John Wesley Cromwell

John Wesley Cromwell
John Wesley Cromwell from 1887 publication
Born	(1846-09-05)September 5, 1846 Portsmouth, Virginia, U.S.
Died	April 14, 1927(1927-04-14) (aged 80) Washington, DC, U.S.
Occupation	teacher, lawyer, civil servant, journalist, historian, civil rights activist
Religion	African Methodist Episcopal Church
Spouse(s)	Lucy A. McGuinn, Annie E. Conn

John Wesley Cromwell (September 5, 1846 - April 14, 1927) was a lawyer, teacher, civil servant, journalist, historian, and civil rights activist from Washington DC. He was part of the founding of the Bethel Literary and Historical Society and the American Negro Academy. He also was a founder, editor, or contributor to a number of newspapers and journals, including most prominently the People's Advocate. In the later half of his career, he wrote a number of articles and manuscripts and gave a number of speeches which established him as a leading scholar of African American history. In 1887, he was described as the "best English scholar in the United States."^[1] He was also successful as a lawyer and was the first black lawyer to appear before the Interstate Commerce Commission.

Early Life

John Wesley Cromwell was born September 5, 1846 in Portsmouth, Virginia. He was the youngest of twelve children. His parents were Willis H. and Elizabeth Carney Cromwell.^[1] Cromwell's father was a ferryman on the Elizabeth River.^[2] One brother, Levi, later became well known as a caterer in Washington DC. In 1851, his father purchased freedom for his family and they moved to Philadelphia. John attended school there from 1851 to 1856, and then moved to a teaching school, the Preparatory Department of the Institute for Colored Youth where Ebenezer Bassett was the principal. Cromwell graduated in the summer of 1864 and moved to Columbia, Pennsylvania in October 1864 where he began his career as a teacher. The school in Columbia closed and he started a private school in Portsmouth, Virginia in April 1865, where he worked until the fall. By the end of 1865 he returned to Philadelphia and taught at the Baltimore Association for the Moral and Intellectual Improvement of the Colored People. In March 1866, the school was attacked and burned to the ground and Cromwell was shot at. He continued to work for the organization until May, but subsequently returned to Virginia where he worked for the American Missionary Association at Providence Church in Norfolk County, Virginia. At this time, he became more active in politics. He also briefly worked in the grocery business.^[1]

Public career

In Virginia, he became involved in public affairs. In 1867, Cromwell was in the US District Court Jury Pool and served in the jury on a number of cases of government officials. In April 17, 1867, he was a delegate to the Republican convention in Richmond, Virginia and again to the Republican State convention in Richmond, Virginia in August. Later that year, he attended the Virginia Constitutional Convention, where he was elected clerk.^[1]

In 1869, Cromwell returned to teaching, working with the Quaker group, the Philadelphia Friends. That year, Cromwell was an eyewitness to the assassination of Joseph R. Holmes, a fellow member of the Constitutional Convention and a candidate for the Virginia House of Delegates. In 1869 and 1870, he taught at a grade school in Withersville, Virginia, and in 1870 he returned to Richmond where he was principal of a school held in Dill's Bakery. In the summer of 1871, he taught a term in Southhampton County, an experience which influenced his later writings on the Nat Turner's slave rebellion, which occurred nearby.^[1]

In the fall of 1871, he moved to Washington DC and enrolled in the Howard University Law Department. He graduated in March, 1874 and was admitted to the bar before the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia. In the meantime, in 1872, Cromwell passed the civil service exam which could secure for him an appointment in the federal government and he took an appointment as a government clerk. In this exam, as well as a teaching exam which secured him a teaching appointment, he took at the same time, he had the highest score of his cohort. He took a teaching appointment in Washington County, Virginia. In 1873 and 1874, he was twice promoted in his clerkship and, along with Robert William Waring, was one of the first two black clerks to receive such an office in the departments he worked. His promotions led him to the position of chief examiner of the division of the money order department, and was register of money order accounts until his retirement from the civil service in 1885. In April 1875, federal clerks took part in two spelling bees which became famous throughout the country, and Cromwell was a finalist in both. He was also successful as a lawyer and was the first black lawyer to appear before the Interstate Commerce Commission.^[1]

In 1875, Cromwell was a part of the organization of the Virginia Educational and Historical Association and from 1875 to the end of its existence in 1883, was the president of the body. Cromwell was also active as a journalist. In 1876, he organized a journal, the People's Advocate in Alexandria, Virginia, which moved to Washington DC the next year and ran until 1884. In 1883, he was president of the Bethel Literary. He was a member of the Odd Fellows and of the Metropolitan AME Church. He represented the District in the 1884 World's Fair, also known as the Cotton Centennial Exhibition at New Orleans.^[1]

In 1881 he and Daniel Alexander Payne founded the Bethel Literary and Historical Association, and he served as president of that lyceum in 1883. In 1897, Cromwell was a part of the formation of the American Negro Academy founded by Alexander Crummell, and he served as the organizations corresponding secretary until 1919. In 1919, he served as the organizations president for a short period. From 1901 to 1909 he was editor of the Washington weekly, the Washington Record. In 1910, he and James Robert Lincoln Diggs established the American Negro Monograph Company, a publishing company which lasted for eleven months. From 1901 to 1909 he taught and served as principals of several District schools, including Briggs, Garnet, Banneker, and Crummell schools.^[3]

Thought and legacy

Beyond his work as an educator, Cromwell played played a significant role in the direction of black American thought. The Bethel Literary Organization, which he helped create and direct, and his speeches at other Lyceums in the capital were highly influential. In 1900, Cromwell made a substantial donation of materials to the Howard University Library now called the Cromwell Collection.^[4]

Cromwell was a strong advocate of black owned businesses and black economic success. He believed black people should try to frequent black owned businesses and praised the progress of wealthy blacks.^[3] Cromwell was considered an important statistician and historian in the later part of his life. He had great contempt for efforts to minimize the cost of slavery to blacks in America and focused significant attention on slave insurrections. Cromwell wrote that Nat Turner's revolt was an example of black people working to "help himself rather than depend on the other human agencies for the protection which could come through his own strong arm."^[5]

Cromwell wrote many papers and a number of book length pieces. Cromwell's 1914 book, The Negro in American History: Men and Women Eminent in the Evolution of the American of African Descent influenced Carter G. Woodson to create the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History in 1915.^[6]

Family

In 1873 he married Lucy A. McGuinn of Richmond. In 1892 he married Annie E. Conn of Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania.^[7] He had seven children including Otelia, Mary E. Martha, Lucy, John Wesley Jr. and Brent.^[8] Otelia Cromwell was born in 1874 and was the first black graduate of Smith College. She was a teacher in Washington DC and received a PhD from Yale. Mary E. Cromwell was born in 1876 and taught mathematics. John Wesley Cromwell Jr. was born in 1883 and taught mathematics, German, and bookkeeping and became the first black certified public accountant.^[9] Cromwell died April 14, 1927.^[10]

References