prejudice…”: Duffield, Diary, April 4, 1861.
11. THE SELECT SCHOOL
The war begins: “The Blow at Last Fallen,” Detroit Free Press, April 13, 1861; Charles Lanman, The Red Book of Michigan: Civil, Military and Biographical History (Detroit: E. B. Smith & Co., 1871), 149. “Prayed earnestly…”: Said, “Bornoo,” 494. “The first [nation]…”: Alexander Stephens, “Cornerstone Speech,” Savannah, Georgia, March 21, 1861. The army: There is no proof Said tried to enlist at this time, but the fact that he got the scullion job at Fort Wayne days after the war began (mentioned in Duffield, Diary, April 30, 1861) shows his eagerness to be involved in the war effort. “Soldiers would not tolerate…”: Thomas Henderson, Hints on the Medical Examination of Recruits for the Army (Philadelphia: J. P. Lippincott, 1856), 31–32. “No prejudice…”: Said, Autobiography, 69, describes a well-integrated Ottoman army unit, while Autobiography, 189–90, mentions Black soldiers in the British and French armies (the so-called Turcos). Black soldiers in the Revolution: Christian A. Fleetwood, The Negro as a Soldier (Washington, DC: Howard University Press, 1895), 2–3. “The ‘nigger’ is not well-liked…”: “The Negro in the Army,” Detroit Free Press, December 21, 1862. “Sad stories…” and “acknowledged…”: Duffield, Diary, May 2, 1861.
